WHAT ARE YOU READING?

[JLSigman]

I'm trying to read JRR Tolkien's translation of Beowulf, and oh my god this is awful. Why did they make some of y'all read this in high school?

[Curt McGirt]

Went to the library today and didn't even make it to the second floor. I went to the new releases and immediately snagged two pieces of fluff (heh) that I had to read: 

The Last Action Heroes: The Triumphs, Flops, and Feuds of Hollywood's Kings of Carnage - Nick De Semlyen

Into the Void: From Birth to Black Sabbath and Beyond - Geezer Butler

The former is the history of the big eight '80s action stars (you know who) and starts with all of Hollywood entering Cannes in 1990 on one 757. As soon as they enter international airspace everyone starts doing lines off the fold-out trays and passing around joints. The second one is obviously the autobio of Geezer from Black Sabbath and will probably feature a lot of that going on, too. 

Then on my way to check those out I looked at a Halloween display and picked up Fruiting Bodies and Other Fungi by Brian Lumley, the guy who did the Necroscope series of vampire novels that everyone probably remembers having the cool skull covers at the bookstore. Short stories obviously, instead of the massive tomes he usually pulled off. So, some breezy reading that I can probably blow through and get a kick out of. 

[Control]

On 10/24/2023 at 3:28 PM, JLSigman said:

I'm trying to read JRR Tolkien's translation of Beowulf, and oh my god this is awful. Why did they make some of y'all read this in high school?

I’m told the Seamus Heaney translation is the only way to go.

[Curt McGirt]

The Last Action Heroes was, as expected, fun fluff. It was written by a dude from Empire Magazine so whatever the level that mag is written at is the level this book is. It's basically a collection of anecdotes about the careers of Stallone and Schwarzenegger foremost and secondarily Norris, Van-Damme, Seagal, Willis, Chan, and Lundgren. They all (besides egos) come off as decent aside from Seagal who's a sexual predator and totally full of shit. There's lots of silly stories and dirt. Screenwriter Steven de Souza is almost his own character in this with how many times he shows up. And for us wrestling fans, yes, they get into the story of how Gene LeBell made Seagal piss and shit himself. 

[JLSigman]

Read the first collection of "We Only Find Them When They're Dead", by Al Ewing, and I found it quite interesting. A lot of the reviews were complaining about how slow it went, and they didn't understand what was going on until the info dump in issue 5, but I personally found it real easy to figure out what had happened, for the most part. The art is very stylized, which works here. Will definitely read the rest of the series.

[odessasteps]

If I hadn’t already, I’d recommend the Ant-man mini and Wasp mini he wrote last year. And his new Avengers inc book, which is a detective book starring Jan.

[JLSigman]

On 10/31/2023 at 5:17 PM, JLSigman said:

Read the first collection of "We Only Find Them When They're Dead", by Al Ewing, and I found it quite interesting. A lot of the reviews were complaining about how slow it went, and they didn't understand what was going on until the info dump in issue 5, but I personally found it real easy to figure out what had happened, for the most part. The art is very stylized, which works here. Will definitely read the rest of the series.

Volume two is not quite as good - the story is stretched out a bit too much, the art gets a bit too stylized. I also think he's not telling the story I'm interested in, but I'll see what we learn in the third volume.

[JLSigman]

On 10/31/2023 at 5:17 PM, JLSigman said:

Read the first collection of "We Only Find Them When They're Dead", by Al Ewing, and I found it quite interesting. A lot of the reviews were complaining about how slow it went, and they didn't understand what was going on until the info dump in issue 5, but I personally found it real easy to figure out what had happened, for the most part. The art is very stylized, which works here. Will definitely read the rest of the series.

On 11/13/2023 at 8:58 AM, JLSigman said:

Volume two is not quite as good - the story is stretched out a bit too much, the art gets a bit too stylized. I also think he's not telling the story I'm interested in, but I'll see what we learn in the third volume.

Finished this up a couple days ago, and I'm torn between "It's not bad, per se, but it could've been better" and "It didn't tell the story I wanted to read, which is on me". Third volume is better art-wise than the second one. I might have liked this better if it had been a single collection instead of three slim volumes. I also might have liked it better if it had ended a couple pages earlier.

