The Athenaeum - Reading updates and Literary Review from the Obsidian Elite (this means you)

[uuuhhii]

finished a little hatred

most bleak and depressing one in the first law so far

the world of first law are getting awful to the level close to news now

one of the new main character are even more disgusting then calder

but bayaz are still the best archvillain

the two new union main character are identical substitute for their fathers

what is the point of decade time jump?

to add more suffering of factory worker?

Edited October 16, 2019 by uuuhhii

[Hurlshort]

I think your poem is losing something in the translation.

[Malcador]

Skunk Works: A Personal Memoir of My Years at Lockheed

Not a bad read, is a bit too rah rah on how awesome Lockheed was - author claims their candidate for the B-2 was superior and only lost due to politics, which I am skeptical of. 

[Raithe]

How to Invent Everything.  A Survival Guide For A Stranded Time Traveler.

 

An interesting walk through important technologies for an industrial civilisation.. How it works, why it works, the historical progressions that led to it.. and what you need to invent it in any period on Earth that you might be dropped in.

Tongue in cheek, entertaining, and actually quite accurate for breaking down complex stuff into simple concepts and explanations.

[Guard Dog]

18 hours ago, Raithe said:

How to Invent Everything.  A Survival Guide For A Stranded Time Traveler.

 

An interesting walk through important technologies for an industrial civilisation.. How it works, why it works, the historical progressions that led to it.. and what you need to invent it in any period on Earth that you might be dropped in.

Tongue in cheek, entertaining, and actually quite accurate for breaking down complex stuff into simple concepts and explanations.

Nuts to that. I know the winners and scores of every Super Bowl, World Series, Stanley Cup, World Cup, as well as what stocks are winners and losers. Send me back in time and I'd be like Biff from back to the future.

[Raithe]

4 hours ago, Guard Dog said:

Nuts to that. I know the winners and scores of every Super Bowl, World Series, Stanley Cup, World Cup, as well as what stocks are winners and losers. Send me back in time and I'd be like Biff from back to the future.

 

Just as long as it's within the last century then?

[Raithe]

Not literature, but for the language...

 

[Gromnir]

had to look-up skewwiff, though we kinda guessed correct. am s'posing zounds and gadzooks is having too religious an etymology to make a list such as you share. 

am gonna note personal affection for the following: lachrymose, lugubrious and brobdingnagian. 

HA! Good Fun!

[Raithe]

[majestic]

I'm done with the Prisoner of Azkaban. I'm not entirely sure why people told me the movies begin to deviate more from the books starting with the third one. Dumbledore was a bit different, I must however, confess ignorance whether the difference in his portrayal was his idea or the directors, but apart from that, well, the book and the film are really close. The movie has a lot less Quidditch, which I really, really don't give a f... erm, care about and only one visit to Hogsmeade. Both changes that the pacing of the book could benefit from as well.

Well, here's to hoping for the next one, although I suppose the true differences will come starting with The Order of the Pheonix, because that was the point in the films started to have larger swathes of plot that make no sense to me as someone who hasn't read the books.

And I'm also reading The Great Gatsby, which is yet another attempt of mine to finally find a classic that I like. Alas, it appears that I was unsuccessful again - although it really is a well written novel and commentary on the 1920ies in the US I don't care for any of the characters, or what is happening to them. It's a bit like hearing music that you can regonize as expertly crafted and well performed but is utterly uninteresting on the very subjective level at which we enjoy works of art.

In contrast, The Forever War, which was also a commentary on social change, the Viet Nam war and the disconnectedness that veterans feel upon returning home, was also quite entertaining and made me care about what was happening and to whom, and I'm pretty sure that isn't just because it has space battles and laser guns. Wait, does The Forever War count as classic? Humm...

