Staying at home is the norm... What are you reading?

Redlin5

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Title says it all.

For me I'm reading through With Our Backs To The Wall by David Stevenson. My Dad probably gave this to me awhile ago because of my fascination with war history. Not too deep into it yet.

How about you guys?
 

Fat Hippo

Prepare to be Gnomed
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I'm reading For Whom the Bell Tolls by Hemingway, but I've been on it a while because I keep getting distracted by work, tabletop and them damn vidja games.

It is however pretty good so far. Not exactly cheerful reading by any rate, but I wasn't expecting cheerful from a book about the Spanish civil war.
 

Worgen

Follower of the Glorious Sun Butt.
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Whatever, just wash your hands.
I'm kinda tempted to start reading Disk World books again or jumping back into fanfictions. But, I get addicted to reading, like to the point where I can't really stop till the book is finished. So, instead I've kinda been going for web comics, most of which I tend to burn through really fast. The last few I went through were Wayfarer 1805, Guardia: The Tales of Halgies, and Tales of Elysium. So far all of them are pretty good with Wayfarer being the standout since its got really clever writing, an intertesting setting, a lot of characters that are actually managed very very well, and good art although the artist does like big boobs and short women a lot.
 
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SupahEwok

Malapropic Homophone
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My open reading list:

1) Merchant Soldier Sage, by David Priestland: an examination of history through a lens of caste struggle, as opposed to class struggle (with caste in this context meaning broad groups matching jobs, such as aristocracy or priesthood), in an effort to identify merchant caste values and how their unfettered proliferation in the past few decades led to the 2008 recession

2) Don Quixote, by Cervantes: it hasn't really hooked me yet so I'm not far into it, but it's amazing how modern it feels given that I think it was written in the late 1600's. In the first few chapters, you can very easily make comparisons between modern obsessive fandom and cosplay to the addled title character

3) Windows on the World Complete Wine Course, by Kevin Zraly: I'm a foodie (but lazy at cooking for myself), and I wanted to learn more about wine and its pairings, because although I enjoy it, it doesn't fit into my lifestyle very well (you should drink those bottles within a couple of days of opening them, but that's a lot of alcohol and calories for a bachelor, and the cost adds up, even having a single bottle a week). It's proven very thorough thus far.

4) Art History, Revised 2nd Edition, by Marilyn Stokstad: an art history textbook. Enormous door stopper of a book. Covers all the important bits of Western art yet also dips into regional art from around the world. I'm not very into art, but I'd like to know more about it so that I can recognize it better and having understanding of the pieces I do appreciate. This one is a bit of a long burn, it's really gargantuan and dry, I pick it up for a few hours every couple of weeks.

5) The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson: Dark fantasy from the 1950s, I think. Dad insisted I read it. Has a more mythic feel over being a straight up novel. Events tend to be narrated over quickly, while only important conversations have dialogue scenes.

6) Great Political Theories V.1: A Comprehensive Selection of the Crucial Ideas in Political Philosophy from the Greeks to the Enlightenment, by Michael Curtis: A selection of essays from great political theorists with accompanying commentary on the evolution of politics and the ideas of governance.

7) The Three Kingdoms, Moss Roberts translation: one of the Classical Novels of Chinese literature. This is the one about political maneuverings and great armies. I have an interest in Asian cultures.

8) Complete Works of Mark Twain: Have this one on Kindle. I think Twain is one of the greatest writers ever. I pull his stuff up every once in a while.

9) Book of the New Sun, by Gene Wolfe & The Best of Gene Wolfe: A Definitive Retrospective of His Finest Short Fiction: Gene Wolfe was a highly literary sci-fi author, and his written works have been very interesting. His short stories feature unusual perspectives and twists that are open to interpretation and make you really stretch your brain, and the Book of the New Sun is a 4 novel series that was his main hit back in the 80's. It's pretty heavy stuff to read; it's probably been over a year since I picked these up. I keep them on my active reading list to remind myself to get back around to them.

10) Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat: I like eating tasty things, and the way to do that with my income is cooking them myself. However, I'm also very lazy about cooking, so the farthest I generally get is reading cooking theory. This book is about flavoring food, breaking that down to applications of salt, fats, acid, and heat. Salt excites the tastebuds and helps bring out other flavors. Fat is a carrier of flavor, coating the tongue and transmitting whatever flavors it's carrying (think bites of steak that include fatty bits, which taste the most "beefy", or melted cheese or fat-based sauces/salad dressings, or juicy meat vs dried out meat). Acid (or sourness) helps bring balance, balancing saltiness, cutting through fat, and bringing contrast to the predominant flavors. Heat is about the techniques of cooking, specifically how browning brings out flavors and how to maintain proper texture. Included are "lesson" recipes to make to see the author's points for yourself, but as mentioned, I'm too lazy to do much cooking. I have kept this information in mind when tasting other food, and it's been an eye-opener in some respects. I've definitely seen how the salt and fat in the bacon used in the charro beans at my favorite taqueria brings out the other flavors, and I've noted in my mom's cooking how a splash of acid would have livened up some twice baked potatoes she'd made.

