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Author Topic: What literature are you reading?  (Read 85741 times)

Offline Xathrodox86

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Re: What literature are you reading?
« Reply #125 on: January 02, 2017, 04:08:52 PM »
Finished "Last Ditch" some time ago. It wasn't the first Cain book that I've read. I like him, but it's annoying that almost all of his books are exactly the same. The humor is nice, but the repetitiveness gets to me, after a while.
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Offline Artobans Ghost

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Re: What literature are you reading?
« Reply #126 on: January 08, 2017, 10:35:08 PM »
Finished unearthed and last son of prospero - interesting character unveiled here! Won't spoil anything unless prompted.
Finished Brothers of the Snake - good read. And know reading  cybernetica. 
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Offline Artobans Ghost

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Re: What literature are you reading?
« Reply #127 on: January 20, 2017, 01:32:47 PM »
Yet more 40k from my favourite group the space Wolves about my actual army based on Harol Deathwolf's great company. The Curse of the Wolfen. Great read but it ended like it needed a sequel which I think is The Legasy of Russ which I should get but I promised myself I would get City of Secrets first. I should stick to a plan. That's why my life is a shlomosel to begin with. Always sidetracked. If I was a train yard I should be found somewhere on a wayward track 😺
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Offline Athiuen

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Re: What literature are you reading?
« Reply #128 on: January 20, 2017, 10:21:33 PM »
Reading War and Peace and have just passed Pierre's duel with Dolokhov.
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Offline Artobans Ghost

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Re: What literature are you reading?
« Reply #129 on: January 21, 2017, 02:54:41 PM »
Reading War and Peace and have just passed Pierre's duel with Dolokhov.

Congratulations! Quite an ambitious undertaking. One that I havnt done myself but always had good intentions - but you know what they say about that lol.
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Offline Karl Voss of Averland

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Re: What literature are you reading?
« Reply #130 on: January 21, 2017, 03:22:51 PM »
I've committed to reading 12 books in 12 months. For January I'm rereading a book I read in elementary school:

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Offline Mathi Alfblut

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Re: What literature are you reading?
« Reply #131 on: January 21, 2017, 04:43:40 PM »
I am reading a book written by the esteemed gentleman and fencing master Col. Thomas Hoyer Monstery in the 1870:ies.
"Self defense for gentlemen and ladies".

What an awesome chap!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonel_Thomas_Hoyer_Monstery

His most gifted student was possibly even more badass than her Master.
http://usfencinghalloffame.com/wp/hattan-ella-jaguarina/

but when they once staged a joint fencing display they were judged very evenly matched by both audience and judges.
https://martialartsnewyork.org/2015/03/31/colonel-thomas-monstery-and-the-training-of-jaguarina-americas-champion-swordswoman/

Now, consider this. Monstery fought several duels AND in several combat skirmishes. And had to defend himself in the street on occasions. Yet, he hated guns. He said that man who carry a gun is more likely to use it hastily.
When you fought a duel with the sword, you were much more able to stop and and show humanity, to ask if honours were satisfied etc.
But as soon as a trigger is pulled a man is turned into a murderer wether he wants it or not, as Monstery put it.

Now, Monstery did kill a few men in his career but he did not consider that as something grand. They may have wanted his life but they were still fellow men. Hence Monstery said that the art of boxing was of great value to the gentleman. It gave him an ability to defend himself and his lady without risking to become a murderer. Monsterys boxing is not like what we see today. It looks much more like what we see from modern self-defence, blocks with the lower arms and legs, jabs for keeping the opponent at bay and then straight "scientific" blows using the straight line, targetting the nose and the bridge between the eyes.

Uppercuts and curved blows was something Monstery taught his students to defend against, but not to use. You risked among other things severly injuring your hands and knuckles, which in a self-defence situation is very counter-productive.

