Books, novels, literature, what have you read lately?

Starting a book thread. I sorta thought there was one before but search just yielded Kindle stuff.

Anyhow, you folks reading any good books lately?

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I bought my friend a copy of Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir as a late Christmas present and also since the movie is coming out. I debated on whether I should watch the movie first or read the book first.

Usually the movie adaptation is bad so movie then book means happier feeling after. But I feel like there will be revelations and twists in the story so I went with book first, so I can experience the better version first. (Does that make sense?)

Anyway, I'm on chapter 9 and I'm loving it. I loved the Martian book and movie (even though I am biased against Matt Damon). Weir had humorous protagonists. He also says Holy cow, which I do sometimes, haha

Not spoiling but I feel like it's a fun read for Trekkers. Can't say until I finish it though. My initial thought about the story having religion is unfounded. So far. I'm still 1/4th into the book.

Anybody else read this before?

My New Year's Resolution was to actually keep track of my non-comics/manga reading (comics and manga already get reviewed monthly, so that's kept track of), so of course I made a spreadsheet. Here's the year to date:



Currently on Fluff vol 2.

---Dave

I usually ho through a few books and then I'm on burnout for a while.

My most recent marathon was: Neuromancer, Snow Crash, Last Unicorn and Lila the Werewolf. So...mostly Cyberpunk or Fantasy for me!

I haven't read Project Hail Mary, but I hear nothing but good things. It's one of those books I really should sit down and read sometime.
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Mostly, I've been working my way through Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere books. Good stuff! Lots of fun to be had. I started with the original Mistborn trilogy and I don't regret that choice. Elantris is technically the first one, but you could save that for later. That's a classic set of books, in my opinion.

Although, I will say, Sanderson himself claims you don't HAVE to read the entire Cosmere to read some of the individual series contained within it. And, in my opinion, that is a straight-up LIE! There's NO WAY you'd be able to follow what's going on, without reading all the other Cosmere books. Honestly? I halfway feel like Sanderson expects you to read some of his interviews, too. Because there's some stuff that he clarifies in interviews that is just not in the books, themselves. Sometimes, something will come up and I wonder to myself "Did I skip a book, or short story, or something?" And, no. It's just that Sanderson is planting seeds for books he hasn't even written yet! It's a good thing he's so prolific. Maybe I'm too much of a nerd, but I NEED to know what the different references mean.

The latest book I read was Wind and Truth. And...it may just be the longest single book I've ever read. If you needed to ever use a book as a blunt weapon, this would not be a bad choice.

Wind and Truth seems to be pretty disliked, online. And I feel like the backlash is maybe a little extreme. I don't hate this book. I do think it may have some tonal problems, here and there. ("Papa, I love you!" *POW*. The epic flute solo of psychological healing.) And, I do feel like plans had to change, between books, and maybe some of these plot points don't come to the best conclusions, because of those changes. But, I also think it has some interesting reveals and swerves. Really, I feel like it's pretty par for the course for the Stormlight series. I feel like people's expectations for the end of this "era" is really what's causing this backlash.

Slight spoilers, but I feel like people were expecting a conclusion. And what we got, instead was a timeskip. But, I do think the ending is interesting. And I'm looking forward to see what the next "era" of Stormlight looks like. In...5 years. Yeah...the wait between books may be putting people off, too. Even though, it's hard to really blame Sanderson for that. He's got another....8 books for the Cosmere alone planned between now and then? Kind of hard to complain about the wait, when we are still getting so much content. But, I suppose the people who were ONLY reading Stormlight might feel a little burned.

So, I'm still a Sanderson fan. It's hard to say how much this backslash will end up hurting the Cosmere's reputation, online, though. It WAS maybe the top-rated new fantasy series out there. Now? Well...I feel like people may be pivoting a bit.

Isles of the Emberdark is up next. The physical version finally dropped. So, that's next on the docket, for me. Then I'll finally be caught up. Until Sanderson surprise-drops another 5 books, anyway. (Or if I can find scans/pictures of that convention-exclusive "Story Deck" card game Sanderson released. You're never caught up with Sanderson.)

