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Robotics; Notes.
Before that, I was reading the Witcher.
Before that, I was reading the Witcher.
Currently reading (or last read)?
- Thread starter Waffles
- Start date
Last novel was To Turn the Tide by S.M. Stirling, last manga was One Piece
- Joined
- Dec 10, 2024
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I'm in the middle of a bunch of books (where I usually switch back and forth between reading the e-book and the listening to the audiobook), and visual novels, but I literally just finished "The Three Body Problem" like five minutes ago. I actually haven't even finished the author's postscript-thing yet.
(The premise and some of the Chinese culture/history stuff was interesting, but on it's own certainly not my favorite book. I thought it could be taken standalone, but it feels like most of the book was build up and then it just ends.)
(The premise and some of the Chinese culture/history stuff was interesting, but on it's own certainly not my favorite book. I thought it could be taken standalone, but it feels like most of the book was build up and then it just ends.)
currently reading:
the ghost stories of m.r. james
reginald and reginald in russia by saki
classics tales of horror by edgar allan poe
tales and fables by ambrose bierce
the collected short stores of d.h. lawrence
horrors by hans heinz ewers
ancient sorceries (actually a collection with 3 other short stories in it) by algernon blackwood
I'm taking my time with these cause I don't want to finish them
the ghost stories of m.r. james
reginald and reginald in russia by saki
classics tales of horror by edgar allan poe
tales and fables by ambrose bierce
the collected short stores of d.h. lawrence
horrors by hans heinz ewers
ancient sorceries (actually a collection with 3 other short stories in it) by algernon blackwood
I'm taking my time with these cause I don't want to finish them
Went and re-read Snow Crash for the first time in forever, it's such a weird relic now. Also The Big Sleep, I'd seen multiple film adaptations, figured I should read it.
Oh, and some Scalzi books, most recently:
Pretty good!
Oh, and some Scalzi books, most recently:
Pretty good!
I've started the FF7 novel On the way to a smile. I'm curious to see how it sets up Advent Children.
The Six Lessons by Ludwig von Mises. Yep, I refuse to use the English title
The remaster of Fate/Stay Night and ¡Socorro!
By Elsa Bornemann. The book is basically a horror anthology.
By Elsa Bornemann. The book is basically a horror anthology.
Every book Gorse read in 2024, paired with a brief review? Yes please, madam! I’m pretty sure these are in chronological order from when I started reading them, too. Let’s-a go!
#1: Ibid by Mark Dunn. I couldn’t tell you how disappointed I was in this book, especially because Dunn’s first novel, Ella Minnow Pea, is one of my favourite books ever. This one really dropped the ball, though… the characters were all really bland and uninteresting, the central “gimmick” that the book is based around (everything is written in footnotes with no body text) is pointless, and there’s a lot of really ham-fisted political commentary that’s now completely outdated.
The more I learn about Mark Dunn, the more I dislike him, though Ella Minnow Pea still comes highly recommended.
#2: The Lady in the Lake by Raymond Chandler. This was great! I love all the Philip Marlowe books – The Big Sleep is the best and Farewell My Lovely is the worst, but they all have their charms – and this was another excellent entry in the series.
It's much more grounded in reality than the other ones, because it was written around the time when the U.S. was getting heavily involved in the WW2 effort, but the prose is still top-notch, the mystery is exciting, and the villain is deliciously devious. I like the setting a lot, too – it's very different than all the other Marlowe books, but it's a welcome change and I found it very atmospheric.
#3: Exercises in Style by Raymond Quenaeu. As my obligatory non-fiction book for the year, this was a fun little way to explore different styles of writing. The same short story is told in 99 different styles, giving you a pretty neat insight into how written (and spoken!) language works, and how it affects our interpretation of a central source text.
Apparently the content was heavily "localized" (
) from the original French, and as such, the book contains both an opening and closing essay by two esteemed authors who attempt to justify the changes. I don't know if I buy any of that shit, and I'd still like to read the original version some day if I ever learn French, but this was still a cute time.
