What Are You Reading 2015 - Page 34

Xxio

Canada5565 Posts

July 04 2015 01:38 GMT

#661

Fevre Dream: George Martin's vampire story set on the Mississippi. I read it fast and enjoyed it all. Loved the scenes travelling down the river. Makes me want to reread Twain.
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell: Stopped halfway through. I read that it picks up soon after but I feel I got what I wanted out of the story.
Stories of Your Life and Others: Collection of short stories by SF's slowest writer, Ted Chiang. Solid, tight writing but lacking ambition, imho. I enjoyed every page but was never excited.

Currently reading The Best of Connie Willis and hoping to finish before I grab Aurora on the 7th.

On June 30 2015 01:07 B.I.G. wrote:
A bit less than two years ago I "rediscovered" my passion for reading after barely being able to finish any book for the last 10 years or so. I completely nerded out fantasy literature. I read the Malazan series (easily 10.000 pages), Abercombie's The First Law series, and dabbled in some other series like A Song of Ice and Fire, Gentlemen Bastards, The Dresden Files, and Mystborn...

The Book of the New Sun and Latro in the Mist are very good. Le Guin described Wolfe as "our Melville" and Kim Stanley Robinson loves New Sun and Long Sun.

Has anyone read Seveneves? I want to believe it's great but Reamde was such a disappointment.

I would also really appreciate recommendations for books on agriculture/farming in the ancient world, land distribution, technology, landscaping, or revolts for land redistribution. Content like this, but detailed and being the focus of the book:

"There were few natural resources, no timber, stones, or metals. Rainfall was limited, and what water there was rushed across the plain in the annual flood of melted snow. As the plain fell only 20 meters in 500 kilometres the beds of the rivers shifted constantly. It was this which made the organization of irrigation, particularly the building of canals to channel and preserve the water, essential. Once this was done and the silt carried down by the rivers planted, the rewards were rich: four to five times what rainfed earth would produce....conditions that allowed an elite to emerge..."

"The valley had virtually no rainfall of its own. The water for its irrigation came down the Nile in annual floods, most of which originated in summer rains in the Ethiopian mountains. With the floods came silt, and the combination of fertile soil and ready water could produce yields of crops three or four times those from normal rainfed soil. As important as the wealth of water and soil was the regularity with which the floods came...the waters had begun to fall. The land could be marked out and ploughed and sowed, in time the 'land reappeared'."

Jerubaal

United States7684 Posts

July 04 2015 02:59 GMT

#662

@Xxio- Sounds like you are looking for non-fiction. The general rule of thumb is that the more interesting it is, the lower the quality of scholarship. Frankly, even an introductory study of historical criticism makes most popular accounts irritating tor read.

babylon

8765 Posts

July 04 2015 05:11 GMT

#663

Finished Renault's Fire From Heaven after an age and a half. Got better in the second half but I still thought it was a totally shoddy piece of storytelling. Avoiding Renault from now on.

Reading Novik's Uprooted now, around halfway through. Soooooo good, and a vast improvement over her latest Temeraire books. She should stay away from writing series and stick with writing standalones.

B.I.G.

3251 Posts

July 04 2015 09:31 GMT

#664

On June 30 2015 01:19 bookwyrm wrote:
China mieville perdido street station. Read now thank me later

So I'm about 300 pages in (just short of halfway through) and I have to say that it is a bit.... weird...

Mind you I can really appreciate weirdness in a well presented way but some of the weirdness in this story just seems to be weird for the sake of being weird. Example: Isaac's girlfriend Lin being a woman with a bug for a head. And the scenes where he describes having sex with her and stroking the wings on her bug body head I mean what the actual fuck haha..

All in all I think the first 200 pages were rather slow but now it seems to be picking up. I'll finish this book but I don't think I'll read another in this series. Not really feeling the world building.

I appreciate the recommendation though, any others?

On July 04 2015 10:38 Xxio wrote:
The Book of the New Sun and Latro in the Mist are very good. Le Guin described Wolfe as "our Melville" and Kim Stanley Robinson loves New Sun and Long Sun

Thanks I will look into those once I finish this one. Always happy to look into any suggestions.

BTW any of you guys use goodreads? I've been using it a lot as a book database. Do you guys think the ratings they give books are solid? I feel most of them are rather high...

bookwyrm

United States722 Posts

July 05 2015 15:18 GMT

#665

Your loss

if the bug head sex scene in the beginning doesnt turn you into an instant fan... there might not be hope for you

Xxio if you didnt like reamde you wont like seveneves. I think both are great

what you need to read is fernand braudel memory and the mediterranean

Nyxisto

Germany6287 Posts

July 05 2015 15:25 GMT

#666

Couldn't really make it far through Seveneves. Neal Stephenson feels a little bit hit and miss to me. I really liked The diamond Age and Snow Crash but Cryptonomicon and Seveneves feel just too long and technical for me. I can't make it through all the chapter long info dumps : (

bookwyrm

United States722 Posts

July 05 2015 15:28 GMT

#667

You people are silly :p. What do you want from books anyway - nonstop plot in recycled settings? The fifteenth sequel of lord of the rings??