11) The Food Lab, by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt: again with the cooking theory. Kenji is less about flavoring and more about cooking techniques, following scientific methods to improve or completely revamp the traditional ways of making American staples. I do intend to try some out. When I'm through with my current schoolwork, I'll go grocery shopping and see what's available; I want to practice making omelettes for breakfasts, and practice either searing pork chops and creating a pan sauce, or roasting a whole chicken by butterflying/spatchcocking the bird for dinners.

I have a bad habit of going into bookstores to browse and walking out with at least half a dozen books (my one really bad consumerist habit), so I have at least 30 more books lying around to get to after these ones. Video games are the ruin of my time, though.
 

Fiz_The_Toaster

books, Books, BOOKS
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As with games, I have made a list of books that I need to read since it's been piling up since I have a bad habit of buying loads and loads of books and not really getting around to reading them.

I'm not counting books that I'm reading for my graduate studies since that's something I have to really read and make copious notes about.

At the moment it's Collected Fictions from Jorge Luis Borges. Just a bunch of stories from Borges and it's a pretty meaty book with some an assortment of short stories and some really long ones. So far it's been a fun read.
 

Elfgore

Your friendly local nihilist
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I decided I should binge read the rest of this trashy Sci-fi novel series I bought. Giant mechs, empires ruled by dead people, and all aliens are humans sounded cool. Turns out that just meant bad writing, self-insert characters, and maybe some OK action scenes. The writing on women characters was so hit or miss too. One woman was kidnapped then fell in love with her kidnapper. The moment he mentioned the mech pilots wear skin-tight body suits, I guessed it would be thirty pages until he described a busty woman in one... it was like 12. She may or may not have been under 18, I honestly can't remember.

I've moved onto Conan the Barbarian now. My Dad got me the complete collection of everything Robert Howard wrote for it for my birthday. Pretty interesting so far, though the racism in the history chapter was a little rough. The writing style is insanely detailed and descriptive, which I'm not really used to. Looking forward to the rest of it though.
 
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SckizoBoy

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One of my favourite artists dumped one of his signature series onto a google drive and shared it on FaceBook, which was awfully generous of him.

I'm otherwise slowly working through manga recommendations from a buddy of mine. Operative word: slowly (much to said buddy's chagrin). -.-
 
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Chupathingy

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I just finished reading Embers of War by Fredrik Logevall. I've been interested in the highly overlooked French-Indochina War for a while and this book served as a great introduction and overview.
Now I'm moving on to Max Hastings' Vietnam, as a sort of 'sequel'.
 

Fat Hippo

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I just finished reading Embers of War by Fredrik Logevall. I've been interested in the highly overlooked French-Indochina War for a while and this book served as a great introduction and overview.
Now I'm moving on to Max Hastings' Vietnam, as a sort of 'sequel'.
I read Hastings' book on the Korean War, very enjoyable read. Gets into a lot of the details without getting needlessly academic, for a more casual read. My library didn't carry his Vietnam book, unfortunately.
 

Chupathingy

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I read Hastings' book on the Korean War, very enjoyable read. Gets into a lot of the details without getting needlessly academic, for a more casual read. My library didn't carry his Vietnam book, unfortunately.
Yeah I saw that one in store and was tempted to buy it. If I enjoy Vietnam enough I'll probably pick up his Korea book too in the future. When it comes to history books as long as they aren't 'narrative driven' I usually end up liking them.
 

Sneed's SeednFeed

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Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations
Philosophy of The Encounter by Louis Althusser
The Fratricides by Nikos Kazantzakis

Philosophy is needed more than ever to stave off electronic brain rot. I refuse to succumb to onanism like Netflix, or any other tat masquerading as aestheticised politics.
 

gorfias

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I got volume 1 of a collection for "The Boys" which is also an Amazon series. I have to write, the show is much better than the book.
 

PsychicTaco115

I've Been Having These Weird Dreams Lately...
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Right now, reading Truth in Comedy: The Manual of Improvisation
 

Palindromemordnilap

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Been delving into my childhood and reading the Animorphs series, since I can grab them all in ebook form and not use up shelf space. They might be short but there's like 60 of them so they're keeping me going. Never got the chance to read through them all when I was a kid, the collection of them in my local library was a bit spotty, and holy hell they get way darker than I remember them being...
 

Baffle

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China Mieville's Kraken. It's my first China Mieville book and I'm enjoying it. Like a combination between a dark Neil Gaiman and William Gibson.
 

SilentPony

Previously known as an alleged "Feather-Rustler"
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Well all my classes got moved online so I'm reading the Principles of Bar and Beverage Management, 2nd edition, as well as Cost Control in the Hospitality Industry