Topic: Books You're Currently Reading?

@TheBrandedSwordsman If you do, I’d probably start with Outliers to see if you like his style. He has about 6 or so books though, all with slightly different social subjects that he analyzes. Outliers tried to analyze what the social determinants of statistical outliers are. For example, the mega-wealthy and why certain time periods foster extreme wealth, or why most professional NHL hockey players birthdays are clustered in the same time of the year, for example. Gladwell is Canadian, but his analytics are largely focused on American phenomena so it may not interest you as much, but he does have a lot of international data too and the principles he describes apply universally. (For example the professional soccer/football leagues have the same birthday clustering curiosity too, it’s just in a different time of year). In other words, the book tries to investigate why some things which should show statistical randomness end up skewed one way or the other, and what the reasons might be for that.

@Th3solution I may look into Outliers in that case, certainly sounds like the right one to start with in order to build up an impression of the man. Also, I took a detour from A Laodicean by Hardy to read Joey: A Loving Portrait of Alfred Perles, Together with some Bizarre Episodes relating to the Opposite Sex by Henry Miller. It's only 126 pages long, and a much more approachable read than anything in Hardy's oeuvre. Although the man is famous for Tropic of Cancer, he wrote a heck of a lot more other stuff, and was a great writer. Sometimes there's too much sex and unfortunately even a little bit of violence thrown in but it's still a great read. He was a man of his time regarding his attitude towards women, unfortunately, but it's still great, vicarious reading.

@Spaldy How are you finding the Sandman books?

I’ve recently been reading the Jirel of Joiry stories and I can recommend them to any fans of weird fiction and/or R. E. Howard. Quite surreal and almost Dark Souls-esque in places.

With regards to Gladwell; be aware there is a LOT of criticism of his methods and pretty much everything he has written has been undermined by experts in those particular fields. He is accused of often cherry-picking data, mistaking correlation for causation and using shaky sources.

@Lolwutz Yeah, I’m aware that Gladwell has his critics. The social sciences have a lot of room for variance in opinion and methods of analysis. Nevertheless I found that his books and speeches don’t necessarily claim a lot of firm conclusions as truth, and rather they mostly lead one to draw their own conclusions or just to prompt interesting discussion points for analysis. I approach his works as fascinating observations of people and the world around us and ways to look at society through a different lens. The political ramifications will always be there, but I don’t get caught up in that.

Hi so I'm just gonna jump in here out of nowhere and ask if anyone can recommend a good graphic novel or current comic book series for, like, grownups. Been reading The Nice House by the Lake (I think that's the name) and enjoying it but pretty sure it's a limited series so hoping to find something ongoing to serve as as break from the usual non-fiction stuff I read. Been in a slump with that lately and just need a change of pace I think.

So stop what you're doing and totally get on that lol. I'm kidding really. I'm just bored. But if you know of something, I'd greatly appreciate the recommendation.

@zupertramp I’d say Saga because it’s fantastic but it’s basically on indefinite hiatus. Apparently it’s coming back soon though!

@nessisonett thanks! Looks interesting. Looks familiar so I'm sure I've seen an issue here or there but never paid it much mind. Being able to just buy in a compendium is definitely a plus so I'll keep it in mind but I was hoping for something a little more grounded... if that exists.

@zupertramp id second Saga as well. My favorite is the Sandman series by Neil Gaiman. Also an off shoot of that Lucifer is also fantastic.

@zupertramp The Under water welder, Green river killer, the fifth beatle, 4 kids walk into a bank and Day Tripper are a few I can see on my shelf that fit what your looking for grounded wise. They are all one and done stories rather than on going books though if that's any good to you?

@Elodin Yeah I've read Stardust, American Gods, and The Ocean at the End of the Lane - I have to say, I don't think Neil Gaiman is for me. Too fantastical. Just not my bag. Maybe Sandman is different? Anyway that kind of stuff is usually more my wife's thing so I'll definitely try to get her to give Saga a go.

Strangely I do love the Coraline movie though.

@MightyDemon82 cool cool, thanks. Couldn't find anything on the Under Water Welder but a couple of the others sound promising, specifically Green River Killer and Daytripper which, amusingly, is one of the least grounded it seems.

But yeah thanks.

@zupertramp Good Omens is a great Gaiman book but probably more to do with Pratchett’s involvement. Perfect balance of utterly mundane English drudgery and the fantastical. The adaptation was good but the book’s definitely better.

@zupertramp Black Monday Murders from Image Comics. You can probably get a copy of Volume 1 (first seven issues I think?) for less than a tenner, but it's definitely worth a shot in the dark - the less you know about it going in, the better.

@BowTiesAreCool looked it up without trying to get too much info but yeah, sounds... strange lol. Definitely add it to my potential reads. Thanks.

I'm reading "The Shadow King" by Maaza Mengiste. It's an excellent novel, but I'm not good in writing a long review in English, so I just link this if you want more info about it.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jan/18/the-shadow-king...

I'm nearly finished with Murakami's IQ84 trilogy. Loving it, but, man, it's long. 1300 pages.

@nessisonett @zupertramp Good Omens is awesome.

As a teen, I went to a Pratchett book signing in Bristol. As I handed over my book (The Light Fantastic, if I recall) I nervously asked if there would ever be a sequal or if and Gaiman and he would write together again. Pratchett gave a very grumpy "harrumph No" and that was that. By all accounts they did not get on well. Funnily enough that incident and a separate incident with Gaiman totally put me off of ever meeting my heroes.

Pratchett was a great writer, but a bit of a grump.

@PossibLeigh To be fair, I think anybody reading Pratchett’s books would kinda expect him to not be one for engaging with the fans and such. If anything, his daughter is a lot better on that side of things. I always did want to meet him though.

@nessisonett Oh yes, I can totally understand it. I'd probably be exactly the same. Still, as a teen meeting a hero it was a bit deflating.

I guess I shouldn't say I 'met' Pratchett as it was just a book signing.

Gaiman was an arrogant ***** when I met him, but I think he was a bit high on his own sucess at that time (this was around Neverwhere time, but before the TV show bombed, so he was riding high on Sandman and the Neverwhere book). I've met him since and he was absolutely lovely.

@PossibLeigh Gaiman’s definitely one with a career that’s ebbed and flowed over the years. I’d imagine the massive initial success and then the show bombing probably made him mature a bit.