Topic: Books You're Currently Reading?

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@MightyDemon82 I don't know what I would do If people just started coming into my home and removing my books especially ones I wouldn't deem to be harmful in any way. I have that Akira boxset with the art book. Plenty crazy going around all right, but you're correct there is crazy and then crazy which is dangerous.

• I don't know either. It happened when I wasn't here and then I was told after the fact but never given one solid explanation. That's why I don't understand the propaganda, it seems like every day I've been here something new is wrong that wasn't the day previously. It's not 'you can't have this thing because of the price' it's 'you can't have this thing, full stop'. Which has always been the way but those restrictions were so light.

Religion is different. I was never told to be religious, we attended various services during certain holidays like everyone else but there was no kind of forced requirement to follow doctrine. Just the usual, wear this, and look attentive. I didn't think about God. Some of the guys have crucifix tattoos, but that's part of their tradition, I never understood that as reverence to God. The only God I saw people worship was power and influence. Once weaponized, it becomes an extension of the State so that extra influence is there and it also affects propaganda. Which is why they can tell me that Witchcraft, Mysticism even the Occult are taboo or extremist. It won't change anything. I have a massive Occult collection outside of Russia and no one is laying their hands on it.

If I left books of a similar nature here and they were 'lost', I've no say there. It would only create more problems. They can't force that on me outside of Russia, I'd be under my Partner's roof, he has more say there and he wouldn't do that to me. He has no interest in the subject but he respects that I do. He's doing it right, they are doing it wrong. He creates an alternative by saying 'go for it read all those weird books', so I do. If he wasn't in the picture I wouldn't see that I could, it would just be 'you can't have this, you can't do this'.

He once said 'I don't mind as long as I don't wake up one night to find you levitating', that's how he approaches my reading material. We don't discuss it because he wouldn't understand it. I've only met one Coven in person. It was all about 'what can I do to obtain this' or 'what can I do to make such a person do this'. The rest were Left Hand Path (Ethical Satanic worship) They didn't worship a particular Figure. They worshiped their own desires, self-Mastery through breaking social norms and taboos. They aimed to Master, they see Right Hand Path as submission to Authority, our values didn't mesh well at all. I remained a solitary practitioner. My Partner sees no danger in my wanting to express myself (outside of his time) or to learn. Nor does he follow the 'we must return to Imperial times' mentality either. His Family have their own inner workings, they have other goals, Western in their approach of expansion while still holding onto that old balance of equality between the genders (which most people wouldn't be, that's my choice) Nor does he push Faith onto me.

The first time I experienced the power of Religion over a persons life wasn't in the Middle East. It was through a pen-pal in Alabama, America. We found each other through a service like that, you sign-up and write letters (not emails) people are pre-screened for safety. She was of the Southern Baptist faith and very sweet and friendly. We wrote each other monthly for a year then I went there to meet her. It's what you might call the Deep South. It was interesting, different. I don't like the word stereotypical but it really was, Southern-charm is real, as is hospitality and etiquette. I saw something similar in Texas when I met so many cowboys, but I can't talk about them or I'll lose track of what I was saying. Her parents were Friendly, they were a very old prominent Southern Family. They had a monopoly on a certain industry, which is probably why we were matched. They were what you might call politically conservative, and the balance between male and female was, not of modern standards. Basically we were both very old Families and we clicked on certain things.

We met in the morning and it all went fine, then spent the afternoon shooting, I had my first real lemonade there too. It was all very normal and friendly until dinnertime. That's when I met her grandparents. I think they thought I was a Communist, and I found out that their morals and ideology were in complete opposition to Communism (I'm not a Communist) I was always told to respect my Elders, so I listened to those old 'wise people'. Then it got strange. They were talking about courting in their time. There was a tradition where they were sewn into each bed to keep each apart from the other, I'm not kidding. It was to preserve and ensure chastity, it was a doctrine of their Faith. I think I dropped my drink, I definitely spilled it. I'd never heard anything like that before. I had my own people with me too and I'm sure one of them were equally as taken-aback. Who does that? sews someone into a bed to keep them apart, we might use rope in our dynamic but that's very different, we're keeping people together. It's about connection, not disconnection.

