What are you reading right now or more recently?

[Pamela Galli]

2 minutes ago, CaerolleClaudel said:

I rarely go to Twitter, but the last three I like a lot. Unfortunately they are all behind paywalls now (The Atlantic switched only recently), and I am too cheap to subscribe, so I rarely read any of them. The Atlantic temps me, as I used to read a lot of their articles, and it is only $5/month IIRC.

I had subscribed to Atlantic before The Catastrophe, but not the Times or Post. In this environment with the press under attack, I felt like I must support their work by subscribing.

[CaerolleClaudel]

2 hours ago, Rolig Loon said:

The one I just started, though is The Starless Sea, by Erin Morgenstern, who wrote The Night Circus a few years ago. She has a wonderful mastery of language and mental imagery. My daughter sent it to me for Christmas. 

OMG!!!! I have watched for a new book from Morgenstern for years! I loved The Night Circus, other than one of each pair of contestants/combatants having to die (what cruel old men). I especially loved the girl, and loved that the one woman was a previous contestant who was gay and whose love was the other of the pair, and chose to die. I have never been able to bear reading it a second time, but such a wonderful book and magical world.

[CaerolleClaudel]

2 hours ago, Scylla Rhiadra said:

In related news, I was given a Kobo for Christmas. It's currently sitting on my sideboard, smiling at me in a hopeful and friendly sort-of-way. I'm responding with a suspicious eye. I like paper.

I have bought sooo many Kindles and Nook readers over the years. I have read a lot of books on them over the years, but honestly, even with page-turners, I find them frustrating. Also, I read a lot of books with end notes, and books that I need to refer back to reread sections, and at best, the ebooks are still much more clumsy at that, for me, than paper books. I can find something I want to reread a lot easier in a book, too, by context as I skim through; with ebooks, it is slow to flip through, and search can bring up a lot of stuff to sift through. The ebooks tend to cost as much as the real ones, too. In the end, the only benefit I find of ebooks is they take up less room (I have two bookcases, and when they fill, I purge), and you can carry a lot of them around instead of packing paper books (I always take several books with me when I travel, even overnight).

[LittleMe Jewell]

The holiday weeks were crazy enough that I don't remember what book I was reading a few weeks ago.  I can tell you that it is some sort of escapism paranormal book, likely with vampires, witches, werewolves, etc..  When I read -- other than checking various news sources for current event info - it is completely for escape.  I want to leave this world and enter a world of make believe -- sort of like my SL.  If not some sort of paranormal stuff, then it would be some other sort of fantasy or mysteries.  Those are pretty much the only thing that I read for fun.

[Rolig Loon]

6 minutes ago, CaerolleClaudel said:

I have bought sooo many Kindles and Nook readers over the years. I have read a lot of books on them over the years, but honestly, even with page-turners, I find them frustrating. Also, I read a lot of books with end notes, and books that I need to refer back to reread sections, and at best, the ebooks are still much more clumsy at that, for me, than paper books. I can find something I want to reread a lot easier in a book, too, by context as I skim through; with ebooks, it is slow to flip through, and search can bring up a lot of stuff to sift through. The ebooks tend to cost as much as the real ones, too. In the end, the only benefit I find of ebooks is they take up less room (I have two bookcases, and when they fill, I purge), and you can carry a lot of them around instead of packing paper books (I always take several books with me when I travel, even overnight).

That pretty much sums it up for me too. My kids gave me a Kindle for Christmas a few years ago.  I gave it a valiant try, but I found it annoying for precisely those reasons. I never got past the sense that I was somehow reading through a window.  My feeling of immersion was gone. Half a year later, I set the Kindle aside and haven't picked it up since. 

[kali Wylder]

I love my Kindle!  The thing I love the most is I can enlarge the text size to something legible.  Sadly, I have so many books, shelves and shelves of them that I can no longer read because the text is too small. Everything else I can get used to, but my eyes just keep getting worse and worse.

[Orwar]

   Whilst visiting my family last week, I read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (yes, with the 'Murrican title - it was a pocket someone had picked up whilst traveling!) and Carmilla. I also skimmed through a few other books, but I felt two works of fiction in a weekend had to be enough.

[CaerolleClaudel]

4 minutes ago, Orwar said:

   Whilst visiting my family last week, I read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (yes, with the 'Murrican title - it was a pocket someone had picked up whilst traveling!) and Carmilla. I also skimmed through a few other books, but I felt two works of fiction in a weekend had to be enough.

What did you think of Carmilla?

[Orwar]

Just now, CaerolleClaudel said:

What did you think of Carmilla?

   It was nice. I've skimmed through it before (it's available on the Gutenberg project) whilst at work, but it was nice to sit down with it and give it a proper read. It is quite evident from its writing style that it's an older piece of literature, but the story is excellent and I do like the Gothic Horror type of writing (I know a lot of people these days find it's too slow and detailed). As a piece of literary history it's great though, and it's very apparent that Bram Stoker took some inspiration from it (and even winks to Le Fanu in the prologue to Dracula).

   It was also very familiar to me, as one of my favourite vampire movies ever is the Hammer Horror 'Vampire Lovers', which is based on that story (close behind the 1992 Dracula and Polanski's The Fearless Vampire Killers).

[CaerolleClaudel]

4 minutes ago, Orwar said:

   It was nice. I've skimmed through it before (it's available on the Gutenberg project) whilst at work, but it was nice to sit down with it and give it a proper read. It is quite evident from its writing style that it's an older piece of literature, but the story is excellent and I do like the Gothic Horror type of writing (I know a lot of people these days find it's too slow and detailed). As a piece of literary history it's great though, and it's very apparent that Bram Stoker took some inspiration from it (and even winks to Le Fanu in the prologue to Dracula).

   It was also very familiar to me, as one of my favourite vampire movies ever is the Hammer Horror 'Vampire Lovers', which is based on that story (close behind the 1992 Dracula and Polanski's The Fearless Vampire Killers).

Thanks! Not that you would likely be interested, but Carmilla has lesbian undertones, and a web series with lesbian overtones was created based on it. Supposedly a conventional movie is coming out at some point. The nice thing about the series (besides all the queer people in it) is that Carmilla turns good, defeats the evil vampire Queen (her mother!!), and saves the day.

(not a crazy Carmilla fan or anything, nope, not at all...)

[Ivanova Shostakovich]

4 hours ago, Luna Bliss said:

Is it good?

[We are all completely beside ourselves]

   It has a good beginning. And I like it so far. It was a gift from my mother and she needs me to tell her why it reminded her of me, if I can figure that out for her.

[Ivanova Shostakovich]

   Next up are The Cat in the Box by Chris Ferrie and Kevin Sherry, Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology, and Maybe (Maybe Not) by Robert Fulghum.

[Fauve Aeon]

Short Stories. An ongoing series of short stories. Some of these are also produced into podcasts at https://gallerycurious.com

I occasionally read/record a story for them...I also sometimes host the regular Thursday Story Time listening party in New Babbage.

I have a new assignment to record for them right now, matter of fact...but that’s another story. 😉