What are you currently reading?

[obedientsuperboy]

I am currently reading Conspiracies and Secret Societies: The Complete Dossier by Brad Steiger and Sherry Steiger, I found it on some 4chan mega.nz download and its a great read, lots of stories

If anybody wants a pdf ill make a link for you )))

 

[Still a Youth]

onto "The Red Plenty"

http://pombo.free.fr/spufford2010.pdf

 

[Sable]

Working my way through some Epictetus, Lenin and Dio Cassius currently.

 

[Still a Youth]

Working my way through some Epictetus, Lenin and Dio Cassius currently.

what of lenin are you on?

 

[Sable]

what of lenin are you on?

The eighth volume of his collected works. But I am not reading in order.

 

[Still a Youth]

The eighth volume of his collected works. But I am not reading in order.

this?

Lenin Collected Works: Volume 8

Volume 8 of Lenin Collected Works (January-July 1905)

www.marxists.org

 

[Sable]

this?

Lenin Collected Works: Volume 8

Volume 8 of Lenin Collected Works (January-July 1905)

www.marxists.org

Yes, I have a hardcopy.

 

[Insect]

I am reading Gravity's Rainbow, and I really kinda like it. The story is surrounded by so many historical references it has a feeling of authenticity. It also reminds me of N.G.E. but I can't really comment on that because I haven't finished the book yet.

 

[DonRamon131]

The Republic, Plato.
The Artful Universe, Barrow.

 

[№56]

It also reminds me of N.G.E.

How so? I've heard this comparison made multiple times and I still don't get it. They both use Gnostic/esoteric imagery, and Katje is kind of like Rei, but for me the similarities stop there.

 

[DOOM95.EXE]

Currently non-fiction:
"Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior" by Leonard Mlodinow
"Code" by Charles Petzold

But next up will be Michel Houellebecq's new novel once it gets translated into English. Critics are big mad about it as usual, so of course I have to read it.

 

[SplitMindTF2]

The Fraternitas Saturni by Stephen E. Flowers, one of the most comprehensive english books on the Fraternitas Saturni.

 

[№56]

I'm about halfway through Sartor Resartus by Thomas Carlyle. It's really good so far - a semi-humorous introduction to German idealism for an English-speaking audience, framed as a commentary on a fictional book on the philosophy of clothes by a fictional German philosopher. Carlyle is famous for writing difficult prose, and I've had to go back and re-read sections to understand what he was talking about, but overall it's a very fun (and thought-provoking) book to read. His style reminds me a lot of Herman Melville, who I'm a big fan of.

Spoiler: Here are some quotes I liked

He who first shortened the labor of Copyists by device of Movable Types was disbanding hired Armies, and cashiering most Kings and Senates, and creating a whole new Democratic world; he had invented the Art of Printing. The first ground handful of Nitre, Sulphur, and Charcoal drove Monk Schwartz's pestle through the ceiling: what will the last do? Achieve the final undisputed prostration of Force under Thought, of Animal Courage under Spiritual.

The Journalists are now the true Kings and Clergy; henceforth Historians, unless they are fools, must write not of Bourbon Dynasties, and Tudors and Hapsburgs; but of Stamped Broad-sheet Dynasties, and quite new successive Names, according as this or the other Able Editor, or Combination of Able Editors, gains the world's ear. Of the British Newspaper Press, perhaps the most important of all, and wonderful enough in its secret constitution and procedure, a valuable descriptive History already exists, in that language, under the title of Satan's Invisible World Displayed...

Between vague wavering Capability and fixed indubitable Performance, what a difference! A certain inarticulate Self-consciousness dwells dimly in us; which only our Works can render articulate and decisively discernible. Our Works are the mirror wherein the spirit first sees its natural lineaments. Hence, too, the folly of that impossible Precept, Know thyself; till it be translated into the partially possible one, Know what thou canst work at.

O thou who art able to write a Book, which once in the two centuries or oftener there is a man gifted to do, envy not him whom they name Conqueror or City-burner! Thou too art a Conqueror and Victor; but of the true sort, namely over the Devil...

 

[ThyOde17]

Just started Past Master by R.A. Lafferty today. So far so good, especially considering I don't really read sci-fi.