Long story short. The evening continued, they talked among themselves, drank, and my friend and I were excused from the table to talk alone. I was interested in her bedroom, it was different than mine, especially her music. She had posters and things from bands like Skillet, Breaking Benjamin and Flyleaf. We listened to some and she explained that they were singing for God, so okay. Then she explained that she was saving herself for Jesus, which I didn't understand because there were no constraints on me in those regards, I was very experienced. She had standards and restrictions put on her from her faith and from society. I had none.

I thought she meant the literal Jesus, I'd never heard of anyone doing that before. Then she told me she'd never even kissed anyone before, which about knocked me over. So I extended the offer, she accepted and things went the way they do, to more than just the former. But somehow her parents found out. I still don't know how, other than she told them out of some kind of default duty to her parents, maybe to God? They went absolutely nuclear, called me every name under the sun and it got really heated because obviously I wasn't alone. I didn't know it was wrong, they were saying I did. I thought I was helping her.

Our friendship ended that night. As an adult I don't think what we did was wrong. No one had told me growing up that it was. The only difference I saw between what we did together and what I'd done so many times previously before, was Religion. She had it, I didn't. That was the first time I saw the kind of control Faith could have over someone and I didn't like it. I turned to alternative Faiths and discovered Witchcraft, it didn't tell me that I couldn't do that. It talked about expression, transcendence, balance, equality. something that I also imagine comes from the LGBT community. Those qualities were dangerous to my friends Faith, I questioned it. I applied that same thinking to what's happening here, that's why I talked to Tjuz. That's how I'm able to see through gay propaganda, that one experience gave me the template I needed to expand my borders of belief. Now they want to close those borders, they can't. I already know right from wrong as I see it. I studied the material, dedicated my time and energy to it, they didn't. Maybe I should have respected her Faith, now as an adult I'd know better, but I don't believe in sexual repression either. Different worlds I guess. I never had a pen-pal again but I did discover some very good music from her and I can listen to it and remember those letters and that night. Maybe she does too. I had someone look her up not too long ago, they said she's married, her pictures seem happy, that's all that matters.

Maybe put up a list later in the week or put it on Good Reads once I set that up properly. I really need to invest in a laptop rather than typing on my phone.

• I plug a keyboard into mine, I don't know how people handle all of that touch-screen activity especially with nails. Which I imagine you don't have to worry about, claws don't work with touch-screen. Mine are like weapons. I don't use regular phones either, imagine a brick with a custom U.I., non civilian network provider, that's basically my smartphone. It can't Google or all of those things, I've never even played a mobile game. I use normal phones for pictures but that's it, everything else is removed. If I threw this at someone it would probably unalive someone, it's very rugged. For this forum I always use laptops and virtual machines. I never even thought that people would use a phone for this, but it makes sense that they might.

I read 51 books 10 Manga and 9 collected comics so 70 is really good for me. I'm 8 up from last year. 2026 will be mostly bigger books and chunky manga volumes (Berserk & Attack on Titan).

• What's difference between a collected comic and a regular comic? I started to read some graphic novels after playing the Arkham Knight games. I can't remember them all but they would have all been Batman and they branched off into different themes and explained the history better. There were some really good ones like Knightfall, a Dracula one, Killing Joke, Predator was in there too. Then I think I read The Mask, I should remember the rest but can't. They were technically comics but compiled into one collection. Maybe Aliens too. I read so many movie, game, comicbook novelizations (text only) I think I've only ever read one Manga and you won't like what it was. Twilight has a Manga.

I just checked to see what Attack on Titan is 'Harmful to a child's overall mental health and moral development', it's banned here. That word 'moral development', that's a quote I hear daily here. I had home-schooled classes for moral development, patriotism too. Now they do it in actual schools. I didn't question it at the time. I thought everyone had those classes, now I know they don't.

