what are you reading?

[PureElegance]

Well that's impressive, I've heard the hardest part about learning Chinese is understanding the various tones, and pronouncing them correctly.

And the retroflex sounds... even the pinyin pirate couldn't teach me them ._.

Yeah, I'm pretty awful with tones, but when people are speaking normally I can understand. I think it's when you purposely have to learn them and listen for them it can be hard. When people speak, they speak quickly so that tones aren't as emphasized and things are usually understood within context. (or maybe they're really good at speaking and I can't pick out the tones easily, haha)

In my classes we never made a big deal about retroflex sounds... I didn't even know that was the name for those XD;;
OMG, I understood their first sentences in that video without seeing the subtitles! Waaah~~
That video was pretty awesome though. *says chengshi to herself* I just love the pirate theme and the song at the end, hahahaha Thanks so much for showing me that XDDD

 

[Cerceaux]

"Sphere" by Michael Crichton

"A Storm of Swords" by George R.R. Martin, holy crap this one is long.

 

[PureElegance]

Finished "Four Major Plays" by Chikamatsu and my favorite was The Battles of Coxinga. No, not because it was set in China... It was fun though, the Chinese were all "The Japanese are so weird" and the Japanese were all "The Chinese are so weird JAPAN #1!!" Yeah I get it, the Japanese are infused with the powers of the gods, gosh It is a Japanese play so what can I expect :B

Now reading "Chushingura" (The Treasury of Loyal Retainers). I can already tell from the title I'm going to love it and wish I had loyal retainers

 

[holylampposts]

I tried (in vain) to read the complete works of H.P. Lovecraft, but I wasn't having it -- again.

I've started Clans of the Alphane Moon by Phillip K. Dick. Einherjer turned me on to Dick this summer when I visited him in Maryland (I see it). I think I might become an enthusiast as I have with Vonnegut. His stories are insanely imaginative. The back of the book reads

When CIA agent Chuck Rittersdorf and his psychiatrist wife, Mary, file for divorce, they have no idea that in a few weeks they'll be shooting it out on Alpha III M2, the distant moon ruled by various psychotics liberated from a mental ward. Nor do they suspect that Chuck's new employer, the famous TV comedian Bunny Hentman, will also be there aiming his own laser gun. How things came to such a darkly hilarious pass is the subject of Clans of the Alphane Moon, an astutely shrewd and acerbic tale that blurs all the conventional distinctions between sanity and madness.

It seems exactly like something I would be into. I can't wait to get through it.

I also picked up Vonnegut's While Mortals Sleep from the library. It's his latest posthumous publication, so I don't know what I'll think of it, as I really don't like his later work. We'll see I guess.

The first four books in the Song of Ice and Fire series arrived in the mail today. I'll probably wade through those once I finish the first two I listed. Can't wait for the new season of GoT to air.

 

[heutre]

I am currently reading Mysterious Skin by Scott Heim

 

[Cerceaux]

Stuff for fun:
A Feast For Crows- George R.R. Martin
In the Woods- Tana French

Stuff for school:
Don't Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability, 2nd Edition- Steve Krug
Above the Fold: Understanding the Principles of Successful Web Site Design- Brian Miller
Content Strategy for the Web- Kristina Halvorson

 

[Iskanderia]

^Warning: books 4 and 5 of ASOIAF aren't as good because they were supposed to be one book but he split it into two so you only get half the characters. Still better than most fantasy out there though.

@HLP: The Man in the High Castle is a good Philip K. Dick book. It's an alternate history concept where the Axis powers won.

 

[holylampposts]

Yes!!!! I was trying to remember that title.

gabespf: Have you seen the movie? I saw it for the first time two summers ago. I think it might be easy to overpraise Joseph Gordon-Levitt's performance, but I still believed what I was seeing on the screen the whole time. At some moments, it was too uncomfortable to watch.

 

[Berserk]

HLP: How do you have time to read so much literature?? Aren't you a math major? XD

Also, your screenname initials make me think of Howard Philip Lovecraft. Try not to give up on him! He's not the greatest writer out there, but he's written a lot of truly original stuff and I think there's an interesting philosophical point underlying it all (i.e. if there were truly omnipotent, supernatural beings in the universe, how could we possible comprehend them or their motives? Why would they give a rip about us and what makes us think that they would behave according to our predictable ideas of Good and Evil?) What have you read of his so far?

I just finished reading John Man's The Gutenberg Revolution yesterday. I also started it yesterday XD. It was ~300 pages

I had to read it for a class and write a review of it, but I kept putting it off the past few weeks, and yeah...

It was actually a really fantastic book, though! I learned so many fascinating things about 15th century Europe, why the printing press didn't catch on in Asia (except for, ironically, in Mongolia), and a lot about the man himself (he was actually kind of a capitalist prick who screwed people over and took advantage of people's superstition. It's easy to forgive him though, considering his invention kind of wrought a new era of intellect, power, and democracy for mankind ). There was a lot of interesting stuff about the technical details of the printing press too. It's depressing how much craftsmanship has been lost since the Industrial Revolution.

