EPTWhat Are You Reading 2016 - Page 12
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corumjhaelen
France6884 Posts
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Surth
Germany456 Posts
On August 07 2016 12:30 CosmicSpiral wrote: I always found DeLillo to be an academic's idea of "insightful": a verbose style substituting for lucidity and power, clumsy metaphors everywhere and a scattershot attempt of covering themes at the expanse of exploring them. Some of the parallels he attempts to draw in White Noise border on the laughably absurd. Huh, weird, I love that book. But then, I am an academic. I don't think its particularly insightful (although I find SIMUVAC hilarious), but then in general I dont think art is very insightful ever. Also, the themes of consumerism have come and gone already? Thats just what consumerism wants you to think D: really liked Libra as well. I'd say very Gaimanesque, but I didn't get much Pratchett. I liked it, but since I have also read The City and the City, which is very different and I enjoyed it more; particularly the conclusion was great. Fair enough. I was mostly thinking of Good Omens, so that seems accurate. I'm on break from books mostly for three weeks, but I picked up Braudel again. And I bought Ortega's book about the Masses in spanish to help me immerse myslef in the language more, hah | ||
CosmicSpiral
United States15275 Posts
On August 08 2016 06:39 Surth wrote: Huh, weird, I love that book. But then, I am an academic. I don't think its particularly insightful (although I find SIMUVAC hilarious), but then in general I dont think art is very insightful ever. Also, the themes of consumerism have come and gone already? Thats just what consumerism wants you to think D: really liked Libra as well. I found his critique of consumerism shallow, but then again it's also passe in the sense that White Noise came out in '85. There are probably certain aspects of consumerism now that were not ubiquitous back then. However, the attempts to tackle such material come off as goofy. They often come across as a complete lack of familiarity with his subject matter. Insinuating supermarkets provide emotional nourishment? Completing missing the point and nature of advertising? He could've just read the fourth section of Ways of Seeing and copied it verbatim; it would've been more effective. His prose style is also grating to me. That's a personal thing though. | ||
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Nyxisto
Germany6287 Posts
![[image loading]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51F9i1UOHwL.jpg) | ||
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Nore123
Netherlands2 Posts
![[image loading]](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/34/MusashiNovel.jpg) Currently reading musashi after I read the manga Vagabond but it was never finished and now I can finish the story. | ||
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{CC}StealthBlue
United States41117 Posts
![[image loading]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/419OjHWv5ZL._SX327_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg) | ||
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RvB
Netherlands6313 Posts
![[image loading]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51oMG8-hNtL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg) | ||
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Nyxisto
Germany6287 Posts
![[image loading]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/51DKUss0h5L.jpg) Picked up Endymion and Rise of Endymion. Hyperion is one of my favorite books and given that these are somewhat controversial I've been holding out until now | ||
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{CC}StealthBlue
United States41117 Posts
![[image loading]](http://www.navyhistory.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/borneman-admirals.jpg) | ||
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B.I.G.
3251 Posts
![[image loading]](https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1354571949l/3428935.jpg) Disclaimer: I haven't finished it yet. The premise in short is a world where demons rule the night. The demons are essentially unstoppable slaughter machines that want nothing more then to fuck humanity in to the ground. The only thing that humanity can do is use wards. Good ol' wards where you make a fancy drawing that creates a magic barrier that 100% effectively keeps the demons out. As long as people don't fuck up. See there starts my problem with a story like this. It reminds me a bit of The Walking Dead where the baddies are scary and dangerous for sure but there seem to be so many ways to effectively fix the problem practically permanently (tree huts, moats, greased up slopes anyone?). The story makes it clear that people have categorized the kinds of demons and how they work pretty well. They know where they appear and under what circumstances, what kinds there are and how they react to things. You know where it goes wrong most often in this story? People being too fucking negligent to check the wards around their house. That's right. Any normal human being would check that shit 10 fucking times a day but no here they can't be bothered "I checked them last winter so I don't see what could go wrong?! It's not like a failed ward will mean the most horrible and gruesome death for me and my entire family!" What bothers me about that is that any REAL human society would use those wards in a much more systematic and effective way to "fix" the problem ("demons can't rise on pavement? guess what we are doing!") Same as in Walking Dead where everything goes to hell because of some emotional bullshit where someone throws a tantrum and forgets to lock the door and lets all the zombies in. I call it a stupidity driven plot and as you probably gathered by now I do not like it too much. On the plus side I do like the idea of the oh so dark and dangerous outside world. They should just have packaged in a more of an eternal conflict kinda way (like the Stormwall for those who've read Malazan books) and make warding something only very unique individuals can do. Characters have been written well and I do really like the main characters. The thing that confuses me though that the simplicity of the story, the colorful descriptions of the demons (they kinda sound like Pokemon sometimes), and the age of the main characters makes me think its a book aimed at 14-16 year olds. Then again you also have passages where one of the main characters hears her mother bang another dude while her dad is sleeping next doors, as well pretty gory details. I will finish the book first before my final judgement but I would say that it is a book that seems to be targeted to a younger crowd (which in many parts makes sense) but then someone decided to make it more mature by adding some gore and sex. | ||
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Yurie
12159 Posts
https://distractedtranslations.wordpress.com/the-girl-who-ate-death/ The basic plot is that a child that is starving to death eats a death god (Shinigami) when it comes for her. From this she gains a lot of power and sets out to eat good things and get revenge for her village's destruction. What I really liked about this story is that an ending is said and confirmed multiple times during the story. Making one wonder how it gets there and if it is just a lie or not. I especially got emotionally involved with the story, laughed at a few points and cried near the ending. A bad point is that the last half of the ending lost its translation in some site migration. Thus it ends on an open note instead of closing up all points. The open ending is likely better though since one can imagine what one wants into it. A disclaimer is that the English translation isn't perfect, it improves as the story goes along but expect a spelling mistake or grammar mistake a chapter. | ||
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Jerubaal
United States7684 Posts
![[image loading]](http://www.lspace.org/ftp/images/bookcovers/uk/the-last-hero-1.jpg) It was somewhat amusing, but I imagine it would get really fucking old really quick. I went to the Nimitz museum in Fredericksburg a few years ago. It was neat. | ||
Xxio
Canada5565 Posts
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IgnE
United States7681 Posts
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zulu_nation8
China26351 Posts
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IgnE
United States7681 Posts
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IgnE
United States7681 Posts
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Carnivorous Sheep
Baa?21247 Posts
On September 30 2016 12:57 IgnE wrote: What's the best JM Coetzee novel for someone who hasn't read any of his works? Where do I start? go with the famous ones. Disgrace, Foe, Life and Times of Michael K | ||
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IgnE
United States7681 Posts
fuck it i'm getting Foe and Life and Times of Michael K | ||
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Carnivorous Sheep
Baa?21247 Posts
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