What are you reading right now?

[toxicitizen]

So, at the beginning of May I decided it was time for me to finally finish the Dark Tower series. I had read up to book 5 like a decade ago but had never read the last two books. I had reread book 3 last year so I was at book 4 when I picked it back up a month and a half ago, so I read 4 through 7 back-to-back. I don't expect anyone here is going to give a shit or even know what the hell I'm talking about but I have some thoughts and nowhere else to post them so...

 

In the interest of keeping this as brief as humanly possible, I'll just say that 3 through 5 are the best ones. Book 3, The Waste Lands, is where the series hits its stride and starts introducing its more interesting elements. Book 4, Wizard & Glass, is one long flashback that fleshes out the main character's backstory and is considered by many to be the best one of the entire series. I don't know if I'd agree with that but I certainly enjoyed it a lot more this time around. I had forgotten so much about this book that it was basically like reading it for the first time. The stuff I thought I DID remember just... wasn't in it lol. Book 5, Wolves of the Calla, is a bit more straightforward but still very good.

 

That brings us to book 6, Song of Susannah, which is about half the length of the others and honestly feels like something is missing in it. It feels like King is just moving pieces on the board to where he needed them to be for the final book. It focuses almost exclusively on wrapping up certain plot threads from previous books without really having a plot of its own. It has its moments but it's definitely the weakest one of the series, as far as I'm concerned.

 

And then there's book 7, The Dark Tower. Oh boy, where do I begin with this one? I'll try to keep it vague but it's going to be hard to discuss without some spoilers. The first half is basically what you'd expect out of a Dark Tower book and is actually pretty solid. But then halfway through it takes a turn. Which isn't to say that it becomes bad, I enjoyed reading it all the way through. If there's one thing you can't fault King for, it's his storytelling ability. I swear he could write a novel about a guy reading the phone book and somehow make it interesting. So this might sound weird but my criticism is aimed at the events within the book but not at the way they're written, if that makes any sense.

 

So, in case you aren't aware, Stephen King's been doing the whole connected universe long before the MCU. And this analogy isn't perfect but Dark Tower is basically his Avengers. So the series ends up connecting to a lot of his novels. And halfway through Dark Tower VII, it's like he went "I can't think of a way to connect this with my novel Misery so instead I will just infuse it with as much misery as I can". I mean, holy fuck.

 

Alright, spoilers for real now.

 

Spoiler

So, I knew Eddie died. Some fucking dumbass on a forum spoiled me on that years ago. But I was not prepared for Jake to also die like fifty fucking pages later. And then Susannah just gets cold feet and decides to unceremoniously fuck off.

 

Cool.

 

I mean, I get it. I get what he was going for and it was fitting. It was just depressing as all hell to see the ka-tet fall apart like that after all this time spent with them. But this was always Roland's quest and I can understand why King would have him end up alone again.

 

But then this motherfucker went ahead and killed Oy. I mean, what the fuck!? Who hurt you, Stephen King? Oy was a good boy! It wasn't enough to torture the poor animal by killing 'Ake, you had to put him out of his misery too?! I mean, fucking hell...

 

Stephen King is well known for writing his stories as they come to him. He doesn't really plot them out. So I don't believe that any of this was deliberately engineered to be sadistic but it sure as hell felt that way!

 

Now, I didn't exactly love any of the above but I can't really fault the story for taking a tragic turn. Like I said, it wasn't bad and it wasn't poorly written, it was just depressing as all hell. What I can fault the story for, though, is the way the antagonists were handled. Three. He had three big bads and every single one of them went out like a chump in a complete anti-climax.

 

I've been a Constant Reader for a while, I know King sucks at endings but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed here. Flagg being killed by Mordred was surprising and that was great because it was building Mordred up as this bigger threat. But then he just sort of got food poisoning from eating a rotting horse (don't ask) and made a half-hearted attempt at killing Roland. Again, this chapter was actually fun to read and it was all set up in a way that was compelling. But once I was done and thought back on it, I just couldn't help but think "Really? That was it??".

 

And the same goes for the showdown with the Crimson King. This is an entity that had been built up since book 4 as this big, ominous shadow looming over everything. But then he turns out to just be a crazy old man on a balcony, screeching at Roland and throwing sneetches (Yes, like Harry Potter. Again, don't ask.)

 

Then there's the actual ending, which I won't spoil but there is something I want to discuss. I knew the ending was controversial and this is something that I didn't have spoiled exactly but I could kind of infer what it was based on something I had heard. But here's the thing. King is infamous for his endings. They're not always bad but he's on the record as not caring for writing them. To him it's about the journey and all that good stuff. And I agree to an extent, but that's no excuse not to have one or to half-ass it. Which I don't think he did here but I bring this up because of how the final chapter starts.

