#1603

Darkness At Noon by Arthur Koestler. Looks to be another fun one.

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#1604

Gosh, so many people on this thread have recommended this book! My bandmate lent this to me a couple of years back with much excitement and encouragement. I slogged away for at least half the book, but I couldn’t ‘get it’ at all, and abandoned the effort. Should I re-approach it, and if so – how?

#1605

I am enjoying it for sure. I also had a false start with it first time round, well over a decade ago now. If you like magical realism, have an interest in Soviet culture in the Stalin era and don’t mind loads of names you’ll probably instantly forget, then I’d say go for it.

I have been a bit guilty of forcing myself through books I started in the past. Trying to change that and I guess not every book is for everyone. The friend who originally recommended this to me is also a writer and has recommended me many of the best books I have ever read. I recently just bailed on his favourite book of all time though. Haven’t told him yet. In fact, it’s a bit of an admission in general (cough a brief history of seven killings ahem) So who knows? If you are short on others on the short list, why not. It does always feel good to clear one off the “fail” list despite my new life’s too short policy.

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#1606

My tsundoku is never small!

Doing that right now with Samuel Delany’s Stars In My Pocket Like Grains of Sand. The parts that I like, I really really like! But the rest of it is just enjoyably flowery descriptions of great imagination embedded in complicated situations I have little interest in and so can’t follow.

#1607

Just finished Paul Roquet’s Ambient Media: Japanese Atmospheres of Self, which was particularly good in the sections dealing with ambient music; I’m sure I’m far from the only Lines member to read this book.

Having listened to a great deal of Japanese minimalist and ambient music, it was very rewarding to read through Roquet’s historiography and have things put into a narrative.

Now, I’m back to reading Paul Elie’s Reinventing Bach, which is a lovely and slow-burning read, a lot like Alex Ross’s The Rest is Noise — I think that, looking at these three books together, I’m a sucker for this kind of big-picture survey of a specific musical genre.

Would very much recommend all three!

5 Likes
#1608

Just finished Dune having accidentally bought a collection of the 6 Frank Herbert Dune novels on my Kindle app. Surprised myself in really enjoying it, I normally have a pretty low threshold for sci-fi. Might have a break before the next one though…

I just finished Chapterhouse Dune & was checking in on this thread to see how long it had taken me to read the series. Can’t believe it was so long, I used to read so fast as a kid… guess work/kids/life get in the way!

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#1609

I am inhaling The Dispossessed. So wonderful.

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#1610

Just finished Gareth L Powell’s Embers of War trilogy which is quite good fun if that sort of sci-fi is your bag!

#1611

Jaki Liebezeit: The Life, Theory and Practice of a Master Drummer

TBH I’m not sure how much of his theory is applicable to me personally; some of it seems like pure woo. But it worked for him, albeit after spending years playing jazz well enough to be able to sub for Art Blakey(!).

It is possible in art, common even, to have accessible praxis and unaccessible theory or vice-versa.

#1612

I found this pretty fascinating. I never realized just how primitive the Atari VCS / 2600 really was, the extent to which it was designed for a narrow set of games, the extraordinary lengths programmers had to go to to break outside those boundaries, and some of the ways in which its limitations wound up creating precedents in video game design that endured. Definitely a study in doing more with less.

It really makes me wish I still had my VCS and some of the games that I spent so much time with as a kid.

One aspect of the book that was a little disappointing was very minimal mention of the sound capabilities. I’m already a little familiar with those, but given my main interests that’s the first thing I think of when I think about the TIA chip :slight_smile:

3 Likes
#1613

Agency

lucky to have put it off so far, latest events considered.

#1614

There are several 2600 emulators (eg Stella) . You can download all that nostalgia today! The only thing you’ll miss is the blisters from the original joysticks! For me, the SFX instantly transport me back almost 40 years.

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#1615

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#1616

I just finished reading Emily St. John Mandel’s Station Eleven. It really helped take my mind off the Coronavirus pandemic… :grimacing:

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#1617

Getting a lot of quality time with this book, these days…

#1618

Revisiting Dan Graham’s Two Way Mirror Power. His various interviews and explanations are so clear, straightforward and readable - especially considering the complexity of his work.

4 Likes
#1619

Fiction: Tim Etchells, Endland
Nonfiction: Maya Deren, Divine Horsemen

I’d love to hear about writers who have done a treatment of American culture similar to Etchells’ take on England. Any suggestions?

On deck new: Christopher Brown, Failed State
On deck reread: Nathanael West, Day of the Locust

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#1620

rereading Daniel Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year. gotta be some tips in there.

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#1621

Nemesis Games, book 5 in the Expanse series, and the first plot not yet covered by the TV series… though some elements of things were touched on. With the library closed for at least a few weeks I might not be able to get books 6-8 for a while unless I’m willing to buy them. Probably going to reread some old favorites instead: the Culture novels, The Black Company, the Greatwinter trilogy, the Sprawl trilogy.

1 Like
#1622

I just cracked open The Infinite Mindfield by Anthony Peake.

I read his newer one, The Hidden Universe, last year and it is incredible! It’s about the connections between religious, “paranormal”, psychedelic, and shamanic experiences with various entities not from our three dimensions.

2 Likes