I used up 6 hours to finish reading Project Hail Mary. I had tears in my eyes twice. I can't wait to see if Ryan Gosling's movie messes it up or makes it awesome.

I would say that The Martian is better in terms of believability. But Project Hail Mary is more dramatic. Like, I was literally afraid to read the next paragraphs in case something bad happens. Both have great and humorous protagonists that are almost interchangeable, I think.

Anyhow, I'd highly recommend Project Hail Mary buuut I'd see the movie and say if it's acceptable to just watch that.

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Hey, I totally remember discussing Brandon Sanderson here in Allspark! There must have been an old thread that was wiped out before. I also read a whole bunch of Harry Dresden books on recommendation here. Has it been years?!? I can't be...

Anyhow, waiting for Sanderson to finish the second part of the Rithmatist, that young adult chalk drawing student school book. That was my first sampling of Sanderson's writing.

After steamrolling most of Sanderson's Cosmere (and otherwise) books over the last 2 years I took a break to read about 2/3 of LeGuin's Earthsea series and then just recently started a re-read of L.E. Modesitt's Recluce books.

About halfway through Shelby Foote's book on the civil war. First volume.

I haven't read a proper book in ages. I've tried reading during down time at work, but I hated losing my place when a call comes in. When I'm not working, I get distracted by everything, esp my phone. Plus I haven't read a book that really sucks me in where I completely lose track of time. Or maybe there's too much RL junk getting in the way.

Currently working through A Prayer for the Crown-Shy, the second of Becky Chambers' Monk & Robot stories.

I'm reading the third book in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. It is a slightly dark series considering what is going on.

Oh, try sampling the audio book for Dungeon Crawler Carl. You get used to Princess Donut's voice, hehe

Voices In The Night: Rare Stories
by William Hope Hodgson

A collection of short stories, most with a nautical background. Easy to read in short bursts, many of these have a fantastical or even almost eldritch element to them. What got me interested was the Voice in the Night short story, which served as the inspiration for the Toho SFX film Matango (aka Attack of the Mushroom People). The elements of the story are certainly there, although the film version feels more like Gilligan's Island reimagined as a psychological horror, while the story version has a much simpler cast.

Beyond that, The Derelict, Demons of the Sea, A Tropical Horror, and The Stone Ship are all really enjoyable horror stories that I was not expecting when I picked up this book.

About 60% of the way through "The Federalist Papers"

At the moment I'm somewhat reading this book called "Fabulous New Orleans" by Lyle Saxon. It's from the 1920s and it's a fascinating write up of New Orleans. It starts with the author's account of visiting New Orleans during Mardi Gras when he was five. I've set it to the side because I'm focusing on the "Dungeon Crawler Carl" series and because I'm thinking of buying the book. Reading the author's account of New Orleans and looking at the place on Google maps makes me want to visit New Orleans.

I just finished Money Shot by Christa Faust. A very good crime novel about a retired adult actress who gets caught up in a human smuggling operation. It was so good I ordered the next two books in the trilogy (Choke Hold and The Get Off) before I finished the first one. Looking forward to those!

Waiting for the next release in the Dungeon Crawler Carl audio immersion tunnel. Listened to book 3 of Discount Dan. Now I'm revisiting Super Powereds.

So @CoffeeHorse wanted a review of the David Coward translation of The Phantom of the Opera, by Gaston Leroux.

So for everyone else... the version of TPotO that has traditionally circulated around the English speaking world was translated by Alexander de Mattos, shortly after the book's original 1911 publication in France. Thing is, de Mattos' version was a translation of an abridged copy of the novel. Coward's translation is a translation of the original unabridged French. All in all, it adds around forty pages worth of material.

When discussing this, there are two things to discuss. The book as a translation, and what the added material adds to the overall story.

