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[TD1]

21/52
4th and 5th GoT books. G.R.R. Martin
War Poetry (Can't remember author)
The Painted Man (Can't remember author)
Wise Man's Fear. Patrick Rothfuss.

[Arx]

Spoiler: 35/52 (click to show/hide)

Towers of Midnight - Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson (Yay, plotlines all finishing off.)
Bloodheir - Brian Ruckley (While it's well written, I'm not actually sure how much happened in it)
Divergent - Veronica Roth (Not the best book I've ever read, and definitely a YA novel, but good concept and writing.)
The Fault in our Stars - John Green (Emotion rollercoaster. Pretty good read.)
Way of Kings - Brandon Sanderson (It's slightly weird reading an author who's influenced my style so much)
Words of Radiance - Brandon Sanderson (Manages to pull off the couple of clichés with finesse. Really enjoying this.)
A Memory of Light - Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson (I enjoyed it. Pretty good wrap-up.)
The Young Unicorns - Madeleine L'Engle (Not my kind of book. Readable, but I mostly read it out of necessity)
Troubling a Star - Madeleine L'Engle (See above)
Meet the Austins - Madeleine L'Engle (See above)
The Moon by Night - Madeleine L'Engle (See above)
A Ring of Endless Light - Madeleine L'Engle (See above)
Little Brother - Cory Doctorow (Certainly an interesting book. Large parts seemed unrealistic to me. Still saddened by my lack of access to materials.)
Pollyanna - Eleanor Porter (Sort of cool, but so unlikely, at least in modern times)
For the Win - Cory Doctorow (Interesting. A little weird.)
The Name of the Wind - Patrick Rothfuss (I still enjoy it. I think the sort-of over the top-ness might be part of what makes it divisive.)
The Wise Man's Fear - Patrick Rothfuss (I don't know whether these books maybe appeal more to academics and musicians or something. I still enjoy them)
The Slow Regard of Silent Things - Patrick Rothfuss (I really enjoyed the style. It might be helped by the mood I was in when I read it.)
The Desert Spear - Peter Brett (It's good, but I wish it was a little bit less dark and edgy.)
Absolution - Patrick Flanery (If you want to write a South African novel, please have the common decency to familiarise yourself with the country first.)
Ways of Dying - Zakes Mda (Zakes Mda has an interesting style. I quite enjoyed this, although I'm not sure how to describe it.)
Rachel's Blue - Zakes Mda (Trigger warning for rape. Nothing graphic, but the main plotline is about trying to deal with it.)
Raising Steam - Terry Pratchett (I didn't really like it as much as I liked the rest of the Discworld books, for whatever reason.)
Nation - Terry Pratchett (It was pretty average. Not really any of Pratchett's strengths showing through.)
A Blink of the Screen - Terry Pratchett (I enjoyed reading some of the non-Discworld stories.)
The Information - James Gleick (It's my second read-through, and I enjoyed it better this time. Very interesting.)
Chocky - John Wyndham (Weird read. I'm not quite sure what about it it is that I like, but I like most of it.)
The Kraken Wakes - John Wyndham (I enjoy Wyndham's apocalypses.)
The Time Machine - H.G. Wells (Trippy. I somehow doubt humanity would survive so far like that, though.)
Pact - J.C. Brae (Weird. I really like the magic, though.)

Calling Pact six books.

[Tack]

Sure, I'm in.

[TD1]

Urg. I have read quite a few, but can't remember...well, here's what I recall.
Ember. Can't remember author. Some sentimental girly thing about dragon romance.
Book six of GoT. Martin.
The Picture of Dorian Gray. Wilde.
Collected Poetry of Oscar Wilde. Wilde. (Ballad of Reading Gaol is a master work)
Sigurd and Gudrun. Tolkien.
The Iliad. Homer.
Poems to Learn by Heart. Can't recall author.
I wandered lonely as a cloud. Another anthology. Can't recall author.
Desert Spear. Brett.
So, eh... 29, though there are more I can't recall, but meh.

Also, Arx, I quite enjoyed Nation. The ending was good.

[Caz]

Book six of GoT. Martin.

It's out? O_O

[TD1]

Wait, is A Dance With Dragons not book six? So many of the ones I have are one book split into two, I may have miscounted.

[Dutchling]

I have A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, A Feast for Crows, and A Dance with Dragons.

So five.

