What BOOK(s) are you reading?

Not Sure wrote:

Was it really that long? I read it on my Kindle, and it didn't seem nearly that long. The infodump has never been a problem for me (I'll admit the fascination with chains goes on a bit long). The "just kind of stops" is a pretty typical Stephenson ending. He tends to stop not when everything is resolved, but at a moment of brief story stability.

There is no such thing as too much spaceflight engineering for me. But that's me. It's a valid criticism, because he dumps a lot of stuff on the table, but that's generally the good part of Stephenson to me, and I'll happily wade through the bad characterization and "idiot ball" dialogue to get to the ideas. I thought the stuff I dislike was toned down and the stuff I like was at the forefront in this book.

I read mine on Kindle too, but looked it up on Amazon. Amazon says 880 pages. That's about par for Mr. Stephenson.

I normally don't mind infodump in my reading. I liked The Martian, and I seem to recall their being pages and pages of that sort of thing. How to keep the lights on, how to grow potatoes in Martian soil, etc. But in Seveneves there is part of the book where it took what felt like 40 or 50 pages to just get a character from point A to point B. This felt like a step-by-step description of my last airline trip.

I'd recommend Seveneyes to Stephenson fans, with slight reservations. If you were asking me, "Read any good SF lately?", I'd steer you towards Corey's Expanse series, or Leckie's Ancillary Justice / Ancillary Sword.

So next month I start teaching a class about pre-modern politics and economics and Song of Ice and Fire. That means I am grinding through the series, at least 100 pages every day. I am behind because it is very difficult---even though I like the books, any time you're forced to read a certain amount (and take notes) it is fucking work. From 9-11PM every god damn night.

I'm still excited for the class I just wish I had started a month earlier than I did. I'm finishing up the first book right now, so at the end of this month I'll really be grinding pages out in those later books.

Finally digging into Thomas Merton's Seven Storey Mountain. Jacob mentioned it to me some years ago, and now its spot in the queue has finally come up. Just starting it, but he's a pretty good writer, so this looks like it'll be an interesting read.

Thanks again to Jacob for the recommendation!

I hope to _finally_ get to some Jack Vance after this. Well, after this and Squadron Supreme.

I'm reading Picoverse, by Robert Metzger. It starts out well, as classic science-fiction that is focused on plausible science. However, it suffers from the traditional weakness of classic science-fiction, which is main characters that are either flat, crazy, or perplexing. Then the story takes a giddy leap off into the picoverse, and the characters become even less credible. The idea of the picoverse is interesting, but not really credible. When you are in a universe that tiny, what exactly are you breathing? It can't be air, because you're smaller than molecules.

Gary Sax wrote: So next month I start teaching a class about pre-modern politics and economics and Song of Ice and Fire. That means I am grinding through the series, at least 100 pages every day. I am behind because it is very difficult---even though I like the books, any time you're forced to read a certain amount (and take notes) it is fucking work. From 9-11PM every god damn night.

There's a TV show. Might be quicker.

Gary Sax wrote:

So next month I start teaching a class about pre-modern politics and economics and Song of Ice and Fire. That means I am grinding through the series, at least 100 pages every day. I am behind because it is very difficult---even though I like the books, any time you're forced to read a certain amount (and take notes) it is fucking work. From 9-11PM every god damn night.

Just stay a chapter ahead, and hope that none of the students have read the whole series already.

Unfortunately, the TV show omits most of the background political and economic stuff the class is using as an illustration to focus on the main characters, blood, and boobies... my students are going to have a hard time with that too.

RobertB wrote: Gary Sax wrote:

So next month I start teaching a class about pre-modern politics and economics and Song of Ice and Fire. That means I am grinding through the series, at least 100 pages every day. I am behind because it is very difficult---even though I like the books, any time you're forced to read a certain amount (and take notes) it is fucking work. From 9-11PM every god damn night.

Just stay a chapter ahead, and hope that none of the students have read the whole series already.

ha, if I didn't have to write the syllabus/plan the curriculum ahead of time.

