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Oops, missed this one over the weekend.
Clears throat.
Sacred prostitute? What, you don't think I'm down to earth enough to play a common streetwalker? Though maybe one who has managed to claw her way up the social ladder slave ("I prefer handmaiden.") to Matron of the house, that sounds a bit more awesome.
You know what, never mind the pbp, I think I just met the newest resident of Manse Dice.
I've been reading David Sedaris' new book, Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls, and a french language comic book (graphic novel to all you snobs out there) called L'Imperatrice Rouge.
You'd like it, Doodlebug. It's set in the near future, in a world where the October Revolution failed and the Czars conquered Europe (or, as people of my station call it, Heaven). At least, I think that's what is about; my french is fairly terrible, so I'm reduced to exclaiming, "That character just introduced herself, and her names Adja!" or, "Someone just said something about a library!"
I'm not saying you can become fluent by reading (or whatever) foreign language comic books, but it broadens your mind. Look, whatever, the pictures are pretty.
OMG! Somebody on the interwebs typed rouge and didn't actually mean rogue!!!!!! :-D
The bookstore couldn't get me a copy of any of the volumes of Ordeal of the Union, which I was glad for. But the owner successfully guilted me into buying something so I came away with a copy of Wyrd Sisters and a copy of Hogfather.
I've never read a Discworld book before and found The Hithchiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which I'm told is similar, pretty obnoxious. But the first twenty or so pages of Wyrd Sisters are at least tolerable, though I can see how the gags may wear thin down the road.
Question. I've been looking for a series of books that I read a few years ago. It was a fantasy series, that actually had Vampires co-exsisting some what peacefully with Humans. There is magic, but its kinda limited. Story line starts with an older prince with the aid of the Royal Advisor ( a Vampire Warlock ), an placing the blame on his younger brother. The young prince goes on the run and of course meets up with interesting characters to include a princess promised to his brother and a roguish guy (kinda Han Solo-ish). All in all they beat the badguys and the Prince is restored. The new King then places the roguish guy in charge of the Vampire controlled area, which of course some don't agree with.
I'm needing the name of the books or the authors name. If someone could think of it, i would be very thankful.
The bookstore couldn't get me a copy of any of the volumes of Ordeal of the Union, which I was glad for. But the owner successfully guilted me into buying something so I came away with a copy of Wyrd Sisters and a copy of Hogfather.
I've never read a Discworld book before and found The Hithchiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which I'm told is similar, pretty obnoxious. But the first twenty or so pages of Wyrd Sisters are at least tolerable, though I can see how the gags may wear thin down the road.
Let's just say there's some rather marked evolution in Pratchett's style between Wyrd Sisters and Hogfather; so even if you get tired of the first, don't discount the second (it's one of my favourites, actually).
Finished Class Struggles yesterday, and although I feel like I could probably spend the next year reading about the French revolution of 1848, it's probably time to get back to the Priscilla Robertson book and do the rest of the continent.
That is, after I finish Mockingjay. Only one third left to go. Not turning out to be as much of a workers revolution as I'd prefer, but, whatevs, I'll take it. Also, when I'm done, I'm going back to trolling the Anita Sarkeesian thread. Who talked shiznit about Catching Fire and Mockingjay because her feminism is hollow and stupid.
Vive le Katniss and her love triangle!
Went on an expedition to the nearest big box bookstore armed with a list of twenty-odd books. Bastards had none of them so I lurked in a bathroom and waylaid customers until I harvested twenty kidneys and twenty livers to tastefully spell out a sternly-worded message to management, as you do. About this time I nice martian in a turban and speedo asked me to mount his flying teacup and ride off with him, WC Minor, and bunch of Irishmen to Constantinople, where Minor promised they would do terrible, terrible things to us. (Sorry, Minor is one of my favorite obscure history jokes.)
I was up for that but I left my speculum in my other corset and felt a bit knackered from the drive and so came home with just an issue of North & South, a collection from the NYT's Disunion blog, and a $5 B&N edition of Douglass's autobiography because I can get it for free but for reference I prefer paper.
Also the first Justice League Dark TPB and something by Morrison called Joe the Barbarian with the O drawn as what I insist is one of those cases for birth control pills, and Elminster's Guide to the Forgotten Realms. All of these sound more promising than Wyrd Sisters appears at around 20% through.
Hm.
