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| Xeogaming Forums - Entertainment - What Are You Reading? |
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Rogue If you're reading this... You are the Resistance         Since: 08-17-04 Since last post: 634 days Last activity: 442 days |
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| Finished "Flowers For Algernon." It was beautiful.
Reading "Song of the Vikings: Snorri and the Making of Norse Myths," because I requested it from the library for some reason along with a bunch of other books. It's proven quite interesting, at least these first 20 pages in. |
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Rogue If you're reading this... You are the Resistance Since: 08-17-04 Since last post: 634 days Last activity: 442 days |
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| Been reading "Rogues," a book of stories by famous fantasy and sci-fi writers edited by George R. R. Martin. I'm halfway through and there's only been one story that I've really liked thus far: "A Year and a Day in Old Theradane" by Scott Lynch.
My book group also has me reading "Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter." I can feel the depression coming on. |
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Rogue If you're reading this... You are the Resistance Since: 08-17-04 Since last post: 634 days Last activity: 442 days |
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| Finished "Rogues" last night. A few of the stories were pretty good, others were pretty crappy and had annoying audiobook readers to emphasize it, almost.
The George R. R. Martin story at the end was just a history about the Targaryens, particularly Daemon, the Rogue Prince. The audiobook for it was read by Iain Glen (Jorah Mormont on the show). I guess it was all about what was going on with the family just before the Dance with Dragons? Because they mention it's about to happen what with Viserys I's family all fighting over who's supposed to succeed him since he had declared his daughter Rhaenyra his heir before he remarried and ended up having a few sons with his new wife, who wanted her firstborn son to take the Iron Throne next. The man writes a very fascinating history. |
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Rogue If you're reading this... You are the Resistance Since: 08-17-04 Since last post: 634 days Last activity: 442 days |
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| Started reading another book of short stories, "Queen Victoria's Book of Spells: An Anthology of Gaslamp Fantasy." I'm about a quarter of the way through.
Currently on a very long wait list for our next book club read, "All The Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr. The other girls picked it out. Based on the way it was described, it sounds like it's movie-option-bait, which will in turn become Oscar-bait. Something about the Holocaust and meeting a blind girl... I think... I don't know... Anyway, finished "Song of the Vikings" yesterday, after putting it down for a few weeks. Also read "Sandman: Endless Nights," "Chinese Cinderella," and the latest volume of "The Unwritten," which was a crossover with "Fables." It was horrible. I'm finally going to try to sit down and read a whole lotta books I've been meaning to all my life, starting with a few sagas. This will definitely kick my ass. |
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Rogue If you're reading this... You are the Resistance Since: 08-17-04 Since last post: 634 days Last activity: 442 days |
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This thread has become largely masturbatory apparently. 
Finished "Queen Victoria's Book of Spells" some time last week. I ended up really liking one of the stories in it and wrote to the author of it and we've exchanged a few e-mails. This trip I've been reading a new book, "Villains, Scoundrels, And Rogues: Incredible Tales of Mischief and Mayhem" by Paul Martin. It's been an interesting read in the car when I'm not the one behind the wheel. |
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Elara Divine Mamkute Dark Elf Goddess Chaos Imp Penguins Fan Ms. Invisable  Since: 08-15-04 From: Ferelden Since last post: 100 days Last activity: 100 days |
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| I would be posting more often if I didn't keep getting distracted. I really need to finish books instead of starting new ones. Of course, it would help if I could get some quiet time to read.
Could you provide a bit more detail on the Gaslamp book? It sounds pretty interesting to be honest. I love Victorian fiction. |
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Rogue If you're reading this... You are the Resistance Since: 08-17-04 Since last post: 634 days Last activity: 442 days |
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Originally posted by Elara It's a collection of recently written stories (mostly by women authors) that feature in the Victorian era. I picked it up at the library when I noticed one of the stories was written by James Blaylock (one of the authors who created steampunk, whom I interviewed for the university paper years back). The stories take place in that time, though have some supernatural elements thrown in -- fairies, communicating with the dead, witchcraft, ghosts, etc. A few of the stories are pretty blah. One was written by a woman who, in her biography, kept applauding herself for writing steampunk before it became mainstream, but her story was essentially the literary version of "Just glue some gears on it," as she kept overusing phrases like "steam-powered" and "clockwork" to describe EVERYTHING. Several of them were interesting and put fantastical spins on real historic events. One story was about the cholera outbreak from people using the Broad Street water pump, which was essentially dug into a cesspool. The story had these women, in this bizarre effort to cleanse their souls through exercising free will, gathering water from that pump, making lemonade with it, and distributing it for free to people at a baseball game. Another story I really liked was about the girls who made Lucifer matches, using white phosphorus, and contracted phossy jaw -- an illness wherein the teeth begin to ache, the face swells, and then your jawbone starts to fall off and glow-in-the-dark. (Last edited by Rogue on 09-24-14 04:21 PM) |
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Elara Divine Mamkute Dark Elf Goddess Chaos Imp Penguins Fan Ms. Invisable Since: 08-15-04 From: Ferelden Since last post: 100 days Last activity: 100 days |
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| Ok, that actually sounds pretty awesome.
