OT: The Good Book: What are you reading right now?

[Chili]

His mother used to dress him in the colours of a bee?

It was the sweater, seems it was a bandmate who gave him the nickname. Came across as happening in his later teens or early 20's.

 

[Pompeius Magnus]

I've picked up The Devil's Candy by Julie Salamon at a used book store recently. It's about the making of the 1990 movie adaptation of the best seller The bonfire of the vanities. It's a real interesting inside look into the madness that is big budget movie making. I'm halfway through and I'd recommend it, it's a pretty easy read .

 

[The Marsh King]

Just started reading "Stories of Your Life and others" by Ted Chiang. For those who don't know, it's a collection of short stories and the one in the title "Story of Your Life" was the basis for the movie "Arrival."

Only one story in, but I'm liking it! Love a good Sci-fi book, and the writing is enjoyable! Not much of a short story guy, but the first one "Tower of Babylon" has me looking forward to the rest!

 

[Runner77]

I've picked up The Devil's Candy by Julie Salamon at a used book store recently. It's about the making of the 1990 movie adaptation of the best seller The bonfire of the vanities. It's a real interesting inside look into the madness that is big budget movie making. I'm halfway through and I'd recommend it, it's a pretty easy read .

Amazing the finds from used book stores and how there are so many under the radar options instead of constantly paying full price for the latest publication.

 

[Pompeius Magnus]

Amazing the finds from used book stores and how there are so many under the radar options instead of constantly paying full price for the latest publication.

I've bought maybe 85% of my books used over the years! It's a bit of a tradition of mine to visit book stores when I travel, I love those kind of places. I go thrifting a lot too .

 

[Chili]

Amazing the finds from used book stores and how there are so many under the radar options instead of constantly paying full price for the latest publication.

Most of the books I buy are used as well. The places that sell on Amazon usually give a good description of the quality. Most of the ones I have bought were in very good shape.

 

[Per Sjoblom]

I've picked up The Devil's Candy by Julie Salamon at a used book store recently. It's about the making of the 1990 movie adaptation of the best seller The bonfire of the vanities. It's a real interesting inside look into the madness that is big budget movie making. I'm halfway through and I'd recommend it, it's a pretty easy read .

I never watched the movie but I read the book, I seem to remember the film got really bad reviews.

 

[Pompeius Magnus]

I never watched the movie but I read the book, I seem to remember the film got really bad reviews.

It's one of the more famous bombs in Hollywood history, mainly because it had an all star cast and a top director behind it. It was based on a very successful best seller so there was a lot of expectations before it came out as well which made it all worst when it failed big time.

 

[Per Sjoblom]

Most of the books I buy are used as well. The places that sell on Amazon usually give a good description of the quality. Most of the ones I have bought were in very good shape.

There is a great book store in Portland called Powell's, they sell stuff on Amazon as well but it is nice to go there to browse as well, they have both second hand and new books. Good prices in general as well.

 

[dinodebino]

Reading "Sandworm". Great read on the biggest cyberattack unleashed by a nation on other countries' infrastructures.

Here's a scoop : Canada almost tasted it, but was warned by the US.

 

[Istvan]

Currently reading March Violets by Phillip Kerr. Historical fiction, pre WW2 Berlin, one of the Bernie Gunther series. If you like the genre then i'd consider anything by Alan Furst except his latest "Under Occupation". First fell asleep at the wheel on this one.

 

[Istvan]

duplicate.

 

[lo striver]

"The Art of Memory Forensics, Detecting Malware and Threats in Windows Linux and Mac Memory"

 

[A55P2]

Senlin Ascends and the following books. It's great, really imaginative.

 

[Intangir]

I'm currently reading ''The Martian'' by Andy Weir and I've got to say that there are many scenes there that were not covered in the movie, and it's been really good so far. Provided that I'm still a COVID-19 carrier, isolated at home, and have all the time in the world right now to finish reading as I please, I figure that I'll finish that book pretty much this afternoon.