Um. Just finished Tinker by Wen Spencer.
Might start The Good, the Bad, and the Uncanny by Simon Green. But I accidentally grabbed book 10 of a 12 part series, so I might delay and try to get book 1 first.
Maybe.
Or I might stroll down to Library 2 to get Woken Furies by Richard K. Morgan. Book 3 of the Kovacs series or whatever it's called.
(I'm really drunk right now.....surprised at how good my spelling and grammar is. If it's good, because, still drunk. :-P )
Reading is so much more fun when you are inebriated.
Samnell, leave the customers alone.
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Thus Spake DoodleThustra.
I went to the bookshop yesterday, too, escaping a gruesome death by inches by the sounds of things, and bought a couple of old FR novels and... The Sword of Skelos, one of the Fantastic New Adventures of Conan!, as an accompaniment to a bottle of Scotch. It performed very well in that role, gaining points for the lavish and detailed descriptions of the heroine's bosom every two pages or so, but getting severely marked down for not featuring the phrase 'mighty thews' at all.
C- .
If it wasn't written by Roy Thomas, it ain't proper Conan!
Found it! It's the " Chronicles of the Necromancer ", by Gail Z. Martin. Currently re-reading the "Wheel of Time" series, on book 10 as of last night. Catching up on a lot of things that I'd forgotten.
Samnell, leave the customers alone.
They weren't using all their kidneys!
Also I appear to be a bit obsessed with this whole movement to steal Cuba. Dug around and found two out of print resources I had to have today. One has the most creative title I've seen in white a while: The American Interest in Cuba 1848-1855. It could be about anything! :)
Inspired by Comrade Samnell, I picked up Che Guevara Speaks after I finished Mockingjay.
Re: the latter: [sobs]
This, comrades, is why we don't ally ourselves with various and sundry bourgeois causes, and why the working class must only rely upon its own power in order to achieve its goals.
[Sobs some more]
Vive le Galt! (half-heartedly)
Something from the Nightside by Simon Green.
Finished Che Guevara Speaks (La Lucha Continua!), read an intro to critical theory for eighth-graders called How to Analyze the Works of Suzanne Collins (Smash Panem Through Workers Revolution!) and started Come Endless Darkness by Gary Gygax which is just as good (or bad) as any other book in the Gord the Rogue series.
Woken Furies by Richard K. Morgan.
Got my copy of American Interest in Cuba: 1848-1855 today. So yeah...the plan to read two works of fiction before I do more history is pretty abandoned, unless two trade paperbacks (Justice League Dark and Joe the Barbarian) count. It's a 1974 printing of a 1948 original, great condition and wonderful old book smell. Apparently began life as part of the Stuart L. Bernath Memorial Collection on American Diplomatic History at UC-Santa Barbara. The back endpaper is stamped "This book is not to be taken from the library."
Don't tell on me. :)
Being a spoiler-fiend when it comes to history, I raced right to the last page and read it. The final sentence is very 1948:
"Relieved of the incubus of slavery, the United States kept its promise not to annex the island and has contributed to the considerable success of Cuba as an independent, democratic community today."
Currently Reading "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin. Waited until after I watched Season 2 of "Game of Thrones" before I read it so I could compare and gain further insight. Will watch season 3 and then read "A Storm of Swords". In the mean time, I've got a stack in my "to be read" pile as high as a hill giant's eye...
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Finished Book of the New Sun.
High Points: The duel at the Sanguanry Field in Shadow of the Torturer was awesome. And the sequence with the alzabo in The Sword of the Lictor might be one of my favorite monster sequences in all of fiction.
Low Points: The last book (Citadel of the Autarch) seemed almost totally pointless. And why the hell am I supposed to be impressed with Severian? He's mostly an a+$!~$&, and he's not even a well-organized one. Given that Wolfe is a big-time Catholic, and given all the Catholic allegory in the series, I'd expected Sevarian to be a lot more Christ-like. Instead, he just reminded me of Ziggy on The Wire.
I struggled through the BotNS my first year of grad school, and it was kind of a waste of time.
A painful waste of time. At least it was slightly more lucid than Tooby and Cosmides. :-P
I struggled through the BotNS my first year of grad school, and it was kind of a waste of time.