I really need to get back to reading the books I've stalled on. I just have this giant pile and I wonder to myself how I was able to get through so many before, while taking classes at the same time. I need a vegging out and reading day. |
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Rogue If you're reading this... You are the Resistance Since: 08-17-04 Since last post: 634 days Last activity: 442 days |
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| Currently reading two translations of Snorri's "Prose Edda," one from 1916 and the other from 1954, for comparison. Almost done with the 1954 one, though I'm going to go over the "Poesy of Skalds" section in the 1916 edition since it's longer than the condensed '54 one, with more quoted songs and such to read through.
I'm sitting here with the two books, one on top of the other, and a mythological encyclopedia on stand-by when I need to look up some of the more obscure aesir, vanir, and other such characters. Brandon says I look like I'm doing this for a class with how overly intense I'm apparently getting trying to figure out why the translations differ so much. I might as well learn old Icelandic at this point. I'm getting a copy of "Volsunga Saga" with selected passages from the "Poetic Edda" coming in the mail this weekend, so woo. Once I'm done with the Scandinavian (haha, will I EVER be?!), I'm finally going to buckle down and read Chaucer. Or Plato. Haven't quite decided yet. |
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Elara Divine Mamkute Dark Elf Goddess Chaos Imp Penguins Fan Ms. Invisable Since: 08-15-04 From: Ferelden Since last post: 100 days Last activity: 100 days |
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| I have read some Plato and some Chaucer. I think that generally, Plato is easier to follow in terms of his translation. | |||
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Rogue If you're reading this... You are the Resistance Since: 08-17-04 Since last post: 634 days Last activity: 442 days |
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| It's just that I've been meaning to read "Symposium" FOREVER now. I know the story and all, but I really want to read it all the way through for myself. Similar situation with "Canterbury Tales."
Picked up Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time" with foreword by Carl Sagan. I've got the audiobook for listening to while I go walking. Also, here's hoping my book club book -- "All The Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr -- for next week shows up over the week. We're meeting Tuesday, and I was #168 on the waiting list a couple months ago. Checking my account, it's FINALLY "in transit" to me, but then that could take a whole week. Finished the '54 edition of the "Prose Edda" and am working back through the 1916 one, as mentioned before. It's like reading an AP style book. Someone's asking, "And how would one paraphrase Skadi?" and then listing off every nickname she's given or can POSSIBLY be given when referenced in Skaldic poetry. The thing with the skalds is you have to know all their references just to read basic sentences. They wouldn't simply say "Loki looked at a tree" they'd sing something like "The wolf's sire used his organs of which the all-father has only one, and Sif's hair thief saw an ash as tall as the one that shook during the Twilight of the Weird." Granted it'd be much sleeker, but yeah, you pretty much have to dissect everything. (Last edited by Rogue on 10-03-14 09:33 AM) |
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Elara Divine Mamkute Dark Elf Goddess Chaos Imp Penguins Fan Ms. Invisable Since: 08-15-04 From: Ferelden Since last post: 100 days Last activity: 100 days |
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| Well, I suppose that they really did love them some prose. Lol.
So, when do YOU get to pick a book for your book club? |
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Rogue If you're reading this... You are the Resistance Since: 08-17-04 Since last post: 634 days Last activity: 442 days |
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Originally posted by Elara Probably never. 
