what are you reading? - Page 218

dead_battery · 07.18.2016, 12:20 PM

reading ligottis conspiracy against the human race, which i think is a different version to the one i first read. <slams pdf on desk "this is what we believe!" exits room and does arms deal with the saudis>

demonrail666 · 07.18.2016, 12:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dead_battery

reading ligottis conspiracy against the human race, which i think is a different version to the one i first read. <slams pdf on desk "this is what we believe!" exits room and does arms deal with the saudis>

I read that again recently and I think I prefer his short stories. His world-view works best for me in fictional form, in stories like 'The Frolic', rather than the more straight-forward philosophising he delivers in Conspiracy.

dead_battery · 07.18.2016, 01:02 PM

there is nothing in his worldview that can be logically disputed

demonrail666 · 07.18.2016, 01:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SuchFriendsAreDangerous

currently rereading Clive Barker Sacrament remembering why i have always adored reading Clive Barker
...

all stephen king books suck. the dialogue is total garbage. the stories shallow and lacking character development. the "twists" too obvious and predictable. its why it translated so well into cheesy horror flicks

I've tried so hard to get into Clive Barker but apart from a couple of short stories in the Books of Blood series I really can't get what all the fuss is about. I don't think I've ever managed to even finish any of his novels. Stephen King can be infuriatingly hit and miss but I've loved enough of his books to consider myself a fan.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dead_battery

there is nothing in his worldview that can be logically disputed

I'm not questioning its validity, I just think he presents it far more interestingly in his fiction

Severian · 07.18.2016, 07:01 PM

Stephen King does suck pretty goddamn bad. There were elements of Green Mile that I liked. Same with the Shining (probably his best from a literary perspective), but goddammit... Have any of you guys ever read fucking Christine? What the fuck! It's like a Goosebumps book! It's bloody absurd! I laughed with my whole fucking body when I read that shit. Every little piece of dialogue was utterly contrived, flat, utilitarian. NO thought went into those characters, which ASTOUNDS me since one of them is a fucking CAR.

Seriously, how can you write 500 pages about an evil talking car without doing some serious brainstorming about, you know, what the fuck an evil fucking car might say?

I liked the Gunslinger, book one of the Dark Tower abomination. I liked the iconic good/evil imagery, the mescaline trip, the man in black... But books 2 and 3 were so Fucking terrible that I gave up.

Seriously, man. SFAD's on point with this one. Stephen King is the most basic voice in horror.

Neil Gaiman does Stephen King a million times better than King ever has.

Rob Instigator · 07.22.2016, 11:59 AM

Just finished Buckminster Fuller's Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth.

review is up http://rxttbooks.blogspot.com/2016/0...-are-more.html

SuchFriendsAreDangerous · 07.22.2016, 03:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by demonrail666

I've tried so hard to get into Clive Barker but apart from a couple of short stories in the Books of Blood series I really can't get what all the fuss is about. I don't think I've ever managed to even finish any of his novels. Stephen King can be infuriatingly hit and miss but I've loved enough of his books to consider myself a fan.

I'm not questioning its validity, I just think he presents it far more interestingly in his fiction

barker is like the Gabriel Garcia Marquez of modern horror/fantasy.. its dense but what makes it good is the depth of character development and the sheer surreality of the plot and setting. he perfectly blends very mundane settings with insane twists. and when he goes for horror, its truly horrific.

Rob Instigator · 07.22.2016, 04:31 PM

Much of Barker's early work was a direct exploration of the blood fears that AIDS had created among people. Books of Blood.

Lots of hypersexual horror stuff, very very different from what was being done by Straub and King and Koontz.

The Weaveworld book used to freak me out.

evollove · 07.26.2016, 09:28 AM

Rhythm and Noise: An Aesthetics of Rock

I Wanna Be Me: Rock Music And The Politics Of Identity

both by Theodore Gracyk

He's a professor, but the books aren't overly dense. A few Kant references but nothing you can't handle. Pretty hip references, and I think he's a better writer than most of his academic colleagues. Many of the issues that come up in this forum are treated with deep scholarship. Lots of food for thought. Available at fine universities.

Rob Instigator · 07.27.2016, 02:34 PM

Neil Gaiman just retweeted my tweet about my review of his newest book! shyeah shyeah!!! http://rxttbooks.blogspot.com/2016/0...o-mind-of.html

!@#$%! · 07.27.2016, 05:53 PM

@rob - hey, that's some nice bit of attention from a good direction!

read the review and enjoyed the unabashed enthusiasm you convey. will keep an eye out for the book!