A painful waste of time. At least it was slightly more lucid than Tooby and Cosmides. :-P
SmiloDan, I know we've talked about it before (as relates to The City and the City), but Kirth, you should really read Wave Without a Shore, you will love that shit. :)
Got my copy of American Interest in Cuba: 1848-1855 today. So yeah...the plan to read two works of fiction before I do more history is pretty abandoned, unless two trade paperbacks (Justice League Dark and Joe the Barbarian) count. It's a 1974 printing of a 1948 original, great condition and wonderful old book smell. Apparently began life as part of the Stuart L. Bernath Memorial Collection on American Diplomatic History at UC-Santa Barbara. The back endpaper is stamped "This book is not to be taken from the library."
Don't tell on me. :)
Being a spoiler-fiend when it comes to history, I raced right to the last page and read it. The final sentence is very 1948:
"Relieved of the incubus of slavery, the United States kept its promise not to annex the island and has contributed to the considerable success of Cuba as an independent, democratic community today."
I think you got the two last digits in the wrong order. ;)
SmiloDan, I know we've talked about it before (as relates to The City and the City), but Kirth, you should really read Wave Without a Shore, you will love that s#@&. :)I struggled through the BotNS my first year of grad school, and it was kind of a waste of time.
A painful waste of time. At least it was slightly more lucid than Tooby and Cosmides. :-P
And I think Embassytown was inspired heavily by CJ Cherryh too!
I finished Come Endless Darkness. It, um, sucked big time. Looking forward to finally finishing off the Gord the Rogue books!
I finished Come Endless Darkness. It, um, sucked big time. Looking forward to finally finishing off the Gord the Rogue books!
I sort of liked the big staircase maze-of-demi-planes thing, but, yeah, Gygax was a lousy fiction writer.
Be warned: Dance of Demons makes CED look like great literature in comparison.
Be warned: Dance of Demons makes CED look like great literature in comparison.
Maybe I'll wait a day or two...
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Maybe I'll wait a day or two...
Or just make sure that instead of [bubble, bubble] while you read it, you have [bubble, bubble, bubble, bubble, bubble].
Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention that I'm re-re-reading Vance's Eyes of the Overworld, which I somehow accidently bought for my kindle when I thought I was just looking at editions. No matter. The wit and roguery shine through even after the 3rd or so reading!
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I read one of the Gord books years ago. I learned from the experience.
Yeah, learned not to read the rest of them!
I read one of the Gord books years ago. I learned from the experience.
After Dance of Demons, I've got my eye on all the Mika the Wolf Nomad books by Rose Estes.
Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention that I'm re-re-reading Vance's Eyes of the Overworld, which I somehow accidently bought for my kindle when I thought I was just looking at editions. No matter. The wit and roguery shine through even after the 3rd or so reading!
I thought that one was the best of the four.
I thought that one was the best of the four.
I agree, although Cugel's Saga is still a worthy successor.
Interestingly, I thought The Killing Machine (again, the 2nd one in the series) was the best of his "Demon Princes" novels as well (with 4/5, The Face, a close runner-up)... but, wait, part 3/4 of "Tschai" (The Dirdir) was far and away my favorite of those, and The Asutra (3/3 of "Durdane") was the best of that trilogy. What other series? Oh, yeah, #1 (Araminta Station) was the best one out of the Cadwal trilogy.
So, no, I guess there's not a trend after all, despite my efforts to fabricate one.
I read one of the Gord books years ago. I learned from the experience.Yeah, learned not to read the rest of them!
No new reading to report, but I did watch Soderbergh's Che Part One which was pretty exciting because it had Benicio del Toro reciting a lot of the same speeches as in Che Guevara Speaks.
I also realized that everything I know about the Cuban Revolution comes from articles in communist newspapers, and I am going to have to read a book that tells the whole history in a narrative fashion.
Until then,
La lucha continua!
and
Vive le Galt!
Finally picked Priscilla Robertson back up and am reading about 1848 as experienced by the German states (39 independent countries--holy shiznit!!) and the Austrian empire.
Also started reading my comrade's copy of The First Ten Years of American Communism by James P. Cannon. Cannon was the historic leader of American Trotskyism, and the book is mostly made up of letters he wrote to Theodore Draper when the latter was composing his 2-volume history of the early American Communist Party (The Roots of American Communism and American Communism and Soviet Russia.)
Perversely, read the preface, the introduction and then skipped all the way to the end, which are Cannon's reviews of Draper's books.
