The Book Lair - all book talk ITT

[SeiKeo]

Exactly, it's nice and tranquil.

[GhostDIGIT]

...That painful truth..

Has anyone read the Gregor the Overlander book series?

[Polly]

Exactly, it's nice and tranquil.

I hope you all get colonised by the Chinese

[SeiKeo]

I hope you all get colonised by the Chinese

It's already me though.

[Polly]

Touche, you bastard.

[SeiKeo]

Well alright, I need to pay for a bunch of off-topic shooting somehow, so. Finished a few days ago Aurora by my usual favorite science fiction guy Kim Stanley Robinson. Sort of a weird book, and I'm not even sure I can talk about it much without needing to talk about it visavis his previous work. It's interesting in this sense against his other work and against a lot of other popular scifi by being extremely pessimistic about space travel - the plot is essentially structured around the social and technological failures of a generation ship. Would generally recommend since KSR keeps up his ability to write heartbreakingly beautiful scenes around landscapes, but it's a bit hard to make sense of, especially how the protagonist/POV is structured.

[Credit]

I just finished the Picture of Dorian Gray.

Interesting book but I was surprised that the set up to his life of debauchery was longer the amount of time the books spends on his debauchery. It's all off-screen or implied which in hindsight makes sense. Victorian times and all .

Oscar Wilde should've made a short story on Lord Wooton though.

[Polly]

I'm rereading 'The Master and Margarita' by Mikhail A. Bulgakov because it's been ages since I originally read it and I'm into some occult mindfuckery anyway.

[Christemo]

I started "So fucking what", aka the russian thing Leo reccomended.

Jesus christ this is amazing what have I gotten myself into.

[SeiKeo]

I'm rereading 'The Master and Margarita' by Mikhail A. Bulgakov because it's been ages since I originally read it and I'm into some occult mindfuckery anyway.

I thought you had a bone to pick with the Jesus people!

I'm rereading Catch-22 but it could be the first time, because apparently I remembered fuck-all about it.

good job

I started "So fucking what", aka the russian thing Leo reccomended.

Jesus christ this is amazing what have I gotten myself into.

good job

[Polly]

I thought you had a bone to pick with the Jesus people!

Listen pal just because I'm a soulless, hopeless, godless wreck of a heathen with a burning hatred of religion doesn't mean I can't appreciate Buglakov.


Also is there any way to read the "So fucking what" thing without having to pay exorbitant shipping fees?

[SeiKeo]

Listen pal just because I'm a soulless, hopeless, godless wreck of a heathen with a burning hatred of religion doesn't mean I can't appreciate Buglakov.

I mean, I understand how you can read M&M without thinking about religion, I've done it, but you need to ignore the entire 4 chapters plus the implications of the entire ball business and so it's a somewhat difficult task.

Also is there any way to read the "So fucking what" thing without having to pay exorbitant shipping fees?

I read it on Kindle, so obviously rip shipping. Is it not licensed for your market?

[Christemo]

Yeah I downloaded Kindle to avoid shipping

[Polly]

I mean, I understand how you can read M&M without thinking about religion, I've done it, but you need to ignore the entire 4 chapters plus the implications of the entire ball business and so it's a somewhat difficult task.

As far as I'm concerned it's all just entertaining occultism and folklore interspersed with some philosophy, with which I don't necessarily have to agree and can still enjoy the folklore and charade.

I mean I like 'Crime and Punishment' for heaven's sake.

I read it on Kindle, so obviously rip shipping. Is it not licensed for your market?

You do realise that I'm still living in a shithole, right? Obscure Russian fantasy literature can usually only be obtained through importing.

I mean there is a slight, very slight possibility that it's been licensed here but I dunno...

[SeiKeo]

TBH I'm not sure how AMZN global licensing works, they might just require it to be available in all regions since I don't think I've ever heard of region locking on Kindle before? And even if there is I would be perfectly happy gifting it to get around that.

[Polly]

TBH I'm not sure how AMZN global licensing works, they might just require it to be available in all regions since I don't think I've ever heard of region locking on Kindle before? And even if there is I would be perfectly happy gifting it to get around that.

Nevermind I just ordered a used paperback on Amazon for 1 cent. I mean there's still 16$ worth of shipping but at this point it's go big or go home I guess.

And if it's as Bulgakov-mindfuckery as you implied in one of your earlier posts then I might even be able to stomach the hetero sex that was mentioned.

[Strife ❤️]

Words to live by

[mewarmo990]

TBH I'm not sure how AMZN global licensing works, they might just require it to be available in all regions since I don't think I've ever heard of region locking on Kindle before? And even if there is I would be perfectly happy gifting it to get around that.

Amazon Japan does restrict Kindle book licenses. I just get around this by logging into my Japanese account via Japanese VPN.

To actually download the book you need to have a Kindle app or device registered to that Amazon Japan account. Then you can strip the DRM with Calibre, and off you go!

[Five_X]

Meanwhile...

I'm finally getting to Tender is the Night because I'm aiming to finish the whole Fitzgerald novel catalogue before moving on to anything else. I read The Last Tycoon not too long ago, and it was fantastic - if only Fitzgerald had been able to finish it, I'm sure it would've been his greatest book. He's just a really good writer, and I wish that he wouldn't be taught in schools in such a dry way; his prose is full of life (and even a good deal of comedy) but it's probably hard for an apathetic high school student to appreciate that.

[SeiKeo]

Nevermind I just ordered a used paperback on Amazon for 1 cent. I mean there's still 16$ worth of shipping but at this point it's go big or go home I guess.

And if it's as Bulgakov-mindfuckery as you implied in one of your earlier posts then I might even be able to stomach the hetero sex that was mentioned.

In a 2002 Bomb magazine interview, the novelist Victor Pelevin, author of “Generation P,” said it’s impossible to explain Bulgakov’s effect to those who didn’t live through Soviet times. “ ‘The Master and Margarita’ didn’t even bother to be anti-Soviet, yet reading this book would make you free instantly. It didn’t liberate you from some particular old ideas, but rather from the hypnotism of the entire order of things.”

The guy loves Bulgakov, and you do absolutely see the influence, although I think that the most Bulgakov Pelevin is Omon Ra and not Werewolf.