I’m reading Bram Stoker’s Dracula for the first time ever. Can you believe I am 48 years old, a horror literature junkie, and never read it? It’s true. I’m enjoying it a lot.
I started this one in the middle of my 7 day camping trip last week. Maybe a quarter of the way through right now. Good so far, the first King book I’ve rear since around Gerald’s Game somewhere.
I really loved this novel. It gets better and better as you progress through it. I loved all the references to Jung, Gothic horror, and just about everything else! Enjoy!
After two weeks, I’m on the last chapter of paradise lost by John Milton! It was a weird read to end my summer of working through several of the epic poems. It’s one of the most beautifully written poems I’ve ever read, but Jesus Christ has it been a weird and difficult read. My fav part was when Jesus out of nowhere rides in on a chariot and chases satan off the edge of heaven. Genuinely not enough talk about how some of this shit felt like a weird fever dream twist.
This is on my to read list. I have an annotated copy to help because I've heard it's hard going but I know it's hugely influential and so keep meaning to get to it!
It was definitely hard going. I had multiple browser tabs open, the heavily annotated modern library version, and my years of Catholic upbringing to guide me through it all and it was definitely a journey. I read it right after reading Dante’s divine comedy and while the comedy and they both really blew me away. Half of Paradise Lost (and Dante too for that matter) is just really deep references to the Aeneid, the Iliad, the odyssey, and Ovid’s metamorphoses.
I've read Dante and enjoyed that a lot. It's interesting how Dante also puts a lot more of his contemporaries into the various parts of the afterlife then I was expecting; so footnotes can veer from talking about Greek mythology to minor figures from the civil war that had led to his exile. Which can be a little jarring sometimes!
Three body problem series is fantastic in my opinion. I love that heavy sci-fi shit. And viewing the world from a different cultures perspective was fascinating.
Yes. Without going into spoilers, the event that started the Deterrence Era blew my mind. It’s so rare to have an unexpected reversal like that in sci fi it really caught me by surprise.
I really wish I could read it in the original Chinese. The translator did a great job though.
Well, now you’re making me want to go back into the series. I liked the premise of the first, but found the writing foreign - which, hey, it is! I felt like I really should read more everyday Chinese fiction as I didn’t understand a lot of the nuance and it felt less polished (to my American sensibilities) as a result.
I actually just finished Three Body Problem yesterday. Really fascinating perspective and lots of big ideas, even if the characters could be better and there could be less telling and more showing. But can’t wait to get my hands on the rest of the trilogy!
I’m allllllmost done with Yumi and the nightmare painter. It’s great! I was a little iffy on it at first. It was a little young adulty for my tastes (stereotypical teenage love interest awkwardness). But as per usual with Sanderson the end gets really good really quickly. Eager to see how it ends!
Otherside Picnic by Iori Mizayawa (In Japanese) - Amazing sci-fi novel, that takes inspiration from Roadside Picnic, and urban legends. Quite nicely written too, characters are quite likeable.
Lost Gods by Brom - Amazing concepts, the way Gods are portrayed there, and lots of nice mythology details there and there. The story is very much engaging as well.
The Wandering Inn - Looong, fantasy, and lots of fun world building
Half Share - Fun sci-if space opera? Regardless, pleasant experience.
Apparently 10 articles that appear on my Kbin homepage in just ONE scroll (None of this is just being exaggerated) about Trump being indicted for 2020 events. I am not subscribed/followed to any political user, magazine or community. Yes, this post was included in the scroll, found it to be pretty funny
Sat at the library yesterday and read Open Borders by Bryan Caplan. He really breaks down how open borders benefit society from a capitalist perspective, but I find it helpful too. Anything to show others how closed borders are damaging, and how the idea of curbing immigration in America is rooted strictly in colonialism and racism.
The best part is I think it is presented in a very digestible, accessible way.
Nearly all of those books are nice, quick reads. I read them before playing Witcher 3 and watching the NF series first season. It greatly enhanced the game; it made me dislike the screenplay version.
Currently, Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents for my audiobook and for my physical book its The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida. Both are excellent.
Re-reading Hyperion by Dan Simmons. I read it as a teenager the first time, and I wonder if I’ll get something different out of it in my 30s now. I’m also reading Heart of Dominance by Anton Fulmen along with my wife. More of a book for them than me, but it still has good information to glean regardless. If I want to include graphic novels, I also just finished Sunstone. It was sweet and entertaining.
Currently reading Elantris by Brandon Sanderson. Picked it up a long time ago and never finished it. Had some time out at a cabin and picked it back up. Pretty good so far.
I’m working my way through Christopher Alexander’s The Nature of Order for a second time. It’s only slightly easier to get through this time though. Before that was the full run of The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan (and Brandon Sanderson).