Vive le Galt!
Also, roughly a third of the way through Dance of Demons. If you thought Gord was a Gary (Gygax) Stu in the earlier books, wait until he is infused with the powers of Balance and can best Nerull with one sword stroke!
I just finished Squaring the Circle, a book of sci-fi-esque short stories of imaginary cities as by Gheorghe Sasarman that Ursula K. Le Guin recently translated. The stories are all pretty short, 2-4 pages, so it's a great book for one's bedside table.
Now I'm in the midst of Helene Wecker's The Golem and the Jinni, a tale of immigrant New York in the 1890s, seen through the eyes of two mythical creatures who end up there by accident. Recommended!
Next up: Kalpa Imperial, another world-building book Le Guin translated from Spanish. (Well, hopefully it's translated—the library entry was a bit unclear. If not, it'll be slow going but I'll try.)
Finally picked Priscilla Robertson back up and am reading about 1848 as experienced by the German states (39 independent countries--holy shiznit!!) and the Austrian empire.
That was down from 200+, depending on how one counts. Some of these amounted to a few miles total. A few are even still on the maps, notably Liechtenstein and Luxemburg, but modern Germany still has a few city-states that were city-states way back.
Having a lot of fun with The American Interest in Cuba, 1848-1855 but some of it got into complicated political maneuvering in the Polk administration which probably warrants a reread. It looks like someone, probably Secretary of State James Buchanan, was trying to undermine Polk's purchase initiative before it could get off the ground so he could buy the island when he became president. But there's also a consul in Havana that appears to have been involved in trying to separate the island from Spain without any kind of authorization from or involvement with Washington. (This is complicated by key documents having gone missing, or getting filed very late and out of order.)
All of this also overlaps with a flash in the pan attempt to take the Yucatan that I never knew about before. Apparently right as Mexico lost the war, the Yucatan had some kind of rebellion going on which briefly shopped for a patron. That got a few Southerners very hot and bothered.
Lots of interesting stuff about deeply incompetent diplomats and Anglo-Spanish relations too. I guess the British wanted payment of some debts and Lord Palmeston said something about not wanting to use the Royal Navy to collect...right now. But in the future, who knew? Golden chance to slide in with a deft offer, which Polk's man in Madrid completely bungled.
I don't remember if I mentioned finishing Accelerando or not.
I just finished I am legend and finishing Gerard Walter's Cesar.
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Green Ronin's Testament from the Mythic Vistas line. Found it at my local Half-price books after thoroughly angering my girlfriends book club. She thought her book club was being crazy and we both thought the book was awesome, planning to run some of this some time in the future.
Betrayer by Aaron Dembski-Bowden from the 40k Horus Heresy series. Was really turned off by McNeil's Fulgrim and was worried I would just have to skip most of the stuff that wasn't Abnett but I'm so happy to find that to not be the case. I'm blown away that someone managed to make the World Eaters interesting and sympathetic in a human way.
Communist Manifesto, found it on my ereader for free and thought I might as well considering how much of modern history is built around it and the events that it sparked.
Just finished Chronicles of the Righteous, absolutely excellent read, actually managed to keep me away from ultimate campaign along with fey revisited
And about half way through Fey Revisited, pretty good thus far love the gremlins.
Communist Manifesto, found it on my ereader for free and thought I might as well considering how much of modern history is built around it and the events that it sparked.
Vive le Galt!
I don't remember if I mentioned finishing Accelerando or not.
What'd you think?
Finally picked Priscilla Robertson back up and am reading about 1848 as experienced by the German states (39 independent countries--holy shiznit!!) and the Austrian empire.That was down from 200+, depending on how one counts. Some of these amounted to a few miles total. A few are even still on the maps, notably Liechtenstein and Luxemburg, but modern Germany still has a few city-states that were city-states way back.
Yeah, that shiznit's f!$#ed up. I don't know how my American mind is going to wrap itself around a narrative that takes place in 4 or 5 separate German states plus the various non-German holdings of the Hapsburgs at the same time.
And what's up with Austria always being separate from the other Germans? [Reveals shockingly large gap in his understanding of the history of a pretty important place in European history]
In other news: From 1848 to 1959 to 2013, Yanqui go home!
Vive le Galt!
Yeah, that shiznit's f*@@ed up. I don't know how my American mind is going to wrap itself around a narrative that takes place in 4 or 5 separate German states plus the various non-German holdings of the Hapsburgs at the same time.
