Literature What are you currently reading?

[Katrina]

The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick.

 

[FortyTwo]

Just got done with The Black Farm and have to recommend it to any other horror fans, both out of an obligation to a fellow writer just starting his career and because I enjoyed it so much.

Massive content warning for basically everything. Rape, torture, detailed descriptions of gore and horrific acts, existential dread, the whole works.

Elias Witherow got his start on Reddit, and a lot of his stories are available online for free at his user profile. Same warnings apply for most of his stories. They vary wildly in quality, not gonna lie, but the ones that are good, such as Feed the Pig, are really good. Witherow isn't a great writer mechanically, I'd even consider some of his writing pretty bad, but he is so imaginative and his descriptions of the surreal imagery he conjures up are incredible, haunting stuff.

 

[FortyTwo]

Also, I'm (finally) reading The Handmaid's Tale now. A very different, maybe more striking, kind of disturbing.

 

[Moll Flanders]

^ I had to study that at sixth form college, it is very disturbing.

I've been reading health books lately, I just finished Mid Life by Dr Muir Gray. It has a lot of good advice and it is mostly based on NHS guidelines. It was written in support of the NHS One You programme.

Apparently, after the age of 40 you should do one of the four suppleness programmes daily, which are Yoga, Tai Chi, Pilates or the Alexander Technique. It said that women should drink a pint of milk a day or get enough calcium-enriched foods. I'm not sure I do that so I will have to check what vegan foods I need to eat each day.

It came to the conclusion that the Mediterranean diet was the healthiest.

 

[Mischief]

Also, I'm (finally) reading The Handmaid's Tale now. A very different, maybe more striking, kind of disturbing.

Yeah, it's a book that sticks with you. I read it when it first came out, but it resonates even more now.

 

[FortyTwo]

Now I'm reading - drumroll please! - War and Peace. Mostly (read: completely) because I went to see Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 and became obsessed. I need context and more of these characters.

 

[Val]

Now I'm reading - drumroll please! - War and Peace. Mostly (read: completely) because I went to see Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 and became obsessed. I need context and more of these characters.

Yay! You are quite lucky to read it now, when you are an adult. We read it at school, and it seemed boring to me, - i couldn't finish it. I used to read Thomas Mann instead.

 

[hungryraccoon]

Also, I'm (finally) reading The Handmaid's Tale now. A very different, maybe more striking, kind of disturbing.

I'd like to give that a read after seeing the TV series & loving it (wrong way round, I know.)

 

[FortyTwo]

Yay! You are quite lucky to read it now, when you are an adult. We read it at school, and it seemed boring to me, - i couldn't finish it. I used to read Thomas Mann instead.

Oh there are definitely a few boring parts for me too. Mostly because I don't know war terminology and I can't picture what's going on with any accuracy half the time. But I love the characters, Pierre is so relatable and bizarre. Really ahead of its time where characterization is concerned, given that a lot of stuff from that time period was mostly conceptual (and don't get me started on most 19th century Russian lit - definitely not for me).

I wouldn't fault anyone for reading ten pages of it and throwing it in the trash (or, hopefully, the donation bin). It's definitely not for everyone and I'm not sure it'd be for me either if I weren't so obsessed with the musical derived from it.

I'd like to give that a read after seeing the TV series & loving it (wrong way round, I know.)

Nothing is the wrong order! It's a different experience from book-first but I've done that plenty of times. Go ahead and pick it up, it's a quick read, will pull you right in.

 

[MadamSarcastra]

... again.... it's been several years, though. Dug it out of the "Kellerman" big box o' books in the garage. LOL

 

[Andy_T]

Funny!
I had that one on my bookshelf next to my bed for a few years, started to read it a few times, never got into it.

 

[Moll Flanders]

The Women Who Shaped Politics: Empowering stories of women who have shifted the political landscape - Sophy Ridge.

 

[Mikkel]

"Augustus" by John Williams.

 

[Tom L.]

