What are you reading?

[Invalid24]

Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse

[dcom]

Really enjoying 'The City and The City' by China Mieville, really interesting concept and incredibly well done.

China Miéville is one of my favourite authors, his oeuvre is as interesting as it is diverse, everything he has written has my full seal of approval and come highly recommended; there's some rather weird stuff like This Census-Taker and one of the best, The Last Days of New Paris - they're both short novels, novellas rather. The Bas-Lag series (Perdido Street Station, The Scar, The Iron Council) is Miéville's take on fantasy; King Rat and Railsea are re-imaginings of literary classics (I won't tell you which but if you're into stories, their origins become very quickly apparent). The short story collections are fabulous, Miéville delivers the short ones so intensely that you can get breathless while reading. Just read everything he's written.

The City and The City brings Jeff Noon's The Man of Shadows into mind, there's a vaguely similar city dualism at play, although its still very different from Miéville's concept. Oh, and on the subject of Jeff Noon - read everything he's written as well, starting from Vurt through Pollen, Nymphomation and Automated Alice (another retelling of a classic), Pixel Juice is a short story collection that'll blow your mind; The Needle in the Groove, Falling Out of Cars (my biggest favourite), the digital-only Channel SK1N and the already mentioned Nyquist series, not forgetting Mappalujo. Noon's not as weird as Miéville, but well worth your while.

[Mexicola]

Really enjoying 'The City and The City' by China Mieville, really interesting concept and incredibly well done.

Cheers for recommending this (dcom too). Ordered as Amazon have it on special offer at the moment. Reading up, Varna in Bulgaria seems to be the inspiration for one of the cities and as I visited Varna back around 1995, I'm interested to see if it triggers any memories.

[jcnporter]

I hadn't read any China Mieville before, did a bit of research on where to start and The City and the City kept coming up as the closest to what I'd normally be into (more speculative/alternative reality/near future sci-fi and less fantasy/monsters).
I have to say that his description of the cities, the 'world building' is the real strength of the book, it's superb. I was wondering where might have been an inspiration, I'd say if you've been there that'll add a big element to it as well.
The big concept behind the novel, how the cities interact and the contrasting nature/economic situation of each city is very believably done and very cleverly political and thought provoking and as many reviewers have pointed out, universally applicable as a comment on any amount of existing situations, in the same way as, say, 1984 is.
One really obvious example of the 'split city' concept for me is Belfast, where I live, although I saw obvious parallels with current international situations and relations, all of which really deepened my appreciation of it.
Don't want to go into too much detail and spoil it for you, will be interested to know what you think.

[jcnporter]

Really enjoying 'The City and The City' by China Mieville, really interesting concept and incredibly well done.

China Miéville is one of my favourite authors, his oeuvre is as interesting as it is diverse, everything he has written has my full seal of approval and come highly recommended; there's some rather weird stuff like This Census-Taker and one of the best, The Last Days of New Paris - they're both short novels, novellas rather. The Bas-Lag series (Perdido Street Station, The Scar, The Iron Council) is Miéville's take on fantasy; King Rat and Railsea are re-imaginings of literary classics (I won't tell you which but if you're into stories, their origins become very quickly apparent). The short story collections are fabulous, Miéville delivers the short ones so intensely that you can get breathless while reading. Just read everything he's written.

The City and The City brings Jeff Noon's The Man of Shadows into mind, there's a vaguely similar city dualism at play, although its still very different from Miéville's concept. Oh, and on the subject of Jeff Noon - read everything he's written as well, starting from Vurt through Pollen, Nymphomation and Automated Alice (another retelling of a classic), Pixel Juice is a short story collection that'll blow your mind; The Needle in the Groove, Falling Out of Cars (my biggest favourite), the digital-only Channel SK1N and the already mentioned Nyquist series, not forgetting Mappalujo. Noon's not as weird as Miéville, but well worth your while.

That's really helpful, cheers - I'd been wondering which of his to read next and Perdido Street Station was mentioned a lot, although I liked the idea of Embassytown. I hadn't heard of Jeff Noon, either, thanks.

[cowolter]

Just finished Invitation to a Beheading, and my first Nabokov book. What a ride that was. I'm amazed that I don't see more people talking about this book though. It seems too be overshadowed by Nabokov's Lolita.

[Gazebo4]

Yesterday I started an audiobook called Where's the Next Shelter?

