Which book are you reading now? Volume XI

[Borachio]

Yes. Indeed I have. A very dull read it was, too.

 

[Traitorfish]

You're better off reading his alternate-universe book.

 

[Borachio]

That's not a popular well-know book. My library doesn't recognize it at all.

But it doesn't seem to recognize The Hero with a Thousand Faces, either.

Hmm.

 

[Arakhor]

It's a notable alt-hist work, like that of Harry Turtledove and all his ilk.

 

[Kozmos]

I remember reading something of Harry Turtledove and remember being disgusted and disappointed even early into my reading career when I had small standards.

 

[JohannaK]

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, by a William Shakespeare. Hast thou perchance heard of him?

Whatever I have to say pales in comparison to what has been said.

 

[Antilogic]

So I've finished Hobsbawm's third volume (The Age of Empire: 1875-1914). It, like his other works, was not a chronological retelling of a story but rather a series of essays organized around major concepts like the role of women in society, how science developed and impacted society, the arts, and of course several chapters on political, economic, and diplomatic themes.

I think I read this book wrongly, if that makes sense. At some points, I was only able to sit down and read a couple pages because it felt like a dense book that you have to pay close attention to when reading. At other times, I devoted a couple hours and read a couple of chapters at once, on divergent subjects. The proper way to tackle this would have been one full chapter (one essay/subject) at a time, and give some time between readings to think about the topic.

 

[Cutlass]

Slow Train to Arcturus Eric Flint and Dave Freer.

Didn't really like it. Though I've read things I liked by both authors in the past. This one is just too political for a scifi story. Unnecessarily so.

Monsters of the Earth David Drake.

I've read a selection of things by him in the past. But never most of his work. And this book kind of reminds me why. Didn't like this one either. It is supposed to be a book that could either stand alone, or be read as part of a series. And so far as that goes, yeah, it could, though it refers back to previous stories too much to do that job well. But beyond that it fails in the far overused trope of having a bunch of rank bloody amateur children save the damned world. And how did they do it? Well, through no virtue of their own, purely by luck, they end up being deposited right where they need to be, and have all the skills and knowledge that they need gifted to them by some unknown force.

Codex Born Jim C Hines.

This is a sequel to Libriomancer. This one I liked. It's different enough from other fantasy and urban fantasy to be interesting. Not a great book, but worth a read.

 

[JohannaK]

Oedipus the King, interesting, although of course I already knew the tale. It's nice and its brief. Why, I very much preferred Hamlet or many a modern play to it, but we have to get into the horizon of expectations or whatever and then it is truly one very good work.

 

[Borachio]

Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, by a William Shakespeare. Hast thou perchance heard of him?

Whatever I have to say pales in comparison to what has been said.

Still...

What did you think?

 

[JohannaK]

I do think it is an interesting piece that raises equally interesting questions.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

Central Asia: 130 Years of Russian Dominance, A Historical Overview - ed. by Edward Allworth

Studying up for dissertation research now that the semester is over. Fun.

 

[Mouthwash]

Central Asia: 130 Years of Russian Dominance, A Historical Overview - ed. by Edward Allworth

Studying up for dissertation research now that the semester is over. Fun.

What's the dissertation for?

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

What's the dissertation for?

It's for my Master's.

Do you mean what's it about? The interaction between Bolshevik administration and traditional Muslim society in the 1920s, with a specific focus on the events surrounding Basmachestvo.

 

[Josu]

Ended a few weeks ago Valerio Massimo Mandredi's Empire of Dragons. I spected much more, by far.
Started A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson, I have read the half of the book and I think that this is a must

 

[Borachio]

I read that a few years ago. It's still sitting on my shelf. I can't seem to remember a thing about it now.

 

[Mouthwash]

It's for my Master's.

In what?

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

In what?

Russian, Central, and East European Studies.

 

[bhsup]

In what?

Russian, Central, and East European Studies.

You realize this will make you, once you have the degree, uniquely qualified to answer -the- question once and for all, don't you?

 

[Borachio]

The question of what becomes of my socks in the washing machine? The machine that only accepts pairs of socks and only produces odd socks.

(Yes, yes. I know what question you mean. It still pales into insignificance beside The Sock Question.)