[JLSigman]

OK, in the last couple weeks I have read some comic book stuff:

1) Star Wars: The Last Republic vol 1 - I've read one novel and now some of the comics, and I still can't get into it. I'm not sure why.
2) X-Men (Gerry Duggan) Vol 3 - As a child of the 80's, I am here for all the Iceman and Firestar stuff. A very good volume.
3) Assassin's Creed: Dynasty vol 1 - Picked this up on a lark and really enjoyed it. I'll definitely read the other 4 volumes.
4) At the Mountains of Madness as interpreted by Gou Tanabe - First time ever reading anything Lovecraft. I'm highly annoyed by the Kindle/online version of this, tho... I don't know if it was turned into an epub by a cheap scanner or using cheap OCR software, but the art is often smudgey looking, to the point where I cannot tell what I'm looking at. I will probably not bother with the other volume of this.

[JLSigman]

Used my last November borrow to read X-Men vol 4, and it suffers a bit from half the story being in other books.

Also, I'm still waiting for Hoopla to get volume 3 of Immortal X-Men, since I think that has the Sins of Sinister fallout I'm still missing. But they do have the X-Men Red volume 3, which seems to deal with the repercussions of Magneto's death, so I'll borrow that on Monday.

[onelegbrynn]

Speaking of Hoopla, I'm waiting on my audiobook of Stephen King's Holly. It activated a few weeks ago and I missed it and it expired so now I've got to re-reserve it. 

[SirSmUgly]

I've read so much this year. Let me just talk about what I recently got on my Thanksgiving trip:

The Last Shot by Darcy Frey - This, along with Hoop Dreams, is a seminal '90s "black American teens trying to hoop their way out of the projects" work. I think the most fascinating thing about it is the discussion of exploitation around it, in that Frey is staggered by the level of exploitation that the NCAA, CBB coaches, and shoe companies put out toward these teens, but a common criticism of Frey is that he was also exploitative in using these kids' stories to launch himself to new heights in his journalism career. Steph Marbury still feels that way as of about a decade ago, according to this Grantland column:  https://grantland.com/features/the-last-shot-20-years-later-stephon-marbury-darcy-frey-classic-book-nyc-basketball/

Anyway, the other big thing that I took from this beyond, of course, the obvious stuff about how awful it is that impoverished neighborhoods are kept that way through neglect and the people in them have to hope for a basketball scholarship just to feel like they can escape and lead normal lives is that we need to get teens way more therapy. Someone like Darryle Flicking ("Russell Thomas" in the book) is clearly never far from a genuine mental breakdown because of the various pressures put upon him, and it's painful to see charted out here. 

Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now by Jaron Lanier - I don't know why I was compelled to pick this up; other than Discord and an obligatory LinkedIn page, I don't have social media. I use YouTube and browse Reddit, but I don't post stuff at either place. Still, I appreciate the colloquial explanations for how social media manipulates individual and group perception and fucks with your brain. It's a quick, short read, and I dig the examples, metaphors, and stories that Lanier tells to make his point. 

When in the bookstore where I picked that book up, I saw this anthropological work by a Togolese man called An African in Greenland that I regret not picking up. I have enough books to work through as it is, so I didn't, but I do regret it. I'll circle back around and read it sometime next year. 

Speaking of "enough books to work through," I read C.P. Stacey's seminal work on William Lyon Mackenzie King, A Very Double Life, earlier this year (or at least I *think* it was this year; it's all running together now). I saw another book about the terrier-obsessed Canadian PM simply called King by Allan Levine, and I picked that up for my third and final book purchase on the trip, so that's on deck for me to read in the next month or so. 

