What are you reading?

[Johnny Sorrow]

I'm currently reading Lonesome Dove again for probably the 30th time, or something close. And it's been the same big, thick, paperback copy every single time. And it's gonna be the last time for it. The cover fell off and the first couple pages are about to go. I've had this copy since 1994.

[OSJ]

1 hour ago, Johnny Sorrow said:

I'm currently reading Lonesome Dove again for probably the 30th time, or something close. And it's been the same big, thick, paperback copy every single time. And it's gonna be the last time for it. The cover fell off and the first couple pages are about to go. I've had this copy since 1994.

I've read it three times all the way through just to ensure that I didn't miss anything, (I'm a natural speedreader, which is both a blessing and a curse; it's great as an anthologist, as I can burn through a stack of manuscripts and sort the good from the bad pretty quickly. The downside is that I must consciously force myself to slow down when I have something on hand that's really well-written.) 

The only book(s) that I've really read a ridiculous number of times would be Jack Vance's five-volume Demon Princes series. Yeah, formulaic as hell, you have five essentially super-villains of various backgrounds (some human, some not), and the guy that goes after them taking out one per book. Were it anyone but Vance, it would be a waste of time, but his world-building is such that he throws more ideas away in a paragraph than most authors can come up with in a novel. He makes the bold step of starting with the two truly alien villains and ends the series with the seemingly most normal human of the five. I say "seemingly" for a good reason having to do with how his mind works. Fun stuff.

[AxB]

I just read Not my Father's Son by Alan Cumming in two days. He didn't want to write a My Fabulous Lief as a Famous Actor autobiography, but while he was making an episode of Who Do You Think You Are? his estranged Father suddenly decided to tell him that he wasn't his biological Dad after all. So it's about finding out how his mysterious Maternal Grandfather died and at the same time about how his Dad is literally a psychopathic narcissist who lived his whole life based on a lie he told himself. It's a really great book.

Does anyone know anything about guns? Traditional spinning barrel six shooters? Because it's claimed that people who play Russian Roulette, they can actually feel the weight of the single bullet affecting the balance of the gun, so they know if it's safe to fire or not. I didn't think bullets were that heavy.

[Beech27]

1 hour ago, AxB said:

Does anyone know anything about guns? Traditional spinning barrel six shooters? Because it's claimed that people who play Russian Roulette, they can actually feel the weight of the single bullet affecting the balance of the gun, so they know if it's safe to fire or not. I didn't think bullets were that heavy.

I can't imagine perceiving the difference in weight a single bullet would make. A Colt Army weighs almost 2.5 pounds, and a bullet is about 17 grams. 17 grams is like... a big scoop of ground coffee. Enough to brew maybe 8 ounces. If the balance of a pistol was that easy to throw off, revolvers never would have been a good idea. That said, in fiction, I like the idea of a gunfighter so familiar with his sidearm that he could tell. (And I'm no expert. Could be someone who handles one every day would intuit the difference.)

The real trick is, if you spin the cylinder, it's much more likely that--gravity being what it is--the bullet stops at the bottom. So if you spin, you don't actually have a 1/6 chance of getting shot. In that regard, the weight does make a big difference.

And Lonesome Dove. My Dad's favorite book, and one of mine. The former partially informs the latter.

Edited June 28, 2019 by Beech27

[Matt D]

On 6/27/2019 at 9:43 AM, Justin877 said:

Oh my, so I shouldn't read the follow up. Yikes

Your life will be more satisfying if you follow our instructions. Do feel free to read all of the Scott Lynch books, just on the understanding that you're probably not getting any more or absolute resolution, though.

[OSJ]

On 6/28/2019 at 8:53 AM, Matt D said:

Your life will be more satisfying if you follow our instructions. Do feel free to read all of the Scott Lynch books, just on the understanding that you're probably not getting any more or absolute resolution, though.

Scott Lynch is just tremendous. I'm currently reading Victor Lavalle's first short story collection Slap-boxing with Jesus and damn does it ever get my highest possible recs. Victor is also a really good dude, so buy his books, you won't be sorry.

[JLSigman]

On 6/27/2019 at 8:42 AM, JLSigman said:

Been reading bits and bobs off of Hoopla or Tor's website or AO3. Finally realized I need to go to my library and renew my card so I can get the Thrawn books and the new Tad Williams book. ADHD has been keeping my brain too flutterpated to read much more than short stories or fanfiction chapters, but I really want to try to beat it back into submission. 

