Man, that was kind of a long book and a bit tedious on “Here is the next of the 79 regicides to be hunted and then killed in an ugly manner.” Good coverage of the history, especially as an American reader, but, fuck, makes me glad we dumped our king 116 years later.
I’ve been re-reading Larry Gonick’s A Cartoon History of the Universe as my bathroom livre. Sitting-with-the-kids-at-bedtime-in-the-dark I’m reading Donald Harrington.
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I remember feeling that way about it in the 1970s. 
I’m very fond of Heinlein’s work, but that is probably his worst effort. Or at least one of the bottom three.
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Downloaded Too Like The Lightning on BoingBoing’s recommendation and am struggling through it. It isn’t it isn’t a good book, it is maybe just too much Sci Fi for me… I like my sci-fi like I like my fantasy - Pratchett-like…
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I enjoyed most of the work as a teen, but not sure what I would think now. Isn’t SiaSL one of his more widely taught books though?
40% through American Gods. Am enjoying.
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I was kind of surprised how much sexism and homophobia Stranger in a Strange Land contained considering that it has a reputation for being so progressive.
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Yeah, basically because it’s considered a strong example of a gloss on the Christian Bible. English profs love that kind of thing.
Oh, I liked that one too. Not as much as Good Omens but still good.
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Reading:
and
Just finished:
and
and
(I’m on vacation!)
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I guess you never read any of the later stuff like the mentioned I Will fear no Evil or Number of the Beast. Stranger is dated, but worth reading as an artifact of it’s times that was a cultural touchstone. What looks like homophobia was then nonjudgmental liberalism. Grok?
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It’s been yonks since I’ve read any Heinlein, but I binged a lot of those novels in my teens. I would have to agree that he was quite open-minded for his time. But the intersection between him exploring progressive sexuality in sci fi AND being a dirty old man can come off as weird. Being queer myself and appreciating those works as products of their time I find them thoughtful and amusing, but I can see how others might not.
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I’m reading Sapiens by Yuval Harari, Steppenwolfe by Herman Hesse, and Introduction to Superconductivity by Tinkman Tinkham
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About half way through Lock In by John Scalzi. It’s a fun police procedural/near-future sci-fi that is a bit like what the movie Surrogates might have been if the movie had been written by someone who cared about telling a compelling story that actually made some goddamn sense. (I can’t speak to the comic book series on which Surrogates was based, but the movie was an unimaginative stinker.)
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I’ve read all his stuff, even the posthumous. Certainly the earlier stuff is better, particularly the old short stories, but Stranger stands out for me as just as bad as - if not worse than! - the late stuff. Obviously, that’s just a matter of taste, though.
Is the Tinkman any good?
I am reading the Pevear and Volokhonsky translation of Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground. It’s amazing, though perhaps not to all tastes… two plus two is five!
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I finished The Doomed City last night. Thanks @jlw!
A very good and thoughtful bit of sci-fi dystopia.
Next up is a whim pick up from the library Only The Dead Know Burbank which looks fun.
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I’m reading Christmas at the Mysterious Bookshop, a Yuletide collection of funny short crime and mystery stories featuring NYC’s real Mysterious Bookshop (then at W. 56th, now on Warren St.), its proprietor Otto Penzler, who edits the stories, and Christmastime setting. Donald E. Westlake, Lawrence Block, Ron Goulart, Anne Perry, George Baxt are among the listed contributors.
It’s like an Advent calendar of sin.
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That just looked depressing…
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Well it is very very Russian, sad but there is love in the sadness. It also is a really interesting world setting with a compelling main character and the ending is a trip.
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Thanks to @Clifton for pointing out the formidably talented Ursula Vernon’s online serial Summer in Orcus, I’m enjoying it!
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Light bedtime reading of late, and oddly calming. I’m always frustrated by having to read poetry in translation, but the additional commentary and biographical notes that accompany many of the poems are useful context.
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A great book!
After I first read it, I immediately followed it up with Housman’s A Shropshire Lad. I mention this merely because I too was struck by the peace, calm, and acceptance of many of the Japanese poems, only to follow it up with Housman’s melancholy work which generally seemed to say, “I’d like to die…”
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