Currently reading? (Distraction thread.)

[GreenEyedTrombonist]

17 minutes ago, RevTheory1126 said:

There's a good used bookstore in my neighborhood, I'll go check there. #feelinginspired

If you end up liking the Valiant Universe, let me know. I can send you a link to the Valiant RPG show the company I mod for made. Season 1 is all up on Youtube and Season 2 (featuring a different cast) starts on Twitch soon.  

[abcde12345]

Runescape

[Charlsa]

I've just added Dear Committee Members to my holds list. I need something a little acerbic while I wait... Just finished So You've Been Public Shamed by Jon Ronson, after enjoying The Psychopath Test. It's very light reading, if you want the mass market paperback version of nonfiction. In regards to fiction, I've been on a real female-authored thrillers binge. Read Sharp Objects and Dark Places by Gillian Flynn; currently reading The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes but I'm not hooked. If anyone has any recommendations...

Then there's the "I Should Be Reading This But I'm Not" list of unfinished books that I feel too guilty to put back on the shelf. 

Edited January 18, 2017 by Charlsa

[fadedfigures]

I've taken the time to re-read the Harry Potter series, and it has been nice reliving part of my childhood since Harry Potter was such a huge part of growing up.

(I'm STILL bitter that my Hogwarts acceptance letter didn't come. My Muggleborn ambitions? Crushed.) 

[GreenEyedTrombonist]

@fadedfigures I'm definitely one of the kids who cried on their 11th birthday because my letter never came. I know I'm a witch worthy of Hogwarts in my heart.  

I'm on the last part of 1984 so I'll be moving on to Brave New World or The Prince after that's done. Still slowly making my way through Valiant, but digital books are much less engaging for me than physical versions. :/  

@CharlsaIf you like YA Horror check out Broken Dolls by Tyrolin Puxty as well as its sequel Shattered Girls. I personally haven't gotten the chance to read either yet (school and work comes first, blegh), but Tyrolin's a friend and those I've spoken to about the books really enjoy them. 

[GeorgeC07]

I've read more books in the two weeks I got my kindle than last year, and now I'm wondering whether I have spent too much time reading stuffs not related to my research project.

[RevTheory1126]

Yeah @fadedfigures I'm thinking about going back to HP series. I honestly never finished it, stopped on book 4 in middle school. Saw movies, but that's never the same... Where's my best bet for a synopsis that will get me back into the series at this juncture? It's been a while since Goblet of Fire came out

[fadedfigures]

17 minutes ago, RevTheory1126 said:

Yeah @fadedfigures I'm thinking about going back to HP series. I honestly never finished it, stopped on book 4 in middle school. Saw movies, but that's never the same... Where's my best bet for a synopsis that will get me back into the series at this juncture? It's been a while since Goblet of Fire came out

Let me see if I can give a synopsis. A spoiler alert is in effect.

Lord Voldemort. Big bad wizard, everyone's afraid of him, except he tries to kill a baby. Except magic shit happens (which, you know, explains most of the events in the book). Anyway, the baby doesn't die, and Voldy is killed instead. That baby was Harry Potter, and he becomes super famous for being The Boy Who Lives. Except for reasons not yet explained, he's sent to live with his non-magic aunt, uncle, and cousin, who for whatever reason hate his guts. (I think because his aunt hated his mother or something? I don't know. Of all the books, I read the first one the least.) Anyway, they do what they can to keep him from knowing magic, except the bearded Jolly Green Giant comes along and says "Yer a wizard, Harry."

Then Harry is whisked away into a land of magic, and starts to attend Hogwarts. He befriends Ron Weasley and snubs Draco Malfoy, the biggest prat in history. Malfoy was like, "Don't hang out with Weasley, hang out with me instead," and Harry is like, "Girl, who are you?" and Draco is like, "Ugh, really?" Then they become enemies for the rest of the series, because apparently Voldemort isn't enough. Anyway, they eventually befriend Hermione Granger, who started off as a know-it-all snob, but then turns out to be super cool after they rescue her from a troll in the girl's bathroom. Because apparently, of all the things trolls lack, common decency and mild manners is not one of them. 