 

The first section is King breaking the fourth wall and basically going "Look, as far as I'm concerned this is over already. Didn't you like that previous chapter? Wasn't that nice? Then do me a favor and pretend that's it. Just put this fucking book down, alright? Neither of us is gonna like what comes next so just fucking don't."

 

Like, what the hell? Lmao. I could just picture him handing in his manuscript and his editor being like "Stephen, what the fuck is this? You can't just end this here. People will lose their shit. Write a proper ending!" And Stephen King just stomping his feet like a toddler having a tantrum and going "BuT i DoN't WaNnaaAaAAaAA!!!" At this point I honestly got annoyed and he immediately lost me. I was fully prepared to hate whatever happened.

 

But honestly? I kinda loved it. It wasn't the most satisfying thing ever but once I saw it was going exactly where I thought it would, I got this huge grin on my face because I thought I knew for sure what the last line HAD to be. So when I got to the final page I quickly covered the text with my hand so I wouldn't accidentally glance at it early. And I was right. And it was perfect.

 

Also, fun fact: I finished the series on the night of June 19th. Which, if you've read it, you know how appropriate (and a little spooky) that is. Once I realized I was on track to finish the book on that date, I knew I had to make it happen.

 

edit: AAAAAAAAAAAA first post of page 19

 

OH AND LAST NIGHT I WATCHED THE MOVIE!

 

[to be continued in the 'Last Bad Movie you watched' thread]

Edited June 21, 2021 by toxicitizen

[TheFlyingGerbil]

Not been doing a lot of reading lately but someone at work lent me some books and there's nothing like a bit of peer pressure to get you to pick up the pace. I read all three in just over a week when it would normally take me a month per book easily. I don't think I could keep up that pace but I think a week for one book would keep the momentum up and be a good compromise between it feeling like a chore and spreading it too thin to get immersed in it.

 

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. I enjoyed it - not sure if I didn't get enough from it as I struggle not to trip over my own thoughts if I walk among them too long.

 

No Country For Old Men. I think I was confusing this with true grit before I started it. I found the writing style off putting, the lack of punctuation makes it difficult to read (e.g. knowing who's talking) and the "He opened the fridge door and took out the milk and took the lid off the milk and took a sip and put the milk back and closed the fridge door " style just seemed like a high schooler trying to get their word count up. I'm assuming these are stylistic choices not bad writing but I do not understand the reason in relation to the story - if anyone could enlighten me I'd love to "get it".

 

Fight Club. Still trying to decide how much of it was real. Not Sure I'll come to a firm opinion.

 

They were right on the edge of books I'd choose to read so it was nice to be lent them to give them a go. Mostly I'm hoping to take from it a renewed desire to read.

[Thursday Next]

I've been reading through the Arsene Lupin series (in English, I'm not a polyglot or a masochist). Was inspired to after watching the Netflix series (which just released a second season this year). They are enjoyable heists/capers, the "Herlock Sholmes" ones are a bit laboured (but that could be me being a little partisan in supporting "Holmes/Sholmes/Shears" over Lupin).

[TheFlyingGerbil]

Song Of Achilles. It was the story of Achilles through the eyes of his partner, Patroclus. Not sure how closely it kept to the original story, but it didn't get bogged down in too much unnecessary detail, as I've read some genre novels try too hard to wedge  all their research in and end up a bit dry in parts. It's got me wanting to read more into Greek mythology.

Also made me want to try and sniff out a bit more quality gay literature - there's a lot a trashy erotica out there (I may have read a book about gay werewolves at one point, oops) and rom coms. I'll read some more Alan Hollinghurst and try Christopher Isherwood, but after that I'm not sure where else there is to turn.

 

I'm having a go at The Shining at the moment though - I've read a few Stephen King books and they're a bit hit and miss with me. Not sure it's grabbing me at the moment but will give it a bit more of a chance.

[Thursday Next]

If you want some more Greek mythology that doesn't shy away from the (extremely obviously but somehow glossed over/erased by Hollywood - how odd) homosexual relationships, but at the same time is not salacious, I'd highly recommend Mythos, Heroes, and Troy by Stephen Fry.

[TheMightyEthan]

Patroclus was his cousin, @Thursday Next, get your mind out of the gutter!

[Thursday Next]

Kissing Cousins perhaps.  

[toxicitizen]

Just finished Cryptonomicon by Neal Stepheson. I've been chipping away at it almost every night for like a month now. Man, this was an insanely long book! Ultimately I think I liked it a little less than the previous Stephenson book I read, The Diamond Age, which I also liked a little less than the previous Stephenson book I read, Snow Crash.

