Books
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Just started reading William Gibson's latest Agency and there's a neat little reference to Self Edge in Chapter 5.
I have it in the pile but I keep on moving it down as a new Gibson novel is such an event for me that I want to be in a position to savour it. Given the number of kids both small and tall I have around me that may not be until 2022.
That being said, after some lighter, somewhat derivative sci-fo reads over the summer, I’ve just kicked it up a notch with this:
Late to the party, but I’ve been excited about it for ages, and two chapters in I know it is going to be quite the experience.
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Found this book in the cellar of my my parents in law in a beatiful old handmade kitchen from 1960. I didn’t remember that I’ve already read this book and tacked a lot of pages in the late 90’. Asked about it in the family and several members recalled to know it ???.
Reread it and was fascinated.
There is music in there, I’ve definitely overheard in the past, because I didn’t understood Bach at this time (and nowadays)! Digging deeper …Love the Bass Line starting around 8:25 minutes.
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Dude! I have the English version @Aetas
And a couple other Hiroshige books
…and that same edition of the same Heinlein novel. And I love Bach.
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I was thinking about 634 and its inspiration by Miyamoto Musashi, the legendary dual-wielding samurai who wrote A Book of Five Rings after his retirement, where he became a cave-dwelling ascetic monk-like figure. There was a serial biography written about him in Japan by Eiji Yoshikawa. It goes through his life from young adulthood through his battles, culminating with his final battle with Sasaki Kojirō and his nodachi (Japanese version of a claymore). I read it long ago and have resolved that it’s time to read it again. Highly recommended for Japanophiles or people who just think medieval Japanese culture and samurai are cool.
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Not really a fantasy fan usually, but I was recommended Robin Hobb's "The Assassin's Apprentice" recently and it's excellent.
If you like Heinlein-style space opera, I recommend Elliott Kay's "Poor Man's Fight" series. He also has an excellent series of urban fantasy X (light) eroticism novels…
If you like a light Space Opera Neal Archer has written some fun stuff (I read them all early lockdown).
When I was younger I really liked Roger Zelazny, his Amber books were fun but Lord of Light and Creatures of Light and Darkness had much more depth. Short stories were good too (A Rose for Ecclesiastes)
Talking of which currently re-reading the exact same edition of Mr Pirsig's famous work. 41 years after the first and I still get lots from it.
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Glad you mentioned it @JDelage . I loved The Martian and also enjoyed Artemis (the setting took me back to Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, a favorite) and was not aware he had another one yet.
Next in queue in Gary Shteyngart's Super Sad True Love Story. Big fan of The Russian Debutante's Handbook and Absurdistan but never got around to this one.
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Super Sad is great — Absurdistan is definitely my fave of his. There have been very few books thatve made me howl out loud with laughter in recent memory, and that’s one of them. Sam Lipsyte’s Home Land and Nathan Hill’s The Nix are a couple others that come to mind. I’m a real sucker for that almost slapstick misanthropy.
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Yep indeed; there's a certain, very Russian wry fatalism that Shteyngart conveys like no other, especially in Absurdistan.
Speaking of books that hurt my stomach and make me LOL (even after repeated reads), A Confederacy of Dunces takes that crown for me. Good lord what a hilarious book. I think that Ignatius J. Reilly would have to be my favorite comedic character in literature, at least so far. So tragic that John Kennedy Toole killed himself, thinking himself a failure. How could the publishers not see the brilliance? I would have loved to see what else he could have come up with. And it paints such a great portrait of New Orleans and her people, including how they speak (phonetic spellings to convey the diction) and how some of the crazier among them act.
And speaking of dystopian books, I am somewhat intrigued by The Five Books of (Robert) Moses by Arthur Nersesian. Interesting writer and premise, but it is a biggun and a commitment.
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Oh god yeah, Confederacy of Dunces is so great, and his story is indeed so tragic. Didn't his mom take it to a publisher after his death and tell them they should read it? I think that's how it goes… oy, rough.
EDIT ah yep, just looked it up. Took it to many publishers, widely rejected until she convinced Walker Percy to read it.
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Yep exactly, Walker Percy being a brilliant writer himself (check out The Moviegoer if you haven’t) saw the genius for what it was. His preface on some editions is worth a read.
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…@jordanscollected just recently read this one, might be up your alley 'Minnesota Kid'!
...a little adventure involving a pool hustler and his stakehorse. Written by the stakehorse who I believe just recently passed away.
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Just finished up "The Chestnut Man" which was a solidly paced murder mystery, looking forward to starting "Chasing the Boogeyman" by Richard Chizmar, like a true crime conceit. I've been really deep diving into horror/mystery recently
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Read any Paul Tremblay @Joberwocky ? He's good.