#4: Mort by Terry Pratchett. LOVED IT!!!!!!! I went through a big chunk of my life thinking that I hated Discworld because the first one I read, Small Gods, did nothing for me (and had a pretty smug, self-satisfied tone), but this one pulled me back. I really, really love all the characters – they're entertaining and loveable, and they all change very believably from start to finish in a pretty small amount of time.
I'm not a fantasy guy at all, but Pratchett's doses of comedy made the world of Mort much easier to enjoy, and I closed the book feeling quite pleased with it. Unbelievably... I even laughed a few times. Recommended!
#5: Binge by Douglas Coupland. This was my favourite book of the year! It's a collection of like 60 short stories, each only 2-3 pages long, about the lives and trifles of seemingly unrelated people that somewhat converge right at the end. Coupland's voice really comes through in everything he writes, and I found myself engaged, entertained, and occasionally disgusted at some of the crazy BS he came up with in no more than 500 words each time.
True to the book's name, I kept picking this up intending to read just one or two stories, but constantly "binged" on it until I'd read about 10 stories per sitting. I've loved everything this guy has ever written, and I'm going to keep buying his books until one of us dies.
#6: Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon. I do like my classic sci-fi, and this was a great way to get back into the genre. It's a "future history" book speculating on how the human race will evolve and change in the next several million years, and it proposes a lot of interesting theories and concepts regarding our increasingly shared culture, the impact of technology (and this was written barely after the industrial revolution, so there's certainly no computers involved), and how our lives might be affected by the eventual expansion of the sun.
The first three-quarters are wonderfully well-written and interesting, though it does get a touch too philosophical towards the end for my taste. Good SF book, overall!
#7: Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier. Continuing the theme of disappointing follow-ups to books I really love, du Maurier's Rebecca is one of my top three fave novels ever, but I just thought this one was really boring. It's a gothic love story set in the most miserable, tedious location ever – moorish Cornwall – and all the characters are really rote and uninteresting.
Aside from one scene with the main girl on her own in a small marketplace on a snowy night, I struggle to remember anything I liked about this... even the climax, which is really big and explosive, didn't leave any sort of impression beyond apathy. I still love ol' Dapher, but this wasn't quite my speed.
#8: The Beach Trap by Ali Brady. I bought this book at a drugstore purely out of curiosity – what sort of literature do women in their late-20s/early-30s (the current target audience for all fiction) read? Well, now I've read one of these books, and I can safely say that my career as a novelist is fucked beyond all redemption, because this SUUUUUUUUCKED!!!
The plot is just The Parent Trap meets a Hallmark beach movie, all the female characters are vapid and annoying, all the male characters are vapid and underwritten (I doubt either of the authors has ever had a long-term relationship with a man that didn't involve intercourse), and the writing was like a series of Instagram posts (which also describes much of the plot). Let's be kind and say I'm not the target demo, here.
#9: Hell Hound by Ken Greenhall. I've been meaning to pick up a few of these "Paperbacks from Hell" novels for a while, now, but they're tough and expensive to get in Canada. Now that I finally got my hands on this one, though, I can say that I really enjoyed it! It's a very short novel – only about 150 pages – about an EVIL MURDEROUS DOG WHO KILLS PEOPLE, RUFF RUFF, but what really makes it good is a lot of very well-developed human characters and a comfortable, atmospheric collection of settings.
I only wish that it had been a bit longer, which would have allowed for more development of the dog himself – he narrates some scenes in first-person – and the book's central theme of instinct, but I was very satisfied by what I got and was glad I picked this up. I'll read more of these next year, promise!
And that's that! Best book was Binge, worst was probably The Beach Trap. I read some comics and 1 volume of manga this year, too, but I'll post about 'em elsewhere. OK year, overall, and it really helped me narrow down who I want to keep reading more of in the future. I completely stole this format from this old Austin McConnell video, so if you liked it, watch that. Here's to another year of fine literature!
The more I learn about Mark Dunn, the more I dislike him, though Ella Minnow Pea still comes highly recommended.
It's much more grounded in reality than the other ones, because it was written around the time when the U.S. was getting heavily involved in the WW2 effort, but the prose is still top-notch, the mystery is exciting, and the villain is deliciously devious. I like the setting a lot, too – it's very different than all the other Marlowe books, but it's a welcome change and I found it very atmospheric.