Got and read Thrawn. Good stuff, altho I have no idea why Eli Vanto would do what he did at the end. Guess we'll learn about that more in the one coming out later this year. Thrawn Alliances is starting out a bit slower, and I don't like it as much yet. I'm not sure if it's the fact it keeps hopping between two time periods or that Zahn didn't write a good Vader. We'll see.

Edited July 3, 2019 by JLSigman

[Casey]

I haven't had a chance to dig into it yet, but I bought I Am God by Giacomo Sartori, and it's supposed to be really good (and funny!), so I'm pretty excited to start it.

[Curt McGirt]

(reposted from the metal thread in the Music folder)

Finally bought the Hellhammer book by Tom Warrior/Fischer and it's a lot more forgiving than his prior book, in which he was honestly a prick. He owns up to as much in the beginning, saying that it took him a long time to come to terms with his past, and from the stories it's no wonder -- a lot of skeletons packed in back there. In any case if you're a fan of Hellhammer or Celtic Frost you should probably own this. 

https://www.bazillionpoints.com/product/only-death-is-real-history-of-hellhammer-and-early-celtic-frost-by-tom-gabriel-fisher/

[Guest The Magnificent 7]

Almost done with The Spy who Came in from the Cold.

Good stuff, but I have a hard time believing this is considered Le Carre’s best?  I am on a Cold War spy kick so any other author reco’s would be welcomed, too. 

[JLSigman]

On 7/3/2019 at 8:21 AM, JLSigman said:

Got and read Thrawn. Good stuff, altho I have no idea why Eli Vanto would do what he did at the end. Guess we'll learn about that more in the one coming out later this year. Thrawn Alliances is starting out a bit slower, and I don't like it as much yet. I'm not sure if it's the fact it keeps hopping between two time periods or that Zahn didn't write a good Vader. We'll see.

Eh. 2 1/2 out of 5. It's a weird clusterfuck of a story that only works if you read it twice due to the revelations that happen along the way making stuff that happens earlier make sense (mostly). The explanation for why the Uncharted Regions are mostly uncharted except for those exceptions falls completely flat. Hopefully Treason will be better. 

Library has Empire of Grass by Tad Williams waiting, so that's up next.

[AxB]

Now reading Charlie Martz and other stories - the unpublished writing of Elmore Leonard. Very short short stories, mostly. He's really genre hopping a lot, from Crime to Western yes, but also into like, literary fiction character studies. But considering it's early works from the 1950s, and he's teaching himself how to be a writer as he goes, it's really good stuff. He was a natural talent as well as a dedicated hard worker.

[NikoBaltimore]

So while I normally don't venture here much (if at all) I am compelled to talk about a book that Daniel Bryan talked about on Jimmy Jacobs's podcast.  The book's called Digital Minimalism and it talks about how to curb the addiction we have to smart phones and social media.  It was a really fascinating read and made me re-think a lot of things I've been doing with technology.  In particular when work is slow I tend to use my phone more often and tend to check here quite a bit.  The book has done a pretty good job of giving ways to curb that addiction without completely losing touch with the outside world.  So far I've been plenty able to forego social media and while I love checking here on slow days I feel a need to find other things to do that take up my time.  Whether it's reading more books (likely option) or studying a topic the less I keep my eyes on a computer screen the better.  But I can't recommend it enough and at some point will give it another read.  Also helps that it's such a breeze to read through.

[OSJ]

On 7/9/2019 at 11:55 AM, NikoBaltimore said:

So while I normally don't venture here much (if at all) I am compelled to talk about a book that Daniel Bryan talked about on Jimmy Jacobs's podcast.  The book's called Digital Minimalism and it talks about how to curb the addiction we have to smart phones and social media.  It was a really fascinating read and made me re-think a lot of things I've been doing with technology.  In particular when work is slow I tend to use my phone more often and tend to check here quite a bit.  The book has done a pretty good job of giving ways to curb that addiction without completely losing touch with the outside world.  So far I've been plenty able to forego social media and while I love checking here on slow days I feel a need to find other things to do that take up my time.  Whether it's reading more books (likely option) or studying a topic the less I keep my eyes on a computer screen the better.  But I can't recommend it enough and at some point will give it another read.  Also helps that it's such a breeze to read through.

