>0 annathecrow @ 2020/07/09 15:13
Are you reading anything interesting these days? Books, comics, online longreads, fanfiction... I started "How to Read Poetry Like a Professor" by T. C. Foster and I'm having a lot of fun with it. Its tagline is "A Quippy and Sonorous Guide to Verse" and at least the "quippy" part definitely applies. (I have no idea what "sonorous" should mean here, but I suspect that's the joke of it.)
>1 stelima @ 2020/07/11 07:16
The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin ~s
>2 annathecrow @ 2020/07/15 14:06
>>1 That one's really good! I especially loved some of the earlier chapters, the suspense & mystery builds so well.
>3 blitzkraft @ 2020/07/20 02:10
Just finished reading "The Boys" volume 1. Started reading "BlindSight" by Peter Watts. Saw that recommended on a reddit thread.
>4 schlurp @ 2020/07/21 22:40
>>OP The Foundation series by Isaac Asimov.
>5 luthwyhn @ 2020/07/22 04:13
Starting a LotR re-read with a couple friends. It's been a few years since the last time I read it, and I like going through again every now and then.
>6 annathecrow @ 2020/07/22 07:53
>>5 I'd like to read Hobbit and LOTR in English one of these days... I read it several times as a kid, but only in translation. I'd need to buy the books though, and I have a mile-long TBR list already, sooooo...
>7 skeetcha @ 2020/07/28 15:48
I recently finished reading "A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor" by Hank Green, which is a sequel to "An Absolutely Remarkable Thing." I won't go into too many details (mostly because I'm posting from my phone atm), but the first book deals with how society views the social internet and fame, and the second book deals with how we use our thinking space (i.e. what do we give our attention to). It's a thrilling read from start to finish and I highly recommend that everyone read these books, even if you aren't a fan of Sci-Fi or Speculative Fiction.
>8 isvarahparamahkrsnah @ 2020/07/30 14:42
Finished the Ramayana a few days ago.
>9 blitzkraft @ 2020/08/01 00:45
>>8 Which version? and in english?
>10 gasconheart @ 2020/08/02 23:00
>>9 I've been reading on Asian history recently. Two books by John Man, one on the Mongol empire, the other on Kubilai Khan. Quite repetitive. Now I am reading about the Moghul emperors, a book by Bamber Gascoigne. I ordered about six books on Chinese history or culture. Confucious' Analects came in the mail the other day. I would like to learn more on Central Asia, Mongolia, China and India. At some point I will study a little Chinese also.
>11 gasconheart @ 2020/08/03 20:03
>>10 Hey! I got The art of war, by Sun Tzu, in the mail today!
>12 grinphox @ 2020/08/04 01:13
I've been trying to find something actually interesting in concept, but recently I've been reading Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's "Good Omens", which from what I hear is popular within some areas of the Internet. I really love it, but it's kinda like eating ice cream cake with a spork -- comforting, but relatively unhealthy in extra large doses -- though it does have the added bonus of making you look like a twit for doing it on a subway. Speaking of looking like a twit on a subway, I want to take my "intimidating nerd impression" to the next level. Anyone got some good, dense, and heady non-fiction history books? I want to repel as many people as possible on my daily commute, and potentially have a nice and heavy weapon in my bookbag.
>13 gasconheart @ 2020/08/04 10:59
>>12 Hi grinphox! For your commute, buy Les Quattre Vallées, by Armand Sarramon. I had it for over 11 years in my wish list until I could find an affordable copy. It usually cost hundreds of €. Anyway, it is pretty much the screed you need I guess. It is a book on the history of a small medieval country in Southern France, made up of four valleys issued off the progressive dismemberment of the ancient province of Gascony. Real history.
>14 annathecrow @ 2020/08/04 14:03
>>13 gasconheart: That sounds... oddly intriguing. Although I think mostly in the "extremely obscure = cool" sense. grinphox: I would recommend something like Plato's "Republic", but also... why would you hurt yourself like that. You could also switch from history to art theory. Nobody beats an art theoretic in creating intimidatingly titled bricks! Then again, depending on your affinity for modern art, you might hate it even more than Plato XD
>15 gasconheart @ 2020/08/04 15:26
>>14 Hi annathecrow. What exactly is 'intriguing' about that? :) Anyway, les Quattre Valées and medieval Southern France are the essence of my existence. That makes me intriguing then, huh. Deepend, deputy guy: bbj is a nice bulletin board. I should have given it a shot long ago. Cheers, The Gascon Heart
>16 grinphox @ 2020/08/04 18:27
>>13 Right up my alley. Much obliged, friendly neighbourhood gosconheart!
>17 gasconheart @ 2020/08/05 10:29
>>16 August 5th, 2020 Oh boy. Today I got in the mail: - History of the world: China from the 7th to the 9th century, by Enrica Colloti Pischel - Chinese philosophy in classical times, edited by E. R. Hughes - The walled kingdom: A history of China from 2000 BC to the present, by Witold Rodzinski - All under heaven: A complete history of China, by Rayne Kruger It is exciting. It will take me months to read all this though.
