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What Are You Reading 2017 - Page 12
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{CC}StealthBlue
United States41117 Posts
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farvacola
United States18869 Posts
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123Gurke
France154 Posts
![[image loading]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/515U-0BhxRL.jpg) I wanted something short for a 3 day trip with the family and I found this at my father in law's place. I enjoyed this quite a lot. It we short enough to finish it within three days even though I spent a lot of time with the kids. Now reading: ![[image loading]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/81gafAtnQhL.jpg) I always promise myself to not read any long books anymore at least while the kids are young, but I am slightly ill so I have not much else to do and decided to just go for it. So far I am roughly 75 pages in and the eponymous character has not appeared yet. I am already enjoying this a lot, seeing how the story slowly unfolds. | ||
Flicky
England2675 Posts
Also, that review of Wheel of Time is pretty hilarious. I've never felt the urge to read it and that review has really made me happy about that. @123Gurke: Presuming your English is pretty good, how do you decide when to read a German translation over and English one? Is it just because you're more comfortable with it? | ||
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123Gurke
France154 Posts
On August 10 2017 02:16 Flicky wrote: @123Gurke: Presuming your English is pretty good, how do you decide when to read a German translation over and English one? Is it just because you're more comfortable with it? Well, German is simply my native language. So yes, I am more comfortable with it  France is merely my country of residence. Since there are now excellent translations of the classics into German, it makes no sense whatsoever for me to read a book that is Russian in the original in any other language than German. The question of translations becomes more difficult for me when the original text is in a foreign language that, unlike Russian, I am somewhat competent in, so for me English or French. For those texts several factors come into play:
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Redox
Germany24794 Posts
On August 10 2017 02:16 Flicky wrote: @123Gurke: Presuming your English is pretty good, how do you decide when to read a German translation over and English one? Is it just because you're more comfortable with it? Not him but for me there is just no reason to go for English over German if both are translations. I like German in literature but I also think almost anyone would prefer his native language. Because you will always appreciate good writing more the deeper your understanding of the respective language is. Only if the original is in English I will go for that. Other than that the only reason to choose English is if you want to broaden your knowledge of the language. Btw I just started to read The Three-Body Problem in English and kinda regretting it. I am not sure if the translation is bad or if it is the original style of the author that I dont like. The way the characters talk (and act) just seems so contrived. | ||
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Alucen-Will-
United States4054 Posts
On August 09 2017 21:49 123Gurke wrote: Finished: I wanted something short for a 3 day trip with the family and I found this at my father in law's place. I enjoyed this quite a lot. It we short enough to finish it within three days even though I spent a lot of time with the kids. Now reading: I always promise myself to not read any long books anymore at least while the kids are young, but I am slightly ill so I have not much else to do and decided to just go for it. So far I am roughly 75 pages in and the eponymous character has not appeared yet. I am already enjoying this a lot, seeing how the story slowly unfolds. Good choices-I've yet to read through Turgenjew's work. Anna Karenina is a masterpiece and the the finest piece of russian literature outside of Pushkin (obviously). This of course excludes Nabokov. I would probably reccomend reading Chekhov's short stories and Gogol if you haven't already. ![[image loading]](https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1443685506l/17799.jpg) I'm finishing the last of Murakami's fiction. Today nearly marks the one month mark (the 13th of July) since I started with Norwegian Wood. Since that day I've read every single novel he's published, cover to cover. Including 1Q84 twice and Norwegian Wood twice. Needless to say I'm impressed and somewhat let down that I hadn't gotten around to him earlier. If you haven't the normative order of his work is something like this (novels) 1. 1Q84 2. Norwegian Wood 3. The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle 4. Dance, Dance, Dance 5. Kafka on the Short/The Colorless TT Everything else in more or less descending order that is less clear. His first three novels are of a markedly inchaote, but talented mind. Still worth reading if you like him. The experimental novel Hard Boiled Wonderland and The End of the World was quite interesting, but ultimately somewhat of a letdown. The topic matter is bound to hinder this opinion, though. His short stories are decent, although less impressive than novels. I find several of his collections to be incomplete, or weaker forms of characters and ideas developed in the novels. Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman is undoubtedly his most impressive short story collections, he withdraws more heavily and the metaphysical uncertainty makes the stories worthwhile and come off as somewhat of a Koan at times. His nonfiction is quite worthwhile, too. I've read through his running memoir and scrolled through his conversations with Seji Ozawa. Reccomended | ||
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Blucan
Canada2 Posts
Had so much more action than the first book, but damn I'm devastated that the movie (which I actually didn't end up seeing) HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH THE BOOKS. It's like the writers read a wikipedia synopsis of the books one time, and then poorly tried to stitch the story back together from memory. Just devastating. Either way, excited for the next books in the series! Edit: I feel a little out of place with all the high class literature the rest of you are reading, but my brain is too tired after work to read smart things ![[image loading]](https://screenshot.click/The_Dark_Tower_II_The_Drawing_of_the_Three_eBook_Stephen_King_Amazon.ca_Kindle_Store_2017-08-16_14-52-28.png) | ||
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B.I.G.
