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PaperclipPerfector  6mo ago (text post)   3117 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for March 30, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

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So, what are you reading?

Still on my backlog. Trying to go through some Lovecraft.

I wish more of you bastards read fantasy and sci-fi. Feels like I'm always the only one posting recs!!! If you have recs please let me know.

Just started A Requiem for Homo Sapiens it's pretty dang good so far if a bit info-dumpy.

Had to quit the Foreigner series, the main character was just such a self-righteous, annoying, immature jackass I couldn't deal with it. It's a shame, I got halfway through the third book because the world and aliens are quite cool, but damnit Bren you are such a fucker I just couldn't do it.

Legacy of Ashes: History of the CIA. While I am not super convinced the book gets every detail right, still a very interesting look into how total institutional failure and incompetence works when you also have almost total power to hide it and resist any correction efforts and infinite funds. I get out of it the impression that almost every successful CIA action either involves bribing allied country politicians or spying on Americans illegally

Currently reading My Brilliant Friend. It's been interesting so far; I think I came across the recommendation from Tom Holland on The Rest is History. I don't think I've read non-science fiction in a while.

Recently finished The City and the Stars which I think came recommended here. I was interested in the interesting bifurcation in the concept of transhumanism, which felt pretty relatable as someone aesthetically opposed to non-essential/restorative body modifications. I can see a splinter faction opposing Managed Immortality™ in a nonviolent capacity like the book shows. The overall "We Stopped Dreaming" plot also feels relevant in these times, but it's not the most novel element (see Moana, for a pop culture example).

I had some time while working on a home improvement project recently and made it through a few out-of-copyright LibriVox audiobooks (free, reasonable quality in my experience). Finished Moby-Dick, then started and finished Kim, The Jungle Book, The Man Who Was Thursday (this forum likes Chesterton). I think audiobooks are a great medium for some things, but it's harder to backtrack and re-read parts if your mind wanders or something else happens, especially if your hands are full. I'd estimate it's about 70% as in-depth as normal reading for me.

I just started The Warden by Anthony Trollope. Hits some of the same humorous notes as e.g. Dickens, but in an attractively smaller package that I can realistically finish in a week.

Prior to this I read The White Nile by Alan Moorehead, which describes the hunt for the source of the Nile River and the subsequent efforts of Europeans to open up the region to trade and civilization. Really enjoyable to read, and now I understand who Dr. Livingstone from the famous quote was, what he was up to, etc.

Finished Kiki de Montparnasse last week. It was okay.

Around Christmas I found a slim volume containing five short stories (including "The Garden of Forking Paths") by Borges, who I'd never read anything by before. I read the whole thing in one day and enjoyed it, it's easy to see how influential he is.

Currently on The Door by Magda Szabó (I read her book Katalin Street earlier in the year).

Around Christmas I found a slim volume containing five short stories (including "The Garden of Forking Paths") by Borges, who I'd never read anything by before. I read the whole thing in one day and enjoyed it, it's easy to see how influential he is.

I've also been reading Borges short stories. I'm still not resolved on whether I find him meandering and self-indulgent, but overall his writing is pleasant to read.

I'm halfway through Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. So far, I'm mostly surprised by how unpleasant and unattractive everyone is, compared to the adaptations. Also seemingly worse at keeping secrets than me, even though I'm not getting paid to do it.

People who become spies are generally really weird. Being willing to lie and sneak for your masters tends to come with a cluster of pretty grim characteristics.

Oddly enough that’s why so many spies are flamboyant exhibitionists like Arthur Ransome (who was either a Russian agent, a British double-agent, or a Russian triple-agent) or Burgess of the Cambridge Five. The narcissism and fantastical thinking gives them the ability to persuade themselves of whatever narrative they need in order to be convincing.

Took a few months off reading, but I’m back! Going between Grant by Ron Chernow and Abundance by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson. I’m also listening to the audiobook Incidents Around The House.

So far the most interesting thing about Grant is how absolutely mediocre his life was up until the breakout of the Civil War. He was essentially a 38 year borderline alcoholic (with long strings of sobriety) shopkeeper who went from being a nobody to running the military within 3 years. Wild stuff.

The Cautious Traveller's Guide to the Wastelands, first novel by Sarah Brooks.

I'd compare it to China Mieville, without his penchant for downer endings, or Jeff VanderMeer without his tendency to reduce his characters to broken, traumatized shells of their former selves. (Coincidentally, both this book and Mieville's Iron Council involve trains traveling across crazy mutating wastelands, though the direct similarities pretty much end there.) Anyway, I recommend it.

Bea Wolf, by Zach Weinersmith (yes, the SMBC guy)

This utter madman has translated and adapted Beowulf into a graphic novel about rebellious kids and the fun-hating grownup who assaults their treehouse.

The tie-manacled monster mounted the ladder, mad-eyed, malice-mawed, wrath unmoored, a middle-aged man-beast! He shot his black shoe, shattering the door! Sorrow came in tube socks, swan-white, knee-high!

The whole thing is like this, and it is fantastic.

Chip War: The fight for the world's most critical technology by Chris Miller.

It's quite fun and easy to read, and it's teaching me a lot about how the whole semiconductor and computer industries got started, and about the geopolitics of the last 70 years.

Finishing up Killing Commendatore by Murakami and starting probably either Gates of Fire or Ship of Magic this week.

Gates of Fire seems like something I’ll get 30 pages into and never pick up again but it seems to have great reviews - just worried about the prose.

Just finishing up Ardneh's Sword, by Fred Saberhagen. Next up is the latest in the 12 Miles Below series, which I hadn't realized was released!

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