The What Are You Reading thread (now with a simpler name)

[Malcador]

24 minutes ago, Hurlsnot said:

Political sports teams are given way too much importance. 

These days, maybe not, people can be a lot more zealous about them.

[ShadySands]

I think the moral of the story is that sex overcomes all

[Gromnir]

5 hours ago, Guard Dog said:

Just read this at G's suggestion. She loves having me read books she likes and then discussing them:

 

generalizing that the left is adversarial to religion is a bit much, no? sure, is some liberals who believe religion is the source o' all evil, but such is a growing position 'mongst the not evangelical conservatives as well, and 'mongst younger people as a whole. @ShadySands grew up in the south yes? am thinking he no doubt knows more than a few ardent religious people and communities that is gonna skew towards liberal voting. as such, the book author suggesting race is an important correlative factor gains traction, yes? regardless, as usual, you are trying to cram an issue into your they are all bad meta ideology and it don't fit as easily as you believe. 'course the author o' the book you mention might not be 100% correct neither-- can't say as we ain't read the book.

that said, am thinking gd misapprehension is illustrative o' the success o' the current gop strategy and conservative media efforts to portray liberals as anti-religion. reality is immaterial if folks such as gd believe. is a new kinda religion. and to be fair, evangelicals were indulging in the victimization mentality way before trump and the current gop rose to prominence. 

'course the author's toxic masculinity as a driver takes a hit when you consider the abortion issue from pov o' enlightened historical reflection. pre mid/late 1960s, american catholics overwhelming voted democrat. what changed were the abortion issue, and more specific it were catholic women as the driving force behind the pro life movement. what gd dismisses is at the core o' the problem: religion often erases the possibility o' a balancing exercise. there are no pros and cons when once you put the fate of your immortal soul in the balance. abortion is a perfect example o' this dynamic. IF you honest believe thousands of unborn children are being murdered every year, and many christians do believe such, it is difficult to balance a scale with a counter argument. the murder o' innocent children yet to be born is evil. period.  if an absolute position is the starting point, there is very little room for moral negotiation, yes? gonna repeat, catholic women drove the pro life movement and it weren't at all cynical even if you believe such beliefs is wrongheaded. 

evangelicals is kinda ahead o' the curve (bad way) in american politics as they has common suffered from hypo polarization on a range o' issues. for evangelicals, all too many issues is wedge issues which create the binary us v. them silliness 

have previous posted a link to a rolling stone article we found intriguing in part 'cause it caught us off guard. article questions why evangelicals embraced trump, albeit not initial, in spite o' his most unchristian values.

"Trump was exactly the type of character you would expect “values voters” to summarily reject — even before the famed “grab ’em by the ****” tape, the optics weren’t great. He never gained a majority of Christian votes in the primary. Even after he secured the nomination and named Mike Pence to be his VP, a survey of Protestant pastors conducted by Christian polling group LifeWay Research that summer found that only 39 percent of evangelical pastors planned to vote for him."

...

"By creating a narrative of an evil “deep state” and casting himself — a powerful white man of immense generational wealth — as a victim in his own right, Trump not only tapped into the religious right’s familiar feeling of persecution, but he also cast himself as its savior, a man of flesh who would fight the holy war on its behalf. “There’s been a real determined effort by the left to try to separate Trump from his evangelical base by shaming them into, ‘How can you support a guy like this?’ ” Jeffress tells me. “Nobody’s confused. People don’t care really about the personality of a warrior; they want him to win the fight.” And Trump’s coming to that fight with a firebrand’s feeling, turning the political stage into an ecstatic experience — a conversion moment of sorts — and the average white evangelical into an acolyte, someone who would attend rallies with the fever of revivals, listen to speeches as if they were sermons, display their faithfulness with MAGA hats, send in money as if tithing, and metaphorically bow down, again and again, at the altar of Donald Trump, who delivers the nation from its transgressions."

...

“I don’t think he’s godly, Alex,” my aunt tells me. “I just think he stands up for Christians. Trump’s a fighter. He’s done more for the Christian right than Reagan or Bush. I’m just so thankful we’ve got somebody that’s saying Christians have rights too.”

But what about the rights and needs of others, I wonder. “Do you understand why someone could be called by their faith to vote against a party that separates families?”

“That’s a big sounding board, but I don’t think that is the issue,” says my mom.

“But it’s happening, and I’m not OK with it.”

My mom shakes her head. “No one’s OK with it.”

“If that’s your heart, then vote your heart,” says my aunt. “But with the abortion issue and the gay-rights issue, Trump’s on biblical ground with his views. I appreciate that about him.”

“As Christians, do you feel like you’re under attack in this country?” I ask.

“Yes,” my mom says adamantly.

“When did you start feeling that way?”

“The day that Obama put the rainbow colors in the White House was a sad day for America,” my aunt replies. “That was a slap in God’s face. Abortion was a slap in his face, and here we’ve killed 60 million babies since 1973. I believe we’re going to be judged. I believe we are being judged.”

abortion we understood as a wedge issue, but the rainbow flag? am recommending reading the entire article. as we noted previous, we didn't understand the evangelical pov quite the way we thought we did.

HA! Good Fun!

Edited June 23, 2022 by Gromnir

[Malcador]

2 hours ago, ShadySands said:

I think the moral of the story is that sex overcomes all

Not Civ 4.

[rjshae]

Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson. Like his previous works, it's a dense, lengthy read. But at least it's kept me interested enough. I barely began Anathema before it put me right off. Maybe I'll try that again later.

