Topic: Books You're Currently Reading?

@Enriesto Being able to remember and quote fine literature is a gift. I used to be able to quote some poetry by Yeats, Wilde and Flecker, but those days are long gone. I think I could quote the "Alas, poor Yorick" thing at one point, as well. I should probably see if I can refresh some of it. With a bit of gentle prodding, I realise that bits of "The Harlot's House" still linger somewhere in the back of the noggin, to my surprise

Finished The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Goodreads page). Excepting the jarring clash of slavery era US with modern sensibilities, I by and large enjoyed most parts of this book. The language was frustratingly dense at times, especially Jim's quoted vernacular, but I managed to decipher most of it and understand almost everything that was said. However, the final part of the book, the freeing of Jim from the Phelps farm, was simply interminable and intensely irritating. I expect it was intended to be whimsical, but considering the subject matter, it felt anything but. Still, I'm glad I read this, so that I have proper context when I read Percival Everett's James (Goodreads page) next. Two and a half stars.

Read all I wanted to of The Portable James Joyce as I had already read most of his works previously. I didn't think it was as good as The Portable Chekhov and now I'm moving on to The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. Allegedly a faustian/moral tale. Should be fascinating!

@FuriousMachine my time is coming, I’m not so unwise to think my capacity for this is indefinite lol. My dad for example is a professor of religious studies, and could recite countless passages from various sacred scriptures… in other languages as well!! He used to know Hebrew and Greek, with striking fluency. Now, in his age of 63, he couldn’t bother with it as much, which he’s okay with (he’d rather be traveling the world and scuba diving). I’m sure it goes without saying that I receive a lot of my religious literature from him, most recently a collection of the Upanishads. I will begin it after my next couple of books, Anna Karenina by Tolstoy, and a Historical text on the Eastern Church in Russia.

@Enriesto I wish you luck and enjoyment in your endeavors (and your father on his) I am not well versed in religion or religious history, so I have no idea what Upanishads even is.
"Anna Karenina" is one of those texts that I'm constantly contemplating, yet frustratingly fearful of diving into, for fear of finding it too difficult, or simply that I will not like it, thus exposing myself as the philistine I am

James (Goodreads page) by Percival Everett: Fantastic! Simply fantastic. Having just read "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" for context, I wondered how Everett would manage to subvert the agonisingly annoying section at the Phelps farm into something profound and interesting, so I was a little surprised that he deviated from the entire sequence and delivered an entirely different final act. Surprised, but pleasantly so, as this version of events is in so many ways far superior to the original, in my opinion. I assume this novel will work just as well without having read "Adventures..:" beforehand, but I certainly enjoyed comparing and contrasting the two with Twain's original fresh in my mind as I read this.
Highly, highly recommended.

And with that, my sojourn in Mark Twain's USA comes to an end, and I return once more to my "planned" reading schedule. Next up is another new set of "Dragonlance" novels by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman that are new to me, starting with The Second Generation (Goodreads page).

Before I get to that, though, I am contemplating making a concerted effort to finally finish Alone With the Horrors: The Great Short Fiction, 1961-1991 (Goodreads page) by Ramsay Campbell, a short-story collection I've been struggling on and off with for almost three years.

Recently started wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson, as it released about a week ago. Pretty great so far. Would highly recommend the Stormlight Archives series (as well as pretty much any Sanderson book) to any fans of epic fantasy.

@Bigmanfan Cool! I'll be starting in on the "Cosmere" universe with Elantris after I'm done with Chuck Wendig's "Miriam Black" books. If I stick to my reading plan (which I never do ), I expect to get to Sanderson some time late next year. Looking forward to it!

Last night I managed to struggle through the last three short stories in Ramsay Campbell's Alone With the Horrors: The Great Short Fiction, 1961-1991 (Goodreads page) , a collection I've been reading on and off for about three years and I have been close to giving it up many times. I stuck with it, as some of the stories were interesting and some I even enjoyed quite a bit, but ultimately there were just too many that made my head swim and my thoughts drift away to more interesting things. "Out of Copyright", "Above the World" and "The Ferries" were among my favourites and while there were others I liked as well, in sum, this collection doesn't rate higher than two stars with me.

@FuriousMachine Glad you enjoyed James ,man. I read it shortly after reading Huck Finn after having it recommended to me by @Elodin on here. I agree with you about the third act, I've also read Everett's Telephone ,which I confess, I didn't enjoy anywhere near as much as James, but it still displayed the symptoms of a well-written novel, and I enjoyed the ending that my version delivered.

I read some Dragonlance books when I was younger Maquesta Kar-Thon I think it was called and another one, but I especially enjoyed the Maquesta book. Sea-faring tale, I believe it was.

@BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN I'm definitely checking out more of Everett's work down the line. I've been wanting to see "American Fiction" and I discovered just the other day that it is based on Everett's Erasure, so I will read that first.

