Currently reading Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance and last night I finished Death’s End (final book of 3 Body Problem). That book series could’ve easily been cut down by hundreds of pages. Interesting idea but kind of hard to follow in a number of spots. I guess I wanted more aliens and space.
Comments (36)
sorted by:
Death's End is such a silly book lol. Chinese authors can be incredibly tendentious and mawkish. It's a window into the mind of someone who doesn't have much self-awareness or moderating tendencies.
For those of you who don't know, the plot of Death's End is that a woman repeatedly dooms the human race and then the entire universe because she doesn't make 100% pragmatic choices. Also, an alien Japanese cyborg e-girl murders some people with a katana.
Also, there's a brief period before the climax where the author indulges the typical Chinese cultivation fantasy of a husband and wife living on an idyllic farm tended by servants.
Yea. The books took forever for me to finish and they felt like they had an infinite number of pages.
rainbow six, last read it in like 2005.
starship troopers right before.
How do you like Starship Troopers? I love it but someone told me since I’m a veteran I’m biased since it’s a love letter to the military.
Found Rainbow Six at an estate sale. Lady’s father had a massive Clancy collection and she was selling the hardbacks for a buck a piece so I grabbed quite a few. Haven’t read it yet.
i liked it enough that i wish there had been more of it.
recently finished Asimov's Profession, finishing up Garin Death Ray, thinking about picking up War with the Newts
Who wrote War with the Newts? How was Profession?
Karel Czapek according to google, not familiar with his works but found the book lying around, satirical sci-fi seems fun
Profession to me is a take on knowledge vs wisdom, in which first cannot come without second, and second requires years of thorough learning, experiments, failures and such
though i still don't get why they call it olympics
I'm more reading Manga/Manwha right now, I'll occasionally re-read some of my philosophy books like the Genealogy of Morals but actively reading is coming from Asia.
Because they do some good revenge stories which I kinda need right now...
Understand. Manwha is Korean manga right?
Yep, goes like this:
Manga = Japan
Manwha = Korean
Manhua = Chinese
Not too much of a difference in character design as they all like the beautiful women (with lot of focus on hourglass shape) but in terms of power fantasy, Japan is isekai and other world, Korean is regression and travelling back in time and China uses cultivation/drugs lol.
I need to check those out. I only have Manga
If I'm free later this week and today goes 'well' I'll make a post just saying name a story, genre or concept you're interested in and I'll try to recommend something for you.
I've read enough manga, manwha and 1 or 2 manhua that I can usually recommend one thing at least so long as it's not horror or romance.
Cool! Bought my first Manga about a year and a half ago. Fist of the North Star and Oh My Goddess
The last book I finished was the 24th volume of Mushoku Tensei. The series itself is alright. I don't like the fact that the protagonist starts transitioning into an office worker in a fantasy world after a while but other than that I liked it a lot.
I'm reading Wind-up Bird Chronicles by Haruki Murakami ahead of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test this December. The book isn't too hard, but so far it's kind of boring. I kind of hate the low energy of the protagonist.
I'm also reading Sun and Steel by Yukio Mishima. It's a lot harder, but his philosophy is very interesting and uplifts the spirit. Perfect for bodybuilding, indeed.
I've been reading exclusively in Japanese recently, and it's incredibly rewarding to know that I don't have to deal with botched translations or retarded localizations.
I actually have been considering learning Japanese. I have a niece who speaks it and she has suggested that I help her learn Spanish and she’ll help with Japanese
Make no mistake, it's going to take a couple years of studying every day to reach a comfortable level. Nevertheless, I recommend it.
If you already know Spanish the pronunciation side of things should be a lot easier. Those two languages share many sounds.
Currently reading Crime and Punishment by Dostoyevsky. Before that I read Archaeology and the Old Testament by Hoerth, and A Tale of Two Cities before that.
Strange combination but I like to switch it up between popular novels and history books.
I usually do something like that between fiction and non. I have Crime and Punidhmebt in my waiting to be read stack. Also, what part of the Old Testament did it go over?