 

[shinobu]

Read a bunch of stuff since my last post in this thread but nothing much worth mentioning, until last week when I found an old PDF of Thief of Time, which I proceeded to read through completely. Then I read Small Gods, then Interesting Times, then Going Postal, then Guards! Guards!
All within a week, since I found them so good. Very recommended

 

[remember_summer_days]

Currently reading Cormac's Border Trilogy. And it has been a delight like most of Cormac's work (Except for you Orchard Keeper)

It's like Don Quixote but with cowboys. I like how the MC is a dude living in the 1950s that hates that the cowboy life is now gone so he escapes to Mexico to larp as a cowboy gringo. Unlike Don Quixote he gets the gf but it's got this really nice theme about how fantasy shapes reality. Sadly I've been really slow reading this, Infinite Jest took like me like 3 months, this is of a similar lenght, but I doubt I'll be able to finish this faster lol

And also this so bad its good yuri lightnovel about a wagie who gets isekaided into the visual novel she's addicted to and get's to live her fanfiction fantasies with the antagonist of the game, whom she tries to romance. I like how the cover of the second volume spoils the shit out of everything cause fuck you. But not like I expected anything unexpected to happen in this series of books. The third volume features them with two children. I'm not ready to know how the fuck that happens bros...

Yeah it's kinda sad that I'm so autistic about it, but it's so bad and has some really depressing assumptions. I'll probably make a post about it once I finish cause I wanna talk about it so much, like unironically I highkey want to write a response/satire novel about this series one day.

One of those depressing assumptions the novels has is for example, how the wagie gets transported in this videogame fantasy world and shes immediately full onboard with the idea. Like she doesn't even misses her parents, family, work friends, country, culture, religion, nope she doesn't give two shits about that cause she gets to share time with her 2D personality-and-body-wise tsundere waifu. Like that's such a depressing view on human life. Yeah, there's literally no reason to miss real life. I understand this was written for 13-year-olds and so I'm overthinking but still...

 

[Taleisin]

Read a bunch of stuff since my last post in this thread but nothing much worth mentioning, until last week when I found an old PDF of Thief of Time, which I proceeded to read through completely. Then I read Small Gods, then Interesting Times, then Going Postal, then Guards! Guards!
All within a week, since I found them so good. Very recommended

I absolutely love Terry Pratchet, if I was to suggest a way of reading in some kind of order, pick a group of characters (eg: the witches, the guardsmen, the unseen University, Death) and read those books in chronological order. Then move to a new set of characters. That way you can get some character development and continuity and its very satisfying.

 

[llillilll]

I finished Legend by Iskender Pala. I am thinking about reading a book called sections from turkish culture for children of turkish workers. It is written by turkish education department before milennium soo it is one of the artifacts of the good ol' days where government didn't hate the very idea of a nation. It doesn't have a translation as always. I somethimes think i should just start doing translations because there are soo many good books that aren't readen because turks don't read books but they would be quite precious if they had a larger auidance.

 

[shinobu]

One of those depressing assumptions the novels has is for example, how the wagie gets transported in this videogame fantasy world and shes immediately full onboard with the idea. Like she doesn't even misses her parents, family, work friends, country, culture, religion, nope she doesn't give two shits about that cause she gets to share time with her 2D personality-and-body-wise tsundere waifu. Like that's such a depressing view on human life. Yeah, there's literally no reason to miss real life.

Is this your first light novel? I've read so many of those (like 100+) and of the ones that are isekai, only the minority ever miss their world (and most of those make a bowl of rice and crack a raw egg on top with soy sauce to satisfy all their homesickness)

And that's kind of the point of isekai, to present a fantasy for the reader too, so it has be to much better than the real world.

 

[Jade]

One of those depressing assumptions the novels has is for example, how the wagie gets transported in this videogame fantasy world and shes immediately full onboard with the idea. Like she doesn't even misses her parents, family, work friends, country, culture, religion, nope she doesn't give two shits about that cause she gets to share time with her 2D personality-and-body-wise tsundere waifu. Like that's such a depressing view on human life. Yeah, there's literally no reason to miss real life. I understand this was written for 13-year-olds and so I'm overthinking but still...

If you're looking for one that doesn't do this, I recommend one of my favorites, "Tsuki ga Michibiku Isekai". It starts off seemingly generic with the usual small twist that the protagonist has god-like powers right at the start rather than having to work his way up to it by defeating the armies of the demon lord, but spirals into an absolutely fascinating Intrigue plotline concerning the protagonist's origin, the nature of his powers, and what the isekai world really is. It constantly made me question what was really going on, and more than that, it suggested that there was some real gravity behind all of it. Even side storylines like with the Rembrandt company end up with an impressive amount of depth, secrecy, and intrigue, with really compelling character development. I can't recommend it enough.

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