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Currently reading The Expectant Father as I am realizing, "What have I gotten myself into?!"
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Congratulations!
It's a rough road, but a really good and entirely worthwhile one.
I see Dicey bopping around the boards, so I'll bump this
Yeah, I heard that one was different. What aboout you? What books are you currently reading? The third Thomas Covenant series done yet?
Also, do you know about Total Con? IIRC, you are a fellow New Englander. I private messaged Dicey, but he never got back to me. Or maybe I forgot to send it...
[bubble bubble bubble]
And this
I'll have to think about Total Con. I have a limited tolerance for Con gaming, preferring longer campaigns with more select players to the usual short, combat driven grabbag you get at Cons.I hear that. But I've got two words for you. Or, rather, one word and two letters:
There seems to be a regular crew of competing DMs and I've played under two of them and both were awesome. One, whom I haven't played under, came dressed as a ninja with barbed wire wrapped around his limbs and, instead of giving a short speech about why he was the best DM evah, rapped freestyle about why he was the best DM evah! Plus, Rone Barton and Louis Agresta put on a great show.
Be there or be square!
Also, checking my private message outbox, I think I didn't send Dicey a message. Hey, Dicey! You wanna go to Total Con?
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Currently reading Promise of Blood by Brian McClellan
I was hesitant at first but I am really enjoying it.
'The Coming Race' by E. Bulwer Lytton, which isn't much good. Still, at least I now know that, in the Future, we'll all be ruled by psychic women with really big thumbs. Also contains the line 'Humble yourselves, my descendents; the father of your race was a tw*t', adding (tadpole) in front just to make it clear that he's not simply being rude. So far as I can tell, tw*t has never meant tadpole, but then again, I'm not a Baron.
Finished Goliath. Man that was a fun series. Totally wholesale stole the Darwinist fabricants for the Gnomes in my setting, with their naturemagitech theme already in place it was a natural fit.
Talking about Steve Alten's Goliath?
His Meg series freakin' awesome.
Vive le Galt!: For Ultralefts and Britishiznoids
" In his 1984 work, John Sullivan described the Spartacist League as ‘very unpopular’ and ‘increasingly unbalanced’ and are probably best known nowadays for their absurd defence of regimes such as North Korea
"Flicking through these SL journals bring the reader the joys of reading some of the most sectarian and rant-filled material ever created by the British left."
Taking a break from The Bone House by Stephen Lawhead for Autumn Bones by Jacqueline Carey. Some good old fashioned Midwest (sub)urban fantasy. :-D
I keep missing 'em by a day:
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Hemingway's favourite beefburger recipe
'Variations on a theme of ground beef', my life.
I think it's been over a month since I read a book. That's like, totally unf##&ing acceptable!!!
I guess I'm just going to have to give up on The Shining and Psalms.
I can't believe it's been a month...I feel ill.
Started Larry Niven's Crashlander (compilation of Beowulf Shaeffer stories). Interesting, well-written, solid SciFi.
rereading T. Pratchett's "Carpe Jugulum" and "Reaper Man" - as funny, twisted and entertaining as ever!
I think it's been over a month since I read a book. That's like, totally unf+!!ing acceptable!!!
I guess I'm just going to have to give up on The Shining and Psalms.
I can't believe it's been a month...I feel ill.
It's to remedy this sort of thing they invented the bathtub. No-one will interrupt your reading if you're in the bath. Just grab a (not necessarily) cheap paperback and lie back in the warm, engulfing water.
Then again, I'm not sure if goblins have discovered hygiene yet...
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Sure they did! Why do you think bugbears are so tall?
That is a horrible pun. You have my admiration.
To overcome the ennui created by The Shining and The Book of Psalms I started re-reading Theodore Draper's The Roots of American Communism. (Paywalled 1957 review from, of all places, neo-con breeding ground Commentary).
This is one of the books that you read, pick up again after 20 years and marvel at how much you missed the first time.
For example, pioneering American Marxist Daniel De Leon grabbed his oft-repeated characterization of the union bureaucracy, "the labor lieutenants of capital" from Republican puppet master Mark Hanna. And the Socialist Labor Party started not as a Marxist party, but as a Lassallean one and believed that trade union struggle for higher pay was futile because of "the iron law of wages."
Fascinating stuff.
Vive le Galt!