I just read "The Martian" by Andy Weir. I did like it- I thought it was well-written- but for once I liked the movie better, mainly because

Spoiler

in the book, when the Aries 3 mission crew is making plans to go back and rescue Watney, most of the crew has decided they will commit suicide if they are in danger of running out of food, and has elected one member to survive by eating their remains. As I recall, this was not in the movie, although I could have missed it when I had to step out for a bit. One main reason I loved the movie was because it had almost no violence (other than when Mark Watney was injured) and nobody died.

 

[FortyTwo]

I just read "The Martian" by Andy Weir. I did like it- I thought it was well-written- but for once I liked the movie better, mainly because

Spoiler

in the book, when the Aries 3 mission crew is making plans to go back and rescue Watney, most of the crew has decided they will commit suicide if they are in danger of running out of food, and has elected one member to survive by eating their remains. As I recall, this was not in the movie, although I could have missed it when I had to step out for a bit. One main reason I loved the movie was because it had almost no violence (other than when Mark Watney was injured) and nobody died.

I guess the author was trying to make sure that he got across how disastrously risky the rescue plan was.

 

[Andy_T]

I loved the book, too.

My main gripe with the movie was that one of the main things I liked best about the book, was Mark Watneys nerdy humor. The movie, on the other hand, starred Matt Damon, who has no sense of humor that could be observed in any way known to man.

The other thing was that in the book, one of the main figures was a scientist called Venkat Kapoor of, you might guess it, Indian origin. And the movie directors cast him with Chiwetel Ejiofor - who is an actor I otherwise greatly admire, however, he is most decidedly not Indian in any respect .

They even made up a totally phony back story by having him make some comment like "Well, you can imagine how it was, growing up for me, with one parent Indian and another parent African American".

Just ... no. I understand they wanted to feature a "prominent actor", and likely the studio bosses want us to thank for the fact that they did not instead just use David Carradine with khol around his eyes, speaking in a phony Indian accent, like in "the good ole' days"....
Why Couldn’t 'The Martian' Have Had an Indian Dude In It?

 

[Tom L.]

I guess that makes sense, FortyTwo. In the movie, Jeff Daniels' character (Teddy) is clearly worried that the whole crew could die in the rescue attempt, and that's why he refuses to agree to the rescue plan. But Jessica Chastain's character (mission commander Lewis) goes over the risks with the crew before they make their decision, and one is almost left thinking that the main danger is that the crew will never fly again because of their decision to mutiny and commandeer the Hermes.

Andy, I remember you mentioned before how the movie was changed from the book in ways that weren't so cool. It would have been better if the movie was cast in ways that followed the original story. So, in the spirit of Mark Watney:

Spoiler

(.Y.)

 

[MadamSarcastra]

Read the book three times, watched the movie I don't know how many dozens of times....

And Andy, I'm not even going to pretend that you said Matt Damon has no sense of humor.... Uh-uh.

 

[Moll Flanders]

I've still been reading health books mostly, I have a stack of books to get through. I don't read as much these days.

I did buy a new book recently. Goodbye, Things: On Minimalist Living - Fumio Sasaki. I haven't started it yet.

 

[Mark Mywordz]

I did buy a new book recently. Goodbye, Things: On Minimalist Living - Fumio Sasaki. I haven't started it yet.

Could that be because you've got too many other things?
Sorry, Moll, couldn't resist that.
I'm reading Three Sisters, Three Queens by Philippa Gregory. It's the second book of hers I've read. I like the way she brings history alive and makes the people real. She also researches her period thoroughly. The Tudors have always fascinated me too - Henry VIII and all that. It was such a period of change, change of religion, change in England's fortunes and it really paved the way for the emergence of the modern world and capitalism. This period also makes you think about your values. Henry VIII was not the best husband a woman could wish for but if he didn't get the son he needed the country would have been conquered by the French or the Spanish or ruined by internal divisions. Hence the fast turnover in wives.