What BOOK(s) are you reading?

Peter & Max: A novel that ties into the Fables comics. Pretty good for a tie-in novel. Shouldn't come as a surprise though if you've enjoyed the periodic long-form stuff that shows up in Fables.

Neuromancer: After playing Android: Netrunner I need to read some cyberpunk. It's one of my all-time favorites but it was good to go back and reconfirm why. It had probably been close to 10 years since I'd read it last.

No Country for Old Men: Just started on this last night. Holy crap it's so good. The scene where Chigur is in the gas station and makes the owner call the coin flip was chilling. Haven't seen the movie yet, but think I'll have to once I'm done.

I'm reading 1493 and it's not knocking me out. Mann writes very well but he's spending too much time in the details. It's muddying up the broader message of the book. I'm only a third of the way through it so I'm hoping it gets back on message and finishes big.

S.

Jeff White wrote: Reading Agincourt by Bernard Cornwell.

I just read The Face of Battle which covers Agincourt in detail. I'd be curious to see how this book matches up on the details.

S.

I got this Kindle at work for some award thing, doesn't matter, and I picked up a bunch of books on it. It's actually a great way to read. First I read Christopher Hitchens Mortality, great book! He's a funny and charming guy who is easy to read and always entertaining. He's dying all through the book of course and then just stops writing and the book ends. A little epilogue from his wife and it's done. Bit of a downer I suppose but it's still a great book.

What I noticed is that Norm Macdonalds new special "Me Doing Stand Up" has a bit about death and mortality at the begining and some of it is borrowed from Hitchens.. Very cleverly too. That was a nice surprise.

Hitchens turned me onto Francis Collins, the chemist who was in charge of the Human Genome project. He's, quite literally, a brilliant scientist. The book is called "The Language of God" because Collins, oddly enough, came to Theism from Atheism while working on the project. Something about the complexity and beauty of the human DNA (and working in a death ward in a hospital as a grad student) slowly moved him toward Theism.

It's great contrast to read Hitchens and then Collins right away. Both men respect each other a great deal but clearly believe completely opposite things when it comes to metaphysics. Not to mention that the scientist is the one who goes for God whereas the artist, traveler and political gadfly is the one who goes to atheism. It made for a great contrast.

Next up is Buddhist Warfare. It's a history of violent situations Buddhists have gotten into over the years dispelling the myth that Buddhists are always peacefull. Sounds a little too agenda driven but I'm still interested. I mean, there's war right?

I've been reading through a bunch of Lovecraft short stories. Halloween is a great time to dabble in his works.

The most recent ones I've read were The Haunter of the Dark and The Thing on the Doorstep. I'm currently reading Shadows over Innsmouth.

Quick question - How do you guys/gals pronounce Innsmouth? Do you pronounce it just as it's spelled, 'Inns-mouth'? I live in Rhode Island and when a town ends in 'mouth' you tend to say it like 'smith'. So when I see Innsmouth I believe the way to say it would be 'Inn-smith'. Just curious.

I've always read it as "Innsmith".

On a separate note, I am midway through Thunderstruck, by Erik Larsen. It is about the intesection on the high seas of Marconi's wireless and the North London Cellar Murder. Good read by a great author.

Egg Shen wrote: The most recent ones I've read were The Haunter of the Dark and The Thing on the Doorstep. I'm currently reading Shadows over Innsmouth.

Haunter of the Dark is on my list of favorites. The Shadow Over Innsmouth, along with At the Mountains of Madness are probably my favorites. The Shadow Out of Time is also a up there.

I'm currently reading a collection of Mythos stories by other authors, many of them contemporaries of Lovecraft, including Robert Bloch, who wrote the precursor to Haunter, as well as a sequel. Unfortunately I wasn't a big fan of his stories. I've read several of August Derleth's stories now, and I think he is fucking atrocious. Just awful. He throws in every Mythos name he can think of in each story, and it's just painful to read. He may have saved Lovecraft's work from obscurity, but he certainly doesn't understand it.

Robert E. Howard (Conan) wrote a bunch of Mythos stories than were pretty good.

Egg Shen wrote: Quick question - How do you guys/gals pronounce Innsmouth?

I say Inns-myth.

Currently reading the Bernie Gunther series of crime books by Phillip Kerr. Bernie is a policeman in the criminal police in Germany in 1936. These stories are excellent dealing with the internal politics of the Third Reich. He is not a Nazi and is super cynical about the politics of the day. A really great read.

ThirstyMan wrote: Currently reading the Bernie Gunther series of crime books by Phillip Kerr. Bernie is a policeman in the criminal police in Germany in 1936. These stories are excellent dealing with the internal politics of the Third Reich. He is not a Nazi and is super cynical about the politics of the day. A really great read.

That's on my pile. I think they were translated in French a couple of years ago which renewed interest in this author over here.


On a topic related to the "Morels" thread, if anyone wants to read some weird-ass yet excellent mushroom-inspired fantasy, check out Jeff Vandermeer's stuff, more specifically his Ambergris novels (City of Saints and Madmen, Shriek: An Afterword and Finch). Some pretty amazing litertur' right there.

Inns-muth.

Sort of jumping the gun here but I ordered the first two volumes of Mouse Guard (Autumn and Winter) and they should be arriving soon.

I've heard many references to these comics but have never read or even seen them other than images on the web...which look amazing.

I hope they are good because I'm looking forward to them.

repoman wrote: Sort of jumping the gun here but I ordered the first two volumes of Mouse Guard (Autumn and Winter) and they should be arriving soon.

I've heard many references to these comics but have never read or even seen them other than images on the web...which look amazing.

I hope they are good because I'm looking forward to them.

Mouse Guard is great. The art is gorgeous.

The RPG is also fantastic.

ubarose wrote:

Egg Shen wrote:
Quick question - How do you guys/gals pronounce Innsmouth? Do you pronounce it just as it's spelled, 'Inns-mouth'? I live in Rhode Island and when a town ends in 'mouth' you tend to say it like 'smith'. So when I see Innsmouth I believe the way to say it would be 'Inn-smith'. Just curious.

Lived in RI for 6 years, so same here. Never thought about it until now.

Round these parts it's sort of in-between "Inns-smith" and "Inns-mouth"

I say "Inns-muth"