BTW if you want to check out one of the best SF novs ever written check out the xenogenesis trilogy by octavia butler. Shit is DOPE

farvacola

United States18822 Posts

July 05 2015 15:57 GMT

#668

A deep reading of the Silmarilion will do

Surth

Germany456 Posts

July 05 2015 17:11 GMT

#669

check out GOLEM XIV by stanislaw lem!

[UoN]Sentinel

United States11320 Posts

July 06 2015 02:05 GMT

#670

Just read Look Who's Back, originally Er Ist Wieder Da in its German form. It's a book about Hitler being transported from his suicide in 1945 straight to 2011 Berlin, and everyone just thinks he's a really good Hitler impersonator. He doesn't get a full account of the time in between, so you have moments like him thinking Turkish kids listening to music on their headphones are part of an underclass with distracting noise filtering in to stop them from learning too much, or that Wikipedia is based on Viking ideals of selflessness, dedication, etc. and was named after the Vikings.

Great book. I'd almost support him if I wasn't a degenerate Slav.

{CC}StealthBlue

United States41117 Posts

July 06 2015 02:10 GMT

#671

bookwyrm

United States722 Posts

July 08 2015 15:20 GMT

#672

Ive been sitting on top of a mountain reading hobbes. This book is pretty hilarious in fact

maybenexttime

Poland5534 Posts

July 08 2015 16:30 GMT

#673

On June 29 2015 00:00 Manit0u wrote:

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Diaspora is mind-blowing. Almost as good as Watt's Blindsight.

Grats on finishing Lód. Attempted it several times, farthest I got was around page 500 (heard the action starts around 700) but I will tackle this monstrosity one day (read everything else by Dukaj so far).

You should also try Beckett's Genesis. This blows minds real hard.

Recently finished:

"Diaspora" by Greg Egan

"How Rich Countries Got Rich And Why Poor Countries Stay Poor" by Erik Reinert

I liked "Perfect Imperfection" by Dukaj a lot more than "Diaspora" by Egan. I was very intrigued how stahs managed to retain their power despite post-humans being so much more capable. The introduction into this foreign world seemed more natural as well. At the same time, "Diaspora" was definitely a good read and I recommend it. I liked how the story unfolded. Surprisingly, the time skipping did not feel unnatural. The ending was interesting, it somehow made me feel at peace (although some people might consider it a let-down).

My list of books to read is already pretty stacked and I have something to read for perhaps the next two years, so I am not sure about genesis.

We'll see.

Currently reading:

"Economics: The User's Guide" by Ha-Joon Chang

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"The Man in the High Castle" by Philip K. Dick

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Coming up next:

"Dune" by Frank Herbert

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"The Prince" by Niccolo Machiavelli

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Enki

United States2548 Posts

July 08 2015 21:42 GMT

#674

Haven't posted here in a long time but I guess I haven't read that much either...

Last Read:
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A Dance of Dragons - Took me awhile to get through this, although I feel bitter now because now I have to wait until the next book comes out like everyone else. Been looking into some other fantasy series to tide me over.

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River Monsters - Dunno if anyone here watches River Monsters. I find it a pretty interesting show so I got the book. If you watch the show though, it's nothing new. If you have seen a fair share of episodes you will notice the chapters are similar (the giant stingray in Vietnam, the Goonch catfish etc) so it's more a companion piece to the show rather than entirely new material. That said I still found it interesting.

Reading Now:
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The Kite Runner - Only like 50 pages in since I just started it, not much to say. I find the setting and characters decently interesting so far.

Dunno what I will read next, maybe this. I've heard lots of praise for this book and while I have read/researched WWII before I never really learned about the eastern front.
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bookwyrm

United States722 Posts

July 12 2015 03:14 GMT

#675

first round of summer reading. might have already posted some of these SORRY

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Zergneedsfood

United States10671 Posts

July 12 2015 14:41 GMT

#676

I finished Paradise Lost.

It was so good. So so so so so good.

IgnE

United States7681 Posts

July 12 2015 15:40 GMT

#677

I don't believe you.

bookwyrm

United States722 Posts

July 12 2015 15:59 GMT

#678

booooorinng

corumjhaelen

France6884 Posts

July 12 2015 19:47 GMT

#679

I read 50 pages of Deleuze today in the transports, can't believe I have brains left to type. Leaving for a month of biking in the center of France tomorrow with "only" three books :
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