Books you've been reading/listening to

[jaxadam]

Joe Abercrombie's The Blade Itself. I'm almost halfway through the first book of this trilogy and I'm enjoying myself, just not quite as much as the aforementioned stories I've been reading. I find the characters interesting but the writing repetitive. Not necessarily to the point of putting it down, but these are some annoyances. It flows pretty well apart from that, though it being a grimdark series, I'm expecting everyone to die by the end of the trilogy. It mainly follows four characters and I'm guessing that they will come in conflict with each other at some point. One is a judgmental asshole captain, another is a barbarian, a professional torturer with the title of Inquisitor, and the fourth is a magi of sorts. Not bad, I just hope the prose improves.

The first book was okay, but man the rest of that trilogy takes off. Just hang in there.

 

[BlackMastodon]

The Long Walk by Stephen King. The premise is that a hundred teenage boys sign up for a walk in which the last person standing gets whatever they want. If they fall below a four mile per hour walk speed, they are warned up to three times by which if they still are not up to speed, they are shot. I feel like SK kinda fucked up on the 4 MPH part, I don't think that's a walk, that feels almost like a jog to me. Could be wrong. This book left me exhausted, physically and emotionally. Think about all the bodily functions you perform on a day to day basis, now imagine having to do them under threat of death if you don't keep an appropriate speed. Great read, though.

But when do they poop?

 

[TedEH]

Might be a bit blasphemous, and maybe the wrong thread, but I ended up binge-watching the Dirk Gently show on Netflix... and it's better than the book was. The book was meandering and slow. The show actively wanted to be entertaining.

 

[fps]

The Wager was brilliant - about the ship that wrecked off the coast of South America in the 1740s - that's led me back to listening to Mastodon and Ahab more! - and I'm now on to Ishiguro's The Remains Of The Day. About 30 pages in and I'm finding it quietly devastating/moving.

 

[wheresthefbomb]

But when do they poop?

You know the "walking farts?" Like that, but poop.

 

[BlackMastodon]

You know the "walking farts?" Like that, but poop.

Can't be good for the hole

 

[wheresthefbomb]

Can't be good for the hole

It's all relative at this point. Better out than in!

 

[TheBlackBard]

Really quickly is the answer. There is some time between the strikes but it was made quite clear in the book that you had best be absolutely at the pinnacle of release. In other words, to quote Rat Race, prairie-dogging it. Some did the whole "walking while pooping" while others essentially waiting until their strikes disappeared and just did it as quickly as possible. I don't think I mentioned that strikes do eventually disappear provided you don't get another, and it takes an hour for each one to disappear.

 

[MFB]

When I first started on the treadmill, 4MPH is a weird speedwalk/pre-jog but still too fast to be a walk pace; it shouldve been 3MPH, thats what most people would consider a fast walk.

 

[gabito]

When I first started on the treadmill, 4MPH is a weird speedwalk/pre-jog but still too fast to be a walk pace; it shouldve been 3MPH, thats what most people would consider a fast walk.

Yeah, but can you poop at that speed?

 

[MFB]

Yeah, but can you poop at that speed?

Depend on the type of poop, a gut-buster like after a night of drinking where you don't know where the toilet water starts and the shit ends? Probably, but I'd have go more like a skip than anything else. A log-jammer that's just from fiber and carbs? Hell no, we're pulling over for that one.

 

[wheresthefbomb]

Depend on the type of poop, a gut-buster like after a night of drinking where you don't know where the toilet water starts and the shit ends? Probably, but I'd have go more like a skip than anything else. A log-jammer that's just from fiber and carbs? Hell no, we're pulling over for that one.

This man's treadmill underwent some terrible things in the name of science

 

[wheresthefbomb]

Wrapped up Fall of Hyperion, on to Enydmion. Really enjoying the mystery and "I-didn't-see-that-coming" factor of these books. Something I really enjoyed about the Dune books as well, it's a familiar comfort in that regard.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

Fourth WIng: It's basically dragon riders of pern+ hogwarts esque school shit + violence+ very smutty sex scenes. Ehh. While on paper those elements would appeal to me, I didn't find the book that compelling. It's basically a smutty romance novel masquerading as a fantasy book. The world building is pretty decent, but the general characterization of people outside the main characters makes their deaths fall flat. It's a quick read but I don't feel particularly compelled to read the sequels.


Crescent City: This one is way more interesting in terms of the world building and character development than Fourth Wing. Some of the dialogue is truly godawful though. While it does have some smutty sex scenes, they do a better job of setting them up. The pacing is kind of all over the place with the intro moving at a breakneck pace, then slowing to a damn crawl for most of the book, and then picking back up to a breakneck pace in the last 50 or so pages. I will say that the action is very clearly written and it's generally pretty good. It's a fun read imo.

 

[zappatton2]

Almost finished the NoFX autobiography, jeez, for guys who resented the hair metal scene, they sure seemed to follow in the Crue's footsteps. This is like the punk version of The Dirt.

 

[jaxadam]

Almost finished the NoFX autobiography, jeez, for guys who resented the hair metal scene, they sure seemed to follow in the Crue's footsteps. This is like the punk version of The Dirt.

I might have to check that out. I loved NoFX growing up. Ribbed, White Trash, and Punk in Drublic were absolutely killer albums.

 

[zappatton2]

I might have to check that out. I loved NoFX growing up. Ribbed, White Trash, and Punk in Drublic were absolutely killer albums.

Classics, to be certain!

 

[wheresthefbomb]

I finished Endymion and Rise of Endymion. Hyperion was great but these left me with a lot of what-the-fuck and honestly I really just finished Rise because I figured I'd gotten that far, I might as well finish. I skipped big parts of the book to get through, including and especially the funny-if-it-weren't-so-gross sex scenes.

The writing was nowhere near as good as Hyperion, and Raul and Anea's relationship read like a pedophile fantasy. The "time travel" gimmick doesn't make it any less unethical, he went from being a father figure to fucking her. Then I found out the author was a public school teacher for years.... gross dude. All of the Pax stuff and especially Father Captain DeSoya was really all that kept me reading.

Since I'm apparently a sucker for punishing disappointment, I tried to read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress after that, which I remembered really liking when I was 16. That shit aged like milk. Fuck you, Robert Heinlein.

 

[lurè]

I finished Endymion and Rise of Endymion. Hyperion was great but these left me with a lot of what-the-fuck and honestly I really just finished Rise because I figured I'd gotten that far, I might as well finish. I skipped big parts of the book to get through, including and especially the funny-if-it-weren't-so-gross sex scenes.

The writing was nowhere near as good as Hyperion, and Raul and Anea's relationship read like a pedophile fantasy. The "time travel" gimmick doesn't make it any less unethical, he went from being a father figure to fucking her. Then I found out the author was a public school teacher for years.... gross dude. All of the Pax stuff and especially Father Captain DeSoya was really all that kept me reading.

Since I'm apparently a sucker for punishing disappointment, I tried to read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress after that, which I remembered really liking when I was 16. That shit aged like milk. Fuck you, Robert Heinlein.

I'm currently reading the part where Endymion and Aenea meet again on that sort of himalayan world.
I'm really having hard time get going because all that time travel stuff is really boring and totally unnecessary. It looks like just a plot gimmick to present simple facts and to build up the sex scenes between the two main characters without looking like a relationship between a pedophile and a girl.

Honestly the only think that keeps me going is captain DeSoya and the Pax stuff.