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Reading atm:
![[image loading]](https://i.imgur.com/ctaJ1DP.jpg)
The paper menagerie and other stories by Ken Liu
A short story collection which ranges from scifi to fantasy, a lot of them with a touch of chinese culture and mythology.
Like in any short story collection some stories are better than others, but the overall quality is fairly high i think. Some of the themes and ideas one has already seen somewhere else, but it's pretty hard to be fully original these days so i give him a pass on that one.
![[image loading]](https://i.imgur.com/iRFmaGG.jpg)
Salem's lot by Stephen King
Wanted something which will be read rather fast and king surely fits that quite well. 150 pages in atm, liked the buildup so far, seems to be one of the better king novels as far as i can tell atm. Hopefully the ending will deliver, something he usually doesn't get right.
After i am done with king i will either start with some pynchon or nabokov, still not entirely sure what to choose though.
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England2264 Posts
Has anyone read Sudden Death by Álvaro Enrigue? Sounds intriguing but have only heard of it from someone who hasn't read it yet.
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I am reading V. by Thomas Pynchon right now after my second attempt at Gravity's Rainbow ended in a fairly confused me. I've heard V. is a more concise novel that captures essentially the same themes as GR, so I'll give it a try first.
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Almost done with salem's lot and i am a little disappointed, definitely falls into the king category which would be: way too long for what it wants to tell. I will finish it because i always do, but the buildup was better than the climax :D
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Been re-re-rereading my favorite book 19Q4 as a warmup to Murakami's newest book Killing Commendatore. Excited about that. Anyone read it?
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On January 18 2019 01:12 CoupdeBoule wrote:
Been re-re-rereading my favorite book 19Q4 as a warmup to Murakami's newest book Killing Commendatore. Excited about that. Anyone read it?
1Q84 was pretty good, and Murakami is my favourite author, but it isn't my favourite of his. I'm a huge fan of 'Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World' and 'The Wind-up Bird Chronicle' personally.
I haven't read Killing Commendatore yet though.
I've been slowly building up my collection and now have nearly all of his books.
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I finally decided to take the plunge into the Wheel of Time series given that so many people rate it so highly and that Amazon is turning it into a TV series. I'm up to Book 9. It's entertaining, but not great. I'm very surprised at how PG rated it is compared to other contemporary novels. There's a remarkable amount of chivalry in it. The biggest problem with the series is how slowly it moves (and this is a remarkable statement for me to make given how patient I typically I am). There are a lot of unnecessary plot lines and plot points. The most egregious example so far has been the Ebou Dar trip and hunt for the bowl. Resolution of major conflicts is drawn out for no good reason. It shouldn't take until Book 5 for the hero to finally get laid by one of his love interests.
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England2264 Posts
Recent ones:
Fictions by Jorge Luis Borges. It's really good, really short, everyone should probably read it. At least read The Library of Babel and Funes the Memorious.
Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. Had this highly recommended, but didn't really care for it. There's a section outlaying the picnic comparison which is cool, but the rest isn't very interesting or well written.
Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger. This is also really good. Would've been great to read this when I was younger.
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Recently read Skyward, which was decent. Wished Sanderson would write more adult books again, Elantris and Mistborn were great and the finale of Wheel of time showed that he really could pull a connected saga off. His more recent books are all decent (read alloy of law 2 and part 2 and 3 of his superhero series last year) and I can't really find a major flaw in them, but they don't impress me like some of his earlier books did. They are just a tad too much by the book and the fact that he writes them as separate stories instead of parts of a longer arc doesn't help.
On January 31 2019 08:36 xDaunt wrote:
I finally decided to take the plunge into the Wheel of Time series given that so many people rate it so highly and that Amazon is turning it into a TV series. I'm up to Book 9. It's entertaining, but not great. I'm very surprised at how PG rated it is compared to other contemporary novels. There's a remarkable amount of chivalry in it. The biggest problem with the series is how slowly it moves (and this is a remarkable statement for me to make given how patient I typically I am). There are a lot of unnecessary plot lines and plot points. The most egregious example so far has been the Ebou Dar trip and hunt for the bowl. Resolution of major conflicts is drawn out for no good reason. It shouldn't take until Book 5 for the hero to finally get laid by one of his love interests.
