Books: And What Are You Reading?

Just finished Count Zero (1986, William Gibson)- Second book of the Sprawl Trilogy. This is a very enjoyable cyberpunk story, better than Neuromancer (first book) although that was good too. It's amazing what this author writes about considering the state of computers and the internet when he wrote it. He really has the imagination to make this intriguing and thought provoking.

The only significant comment I have is that when he writes about cyberspace, it more akin to Virtual Reality, but you are connected in such a way that harm, even death can be incurred if you get yourself into a bad spot. The idea of SimStims is very cool. This is when you are linked to someone's brain or a recording of their brain, and you experiencing all of the senses they experience. The game Cyberpunk 2077, that came out this year features something like this, so Gibson was ahead of his time.

Count-Zero.jpg​
 
Huntn said:
Just finished Count Zero (1986, William Gibson)- Second book of the Sprawl Trilogy. This is a very enjoyable cyberpunk story, better than Neuromancer (first book) although that was good too. It's amazing what this author writes about considering the state of computers and the internet when he wrote it. He really has the imagination to make this intriguing and thought provoking.

The only significant comment I have is that when he writes about cyberspace, it more akin to Virtual Reality, but you are connected in such a way that harm, even death can be incurred if you get yourself into a bad spot. The idea of SimStims is very cool. This is when you are linked to someone's brain or a recording of their brain, and you experiencing all of the senses they experience. The game Cyberpunk 2077, that came out this year features something like this, so Gibson was ahead of his time.

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I liked this book probably the most of the 3. But Mona Lisa Overdrive takes it all to another level. The Matrix "borrowed" a lot from these stories, but the main essence that is revealed in MLO never really made it into Matrix.
 
I know that some who post here are rather partial to scifi/fantasy.

In recent years, I have devoured the works of Elizabeth Moon (and far prefer her space worlds - the Serrano/Suiza series, and the Vatta series, to her 'medieval' fantasy Paksenarrion series and its sequels) but, in the past week, I have come across - and am reading my way through - the Vorkosigan Saga/world of Lois McMaster Bujold.

This is outstanding stuff; absolutely superb: Terrific writing, wit, superlative characters - along with some exceptionally well written female characters - (and character development), excellent world building and wonderful stories, and narrative arcs.
 
Rather than forging on today with my read of an informative if rather daunting book (Christophe Jaffrelot's Modi's India: Hindu Nationalism and the Rise of Ethnic Democracy), I've managed instead to revisit --not for the first time-- some of the chapters I had bookmarked in William Dalrymple's fascinating White Mughals.

That Dalrymple book is a careful recounting of relationships across conventional ethnic and religious boundaries in pre-Victorian India, and in particular the (not very) secret marriage of Hyderabad's then British resident minister James Achilles Kirkpatrick and Khair-un-Nissa, the granddaughter of Hyderabad's then prime minister, a member of the Muslim Nizam dynasty then overseeing a mostly Hindu populace.

I really enjoy reading Dalrymple's books, he's one of those relatively rare historians whose research can't be faulted but who writes with the ear and eye of a compelling novelist. His latest book, The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of the East India Company, happens to be my current audiobook choice, so I guess I'm transporting myself to India all the way around lately.
 
OK, I confess to having bought Woodward's Peril. But I got the audiobook, so I'll likely sleep through at least half of it. Anyway this book doesn't sound like one of the ones that will actually keep me awake to point I have to give it up as bedtime story material and listen to it in the daytime. Some reviews suggest the book is a tedious slog now and then. Great, that sounds like an audiobook that will do its job and put me to sleep inside of five minutes. I rather suspect whichever reviewers found it boring just don't like the detail that Woodward's research lets him provide.
 
Currently reading 4/5 books. But the most intriguing one right now is: Battle for the Soul: Inside the Democrats' Campaigns to Defeat ----- by Edward-Isaac Dovere). Not what I expected. Thought it would detail the concerted effort to beat the Mango Motherfucker. It's more about how each candidate/campaign tried to win the nomination to wind up in battle against the treasonous SOB. I would never trust another reporter or any staffers with any info were I a pol. Too many secrets and cheap shots detailed that you know it came directly from sources with loose lips.
 
Decided it's high time I read On the Road by Jack Kerouac

Reactions to this book seem to be all over the place, with much of the modern reaction being quite negative. It seems to be a mix of reaction against the writing style as well as a general negative reaction toward books about people who shun "normal life" and try and "find themselves" as being selfish, pretentious, and phony (which I think some of the time reflects a projected dissatisfaction with conventional life rather than any genuine assessment of such a lifestyle as "selfish" for one's decision not to have kids and "settle down"--the reaction is often even stronger when it's a woman's story). I also have heard criticisms about his outdated racial comments. Not always a good idea to go into a book knowing so much about it and having all these expectations/prejudices. Nonetheless, I will try and set all this aside and evaluate the book honestly.
 
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TBL said:
Decided it's high time I read On the Road by Jack Kerouac

Reactions to this book seem to be all over the place, with much of the modern reaction being quite negative. It seems to be a mix of reaction against the writing style as well as a general negative reaction toward books about people who shun "normal life" and try and "find themselves" as being selfish, pretentious, and phony (which I think some of the time reflects a projected dissatisfaction with conventional life rather than any genuine assessment of such a lifestyle as "selfish" for one's decision not to have kids and "settle down"--the reaction is often even stronger when it's a woman's story). I also have heard criticisms about his outdated racial comments. Not always a good idea to go into a book knowing so much about it and having all these expectations/prejudices. Nonetheless, I will try and set all this site and evaluate the book honestly.
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Books that come freighted with a weighty reputation have a lot to live up to, agreed.

