What Are You Reading Right Now 2.0

[Steve]

My brother got me into the Kingkiller books, I found them to be greatly enjoyable as well, Rothfuss is excellent at world-building.

As for my current reading, bouncing between a re-read of "I Shall Wear Midnight", the last Tiffany Aching book in Pratchett's Discworld, and "The Woman Who Wouldn't Talk", Susan McDougal's semi-autobiography (I say "semi" because Pat Harris seemed to have done some of the writing, or at least first-phase editing).

[Flagg]

I'm currently reading The Stand graphic novel. It's damned good. They haven't updated it for the 00's which I like.

[NeoGoomba]

A coworker just handed me The Alchemist, going to give this a whirl. There's only so much Ciaphas Cain I can take in a row before I need to switch gears.

[Elheru Aran]

A coworker just handed me The Alchemist, going to give this a whirl. There's only so much Ciaphas Cain I can take in a row before I need to switch gears.

The Paulo Coelho book? Always heard that was pseudo-mystical self-help crap... If it's a completely different 'Alchemist', then my apologies

[NeoGoomba]

Yeah that's the guy. I told her I'd give it at least a few pages. I'll let you know how far it tries to bury the self-help needle

[The Grim Squeaker]

Going through the entire Discworld series, for the umpteenth time , in audiobook form.
My love for Terry Pratchett, especially in the non earliest books, once he had his form down (before the Alzheimer's) is hard to comprehend. <3

[Crazedwraith]

Audiobook? Unless you've got unabridged versions you're being cheated. I've got the abridged 'Guards!Guards!' and its amazing how the abridging manages to miss out all my favourite bits.

[Ralin]

Audiobook? Unless you've got unabridged versions you're being cheated. I've got the abridged 'Guards!Guards!' and its amazing how the abridging manages to miss out all my favourite bits.

Audiobooks have been gaining in popularity in recent years. Audible.com is a huge thing run by Amazon, and they're generally pretty good about providing unabridged books.

Still no unabridged World War Z though.

[Ahriman238]

I'd say it's simply as Kvothe theorizes - they kill anyone who uncovers any information about them. The nursery rhyme thing is either camouflage, or simply a case of it spreading too far too control (and thus, still being camouflage) .
Think of it this way: Imagine you're a vampire, and the only thing people have about you is the book Twilight.
Now, imagine that someone was trying to make the movie Dracula, including the bits about garlic affecting you, an inability to enter houses without invitation, and increased awareness of the legend of your existence. You'd want to slaughter the director.

Spoiler

The thing that gets me (besides how they knew to hit Trebon) is that the vase didn't tell anyone anything that's not in the nursery rhyme, except maybe that each Chandrian has a sign and it's not that all of these things happen for each Chandrian. The Adem didn't tell us anything we didn't know but their names, but only because Skarpi already told us the story of their origins. And everybody knows who Lanre is, everyone had a story to tell Arliden, and the room went dead silent when Kvothe requested a story of Lanre.

And we still don't know a damn thing about their powers or weaknesses, just their names, signs and the faintest cobweb pointing to the shape of their origins.

Spoiler

Sidenote:
Fair bet - the reason Kvothe is so self hating might be him being implicity in his love's death or equivalent, possibly while killing a Chandrian or the like. Fair likelihood of Ambrose Jackis becoming king.

Possibly. I think it more likely hers is the promised betrayal, who else is close enough to Kvothe for a betrayal to truly hurt? Maybe she's shacking up with the King Jackass.

Oh, and there are two more things Kvothe said he's done at the beginning that haven't happened yet:
Spoiler

Stolen back a princess from a sleeping barrow-king, and gotten expelled from the University at a younger age than most people enter it.

Now for my off the wall guess as to what the third book holds.
Spoiler

The Chronicler is himself an Amyr. Sent to either a.) record Kvothe's story for the Order's consumption b.) judge his worthiness for recruiting or c.) sit in judgment of his actions.

Why do I think this? Every time he does something he reveals a hidden depth. He gets robbed, but it's okay, because he has spare money hidden away. He slaps a binding on Bast like it's no big thing, we know from that and later dialogue that he's a University-trained arcanist. He claims the only Name he knows is iron. He berates and manhandles Bast, who did the same to him just last night. He travels a lot, collecting stories and doing research, the perfect cover for an underground paladin. He wanders the world and no one bars his way. He is at once famous and discreet enough to never be recognized unless he wants to be.

It is even possible that hunting obscure lore he found the hidden Amyr, who recruited him. Just as Kvothe has made many inquiries into the Amyr, and could be reasonably expected to come to their attention. Kvothe is skilled in battle and magic, and he's proven he can disappear when he needs to, all skills I think the Amyr would prize, and a grudge against the Chandrian who are the Amyr's mortal enemies. On the other hand, his actions, whatever his intentions, have led to a vast war and that seems the sort of thing the Amyr would investigate. Whether to bring him to justice for his actions or simply to understand, as no one seems to, the causes of this war.

True, he wasn't much use fighting the scrael or the soldiers, but that could be the role he's playing.

I think Chronicler will reveal himself as an Amyr. Bast will be surprised and Kvothe will cuff upside the head for not figuring it out two days ago. Then all three will ride off into the sunset to future adventures once the Chronicler makes it clear that yes, Kvothe probably screwed up epically, but as long as he's alive he has a responsibility to try and set things right.

