Anyone reading anything good at the moment?
right now i'm reading through The Beast that Shouted Love at the Heart of the World by Harlan Ellison (sci-fi short story collection)
its pre gud

I'm finally getting around to Catch-22.

I've sadly lost my tendency to read actual books. But I like this one.

In my free time I read the book of my people ╹‿╹)

Jk ◠‿◠)
I am reading one but, The My peep 'Max' is a different being altogether ◠‿╹)

Just came not long ago

I was going to read a book called "My Fight" but it's not in english so I need to get an english version from somewhere.

Notkastar said:
In my free time I read the book of my people ╹‿╹)

I thought your people were stuffed penguins...

I'm reading https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Hillerman#Leaphorn_and_Chee_books ("People of Darkness" at the moment)

perhaps it would be best to give reasons as to why we read what we read. being somebody on the lookout for books, i feel more assured in reading something if i know it's worth my while.

i flipped through some old philosophers like Plato and Aristotle at the library. let me tell you, not worth the hype. they enjoy going on tangents - for all the words they say, they rarely make points. i'll stick with the new stuff, like the tacky self-help books.

BlueDingo said:
I thought your people were stuffed penguins...

Hahaha-
W-what makes you say that? ◠‿◠;)
^{(Crap, he's onto me again dood ╹‿╹ ;))}

Lord of the Flies is a pretty good read, my guy

I cycle through lots of different nonfiction subjects, mostly science and medicine, but I like fiction about animals a lot. Especially low fantasy.

Definitely recommend The Fox and the Hound by Mannix. 100% my favorite book ever, and I was super happy to see it available as a really cheap Kindle ebook.

Currently reading Medical Apartheid. It's good but hella depressing.

The Black Moon by Stephen Deas is a good one.
I highly Recommend the Malazan series too.

I was into reading some weird genre stuff about 5 years ago, but these days I would rather waste time watching bad videos and reading garbage amateur stories than making progress in those books for some reason. The genre is actually called weird. It's too bad because in order to write a decent weird story it seems the authors must already be quite skilled.

Technically, I'm reading these or still have some intention to start reading them, someday, not necessarily weird genre:

The Nightmare Factory - Thomas Ligotti
-I've seen repeated the sentiment that, "there's 'Poe and Lovecraft', but that it should really be 'Poe, Lovecraft, and Ligotti'"
-in the condition I got this book, it was probably worth $125+

The Book of the New Sun (all four volumes in one book) - Gene Wolfe
-strong worldbuilding, but not quite what I was after
-I will be finishing this book first
-again, in the condition I got this book, it was probably worth $100+

The Dark Descent - edited by David G. Hartwell
-the definitive weird genre anthology, where The Weird anthology would be a more modern, definitive weird genre anthology
-most of the authors of these short stories are very well-regarded

Un Lun Dun - China Mieville
The Scar - China Mieville
Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman
-these three are recent gifts that I haven't touched
-I can only say that these are active, broadly accepted weird genre authors
->Haruki Murakami would seem to be another such author whose books I actually see in the more mainstream parts of bookstores

Bridge of Birds - Barry Hughart
-too difficult to explain why I got this... haven't touched it

I only posted because the OP mentioned Harlan Ellison, whose "The Function of Dream Sleep" was in The Weird anthology. Oh, and Ellison's "The Whimper of Whipped Dogs" is in The Dark Descent.

For knowledge

The tactical knife written by an inept imbecile who has no idea what he's talking about. In the first page he explained that he has no idea what a tactical knife is yet he decided to write a book about it and then proceeded to call every knife made tactical. While the definitions of the word tactical are numerous the most pertinent one I've found for a knife is "speed on target". That is what I practice and choose my knives based on, on how rapidly I can deploy them because if I can't draw my knife immediately there is no point in even considering using them in a fight. I intend to finish the book to see if I can find anything worth learning but I'll probably shoot it for irritating me or throw a knife through it for the irony.

For entertainment

I just finished reading the Darth bane trilogy I enjoyed it very much. It was set thousands of years before the movies and was about bane becoming a sith lord and killing most every other sith creating the rule of two and finding an apprentice and his eventual death. I think reading about it makes force users much cooler than they ever appear in the movies.

Also if you are curious my favorite author is H.P. lovecraft although I admit I have a bias for him because almost everything I've ever enjoyed since I was little has been inspired by him.

Digital Fortress

Some advice when trying to do computer-based stories: if you do one about unbreakable code in the future, don't make the code the Enigma, literally the first ever code to be broken by a computer.

Also, "bacterial virus"? Maybe when comparing different types of viruses, actually know what the hell a virus is. I'll tell you what it isn't: bacteria.

I'm attempting to read 1984...I'm only a few chapters in though. It's so hard to read when I have porn, Netflix, Reddit, forums like this one, phone games, and video games to distract me. Also the book hasn't exactly grabbed me yet. Usually a good book you're like "OH SHIT I NEED TO KEEP READING!" So far this is like "hey, there's an old guy, and he's living in a shitty world...enjoy his inner monologues and dreams." Meh.

kamimatsu said:
Some advice when trying to do computer-based stories: if you do one about unbreakable code in the future, don't make the code the Enigma, literally the first ever code to be broken by a computer

Amen...if I ever write about anything technological and futuristic I'm going to be as vague as possible in the hopes that my story will be somewhat future-proof. It's always funny watching old movies and they're like "my god, they've already downloaded ALL THE DATA IN THE WORLD! All 20 GBs of it!" And it's supposed to in the future? LOL.

kamimatsu said:
Also, "bacterial virus"? Maybe when comparing different types of viruses, actually know what the hell a virus is. I'll tell you what it isn't: bacteria.

I remember a science teacher in junior high who used "virus" and "bacteria" interchangeably.

