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started a two person book club with my brother who lives an ocean away. we are reading the same book and then chat about each chapter. it has been great, timezone-friendly fun. currently reading “going infinite” which is about the rise and downfall of ftx, the crypto exchange. unbelievably weird story. lot’s to talk about.
what are you reading these days?
3 weeks ago · 👍 bavarianbarbarian, m0xee, martin, chirale
When I'm at the hospital waiting for my cardiac rehab sessions or waiting on my ride home, I've been reading Peter Silverton's "Filthy English- The How, Why, When and What of Everyday Swearing". Delightful book. TIL, "you have no foreskin" is an insult in Yapese, a Micronesian language. · 1 week ago
I keep trying to read Crime and Punishment. When it's not that, I go for the Red Rising universe of books - great space opera, lots of action. It's set hundreds of years in the future where humans are set into castes by skin color - golds, blues, greens, gray, obsidians, and reds... hence the name of the series, red rising. · 2 weeks ago
@melyanna Yeah, I agree — while Dostoevsky is still a far shot from "light reading", but he's nowhere near as complex as, say Joyce — and also there are no "language games" in his works, so you're probably not missing that much even if you're reading a translation. Translations of big-name classics are usually very well done — funny thing, I have it in English too, but I have Ulysses in Russian, and it comes with an extra tome explaining the details of translation, which is a very entertaining read in its own right 😄 · 2 weeks ago
@melyanna in the wh40k universe there are a lot of eastereggs, like the char jagathai kahn, who is clearly inspired by dschingis kahn ;) · 2 weeks ago
@m0xee I do think rereading the classics could have a "better" outcome in terms of enjoyment than with shows and music. Outside of some exceptions, books are deeper, more layered, and at the same time give you more space to process and formulate your own interpretation.
That being said, I would not be able to pick up Ulysses again because I do not have the time nor the mental energy to tackle it anymore at this point. I also don't feel like it would have a lot more to add if I read it again (controversial opinion maybe? :D ) · 2 weeks ago
@bavarianbarbarian it does sound like someone in the Warhammer creative team was a fan of Dostoyevsky! · 2 weeks ago
@danrl @m0xee The Brothers Karamazov is surprisingly a lighter read than I expected. It's deep and reads "classic-y", where pacing is slow and deliberate. However it does have a certain levity to it that makes it pleasant.
Obviously I am reading it translated (I don't know Russian), but at least in its translation it reads like something that was not meant for just a small bunch of academics. M0xee correct me if I am wrong. :)
If I can, I do try to read (or consume media) in the original language, but I can only do that in Italian, English, and perhaps French and German if it's kids literature. · 2 weeks ago
I want to be reading more, but I'm in "building" mode atm, and I like to keep input and output separate. On my fiction list is "El prisionero del cielo", the book that follows "La sombra del viento", which I loved. On my non-fiction list, I have "Meditations for Mortals" by Oliver Burkeman. I love his philosophy on "imperfectionism", and how to live in a world where we cannot do everything. · 2 weeks ago
Love this idea! · 2 weeks ago
If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle. · 2 weeks ago
@danrl i am reading again the art of war by sun tzu, i fscking love that tiny little book cos it tells you not about warfare but about a way to life... never fight but always win, that's the art of war.... · 2 weeks ago
@m0xee not only probably, Fjodor is the name of the writer, Kamarasow one of the chars and if i remember correctly there's a chapter named 'The Inquisitor' in the book. ;) if you are not familiar with the wh40k universe, it's quite common that this char is 'stolen' from the book. · 2 weeks ago
@m0xee that's true, i think if you are not a native speaker you will never get all of the details. my father is living in bavaria for over 40 years now, speaks fluently the local dialect but some sayings are still a magic wonderland to him xD German is a really hard language to learn i've been told, so i think you will never truly understand Schiller, Goethe or Lessing. And this is standard german, imagine to speak in a bavarian barbarian languange ;) for example, we call a potatoe 'erpfl', in regular german it is called 'kartoffel# · 2 weeks ago
@melyanna I can relate — always interesting to see things under a different angle. But when I re-watch movies or listen to music albums I used to enjoy, some of them seem more plain and, let's be frank — simplistic, less exciting than when I was younger. I wonder if it would be the same with literature, expecially with such complex works as Proust's In Search of Lost Time and Joyce's Ulysses — and their complexity is the only thing that prevents me from going through with my experiment: both aren't exactly the things you might enjoy in your spare 15 minutes, when you're younger you sure have more free time to enjoy such books. · 2 weeks ago
@bavarianbarbarian Probably is! Dostoevsky is being admired all around the world — and for a good reason, but to me, a Russian… it still always feel like he's overrated 😅
My favourite authors are also foreign and although I did my best to educate myself about them, their time, their social and political context, but I feel like I'm still missing lots of details.
I wonder if this is always the case with literature in foreign language: you are missing some of the details of cultural context and subtleties of the language — that is why the work of literature as a whole seem more deep and exciting than it really is 😄 · 2 weeks ago
fun fact: in the wh40k universe there ist a char named Fjodor Karamasow, he's a lordinquisitor and when you are in his court, you know that you are done... could maybe inspired by the book xD · 3 weeks ago
@melyanna oh wow, dostoyevsky! i have some of his books on my shelf but not dared to dive in yet. i now think even higher of you than i already did, haha. my respect for tackling the classics! · 3 weeks ago
Sorry for the double comment, but I forgot to add that your book club is an excellent idea. · 3 weeks ago
I just started reading The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky. I am picking up some classics because when I was reading them in school ages ago I wasn't picking up all the nuances. · 3 weeks ago