What are you reading?
- Thread starter Ⓐaron
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Permanent Record - Ed Snowden
It's not as technical as No Place to Hide by Glenn Greenwald, but that's not really what it's for. It provides context, the personal story. I like his writing so far. His way of thinking and personality is very similar to my own. I read over a hundred pages in a few days without realizing it.
It's not as technical as No Place to Hide by Glenn Greenwald, but that's not really what it's for. It provides context, the personal story. I like his writing so far. His way of thinking and personality is very similar to my own. I read over a hundred pages in a few days without realizing it.
Fun fact that you may already know: Edward Snowden was on anime sites in the '90s and had this as his profile for a while.
I'm reading a couple of things now - Norwegian Wood is something I'm finally glad to open up, seeing as Murakami is pretty well-regarded. I'm also reading Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome by E. M. Berens to brush myself up on historical culture. (Antiquity has been a big influence on me)
Then I have a copy of Dandelion Wine I've been meaning to read for a while...I really want to get to that...
I'm reading a couple of things now - Norwegian Wood is something I'm finally glad to open up, seeing as Murakami is pretty well-regarded. I'm also reading Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece and Rome by E. M. Berens to brush myself up on historical culture. (Antiquity has been a big influence on me)
Then I have a copy of Dandelion Wine I've been meaning to read for a while...I really want to get to that...
- AKA
- Caius Ballad
I'm currently reading: Your Patient Safety Survival Guide: How to Protect Yourself and Others from Medical Errors. It caught my eye in the library since I know that this is unfortunately a huge issue in the medical field. I've read about a fifth of the book so far and it's well cited, so I am interested in what she has to say. We'll see how long it takes for me to finish it now that school has started again. 
A few weeks ago I read Consciousness: Confessions of a Romantic Reductionist by Christof Koch, neuroscientist, who was a close colleague of Francis Crick, a luminary in DNA research. A rare credible read on the nature of sentience. At its heart, it's a neurology book. It's almost 10 years old, which is kind of an eternity, but we actually knew quite a bit on this topic (albeit still with huge gaps, obviously). He hasn't written his next major book on this, but I would like to see in depth what he thinks about all these strides in AI deep learning.
I read exclusively non-fiction. If I want a story, that's what a good anime or game is for.
Heheh, yeah, I'd seen those articles, but I felt bad because it was definitely a violation of his obviously strong love for privacy. He really is kind of a modern martyr.
A few weeks ago I read Consciousness: Confessions of a Romantic Reductionist by Christof Koch, neuroscientist, who was a close colleague of Francis Crick, a luminary in DNA research. A rare credible read on the nature of sentience. At its heart, it's a neurology book. It's almost 10 years old, which is kind of an eternity, but we actually knew quite a bit on this topic (albeit still with huge gaps, obviously). He hasn't written his next major book on this, but I would like to see in depth what he thinks about all these strides in AI deep learning.
I read exclusively non-fiction. If I want a story, that's what a good anime or game is for.
Heheh, yeah, I'd seen those articles, but I felt bad because it was definitely a violation of his obviously strong love for privacy. He really is kind of a modern martyr.
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Finished err, one of the Witcher books recently, I had paused it for over half a year because it was getting kinda tedious - lots of names and locations and family trees being yeeted around.
Currently reading Ignition!, a book by an old rocket scientist telling the history of rocket fuel development. It's kinda tedious as well, I mean sure the guy has a funny tone, but he also bombards you with pages upon pages of chemistry terms that I'm not really familiar with. Hypergolic RFNA hydrazine anilines. Also, kerosene.
Currently reading Ignition!, a book by an old rocket scientist telling the history of rocket fuel development. It's kinda tedious as well, I mean sure the guy has a funny tone, but he also bombards you with pages upon pages of chemistry terms that I'm not really familiar with. Hypergolic RFNA hydrazine anilines. Also, kerosene.
HG Wells collection, got it for Xmas. 
