Which Book Are You Reading Now? Volume XII

[Zkribbler]

I've been toting around (but not yet re-reading) Bernard Cornwall's Winter King, the first of his trilogy retelling the Arthurian legend. It's really a wondrous tale, far better IMHO than the traditional story.

 

[Birdjaguar]

I'm in the middle of Marko Kloos's page turner, sci fi series that begins with "Terms of Enlistment". Spaceship and ground combat 100 years from now. Six books in the series. Great stuff.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

The Herb and Spice Companion by Kathryn Hawkins, picked up at a used book store. Herbs are defined as "plants whose green parts are used to flavor food", while spices are defined as how the Oxford English Dictionary does. Short descriptions are accompanied by cooking tips, with a recipe for about half of the entries. Informative, but missing some things (e.g. cilantro tasting like soap to some people).

 

[JohannaK]

What does it say about allspice?

 

[Takhisis]

Whew! I've finally finished reading Thomas Mann's Magic Mountain.

 

[JohannaK]

I prefer Jodorowsky's Sacred Mountain

 

[AmazonQueen]

I've been toting around (but not yet re-reading) Bernard Cornwall's Winter King, the first of his trilogy retelling the Arthurian legend. It's really a wondrous tale, far better IMHO than the traditional story.

I think my favourite retelling of the Arthurian legend is the "Down the Long Wind" trilogy by Gillian Bradshaw.
Currently rereading "The Rise and Fall of the British Empire" by Lawrence James. Perhaps his greatest strength is he isn't writing to try and push a particular political viewpoint like so many, both left and right. He gives the facts, in all their frequently horrific detail, and the reasons why people at the time thought their actions were justified and/or neccessary.

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

What does it say about allspice?

It tastes of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Use as you would those three. Good on meat and fish.

 

[JohannaK]

Not wrong. Awfully short and concise, though. It is so much more versatile than that.

 

[yung.carl.jung]

I prefer Jodorowsky's Sacred Mountain

love you for this post. easily one of my favorite movies, but really I love everything he's done. santa sangre is also really nice, I dig unconvential horror movies like that.

and yeah, allspice is kinda underrated. I like it in my cantonese stir fry. chinese cooking has some bomb spices.

 

[JohannaK]

To be fair I havent read Mann's book, but that movie was just mesmerising. Sort of from another world, really. I suppose the better word is jarring, but it manages to exploit that alienness to its own benefit.

I tend to use a dash of allspice in anything for that extra oomph, you know? Typically alongside some other herb or spice to round it off.

 

[Takhisis]

Michael Grant's The Classical Greeks it is for this kitty.

To be fair I havent read Mann's book

You must take action to cure this insufficiency immediately.

 

[JohannaK]

I have a really bad experience with Mann, I got Der Tod in Venedig and the translation was so poor as to be unreadable in places. Couldnt even finish it. I will get around to it at some point.

 

[Mouthwash]

Recently finished Chronicles of Narnia. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a decent book, and unashamedly silly. But afterwards he made the mistake of trying to make it a real high fantasy, so the talking animals had to be rationalized away, a human empire was placed right next to Narnia, etc. It isn't bad, but it isn't the same world the first book gave us, which just seemed like a typical 'hidden magic' world - he put Santa Claus in it for crying out loud! And I'm not sure why The Horse and His Boy was even written.

Now The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, The Silver Chair, and The Magician's Nephew are the real soul of the series. I can't pick a favorite between them as it feels like kind of an apples/oranges comparison. The Magician's Nephew channels quite a bit of Clark Ashton Smith, which I would never have expected from Lewis, but it does add even more retcon with the origins of the Witches.

The Last Battle was a letdown. Felt like he just stuck an apocalyptic battle (which in no way feels apocalyptic) in there because he wanted to wrap everything up, and introduced Tash for no other reason than that he needed a Satan analogue to complete his preaching. And there's way more preaching than story. It's not clear to me why people call the Narnia series 'Christian allegory'. Allegory refers to a stand-in or parable, whereas Aslan literally is Jesus Christ.

Now that Narnia's done, I've started reading The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski. It consists of episodic short stories set in the Witcher Universe, and they're surprisingly good. Some the stories feel like duds even when you're halfway through with them, but they always set up something interesting before you're done. (One thing that perplexes me is the use of Gaelic sounding names for some cultures. Isn't that odd for a fantasy based on Slavic mythology?)

EDIT: The Witcher universe apparently has djinn (air genies), marides (water genies), afreet (fire genies), and d'ao (earth genies). Surely this is some kind of infringement? They're just slightly altered D&D genies.

 

[schlaufuchs]

I've been toting around (but not yet re-reading) Bernard Cornwall's Winter King, the first of his trilogy retelling the Arthurian legend. It's really a wondrous tale, far better IMHO than the traditional story.

Ugh, I love Cornwell, but I also detest him.

 

[JollyRoger]

 

[Arakhor]

Mouthwash, the first three types of genie are straight from Arabic lore, though the elemental attributions probably come from Gary Gygax.

 

[Mouthwash]

The more you learn.

 

[Cutlass]

This is the last in an odd series. Well known fantasy author Lackey got into an MMO game and decided to write the story out with some of her co-players.

 

[Takhisis]

I have a really bad experience with Mann, I got Der Tod in Venedig and the translation was so poor as to be unreadable in places. Couldnt even finish it. I will get around to it at some point.

I got ‘La montaña mágica - Thomas Mann - Nueva traducción al castellano de Isabel García Adánez’.