I recall that I approached Wuthering Heights with similar trepidation (and found it superlative; it was every bit as good as its reputation suggested).

On The Road strikes me as being one of those books (The Catcher In The Rye is another) that are possibly perfect - the kind of book that seems as though it speaks to you - if you read it at the "right age" (right for you).

I read The Catcher In The Rye one night, curled up on a sofa, when I was teaching, - I was in my late 20s, - and that was the night I realised that I was no longer an adolescent (in my mind), for - to my surprise - I loathed Holden Caulfield, whereas, at 15, it is entirely possible that I would have identified strongly with him.

Anyway, I read On The Road in my very early twenties - while still a student, a student friend (who adored it) gave it to me to read - and I thought, okay, interesting, but it didn't set me alight with that fierce joy that some other books, (for example, I read Alexander Solzhenitsyn's The First Circle around the same time, and that blew me away) did.

Perhaps the setting, the story, and the style didn't appeal; or, perhaps, because I am European, and not American, I just didn't "get" it. Or, perhaps, I was the wrong age to "get" it.

Moreover, these days, I know myself well enough now to realise - and to be able to admit, freely - that that sort of mid century, American, male, writing is just not my literary cup of tea (but I didn't know it then, and wouldn't have had the confidence to challenge that 'canon' at the time).

However, I did think that Herzog, by Saul Bellow, was excellent.
 
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I admit I'm not such a fan of Norman Mailer and some of that "manly" writing of the mid-century. And maybe this book won't give me "fierce joy" (few books do--but the ones that do I can't stop recommending) but I hope I can at least understand why it's become such a classic.

I haven't yet read Herzog, though I've read several of Bellow's works thus far. I think I will have to read that next. :)
 
TBL said:
I admit I'm not such a fan of Norman Mailer and some of that "manly" writing of the mid-century. And maybe this book won't give me "fierce joy" (few books do--but the ones that do I can't stop recommending) but I hope I can at least understand why it's become such a classic.

I haven't yet read Herzog, though I've read several of Bellow's works thus far. I think I will have to read that next. :)
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Personally, I think that Herzog is Saul Bellow's best book by far (I've read a few others), much as East of Eden is (to my mind) John Steinbeck's masterpiece.

Agree about being unable to stop recommending - passionately - the books that have given one what I have described as "fierce joy".
 
One of the books I’m reading is ‘The Bears Ears’ by David Roberts, an excellent read so far. It is The Bears Ears National Monument in southeastern Utah, created by President Obama and the efforts to save it. It contains more archaeological sites than any other region in the United States.
 
JamesMike said:
One of the books I’m reading is ‘The Bears Ears’ by David Roberts, an excellent read so far. It is The Bears Ears National Monument in southeastern Utah, created by President Obama and the efforts to save it. It contains more archaeological sites than any other region in the United States.
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The Trump admin had cut protection of Bears Ears down to 200k acres from 1.6 million, likely to allow for development or expedited use of natural resources. Of course that move drew lawsuits from a lot of environmental organizations and some Native American tribes as well, although the Navajos apparently did not want the larger acreage to fall under federal management due to some religious freedom issues. Biden admin was looking into restoring the larger boundaries of protection. It's been in the news recently again.

www.sltrib.com

Some Indigenous groups worry a larger Bears Ears National Monument would limit access to ritual space

As the daughter of a nonagenarian Navajo medicine woman, Ana Tom is used to long road trips. Tom supports her mother Betty Jones’ role as a traditional healer by taking her far from San Juan County to look for rare herbs for use in various traditional medicines important for Navajo rituals.
www.sltrib.com www.sltrib.com

Anyway I didn't realize there was a book on it. I will like to read that. Thanks for mentioning.
 
I spent all of today reading The Paris Library by Janet Skeslien Charles.

And thoroughly enjoyed it, a wonderfully warm, beautifully written, intelligent, interesting, simpatico, yet bittersweet work.

I love that sort of reading - where you can lose yourself completely in a book (a real book, one with covers, and pages, and wonderfully made from paper), - something which this book actually celebrates - no computers or noise, or sounds, or TV or other unwanted or unwelcome distractions.

Just you, and a book, and the world that this welcoming books has created for you, one which you are invited to enter by the simple act of opening its covers and beginning to read.
 
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Clix Pix said:
Enjoy!!! I'll be interested in hearing what you think of The Paris Library..... :)
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Hallelujah, I see that the wait time to borrow the ebook version of The Paris Library isn't 20 weeks any more. Now it's just.... sigh... 12 weeks. At least that doesn't sound quite like a lifetime.

(and yes, I should have just sprung for the paperback but now I'll join the wait-list and expect to get the ebook in hand by mid-January)
 
Reading Neel Mukherjee's A State of Freedom. Brutal, fascinating, and I think only a writer who's been among or spent time with the poorest of the poor gets some of those details right: extreme compression of hope or expectations, limitless options for punishment and unwelcome discoveries absorbed into a framework for achieving competence in sheer survival, even allowing unexpected advancement or happiness to occur without optimism. Not for the faint of heart and I've had to put the book aside a few times, but not because I don't want to finish it. I have it from the library but am tempted to purchase it for its portrayals of character, class struggle, human nature.
 

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