Spoilers What Book Are You Reading?

[RootBeerMan]

The cover art alone would utterly alienate me; I must say that I get very tired of clichéd representations of women, (and, indeed, men, for that matter) and want something a little more original and less tired.

Umm..The woman on the cover is Wonder Woman. She's wearing the costume her character has always worn. And the older version of Superman on the cover is pretty much who he's always been.
[doublepost=1545418101][/doublepost]Currently reading R. Buckminster Fuller's "Operating Manual For Spaceship Earth". Looking forward to seeing how this work holds up after all these decades.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Umm..The woman on the cover is Wonder Woman. She's wearing the costume her character has always worn. And the older version of Superman on the cover is pretty much who he's always been.
[doublepost=1545418101][/doublepost]Currently reading R. Buckminster Fuller's "Operating Manual For Spaceship Earth". Looking forward to seeing how this work holds up after all these decades.

Never knew what WonderWoman looked like, and never saw anything she featured in.

And, okay, so that is the older version of SuperMan; well, I do know who he is, but never saw the movie (movies?) or was remotely acquainted with the franchise.

Each to their own.

 

[balezi]

Atomic Habits by James Clear.

Amazing how much of our lives are governed by habits, without us even realising it. Reading the book has helped me develop a couple of new, positive habits.

 

[S.B.G]

Book: On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
Author: Stephen King

Part memoir, part master class by one of the bestselling authors of all time, this superb volume is a revealing and practical view of the writer's craft, comprising the basic tools of the trade every writer must have. King's advice is grounded in his vivid memories from childhood through his emergence as a writer, from his struggling early career to his widely reported, near-fatal accident in 1999--and how the inextricable link between writing and living spurred his recovery. Brilliantly structured, friendly and inspiring, On Writing will empower and entertain everyone who reads it--fans, writers, and anyone who loves a great story well told.

This book, a paperback version, arrived in my mailbox just a couple of hours ago and I tore into the plastic teal and white packaging to get to the book as quickly as I could. I've been looking forward to receiving it all day so that I could start a new book, this book. I'm not a fast reader, but I've been reading it since I opened the package and have just now stopped to take a bathroom break and stretch my legs a bit. It's a page-turner for me already and I don't even know the page number I'm on because I'm not even looking at them.

 

[yaxomoxay]

Book: On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
Author: Stephen King


This book, a paperback version, arrived in my mailbox just a couple of hours ago and I tore into the plastic teal and white packaging to get to the book as quickly as I could. I've been looking forward to receiving it all day so that I could start a new book, this book. I'm not a fast reader, but I've been reading it since I opened the package and have just now stopped to take a bathroom break and stretch my legs a bit. It's a page-turner for me already and I don't even know the page number I'm on because I'm not even looking at them.

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It's a great book!

 

[ucfgrad93]

Saw this at the library today and decided to add it to my winter-break reading list:

Ghost Empire: A Journey to the Legendary Constantinople by Richard Fidler

That looks very interesting. I just downloaded a sample to my Kindle.

 

[Gutwrench]

Book: On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
Author: Stephen King

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A Memoir of the Craft sounds interesting.

I have a couple similar books by Mary Oliver. It’s fascinating reading an artist’s perspective on their craft.

 

[AVBeatMan]

Book: On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
Author: Stephen King


This book, a paperback version, arrived in my mailbox just a couple of hours ago and I tore into the plastic teal and white packaging to get to the book as quickly as I could. I've been looking forward to receiving it all day so that I could start a new book, this book. I'm not a fast reader, but I've been reading it since I opened the package and have just now stopped to take a bathroom break and stretch my legs a bit. It's a page-turner for me already and I don't even know the page number I'm on because I'm not even looking at them.

View attachment 812280

I loved this book. Extremely insightful into how he crafts his work. Some say Dickens's "drones" on a bit but is beautifully written. I'd say the same of King. He can write a couple of pages without the story progressing but the language he uses is (to this Brit) fascinating.