I've read The War of The Worlds, The Island of Doctor Moreau & The Time Machine and I'm currently reading The Invisible Man.
Doctor Moreau was a disappointment. Not much happens, I was expecting more since they make a film out of every few decades.
I really want to see a faithfull adaptation of War of the Worlds now i've read it. The recent BBC three parter was a huge disapponitment, this was the best part & the only part worth remembering:
I've read The War of The Worlds, The Island of Doctor Moreau & The Time Machine and I'm currently reading The Invisible Man.
Doctor Moreau was a disappointment. Not much happens, I was expecting more since they make a film out of every few decades.
I really want to see a faithfull adaptation of War of the Worlds now i've read it. The recent BBC three parter was a huge disapponitment, this was the best part & the only part worth remembering:
Not sure if this should belong here or in the comics section, but I marathoned the manga of Akira last weekend. I enjoyed seeing what the animated movie kept and left out, and thought it made some creative choices that were superior to how some things were handled in the manga. I was already aware before reading that the movie largely borrowed only from the first third of the story, with some elements from other parts, so it was interesting to see the rest of the story. If I had it my way in making the movie I'd have still done some things differently. Would make a good trilogy of films, but some work would need to be done on the middle section of the manga, which I found not that engaging. Will be interesting to see what the upcoming American Akira movie does with the source material(s), though I suspect it'll be shit like the GitS live adaption. Granted, Taika Waititi is apparently at the helm, so shall have to wait n' see. Hard to beat one of the best movies ever created though 
. If I were him, I'd just do something completely different with it.
. If I were him, I'd just do something completely different with it.
Are you referring to Akira here? If so, we have wildly differing opinions.
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In the vein of "Stuff I'm reading", I have been voraciously tearing through the web series Worm. The protagonist is Taylor, a 15-year-old girl in a parallel Earth where superpowers exist. She develops powers of her own (unbeknownst to anyone else, secret identities are a very big thing in this universe), which manifest as controlling any and all bugs in the area (range varies depending on the circumstances). She has dreams of becoming a superhero, which doesn't go entirely as intended; on her first time out using her powers in a "heroic" sense, she succeeds in taking down a particularly powerful local supervillian. However, another group of supervillains mistakes her for a new, solo villain, and they promptly invite her to join their group (since she inadvertently saved their asses). She agrees, in the secret hopes she'll gather valuable info she can feed to the local hero group to secure herself a place among their members. Although you quickly learn that things aren't so black and white as "good vs evil". There are some real stand-up "villains", some morally bankrupt "heroes", and a few who aren't easily categorized.
Superhero novels are not typically my thing, but the author is a phenomenal writer, crafting a supremely engaging cast, in a world that artfully manages to suspend disbelief, despite the physics-breaking supernatural powers so many of the characters possess. Much of the story is spent in the minds of the characters, rather than just the "pew-pew, LASERBLAST" aspect (although there is a lot of that, and very creatively utilized). It also touches on some pretty dark themes on occasion. Definitely not all sunshine and rainbows.
A few things to note:
A - It's not a book, it's an online web series. Which is great for me, as most of my reading lately I do on my phone.
B - It's free to read.
C - There's a LOT of content. Approximately 1,680,000 words. For comparison, the entirety of the A Song of Ice and Fire series is 1,736,054 words. And this guy wrote it in two years.
Anyway, I recommend this series 150%. It's well-written, it's the most creative use of powers I've seen, and it's addictive as hell. I can't stop.
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In the vein of "Stuff I'm reading", I have been voraciously tearing through the web series Worm. The protagonist is Taylor, a 15-year-old girl in a parallel Earth where superpowers exist. She develops powers of her own (unbeknownst to anyone else, secret identities are a very big thing in this universe), which manifest as controlling any and all bugs in the area (range varies depending on the circumstances). She has dreams of becoming a superhero, which doesn't go entirely as intended; on her first time out using her powers in a "heroic" sense, she succeeds in taking down a particularly powerful local supervillian. However, another group of supervillains mistakes her for a new, solo villain, and they promptly invite her to join their group (since she inadvertently saved their asses). She agrees, in the secret hopes she'll gather valuable info she can feed to the local hero group to secure herself a place among their members. Although you quickly learn that things aren't so black and white as "good vs evil". There are some real stand-up "villains", some morally bankrupt "heroes", and a few who aren't easily categorized.
