what are you reading now?

[ver$hy ver$h]

Walking seems effective - haven't tried that myself. I wouldn't have much space to, unless I went outside somewhere, so I'd just be pacing around inside, which may still be effective.

I do it inside. I don't do it often though, I mostly sit down. if I'm reading something at the computer, I'll get up and walk around and stuff and keep coming back to it.

 

[mixed_biscuits]

Anyone try reading standing up? I've been find that when I sit down, depending on the posture/shape of the seat, I often get a bit fidgety in terms of shifted my weight, crossing my legs to have my book rested at a more readable angle, etc.

But the last couple days, I've tried reading standing up, and I seem to have an easier time focusing, but I'm not sure if that is incidental, IE not really attributable to this change in posture.

Make sure you have a spotter to finish off the sentence if you pass out.

Lying down is the most critically discerning position as any deficiencies in the material are swiftly punished by falling asleep.

 

[jenks]

For me it has to be either lying down or a comfy chair. I’ve got one of those Alex lights which I really swear by - designed supposedly for readers. Anyway, when I was young and foolish, I’d read while walking along the street (I suppose no different from everyone being glued to their phones now) I’m surprised somebody just didn’t thump me for being pretentious - I probably deserved it

 

[jenks]

Finished my chronological re-read of Vonnegut today. The pic isn’t a humble brag, nor is it a plain brag - just an idea of what was involved- if anyone wants to chat about Kurt, I’d be willing to talk

 

[Murphy]

@jenks ‘unstuck in time’ as dissociation?

anyone who survived incendiary fire bombing in Dresden must have had a few fissure points

 

[jenks]

As he said on a number of occasions that the only person to ever profit from the Dresden firebombing was himself. The more you read him, the more convincing that he’s riddled with survivor’s guilt.

 

[droid]

Which was your favourite?

 

[jenks]

Which was your favourite?

I think Bluebeard and Galapagos but there’s a reason Slaughterhouse is a classic. Structurally perfect and it feels like a culmination of something he’s been worrying away at for years. But Bluebeard I think is almost a summing up work - the last time all the gears mesh. I also find it one of the few where he is genuinely moving. Galapagos almost feels like it could be narrated by 80s Laurie Anderson- that same voice. But saying all that I enjoyed something from all of them.

The non fiction work Fates Worse Than Death is a great collection of rage filled pieces from the 80s - as I wrote elsewhere, I’d have loved to hear him write about Trump.

 

[droid]

Ill have to check those, Ive only read 6 or 7.

 

[IdleRich]

Picked up a few bits and bobs from the second hand bookshop the other day. Amongst them was one by Ambrose Bierce who created the Devil's Dictionary and An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge. This one however was a short story which they'd stretched out to look like a novella and then sold as a novel - the price was a rip-off is what I'm saying - called The Monk and The Hangman's Daughter.

It was perhaps most noteworthy for the device it used in which it had a foreword, which in reality is part of the book, in which it relates about the story being a German folk-tale that was brought to the publisher by some guy who translated and possibly embellished it before-hand. I guess you get something similar at the start of Lolita (famously one reprint removed it and replaced it with their own foreword embarrassingly) and there is a Gogol one (Viy) that pretends to be a folktale, and a Checkov one (The Hunting Party?) which also concocts a similar fiction.

Maybe someone who knows more can tell me more about this device which - with the examples that sprang to mind - seemed to be popular amongst Russians. What's the idea behind it, who did it first etc

 

[droid]

I recently read Peter Heller's 'The Orchard', which is a beautiful little book that features some gorgeous poetry from a fictional Tang poet.

 

[IdleRich]

And after that I'm reading a Portuguese book by Antonio Lobo Antunes, apparently it represents a major literary event. The main thing for me is I notice how flowery and poetic the writing is even when dealing with the most vulgar subjects - which it does with gusto. And it reminds me that Portuguese books are often like this, in fact if you took say a Portuguese Wikipedia article in translation and compared it to the English one then the difference would be noticeable with the English one much more matter of fact.

