What Book Are You Reading at the Moment?

[heydaralon]

From that book on applying stoicism to your life, this quote from Seneca is beautiful:

Nature requires from us some sorrow, while more than this is the result of vanity. But never will I demand of you that you should not grieve at all. ... Let your tears flow, but let them also cease, let deepest sighs be drawn from your breast, but let them also find an end.

Somebody wrote a blog article about that part of the book:

https://howtobeastoic.wordpress.com/201 ... iii-grief/

Think about how many people who, in vain, cling to grief for a very long time.

If you want to read a great book on stoicism and Seneca, you should read Dying Every Day by James Romm. Excellent book, one of my top 10 history books. You would like it Speaker.

[DBTrek]

Only on chapter 6, but surprised StA suggested it given the protagonist's animosity toward religion.

[DBTrek]

• “I wish someone had just told me the truth right up front, as soon as I was old enough to understand it. I wish someone had just said: “Here’s the deal, Wade. You’re something called a ‘human being.’ That’s a really smart kind of animal. Like every other animal on this planet, we’re descended from a single-celled organism that lived millions of years ago. This happened by a process called evolution, and you’ll learn more about it But trust me, that’s really how we all got here.
  
  There’s proof of it everywhere, buried in the rocks. That story you heard? About how we were all created by a super-powerful dude named God who lives up in the sky? Total bullshit. The whole God thing is actually an ancient fairy tale that people have been telling one another for thousands of years. We made it all up. Like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. “Oh, and by the way … there’s no Santa Claus or Easter Bunny. Also bullshit. Sorry, kid Deal with it.”
  
  ― Ernest Cline, Ready Player One

[DBTrek]

Ok, finished all 39 (or so, I did the audiobook) chapters of the unabridged Ready Player One.
There's no way Spielberg is going to pack that into a 2 or 3 hour movie, by the way.

I see what Ernest Cline did here. It was basically a more exhaustive iteration of the same trick Stranger Things (Netflix) used - leveraging 80's nostalgia into sales. In this case Cline took that dead horse and beat it into a fine paste, set that paste alight, and fed us the ashes. Which isn't to say I didn't enjoy the book, I did. At least, I enjoyed much more of it than I didn't enjoy.

However, there were some glaring plot holes that rendered parts of the book unbelievable to me. Unfortunately, I can't say what they are without revealing important plots and subplots, so I'll leave it at that. There was also a Deus Ex Machina moment or two that had me rolling my eyes. Yet overall, it's a solid read for anyone who grew up during the 80's and likes geek culture/cyberspace type scifi.

Thanks for the recommend, StA.
Liked it.

[heydaralon]

[quote="DBTrek"]Ok, finished all 39 (or so, I did the audiobook) chapters of the unabridged [b]Ready Player One[/b].
There's no way Spielberg is going to pack that into a 2 or 3 hour movie, by the way.

I see what Ernest Cline did here. It was basically a more exhaustive iteration of the same trick Stranger Things (Netflix) used - leveraging 80's nostalgia into sales. In this case Cline took that dead horse and beat it into a fine paste, set that paste alight, and fed us the ashes. Which isn't to say I didn't enjoy the book, I did. At least, I enjoyed much more of it than I didn't enjoy.

However, there were some glaring plot holes that rendered parts of the book unbelievable to me. Unfortunately, I can't say what they are without revealing important plots and subplots, so I'll leave it at that. There was also a Deus Ex Machina moment or two that had me rolling my eyes. Yet overall, it's a solid read for anyone who grew up during the 80's and likes geek culture/cyberspace type scifi.

Thanks for the recommend, StA.
Liked it.[/quote]
If you want to read some off the wall scifi/philosophy/apocalyptic fantasy you should check out JG Ballard. Seriously just pick any of his books or short stories. One of my favorite authors. High Rise would be a good novel to start with. You could probably read it in one sitting DB. Cant recommend Ballard enough.

[Hwen Hoshino]

Took me forever but i am almost done.

[Smitty-48]

I've decided to give Gone With The Wind a whirl, you know, now that book burnings have recommenced. Not bad actually, better than the movie. It's viewed through the lens of the 1920's, but it's a reasonably accurate historical depiction. It's sort of like Cold Mountain.

[Fife]

I've decided to give Gone With The Wind a whirl, you know, now that book burnings have recommenced. Not bad actually, better than the movie. It's viewed through the lens of the 1920's, but it's a reasonably accurate historical depiction. It's sort of like Cold Mountain.

Have I told you about The Black Flower before? If you like GWTW, I think you'll like my home-boy's take on Franklin. https://www.amazon.com/Black-Flower-Nov ... 312265077/

[Speaker to Animals]

That one that is a fake secret autobiography of Abraham Lincoln who fights vampires is actually really good. The film, again, was rubbish, but the novel was freaking awesome.

[Smitty-48]

I've decided to give Gone With The Wind a whirl, you know, now that book burnings have recommenced. Not bad actually, better than the movie. It's viewed through the lens of the 1920's, but it's a reasonably accurate historical depiction. It's sort of like Cold Mountain.

Have I told you about The Black Flower before? If you like GWTW, I think you'll like my home-boy's take on Franklin. https://www.amazon.com/Black-Flower-Nov ... 312265077/

Looks good. But you know, most of the more contemporary stuff is pretty good, but I've always dismissed GWTW, because of the movie, but actually, it's much better than the movie, more of a war book, the war is much more prevalent in the book, whereas the movie is a bit of a rom-com chick flick.

In the movie, it's all about Gable and Leigh, whereas in the book, Butler and O'Hara are less all ecompassing, it's got more depth, more history, less movie star. The book digs into the nuances of the society, in the context of the war, it's much more political.

It's also well written, she knew how to write, so doesn't require an effort to plow through it, it just sails along.

I don't find it to be particularly nor overly sympathetic to the Confederates neither, more like; them Southron hot heads and the trouble they sow. Them Yankees are less nefarious villains and more like a force of nature crashing down upon this insular little world of north Georgia, hence the title I suppose.

She certainly captures the cockiness of the Southrons, how they thought they would put a whuppin on them Yankees like ain't no thang, then their comeuppance ensues.