Afterwards, I'll start reading ''the Burning White'' by Brent Weeks, the last book in his latest Lightbringer series. I'll admit that some of the worldbuilding is a bit of a trainwreck, the prose and narration aren't the best I've seen, and the concept and characterization reek a little bit of evangelist symbolism, but it's still decently well-written, good drama, and I find the very concept of magic and the ways it is used in that world to be quite fun and fresh.

Brent Weeks is a bit too much of an unsubtle Magic the Gathering enthusiast for my liking, and incorporates it a bit weirdly in his world. But meh, despite all the parallel worlds, uselessly gransiose titles of cards that unexplainedly give insight into their subjects' lives to little enough purpose, his works are still readable, unlike ''the Magicians'' by Lev Grossmann, that steaming pile of dog****.

 

[Chili]

Just finished two books, Chaplin: His Life & Art (David Robinson) and Robin (Dave Itzkoff).

The Chaplin book was one of the two books used to make the Robert Downey Jr movie about CC, the other was Chaplin's autobiography which I also read. This book fills in the gaps from the autobiography which didn't talk a lot about his films and curiously left some people out. i.e. He didn't mention working with Stan Jefferson (later known as Stan Laurel of Laurel and Hardy) or Buster Keaton. CC is mentioned several times in Keaton's autobiography and appeared in Chaplin's film Limelight.

Robin is a biography of Robin Williams. Well done but a sad ending. Some funny memories in there.

 

[VirginiaMtlExpat]

Just finished two books, Chaplin: His Life & Art (David Robinson) and Robin (Dave Itzkoff).

The Chaplin book was one of the two books used to make the Robert Downey Jr movie about CC, the other was Chaplin's autobiography which I also read. This book fills in the gaps from the autobiography which didn't talk a lot about his films and curiously left some people out. i.e. He didn't mention working with Stan Jefferson (later known as Stan Laurel of Laurel and Hardy) or Buster Keaton who is mentioned several times in Keaton's autobiography and appeared in Chaplin's film Limelight.

Robin is a biography of Robin Williams. Well done but a sad ending. Some funny memories in there.

The Williams story is heart-breaking. He was my favorite comic for years. My father had the same ailment, Lewy Body Disease. It is absolutely unforgiving: basically Parkinson's and Alzheimer's rolled into one, combined with hallucinations as well. I can see why Williams would consider ending his own life as the only way forward. I obsess about doing everything I can not to get it, including exercise, working my whole life (which I can as a prof), and daily vitamins (Gingko Biloba and Fish Oil).

 

[Chili]

The Williams story is heart-breaking. He was my favorite comic for years. My father had the same ailment, Lewy Body Disease. It is absolutely unforgiving: basically Parkinson's and Alzheimer's rolled into one, combined with hallucinations as well. I can see why Williams would see ending his own life as the only way forward. I obsess about doing everything I can not to get it, including exercise, working my whole life (which I can as a prof), and daily vitamins (Gingko Biloba and Fish Oil).

Yes, Williams was misdiagnosed with Parkinson's disease. Only he would have known how much he was suffering towards the end.

 

[Intangir]

Just finished 'the Burning White' and enjoyed the experience. The novel had a decent amount of '**** Yeah!' moments, some interesting plot developments, battle scenes were well-executed, the magic system continued being awesome and creative, and there was good humor and drama. Some characters saw crucial growth in their devoted chapters and their arcs' closings and interweaving were pulled off pretty well. I feel that my 4-book investment into Brent Weeks' world was worth it and time well-spent.

For all its positives, there were still quite a few elements that I didn't like though, and they were sometimes so bad that they detracted from my reading experience.

For one, the ending was WAY too biblical, like sitting in a church listenning to gospel while being fanned incense and force-fed crappy mass wine kind of biblical. I swear, if you read the book and don't pick up on that symbolism you're one of two things, either completely oblivious to the 'background music', the real-life opinions and beliefs the author puts in his work, or so used to reading white christian american works that the contrast doesn't strike you, and I sincerely don't know which is worse. Then there was the inclusion of Magic the Gathering elements that served no ****ing purpose, again. Scenes about beings from other dimensions were inserted and not really well-tied into the world or the action. They were pretty boring all told, too.