However, Monstery argued that the gentlemans best item of self-defence was the regular walking cane. No swordcane or such things, just a sturdy normal cane.
He also taught his female students the use of boxing and trained them as hard as his male ones. He made zero difference between them.
But he also saw that women, due to fashion and the codes of society had other things to consider. They did not use canes for example, depriving them of an excellent self-defence tool.
But instead it was often fashionable to carry a parasol and Monstery developed a system for turning it into a nasty self-defence tool. He taught that hitting with it was usually pointless but drilled his students in using it as a parry tool and then via rapier fencing to learn to use it for stabbing, either stabbing the face and eyes and of course the groin.

I would not want to be the assailant leaping a New York woman in the streets finding out the hard way she had studied for the Colonel.



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Offline Artobans Ghost

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Re: What literature are you reading?
« Reply #132 on: January 21, 2017, 05:02:47 PM »
Now that sounds interesting 👆

A note to Padre - I could have sworn there were a couple of recent posts here from you that I wanted to comment on but I can't find em lol. I think I wanted to ask you if you've ever listened to Graham Hancock on his thoughts on conciousness and the mind being an interpreter of 'other being' for lack of a better term. He described something like watching tv and throwing a brick at it destroying the device ie:body but not the signal ie:conscious. He is also a big fan of dmt. You might find it interesting or just another load of crap.
« Last Edit: January 21, 2017, 05:12:44 PM by Artobans Ghost »
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Offline valmir

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Re: What literature are you reading?
« Reply #133 on: January 21, 2017, 08:13:41 PM »
So I was feeling pretty confident about my reading in German, because I spend large parts of my day with Adorno and Hegel and stuff. But then I picked up Thomas Mann's "Joseph und seine Brüder"...

Like this sentence (yes, singular), which was more-or-less chosen at random:
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Die Überlieferung will wissen, daß ihm sein Gott, der Gott, an dessen Wesensbild sein Geist arbeitete, der Höchste unter den anderen, dem ganz allein zu dienen er aus Stolz und Liebe entschlossen war, der Gott der Äonen, dem er Namen suchte und hinlängliche nicht fand, weshalb er ihm die Mehrzahl verlieh und ihn Elohim, die Gottheit, versuchsweise nannte: daß also Elohim ihm ebenso weitreichende wie fest umschriebene Verheißungen gemacht hatte, des Sinnes nicht nur, er, der Mann aus Ur, solle zu einem Volke werden, zahlreich wie Sand und Sterne, und allen Völkern ein Segen sein, sondern auch dahingehend, das Land, in dem er nun als Fremder wohne und wohin Elohim ihn aus Chaldäa geführt hätte, solle ihm und seinem Samen zu ewiger Besitzung gegeben werden in allen seinen Teilen, - wobei der Gott der Götter ausdrücklich die Völkerschaften und gegenwärtigen Inhaber des Landes aufgeführt hätte, deren "Tore" der Same des Ur-Mannes besitzen solle, das heißt: denen der Gott im Interesse des Ur-Mannes und seines Samens Unterwerfung und Knechtschaft bündig zugedacht habe.

Jesus. Like, it's fine (and quite beautiful), but you can't let your mind wander for a moment...
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Offline Artobans Ghost

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Re: What literature are you reading?
« Reply #134 on: January 21, 2017, 09:05:05 PM »
If you can read this - fantastic. I can count to 100 I think and a couple of frases. From my earliest recollection I always wanted to speak German and despite taking it in school for 2 years I failed in this effort.
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Offline valmir

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Re: What literature are you reading?
« Reply #135 on: January 22, 2017, 06:51:08 AM »
Yeah, my german should probably be better than it actually is: I've been living here for seven years, now... I did basically learn by reading though. I started with Harry Potter (each page taking, like, an hour, at the beginning), and then gradually getting more complicated. It's only been in the last year or two that I really "found a voice" in german, though, and was capable of having non-trivial, non-drunk friendships in german...

I have an ongoing discussion with a friend of mine about translateability. I hold, for example, that Shakespeare is basically "untranslatable" (i mean, it's obviously not in a literal sense, but loses something vital in translation, I think). His example has always been Thomas Mann, which is what prompted my reading this book.

