What books are you currently reading?


Books

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I'm still trying to wrap my mind around Philistine jewelers fashioning golden hemorrhoids. Why didn't they tell us this story in CCD?


Samnell wrote:
Doodlebug Anklebiter wrote:
I started the Books of Samuel. I didn't get very far into it before I got very confused by the golden emerods and mice. WTF?!? I called up my friend who was raised hardcore Christian and has since gotten into Eric van Daniken. Big mistake...

I was just thinking last night about the connections between the alien astronauts invented stuff school of pseudohistory (so von Daniken, but also Graham Hancock, et al) and the anti-stratfordians. Both are a kind of snobbery. The case against Shakespeare authoring his plays is essentially that he was a bumpkin with not a lot of formal education. Von Daniken and company proceed from the assumption that a bunch of dirty primitives could never make such impressive monumental architecture.

I'll be the first in line to call the dead ignorant, as someone will call us down the line. We have the privilege of being born later. But being ignorant is not the same as being stupid and while their educated classes might have believed many things we know to be false, and were certainly smaller than our educated classes, the dead were no more inclined to idiocy than we are. It would take a lot of time to get them up to speed, but if you gave the ancients the same knowledge and tools we have, there's no reason to think they would prove any less capable than we do.

Of course there's also no reason to think they'd prove any more capable than we do, a fact generally missed by a different sort of snob.

I heard Shakespeare was an alien just like the ancient architects, that's how he just happens to be so great at writing . . .


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"You have never experienced Shakespeare until you have read him in the original Klingon."

- Chancellor Gorkon in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country


Hee hee!

I would imagine that the Klingons really dug the War of the Roses plays.

Not so much the comedies, though.


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Doodlebug Anklebiter wrote:

Hee hee!

I would imagine that the Klingons really dug the War of the Roses plays.

Not so much the comedies, though.

I think Klingon comedy would have to be some combination of bedroom door-slamming sex farce and torture porn. Most end with the leads eviscerating each other in what, for Klingons, is fairly vanilla coitus. It's all about journey, not destination.


I recently finished up 'Shifter's Wolf' by Patricia Briggs (of Mercy Thompson and Alpha & Omega fame), a collection of her debut novel 'Masques' and its sequel 'Wolfsbane'. I really enjoyed them both; it's the first of her writing I've read and I'd love to see more books with her characters Aralorn and Wolf and their world.

I'm currently have Tanya Huff's 'Wizard of the Grove'/'The Last Wizard' duology on tap but haven't had the chance to start it yet. Life gets in the way of a good book sometimes. Argh =/


Re-reading Svitjods undergång och Sveriges födelse (The downfall of Sviðiod and the birth of Sweden*) by Henrik och Fredrik Lindström. Linguistics and etymology as an entry-point to history is fun!

*Although the title loses a lot of its point when you translate it into English, since the word Sweden is derived from Sviðiod, rather than from the word Sverige.)


Samnell wrote:
Doodlebug Anklebiter wrote:

Hee hee!

I would imagine that the Klingons really dug the War of the Roses plays.

Not so much the comedies, though.

I think Klingon comedy would have to be some combination of bedroom door-slamming sex farce and torture porn. Most end with the leads eviscerating each other in what, for Klingons, is fairly vanilla coitus. It's all about journey, not destination.

(Rejoins the conversation after blizzard based internet hiatus.)

Have you seen the Al Pacino/Jeremy Irons version of Merchant of Venice? (Yeah, the horrible anti-semetic one, where they talk about "a pound of flesh'.)

It's listed as one of the comedies, and I think the average Klingon would enjoy it.


Ascending by James Alan Gardner. Oar is a truly excellent heroine.


A Matter of Blood by Sarah Pinborough, modern day the banks have failed and society is slowly falling apart. Starts as a crime novel and gets weirder and weirder. Really enjoying it....

Can someone recommend pathfinder fiction. I enjoyed winter witch but gave up on a second one (can't remember title, think it was by Howard nones)

Ta muchly


Hitdice wrote:

(Rejoins the conversation after blizzard based internet hiatus.)

Have you seen the Al Pacino/Jeremy Irons version of Merchant of Venice? (Yeah, the horrible anti-semetic one, where they talk about "a pound of flesh'.)

It's listed as one of the comedies, and I think the average Klingon would enjoy it.

