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Post by buttmonkey on May 8, 2015 10:40:35 GMT -6
Rereading the Books of the South from Glen Cook's Black Company series.
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Post by bigjackbrass on May 9, 2015 3:44:51 GMT -6
Currently enjoying Science Fiction by Gaslight, a 1968 anthology edited by Sam Moskowitz. It's an excellent selection of short scientific romances from 1891 to 1911. Some are speculative, others more fantastical, several deliberately humorous (and others unintentionally so, rendered charmingly absurd by advances in science and the passage of time). There are wonderful insights into the concerns of the time, but chiefly these are cracking little tales, some of them sadly forgotten today. |
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Post by angelicdoctor on May 9, 2015 7:43:10 GMT -6
Nothing fantasy related at present. Reading Dale Carnegie's classic.
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Post by Porphyre on May 9, 2015 8:51:40 GMT -6
Gesta Danorum from Saxo Grammaticus.
Saxo undoubtly is a little too much aiming for his classical latin authors, and lacks the "guts" of the icelandic sagas he transcribes , still has some pretty cool stuff (the "vampire story" of Asmund and Asvid for instance I had never heard of before) |
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Post by Deleted on May 9, 2015 15:25:39 GMT -6
Nothing fantasy related at present. Reading Dale Carnegie's classic. [/Mod hat off] I don't think the thread is adressing fantasy literature only. Personally, I would be sad if it did - all posters around here are full-grown adults. I would pretty disturbed if people didn't read serious/higher quality literature around here. Personally, I am notorious for reading little or no fantasy, at all.  Except, of course, when I do.  |
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Post by angelicdoctor on May 9, 2015 15:27:39 GMT -6
Thanks, Rafael!
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Post by The Semi-Retired Gamer on May 25, 2015 7:03:24 GMT -6
Yesterday I completed Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson. I have yet to decide it I'm going to continue with Mistborn by reading The Well of Ascension or read Words of Radiance and then come back...
Decision made - go with The Well off Ascension and then finish the trilogy before reading Words of Radiance.
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Post by Otto Harkaman on May 29, 2015 8:29:57 GMT -6
Thought I would read some parts of Charles Oman's "War in the Middle Ages" concerning the start of the Hundred Years Wars with Edward III and the Black Prince.  |
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Post by geoffrey on May 29, 2015 8:58:04 GMT -6
I have recently finished re-reading The Shepherd of Hermas, written (I am convinced) by St. Hermas of the Seventy, circa A. D. 85. It is an account of Hermas's visions, as well as of mandates given him by an angel and similitudes shown him by an angel. Gaming application: This is an excellent text to represent the beliefs of crypto-Christian D&D clerics. The text has very little theology, consisting mostly of morality. Jesus Christ isn't even mentioned by name. From now on, I'm going to regard The Shepherd of Hermas as the holy writings of my monotheistic D&D clerics. |
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Post by kesher on May 29, 2015 14:13:24 GMT -6
Well, that's worth looking into! What "...of the 70" was he, um, of?
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Post by tetramorph on May 29, 2015 15:01:15 GMT -6
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Post by geoffrey on May 29, 2015 20:58:22 GMT -6
Well, that's worth looking into! What "...of the 70" was he, um, of? "After these things the Lord appointed seventy others also [i. e., in addition to the twelve Apostles], and sent them two by two before His face into every city and place where He Himself was about to go." (Luke 10:1) Here's a handy list of the Seventy: orthodoxwiki.org/Seventy_ApostlesOur Hermas is number 39 (XXXIX) on the list. |
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Post by Deleted on May 30, 2015 2:53:42 GMT -6
Posted this at the CBI a while ago:
Fantasy/Genre lecture (because there is always a fantasy book hidden somewhere): Mark Smylie, "The Barrow". Pretty great book, if sometimes too graphic/grimdark for my taste.
Non-fantasy leisure lecture: Merce Rodoreda, "The Garden Above the Sea" - romance in regency-era, one of most casually poetic texts I've ever read.
Also, starting "The Infinite Jest", by David Foster Wallace, one of these days.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 1, 2015 13:19:55 GMT -6
Thinking about investing in the entire "Geralt of Rivia" series, after rather accidentally reading the German translation of the first book. I usually don't read fantasy, especially because many of the current English releases are often quite plain simply unoriginal (Prince of Thorns, Ravensword, brrrrr) - but that one, remarkably well done, almost in the leagues of (comparably) serious literature. A delight to read. |
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Post by tkdco2 on Jun 2, 2015 1:51:31 GMT -6
A series of Doctor Who short stories, one for each incarnation, except for the War Doctor.
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Jun 2, 2015 6:49:31 GMT -6
Reading bits and pieces of Costain's "The Three Edwards" concentrating on Edward III and his son the Black Prince. Just finished reading about the battle of Crecy.  |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 3, 2015 13:40:40 GMT -6
On a side note, David Foster Wallace, pretty amazing.