It could be worse. German consolidation generally progressed in terms of larger states eating up their smaller buddies...but those states retained some local autonomy along terms that could vary a lot case by case. And, just to add to your confusion, many of the states could be held by the same family in slightly different branches and have very similar names.
That localism caused a lot of problems for the empire Bismark made, since anything resembling a unified internal policy was very hard to carry off (even in foreign policy, the government of Bavaria had the right to special consultation maintained its own diplomatic service) and that put some hard breaks on what Germany could accomplish in terms of industrialization and continued development. Early on, that didn't matter a whole lot. But the combination of declining Prussian influence and internal frustrations played into the determination to start a great big war to acquire some additional all-German territory (like Alsace-Lorraine was) where they could engage in development without the same political inefficiencies.
And what's up with Austria always being separate from the other Germans? [Reveals shockingly large gap in his understanding of the history of a pretty important place in European history]
Just working from my quick recollection, since my head has been on another continent for a while:
Historically, they weren't. Austria wasn't really even a thing in the modern sense until the Habsburg Empire fell apart. It was more of the group title for a bunch of separate Habsburg possessions that had been in the family a long time. In theory, that doesn't make them any more separate than any other group of Germans, but as a practical matter Austrian meant Imperial and Imperial associations did not endear one to the other magnates in the Empire. The Emperors (Holy Roman ones) out of Austria spent a lot of blood and treasure trying to turn their titular rule of all the Germanies into actual rule of Germany, which won them few friends in the north. Then the Reformation happened which helped everyone find new and exciting ways to hate each other and as a practical matter, the Habsburgs had limits on what they could do to consolidate their dominion of Germany while they had the Ottomans on the other side of them.
Over the 1800s, the question of German unification developed in tandem with an increasingly strong idea of a common German identity. But was that identity with the Catholic Habsburgs or with the Protestant Prussians? The end of the Holy Roman Empire theoretically left that up for grabs, since the Habsburgs no longer had titular claim to all of Central Europe. The Little Germany school preferred Germany sans Austria and sans the Habsburgs, taking their exclusion as an acceptable loss or worthy goal in itself. They eventually won, of course.
Then the Habsburg empire fell apart because Germany hijacked its local war to stabilize its own internal politics in favor of German's great big war against Russia and France to stabilize its own internal politics and forestall a feared national obsolescence.
By the time everyone got together in Paris for hookers, blow, and revanchism, there wasn't enough empire left to send a delegation. Instead the Hungarians and Austrians sent separate ones, the latter hoping they could somehow finagle a way to get annexed into Germany. They were ethnic Germans, after all, and their economy all the way down to feeding Vienna depended on farms and trade routes that suddenly had border controls on them.
The Entente would not stand for that, of course, but did permit Austria to slice off a part of prewar Hungary to help alleviate some of its concerns and in some sympathy with the Germans there who formed a local majority and preferred Austria to Hungary. (Playing rough like this did a lot to shape the final borders. When Romania didn't seem to be in line to get all it wanted, they ordered their troops to advance deeper into then-Hungarian territory.) The Hungarians did not care for that and their own local majorities in and around Sopron raised a rather sniper-laden fuss that eventually led to a plebiscite putting it back into Hungary. Or retaining it there, depending on how you want to count.
Other fun stuff: the same area under contention was also eyed for a Czech corridor to the Adriatic that never quite worked out.
Yeah, that shiznit's f*@@ed up. I don't know how my American mind is going to wrap itself around a narrative that takes place in 4 or 5 separate German states plus the various non-German holdings of the Hapsburgs at the same time.It could be worse. German consolidation generally progressed in terms of larger states eating up their smaller buddies...but those states retained some local autonomy along terms that could vary a lot case by case. And, just to add to your confusion, many of the states could be held by the same family in slightly different branches and have very similar names.
Oh yeah, I know. The Robertson book starts the German part with a chapter on Prussia, and then, when I got to the end of the chapter, it turns out Prussia was kind of a sideshow in 1848. The next two chapters are about Frankfurt (where the actual liberal assembly for the German states met) and Baden (where Engels participated in the streetfighting).
And that's before we even get to the Hapsburg lands...
Thank you for the write-up.
Speaking about Habsburg monarchies? I feel like I am back in high school...