Interesting. When I had to commute to work I would read a book a day, now that I'm full-time freelance and have more time on my hands it's dropped to three a week or less. (I'm not counting stuff that I HAVE to read for editorial projects which can be a mix of pleasure/work. For example, I'm reading through Gemma Files' four story collections, which is a pleasure, but as I'm editing a huge retrospective collection of her work, I'm taking notes and so on for the afterword that I'll be writing. That's definitely work. However, I manage to stay off of social media entirely, no FB, twitter, or tweeting, I've gotten along fine without such things  for sixty years and can imagine surviving quite nicely without them.

[JLSigman]

On 7/9/2019 at 8:30 AM, JLSigman said:

Library has Empire of Grass by Tad Williams waiting, so that's up next.

Wow, this is a depressing book. I mean, 5/5 stars, it's gorgeous and wonderfully written and we get some history of the immortal races, but man the ending is bleak. I'm beginning to think Tad Williams was being literal in calling the trilogy "The Last King of Osten Ard".

[The Unholy Dragon]

Reading No One Gets Out Alive by Adam Nevill and uh. It's a slog. 

The stupid thing is, so far it's got a lot of things I like. Horror as device for social commentary (trapped in a haunted house with outright scary people because she's too poor/money is too precarious to be mobile), supernatural elements as backdrop for human horror, compelling villains, eerie setting and emphasis on creeps more than jumps. But it's just not done all that well. 

 

The creepy elements start at the jump and basically just repeat without much variation. In general there's a lot of that. Both the human and supernatural elements are expressed in very blatant form in the same way, over and over. For like 200 pages. I'm nearly 300 pages in and it's picked up as of like, 200-250 but there's easily 100 pages of filler in the opening stretch that's blatantly there to just pad the thing. Also, you know how sometimes dudes get criticized for how they write women? Yeah. By the point in the novel I'm at, someone's been straight up murdered and the lead keeps alternating between terrified silence and the kind of white woman indignance you'd expect from a lady demanding the manager because her fries weren't crispy enough. To the villains. It's bad.

At this stage I'm going to finish it because the good that's there (Great and terrifying villains, when things get moving the tension gets there) are worth it and it seems to have hit its stride but the fact this thing won an award for best horror novel is...concerning.

[Contentious C]

Now that it's been a while since I started the "two authors don't write great books" thread that got uniformly shat upon, I decided to read The Talisman.  I'm only 4 chapters in, and the early going is something of a repetitive slog (I GET IT SHE HAS CANCER MOVE THE FUCK ON ALREADY JESUS FUCK), but is this just Huck Finn on acid?  It feels like it's going to be Huck Finn on acid.  And I think I can do "Huck Finn on acid" in my own head with no outside assistance.

[OSJ]

On 7/27/2019 at 8:12 AM, The Unholy Dragon said:

Reading No One Gets Out Alive by Adam Nevill and uh. It's a slog. 

The stupid thing is, so far it's got a lot of things I like. Horror as device for social commentary (trapped in a haunted house with outright scary people because she's too poor/money is too precarious to be mobile), supernatural elements as backdrop for human horror, compelling villains, eerie setting and emphasis on creeps more than jumps. But it's just not done all that well. 

 

The creepy elements start at the jump and basically just repeat without much variation. In general there's a lot of that. Both the human and supernatural elements are expressed in very blatant form in the same way, over and over. For like 200 pages. I'm nearly 300 pages in and it's picked up as of like, 200-250 but there's easily 100 pages of filler in the opening stretch that's blatantly there to just pad the thing. Also, you know how sometimes dudes get criticized for how they write women? Yeah. By the point in the novel I'm at, someone's been straight up murdered and the lead keeps alternating between terrified silence and the kind of white woman indignance you'd expect from a lady demanding the manager because her fries weren't crispy enough. To the villains. It's bad.

At this stage I'm going to finish it because the good that's there (Great and terrifying villains, when things get moving the tension gets there) are worth it and it seems to have hit its stride but the fact this thing won an award for best horror novel is...concerning.

