#1

I’m currently on Time Travel: A History by James Gleick.

Time-Travel_James-Gleick_cover.jpg507×630 13.7 KB

I’d been a fan of his writing since reading The Information (which was all great but the section on the telegraph simply blew my mind). I find his writing style easily digestible and his analysis/topics are insanely interesting. So far this one is discussing the introduction of the concept of time travel in fiction (I’m about 70 pages in). Today, we take for granted the idea of time travel, but he discusses the conditions that allowed it to exist in the public mind.

And even though I’ve read several between Time Travel and Notable American Women by Ben Marcus, this is the book I really need to tell you about. Or rather…I can’t tell you about it because Ben’s writing wraps you up in recontextualizations until you can only navigate this story with your intuitive–yet VERY SPECIFIC–understanding. It’s about a boy…and ideas about the violence of speech…and some wood…and some of the coolest shit I’ve ever read in my whole life. It’s absolutely beautiful and bizarre.

21 Likes
Scope of Items to be Listed in Trade
Topic on books MIA?
#2

Ben Marcus is awesome! I’ve heard him read once, phenomenal. Also, I took a class once from his sister, Lisa.

I know I’m a latecomer, but I just started the Dark Tower series.

1 Like
#3

ursula le guin - eye of the heron

resistance is an important theme for these times.

25 Likes
#4

I just finished some graphic novels (Descender Vol 2, Jeff Lemire is a good plotter)

but bookwise, I’m trying to finish Seasick by Alanna Mitchell

1 Like
#5

I have a problem of reading a stack of books at a time. This is why I read so “slow”.

9 Likes
#6

I’ve just finished Southern Reach 3:

And am now on to Three Body 3:

10 Likes
#7

These days i’m reading William Gibson’s The Peripheral.
After the “future-has-already-happened” Blue Ant trilogy, that book renews with a “Neuromancer”-like future. It involves a form of time-travel, through virtuality.

Before that i was into Falling Out of Cars, by Jeff Noon : a finely crafted post-end-of-the-world story.

3 Likes
#8

I got through 75% of The Peripheral and finally gave up. I was really looking forward to it, but after [his recounting of a certain point] I realized I just did not care about any of the characters. I had been anti-climaxed. They were all interchangeable (and not in that cool way where two characters are supposed to be interchangeable and what that implies) but rather, they were all just kinda nostalgic and kinda “cool”. I’ll tell ya what though…before scrapping it I did tear out the one page where he describes the two-penised leader of the resistance. In fact, I just had to read that page outloud to several friends of mine just because of the grit.

2 Likes
#9

Perfectly expresses my frustration with Gibson. He blathers on and on, but there are still occasional blurbs of genius amidst the stacks of drivel.

2 Likes
#10

I do that a lot for non-fiction books. There are different piles depending on the subject, the most frequently shuffled one being the “sound theory” one.
Listening to Noise and Silence is in that pile, with Murray Schafer’s The Soundscape (1993), Boulanger’s Csound book, and Le Guide des Objets Sonores, by Michel Chion (it’s a free download on his website and there is an english translation available)
I don’t really consider that pile one of “reading” books, because those are books i often return to, i don’t think i will ever “finish” those.

Ha! About The Peripheral, i must admit i’m reading it slooowly. I’m not sure i enjoy it, whereas the Blue Ant and (most of all) Bridge trilogies i really liked.

3 Likes
#11

In addition to a bad tsundoku habit, I also have a habit of having three or four books on the go at all times. I’m glad to have had a quiet weekend where I managed to finish off three books that I’d been reading in bits and fits here and there over the last little while.


http://www.thewire.co.uk/2014/06/10/mark-fisher-ghosts-of-my-life.jpg


To some people’s surprise, this foreigner living in Japan is not a big manga/anime head–but Akira is special. After loving the movie for many years and recently scooping the complete set for cheap, I finally started. Vol 1 down, 5 to go. This will take some extra time, since with graphic novels I read them through once for the story and then go through a second time to enjoy the art.

Of course, once I finished the above three, I started another book right away:

The films Robinson in Space and Robinson in Ruins are both highly recommended.
We’ll see how it goes.

2 Likes
#12

I have a stack of music books that fit that description. Microsound, Musimathics, Geometry of Music, and Modalogy are near the top at the moment. Been meaning to return to Partch’s Genesis of a Music as well.

3 Likes
#13

https://haymarket-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/000000/595/9781608461806-f_medium-98b6501ab44f29c756158a5146d8df6a.jpg

and

https://haymarket-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/images/000000/836/9781608465620-f_large-d0b3ec0f6cd784663e92bb55770e89c5.jpg

8 Likes
#14

Rad. Yes.

Currently digging into:

(Electronic edition FREE for the next few days.)

Also amazing:

And timely:

9 Likes
#15

I really enjoyed Time Travel and the Information as well!

these are 2 which I read recently and really enjoyed, this thread seems like a cool place to find something new to read

3 Likes
#16
3 Likes
#17

currently reading:

arnon grunberg is a great dutch writer, living in New York at the moment. i loved his novels ‘Tirza’ and his latest ‘Moedervlekken’. ‘Aan nederlagen geen gebrek’ is an collection letters and documents he wrote between 1988 (when he was 17) and 1994. I don’t know if there will be an translation in other languages though.

want to begin in:


I want to read something from Graeber, hope i will start with this soon

2 Likes
#18

you made me interested in ‘notable american women’, will put this on my to-read list for sure

1 Like
#19

yes this book is also on my have-to-read list. do you like it? is it well written?

1 Like
#20

Absolutely, yes. She’s amazing. And so appropriate. If you don’t object to creating a membership at haymarket books the ebook is free for another few days. (Though I do prefer print…)

2 Likes