Support NeoGAF

[BigBooper]

We have games and movies threads, but I haven't seen many for the humble novel, so I thought I'd start one.

I'll start with my most recent few reads.

Fahrenheit 451 - This was a bizarre one for me. The story is simple, but it throws so much poetry at you at the same time as the central plot that the tone is constantly shifting. It's a story about a society's authoritarian overreach and discarding of history, but to me it never reaches near the highs of a similar book, 1984. I liked it, but didn't love it.

Agent to the Stars - Corny humor and loose sci-fi trappings made this fairly enjoyable. Being a shareware book, the price is right as well. It was good enough to make me look up what else the author had written, but unfortunately none of it interested me. It was okay.

Acceptable Risk - I have the same criticism most people seem to have, the ending is slapped together. This medical suspense thriller held my interest firmly until about halfway through, getting genuinely creepy at times, but the overarching mystery is solved with a thud and the movie monster ending makes me wish I'd stopped halfway. Skip

The Colour of Magic - I loved this book all the way through. I have read a few of Pratchett's other books, so I knew kind of what to expect, and it was a pleasant journey.


Currently reading - West of the Tularosa by Louis L'Amour and The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury

 

[Tesseract]

info theory, shannon et alia

princeton math companion

principles of mathematical analysis

interpretation of assembly diagrams

peripheral, gibson

contact, sagan

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

Mostly religious books recently, and C.G Jung's collected works.

 

[SpiceRacz]

Good shit.

 

[teezzy]

Yeah, I'm kind of an intellectual...

 

[Phase]

Recently I read

Rush to Judgment - Mark Lane
The Trial - Kafka
No One Left to Lie to - Hitchens

Currently reading lots of H.P. Lovecraft

 

[-Arcadia-]

Hey there poindexter

Listen here, fat.

I’ve really been enjoying The Sword of Shannara, for the first time. I’m surprised I missed this for so long. A really great fantasy story, twisted up in some unique ways.

 

[SpartanN92]

I’m a big Tom Clancy fan and I usually reread the Jack Ryan books every few years.

Just finishing up The Sum of All Fears again. It’s my favorite of the bunch.

 

[GAMETA]

The last ones I read were Crime and Punishment (Dostoevsky) and Neuromancer (William Gibson).

I'm too old for stuff like Neuromancer, I simply can't enjoy it anymore, was a pain in the ass to read, and not necessarily because it's sci-fi. Brave New World and 1984 were pretty great.

Next one in my list is Demons (Dostoevsky), I already got the book, just need to find the time.

 

[Riven326]

I'm currently reading 12 Rules For Life by Jordan Peterson. I know he has a bit of a reputation and people like to scoff, but honestly, I'll take all the help I can get.

 

[triplestation]

fleshlight manual

 

[Nester99]

Last week I finished:
David Goggins: can’t hurt me

300 lb dude drops 106lbs in 3 months to get I to get into navy seals. Completes hell week 3 times.

He has mastered “mind over mater”

Fascinating read, I first learned about him on Gaf in the joe Rogan thread

Amazon.com

He might be the toughest man alive

 

[Nester99]

Now reading

Homo deus by Yuval Nori Harare

Sequel to Homo Sapien. (Which was also great)

It’s about predicting what could happen to humanity in the future

First chapter is about plague and pandemics. A bit spooky

Amazon.com

 

[BigBooper]

The last ones I read were Crime and Punishment (Dostoevsky) and Neuromancer (William Gibson).

I'm too old for stuff like Neuromancer, I simply can't enjoy it anymore, was a pain in the ass to read, and not necessarily because it's sci-fi. Brave New World and 1984 were pretty great.

Next one in my list is Demons (Dostoevsky), I already got the book, just need to find the time.

I recently listened to the Audible version of Neuromancer and it was impossible to keep up with what was happening. Same with Dune. I had to actually read them to absorb it all.

