i read it a couple years ago

left it 2/3 of the way

It’s really more of a first-person account of his time there, and his observations about how one thing led to another. It’s not really a history text. He was the NYY bureau chief in Beirut for several years, and this is the book he wrote about what he experienced, with some history for context.

Really more of a non-fiction, journalism piece than a historical text... at least that’s what his talk was like and that’s what I’m getting from the book thus far.

Just finished SEINFELDIA: How a show about nothing changed everything. http://rxttbooks.blogspot.com/2019/0...eldia-now.html


I am currently reading a galley copy of Cory Doctorow's new sci-fi novella collection, RADICALIZED, that he sent to me upon request. It comes out today.

Wait till you hit 92. David Lynch is suddenly gonna make a whole lot of sense.

that my be my man. that may be.


This has also happened with green olives.....

Is your ass EVER going to finish Book of the New Sun?

fucksakes

soroastrianism!



very good stuff with the 80s as background. many reviewers turned off by it because... i don’t know.... “too philosophical” or something. i find it impossible to put down.

audio version is on jootoob actually. gimme a sec for the link

https://youtu.be/TI0V04dP4t8

I'm finally starting to get burned out on Philip K Dick. I've read about 30 of his novels, the majority in the past year or two. I'm going to finish The Exegesis then I need something new.

Looking for books about the cross pollenation of jewish-greek culture in the B.C.E, history of Judaism. My number one curiosity is the Zadok priest lineage, how they were chased into the desert and became essenes who were the writers of the qumran/dead sea scrolls.

Anybody know any good books on the subject?

I was looking for a new smart, cerebral sci-fi book to read and I saw this..

“Inception” meets “True Detective”??? .... FUCKING SIGN ME UP!

So far the description is apt, almost astonishingly so. Very upsetting right out the gate. I’m gonna stick with it, though, I think.

im sorry i don't

Isaac Asimov's first volume of his Guide to the Bible deals a lot with the actual history presented in the Old Testament, exhaustively researched through the OG sources.

PDF download available here http://rxttbooks.blogspot.com/2014/0...ook-there.html

Whoa thanks. I'm starting to attend a synagogue. tomorrow I'm going to pick my friends brain. He has a big library.

Long Walk to Freedom, Nelson Mandela's autobiography, for my ninth grade English class.

Haven't read any Philip K Dick. If you could recommend only one, which would it be?

^^ im not a fan in general but i’ve read ubik twice. it’s highly readable somehow. just try a few pages on an online demo and see if it sticks. bet you it will. ps- avoid reviews which are full of shitty spoilers. just begin.

VALIS is nothing short of genius. It's part self analysis, autobiography, philosophy, religion. Sci fi is just the wrapping.

He had a series of religious experiences that caused him to research and analyze for years and thousands of pages of notes which led to his three best, unfortunately final, books.

Strangely the most famous pkd books are not his best. Blade runner is pure garbage compared to the novella, and i didn't think that was so great either.

I think I’m over PKD.

Like... been there, done that. Bought the T-shirt and was the fanboy ... now, whenever I re-read something of his, I’m not impressed by the quality of the writing. Still impressed by some of the ideas, but the writing was often pretty meh.

Man in Th High Castle is one of the seminal "alternate history" novels, detailing what life would be like had the Axis won WWII. Very cool stuff.

Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said is another great one. It is about a famous man who wakes up in a world in which he does not exist.

Ubik is a dope one too. It is about a man who works at a psychic agency and will warp your brain.

High Castle is cool but kind of its own thing and doesn't really represent what Dick's known for. I think the short stories are the best general introduction but Flow My Tears is a great, relatively accessible way in to his really mid-boggling stuff. Lots of his most devoted fans consider his VALIS trilogy a bit too far down the rabbit hole even for them. Either way I certainly wouldn't recommend it to anyone just getting into him.

