aweonao
To discuss your weekly readings of books, textbooks and papers.
I'm reading "Petersburg" as part of our book club, but because it's a one chapter per week basis I started "Brothers Karamazov" this week as I never read it before and I recently got a wonderful edition by Editora 34 (the only Dostoevsky book I had read was C&P).
So far I wonder if terrible fathers are just a recurrent theme on Dostoevsky's works.
@Aevann can you
pls
.webp?h=10 "Nuzzles, pounces on you, UwU, you're so warm!..")
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Finally finished Mistborn by Sanderson. Overall I disliked it but I really disliked a lot of its ending. In the final few chapters he fits way to many dumb twists. Scenarios where one character was planning something the whole time that just seemed unrealistic and aligns to well with things that there was know way he could have predicted. And not kidding there are actually 5 separate main character is hopelessly doomed only to be rescued unexpectedly by an ally. Some of them back to back. Its just the same cliche moment happening back to back losing all the little impact it had.
I think I enjoyed the experience as a whole but that might be because I read so infrequently. It is nice how Sanderson seems to put a lot of thought into how magic works in his stories but I just don't agree with his thoughts lol. For example he makes clear that the magic ability can only push and pull but then he seems to break that law with no good explanation.
Also I realized I just don't care about so much of writing. I never want to read what the carpets were like in the Castle or whatever that really doesn't interest me at all.
Now I am going to read The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie which people tell me is better.
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I recently finished a reread actually. I somewhat concur. He had good thoughts about this bleak empire ruled by a god king, a good design of a thieving crew but then he got lost in the sauce.
He clearly wanted the big bad beaten in a single book which is argue actually served him poorly (I've read the series before).
I would've enjoyed a book about them working jobs in the lead up to some heist, all the while being hunted by a single Inquisitor. I think it would've fleshed out the terrifying aspect of them. As it is, the book was alright but the ending is rushed.
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I realized the other day that I haven't a fiction book for entertainment in a very long time.
All of my reading is non fiction and most of it is work related. The past three books I've tackled are computer networking related and thick enough to beat off a hobo with
Is pure non fiction, like, bad for your creativity or something?
Part of me wants to give a good fantasy novel a try but as we well know many fantasy authors just aren't good writers. A lot of these books have bad beginnings where the author will just jump into something without setting things up or giving the reader a reason to care. A long scene about a witch fleeing from the townspeople. A long scene about a hero's life as a street sweeper before the magic sword found him. A military officer listing off everything his fantasy army ever did in its history.
And no characterization to make me empathize yet. No reason to make me sit through an entire chapter of "Hailed at the battle of Szchiyn, where Orc King Assffgjklllj was felled"
Then you open up a thriller novel or something and the first line is, "That b-word did it, I'm certain"
Why are fantasy authors so BORING!
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Because they are writing for fantasy readers.
!bookworms
More charitably, the genre has the advantage that authors can presume the reader's trust. The book (if traditionally published) has made it through agents, publishers, and editors. It's vetted. There's an implicit promise that whatever choices the author makes with the beginning will be justified in the end, even if it takes a while to get all the pieces on the table.
"Why should I care?" Because this is a good, trusted storyteller who chose to begin a story this way. Maybe the worldbuilding, history, scene setting, random character POVs, the protagonist's childhood, etc. will make the reader more engaged in the long run. Fantasy readers seem willing to take this chance based on the legacy of stuff like LOTR.
Of course that's often abused by genuinely poor writers and their undiscerning readers. But in the sweep of history, lots of great literature takes a long time to really begin. I don't think Les Miserables or The Odyssey needed to start with "That b-word did it," particularly because they're epics that demand significant scene-setting. Historically, there was a greater trust in authors to deliver something good, and this allowed more good works to be written.
"The book must literally grab these ADHD r-slurs by the balls on sentence 1 and never let go!" is good risk adverse advice for appealing to a broad audience, but that's not necessarily the same as good writing. The more readers trust writers, the more artistically interesting cowtools writers will be able to use. But if readers get too trusting, authors might waste their time, or (in Neil Gaiman's case) r*pe them.
!writecel
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So the modern writers are just trying to be what they perceive the classics to have been like.
But they aren't classic writers. They are shitty modern writers.
Hmm
I suppose in the context of modern books written by new writers who are trying to prove themselves, their careers hardly vetted by the test of time, this sounds like what sequels are for. Of course I'm not going to trust them ahead of time
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book of the new sun mogs all other fantasy if you haven't read that, just totally embarrasses the entire genre.
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Have you read any of Wolfe's other stuff, and if so how does it compare?
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5th head of cerberus was okay, and I think that's all I've read
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Not sure if it is bad, but at least for me fiction is good for entertainment and occasionally getting fresh ideas.
Most modern genre writers are terrible, this isn't exclusive to fantasy authors. Sounds like you want something more character driven then?
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I thought I was a pure neurodivergent who could appreciate lore and details above all else.
And I do like that stuff
But a setting and an author need to grab me I guess. I can't help but notice so many of these authors are bad at beginnings.
I think having something be character driven is almost always a good way to start it out, since well developed characters can draw anyone into any setting. Then, once your audience genuinely cares about your hero or whoever, you can introduce whatever lore driven fantasy you want, and the audience will sit through it because you already have their attention. You shouldn't reverse that order in my opinion.
