i've been reading a lot of litrpg and also some anime. there are some really fantastic anime series out there. i've even found a few for my taste lolo. read the new tao wong, 3 honor raconteur books... there's also a new tom clancy. couting the days for jim butcher new dresden files and laurell hamilton new anita blake. as for tv can someone please fired the guy beyond the new perry mason show? pretty please? with sugar on top.
July 2020 Reading Thread
- Thread starter The Judge
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Just finished Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi (I've not a clue how to pronounce that last name!). It was mentioned/recommended by @Vertigo. It was a Printz Award winner. It is the first of a trilogy. The other two are The Drowned Cities and Tool of War.
I'm not sure how to characterize this book. On the positive side it has a very unique take on a post-apocalyptic world. It occurs more than a century after the total? melting of the polar regions. Humanity has survived but is by no means thriving. There is a vast gap between the haves and the have nots. The world uses very, very, little oil and the fastest way to travel is by high tech sailing ships. The main character of the story is Nailer, a young boy about 15 who is part of a group making their living on the coast by breaking apart old oil burning ships, tankers and the like, for salvage. This is a dark book, but it is redeemed by the fact that here and there a little hope shines through. It is a unique story and although the story arc is fairly common, the world is not. The biggest downside to this book is the price. It is nearly $9 in both paperback and Kindle.
I might read The Drowned Cities sometime, but not immediately. I'd give it a solid 4 stars. Amazon has 400+ ratings averaging 4.3. I'd call that just about perfect. Not must reading, but good reading.
I'm not sure how to characterize this book. On the positive side it has a very unique take on a post-apocalyptic world. It occurs more than a century after the total? melting of the polar regions. Humanity has survived but is by no means thriving. There is a vast gap between the haves and the have nots. The world uses very, very, little oil and the fastest way to travel is by high tech sailing ships. The main character of the story is Nailer, a young boy about 15 who is part of a group making their living on the coast by breaking apart old oil burning ships, tankers and the like, for salvage. This is a dark book, but it is redeemed by the fact that here and there a little hope shines through. It is a unique story and although the story arc is fairly common, the world is not. The biggest downside to this book is the price. It is nearly $9 in both paperback and Kindle.
I might read The Drowned Cities sometime, but not immediately. I'd give it a solid 4 stars. Amazon has 400+ ratings averaging 4.3. I'd call that just about perfect. Not must reading, but good reading.
Now reading Scalzi’s The Collapsing Empire. Lots of unnecessary profanity but it’s pacy and engaging.
Danny McG
Lid closed, monkey dead.
This morning's ebook
I'd agree though most of that comes from the one character who is very much characterised by it. However it does strikes me as a rather blunt and excessive instrument when it comes to creating a unique voice. I quite like the world creation which get further development in the second book.
AE35Unit
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Currently reading 2 books. One non fiction, one fiction
One More Kilometre and We're in the Showers a book of cycling memoirs by Tim Hilton. Some interesting bits but a bit dry and opinionated.
And making my way through The Penguin Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe some good stories mixed in with some utter tedious drivel. And I shall probably skip the poems. I don't do poetry.
One More Kilometre and We're in the Showers a book of cycling memoirs by Tim Hilton. Some interesting bits but a bit dry and opinionated.
And making my way through The Penguin Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe some good stories mixed in with some utter tedious drivel. And I shall probably skip the poems. I don't do poetry.
Paul_C
Well-Known Member
It's pronounced Bacigalupi.
Paul_C
Well-Known Member
Thanks! I can now pronounce Bacigalupi.
How did you come across a pronunciation anyway? I thank you particularly if you had to go search for it.
Paul_C
Well-Known Member
Thanks! I can now pronounce Bacigalupi.
I googled "Bacigalupi" which offered up his Wikipedia page (which sometimes has pronunciations, but not this time) then from there to his website, which linked to the voice file above via the FAQ section.
So it didn't take long to find, and I was curious how it was pronounced too.
soulsinging
the dude abides
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The Fire Next Time was alright, but not as compelling as his fiction (to be fair, Going to Meet the Man set a pretty high bar), and perhaps a little too long and meandering to rival similar polemics like Civil Disobedience or Letter from a Birmingham Jail. Still, worth the time invested.
Tried Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, but there's a reason they tell people in creative writing workshops not to write in vernacular and I had to bail due to the splitting headaches.
Now on to White Rage, by Carol Anderson, a look at the history of America's not-always-so-enthusiastic response to emancipation and civil rights.
Tried Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God, but there's a reason they tell people in creative writing workshops not to write in vernacular and I had to bail due to the splitting headaches.
Now on to White Rage, by Carol Anderson, a look at the history of America's not-always-so-enthusiastic response to emancipation and civil rights.