It's a true story about a guy who quits his job to hike the Appalachian Trail for 5-6 months. Really well narrated in a funny and engaging way!

I hope to hike a similar long distance trail in the future, will be hard but full of lessons I reckon'. For now it's only short backpacking trips

[Josh]

Recently finished The Long Way by Bernard Moitessier. Moitessier was a French sailor and writer and a true free spirit. In 1968 he entered a race to sail around the world alone without stopping. As he documents in the book, he aboard his boat Joshua, began the journey with the hope of returning to England where the race started after circumnavigating the globe and collecting what would've been a substantial monetary reward as prize, in addition to fame and glory. Instead, he becomes so entranced with the sea, the beauty of nature and the solace of being alone in his own world that he decides to abandon his plan for finishing the race and continue sailing around the world, stopping eventually in Tahiti.

It's a great book and I read it with a sense of envy that someone could do what he did, with that feeling compounded by the current situation where going out and exploring anywhere is on hold.

Next up will probably be Mark Lanegan's memoir Sing Backward and Weep, which by what I've seen in reviews and interviews seems like a really raw, uncompromising look at Lanegan's battle with personal demons and his path to redemption.

[Mexicola]

Dead slow rock and roll.

[Josh]

Dead slow rock and roll.

I still need to start this one. I haven't had time to read much of anything lately.

[Mexicola]

Didn't spot your post until I'd put that photo up. How bizarre! Read the first couple of chapters tonight. It doesn't disappoint.

[turquoise70]

Stormy Seas: Triumphs and Tragedies of Great Lakes Ships by Wes Oleszewski

[2020k]

Just finished both of Mark Frost's Twin Peaks Dossier books. The Secret History of Twin Peaks is outstanding work. The Final Dossier just felt like a very quick wrap up of season 3, in comparison.

Reading Hörrorstor now since so many people have compared it to House of Leaves. It's not House of Leaves at all, but it does make me happy that there's a book out there that goes slightly into the psyche of a mundane retail worker's hatred of their day job...retail in my late teens-early 20's was such a weird time for me, looking back on it. I WISH one of the stores I worked at (Hot Topic in its late goth-metal days, being one of them) became haunted after hours.

Edit: Finished Horrorstor. Eh.

Read a 33 1/2 book about Tori Amos' Boys For Pele. Apparently there are two books in this series on Pele, but I read the one by Amy Gentry which focused on the record as a means of how it disects feelings of disgust, and how it's a difficult record for some people to get into it because of it. Fascinating.

Reading I Hate The Internet now. It's a novel about what you think it's about. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Hate_the_Internet

[cowolter]

Currently I'm reading The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi. I'm about 100 pages in so far, and I'm enjoying it. Normally I read really quickly, but this one is taking me longer than usual; I think it's because it doesn't have a lot of exposition and the world is pretty complex.

[dcom]

Currently I'm reading The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi. I'm about 100 pages in so far, and I'm enjoying it. Normally I read really quickly, but this one is taking me longer than usual; I think it's because it doesn't have a lot of exposition and the world is pretty complex.

Yes, Bacigalupi's prose is quite dense, and there's a lot of world-building in The Windup Girl; there's also a lot of location-specific language and cultural things, and I had to look up some things while reading. The Water Knife has a similar milieu with debilitating climate change; I haven't read The Tangled Lands, the Ship Breaker trilogy nor The Doubt Factory.

[2020k]

[fujee]

Always been interested in the disaster but it kicked up a gear after HBO's miniseries last year. Excellent, harrowing read.

[A_Northern_Soul]

Trawling this thread for some inspiration right now. The Northern_Soul family are off to a remote cottage in the highlands for half term and I'm going to treat myself to a new book (and a nice bottle of whisky) for the trip...

[jcnporter]

Trawling this thread for some inspiration right now. The Northern_Soul family are off to a remote cottage in the highlands for half term and I'm going to treat myself to a new book (and a nice bottle of whisky) for the trip...

Great book, could be a good choice for where you're going?

[A_Northern_Soul]

Trawling this thread for some inspiration right now. The Northern_Soul family are off to a remote cottage in the highlands for half term and I'm going to treat myself to a new book (and a nice bottle of whisky) for the trip...

Great book, could be a good choice for where you're going?

That looks perfect, thanks for the tip!