I do find this question interesting. When Sebald writes an 11-page sentence in "austerlitz", for example, this is a sentence that I can somehow very well imagine working in English through more or less basic hypotactic formulations. Whereas the dense network of dependencies and simultaneous distancing evident in that random Mann example are way harder to reproduce in the English language...


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Offline Artobans Ghost

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Re: What literature are you reading?
« Reply #136 on: January 22, 2017, 11:38:27 PM »
The Legasy of Russ - holy catfish - lots of action here. Only half way thru and sooo many Wolves have had their strings cut. Very painful.

Done! What a book! If you like total ruin and annialation and unbreakable spirit this is the one for you.  Classic Space Wolves stuff. On to the city of secrets!
« Last Edit: January 24, 2017, 02:01:44 AM by Artobans Ghost »
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Offline Artobans Ghost

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Re: What literature are you reading?
« Reply #137 on: January 26, 2017, 12:37:47 AM »
Nick Horth's City of Secrets - I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. Apparently his first book and he is a background author for AOS and 40K. Great sense of humour and excellent ability to craft a setting. I feel like I just visited an Old World city but in the new setting. Pretty grim sigmarites in this story. Very much like Space Marines - the type you don't want to piss off. Really looking forward to new material by this guy. He could become a favourite and his witch hunter is pretty much as he should be. Mortal with the will of a warrior priest.
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Offline wissenlander

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Re: What literature are you reading?
« Reply #138 on: January 26, 2017, 11:11:12 AM »
I just finished Bernard Cornwell's Archer's Tale/Harlequin.  I've now started up the first omnibus of the Gotrek and Felix saga.
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Offline Aldaris

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Re: What literature are you reading?
« Reply #139 on: January 26, 2017, 11:13:41 AM »
Gotrek and Felix is great, as long as you stick to the ones written by William King.

Offline wissenlander

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Re: What literature are you reading?
« Reply #140 on: January 26, 2017, 11:15:04 AM »
Noted.  Thanks.

I've been missing old Warhammer and figured why not.
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Offline Xathrodox86

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Re: What literature are you reading?
« Reply #141 on: January 26, 2017, 11:38:30 AM »
Gotrek and Felix is great, as long as you stick to the ones written by William King.

I can't agree more. The original saga is simply great. :blush:
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Offline Artobans Ghost

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Re: What literature are you reading?
« Reply #142 on: January 26, 2017, 01:20:55 PM »
Gotrek and Felix is great, as long as you stick to the ones written by William King.

I can't agree more. The original saga is simply great. :blush:

Ditto. One of the best of all time.
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Offline Artobans Ghost

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Re: What literature are you reading?
« Reply #143 on: February 04, 2017, 10:22:55 PM »
Just finished 'War Storm'. 3 shorter stories by Josh Reynolds, Nick Kyme and Guy Haley. Continuing the stormcast stories and I have to say I'm getting into the environment. There is room for every narrative. I found I was thinking of WoW's country of Nagrand with the floating islands which happened to be one of my favourite landscapes in the game (Outlands). Reminded them again of Roger Dean's wild landscapes.
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Offline Konrad von Richtmark

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Re: What literature are you reading?
« Reply #144 on: February 05, 2017, 04:37:59 PM »
Not too long ago i finished Khrushchev's memoirs. Interesting stuff, if you're part of the small fraction of humanity with nerdy interest in that kind of thing  :happy:
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Offline Artobans Ghost

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Re: What literature are you reading?
« Reply #145 on: February 10, 2017, 03:04:15 AM »
Working my way through Ghal Maraz. Enjoying it completely. A lot of the battles and characters spring too life and reading about them in mongoose mats gaming diary is a nice combo.  Feels like I met them already. I am really liking The Lord Relictor and his abilities to heal and grasp the elements. Looking up on his Warscroll, it doesn't seem to do him justice with only D3 damage in mortal wounds. Definitely is going to be a hero in my future army.
Getting a good feel for the fluff as well and trying to read the novels in order.