Lots of crazy magical adventures happen, like sneaking a dragon's egg and getting an invisibility cloak for Christmas, until they learn that good ol' Voldy is after something called the Sorcerer's Stone (or the Philosopher's Stone, for you UK folk across the pond). Drinking the elixir of the stone grants you immortality, which of course Voldemort wants because he's sort of dead but not really (it's weird -- don't ask). So Harry, Ron, and Hermione, as 11-year-olds, are like, "Let's go get this stone," and they manage to pass a bunch of trials without dying (sort of), and Harry comes face to face with...his Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Oh, and Voldemort too, who has been hiding under the teacher's turban for a year. I am sure it got really, really warm under there. Anyway, Voldemort can't touch Harry, because his skin burns like a vampire in daylight, and Harry is unconscious and Dumbledore is like, "Hey, you did it, good job." Then he rigs the house cup competition so Gryffindor wins, because fuck you, Slytherin. 

But wait, there's more!

[fadedfigures]

Summer happens, and Harry goes back to live with his aunt and uncle. Then a house elf comes along and ruins a super fancy dinner party by ruining a cake, so Harry is locked in his room as punishment. So Ron and his brothers come and bust him out, and they spend the summer at their house having a grand old magical time. When the time comes to go to Hogwarts, they try to go through the barrier to the train, except it is magically locked. Well, shit, they think, and they steal Ron's dad's flying car and fly (drive?) it to Hogwarts. And they crash into a tree whose bite really was worse than its bark. (I'm sorry. I couldn't resist.) Anyway, they're in trouble, but Hogwarts is in more trouble, because Slytherin's heir is totally back after 50 years, and he wants revenge. He opens the Chamber of Secrets and unleashes a basilisk upon the school who only goes after muggleborns because that snake is a jerk like that. So all these muggleborns -- including Hermione and a cat, for some odd reason -- are petrified, because looking into a basilisk's eyes results in instant death. Except none of them looked in the basilisk's eyes, because for some convenient reason, they all saw the eyes indirectly, like in a puddle's reflection or through a camera lens. In fact, the only person to die from the basilisk was a girl during the first time the basilisk was a jerk, way back 50 years ago. She's dead now, and lives in a toilet.

Anywho, some other magic stuff happens. Harry learns he can speak to snakes, by the way, and Hermione totally figures out that there's a basilisk in the castle. (She has a note in her hand when she gets petrified, having figured everything out herself. Thank god they defeated that troll in their first year or else this story would not have been that long.) So Harry and Ron figure out where the Chamber of Secrets is, where Ron's sister has been kidnapped to, and they bring along their new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher for some reason I can't remember. (Backup? Moral support? I think because this dude -- total narcissist, by the way, claims to have done all of these awesome magical things and they want his backup.) Either way, dude is a fraud, and tries to wipe Harry's and Ron's memories, and fails magnificently. He uses the wand that Ron broke in the car wreck at the beginning of the book, and wipe out his own memory. Haha oh what a silly and awkward mistake. Anyway, surprise surprise, Voldemort is behind everything, except it's a teenage remnant of him who lives in a possessed diary. He sets the basilisk at Harry, who receives help from Dumbledore's phoenix by bringing him the Sorting Hat, which (somehow) gives Harry a sword. Harry kills the basilisk, takes the basilisk's fang, and stabs the diary and kills the Voldemort living in the diary. They escape the chamber, Ron's sister is okay, the muggleborns are revived, and Gryffindor wins the house cup again, because fuck you, Slytherin. (I actually don't remember, but still. Fuck you, Slytherin.) 

[fadedfigures]

Now, I don't remember much about the third book. But I'll try my best. Harry gets super angry at his aunt and uncle (because, you know, who can blame him?) and blows up his aunt. No, for real. He inflates his aunt with his angry wizard rage because he got mad, and I guess he never understood the phrase "swelling up with rage" because she was the one who became a human balloon. Anyway, he lives in Diagon Alley for the rest of the summer, and goes to Hogwarts, and he learns that a super dangerous murderer by the name of Sirius Black has escaped Azkaban, which is a high-security wizard prison which no one was ever escaped from before (but now here we are). So Sirius Black escaped, and he's the one who betrayed Harry's parents to Voldemort and killed a bunch of Muggles, and guess what? HE'S AFTER HARRY. So the whole book is like, "Black is so dangerous" and Harry is like, "Cool, totes." Oh, and they also introduce dementors, who are like the grim reaper except they're the guards of Azkaban and they suck away all your happiness. They can also take your soul away if you're really back. So they keep showing up like those people that you never invite to the party yet they still somehow find out and show up anyway, and Harry keeps passing out. So his current Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, who is totally qualified and actually competent in his job, teaches him how to summon a Patronus, which is a spell that sends out an animal ghost apparition type thing that can chase away dementors with their light. So Harry eventually find out that Sirius Black isn't really a deranged murderer. He's actually Harry's godfather, and the real murderer/betrayer is a dude named Peter Pettigrew, a close friend of Sirius and Harry's parents. Pettigrew did all that bad stuff, framed Sirius, and has been disguised as a rat for the last 13-ish years. Ron's rat, by the way, which is a weird coincidence. Anyway, they catch Pettigrew to clear Sirius's name, and Sirius asks Harry if he wants to leave his aunt and uncle and live with Sirius, and Harry is like, "Cool, totes," except Pettigrew escaped and Sirius had to flee, and Harry went back to live with his aunt and uncle. Oh, and Voldemort wasn't in the book as the antagonist this time around. He was doing dark wizard stuff. 