Apparently the content was heavily "localized" (
) from the original French, and as such, the book contains both an opening and closing essay by two esteemed authors who attempt to justify the changes. I don't know if I buy any of that shit, and I'd still like to read the original version some day if I ever learn French, but this was still a cute time.
I'm not a fantasy guy at all, but Pratchett's doses of comedy made the world of Mort much easier to enjoy, and I closed the book feeling quite pleased with it. Unbelievably... I even laughed a few times. Recommended!
True to the book's name, I kept picking this up intending to read just one or two stories, but constantly "binged" on it until I'd read about 10 stories per sitting. I've loved everything this guy has ever written, and I'm going to keep buying his books until one of us dies.
#6: Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon. I do like my classic sci-fi, and this was a great way to get back into the genre. It's a "future history" book speculating on how the human race will evolve and change in the next several million years, and it proposes a lot of interesting theories and concepts regarding our increasingly shared culture, the impact of technology (and this was written barely after the industrial revolution, so there's certainly no computers involved), and how our lives might be affected by the eventual expansion of the sun.
The first three-quarters are wonderfully well-written and interesting, though it does get a touch too philosophical towards the end for my taste. Good SF book, overall!
Aside from one scene with the main girl on her own in a small marketplace on a snowy night, I struggle to remember anything I liked about this... even the climax, which is really big and explosive, didn't leave any sort of impression beyond apathy. I still love ol' Dapher, but this wasn't quite my speed.
#8: The Beach Trap by Ali Brady. I bought this book at a drugstore purely out of curiosity – what sort of literature do women in their late-20s/early-30s (the current target audience for all fiction) read? Well, now I've read one of these books, and I can safely say that my career as a novelist is fucked beyond all redemption, because this SUUUUUUUUCKED!!!
The plot is just The Parent Trap meets a Hallmark beach movie, all the female characters are vapid and annoying, all the male characters are vapid and underwritten (I doubt either of the authors has ever had a long-term relationship with a man that didn't involve intercourse), and the writing was like a series of Instagram posts (which also describes much of the plot). Let's be kind and say I'm not the target demo, here.
I only wish that it had been a bit longer, which would have allowed for more development of the dog himself – he narrates some scenes in first-person – and the book's central theme of instinct, but I was very satisfied by what I got and was glad I picked this up. I'll read more of these next year, promise!
And that's that! Best book was Binge, worst was probably The Beach Trap. I read some comics and 1 volume of manga this year, too, but I'll post about 'em elsewhere. OK year, overall, and it really helped me narrow down who I want to keep reading more of in the future. I completely stole this format from this old Austin McConnell video, so if you liked it, watch that. Here's to another year of fine literature!
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So I'm fascinated by that Exercises in Style description, looking for a copy now. Also funny enough, Small Gods was the first (and to date, only) Discworld book I read, I've meant to dive into that. Big Raymond Chandler fan here as well.
I do want to call out the notion that The Beach Trap is somehow representative of the "monolith" that is women, though. My roommate reads hundreds of books a year, largely romance and non-fiction, and hasn't ever heard of that title or it's authors. When I read a new terrible Tom Clancy novel (usually at my old man's insistence) I don't roll my eyes and say "Better luck next year, men."
I love classic literature, I've read every short story by Franz Kafka last year and I just got started with his novels this year
@ATenderLad Exercises in Style is 100% worth it! It’s super-short, very cheap (though I’d definitely spring for the version I showed to read the opening and ending essays), and a really interesting look at the how medium of text impacts the content. The very last “exercise” made my eyes widen and my jaw drop, so be sure to read ‘em all in order for the intended effect.
And yes, I saw you mention The Big Sleep earlier, and was going to comment on it! That’s personally my favourite Philip Marlowe book, but they’re all effing great (well, the original ones written by Raymond Chandler, anywho) and you can’t go wrong with any point in the series. Remember that they’re all totally disconnected, too (because they were pieced together from short fiction in Black Mask magazine), so you don’t have to read them in order… but I’d say do so anyways just to chart Chandler’s progress as a novelist. I wish I was 1/1000th the writer he was!
