The Literature Thread (Yes, some of us still reed)

I read Under The Dome as my first Stephen King novel. I felt like that was enough Stephen King. Then again I later discovered The Dark Tower series and I’m going to be on the third book soon.

I enjoyed a book called Horns which I later learned was written by his son.

Will look into it. I recently started reading historical books. I started with The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, which was a mistake. I might come back to that one in 10 years. I then read Embracing Defeat and The Vikings. I also have The Swerve, A Peace to End All Peace, “Guns, Germs, and Steel” and The Wright Brothers but I haven’t started on any of them yet.

I’m currently reading But What If We’re Wrong? aside from the aforementioned, I also have Nevernight, The White Plague, Settling Accounts: Return Engagement, Twelve Kings in Sharakhai, Children of Time, and I’m Thinking of Ending Things on my plate.

Still waiting for Shadows Alive

My reading list:

  • Finish Cryptonomicon re-read (currently 50% through)
  • The Lacuna, by Barbara Kingsolver
  • REAMDE, by you-know-who
  • The Satanic Verses, by Salman Rushdie
  • The Baroque Cycle second time through, by you-know-who
  • The Selfish Gene, Dawkins
  • The God Delusion, Dawkins
  • A Universe from Nothing, Lawrence Krauss
  • 11/22/63

Which kinda looks like a short list… Oh, and I’ll probably be reading the Harry Potter books to my kids in addition to that. I haven’t experienced them yet.

Edit - @“Rioting Soul” Thanks for reminding me about King. Adding 11/22/63 to my list.

:tup:

I recently bought an old paperback Moby Dick and a hardcover The Last of the Mohicans. I’m reading Moby Dick first and liking it very much. Melville does a very good job of painting a picture in your mind with his deep descriptions of every detail in the scene.

He was a master, as were Hemingway, Dickens, and Poe. If you enjoy classics, check them out.

Currently reading Count of Monte Cristo

Next:
The Talisman by Stephen King
Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy

Peter Straub co-authored The Talisman. It’s an awesome book!

I want to read Koko by Straub since I’m a sucker for anything Vietnam related, but it got average reviews on amazon. Dunno if i should get it

I think if you skip the chapter on the color white and the one on whale taxonomy Moby Dick is one of the GOAT American novels. He needed an editor to cut some of the filler and keep him on target.

I’ve been watching documentaries and interviews about the unit. I’ll have to check it out.

I’m not there yet, but I can see what you mean.

So take the parts about ‘white’ and ‘whale’ out of Moby Dick, huh? Kind of interesting.

I’m down to the last entry in the Frank Herbert Dune novels. I kind of don’t want to finish and then be left hanging, but I knew what I was getting into.

Reading All the Pretty Horses. Started slow and I wasn’t in the McCarthy rhythm that I need to get through his style of writing. I caught it now and I’m rolling. I’ll probably finish the Border Trilogy straight away.

Attempting Les Miserables for the third time. Gotten 10% in, farthest ever. Shit is so long.

@Manx
Nice list. I thoroughly enjoyed God Delusion when I read it. Dawkins debunking St. Thomas Aquinas was the best part imo.

starting Dark Tower 2 tomorrow

Extreme Ownership by Jocko Willink and Leigh Babin
Striking Distance: Bruce Lee and the Dawn of Martial Arts by Charles J. Russo

Pai Mei approves.gif

Just knocked out the following:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006M9JCOS/ref=oh_aui_d_detailpage_o05_?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00X6GH8PA/ref=oh_aui_d_detailpage_o04_?ie=UTF8&psc=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DVNM2ZO/ref=oh_aui_d_detailpage_o04_?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Really interesting reads about the current political situation in America and Europe. I highly recommend giving these books a read because there IMO is a massive propaganda campaign in Western society to indoctrinate Westerners to believe a narrative that is opposed to reality. I read the entire 6 part Warner series, I just didn’t link all 6 books. My in-laws are Shia apostates and they know what is at stake and have are so opposed to Hillary and Huma Abedin that they are voting Trump because they want to keep Islamist out of the government. This book rightly points out how Huma’s Muslim brotherhood ties would not allow her pass low level security checks much less the security checks required of a White House chief of staff. To point out how ridiculous this is, my brother in law applied to various government agencies because he is a law enforcement officer. His Iranian mother automatically disqualified him from applying to the CIA, FBI, NSA or Homeland security. Just let that stew for little bit. When I have pointed this out to Liberals they have called me a racist, but I consider the term to be a crutch for people without an argument. This is what happens to leftists when Islamists come to power: http://www.nytimes.com/1981/09/24/world/khomeini-calls-for-purge-of-leftist-schoolchildren.html

Two months later I’m still reading this fucking book. How small was the font in the print version? I swear I keep swiping and barely making a dent.

According to Kindle, I’m about 49% done with this book. That, to me, is absurd seeing as how I read it 3-4 times per week for hours at a time. I still have 38 hours left in this shit? Really?

On the positive side, some really exciting shit happens in this book mostly concerning Jean Valjean and Javert. I’m just now getting to the part of the July Revolution. This book doesn’t seem entirely accurate with its history, but it is damn close and packs a lot of it in. Seriously, massive chunks of this book are dedicated not to the story but of describing the world where the story takes place. You get descriptions of cloisters, the habits of nuns, the battle of Waterloo, Royalists after the French Revolution, etc. I was going to skip them all (I am pretty sure they sell an abridged version of this novel) but that wouldn’t be as fun.

Sigh, in the mean time I have all these other books in a pile just waiting to be read.

Why would you skip the parts that make the book live? :mad:

The color white chapter is a weird philosophical reflection about what exactly the color white is. I don’t know how to describe it other than that. The whale taxonomy is the argument that whales are mammals and not fish, which I am guessing may have still been under argument at the time. Skipping these two chapters IMO makes the book flow much better.