I vaguely remember reading the first half of a book by him where some dude who was missing part of his dick met Gauss or Leibniz, but I never finished it
That must have been the Baroque Cycle which is a challenging read, try starting with Snow Crash, itās what put him on the map and has an opening chapter that still stands up as one of the best.
1 Like
My personal Stephenson favorites are Cryptonomicon (which ranks among my all-time favorite books and which Iāve read probably a dozen times), followed by The Diamond Age. Read the Baroque Cycle and it is indeed a challenging read. Among his more recent offerings, the only one I really enjoyed was Seveneves.
Interestingly, though heās most well-known for it I didnāt love Snow Crash as much as most people.
1 Like
I agree, Cryptonomicon is probably my favorite of his. I still remember asking the clerk at a Borders in Ohio to get it out of the back so I could get it on its release date.
Snow Crash has problems but for an early work it holds up pretty well. The logos stuff in the middle drags a lot and the ending isnāt particularly strong. But I believe itās the first time the term metaverse was used and is still what I want to see when I put on the Apple Vision.
1 Like
I havenāt read a novel in a few months, but as I see my library hold for Kristin Hannahās The Women has come in, I suppose Iāll need to break that drought. Hannah is one of my favorite contemporary authors, which is mighty big of me to say since sheās a University of Washington alum. The Nightingale is one of the best contemporary books Iāve read; even in the very crowded subgenre of WWII historical fiction, it was a big standout. The Great Alone and The Four Winds were great too. Her work runs pretty dark and depressing at times, but it does feel like her emotional payoffs are well-earned.
A film adaptation of The Nightingale has been getting teased forever, but remains in pre-production hell, so Iām not counting on it happening anytime soon. For Hannahās sake, I was happy to see that Firefly Lane got adapted as a Netflix series even though itās not one of her very best books.
1 Like
Nightingale was really good. I liked the great alone a lot. I liked the story and being set in Alaska is always cool
Four winds seems completely unnecessary. As sometimes happens with my media consumption I had some overlap. I re read the grapes of wrath about a month before reading the four winds (wife said read this youāll like it)
It felt like that Pam same picture meme. Just not as good of a writer as Steinbeck.
Wasnāt bad. Just read grapes of wrath instead.
1 Like
have to finish listening to Crime and Punishment for book club.
fuck itās tedious. like i get it that itās a classic etc etc, but seriously in the modern age it might be nothing more than a 3-4 episode story arc of a streaming show in the L&O blueprint, and nothing more.
Hmm, yeah, being ignorant to The Grapes of Wrath may well have helped that experience for me. I believe I was forced to read The Grapes of Wrath in a high school class, but Iād be lying if I pretended to retain all but the broadest details about it.
recent reads, off to a good start this year
Last year:
Ours was the shining future by David Leonhardt: i forget his main points in conclusion, hs more centrist but i agreed with him mostly, mostly about how we got to the shitty place we are now, would recommend if thats your jam
When breath comes air by Paul Kalanithi: guy goes through med school and then finds out he has stage 4 lung cancer, sad and he didnt get to finish it because he dies so kinda falls off a cliff but interesting and he has some good writing about death in there
The Boy, the mole, the fox and the horse by Charlie Mackesy: graphic novel thats more like a kids book, good if youāre into that sort of thing i guess?
Open Borders by Bryan Caplan: graphic novel in support of open borders, quite good, lots of data and reasoning
This year:
The tools by Phil Stutz: read this after watching the phil stutz/jonah hill doc on netflix, not that good though, its really written by some other dude in conjunction with phil but eh its just not that good, wouldnt really recommend it.
The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui: graphic novel written by someone whos family came to america from vietnam during the war, i liked it
Owning your own shadow by Robert Johnson: about the jungian concept of the shadow but heavily layored with Christianity and its overall ideas i dont agree with.
The Way I am by Eminem: always wanted to read something about him and this was well reviewed so tried it, but theres not much there, lots of photos of him and some things i didnt know but not great overall
Mortality by Christopher Hitchens: Hitchens talking about mortality and such before his death, i liked it
The Prophet by Kahil Gibran: meh, canāt really recommend although im sure there is some nuggets in there that are good
Black AF History by Michael Harriot : quite good history centered on african americans obviously and lots of jokes in the writing
When things fall apart by Pema Chodron: i think i read this last year and I read it again but great for aspiring buddhists or meditators
All Systems Red by Martha wells: really quick scifi read from perspective of a robot/human cyborg, would recommend and its a series so i plan to read more soon
Freedoms Dominion by Jefferson Cowie: phenomenal history book about barbour county and Eufaula alabama from creek indian wars to civil rights. won the pulitzer prize and i loved it but probably moreso because iām an alabamian. Iāve never been to eufaula because its not on the road to anything but planning on taking a detour this weekend to check it out.
The Undertow, scenes from a slow civil war by Jeff Sharlet - good collection of essays from a guy that writes about trumpism and mega churches and religion and connections of all that, iām not a huge fan of how he writes but its interesting writing. Stories about mega churches and mens rights organizations and other crazy stuff.
The Hammer by Hamilton Nolan: about labor organizing in the last 20 years and the need for more, liked it a lot, he has a great substack that i would recommend subscribing to if you are interested in labor writing. he also writes about politics in conjunction as well
1 Like
It holds up. Steinbeck is a master.
The four winds isnāt bad. Just felt like when they remake a 50 year old movie but update some plot
Points like cell phones and border crisis etc
Maybe it seems that way because Crime and Punishment was the inspiration for Columbo
Crime and punishment is elite. Puts you right into the mind of the bad guy.
It is. And Dostoevsky is an absolute joy to read once you acclimate to his writing.
The Woman in Me by Britney Spears was easy to read but hard to read too for the trauma throughout her life. I came into it expecting to hate Justin Timberlake for encouraging her to get an abortion during their relationship, but Iām still not sure what to think of that part given how young and immature they both were. What stood out was her saying she doesnāt believe Justin understands his ability to evoke shame in her, or he might be more careful with what heād said about her in interviews and his music.
The parts about her being in a conservatorship for thirteen years was awful. I related to the constant gaslighting from her family, making her believe she had so much power as a performer but unable to trust her competence or sense of reality. Itās arguable whether she needed help when she was first put under conservatorship, but her father never should have been her steward, and thereās no reason it should have lasted as long as it did.
1 Like
no, i get it, but the bad guy is a giant whiny bitch. itās just not even remotely interesting to find out how he gets caught.
1 Like
I just thought the way D created this character and we are feeling all the emotions. Read it back in college and was so much different than anything I read before that.
iām listening to it in original language with a supposedly good voice actor. i honestly donāt know how it compares to translations. but itās actually not uncommon for russian speakers to love either tolstoy or dostoyevsky, but not both. according to a classics expert i sometimes watch on the youtubes.
I canāt even handle contemporary fiction on audio book. Iād be lost with Dostoevsky.
Iāve only read Anna Karenina from Tolstoy, and it had some great stuff, but overall I didnāt like his style as much as Dostoevsky. Translation does matter a lot though.
Dost is elite
War in peace is so boring. Havenāt read anything else by him. Prob will read AK at some point.
Re: Anna Karenina, everything involving the title character herself is really compelling. But a significant portion of the book is devoted to a supporting character, Levin, and too many of those chapters are a slog.