Pretty self explanatory here, but share what you’re reading!
I’m working through “Like a Hurricane: An Unofficial Oral History of Street Fighter II” at the moment.
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Been reading Practical Magic. Decided to check it out after we covered the movie on Flashback. It’s way different
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The last book I finished was Universal Harvester by John Darnielle. That was over a month ago tho so I need something new. Probably gonna read that copy of Practical Magic. lol
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I’ve slowly been making my way through Fake History. Turns out everything I learned in school was wrong.
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I acknowledge I could look this up on my own but I’m curious to hear your thoughts specifically. Is this more about the game’s development and release or the community around it (or both)? I love the work on the cover.
I’m reading through a few things right now (I always have a few books in flight for when I get bored of one - I used to be much better at reading). Currently my main book is Trickster Makes This World by Lewis Hyde. It’s an analysis of trickster mythology. I’ve always liked tricksters so this book is right up my alley, and it has the perfect blend of academic and spiritual analysis for me. Particularly I like how Hyde will tie tricksters and their stories to more contemporary artists and their works. It’s super inspiring.
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It’s written by Matt Leone. It’s a collection of interviews with many of the original developers and folks around the games history. It’s organized in a chronological order with each section and moment explained, then in the developers own words from interviews, tells the history.
It’s been a great read. There is also another book, same writer and publisher, about the history of Final Fantasy VII that I just finished.
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Matt has a new site with his latest history on Shadow of the Colossus (that I hope is collected into another book)
Finished Iron Widow two months ago and am now on The Vampire Lestat. Haven’t gone that far into, didn’t catch me as immediately as the first book, but i’m always up for some vampire shenanigans
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I picked up a bunch of Conan the Barbarian books at the used book store recently. I’m currently going through the one titled “Conan the Usurper”.
I really like Conan stories, but they’re extremely 1930s, so I’m not sure I can recommend them without heavy caveats
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I’m rereading Gravity’s Rainbow, though I keep taking breaks to read other stuff too. In recent weeks this other stuff has included the entire Southern Reach series by Jeff Vandermeer. I also recently got into the Martin Beck novels by Sjöwall and Wahlöö, Swedish police procedurals about a homicide detective who becomes gradually more and more uncomfortable with the whole idea of being a policeman. Sjöwall and Wahlöö were a married couple who were left-wing journalists and their books are as much indictments of their society as they are thrillers. They’re set in the 1960s and protests against the Vietnam War, and repressive police responses to them, loom large. Because I’m currently reading them based on what I can find in libraries/secondhand bookshops (I want to collect the entire 2007 Harper Collins editions if possible, because they have great cover and spine design) I actually started with the last book, ‘The Terrorists’, in which Beck and his crew are trying to stop an assassination, and am pinging around back through the series from there.
I’m rereading Frankenstein :)
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At the moment I’m reading the Cassandra Peterson autobiography, “Yours Cruelly, Elvira”.
I just got done reading The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling and I would highly recommend it. Dark, medieval horror that follows an ex-nun, a fallen knight, and a peasant girl during a castle siege experiencing starvation. As they’re pushed to the brink of cannibalization, their saints appear to offer them salvation, but … More sapphic than I was expecting but not explicit, just kinda spicy.
I’ve moved onto The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead because somebody told me it talked about elevators a lot and I am not disappointed. Dark noir about elevator inspections gone wrong in a fantastical vertical city. Not far yet, but enjoying it and interested to dig in more.
Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky and The Works of Vermin by Hiron Ennes are anxiously waiting in standby, looking forward very much to having the time to dig into them. Been on a bit “weird fiction” kick lately. Read it much earlier in the year but still probably my favorite book so far, check out The West Passage by Jared Pechaček.
Sad that Hollow Press doesn’t seem to do digital releases, but I’ve been aware of them for awhile @Jot.404 ‘s post above reminds me I should maybe just commit to buying some physical stuff because I LOVE everything I see on that site. Fits nicely alongside my fixation with dungeon crawlers recently. Also got some Conan on tap.
Anyone got any other recommendations along these lines I’d love to hear them. On a very weird bent lately and I could stand to be weirder.
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Apparently my peak reading time is on planes, where I can just read 9 hours in a row, but I recently finished the Six of Crows duology by Leigh Bardugo which has some issues but was enjoyable enough. I then started on the Shadow and Bone trilogy which is pure misery and I want to get over with.
I also started on the Earthsea Saga which is definitely a swing in a different direction and so far it feels like it’s constantly just building up to something and I’m curious to see where it goes.
I picked this up when a podcast I listen to called Shelved By Genre started covering it. I’m half way through the first book and adore pretty much everything about it.
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I read Whitehead’s Nickel Boys recently, really liked it. Also recommend the film, it does a really good job of adapting a book which has a very literary twist (as in, the twist is very much dependent on the fact that the work is in a written medium) and making that twist work cinematically in a way that is really gut-wrenching.
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Alien Clay is brilliant.
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omg didn’t expect to find Vermis here. It’s a greaaat book!