I sent an e-mail with a few suggestions to the hostess and never heard back. Not even a kiss-off "Thanks for the list." Whenever I write saying I'm going to be late or not make it at all (as with the time Bran was in the hospital), she writes back almost instantly. Anyway, there'll be an awkward, "So have you ladies thought about which book we'll do next?" and then no one really says anything. Mostly because I always forget to look into any before the meeting. Once someone said, "We should read the 'Game of Thrones' books," but that was shined on, like it was a joke, by the others. |
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Rogue If you're reading this... You are the Resistance Since: 08-17-04 Since last post: 634 days Last activity: 442 days |
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| Finished both translations of the "Prose Edda," as well a couple other Icelandic sagas.
Currently in the middle of "All The Light We Cannot See," the book club's pick for October. Story of a blind French girl in hiding during WWII and a genius-level German boy fighting for the Nazis as a radio expert of sorts. I imagine their paths will cross eventually. 200 pages in and I'm off and on rolling my eyes. 
Also reading "Brief History of Time" by Stephen Hawking, as mentioned in a previous post. Just picked up a few graphic novels and have added more titles to my constantly growing "To Read" list. Who has time for drugs? (Last edited by Rogue on 10-13-14 07:48 PM) |
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Elara Divine Mamkute Dark Elf Goddess Chaos Imp Penguins Fan Ms. Invisable Since: 08-15-04 From: Ferelden Since last post: 100 days Last activity: 100 days |
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| Ha.
There needs to be a nerdy reading group somewhere. |
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Rogue If you're reading this... You are the Resistance Since: 08-17-04 Since last post: 634 days Last activity: 442 days |
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Originally posted by Elara At the Bellflower library (I owe Cerritos $20, so I haven't really been going there these days), there's the Manga Club for pre-teens. And that's about it.
I've considered joining one of their book clubs, but it's either young adults or senior citizens. Can't there be a group that reads classics and talks about them like we did in high school? I feel like talking an English course over at the community college just so I can have some intelligent discourse with a professor about literature with substance. EDIT: Forgot to mention that I went out to one of the dollar bookstores today (sadly the one near Lakewood Mall is no more, so I ended up at the Pike's secondhand shop where it was a crapshoot whether or not the book you were holding was $1, $5, or possibly more. It's stupid). Anyway, I've picked up: "The War of Don Emmanuel's Nether Parts" by Louis de Berniere "Typhoon and Other Tales" by Joseph Conrad "Paradise Lost & Paradise Regained" by John Milton "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" translated from old English "The Bacchae and Other Plays" by Euripides And lastly an interlinear translation of Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" I never end up going into one of those bookstores and finding anything I was specifically there seeking, particularly anything I've been cruising Amazon for. But all the same I usually end up walking out with an armful of impulse buys. Anyway, I've got way too many books these days and I've barely read half of them. Doesn't help that I usually end up getting a ton of things through the library every week that I usually make top priority. (Last edited by Rogue on 10-09-14 06:51 PM) |
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Rogue If you're reading this... You are the Resistance Since: 08-17-04 Since last post: 634 days Last activity: 442 days |
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| Currently reading a collection of sagas. Read "Kormak's Saga," "The Saga of Hallfred Troublesome-Poet," and "The Saga of Gunnlaug Serpent-Tongue." I'm in the middle of "The Saga of Bjorn, Champion of the Hitardal People."
After reading other sagas, particularly Snorri's guide for skalds to write their poetry, I'm starting to catch inaccuracies in their interpretations. It's hilarious. Screw you, Penguin Classics.
Also reading "California" by Edan Lepucki for no reason other than I'd sort of heard of the author and this was the only book of hers the library had. Should probably finish it now since it's got a waiting list. I've got so many books in from Amazon, as well. With how many books I buy and just have stacked in my room and on overcrowded shelves, I'm not surprised to discover the Japanese have a word for me.  (Last edited by Rogue on 11-03-14 06:01 PM) |
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Rogue If you're reading this... You are the Resistance Since: 08-17-04 Since last post: 634 days Last activity: 442 days |
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| Just started our first club book, "The Sirens of Titan." I'm only a few pages in and I'm liking it a lot better than the things I was reading for the other group. | |||
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Elara Divine Mamkute Dark Elf Goddess Chaos Imp Penguins Fan Ms. Invisable Since: 08-15-04 From: Ferelden Since last post: 100 days Last activity: 100 days |
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| Right... I need to get a library card. | |||
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Rogue If you're reading this... You are the Resistance Since: 08-17-04 Since last post: 634 days Last activity: 442 days |
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| Still trucking through "Sirens of Titan." I'm about 2/3rds through.
Malachi Constant just reminds me of Tony Stark for some reason. |
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