Njall's saga will probably have been the best book I've read this year. I quite enjoyed Nostromo and Jude the obscure, been somewhat perplexed by Dante's Inferno, and read a random French book which has apparently a cult following ; Maurice Pons' Les Saisons. I'm reading Snorri Sturluson's Edda, which is pretty cool.
Most importantly though, I'm reading the Bible, not in its entirety, but I guess its most well-known parts the Gospels, the Acts which were great, the Apocalypse, and most "historic" and poetic books of the Old Testament. Pretty cool stuff, and at the same time I can, thanks to the Collège de France, listen Thomas Römer explain why I should care about Terah's age (205 or 145 ?), the reasons why the same story is told three times, the possible meanings of those boring genealogies, or why Jerusalem is never mentionned in the first five books. Which is plain awesome.

farvacola

United States18856 Posts

June 02 2016 14:52 GMT

#162

Oooh yeah, we'll have to talk about that sometime, I love me some good biblical exegesis :D

corumjhaelen

France6884 Posts

June 02 2016 14:56 GMT

#163

I have something like 24h of podcast just on Abraham's story. I cant really believe I find it that fascinating !

SK.Testie

Canada11084 Posts

June 02 2016 15:15 GMT

#164

Absolutely loved the Malazan books. And this one is starting out quite strong so far. Brilliant writer.

Paints South Africa as arguably a prettier place under Apartheid than "free".

zulu_nation8

China26351 Posts

June 10 2016 01:56 GMT

#165

Picked up Gertrude Stein's Tender Buttons on the recommendation of my MFA friend who writes sci-fi/cyberpunk, after reading the first few pages I'm thoroughly confused. Also got Bachelard's Psychoanalysis of Fire.

farvacola

United States18856 Posts

June 10 2016 02:02 GMT

#166

Just remember that sugar is not a vegetable

zulu_nation8

China26351 Posts

June 10 2016 02:51 GMT

#167

sounds...perverse. Any other tips? I'm really confused atm. I just know it's cubism. My friend literally told me he wants to write like she does in the book.

farvacola

United States18856 Posts

June 10 2016 03:05 GMT

#168

Hmm, I'd say it'd be helpful to focus on the word sounds as you read the lines aloud. It may be "cubist" in the sense that it relies on obtuse lexical arrangements that tend to coalesce into the shape of images taken from "real life," but the poetry of authors like Gertrude Stein or Ezra Pound "makes the most sense" when I read it as the work of lyricists looking to make unusual forms out of phonetic arrangements in the spirit of the early 20th century.

Surth

Germany456 Posts

June 10 2016 08:42 GMT

#169

Gertrude Stein is dumb, all the modernist poets are dumb. Fuck 'em!

Reading My Ántonia for uni right now, which is okayish. I really wish I felt like I had the time to read Bolanos Savage Detectives by now :X

Flicky

England2670 Posts

June 10 2016 08:44 GMT

#170

Read:

The Innocent Killer by Michael Griesbach - Interesting story but the hook at the end of the blurb is pure clickbait (It describes Stephen Avery's wrongful conviction, then second conviction and ends with an "Or did he?" - regarding the second conviction. This "Or Did He?" is never even alluded to at the end of the book.)

Paradise Lost/Regained by Milton - I enjoyed it. I've not read an English poem/story that approaches bible stories this way and I enjoyed it. Easy enough to read and with some very interesting ideas and some pretty cool parts.

The Audacity of Hops by Tom Acitelli - A history of the growth of craft beer in America from it's origins in 1965 to about 2012. Unfortunately it misses the massive growth experienced in the last four years but the key information otherwise is all there. Gets a bit unfocused in the middle but works out.

Acrofales

Spain18268 Posts

June 12 2016 11:20 GMT

#171

On June 01 2016 08:48 Manit0u wrote:
[image loading]

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury (60th anniversary edition)

Going to re-read this classic.

Haha. Me too.

corumjhaelen

France6884 Posts

June 12 2016 12:15 GMT

#172

So is it still as boring as I remember ?

Starting :
[image loading]

Journey to the West (Wu Cheng'En ?)
Hope it's half as good as Water Margin !

KelsierSC

United Kingdom10443 Posts

June 17 2016 20:28 GMT

#173

some girl I like mentioned this book so I started reading it, pretty awesome.

zulu_nation8

China26351 Posts

June 19 2016 22:46 GMT

#174

Which recent William Gibson novel would you guys recommend?

farvacola

United States18856 Posts

June 19 2016 22:57 GMT

#175

I enjoyed Pattern Recognition a fair bit, but it's already a bit out dated I feel.

zulu_nation8

China26351 Posts

June 19 2016 23:00 GMT

#176

Thanks, I read some reviews for The Peripheral and got the impression it was so-so.

Carnivorous Sheep

Baa?21244 Posts

June 19 2016 23:19 GMT

#177

On June 20 2016 07:57 farvacola wrote:
I enjoyed Pattern Recognition a fair bit, but it's already a bit out dated I feel.

gibson doesnt seem to age well ~_~

not as prescient or as insightful as he'd like to be, perhaps? ~~~

farvacola

United States18856 Posts

June 19 2016 23:26 GMT

#178

Yeah, his stories have this dirty 80s sci-fi feel that they just can't seem to shake.

Nyxisto

Germany6287 Posts

June 19 2016 23:34 GMT

#179

I only read Gibson two years ago or so for the first time and while the ideas are of course not exactly new I like the dense and "information overload" writing style a lot because it actually fits the stories a lot better. Still enjoyed it a lot. For some reason I just can't work myself through these thousand page long tomes any more.

{CC}StealthBlue

United States41117 Posts

June 20 2016 02:31 GMT

#180