My ducats! My daughter! My ducats!

Yeah, you're right. Klingonz would be all up over that shiznit. They'd like Marlowe even better.

I think I started watching it and had to give it up because, with two Teamsters and another dude with a beard in the room, there was already enough homoeroticism in the house.


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I've been digging in deeper into the Books of Sammie. Juicy stuff with Saul and Jonathan and David.

Also, to spice things up, some more three named American writers: Edgar Allan Poe poems.


Doodlebug, this is entirely the wrong thread for it (there's no right thread goblins such as ourselves), but have you watched I, Claudius? It was produced by the BBC in the mid to late seventies.

I only ask because I know you like Rome, the HBO series, and I, Claudius has at least two characters in common. You can probably get some version at your local library, but RI public television has been showing it thursday night at 10.

No, it's not ready for prime time; Yes, I watched back when I was pre-pubescent.


Oh, what am I reading? Well, I've been reading by candlelight, lately. :P


Dicey the House Goblin wrote:

Doodlebug, this is entirely the wrong thread for it (there's no right thread goblins such as ourselves), but have you watched I, Claudius? It was produced by the BBC in the mid to late seventies.

I only ask because I know you like Rome, the HBO series, and I, Claudius has at least two characters in common. You can probably get some version at your local library, but RI public television has been showing it thursday night at 10.

No, it's not ready for prime time; Yes, I watched back when I was pre-pubescent.

I've seen bits and pieces. Had a girlfriend once who was all into PBS stuff.

Actually, read the first volume of Graves's Greek Myths not that long ago. It was pretty awesome, even though all of his theories are not, shall we say, credible academically. But still, like with thejeff and van Daniken, fascinating stuff.

I had been meaning to read and watch I, Claudius after Rome but the best laid plans of mice and goblins and all...currently I'm rewatching all the Harry Potter movies.


Hitdice wrote:

Have you seen the Al Pacino/Jeremy Irons version of Merchant of Venice? (Yeah, the horrible anti-semetic one, where they talk about "a pound of flesh'.)

It's listed as one of the comedies, and I think the average Klingon would enjoy it.

Indeed, in the aforementioned movie Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, the Klingon General Chang quotes, presumably, the Klingon translation of that play.

"Tickle us, do we not laugh? Prick us, do we not bleed? Wrong us, shall we not revenge?"

(The actual quote is "If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?" Either the translation left out the poison part, and changed the order a bit, or else Chang misquoted.)


Hitdice wrote:


Have you seen the Al Pacino/Jeremy Irons version of Merchant of Venice? (Yeah, the horrible anti-semetic one, where they talk about "a pound of flesh'.)

It's listed as one of the comedies, and I think the average Klingon would enjoy it.

I've seen very little Shakespeare. I like it, and especially like the late 90s Midsummer Night's Dream with Kevin Kline, but not enough to really seek it out. I've tried to watch productions of Hamlet a few times because I feel like I ought to enjoy the play but have only read it and found the prose very opaque. I always end up losing interest.

I did see a fair portion of Derek Jacobi (A Friend of Dorothy who went to Oxbridge with Sireena. They had mutual crushes but neither was out.) flying his anti-Stratfordian flag on PBS a week or so ago. Except for the snobbery, he seems like a cool dude. They even had him watch some of his I, Claudius performance and criticize it. He insisted he didn't understand the scene well enough back then, but with thirty years more behind him he got it and could nail the thing today.


Aaron Bitman wrote:
Hitdice wrote:

Have you seen the Al Pacino/Jeremy Irons version of Merchant of Venice? (Yeah, the horrible anti-semetic one, where they talk about "a pound of flesh'.)

It's listed as one of the comedies, and I think the average Klingon would enjoy it.

Indeed, in the aforementioned movie Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, the Klingon General Chang quotes, presumably, the Klingon translation of that play.

"Tickle us, do we not laugh? Prick us, do we not bleed? Wrong us, shall we not revenge?"

(The actual quote is "If you prick us, do we not bleed? if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?" Either the translation left out the poison part, and changed the order a bit, or else Chang misquoted.)

In that very same movie, doesn't General Chang slap at his photon torpedo buttons and wail "Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war!" That's a Shakespeare line, not a Klingon one.

