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PaperclipPerfector  5mo ago (text post)   3408 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for August 17, 2025

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So, what are you reading?

I'm still on Red Dynamite.

Listening to The White Company on audible. Loving the setting and prose, even if the characters are a bit hard for me to distinguish, and the narrator is... not consistent enough in volume and some of his accents are borderline-impenetrable, which is not usually a problem for me.

Also he's incredibly slow, and while changing the speed fixed that, something about his cadence makes it difficult for me to follow along without losing attention.

But when it's good it reminds me of Pyle's Robin Hood in the best ways, except more rooted in the beauty and wildness of the setting.

All that said I went in blind and was expecting history, not historical fiction, so that was an adjustment.

I just started reading Tom Holland's In the Shadow of the Sword, a revisionist history of the origins of Islam and how the Quranic narrative evolved over the course of the 7th-9th centuries. I haven't gotten into the really juicy stuff yet, but so far it's been a fascinating look into how the conflict between Rome and Persia set the stage for the rise of Islam.

John Grisham – The Testament. The thing about Grisham is that everything he writes is inevetably good, but he hasn't written one great book in his life, even by the standards of popular fiction. Like, Stephen King, he has a problem with endings, but where King's endings actively piss you off, Grisham's just sort of exist, and you move on with your life. I gave up on King around 2001 when I tried reading The Tommyknockers, which was just one long King ending. Grisham was the first "adult" author I read, starting in middle school, when my idea of adult books was the kind of thick mass-market paperbacks my parents always carried around with them. Grisham was the hottest author at the time, and my parents happened to have a copy of The Runaway Jury, and I was captivated. I read most of what he put out until some time around when I graduated from high school, when I quit for some reason and didn't pick it back up until the pandemic, when I was looking for a book I could get into without trying. I have no idea why I slept on Grisham for all those years while I kept reading plenty of other authors of questionable literary value.

The Tommyknockers is an absolutely absurd book but there are some wild and memorable images in that book including the scene where the refrigerator turns into a levitating one-ton sledgehammer that zips around smashing into people. There's another scene where a person has created a self-sorting mail device and reading it gave me the same feeling as railing a line of cocaine. Even in the worst of King's earlier books there is always something magical to take away. After around 2003, he lost a bit of that sparkle. I blame it on his car accident and decision to get sober.

After around 2003, he lost a bit of that sparkle.

I thought it was even earlier. The first 3 Dark Tower novels are quite the ride, but then I found Wizard and Glass (to say nothing of the even worse 3 books that followed) to be weak. In hindsight, all the people talking about it being great was a warning that a certain segment of fandom will go gaga over "lore" even when it's terrible.

I listened to Blood Meridian, and it was very difficult for me to follow. The long detailed descriptions of scenery, old tools, weaponry, dress, etc. would get monotonous and my attention would slip. There was also no real shift or change in tone between the description of a baby being slammed to death by someone in the gang versus a description of a sunrise. The amount of times the color blue was used to describe multiple different objects or pieces of scenery felt repetitive. I didn't really pick up on some of the themes or details in real time as I was listening to it either. I only registered some of the implied depravity of the Judge after reviewing the chapters online. I knew of the character's reputation before I listened to the book and had a loose idea of what he was, so I wasn't completely in the dark. I listened to it on a road trip and then finished the rest as I lay in bed for the evening, which took about 3 or 4 days. The online review filled the gaps pretty well, but I was pretty disappointed when I realized how much detail had slipped by me when I was listening. I get the hype surrounding it, but it was hard to absorb in real time.

I gave up on listening to Blood Meridian around 3/4 of the way through it. I may try reading it at some point but I really just could not absorb this one.

Still slogging through Way of Kings. It is getting better as it goes on, but at the same time, it's so god-damn slow. I know Sanderson is relatively popular in the rationalist community and I can sort of see why (the world-building is very unique and interesting, even if not particularly realistic), but man the guy needs an editor, especially for his dialogue.

Reading Capital for philosophy book club. Marx is quite frustrating to read some times because he is smarmily dogmatic (I guess this where the infighting in the Soviet Union has its roots). It has its insights, but I think some of the ways he presents his arguments leave a lot to be desired. For instance, he seems deliberately obtuse about the fact that trade actually can generate real value, and this fact isn't even incompatible with the labor theory of value: the merchant does a fair bit of labor in identifying the market, transporting the goods, etc.

Way of Kings is one of the slowest books Sanderson has written, I'd say. I almost gave up on it because I was waiting for the plot to actually start happening, so I sympathize. If you read his other books (say, Mistborn) they are much better paced. Way of Kings does pick up towards the end, but it takes forever to get there.

Still working on Stranger In A Strange Land and His Broken Body. Making faster progress on Stranger, partly because it's much lighter reading and partly because His Broken Body is part of my bedtime Kindle reading, which means a lot of times I fall asleep before reading very much. I'm making good progress on Stranger, and will most likely finish it sometime this week. I've really enjoyed the book so far, though with some amusement as Heinlein has been turning his central character into a sex god. It is one of those things where you have to laugh and go "man, the 60s really were a different time".

Reading Stranger I had two main thoughts:

  1. I didn't realize how influential it was. Dune is largely the same thing with heavier/harder scifi, Star Wars is largely Dune, and a million things since Star Wars are ripoffs of Star Wars. But they all come back to Heinlein.

  2. It is definitely very 60s in its view of sexuality.

Look forward to hearing more of your thoughts on it!

I finished the book tonight (faster than I expected). Overall I think I came away from it less positive than I was a couple of days ago, but still generally positive. To me, the strongest part of the narrative (though the least interesting as speculative fiction) was parts 1&2 where Mike was a fugitive from a government trying to use him as a pawn. Once that got resolved and Mike turned into space Jesus, I found the plot less interesting (though the ideas Heinlein was exploring were more interesting).

I can certainly see how the book was a big influence on the hippie movement. The ideas Mike teaches are so in line with the hippie ethos that if I didn't know better, I would guess that the book is a parody of them. I read that Heinlein was unhappy that they latched on to his book as they did, though it's not clear to me why. Presumably he thought they didn't get it in some way, but I'm not sure what he might've felt they were missing. Regardless, the optimism of the book - that we would be much happier and better off as a species if we learned to love and share instead of hoarding things to ourselves - is somewhat charming to read, though I wouldn't say that I believe that humans are capable of such a feat.

From a modern standpoint, it is rather shocking to me that this book isn't more criticized than it is. None of it offended me personally, but there's so much in here that is starkly offensive to modern feminist thought that I would have expected people to decry how sexist anyone is if they read this book. In particular, Jill's line about how 9/10 times if a woman is raped, it's partly her fault is the sort of thing for which I would expect Heinlein to have been thoroughly un-personed retroactively (as indeed would happen to anyone today who dared to write such a thing). Forget Starship Troopers, this is the book I think is most subversive to modern day politics, but nobody seems to really talk about it as such.

It is definitely very 60s in its view of sexuality.

There's a lot of deep Heinlein no one talks about. The Door Into Summer flirts with some odd subjects, and Glory Road gets kind of out there, but probably nothing tops Farnham's Freehold.

I had a very similar experience when I read Neuromancer a year or two ago. I always knew it was influential, but I didn't get just how influential until I read it. It is honestly an understatement to call it "influential", every cyberpunk setting is basically copied wholesale from Neuromancer. It was pretty wild to see how strong the influence is.

Tried to read The Deepgate Codex and had to quit halfway through, way to gruesome for no reason.

Just finished The Rot which was great.

Moonlight Relic: Guardian of Aster Fall Book 3 by David North.

Just finished The Reverse of the Medal.

Jack Aubrey displays his characteristic gullibility on land and walks right into a trap laid for him by his father's political enemies. Practically the entire book is set in England which makes for a nice change of scenery after having most of the last three books set in the Mediterranean, South Atlantic and the Pacific seas. Really interesting novel that plays more like a spy thriller than a naval adventure, and I can see how its in some people's top 5 for this series.

After a bunch of ????? happens that I don't want to spoil (but includes someone accurately insulting Maturin as a cuck), our heroes end up on The Surprise bearing a letter of marque and sailing as privateers. I'm looking forward to Letter of Marque, because while there's plenty of ink spilled about pirates, there's very little about pirates that are endorsed by their legitimate government.

Letter of Marque is one of my favorites. The privateer crew are so fun and colorful.

Big highlight for me was Padeen getting addicted to the Laudanum and Maturin casually telling Martin that a x20 dose is usual for an addict.

I made no progress on Speaker for the Dead over the weekend.

If it helps you to perservere, Xenocide and Children of the Mind both are not quite so slow.

Also the mystery reveal as to why the piggies killed the guy is pretty kino.

Xenocide is probably my favorite book in the series, based solely on the strength of the Han Qing-Jao story. I think it's the best thing Orson Scott Card has ever written, and while the other half of the book isn't as good (it's still good), that still averages out super high.

https://xkcd.com/304/

Haha, I should've expected that. It's true though!

I finished *The Poisonwood Bible and while I thought the first 2/3's and the lead up to Ruth May's death were terrific, it really started to drag on at the end. Kingsolver has a wonderful writing voice, but she could do with an editor who tells her no once in a while. I've heard other people with similar critiques about Demon Copperhead but I actually thought the length was fine for that book. Poisonwood goes from a story with a time duration of one year for the first 80% of the book to a thirty year postscript after the book's climax. Nevertheless, I am picking nits. The book has beautiful prose, is a compelling read, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.

I'm on to To Kill a Mockingbird. I haven't read this book since I was probably 14 and want to revisit it. I'm surprised at how much of the story I don't remember.

I've recently finished:

On the Marble Cliffs by Ernst Junger. Continuing my journey through Junger, I enjoyed the book but felt like I didn't understand it as deeply as I should have, it just felt like Animal Farm to me. If anyone who knows more could link me an explainer I'd love it, I feel like there is a lot of depth I'm not hitting.

Coup d'Etat by Edward Luttwak. Deeply disappointing, I like Luttwak and this is positioned as his best and most fun work, it was mostly pretty banal advice and analysis. Not bad, just not earth shattering.It's presented as a handbook for how to launch a coup, and it does have interesting views on what is a coup versus a revolution etc. It's inherently a "fun" book as a practical manual, and an easy read. I got a later reprinting that contained some updating to talk about later incidents, I think that might have made the book weaker, if you want to read this I'd recommend trying to find the original version.

JFK Jr. An Intimate Oral Biography An oral history of JFK Jr's life, as told by his friends and those who knew him. My wife wanted to read it so we read it together. I have OPNIONS on JFK Jr. now, which I think I will share soon.

The Sun Also Rises: I love Hemingway, and finally got to this one. A brilliant examination of masculinity, while also being a really fun book. If you haven't read it, you should.

To Have and to Have Not: I was on a Hemingway kick, so I picked this up at our library's annual book sale. This one is...not a masterpiece. It's a fine enough little noir set in the Keys, but...it feels kinda flat compared to Hemingway's best works like For Whom the Bell Tolls or The Undefeated. The lead is a classic Hemingway Hero without any of the conflict or interest, and just kinda floats through. I'll also say that while I'm normally not offended by racism or language, especially where period accurate, this one kinda feels over the top. Blacks are only referred to as niggers, both in the abstract and to their faces, while chinese are chinks and to be betrayed and murdered for no apparent reason as a matter of course. IDK, just didn't hit for me.

Currently, I'm kind of in the middle of:

Band of Brothers I have a personal connection to the subject so I've always meant to read it, finally started it the other day while bored and motored through half of it...only to find that the libgen copy I had gotten was only half the book. oops. Gotta find a real copy now.

I'm planning to start Ride the Tiger by Julius Evola. I've been Evola-Curious, and this seemed like a good place to start. And then on the flip side I've been listening to a lot of Daryl Cooper and he talked so much about how evil Eldridge Cleaver was that I downloaded Soul on Ice just to see what all the fuss was about. I'm also looking to read more by Ernst Junger, after enjoying Storm of Steel and Marble Cliffs, if anyone has any other recommendations. I'm probably going to start Hemingways Over the River as I picked that up at the book sale as well. I remain in the middle of Infinite Jest as part of a book club with a friend of mine.

I'd appreciate some followup on Ride the Tiger. Never quite got into it and thought a (good) intro might be helpful.

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