@ evolver - that looks good too!

damn you peoples on a roll

Severian · 07.27.2016, 08:02 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rob Instigator

Neil Gaiman just retweeted my tweet about my review of his newest book! shyeah shyeah!!! http://rxttbooks.blogspot.com/2016/0...o-mind-of.html

Wow, congrats friend. That's bigger than anything I've ever had in the way of social media reinforcement from the folks I've written about. I know Black Bug favorited a post of mine praising Reflecting the Light once. But you probably have no clue who or what that is, and they've broken up anyway.

How's THAT BOOK coming along? Certainly you're well past Claw of the Concilliator by now. Not to pile on the pressure, but... pile pile, bitch.

Rob Instigator · 07.28.2016, 08:58 AM

Ha! I am only about 50 pages into Claw. I slid right into it after finishing stranger things and Penny Dreadful TV shows.....

Severian · 07.28.2016, 09:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rob Instigator

Ha! I am only about 50 pages into Claw. I slid right into it after finishing stranger things and Penny Dreadful TV shows.....

What? Now you're putting the Wolfeman on hold for TV? That doesn't even make sense! There's TV time (1-2 hours a day max, during times of extreme boredom and luxury), and then there's reading time (as many hours as you can possibly fit into your life on any given day; absolute minimum 1, even if that means blowing off sex).

Get it together RXTT. Your intellectual journey is not going to be televised.

Really I'm just glad you're finally back at it. How about just plowing through the final three "novellas" in one go instead of pausing to take a swan dive into a bunch of comparatively inconsequential drivel this time? Johnny Rotten bios are not going anywhere, and nobody's asking you to read them. Meanwhile, I'm foaming at the mouth waiting to have an intense philosophical discussion about the meaning, structure, symbolism, science, religion and all around awesomeness of BOTNS.

You can save the coda for later if you want. I did. It goes down well after being Severian-less for a few years. Also it's weirder than shit. But you have to stop diddling around and read the initial books, like, last month.

I expect a report on my desk by the end of the month.

Rob Instigator · 07.28.2016, 10:45 AM

The Journey is not pre-planned! ha!

Rob Instigator · 08.05.2016, 02:49 PM

110 pages into this so far so good so swept up back into the damn story again so fast!

Rob Instigator · 08.05.2016, 02:50 PM

BTW, this one has a lot more of what I read as satire about small town governance....

Severian · 08.05.2016, 09:08 PM

!@#$%! · 08.05.2016, 09:51 PM

im halfway through blood & guts in high school.

when i first tried to read it ages ago i found it "badly written" and ultraboring.

now aeons later i'm starting to realize its genius.

what's your take on cassavetes?

Severian · 08.09.2016, 10:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

im halfway through blood & guts in high school.

when i first tried to read it ages ago i found it "badly written" and ultraboring.

now aeons later i'm starting to realize its genius.

I started to read this at one point, when I was about 18. I'm not sure if it was my mindset at the time — wanting to be a writer of the deconstructionist persuasion, and probably looking for a style that would hide my total lack of confidence in my own creativity — but I was reading the weirdest things I could get my hands on, and definitely looking for something.

However, I dropped that book like a bad habit (the kind that you actually want to drop because it doesn't afford you any fleeting sense of euphoria to make its badness worthwhile). Jesus fucking Christ. If I had a souped up time machine I'd go back and convince myself never to pick it up, paradox be damned.

I will never read that ... thing. That's a promise.

07.18.2016, 12:20 PM	#4341
dead_battery expwy. to yr skull Join Date: Aug 2011 Posts: 1,928	reading ligottis conspiracy against the human race, which i think is a different version to the one i first read. <slams pdf on desk "this is what we believe!" exits room and does arms deal with the saudis>
	\|QUOTE AND REPLY\|

07.18.2016, 01:02 PM	#4343
dead_battery expwy. to yr skull Join Date: Aug 2011 Posts: 1,928	there is nothing in his worldview that can be logically disputed
	\|QUOTE AND REPLY\|

07.18.2016, 07:01 PM	#4345
Severian invito al cielo Join Date: Feb 2012 Posts: 11,798	Stephen King does suck pretty goddamn bad. There were elements of Green Mile that I liked. Same with the Shining (probably his best from a literary perspective), but goddammit... Have any of you guys ever read fucking Christine? What the fuck! It's like a Goosebumps book! It's bloody absurd! I laughed with my whole fucking body when I read that shit. Every little piece of dialogue was utterly contrived, flat, utilitarian. NO thought went into those characters, which ASTOUNDS me since one of them is a fucking CAR. Seriously, how can you write 500 pages about an evil talking car without doing some serious brainstorming about, you know, what the fuck an evil fucking car might say? I liked the Gunslinger, book one of the Dark Tower abomination. I liked the iconic good/evil imagery, the mescaline trip, the man in black... But books 2 and 3 were so Fucking terrible that I gave up. Seriously, man. SFAD's on point with this one. Stephen King is the most basic voice in horror. Neil Gaiman does Stephen King a million times better than King ever has.
	\|QUOTE AND REPLY\|