About 5/8ths of the way through Lord Macauley, the Whiggiest Whig of them all, and I've actually learnt quite a lot about the conquest of India/English politics from the 17th to the 19th centuries. For balance, I had a go at The Fantastic Swordsmen, which was fantastic and had swordsmen in. I liked Henry Kuttner's story the best, and will certainly look out for more of his stuff.
I also found Dancing With Demons - The Music's Real Master, a Chick Publications book, which takes you on a journey through someone's experiments with beans, Dee Snyder interviews and the SAVAGE MADDENING VOODOO RHYTHMS OF AFRICA in order to prove that Hall and Oates are stormtroopers of Satan, having a swipe at poor old Stryper and Amy Grant on the way. Unputdownable, even with a humane killer.
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Jack Chick (and I'm pretty sure, at this point, that it's a trademarked name, like Betty Crocker, or Mary Kay) never disappoints. Reading that stuff is like rubber-necking at a car crash: However bad it might get, you just can't stop looking.
Finished Autumn Bones by Jacqueline Carey. It seemed like a TV show with a few different episodes and lots of story archs beginning and ending. In a really, really good way.
Started Red Country by Joe Abercrombie. So far, so good!
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First the Non-Fiction:
Just started The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt, which so far is engrossing and brilliant. It has really made me rethink common wisdom and about such conflicts, and using pure reason as tool for overcoming them. It has also given me much to think on when listening to and responding to rules issues on the Paizo messageboards.
Before that I finished Playing at the World by Jon Peterson, which is a really fantastic (and very long and detailed) history of early D&D and its wargame and literary antecedents. A must read for those interested in the subject. Then I read The Missionary Position by Christopher Hitchens.
After that sobering cleanse, I moved on to Mastering the Game buy Gary Gygax, which was not as good (and in many ways a rehash of) Roleplaying Mastery, but had some interesting tid-bits the early book did not to make it worth while. Then I moved on to The Magic of Reality by Richard Dawkins, a fine and entertaining book that covered basics of many scientific disciplines and basic epistemology, and was of course was not very sympathetic to supernatural causes for anything.
Fiction:
I finished Finch by Jeff VanderMeer, which made me love and hate the gray caps even more than I had in the past, and moved on to his newest book Annihilation, which is the first part of the Southern Reach trilogy. It is creepy, thought-provoking, and excellently written. I highly recommend especially if you dig Lovecraftian things and both loved and were ultimately disappointed by Lost.
I am still picking at Swords & Dark Magic, reading the Abercrombie, Erikson, and Cook tales thus far and have enjoyed all three.
The Obedient Assassin by John Davidson which I haven't read but probably should.
Favorite part of the essay: "When American Trotskyist leader James P. Cannon was sent to prison for violations of the Smith Act in 1941 (his party opposed WWII), he liked to kid the bank robbers he ran into in the yard. Why bother with small change, he told them, we were after the whole thing."
F$+@in a' right.
Vive le Galt!
Jack Chick (and I'm pretty sure, at this point, that it's a trademarked name, like Betty Crocker, or Mary Kay) never disappoints. Reading that stuff is like rubber-necking at a car crash: However bad it might get, you just can't stop looking.
C'mon, you know you like it.
Started re-reading Sherri Tepper's True Game trilogy of trilogies:
Actually finished them a couple weeks ago. I've been on a short break from reading novels with work and my latest shipment of Paizo gaming products.
Wanted something a bit more light-hearted, so I started re-reading Oath of Swords by David Weber.
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Finished off Lord Macauley, with a slight sigh of relief - now started on:
The Distracted Preacher and Other Tales (Thomas Hardy)
The Eyes of Sarsis (Andrew Offutt and Richard Lyon - has a half-dressed redhead wielding a scimitar on the cover, so has already won my heart)
And I've also been dipping a toe into the strangely scented waters (I hope) of Olympia Press. As to what to get from them next, I'm not sure - torn between Convent Lust Slaves and Clinty Winty Pops It In, which, as you know, is the acclaimed sequel to Clinty Winty Flops It Out.
And Sir Richard Burton's sabre manual, if PDFs count.
Just finished Red Country by Joe Abercrombie.
Just started Pandemonium by Warren Fahy.
Just finished Labyrinth by Lois McMaster Bujold.
Moving on to the Miles Errant collection.
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I went back to my all-time favorite D&D novels, the original Dragonlance Chronicles by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. I've already read that trilogy three times (as well as dozens of other Dragonlance books), and now I'm almost finished reading Dragons of Autumn Twilight for the fourth time.
