Book Thread 2021

Post by **dng** » Thu Apr 01, 2021 3:18 pm

I read a book!

I can't remember how many I'd read before the collapse, so it'll have to go unnumbered

Post by **dng** » Thu Apr 01, 2021 3:20 pm

Anyway it was The Glass Hotel by Emily St John Mandel, and it was good, sad, like her other books. This one was sort of about the 2008 financial crash but also sort of not really

One of the characters takes minutes long videos of everyday nothings, so I'm going to assume she was based rpentirely on me

Post by **dng** » Thu Apr 01, 2021 3:22 pm

Also this was the second novel I've read in the last year which starts with a woman falling off a ship and remembering her old life in a vivid burst as she drowns (the other one was the promise by silvina ocampo)

Post by **dng** » Thu Apr 01, 2021 3:23 pm

Which is a good coincidence, because the other book I am currently reading was forgotten journey by silvina ocampo (Argentinian short stories, good, couple of stories not yet read)

Post by **vom** » Thu Apr 01, 2021 3:24 pm

I quite enjoyed that too. I think I read every non-Pandemic-related Emily St John Mandel book last year, what a time it was

Post by **vom** » Thu Apr 01, 2021 3:24 pm

I actually started reading a new book yesterday because it was summer and I could sit in the garden

but now it's not summer any more and it might snow on monday

Post by **dng** » Thu Apr 01, 2021 3:28 pm

i sat outside this afternoon determined to enjoy these last few hours of sunlight, resolutely ignoring the chattering of my teeth and the shivering of my limbs

Post by **dng** » Thu Apr 01, 2021 3:28 pm

(then i came back inside where i have remained eve since forever and ever shall)

Post by **Pual** » Sat Apr 03, 2021 4:45 pm

So far this year I have read:
A witcher book
A terrible Sci-fi book called Warship
And
a closed and common orbit by Becky chambers which was better than Long way to an angry planet, but was still a bit too twee.

Post by **endar** » Sat Apr 03, 2021 9:52 pm

how shit was the witcher book

Post by **Pual** » Sun Apr 04, 2021 10:44 am

It was not very shit

Post by **dng** » Sun Apr 04, 2021 2:23 pm

Today I read Kingdom by Jon McNaught, which gravid kindly sent me (because it was defective)

Anyway despite its defects (for some reason one page from near the start is reprinted towards the end instead of whatever page was supposed to be there, which is a pretty baffling trick) it was really lovely. About a family going on a nice drab british holiday and that's it really

Post by **vom** » Sun Apr 04, 2021 6:46 pm

ooh that does look lovely

Post by **dng** » Sun Apr 04, 2021 6:46 pm

The Gigantic Beard That Was Evil by Stephen Collins

A man called Dave grows a big beard and then floats off into the sky. 10/10

Post by **vom** » Sun Apr 04, 2021 6:47 pm

I've nearly read an entire book this weekend, thanks to sunshine

but it's not finished yet so you'll have to wait for my thrilling verdict

Post by **vom** » Sun Apr 04, 2021 9:56 pm

Even the Dogs by Jon McGregor

well this was depressing. perfect sunny garden reading, about the death of an alcoholic and the doomed addicts that used to hang out at his squalid flat. it was pretty compelling but I didn't like it as much as the other Jon McGregor books that I've read, which had some faint inkling of hope in them occasionally

Gravid · Post by **Gravid** » Mon Apr 05, 2021 8:27 am

dng wrote: ↑Sun Apr 04, 2021 2:23 pm Today I read Kingdom by Jon McNaught, which gravid kindly sent me (because it was defective)

Anyway despite its defects (for some reason one page from near the start is reprinted towards the end instead of whatever page was supposed to be there, which is a pretty baffling trick) it was really lovely. About a family going on a nice drab british holiday and that's it really

Hooray. I was going to post a picture of the bit you missed, but the maximum filesize for uploads seems to be 256 kb and I don't know how to make it that small.

Gravid · Post by **Gravid** » Mon Apr 05, 2021 8:27 am

Maybe I can just describe it to you frame by frame.

Post by **Chortle Hound** » Mon Apr 05, 2021 8:38 am

I love it.

Post by **dng** » Mon Apr 05, 2021 12:04 pm

Gravid wrote: ↑Mon Apr 05, 2021 8:27 am Maybe I can just describe it to you frame by frame.

i've made it so you can post 256 MBs now

Post by **dng** » Mon Apr 05, 2021 12:04 pm

so now you'lll have to enlargen it to some sort of gigantic proportions

Gravid · Post by **Gravid** » Mon Apr 05, 2021 3:36 pm

It's too late, I have fired it into the sun.