 

That's not to say I didn't like Cryptonomicon, though. It just wasn't quite what I expected. I knew it involved cryptography and the search for hidden WWII gold so I figured it would be more of an adventure thriller but it turned out to be very slow and meandering. I could tell you more or less what happens in it but I don't think I could tell you what the actual plot was in any kind of succinct way. It takes place in two different time period (WWII and the "present", which I guess in this case is the late 90s since that's when the book came out) and just... lots of stuff happens in both timeline.

 

Like, you know those pacing curves you sometimes see where it keeps going up and down, trending upwards all the way and reaches its peak at the climax? A New Hope is often used as a perfect example of proper pacing.

 

 

Well, I feel like Cryptonomicon's pacing curve would be a perfectly horizontal line lol. Most of the action takes place in the WWII timeline and it's told in such a matter of fact manner that it never really feels exciting or tense. This might sound bad but keep in mind that this is a 900 pages, almost 400k words long monstrosity and I never once considered stopping so it was clearly doing something right.

 

It might be slow and at times a bit dry but it's also very, very interesting. This is probably something where YMMV but I loved reading about WWII-era code breaking and the early days of computer science with Alan Turing and how it all led to the birth of the computer. I'm starting to get the sense that Stephenson is one of those authors kinda like Stephen King where he's so good at what he does well (in Stephenson's case, info dumps and a heavy focus on the science) that if you like that particular aspect of his writing then you can look past everything else.

 

And I think Stephenson knows this because even when he's trying to be funny he still sticks to dry humor and plays to his strengths: infodumps and focus on the science. Like, at one point he goes on a tangent for several pages about the best way to eat Cap'n Crunch cereal, what temperature the milk should be and what the perfect time to introduce it to the cereal is and I can't really explain why but it's somehow fascinating. There's another one where instead of just saying "Lawrence couldn't focus on his work because he was horny" he goes into this insane, several pages long mathematical model of horniness level over time with graphs and everything. It's kind of amazing.

 

I don't know if the book needed to be as long as it was. I feel like some chapters could've been cut and it could've been a few hundred pages shorter and achieved the same effect. But ultimately none of it was boring and I really enjoyed the book overall so I guess I can't complain.

Edited July 28, 2021 by toxicitizen

[Thursday Next]

I sent in my Kindle for a trade-in (only recently found out that Amazon will give me £40 +20% off a new kindle if I send in my (6yr) old one). It's taken 6 days to finally give me the discount, and my new Kindle won't arrive till tomorrow. This means I've had to pick up a bo-ok (I assume it is pronounced the same as coop?) from my limited collection. I went for Part I of the Divine Comedy (Inferno). If you've not read it, I find it really interesting as it is where we get most of our modern ideas of hell from. The major challenge with reading it (similar to Machiavelli's The Prince) is that it refers to a lot of contemporary Italian (and in particular Florentine) politics and political figures, so you really need to have a version with those references explained to get some of it.

[TheMightyEthan]

lol, I just checked and they'll give me $5 for my old Kindle.

[Thursday Next]

Mine was a Kindle Voyage. I think it cost me £120ish when I bought it I think so I'm more than happy with the 2/3 off, and the discount.

[danielpholt]

 

Biggest shock of 2020 wasn't the global pandemic. No. It was that I fell head first into a sudden and shocking love of US Presidential history. So yeah. I'm treating myself to one white dude a night (kinky). 

 

[TheMightyEthan]

On 9/21/2021 at 5:11 AM, danielpholt said:

I'm treating myself to one white dude a night

 

Does Dani get in on the action too or just leave you to enjoy yourself without her?

[danielpholt]

On 9/22/2021 at 1:27 PM, TheMightyEthan said:

 

Does Dani get in on the action too or just leave you to enjoy yourself without her?

 

I know we're joking here but she absolutely hates this shit. I've turned into a toem of presidential facts and figures and she greets each and every one with an eye roll.

 

Anyway...

 

I've started reading Project Hail Mary the newest book from the author of The Martian and it's really engaging. I won't lie, it doesn't have the immediate hook that The Martian has, but after about 120 pages it's really starting to work through the gears. I'll be honest, I've got absolutely no idea where it's going, part of me wonders if ...

 

Spoiler

any of it is real at all. The ease at which he seems to capable of recalling the most relevant memory to his current predicament is either a massive plot contrivance or a something that's going to be explained later...

 

That aside however, I'm running through it pretty quickly, and that's usually the sign of an enjoyable book.

[TheMightyEthan]

I really liked that book. It didn't immediately hook me either though, mainly because even though the whole jury-rig-a-science-thing is the author's whole schtick, I felt like a bunch right at the beginning were unnecessary and forced. After that though it was great.

[danielpholt]

So I finished Project: Hail Mary last week and whilst I can't confess to liking it nearly as much as The Martian, it's still a worthy read if you're into that sort of thing. 

 

Credit to Andy Weir here, because based on the first third of the book I could quickly see this thing spiralling out of control, but it didn't, and he kept it very grounded (no mean feat for a book set in space).