What's Titan about? I've heard of Berserk from an article on here about a sword and a giant eye, I think for Diablo. If V for Vendetta is a graphic novel then I've read that too and Watchmen. Also some you might not know like Maus (it's about a mouse) I think that's all of them. I'll buy Akira when I get back to London, do some rebelling, maybe Attack on Titan too. I'm not sure if Judge Dredd counts as a comic, I mainly have those in text, some art-books, history of that world. I was going to try Spawn after the movie but never got around to it. Oh Dark Souls, I have those graphic novels too, they are as chunky as that phone I mentioned. There's a Bloodborne one too. Those would be a compiled collection too. I imagine the titles you buy have sentimental and collecting value too?

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@MightyDemon82 I'm guessing Christian values means the original Ten Commandments, or in short just be a good person. I think my Dad was an atheist too, his parents weren't. But I think his Mum may be a psychopath, she would make me eat dinner then make it come back up again. I never understood that, now I can't eat. She attended masses regularly, I attended some with her too. She saw it as being important to be seen at every service, reputation was everything but she did some absolutely awful things to me while holding up how religious she was. I thought maybe she did it to remove some evil she saw. I'll never know. My Mum would bring me to visit, they'd have tea, then my Mum would leave. That Grandmother would put me in another room, then leave herself for church or shopping. My Mum thought I was with her, I never was. I'd ask people, cleaners etc where she went 'oh she'll be back soon'. It's just odd that she could do that then sit in a church and feel, righteous? Maybe there's something that happens where a person can do those things then somehow feel like they were doing right by God. Or maybe church was a kind of clean slate each time and she had impulses to do bad things. Or maybe she thought she was purging some sin I carried inside. It was so specific.

My other Grandmother was also religious, she went to mass on the weekends too, but she wasn't a psychopath. I liked going to services with her, even if I didn't really learn anything from going. She knew all of those old ladies. I once asked her 'Gran mama can a nun leave the church?' she answered 'she can, but she won't live long', that was her humor. It's weird but if she were still alive one of the first questions I'd ask would be about God, I'm curious why she felt the need to go weekly, to have pictures of Jesus in her home. Especially in her bedroom, I wouldn't like Jesus watching me sleep, it brought her peace. It wasn't for show or reputation either, she had some kind of relationship with God on her terms. She was one of the most normal people I've ever met, she even baked herself.

I imagine Sunday school is a weekend school where you learn about God. I once attended something like that and they removed me for saying that Jesus might be an extraterrestrial. I said he came from a light in the sky, his Mum was impregnated by 'something else' and then he was born with magic powers. I was never invited back. I heard that religious figure in his office with my Dad. I was outside waiting. He was shouting, I can't remember what he called me but my Dad was shouting back. That's when I thought he might be an atheist (I had no name for it) it was maybe my second time attending. People said I debated with that religious figure, I don't remember that part. He was so angry, but so was my Dad and not at me. So if it's similar to where you attended I can see why you left.

Your Aunt sounds like an Aunt and Uncle of mine. He tried to unalive me over inheritance and other things. They had some religion too. Then because his Mum believed in forgiveness (from Jesus) he was forgiven by her, and some of my other Family members did something to him because they didn't believe in forgiveness. I was maybe twelve at the time. Technically I did die, then came back. I didn't see Jesus, I saw something but it wasn't clouds. I was gone for about two minutes but it felt for much longer. He did all of that mainly over a will, I'd live in a cardboard box before I'd ever do that to someone. I don't have it in me.

I'm not saying your Aunt is the same but blackmailing your own Family is just not right. Things like that I'll never understand. Especially if you are in a position where you are supposed to by preaching and leading your flock or group. Do you think she took that position to hold some kind of power over people? It sounds like she tried that with you and your fiance. And she wrote you out of her will? That same Uncle I mentioned kidnapped his Mum (elderly) and forced her to change hers, she'd left me as her sole beneficiary. He would have been the next in line, so he tried to remove me first then resorted to taking her by force and having his legal team draft a new will. He locked her in a room for days, maybe longer. Her own son. There are a lot of, unbalanced people on both sides of my parents Families, I think he's the worst.