Oddly enough for a guy that grew up reading King, Nevill has seized on all of King's bad habits when it comes to novels. I like his short fiction quite a bit. Awards are a mugs game at best, Nevill won because he does all the right things, lots of public appearances, a newsletter, yadda-yadda-yadda.  The horror genre is pretty cringeworthy when you consider some of the stuff that has won awards (and I say that as someone who has won a few).

[The Unholy Dragon]

On 8/1/2019 at 11:05 AM, OSJ said:

Oddly enough for a guy that grew up reading King, Nevill has seized on all of King's bad habits when it comes to novels. I like his short fiction quite a bit. Awards are a mugs game at best, Nevill won because he does all the right things, lots of public appearances, a newsletter, yadda-yadda-yadda.  The horror genre is pretty cringeworthy when you consider some of the stuff that has won awards (and I say that as someone who has won a few).

I'll give some credit here: Once it hit second gear, the book was GREAT and I was hooked. It's just that it happened 300 pages in or so and I can't imagine the first 300 couldn't have been condensed down to 100 with some good editing. It makes it a book on the whole that's hard to recommend, because there's enough important establishing stuff in the first half that you can't skip it but oh my god that first 300 is a slog. Really fantastic back half though.

[AxB]

Just read Wolf of the Plains by Conn Iggulden, about the life of Temujin of the Blue Wolves*, right up until he unites the tribes of Mongolia and declares himself Ghenghis Khan. Apparently there's five in the series... not sure if I'll go out of my way to read the other ones. It was OK. I also read The Science of Game of Thrones by Helen Keen, which is pop-sci about the actual facts on how much of GOT's fantasy elements are plausible or not (Fire Breathing Dragons yes, Flying Dragons probably not) and other mundane issues the series & books bring up (inbreeding and how trees talk to each other et cetera). Very obviously written for an audience that knows little about science, but the writer is a comedian rather than a scientist, which has it's positives and negatives. But yeah, interesting.

* Is that where Dolgorsuren Cherubjizdee's NJPW name came from, Blue Wolf? I just thought it was because his brother the Sumo was Blue Dragon. What happened to him? He seemed to be the star of the future and then disappeared.

[OSJ]

46 minutes ago, AxB said:

Just read Wolf of the Plains by Conn Iggulden, about the life of Temujin of the Blue Wolves*, right up until he unites the tribes of Mongolia and declares himself Ghenghis Khan. Apparently there's five in the series... not sure if I'll go out of my way to read the other ones. It was OK. I also read The Science of Game of Thrones by Helen Keen, which is pop-sci about the actual facts on how much of GOT's fantasy elements are plausible or not (Fire Breathing Dragons yes, Flying Dragons probably not) and other mundane issues the series & books bring up (inbreeding and how trees talk to each other et cetera). Very obviously written for an audience that knows little about science, but the writer is a comedian rather than a scientist, which has it's positives and negatives. But yeah, interesting.

* Is that where Dolgorsuren Cherubjizdee's NJPW name came from, Blue Wolf? I just thought it was because his brother the Sumo was Blue Dragon. What happened to him? He seemed to be the star of the future and then disappeared.

Keen and many others continue to piss me off by referring to the creatures in GOT as "dragons", look, they have only two legs, they are not dragons they are fucking wyverns, get the shit straight.

[AxB]

Well, the show calls them Dragons. We can't blame GRRM, since he doesn't say how many legs they have in the books. So whoever designed them for the show is at fault. And ultimate responsibility lies with Benioff & Weiss, because they must have OK'ed it.

[OSJ]

1 hour ago, AxB said:

Well, the show calls them Dragons. We can't blame GRRM, since he doesn't say how many legs they have in the books. So whoever designed them for the show is at fault. And ultimate responsibility lies with Benioff & Weiss, because they must have OK'ed it.

Benioff & Weiss probably don't know the difference between a basilisk and a cockatrice. 

OSJ - Fantasy Purist 

[OSJ]

To get things back on track somewhat, how of y'all have read anything by the following authors? Seek their stuff out on ABEBOOKS.com or your local library, you won't be sorry.

Gemma Files

Richard Gavin

Victor LaSalle

[AxB]

As the show went along, it became rather obvious that the only fantasy series B & W had read were LotR and ASoIaF. Reminded me of that Marilyn Manson quote about his old guitarist playing hackneyed generic rock riffs over and over: "He had never really listened to Metal as a teenager, and hence constantly mistook his cliches for originality"'