>18 annathecrow @ 2020/08/05 15:35
>>15 *shrugs* It's hard to describe, actually. Very obscure knowledge is interesting to me, just by the virtue of being very obscure. A deep dive into a topic is intellectually satisfying. The reason why so many people love wiki-walking. Sadly, I am impatient and have terrible memory - the worst possible combination for reading non-fiction. Either I struggle to get through a book, or I forget everything but the bare outlines in less than a month. I'm working on it (making notes, reviewing), but it's what it is.
>19 gasconheart @ 2020/08/06 09:01
>>18 Depending on what I read, that happens to me most of the time. I can't really remember what I read. It feels like a waste of time, because in the moment I (most of the time, but not always) enjoy the reading, but often one month later I can't remember almost anything about said book. But it depends on what I read. There are some few topics that I read a book and I can say I remember its main ride.
>20 isvarahparamahkrsnah @ 2020/08/06 17:50
>>9 The Ramayana by Bhakti Vikasa Swami. Yep, in English
>21 rmgr @ 2020/08/11 05:16
At the moment I'm reading Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy by Gabriella Coleman which is about the history of Anonymous as an activist group. It's pretty interesting!
>22 gasconheart @ 2020/08/14 09:19
>>21 Hi rmgr. That reading sounds great. I should read those at some point! I am reading the Analects right now. In English. Unfortunately, it is a raw edition, without comments or notes of any kind. Heck, I had to read Don Quixotte with notes and comments to understand a thing, and I'm Spanish. The more so with this ancient Chinese book(-let). Anyone has any idea as to how to approach the Analects? Otherwise it feels pretty obscure to a 21st century westerner.
>23 russell @ 2020/08/28 16:34
Currently reading The Town and the City by Jack Kerouac. You may be familiar with him if you've heard of On The Road. It's very different from his most famous work. I would still recommend it if you've enjoyed any of his other books.
>24 mieum @ 2020/08/31 14:09
>>OP You may also like "Poetry: A survivor's guide" by Mark Yakich. Also very quippy, but insightful...and inspiring!
>25 mieum @ 2020/08/31 14:14
>>22 Are you reading the James Legge translation? It's the first English version, very old, and very skewed toward a theistic worldview (which really misses the mark with Analects). You might like reading "Thinking Through Confucious" by David Hall and Roger Ames. It's an interpretive translation/commentary on the Analects that helps give Confucius' ideas some modern context.
>26 drwasabi @ 2020/08/31 18:21
Red Mars by Kim Stanly Robbinson>>OP
>27 annathecrow @ 2020/09/04 08:33
>>24 Thanks for the rec, I'll check it out. >>26 Is it a difficult book to read? I have it on my TBR list, but I haven't yet managed to psyche myself to try it.
>28 kalium @ 2020/09/06 12:29
I finished Watership Down a couple of days ago. There's a handful of novels that I pick up every couple of years or so for a reread and this is one of them (funnily enough, Good Omens is another). Beautiful story, my go-to for xenofiction, loved it since I was a kid.
>29 jacksonbenete @ 2020/10/23 03:04
I was thinking about creating a thread like this, glad I've searched for one instead. I can relate to many of you about forgettig everything after reading. In fact, I feel so useless that after finishing a Chemistry Bachelor I hardly know any Chemistry anymore. Although, if I do study, I will learn/remember fast, but it's frustrating to just... forget it, completely. What helped me recently is a book called "How to read a book" by Mortimer Adler. It's a really good book about education and techniques for a better understanding and "retention" of knowledge. There is another great book imo, with the downside of too much religious references, called "The Intellectual Life" by Sertillages, but if you're not religions and manage to ignore what doesn't makes sense for you, it's a really good reading. I'm currently reading SICP. I needed 1 month to get through the first chapter, it was though for me. But is a very rewarding book. I'm also reading Epicteto's Enchiridion for the first time, after read Meditations twice. I'm in the half way through it. Lastly I'm reading Basic Mathematics by Serge Lang, for the same reason above, I just forgot a lot, specially regarding proofs and deductions. I'm trying to keep my reading list small, following suggestion of Mortimer Adler, from now on I prefer to read 6 books per year, but read it well, instead of keep reading and forgetting. The next books I want to read, probably starting next year is another run through Atkins' "Chemical Principles - The Quest for Insight", and Strang's "Introduction to Linear Algebra". I also spent a lot of money in a Organic Chemistry book that I will be very proud if I ever manage to go though it completely. A very good reading, for people who aren't into technical books, is the Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. It's a very curious book, at least for me since I'm not from the US.
>30 peron @ 2020/11/23 19:31
>>OP Well I'm reading the Axxon e-zine. It's an old monthly argentine electronic Science Fiction magazine from early 90s. It used to be distributed as shareware MS-DOS compatible 5.25" 360k diskettes. If anyone is interested, you can find the firsts 68 issues in my gopherhole gopher://texto-plano.xyz/ ~peron/axxon
>31 deurish @ 2020/11/24 08:28
>>1 That's a really great series.