henke on 21/10/2013 at 08:40
I listened to Snow Crash on audiobook a year ago or so. There's defenitely too much infodumping and details about stuff. I was wishing it would get back to Hero Protagonist slicing dudes up and racing bikes in cyberspace and bantering with YT more. Y'know, the good stuff! Still, a good listen overall.
faetal on 21/10/2013 at 13:41
I really enjoyed the Sumerian / linguistics tie in. Adds some good neuro / culture angles into what would otherwise be just flat sci-fi. I think this is why I loved The Diamond Age so much - wasn't so much a sci-fi yarn as a massive comment neuro-liguistic development. Setting was very cool too.
Queue on 21/10/2013 at 14:39
I just finished, 'Gideon's Corpse'. Normally, I'm not a reader of a modern thrillers, but all the books by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child are fantastic reads that are exceedingly well-written. If you don't know Preston and Child, these guys really are masters of modern fiction--when writing together. Apart, the magic is somewhat gone.
And I'm still emotionally reeling after having read, 'Blind Faith', by Ben Elton. For me, this could be one of the more important books of the 21-century for its damning social commentary, and spot on observation of the devolution of humanity. It holds a mirror up to reflect an image that is ugly and disturbing, smoked in a haze of black-comedic prose. Unfortunately, this treasure of a book is almost completely unknown here in the States; which is a pity considering that if anyone one people needed a mirror of honesty held in front of them, it'd be us.
qolelis on 22/10/2013 at 19:49
Right now I'm focusing on female authors. It has never been a conscious decision, but for some reason I've read almost only male authors in the past (at the time I often picked books at random which, statistically speaking, since I've obviously more often picked a book by a male author, leads one to believe that my local library could be blamed), but, as already stated, I'm making up for that now.
Queue on 22/10/2013 at 21:24
Quote Posted by qolelis
Right now I'm focusing on female authors. It has never been a conscious decision ... but, as already stated, I'm making up for that now.
Unless they started writing pre-1970, don't do it to yourself.
june gloom on 22/10/2013 at 21:32
Be interesting to hear the justification for that.
qolelis on 22/10/2013 at 22:01
Quote Posted by Queue
Unless they started writing pre-1970, don't do it to yourself.
I'm already doing it to myself - and enjoying it. I am curious, though, to know why you would say such a thing!?
Angel Dust on 23/10/2013 at 01:48
Yeah, there are plenty of great contemporary female authors around. Some of my recently read favourites would be Jennifer Egan (A Visit from the Goon Squad), Zadie Smith (White Teeth) and Karen Russell (Swamplandia!). I've also just ordered The Luminaries by Elanor Catton and am very much looking forward to digging into it (it's an 800+ page epic set during the gold rush years of pioneer New Zealand).
What are some of the authors and books you've been reading in particular, qolelis?
qolelis on 23/10/2013 at 12:12
Quote Posted by Angel Dust
What are some of the authors and books you've been reading in particular, qolelis?
Since most of the books I read come from the local library, they might not be the most modern, cutting edge titles, but anyway: Right now I'm reading:
* Beate Grimsrud (post-1970), Norwegian writer with a pretty unique style. I can especially recommend the following (I'm not sure if the last two have been translated into English):
- "En dåre fri" (I think the English title is "A Fool[,] Free")
- "Jag smyger förbi en yxa", which I'm reading right now
- "Har någon sett mig någon annanstans"
* Herta Müller (post-1970), born in Romania under the Ceaușescu regime, which she writes about in "Der König verneigt sich und tötet", which I planned on reading in German, but ended up reading only in Swedish (I probably realized how bad my German really is),
* Sylvia Plath (pre-1970), so far I've only read some of her short stories and "The Bell Jar" (of course?) (in Swedish, though; I looked for the English original, but couldn't find it).
I also borrowed a collection of newspaper columns, which was the only thing I could find, by Wisława Szymborska, but that particular one wasn't my style at all, though I am going to look further.
Thanks for your tips, by the way, I'm making a mental note to check them out next time.
Queue on 25/10/2013 at 02:17
Quote Posted by dethtoll
Be interesting to hear the justification for that.
Well, you see, as everyone knows, women are naturally deceitful - it's been documented...by a Senator from Tennessee. So because of this, it's predetermined that they are incapable of writing honestly. But, women like Dorothy Parker, Shirley Jackson, Lillian Hellman, Joyce Carol Oates, Margaret Atwood, and, to an extent, Sylvia Plath (though she was much better at baking) all wrote pre-1970 and were masters of letters because they knew how to write like a man.
That's all I was saying.
But, I would never intentionally avoid a writer because she is a woman, like qolelis there. That's just sexist and wrong.
Shame on you, qolelis.
[edit] And who the hell would read a foreign women? They already speak enough gobbledygook without writing it down. READ AMERICAN, DAMMIT!
