May 2019: Reading Thread

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I gave up on The Oracle Year. It was an interesting idea, but when they made a clergy man the villain, I just decided it wasn't worth reading just to be continually angry. (He was younger and powerful so of course .... He abuses power ... He doesn't believe in God .... And that's where I quit.)

I stopped reading more books in these last 3 months than I stopped in the previous 3 years. --- Sigh!

Don't know what's next. Maybe The Hangman's Daughter by Oliver Pötzsch?
 
Right. As C. S. Lewis said, there are

--things we have to do
--things we ought to do
--things we like to do

People do too many things for none of those reasons. For us, who read a lot, there can be a sense of "duty" to read, or to stick with, things that we might be better off dropping. Sometimes I may be reading even something that I know is good, but I find I'm not engaged by it. If it isn't something I have, ought, or want to read, then -- on to something else.

A recent example of this for me was one of C. P. Snow's Brothers and Strangers books, Homecomings.

Soon I was rereading The Lord of the Rings! Ahhhh!
 
Parson said:
I gave up on The Oracle Year. It was an interesting idea, but when they made a clergy man the villain, I just decided it wasn't worth reading just to be continually angry. (He was younger and powerful so of course .... He abuses power ... He doesn't believe in God .... And that's where I quit.)

are you kidding? the book is great :) but hey if you don't want that one but want something in the same vein try peter flannery first and only
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I finished Calcutta by Amit Coudhury. A semi autobiograpical book about someone who returns to Calcutta after growing up in Bombay, getting a degree from Oxford, and chair in Eng Lit at an English University etc. An excellent book, and highly recommended.
To quote: " People moveto Bombay fot the money, to Delhi for the power, and to Calcutta for their parents."
 
tobl said:
are you kidding? the book is great :) but hey if you don't want that one but want something in the same vein try peter flannery first and only
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Picked this up. I'm worried by the cover, but will give it a go.
52886
 
Just finished F. Paul Wilson's "All The Rage" (A Repairman Jack novel). Gotta say that I'm really enjoying these and I love the way that whilst not a part of the Adversary Cycle, they're clearly set in the same world as "The Otherness" features in these too. There are another ten volumes in the series.

now on to "The Peabody-Ozymandias Traveling Circus & Oddity Emporium". A great title, don't you think? It's only 171 pages so I'll have this finished by Monday. :)
 
I'm still reading Neal Asher's The Warship but I've now got another book started downstairs. The 1978 original version of The Stand by Stephen King.
 
I finished reading Vindolanda by Adrian Goldsworthy. It's a decent book that does an accomplished job of portraying life on the Roman frontier in Britain, and the characters were well-done, too. The main complaint is that it also tried to be a thriller, but the reveal didn't make much sense. Anyway, I'll happily read the sequel, hoping some things may be explained a little better.
 
Don't forget to vote in this month's 75 word challenge

POLL -- May 2019 75-word Writing Challenge -- READ FIRST POST!

It's time to vote for your favourite MAY story! You can find the stories HERE. The usual rules apply: Any member of the Chrons can cast a vote, even if they didn't submit a story -- in fact, we encourage everyone to vote Each member may cast ONE vote only You may not vote for yourself...
www.sffchronicles.com www.sffchronicles.com
 
Reading The Haunted Air (Repairman Jack book 6) by F. Paul Wilson.
 
Finished off my reread of Catch-22 and I'm happy to say I still love it for the most part, though even by the kindest "of its times" standards its treatment of women is pretty awful. I'm kind of surprised and a little disappointed that I never even noticed it before, which might say more about me in my 20s than anything else. Still, it feels as relevant as ever both in terms of comedy (highly regarded shows like 30 Rock and Community owe a huge debt to this one) and social commentary (the critiques of capitalism, patriotism, and nationalism are pretty on point given surges in nationalist political parties aruond the globe and debates over inequality and international trade).

In short, I still love it and would call it my favorite, even if parts of it are uncomfortably misogynistic.

Now I'll turn my focus to finishing the still-in-progress Dragonbone Chair. I'm heading into the final third and am really enjoying the contrast to the modern lit obsession with grit. It's not exactly fluff, but the dark parts tilt more to horror than nihilism and I love it.
 
Ian Fortytwo said:
I'm reading Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City, by K. J. Parker. I'll let you know what it's like after I have read it.
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tobl said:
yes,let us know if we can´t take it to another dimension and teach people how to do it. maybe we can even teach those people on tv game of thrones how to fight.
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Unfortunately it starts of well, but then starts to get a bit boring and bogged down, and I couldn't finish it. I've read a couple of his short stories and they were brilliant, however his novels seem hard going. I gave it a good shot but after a 150 pages I had enough.

I'm now reading Up. My Life's Journey to the Top of Everest, by Ben and Marina Fogle. Full of adventure and looking up instead of down. A fascinating read so far.
 
Finished First and Only by Peter A. Flannery. It was a decent yarn. For me the main attraction was an honest struggle with extra sensory phenomenon. He asks the question, "What if you were a decent person and had these tremendous gifts? How would it effect your life?" I thought Flannery had some decent insights here. One potential failure was that although one of the main characters had all? many? of the Extra Sensory Gifts that we think about the central question is whether he can ever be wrong about anything? And can he actually be overpowered? The answers are unusual and for some unsatisfying. I would have liked to have seen more rumination in the book and less action. A longer story might have been much better, but I can recommend it. (Notably this book was recommended to me by @tobl because of my dissatisfaction with a pastor as a villain in a similar novel. And this one did not have a pastor as a villain but warped religion does play a significant role.)

I am continuing a fair plod through These Truths: A History of the United States by Jill LePore. This is an interesting history as it really emphasizes how American history played out in the African American community. As a History major and someone who taught US History and Minority Cultures. I still find myself surprised by some of the events that she knows about and sometimes by how they played in the slave, reconstruction, and modern American History. (Parson hits himself on the forehead for being so dumb!)

Am once again considering The Hangman's Daughter by Oliver Potzsch. We'll see what else might wave tantalizingly in front of my nose.
 
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