 

[Matz]

“Sackett’s Land” by Louis L’Amour.

Second in the Sackett series. A pretty good read, so far.

 

[LizKat]

Not books at the moment... I recently got onto a kick of reading (or re-reading) some of the long reads in archives of The New Yorker by the remarkable Burkhard Bilger. The guy is an empathetic and engrossing writer on so many different and well researched topics, and his profiles on various individuals or team endeavors have also been fascinating -- anything from Mars explorations through deep caving adventures to the hunt for heirloom Mexican beans, with stops along the way to delve into the particular obsessions about time and consciousness of a neuroscientist, and the (sustainable) featherwork of a fashion designer. Plus a hard look at what it's like to discover that one's grandparent was at one point a Nazi party chief in the Vichy government in Alsace and then abruptly an ardent worker in the French resistance...

Here's the bio from The New Yorker about him. I read somewhere that in his long tenure there he's only had one piece rejected. Having read a lot of his stuff now, I am not surprised:

Burkhard Bilger published his first piece in The New Yorker in 2000 and became a staff writer the following year. His work has been anthologized three times in “Best American Science and Nature Writing,” twice in “Best American Sports Writing,” and once each in “Best Food Writing,” “Best Technology Writing,” and “Best American Science Writing.” Bilger was a senior editor at Discover from 1999 to 2005. Before that, he worked as a writer and a deputy editor for The Sciences, where his work helped earn two National Magazine Awards and six nominations. In 2000, he published “Noodling for Flatheads: Moonshine, Monster Catfish, and Other Southern Comforts,” which was a finalist for the PEN/Martha Albrand Award. Bilger is a Branford Fellow at Yale University.​

​

 

[ThisBougieLife]

^Ah, so it was Bilger who wrote the article on Rancho Gordo. That was one of those articles that upon first glance didn't seem too interesting to me, but after reading that article, I ordered some of those heirloom beans myself!

 

[LizKat]

^Ah, so it was Bilger who wrote the article on Rancho Gordo. That was one of those articles that upon first glance didn't seem too interesting to me, but after reading that article, I ordered some of those heirloom beans myself!

Yep, that was Bilger's. He also wrote that piece "The Possibilian" about David Eagleman, the neuroscientist. That one, in a section about human perception of time passing, caught my eye because of the references to U2 drummer Larry Mullen Jr.'s extraordinary ability to sense truly minuscule lags in the proper assembly of elements in a music track's production, stuff on the order of two to six milliseconds.

Really he's the kind of writer that can make me read about stuff I'll probably never read about again in that level of detail but can't put down once I've started in on it. I haven't burned a saucepan yet because of him, but only because I've got the sense to not start in on one of his pieces before supper "while the water's coming to a boil..."

 

[MarkB786]

Radical Candor - Kim Scott. Makes you think more strategically about your daily interactions with employees.

 

[rhett7660]

Book: On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft
Author: Stephen King


This book, a paperback version, arrived in my mailbox just a couple of hours ago and I tore into the plastic teal and white packaging to get to the book as quickly as I could. I've been looking forward to receiving it all day so that I could start a new book, this book. I'm not a fast reader, but I've been reading it since I opened the package and have just now stopped to take a bathroom break and stretch my legs a bit. It's a page-turner for me already and I don't even know the page number I'm on because I'm not even looking at them.

View attachment 812280

What a great book. I have read it a few times now, once all the way through and then back through passages I have found helpful. I have it listed in this thread also! Good stuff!
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Never knew what WonderWoman looked like, and never saw anything she featured in.

And, okay, so that is the older version of SuperMan; well, I do know who he is, but never saw the movie (movies?) or was remotely acquainted with the franchise.

Each to their own.

This isn't based on the movie, however the outfits/costumes have been around since the inception of the characters. The movies didn't come out till the 1980's while the tv show was much earlier.

You might find the history of Wonder Woman fascinating, especially when you learn the how and why she was created.

