The Book Lair - all book talk ITT

[Skull]

"The Early Cases of Akechi Kogoro" by Edogawa Ranpo (An anthology of his first four short stories involving the eponymous amateur detective).

Despite having read all of Ranpo's collected works a long time ago, I ended up with a copy of this on my desk and out of nostalgia, I ended up reading it. Man, unlike Ranpo's horror stories, the Akechi series had a much rougher beginning as these four short stories in the anthology are all over the place in terms of narrative style. Without going into spoilers, the first two stories are told in first person perspective from a nameless character who serves as the typical Watson character. The latter two are in third person either from an omniscient narrator or by just jumping from various character perspectives. The first two stories are also more traditional Golden Age detective stories (locked room murder and phantom thieves), whilst the latter have horror/supernatural elements infused which Akechi must debunk using his powers of reasoning.
Anyways, what interested me more was the translation itself. As I read it, I couldn't help but feel I was reading a Sherlock Holmes novel or something. And by the end I realised why - despite being translated in 2014, for some reason the translator really tried to capture the time period feel of Japan by using a Victorian-esque style of writing. Things like "gay" appears a lot throughout the book in its original meaning as well as other... not anachronisms, but I can't think of the right word. It was really weird, but once you got used to it then it wasn't too bad.
But whatever, it was a decent time waster for a few hours whilst at work (ssh, don't tell anyone) and while I would recommend other works by Ranpo more, sadly a lot of his work simply isn't available in English. Also Seishi Yokomizo is the best writer of JPN detective fiction and you can fite me on that.

[Historia]

reading Blood Red, Sister Rose by Thomas Keneally

... blood sacrifice Jeanne best Jeanne, hands down.

[Sesto]

Finished The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea by Yukio Mishima. It was a fun read. He really has a way with words, I actually found myself wanting to read some paragraphs aloud just because they sounded so good. Probably going to read Spring Snow next.

[Skull]

What's this? A book that I've read that isn't from Japan? Say it ain't so!

"The Good Assassin" by Paul Vidich.

A pretty solid spy drama - especially for being only the second book written by Vidich. It's a little rough around the edges, the beginning in particular is a slow burner that might turn people off but it was worth sticking through. And though I have seen the same concept done even better by veteran writers, I would still recommend this to anyone looking to get into spy drama literature and I will keep an eye out from now on for any future works by Mr.Vidich.

[Cruor]

starting the malazan series

what can i expect

[eddyak]

A lot of names and concepts and made up words you won't recognise or understand for ages.

[RoydGolden]

Just read the The Martian Obelisk, a really interesting sci-fi short story, last night. The core conflict is basically the same as Lion King versus Ritsuka in Camelot. In the face of a seemingly unstoppable disaster, should you abandon the world as doomed and focus all your efforts on creating a monument so humanity can be remembered after it's gone or fight tooth and nail against the incoming disaster even if it might be hopeless?

[SeiKeo]

is that an eva reference

[RoydGolden]

is that an eva reference

No, just common themes.

- - - Updated - - -

And Evangelion was clearly inspired by earlier works of science fiction (episode 26 of the original series is even titled after a Harlan Ellison short story), so the notion of intertextuality between anime and western mediums isn't nearly as silly as you seem to be implying.

[Skull]

Read "The Quiet American" by Graham Greene.

Another really good book by Greene. Really made me think about morality, politics and history. Definitely recommended. <3

[SpoonyViking]

A Greene novel I heartily recommend is "Monsignor Quixote".

[Bugs]

Reading Death's Acre by Bill Bass right now. Non-fiction, but interesting history of forensics.

[castor212]

Reading Kate Daniels series. Its really good. I dunno if it counts as YA or not, but either way it really reminds me of Dresden Files, which i also like.

[Historia]

I've read one of José Saramago's novels, and was thinking of others with... unique... styles...

Cormac? Faulkner?

[castor212]

Read Forever Fantasy Online by Rachel Aaron and Travis Bach

This is very weeb and at the same time not weeb
In a good way

[castor212]

Just read Skyward by Brandon Sanderson.

I had misgiving of a mostly fantasy author writing scifi at the beginning but

IT WAS AWESOOOOOOOOOOME

i tend to cool down in my impression of a book after several days so my opinions may meek down after several days, but for now, it was a scudding awesome book. Without delving too much to a spoiler, the book was very engaging, keeping me up late nights to keep on reading the more i read them, and most of all its just so refreshing experience.

I dont scifi much, so i dont know if this is a good book purely speaking in scifi terms, but i sure think this is one entertaining book.

[pinetree]

If you're looking to get into sci-fi I recommend Dune. It's a classic and pretty much just a fantasy book in a sci-fi setting.
It's a series but I never read the sequels, the first one was pretty self-contained and a great read.

[SpoonyViking]

It's a classic and pretty much just a fantasy book in a sci-fi setting.

Not an entirely accurate statement, but not an unfair one either.

The sequels are also very good, though I consider the first novel the best of the bunch. Stop at the sixth novel, though, "Chapterhouse: Dune", and stay far away from the prequels and the seventh book - they weren't written by the original author.

[Spartacus]

Just read Skyward by Brandon Sanderson.

I had misgiving of a mostly fantasy author writing scifi at the beginning but

IT WAS AWESOOOOOOOOOOME

i tend to cool down in my impression of a book after several days so my opinions may meek down after several days, but for now, it was a scudding awesome book. Without delving too much to a spoiler, the book was very engaging, keeping me up late nights to keep on reading the more i read them, and most of all its just so refreshing experience.

I dont scifi much, so i dont know if this is a good book purely speaking in scifi terms, but i sure think this is one entertaining book.

Knowing your taste, sounds great.

Did the book explain a lot of their in universe sci-fi/fake science mechanics?

[Snow]

Dune is such a dense read imo. Herbert was a masterful worldbuilder but his character writing and interaction often fall very flat at best and obnoxious at worst. Have't read but the idea of someone who's a better char writer handling it in his built up world doesn't seem like a bad one.