Hey!! Let's get some action going! What are we reading?

[Luffy]

My 3 star review of The Age of Faith (The Story of Civilization, #4), by Will Durant:-

Spoiler:

I began reading this book in January the 10th 0f 2021 and finished reading it on the 13th of April of the same year. This means that I blitzed my way through this book. For you see, this book was enormous, both in its physicality and its scope.

There is only one book above 1000 pages of my knowledge that has FUN stamped all over it in each page, and that book, is not LoTR. LoTR doesn't count because it is not a genuinely single work.

Back to The Age of Faith. The words in it are meant to be absorbed over a longer time than it took me. I hurried my way through it, but if it worked for The Way of Kings, it ought to be good enough for any chunky book. By the way The Way of Kings is that book that is perfect in each of its page. Until a reread dethrones it that is. Been having awful rereads recently.

I was most interested in England, France, Ireland, Italy and the Middle East mainly. I kind of got my answer to the age old question as to why the Italians are so refined in their culture but also are so Mesozoic in some of their ways. By the way, I've followed a few recipes from top chefs based in Italy and I came away with the feeling that I was being punked. Italian cooking is marginally inferior to English cooking. Just my opinion.

What I take from the Age of Faith is that history is different from popular culture. I was always bummed by the adage of calling our worldview theory... postmodernism. In fact we're proud of this word. This book made me realise how myopic so many current theologians, tech gurus, sociologists, historians and journalists are. News Flash people! we are never going to be postmodernists. That will happen when and only when people are enlightened enough when they expect a G7 summit gathering dress up their leaders in what I wear around the house. Boxer shorts and wife beater.

[Uncle Robin]

Sixty pages into Australian Poetry since 1788, just 1030 to go. Some very interesting poetry already, "How McDougal topped the score" was literally laugh out loud funny. This is a 4 week library loan and I would love to have the book to keep, but if I did buy a copy, I'd have to slice the pages and scan them - the physical difficulty and sheer tediousness of reading a dead tree book again after so long, having to turn pages, hold a heavy, awkward object, and have to look up words separately all reinforcing my love of ebooks.

[Uncle Robin]

I'm now 11% of the way through Australian Poetry since 1788 and eleven is a number larger than the total number references to the continent's Indigenous People so far. Twenty-five named poets, three Anons, and only one of them has written about the people who were there first. Scary stuff.

[Dr. Drib]

Almost finished with Killing Commandatore, by Haruki Murakami, one of my favorite authors.

[Uncle Robin]

Thirty pages short of 1/4 done with Australian Poetry since 1788, and FINALLY a poem about its indigenous people, in a poem published around 1950. Apart from a handful of lines in other poems, like "Fears had she; the blackfellow's cruel spear" from the first 170 years of poetry in this anthology, it would be possible to think there were NO humans in Australia before the Europeans arrived.

[mewmartigan]

Finished up the Traveler's Gate trilogy by Will Wight. I thought it was good. Now reading The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet.

[ReadingManiac]

Originally Posted by Luffy

Lol, that's good advice.

I just treat them the same as samples. Life is too short to read mediocre books.

[ReadingManiac]

I'm just starting Songs of Autumn by Guy Donovan, book 3 of the Dragon Treasure series. This series has been really holding my attention!

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: B is for Burglar by Sue Grafton. It looks like I really liked A is for Alibi when I read it last August. I hope I like this one too.

Good, although the plot was relatively obvious. It didn't grab my attention as much as the first one.

Next up: A random pick from the TBR: April Lady by Georgette Heyer. Her 44th novel.

Good fun, as expected.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: A random pick from the TBR: April Lady by Georgette Heyer. Her 44th novel.

Delightful.

Next up: A Murder of Quality by John le Carré. the second in his George Smiley series. I really liked the first earlier this year.

[Uncle Robin]

Nearly halfway through Pretender, book 8 of Cherryh's Foreigner series. I'm going to read this one and Deliverer back-to-back then take another break from the frantic pace of these stories.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: A Murder of Quality by John le Carré. the second in his George Smiley series. I really liked the first earlier this year.

And this was very good, but I didn't enjoy it quite as much as the first. 4/5.

Next up: Interzone #216. Bought way back in July 2008 from Fictionwise!

(Another random pick from my TBR pile.)

[kyrilson]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

And this was very good, but I didn't enjoy it quite as much as the first. 4/5.

Next up: Interzone #216. Bought way back in July 2008 from Fictionwise!

(Another random pick from my TBR pile.)

The clip at which you're finishing books is astonishing. You're an amazingly fast reader. I'm envious. I'm lucky if I finish a book in a week. Although I guess I only get to read maybe for a half hour to an hour a day if I'm lucky, with work and kids.

[Tarana]

I listen to a lot of audiobooks but I've been reading literary magazines that I have been so behind on. Just finished Asimov August 2011 with some quite good stories and one kindof weird one. As always, a combo of novellettes and short stories. I might have read this one before because I remember The End of the Line by Robert Silverberg, which I very much enjoyed before.

Currently reading The Golden Age of Science Fiction: An Anthology of 50 Short Stories (Unexpurgated Edition) (Halcyon Classics). Bought this back in 2011. Several good stories here so far.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by kyrilson

The clip at which you're finishing books is astonishing. You're an amazingly fast reader. I'm envious. I'm lucky if I finish a book in a week. Although I guess I only get to read maybe for a half hour to an hour a day if I'm lucky, with work and kids.

I'm moderately fast reader (ca 400 wpm). You'll see my time to complete a book varies a lot - sometimes a book doesn't grab me, and then it can drag as I don't make time to read it. On the other hand, a book I'm really enjoying will be read very quickly.

Interzone seems to be dragging a bit. I've found I really prefer longer works to short stories.