Yeah the middle part is extremely slow, especially Perrin's part. That Jordan apparently thought that females are aliens and that they are mostly irritating across the board as a result doesn't make it better and especially the jealousy parts are really bad.
It gets better once Sanderson takes over though and the finale is great.
Tbf that the characters developed their romances slowly didn't bother me, new fantasy seems to require a sex scene every 100 pages, which at times is annoying. I couldn't care less whether or not Tyrion meets a whore in a shaggy town city and feels bad about it. I don't have the attention span of a 5-year old, I can read 200 pages without a sex or a gore scene.
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On February 04 2019 21:29 Archeon wrote:Recently read Skyward, which was decent. Wished Sanderson would write more adult books again, Elantris and Mistborn were great and the finale of Wheel of time showed that he really could pull a connected saga off. His more recent books are all decent (read steelslayer 2, part 2 and 3 of his superhero series last year) and I can't really find a major flaw in them, but they don't impress me like some of his earlier books did. They are just a tad too much by the book and the fact that he writes them as separate stories instead of parts of a longer arc doesn't help. Show nested quote +On January 31 2019 08:36 xDaunt wrote:
I finally decided to take the plunge into the Wheel of Time series given that so many people rate it so highly and that Amazon is turning it into a TV series. I'm up to Book 9. It's entertaining, but not great. I'm very surprised at how PG rated it is compared to other contemporary novels. There's a remarkable amount of chivalry in it. The biggest problem with the series is how slowly it moves (and this is a remarkable statement for me to make given how patient I typically I am). There are a lot of unnecessary plot lines and plot points. The most egregious example so far has been the Ebou Dar trip and hunt for the bowl. Resolution of major conflicts is drawn out for no good reason. It shouldn't take until Book 5 for the hero to finally get laid by one of his love interests. Yeah the middle part is extremely slow, especially Perrin's part. That Jordan had a very limited view of females and they are mostly irritating across the board doesn't make it better, and objectively worse in Perrin's part. It gets better once Sanderson takes over though and the finale is great. Tbf the development of love stories didn't bother me, new fantasy seems to require a sex scene every 100 pages, which at times is annoying. I couldn't care less whether or not Tyrion meets a whore in a shaggy town city and feels bad about it.
How are you mentioning Sanderson's recent work and ignoring the Stormlight Archive books?
Those are quite adult.
Also, the Alloy of Law series is recent too, with the 4th (and final) book of the series being released this year (or maybe next, no definitive date yet). The first one isn't great and it seems both he and the reader need some getting used to Mistborn magic in a Western style universe. But the second and third installments are very good.
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On February 04 2019 21:46 Acrofales wrote:Show nested quote +On February 04 2019 21:29 Archeon wrote:Recently read Skyward, which was decent. Wished Sanderson would write more adult books again, Elantris and Mistborn were great and the finale of Wheel of time showed that he really could pull a connected saga off. His more recent books are all decent (read steelslayer 2, part 2 and 3 of his superhero series last year) and I can't really find a major flaw in them, but they don't impress me like some of his earlier books did. They are just a tad too much by the book and the fact that he writes them as separate stories instead of parts of a longer arc doesn't help. On January 31 2019 08:36 xDaunt wrote:
I finally decided to take the plunge into the Wheel of Time series given that so many people rate it so highly and that Amazon is turning it into a TV series. I'm up to Book 9. It's entertaining, but not great. I'm very surprised at how PG rated it is compared to other contemporary novels. There's a remarkable amount of chivalry in it. The biggest problem with the series is how slowly it moves (and this is a remarkable statement for me to make given how patient I typically I am). There are a lot of unnecessary plot lines and plot points. The most egregious example so far has been the Ebou Dar trip and hunt for the bowl. Resolution of major conflicts is drawn out for no good reason. It shouldn't take until Book 5 for the hero to finally get laid by one of his love interests. Yeah the middle part is extremely slow, especially Perrin's part. That Jordan had a very limited view of females and they are mostly irritating across the board doesn't make it better, and objectively worse in Perrin's part. It gets better once Sanderson takes over though and the finale is great. Tbf the development of love stories didn't bother me, new fantasy seems to require a sex scene every 100 pages, which at times is annoying. I couldn't care less whether or not Tyrion meets a whore in a shaggy town city and feels bad about it. How are you mentioning Sanderson's recent work and ignoring the Stormlight Archive books? Those are quite adult. Also, the Alloy of Law series is recent too, with the 4th (and final) book of the series being released this year (or maybe next, no definitive date yet). The first one isn't great and it seems both he and the reader need some getting used to Mistborn magic in a Western style universe. But the second and third installments are very good.
