Spoilers What Book Are You Reading?

[LadyX]

o just that. just seeing how far along you are and what not.



i really like it but the other two i mentioned kinda took on a life of their own.

I'm at the part where they're all listening to the rules of the "game". So only about 40 pages in.

I've been meaning to read Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore for some time now. Hopefully I get around to reading it soon. I've been hearing a lot of great reviews. The Martian I've already read.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

The front end of the bookshelf for me this year is Africa, Africa, Africa: fiction, nonfiction, poetry. And a little overlap with works about China, specifically regarding China's contemporary adventures in Africa.

In the very beginning of his book The Shadow of the Sun, Ryszard Kapuscinski wrote that Africa is "too large to describe. It is a veritable ocean, a separate planet, a varied, immensely rich cosmos. Only with the greatest simplification, for the sake of convenience, can we say 'Africa'. In reality, except as a geographical appellation, Africa does not exist."

So I decided to let Kapuscinski and a bunch of other writers prove that to me. I've recently finished reading The Translator (Leila Aboulela), The Orchard of Lost Souls (Nadifa Mohamed) Every Day is for the Thief (Teju Cole). All works of fiction, respectively about the Sudan (or rather more about what it's like to be from the Sudan and working as a translator in Scotland), about Somalia in the 1980s, and about Nigeria of the quite recent past.

Aside from finishing the collection of pieces in The Shadow of the Sun, I have waiting for me Martin Meredith's The Fate of Africa, a couple of books by Peter Godwin about Zimbabwe (and its longtime ruler Robert Mugabe), and some more nonfiction including Howard W. French’s China’s Second Continent: How a million migrants are building a new empire in Africa.

Anyway that pile of books should scotch any binge-watching of TV series, etc., for awhile, at least I have indulged in the new release of The Jewel of the Crown later this month.

Ah, wonderful. Actually, I love the writing of Ryszard Kapuscinski and have read most of his works. To my mind, 'The Emperor' (which is about the court, rule and downfall of Emperor Haile Selassie) is outstanding, and 'Shah of Shahs' (obviously, about the Shah of Iran) is very, very good. I also loved 'Imperium' and hugely enjoyed 'Travels with Herodotus'. Great books, and beautifully written.

When you write of the 'new' release of 'The Jewel in the Crown' is this a fresh edition of Paul Scott's work? I read this over twenty years ago, and found it extremely interesting.

 

[MacDawg]

Finished all the available Expanse novels and novellas, so time to move on till they release the next one this summer

Picking up the A Shadow in Summer, the first in The Long Price Quartet series

The author is Daniel Abraham who is also one of the two authors of the Expanse series

This series is fantasy as opposed to Sci-Fi

 

[LizKat]

Ah, wonderful. Actually, I love the writing of Ryszard Kapuscinski and have read most of his works. To my mind, 'The Emperor' (which is about the court, rule and downfall of Emperor Haile Selassie) is outstanding, and 'Shah of Shahs' (obviously, about the Shah of Iran) is very, very good. I also loved 'Imperium' and hugely enjoyed 'Travels with Herodotus'. Great books, and beautifully written.

When you write of the 'new' release of 'The Jewel in the Crown' is this a fresh edition of Paul Scott's work? I read this over twenty years ago, and found it extremely interesting.

On "Jewel" - yes, based on Scott's Raj Quartet books. The new release is direct from PBS, a remastering. The previous release in the US was via A&E, and not a very good transfer (to be kind). The new release is apparently 5 discs, the old one was four.

If you haven't read the books in a long time then you'd probably enjoy the TV production. If the books were fresh in your mind then of course whatever you most savored in 1500+ pages might well be missing or not presented as unfolded on the screen; total run time is only around 12 hours. The presentation was made more chronological, probably to preserve more of the layered complexity of the stories without throwing in "wait.. what?.. when?" issues that a reader of the four novels could more easily sort out over the longer time it takes to read through them.

On Kapuscinski: I'm really enjoying Shadow of the Sun and looking forward to more, probably Shah of Shahs next. Someone said his stuff is somewhat like Thompson's gonzo journalism without the drugs. Whatever, the guy was clearly a piece of work to try to manage as a reporter, he went where he went when he wanted to go, even when opportunity seemed recalcitrant, and he wrote about what he saw, however he saw it and wanted to share with us. Lucky us! I have read in a few accounts about him that he was sentenced to death four times during his reportage from Third World countries. There's intrepid and then there's either a good spin from La Fortuna or a benevolent higher power. Anyway he had a great run, and despite those death sentences from around the world, managed to die in the country of his birth, aged 74. We are surely richer for his having wanted to show us the people he sought to know.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

On "Jewel" - yes, based on Scott's Raj Quartet books. The new release is direct from PBS, a remastering. The previous release in the US was via A&E, and not a very good transfer (to be kind). The new release is apparently 5 discs, the old one was four.

If you haven't read the books in a long time then you'd probably enjoy the TV production. If the books were fresh in your mind then of course whatever you most savored in 1500+ pages might well be missing or not presented as unfolded on the screen; total run time is only around 12 hours. The presentation was made more chronological, probably to preserve more of the layered complexity of the stories without throwing in "wait.. what?.. when?" issues that a reader of the four novels could more easily sort out over the longer time it takes to read through them.

