Tell us what you're currently reading, and what you think of it so far

Tell us what you're currently reading, and what you think of it so far.

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Currently reading
>Steven Pinker 'How the Mind Works'
What I think
>in the end consciousness is a bunch of chemicals that are just trying to evolve like anything else

Kinda helped me with my depression desu. It's nice to realize that humanity isn't the end all be all.

"Idiot" by Dostoyevski
I am almost done with it and have to say that I loved every bit.
The way he pulls away the social facade we build on a daily basis has taught me to reconsider how I view myself and how I deal with sincerity.

Currently reading Lord of the Rings. Just started Return of the King.

Overall I'm really loving it, I've only read it once before and that was way back in high school. It seems much more beautiful than it seemed back then, but also so much more sad. Better than the movies, too.

Been reading The Optics, book six by Alhazen for the last couple hours or so. Synthetic geometry is always fairly complex so I am involved.

A lot of different sorts of inequalities and such.

He’s a satanist who works for the CIA.

Snow Crash.
Cool ideas but the execution is a little cringey and over-the-top cartoonish.
Reminds me of early Pynchon but without the poetic writing or the humor.
That said its vision of the future parallels the Internet today

>All Quiet on the Western Front
Really tugs at your heart strings.

First book of In Search of Lost Time. It's so acutely descriptive and lavish in its crystallisation of ideas that you lose yourself in it without much regard for the absence of a concrete plot. It reminds me of Huysman's Against Nature but with so much more elegance and precision.

which translation are you reading?

What a coincidence I just finished that the other day. It's one of two books I've read by him, the other being one of his more recent books on cognitive science. He definitely became a more focused writer over time. I don't plan on picking up Better Angels of Our Nature/Enlightenment Now though because Pinker is someone you read when you literally can't think of anything else to read and I don't much care for what he might have to say outside his field.

I love you, Alhazen user

Paradise Lost
Just started reading again after many years making excuses. Some of the references go over my head and I need to re read a few parts because long-ass sentences but I'm really enjoying the prose washing over me.

Any other epics I should read? I've heard some good things about Metamorphosis

I'm about halfway through My Work is Not Yet Done by Ligotti (rec from a thread here), and while I'm not finding it "scary" in the traditional sense, there's a real tinge of discomfort that you get reading it - feels like either an accurate look inside the mind of someone with persecution delusions, or maybe who actually is trapped in a weird Kafka-esque nightmare bueracracy. But I've just got to the part where the protagonist buys a shitload of guns and decides to take revenge, so I have a feeling it's about to take a big turn. No idea why this guy always gets compared to Lovecraft, they're nothing alike as far as I can see.

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Read Spenser's The Fairie Queene if you want another epic in the English language. Otherwise, get a good translation of Homer's epics.

The magic mountain, im thinking of dropping it, its such a fucking drag, is this what it feels to be german?

my fav book... make sure you have the right translation bro

Why is it your favorite? Im where the guy goes to have breakfast at the hospital for the first time after hearing the russians fuck and i cant stand it anymore

The Savage Detectives by Bolaño
Its a fun book though somewhat pointless, the little stories are fun but where are they taking me? Also I think this book is praised/enjoyed more by people that love the "writers life" more than writing itself
With that said, its still fun

Currently reading Herodotus' Histories, I'm at book 4 now. I'm finding it a bit of a slog, so I think I'll take a break and read something else, then read more slowly when I resume.

100 Years Of Solitude. I liked the first chapters but since it moved from Jose Arcadio Buendia and Ursula and their children I have found it less and less enjoyable. If it wasn't such an easy read I would consider dropping it.

Complete fictions of Borges. I’m about 450 pages in, I’m absolutely loving it. However so many stories is starting to feel like a slog, I read them all slowly and with full attention because I love them but I usually read about 4 a day. I’ve been reading it for a little less than two months. I realized today I should of been reading an actual novel while interspersing these stories around it. But yes, Borges is now my favorite. Crime and Punishment is next.

Almost finished with TBK only to realize that the back of the bloody book had spoiled the whole thing. I suspected DMITRY to be the ONLY killer, not ALL of them.

Did sweet Aloysha really kill the elder? And I think Ivan killed Smerdakov?? Ahhhh.

I'm reading The Rhetoric of Fiction y Booth. This book is quite simply amazing. He goes into more than rhetoric though. There are many passages on techniques and methods to communicate the authors intent plot-wise. Booth also has geared the book towards Realism, so be forewarned.

>The sovereignty of God by A.W. Pink
Guess I'm Calvinist now.

Jeanne D'Arc by Max Gallo
Alright but sometimes annoyingly repetitive.

just finished aeolus in ulysses
enjoying it so far but kinda scared for the coming chapters

Gargantua & Pantagruel (complete).

Only just started. I like the style.

Just finished Farewell, My Lovely. It was great, Chandler is fantastic and this is probably my second favorite of his novel

Also reading a collection of Maupassant short stories. It's probably the first short story collection I've read where every single story is enjoyable, "master of the short story" is no understatement.

Liberalism and Social Action by John Dewey

Dry.

"Deutscher Taschenbuchverlag (dtv)"
t. Kraut