"What book are ye reading ritemeow?"

ubuwrote:

Just finished Heart of Darkness (Conrad).  Somehow I never had a chance to read this classic until now.  It packs quite a punch.

Especially considering English was Joseph Conrad's second language!

It's interesting seeing the titles. Why fiction or history? How long does one stick with a book? What holds your interest? Also have your tastes changed? I think I liked Conrad more when I was younger. 

More trivia, Heart of Darkness was the model for Apocalypse Now.

Having depleted all of my new reading material, I am now girding myself to re-read the entire "Solar Cycle" (Book of the New Sun + Long Sun + Short Sun) by Gene Wolfe.  12 books in total I believe, and a true masterpiece.

Trevor Kerberwrote:

Just finished A Scanner Darkly, which I enjoyed. So far, all of the Philip K Dick books I've read have left me feeling a little perplexed, but it's nice that way.

Have you watched the Linklater adaptation? Entire thing is rotoscoped, such a trip. Highly underrated in my opinion. 

Just finished High Sierra Love Letter, Kim Stanley Robinson. Good read. 

In the middle of the new Royal Robbins bio, The Karakorams and Kashmir (Oscar Eckenstein), and Geology of the High Sierra. All three enjoyable. Also just finished Born Free, Joy Adamson; quick read and intriguing. 

My favorite thread that keeps giving. 

Breakthrough: A Personal Account of the Israel-Egypt Peace Negotiations by Moshe Dayan

Dry material but Dayan was a colorful guy. So if I'm going to read about the arduous and mundane of diplomatic policy. He's the best in holding my attention. 

Stephen Lwrote:

Have you watched the Linklater adaptation? Entire thing is rotoscoped, such a trip. Highly underrated in my opinion. 

I have! The medium as well as the actors all do a great job at making it feel like I'm participating in the same hallucinations as the characters. 

Trevor Kerberwrote:

I have! The medium as well as the actors all do a great job at making it feel like I'm participating in the same hallucinations as the characters. 

Hell yeah! Such a quotable movie too... the bicycle scene. If you haven't read the short story, Minority Report is another good Phillip K. Dick adaptation. Adaptations by Stephanie Harrison is a cool anthology of 35 short stories that all got adapted to the screen (with critical success). 

This has been a captivating and moving story. Kind of a Huck Finn and Catcher in the Rye set at the turn of the millennium. The audiobook narrator absolutely nails it ... normally I pick reading over listening any day, but this one is pure tragic magic in spoken word.

ubuwrote:

Just finished Heart of Darkness (Conrad).  Somehow I never had a chance to read this classic until now.  It packs quite a punch.

I just ordered that book after reading "King Leopold's Ghost" by Adam Hochschild and found HOD is only 100 pages.. I haven't started it yet but your post puts it next on my list, so thanks!

I just finished "Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya"(Pulitzer Prize winner) by Caroline Elkins and am now following it up with "Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire" also by Caroline Elkins.

YAYYY history shit!!

Danny Birchmanwrote:

First two books are the first major chapters in Churchill's war life. Not sure how much he's mentioned in The Boar War but really interesting stuff.

You're absolutely correct there. "Hero of the Empire" by Candice Millard is a fantastic account of Churchill in the 2nd Boer War. Really great book.

He actually shows up as just a 24yr old journalist during the fiasco and is promptly captured by the Boers just two weeks later. How he assimilates into a Boer prison camp, gets friendly with and then tricks the guards and makes a crazy and very improbable escape is a brilliant read.

15yrs later Churchill gets a really bad rap for the Gallipoli Campaign but Lord Kitchener, Chamberlain(both of them in the Boer War as well) and especially that dipshit Hamilton were far more culpable for that horrific chapter of WWI. The bus was rolled hard on Winston for that one, as was the military way so often back then.

blood and iron by katja hoyer

Hank Caylorwrote:

You're absolutely correct there. "Hero of the Empire" by Candice Millard is a fantastic account of Churchill in the 2nd Boer War. Really great book.

He actually shows up as just a 24yr old journalist during the fiasco and is promptly captured by the Boers just two weeks later. How he assimilates into a Boer prison camp, gets friendly with and then tricks the guards and makes a crazy and very improbable escape is a brilliant read.

15yrs later Churchill gets a really bad rap for the Gallipoli Campaign but Lord Kitchener, Chamberlain(both of them in the Boer War as well) and especially that dipshit Hamilton were far more culpable for that horrific chapter of WWI. The bus was rolled hard on Winston for that one, as was the military way so often back then.

His Gallipoli experience led him to volunteer as an officer in the trenches. Churchill was a character and in many ways played dirty when it suited him. "I trust history shall be kind to me since I will have written it."

F r i t zwrote:

This has been a captivating and moving story. Kind of a Huck Finn and Catcher in the Rye set at the turn of the millennium. The audiobook narrator absolutely nails it ... normally I pick reading over listening any day, but this one is pure tragic magic in spoken word.

I tried reading this. I really did. Guess it hit too close to home. 

Other books from this summer: 

The Blacktongue Thief: This is awesome and hilarious. It was fun to read the book and then listen to the audiobook.

Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky: You'll never look at a spider the same way again. 

The Will of the Many: Pseudo-roman sci-fi. Over prescient main character but still very interesting. A lot of people love this.

Empire of Silence: Start of the Sunkiller series. Kind of slow but still fun. A lot of people love this too. 

The Sunlit Man: Brandon Sanderson off-shoot book. It's ok. 

Revelation Space: Super high concept space opera. I'm paying late fees at the library to finish it. But it feels like I need to finish it. Pretty fun in it's way. Not as cool as Anne Leike's Ancillary Justice series but still cool. 

Also tried Lonesome Dove and it bored the hell out of me. They say it gets better after 200 pages but I couldn't get past my 100 page rule. 

On deck and sitting on my nightstand is Ministry for the Future, which is supposed to be really good. 

Children of Time is great!  The second book is even better, the third is just ok.

Revelation Space is wonderful - Alistair Reynolds is by far my favorite scifi author.  Way better than ancilllary justice i thought, which I got through but wasn't interested in enough to read any more of the series.  If you haven't read House of Suns yet check that out next - I think its Reynolds best work.

Longitude, the true story of a lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of his time. 

A short read but good.

Just finished dune. Slow start but great end. Now starting the covenant of water

I re-read books from the Red Rising series by Pierce Brown. I might be a little obsessed. Anything by Joe Abercrombie is great too. I feel like both authors will really speak to climbers. Currently reading Suttree by Cormac McArthy but.. that will speak to climbers in a way that makes you want to NOT be a dirtbag. Pierce Brown will get you amped

Appleseed, Matt Bell. Kind of a sci-fi, eco, post apocalypse, gallimaufry. Keeping my interest. Per above; I enjoyed Adrian Tchaikovski also.

Steven King, Dark Tower, on book 7.

John Vaillant. Fire Weather: On the Front Lines of a Burning World.