 

[Nymphae]

I've been reading The Complete Far Side

 

[Thurible]

I'm in a classical greek phase right now. I've recently read the Illiad and the Odyssey, and now I am reading The Histories by Herodotus. So far it is going very slowly with the Histories, as I keep seeing names and references I have little to no contextual understanding of. There is also the fact that Herodotus wrote many exaggerated accounts of historical events and gave some weight to supernatural and mythical explanations to historical events like the rise of Persia and Cyrus the Great for example. He gives an account of Cyrus being prophesied as a usurper to his grandfather's throne so the old man (Astyages) tries to have him killed, only the man he sends to the dirty deed chickens out and sends the would be prince to a sheperd who takes in the child and swaps him for his wife's miscarried baby, who just so happened to be born dead at the same time. The boy is raised as the Shepherd's son and eventually gains the notice of others because he develops an unusual knack for leadership despite his upbringing. Eventually he is discovered and the King is overjoyed to have his grandchild back despite his initial reaction (though he kills the son of the person who refused to kill Cyrus and serves him to Cyrus' savior for disobeying him). Eventually Cyus leads the Persians out of bondage from the Medians and becomes a great ruler. This tale is entertaining but absolutely ridiculous. It however does say a lot about some ancient cultures and does give background. He also interestingly hellenizes some foriegn cultures, like refering to egyptian deities as the greek ones.

 

[-Arcadia-]

300 lb dude drops 300lbs in 3 months to get I to get into navy seals. Completes hell week 3 times.

He left his corporeal form?

 

[Prison Mike]

About the cutthroat music industry funny and brutal

 

[King of Foxes]

SPQR by Mary Beard

 

[Tenaciousmo]

I've been reading Earth is Room enough by asimov, a collection of short stories, mainly started this one for "The Dead Past", kept reading cause i was enjoying it.

Otherwise would NOT recommend Ghost world [graphic novel].

 

[Scotty W]

I'm in a classical greek phase right now. I've recently read the Illiad and the Odyssey, and now I am reading The Histories by Herodotus. So far it is going very slowly with the Histories, as I keep seeing names and references I have little to no contextual understanding of. There is also the fact that Herodotus wrote many exaggerated accounts of historical events and gave some weight to supernatural and mythical explanations to historical events like the rise of Persia and Cyrus the Great for example. He gives an account of Cyrus being prophesied as a usurper to his grandfather's throne so the old man (Astyages) tries to have him killed, only the man he sends to the dirty deed chickens out and sends the would be prince to a sheperd who takes in the child and swaps him for his wife's miscarried baby, who just so happened to be born dead at the same time. The boy is raised as the Shepherd's son and eventually gains the notice of others because he develops an unusual knack for leadership despite his upbringing. Eventually he is discovered and the King is overjoyed to have his grandchild back despite his initial reaction (though he kills the son of the person who refused to kill Cyrus and serves him to Cyrus' savior for disobeying him). Eventually Cyus leads the Persians out of bondage from the Medians and becomes a great ruler. This tale is entertaining but absolutely ridiculous. It however does say a lot about some ancient cultures and does give background. He also interestingly hellenizes some foriegn cultures, like refering to egyptian deities as the greek ones.

The purpose of reading all of this is to get to Thucydides.

 

[-YFC-]

I read stuff about tech, games and news generally online. I don't remember when I read a book last time. I'm a simpleton.

 

[SurprisedPikachu]

The Liberal Media Industrial Complex, by Mark Dice. He cites all of his sources so you can get a no BS painting of how fucking insane liberals are.

toradora, good little romance comedy book.

In another world with my smartphone, good fantasy romance comedy as well.

 

[FreedomOfSpeech]

Recently:

White by Brett Easton Ellis. A bit of a disappointment as it kinda lacks a direction.
Counterinsurgency by David Kilcullen. Interesting read about what insurgencies are actually about.
Words that work by Frank Luntz. How to phrase your text so that Americans will understand and not disconnect. Luntz is a 'pollster' who also wrote a document (used by Israel) on how to talk about Palestine.
Letters to a young contrarian by Christopher Hitchens. Assorted writings that are hard to comprehend for non-Brits, I would assume. Lots of strange words.
Painism, speciesism and happiness by Richard Ryder (Dick-rider lol). Describes a moral system that takes into account all 'painient' (able to feel pain) lifeforms.

Currently:
The golden bough by James Fraser. About how 'peoples' go through 3 phases to understand the world: magic, religion, science.
Skin in the game by Nassim Taleb. On the mechanics of risk and what happens if it's off-balance.

After this some books on propaganda or maybe some Freud.

 

[Steve.1981]

Read Titus Groan, first part of the Gormenghast trilogy.

Gothic horror style with a comic twist, written by a guy who clearly enjoyed playing with the English language.

Felt like a change of pace so now I'm on Life & Fate.

It's brilliant. About an extended Russian Jewish family living through World War 2 & the battle of Stalingrad. The Nazi horror in front, bearing down. The Communist horror behind, pushing them forward. Just brilliant, important work.

 

[Spaceman292]

fleshlight manual

Me too. Were you as surprised by the ending as I was?

