What are you currently reading?

[Simple Torture]

haven't read this one yet, what do you think?

The introduction was nice! That's as far as I've gotten.

[Malloy]

"I am trying to think if there's any reason for having fun anymore on any level? I know that that's not the kind of thing people usually talk about. God forbid--so I scale the roof all the way to the ridge and I have never had to climb down."

[BurtReynolds]

Early unpublished and unfinished essay. Great quick little read that summarizes pre-Socratic philosophy, before Socrates-Plato fucked everything up for the next 2000+ years. Last 20 pages get's surprisingly complex though, which is unusual for him. Those took longer to read that than the previous 80 pages.

7 thumbs up.

[Simple Torture]

haven't read this one yet, what do you think?

The introduction was nice! That's as far as I've gotten.

I was highlighting passages that I thought would be good for first-day intros to a literature class, then I remembered I don't teach anymore.

[lennytheweedwhacker]

haven't read this one yet, what do you think?

The introduction was nice! That's as far as I've gotten.

I was highlighting passages that I thought would be good for first-day intros to a literature class, then I remembered I don't teach anymore.

Are you going to be okay?

[Simple Torture]

You bet!

[lennytheweedwhacker]

[Simple Torture]

haven't read this one yet, what do you think?

The introduction was nice! That's as far as I've gotten.

1/4 of the way through or so and like this quite a bit.

[BurtReynolds]

"Ernst Jünger's The Forest Passage explores the possibility of resistance: how the independent thinker can withstand and oppose the power of the omnipresent state. No matter how extensive the technologies of surveillance become, the forest can shelter the rebel, and the rebel can strike back against tyranny. Jünger's manifesto is a defense of freedom against the pressure to conform to political manipulation and artificial consensus. A response to the European experience under Nazism, Fascism, and Communism, The Forest Passage has lessons equally relevant for today, wherever an imposed uniformity threatens to stifle liberty."

Kind of an earlier rough draft of what would later become Eumeswil, which I think is his masterpiece.

I found this one to be kinda meandering and muddled though.
It didn't really inspire me or get the blood pumping the way most books like this do.

It doesn't have much use to me except to show the transition between early Storm of Steel Junger and later Eumeswil Junger.

[BurtReynolds]

Let's see how far I get before I give up.

I read his Prolegomena and didn't find it that impossible, so maybe I'll make it. See you in 4 years.

Posted two months ago, and I'm still chipping away at it. About halfway through. I think the worst is over though. It's starting to make sense.

[Norah]

Decided to dive into the Wheel of Time series. I'm like 20% into the first book and I'm really enjoying it so far.

[BurtReynolds]

Couldn't get past the first book. Just seemed like a blatant LOTR ripoff. I assume it diverges later, but holy shit.

[blueviper]

Cloud Cuckoo Land - Anthony Doerr

That's on my list, too. My good friend absolutely loved it.

Finished it. It's a great read.

[epilogue]

Cloud Cuckoo Land - Anthony Doerr

That's on my list, too. My good friend absolutely loved it.

Finished it. It's a great read.

[lennytheweedwhacker]

I was thinking about doing a reread of The Road or No Country, but you guys just reminded me I set Lincoln on the Bardo to the side so may pick it back up first

[tragabigzanda]

Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.

[epilogue]

RIP Joad Didion. I've never actually read any of her books. Where should I start?

Play It As It Lays if you want fiction.

Year of Magical Thinking if you want non-fiction/memoir

[epilogue]

Play it as it Lays is one of my all-time favorite novels, for whatever that's worth.

[tragabigzanda]

Whenever there's active promotion on the part of somebody else, whenever I see somebody all dolled up for a fancy photograph and someone's handing out flyers or whenever there's active promotion for something like that, as an imposition on my day, I hate all those people and I want them to fail. I have a visceral reaction to advertising and promotion. There's just something about salesmanship that grates on me on a very base level and I react very negatively towards it. I want those people to suffer and I want their enterprises to fail.

[Mickey]

Fwiw I found Play to be pretty dull and forgettable, but ymmv. Much prefer the essays, especially Slouching.