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Greetings,

I am sure we are all reading various books right now for fun, school, or work. I am interested in what you are reading and what your general thoughts are on the title in question.

For example:

I am reading SPQR by Mary Beard. It is essentially a brief overview of Roman society from the beginning until the grant of universal citizenship. The exact date eludes me at the moment. However, I find the look into the early, mythical time of Roman history to be particularly interesting and useful. The author is a classicist, but puts little stock in what the ancient writers actually had to say about this time. Instead, she tries to de-construct and re-construct with the sparse archaeological evidence available what the early founding and "monarchy" periods say about the Roman "national" character. She uses a similar skeptical approach as she approaches the other periods trying to deuce what the special sauce was of the Roman Republic and Early Imperial age.

The author definitely knows her subject, but I can't help but shake the feeling that she is over-reaching in her goals. It is nice to see some critical analysis of the classical texts and an attempt to portray how the "big events" of the periods did or did not really impact the average citizen. I was disappointed how little time she spent with Marius, Sulla, and Spartacus though. However, her thoughts on the Social War were pretty interesting.

Not quite done, but I would recommend this to anyone with a passing interest in Roman society. Ms. Beard has some 'Hot Takes" from what you traditionally read and looks at some details often overlooked in other accounts of the period. At least from what this general reader has not been exposed to.


Your turn!

SPQR is one of the better books out there right now for "big" Roman history. Good choice. I agree she tends to reach for more than she can grasp, but that's not always a bad thing.

I've been reading... less because I'm actively in a writing project in the moment. The last book I read was China: A History by John Keay. Yep. I finally got around to the China section of my reading list XD.

It's okay. Trying to smack 5000+ years of history into 300 pages leaves the guy coming up short a lot but I don't think there's anyway around it. He covers the big stuff. The periods what defined them how they changed the course, so on and so forth. If you know barely anything about Chinese history it works.

I’ve nearly finished Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and I’d hugely recommend it. Sometimes I wonder if older books are overrated or horrible dated, but it’s excellent. Before this I read Spy Who Came in from the Cold and couldn’t put it down.

Next up is probably some Philip K Dick.

Fitting for the interests of dakka I’ve got a history book.

Triumph of Evil - The Reality of the USA’s Cold War Victory

I thought it was going to be a bit more narrowly about democracy in east Germany and its destruction by the US and Bonn government.

It turns out that instead of being fairly personal ethnography and historical narrative, it has a lot of figures relating to American genocides, in the kind of bloodless style of so many history buff style books. The only and defining difference is that it reflects the existences of humans instead of an abstract history buff scenario.

Reading Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn novels. Entertaining, but nothing groundbreaking.
Finished Erikson's Malazan books, now reading Esslemont's take on the world. Path to Ascendancy trilogy is subpar (seriously, stop saying "fellow" every other word or so), but Night of Knives was a ripping read though, so I'm giving him another chance.

I'm 2/3rds of the way through Death on the Cherwell, a classic detective story from the mid 1930s, set in a Oxford college.

Also dipping into the introduction to The Odyssey (by Homer) in the 2017 translation by Emily Wilson. I'm looking forwards t conrtasting her interpretation with the other two translations I own, a Victorian one in archaic language style and the TE Lawrence version which I think was published in the 1930s.

ボクは坊さん(I'm a (buddhist) priest). Head priest of Eifukuji temple in Shikoku who became head priest of that temple when he was 24 describing how he became to that position, his job there and his musings on combining buddhism into present life style.

Have read 2 other books of this priest and as usual continues clear way of describing what it is like to be a head priest and what kind of things they do along with funny stories of his every day life.

I am about to start Carthage Must Be Destroyed by Rochard Miles which is supposed to be about Carthage based on what we can piece together from Roman and Greek sources. I am hoping it is not just a dressed up history of Rome and Greece with a veneer of Carthage on top, but we will see.

Anyone else read it?

Just finished John Scalzi's "Redshirts" and I have to say as a long time star trek watcher, it was brilliant! I'm also working my way through the Notenki Memoirs. It's a great book written about the founding of the Japanese Animation studio, GAINAX by Yasuhiro Takeda. I read it once on a trip to Scotland over 12 years ago and I'm realizing now how much I missed the first time I read it, of course I was 19 back then, but still, it's a great book at a fascinating piece of Anime history.

As mentioned above I started dipping into the preface of the 'new' Emily Wilson translation of Homer's Odyssey. I say 'new' because it was published in 2017. It is however the most modern translation of The Odyssey, and the first one done by a woman scholar. This of course brings a new perspective.

The introduction takes up 15% of the book. It covers the history of the text, which began as an oral tradition in the period between about 1,000 and 800 BCE. There is a lot of analysis of various themes, structure, and comparison between these ancient Greek points and the choices made in modern translations.