I've been re-reading Watership Down by Richard Adams.

I first read this book when I was 12 or 13 and really enjoyed it, made a book report about it, and even hand drew a large (poster board sized) copy of the map of the rabbit's travels. Even then I loved maps.

Anyway, I was curious how the book would fair when read through the eyes of an adult. I have to say it starts off pretty weak. Good for children but a bit stilted and dull for a grown up. But then it takes this weird turn.

The whole section dealing with the "Tame Warren", the brain washed rabbits, and the queer ways their society goes when their true nature is suppressed is fascinating. The reappearance of the head of the Owsla (rabbit police) is horrifying and so is his tale of the destruction of the original warren.

Reading these chapters, I began to understand why this book was so popular. I don't know yet, as I've not finished, if the elevated quality is maintained for the rest of the book. I am also intrigued that this was a story he told to his children. Interesting to remember a time when everything geared for kids wasn't saccharine and purged of nastiness.

I also find a similarity with Tolkein in that he takes a lot of time to describe vegetation. Maybe that's just an English thing.

^I read that a year ago or so as well. Enjoyed it.

Yeah, I re-read Watership Down a few years ago, and was really impressed. That book is a classic for a reason.

I think it gets assigned a little too early in schools (if it's still assigned at all, I read it in school thirty years ago), but it definitely still should be read. You know, because fluffy bunnies.

I just re-read Tim Powers' Three Days to Never, because I can't quite afford his latest book so this is methadone. It's not his best book, and not his most popular, but man is it weird and interesting. It combines all of this weird historical, factual information about Einstein, Chaplin, California in the 1930s, Mossad, the Six-Day War, the ancient Vespers, time travel, the Kabbalah. Just so many weird and cool things and he plays it completely straight, so it is this occult (in the ancient sense), urban, gritty fantasy that has elements of a spy thriller and Ross MacDonald noir (I stole that comparison from the NYT review).

The first time I read it I devoured it too quickly to understand it. This time around I spent over a week, just reading 30 pages a night until I feel asleep and had these really bleak dreams set in old California.

I wouldn't recommend it unless you are a committed Tim Powers fan. Then, it's great stuff that will stay with you. Mummified heads wired to electronic Ouija boards. Astral projection. Spy craft. Regrets, remorse, alcoholism. Glimmers of hope.

I just finished TRANSITION by Iain Banks. It was OK. It's about teleportation of a sort, and the folks that want to control it. He spends WAAAY too much time with some minor characters plotwise, so parts of of it end up more stilted than necessary if only because they don't move the narrative. Overall, OK. I am moving him to the "it's fine to read this author" pile.

Contrast with Larry Niven and RINGWORLD. Fucking terrible. This can be a problem in SF--you have an idea, therefore you are an author. Awful writing. I think I would have preferred a technical guide to ringworlds than read the story of these dumb bastards.

re: RINGWORLD

I tried to read a bunch of older scifi, but had a hard time getting into it. A lot of it was of the "hard" sci-fi type, such as Ringworld, where the book was more interested in the engineering and technical aspects, so the characters are flat and dull. The original Foundation trilogy is a parade of characters it's impossible to give a crap about. Hari Seldon and The Mule are pretty much the only ones in there who stand out. Rendezvous with Rama, Childhood's End, again, I can tell you what happens in them but not to whom it happens. Dune's the only one I remember with actual characters in it.

I've got about 100 pages left in China Mieville's Railsea. It's very cool, I like it a lot. The basic premise is sort of "Moby Dick on trains instead of ships." As weird as that sounds, it actually ends up being even weirder. I love Mieville, and this is probably one of his more readable books. It's a lot less dense and philosophical than something like Iron Council. The setting is fascinating (as always). Mieville is the best at coming up with new words that instantly make sense -- upsky, alt-salvage, ferronaval, railcreole, daybat, etc. Great stuff, highly recommended.