What are you currently reading?

[Rikstah]

Currently reading two books:

Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport -> really great book which essentially gives you a way of getting the benefits out of new technology without getting overwhelmed or sucked into things like social media addiction. Its a way of keeping technology as the tools they are.
The Sword Saint by Conn Iggulden -> Fantasy novel by my favourite historical fiction writer.

 

[elia925-6]

So far i read, Umberto Eco's the name of Rose and Dan Brown's Origin. Mostly history fiction

 

[Water Temple]

Currently rereading the Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien and also Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience. I love reading Tolkien books when I'm depressed and have found much comfort in the Silmarillion these days. I picked up Flow because I've been interested in learning about utilizing it more outside of work environments, as well as surfing environments.

 

[Kenshiro]

I'm currently reading Contrarian investment strategies and Eugene Onegin by pushkin

 

[Denisthemenace]

Rn I'm in the process of reading two books, one being a libertarian walks in to a bear by Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling, the book is a documentation about the Freetown project started in Grafton, New Hampshire during the early 00's gaining its popularity through early libertarian message boards. Aside from the flocks of libertarians moving to the town there was another problem that the citizens were faced with which was a rising bear population.

The second book I'm reading rn is called Blitzed by Norman Ohler, the book is about the drug use in Nazi Germany. Talking about the benefits and negatives that came along with the Germans drug induced world take over. Touching on aspects like how kamikaze pilots were all on n-methylphenethylamine when they flew their planes or how at a point amphetamines became so normalized in Germany everyone was using speed from troops to factory works to professors and doctors.

 

[CapnGreenGenes]

re reading a fairly old sci fi book called Earth Abides, aspects of it mirror what's going on today

 

[Deleted member 2652]

This was my experience with Gravity's Rainbow. After reaching a point with two characters are speaking in a room, it zooms deep in on the woman's eye, where the story of her family history up to perhistoric times unfolds, which then takes you into a long segment about the extinction of dodo's in an ancienter period, then back to the conversation in the room we left off at, I had to take a break.

That's Pynchon alright. I understood maybe like 40% of GR but continued reading anyway because of the language. He's an amazing stylist. Just the writing takes getting used to...

 

[grouse]

20k leagues under the sea, brushing up on the classics

 

[Remember_Summer_Days]

Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. Decided to pick this up a while after finishing No Country for Old Men. The book is incredibly dark and genuinely black-pilling but it's excellent! I love his prose so much even if it's a bit hard to follow, you really get the sense that the characters are going in a journey through hell. I've not been able to figure out it's main theme yet but it seems to me like a novel about how being unable to control our fates turns humanity to violence, perhaps because we do not wish to be understood and vulnerable to anyone, because being witnessed in this way takes our free-will away. Yet if God exists then he is an universal witness and so the only thing that remains to do is be quiet and listen to his voice (Whatever that is)

I'm halfway through the book so maybe this interpretation is way off.

Then Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. This novel is... Really something else. I've been enjoying it so far, but getting worried how far will I go in this 1200 page book. I really like some of the meta-modern ideas that he presents but I can't help but feeling a bit lost in some chapters of the book, but apparently this is a very common sentiment when first reading it, even if I'm using a guide.

 

[Deleted member 1930]

Book of Genesis

 

[Jade]

The Heike Monogatari (aka The Heike Saga), which is about the Genpei War in feudal Japan and the clashes between the Taira and Minamoto clans
Is pretty good. I might read the prose version at some point but I kinda like the awkward English translation of the original, it has a strange charm to it.

 

[vale-aroma]

And the Band Played On by Randy Shilts. Very quick to read and fascinating, one of those books that takes a cross-section of the world (here, the AIDS crisis) and weaves all the little footnotes and fragments and memories together into something whole.

 

[Cugel]

Almost finished with The Sea and Poison by Shusaku Endo. It's a 1958 Japanese novel about the doctors and nurses who took part in vivisections of American POWs in Fukuoka towards the end of World War II. It portrays the ways moral corruption happens invisibly to basically good people over a lifetime, and takes the view that many seemingly ordinary people, maybe most people, are teetering on the edge of an abyss and would commit atrocities if only external factors pressured them slightly. It's a deeply sad and disturbing novel, but at its core very compassionate. Endo was a Japanese Catholic, and has a really unique perspective-- I'd recommend his work to everyone but it's particularly interesting if you're a Christian. Silence is a better novel to start with than The Sea and Poison for someone new to him, though.

 

[VaporQuake]

I'm currently breezing through the "So I'm a spider, so what?" series by Baba Okina. Absolute trash, but in a good way. It's reminded me about how I used to be to pound through translated fantasy as a teenager. I thought I had become a slower reader, but it turns out what I normally read nowadays is more complicated.

That's some really good insight, I would never have thought of that perspective. But now that I think about it I definitely resonate with this.

 

[chrome]

I just finished Gulag Archipelago, which was alright. It seemed to really drag on and I only had the abridged edition.

I've only finished a handful of books since high school, but I'm trying to get into the habit of reading daily. I feel like there are tons of classics I should read, but not really sure where to start. I was thinking of either Meditations or The Republic next.

 

[hyprstorm]

Currently reading Hitchcock/Truffaut. It's a good book compiling interviews of Alfred Hitchcock by an interviewer named Truffaut.

 

[hyprstorm]

Currently reading Hitchcock/Truffaut. It's a good book compiling interviews of Alfred Hitchcock by an interviewer named Truffaut.

Oops, I guess Truffaut is a director as well. How could I forget .

 

[Cugel]

I just finished Gulag Archipelago, which was alright. It seemed to really drag on and I only had the abridged edition.

I've only finished a handful of books since high school, but I'm trying to get into the habit of reading daily. I feel like there are tons of classics I should read, but not really sure where to start. I was thinking of either Meditations or The Republic next.

If you want to knock out some of the big classics, Moby Dick rules and is way easier to read than people think. It's really fucking funny and deeply moving, and the "whale facts" chapters some people hate are extremely entertaining and some of my favorite parts of the whole book. It's complex enough that you can study it for your whole life, but it's a gripping, exciting and emotional narrative even if you're just reading for the story and not spending time to really analyze it (although you'll probably get so invested you'll spend a lot of time contemplating it anyway). It's one of my favorite books of all time and people are too intimidated by it IMO

 

[Cugel]

I just started The Wrestler's Cruel Study by Stephen Dobyns. It's a lengthy, truly weird comedy from 1993 about a pro wrestler whose fiancée is kidnapped by actual gorillas, his Nietzche-obsessed manager who believes professional wrestling is a form of sacred violence that uplifts and actualizes human beings, a seemingly magical coin and the people whose lives it upends, and Gnosticism. I'm having a ball with it so far, can't recommend it enough. Reminds me of Confederacy of Dunces a bit although it's a lot more out-there

 

[TigrEncounter]

Just like the threads we have for music & video games, what books are you currently reading?

I'm currently reading Everyday Chaos by Brian Clegg. Kind of a popcorn book, pretty sparse on any deeper understanding of the topics at hand, but sometimes it's fun & can lead your thoughts into new directions to "take a step back" & look at the world from a bird's eye perspective before going back to being enmeshed in details. Very beautiful design too, one of the most beautifully put together books I've ever picked up.

I found a pretty hefty book titled "Karate". It pretty much tells the origins and philosophy of the martial art and it's sub-styles, and even some instructions about basic techniques. Reading about buddhism and the philosophy of Zen and Nirvana is pretty fascinating.