[uuuhhii]

the hunger of the gods

very long never ending pointless circle of hatred and revenge

very viking and overdone

among the 5 pov character the two driven by vengeance are just boring as most main character driven by vengeance do

elvar are just the worst and torturous to read

two of the trickster style character are actually interesting to read

this might be why so many fantasy novel just skip the other terrible example to prove the point and just use trickster style main character to begin with

writer lean heavily into a lot of weird word to make the novel saga style just look ridiculous and cartoonish

whenever another character that are actually important die the only reaction are just

oh one less asphole

Edited July 6, 2022 by uuuhhii

[rjshae]

I just finished Fairhaven Rising by L. E. Modesitt, Jr. It's hard to believe he's penned over 70 works. I used to really enjoy reading his stuff, but now it's starting to feel a bit formulaic. I guess I'm just becoming an old cynic. Still, there's no question he's prolific. This book was 638 pages long.

[Guest]

This week I finished a re-read of this:

Which spurred a re-read of this:

[rjshae]

The Clockwork Dynasty by D. H. Wilson. Interesting stuff; kind of a tale about steampunk robots hiding in plain sight while fighting a civil war lasting many millennia.

[Sarex]

Finished Children of Time and now on to Children of Ruin. Very much recommended if you like the Foundation Empire and zoology.

[rjshae]

Blueprint, the Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society by Nicholas A. Christakis.

[xzar_monty]

On 7/3/2022 at 5:27 AM, rjshae said:

Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson. Like his previous works, it's a dense, lengthy read. But at least it's kept me interested enough. I barely began Anathema before it put me right off. Maybe I'll try that again later.

His novels tend to promise a lot, but they rarely deliver. I think the only unqualified success is Cryptonomicon, even if some of the observations he makes on languages he doesn't speak are nonsense. Seveneves, for instance, begins wonderfully -- the first sentence is a gem -- but it falls flat fairly quickly after that.

 

I'm reading The Sleepwalkers -- How Europe Went to War in 1914 by Christopher Clark. Very interesting. Some of the little tidbits of information are really quite stunning; e.g. Serbia's low literacy in the beginning of the 20th century; the idiosyncracies of various British leaders; ditto German leaders; and so on.

[Sarex]

34 minutes ago, xzar_monty said:

e.g. Serbia's low literacy in the beginning of the 20th century;

What is so stunning regarding that? We were under Ottoman occupation for 500 years prior.

[Sarex]

Children of Ruin finished just in time for Children of Memory coming out end of November. I'm looking forward to the conclusion of this series, because while it may not have been anything revolutionary in science fiction genre, it was, at least for me, a breath of fresh air.

Edited August 29, 2022 by Sarex

[xzar_monty]

8 hours ago, Sarex said:

Children of Ruin finished just in time for Children of Memory coming out end of November. I'm looking forward to the conclusion of this series, because while it may not have been anything revolutionary in science fiction genre, it was, at least for me, a breath of fresh air.

Have you read Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton? Hamilton can be poor, and his sex scenes are quite adolescent, but that one's a gem. There's such a delightful creature inhabiting that book. Highly recommended.

[Ahanna_Jagger]

"The subtle art of not giving a F***" by Mark Manson - amazing book despite it's too much hype around it

 

 

[uuuhhii]

the pariah by anthony ryan.another fantasy book with extremely pointless revenge plot bland medieval setting and useless character.skillfully put together but still boring and forgettable.all attempt for reader to care fail when writer make the same mistake so many mordern fantasy novel make when main character are forced to join the evil army and doesn't focus the story on escape

Edited September 24, 2022 by uuuhhii

[ShadySands]

I really enjoyed Blood Song but the next two books in the series got progressively worse and I stopped following the author

[InsaneCommander]

Brandon Sanderson's miniatures kickstarter ends today.

 

[uuuhhii]

rhythm of war was very disappointing.too much word wasted to explain the made up fantasy science.the focus on the royal family are a mistake from the start and only getting worse in this book

Edited October 24, 2022 by uuuhhii

[xzar_monty]

Reading To Hell and Back: Europe 1914-1949 by the historian Ian Kershaw. Excellent. (His biography of Hitler is also very good.)

Stuff like this gives good insight and allows for better understanding of current conflicts, too.

[uuuhhii]

lost metal was a lot less disappointing than rhythm of war

a little too reference heavy and still repeat the same old mistake of trying to make kelsier a interesting character

the extreme effort put into the setting still feels wasted

too complicated for short story too cumbursome for long one

Edited November 24, 2022 by uuuhhii

[InsaneCommander]

On 11/24/2022 at 1:27 AM, uuuhhii said:

lost metal was a lot less disappointing than rhythm of war

a little too reference heavy and still repeat the same old mistake of trying to make kelsier a interesting character

the extreme effort put into the setting still feels wasted

too complicated for short story too cumbursome for long one

I ordered the book, but it may take a couple of weeks to arrive. BS said it's the most crossover we have seen, so I'm expecting people from all over the Cosmere to appear. Who knows, maybe even Silence.

[Sarex]

Got a pretty sweet edition of the wheel of time books 0-3 in my localization. I already have them in English, but in a Orbit paperback edition. I originally wanted to get the original Tor hardcovers, but they are so expensive that I always put it off. I dislike translation for stuff I can read myself, but they look so nice.

Here's a reddit thread with pictures.

 

[uuuhhii]

3 hours ago, InsaneCommander said:

I ordered the book, but it may take a couple of weeks to arrive. BS said it's the most crossover we have seen, so I'm expecting people from all over the Cosmere to appear. Who knows, maybe even Silence.

some people from other world show up the same way in stormlight archive

the way different magic system can mix would be interesting for hardcore fan to consider

far too tired for it now