Whatcha Reading?

I remember them as a fun romp.

Please tell me I’m correct and I should read them again or tell me I’m correct and should leave my memories intact. :slight_smile:

I’m sure they are somewhere in my pile of txt files from Usenet days.

I picked up a copy of the first one in a thrift shop about 2 years ago now and read through it and enjoyed it for the fluff that it was. If I didn’t have the current SCI-FI/Fantasy humble book bundle to go through right now I would be tempted.

On the note of my current read, I am reading through Hap & Leonard Blood and Lemonade… grim in pointing out how fucked up and racist society was in the late 60s, but a lot of fun. I will have to get book one now.

1 Like

i started them last night. so far so good. a fun, light retro romp is just the thing my brain craves at the end of the day, these days.

3 Likes

Has anybody read the deathstalker books?

1 Like

Are these related to the Deathstalker movie? Because MST3K did a helluva number on that show, just sayin’. Otherwise, haven’t heard of the novels.

3 Likes

Nope nothing to do with each other.

2 Likes

image

I re-read Naked Lunch earlier in the week.

This is perhaps not a good time to rile me…

8 Likes

But… why?

4 Likes

Uh… because I think it’s a great book? I’d never gotten around to reading the restored text, so I finally did.

I’m surprised that my reading of Naked Lunch got questioned, while The SCUM Manifesto didn’t.

5 Likes

I’ve tried to read Naked Lunch several times but never managed to finish it.

There’s a bit in the foreword (at least in the version I used to own) where Burroughs mentions that he never intended the book to be published and only finally allowed its publication when someone pointed out to him that it would serve as a great warning to people about the dangers of heroin addiction. Each time I have tried to read it, I have ended up thinking “yeh, dude’s brain is fried” and given up with a headache…

Most effective deterrent I can think of, to be fair…

6 Likes

Take it up with the French and American academies…

3 Likes

I shall write them a sternly worded letter.

"Dear Acadmies,

WHATISTHISWHYISMYBRAINSLOWLYTRICKLINGOUTOFMYNOSE?

Sincerely,
Disgruntled, Singapore."

6 Likes

Hmmmm… yeah. Does Singapore often accuse avant-gardists it doesn’t care for of brain damage? I mean, besides William Gibson?

6 Likes

I had lunch last weekend with a friend of mine, and complained I haven’t read any books lately that had really drawn me in and kept me interested. She came up with a bunch of really good suggestions, bearing in mind that I’ve been really swamped at work and I’m not up to reading anything too challenging at the moment.

I borrowed a Kelley Armstrong I hadn’t read yet from the library based on her recommendation, and am now on Book 2 of the Cainsville series. It’s sort of in the same neighbourhood as Stephen King’s Dark Tower books, with an emphasis on mystery and psychology with the supernatural bits in the background. I do like the idea of a few thousand Irish, Welsh, Scottish, and English old-school pagans living quietly just outside Chicago and minding their own business for the most part.

4 Likes

Currently into The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.

I’ve enjoyed every Neal Stephenson novel I’ve read. This is one of the lighter and funnier ones, and seems kind of reminiscent of Zodiac in general tone. :slight_smile: Requires even more suspension of disbelief than Seveneves but I’m having a good time with it.

4 Likes

Finally getting around to reading Zealot by Reza Aslan, which is an interesting and entertaining book… also, he has four degrees you know!

fox-reza-aslan-4-degrees

9 Likes

Well after a minor thread tangent at TOP via a nice user I have been reading through the first anthology of The Vorkosigan Saga. Not quite what I expected but I am enjoying it greatly.
Also in the library I spotted on the featured area volume one of both Squirrel Girl and Ms. Marvel. I think Squirrel Girl is my new favorite super hero. Both are great. Ms. Marvel is more standard super hero fare but the ad hoc team up with Wolverine was my favorite bit.
And for more girl powered comics @KeisterButton checked out 2 volumes of Goldie Vance which I got to first. Modern day teen detective fun.

4 Likes

Just finished up Katharine Burdekin’s Swastika Night which was originally published in 1937 - which I found still to be very relevant:

Now, I’m reading John Scalzi’s Redshirts which so far is tons of fun:

8 Likes

That ties with Foundation as my favorite series. The characterization is just wonderful. It would make a good miniseries, IMO, if it were done right. I like the Expanse series too, and the series is done well.

The “Midshipman’s Hope” books by David Feintuch are really neat too – provided you can tolerate the main character! He is a bit of a bastard, but his sense of ethics is completely consistent. I could not put these books down.

2 Likes

You seen the box yet?

1 Like