What are you reading?

[Kaplan]

Brian Aldiss: Non-Stop, 1958.

"It's a ship, you see, and it's headed nobody-knows-where, and it's old and creaking, and it's thick with phantoms and mysteries and riddles and pain - and some poor bastard has got to sort it out before it's too late, if it's not already too late!"

Published as Starship in the US, this is a generation starship novel with much the same set-up as Heinlein's earlier Orphans of the Sky, but with an extra conceptual breakthrough at the end. Aldiss was one of the giants of SF, with 3 titles on this top 100. This was his first novel and for me not nearly as great as his later Hothouse.

I have the current in-print edition from SF Masterworks, and while the cover illustration is nice, the overall livery style of this imprint is as always rather bad, so instead below is a cool vintage cover.

Spoiler: 1976

 

[Veremund]

John Christopher: The Death of Grass, 1956.

"Those people are starving. When you're in that condition, it's the next mouthful that you're willing to commit murder for."

"It was the Chinese government's unwillingness to admit they were faced with a problem they couldn't master that's got them in the worst of this mess."
Ann said: "How did they possibly imagine they could keep it a secret?"

A post apocalyptic novel set in the near future of 1958. A virus starts in China, killing off all rice and leading to mass extinction there. An attempt at neutralizing the virus makes it mutate to kill all grasses - including all grains - as it spreads across the rest of the world. In the UK the prospects of famine have the government resort to drastic measures, including travel bans, and civilization quickly breaks down as we follow a small group trying to escape London for the promise of a refuge in the countryside. Better than I expected and every bit as bleak as Cormac McCarthy's The Road.

Years ago it was named among the top 10 out-of-print books in Britain, but it's back in this edition from Penguin Modern Classics, that very nicely re-uses the original 1956 cover illustration.

That’s a terrifying thought! Aside from fish, what do we eat that doesn‘t live on grass or grain? Yikes!

 

[Veremund]

In the last two weeks, I’ve read:
1. The Psychology of Money.
2. Money: Master the Game.
3. The Little Book that Beats the Market.
4. Own The World.

I guess there’s a bit of a theme there.

 

[Kaplan]

That’s a terrifying thought! Aside from fish, what do we eat that doesn‘t live on grass or grain? Yikes!

Exactly - most livestock quickly dies (apart from some pigs that survive on potatoes).

Basically it’s down to fish & chips.

 

[double00]

kiddo's bedtime reading rn is The Odyssey . Emily Wilson's translation is incredible , highly recommend .

 

[Fueco]

kiddo's bedtime reading rn is The Odyssey . Emily Wilson's translation is incredible , highly recommend .

Children’s books don’t count. 🤓

 

[edinatlanta]

Children’s books don’t count. 🤓

THEY ARE THE MOST CHALLENGING TEXTS I CAN READ NOT COOL

 

[SixOhNine]

*Insert obligatory GSU joak here*

 

[edinatlanta]

Im not sure i realized this when purchasing the book last year that it is an academic work but here we are.

Im about halfway through. It's a thorough retelling of America's founding with obviously new perspective. I think the author succeeds in proving that indigenous people actively shaped our country and they weren't just bit players to colonialism.

As the author continues to center native populations through to modern day America, I wonder how we're going to speed through 200 years of history when we are only at 1800 at the books midpoint.

 

[HORNS]

kiddo's bedtime reading rn is The Odyssey . Emily Wilson's translation is incredible , highly recommend .

My boy and I are reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

 

[SixOhNine]

Im not sure i realized this when purchasing the book last year that it is an academic work but here we are.

Im about halfway through. It's a thorough retelling of America's founding with obviously new perspective. I think the author succeeds in proving that indigenous people actively shaped our country and they weren't just bit players to colonialism.

As the author continues to center native populations through to modern day America, I wonder how we're going to speed through 200 years of history when we are only at 1800 at the books midpoint. View attachment 2215719

That honestly sounds really interesting, but I'm too lazy of a reader to tackle it myself.

 

[double00]

My boy and I are reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

we recently did James and the giant peach , lately it's Friday Barnes and this series about kid dragons .

idk if we will necessarily finish , we're on book 3 of 24 ; Telemachus , having fled the house of his father under threat of the suitors ( and aided by the goddess Athena ) , has landed on Pylos and has just met Nestor . good stuff .

anyways , so far it's a well rendered , super enjoyable english translation of a swashbuckling epic adventure . great to read aloud . again , recommend !

 

[Veremund]

Exactly - most livestock quickly dies (apart from some pigs that survive on potatoes).

Basically it’s down to fish & chips.

Well, when you put it like that, it doesn’t sound too bad at all! Fish and chips and occasionally some bacon? Sign me up!

 

[ppk]

Been reading Plato: Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, and Phaedo.

I started this 12-month course on the humanities. I was an engineering/math major in college and regret not taking more humanities courses. Trying to make up for it in my old age.

 

[Scuppers]

Been reading Plato: Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, and Phaedo.

I started this 12-month course on the humanities. I was an engineering/math major in college and regret not taking more humanities courses. Trying to make up for it in my old age.

I’m usually quiet, however, humanities should not be course driven.

Physics/Engineering, here. Throw in Economics and just wrapping up Law degree.
The classics should not be an extension course nor study (with exceptions), it is a choice.

BTW read all of Aeschylus; Thucydides; and Boccaccio’s Decameron.

And for some relatively contemporary fun: Pirandello