Superhero novels are not typically my thing, but the author is a phenomenal writer, crafting a supremely engaging cast, in a world that artfully manages to suspend disbelief, despite the physics-breaking supernatural powers so many of the characters possess. Much of the story is spent in the minds of the characters, rather than just the "pew-pew, LASERBLAST" aspect (although there is a lot of that, and very creatively utilized). It also touches on some pretty dark themes on occasion. Definitely not all sunshine and rainbows.
A few things to note:
A - It's not a book, it's an online web series. Which is great for me, as most of my reading lately I do on my phone.
B - It's free to read.
C - There's a LOT of content. Approximately 1,680,000 words. For comparison, the entirety of the A Song of Ice and Fire series is 1,736,054 words. And this guy wrote it in two years.
Anyway, I recommend this series 150%. It's well-written, it's the most creative use of powers I've seen, and it's addictive as hell. I can't stop.
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Yesterday I started reading "Argate Online" (https://mangazuki.me/argate-online/) manga because I like reading mangas.
So, I uh, I read Troubled Blood, the new Cormoran Strike novel.
The internal monologues get weird, it starts out with Robin and Cormoran's oddly jeering perspectives on the people they meet, which given that it largely includes grieving and very stressed people comes off kind of like both our leads secretly hold all their friends and relatives in contempt, which makes them kind of unsympathetic, at least to me.
The draw of the earlier books was how unusually compassionate the writing was towards people for a crime novel, so this is a stumbling block early on. I noticed shades of this back in Lethal White, but it ends up being stepped up a gear in this one, gradually fading as the book goes on.
Cormoran and Robin's romantic plot was usually the weakest part of the prior books, it improves a bit here but still isn't a highlight.
The book could lose 200 pages, and I would say it's a step down from its predecessors, but still a pretty good read.
The draw of the earlier books was how unusually compassionate the writing was towards people for a crime novel, so this is a stumbling block early on. I noticed shades of this back in Lethal White, but it ends up being stepped up a gear in this one, gradually fading as the book goes on.
Cormoran and Robin's romantic plot was usually the weakest part of the prior books, it improves a bit here but still isn't a highlight.
There are no trans people in this book. An opportunistic serial killer uses a woman's coat as a disguise sometimes, because people are less suspicious of a woman. He also unconvincingly lies to the police that he cross dresses when they find clothes belonging to his victims in his lair.
He is not trans, he is not a cross dresser, and he is
The theme, such as it is, is nothing like 'never trust a man in a dress', it's more like 'men are dangerous, but do not assume that because someone is feminine or a woman, that they cannot be dangerous'
He is not trans, he is not a cross dresser, and he is
not the main focus of the book, he's a red herring. The killer is a cis het woman, who is much more successful than he was.
The theme, such as it is, is nothing like 'never trust a man in a dress', it's more like 'men are dangerous, but do not assume that because someone is feminine or a woman, that they cannot be dangerous'
The book could lose 200 pages, and I would say it's a step down from its predecessors, but still a pretty good read.
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Read the entire trilogy of "Leyendas de Poniente", by author X. F. Moix.
The characters are amazingly charming, and while its mostly a misterious story about a priest and a group of bandits discovering legends related to the catalans, it knows how to be epic and funny.
It was an immersive read, and it felt like I went into a big and memorable journey by the end of it. More than recommended.
The characters are amazingly charming, and while its mostly a misterious story about a priest and a group of bandits discovering legends related to the catalans, it knows how to be epic and funny.
It was an immersive read, and it felt like I went into a big and memorable journey by the end of it. More than recommended.
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