 

[MiyazakiHatesKojima]

Me too. Were you as surprised by the ending as I was?

"I heard it has a happy ending" - Lame reply from a Redditor

 

[Tesseract]

my mind is often scattered, i like to read a handful of things at once

 

[Anki]

I started reading Hippie by Paulo Coelho, still at the very beginning, I don't really have any comments yet, just wanted to join this thread

 

[Erdrick]

Been going through Ian Fleming's James Bond books. Did Casino Royale back in April, finished Live And Let Die last week and am into Moonraker now. As I'm a huge fan of the films, this is another more intimate look at my favourite fictional spy. One thing that stands out for sure is the in depth attention to descriptions of what Bond has for breakfast/lunch/dinner and his drinks. He's no nonsense and a flawed man. It's crazy how different the books (Or at least Live And Let Die) was vs. the film. I don't care for the film aside from the theme song, but I was surprised how much the movie producers took from this book and spread it out over various other films. (License to Kill and Dr. No, in particular.)

I also bought an Arnold Schwarzenegger biogarphy, "Total Recall" last week since the man utterly fascinates me in his life and career. My favourite action star so I'm eager to get into it.

Also plan on re-reading James Clavell's "Shogun" as I read it some 24 years ago and loved it, so I found another copy and will dig into it later down the line.

It's just nice to sit with a real book and get lost in the world within. Since the advent of the internet and further mobile tech, I've not spent much time in books.

 

[Slings and Arrows]

Sapiens
12 rules for life
Gulag archipelago
Confessions of a conjurer
Maps of meaning
Etymologicon
Modes of rhetoric

Those are what I've read this year, though I'm still on maps of meaning.

I keep taking a crack at Aristotles Rhetoric but it's a hard read for a dumb dumb like me

 

[Mr Hyde]

Just finished Fevre Dream by George RR Martin. It was a good read. I'm not particularly fond of vampire stories, but I enjoyed it thoroughly. I read it mainly because Hidetaka Miyazaki mentioned it as an inspiration to him wanting to collaborate with Martin, but also because I was curious to see Martin's output before he became a household name with Song of Fire and Ice/Game of Thrones.

My next book will be Children of Men. I love the film, I think it's the best sci fi movie of the 2000s, but I have never gotten a chance to read the source material. Excited to see how it compares to the film adaptation.

 

[Hotty Botty]

Currently reading Circe by Madeline Miller. She has a way with words that are so descriptive that you can feel, smell, and see everything she writes.

 

[The Scrivener]

I recently started Cicero's On the Shortness of Life. Got distracted by the kids and had to stop. It's quite short, I was hoping to finish it in one go.

Was inspired by Melville's short story, The Scrivener, enough to change my username. I love that shit.

Another short one recently was The Destructors by Graham Greene.

Been relying on short stories recently to keep me going. Will be digging into deeper books in the very near future after I ironically finish an English lang and lit master's lol the irony.

 

[Tesseract]

foundation series, asimov

name of the wind, rothfuss

the prestige, priest

britannica illustrated library

book of honor, gup

skunk works: a personal memoir of my years at lockheed, rich

particle accelerator physics, wiedemann

using mathematica for quantum mechanics: a student’s manual, schmied

the craft of intelligence, dulles

rubicon, holland

beethoven: universal composer, holland

painless grammar, elliot

best mathematical and logical puzzles, gardner

solution manual for quantum mechanics, holland

world almanac and book of facts (2021), janssen

playing to win, sirlin

the elements: a visual exploration of every known atom in the universe, theodore

elements of style, stunk

tesla vs edison, cawthorne

twilights of the idols and the anti-christ, nietzsche

contrails, macdougald

 

[Tesseract]

more cyberpunk recs would be nice, burned through gibson years ago, still gotta deep dive stephenson / snow crash et alia

 

[Elpidio Valdés]

I finished Dune a couple of weeks back. What an experience, I loved it from start to finish. I'm ready for the movie in December. I heard the follow up books are not as good though, clones and robots and things like that wtf... So I decided to stop at the first one.

Now I'm reading "Surprise, Kill, Vanish"by Annie Jacobsen. I saw her talk about the book on Joe Rogan's podcast and I knew I had to read it.

 

[Ovek]

 

[Ar¢tos]

I'm constantly reading books, but I read mostly fantasy and some sci-fi, rarely a few criminal books.