I only wanted her photo albums, he already had two homes, a wife, a girlfriend, multiple businesses. My brain isn't wired to understand why people do that. I know he had other motives too, covering things up. Some people lack empathy. Permanent sounds like their Mum could actually lose her children, maybe there's a kind of blindness that can occur where you only see 'God' and by giving your all to that figure the ones closest to you go without because you fail to see what's really there. That's why I deny my right to children, it's unethical in the lifestyle I live. I give hundred percent to the other Person, a child would go without.

I did start praying about a year ago but that's mainly for those around me, to see sense and consider peace. I wouldn't even know what to ask God for, other than sleep I ask him for that every night. It doesn't feel wrong doing it either, just once per night. I'd like to think he's listening. I came to the realization a while back that God doesn't run this world, power and influence does but that's by free will given by God. It doesn't mean he created the situation, we did. I see prayer as communication, nothing else. Just between myself and whatever God is. I don't need a priest or such to pray for me, I don't even understand why we need them. It's like having someone read a book for you, maybe I'm missing something but they seem like a kind of roadblock compared to direct prayer. Unless they mean apostolic succession but that only counts for bishops and popes. The pope isn't in my bedroom reading my prayer book, so it makes no sense. I can read for myself. I've probably just offended every religion known to man saying that. I just can't not see it as keeping up appearances in the community, even if I was in a church praying surely everyone else would be louder so God would have a better chance of hearing me at home privately. You can see why I was removed from religious studies. I questioned things.

I've met some people in some charities who are definitely doing it for something similar, and no they aren't perfect either. I'd call it deflection and misdirection because they do certain things then justify 'I'm a good person' by giving to said charity. I didn't see it with domestic violence and women's shelters but I did with PETA. I lasted there one week there, I saw it with another that I can't mention. One of those people was abusing someone, then going and supporting said charity and getting some kind of absolution (the word I was looking for) from it.

People are complex, I enjoy psychology but I think when it's close relations it's so hard to know why they are the way they are. I simplify that Grandmother when I call her a psychopath, there's just nothing there. No emotion on her face, it's been years and I still can't eat because of her. She still attends church, and her husband was a prominent figure in this part of the world. Very well known, she acted perfectly, even met the Pope or a Pope. I've read quite a few religious texts covering multiple Faiths and they always seem to leave out that part. Maybe there's something there on a neurological scale, at least for the justification. I think of all the wars that have been started over Faith, all of the lives that were lost. If that can happen on a global scale then anything can happen under one roof in that same God's name. I really hope she doesn't lose her children.

So would a comic book arc be something like if Bruce Wayne decided to be Batman but previously there were fifty comics and they featured him growing up and then reaching that point. Then once he does create and wear the suit another arc starts? because he would be then out in Gotham at night punishing whoever needs it. Then if one day he met someone and they fell in love for another ten comics, would that be an arc too? I've seen the word mentioned in the comments section before when talking about different studios. If that's the case it must be a lot of work to keep up with them all, depending on when and how they release them. Unless it's like you said a collected edition.

I mentioned Titan to my friend on that other network and 'swear swear how is it banned?' five minutes he sent me a copy. It's 958 pages long, 22 episodes for chapters, and it seems to mainly be black and white after two pages of colour. I'm guessing this big red naked man is a Titan. I'm going to put it on a tablet, no one will know what it even is. I'll see how much it shakes my 'morals' and 'mental health'. It's called the colossal edition.

I've only read some Hellboy text novels like. The All Seeing Eye, that was probably one of the best ones. It's very dark, tackles the Occult well and it's set in London. I've probably read most of those text novels but that one stood out just because of it's setting and subject.

I try to stay up to date on in tie-in novels. It's easier to get into something that already had a movie or game attached to it. I don't know how people take random fiction off a shelf and go for it with no prior knowledge. I've probably done it a handful of times. Goodreads to the rescue I can see examples of those random reads:

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Finding Alice, The Boy Who Could See Demons,.

