Author Topic: What are you reading?  (Read 551753 times)

dr.chimps

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #1375 on: October 13, 2017, 02:43:18 AM »
Anyone read Jeff VanderMeer's Annihilation? Sci-fi, 195 pages. Alex Garland's (Ex Machina) already adapted it, in theaters February next year. Trailer looks promising, figured I'd read it first.
Met him last year. Got a few books signed. His wife was standing by and I brain-farted and didn't ask her for some signatures.  ::)

/have not read anything he's written.  ::)  ::)

CalvinH

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #1376 on: October 13, 2017, 08:12:32 AM »
Finally after years I re-did my bookshelves.


....giving over 100 old books to the public library tomorrow :)

Obvious Gimmick

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #1377 on: October 13, 2017, 06:51:45 PM »
Slightly off topic: any of you studs ever try to get a book published? I'm writing one now (trust me, I have no delusions of grandure) but think it'd be cool to see it in my shelf. Of course, I've googled the options - agent, get boned by 'self publishing' blah blah blah. Just wondering if there are any personal stories here.

The Ugly

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #1378 on: October 13, 2017, 11:11:27 PM »
Slightly off topic: any of you studs ever try to get a book published? I'm writing one now (trust me, I have no delusions of grandure) but think it'd be cool to see it in my shelf. Of course, I've googled the options - agent, get boned by 'self publishing' blah blah blah. Just wondering if there are any personal stories here.

Might wanna spring for a proofreader before trying to publish.

Obvious Gimmick

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #1379 on: October 14, 2017, 07:45:08 AM »
Might wanna spring for a proofreader before trying to publish.
I'm learning already. Thanks GB

Meta-physical

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #1380 on: October 17, 2017, 04:04:00 AM »
Slightly off topic: any of you studs ever try to get a book published? I'm writing one now (trust me, I have no delusions of grandure) but think it'd be cool to see it in my shelf. Of course, I've googled the options - agent, get boned by 'self publishing' blah blah blah. Just wondering if there are any personal stories here.
I had a friend who managed to get a science fiction novel published. It wasn't something I'd have read or recommended if I didn't know him, but he was rightfully proud of his achievement. He hardly made a penny from it, though.

My aunt also wrote a masterpiece of unintentional comedy with a self-published (naturally) murder mystery under a porn star-esque pseudonym. she named all the characters after various members of my family and sent copies of it out to everyone as Christmas presents. The entire story was a tedious piece of unadulterated dog shit, but the most amusing part was that she decided to omit any mention of my mother, choosing instead to name a character after my father - her sister's ex-husband whom she hadn't seen in about 20 years. I suspect he may have given her a damn good seeing to in his prime.

Obvious Gimmick

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #1381 on: October 17, 2017, 11:04:38 AM »
I had a friend who managed to get a science fiction novel published. It wasn't something I'd have read or recommended if I didn't know him, but he was rightfully proud of his achievement. He hardly made a penny from it, though.

My aunt also wrote a masterpiece of unintentional comedy with a self-published (naturally) murder mystery under a porn star-esque pseudonym. she named all the characters after various members of my family and sent copies of it out to everyone as Christmas presents. The entire story was a tedious piece of unadulterated dog shit, but the most amusing part was that she decided to omit any mention of my mother, choosing instead to name a character after my father - her sister's ex-husband whom she hadn't seen in about 20 years. I suspect he may have given her a damn good seeing to in his prime.
:D

dr.chimps

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #1382 on: October 21, 2017, 12:05:44 PM »
Slightly off topic: any of you studs ever try to get a book published? I'm writing one now (trust me, I have no delusions of grandure) but think it'd be cool to see it in my shelf. Of course, I've googled the options - agent, get boned by 'self publishing' blah blah blah. Just wondering if there are any personal stories here.
Ok. Here's your best deal. If you really have something written, something you want to throw out there, get near to to your nearest uni's English dep't  - take a course, get to know a prof., etc. They often have their own problems, but they also know real publishing people. The slush-pile return is not great. Good luck.

Brandon Austin

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #1383 on: November 02, 2017, 12:57:17 AM »
Anyone read Jeff VanderMeer's Annihilation? Sci-fi, 195 pages. Alex Garland's (Ex Machina) already adapted it, in theaters February next year. Trailer looks promising, figured I'd read it first.

I like it a lot. Definitely feels like a Lovecraft "cosmic horror".

Evo

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #1384 on: November 09, 2017, 08:31:50 AM »
Propaganda - Edward Bernaise

The Alchemy of Finance - George Sorros

dr.chimps

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #1385 on: November 17, 2017, 01:02:11 PM »
Iain Pears 'The Raphael Affair.' Boooring, and formulaic. An art-mystery kinda-novel. It was his first book; and the guy was a journo, and an arty-type guy. But, jeez. Not great. I'd recommend his other books, but I've read a few of those, too.  (Ric Flair) WHOOOOOOO!

CalvinH

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #1386 on: December 01, 2017, 04:53:19 AM »
Haven't read anything new in weeks just been re reading some of my favorite Westerns.

Hypo

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #1387 on: December 03, 2017, 01:10:07 PM »
Rereading The End Of History And The Last Man. Can't really be bothered. Thrown in some Percy Shelley for a bit of bedtime serenity.

