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I'm still stuck in the last chapters of "Lord of the Rings"
I swear those Hobbits want me to fail in finishing that book.

Finished John Cheever's Falconer. One book down, 24 to go.

Yesterday I read Kurt Vonnegut's God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian. It consists of a series of interviews with "completely dead people", as orchestrated with the help of Kevorkian's "controlled near-death experiences".

This is one of the last books Vonnegut published in his lifetime, and you can tell he did it mostly as an afterthought (as it turns out, the concept was born as a series of radio skits fpr NPR before taking book form). Nonetheless it's a very enjoyable read, as it's written in Vonnegut's typically congenial, witty tone.

During my wine class at school, I learned that I was surprisingly interested in the history of wine. My teacher suggested a book called "Wine & War," a recounting of wine's involvement in various conflicts. I finally started it up last night, and it's already proving to be pretty interesting.

In the middle of Liu Cixin's Three Body Problem having just started Dark Forest. Due to current difficulty procuring English copy and since not all books translated yet, turns out Chinese reading ability gotten about as rusty as Cantonese speaking ability. That said getting Death's End when back in England later in the year might be on the table since the translation's apparently due spring.

Less reading, more perusing this book called, I believe, Virtual Beauties. Found in the back of our studio library it's all in Japanese, and the pages are littered with 3D models of anime women from 1999. I can't tell if it has tutorials or it's all just pin up material. Like there's a page with a grid on it and a somewhat formed 3D model of a lady but the UI looks super fake. Also these anime ladies go from trying to be realistic yet uncanny valley faces, to giant uggu eyes on realistically proportionate woman which just looks so bizarre!

I wonder if this was the basis for how our studio modeled characters in the day. It would explain a lot...

There's also post cards on the back pages with said women on them.

Working on The Golden Bough, but read through Bushido, The Soul of Japan by Inazō Nitobe yesterday. I was expecting Bushido to be a historical book or maybe The Art of War. It's really more a poetic, romanticized and Westernized view of the samurai, told by a Christianized Japanese man living in the US in 1899. It's an interesting read if you consider what happens in Imperial Japan in the following decades. It's not very long, so if you know what you're getting into its not a difficult read.

Reading through A Streetcar Named Desire, Our Day Out, Heroes, Much Ado about Nothing and A Christmas Carol at the moment.

Being an English teacher kinda blows.

Finished reading a poetry book from Ecuador. 3/25

Aeralis wrote:During my wine class at school, I learned that I was surprisingly interested in the history of wine. My teacher suggested a book called "Wine & War," a recounting of wine's involvement in various conflicts. I finally started it up last night, and it's already proving to be pretty interesting.

I read the synopsis and it sounds interesting. It's no joke 6 cents plus shipping on amazon so I grabbed a copy.

Read Rules For A Knight by Ethan Hawke (It was one of the gifts I received from Evil Jim for Secret Santa!). I really enjoyed it, it was entertaining and enlightening. Really down to earth and just... plain lovely. I read it in one sitting because once I picked it up I couldn't put it down.

A friend let me borrow a 1st edition of Galápagos, by Kurt Vonnegut, which may not be his best novel (I think this was the last in a deal of 5 books and Kurt was a little fed up with it, so he decided to draw on a holiday cruise to Ecuador to wrap things up). I picked it because I love the guy and I'm leaving for Ecuador myself in a few hours, so I decided to go for a topical read for a change.

Finished "Gone girl" and "The secret history" both pretty good thrillers in my opinion.
Now I'm starting to read "A little life" and then I'm going to read "the red queen"

Just finished The Golden Bough by James Frazer. It's a comparative study of ancient religions and folk lore (though they practically skip Christianity in the analysis). If you liked Hero with a Thousand Faces, then this will be up your alley. For me, it vascillates between mind-numbingly boring and intensely fascinating, but I'm glad I read it.

Finished Galápagos (it's good, not Vonnegut's best); now I'm reading a Mexican Colombian (whoops) book of poetry.

I've been wanting to read more so I picked up The Silver Eyes.

Aeralis wrote:During my wine class at school, I learned that I was surprisingly interested in the history of wine. My teacher suggested a book called "Wine & War," a recounting of wine's involvement in various conflicts. I finally started it up last night, and it's already proving to be pretty interesting.

I just finished my copy and I really enjoyed it. The epilogue was particularly moving.

Finished 2 more books - The Cat Inside by William S. Burroughs and Mere Anarchy by Woody Allen.

I recently read Sex, Drugs and Cartoon Violence: My Decade as a Video Game Journalist by Russ Pitts. A former editor of the Escapist and Polygon recalls how off the wall the games journalism is.

I am still trying to read A Brief History of Seven Killings.

In the past two years I've been struggling through House Of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. I've gotten halfway through and want to end it, but it feels like a chore. The several storylines, crazy layout and hundreds of footnotes and references make it hard to follow. Which is kind of the point?

At the moment I'm reading The Man In The High Castle by Philip K. Dick after Cam mentioned it on Twitter. It's pretty good so far.

The Man In The High Castle is a great read, one of PKD's finest. Mistifying ending too.

I finished 2 more books, both by Pablo Palacio (1920's writer from Ecuador): a short story collection called A Man Kicked To Death and a short novel called Deborah. The collection is great, the novel not so much.

Now I'm reading Henry James' The Beast in the Jungle.

I also enjoyed Man in the High Castle. Read it in February. First PKD novel but will likely read more.

I'm working my way through the entire backlog of dragonlance. Currently on Dragons of Winter night. Two groups of travelers are going places in a fantasy world. (novels that are transcripts of dnd campaigns make me happy)

Lot of dark enlightenment neoreactionary stuff (Nick Land, Yudkowsky, Moldbug etc) against better judgement mostly for the comedy value.

Just enjoyed Do Androids Dream Of Electric Sheep by Philip K Dick. A short read that asks a lot of big questions.