If The Beach Trap is an inditement of anything, it’s poorly-written tripe churned out for filler at drug stores… which, I hate to say, is geared mostly at women these days. I wish it wasn’t — women deserve better. (Everyone does, but the fiction space is woman-dominated and -focused right now.)
Poor writing ability and consumption is assuredly not something that’s limited by gender, race, socioeconomic status, or iris colour — it’s something silly people all over the world can share. (And, for the record, my top two authors ever — Kim Edwards and Daphne du Maurier, as mentioned — are women. And, for additional record points, the two teachers who inspired me to become a writer were also women. Fiction is a women’s world, nowadays! That’s not a bad thing at all, but I think generally low-quality writing is. )
And yes, I saw you mention The Big Sleep earlier, and was going to comment on it! That’s personally my favourite Philip Marlowe book, but they’re all effing great (well, the original ones written by Raymond Chandler, anywho) and you can’t go wrong with any point in the series. Remember that they’re all totally disconnected, too (because they were pieced together from short fiction in Black Mask magazine), so you don’t have to read them in order… but I’d say do so anyways just to chart Chandler’s progress as a novelist. I wish I was 1/1000th the writer he was!
Nonononono my good friend, you misunderstand me completely — I am absolutely not saying that women have poor taste in books. (If any of my female friends heard me say that, they’d personally snap my neck, then feed my remains into a paper shredder.) What I’m saying is that mainstream, watered-down, trope-heavy “chick lit” like this is what’s getting published, printed, and sold en masse these days (see any literary agency’s front page for confirmation of this). And I — being someone who’s the furthest thing from the target demo imaginable — don’t personally care for it.
If The Beach Trap is an inditement of anything, it’s poorly-written tripe churned out for filler at drug stores… which, I hate to say, is geared mostly at women these days. I wish it wasn’t — women deserve better. (Everyone does, but the fiction space is woman-dominated and -focused right now.)
Poor writing ability and consumption is assuredly not something that’s limited by gender, race, socioeconomic status, or iris colour — it’s something silly people all over the world can share. (And, for the record, my top two authors ever — Kim Edwards and Daphne du Maurier, as mentioned — are women. And, for additional record points, the two teachers who inspired me to become a writer were also women. Fiction is a women’s world, nowadays! That’s not a bad thing at all, but I think generally low-quality writing is. )
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Sounds good to me friend, it was hard for me to tell that intent from the review was all. I agree! Tripe is tripe, Sturgeon's Law and all that.
In my commitment to being a trashy philistine, I have a document for the movies I've read, and I log what comics I'm reading, but I've been lax on recording my book reading this year. At most I've discussed it with friends and family. (My memory is getting concerning the last few years, I've been trying to write more to make up for it.)
My roommate grabs me a few random books from the library every time she goes, the last few have been unmemorable:
Interstellar MegaChef by Lavanya Lakshminarayan - In a far future of colonized planets hosting popular cooking shows, our protagonist is looking to win the biggest game in town and prove her culinary mastery, but is side-tracked (and maybe falling for) a programmer with big plans for a food sensory immersive sim. I wish it was better, but the pacing is awful. More than halfway through the book, I was still waiting for the real plot to kick in, and felt short-changed by the time it arrived. It's an interesting look at a far future, but it never crossed over to feeling like a "real" place to me, something I could close my eyes and imagine living in.
The Prophecy Con (Rogues of the Republic #2) by Patrick Weekes (the lead writer of Dragon Age, which I haven't played, didn't know who he was till after I read the book) - This one starts off fun, with an action movie/video game plot structure for the first half of the book. Explosive introduction, some placesetting with the characters to tell us about the setting and premise, a dramatic escape to a distant city where they pull a museum heist, followed by a train robbery! I love train robberies, I really do. The pace shifts dramatically at that point though, not just slowing down but bringing in lore from the previous book that I wasn't familiar with, and generally gumming up the works to setup the next book in the series. Basically, it goes from being a very character-centric adventure to this larger existential threat, in a way that felt more than a little forced. I will give it points for a third act elven techno-magic recreation of the climactic riverboat poker tournament from the movie Maverick though, even if it's my nostalgia for the film talking.
I really should remember more books I read this year, but I've been so focused on getting back into comics, and my all-consuming movie viewing doesn't help.