Some decent-sized parts of the story involving Andross Guile explained things with only minimal tie-ins into the plot other than being pure information dumps and trying to flesh out the character's psychology, his motives and goals. They could have been taken out entirely if the author had written the character like less of a petty inhumane robot in the first place.

 

[Pompeius Magnus]

I got a good deal on used copies of Zodiac by Robert Graysmith and Blood and Money by Thomas Thompson last week. Both are true crime novels about very famous murder cases and both are REALLY good reads so far. The genre can be a bit tricky and harder to get into sometimes but in both cases I've been sucked in pretty much from the first page. I'd strongly recommend them .

 

[Electricity]

I'm surprised this thread hasn't blown up in the last month. But then again, I'm not.

Per, I loved Portland in the two summer weeks I spent working there two years ago. Wouldn't mind moving there at all.

I'm reading a book called Lost Connections by Johann Hari. It's about why people are unhappy.

Also reading through the Atlas Obscura book in chunks. All about strange real life world locations. A travel guide for non-squares.

 

[Per Sjoblom]

I'm currently reading ''The Martian'' by Andy Weir and I've got to say that there are many scenes there that were not covered in the movie, and it's been really good so far. Provided that I'm still a COVID-19 carrier, isolated at home, and have all the time in the world right now to finish reading as I please, I figure that I'll finish that book pretty much this afternoon.

Afterwards, I'll start reading ''the Burning White'' by Brent Weeks, the last book in his latest Lightbringer series. I'll admit that some of the worldbuilding is a bit of a trainwreck, the prose and narration aren't the best I've seen, and the concept and characterization reek a little bit of evangelist symbolism, but it's still decently well-written, good drama, and I find the very concept of magic and the ways it is used in that world to be quite fun and fresh.

Brent Weeks is a bit too much of an unsubtle Magic the Gathering enthusiast for my liking, and incorporates it a bit weirdly in his world. But meh, despite all the parallel worlds, uselessly gransiose titles of cards that unexplainedly give insight into their subjects' lives to little enough purpose, his works are still readable, unlike ''the Magicians'' by Lev Grossmann, that steaming pile of dog****.

I like the Martian as well and I also read it after I watched the film.

 

[Per Sjoblom]

Just finished two books, Chaplin: His Life & Art (David Robinson) and Robin (Dave Itzkoff).

The Chaplin book was one of the two books used to make the Robert Downey Jr movie about CC, the other was Chaplin's autobiography which I also read. This book fills in the gaps from the autobiography which didn't talk a lot about his films and curiously left some people out. i.e. He didn't mention working with Stan Jefferson (later known as Stan Laurel of Laurel and Hardy) or Buster Keaton. CC is mentioned several times in Keaton's autobiography and appeared in Chaplin's film Limelight.

Robin is a biography of Robin Williams. Well done but a sad ending. Some funny memories in there.

I bought the kindle version of the Robin Williams book, will read whenever I finish the Void trilogy. Thanks for the tip!

 

[Hacketts]

Shantaram.

Hell of a book.

 

[Per Sjoblom]

I'm surprised this thread hasn't blown up in the last month. But then again, I'm not.

Per, I loved Portland in the two summer weeks I spent working there two years ago. Wouldn't mind moving there at all.

I'm reading a book called Lost Connections by Johann Hari. It's about why people are unhappy.

Also reading through the Atlas Obscura book in chunks. All about strange real life world locations. A travel guide for non-squares.

It is a bit surprising that this thread and the movie one have not gone ballistic, at least much higher than usual.

I have read articles by Hari when he wrote for the Huffington Post and I recall the scandal. regardless of the plagiarism he's a talented writer in his own right, Do you like the book?

I used to read the shoestring books when I did most of my travels, Camera Obscura sounds really interesting. Do you recommend it?