Anyways, it was a fantastic book that covers a huge range of topics that I couldn't possibly summarize in one paragraph and it makes you contemplate philosophy and the Meaning of it All. I'm probably going to read Man's Attila and Genghis Kan biographies this summer.

 

[heutre]

Yeah I saw it, and it's my friend's favorite movie. So I decided to read the book because I needed a new book to read. I think the movie was okay, I like Joseph Gordon-Levitt's performance but I hate Neil's personality so I don't really like him haha. The movie was okay but I really found the ending funny in a horrible way because it must be so disappointing for Brian. But yeah it caught my attention so I bought it

 

[holylampposts]

HLP: How do you have time to read so much literature?? Aren't you a math major? XD

I'm only going part time this semester. six hours of class a week, (really three hours, since I don't attend one lecture) and easy, easy homework. Dick and Vonnegut are also pretty short reads. ASOIAF is probably going to take me the rest of semester (hopeful estimate) to get through, though.

Also, your screenname initials make me think of Howard Philip Lovecraft. Try not to give up on him! He's not the greatest writer out there, but he's written a lot of truly original stuff and I think there's an interesting philosophical point underlying it all (i.e. if there were truly omnipotent, supernatural beings in the universe, how could we possible comprehend them or their motives? Why would they give a rip about us and what makes us think that they would behave according to our predictable ideas of Good and Evil?) What have you read of his so far?

Yeah, I hear things like that, and I immediately want to open up my book and read it all. However, when I do, something just doesn't click. I think that I'll give it a serious try during the summer, when all my friends will be off doing other things and I'll have nothing to occupy my time.

 

[Iskanderia]

If you don't like it, you don't like it. If you give it a decent chance and it still doesn't work for you, I don't see any reason to suffer through it. Lovecraft's not exactly beach reading.

This also applies to TV shows, movies, and music (most shows' pilots aren't that good and are not always indicative of how the series will go; the first 10 minutes of a movie doesn't tell you how good it will turn out and the one song you've heard from a particular band might not be their best work). I always try to give everything a minute to grow on me. Dramatic TV shows I'll actually give 6 episodes to find it's feet and get me attached to the characters.

I don't know what this has to do with anything. Just wanted to write it.

 

[holylampposts]

Yeah. As of yet, I haven't really given it a try. Just a couple stories here and there. I'll prob give it 150pp this summer.

 

[Berserk]

Lovecraft's stuff is of variable quality, and sometimes you'll notice like, "hey, he totally did this story once before... but this time he's doing it way better!", so it really depends on which story and when he wrote it. It sounds like you have an anthology, so if it's in chronological order I would skip to some of the more mature stuff in the middle/towards the end.

At the Mountains of Madness is actually a really cool piece of writing, but I've never managed to finish it. It just feels so long and it takes work to get through. Not all of his stuff is that way though.

Plus he kind of evolved from supernatural Romantic horror to more sci-fi stuff, so you'll want to take into consideration what your interests are. Let me know when you're trying to pick something of his to read this summer and I'll try to help you find one that you might like.

 

[Iskanderia]

I like his Dream Cycle stuff the best. I always found the idea of the dream world being a real, mapable alternate dimension very appealing. Lovecraft is mostly about atmosphere to me. There's such a distinct and unique feeling to his writing.

This is making me want to put on Metallica's Call of Ktulu and crack open the Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath for the first time since college.

 

[flowersofnight]

I like his Dream Cycle stuff the best. I always found the idea of the dream world being a real, mapable alternate dimension very appealing.

I thought it was lame that the Dream Questing guy (forgot his name) was just so awesome that he could outsmart Nyarlathotep twice ::kisaki:: And then ascend to elder godhood ::kisaki:: ::kisaki:: ::kisaki::

 

[Iskanderia]

I don't remember any specifics about it because, like I said, I haven't read it since college (15 years ago). I tend to only remember general impressions (if I liked it, what the atmosphere felt like, glimpses of how I'd imagined some locations and characters to look, etc.) of books I read more than 5 years ago. Maybe I'll remember one particularly powerful scene.

 

[Cerceaux]

In the Woods- Tana French

Okay, this sucked. It basically sets up a potentially interesting locked-room mystery and doesn't resolve it. Total disappointment. Doesn't help that it's in first-person, the narrator is a spineless douche, and the author doesn't seem to know how police work.

 

[PureElegance]

For the rest of this week and next week:

For school:
Feminist and Queer Legal Theory: Intimate Encounters, Uncomfortable Conversations by a bunch of people.

Caetana Says No: Women's Stories from a Brazilian Slave Society by Sandra Lauderdale Graham

Noh Plays of Japan translated by Arthur Waley

Twenty Plays of the Noh Theater translated by Donald Keene

Five Modern Noh Plays by Yukio Mishima
(can't believe he committed seppuku)
(oh wow there's a picture of his beheading *stares* o.o)

For fun:

XD

 

[Cerceaux]

The Annotated Brothers Grimm edited by Maria Tatar.
This is a pretty nice book. My preferred way of going through it is reading the story, and then going back and reading the annotations.

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
Trying it because it's famous. No opinion as of yet.