What are you reading?

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MoneyJungle
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by MoneyJungle » Thu Apr 22, 2021 9:08 am

djm wrote:
Mon Apr 19, 2021 10:04 am
MoneyJungle wrote:
Fri Apr 16, 2021 4:42 am
Life for Sale - Yukio Mishima. A Japanese copywriter capriciously attempts suicide, survives and sells his life in the classified ads. I haven’t read anything cool and edgy in a long time and I’m generally fond of 20th century Japanese novels (Silence by Endo is my favorite. Completely different book from this one but I promote it every chance I get). I’m not bullish on loving this book but it seems like a lot of stuff will at least happen. Inb4 someone cares about his politics because I don’t.
Good writer, the' Sea of Fertility' tetralogy is also excellent. If you have not read Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata it is well worth a go too.

Regards politics of authors, it is something people get very hung up on, but good writing is good writing.

One of my personal favourite writers is Knut Hansum, who once one the Nobel prize for literature but is now largely ignored in his native Norway. He was on the wrong side of politics there, siding with the Quisling government and the Nazis. However I see no trace of that in his books, which are all superb.

Another of my favourite writers is Martin Nexo, who wrote Pele the Conqueror. Nexo defected to East Germany and was an avowed communist. In this case his books are very political, with Pele the Conqueror being a bildungsroman focused largely on promoting socialism. Still a superb novel.
I was thinking about writers’ politics as I made my way through Life for Sale. You can be a good artist without leaving the realm of diagnosing life’s problems and people can utterly disagree on a cure without differing too much on the illness. It can be necessary for writers to hitch their wagons to political movements in their lifetimes for the propagation of their work and simpletons tend to just copypasta their hot topic du jour onto dead people. You wonder what Mishima’s legacy would be if he had just swallowed a bottle of pills instead of ritually disemboweling himself.

I enjoyed Life for Sale as a complete departure from things I normally read. I’ve never really read anything about Japan in the sixties or even considered that any counter-culture analogous to the what occurred in the West would have had a variant there. I mostly think of flower children as the side effect of the lucre that came with winning the conventional war to end them all. The book isn’t really about Tokyo hippies but I was surprised that some existed. The main character’s isolation depressed me. Too close to home.

The situations in which he found himself were brilliantly conceived. In the early pages I was expecting the narrator to just wander around being above it all but he has a little Sherlock Holmes in him. Ultimately Life for Sale is a little bleak to put on my favorite shelf but I’ll probably start the Tetralogy the next time I need a change of pace.

Until I find a new book I’m jumping around The Jewish War by Josephus. It’s refreshing to read a Roman era history from the perspective of the defeated.

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SomeInternetBloke
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by SomeInternetBloke » Mon May 03, 2021 8:19 am

something a (edit) tiny galaxy and a bird and a dead but remarkably lovely revolutionary were chattering about at various junctures got me in the spirit of beneficence (like who says that? nuns, that's who. Ever heard the one about nuns? None in the morning and none in the evening. Vestigial-vag? Yes, don't get mad click the link and you'll be glad) here's a book I'm reading.
"My favourite song from one of my favourite albums, Nena asking you to please, please let her be your pirate. So smooth and joyful, I have to listen to it three times if I listen once" - ashi

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MoneyJungle
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by MoneyJungle » Wed May 05, 2021 1:51 am

The Second Sleep by Robert Harris - Airplane reading with an interesting twist. I thought I was getting the Robert Harris version of those Ellis Peters mysteries with the monk but the book took a surprise twist into speculative fiction. I read to fall asleep and I was up late last night with this one.

True Grit by Charles Portis. I don’t know if Dot/Blorg is active here but the narrator reminds me of her. I know it’s a very monkey-brained take but I really wish the chapters were shorter or there were some kinds of breaks within the chapters. I feel like I’m always trying to get to a stopping point. Not a good feeling but the book is genuinely good. If I was homeschooling a fifth grade girl I’d definitely have her read it.

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starjots
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by starjots » Sun May 09, 2021 8:48 am

Klara and the Sun - Kazuo Ishiguro

Based on the author’s name and the rampant cultural cues in the book, I assumed this was written in Japanese and translated to English. No, the author is English. Head scratch #1

Based on the protagonist’s flaming religious symbolism and vacant optimism combined with miracle expectation, I assumed this was written by a religious dude. No, not especially.