 

[BeefCake 15]

 

[Huntn]

So far it strikes me as shallow. I have noticed that all of the the characters who claim they lack something, demonstrate continuously that they already have it, which is clever. My critique might be an expectation divergence on my part expecting to read the movie screenplay. I’ll report back when I’ve finished it.

Actually, I beg to differ; I think that the backstory that one is give about the characters who travelled with Dorothy is a lot deeper (and the book is a good bit darker) than the movie. And they face more by way of challenges - which allow for the highlighting of the individual skills of the respective members of the group - than did the group in the movie.

Nevertheless, it is entirely possible that the character of the Wicked Witch of the West (played brilliantly by Margaret hamilton) was amplified somewhat for the purposes of the movie.

Now, I must admit, I loved the movie - and, unusually for an American movie, I think it superb, and a close to being something of a flawless classic.

But, the book struck me as outstandingly good when I read it, and it seems to me to have been one of those works which has aged extremely well.

Finished The Wizard of Oz. My impression was that the book was very popular when written, through the 1930’s when the movie was made. The book had elements that the movie left out, with a creative setting and characters, but the author was not very good describing conflict and action. That just about every event was described so plainly, it lacked excitement, at least from my perspective.

Example, attacked by wolves? One by one chop their heads off. Where in reality a pack of 40 vicious wolves should have torn their party to pieces without some strategy employed by Dorithy and her friends. Without any fanfare, throw water on the witch, problem solved. Giant spider? No problem, jump on it’s back while it is sleeping and swipe it’s head off.

The genius of the movie besides making it a musical, was consolidating, adding complex story elements that added depth and focusing on Dorothy’s conflict at home before the tornado, her family relationships, and the conflict between Dorothy and the Witch, that starts before the tornado arrives, the witch’s desire for her sister’s magic shoes from the beginning of arriving in Oz, harraasing and attacking them on their way to The Emerald City. The movie climax, exploding with suspense is when the party is about to be destroyed, surrounded by Winkies (yes, Winkies ), the witch catches the scarecrow on fire, and by accident, Dorothy destroys her. In comparison, the book has many opportunities for suspense, that are squandered by the author’s simplistic narrative.

I don’t insist that you agree with me.

Next book: Dragon Teeth, a posthumously published Michael Crichton novel, about a conflict between fossil hunters in the US West in the late 1800s.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Finished The Wizard of Oz. My impression was that the book was very popular when written, through the 1930’s when the movie was made. The book had elements that the movie left out, with a creative setting and characters, but the author was not very good describing conflict and action. That just about every event was described so plainly, it lacked excitement, at least from my perspective.

Example, attacked by wolves? One by one chop their heads off. Where in reality a pack of 40 vicious wolves should have torn their party to pieces without some strategy employed by Dorithy and her friends. Without any fanfare, throw water on the witch, problem solved. Giant spider? No problem, jump on it’s back while it is sleeping and swipe it’s head off.

The genius of the movie besides making it a musical, was consolidating, adding complex story elements that added depth and focusing on Dorothy’s conflict at home before the tornado, her family relationships, and the conflict between Dorothy and the Witch, that starts before the tornado arrives, the witch’s desire for her sister’s magic shoes from the beginning of arriving in Oz, harraasing and attacking them on their way to The Emerald City. The movie climax, exploding with suspense is when the party is about to be destroyed, surrounded by Winkies (yes, Winkies ), the witch catches the scarecrow on fire, and by accident, Dorothy destroys her. In comparison, the book has many opportunities for suspense, that are squandered by the author’s simplistic narrative.

I don’t insist that you agree with me.

Next book: Dragon Teeth, a posthumously published Michael Crichton novel, about a conflict between fossil hunters in the US West in the late 1800s.

But, @Huntn, the whole point with fiction is that the creatures you introduce from our world to a fantasy world do not necessarily have to always behave quite as they do in our world; this other world may have different rules which govern animal behaviour.

