Reading Books For Pleasure

[Bramblethorn]

About to read: Madame Brussels: The Life and Times of Melbourne's Most Notorious Woman. She was a brothel-keeper around the turn of the 20th century.

Meanwhile, processing some unsettling revelations about an author who used to be a favourite of mine. I'd drifted away from a lot of their more recent work, but the older stuff has been a big influence on me, and I'd always thought of them as a pretty good human being. Seems maybe not so much :-/

 

[13Fantasies]

Currently reading THE WEALTH OF NATIONS by Adam Smith

 

[twister947]

Going To Hell In a Hen Basket
an illustrated dictionary of modern malapropisms
Robert Alden Rubin

 

[seela]

Going To Hell In a Hen Basket
an illustrated dictionary of modern malapropisms
Robert Alden Rubin

This sounds delightful!

 

[phil97405]

You might not call this reading for pleasure exactly, but it's a good book, so far:

Animal, Vegetable, Junk: A History of Food, from Sustainable to Suicidal: A Food Science Nutrition History Book. The author is Mark Bittman.

 

[seela]

You might not call this reading for pleasure exactly, but it's a good book, so far:

Animal, Vegetable, Junk: A History of Food, from Sustainable to Suicidal: A Food Science Nutrition History Book. The author is Mark Bittman.

This sounds interesting as well!

I’m currently reading a book that takes some commonly believed myths about China and looks into them to see what is true and what isn’t. It’s been interesting enough, but because of the structure, it doesn’t go very deep into any of the topics.

Only available in Finnish so no point in going into closer details.

 

[phil97405]

This sounds interesting as well!

I’m currently reading a book that takes some commonly believed myths about China and looks into them to see what is true and what isn’t. It’s been interesting enough, but because of the structure, it doesn’t go very deep into any of the topics.

Only available in Finnish so no point in going into closer details.

That also sounds interesting. Yeah, my Finnish isn't all that great.

 

[forgotmyantidepressants]

Just finished Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen and I really enjoyed it. All I gotta is fuck the Thorpes. And I hope Eleanor Tinley is happy away from her dad.

 

[seela]

The last book was about China. I’m reading about North Korea now and the next book in line is Russian. A completely unplanned geographical progression. It rather pleases me.

Maybe taking a literary trip around the world by making sure the next book is about the next country over could be a thing?

 

[Bunny97]

Currently reading Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak, which I am quite enjoying.
Just can’t wait to finish because I just got a beautiful clothbound with gold foiling copy of Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus in the mail today that I really want to read right away.

 

[seela]

I'm now really thinking about doing the books around the world thing, by reading a book that's from/about the next country over either by land or sea. I don't think I'll read only these books, because there are so many others I want to read as well, but I'll make this a separate thing and maybe one day I'll eventually have read my way back to China, which is where I accidentally started this thing.

I finished the North Korea book and I finished Netochka Nezvanova by Fyodor Dostoevsky, which is obvs Russia. Russia being huge means there's lots to choose from. I might go for something Polish, because I just bought some books there, but I'll think about that.

I started Ghana Must Go by Taiye Selasi last night, because it was the next book in the pile, but I've read it before.

 

[twister947]

The Sea Runners: A Novel
Ivan Doig

Four indentured Swedes escape from an outpost in 1853 Russian America (Alaska) and paddle 1200 miles to Astoria, at the mouth of the Columbia River. Only two make it, (barely) alive.

 

[seela]

I read a book about all sorts of local woowoo beliefs and discussed a little how and why those beliefs arose and swept the nation. It spanned hundreds of years from mid 1100s to 2000s. The oldest bits were the most interesting ones for me, I wish there had been more about them.

It was an okay book, entertaining, but I doubt I’ll remember it very long. People do be crazy, though. That much became clear reading the book.

I also decided that this was the next step in my reading my way around the world thing.

 

[Desiree_Radcliffe]

I've not read a novel in a very long time. Most of what I read is nonfiction. I am hacking away at Stephen Fry's memoir, an interview book with Nick Cave, and Writing Down the Bones by Natalie Goldberg. I am obsessed with books about writing, but I jump from book to book so quickly that it is hard to finish any. Yikes. Also, hi!

 

[Desiree_Radcliffe]

Just finished Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen and I really enjoyed it. All I gotta is fuck the Thorpes. And I hope Eleanor Tinley is happy away from her dad.

I believe Northanger Abbey is my favorite Austen novel. I always recommend it to men who say that Austen is just a bunch of romance, because she's more overt in her satire there. Tilney is a god, too.

 

[LordMorningwood]

Sex and the Cthulhu Mythos by Bobbie Derie. Fascinating collection of writing on sexual undercurrents in the work of thirties horror writer H.P. Lovecraft.

 

[IrisAlthea]

Just finished Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen and I really enjoyed it. All I gotta is fuck the Thorpes. And I hope Eleanor Tinley is happy away from her dad.

I believe Northanger Abbey is my favorite Austen novel. I always recommend it to men who say that Austen is just a bunch of romance, because she's more overt in her satire there. Tilney is a god, too.

I like Northanger Abbey a lot.
Yes, it’s more overt satire but it’s also very obvious how romance was pretty serious business for women at that time and how precarious the situation could be for young women without support and advice from reasonably wise people.

 

[Desiree_Radcliffe]

I like Northanger Abbey a lot.
Yes, it’s more overt satire but it’s also very obvious how romance was pretty serious business for women at that time and how precarious the situation could be for young women without support and advice from reasonably wise people.

Oh definitely. It's interesting to see Austen mocking a class of which she was not entirely a part. And, in doing so making commentary on societal norms. Like, marrying for love? How dare!

 

[seela]

Duino Elegies by Rilke.

I read an essay about the popularity of Lorna Byrne and angels in general and Rilke was (naturally) mentioned there as well, so I just had to pick up Duino Elegies now that I was reminded of it.

It’s been over 20 years since I last read Duino Elegies, but it still reads just as terrifying and awesome (in the original meaning of the word as well) as I remembered. Hard core. Love it.

 

[EdwardsOtherSide]

Milton's "Paradise Lost".

Once you get the hang of the language and how to sort out what is a monolog and who is talking, it is a really engaging book.
The similarities between Satan's speeches and some contemporary politicians and political movement in the US is both slightly horrifying and sort funny.

 

[pollock0]

Several books for work, but otherwise going through Louise Glück's poetry. She really deserved that Nobel prize in literature.

 

[seela]

An Atlas of Endangered Alphabets by Tim Brookes.

It’s exactly what the title says it is. A collection of endangered writing systems (although the endangered-ness of many of the can be debated). It has its flaws, but all in all it’s an interesting collection of writing systems. It was fun to glance at the index and realize that I have never even heard of most of the writing systems! But a few scripts I was very familiar with, and one I had tackled doing Linguistics Olympiad problems.

Each chapter has a little introduction and a sample of the writing systems. The introduction is often something about the history, but at times also something completely different, like basically a review of a musical piece composed inspired by the writing systems.

Some of the writing systems and languages get an extremely brief look into them, some get a couple of pages worth of info. The nerd that I am, I would have wanted it to be a little more in-depth.

 

[twister947]

Travels With My Aunt
Graham Greene

 

[EdwardsOtherSide]

Austin Kleon's "Keep Going; 10 ways to stay creative in good times and bad".

 

[Acktion]

Currently been trying to read Sky Lord 3 by Bryce Hunter for about a week and a half. Thinking I may call this one at half done and look for something else.