This Old Neon Forum

I just finished Robert Heinlein's The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress. This is a story about what is really a libertarian revolution attempt on the part of the Moon and its inhabitants against Earth. I bought it on a whim with a Christmas or birthday Amazon gift card. I just loved it and will sincerely miss a few of the characters now that the book is over. I wish I were a Loonie, too Aside from some parts of their culture that I don't care for, the author did a good job of building a nation of people that are believable and different from those we know. Interestingly enough, since the book is written in first person, Heinlein messed with grammar rules a little bit - generally shortening sentences and phrases in a way that he imagined would be an evolved form of our language in a different time and place. It bugged me some at first but I got used to it and ultimately accepted it and its place in this book.

I also finished William Godwin's Caleb Williams. This was a recommendation from our own Kong Wen from a long time ago that I finally got to. I enjoyed the heck out of it. I hadn't heard of this book or even its author prior to the recommendation and, as I read it, I had to be halfway through the book before I really knew what it was about. This is due to a creative and evolving story line - not due to any issues with the author's writing style, which was generally outstanding. I hate to spoil anything for anyone considering reading this - it does have revenge, lies, some nasty surprises, prison breaks, and on and on. I had mixed feelings about the ending but overall I did like it and the book quite a bit. I understand that there was an alternative, and much darker (and realistic) ending but I did not read it so I can't opine on that except to say that it is interesting that that was the initial take of the author.

Next up: Chaucer's Canterbury Tales!

Sharecrow wrote:I also finished William Godwin's Caleb Williams. This was a recommendation from our own Kong Wen from a long time ago that I finally got to. I enjoyed the heck out of it. I hadn't heard of this book or even its author prior to the recommendation and, as I read it, I had to be halfway through the book before I really knew what it was about. This is due to a creative and evolving story line - not due to any issues with the author's writing style, which was generally outstanding. I hate to spoil anything for anyone considering reading this - it does have revenge, lies, some nasty surprises, prison breaks, and on and on. I had mixed feelings about the ending but overall I did like it and the book quite a bit. I understand that there was an alternative, and much darker (and realistic) ending but I did not read it so I can't opine on that except to say that it is interesting that that was the initial take of the author.

Definitely look up the alternate ending if you get a chance. It should be in any critical edition of the book, or I'm sure it's readily available online (at least summarized). Godwin is an interesting chap. He was an important philosopher in his day, but he's perhaps more famous now because he was Mary Shelley's dad.

Kong Wen wrote:

Sharecrow wrote:I also finished William Godwin's Caleb Williams. This was a recommendation from our own Kong Wen from a long time ago that I finally got to. I enjoyed the heck out of it. I hadn't heard of this book or even its author prior to the recommendation and, as I read it, I had to be halfway through the book before I really knew what it was about. This is due to a creative and evolving story line - not due to any issues with the author's writing style, which was generally outstanding. I hate to spoil anything for anyone considering reading this - it does have revenge, lies, some nasty surprises, prison breaks, and on and on. I had mixed feelings about the ending but overall I did like it and the book quite a bit. I understand that there was an alternative, and much darker (and realistic) ending but I did not read it so I can't opine on that except to say that it is interesting that that was the initial take of the author.

Definitely look up the alternate ending if you get a chance. It should be in any critical edition of the book, or I'm sure it's readily available online (at least summarized). Godwin is an interesting chap. He was an important philosopher in his day, but he's perhaps more famous now because he was Mary Shelley's dad.

Very well. It was included in my e-version - I just didn't read it. Will do.

Share, did you see this news about Cervantes's tomb?

Kong Wen wrote:Share, did you see this news about Cervantes's tomb?

Oh my goodness - no, I hadnt. Thanks for sharing! That's awesome.

Currently reading again, The Disaster Artist by Greg Sestero which is currently being made into a movie by Seth Rogan's company starring James Franco.

It's about Greg's experience while working on the movie The Room, who played Mark, bought it when I went to one of his live reading's and got it signed.

It is a hilarious read, definitely recommend it if you have watched The Room.

Okay, I finished a few in the past week or two so I thought I'd chime in here.

I re-read, for the first time in a long while, Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. I had a great time with it - most of the stories are seriously entertaining - even now. I was pleasantly surprised. Some of them I had never read before. This book reminds me of one of those black spots in the back of my mind that I try not to think about and that may be why I haven't picked it up again in so long. Anyway, it wasn't too uncomfortable to read it again and so I'm glad I did now that I got a new copy.

I also read 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles Mann. This was a recommendation from our own pdSlooper. It is a non-fiction book that bursts the fictional bubbles of the common narrative of Indians in the Americas - a disturbingly large portion of which is still being "taught" in our educational system - at least in the US. Hell, I was a history major in college for a while and a lot of this was news to me. Wow. All I can say is that I think anyone who is a student of history should seriously consider reading this. It's beautifully written and I feel like I was relieved of quite a bit of ignorance and, for that, I'm quite grateful. Thank you, pdSlooper.

Finally, I finished book 3 of The Genesis of Shannara: The Gypsy Morph. This was pretty good with some surprisingly good chapters buried throughout it. There was some that didn't quite work as well as I think Terry Brooks had intended, but, all in all, I enjoyed the heck out of it. It doesn't quite stand up to some of my other favorite series from the Shannara books, but it is quite worthy of being a member.

I'm actually back to reading A Game of Thrones. It's been about a year now since I first read it (wow!), it's quite interesting to read a second time, now that I'm a little more caught up with a lot of the fan theories out there. I forgot how much of a vague writing style Martin has, I like it, but I do feel like I only understand his subtle hints because I've seen the show. I don't think I would have known it was

Spoiler

Varys and Illyrio talking in the dark that Arya overhears

or that

Spoiler

Jorah goes to check on letters for Danny because he's actually informing on her to Westeros

without the show.

It's also really interesting to read about these small side characters because they're starting to get more involved in the story later in the books, like Lord manderly and Lyn Corbray. I'm not sure whether to praise Martin for his world building or criticise him for the shear amount of characters he throws at you

Sharecrow wrote:I also read 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles Mann. This was a recommendation from our own pdSlooper. It is a non-fiction book that bursts the fictional bubbles of the common narrative of Indians in the Americas - a disturbingly large portion of which is still being "taught" in our educational system - at least in the US. Hell, I was a history major in college for a while and a lot of this was news to me. Wow. All I can say is that I think anyone who is a student of history should seriously consider reading this. It's beautifully written and I feel like I was relieved of quite a bit of ignorance and, for that, I'm quite grateful. Thank you, pdSlooper.

You're welcome -- I'm glad you enjoyed it. Remember there's a sequel called 1493, if you want to be even more educated on the subject. I haven't read it yet myself, but it's on my to-do list.

Last night, I dug out my copy of Eiji Yoshikawa's Musashi (translated by Charles S. Terry) for a solidarity read-through with Sharecrow and Berlin.