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Books

No, but I finished The Institute a few days ago. I thought it was one of Stephen King's best books of the 2000s.

I also read Doctor Sleep and enjoyed that. I'm debating starting The Outsider, but three King books in a row feels like too much. He's already the writer I've read the most books by in my life.
 
Instead, I'm trying to read Moby Dick. It's way better than any of the King books I mentioned, but I can also only make it through 10 pages at a time. I'll be 50 before I'm finished.
 
rome8180 said:
Instead, I'm trying to read Moby Dick. It's way better than any of the King books I mentioned, but I can also only make it through 10 pages at a time. I'll be 50 before I'm finished.
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My kid started it 6 months ago at the age of 10. He is 50 now. It's taking him forever.
 
Don't get me wrong. I love it so far. I should probably start trying to read it earlier at night. There are some books you can read right before bed, and that's not one of them.
 
Anyone read the Discworld series? I'm on book 3 and wondering if I should read it chronologically or thematically.
 
I've always been meaning to. I feel like someone on this board really liked them. Maybe that was "ClosedAccount1" I'm thinking of.
 
I love Pratchett. Read about 8-10 of the series. All can be read as stand alone books and are very quick reads. There are recurring characters and themes, but they don't interfere with specific stories. Style is very similar to Douglas Adams.

Recently finished bios of Herbert Hoover and Huey Long. Can't express in words how interesting Hoover's life was. He was a truly incredible man whose numerous, massive accomplishments are unfairly overshadowed by his unfortunate Presidency, the failure of which was due almost entirely to circumstances beyond his control.

Long's story completely lived up to expectations. His political machinations were fantastic to read about in detail. Dude was a crazy genius. Probably not a bad thing he was shot.
 
I'm finally reading The Wind Up Bird Chronicle, not sure why I let it sit on the shelf for two years.
 
That's weird because I just finished Killing Commendatore (Murakami's most recent novel). I saw you'd posted in the book thread and it reminded me I should come here and post about how I always love Murakami.

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle may be his best. I am curious to see if a certain scene in the middle affects you as viscerally as it did me. You'll know what I'm talking about when you read it.
 
rome8180 said:
That's weird because I just finished Killing Commendatore (Murakami's most recent novel). I saw you'd posted in the book thread and it reminded me I should come here and post about how I always love Murakami.

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle may be his best. I am curious to see if a certain scene in the middle affects you as viscerally as it did me. You'll know what I'm talking about when you read it.
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Finished it yesterday morning and I'm sure that I'll have more thoughts over time. (To me), it was a unique tour of some of the darker parts of WWII and 1990's-era Japanese culture and personal identity. It was almost a perfect post-modernist novel for my tastes, he doesn't get too sidetracked, indulgent, or unnecessarily random, while still keeping it adventurous in terms of structure.

That scene was definitely visceral also, I'll have to think about it some more since I've read similar scenes in fantasy novels that didn't impact me at all.
 
For me, it was the way that scene was written. If Stephen King had written it, the language would have been so over the top it wouldn't have felt real. But he writes it in such a calm, straightforward way.
 
Just finished 'The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire', been working on it for quite some time on and off. If you have 12-18 months, I highly recommend. I was pretty well versed in the traditional history of Rome, but this work was spectacular for its detail on the early history of Christianity and its descriptions of the movements of tribe/nationalities across Europe and Asia for twelve centuries.

The sheer scale of the work is also pretty incredible, especially considering the amount of work it must have taken Gibbon to track down the huge number of primary sources he apparently used.
 
deeyoukayeee said:
Just finished 'The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire', been working on it for quite some time on and off. If you have 12-18 months, I highly recommend. I was pretty well versed in the traditional history of Rome, but this work was spectacular for its detail on the early history of Christianity and its descriptions of the movements of tribe/nationalities across Europe and Asia for twelve centuries.

The sheer scale of the work is also pretty incredible, especially considering the amount of work it must have taken Gibbon to track down the huge number of primary sources he apparently used.
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Does this only focus on the Western empire?
 
Nope. Goes right on through the Kenmonos and Palaiologos dynasties until the Turks take Constantinople. Probably done with 'whole' empire about 1/3 of the way through when Odaocer takes control of Italy. Justinian makes a stab at reclaiming the west, but that is short lived. Was interesting to learn that at various points, the Eastern empire sided with the Saracens to repel crusaders, as the Orthodox church had no use for the Pope/Catholicism. The dynamics of how the 'modern' Christian church(es) evolved is just incredibly fascinating.
 
I've been listening to two podcasts about Rome that are both excellent. Surprisingly, they aren't too redundant.
 
Which 2? History of Rome is great. The Fall of the Roman Empire is neat because it's a bit more academic, but still quite interesting.

Gibbon's work is great, but clearly quite biased and gets a bunch of the 'barbarian invasion' stuff wrong. I only had the 1 volume version. Did you read the whole damn thing?
 
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