But wait, let's discus whether Spock is descended from Sherlock Holmes in a fictional reality, or Arthur Conan Doyle in this one. :P


Samnell wrote:
Hitdice wrote:


Have you seen the Al Pacino/Jeremy Irons version of Merchant of Venice? (Yeah, the horrible anti-semetic one, where they talk about "a pound of flesh'.)

It's listed as one of the comedies, and I think the average Klingon would enjoy it.

I've seen very little Shakespeare. I like it, and especially like the late 90s Midsummer Night's Dream with Kevin Kline, but not enough to really seek it out. I've tried to watch productions of Hamlet a few times because I feel like I ought to enjoy the play but have only read it and found the prose very opaque. I always end up losing interest.

I did see a fair portion of Derek Jacobi (A Friend of Dorothy who went to Oxbridge with Sireena. They had mutual crushes but neither was out.) flying his anti-Stratfordian flag on PBS a week or so ago. Except for the snobbery, he seems like a cool dude. They even had him watch some of his I, Claudius performance and criticize it. He insisted he didn't understand the scene well enough back then, but with thirty years more behind him he got it and could nail the thing today.

Yeah, I saw that anti-stratfordian flag, and was all, "Brother Cadfael, no!!'

I guess that's what he believes, but I must disagree.


Doodlebug Anklebiter wrote:


Actually, read the first volume of Graves's Greek Myths not that long ago. It was pretty awesome, even though all of his theories are not, shall we say, credible academically. But still, like with thejeff and van Daniken, fascinating stuff.

He had a go at the book of Genesis, too, but it was just a peg to hang the same old theories on.

Mind you, I've read The White Goddess five or six times. I *know* it's crap, historically speaking, but I can't help myself. He is a very, very good poet, which is probably why.

And look what I've found on YouTube


Limeylongears wrote:
And look what I've found on YouTube

Hmmm. Three BAFTA-winning tv show and most successful BBC miniseries ever or The Prisoner of Azkaban for the umpteenth time?

'ello, 'arry!


Limeylongears wrote:
Doodlebug Anklebiter wrote:


Actually, read the first volume of Graves's Greek Myths not that long ago. It was pretty awesome, even though all of his theories are not, shall we say, credible academically. But still, like with thejeff and van Daniken, fascinating stuff.

He had a go at the book of Genesis, too, but it was just a peg to hang the same old theories on.

Mind you, I've read The White Goddess five or six times. I *know* it's crap, historically speaking, but I can't help myself. He is a very, very good poet, which is probably why.

I've been reading Campbell's Masks of God, which isn't quite as crap, historically speaking. Horribly outdated, but still fascinating. Reminds me a little of Graves, though I read the White Goddess at least 20 years ago.

I'd love to see something of similar scope, but updated to what we know now about all the ancient civilizations and religions. It's the patterns and connections that interested Campbell and that I find fascinating, but you really need that kind of monumental work to see them.


Finished Throne of the Crescent Moon. I really appreciated some of it. A fat, aging fantasy protagonist is a nice change in itself, though I got a little sick of how often Ahmed reminded us how fat he was early on. The party formation stage, which I've really come to hate in a lot of fantasy, went by quickly and thankfully they didn't have to go tour the map for a hundred pages before something happened. Those bits never work very well for me and it gets worse than the author forms the party, splits it up, and then reforms it again. After so much fantasy, this stuff is just tiresome.

But the book never felt like it had much momentum going for it. The last hundred pages had no real sense of rising tension. The swapping POVs, sometimes justified by splitting the party but more often just done for its own sake and ends up resetting any tension from past chapters.

I don't hate it, but I also don't know if I care enough to look for the rest of the trilogy. There are some subtle sequel hooks, and one really obvious one, but the whole just left me a bit underwhelmed.


Samnell, have you read the Dragonsbane series by Barbara Hambly? The female lead is, if not fat, certainly aging. In the second and third books (of four) she's going through menopause, which is the only time I've seen that even mentioned in a book with swords, magic and whatnot.

The four books are Dragonsbane, Dragonshadow, Knight of the Demon Queen and Dragonstar.


Hitdice wrote:

Samnell, have you read the Dragonsbane series by Barbara Hambly? The female lead is, if not fat, certainly aging. In the second and third books (of four) she's going through menopause, which is the only time I've seen that even mentioned in a book with swords, magic and whatnot.