Edited October 20, 2019 by majestic

[Gromnir]

am guessing it kinda depends on what you consider a classic.

f. scott fitzgerald is not one o' the more readable authors on a great books list. you recognize the craftsmanship, so we won't belabor.

am not a jane austen fan, but she is an easier read than most and in spite o' our personal criticism, she is ubiquitous on great books lists. ick.

jack london? no question he is an easy read.

oscar wilde's picture of dorian grey is robbed of it's genuine impact by being so well known even 'mongst those who has never voluntarily picked up a book. is simultaneous impeccable crafted and an entertaining read.

reverse the foreknowledge problem o' picture and result is that in cold blood by truman capote has more impact on a modern reader precise 'cause you likely don't know events surrounding the murder(s) which is referenced in the "novel." am recommending not doing any research on the book or events referenced before reading. 

we always found sinclair lewis to be readable. elmer gantry and babbitt is both fantastic, but am suspecting you would find elmer gantry more entertaining. could always watch the movie instead, if only to see fantastic performances by shirley jones and burt lancaster. 

brave new world, slaughterhouse-five and fahrenheit 451 is often showing up on great books lists, and they seem to be in your wheelhouse.

don delillo might be worth a shot. white noise is the novel for which he gets most credit, and it shows prominent on modern classics lists, but you might wanna try end zone or libra instead.

updike, as shocking as may seem, has a couple readable books. the witches of eastwick? might not be considered a classic, but is no less worthy than the rabbit books, and Gromnir is a big fan o' the rabbit books.

also, dumas books show up on great book and classic lists. his stuff were always written primarily to entertain. dumas were writing at a time when authors were literal paid by the word which led to a curious and playful overabundance o' dialogue. lack o' frugality which would offend most modern authors is curious endearing.

am not sure if forever war counts as a classic, but if it does, then surely alfred bester's the stars my destination is on similar lists. author is the guy who first penned the green lantern oath in comics and the book is considered the original cyberpunk novel. no coincidence we mention after dumas 'cause stars has more than a few similarities to the count of monte cristo. 

and then there is the classic short stories...

HA! Good Fun!

[Guard Dog]

I've always found Hemingway very readable. He certainly wasted no words. If you want to live in the 1920's with the Lost Generation for a brief time  he's your man.

Jack London is one of my all time favorites but my favorite work of his was far from his most popular: The Sea Wolf. But Wolf Larson is one of the best characters in all of American literature IMO. All of London's stores were set in the late 1800's. He passed away during WWI, don't remember the exact date.

The Great Gatsby was a great novel. I love the closing line of the novel, absolutely poetic.

Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury is a easy read of life in the the American south in the '20's. The Great Depression was actually happening there well before Black Tuesday and that book follows a family through it. 

If you are interested in classics that put you IN the Great Depression look no further than John Steinbeck. Particularly The Grapes of Wrath. 

 

[Gromnir]

grapes of wrath is an often brutal read with an unsatisfactory ending. would not be first book we recommend from steinbeck for a person who has never found appreciation o' a classic works. cannery row could be a steinbeck start point, particular if a person already read of mice and men and didn't find appreciation.

similar, while two o' our five favorite authors is hemingway and faulkner, am not gonna recommend starting with their novels. go short stories from both and then maybe find a gateway novel based on which short stories work for the reader.

james joyce is our favorite author, and even we don't enjoy reading ulysses. heck, although we have the last paragraph o' the dead memorized word-for-word, am not gonna recommend to somebody who has a case o' classicmalcontentous.

HA! Good Fun!

[Guard Dog]

I could never really get into Joyce. I read Ulysses and appreciated what he was trying to do with it but is just wasn't my kind of thing. I couldn't do anything at all with Finnegan's Wake. It was just a hot mess IMO. 

But, there is always this:

 

[Maedhros]

9 hours ago, Guard Dog said:

If you are interested in classics that put you IN the Great Depression look no further than John Steinbeck. Particularly The Grapes of Wrath.

My English teacher absolutely loved Steinbeck. We spent so much time on Of Mice and Men, I feel like I still remember every page of the book.

As far as classics go, I don't know how famous Knut Hamsun is outside of Norway anymore, but he's my "go to". Growth of the Soil, Hunger, Pan...all great. Fantastic author, terrible guy.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2008/sep/10/knut.hamsun.nazi

[Raithe]

I try to make sure to read Count of Monte Cristo at least once a year.