[TD1]

Okay. I have part ones and part twos all over the show

[Jervill]

Spoiler: Challenging reading: 20/52 (click to show/hide)

1. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures - Anne Fadiman
2. The Drowned and the Saved - Primo Levi
3. Why Smart People Hurt: A Guide for the Bright, the Sensitive, and the Creative - Eric Maisel
4. Emotional Design - Donald A. Norman
5. The Lost Art of Listening, Second Edition: How Learning to Listen Can Improve Relationships - Michael P. Nichols PhD
6. Creativity: The Psychology of Discovery and Invention - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
7. Bright Kids Who Can't Keep Up: Help Your Child Overcome Slow Processing Speed and Succeed in a Fast-Paced World - Ellen Braaten PhD (Author) and Brian Willoughby PhD
8. Coaching the Artist Within - Eric Maisel
9. Ways of Seeing - John Berger
10. The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains - Neil Gaiman & Eddie Campbell
11. everything is workable: A Zen Approach to Conflict Resolution - Diane Musho Hamilton
12. The Alpha Woman Meets Her Match - Sonya Rhodes, PhD
13. All About Love - bell hooks
14. Marvel 1602 - Neil Gaiman
15. The Price of Privilege - Madeline Levine
16. Dream of Ding Village - Lianke Yan
17. the life-changing magic of tidying up: the japanese art of decluttering and organizing - Marie Kondo
18. Against Interpretation - Susan Sontag
19. Supercommunicator - Frank J. Pietrucha
20. Drivel: Deliciously Bad Writing by your Favorite Authors - Julia Scott, ed.

Spoiler: Books: 48 (Comics: 22) (click to show/hide)

1. The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present - Gail Collins
2. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures - Anne Fadiman
3. The Drowned and the Saved - Primo Levi
4. Arisa Vol 1 - Natsumi Ando
5. Arisa Vol 2 - Natsumi Ando
6. Arisa Vol 3 - Natsumi Ando
7. Arisa Vol 4 - Natsumi Ando
8. Arisa Vol 5 - Natsumi Ando
9. Why Smart People Hurt: A Guide for the Bright, the Sensitive, and the Creative - Eric Maisel
10. My Little Monster Vol 1 - Robico
11. No Matter How I Look at it, It's You Guys' Fault I'm Not Popular! Vol 1 - Nico Tanigawa
12. No Matter How I Look at it, It's You Guys' Fault I'm Not Popular! Vol 2 - Nico Tanigawa
13. No Matter How I Look at it, It's You Guys' Fault I'm Not Popular! Vol 3 - Nico Tanigawa
14. No Matter How I Look at it, It's You Guys' Fault I'm Not Popular! Vol 4 - Nico Tanigawa
15. Love Com Vol. 1 - Aya Nakahara
16. Love Com Vol. 2 - Aya Nakahara
17. Love Com Vol. 3 - Aya Nakahara
18. Love Com Vol. 4 - Aya Nakahara
19. Love Com Vol. 5 - Aya Nakahara
20. Emotional Design - Donald A. Norman
21. PandoraHearts Vol. 1 - Jun Mochizuki
22. The Lost Art of Listening, Second Edition: How Learning to Listen Can Improve Relationships - Michael P. Nichols PhD
23. Creativity: The Psychology of Discovery and Invention - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
24. Bright Kids Who Can't Keep Up: Help Your Child Overcome Slow Processing Speed and Succeed in a Fast-Paced World - Ellen Braaten PhD (Author) and Brian Willoughby PhD
25. Coaching the Artist Within - Eric Maisel
26. Afterschool Charisma Vol. 6 - Kumiko Suekane
27. Afterschool Charisma Vol. 7 - Kumiko Suekane
28. Afterschool Charisma Vol. 8 - Kumiko Suekane
29. Afterschool Charisma Vol. 9 - Kumiko Suekane
30. Afterschool Charisma Vol. 10 - Kumiko Suekane
31. The Smart Girl's Guide to Getting What You Want: How to be Assertive with Wit, Style and Grace - Mary Harley
32. Ways of Seeing - John Berger
33. The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains - Neil Gaiman & Eddie Campbell
34. The Mummy at the Dining Room Table: Eminent Therapists Reveal Their Most Unusual Cases - Jeffrey A. Kottler & Jon Carlson
35. everything is workable: A Zen Approach to Conflict Resolution - Diane Musho Hamilton
36. Japanese Design: Art, Aesthetics, and Culture - Patricia J. Graham
37. The Alpha Woman Meets Her Match - Sonya Rhodes, PhD
38. All About Love - bell hooks
39. Everyday Bias: Identifying and Navigating Unconscious Judgments in our Daily Lives - Howard J. Ross
40. Excellence: Can we be Excellent and Equal Too? - John Gardner
41. Marvel 1602 - Neil Gaiman
42. The Price of Privilege - Madeline Levine
43. Dream of Ding Village - Lianke Yan
44. the life-changing magic of tidying up: the japanese art of decluttering and organizing - Marie Kondo
45. Against Interpretation - Susan Sontag
46. Supercommunicator - Frank J. Pietrucha
47. Drivel: Deliciously Bad Writing by your Favorite Authors - Julia Scott, ed.
48. The Secrets of Pistoulet - Jana Kolpen

