What are you reading?

oh yeah, same. I seem to remember enjoying it a lot but I don’t remember a lot about it.

 

Something different.

 

I've read a ton of books since my last post, here's the good, bad, and interesting highlights in a vague musing/no spoiler format.
Bad first:

I picked this one because it has a bunch of 5 and 1 star reviews on Goodreads, which can occasionally signal an awesome book. Also, I thought it might be interesting to read a standard fantasy story through an Objectivist lens, but it was not. The prose was too bad, the characters were one dimensional, the philosophical aspects were too overt, and everything was generally lacking in nuance and sophistication, or in the absence of those things, fun. Not every book needs to be a thought provoking masterpiece, but it wasn't a compelling story or a well formed philosophical argument AND it wasn't entertaining. I made it about halfway through the second book in the series to see if the author might find his footing but it didn't happen and was abandoned.

Now for the good:

Burningblade & Silvereye series by Django Wexler.
I was a big fan of The Shadow Campaigns series and pretty pumped for this one. It wasn't as good, but it was still well written and had some cool original concepts in addition to compelling, mostly well developed characters, and an engaging story. Great example of not needing to be a staggering work of literary genius in order to be a thoroughly enjoyable and worthwhile read.


Cormac McCarthy is my favorite author. I've read every novel of his and for the most part have felt like each one has had a lasting, non-trivial impact on my perception of life. The Passenger was no exception. It's an interesting combination of history, science, mathematics, psychology and the human experience. I didn't really enjoy Stella Maris, which was a companion piece, filling in some untold backstory from The Passenger, but I was glad I read it anyway. After reading these I felt like I've wasted/am wasting my life and also that it doesn't really matter in the big picture, but also it kind of does. Just read them, and then every other McCarthy novel you haven't read, starting with The Border Trilogy, to ease your way into The Blood Meridian.

Interesting:

The Dandelion Dynasty series by Ken Liu.
This is a fantasy/steampunkish tinged retelling of the Chu-Han war period between the fall of the Qin dynasty and the formation of the Han dynasty. It then branches off from there into more of it's own thing, with probably more allusions to Chinese history that I missed due to my total lack of knowledge about most things. Overall I thought the series was very good and well written, especially the first 2 books. It did have a tendency to get bogged down in side plots and political maneuverings that I didn't think were totally necessary and distracted from the narrative. Despite being loosely based on history I thought it was an inventive and original story, worthy of being read.

 

I can only digest about three chapters a night. And each chapter is only a few pages. So many good nuggets in here and not just about being creative, but more of a way of life.

 

Is this book good? Can you tell me a little about it? Cover and title are very intruiging.

 

Just finished this. Had never read it before. This book floored me. It sounds dumb to say, but highly recommended.

 

For you history fans, I have really enjoyed this one, halfway through so far. Not dry at all, interesting historical perspective through the lens of trade routes and associated rise & fall of world powers from the beginning of recorded human history.

e.g. I'm in the middle of the part describing how decisions made leading into WW1 could be directly linked to the evolving dynamic between Britain & Russia and the threat to the former's hold on the Indian sub-continent and influence in Persia and the Far East, by the latter.

 

@bobboxbody lovely appraisal of the great man’s last two novels. I felt the same about Stella Maris, though I’m a bit of a physics geek and did enjoy it; particularly the conversations between her and the doctor. I found her brother’s conversation with her ‘fictional’ character rather enigmatically unexplained - like the judge in BM.
I ran a chain of 140 bookstores for a time and had a rather large collection of fine 1sr editions also. Whenever someone inevitably asked my favourite book - terrible question, - I’d always tell them that Blood Meridian was proof that McCarthy had made a deal with the devil. Open that book anywhere and start reading and you realise, nobody can actually write that good ha ha. Agree with you on starting with The Border Trilogy - what characters!

 

Just found this thread - love it.

 

I've read enough popular science physics books to realize just how thoroughly I don't understand it. I tried broadening my knowledge with some MIT online Physics courses, and then realized I needed to go back to Calculus, and then realized I need to go back to Algebra, and then gave up. Mostly I found Stella Maris to be not enjoyable because to me it was jarring and depressing, which isn't to say it wasn't a great and partially enlightening companion piece to The Passenger. I would still recommend it to anyone who reads The Passenger.

 

Looks like we've overlapping a bit in our reading:

 

https://contemporarythinkers.org/hannah-arendt/book/men-dark-times/

 

Reading The Sprawl Trilogy - again. Amazing. All the things that have come to pass from Neuromancer; not to mention ‘The Matrix’. Right up there with Neal Stephenson’s ‘Cryptonomicon’.

 

Talk about timing! I just started Count Zero yesterday.

Finished Anne Leckie's Translation State the day before.

Something old. Something new.

 

I’d read The Knight by Gene Wolfe many years ago and loved it. Read the follow up to that, which was ok. Somehow I never bothered to look for any other books he’d written. Found this via a podcast recently and loved it. I’m almost done with the next volume.

 

William Gibson is probably my favorite author. I’m partial to the Big Ant trilogy, but I love them all. I’ve never seen the covers that you have there. I bought a newer edition of Neuromamcer a few years back. I love the vibe of this cover and wish they would do the other books in this style:

 

https://www.themarginalian.org/2020/03/22/erich-fromm-revolution-of-hope/