[GreenEyedTrombonist]

I love that this has become an HP thread  

[fadedfigures]

Finally, Harry, Hermione, and the Weasleys go to the Quittich World Cup, which is totally fun, except Voldemort's henchmen/henchwomen show up and cause tons of trouble, including setting the Dark Mark over the campgrounds. Because of course they would. The incident is blamed on a house elf, and they all go back to Hogwarts to find out that Hogwarts is hosting the Triwizard Cup, which is only hosted every 100 years, and only students who are of legal age may participate by entering their names into the Goblet of Fire. Which, you know, is a giant middle finger to anyone who was not born in that specific year in 100 years, but whatever, because of course, Harry is entered into the tournament by some unknown force. By the magical power of contracts, he has to participate, and everyone is like, "What the fuck, Harry," and he's like, "What the fuck to you too, I don't want to do this." But he does it, and does super well, and also overcomes Ron's poor attitude because Ron is like, "You always get to be famous and stuff," and Harry is like, "Seriously?" But Harry advances far in the competition, and even gets to the finals, and so he and the other Hogwarts student, Cedric Diggory, end up winning together because they both touch the trophy at the same time. Except the trophy is a portkey, and it transports the pair to a graveyard, where Cedric is killed and a bunch of Death Eaters are there, along with Pettigrew. He does some serious black magic, and Lord Voldemort is given a human body once more. He comes to duel Harry to kill him, except Harry is saved by a wild coincidence, in which Harry's and Voldemort's wands "connect," since they have the same core. So Harry is able to escape and he brings back both Cedric's body and the news that Voldemort is back, and Dumbledore is like, "...well, shit." Harry wins the Triwizard tournament, gives Fred and George Weasley his winnings, and goes back to live with his aunt and uncle. 

[fadedfigures]

Tl;dr: Voldemort wants to kill Harry. But magic shit keeps happening, and Harry keeps surviving. Voldemort is back with a human body, and is totally after Harry now while restoring his reign of power. 

Thank you for sticking through my unfunny summary of the first four Harry Potter books. 

[RevTheory1126]

7 hours ago, fadedfigures said:

Tl;dr: Voldemort wants to kill Harry. But magic shit keeps happening, and Harry keeps surviving. Voldemort is back with a human body, and is totally after Harry now while restoring his reign of power. 

Thank you for sticking through my unfunny summary of the first four Harry Potter books. 

Man! That's dedication, thank you  

[Neist]

I read a lot, and I can't update this thread with all my recent reads (I read a lot), but I'm currently reading White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America.

It's good!

[Charlsa]

6 hours ago, Neist said:

I read a lot, and I can't update this thread with all my recent reads (I read a lot), but I'm currently reading White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America.

It's good!

My copy from the library is giving me a massive guilt-trip. I've already renewed it once and haven't read it yet. The Unwinding by George Packer was also included on this reading list from the NY Times, if you haven't read it yet. In KY, Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance has also been popular, in a similar vein.

Edited January 18, 2017 by Charlsa

[GreenEyedTrombonist]

59 minutes ago, Charlsa said:

My copy from the library is giving me a massive guilt-trip. I've already renewed it once and haven't read it yet. The Unwinding by George Packer was also included on this reading list from the NY Times, if you haven't read it yet. In KY, Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance has also been popular, in a similar vein.

I picked up Hillbilly Elegy as a required text in my thought control course. I'm excited to read it in the next couple months.  