Man in the high castle disappointed me.
Flow is ok, Ubik is great.
Also
Confessions of a Crap Artist - non sci fi story from 3 different perspectives
Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch

He has a handful of great books and quite a few lackluster ones. He wrote 3-5 novels a year during his amphetamine phase.

see? everyone loves ubik. ubik!!!

i just downloaded the kindle sample and after 2 pages im ready to read it again ha ha ha ha

These are my picks too, actually.

Ordered a copy of Ubik. Looking forward to reading it.

Gene Wolfe has passed away on 4/13/2019


here is an article by Neil gaiman that just preceded his passing
https://www.theguardian.com/books/20...neil-gaiman-sf

o man. that is a nice pre-obituary. have never read the guy.

and suddenly after today i find myself with a leeeetle extra time in my hands.

should i? which one? new sun?

Sev says New Sun. I read the first one and half of second. I got caught up in other shit and never finished. Sev is down for me to finish it.

you saying new sun is his literary batman? :eek:

no book is mandatory. i follow the borges policy on this.

but i’m curious anyway.

like the famous guaraní detective, averiguaré

Gene Wolfe was a UH grad. go coogs. https://www.tor.com/2019/04/15/gene-...C1pB5idui 1PI

dostoevsky's the idiot

what - does this guy think he's jsesu or something?

the Dune trilogy, for like, the millionth time;

FUCK!

No!

:(

Book of the Long Sun is the smartest and most amazing sci-fi book I’ve beer read, better by leaps and bounds than revered classics of the genre.

The sequels are even better than the revered classics! Book of the Long Sun, especially!

Shit. One of my favorite authors of all time.

I started reading Elena Ferrante's Neapolitan novels. It took me A VERY long time to start, as, unfortunately, the book covers are HORRIBLE (imho). Made me think they would be some really dumb-dumb dumb dumbs. I really enjoyed the first book, I read it in one day! waiting to get the three other books for cheap... probably going to buy them full price, I don't think I will be willing to wait to continue reading until cheap copies pop up somewhere...

I also got my hands on some books of authors who went to the German Institute for Literature, just to see what they write like, if it's worth going there. lol. Right now I am reading "Eiscafé Europa" by Enis Maci. It's okay, so far. But go to university? for that? hm. I feel like a lot of people on TUMBLR(!!) can write like that? and they don't have a book out. ah well, probably because they can't say "hey, I was part of this very prestigious writing course"... yup. gotcha.

houston: rape capital of global warming!

so many billions of lives ruined

shame on UH. built by oil kings with rape money!

;)

You’ve had YEARS at this point motherfucker. YEARS! :(

No time like the present!

I could literally write a book about Gene Wolfe’s “Solar Cycle” and why it’s one of the most underrated masterpieces in contemporary fiction.

The Boom of the New Sun:
I. Shadow of the Torturer
II. Claw of the Concilliator
III. Sword of the Lictor
IV. Citadel of the Autarch
* V. Urth of the New Sun (coda novella, published much later)

Book of the Long Sun:
I. Nightside the Long Sun
II. Lake of the Long Sun
III. Caldé of the Long Sun
IV. Exodus from the Long Sun

Book of the Short Sun:
I. On Blue’s Waters
II. In Green’s Jungles
III. Return to the Whorl

I would read the books in this order. Long Sun is almost as good as New Sun, but Short Sun is a slightly lesser project... though still amazing.
SHORT is an immediate sequel to LONG, though it focuses on different characters.
LONG seems like it will be a sequel to NEW, but in fact their chronological relationship is MUCH more complicated, and does not truly become clear until you read SHORT.

My god, though. What an under-appreciated talent.

His work in other genres like horror and mystery is less satisfying to me. It’s his Dickensian-by-way-of-Lovecraft works that really put him over the top.

All you dweebs should read this shit.

There’s a reason Ursula K. LeGuin Called Wolfe the “Melville” of speculative fiction

Sad

CVS receipts

“......most underrated masterpieces”......oh, yeah....

I had 54 books to read before hand.....

No worries. I had a great haul at the Half Price Books and found the OG paperbacks for all the Bok of New Sun and will be re-starting book 2 shortly.

YES!

Must spread more rep