The four books are Dragonsbane, Dragonshadow, Knight of the Demon Queen and Dragonstar.

I haven't. Might give it a look.


Colours in the Steel by K J Parker.

I have mixed feelings about this. It's very well written, but I have a feeling all the characters I like are doomed. I haven't finished it, but it certainly looks like that's where the book is headed.


Started This Republic of Suffering as planned. Then decided I ought to read Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom by William and Ellen Craft for the blog. It's short so I'll probably do that tonight or tomorrow.


The Second Book of Samuel: The Musical Interlude


Finished the Books of Sammie and I did a little delving into economics with an unbiased and objective pamphlet entitled Karl Marx Was Right: Capitalist Anarchy and the Immiseration of the Working Class.

Think next I'll finish off the deCamp/Carter Conan series. Only two to go!

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Just finished The Expedition to the Mountains of the Moon by Hodder. A steampunky time traveling travelogue about seeking the source of the Nile. Not as good as the prequels, and it kind of ended with a whimper. :-(

I've started both AMERICA AGAIN REBECOMING THE GREATNESS WE NEVER WEREN'T by Stephen Colbert and Territory by Emma Bull (a magical re-telling of the Gunfight at the OK Corral. I think. I'm only like 3 or 4 pages into it....

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

Sw33t4Tea wrote:

I recently finished up 'Shifter's Wolf' by Patricia Briggs (of Mercy Thompson and Alpha & Omega fame), a collection of her debut novel 'Masques' and its sequel 'Wolfsbane'. I really enjoyed them both; it's the first of her writing I've read and I'd love to see more books with her characters Aralorn and Wolf and their world.

I'm currently have Tanya Huff's 'Wizard of the Grove'/'The Last Wizard' duology on tap but haven't had the chance to start it yet. Life gets in the way of a good book sometimes. Argh =/

If you're really sweet for tea, check out Soulless by Gail Carriger. It's got proper British werewolves and vampires and ghosts in Victorian England, and the heroine's magic power is being extremely unmagical, in addition to being unseemingly swarthy with an overlarge nose (and other assets) due to her half-Italian ancestry. It's really quite scandalous. Fortunately, she is quite talented at whacking offensive buffoons with her parasol, drinking tea, and spending time in libraries. Lots of hilarious comedies of manners.


Sports week. Reading The book of Basketball by Bill Simmons and Roger Kahn's The Boys of Summer.


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Boys of summer is a fantastic book


Samnell wrote:
Started This Republic of Suffering as planned. Then decided I ought to read Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom by William and Ellen Craft for the blog. It's short so I'll probably do that tonight or tomorrow.

I gutted it out. Great content but it took a lot of reading. I can't blame the authors since they didn't even learn to read until into adulthood but eeesh. The first several pages are taken up by other stories and they frequently include the full text of letters they received. It really breaks up the flow and the prose is very formal Victorian. Not my favorite style by any measure.


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Samnell wrote:
the blog.

Was looking through again and saw the post about the Mass. 54th re-enactors and was reminded of a tale from my youthful commie days...

I can't recall what the commemoration was for, but they had come to Boston and were camped out on the Common. So, the comrades and I loaded up with Black History and the Class Struggle pamphlets and were hawking them to the re-enactors.

One guy bought a copy and then, as he was walking away, said, "Thank you, very much, sir." To which I started screaming "Do you see any stripes on this sleeve? I work for a living, goddamnit!!!" (which I think I had stolen from either Stripes or one of the Robert Asprin MYTH books, can't remember now).

Anyway, I laughed, he laughed, and then we overthrew capitalism. It was great.


HolmesandWatson wrote:

Boys of summer is a fantastic book

Yeah, I love most of Kahn's stuff. Not too many sportswriters left who can say they saw DiMaggio play *and* spent time with Robert Frost at his home.


Cold Steel - the art of fencing with the sabre, by Alfred Hutton. Lots of neat moves in it, though apparently smacking your opponent in the cakehole with your pommel is no longer approved of. Probably just as well.

RPG Superstar 2012 Top 32

The Rise of Ransom City by Felix Gilman. Sequel to The Half-Made World.

Scarab Sages

Just cracked the cover of The Horus Heresy: Angel Exterminatus - as wella s a bottle of Sam Adams Irish Red


Twenty pages or so from the end of Conan of Aquilonia and, I must say, I'm kind of bored with Conan.

