It's the first Tolstoi book I read and I am really enjoying it so I want to stick with Tolstoi for my next book as well.
I am currently undecided if I should go for one of his philosophical works like "The Kingdom of God is Within You", which seems really interesting to me as someone interested in anarchism but with negative views towards christianity, or if I should go for his most famous works like Anna Karenina or War and Peace.

corumjhaelen

France6884 Posts

September 22 2014 20:57 GMT

#1182

Read Anna Karenina right now, it's amaaaaaaaaziiiiiing.
I know I have half the thread behing me too :D
PS : my chinese book is very good, also it's somehow about today's France^^

babylon

8765 Posts

September 23 2014 15:37 GMT

#1183

Around 2/5ths through Lies of Locke Lamora.

Very entertaining book so far, but not quite the page-turner I thought it'd be. Lynch has a light syndrome of infodumping and spoonfeeding; it's not as bad as I've seen in other authors, but it's enough to make me skip paragraphs (at best) and pages (at worst).

imre

France9263 Posts

September 23 2014 22:03 GMT

#1184

On September 22 2014 22:08 123Gurke wrote:
[image loading]

Reading comics is probably not the best way to learn French, but I guess it is better than nothing

This was more or less a random choice at the local library. I have finished the first six parts, and this series is complely crazy. It starts out like a strange Dune clone and then turns weird: patricide, incest, invincible warriors, cyborgs, strange futuristic cults, brain transplantations, time travel, ... Still quite fun, but probably not for everyone.

Jodorowsky's comics are generally awesome. especially l'Incal with Moebius.

HaRuHi

1220 Posts

September 23 2014 22:35 GMT

#1185

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16130537-the-humans

Just finished "The humans" by Matt Haig

It is a very light book, I finished it on 20 short train rides.
The book was pitched to me like this, it is about an alien that has to live under humans, nobody understands him, except for the dog. It deals with math, which I like.
If humans sometimes feel alien to you and you need some popcorn for the mind on noisy public transportation and know math is cool, this book is ok-ish.

Now back to the ender's quartet.

Nyxisto

Germany6287 Posts

September 24 2014 00:17 GMT

#1186

While we're talking about light reading pleasures, can anybody recommend some good crime stories? I liked the Larsson books quite a lot.

Flicky

England2675 Posts

September 24 2014 10:16 GMT

#1187

On September 22 2014 22:08 123Gurke wrote:
Reading comics is probably not the best way to learn French, but I guess it is better than nothing

Reading comics is actually a very effective way to learn a language, especially initially.

On September 24 2014 09:17 Nyxisto wrote:
While we're talking about light reading pleasures, can anybody recommend some good crime stories? I liked the Larsson books quite a lot.

I don't know exactly what you mean by "light" but the early Alex Kava novels are my favourite crime books. Pretty gruesome, but great reads.

A Perfect Evil (2000)
Split Second (2001)
The Soul Catcher (2002)
At the Stroke of Madness (2003)
A Necessary Evil (2006)

After that, they become much shorter, much simpler and much more CSI.

---------------------------

Reading

Reaper's Gale by Steven Erikson Accidentally took a long break from Malazan. I'm missing a few small details, but it's still as great as I remember it so far.
A History of Western Philosophy by Betrand Russell Seems like required reading so far, although apparently there are a lot of people who think negatively of it.

bookwyrm

United States722 Posts

September 24 2014 17:22 GMT

#1188

On September 24 2014 19:16 Flicky wrote:
A History of Western Philosophy by Betrand Russell Seems like required reading so far, although apparently there are a lot of people who think negatively of it.

Every generation must rewrite the history of philosophy for itself. Bertrand Russell rewrote the history of philosophy to leave out anything that he thought was "unrigorous." I'd like to rewrite the history of philosophy to leave out Bertrand Russell

farvacola

United States18876 Posts

September 24 2014 17:23 GMT

#1189

But in rewriting that history, reading Bertrand Russell is a must.

bookwyrm

United States722 Posts

September 24 2014 17:26 GMT

#1190

too boring

corumjhaelen

France6884 Posts

September 26 2014 06:54 GMT

#1191

I think Russel needs a special place in your history about how a self-called rigourous philosopher and pacifist came to advocate preventive war.

bookwyrm

United States722 Posts

September 26 2014 15:55 GMT

#1192

he had to destroy the village in order to save it

corumjhaelen

France6884 Posts

September 26 2014 19:39 GMT

#1193

I'd rather not be saved, thank you :p
That chinese novel (The Scholars) was dope. Tons of characters going in and out, you hear about their end 20 chapters later by a random third dude... Some of them are awful bastards, some of them are rolemodel, some of them are funny, some of them are sad. Their society is rotten, but you can still lead a life worth living, or be an even greater sob than the rest. Would definitely recommend to sam in particular, because it's also about culture not being a mean to suceed in academia and gain respect and success, if you will.

Soooo, now, started The Republic, cause I need to finish my Plato reading, and going to start Rebatet's Les deux étendards. It has a very good reputation as a novel, but Rebatet collaborated with Vichy and the nazis, as quite a number of others, but his novel seems to be the most interesting one.

IgnE

United States7684 Posts

September 26 2014 23:32 GMT

#1194

The Republic is boring.

bookwyrm

United States722 Posts

September 26 2014 23:41 GMT

#1195

Screw you the republic kicks ass and is hilarious

IgnE

United States7684 Posts

September 26 2014 23:45 GMT

#1196

What is funny about it?

bookwyrm

United States722 Posts

September 26 2014 23:50 GMT

#1197

The arguments are ridiculous and there are also jokes

IgnE

United States7684 Posts

September 26 2014 23:54 GMT

#1198

That's why it's mostly boring. Plato zzzzzzzz.

corumjhaelen

France6884 Posts

September 27 2014 09:23 GMT

#1199

Plato is hilarious and a wonderful writer. Except Timaeus which is the most boring philosophy book I've read.
Seriously, that guy wrote a parody of every politician on tv 2500 years ago, has the coolest myths ever, Socrates making fun of everybody, great questions, what's not to like ?

Yurie

12185 Posts

September 27 2014 17:22 GMT

#1200

I just finished reading Demon's Child by Ono Fuyumi (小野不由美). ISBN 4-10-124021-3 Book 0 in the twelve kingdoms series, more known for its great anime. (Not posting the cover since it is subjectively bad.)

I greatly liked it as a mix of Fantasy and Thriller (some would say horror). The pace of events was kept high but never rushed. Wanting to know what was happening next being the thing dragging it along. One of its strengths is allowing you to draw the wrong conclusions.

The horrible events in it was mostly off screen, a good medium to keep the suspense up.

All in all, a good medium long read. Going forward to the other books in the series now since I've hopefully forgot enough from when I watched the anime in 2006 to make it interesting. Will mostly be looking forward to the continuation of the story since then.