 

Spoiler

There's another book (maybe fan-fic) out there that could tell the story of Dr G returning to earth, and all that would entail, but I'm glad it wasn't forced into this thing.

 

[danielpholt]

Been on something of a reading blitz since the turn of the year. I've read:

 

Leadership: In Turbulant Times - Doris Kearns Goodwin

 

The book tells the stories of four presidents, Lincoln, TDR, FDR and LBJ from their first political awakenings to their greatest moments. For a book about 4 dead guys, I found it pretty interesting, and I learned some new stuff.

 

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Harcastle - Stuart Turton

 

Recommended to me by a friend, and Christopher Plante of Polygon/Vox/Besties fame. It's a novel about a man who relives the same day over and over again until he can figure out what's going on inside this super turn of the centuryesque manor house. It reads like a video game. Highly recommended. 

 

The Stranger Times - C.K. McDonnell

 

I'm a big fan of Douglas Addams, and whilst this isn't that....it's trying to be. For the most part it's pretty funny. There's some fun characters to be around and the plot is ..........fine I guess. If you've got nothing else to read and you don't mind throwing a few hours on a book you'll likely forget about after the fact, then this might be worth your time.

 

Erubus: The Story of a Ship - Michael Palin

 

Erubus was one of the two ships lost during arguably the greatest maritime mystery of all time; the Franklin Expedition. The book tells the tale of the ship from the moment of its construction to the moment it was rediscovered a few years ago, laying at the bottom of the arctic ocean. 

 

Chavs: The Demonisation of the Working Class - Owen Jones

 

I don't *always* agree with Owen on everything, but his critique of the way our country looks on the working class is as relevant today as it was when this book was published during the opening years of the David Cameron years. This book made me angry, as it should anybody who considers themselves on the lower end of the british class spectrum.

 

The Shrinking Man - Robert Matheson

 

I consider I Am Legend to be my favourite book, so I went into The Shrinking Man with some pretty lofty expectations, and whilst it didn't quite hit the highs I'd built up in my mind, It's still a pretty good read. Lots of interesting ideas and some light social commentary thrown in for good measure. It gets a bit bogged down in the middle, but towards the final third it really picks up again I could barely put it down for the final 200 pages. 

[TheMightyEthan]

6 hours ago, danielpholt said:

The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Harcastle - Stuart Turton

 

This is the only one on your list that I've read, but I also really liked it a lot. Recommendation seconded.

 

Interesting side note: My copy was titled "The Seven and a Half Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle" (emphasis mine), but I've seen both titles. Not sure which is the original.

[danielpholt]

5 hours ago, TheMightyEthan said:

 

This is the only one on your list that I've read, but I also really liked it a lot. Recommendation seconded.

 

Interesting side note: My copy was titled "The Seven and a Half Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle" (emphasis mine), but I've seen both titles. Not sure which is the original.

 

Yeah I'm not sure if maybe there's another book in the US that sounds similar to Seven deaths, so they threw in the added half to try and make the name less likely to confuse?

[TheMightyEthan]

Maybe in their focus testing it just appealed to US audiences more. Just anecdotal, but the extra "and a Half" makes it sound more intriguing to me.

[TheMightyEthan]

Randomly found the answer to this without even looking:
 

Quote

According to Turton, the novel's title was changed in America since it was similar to the previously published The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.

 

[danielpholt]

To be fair I very nearly made that mistake when searching for this book. 

[danielpholt]

Still working my way through The Presidents. I'm upto FDR now. I've been reading each chapter (essay?) during my lunch break at work, although given the length and scope of FDR's run, I'm not sure that'll be possible in 25 minutes. The book isn't really teaching me anything I don't already know, but it's a good primer if you're starting out.

 

In my free time, I've just started The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton. His second novel after the previously mentioned Seven (and a half) Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. I'm roughly 30% of the way through the book and I'm absolutely hooked; even more so than I was with Seven Deaths. The setting is more interesting to me, the characters are more to my liking and I'm finding it a little more easy to follow without the ....hook that Seven Deaths relies on to tell it's story.

 

 

 

 

 

[TheMightyEthan]

I'm on the third Scarlet Odyssey book, Primeval Fire. It came out a few weeks ago, but I re-read the first two to remind myself of everything that had happened, and goddamn these books are good. It's high fantasy, but set in an African-influenced world rather than your typical medieval Europe. I highly recommend them.

 

@danielpholt I'll have to add The Devil and the Dark Water to my list, I loved T7.5DoEH.

[Mister Jack]

I'm currently working my way through I'm Glad My Mom Died. I think pretty much everyone already knows how rough and exploitive Hollywood is toward child actors but hearing a firsthand account about the ways the author was abused by her stage mom and creeped on by Nickelodeon producers is some real skin-crawling stuff.