3251 Posts
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Carnivorous Sheep
Baa?21248 Posts
On August 17 2017 13:45 B.I.G. wrote: Book of new sun part 1. One quarter in and it's a total snooze fest. Endless chatter about delicate books and how the protagonist has the hots for a prisoner. Is anything actually gonna happen eventually? oh man you gotta start over and read it more carefully, botns is fucking amazing but you're gonna miss everything if you just treat it as a typical sci fi novel. the plot is almost never actually spelled out for you directly you need to read between the lines | ||
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B.I.G.
3251 Posts
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Jan1997
Norway671 Posts
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Flicky
England2675 Posts
Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov. I read Lolita a few years ago and for some reason waited to read anything else. Lots of great prose and wonderful passages but it took a little while to grip me. Also, I'm not sure if the following irks me or if it's fine, but I wanted to discuss something that I've noticed in my (admittedly minuscule) experience with Nabokov and literature overall: This is what I'm calling the Nabokov Option Select. Effectively, this is something that works for readers of all levels and gives the author a nice cop-out should they need it: The mentally unsound (or unreliable) genius as the storyteller. When you utilise a character like this, I feel like you can get away with just about anything. If you make a mistake referencing something, or have a line or something flop completely, it immediately gets written off by the reader as being a symptom of the narrators flaws and when you nail it, well that's the genius part coming through. It seems like when you utilise this archetype, you cannot mess up your writing. Any mistakes are justified and only go on to strengthen the flaws you've written in. Additionally an intermediate reader (like myself) can just brush off any references they don't get as being mistakes on behalf of the narrator. It's a win-win for everyone. I'm not suggesting that anyone who uses this is actually a weak writer, I'm not sure I would ever have the knowledge to accuse Nabokov of that, but it's something I've noticed and I'm not sure how I feel about it. The characters are great, but it seems so... cheeky to use it. | ||
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PM_ME_NICE_PUPPERS
Pakistan51 Posts
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Carnivorous Sheep
Baa?21248 Posts
On September 01 2017 19:32 Flicky wrote: Das Parfum by Patrick Süskind. This is effectively my favourite book and finally I feel my German is good enough to read it in the native language. I'm not really one for re-reading so this was an interesting experience. The book seemed a little bit funnier in German to me, but that may just be my being older when I read it this time. I still get a little bored re-reading books when I know how things happen (I don't mind knowing what happens already, but when I know how, things get a little dull). Still a wonderful book though, glad I could see it as it originally was, although the translation is still absolutely incredible so don't worry that you're missing out. Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov. I read Lolita a few years ago and for some reason waited to read anything else. Lots of great prose and wonderful passages but it took a little while to grip me. Also, I'm not sure if the following irks me or if it's fine, but I wanted to discuss something that I've noticed in my (admittedly minuscule) experience with Nabokov and literature overall: This is what I'm calling the Nabokov Option Select. Effectively, this is something that works for readers of all levels and gives the author a nice cop-out should they need it: The mentally unsound (or unreliable) genius as the storyteller. When you utilise a character like this, I feel like you can get away with just about anything. If you make a mistake referencing something, or have a line or something flop completely, it immediately gets written off by the reader as being a symptom of the narrators flaws and when you nail it, well that's the genius part coming through. It seems like when you utilise this archetype, you cannot mess up your writing. Any mistakes are justified and only go on to strengthen the flaws you've written in. Additionally an intermediate reader (like myself) can just brush off any references they don't get as being mistakes on behalf of the narrator. It's a win-win for everyone. I'm not suggesting that anyone who uses this is actually a weak writer, I'm not sure I would ever have the knowledge to accuse Nabokov of that, but it's something I've noticed and I'm not sure how I feel about it. The characters are great, but it seems so... cheeky to use it. it only really happens in pale fire though, it doesnt exist at all in other "key" nabokov works like pnin, invitation to a beheading, ada or ardor. even lolita i dont think really does this in the same way as pale fire and maybe something like the gift | ||
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B.I.G.
