What are you reading?

[Slava]

 

William Gibson - Burning Chrome

 

This collection of short stories came with Neuromancer, Gibson's first full novel. I read this genre-defining cyberpunk masterpiece, liked it a lot, started Burning Chrome, but stopped shortly after, I don't know why. Now, a few years later, I suddenly felt like it was time to finish it. 

 

Read two out of ten short stories so far. In Fragments of a Hologram Rose, Gibson gives hints at what his style and fictional world will look like. And in The Gernsback Continuum, he tells what his world will not look like. He roasts the vision of the future set by the sci-fi magazines since 1930's. 

 

As I've already read Neuromancer and Johnny Mnemonic, this was nice to go back to. I'll probably re-read the novel too, why not. The details have already been washed away by the years, might as well refresh the memory.

Edited November 22, 2022 by Slava

[heavyrockerfin]

Heartstopper

[MrGarland]

 

I first heard about this in 2018 when I read a comment about it in a magazine. When I read the same magazine again recently, I noticed the comment and decided to buy the book. It's pretty good so far. Not to mention, the first time I started reading it, I ended up reading 1/3 of it in one go. No other book has managed to accomplish that. Quite a feat.

[dieselmanchild]

@MrGarland I would be interested in reading Tokyo Vice. I saw the show a few months ago and it was decent and kept my attention. Being a white reporter on the crime beat in Japan was quite a unique experience, especially back then.

 

As for me I just finished these recently:

 

 

My Stolen Son: The Nick Markowitz Story

 

I’m sure many of you guys have seen the early 00s crime movie Alpha Dog with Justin Timberlake, Ben Foster, and Anton Yelchin among others. Well I love that film and was always aware it was based on a true story, but knew little more than that. After catching it re-playing on TV again earlier this year I began researching the case out of interest and ended up ordering this book.

 

The book is written by the mother of Nick Markowitz and goes into harrowing detail about the kidnapping, the following days where he lived and partied amongst his captors, and his harrowing final moments as they brutally killed him. The lives and backstories of the various people involved were highly fascinating to me, particularly Nick’s deeply troubled older brother Ben, whom Nick loved dearly, and the unusually lavish lifestyle of the teenage drug dealer and kidnapper Jesse James Hollywood, who evaded authorities for years while living under an assumed name in Brazil.

 

There is also a large focus on the ensuing arrests and trials, and the emotional ordeal and long, hard path to healing that Susan and the family endured over many long years after these people destroyed their lives. Sad and hard to read at times.

 

 

The Terror

 

The Terror is an ambitious work of historical fiction and is by far one of the greatest novels I’ve ever read. From beginning to end, it captured my attention like no other book has in a very long time.
 

The book is based on the doomed 1845 Franklin Expedition. Two ships, The Terror and The Erebus, left England bound for the Arctic and with the purpose of finally finding a route through the mythical Northwest passage. Instead, both ships vanished and were never heard from again. The mystery of the expedition’s fate captured international attention at the time and saw a dozen countries sending ships and men to the Arctic in search of clues, but the ships were never found. What they found instead was highly disturbing. Signs that the men had spent years in the ice waiting for rescue, eating poisoned food, gradually going mad and slowly giving way to cannibalism, and possibly mutiny, and murder.

 

The book is incredibly well researched from a historical standpoint and paints a vivid picture of Arctic exploration in the mid 19th century, and how difficult life and survival is in that part of the world, while also going to great lengths to imagine the personalities and fates of the characters and crew members who were there. The author also quite effectively mixes in Inuit mythology to terrifying effect, and it all amounts to being one of the best books I’ve ever read in my life. Highly recommend this one.

 

[heavyrockerfin]

Lord Brocktree.

[R123Rob]

[heavyrockerfin]

Mossflower by Brian Jacques.

[NZBigC]

Just completed these over the last few weeks:

 

      

 

Will be reading these over the next few weeks:

 

      

 

[Afura_33]

Lyme disease and rife machines from Bryan Rosner

[xEl_Cidx]

 

Focusing on Pablo Picasso, this is one of an illustrated series which provides accounts of the lives of individual artists, professional and personal anecdotes, and concise definitions of cultural and social movements that shaped their work. The book discusses how Picasso rose to eminence - and stayed there. It depicts him as tender romantic and ferocious egotist, secure artist and restless explorer of new forms, macho aficionado of bullfights and heartbroken witness to war, and creative collaborator and individual superstar.

[coldkillaaaaaaaa]

 

One mammoth of a tome, packed with a dense amount of information that spans from philosophical insights to symbology to obscure knowledge from ancient traditions. Definitely worth a read if you’re interested in understanding Freemasonry and the mentality that undergirds it. 

 

Edited March 31, 2023 by coldkillaaaaaaaa

[ChilledBrandon]

 

Salem's Lot by Stephen King. It's one of the few I'd never read, just seen the 1979 mini-series. Quickly becoming one of my favourites of his, it's been a very good read.