I might have been reading the wrong books  Thanks, will check out stormlight archives.
Read alloy 2 and thought it was decent, but Waxillium is imho far too smart and powerful and the scenario lacks some of the boldness and extremity that the original Mistborn had. The end was well executed though and I intend to read book 3 this year.
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I never got around to finishing the Wheel of Time because of its weird obsession with logistics of moving around armies and dreadfully slow pace. I was young(like middle school) when I started it and the series lost a lot of direction after the third book.
Going back and reading some of it now, it feels dated and stuck in this Tolkien style of conflict between good and evil. Nobility vs corruption. I also don’t know how I ever accepted The Dark One as a name for a Big Bad. I think the one selling point of the series was that being the Dragon, or chosen one, in the series was a god damn nightmare and not at all desirable. From obtaining magical power to slowly going mad, it made the struggle of becoming the hero of legend seem impossible for the protagonist. I just wish it didn’t happen over tens of thousands of pages.
Also some of the worst cover art in fantasy. Nothing about that cover art made the series look cool.
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![[image loading]](https://i.imgur.com/PvgJ675.jpg)
I'm about finish with it and it was really a nice read.
Midway between a ethnological/philosophical essay and a biographic travel story, Levi-Strauss give a portrait of his time studding native population in Brazil in the 1930-40. It's a bit eclectic at time, but it make for a nice book to read a chapter each night. It also give an easier introduction to the structuralism analysis that Levi-Strauss will develop in the rest of his purely scholar work.
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On January 31 2019 08:36 xDaunt wrote:
I finally decided to take the plunge into the Wheel of Time series given that so many people rate it so highly and that Amazon is turning it into a TV series. I'm up to Book 9. It's entertaining, but not great. I'm very surprised at how PG rated it is compared to other contemporary novels. There's a remarkable amount of chivalry in it. The biggest problem with the series is how slowly it moves (and this is a remarkable statement for me to make given how patient I typically I am). There are a lot of unnecessary plot lines and plot points. The most egregious example so far has been the Ebou Dar trip and hunt for the bowl. Resolution of major conflicts is drawn out for no good reason. It shouldn't take until Book 5 for the hero to finally get laid by one of his love interests.
Yeah, me too, i put the series on hold for a while. It came highly recommended, so I started with high expectations, and the first book just isnt good. It's very much LOTR-esque, couldnt shake the feeling. I was reassured that goes away in the following books, and book 3 is amazing, so I read on. Book two was Ok, book three was better, definitely the best of the first 3, but not mind-blowing or anything... And everywhere it is said that the middle books are kinda meandering and boring, so if Book 3 was a high-note than I decided I would invest my time elsewhere.
Eventually i will come around and finish it.
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On February 05 2019 03:03 Plansix wrote:
I never got around to finishing the Wheel of Time because of its weird obsession with logistics of moving around armies and dreadfully slow pace. I was young(like middle school) when I started it and the series lost a lot of direction after the third book.
Going back and reading some of it now, it feels dated and stuck in this Tolkien style of conflict between good and evil. Nobility vs corruption. I also don’t know how I ever accepted The Dark One as a name for a Big Bad. I think the one selling point of the series was that being the Dragon, or chosen one, in the series was a god damn nightmare and not at all desirable. From obtaining magical power to slowly going mad, it made the struggle of becoming the hero of legend seem impossible for the protagonist. I just wish it didn’t happen over tens of thousands of pages.