For example, Homer 'wrote' in dactylic hexameter, which was the standard Greek meter for poetry. Most English poetry is written in iambic pentameter, due to a structural difference in the length of English words and the way they are pronounced. To write English in hexameter gives it an archaic, slightly ponderous feel – often chosen deliberately to mimic the archaic nature of Homer’s text.

Emily Wilson has chosen to write in iambic pentameter, keeping the length of each line and the total number of lines identical to the original. This gives the poetry the dynamic pace of Homer, who wasn’t composing an archaic piece but a fast moving adventure for a modern (to him) audience. The words chosen also are short and modern. Having got into the first book, it does rattle along at a good pace.

There is a lot more and I urge you to read it for yourself. The Odyssey is one of the main foundational texts of western European and Anglo-American literature, at one stage forming the main basis of education. Like it or not, its influence is widely spread even today, and an understanding of the poem is worth gaining as part of your general knowledge.

I found Odyssey to be quite irritating to read, smashed through it straight after the Iliad back at school and didn't like the feel of it as much. Edit; Why does the translator's sex matter?

Now this will severely damage my nerd cred but I am reading Starship Troopers for the first time ever at the moment, about half way through and really enjoying it though it is totally not what I was expecting as its more of a morality play.

Also reading Winston Churchill's series on WW2 (currently just started book 4) and that's excellent. I love the way he starts off the series by saying he never interfered with military affairs and then goes on to document in excruciating detail how he interfered in every single aspect he possibly could!

Also, also reading Herodotus again thanks to my chats here with Easy E, been a while but its as amusing as ever.

The translator's sex matters because it gives them a different perspective on the source material and its relation to modern society.

Okay, lets not.

Just started "Space Opera".

Imagine in the aftermath of an intergalacatic war, the surviving species put together a Eurovision-style song contest to foster peace. Now imagine that all newly-discovered species are forced to compete in said competition, and if they come last then they are extinguished. And now it's Earth's turn.

It's very "Hitchhiker's" in terms of writing style and full of references to cheesy pop and Eurovision.

Currently reading Perdido Street Station by China Mieville. It's amazing, but also kind of hard going as he's just so damn imaginitive with the world he has created, and there's a lot to take in. Worth the effort though. I've also read Kraken and Embassytown by him, and they were excellent too.

There are two sequels to Perdido Street Station, which both have different takes on the world.

The City and the City is also worth a read, and was made into a TV series by the BBC, which I think is now available on NetFlix.

 Kilkrazy wrote:
There are two sequels to Perdido Street Station, which both have different takes on the world.

The City and the City is also worth a read, and was made into a TV series by the BBC, which I think is now available on NetFlix.

Excellent! I thought I'd missed that.


There was also some D&D 3rd edition rules for roleplaying in Bas-Lag; Issue 352, Feb '07. Quite a decent write-up of the world, including a lot of material not in any of the novels.

Reading King's "The Bachman Books". Finished the first two stories and am about 4/5th through the third. I read this a LONG time ago and recently saw some controversy about one of the stories and decided to re-read it.

What do I think? Pretty bleak stories. Characters are hard to identify with for me, their motivations are so skewed compared to my thought processes. It is interesting to see the mental deterioration the characters go through.

Last night I dove into one of Robert D. Kaplan's newest, "The Return of Marco Polo's World".

Its mostly a collection of articles that were previously published in various print and online mediums, so if you frequent certain sites that deal in long form articles about global politics and American interests, you've probably already read a good portion of this book.

I read his stuff pretty regularly because I love how he weaves his travels with history, politics, economics and current events. He has his critics, but I always read his works as I like knowing about the causes of issues and the potential ramifications that you only hear about in passing through our mainstream news organizations.

I almost feel like rereading his 1999 work, "An Empire Wilderness: Journey into America's Future" just to see how much lines up with today's social and political situation.


Concurrently reading Black Library's Black Talon: First Mark because reading about the worlds futures gets a little too heavy. I'm enjoying it and love seeing how Vanguard Chambers work in the field, along with seeing firsthand how a Knight-Zephyros fights.

Reading God Emperor of Dune. Liking it so far.

I haven't finished Carthage Must Be Destroyed but I ma very happy with it so far. It is way more than just a regurgitation of the same Roman stories again but supposedly focused on Carthage. It digs much deeper than that. I was particularly pleased with its discussion of Carthaginian policy in Sicily.

I did pick up another Ancient History titled called the Storm Before the Storm by Mike Duncan which appears to be about mid-to late Republican political issues such as the Gracchi Brothers. We will see what it has to say.

The Laws of Human Nature by Richard Greene. Like Eckart Tolle for realists. There are alot of toxic humans out there, you gotta get yourself together so you can spot them and not get entangled with them and avoid being one.

