I'm currently reading Winter is a coming is that's the book. Good perspective.

I read the book (winter is coming) last summer. There was a brief discussion in the thread about it back then. I thought it was excellent.

Kasparov and Evan McMullen twitter accounts bash trump for his Putin policy daily

I'm reading Norm MacDonald's fake memoir, Based on a True Story: A Memoir. As a huge fan of his, he can do no wrong in my book. I'm entertained by the whimsy, but others might easily see this as self-indulgence. It's not as funny as a good Norm standup routine or even him just riffing on his podcast or a tv interview, but that's a high bar indeed.

What Is The What. Beasts of No Nation has me all interested in child soldiers at the moment.

What is the what is a great book.

I'm reading a book called The Unstoppable Keeper about a German soccer goalie who played basically in every corner of the world. it's kinda like if anthony bourdain was a soccer player and the kind of odd ball situations he would get into. Definitely entertaining for anyone who likes futbol

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

Incredibly self indulgent with the 80s pop culture references. A horribly ill conceived and poorly written "love story" snuck into the middle. But, with that said, a really addictive book. I read it in 2 days, staying up late both nights to finish it off. I'm conflicted. I had serious issues with this book, but I still enjoyed reading it.

Ha, RPO isn't a great book but it's lots of fun. Good tension and a solid arc. Plus I liked all the Arthurian stuff.


When I finished Snowcrash, everybody told me I had to pick up Cryptonomicon, and of course, you guys were right. Awesome book and a whole lot of fun to read. I don't think the plot was all that it might've been, but all of the nutso descriptions made the book:

One thing Stephenson does so well is to throw in random little details that he couldn't possibly know unless he had first hand (or supremely excellent second hand) knowledge of his subject. Really makes his work stand out.

Best of the Stephenson books I've read, for sure. Way over the top, and probably better for it.

Bought the goalkeeper book after that description and seeing that it was only $5 (on sale).

I really enjoyed Ready Player One. I thought it was a fun book.

Cryptonomicon is one of my favorite books. I keep meaning to reread it, but there's a stack of books that keeps eyeing me.

Haha yea. Certain imagery remains with me, but for the most part it's not in any way substantial.

The building I just moved into reminds me of the stacked trailers a bit. It's a new, modern building designed with a "cool" facade that kinda looks like stacked units.

A few years ago I got 100 pages into cryptonomicon then left it on a plane. Finally picked it up again and I'm loving it.

(Also true of the 1000 autumn of Jacob dezoit )

IIRC, there was some discussion a couple months ago about separating the artist from their work, not letting their personality or deplorable actions influence one's take on a book. I'm usually good about keeping book and author apart, I think, but it wasn't so easy to do with Marion Zimmer Bradley and her rendition of the King Arthur tale, The Mists of Avalon, especially considering how central incestual themes are to the book.

All that aside, I enjoyed the book immensely. It's the feminine side of the story, centering on Igraine, Morgan Le Faye, and Guinivere. And though Lancelot, Arthur, Merlin, & co. are heavily involved, the story doesn't revolve around them. The transition from paganism to Christianity is the main theme, and it suffuses all other aspects of the book, from court politics to love affairs.

For about half the book, I was thinking that MZB was doing a disservice to a pro-paganism argument by drawing Guinivere (the primary agent of Christianity in the book) as such a tedious, insufferable, insecure, jealous *****. I'm generally an equal time kind of guy who likes a balanced story. Then I realized that wasn't the point at all, that there was some other, more obscure point MZB was trying to make -- I'd just been caught up in hating Guinivere (she really is godawful) that I'd glossed over the real point. Which is a great testament to MZB's skill in rendering character.

There were a few things I didn't like -- stuff she does with perspective, particularly sprinkling in the occasional first person viewpoint among what is otherwise tight third person (I guess if Bleak House didn't change my mind on that technique, nothing will) -- but overall, it's one of the best fantasies I've read.

The book sounds very interesting.

Yep that sounds great, it's been added to my list.

The horrible things the author did are crazy. It was tough reading the poem "Mother's Hands" written by her daughter:

Wow. What a rabbit hole that turned out to be. Crazy. I can't decide now whether to read her books or not. On the bright side, she's dead, so buying her books doesn't send any money her way.

Yikes, that poem.

I actually decided to quit that rabbit hole before I got too deep -- there's only so much I want to know. Thing is, while I read the book I couldn't help question how much of the stuff MZB was writing she actually believed. Morgan is the main protagonist, so a lot of the magic is earth-based / pagan, and there's some amount of ritualistic type sex, which made me wonder if she actually practiced some of the stuff she was describing. In that light the book is more than disturbing, and I kinda wanted to dislike it, but it kept drawing me in.

I tried briefly to find out where the money from her books goes, but had no luck.

As for the book itself, it's got some problems like structure and the POV stuff I mentioned. And it is a monster, four books in one, basically. But such a (for lack of a better phrase) balls to the wall feminist perspective is pretty rare in SFF, and the fact that it's woven so well into the narrative is remarkable. It turns the usual hero's adventure on its head. Very little questing type of stuff, more of what happens between the quests.

I was thinking while reading it that it would make a prime candidate for a TV mini-series, but then I looked and sure enough it's been done.

I started to read that one years ago but stopped for some reason. I've been meaning to pick it back up at some point.

Started The Vorrh, a dense, impeccably written and stylized fantasy novel by Brian Catling. I have always hoped for top notch authors to move into genre fiction and this novel certainly scratches that itch!

The Wrong Side of Goodbye by Michael Connelly. Best Connelly I've read in a while.

Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky starts out as a fairly promising postapocalypse zombie story, but descends into silliness once the setup is done. Too many evil subcultures, dei ex machina, wasted sidekicks, dream sequences, pointless point-to-point adventures -- just all around pretty weak. It does have some good atmosphere, but that can't save it.

I read the bathroom wall at the local sports pub. Nothing outstanding. Dive bars have better wall news I think.

And some pubs/taverns now will post the local sports page above the urinal. Wonder if this is done for the women's pisser too.

I call this light reading on the local scene, rudimentary and limited in quality and quantity but you can pick up a few hints and suggestions and other colorful commentary. Always worth a look.

An oldie but still a goodie:

"What are you looking up here for - the jokes in your hand"

Started the first volume of The Years of Lyndon Johnson. As with The Power Broker, Caro really grabs you in the prologue, lays out his thesis, and makes you firmly believe you're about to read the greatest book you've ever read.

Just finished Raymond Chandler's Farewell My Lovely. Never read any Chandler before - he has a wonderful deadpan style that is a lot of fun to read. Marlowe is a great character and the story is tight and hums along nicely. Will deffo check out some of his other books.