Only three apparently out of 514 tie-novels. I thought there would be more. I bet it's because something like Aliens has maybe fifty tie-in novels and Buffy has maybe twice that, I checked all the way back to 2017 and it was the same. There's a kind of safety with a tie-in, one where you already know the world or characters.

Mike Mignola seems to have a lot of books. I added: Baltimore, Or, The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire, In the Mad Mountains: Stories Inspired by H. P. Lovecraft, Joe Golem and the Copper Girl, Grim Death and Bill the Electrocuted Criminal to my Kindle. I also added another Hellboy one called On Earth as it is in Hell and something called Satan Factory.

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@MightyDemon82 I just checked and Graphic Audio featured Hellboy too, I don't know if you are familiar with them? They take franchises like Batman (stone king, inferno, dead white, no man's land, wayne of gotham) and DareDevil, Spiderman and all of those other Marvel people then create full cast recordings. They call it a movie in your mind because they are novels but they are professionally acted. I've listened to similar ones from other companies, most of those Mike Mignola ones I found last night seem be with Recorded Books so that would just be one narrator. Father Gaetano’s Puppet Catechism: A Novella - Mike Mignola, Christopher Golden is with another company, Brilliance Audio. I might listen to that one today, it seems short enough. Baltimore and Joe Golem seem to only have the one narrator.

Graphic Audio cover thousands of books, I wouldn't know them but D.C. and Marvel always stand out. They often add sound effects too, Penguin Audio do something similar for all of the Judge Dredd ones I've listened to. I think those Judge Dredd ones are some of the best I've ever listened to, all of those 2000 A.D. ones are very polished at deeply atmospheric. I rip them from my account then convert them so they can play on the PS5 if I'm building etc, or doing other things. I do that with a lot of audiobooks. It's probably against the ToC but I bought the product so it is what it is. It's their fault for not putting an Audible App on Playstation. I circumvent it by using USB sticks, I don't even know if people realize that there is an audio root folder that plays through the same U.I. as Spotify. I can rip pretty much any App or service I paid for, or my friends can. Then it's just a matter of conversion. That's how I see digital as a whole, if I exchange legal tender and own a product I'm not keeping it on some digital cloud, I'm going to pull it off of that cloud and store it somewhere physical, keys, drives, etc, I rip everything. I do that with physical books too, I have the digital counterpart for over eight thousand books. That's what my virtual library is, those are all digital back-ups for travel.

It looks like Graphic Audio have The Mask too and Vampyre Hunter D, I haven't been keeping up on them. Something called X too, they are a popular company and less sterile than some of their competition. I generally listen to them through Audible. I've only listened to all of the Batman ones, maybe I'll try DareDevil, The Mask too. That's the same Mask as the graphic novel I read, it's more raw than the Jim Carrey movie. It's really good. There are other Batman ones that weren't Graphic Audio but were equally good, Batman: Revolution was a recent one (takes about 18 hours to listen to) KnightFall was an early BBC production. I've listened to maybe one hundred BBC audiobook productions, they release some amazing collections. Oscar Wilde, Dracula, War of The Worlds, Frankenstein, huge Drama Collects, Discworld, but they do current material too. I prefer their older releases. I just finished their Ultimate Story Collection again, it took 26 hours, but it has everything, Edgar Allan Poe, Arthur Conan Doyle, MR James, Anton Chekov, Virginia Wolf, Tolstoy, James Joyce. I often listen to an audiobook then read the printed manuscript, it helps with pronunciation and language.