On Rapuscinski: I'm really enjoying Shadow of the Sun and looking forward to more, probably Shah of Shahs next. Someone said his stuff is somewhat like Thompson's gonzo journalism without the drugs. Whatever, the guy was clearly a piece of work to try to manage as a reporter, he went where he went when he wanted to go, even when opportunity seemed recalcitrant, and he wrote about what he saw, however he saw it and wanted to share with us. Lucky us! I have read in a few accounts about him that he was sentenced to death four times during his reportage from Third World countries. There's intrepid and then there's either a good spin from La Fortuna or a benevolent higher power. Anyway he had a great run, and despite those death sentences from around the world, managed to die in the country of his birth, aged 74. We are surely richer for his having wanted to show us the people he sought to know.

Well, I love - almost revere Kapuscinski.

His background gave him an unprecedented ability to empathise with, gain access to, and report on, strange worlds. Until he wrote 'Imperium' in the early 1990s, he had never - for fairly obvious reasons - touched upon the communist world he came from ('Imperium' is superb, one of those books I cannot recommend highly enough).

In 'Imperium', the chapter on the building and destruction of 'Christ the Saviour' cathedral in Moscow is spellbinding; Kapuscinski didn't live to write about the cathedral being rebuilt, this time with state support and donations from some oligarchs. Equally gripping is the chapter where he describes visiting Nagorno-Karabakh, the Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan, in the company of the (then) local MP, who was a specialist on ethnicities, a genuine democrat, and an outstanding reformer named Galina Starovoitova, who was herself later assassinated.

I'd also recommend 'The Emperor' - I think it is an outstanding book, subtle, nuanced, elegantly and sorrowfully written, deceptively dispassionate, an analysis of court politics that is almost unequalled for political insight, empathy (but not sympathy) and literary chutpaz.

Actually, I think he is far better than Thompson and the gonzo style, much more subtle, and understated, far less frenzied, and (leaving aside the extraordinary and utterly compelling chapters on Nixon that Thompson writes) more powerful, because what he writes about has higher stakes for those who lose, and his mastery of language, is, to my mind, more exquisitely exact, striking a perfect note at times. At the end of the day, Nixon, while disgraced, and about to be impeached, resigned, and was able to live, undisturbed. Some of those whom Kapuscinski writes about get killed, often savagely and viciously and sometimes very cruelly.

However, I can see where the comparison comes from, though - and there is a certain similarity in that both of them were able to clinically dissect the absurdities and delusions that accompany expressions and manifestations of absolute power.

 

[Huntn]

A Feast For Crows- Book 4 of the Fire and Ice Series. Incredibly good fantasy and adventure reading while maintaining a nicely grounded midevil vibe.

 

[aaronvan]

I just finished Stephen King's Revival. Meh. The first half was very gripping, then it began devolving into ludicrous 1930s sci-fi, complete with a mad scientist and a lightning storm.

 

[luvmymbpr]

A Feast For Crows- Book 4 of the Fire and Ice Series. Incredibly good fantasy and adventure reading while maintaining a nicely grounded midevil vibe.

View attachment 523123

Finishing up the 1st book myself. Huge fan of the HBO series.

 

[JamesMike]

Just finished Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential, it certainly brings a whole new perspective to restaurant life!

 

[S.B.G]

Just finished Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential, it certainly brings a whole new perspective to restaurant life!

I like his CNN show Parts Unknown a lot.

 

[JamesMike]

I like his CNN show Parts Unknown a lot.

I agree, and you can get his old show, No Reservations at http://www.travelchannel.com/tv-shows/anthony-bourdain

 

[LadyX]

I just finished Stephen King's Revival. Meh. The first half was very gripping, then it began devolving into ludicrous 1930s sci-fi, complete with a mad scientist and a lightning storm.

This is King's weakness. I've been let-down by the endings of most of his novels. Except for his book, 11/22/63. The ending was not disappointing. But then again, credit goes to his son as he helped him re-write the ending.

 

[pachyderm]

I just finished Stephen King's Revival. Meh. The first half was very gripping, then it began devolving into ludicrous 1930s sci-fi, complete with a mad scientist and a lightning storm.

did you read mr mercedes, was it any good?

 

[aaronvan]

did you read mr mercedes, was it any good?

I got about 70 pages into Mr. Mercedes before giving up. It just wasn't worth my time. It's not very interesting, mainly because it's a straight-up crime story with no supernatural elements. SK writes some good non-supernatural short stories, but not this novel. IMO, of course.

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This is King's weakness. I've been let-down by the endings of most of his novels. Except for his book, 11/22/63. The ending was not disappointing. But then again, credit goes to his son as he helped him re-write the ending.

King says he never, ever outlines his novels. He gets and idea and runs with it. I think that may be part of his problem, sometimes he just doesn't know where to take the story and sort of hastily wraps it up when he decides he wants to stop.