07.22.2016, 11:59 AM	#4346
Rob Instigator invito al cielo Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: In the land of the Instigator Posts: 27,991	Just finished Buckminster Fuller's Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth. review is up http://rxttbooks.blogspot.com/2016/0...-are-more.html __________________ RXTT's Intellectual Journey - my new blog where I talk about all the books I read.
	\|QUOTE AND REPLY\|

07.22.2016, 04:31 PM	#4348
Rob Instigator invito al cielo Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: In the land of the Instigator Posts: 27,991	Much of Barker's early work was a direct exploration of the blood fears that AIDS had created among people. Books of Blood. Lots of hypersexual horror stuff, very very different from what was being done by Straub and King and Koontz. The Weaveworld book used to freak me out. __________________ RXTT's Intellectual Journey - my new blog where I talk about all the books I read.
	\|QUOTE AND REPLY\|

07.26.2016, 09:28 AM	#4349
evollove invito al cielo Join Date: Aug 2006 Posts: 2,879	Rhythm and Noise: An Aesthetics of Rock I Wanna Be Me: Rock Music And The Politics Of Identity both by Theodore Gracyk He's a professor, but the books aren't overly dense. A few Kant references but nothing you can't handle. Pretty hip references, and I think he's a better writer than most of his academic colleagues. Many of the issues that come up in this forum are treated with deep scholarship. Lots of food for thought. Available at fine universities.
	\|QUOTE AND REPLY\|

07.27.2016, 02:34 PM	#4350
Rob Instigator invito al cielo Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: In the land of the Instigator Posts: 27,991	Neil Gaiman just retweeted my tweet about my review of his newest book! shyeah shyeah!!! http://rxttbooks.blogspot.com/2016/0...o-mind-of.html __________________ RXTT's Intellectual Journey - my new blog where I talk about all the books I read.
	\|QUOTE AND REPLY\|

07.27.2016, 05:53 PM	#4351
!@#$%! invito al cielo Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: mars attacks Posts: 42,648	@rob - hey, that's some nice bit of attention from a good direction! read the review and enjoyed the unabashed enthusiasm you convey. will keep an eye out for the book! @ evolver - that looks good too! damn you peoples on a roll
	\|QUOTE AND REPLY\|

07.28.2016, 08:58 AM	#4353
Rob Instigator invito al cielo Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: In the land of the Instigator Posts: 27,991	Ha! I am only about 50 pages into Claw. I slid right into it after finishing stranger things and Penny Dreadful TV shows..... __________________ RXTT's Intellectual Journey - my new blog where I talk about all the books I read.
	\|QUOTE AND REPLY\|

07.28.2016, 10:45 AM	#4355
Rob Instigator invito al cielo Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: In the land of the Instigator Posts: 27,991	The Journey is not pre-planned! ha! __________________ RXTT's Intellectual Journey - my new blog where I talk about all the books I read.
	\|QUOTE AND REPLY\|

08.05.2016, 02:49 PM	#4356
Rob Instigator invito al cielo Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: In the land of the Instigator Posts: 27,991	110 pages into this so far so good so swept up back into the damn story again so fast! __________________ RXTT's Intellectual Journey - my new blog where I talk about all the books I read.
	\|QUOTE AND REPLY\|

08.05.2016, 02:50 PM	#4357
Rob Instigator invito al cielo Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: In the land of the Instigator Posts: 27,991	BTW, this one has a lot more of what I read as satire about small town governance.... __________________ RXTT's Intellectual Journey - my new blog where I talk about all the books I read.
	\|QUOTE AND REPLY\|

08.05.2016, 09:08 PM	#4358
Severian invito al cielo Join Date: Feb 2012 Posts: 11,798	Yay!
	\|QUOTE AND REPLY\|

08.05.2016, 09:51 PM	#4359
!@#$%! invito al cielo Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: mars attacks Posts: 42,648	im halfway through blood & guts in high school. when i first tried to read it ages ago i found it "badly written" and ultraboring. now aeons later i'm starting to realize its genius. what's your take on cassavetes?
	\|QUOTE AND REPLY\|