Edit: didn't realize it was two books. Just finished it. Allarielle was some pissed off.  Really enjoyed it 😺
« Last Edit: February 10, 2017, 03:41:04 AM by Artobans Ghost »
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Offline BAWTRM

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Re: What literature are you reading?
« Reply #146 on: February 10, 2017, 07:55:37 AM »
I've been acquiring a steady collection of Terry Pratchett hardcovers these past few years. Right now I'm reading Carpe Jugulum, liking it a lot more than the first time because that was a horrible Dutch translation called 'Pluk de Strot' which really translates like 'pluck the throat'.

I've never read a good Dutch translation of Pratchett though, all the clever puns with words get lost in the translation and often even missed by the translator! Often I would read some sentence that didn't seem to make any sense, but translating it directly back into English got me to some clever word play.

I can only imagine how the translator had butchered they way the Nac Mac Feegle talk. Must have completely repressed that memory I guess...
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Offline Padre

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Re: What literature are you reading?
« Reply #147 on: February 10, 2017, 09:06:54 AM »
I am reading Mathematical magick, or, The wonders that may be performed by mechanical geometry in two books: concerning mechanical [brace] powers, motions ... by the bishop of Chester (mid seveteenth century) John Wilkins, the same man who proposed that there may be life on the moon and speculated concerning flying machines. I am learning a lot, surprisingly interesting too, about levers, wheels, etc. Also, the american spelling of 'center' is his way. Apparently it is us English who have changed it. Also, don't use 'explanations', use 'explications'. It's more fun!
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Offline Gankom

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Re: What literature are you reading?
« Reply #148 on: February 11, 2017, 06:02:08 PM »
I've been acquiring a steady collection of Terry Pratchett hardcovers these past few years. Right now I'm reading Carpe Jugulum, liking it a lot more than the first time because that was a horrible Dutch translation called 'Pluk de Strot' which really translates like 'pluck the throat'.

I've never read a good Dutch translation of Pratchett though, all the clever puns with words get lost in the translation and often even missed by the translator! Often I would read some sentence that didn't seem to make any sense, but translating it directly back into English got me to some clever word play.

I can only imagine how the translator had butchered they way the Nac Mac Feegle talk. Must have completely repressed that memory I guess...

Terry Pratchett is a genius, but sadly I can see how it would be just about impossible to translate and keep the same word play. I feel they have the same problem with the couple of movies or mini series they've made. The word play just doesn't make it to the screen in the same way.

I've been reading through the River's of London series while I wait for the next Dresden File's book to come out. It's a pretty fun, urban fantasy series. A cop in the Met accidently finds out they have a division that deals with magical crimes or creatures and ends up getting recruited. Each book is generally a traditional crime drama but with magic. It's a different take then Dresden File's though because the main character spends a lot of time trying to work out the science behind how the magic works. Especially because the wizards group was founded by Newton after he modernized and codified magic as a science instead superstition.

Offline Artobans Ghost

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Re: What literature are you reading?
« Reply #149 on: February 12, 2017, 02:39:39 PM »
It seems everyone raves about Terry Pratchett. I think the time is coming to investigate if I can break this realmgate wars craziness.
Just finished The Eldritch Fortress and completely loved it. I think I'm pretty immersed in the AOS fluff now (almost criminal offence to the oldworlders ) but it really is pretty much the same stories/writers in a different setting and it's what I enjoy so what the hell.
Definitely have my army almost planned and I love the stormcast models. Especially the dracoth cavalry. Unfortunately hellishly expensive as well. Ionis Cryptborn I think is my favorite character but not sure if there's a model for him. What I think I like best about AOS is that I can use every unit I like (because narrative is the form I will probably go with since there are so many ways to play) and I'll get to use all the dust gatherers that are kicking around. I remember painting up the unit spearmen from the empire/ork starter set and never using them ever.
Anyway back to Pratchett - I have a feeling I'm gonna like his work. Unfortunately I downloaded Hammers of Sigmar as my next dose i my addiction.
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