So subconsciously when I moved here I think I'd been expecting the average Portuguese person to speak more in that vein. I mean maybe it's like expecting the English to speak like Shakespeare, but this book was written in the 70s... well, either this has died out in our increasingly homogenised world or maybe I'm stupid expecting to see a link between a people and its literature, but I haven't met any Portuguese who display even the slightest tendency towards poetry and I have met quite a few.

 

[jenks]

Picked up a few bits and bobs from the second hand bookshop the other day. Amongst them was one by Ambrose Bierce who created the Devil's Dictionary and An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge. This one however was a short story which they'd stretched out to look like a novella and then sold as a novel - the price was a rip-off is what I'm saying - called The Monk and The Hangman's Daughter.

It was perhaps most noteworthy for the device it used in which it had a foreword, which in reality is part of the book, in which it relates about the story being a German folk-tale that was brought to the publisher by some guy who translated and possibly embellished it before-hand. I guess you get something similar at the start of Lolita (famously one reprint removed it and replaced it with their own foreword embarrassingly) and there is a Gogol one (Viy) that pretends to be a folktale, and a Checkov one (The Hunting Party?) which also concocts a similar fiction.

Maybe someone who knows more can tell me more about this device which - with the examples that sprang to mind - seemed to be popular amongst Russians. What's the idea behind it, who did it first etc

The Scarlet Letter does it too I think. All about how the document was found in a trunk in attic or something. Vonnegut is fond of an author’s forward which are slightly different to what you’re describing.

 

[IdleRich]

The Checkov one has an afterword too which mentions chapters supposedly cut from the manuscript which thus cleverly completes the story

 

[Corpsey]

The Scarlet Letter does it too I think. All about how the document was found in a trunk in attic or something. Vonnegut is fond of an author’s forward which are slightly different to what you’re describing.

I don't remember all that much about Jekyll and Hyde now but I do remember really enjoying the Russian Doll sort of narrative where it's all letters and second hand accounts etc.

I think this might have been quite a common device in the novel, esp. in its earlier years, this distancing device to make things seem more plausible? Immediately Gulliver's Travels springs to mind.

 

[Corpsey]

Epistolary novel - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[jenks]

I don't remember all that much about Jekyll and Hyde now but I do remember really enjoying the Russian Doll sort of narrative where it's all letters and second hand accounts etc.

I think this might have been quite a common device in the novel, esp. in its earlier years, this distancing device to make things seem more plausible? Immediately Gulliver's Travels springs to mind.

Yep. Those early novels are full of these devices - not just letters but diaries, news reports - Dracula is a good example. I think generally that game playing attitude which we associate with post modernism is there very early - Defoe getting in trouble for suggesting he’s telling a true story about Robinson Crusoe. Liaison’s Dangerous is a fantastic epistolary novel.

 

[Clinamenic]

So I've started reading Feynman's Six Easy Pieces, being the six most essential/fundamental/accessible sections from his undergraduate course Lectures on Physics, at CalTech I believe.

A lot of this stuff I've heard him explain in bits and pieces across lectures and interviews on youtube, but so far, all of it together paints a very intuitive and accessible picture of basic physics, tying together various fragments of my understanding and addressing various gaps in it.

Anyone else here ever read it? @Mr. Tea @HMGovt’s Glorious Return! @IdleRich ?

 

[Mr. Tea]

So I've started reading Feynman's Six Easy Pieces, being the six most essential/fundamental/accessible sections from his undergraduate course Lectures on Physics, at CalTech I believe.

A lot of this stuff I've heard him explain in bits and pieces across lectures and interviews on youtube, but so far, all of it together paints a very intuitive and accessible picture of basic physics, tying together various fragments of my understanding and addressing various gaps in it.

Anyone else here ever read it? @Mr. Tea @HMGovt’s Glorious Return! @IdleRich ?

No, it's something I keep meaning to get round to. I know it's meant to be very good. The only Feynman I've read is Surely you're joking, Mr Feynman - or "Dick's joke book", as Murray Gell-Mann used to call it.

 

[hmg]

Yes, sitting on the shelf behind me. I like the James gleick biography, Genius, best