[Haihattelija]

                           The Gulag Archipelago

 

                                                                                              

 

 

This book is about the prison system within the Soviet Union During the 20th Century. A very thorough work telling about the methods of achieving such a system through terror, lies. proganda and with help of a destructive ideology to create a system that was intented to control and kill it's own citizens. A dire warning for generations to come and is a book that should not be forgotten.

 

I do wish to highlight few points from it. Few kafkaesque examples on justifications some were send into captivity.

 

" Annoyed shepherd called his disobedient cow a collective farm whore - Article 58 and judgment."     " Deaf-mute carpenter gets sentenced too from counterrevolutionary agitation! How come? He is making the floors of a club house and everything has been carried away from hall and there is no hook for clothes. Carpenter puts his cloak and hat on a bust of Lenin. Someone came in and saw. Article 58 - 10 years."    ""Irina Tutsinskaja was imprisoned after she returned from the church (entire family was meant to be sentenced and imprisoned) and she was indicted for praying the death of Stalin ( who could have heard that prayer?!) Terror! 25 years."  

 

The author himself was also imprisoned within Gulag for many years so he is writing from 1st hand experience. One such event was this one.   

 

" Long and passionately he is telling me a story how he converted from the faith of the Jews into the Christianity. He - civilzed man - was converted by some harmless old man like Plato Karatejev. I wonder about certitude and passion of his words.    We know each other poorly and he does not even treat me but simply here is no one else to tell your own thoughts. He is a kind considerate man and I don't see any evil in him and i don't know any evil in him. The fact that Kornfeld has not left from the hospital barracks in two months, has shut himself inside within his work and avoids moving outside of the camp makes me cautious.    So, he is afraid about being killed. In our camp there has been a new habit for some time ; kill snitches. It's very effective. But who is to say only snitches will be killed? One of the previous murders was clearly from lowly personal reasons. Therefore it is not a fact Kornfeld is a snitch.    It's late. Entire hospital is sleeping. Kornfeld ends his story like this:  - And you know I am convinced that there is no punishment in this earthly life that is not undeserved. Seemingly it has not to be a cause from anything we are guilty of. But if you observe life and give it a deeper thought,  we can always find a crime that was the cause for our punishment.    I don't see his face. Window lets through only scattered light from the zone, and hallway door has a yellow spot of electric light. But his voice contains a mystical knowledge which makes me startled.   Those were the last words of Boris Kornfeld. He leaves quietly through nightly hallway to the next patient room and goes to sleep there. All are sleeping and there is no one else to tell his words. I also fell asleep.    In the morning I wake up to the noise from hallway, sounds of running and heavy stomping wakes me: Staff are carrying the body of Kornfeld to operation table. He has been hit eight times to his head by sledgehammer. He dies to the operation table without coming into consciousness.   And so it became Kornfelds wise words were his last legacy on earth and were left to me as a heritage. And that kind of a heritage is not something you just shrug off. "

 

Not a book for those that are faint in heart but knowledge and understanding of history it may give is a great importance.

 

 

Edited July 8, 2023 by Haihattelija

[Shaowsintzu]

Harley-Quinn and Power Girl

[StewartBros]

 

Been reading this over the past week or so.  I've never seen the film, so will watch it after the book is done.

[SoliDeoGloriaIHS]

Interior Castle by Saint Teresa de Avila

The Devil is Afraid of Me by Father Gabriele Amorth

[SmileSlice]

 

Picked up this paperback trilogy a few years ago but didn’t get around to reading them until recently.

 

I’m a huge Tom Clancy fan and I’ve seen all the movies, but never had a chance to read the original classics.

[Shaowsintzu]

Before Watchmen: Rorschach

[Feral]

 

I usually hate war shit but for whatever reason this book has been a favourite of mine since I was about 10. First time I’ve read it in years and it’s still awesome.

[funboy1246]

Legend of Drizzt  (Book Two). each book is filled with three to four books in the series packed into one big book. technically im on book 5  Streams of Silver. Great series by R.A. SALVATORE based in the world of the Forgotten Realms. any discription of it i could give i don't believe would do it justice, so i'd just say i'd highly recommend you pick the series up if you never have before.

[Dangisuckatgamin]

I usually only read one night a week so it'll take me forever, but I just started Stephen King's IT for the first time.

I will say so far it's been sort of meh compared to his 70s/ early 80s work. 

I'm reading all of his stuff in order but saving the dark towers books to read in order themselves too.

[Knave21]

 

A really dark satire about spending too much time online. Recommended to anyone who grew up around the dark corners of the Internet.

[Shaowsintzu]

Harley and Ivy meet Betty and Veronica

[Shaowsintzu]

Lady Death: The Reckoning Revised

Edited December 6, 2023 by Shaowsintzu

[Shaowsintzu]

Star Wars Adventures: The Will of Darth Vader