There's a 13 hour Terry Pratchett one the BBC did too that's absolutely brilliant. They recently re-released all of the Discworld books too, I can't remember how long it took but I listened to those too. That's Penguin Audio. There was a recent re-release of Love Craft too, as technology improves the new cast recordings sound just so very good. I've probably listened to twenty different recordings of Dracula, from Tim Curry and Alan Cumming to Michael Fassbender. Then all the old renditions like Christopher Lee. I learned so much English just from listening to books. Other languages too. If I know Dracula off by heart and then listen in another language. Then there are all of the musicals too, I'm listening to the Dracula the Musical at the moment, the Frank Wildhorn version, he also composed a quite good version of Jekyll and Hyde for Broadway. But the Gothic Musical from 1995 with Anthony Warlow is even better, it's darker, powerful. It's probably one of my favorites, it's amazing. I can't find modern musicals even close to that, they aren't raw at all.

I'd branch out more but I understand Batman's psychology, I've read books that are literally called 'Batman and Psychology', he's a little too relatable but that makes that franchise easy to read. I couldn't tell you the first thing about Superman or the others I see no commonality with them. I don't beat up bad guys, but I understand why he does.

That's one of Graphic Audio's rosters:

That's Marvel

Astonishing X-Men - Gifted
Black Panther - Who Is the Black Panther
Captain America Dark Designs
Captain Marvel - Liberation Run
Civil War
Daredevil - Guardian Devil
Daredevil - The Man Without Fear
Death of Captain America
Dr. Strange - The Fate of Dreams
Fantastic Four - War Zone
Guardians of the Galaxy - Rocket Raccoon and Groot Steal the Galaxy
Iron Man - Extremis
Marvel’s - Avengers Vs. X-men
New Avengers - Breakout
Secret Wars
Spider-Man - Drowned In Thunder
Spider-Man - Forever Young
Spider-Man - Lizard Sanction
Spider-Man - The Amazing Spider-Man (BBC Radio Play)
The Ultimates - Against All Enemies
The Ultimates - Tomorrow Men
Venom - Lethal Protector
Ant-Man - Natural Enemy
Astonishing X-Men - Days of Future Past
Avengers - Everybody Wants To Rule The World
Deadpool - Paws
Guardians of the Galaxy - Collect Them All
Ms. Marvel Volume 1 No Normal
Ms. Marvel Volume 2 Generation why
Planet Hulk
Spider-Man - Kraven’s Last Hunt
Thanos - Death SentenceAstonishing X-Men - Gifted
Black Panther - Who Is the Black Panther
Captain America Dark Designs
Captain Marvel - Liberation Run
Civil War
Daredevil - Guardian Devil
Daredevil - The Man Without Fear
Death of Captain America
Dr. Strange - The Fate of Dreams
Fantastic Four - War Zone
Guardians of the Galaxy - Rocket Raccoon and Groot Steal the Galaxy
Iron Man - Extremis
Marvel’s - Avengers Vs. X-men
New Avengers - Breakout
Secret Wars
Spider-Man - Drowned In Thunder
Spider-Man - Forever Young
Spider-Man - Lizard Sanction
Spider-Man - The Amazing Spider-Man (BBC Radio Play)
The Ultimates - Against All Enemies
The Ultimates - Tomorrow Men
Venom - Lethal Protector
Ant-Man - Natural Enemy
Astonishing X-Men - Days of Future Past
Avengers - Everybody Wants To Rule The World
Deadpool - Paws
Guardians of the Galaxy - Collect Them All
Ms. Marvel Volume 1 No Normal
Ms. Marvel Volume 2 Generation why
Planet Hulk
Spider-Man - Kraven’s Last Hunt
Thanos - Death Sentence

That's D.C.

Infinite Crisis
52
JLA: Exterminators
Batman: The Stone King
Superman: The Never-Ending Battle
The Flash: Stop Motion
Wonder Woman: Mythos
Green Lantern: Hero’s Quest
Crisis on Infinite Earths
Batman: Dead White
Batman: Inferno
Countdown
DC Universe: Last Sons
DC Universe: Trail of Time
Final Crisis
Green Lantern: Sleepers, Book 1
Green Lantern: Sleepers, Book 2
Green Lantern: Sleepers, Book 3
Batman: No Man’s Land
Enemies and Allies
Wayne of Gotham
It’s Superman