I thought that there was a viral version and a bacterial version of all illnesses for a few years. Yikes!

looking through The Hitchhiker's Guide trilogy is looking through the rise and fall of a great author. from a simple comedy to existential dread, to the maturation of drama and topped off with one last book for the fans, it's taught me a great deal about philosophy and how the universe is stupidly unfair, though at the same time a wondrous thing to have.

i hope the books end up being a religious text in the future, with the two commandments:

one, the universe is a chaotic mess where good and bad happen at its whims, history never changes by its being a jigsaw puzzle, and all actions in it are arbitrary and pitiful in its sheer scope;

two, let's go out for drinks.

Dyrone said:
I'm attempting to read 1984...I'm only a few chapters in though. It's so hard to read when I have porn, Netflix, Reddit, forums like this one, phone games, and video games to distract me. Also the book hasn't exactly grabbed me yet. Usually a good book you're like "OH SHIT I NEED TO KEEP READING!" So far this is like "hey, there's an old guy, and he's living in a shitty world...enjoy his inner monologues and dreams." Meh.

Amen...if I ever write about anything technological and futuristic I'm going to be as vague as possible in the hopes that my story will be somewhat future-proof. It's always funny watching old movies and they're like "my god, they've already downloaded ALL THE DATA IN THE WORLD! All 20 GBs of it!" And it's supposed to in the future? LOL.

The problem was it was written after the Enigma was broken. Way after. Like, recently. When I said Enigma was literally the first to be broken by a computer, I meant it. Nothing before that was broken, and someone wrote about a futuristic quantum computer that can't do it yet the book was written very recently, far after the point Enigma's being broken would be common knowledge. It's like if I wrote a book now claiming to be realistic and centered around a fifth humour.

Dyrone said:
[...]

i find most of Orwell's insight comes from the feasibility of such a world existing today. the more one learns about history, the more his work is appreciable.

Dyrone said:
I'm attempting to read 1984...I'm only a few chapters in though. It's so hard to read when I have porn, Netflix, Reddit, forums like this one, phone games, and video games to distract me. Also the book hasn't exactly grabbed me yet. Usually a good book you're like "OH SHIT I NEED TO KEEP READING!" So far this is like "hey, there's an old guy, and he's living in a shitty world...enjoy his inner monologues and dreams." Meh.

Amen...if I ever write about anything technological and futuristic I'm going to be as vague as possible in the hopes that my story will be somewhat future-proof. It's always funny watching old movies and they're like "my god, they've already downloaded ALL THE DATA IN THE WORLD! All 20 GBs of it!" And it's supposed to in the future? LOL.

1984 isn't really a thrilling book a lot of the time. It's very depressing and monotonous at times, which is part of the point it's trying to make. It's a necessity for what Orwell wants to get across, but it's not something you'd really read to have a fun time. I read it in 9th grade (not as part of a class, just saw it in the library and recognized George Orwell after having read Animal Farm; knew nothing about this book at that time), so I can relate to it being kind of a slog as I was an impatient teenager.

I can tell you that it will have been a rewarding book at the end. Definitely left a huge impression on me even when I was only around 15.

I think a more relatable book would be Brave New World, especially with that first sentence you mentioned about all those distractions. That exact sort of thing is a major theme in Brave New World. I don't mean to piss on 1984– it's a great book– but I think the themes of Brave New World are more important with the current political climate. It's been said that 1984 is about what we fear being used to control us, but Brave New World is about what we love being used to control us, and the second seems a lot more plausible with how people try to influence the spread of information now.

Brave New World was honestly just amazing and there are some real-world parallels to it. I think I need to read it again because I was in high school when I first read it and I'm sure plenty of it went over my head. Very far ahead of its time.

Fenrick said:
[...]

i found BNW to be short on exposition, making most of its concepts foreign to me. often I lost place of where the story is taking place due to the author's insistence on science-babble. 1984 has no insistence, making it more accessible.

fewrahuxo said:
i found BNW to be short on exposition, making most of its concepts foreign to me. often I lost place of where the story is taking place due to the author's insistence on science-babble. 1984 has no insistence, making it more accessible.

I guess if you don't like it, it weakens the book. But that is part of the story's charm for me. The fact that unlike Winston, who was alive before the dystopian setting took hold, the protagonist doesn't have a clue what's going on until later, and we, by extension, can only fill in the blanks.

It's the logical choice for making what appears to be a utopia on the surface. You know what you're in for immediately in 1984, but things slowly unravel to show you just how much you don't want this in Brave New World.

kamimatsu said:
Digital Fortress

Some advice when trying to do computer-based stories: if you do one about unbreakable code in the future, don't make the code the Enigma, literally the first ever code to be broken by a computer.

Also maybe don't make your password 3. Just throwing that out there.

Just read Andy Weir's The Martian on my days off.
My 'to read' pile is getting short, and I remember being fond of the movie, so why not?

For once the film does the book justice, as it follows the original storey fairly closely, not losing the humour that kept astronaut Mark Watney going.

Also refreshing to give 'science-based' science fiction a go, and not having it leaden with incomprehensible sci-babble; a nice, well-crafted read.

most of what i read tends to be fanfiction. though some are large enough that they could count as books. some like TDR's Stories in Stone series and i think hes been working to rewrite and change them over time.

the main series currently has 629,691 words total for the first story, 439,188 words total for the 2nd, 425,733 words total 3rd, and 204,478 words total for the 4th which is still ongoing.

dude makes some HUGE stories.

Finished The Expanse and now reading A Game of Thrones.

Finished Your Inner Fish last night, now I have three things I had started so I'll pick one to finish up.

Reading the fourth book of Survivors to family, and almost done with it! Then I'll move on to book five.