Based on the simplistic story and kid focus, I assumed this was YA (young adult). No, this is literature dealing with the big stuff.

Based on the protagonist and setting I assumed this was sci Fi. No, not really, hardly to the point it doesn’t matter. The sci is a fig leaf, using animals like Aesop would work just as well.

I enjoyed the book, didn’t particularly grok it, thought a good premise was pissed away, but it did make me think a bit, which is not easy.

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Madrigal
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by Madrigal » Fri May 21, 2021 11:11 pm

I'm between novels right now and I'm thinking I should just go back to non-fiction. My commie literature beckons. :/

I tried starting Ulysees and it seems to me that a lot of the descriptions seem really tryhard. I've repeated some of the illustrations to myself wondering who the fuck could actually conjure a mental image on the basis of that. It just seems to fail with me. I should probably keep reading because the style is supposed to keep changing, or so they say. I dunno.

When I bought the last batch of books in English, I didn't know a global pandemic would come around and I'd be stuck reading them without a chance of buying new ones. I get my books in Argentina because there are no English language bookstores here or really any cosmopolitan culture because the middle class doesn't exist. Right now it's either Joyce's complete works or Shakespeare's complete works, and I'm telling you they sound equally enticing right now.

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starjots
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by starjots » Sat May 22, 2021 4:37 am

Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari (nonfiction)

Only part way through. Has that super high meta level that makes it easy to read. The chapter on our ancestors wiping out most of the world's megafauna was depressing, though not a surprise. The bit about us wiping our all our kindred human species was depressing too. By the time I got to the chapter on the agriculture revolution lowering quality of life individually while increasing our evolutionary success (more of us, yeah!) as well as our domesticated animals suffering but being really successful evolutionarily, I figured out this wasn't a feel good book. The best description for humanity I can come up with, based on the book so far, is that humanity is a lot like the Borg in Star Trek NG.

If the second half of the book has any surprises, I'll update.

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Madrigal
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by Madrigal » Thu May 27, 2021 9:20 pm

Steinbeck wrote a werewolf novel and his estate doesn't want to publish it. :sadbanana:

John Steinbeck’s estate urged to let the world read his shunned werewolf novel

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MoneyJungle
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by MoneyJungle » Fri May 28, 2021 1:51 am

Tombland by CJ Sansom. Hunchback tudor lawyer detective whodunit that’s 800 pages. I think the author just wanted to write about Kett’s Rebellion and felt he should include a mystery. I still like it a lot. I’m back on physical books and this paperback is a really nice size for reading. No deckled edges. 21 x 14 cm. I lost my ruler and had to measure it with an open Leatherman. I’m sure you’re aware that there is actually a guy named Leatherman who invented the Leatherman. This book is good and if your dad likes dumb books for smart people you should give it to him for Father’s Day, especially if he already has a Leatherman (mine is made by Victorinox).

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ashi
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by ashi » Fri May 28, 2021 11:44 am

Madrigal wrote:
Fri May 21, 2021 11:11 pm
I'm between novels right now and I'm thinking I should just go back to non-fiction. My commie literature beckons. :/
I don't dare allow the full number to form, even in thought let alone in speech, but I have dozens of books occupying tenuous, fruitless positions on my to-read and in-progress lists which are in reality milk crates I spend increasing stretches of time pretending don't exist while I busy myself with ever more elaborate indulgences in malaise.

What I am trying to say is, if you really want to dive into this creeping unease I can recommend quite a few additional books you won't ever read.

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SomeInternetBloke
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Re: What are you reading?

Post by SomeInternetBloke » Thu Jun 03, 2021 2:01 am

Reading this because it's made for those who suffer information bottlenecking, like me. Like when it's too many bits I get lost. Whereas, I'm fine trading in lots of problem sets in a standard textbook for this type of tiny math manual keen on concision. Something about reading a math manual over a week that makes earning a competitive salary more probable.

Btw, his official website is www.mathguy.us
"My favourite song from one of my favourite albums, Nena asking you to please, please let her be your pirate. So smooth and joyful, I have to listen to it three times if I listen once" - ashi

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