 

[Tesseract]

I'm constantly reading books, but I read mostly fantasy and some sci-fi, rarely a few criminal books.

spill yer beans

 

[GodofWhimsy]

I can't read fiction ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ my mind won't let me shrug off the idea that this is false information and just let me get absorbed in the fucking narrative. The audio-visual experience of films and games does a good job of tricking my brain into a false sense of reality that novels just can't provide. Non-fiction novels are pretty essential to my life though.

Just sent away for "The Wealth of Nations" by Adam Smith. Can't wait to get stuck in.

 

[Ar¢tos]

spill yer beans

Ugh more than a I can even remember. I used to consume books like they were cocaine.
I read most of Asimov and Carl Sagan books.
I also read a ton of books on biology, virus and anthropology, because I was bored.
I read the whole main story of Dragonlance, and the Earthsea quartet, Northern Lights trilogy , Old Kingdom trilogy , Book of Words trilogy, Black Magician trilogy, Wheel of Time up to book 11, Second Sons trilog. About 50 criminal/mystery books that were meh (i worked in a hotel and tourists would leave a book and take a book, and the oldies from SAGA holidays seemed to only read this sort of crap).
I liked The Name of the Rose but hated Baudolino (both by Umberto Eco).
One book (2 volumes) that really surprised me was Don Quixote. I wasn't expecting a 17th century book to be that good and easily readable nowadays.

Edit: I forgot to mention that I read all Tolkien books, all Narnia books and The 2 Alice in Wonderland books.
In my backlog are the about 40 Wizard of Oz books (most people are only aware of one)

 

[Ar¢tos]

I can't read fiction ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ my mind won't let me shrug off the idea that this is false information and just let me get absorbed in the fucking narrative. The audio-visual experience of films and games does a good job of tricking my brain into a false sense of reality that novels just can't provide. Non-fiction novels are pretty essential to my life though. Just sent away for "The Wealth of Nations" by Adam Smith. Can't wait to get stuck in.

Sometimes fiction can have one more messages behind the words that are interesting and make you see things in a slightly different way.
I'm reading the tetrology of Hyperion Cantos at the moment (crazy ultra futuristic sci-fi) , and the way it views God is quite interesting and "new" (in "" because the books are from the 90s).

 

[Tesseract]

I can't read fiction ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ my mind won't let me shrug off the idea that this is false information and just let me get absorbed in the fucking narrative. The audio-visual experience of films and games does a good job of tricking my brain into a false sense of reality that novels just can't provide. Non-fiction novels are pretty essential to my life though.

Just sent away for "The Wealth of Nations" by Adam Smith. Can't wait to get stuck in.

movies and games are even worse in many cases, they absolutely fuck people's perceptions of reality

 

[GodofWhimsy]

Sometimes fiction can have one more messages behind the words that are interesting and make you see things in a slightly different way.
I'm reading the tetrology of Hyperion Cantos at the moment (crazy ultra futuristic sci-fi) , and the way it views God is quite interesting and "new" (in "" because the books are from the 90s).

Oh, I agree that there are definitely positive benefits to be gained from reading fiction. My stupid brain just won't allow me to power through anything that doesn't supply me with an instant gradual flow of factual information ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Tesseract]

Oh, I agree that there are definitely positive benefits to be gained from reading fiction. My stupid brain just won't allow me to power through anything that doesn't supply me with an instant gradual flow of factual information ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

i hear ya, i'm sorta burnt on most fiction for this reason

 

[Amory]

I'm reading a Nixon biography, "Being Nixon".

Id be lying if I said it was the most exciting book I've ever read, parts of it are very dry. But it's interesting to get an inside look at who he was. He was a complex guy. Endlessly ambitious, but always having to fight uphill battles.

 

[Tesseract]

I'm reading a Nixon biography, "Being Nixon".

Id be lying if I said it was the most exciting book I've ever read, parts of it are very dry. But it's interesting to get an inside look at who he was. He was a complex guy. Endlessly ambitious, but always having to fight uphill battles.

nixon is among my favorite presidents, def top 5

so many uphill battles as you say, civil rights and the like

 

[Mr Nash]

Making my way through The Lies of Locke Lamora right now. It's not bad. Thinking of taking a look at The Tyranny of Metrics when I'm done that.

 

[BigBooper]

more cyberpunk recs would be nice, burned through gibson years ago, still gotta deep dive stephenson / snow crash et alia

I imagine you've already read it, but Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is a good light cyberpunk scifi story. It's not nearly as dense as something like Neuromancer, but it's as interesting as the Blade Runner movie.

Speaking of Dick, I've enjoyed many of his books, but my favorite is The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch and I highly recommend it too.