This Old Neon Forum

Kong Wen wrote: ↑30 Sep 2018 19:33 I've resolved to start reading The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu next. I want to evaluate how I like it before I decide whether to buy the other two books in the series.

Now I have a conundrum, because The Three-Body Problem was excellent and I want to read more, but I've heard the sequels aren't as good, and I can already see from the conclusion of this one how that could be the case.

01. 01-29 Gai-Jin (1993), James Clavell (American)
02. 02-04 Alden Nowlan: Selected Poems (1996), Alden Nowlan (Canadian)
03. 02-08 Ablutions (2009), Patrick deWitt (Canadian)
04. 02-24 The Subtle Knife (1997), Philip Pullman (British)
05. 04-01 Dune (1965), Frank Herbert (American)
06. 04-16 Legends of the Condor Heroes I: A Hero Born (2018), Jin Yong (Chinese)
07. 04-27 The Fifth Season (2015), N. K. Jemisin (American)
08. 05-09 The Dispossessed (1974), Ursula K. Le Guin (American)
09. 07-08 The Wealth of Virtual Nations: Videogame Currencies (2017), Adam Crowley (American)
10. 07-09 The Rez Sisters (1986), Tomson Highway (Canadian)
11. 09-08 A Game of Thrones (1996), George R. R. Martin (American)
12. 09-30 Spelunky (2016), Derek Yu (American)
13. 10-19 The Three-Body Problem (2008), Cixin Liu (Chinese)

I finished my Robert Frost collection. It was good - I had no idea how prolific he was. Am still reading “The Tyrant’s Law” and also started “The Skaar Invasion” - the most recent Shannara book from the last quadrilogy. Good times.

"The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula LeGuin
Enjoyed it, but not as good as "The Dispossessed". Will certainly read a lot more of LeGuin's work in the future.

"Carmilla" by Sheridan Le Fanu
I like the main characters but very predictable by modern standards, but hey! - 1871 Pre-Dracula Lesbian Vampire Lady.

"A Spell for Chameleon" by Piers Anthony
First of the Xanth trilogy.... which kinda turned into +40 books by now.
I didn't enjoy it. Might have liked it if I had read it back in the days, but considering the cultural changes over the years... this book did not age well.

"Childhood's End" by Arthur C. Clark
Alien overlords control Earth and it starts out with the "How to cook (for) humans" premise.
Fine book, good ideas but not very exciting. Liked how easy it is to tell the point in time this was written.

Kiwi the Tortoise wrote: ↑11 Nov 2018 16:04 "A Spell for Chameleon" by Piers Anthony
First of the Xanth trilogy.... which kinda turned into +40 books by now.
I didn't enjoy it. Might have liked it if I had read it back in the days, but considering the cultural changes over the years... this book did not age well.

I read it when it was new and didn’t like it much either. And that was before I became pickier.

I finished both Heretics of Dune and Chapterhouse Dune and my resolution to read the Frank Herbert Dune books in one year. Humorously, at the time I thought it was five books but it was six and I fortunately had them all. They were good but not as good as the earlier books. Teg is a badass though.

I also started and finished The Hobbit or There and Back Again by Tolkien. I'll be re-reading the LOTR shortly. For now I am going to read Talisman by Walter Scott. Am still working on the Skaar Invasion and the Tyrant's Law.

Kong Wen wrote: ↑20 Oct 2018 03:46 01. 01-29 Gai-Jin (1993), James Clavell (American)
02. 02-04 Alden Nowlan: Selected Poems (1996), Alden Nowlan (Canadian)
03. 02-08 Ablutions (2009), Patrick deWitt (Canadian)
04. 02-24 The Subtle Knife (1997), Philip Pullman (British)
05. 04-01 Dune (1965), Frank Herbert (American)
06. 04-16 Legends of the Condor Heroes I: A Hero Born (2018), Jin Yong (Chinese)
07. 04-27 The Fifth Season (2015), N. K. Jemisin (American)
08. 05-09 The Dispossessed (1974), Ursula K. Le Guin (American)
09. 07-08 The Wealth of Virtual Nations: Videogame Currencies (2017), Adam Crowley (American)
10. 07-09 The Rez Sisters (1986), Tomson Highway (Canadian)
11. 09-08 A Game of Thrones (1996), George R. R. Martin (American)
12. 09-30 Spelunky (2016), Derek Yu (American)
13. 10-19 The Three-Body Problem (2008), Cixin Liu (Chinese)

I guess that ended up being 2018.

2019 earned a firm foundation with the excellent French Exit as my first entry. I have a glut of options going forward, between the books I got for winter holiday and the ones I bought for Mrs. Kong. And the weekend is coming!

I think I'm going to set up tentpoles throughout 2019 to help my list mirror last year's, with the next Pullman in February, Jemisin in April, Martin in September, and Liu in October (I have the sequels to all those books on my shelf right now).

01. 01-02 French Exit (2018), Patrick deWitt (Canadian)

01. 01-02 French Exit (2018), Patrick deWitt (Canadian)
02. 01-03 We Should All Be Feminists (2014), Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigerian)

I didn't have much time to read yesterday because I went bouldering over lunch and then saw the best movie of 2018 again in the evening, so I picked out a short and easy little manifesto for bedtime.

I believe I'll be moving on to Blindsight next, aiming to finish in time to read the third book of Pullman's trilogy in February.

01. 01-02 French Exit (2018), Patrick deWitt (Canadian)
02. 01-03 We Should All Be Feminists (2014), Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigerian)
03. 01-05 Blindsight (2006), Peter Watts (Canadian)

Oops, I read Blindsight in a day. It was good! Densely packed with sci-fi elements, some of which I thought might be a little extraneous... but the overall thrust, theme, and main plot were good. Apparently there's a sequel. I'll have to put that in the queue for next January!

01. 01-02 French Exit (2018), Patrick deWitt (Canadian)
02. 01-03 We Should All Be Feminists (2014), Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigerian)
03. 01-05 Blindsight (2006), Peter Watts (Canadian)
04. 01-06 Men Explain Things to Me (2014), Rebecca Solnit (American)

Another quick book in the books. This is a solid collection, with a few really great essays from 2008-2014. It's interesting how relevant they still are. I'd recommend it to anyone who'd like a baseline summary of the ways in which our current cultural climate continues to progress and improve.

I think I'll pull some more sci-fi off the shelf next.

01. 01-02 French Exit (2018), Patrick deWitt (Canadian)
02. 01-03 We Should All Be Feminists (2014), Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (Nigerian)
03. 01-05 Blindsight (2006), Peter Watts (Canadian)
04. 01-06 Men Explain Things to Me (2014), Rebecca Solnit (American)
05. 01-13 Watership Down (1972), Richard Adams (English)

Well, Watership Down was an interesting little set of tales! I don't know if it's mainly because it was about rabbits, or the episodic nature of the structure, but it definitely had a mythical tone.

Next on the list is a book I've been excited to read since it was announced: Keywords: The New Language of Capitalism, published only a few short weeks ago.