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Post by angelicdoctor on Jun 5, 2015 15:38:06 GMT -6
Currently am in the middle of Is Davis a Traitor? or Was Secession a Constitutional Right Previous to the War of 1861? by Albert Taylor Bledsoe.
A very good refutation of the nationalists of the time.
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Jun 7, 2015 19:07:43 GMT -6
Watched this great movie based on Lovecraft's "The Whisperer in Darkness"  Which got me totally interested in Lovecraft again, so I craved to know more. I had read Sprague de Camp's biography of him a long time ago and really enjoyed it but couldn't find a copy easily again. So I started digging around for something similar, and I think I found an interesting book. Its Donald Tyson's "The Dream World of H.P. Lovecraft."  Oh yes and I had to start listening to an old radio broadcast of Lovecraft's "The Whisperer in Darkness" Read by Dudley Knight, The Graveyard Shift, KPKV Radio awesome! |
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Post by kesher on Jun 8, 2015 13:38:16 GMT -6
I've read Tyson's bio twice! Some parts go best with a bit of salt, but it's entertaining and informative...
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Jun 10, 2015 14:43:02 GMT -6
I've read Tyson's bio twice! Some parts go best with a bit of salt, but it's entertaining and informative... I am really enjoying this bio of Lovecraft, agree with your "bit of salt of some of the ideas, but definitely entertaining and informative". |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 11, 2015 13:56:58 GMT -6
Ibsen, "Ghosts". Mind blown, gentlemen, mind blown. What did you think about the Lovecraft bios, in general? About ten years ago, I think I read one from an author from India, but it was a rahter short one. So, Tyson's is the best, then? |
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Jun 11, 2015 16:20:01 GMT -6
What did you think about the Lovecraft bios, in general? About ten years ago, I think I read one from an author from India, but it was a rahter short one. So, Tyson's is the best, then? Well I really enjoyed Sprague de Camp's bio of lovecraft. I read a copy long ago from the university library. This one from Tyson is rather fun and thought provoking, he is an occult writer. He alternates his angle of focus on Lovecraft from a mundane to an occult perspective in different chapters, which I thought was well done. It will be your typical biography about Lovecraft's life events, writings and then in the next chapter he will examine these events and writings in the light of current modern occult thinking. I also have Joshi's "I am Providence" but have not begun it yet.  |
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Post by kesher on Jun 11, 2015 21:08:16 GMT -6
I only just discovered the De Camp bio--I'm eager to read it!
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Jun 12, 2015 14:43:45 GMT -6
Going to start reading Donald Tyson's Necronomicon  |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 14, 2015 2:49:27 GMT -6
What did you think about the Lovecraft bios, in general? About ten years ago, I think I read one from an author from India, but it was a rahter short one. So, Tyson's is the best, then? Well I really enjoyed Sprague de Camp's bio of lovecraft. I read a copy long ago from the university library. This one from Tyson is rather fun and thought provoking, he is an occult writer. He alternates his angle of focus on Lovecraft from a mundane to an occult perspective in different chapters, which I thought was well done. It will be your typical biography about Lovecraft's life events, writings and then in the next chapter he will examine these events and writings in the light of current modern occult thinking. I also have Joshi's "I am Providence" but have not begun it yet. I have de Camp's "Literary Swordsmen" floating around somewhere - not the best, or most scientific book out there, but certainly an entertaining read. So, I'll see if I can pick his Lovecraft piece up as well. I think I also read "I am Providence", many, many years back. That one was pretty great. (I am not that old, but I read all these books during my second year at university; that would have been in 2002 and 2003. Some water has run down the river since then.  |
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Post by Otto Harkaman on Jun 21, 2015 14:46:38 GMT -6
I am on hold with Tyson's Necronomicon, too much at the moment. I've been picking around at Joshi's book. Its just as interesting as Tyson's biography of HPL, but on a whole different level. He really brings out the HPL involved with amateur journalism. Very fun, it really allowed him to play the "man of letters" and gave him importance in its microcosm of petty politics, a combination of William Pitt and Voltaire comes to mind. I couldn't say what is the best biography, I think de Camp's gives the best introduction to him but it is very dated and though older it is no closer in time to HPL than the other two books.
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Post by tkdco2 on Jun 22, 2015 1:30:35 GMT -6
Treasure Hunt, by Andrea Camilleri. Part of the Inspector Montalbano series, also an episode in the TV series produced by RAI.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 27, 2015 6:32:43 GMT -6
Still with the "Infinite Jest", which could well become a year-long affair.
Going back to Arthur Miller's "Presence" collection this weekend. Miller, by far my favorite author, at the moment.
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Post by Vile Traveller on Jun 27, 2015 21:21:56 GMT -6
Working my way through Dunsany, which is a little hard going - but, man, is it rich.
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Except, of course, when I do. 
