What have you been reading lately? (non-linguistic ed.)

[gach]

I started Mika Waltari's The Dark Angel (Finnish: Johannes Angelos) yesterday as travel reading and now I don't know at all why I haven't taken to read him more systematically in the past.

It's not linguistics, but there's a wordplay in there

Edit: Split from: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=4580

[eldin raigmore]

I just finished Max Barry's novel "Lexicon".
It's really fun for people like us.
I binged it in 13 hours, from around 1:00pm Saturday afternoon to around 2:00am Sunday morning.
It doesn't actually have a conlang in it.
It has several vocabulary words from one or more conlangs; but only the protagoniste realizes they're organizable into a complete language, instead of just being a collection of independent "words".
But it makes good plot-driving use of many of the ideas we've discussed on this board and similar community websites.

---

Would it be "spammy" for me to say I very much recommend it?

[Egerius]

Speaking of binging, I read the first three Harry Potter books in 6 days.
This happened in October 2016 and I've had no time to pick up where I left (first third of the fourth book by November 1) since. Welp...

[Adarain]

Lately I've been filling my literary gap that is Pratchett. I've read eight of his books now. Now it's time to go back to some heavier reading with The Languages of Native North America.

[Lao Kou]

On the Chinese side: 时间之书：余世存说二十四节气 (A Book on Time: Yu Shicun Schmoozes About the Twenty-Four (Traditional Chinese) Seasonal Divisions) by Yu Shicun
(hopefully obviously, translation mine)
On the English side: The Alexiad by Anna Komnene, translated by E.R.A. Sewter

[DesEsseintes]

The Alexiad by Anna Komnene, translated by E.R.A. Sewter

Ooh nice!

[Micamo]

Recently read:


Currently reading:


Up next:


EDIT: Crap, didn't realize these images were all gonna come out this big. Lemme know if anyone has problems?

[lsd]

A little comment maybe to make us want to read them ...

[shimobaatar]

A little comment maybe to make us want to read them ...

It isn't Micamo's job to advertise these books; they're just answering the questions put forth by the thread's title.

Also, perhaps this thread could be merged with this one?

[eldin raigmore]

Also, perhaps this thread could be merged with this one?

Yes, please! I looked for that thread and couldn't find it.

[lsd]

It isn't Micamo's job to advertise these books; they're just answering the questions put forth by the thread's title

The pleasure of reading is also to share discoveries ( I'm not sure advertising has the same purpose...) more than spread a bibliography without object ...
But if the title does not say it ...

[Micamo]

If they *really* want some quick summaries:

The Wolf of the North - Viking dude blusters around a lot. Kinda mediocre. 3 stars.
The Hate U Give - A teenage girl witnesses a cop murdering her friend. 5 stars, highly recommended.
Ninefox Gambit - Possessed by the ghost of a centuries dead general, a soldier must retake a space station. Delightfully weird, but ends just as it's getting interesting. 4 stars.

Kiss The Girl - Girl at an ad agency falls in love with her rival. (It's lesbian.)
Court of Broken Knives - I'm honestly not sure what the plot of this one is yet? It's grimdark fantasy that's so far mostly just focused on gory death descriptions.
Corsair - Space piracy by way of computer hacking.

When Dimple Met Rishi - A desi girl is put in an arranged marriage she initially does not want but eventually falls in love with her fiance.
On The Edge Of Gone - After a comet impact destroys civilization, an autistic girl must find a place for her and her family on a generation ship.
Our Dark Duet - Two monster hunters team up to confront their past.

[lsd]

I just finished Max Barry's novel "Lexicon".
It's really fun for people like us....
Would it be "spammy" for me to say I very much recommend it?

I got it... gotta try it this summer...

[Lambuzhao]

Krondor: The Assassins by Raymond E. Feist. I began it about a month ago when I went to Jury Selection.

Haven't continued yet.

[alynnidalar]

Let's see, what are some recent (new) things for me...

I recently read Declare by Tim Powers. It's a somewhat dark fantasy spy thriller taking place during the Cold War. In brief, a spy during World War II found himself drawn into a mysterious organization dealing with the supernatural. His biggest, most-important mission, fails spectacularly. Twenty years later, he has a chance to give it another shot.

A true summary of the book would mention so many things--but part of the joy of reading this book was when I was about halfway in and still was just starting to uncover what it's all about. If this sounds at all like the kind of thing you're into, I would advise not reading too much about the plot, to preserve the mystery. Definite 5 stars for me.

Aside from that, I confess it's mostly been rereading old stuff, for me. I'm redoing the Witcher books at the moment. It's a weird series. I like 'em, though.

Brief summary for them, if you're unfamiliar: the stories are about Geralt, a witcher (essentially a grumpy professional monster hunter); his off-and-on-again lover, the sorceress Yennefer; and their sort-of adopted daughter Ciri, who might destroy the world someday and everyone wants control of. The books are set in a grim (but still often funny) pseudo-medieval fantasy world of the "everyone is always at war and life really sucks if you're a peasant" variety, with lots of confusing politics. They started off as some short stories about Geralt's travels (complete with pastiches of fairy tales), but the end of the short stories set up the main plot of the novel series, which focuses on the Geralt/Yennefer/Ciri story. They're odd books, and I feel I haven't done them justice at all through this description. One thing I like about them is the mix of a scientific and mystical approach to magic; it's always funny when Geralt gets annoyed by superstitious woo-woo turning out to be true, despite all scientific evidence to the contrary.

(because the original books are in Polish and only got translated later, you may be more familiar with the series title through the videogames, which are set after the novels but came out in English earlier)

I give them... man. I dunno. Three stars, I guess? They're kind of trash. But I absolutely love them. (and I'm not sure how much of the weird writing is a result of translation, and how much is original)

[elemtilas]

Tolkien's Final Witness;
Headland's Court Life in China;
Wilson's Bayeaux Tapestry;
Belasco & Byrne's Book of Fairy Tales.

[lsd]

La Licorne et le Dragon; Les malentendus dans la recherche de l’universel
(The Unicorn and the Dragon: The misunderstandings in the search for universal)
From a series of seminars between European and Chinese researchers on the cultural misunderstanding between East and West ...

[KaiTheHomoSapien]

It's cool to see that so many people here enjoy fantasy--I expected as much from the conworlding community. :)

When I read fiction, I often do read sci/fi or fantasy. Recently I've been reading Orson Scott Card's other novels in the "Ender" series, as well as some of Philip K. Dick's stories.

But I also read a lot of non-fiction. I just finished a book on JFK called An Unfinished Life and still plowing through Sihler's Comparative Grammar of Greek and Latin :)

[sangi39]

I've been re-reading Sal's reviews in his Disworld Re-Read Project because why the hell not? I love the Discworld novels and Sal's reviews are pretty damn good. I disagree from time to time on specific points, but when it comes to overall "scores" I'm more or less with him on every book

[elemtilas]

Finished Tolkien's Final Witness --- pretty good read, actually. And I don't often read courtroom / legal dramas. Also appreciated a few easter egg homages towards his illustrious grandfather's Legendarium!