I read the book as a child and thrilled to it.

 

[Huntn]

But, @Huntn, the whole point with fiction is that the creatures you introduce from our world to a fantasy world do not necessarily have to always behave quite as they do in our world; this other world may have different rules which govern animal behaviour.

I read the book as a child and thrilled to it.

I never had the opportunity to read it as a child, just my adult impression, with the recognition it was written a long time ago, not to imply old is bad. There are many classic books that impress me. It's possible that children books written at the start of the 20th century were much more simpler than they are today. For myself, the movie has made a huge impact on me and runs circles around the book, but I have no issue with your opinion about it. All is well.

 

[cdcastillo]

Currently reading a ghost stories anthology and Semiosis. Both highly entertaining and thrilling.

The anthology includes works from Dickens, Kipling, Le Fanu, Bécquer, Bierce and Wilde.

 

[AVBeatMan]

Reading"Life" by Keith Richards. Colourful and entertaining as you can imagine.

 

[RootBeerMan]

Just finished up the "Autumnlands Vol.2: Woodland Creatures" graphic novel. A fantastic continuation of Volume 1. Great story and good artwork. If you like far future post-holocaust fantasy/SF then you'll like this series!

Now, it's back to the new Harry Turtledove novel, "Through Darkest Europe: A Novel". So far this has been a very good alternate history novel where the Muslim Renaissance never ended and Thomas Aquinas was a hardcore, Christian jihadist. Europe is a rather backwards place and many of the Aquinists are jihadists of the worst sort (think ISIL). So far it has been a really good read, as is to be expected of Turtledove.

 

[AVBeatMan]

Finished "Erebus" by Micheal Palin. It was just OK. Although the ship achieved incredible journey's (there were basically two epic journeys) there is only so much that can be written about them. I found myself getting bored in parts and found it over long.

There was nothing particularly political in the story (so no world events to associate with) so it really is the story of a ship that travelled to the antarctic and later the arctic, and has recently been found at the Botton of the sea.

I don't want to put anyone off as others might find the story more interesting, this is just my assessment of it.

 

[S.B.G]

Halfway through Star Trek Discovery: Drastic Measures which features a cameo by young, teenage James Tiberius Kirk.

It is 2246, ten years prior to the Battle at the Binary Stars, and an aggressive contagion is ravaging the food supplies of the remote Federation colony Tarsus IV and the eight thousand people who call it home. Distress signals have been sent, but any meaningful assistance is weeks away. Lieutenant Commander Gabriel Lorca and a small team assigned to a Starfleet monitoring outpost are caught up in the escalating crisis, and bear witness as the colony’s governor, Adrian Kodos, employs an unimaginable solution in order to prevent mass starvation.

While awaiting transfer to her next assignment, Commander Philippa Georgiou is tasked with leading to Tarsus IV a small, hastily assembled group of first responders. It’s hoped this advance party can help stabilize the situation until more aid arrives, but Georgiou and her team discover that they‘re too late—Governor Kodos has already implemented his heinous strategy for extending the colony’s besieged food stores and safeguarding the community’s long-term survival.

In the midst of their rescue mission, Georgiou and Lorca must now hunt for the architect of this horrific tragedy and the man whom history will one day brand “Kodos the Executioner”….

 

[0388631]

Hmm, I'll side with @Huntn here. There are some works of fiction that are very popular that I've never enjoyed and never got the point of even after reading them upwards of twenty times in my lifetime. I won't drop any titles, but some of them are very popular and others are part of the literary canon.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Hmm, I'll side with @Huntn here. There are some works of fiction that are very popular that I've never enjoyed and never got the point of even after reading them upwards of twenty times in my lifetime. I won't drop any titles, but some of them are very popular and others are part of the literary canon.

Why not mention any titles?

For example, I loathe and detest "The Da Vinci Code", and the baffling popularity of this banal, clichéd, poorly-written (and historically execrable) novel has never ceased to astound me.