The Books/Reading Thread

I'm once again working my way forward through the Wheel of Time. Currently halfway through Book 8 and really enjoying it. I think after a while you get used to the pace and the annoying characters and it gets really good.


man i got to book 10 but just couldn't go on. there would be lots of breaks in between my reading so i forgot the 800 characters...it got pretty boring after the first 4 books i think. but then again i started it when i was like in middle school so i might enjoy it now...


anyways i'm reading

what jazz is all about-lillian erlich, can't find a picture

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and
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Last night I read Algernon Blackwood's The Willows,very good and creepy bedtime reading.It's gotta the best ghost story i've ever read and I can't wait to read the rest of stories,i'm gonna read one every night for the next couple of weeks.
 
Awesome choice. Lovecraft considered that story the greatest weird tale ever written (not really a "ghost story" btw, for ghost stories try M.R. James).

I've been rereading all of Lovecraft's prose fiction work, most of the way through it.
 
We just had a guest lecturer at Chicago last week named Eugene Thacker who is doing some pretty interesting work that he incorporates Lovecraft's fiction into. He's dealing with the concept of "darklife" in fiction and philosophy (that is, the philosophic and literary problem of understanding and representing, respectively, the idea of lifelessness or that which is opposed to life). He drew together a lot of interesting evidence from Kant, Hegel, and other German idealists, but didn't really have any earth-shattering conclusion to offer at the end. He's very young though, and a lot of his research into this matter is still ahead of him, I think.

I still want to pick up his book. It's called After Life, if anyone else is interested.

Finished The Shape of the Signifier, although I'll be going through it again (it will likely be relevant for my thesis topic). Also finished Charles Stross's Iron Sunrise:

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Great hard sci-fi read, although it ends a little abruptly. Still, for those interested in far future/posthuman literature, he's very good (I'd suggest starting with the book Singularity Sky though, as it informs this one).

Also finished Herman Melville's The Confidence Man (meh) and now I just borrowed Zizek's The Sublime Object of Ideology from my roommate. For fun, I picked up this gem from a local bookstore:

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I'm reading "I Will Teach You To Be Rich" by Ramit Sethi. Atrocious writing, valuable tips and tricks. I'm sad I waited until 23 to get on top of my finances like an adult but better late than never
 
Awesome choice. Lovecraft considered that story the greatest weird tale ever written (not really a "ghost story" btw, for ghost stories try M.R. James).

I've been rereading all of Lovecraft's prose fiction work, most of the way through it.

Funny that you mentioned M.R.James,I just ordered one of his books this morning.Really loving weird fiction atm.
Speaking of Lovecraft,I recently bought Necronomicon: The Best Weird Fiction Of H.P. Lovecraft and will start reading it soon,it's a huge volume.
 
I just finished The Russian Anarchists, very interesting and well-written account of the anarchist influence prior to, during and after the Russian Revolution:

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I am also in the middle of reading The Outsider by Albert Camus and Catch-22 by Joseph Heller.

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The Outsider is probably in my top 5 favorite books. I haven't related to many protagonists in novels...but when I do...I relate to Mersault

I am not reading The Autobiography of Alice B Toklas by Gertrude Stein for my English 674 20th Century American Lit class. I read the first 60 pages and was bored to tears
 
Last night I read Algernon Blackwood's The Willows,very good and creepy bedtime reading.It's gotta the best ghost story i've ever read and I can't wait to read the rest of stories,i'm gonna read one every night for the next couple of weeks.

Awesome choice. Lovecraft considered that story the greatest weird tale ever written (not really a "ghost story" btw, for ghost stories try M.R. James).

I've been rereading all of Lovecraft's prose fiction work, most of the way through it.

I just read this over yesterday and today, entirely because of reading these two posts. :lol:

I thought the story had a "filler" problem similar to Lovecraft's stuff, but overall I enjoyed.
 
These weird fiction stories are about the only reading i can really get into.I've just started Blackwood's 'Ancient Sorceries' but the one story of his i'm really looking forward to is 'The Wendigo'.I also recommend the 'Darklore' series for some awesome weird non fiction.I have 3 of the 4 of the series and from the couple i've read,they are pretty mindblowing.
 
So how exactly does one go about writing "weird non fiction"...

...collecting reports on Old One sightings by transoceanic shipping companies?
 
So how exactly does one go about writing "weird non fiction"...

...collecting reports on Old One sightings by transoceanic shipping companies?

hehe they're a collection of essays by fortean researches,really awesome and diverse collection.Essays range from probable explanations of bigfoot and UFO sightings,to DMT and magick,alternative theories on the Sphinx,Timothy Leary's drug induced occult rituals and his obsession with Crowley,Tool's(the band) occult symbolisms,life after death ect,and heaps more.Very fascinating and entertaining books written by professors of the psychical/paranormal.