I wouldn't read something that turned out to be utter bullshit. He loves to keep revising himself though to stay relevant.

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #1388 on: December 03, 2017, 06:31:07 PM »
I wouldn't read something that turned out to be utter bullshit. He loves to keep revising himself though to stay relevant.
I argued quite strongly against it when I had to write about it. There's one or two points he makes that I'd agree with him on, but I disagreed with his view of 'the end of History' in the Hegelian sense he frames it in, his interpretation of the Cold War, his misguided thoughts regarding the days of Islamic cultural conquest being over and no longer having any 'resonance for young people in Berlin or Moscow', and the way in which he subsumes US-led, 'free-market' economics into a standardised ideal of liberal democracy.

Not had much time to do a lot of independent reading, although I've recently read an essay by Edward Herman and David Peterson which reviews Steven Pinker's book The Better Angels Of Our Nature. Titled 'Reality Denial: Apologetics for Western-Imperial Violence', it gives a particularly cutting assessment of Pinker's view of a post-World War Two 'Long Peace'. I read Pinker's book last year and found it both fascinating and disturbing at times (parts about historical animal cruelty actually gave me nightmares), but the 'neo-Fukuyaman' perspective that Herman and Peterson argue he writes from is something I didn't initially consider. They certainly provide some compelling evidence for that to be the case, though.

dr.chimps

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #1389 on: December 12, 2017, 01:47:16 AM »
Laura Lippman's 'and when she was good.' Overly-stylized, kinda like a Stephen King lesser-book. Maybe in his coke days. It's ok, but hitting all the wrong notes.   

QuietYou

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #1390 on: December 12, 2017, 01:50:46 AM »
I want to read an earth shattering book that's pretty messed up and will change my whole outlook on life. In a good way though but it can be twisted. I don't know what though.

dr.chimps

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #1391 on: December 12, 2017, 02:22:10 AM »
I want to read an earth shattering book that's pretty messed up and will change my whole outlook on life. In a good way though but it can be twisted. I don't know what though.
Funny guy. Try Philip Dick's 'Time out of Joint.' If you can handle that go to his, later, UBIK.

Griffith

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #1392 on: December 12, 2017, 03:52:06 AM »
I'm reading 'Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner' by Paul M Sammon.

As a fan of the Blade Runner films, so far I'm really enjoying it.

Hypo

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #1393 on: December 12, 2017, 03:58:59 PM »
I argued quite strongly against it when I had to write about it. There's one or two points he makes that I'd agree with him on, but I disagreed with his view of 'the end of History' in the Hegelian sense he frames it in, his interpretation of the Cold War, his misguided thoughts regarding the days of Islamic cultural conquest being over and no longer having any 'resonance for young people in Berlin or Moscow', and the way in which he subsumes US-led, 'free-market' economics into a standardised ideal of liberal democracy.

Not had much time to do a lot of independent reading, although I've recently read an essay by Edward Herman and David Peterson which reviews Steven Pinker's book The Better Angels Of Our Nature. Titled 'Reality Denial: Apologetics for Western-Imperial Violence', it gives a particularly cutting assessment of Pinker's view of a post-World War Two 'Long Peace'. I read Pinker's book last year and found it both fascinating and disturbing at times (parts about historical animal cruelty actually gave me nightmares), but the 'neo-Fukuyaman' perspective that Herman and Peterson argue he writes from is something I didn't initially consider. They certainly provide some compelling evidence for that to be the case, though.

Thanks for your comment. Will have to check some of these out.

I swear I hate passing by a bookshop. End up spending $100 a go on history/economics books.

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #1394 on: December 13, 2017, 04:32:35 PM »
Thanks for your comment. Will have to check some of these out.

I swear I hate passing by a bookshop. End up spending $100 a go on history/economics books.
I used to do the same thing. Now I tend to take photographs of them in the store then search for secondhand copies of them on the internet instead. You can save quite a bit this way.

SF1900

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #1395 on: December 26, 2017, 07:23:14 PM »
Broke and Patriotic: Why Poor Americans Love Their Country
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calfzilla

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #1396 on: December 26, 2017, 07:26:57 PM »
Broke and Patriotic: Why Poor Americans Love Their Country

Sounds like liberal trash. Why can't these scumbags pull themselves up like Vince Goodrum CSN MFT YouTube Partner

SF1900

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #1397 on: December 26, 2017, 07:54:17 PM »
Sounds like liberal trash. Why can't these scumbags pull themselves up like Vince Goodrum CSN MFT YouTube Partner

Broke people who are extremely patriotic (love of guns, bible and freedom) tend to be republican.

Read "Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis." by Robert Putnam
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Las Vegas

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #1398 on: December 26, 2017, 08:55:35 PM »
^ Shows how screwy the "definitions" have become in the MSM, and why it's done this way.  Love of freedom is where true liberalism comes from.  That's what it is.  (Which, btw, makes it the real enemy of the MSM gang, and why the "liberal" side of it has become so intentionally ridiculous and unbelievable while FOX and the rest are acting to damage and destroy the word itself.)

sync pulse

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Re: What are you reading?
« Reply #1399 on: December 26, 2017, 11:38:56 PM »
I'm reading about Jeremy Iron's 400 year-old Irish castle Kilco.

Living in a historical treasure is an enormous pain in the ass...Bigly....