[Edi]

Currently reading Intiaanit, a Finnish language history of the Native American people of North America. Written by two very prominent Finnish anthropologists with specialization in American studies and published by the Helsinki University Press, Gaudeamus, it is an excellent read. Rather dispiriting, though.

[Flagg]

So I cannot recommend 'The Stand' graphic novel highly enough. The artwork is great and it mostly sticks to the book like glue. So if you've read the novel and want to see a visual adaptation, or are just interested in the book but are dissuaded by the 1100+ page length, I can't recommend this highly enough.

[Broomstick]

Currently reading Intiaanit, a Finnish language history of the Native American people of North America. Written by two very prominent Finnish anthropologists with specialization in American studies and published by the Helsinki University Press, Gaudeamus, it is an excellent read. Rather dispiriting, though.

Is there an English version of that? I'd love to read about that from a non-North American perspective. Well, "love" isn't really the right word, it IS a pretty depressing topic, but you know what I mean.

Meanwhile, I'm reading

The Good Old Days - They Were Terrible! which reads a little like an article from Cracked.com.

The Dirt on Clean - which, it turns out, I read before so I'm re-skimming it

The Long War, by Baxter and Pratchett, sequel to The Long Earth.

[Edi]

Is there an English version of that? I'd love to read about that from a non-North American perspective. Well, "love" isn't really the right word, it IS a pretty depressing topic, but you know what I mean.

I do, yes.

Unfortunately there is no translation of this work to any other language that I know of, though it highly deserves one. It would be very nice to see it translated to English and then observe what kind of reception it got abroad, especially in the US. It's a top notch work that is both scientific in its approach and easily understandable by anyone.

[Broomstick]

The problem with reading about Natives vs. US in English is that the literature is dominated by Americans first and British second, and both parties have significant bias. In the US, accounts contemporary with the conflicts tend to be rabidly against the "savages". Revisionist history since the 1960's is full of noble savage glurge which slams to the opposite extreme. There are a few more balanced accounts but they are hard to find.

I would hope a Finnish source would be more objective.

[Edi]

It is yes. It does not sugarcoat anything for anyone, but is very matter of fact and crucially it does not take sides.

The entire first chapter discusses how Native Americans have been portrayed and how their history has been studied. Reading through that, the way it has been done has mostly been a disgrace to any proper scientific study of history.

Hopefully it gets a translation, but sadly, we cannot reliably expect to get one.

[Broomstick]

Alas, I find myself not sufficiently motivated even by a fine book to devote the required years of study to being able to read Finnish... perhaps if there was an entire library...?

A pity, though, because the Anglosphere could use such a book.

[Ahriman238]

Less than a hundred pages into the Mote in God's Eye and I'd like to apologize to David Weber for every snide thing I've said or thought about his compulsive need for infodumps.

[JME2]

Currently working my way through John Scalzi's Star Trek parody Redshirts and it's hysterical.

I'm laughing every other page.

[Darth Nostril]

Less than a hundred pages into the Mote in God's Eye and I'd like to apologize to David Weber for every snide thing I've said or thought about his compulsive need for infodumps.

Oh yeah that one really is Horatio Hornblower in space, I kept expecting them to lower a rope to measure how many fathoms above the planets surface they were.

[Elheru Aran]

Just finished "Finding Arthur" by Adam Ardrey.

I don't think I've seen more unbridled and unabashed speculation in a supposed work of nonfiction before. The man takes vague notions about historical figures and rams it through a wringer of his specious ideas about British history and declares firmly, "this is how things were, because I believe so".

He has done quite a bit of research at least to the point where his conclusions are plausible, I'll give him that, but the man has no respect whatsoever for any notions except his own. He seems to have a bit of a chip on his shoulder regarding the medieval Church, which he would paint as a prototypical Spanish Inquisition in regard to his sacrosanct "Old Way". He does not particularly allow for the possibility that the events he speaks of may be unrelated, that place names may not have been what he (through the occasional great contortion of languages) deduces them to have been in the past, and he has but speculation for most of his "life of Arthur".

Ultimately the only thing any logical person can really take from the book is that he *really* wants his last name (Ardrey) to be linked to "Ard Righ" or "High King"... Man should've just bought a Scottish lordship off the Internet and been done with it. While I'm somewhat enlightened in regard to post-Roman Scotland and northern England now, the book was largely a waste of time.

[JME2]

Still laughing my way through Redshirts.

This is great shit and perfect commentary on the titular character trope.

[StarSword]

Still laughing my way through Redshirts.

This is great shit and perfect commentary on the titular character trope.

Definitely my favorite Scalzi work, right in front of the first Old Man's War. FX is apparently making a miniseries based on it.

[dragon]

Currently reading Judas Unchained sequel to Pandora Star. Its an interesting setting where everyone can afford rejuvenation so four hundred year olds exists that were alive in the 21st century They have data crystal in the brain that record their memories. Upon death they clone the body and download the memories. All sorts of bio and cyber technologies and changing the memories

[JME2]

Still laughing my way through Redshirts.

This is great shit and perfect commentary on the titular character trope.

Definitely my favorite Scalzi work, right in front of the first Old Man's War. FX is apparently making a miniseries based on it.

I heard the news a while back.

Now that I've read the book, I'm really looking forward to the adaptation.

[Steve]

Less than a hundred pages into the Mote in God's Eye and I'd like to apologize to David Weber for every snide thing I've said or thought about his compulsive need for infodumps.

I read it and chuckled and sighed at the book's approach to "women can't be in the service".

That said, the Moties are an interesting concept for alien life.