[Johnny Sorrow]

On 10/29/2023 at 10:41 PM, Curt McGirt said:

The Last Action Heroes was, as expected, fun fluff. It was written by a dude from Empire Magazine so whatever the level that mag is written at is the level this book is. It's basically a collection of anecdotes about the careers of Stallone and Schwarzenegger foremost and secondarily Norris, Van-Damme, Seagal, Willis, Chan, and Lundgren. They all (besides egos) come off as decent aside from Seagal who's a sexual predator and totally full of shit. There's lots of silly stories and dirt. Screenwriter Steven de Souza is almost his own character in this with how many times he shows up. And for us wrestling fans, yes, they get into the story of how Gene LeBell made Seagal piss and shit himself. 

I read this today during two flights and I loved it.

[Curt McGirt]

Went to the library. 

Some People Need Killing: A Memoir of Murder in My Country - Patricia Evangelista

I had to return this. The jacket basically said it would shock the unshockable and I immediately took that as a challenge. 

It won. 

I got through the intro and the first chapter or two. It started with detailing the murder of the parents of a young now-orphan and her memories of it. Then they just started listing people and what their murders were described as. They were all extrajudicial killings by the military of Rodrigo Dutarte, who was on a mission to kill every drug user or dealer in the Phillipines. It was such a bummer it just went back to the new arrivals rack for some other poor sod to pick up. 

The Last Yakuza - Jake Adelstein

I've read Adelstein's brilliant and fascinating memoir of being a reporter in Japan, Tokyo Vice, more than once so as soon as I saw his name on the book I snagged it and walked right to the checkout. Still starting this one, it's the story of an actual yakuza where some elements have been combined or fudged but it's autobiographical in general. No doubt it is very, very good. 

Too Late to Stop Now: More Rock 'n' Roll War Stories - Allan Jones

This is by a British guy who wrote about rock bands back in the '70s and '80s. Haven't broke it open yet but the jacket said he got set on fire once by the Damned so... yeah, right up my alley.

[JLSigman]

I need to make more rude comments about Hoopla here more often, because every time I complain they don't have something it appears a week or two later.

Anyways, Kieron Gillen did an amazing job with Immortal X-Men. I would not mind owning all 13 issues and the extra "Sinister Date" thing at some point. Just a well written series that does deep dives on some really complicated characters.

[odessasteps]

1 hour ago, JLSigman said:

I need to make more rude comments about Hoopla here more often, because every time I complain they don't have something it appears a week or two later.

Anyways, Kieron Gillen did an amazing job with Immortal X-Men. I would not mind owning all 13 issues and the extra "Sinister Date" thing at some point. Just a well written series that does deep dives on some really complicated characters.

Did you read the Sherlock Holmes stuff yet? 

[Curt McGirt]

The Last Yakuza is sooooooooo good. It's so good I'm gonna buy it just to have my own copy and re-read it; I've just finished it and want to start over. 

Basically it's the story of the life of a yakuza, how he began as a musician and a bosozoku (Japanese motorcycle gang member, think Akira) and ended up as, putting it in American mafia terms, a captain of a large crew in the yakuza. It's not just that though: it's also a portrait of post-war Japan, a history of the yakuza, and a breakdown of Japanese society on the whole. Adelstein's prior book Tokyo Vice did this in its own fashion but this is entirely yakuza-centered so you get the full meal, so to speak. If you think you didn't understand Japan as a westerner before, you will be really thrown for a loop now; if you thought you had some grasp you'll realize you never did. But beyond the learning this is a riot of bizarre stories. There's people getting high on meth and trying to cut the bugs out of their heads. There's a circituitous series of loans that ends up in a guy having to cut his finger off and... not quite being able to succeed, at first. There's a mild-mannered cop who can blast you backwards by simply poking you in the chest with his finger because he's a karate master. Adelstein actually breaks the news that the Aum Shinrikyo cult -- you know, the Tokyo gas attack on the subway system, back in the '90s? -- owned a Soviet purchased helicopter that they planned to use to cover Tokyo in sarin gas. It had never been reported until this was first released in 2016 in France. Total scoop.

So yeah. Read it.

Edited December 7, 2023 by Curt McGirt

[JLSigman]

Read Binti, and then Binti: Home. by Nnnedi Okorafor

 

Binti is good, tightly written, tells a complete story. Home is so very obviously half of a whole that it practically ends mid paragraph. I'll have to see if I can find a copy of the third book somewhere.