3251 Posts
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Falling
Canada11607 Posts
But after reading some older faerie stories like Sir Launfal and The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle, I'd say there's something very fascinating about beings and places that are wholly Other, mysterious and incomprehensible. It's the medieval explanatory stories for what goes bump in the night- explain the unexplainable- armies march for battle, but the battle is never seen. Hunters are heard but never seen or vanish mysteriously. The entrance to faerie land may be difficult to find, but once you do, strange things happen. Tolkien understood this what with the hart chased by unseen hunters and the disappearing elf feasts in The Hobbit. Or the strange passage of time in Lorien and the hidden nature of most elf cities- they aren't really places that you just have roads going to. Since then, I think a lot of the faerie has disappeared from the elves. They are only vaguely different than humans, in the same way the civilizations in Age of Empires were too were only vaguely different- but the asymmetrical RTS (Starcraft) is still possible. What can fantasy races do? The same thing that can happen in Stranger Things- of course that's more firmly established in the horror genre, but there's something in the mysterious Otherness that faerie stories with other races can do. | ||
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Acrofales
Spain18470 Posts
On September 04 2017 17:04 B.I.G. wrote: What do you guys think the function of fantasy races is in fiction? Many times I don't really see the added value in them as they are often just exaggerated human tribes or civilizations. Falling answered well. I'd just like to add that in science fiction, other races are usually used to (1) Establish an obvious basis for conflict that doesn't need much further explanation: Specieism. (2) Establish a completely foreign biology, philosophy, culture. Both are explored extremely well in Ender's Saga (although if you're not into esoteric religious stuff, probably skip Xenocide and Children of the Mind), but Ender's Game and Speaker for the Dead do a great job of using the Other to explore the morality of conflict. Vernor Vinge does a fantastic job as well with Fire Upon the Deep, and Deepness in the Sky. And another of my favourite explorations of the otherness of alien races is Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's "A Mote in God's Eye". | ||
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ETisME
12891 Posts
it's a really good book. I have bought quite a few philosophical books on this topic but they were neither extremely difficult or not relateable. This book is basically a history of existentialism told in a very human way. There are difficult concepts but often mixed with personal dramas. (Sarter for example has a very open relationship with Beauvoir, they have other partners, some of those are children, some of those are married to the one who is cheating with another etc.) The most prodominate figures are Sarter, Beauvoir and Camus (plus many others of cause), and I now understand the significance of their work. Mostly because I have never considered the time and age it was written under. A lot of them are from France and had went through pre-war and war time to liberating France in WW2. Their work provide a beacon of light to those who are struggling to cope with the rapid change in society. I am close to finishing it, after this I will be going back to the books of these existentialists. Highly recommended even if you are not into philosophy, but there is a high chance you will like philosophy after reading the book | ||
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Flicky
England2675 Posts
Just finished A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. Loved it. The nadsat was pretty fun to read but I'm not sure what it would be like for people with no knowledge of Russian or slavic words at all (most of it I knew from Croatian). Anyone got recommendations for other books by Burgess? | ||
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