Slow paced revenge drawn out over decades... with some dark elements of human nature wrapped around optimism and some swashbuckling intrigue. What's not to enjoy?  As pointed out, the word count because Dumas was paid by the word. So there are some sections that really draw out background elements, fashions, geography and literature of the time rather than focus on the pure plot.

[Hurlshort]

I love Dumas. I am also a huge fan of The Dubliners by James Joyce, but that is because I read it when I was all angsty in college, and I think you need to be a bit miserable to really dig his work.

[Guard Dog]

I bought two books this morning:

 

&

 

[majestic]

On 10/20/2019 at 6:21 AM, Gromnir said:

am guessing it kinda depends on what you consider a classic.

Oi, I stirred up a veritable hornet's nest of suggestions. Thanks guys, I'll keep a few things in mind, however I do feel the need to expand on my point a bit, lest I'll be called worse than classicmalcontentous (and I really promise I'm not stating this just to be contrarian to great books list, I only do that for overrated video games. You know, like Halo. ).

During my school time I've had teachers that really wanted to make sure we're somewhat literate in classics in the sense of books that are considered literary achievements - milestones of writing, if you will, particularily German and English speaking authors. As such I'm familiar and in some cases well acquainted with the works of Hemmingway, Kafka, Hesse, Bernhard, Schiller, Goethe, Twain, Salinger, Golding and a bunch of others that would probably only end up in a biblical counting.

While it would be preposterous to say that I didn't enjoy or appreciated some of them - Orwell's 1984 comes to mind - reading them more often than not felt more like a chore, especially Bernhard and Kafka. The former is a study in the terror German grammar is truly capable of.

I don't mind inaccessible or difficult reading and I certainly don't need everything I read to be a thrilling page turner. I've read textbooks and manuals for fun when I was a lot younger (and I still do for work these days, but that's what you get for having a job in IT) and I do appreciate interesting language as such, also e.g. as lyrics or poems, even though I never liked having to learn them by heart. Ach, da kommt der Meister! Herr, die Not ist groß! Die ich rief, die Geister werd ich nun nicht los.

Could be that I'm doing this wrong. Perhaps I shouldn't start with what critics consider an author's best work. That didn't work for me for a some - Joyce, Fitzgerald now and McCarthy. That reminds me, Guard Dog, did you read Blood Meridian and if yes, did you actually like it? Because that killed my interest in exploring his other works fairly quickly. Sigh.

Edited October 22, 2019 by majestic

[Hurlshort]

Oh, you didn't mention Mikhail Bulgakov. He is tremendously readable. Everyone should read Master and Margarita.

[Guard Dog]

On ‎10‎/‎22‎/‎2019 at 7:29 PM, majestic said:

 

Could be that I'm doing this wrong. Perhaps I shouldn't start with what critics consider an author's best work. That didn't work for me for a some - Joyce, Fitzgerald now and McCarthy. That reminds me, Guard Dog, did you read Blood Meridian and if yes, did you actually like it? Because that killed my interest in exploring his other works fairly quickly. Sigh.

Oh yeah, I've read all of McCarthy's works. Blood Meridian was far from his best. No Country For Old Men was far and away his best work. Even the movie was outstanding. The book, of course, more so. All the Pretty Horses and the two that roughly follow the same storyline are pretty good. The Road was really good. His older books from the sixties are just ok. But if you read nothing else from him, No Country For Old Men should not be missed.

Edited October 24, 2019 by Guard Dog

[Raithe]

Podcast that might be of quirky interest to some folks:  http://thepulpwritershow.libsyn.com/episode-1

[Guard Dog]

Now reading this:

 

It's ok so far. Having trouble getting into it. Not finding Carl to be a particularly compelling character. 

 

Also this:

A bit more my speed

[Gromnir]

The Ten Best History Books of 2019

has been an unusual few years as save for a single outlier year, the number o' books on the list we has read before list is released has decreased. in fact, this year have only read one such title: American Radicals: How Nineteenth-Century Protest Shaped the Nation

only just finished american radicals a couple weeks previous to list release or we woulda' been blanked. been kinda focused on US nativism, particular 1920s, so have kinda missed on a number o' worthy titles. 

HA! Good Fun!

[Guard Dog]

I haven't read any on that list yet. But these have been added to my to-do list: