Day 11 #Bookstodon challenge: Choose 20 #books that greatly influenced you. One #book per day, for 20 days. No explanations, no reviews, just covers
(I've already been doing this over on Bluesky and am several days in, so I'm going to do my best to not get mixed up on the days I'm on 😆) @bookstodon#horror@horrorbooks
I finally #AmReading Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero. Been meaning to get to this one for actual years now. Scooby Doo meets cosmic horror with a healthy dose of humor thrown in. A bit like what Laird Barron did with the Hardy Boys in X's For Eyes, but without the hard-boiled tone of all of Barron's work.
#Bookstodon / #BookSky challenge: Choose 20 books that greatly influenced you. One book per day, for 20 days. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.
Book 21 of 2024 was Neil Stephenson’s Seveneves. As always for the author long and detailed, but What a fun read! But i feel part three was almost a second book. Even the style was subtly different. Far too many lengthy descriptions of the technology distracting from the narrative. As if Skylark had returned, but instead of Seaton dazzlingly making everything happen just because, Stephenson had to prove to us that these things were quite possibly not some wild shit he had made up such as Smith did a century ago
Still though, who needs a moon, and why would we think capsules in the ocean might be any different from capsules in space.
Book Review: Seven Against Thebes by Stephen Dando-Collins
Stephen Dando-Collins’ Seven Against Thebes brings the original and once ubiquitously famous story to new audiences and readers
"Kiedy przed wielu laty ukazała się w Pradze poprzedniczka tej książki, zmobilizowałem w sobie całą bezczelność i ofiarowałem jeden egzemplarz naszemu Drogiemu Panu Prezydentowi. Wpisałem tam dedykację, której fragment pozwolę sobie zacytować:
„…to książka takiego rodzaju, jakie ja czytuję w toalecie. Ma więc tę zaletę, że można ją otworzyć na dowolnej stronie i czytać jedynie tak długo, jak długo to potrzebne”. Mam nadzieję, że nie poczują się Państwo dotknięci taką samą radą, jaką dałem Panu Prezydentowi. Nie stracą Państwo w ten sposób zbyt wiele drogocennego czasu, a nie jest chyba aż tak głupia, żeby nie dało jej się czasem otworzyć."
Jiří Menzel (opis autora)
Jiri Menzel," No, nie wiem…", Wydawnictwo Słowo/obraz terytoria 2024
No, nie wiem… to wybór felietonów słynnego czeskiego reżysera Jiříego Menzla, publikowanych w latach dziewięćdziesiątych w czasopiśmie „Story”.
Up next I’m continuing my read through of the Pocket #StarTrekTOS novels with #83 - Heart of the Sun (1997) by Parmela Sargent and George Zebrowski #StarTrek#bookstodon
Finished Mind Meld (1997) by John Vornholt and I enjoyed it! The novel focuses on Spock and his niece Teska being pursued by Rigelian criminals.
As is clear from the cover, this book is mostly about Spock and a young Vulcan named Teska. I just wanted to clarify first that Spock is not her uncle by blood, but instead fills that role after Teska’s parents died. 1/8 #StarTrekTOS#StarTrek#bookstodon
#Bookstodon / #BookSky challenge: Choose 20 books that greatly influenced you. One book per day, for 20 days. No explanations, no reviews, just covers.
Day 10 #Bookstodon challenge: Choose 20 #books that greatly influenced you. One #book per day, for 20 days. No explanations, no reviews, just covers
(I've already been doing this over on Bluesky and am several days in, so I'm going to do my best to not get mixed up on the days I'm on 😆) @bookstodon#horror@horrorbooks
Finished “What I Talk About When I Talk About Running” by Haruki Murakami. Heavily recommend by my friends in #Running & justifiably so because it’s absolutely brilliant.
For me, Murakami’s writing on the mental aspects of running surfaced so many latent thoughts I had but hadn’t yet been able to articulate.
It’s also a treatise on aging and decline, as he copes with his diminishing performances. 5/5 stars
Es ist die Rebellion der Heldin gegen die Enge ihrer Herkunft, die mich so fesselt. Dabei wird sie nicht nur von der Welt der Bücher unterstützt; sie offnet das Fenster ihres Lebens und orientiert sich an der Freiheit, die ins Zimmer weht. Sie lebt zu jedem Zeitpunkt radikal, nur sich selbst verpflichtet. Das fasziniert unbedingt.
Książka gryząca temat totalitaryzmu, ale z innej strony - bardziej sci-fi, trochę ironii, ale przede wszystkim skupiająca się na przemianie bohatera i... wyzwoleniu przez kobietę. Tak jakby.
Czyta się to duuuużo trudniej niż Orwella i z tego powodu niezbyt mi to przypadło do gustu. Ale też tę powieść można interpretować na więcej niż jeden sposób - piszę o tym w pełnej opinii na LC:
I love book recommendation lists but they often tend to upset me. My favorite kinds of lists are either international lit (where I am usually upset that there are not enough women represented) or books by non-male folks (where I am upset that it's often mostly English-writing folks).
So: here is a list of my personal recommendations of books by women in (English) translation. One book for every day of June. Feel free to join - doesn't have to be every day!
Chloé Cruchaudet "Mauvais Genre / Deserter's Masquerade / Das falsche Geschlecht" [How different the titles!]
Wonderful artwork that beautifully contributes to the unsettling story of war, violence and identity in the Paris of WWI and 1920ies. Not a perfect book but perfect example of drawings and text working together to create art and impact.
(I own the book, as all in the thread, but I forgot to take a photo and am travelling...)
For everyone who loves mindbending speculative fiction or linguistics. Or both. And no, it's not just for folks like me for whom languages are a hobby - my Latin grammar PhD friend loved it, too (wink)
I've seen it advertised 'Harry Potter'-like. No. There is nothing similar except for a boarding school of sorts. Emphasis on "of sorts".
I’m not big on New Year’s resolutions, but I made a few this year. The pile of books on my bedside table has gotten out of hand. I hear by resolve to read all of these books by the end of the year. And at least start to work on the box of books under the bed. #bookstodon
Finally got one from the pile. #empireofthesum by @orkneydullard thoroughly enjoyable read, covers everything from counting rods, to abacuses, the mechanical calculators, and on until the present, without getting too deep in the weeds on any of them. A lot of history that happens alongside computer history, but that I did not know. #bookstodon