I'm not saying that it's perfect. Yes, there are things about Krynn that don't add up, and I prefer not to think about those. Some people say "Those books seemed great when I was 13, but as an adult, I can't stand them" and the fact that I can read them as an adult could easily be a sign of my immaturity.
But Weis and Hickman were great with characters. And the Chronicles did a good job of presenting an EPIC fantasy, like Lord of the Rings, which isn't the norm for D&D. And of course, the kender, gully dwarves, and gnomes* provided the relief humor, which seems necessary when the situation is serious and grim.
* (And also Flint. And Fizban.)
Azure Bonds by Jeff Grubb and Kate Novak made me give up Dragonlance. No offense. I read them a bunch of times too, back in the day. :-)
Azure Bonds by Jeff Grubb and Kate Novak made me give up Dragonlance. No offense. I read them a bunch of times too, back in the day. :-)
I thought that was an FR novel...
Still, I like Dragonlance too; I got 2/3rds of the way through the trilogy a few months ago and then paused it (reading the book again after... 18-20 years? Cripes...) and it isn't grimdark/gritty/'adult' or whatever, but who wants that all the time?
You know that's the middle volume of a trilogy, right? The magical battle scene at the end is one of my favorites.
EVEN BETTER! :)
Yeah, Azure Bonds is FR, but it's still good. :-P
I like that it's a personal quest, initially not life-or-death, but escalates organically.
Olive Ruskettle is a sweetie.
It is now almost mid-March and I have yet to read a book this year. But I did kick the Psalms and Stephen King to the curb and have started making some real progress into the Draper.
About to re-read the chapter on poor Louis Fraina and I'm already starting to cry. (In particular the "1919-20 espionage controversy" and "The Mexican Interlude" bits.)
I have a strange urge to re-watch Reds (Don't know if Louis made it into the trailer, but he was played by Paul Sorvino.)
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@doc the grey:
I got an autographed copy of "A Natural History of Dragons"! I hadn't heard of Marie Brennan before, but she was by far one of the best panelists who spoke at the book fair I attended, so I bought her book figuring someone so well-spoken is bound to be a good writer. It was a delight! I still haven't bought "Tropic of Serpents" but my b-day is approaching so I think I will treat myself to it.
Right now I'm still reading Francis Stevens, this time a short story collection. I recommend "The Nightmare" for its very Gygaxian features. Lost islands full of carnivorous giant plants and strange fungi? Yes, please!
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The Eye of Sardis was a champion read, and I badly want the other two volumes; I also polished off The Passion of New Eve by Angela Carter in an evening, which is something that hasn't happened for a while. The first feminist/surrealist/alchemical romance I've ever read, and extremely amazing.
Some interesting stuff in there about the nature of masculinity/femininity that went over my head a bit, but may be of interest to the folks in the LGBT gamers thread, judging by some recent conversations that have gone on there. Or not. I dunno. Me like Ko-nan. Ug.
I'm in Beryl again, in the Paper Tower with Croaker and the boys as the forvalaka screams and men die.
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@doc the grey:
I got an autographed copy of "A Natural History of Dragons"! I hadn't heard of Marie Brennan before, but she was by far one of the best panelists who spoke at the book fair I attended, so I bought her book figuring someone so well-spoken is bound to be a good writer. It was a delight! I still haven't bought "Tropic of Serpents" but my b-day is approaching so I think I will treat myself to it.Right now I'm still reading Francis Stevens, this time a short story collection. I recommend "The Nightmare" for its very Gygaxian features. Lost islands full of carnivorous giant plants and strange fungi? Yes, please!
Cool! What I really want though is some more stuff with strong and interesting female voices in the lead. I loved Tropic of Serpents and Natural history and it just made me realize how few books I have that have really well thought out and voiced female characters like that.
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Between other reading projects, I've been continuing the "Jeeves and Wooster" canon. I finished Very Good, Jeeves; Thank You, Jeeves; and Right Ho, Jeeves; and I just started The Code of the Woosters.
I felt that I had to get to Right Ho, Jeeves and The Code of the Woosters. I heard such good things about both of those novels, not only on this thread but from other sources as well.
I had been mildly curious about Eggs, Beans and Crumpets because I heard that some of its stories were about Bingo Little, who was featured in many Wooster stories. That book isn't in the public library in my area, though.