(Sent it by email.)

Post by **dng** » Mon Apr 05, 2021 3:46 pm

yes. thank you. also it was a very good page. hooray

Post by **vom** » Fri Apr 16, 2021 2:14 pm

The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino

A young nobleman decides to live in the trees, does so for the rest of his life. This was lovely, I saw some people talking about it on one of the film sites I hang out on and thought it sounded good, and indeed it was. It's a rambling tale without much conflict really, just playful exploration of the pros and cons of living in the trees.

Post by **vom** » Fri Apr 16, 2021 2:27 pm

also that was my first e-reader read. now I am hoping I can figure out how to link it to my library card and get virtual bookes for free

Post by **dng** » Fri Apr 16, 2021 3:09 pm

I read that last year and liked it a lot

Post by **dng** » Fri Apr 16, 2021 3:10 pm

Then I read an umberto eco book that was very similar in many ways (the island of the day before) but also which I really hated entirely

Post by **vom** » Fri Apr 16, 2021 4:43 pm

Were you doing a season of authors whose names end in O

Post by **dng** » Fri Apr 16, 2021 5:32 pm

Post by **dng** » Wed Apr 21, 2021 4:07 pm

Dr Bloodmoney - Philip K Dick's version of fallout 3, this was pretty absurd even by Philip k dick standards, with everyone's madness and bigotry and paranoia and general insanity turned up to the maximum. Then it has the most underwhelming ending ever, and it sort of deflates everything so much you wonder why you bothered reading it

Post by **richschnauzer** » Wed Apr 21, 2021 4:56 pm

Is that the one with the agromeliac

Post by **vom** » Wed Apr 21, 2021 5:09 pm

that's one of my favourites

Post by **vom** » Wed Apr 21, 2021 5:09 pm

or at least I remember it being absolutely incredible

Post by **dng** » Wed Apr 21, 2021 5:10 pm

its really great till the end

Post by **dng** » Wed Apr 21, 2021 5:11 pm

which could probably be a review of 90% of his books i suppose

Post by **Chortle Hound** » Wed Apr 21, 2021 8:37 pm

And life.

Post by **endar** » Thu Apr 22, 2021 12:30 am

I really liked that one as well

i think me and vom both discussed it in an old book thread

it has a radioshack thing and a talking dog? and an Phocemegalic or something, like in Alien Resurrection

Post by **dng** » Thu Apr 22, 2021 10:59 am

yes. and a poor lonely man in space, trapped in a satellite forever

Post by **Pual** » Sun Apr 25, 2021 2:12 pm

The people of the black circle by Robert e Howard

Conan cannot help but fight every unspeakable horror he sees.

Post by **dng** » Sun Apr 25, 2021 3:40 pm

I read We Have Always Lived In The Castle by Shirley Jackson and it was amazing

Post by **dng** » Sun Apr 25, 2021 3:42 pm

I think the only story of hers I've ever read before is The Lottery (also good). Although I've probably consumed the haunting of hill house by osmosis too

Post by **endar** » Sun Apr 25, 2021 6:53 pm

I'm pretty sure we have discussed the haunting of hill house at some point

Post by **vom** » Wed May 05, 2021 8:21 am

The Discontinuity by David Guy

Damn, this was bleak. I loved all the island exploration stuff, it reminded me of the Atlas of Remote Islands and also Wind Waker. The rest of the plot was mysterious and terrifying. Hooray.

Post by **dng** » Wed May 05, 2021 11:13 am

hooray. they were exactly what i was thinking of, basically, as they're my two favourite things

Post by **dng** » Wed May 05, 2021 11:13 am

that and untold misery

Post by **dng** » Wed May 05, 2021 11:28 am

also thank you for reading it, vom. i hope it wasn't too full of typos or unreadably constructed sentences

Post by **dng** » Wed May 05, 2021 11:28 am

they're usually my speciality

Post by **vom** » Wed May 05, 2021 12:26 pm

I only spotted a few typos, one of which may have been deliberate as it recurred several times ("horison"?) - obviously the writing is quite stylised in that olden-timey-but-is-it-actually-olden-times kinda way so I was unsure if certain things were a quirk of the narrator, or if I should report you immediately to the police

Post by **vom** » Wed May 05, 2021 12:27 pm

I liked it though it was good

Post by **dng** » Wed May 05, 2021 1:01 pm

horison (and frosen) were deliberate (there's no z's or q's used for thematic reasons)