Victoria Silverwolf
Vegetarian Werewolf
I am about to start The Inner Life of Animals: Love, Grief, and Compassion -- Surprising Observations of a Hidden World (2016) by Peter Wohlleben, translated from German by Jan Billingshurst. It's by the author of the remarkable little book The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate -- Discoveries from a Secret World. I will then go on to the author's next book, The Secret Wisdom of Nature: Trees, Animals, and the Extraordinary Balance of All Living Things -- Stories from Science and Observation.
I read his The Hidden Life of Trees a few years ago, or at least read some of it. I found it interesting, especially the way the trees communicate with each other eg after one is "attacked" by foraging animals, others in the area will develop chemicals so they're not also eaten, though the relentless anthropomorphism got a bit much. I also found it wasn't the easiest of reads, though whether that was his prose, the translation or just me at the time, I'm not sure -- I ordered it from the library and because of its popularity and therefore the demand, I couldn't renew it on loan, so I didn't get to finish it before it had to be returned. I really ought to have another go at it.
(On a similar theme I tried Colin Tudge's The Secret Life of Trees a couple of years back, but ground to a halt about half-way through and can't now recall anything of it, save that it was a bit dry, bordering on turgid.)
(On a similar theme I tried Colin Tudge's The Secret Life of Trees a couple of years back, but ground to a halt about half-way through and can't now recall anything of it, save that it was a bit dry, bordering on turgid.)
Re - Rivers of London series:
Thanks for this, williamjm - I hadn't seen it, but it's now pre-ordered.
Thanks for this, williamjm - I hadn't seen it, but it's now pre-ordered.
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Richard Brautigan "An Unfortunate Woman"
A strange book this, written a couple of years before the author killed himself, age 49, and published posthumously: a continually digressing real-life diary of meanderings, only 110 widely spaced pages long, with the deaths of two women, one a suicide, always in the background. Strangely I found it's continual banal digressions held my attention in a way that other books have not recently. Perhaps it was the safety of it just being 110 pages. It's also left me with a sense of the richness of everyday banal life, and I always value books that have that effect on me.
I think the author would have enjoyed the fact that I have absolutely no memory of how the book came into my possession (probably) three or four years ago. It's a first edition hardback library book from Austin Public Library, Texas, and has none of the usual ex-library books stamps and disclaimers. Despite a sticker from Thrift Books on the spine, it looks very much as if it's been disappeared from a library and never returned. This theory of library theft would appear to be validated by a small paper receipt still in the book saying that the book was borrowed from the library at 1754pm on the 27th April 2009, and is due back by the 18th May 2009 at 2359pm.
A strange book this, written a couple of years before the author killed himself, age 49, and published posthumously: a continually digressing real-life diary of meanderings, only 110 widely spaced pages long, with the deaths of two women, one a suicide, always in the background. Strangely I found it's continual banal digressions held my attention in a way that other books have not recently. Perhaps it was the safety of it just being 110 pages. It's also left me with a sense of the richness of everyday banal life, and I always value books that have that effect on me.
I think the author would have enjoyed the fact that I have absolutely no memory of how the book came into my possession (probably) three or four years ago. It's a first edition hardback library book from Austin Public Library, Texas, and has none of the usual ex-library books stamps and disclaimers. Despite a sticker from Thrift Books on the spine, it looks very much as if it's been disappeared from a library and never returned. This theory of library theft would appear to be validated by a small paper receipt still in the book saying that the book was borrowed from the library at 1754pm on the 27th April 2009, and is due back by the 18th May 2009 at 2359pm.
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AE35Unit
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Bassey galoopy?
AE35Unit
]==[]===O °
The only poem I've ever enjoyed and understood was Rime of the Ancient Marriner, which was the first thing I read on an e-reader. Its not really a poem though is it...
The thing with Poe is there's this huge following but everyone seems only to have read The Raven. Its all Quoth the Raven here, Quoth the Raven there. Have they not read any of his stories? Pit and the Pendulum? Truly horrifying. The Gold Bug? Just brilliant. MS Found in a Bottle (which I just read), a weird sea story.
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Unusually for me, given I read little post 1975 SF, I've read three Bacigalupi - "Ship Breaker" "The Drowned Cities" and "The Wind-up Girl". I thought they were very impressive and can see why he is/was so popular. However, after the third I decided that that the world described was just too unpleasant for me to want to spend more time in.
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The Windup Girl is actually in a different, though equally bleak, post global warming world, there is one more in the Ship Breaker series, Tool of War, which does tie things up a little! He had another post global warming stand alone book called The Water Knife, about the conflict for water in the American west, which will likely be my next from him. He does seem to rather like grim backdrops!
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