Not that de Camp and Carter can't write. I'm still impressed with their individual paragraphs, but the stories are getting boring. How many times can Conan be caught by his nemesis and escape, all within 40 pages? Also, Prince Conn? Conan, Jr.? Lame!

Thankfully, though, this is Book 11 of 12, so I'm almost done.


Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series. I'm currently reading the fifth part Death Masks. I really like Butcher's novels, very entertaining stories. Geek references are nice addition to otherwise good stories.

Also I'm reading book about men in the Bible (Finnish book by Mailis Janatuinen). Stuff like whom is hero and whom is coward and how God still uses both in His plans. I'm reading that as part of education (Church Youth worker) and to prepare my training period at the local parish.


Conan of the Isles which allayed my Conan boredom by getting rid of Conn and having the old-timer beset by aging problems. He can still kick kraken ass, though, even under water!

Also reading some Edgar Allan Poe short stories. And, man, are they short! For example, I remember being fascinated with "The Cask of Amontillado" (sp?) in the fifth grade and was suprised as shiznit to (re-)discover that it's only five pages long!


Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy. The technology is way out of date now. It's still kinda fun tho'.


Doodlebug Anklebiter wrote:

Conan of the Isles which allayed my Conan boredom by getting rid of Conn and having the old-timer beset by aging problems. He can still kick kraken ass, though, even under water!

Also reading some Edgar Allan Poe short stories. And, man, are they short! For example, I remember being fascinated with "The Cask of Amontillado" (sp?) in the fifth grade and was suprised as shiznit to (re-)discover that it's only five pages long!

Guy de Maupassant wrote some cracking one-pagers. (And Bel-Ami.)


Kajehase wrote:
Guy de Maupassant wrote some cracking one-pagers. (And Bel-Ami.)

There's another dude I haven't read since grade school.


I am currently over 3/4 of the way through The Weird: A Compendium of Dark and Strange Stories.

Pretty excellent variety of stories, and good overview of the genre. Some things are a bit too weird for me to enjoy, and some of the stuff has been reprinted one too many times (I swear this is the 3rd anthology in the last year I have read that included "In the Hill, the Cities).

Pretty sure if this was in hardcover it would be heavy enough to be used to bludgeon someone...


Just picked up Changes, by Mercedes Lackey.

I don't know I am a sucker for the child from a horrible background makes good style adventure.

Only problem is the more I read her books the more horrible and dark back stories I am inspired to write, for my characters.

My favorite books were by David Eddings, rich if a bit stereotypical characters, that you could not help but to fall in love with.


So, I had forgotten the ending to EAP's "The Black Cat!" Scary shiznit...

Was thinking of heading after some historical writings on the ancient Hebrews that Samnell had been good enough to PM me, but instead, I think I'll read this awesome book on the subject that I picked up at TotalCon for $10. Now, I realize, that it's going on paizo.com for $2.

I am a terrible shopper.


Doodlebug Anklebiter wrote:

So, I had forgotten the ending to EAP's "The Black Cat!" Scary shiznit...

Was thinking of heading after some historical writings on the ancient Hebrews that Samnell had been good enough to PM me, but instead, I think I'll read this awesome book on the subject that I picked up at TotalCon for $10. Now, I realize, that it's going on paizo.com for $2.

I am a terrible shopper.

I own that book. I even got it from Paizo! :) I never sat down and did a cover to cover read in detail, but it scanned as very solid. I really liked the tables of things you can do to get ritual impurity. They contain all the things you'd think they would, but put in a bit better context than a generic list of sins would have.

Not that this does the contents of that list any favors, of course. Just that having it in context gives one a better picture of one of the major components of Ancient Near Eastern religion that we really don't do. "Sacred" to us usually is just a generic adjective for religious stuff but for them it really was set apart, with all kinds of different cultural baggage...most of which is radically out of keeping with anything resembling normal Western values of the past five hundred or so years.


Finally got my copy of A Memory of Light two days ago.

It's the Last Battle, and... 400 pages in it's starting to get really intense. That surprise attack!

Spoiler:
And Moiraine... man I missed her in the previous 8 books of the series, but now she's back and kicking butt verbally. Yay!

Also, Mat and Rand's bragging contest. Hilarious.

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