To the translation itself- it's a much smoother read. de Mattos was translating in the early 20th century, Coward in the early 2010s. Coward doesn't take so much liberty as to add in anachronistic speech, but it does read as more "natural" from a 21st century perspective.
There are some downsides. De Mattos wasn't afraid to get flowery with the prose, and Coward ops for more straightforward prose. While that does result in a smoother read, as I said, losing some of the poetic flourishes in the text do hurt. As an example, I miss the explanation of how the grasshopper "hops... jolly high!"
Still, I would say that as a read, Coward's translation is preferable even if some of the fun flowery language is lost. It's just more natural a flow from a 21st century perspective, and yet manages to stay true to Leroux's text and what we'd expect from the time period of the story (1880s).

As for what the unabridged novel adds to the story... Raoul is the main benefactor. Raoul has negative traits- he can be bratty and impulsive, but I've always found he was a good hearted character. Still, de Mattos' abridged translation leaves out huge chunks of Raoul's narrative that give a clearer picture into why he does what he does, and what his motivations are.
As someone who's always liked Raoul, I find it kind of vindicating. His positive traits that always had to be sussed out are now fully in the text. He comes off as far more likeable, far more selfless, and his negative actions have more explanation behind them.

A smaller change, but one I do appreciate, is that Coward actually refers to Erik as "the Phantom of the Opera." de Mattos opted for "the Opera Ghost," despite... the title of the book.

Coward also includes an extensive "Notes" section, both to give historic contexts on certain sections of the book, and to give insight into Leroux's narrative.

All in all, I'd fully recommend it. If you've read The Phantom of the Opera, give Coward's translation a read to get a new perspective on it. If you've never read it but are curious, I'd recommend the Coward translation as the way to go. It'll give you the complete book from the start.

I miss the flowery language. de Matto had style. But there is one thing I can say for Coward's somewhat stilted translation. This book is hard enough to read as it is. Some of it was the missing material. Some of it was de Matto's language. Some of it is just Leroux. He was no Victor Hugo. He did not assume this book was going to be widely read by foreigners, let alone over 100 years later. So there's parts where it's not clear what the heck he's talking about. I had the increasingly rare experience of reading the book before seeing any of the adaptations, so I had no preconceived image of the characters or setting, and there are parts where I just had that "What am I stupid or something?" feeling. So there's definitely merit to keeping the language straightforward and readable as Coward does. There's downsides (I do prefer "Opera Ghost"), but overall it is a smoother experience. And it being unabridged is just a good thing for its own sake. I like unabridged anything.

For any onlookers who are completely lost in this discussion, yes the book is interesting and worth checking out. If you have only a pop culture tier understanding of The Phantom of the Opera, you have no idea. Don't assume it's not for you just because of how the musical is marketed. The book is solidly Frankenstein or Dracula tier.

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But the musical is also worth seeing live if you're into that at all. There are reasons why it's the longest running Broadway show of all time.

CoffeeHorse said:

But the musical is also worth seeing live if you're into that at all. There are reasons why it's the longest running Broadway show of all time.

Click to expand...

The musical is probably the most faithful adaptation?

It's strange. The 1925 movie certainly is more accurate on a beat by beat checklist, but the change to the ending (and how they made the Persian not the Persian in the edits) really do ruin the whole thing.
The musical takes liberties with the plot, and excises the Persian entirely, but I think in terms of distilling the novel down to its base story, it does a wonderful job. The musical also gets points for getting the ending right. Which is huge. Not to spoil anything, but how things end in the final lair scene is very important to Erik and Christine's dynamic, and by changing things as 1925 did spoils the "most accurate" attempt they were going for.

And if anyone is like "I'm not gonna sit through a play" well one... would it kill ya to get some culture, ya mooks? And two, there's a movie version of it, from 2004 if that's more your speed. It's got a really stacked cast too, in retrospect before all the actors blew up a few years later.

Book 8 of DCC is now available, A Parade of Horribles.
This series continues to amaze and entertain.