Dragonlance is a nostalgia thing for me. Dragons of Autumn Twilight was my first fantasy novel and the very first novel I read in English at the tender age of twelve. I re-read the two OG trilogies a couple of years back and I've decided to catch up on many of the novels that came out since. The quality varies, but there's always a degree of warm comfort to them, the kind that comes with fond memories. I haven't read the Maquesta book, but I do think I remember the character; she made an appearance in the third book of the first trilogy, if memory serves. A sea captain that agreed to take the companions on as passengers on a dangerous voyage that did not end well. I like that she got her own book; she was indeed an interesting character that could very well be developed further in a story of her own.

@FuriousMachine You'll be in for a treat, trust me. I think Elantris is the perfect starting point too.

@Bigmanfan Cool, looking forward to it

Finished up The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. I found it to be a fascinating, dense, complex and, at times, hard-to-follow read. I really liked all the supernatural elements and religious references held within the tome, and would highly recommend it to anyone interested in Goethe's Faust, I would suggest reading Faust, first, though, as it would make reading Bulgakov's work ,second, more enjoyable, in my opinion. Apparently a sociological critique of the Russian political and literary landscape of the time, as well as a theosophical treatise on man, his morals. and his relationship with the supernatural, in general.

Started another Kobo Abe book, it's called The Ruined Map, this time. So far I have found it to be much better than The Woman in the Dunes a book which ,as I said before, seemed to be a bit rough-going in the beginning, but turned out to be, what I described as, a flawed masterpiece. So far 'Map' has a surrealist detective noir vibe going on, with some elements of sociological criticism inherent in it, with regard to Abe's description of his fictional version of Japan.

Just grabbed the Audiobook of The Tower of Fools, which is book one in Sapkowski's Hussite trilogy.

I would hope that the combination of Andrzej Sapkowski's sarcasm, dry humour and general interest in the period, the history of Bohemia, Jan Hus et al, and Peter Kenny's narration are going to make a match made in heaven for me.

The 'KCD' and 'The Witcher' crossover no one knew they needed.

JCBP

@Ravix Cool, I'm interested to hear how his non-Witcher work fares.

@FuriousMachine according to the majority that aren't necessarily hung up on comparing it to The Witcher itself (I've seen some reviews that clearly seem to just expect the same thing once more) it's his magnum opus. And considering I really love the Witcher books anyway, and historical fiction, it feels like it is going to tick the right boxes.

Went through the intro last night, and I can tell I'll enjoy it, even if I have to stop and check some things out for myself on the way (kind of something I enjoy doing with historical fiction anyway)

I already heard a name check for a person, who is in essence, Hans Capon's son from the KCD video games, so that gave me good nerdy/geeky vibes. And because of my interest in those games, I have a rough understanding of the names of certain Lords, noble houses and important locations and happenings from that period that will be a part of and lead to events in these books.

Sapkowski also has a habit, he did this in the Witcher too, of telling jokes with the punchline being in Latin 😅 but even if you don't understand the exact words, you can tell the meaning most of the time. In this series he may be a little more liberal with the use of Latin, so I might have to read up on the odd bit to supplement my understanding, but you can still tell when he's being snarky or making a pun with it, which I suitably enjoy.

I highly recommend audiobooks narrated by Peter Kenny, too. He's done all of Sapkowski's works, and he's the only narrator I've ever been able to handle without it being completely jarring. He definitely manages to breathe new life in to those books, and it's a strong start in 'The Tower of Fools' He also understands when a joke is coming, and changes tone to fit this, and I know for certain a lot of people read The Witcher books and have the jokes, observations and sneaky comments just completely go over their heads. I think people have forgotten how to 'read' humour in this day and age, and simply take everything as fact or statement, regardless of context or content. But that's another discussion entirely.

It's tempting me to talk about how in The Witcher series AS includes obvious propaganda manuscripts about Witchers from extreme groups who publish books "in universe" and 'Historical and scientific treatise' from all kinds of random sources who clearly twist fact to their own narrative (which is a clever little feature to include for world building) and people seem to take those pages as facts too. But I shan't go on about that 😅

I think if you 'get' Sapkowski's style, you will enjoy these too, if you have a passing interest in the Hussites, Polish and Czech history, the Holy Roman Empire, Papal Crusades and religious history it is a big bonus. KCD appreciators will get warm fuzzy feels too

I'll update when i've really got stuck into it, though.

Finished Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman's Dragonlance novella collection The Second Generation (Goodreads page). Five stories about the offspring of the OG Heroes of the Lance, this collection was another joyful return to Krynn for me; a place I still greatly enjoy spending time in. I had read the story of Palin's test earlier and it, along with the story of Raistlin's daughter, are the weak points in this collection for me. That, however, is made up for with the two strong stories bookending the collection and the immensely enjoyable centerpiece tale of the brothers Majere's adventures to an island filled with peril and potential death by snu-snu. Three and a half stars.

Next, I return to Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch universe, with The Late Show (Goodreads page), the first novel about Rene Ballard, a character soon to be portrayed by the lovely Maggie Q in the final season of Amazon's "Bosch" series (and, later, her own spin-off). Looking forward to this one!

@Ravix Cool, I may give it a go down the line. I'm not familiar with the KCD games, nor the time period, but I do enjoy the occasional historical fiction regardless, so there's that