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On 5/10/2019 at 5:41 PM, Milwaukeeeee said:

Small Country by Gaël Faye. Very illustrative book concerning the  Rwandan genocide

Will check this out. Thanks!

I've been reading a book of Robert Bresson interviews. Anything Bresson-related is worth a read, imo. Also highly recommend "Neither God Nor Master" by Brian Price. Argues Bresson's ouvre is based in "Radical politics", rather than religion. 

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Finished Nathan Ballingrud's Wounds the other day and it was pretty damned good. A couple of the stories were particularly moving, surprisingly given how dark and weird/horrific some of the content is.

Started Paul Tremblay's A Head Full of Ghosts a day or two ago and already nearing the end. Feels good so far but also feels like there's some subversion/twisting/weirdness ahead still. 

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50 minutes ago, sweepstakes said:

Stanislaw Lem - Fiasco

 I think I need to go easy on translated novels because the language is inevitably awkward. Otherwise an interesting read so far. 

have you read Solaris? i’ve had it on my shelf for ages but haven’t started yet.

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2 hours ago, MadellisTheSixth said:

have you read Solaris? i’ve had it on my shelf for ages but haven’t started yet.

Nope, this is actually my first Lem. I've been meaning to read some for ages myself. 

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Read both Solaris and Return From the Stars by Lem since fall, and both were a great experience. Especially the former. 

If you've watched Solaris the movie (the Tarkovsky version), the book is more about Kris' self than the planet and its apparitions in comparison with the movie. I.e. more interesting, imo. Return From the Stars is mostly interesting as a concept, where an astronaut returns, from a several decades long trip through space, to find Earth and its inhabitants radically different... Cliffhangers abound.

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2 hours ago, splbt said:

Read both Solaris and Return From the Stars by Lem since fall, and both were a great experience. Especially the former. 

If you've watched Solaris the movie (the Tarkovsky version), the book is more about Kris' self than the planet and its apparitions in comparison with the movie. I.e. more interesting, imo. Return From the Stars is mostly interesting as a concept, where an astronaut returns, from a several decades long trip through space, to find Earth and it's inhabitants radically different... Cliffhangers abound.

i loved the tarkovsky film, glad the book takes a different approach though. keen to read!

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reread porno last year, didn't age well - Glue is better 

Finished rereading the border trilogy by Cormac McCarthy fuckin hell I knew what was coming and it twisted a knife into my heart again why

Read Brave New World, thought it was kinda shit

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On 5/25/2019 at 10:46 PM, estragon said:

Just picked this up. I wish NYRB would put out more speculative/genre fiction because they do a really good job of it – the Aickman collection they put out last year was excellent.

Maybe closer to Borgesian surrealism than speculative fiction than you want, but a couple authors they've republished that come to mind for whatever reason are Adolfo Bioy Casares & Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky. As for SF, check out Christopher Priest's Inverted World; I love that book.

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Casares and Krzhizhanovsky sound really interesting. Added to the list. Thanks.

 

WATMM: come for the music, stay for the book recommendations.

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struggling to finish Jeff V's Acceptance, it's interesting but I think I've just burnt out on all the characters.

I'm diving into Roberto Bolaño's last book every now and then, I'm actually enjoying how unpolished it (apparently) is sometimes.

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Blood Meridian audiobook for driving slogs, Story is relentless even after half a dozen previous reads. The period tone, Judge Holden, a hell more horrible than the brimstone land of christian reckoning, all of it, immense, surreal & wise.

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^ been thinking of re-reading blood meridian as i read it more as a recommendation than of my own will. good to hear it holds up. was kinda compulsive about reading at that time (and still am, i suppose) and didn't really let myself enjoy it

broke my no-long-books spree and picked up the second volume of the man without qualities AND infinite jest at the same time. don't know if i am to laugh or cry

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On 6/14/2019 at 11:08 PM, splbt said:

^ been thinking of re-reading blood meridian as i read it more as a recommendation than of my own will. good to hear it holds up. was kinda compulsive about reading at that time (and still am, i suppose) and didn't really let myself enjoy it

broke my no-long-books spree and picked up the second volume of the man without qualities AND infinite jest at the same time. don't know if i am to laugh or cry

Wahey, I picked up a cheapo Infinite Jest a couple days ago. Looking forward to another run through. I think it tops my list of most viscerally '90s books (that same weird parallel reality feeling I get from Ventolin-era Aphex, kinda).

Did a bunch of Don Quixote this week but then I found my old copy of Giles Goat Boy & got distracted

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On 6/15/2019 at 1:08 AM, splbt said:

^ been thinking of re-reading blood meridian as i read it more as a recommendation than of my own will. good to hear it holds up. was kinda compulsive about reading at that time (and still am, i suppose) and didn't really let myself enjoy it

Been meaning to read that and McCarthy in general, the history of that part of North America - the deserts of the SW US and North Mexico - is fascinating - it's still very vast, hellish, and remote AF but kind of beautiful for that reason as well. I'm reading a book about the Republic of Texas and I'm only now really appreciating just how not just brutal aspects of it's history were but also how bare bones and rough the settlements were for a good part of a century. I had a pretty comprehensive idea of the history of the state but it's often through this romanticized lens that doesn't reflect the stark reality of it's history.

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51z6R9SG4ZL._SX348_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

interesting overview of "the scene" although for whatever reason, the writers are reluctant to name group names despite giving you enough details to just wiki who they're talking about. that becomes a little annoying since you have to keep going back and forth to get better betwix book and .net to get more details

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finished down and out in Paris and London by Orwell.

reading David Graeber's book on debt, thoroughly enjoying. also reading The Master and Margarita before bed/whenever I feel like fiction and its a really good read.

On 6/27/2019 at 12:06 PM, Nebraska said:

51z6R9SG4ZL._SX348_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

interesting overview of "the scene" although for whatever reason, the writers are reluctant to name group names despite giving you enough details to just wiki who they're talking about. that becomes a little annoying since you have to keep going back and forth to get better betwix book and .net to get more details

why on earth would they do that lmao

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18 minutes ago, MadellisTheSixth said:

finished down and out in Paris and London by Orwell.

reading David Graeber's book on debt, thoroughly enjoying. also reading The Master and Margarita before bed/whenever I feel like fiction and its a really good read.

Both (Graeber and The Master and Margarita) are excellent. Really enjoyed them ( for different reasons, obviously). 

The first half of the twentieth century has been very unkind to Russians, but damn did it make them produce a lot of good writing.

I’m currently reading The Twelve Chairs by Ilya Ilf and Jevgeni Petrov, also from roughly the same period. It’s about the antics of a former nobleman who tries to hunt down twelve chairs (hence the title) that were confiscated from him after the Revolution. Very entertaining.

 

 

 

 

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Finished Lem's Fiasco. The inundation with real and imaginary science was a bit much but otherwise it had some interesting ideas and imagery. 

Now reading some PKD as a palate cleanser. 

 

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