Some of Sontag honestly remains as relevant today as she was back in the 1960s. I especially enjoyed her essays "Against Interpretation," "The Imagination of Disaster" (which is about science fiction), "Happenings: an art of radical juxtaposition," and "Notes on 'Camp'." Sadly, I found the other works rather less relevant, since she's writing on theorists, critics, and authors who have almost entirely left the modern imagination. I felt that I learned something, but that most of the interest was in gaining access to examples of Sontag's beautifully clear style and of further historical notes. It is peculiar to discover how much of her intellectual climate has really disappeared.

Supercommunicator is a very readable book on, well, communicating. I feel its chief contribution is the meeting of what it's saying and how it says it, since I've seen every concept in the book many times elsewhere, without accessible examples provided. It's almost like a living example (or, for those who are familiar with this terminology: it is performative/self-demonstrating).


Next, I'm going to keep finishing the half-read books sitting by me on the floor. I'm in the middle of Life and Death are Wearing me Out (Mo Yan), which I dig but isn't half as good as Dream of Ding Village was, barring a few truly splendid scenes. Sadly, I barely remember reading most of these books on the list up there. I still remember the really great ones, but the ones that were just okay don't stick in my memory at all :/ I should probably worry even more about quality over volume.

On the other hand, I'd like to attest again to the power of that book by Marie Kondo on tidying. Ever since I read it, it's like my room has magically kept itself organized and looking good. I clean up now without even thinking about it, and keep seeing little things where I go: "Oh, I should really get a box to keep those things all tidied up!" Even my bookmarks are tidier

You know, I would really like a series of gritty fantasy novels that don't make everything about sex and rape. That only briefly mention sex and don't have any rape, even.

Honestly, this is why I stopped reading SF/fantasy. I just got sick of that and the lackluster characterization. I get that the setting is supposed to be the main character, but I always felt like most of the big plotlines would have been better as hooks for a computer game or tabletop session...

I'll let you know if I see anything. I think that most likely you'll find what you're looking for in a series of books that doesn't "feel" like sword and sorcery fantasy, because there the sex and rape are as much a staple of the genre as Tolkien Races.


The Secrets of Pistoulet is the worst thing I have read this year. It is trashy fiction of the "Magical French Kitchen for Unhappy Upper-Middle-Class American Housewives" genre, frequently racist, and the plot is practically bifurcated by two unrelated segments that are connected only by their unsurpassed triteness and puerile relation of an Orientalizing fantasia. It is the epitome of the Shitty Coffee Table Book genre.

I will be genuinely shocked if I find anything surpassing it.

Usually I do not comment on this thread, but I do have to give props to reading "The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down" by Anne Fadiman.  Excellent book describing cultural differences.  I read that in 8th grade, and to be honest, it was out of my league.  No wonder my teacher wanted to read it herself when I was done.

Also, yes, Dance of Dragons is book five, not six.  Six will be Winds of Winter.

[Caz]

Finished Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? recently.

...I think it was overrated. Probably good for its time, though. Just boring characters and plot with some mildly interesting ideas. I liked 'kipple', though.