One thing I liked about "Revival" was it's manageable size, less that 500 pages. I'm tired of his 900+ page behemoths.

 

[LadyX]

I just finished The Westing Game. I love mystery books and I mostly read Agatha Christie when I'm in the mood for a good murder mystery novel but I'm glad I picked this one up for a change. It's a very entertaining and engrossing read. Full of great humor and wit. The storyline is intriguing and the plot-twists are very well-crafted. It has a variety of quirky and interesting characters and all of them are fully developed.

The style of writing is original. At first I found it somewhat confusing because the author switches rapidly between several different characters' viewpoints but I quickly became used to it after a couple of chapters. The ending was not disappointing, it was wonderful, totally satisfying.

 

[sk1wbw]

Just bought this yesterday but haven't started it yet. I do have to use the toilet here soon, so then.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Just bought this yesterday but haven't started it yet. I do have to use the toilet here soon, so then.

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Just curious; um, why have you posted this? And what has it to do with your reading matter?

More to the point, I'd be curious to see whether the book 'American Sniper' is a cut or two above most military memoirs. In my experience, a great many military memoirs are pretty dreadful; they are poorly written, and lack any nuance or subtlety, or insight on the part of the author about himself, or about the country or region he has been sent to.

 

[sk1wbw]

Just curious; um, why have you posted this? And what has it to do with your reading matter?

More to the point, I'd be curious to see whether the book 'American Sniper' is a cut or two above most military memoirs. In my experience, a great many military memoirs are pretty dreadful; they are poorly written, and lack any nuance or subtlety, or insight on the part of the author about himself, or about the country or region he has been sent to.

Uh, this thread is about what book you're reading, and this is a book, right? That's why I posted this. Seems pretty straightforward to me.

 

[LadyX]

Uh, this thread is about what book you're reading, and this is a book, right? That's why I posted this. Seems pretty straightforward to me.

SS was referring to the second part, the one in bold.

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Just curious; um, why have you posted this? And what has it to do with your reading matter?

I think he likes to read on the toilet.

 

[luvmymbpr]

Uh, this thread is about what book you're reading, and this is a book, right? That's why I posted this. Seems pretty straightforward to me.

I think you offended him with your "toilet" humor lol.

One of the best places to read.

 

[LadyX]

I think you offended him with your "toilet" humor lol.

One of the best places to read.

"You offended her"

 

[sk1wbw]

Oh, people get so offended over everything.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

SS was referring to the second part, the one in bold.

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I think he likes to read on the toilet.

Ah, thanks for the explanation. I genuinely didn't understand the point he was making and it wasn't clear whether he wished to visit the House of a Thousand Pleasures for standard reasons, or wished to skulk there to read away from the prying eyes of superiors, or merely wished to plonk himself there and lose himself in his book.

Myself, I prefer armchairs for reading.

Oh, people get so offended over everything.

Offended? No, not really. Just somewhat surprised. It is not even modesty, offended or otherwise, rather, more a personal sense of reserve, along with a passionate belief in privacy and personal space and in keeping some things private.

One of the things I really do not 'get' - and it is why I do not 'get' Facebook, and do not have a Facebook account - is the strange imperative that seems to afflict some people to broadcast a running commentary on the minutiae of their lives, a thrilling tale in which they get to play the starring role.

 

[luvmymbpr]

One of the things I really do not 'get' - and it is why I do not 'get' Facebook, and do not have a Facebook account - is the strange imperative that seems to afflict some people to broadcast a running commentary on the minutiae of their lives, a thrilling tale in which they get to play the starring role.

He said he reads when he's in the bathroom. This is something millions of Americans do. He didn't comment on the type of toilet paper he uses or the average duration of his bowel movements.

If you "don't get" his comment, your daily occurrences of such events must be numerous.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

He said he reads when he's in the bathroom. This is something millions of Americans do. He didn't comment on the type of toilet paper he uses or the average duration of his bowel movements.

If you "don't get" his comment, your daily occurrences of such events must be numerous.??

I'm not sure I understand what you are trying to say, here. I said that I didn't 'get' his comment; it was explained to me, for which I am thankful, and I still express surprise that such a thing - both my observation and subsequent comments on it - seem to be so worthy of further comment.

Anyway, I am not American, I am a most wimpish and nerd-like European, so some of these charming cultural practices quite clearly pass me by and I can honestly say that nobody in my immediate world reads in the bathroom.

Now, on further recollection, I'll grant that my father used to read the paper, smoking his pipe, while closeted in the bathroom. However, when instructed to give up smoking two decades ago just before facing into a major cardiac operation he immediately ended his life-long enduring relationship with carcinogenic products. That also had the effect of putting an end to his long sojourns in the bathroom, accompanied by the daily newspaper.

I suppose that I must confess to being a little grateful; until this was mentioned today, I had entirely forgotten this foible of my father's and so I must thank you for recalling it to my mind.

Well, the thread is supposed to be about reading books.

I am revisiting an old favourite, and re-reading it with fresh eyes, having spent the best part of two years in central Asia recently. The book in question is called "The Glass Palace" and it was written by a superb Indian writer named Amitav Ghosh.