[Neist]

1 hour ago, Charlsa said:

My copy from the library is giving me a massive guilt-trip. I've already renewed it once and haven't read it yet. The Unwinding by George Packer was also included on this reading list from the NY Times, if you haven't read it yet. In KY, Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance has also been popular, in a similar vein.

 

I'm in a campus reading group for Hillbilly Elegy this semester.  We haven't met yet, but I'm looking forward to it!

The U. of Oklahoma has a lovely reading group program that provides the books for sponsored reading groups. It's quite nice.

[AnUglyBoringNerd]

Aww I love this thread!

Currently working on the proposal of my master thesis, so first of all a lot of archives in Japanese. 

Then a lot of UN resolutions, reports, communications because of my research work with a human rights NGO.

For fun, I'm re-reading The Count of Monte Cristo (in English though) because, you know, if Edmond Dantès can come back with all the grace (and a successful revenge plan) after being imprisoned for nearly 15 years, I certainly can survive plural cycles of PhD application! (this is the first time I applied.. >_< don't know if I have to go through the application season again this year errr...hopefully not...)

Also, I want to finish reading George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series during the winter vacation~ 

(I've read Harry Potter too many times already )

[TK2]

17 hours ago, Neist said:

I read a lot, and I can't update this thread with all my recent reads (I read a lot), but I'm currently reading White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America.

It's good!

Oh good to hear, it's been on my kindle a few weeks after I read Arlie Hochschilds Strangers in their Own Land. (Also good.)

Finished Narconomics, which is about the economics of the drug trade. Pretty light - some surprising information and logic, and was actually a fun way to refresh some introductory econ concepts I haven't had to recall in a while.

Started Infomocracy, which actual fiction, which I haven't managed to get into in a while.

On 18/01/2017 at 11:09 AM, Wanumman said:

I spent the last year trying to improve my reading habits. In 2016, I managed to read about 45-50 books fully, 3 of them with thorough notes. Goodreads has been helpful in boosting my concentration, because I have an unfortunate tendency to read about 30% of a book and then put it away indefinitely. In the past, I occasionally tried to have several 'reading tracks': 1 audiobook, 1 paper book, and 1 electronic book in English, and 1 of each in another language. In some of my plans, it got further fragmented into 'serious/non-serious', 'fiction/non-fiction', etc. However, that is simply way too much choice, so now I try (and fail) to stick to no more than 3 books at a time.

I have as many as 10-20 books going in parallell sometimes. Obviously, some of them are long, slow intermittend reads I might not pick up for months, etc, and I suppose it has an impact on recollection and internalization of the material, but I don't feel guilty about it anymore. Mood and interest changes, something else catches my eye, etc. I try not to feel guilty anymore about starting books when I'm in the middle of a few - I know I will finish most of them...eventually.

[CuppyCakerton]

@Charlsa I've been thinking of reading Sharp Objects. What did you think of it?
 

I'm currently reading Dr. Derald Wing Sue's book Race Talk and the Conspiracy of Silence. He recently spoke at a diversity conference held by the university I work at and he was really captivating. I'm really loving the book so far as well, his writing isn't dry at all imo I certainly recommend it to anyone who's interested in examining race relations in the United States and the discussions surrounding them.

[Charlsa]

@CuppyCakerton I'm fairly new to both Gillian Flynn and mystery/suspense books in general, but I liked it! I'm a very grumpy person and it seems like all of her protagonists (from the whole two books I've read) are dour people with tragic pasts. If you really want to amp up the amount of angst in your life, she's great. In comparison to Dark Places, she does seem to highlight income inequalities in small towns. I'm used to the "all rural places are poor" narrative, so I appreciated her decision to focus on a rich family in a small town. I suppose I should give a trigger warning for self harm, since it comes up a lot. If you've been craving stories that center around female relationships, I can't recommend it enough. However, it's rarely positive.

[RevTheory1126]

Does anyone else read periodicals or other publications on the regular? I must say I've been reading the New Yorker more recently, and I just love their editorial team, especially their music reviews.

Or another question (that's somewhat related to reading/distractions), anyone have a good podcast to recommend? I've really enjoyed Council on Foreign Relations podcast called "The World Next Week," really great stuff.

[GreenEyedTrombonist]

@RevTheory1126 What sort of podcasts do you enjoy? 

[throwaway1463]

"Never Let Me Go" by Kazuo Ishiguro