The whole thing. Think of it like a history book that begins with a chapter or two about writings from various religions on how the universe and Earth were created, and "heroes of old" like titans and monsters. Then it explains what all was going on in the world from the time God first spoke to Abram through the end of the Old Testament. I remember reading that Egypt cycled between greatness and crappiness throughout their dynasties. I think the Assyrians were a force to reckon with for centuries, too. And there was often fighting going on...our World War 1 is really closer to World War 100.
The Road and Blood Meridian. Almost finished the road, just started Meridian. Once those are done I'll work on Child of God or maybe Banks's Wasp Factory.
And I'm keeping Neal Ashers Jack Four in my coat to read on the train.
Last book I read was Who Censored Roger Rabbit? by Gary Wolf. It's the book that the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit was inspired by. I won't say "based on" because it's a different beast entirely, with a darker, more somber story that's more in tune with the hardboiled detective noir stories that it's parodying. Lot of fun though.
I'll probably read The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman next. I read Between Two Fires a while ago and enjoyed it, so I'll see how this next outing in fantasy goes. I suspect it won't be as good; I read over the first couple pages as a sampler, and they felt like he was describing his D&D character.
I want to read the Roger Rabbit book.
Recently finished Journey to the West. I'm currently reading HMS Surprise, the 3rd book in the Aubrey/Maturin series, the Master and Commander books.
The movie is based on those books?
Yep, the events of the movie are taken from parts of a few of the books.
Currently reading Frankenstein, which I've somehow never read before. Just finished Dark Canyon by Louis L'amour, which was a wonderfully fun western that I highly recommend to anyone who's interested in that genre.
I love Louis L’Amour! Read an anthology of his back in the spring and loved it. I have found a lot of his books at yard sales along with my hardback copy of Lonesome Dove. I guess it was children selling their deceased fathers book collection
Well, people call him "your grandfather's favorite author" for a reason.
Didn’t know he had that nickname but that would explain the yard sales
Hitler's Commando: The Daring Missions of Otto Skorzeny and the Nazi Special Forces by one Otto Skorzeny. He was definitely a wild character before, during, and after the war.
If you like WWII I’d also suggest The Last Battle by Steven Harding. It’s about the Battle of Castle Itter where US Army and German Wehrmacht troops joined forces to save a handful of French VIP prisoners from an assault by the SS who had orders to kill them. Mind you this was before Germany officially surrendered.
The other book is I Was Hitler’s Chauffeur by Erik Kempka. It was an interesting perspective on Hitler that you don’t often get when it comes to WWII books.
They sound interesting and I do like WW2 history. Have never looked deeply on the German side but there is a lot yheee to study You have any WW2 vets in your family? Does the one about Hitler’s chauffeur give any opinion on whether he thinks he escaped?
Kempka’s book is interesting because it’s a more personal side of Hitler. Guy got drive Hitler around Germany while Hitler was going town to town campaigning. A lot of people that knew Hitler personally said they liked him. There is an interview on YouTube with one of his housekeepers at the Berghof and she still had a framed Christmas card from Hitler. If Kempka did think Hitler escaped he didn’t mention it. He does talk about helping burn the bodies at the Reichstag and the challenge of trying to actually find enough petrol from the remains of the motor pool.
My grandfather was Army in WWII except he fought in the Pacific. I have his uniforms, letters, a Japanese flag and officers sword he brought back.
Cool. My mom’s dad was in the pacific and my dad’s dad was in Europe. I went down the “did Hitler escape to Argentina” rabbit hole a dews years ago. Sone interesting testimony and FBI was taking reports well into the 50s.
There are entire German towns built down in South America after the war full of Nazis. The interesting one is about Martin Bormann. Mark Felton has some good videos about the conspiracy surrounding Bormann. The official story was he killed myself trying to escape Berlin in ‘45. However some of the evidence apparently is that the dirt on the skull found in the 70s that was identified as Bormann isn’t German but from South America. Some speculate that he did get away and when he does his remains were brought back to Germany to be magically found when some construction was happening. It makes more sense in Bormann’s case because he wasn’t publicly known like a Himmler or Goering.
I read two books for Halloween every year, Dracula and Demonicon. I'm sure I have the name wrong for Demonicon. Working on Dracula in Audiobook now.
I need to read Dracula what is Demonicon about?
It's King James understanding of how Demons work and an attempt to study them scientifically.