What book(s) are you reading in 2020?

[zlogdan]

I am in the middle of a reader's block but I am reading Gene Wolfe's Interlibrary Loan and loving it.

[Pietro_Mercurios]

The start is an utter slog. Is it worth it in the end? How many reach the end? As you've already committed your sheckles to the affair, its entirely up to you!

A. It was secondhand.

B. I'm not totally unversed in the various references & 'Easter eggs,' obvious or obscure. There's a certain perverse pleasure (jouïssance?), in their gradual unveiling.

C. It's plainly true, as recent evidence has shown, there's an all encompassing Conspiracy, for every occasion. The nuttier the better.

[Doc]

While I feel compelled to read more Peake after seeing some of this thread (I’m a fan, but haven’t read any of his work for years), I’m knee deep in some of Natti Ronel’s work on positive criminology, which has a lot in common with some restorative justice models, but is more deeply invested in rehabilitation. About to try Charlie Jane Anders’ City in the Middle of the Night. I’ve read a little of her short fiction and commentary, so I have high hopes.

[Rothgo]

... Yesterday, I bought a copy of Umberto Eco's, Foucault's Pendulum. Looking forward to that one. More relevant than ever.

The start is an utter slog. Is it worth it in the end? How many reach the end? As you've already committed your sheckles to the affair, its entirely up to you!

[Sir Sorcerer]

However, I did read & enjoy Pleij's, Dreaming of Cockaigne. Medieval Fantasies of the Perfect Life. That was a fascinating read.

Thanks for mentioning this, it sounds super interesting. I just finished Ginzburg's The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller and was searching for more books on utopian thought in the Middle Ages.

[Pietro_Mercurios]

...

Titus Groans is on my reading list for next year.

It was another Mike, a friend, who put me on to, Titus Groan. Those books are an extraordinary piece of work. When you start reading, you wonder what you're getting into, but Peake's artist's eye helps paint an extraordinary literary masterpiece. The most extraordinary characters gradually fill out & become surprisingly sympathetic. You're in for a treat. I'll say no more.

Me, I've been reading Dutch mediaevalist, Herman Pleij's Het gilde van de Blauwe Schuit (The Guild of the Blue boat), about carnival guilds & the development of the mediaeval town & its culture. There's no English translation, yet. Which is a pity. However, I did read & enjoy Pleij's, Dreaming of Cockaigne. Medieval Fantasies of the Perfect Life. That was a fascinating read. Pleij knows his subject & fantasy lands where geese come ready roasted, tarts grow on trees & rivers flow with wine, were the often speculative fiction of the Middle Ages.

Yesterday, I bought a copy of Umberto Eco's, Foucault's Pendulum. Looking forward to that one. More relevant than ever.

[J-Sun]

I'm actually going to read Titus Groan as I have ordered it from the library so that is exciting given it's good reputation. I have also ordered The king in yellow by Robert Chambers and Story of your life and others by Ted Chiang from the library. I have actually got a fair bit of reading time when I am on my train to colledge and waiting for my train so I can read faster.

King in yellow is great. I hope you enjoy it.
Titus Groans is on my reading list for next year.

[Peacefulpie]

I'm actually going to read Titus Groan as I have ordered it from the library so that is exciting given it's good reputation. I have also ordered The king in yellow by Robert Chambers and Story of your life and others by Ted Chiang from the library. I have actually got a fair bit of reading time when I am on my train to colledge and waiting for my train so I can read faster.

[EverKing]

I read Pete Townshend's "Who I Am" last week. Some good stories and insights into his past but really nothing that stood out as particularly new or eye-opening that he hadn't talked about in previous interviews over the years. According to the afterward his first draft was about twice the length of the published memoir and I think it is a bit of a shame that we weren't given the long version which may have had more new material than what we ended with. His voice reminds me in many ways of Mike but that may just be an effect of era and geography, navigating the pop culture underground of 60's London. Overall, it was a fair read and worth it for those with an interest in Rock'n'Roll memoirs but I can't say one will learn much from it.

[Doc]

I am trying not to be distracted from my goal of reading all of the Elric books (so far 3 down, 4 to go, but the Moonbeam Roads alone is over 1000 pages). But I also try to take it slowly as I am really enjoying the language and many layers of meaning in the stories. Discovering MM's work has been the best thing happening this year which has otherwise been a living hell.

Something good has to come from 2020. haha

[Sir Sorcerer]

I am trying not to be distracted from my goal of reading all of the Elric books (so far 3 down, 4 to go, but the Moonbeam Roads alone is over 1000 pages). But I also try to take it slowly as I am really enjoying the language and many layers of meaning in the stories. Discovering MM's work has been the best thing happening this year which has otherwise been a living hell.

[Doc]

Not a criticism. 😁
they say Teddy Roosevelt did the same.

I get through some to-do lists that way. It seems like everything is barely started and suddenly I have three projects down. I occasionally read that way, especially if I’m in a period of heavy academic reading. I can keep three or four books going on an academic project, one novel, and a couple of short stories, but I often get completely single-minded and plow through one thing. No matter what! 😂

I’m like you, though, when I stop, I can really stop. I always want to have something else going or
ready to go when I’m about to finish something. Strange how that momentum works.

[Doc]

Impressive yet a bit horrifying J-Sun !🤩..[SIZE=14px][FONT=Times New Roman].i have thought of myself as being ( in every way ) all over the road like some sort of J.G. Ballard car wreck but your kind of Biblo-mania seems beyond my understanding of the scale at which anyone could assimilate information.

More things should be described as J.G. Ballard car wrecks, and all such descriptions should be followed by a recommendation for Crash. Ballard is so great.

[Doc]

Fiction: Mike's Count Brass
Bradbury; Something Wicked this way comes.
.

This is an interesting pair. Hope you make it through them.

Something Wicked terrified me as a kid. The unease took awhile to shake. My biggest recollection is a sense of menace that permeated a bunch of conventional representations of joy.

[J-Sun]

Not a criticism. 😁
Since I try to read a lot, if I were to read one book at a time I would finish some of the shorter ones within a day or two. I find that when I do that, I struggle to remember anything about them. By dragging them out to a chapter a day, i have more time to dwell on them. But then I need to read something like 5 or more at a time obviously or I’m barely reading.

they say Teddy Roosevelt did the same.