The Books/Reading Thread

[Einherjar86]

Reading Laurent Binet's The Seventh Function of Language (translated by Sam Taylor). Despite its title, this is not an academic book, but fiction (although it deals heavily with French literary/cultural theory of the '70s and '80s). It reimagines Roland Barthes's death (in which he was struck, rather trivially and quaintly, by a laundry van) as a conspiracy involving French politics of the 1980s and something called "The Logos Club" (I'm only 140 pages in or so, so I'm not sure of all the details yet).

It's a hilarious and addictive novel, and pokes a good amount of fun at academic theory. I'd describe the book as Umberto Eco by way of French structuralism.

 

[Dak]

Finished these two novels and well into Caplan's newest book.

 

[Sirjack]

I read this book years ago and then lost my copy to someone..can't remember who.
But it was a tiny slice of magic.





Immortal-humans. Humans. 2015. Bows and arrows.






Just great space opera sci-fi, kinda, but not really, in the tradition of Iain M Banks.

 

[Einherjar86]

View attachment 14756

I read this book years ago and then lost my copy to someone..can't remember who.
But it was a tiny slice of magic.

I've heard really good things about this, haven't read it yet.

 

[Sirjack]

I've heard really good things about this, haven't read it yet.

Stop putting it off
you'll read everything after

 

[unknown]

 

[The Ozzman]

Finished this:

Started reading these:

 

[Einherjar86]

Nice. If you're into military sci-fi, John Steakley's Armor is considered a staple. As is Heinlein of course, but I'm not as into Heinlein.

 

[The Ozzman]

Nice. If you're into military sci-fi, John Steakley's Armor is considered a staple. As is Heinlein of course, but I'm not as into Heinlein.

Not sure if I'm into it yet but given my interest in military shit and science fiction generally, I don't see why I wouldn't be

 

[Einherjar86]

Revisiting some old books that I haven't looked at in a while.

I read portions of this a long time ago, never made it all the way through. Fucking insane book:

Read this a few years back for a seminar on The South and Modernism, but never had a personal copy. Bought one recently after watching the documentary 13th on Netflix:

 

[Blurry_Dreams]

i'm a rationalist/secular humanist/atheist/moral relativist/whatever

i'm NOT a deity-worshiping person

I've been re-reading the OLD Testament, because, if you assume it's fiction, the Old Testament reads like a pretty good fantasy novel

 

[Dak]

Finished The Case Against Education. tl;dr: It was great. Caplan took what I thought in passing and from anecdote and added the data and fleshed out arguments, even to the point where things were worse than I would have thought. A solid exercise in confirmation bias!

Next on my list:

 

[Nate Skalman]

Not a fan of legal literature being my wife is in law school, but The Canon is a fascinating look at human power and control and it’s canonical origins of humanities laws- Sublimely sinister

 

[no country for old wainds]

attention mieville fans: a four episode adaptation of the city and city starts on the bbc today.

 

[dwellerINTHEdark]

 

[Einherjar86]

attention mieville fans: a four episode adaptation of the city and city starts on the bbc today.

Unfortunately I don't get BBC2.

Speaking of Mieville, been reading this in my downtime--fucking awesome:

 

[HamburgerBoy]

Perdido Street Station is one of the worst things I've ever read.

 

[tagradh]

 

[Sirjack]

Perdido Street Station is one of the worst things I've ever read.

omg that book is fucking amazing!

attention mieville fans: a four episode adaptation of the city and city starts on the bbc today.

I'd seen the ads but there has been no mention of Mieville so l thought it couldn't be. Fantastic.

 

[tagradh]

attention mieville fans: a four episode adaptation of the city and city starts on the bbc today.

What do you think are his best books?

I thought The City and the City was okay but I didn't really enjoy Embassytown and I gave up on Un Lun Dun, and it's pretty fucking rare that I give up on books. Figured I might try Kraken as a friend mentioned it before but if I don't enjoy it then fuck him.