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I last read & finished the Yuri Is Forbidden for Yuri Ota?! manga.
- Joined
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I just finished Rabbit is Rich by John Updike.
I enjoy time capsule-ish 20th century American writing and the midcentury postwar pop-modernism of Cheever, Salinger, Carver, etc. These books and writers represent relics of a period when general readers had a sensitivity to literary effects, but there was a new influence of magazine writing, changing social mores, advertising, movies and TV, etc. Updike's Rabbit Tetralogy seems like the most conscious work of this period to lasso together the feelings and textures of the era, without descending into the (to me, masturbatory) excesses of post-modernists such as Pynchon, Barth, Gaddis, etc.
Rabbit is Rich, the third book in the series, and the winner of the Pulitzer Prize, is––like the Pulitzer Prize itself––a relic of the prestige culture of the period and an extremely musty work, cheap cologne-toned, but also extremely cozy and entertaining. Rabbit Angstrom's casual bigotry, horniness, materialism, etc., reads really strangely in 2024, but in a way I enjoyed, inducing reflection on how weird we were not so long ago, or maybe, how weird we are now, or maybe just that the American dream is, at its heart, a form of misanthropy, with a shifting veil of social mimesis and ludicrousness overlaid thereof. Recommended!
I enjoy time capsule-ish 20th century American writing and the midcentury postwar pop-modernism of Cheever, Salinger, Carver, etc. These books and writers represent relics of a period when general readers had a sensitivity to literary effects, but there was a new influence of magazine writing, changing social mores, advertising, movies and TV, etc. Updike's Rabbit Tetralogy seems like the most conscious work of this period to lasso together the feelings and textures of the era, without descending into the (to me, masturbatory) excesses of post-modernists such as Pynchon, Barth, Gaddis, etc.
Rabbit is Rich, the third book in the series, and the winner of the Pulitzer Prize, is––like the Pulitzer Prize itself––a relic of the prestige culture of the period and an extremely musty work, cheap cologne-toned, but also extremely cozy and entertaining. Rabbit Angstrom's casual bigotry, horniness, materialism, etc., reads really strangely in 2024, but in a way I enjoyed, inducing reflection on how weird we were not so long ago, or maybe, how weird we are now, or maybe just that the American dream is, at its heart, a form of misanthropy, with a shifting veil of social mimesis and ludicrousness overlaid thereof. Recommended!
Dark Star. Biography on the actress Vivien Leigh(Scarlett from Gone with the Wind, and Blanche from Streetcar Named Desire)
I'll bet that's fascinating, early actresses had a pretty unique place in American society. I just watched her last movie a few months ago, Ship of Fools (1965), where she plays a side character who's getting cynical about love as she gets older.
Fascinating, and tragic like Monroe, and the Garlands of the world.
I read the first two chapters of the Nagisa Shodukou (Nagisa Cafeteria) manga.
- Joined
- Dec 14, 2024
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Dune
Technical Review 2009 - F1 Special (The Third Era Activities) from Honda R&D
insanely interesting(to me) technical review that honda r&d did on its f1 programme circa 2000 to late 2008. i stumbled across this while going through a discord on new years and i have amused by it due to it being where a lot of the info on the unraced honda ra109k and it's hybrid system comes from.
and ive been just skimming and reading through bits and pieces of this entire thing for the past 4 days in my spare time and currently im reading up on the aero analysis section and im very intrigued by the neat explanation they gave for those weird chimneys that appeared on 2000s f1 cars which was actually quite insightful
also shoutouts to the cover:
big fan of the fucking RA108 mech
insanely interesting(to me) technical review that honda r&d did on its f1 programme circa 2000 to late 2008. i stumbled across this while going through a discord on new years and i have amused by it due to it being where a lot of the info on the unraced honda ra109k and it's hybrid system comes from.
and ive been just skimming and reading through bits and pieces of this entire thing for the past 4 days in my spare time and currently im reading up on the aero analysis section and im very intrigued by the neat explanation they gave for those weird chimneys that appeared on 2000s f1 cars which was actually quite insightful
also shoutouts to the cover:
big fan of the fucking RA108 mech
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