But when I sought out The Code of the Woosters, I found the only available means at my library was to take out The Best of Wodehouse, so I did. In it, I also found The Editor Regrets, one of the Bingo Little stories from Eggs, Beans and Crumpets, so I read that first. (The volume also had A Bit of Luck for Mabel, but I didn't notice any indication that it had much to do with anyone in the Jeeves stories, so I passed that one.)
The Best of Wodehouse also had an introduction, which described Wodehouse's unwise decision to make those broadcasts about his incarceration by the Germans during WWII. I know that the matter was discussed in essays to which people have linked on this thread, but those essays were a tad long, and I didn't bother to read them at the time. I read this introduction, though, which succinctly summed up the affair, and now I get it. Wodehouse really could have used a Jeeves himself.
But then, couldn't we all? I guess that's part of the appeal of these stories.
Between other reading projects, I've been continuing the "Jeeves and Wooster" canon. I finished Very Good, Jeeves; Thank You, Jeeves; and Right Ho, Jeeves; and I just started The Code of the Woosters
Wow. That's quite the 180, Aaron!
As for me, I'm starting to think I'll never read another book ever again. [Cries]
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Still reading the Francis Stevens collection. I laughed at the egregious racism and blatant sexism in "The Labyrinth." The sexism isn't SO bad compared to other works I've seen from the period (1910s-20s), but there are a lot of assumptions that we don't make anymore, and one particular gender assumption is the key to the plot, so I found the story less engaging than I might have otherwise.
e.g. that a single-woman is automatically assumed to have loose morals if she is alone with a man who is also single. #doublestandard.
I shouldn't have been surprised at the racism since Stevens was an influence on Lovecraft, but several of her racist statements still took me aback. I'd include an example of the racism here but I really don't want to feed THAT particular internet troll. I'll just say that Stevens took the "Yellow Peril" seriously in 1918 and leave it at that.
Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews. Eh.
Still reading the Francis Stevens collection. I laughed at the egregious racism and blatant sexism in "The Labyrinth." The sexism isn't SO bad compared to other works I've seen from the period (1910s-20s), but there are a lot of assumptions that we don't make anymore, and one particular gender assumption is the key to the plot, so I found the story less engaging than I might have otherwise.
e.g. that a single-woman is automatically assumed to have loose morals if she is alone with a man who is also single. #doublestandard.
I shouldn't have been surprised at the racism since Stevens was an influence on Lovecraft, but several of her racist statements still took me aback. I'd include an example of the racism here but I really don't want to feed THAT particular internet troll. I'll just say that Stevens took the "Yellow Peril" seriously in 1918 and leave it at that.
Y'know, it's funny; Back when I read It Can't Happen Here for the first time, I missed a bunch of characterization because I was too clueless to realize that, at the time of writing, if a married man dropped by an unmarried woman's house on his way home from work, they were having an affair, no explanation required.
Okay, maybe not funny funny, but I was about fifty pages in when I was all, "Oh, right, that explains a lot of stuff . . ."
Wanted something a bit more light-hearted, so I started re-reading Oath of Swords by David Weber.
Finished all the other books/stories in the series (The War God's Own, Wind Rider's Oath, War Maid's Choice, and Sword Brother (short story/novella)) yesterday. Staying in a light-hearted vein, I'll probably dig out Harry Turtledove's Gerin the Fox series (Werenight, Prince of the North, King of the North, and Fox and Empire) to help fill in the time until Cauldron of Ghosts (Weber & Eric Flint) is released.
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First the Nonfiction:
I currently finished The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, the Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern World by Edward Dolnick and Aftershock by Robert B. Reich. Both were good reads. Each very illuminating in there own way. I've just started on Ronin: Skirmish Wargames in the Age of Samurai which I can tell you if you are looking for a good, easy, and fast-paced skirmish wargame that uses only a handful of miniatures and inexpensive rulebook ($17.95 US) look no further. Osprey Wargames did a great job with this one.
Now the Fiction:
I'm currently reading Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne and Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. Journey is fun. It is one of those books I should have tackled before but till now I've just never taken the time to actually read Verne. I will definitely be reading more. Rothfuss is impressive. Great story, interesting characters, fascinating world, extremely well written. I'm glad I picked it up.
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Year's Best Science Fiction and Fantasy 4 (edited by Jonathan Strahan), which I mainly picked up for the Ellen Kushner short story A Wild and Wicked Youth about the childhood of the protagonist in her novel Swordspoint, Richard St. Vier.