Also some of the worst cover art in fantasy. Nothing about that cover art made the series look cool.
I'd say the draw is that it's a great blender of many things and that Jordan/Rigney was a great worldbuilder. Many characters are likeable and fallible, fantasy is quite rooted in the world (Shadar Logoth, mage-armies, the white tower being a political power), there's a lot of attention to detail, politics make mostly sense and the action is pretty crisp. There is some of Tolkien's mystique some of the modern gruesomeness. Some of the scenes just flashed me back then, the first battle of the Ash'aman f.e.
It also hit the sweetspot for me between Tolkien's very descriptive writingstyle and the very fast paced action style that many modern fantasy writers prefer. Whenever I read a little in the books I'm amazed how good Jordan/Rigney is at describing a scene on the fly without getting boring.
From a plot perspective it's a fairly stereotypical fantasy epos and heavily leans on LotR and a hero's journey, no doubt. And getting sidetracked is definitely the biggest flaw of the books.
I liked the covers :/ (outside of the one of the great hunt)
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On February 04 2019 21:46 Acrofales wrote:Show nested quote +On February 04 2019 21:29 Archeon wrote:Recently read Skyward, which was decent. Wished Sanderson would write more adult books again, Elantris and Mistborn were great and the finale of Wheel of time showed that he really could pull a connected saga off. His more recent books are all decent (read steelslayer 2, part 2 and 3 of his superhero series last year) and I can't really find a major flaw in them, but they don't impress me like some of his earlier books did. They are just a tad too much by the book and the fact that he writes them as separate stories instead of parts of a longer arc doesn't help. On January 31 2019 08:36 xDaunt wrote:
I finally decided to take the plunge into the Wheel of Time series given that so many people rate it so highly and that Amazon is turning it into a TV series. I'm up to Book 9. It's entertaining, but not great. I'm very surprised at how PG rated it is compared to other contemporary novels. There's a remarkable amount of chivalry in it. The biggest problem with the series is how slowly it moves (and this is a remarkable statement for me to make given how patient I typically I am). There are a lot of unnecessary plot lines and plot points. The most egregious example so far has been the Ebou Dar trip and hunt for the bowl. Resolution of major conflicts is drawn out for no good reason. It shouldn't take until Book 5 for the hero to finally get laid by one of his love interests. Yeah the middle part is extremely slow, especially Perrin's part. That Jordan had a very limited view of females and they are mostly irritating across the board doesn't make it better, and objectively worse in Perrin's part. It gets better once Sanderson takes over though and the finale is great. Tbf the development of love stories didn't bother me, new fantasy seems to require a sex scene every 100 pages, which at times is annoying. I couldn't care less whether or not Tyrion meets a whore in a shaggy town city and feels bad about it. How are you mentioning Sanderson's recent work and ignoring the Stormlight Archive books? Those are quite adult. Also, the Alloy of Law series is recent too, with the 4th (and final) book of the series being released this year (or maybe next, no definitive date yet). The first one isn't great and it seems both he and the reader need some getting used to Mistborn magic in a Western style universe. But the second and third installments are very good.
I wouldnt call Stormlight anymore adult than Mistborn is tbh.. its all like young adult/teen at best. I really liked the transition to mistborn era 2 personally. + Show Spoiler +It was a very interesting take, not just the western/steampunk aspect but also the fact that everyone is to a degree limited including the main characters made the combat alot more enjoyable than Vin tearing heads not stop for a 2 and change worth of books.
Havent read his non cosmere works so cant comment on those.
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This book is super interesting. Jung's name popped up in a couple podcasts I listened to so I decided to jump in. Wish I'd read his stuff sooner.
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On February 07 2019 14:51 Starlightsun wrote:This book is super interesting. Jung's name popped up in a couple podcasts I listened to so I decided to jump in. Wish I'd read his stuff sooner.
I have a few of his myself.
He was super smart but also not a good writer. Some of it is just a nightmare to read. I remember being stuck on one chapter for about 3-4 months because I just couldn't get what he was trying to explain.
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WCS![[image loading]](https://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/9780674725881_p0_v1_s600x595.jpg)
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