I wish I had read this twenty years ago. But it just came out. I've been wanting to read his '48 Laws of Power' for awhile but this looked more like the first step ha ha ha.

I read Robots and Empire (Asimov), Greybeard (Aldiss) and Mockingbird (Tevis) over Christmas.
Unintentionally they all had the theme of what conditions and circumstances can arise to create societies with a declining population, and how societies deal with the problems that presents.
Quite topical considering the precipitous decline in human fertility rate in recent decades!

I do need a new factual book to read. That Carthage Must Be Destroyed sounds pretty cool, I'll keep an eye out for it.

 Easy E wrote:
I did pick up another Ancient History titled called the Storm Before the Storm by Mike Duncan which appears to be about mid-to late Republican political issues such as the Gracchi Brothers. We will see what it has to say.

I enjoyed this one as an audiobook, mainly because its read by the author and I missed listening to him on the History of Rome podcast. And it wasn’t just a rehash of his Gracchi/Sulla/Marius episodes either, much more in depth.

 nels1031 wrote:

 Easy E wrote:
I did pick up another Ancient History titled called the Storm Before the Storm by Mike Duncan which appears to be about mid-to late Republican political issues such as the Gracchi Brothers. We will see what it has to say.

I enjoyed this one as an audiobook, mainly because its read by the author and I missed listening to him on the History of Rome podcast. And it wasn’t just a rehash of his Gracchi/Sulla/Marius episodes either, much more in depth.

Oh, i did not realize it was the same guy. I enjoyed that podcast as well.

 Kroem wrote:
I read Robots and Empire (Asimov), Greybeard (Aldiss) and Mockingbird (Tevis) over Christmas.
Unintentionally they all had the theme of what conditions and circumstances can arise to create societies with a declining population, and how societies deal with the problems that presents.
Quite topical considering the precipitous decline in human fertility rate in recent decades!

I do need a new factual book to read. That Carthage Must Be Destroyed sounds pretty cool, I'll keep an eye out for it.

Fertility rate isn't declining. I wish this would stop being passed off as 'fact' (not calling you out specifically, the BBC talked about a recent study in the same terms, but didn't address fertility once, just choices) People are intentionally not having as many children (often one or even zero).

That isn't the same thing at all. One is a biological problem, the other is a cultural/economic trend. And one that really is only present in industrialized nations, and primarily among the more educated middle class.

I got into true crime and I'm currently reading- The Menendez Murders.
My God where these guys sociopaths raised by a sociopath.

I've been catching up on books I've had for some time but never got around to reading. I just finished up China Mellville's Kraken and began Nick Hornby's About A Boy.

Voss wrote:

 Kroem wrote:
I read Robots and Empire (Asimov), Greybeard (Aldiss) and Mockingbird (Tevis) over Christmas.
Unintentionally they all had the theme of what conditions and circumstances can arise to create societies with a declining population, and how societies deal with the problems that presents.
Quite topical considering the precipitous decline in human fertility rate in recent decades!

I do need a new factual book to read. That Carthage Must Be Destroyed sounds pretty cool, I'll keep an eye out for it.

Fertility rate isn't declining. I wish this would stop being passed off as 'fact' (not calling you out specifically, the BBC talked about a recent study in the same terms, but didn't address fertility once, just choices) People are intentionally not having as many children (often one or even zero).

That isn't the same thing at all. One is a biological problem, the other is a cultural/economic trend. And one that really is only present in industrialized nations, and primarily among the more educated middle class.

I mean the metric of babies per women is called 'fertility rate' so it is not a dishonest statement. However, the name is a bit misleading as it could suggest a biological cause instead of a cultural one as you say.
It would be better called 'parent rate' or something.

That was kinda the cool thing about reading these three books together;
In Greybeard the problem was biological and all people thought about was how to draw meaning from a present and secure a future without children.
In Mockingbird human culture had become so individualist and insular that people didn't even notice children were not being born!
In Robots and Empire the long lives of the Spacers combined with their mastery of Robotics meant that children were less vital and pro-creation seems to have lost a lot of its importance.

It was really nice to compare and contrast these fictional societies and it got me thinking about our own society, that's the ultimate complement to a science fiction story!

 hotsauceman1 wrote:
I got into true crime and I'm currently reading- The Menendez Murders.
My God where these guys sociopaths raised by a sociopath.

Yeah, that is a crazy case.

They were actually in the news again recently because someone on reddit (its always reddit with this stuff) noticed that they are pictured in front row seats at a basketball game, between the time of the murders and their arrest, and the moment was captured in a Mark Jackson trading card. That card actually spiked in value because crime collectors started to buy it up, which ebay clamped down on, thereby probably making the card even more "valuable". Weird set of people, those crime memorabilia folks.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2018/12/11/is-that-menendez-brothers-background-an-old-mark-jackson-basketball-card/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.2e77b01a64da