[Arx]

Spoiler: 36/52 (click to show/hide)

Towers of Midnight - Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson (Yay, plotlines all finishing off.)
Bloodheir - Brian Ruckley (While it's well written, I'm not actually sure how much happened in it)
Divergent - Veronica Roth (Not the best book I've ever read, and definitely a YA novel, but good concept and writing.)
The Fault in our Stars - John Green (Emotion rollercoaster. Pretty good read.)
Way of Kings - Brandon Sanderson (It's slightly weird reading an author who's influenced my style so much)
Words of Radiance - Brandon Sanderson (Manages to pull off the couple of clichés with finesse. Really enjoying this.)
A Memory of Light - Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson (I enjoyed it. Pretty good wrap-up.)
The Young Unicorns - Madeleine L'Engle (Not my kind of book. Readable, but I mostly read it out of necessity)
Troubling a Star - Madeleine L'Engle (See above)
Meet the Austins - Madeleine L'Engle (See above)
The Moon by Night - Madeleine L'Engle (See above)
A Ring of Endless Light - Madeleine L'Engle (See above)
Little Brother - Cory Doctorow (Certainly an interesting book. Large parts seemed unrealistic to me. Still saddened by my lack of access to materials.)
Pollyanna - Eleanor Porter (Sort of cool, but so unlikely, at least in modern times)
For the Win - Cory Doctorow (Interesting. A little weird.)
The Name of the Wind - Patrick Rothfuss (I still enjoy it. I think the sort-of over the top-ness might be part of what makes it divisive.)
The Wise Man's Fear - Patrick Rothfuss (I don't know whether these books maybe appeal more to academics and musicians or something. I still enjoy them)
The Slow Regard of Silent Things - Patrick Rothfuss (I really enjoyed the style. It might be helped by the mood I was in when I read it.)
The Desert Spear - Peter Brett (It's good, but I wish it was a little bit less dark and edgy.)
Absolution - Patrick Flanery (If you want to write a South African novel, please have the common decency to familiarise yourself with the country first.)
Ways of Dying - Zakes Mda (Zakes Mda has an interesting style. I quite enjoyed this, although I'm not sure how to describe it.)
Rachel's Blue - Zakes Mda (Trigger warning for rape. Nothing graphic, but the main plotline is about trying to deal with it.)
Raising Steam - Terry Pratchett (I didn't really like it as much as I liked the rest of the Discworld books, for whatever reason.)
Nation - Terry Pratchett (It was pretty average. Not really any of Pratchett's strengths showing through.)
A Blink of the Screen - Terry Pratchett (I enjoyed reading some of the non-Discworld stories.)
The Information - James Gleick (It's my second read-through, and I enjoyed it better this time. Very interesting.)
Chocky - John Wyndham (Weird read. I'm not quite sure what about it it is that I like, but I like most of it.)
The Kraken Wakes - John Wyndham (I enjoy Wyndham's apocalypses.)
The Time Machine - H.G. Wells (Trippy. I somehow doubt humanity would survive so far like that, though.)
Pact - J.C. Brae (Weird. I really like the magic, though.)
Web - John Wyndham (Slightly creepy. I feel like Wyndham's characters tend away from horror movie stereotypes - Arnold has nerves of steel.)

[Sirus]

Finished Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? recently.

...I think it was overrated. Probably good for its time, though. Just boring characters and plot with some mildly interesting ideas. I liked 'kipple', though.

So very overrated, IMHO.

[notquitethere]

I think I got more out of Philip K. Dick's Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said. It's a similar cerebral future-shock but it goes in a more surprising direction.  If you're into classic high-concept sci-fi then you should probably check out Ursula K. Le Guin's The Lathe of Heaven (reality-warping, dreams); or Frank Herbert's The Santaroga Barrier (twilight-zone-esque small town metaphysical thriller).

[TheKaspa]

While we have LeGuin on the mind, I just realized that her short story, "The Ones who Walk from Omelas," is more or less retold in the modern Dr. Who episode with the spaceship Brittania, the one with the space whale thing. I can't recall the episode name or number.

The above is worth a read, too- it's quite short, but worth chewing on as idealistic or utilitarian brain cud.

Episode 2 of the 5th Series of new Doctor Who. The ship was Starship UK, though.
And no, it is different, as the Whale was indeed "tortured" but she chose to help Earth, and at the end of the episode the whale's fate looked less horrible than before.
In Omelas the scapegoat wasn't a volunteer.

[TD1]

30

The Slow Regard of Silent Things. Patrick Rothfuss. It was soft and nice and made me sad and happy at the same time. It had a girl bending the laws of nature to make a candle for her best friend, and I absolutely adored both the book and her.