Edited December 11, 2023 by JLSigman
forgot the author name

[Kuetsar]

About half way through volume one of Kissinger's memoirs(roughly 750 out of 1500). Started it before he died, just because I felt like a deep dive into history. Yes I am a madman, why do you ask?

[Johnny Sorrow]

I just read Kliph Nesterhoff"s new book, "Outrageous: Show Biz and the Culture Wars" in two days. It's fantastic,  informative,  and funny. Highly recommended.  

I'm about to start "The Friedkin Connection ", William Friedkin's memoir. I heard it was wild. 

[twiztor]

On 1/19/2023 at 8:04 PM, twiztor said:

still reading my Avengers/Cap America/Namor/Iron Man comics run. i recently finished most of the Lee/Kirby stories and will soon start the 1970s stories. some of the early stuff was a bit of a chore, but it's getting pretty good now and i look forward to what is upcoming. I am setting a soft target of reading 500 comic books this year. Really shouldn't be a stretch, i've just never kept a solid count before.

also still (re-)reading the Goosebumps series from the 90s. they are all pretty cheesy but a good way to kill an hour or so. i picked up the entire original run (62 books) a couple years ago. i would like to get on pace to read 1 per month, but i'm only on #30 so haven't hit that mark so far.

today i read the Sherlock Holmes novella "Hound of the Baskervilles" which i quite liked. i tend to prefer the shorter stories, however. this takes me to 50% of Doyle's Holmes output.

by final count, i ended up reading 782 comics in 2023, blowing past my goal of 500. a huge chunk came in the very beginning of the year, when i was laid up with my leg injury, but even without that, the 500 would've been easily met. I'm up to about 1982 in my Avengers/etc. read, so i feel like i'm moving at a good clip. Hit a LOT of the classic storylines, like Iron Man's "Demon in a Bottle", Cap's "Nomad" period, and the infamous Avengers #200. Am more or less caught up with current X-Men (just a couple minis left that lead directly into Fall of X. See spoiler tag for a fairly comprehensive list of what i read.

Spoiler

vintage:
Avengers #59-217 (+21 side/tie-in/crossover/annual issues)
Captain America #109-266 (+6)
Iron Man #9-155 (+2)
Namor the Sub-Mariner #9-72 (+2)
Super-Villain Team-Up #1-17 (+2)
Fantastic Four #82-104 (+15)
Champions #1-17
Black Panther #1-15 (+3)

current:
MiracleMan: the Silver Age #4-6
Nightwing #100-109 (+2)
X-Men #13-29 (+24)
X-Men Red #1-18
Immortal X-Men #1-18 (+11 (Sins of Sinister))
X-Men Legends #3-6

plus 25 random ass issues of whatever else. could be standalones, or unrelated one-shots, or some random mini series that i thought could be interesting.

Goosebumps:
last book i read was #37, "The Headless Ghost". it was OK. definitely not on pace for one a month, but that's not surprising. reading these too quickly leads to burn out and boredom, because so much of it can be cliche. And the "twist" at the end just feels dumb if i read too many in a row. one every two months feels about right honestly.

Sherlock Holmes stories:
currently at 63% read according to my Kindle. definitely not moving through this as quickly as i would like to.

[odessasteps]

You can probably to alll the Doyle stories on audio in two days or three at most. 

[twiztor]

14 minutes ago, odessasteps said:

You can probably to all the Doyle stories on audio in two days or three at most. 

audio books don't agree with me. i tend to drift in and out, meaning i miss huge chunks of the story. and i actually want to experience these stories, so i'll stick with slowly chugging along the old fashioned way.

[odessasteps]

I use them for sleep now. I’ve gone thru Doyle, Christie, Wells. Verne and a lot of Victorian detective fiction in last couple years in audio form. 

[JLSigman]

Read 79 things this year, beating my goal of 75. I plan to keep the same goal for next year, but try to balance the book/comic ratio a bit better.

I either need to break down and get a decent e-reader, or get over my aversion to reading books on my iPhone. Not sure which is more likely to happen.