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I liked The First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie. It's follows a torturer and a warrior, and well it's a fun story. It mainly sticks to dialogue and moving the story along, and I like the British author's sense of humor.
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Read Ted Chiang. 72 letters is a good start.
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no way
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I'm traveling so I'm reading whatever I have on my Kindle, for this trip it's "The Sorrows of Young Werther". Second epistolary novel in a row.
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Reflection in Rewriting Logic : Metalogical Foundations and Metaprogramming Applications - it's got a lot of formalism that it doesn't really need, but otherwise cool if you like rewriting logics
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I finished Foucault's Pendulum a couple days ago. When I was about 1/4 of the way through it, I had described it as the grandfather of other religious mystery adventure stuff like Da Vinci Code, and my impression of that aspect didn't change much. Without spoiling anything, the book revolves around a trio of weird intellectuals who work in publishing. One of them studied the Templars in college, one of them is obsessed with numerology, and all of them are way up their own asses about history. They're all fascinated with secret society occult/esotericism stuff, but they are highly cynical and don't think any of it is real. Seeing the resurgence of interest in esotericism in the mid 1980s, they hatch a plot with their company's owner to try to publish books that capture that type of audience.
That's about all I can say about it without giving away too much. It's worth reading, although it drags in the last hundred pages or so as Umberto Eco just can't help himself from cramming in way more historical detail than you ever could possibly expect, which is a thing he always does, but this time all the information is of questionable veracity, so you're not even learning anything that matters. I still think it's a very good book, though.
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Frick Foucault.
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It's not Foucault the philosopher lol, it's this guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A9on_Foucault
As far as I know, he didn't do anything to piss off any philosophy types, he was a physicist.
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Thought so, but I don't trust him.
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I don't have enough spoons to read this shit
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Im powering through Infinite Jest rn. There's a lot i like about the book but good lord it's a thousand pages.
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There are little titbits from random footnotes that I still giggle at years later like "pathogenic family like systems"
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The footnotes describing his father's movies and the absolute worst one was "A woman fleeing terrorists so she flees to an Islamic community that talks only in semaphore and falls in love with an armless former UN aid worker" had me wheezing.
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I finished reading The Anarchy about the British East India company this week. Great read, amazing how the Indians and Mughals managed to completely cuck themselves, the British East India company was rarely the best or largest army (the Indians and Mughals generally had access to modern armaments and military theory) but literally could not stop infighting or siding with the EIC. But it all balances out, after cucking Britain out of America Cornwallis then probably cucked them out of India long term by ensuring no Anglo-Indian class could emerge through restrictive laws.
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Started and dropped a few books because they just weren't all that interesting, but I think I might just have a low tolerance right now.
Dropped Every Dead Thing by John Connolly about halfway through because it felt like a whole book already, starts out with a tragedy and a guy trying to focus on work to keep his mind off it which opens him up to a new mystery. Well the new mystery is resolved at this point and I just really don't care enough to continue on.
Finished The Ballad of Black Tom and it was good for the most part, except I just don't really care for cosmic horror. Also, the black main character says to shitty white cop, I'd rather deal with Cthulhu than you devils!"
Started A House With Good Bones because I enjoy haunted house and mystery books, but the main character is a fat, nerdy, quippy white woman and I just can't stand the constant silly little zingers and marvelization of modern "comedy".
I've been forcing myself to continue The Elements by Michael McDowell which is starting to get more interesting with the spookiness and the mystery, but it took so long in the beginning to give me anything to care about.
Here's to hoping it gets better, but I'm starting to think I wasted money on books I won't like.
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A shogoth never called me BIPOC.
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That's why you should download your books.
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I've been reading "Consider the Lobster" and it's bretty good
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Newspapers 🗞️📰
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DUHHH CIRNGE!!!! DUHHH BRINGE!!???!!1 CRINGE!!!!! IS THAT ALL YOU SHITPOSTING FRICKS CAN SAY!!??? DURR BASED BASED BASED CRINGE CRINGE BASED BASED CRINGE CRINGE CRINGE BASED CRINGE I FEEL LIKE IM IN A FRICKING ASYLUM FULL OF DEMENTIA RIDDEN OLD PEOPLE THAT CAN DO NOTHING BUT REPEAT THE SAME FRICKING WORDS ON LOOP LIKE A FRICKING BROKEN RECORD CRINGE CRINGE CRINGE BASED BASED CRINGE ONIONS ONIONS ONIONS SNOYY ONIONS LOL ONIONS!!! CRINGE!!!1 BOOMER!! LE ZOOMER!!!! I AM BOOMER!!!! NO ZOOM ZOOM ZOOMIES ZOOMER GOING ZOOMIES AHGHGH I FRICKING HATE THE INTERNET SO GODDARN MUCH FRICKJK YOU SHITPOST I HONEST TO GOD HOPE YOUR MOTHER CHOKES ON HER OWN FECES IN HECK YOU PEEPEESUCKER VUT OHHH I KNOWM MY POST IS CRINGE ISNT IT?? CRINGE CRINGE CRINGR CRINGEY BASED CRINGE BASED REDDIT REDDIT CRINGE ZOOM CRINGE ONIONS REDDIT BASED BASED!!!!!!
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