What are you reading?

[wojt]

what stoners already knew, but were sometimes afraid to say it in the polite society

on serious note, it outlines misguided government policy and cites a number of possible medical applications that are therapeutic or may enhance quality of life in patients

 

[double00]

^ i use maryjane daily as a proprioceptive assist , very effective .

 

[Kaplan]

Robert Silverberg: The World Inside, 1971.

"We're a post-privacy culture, naturally."

Silverberg What If's instead of limiting population growth, it was actively encouraged? So in the year 2381 earth's population is 75 billion - this made possible by people living in 3 kilometer high skyscrapers housing 800,000+ people each, leaving most of earth's surface for the required farming. Though seemingly a utopia, not everybody is content with the (sometimes gruesome) concessions required for this closely packed lifestyle, with its reliance on the comfort of the dwelling and the disregard for any Direct Experience with the outside (there are shadows of The Machine Stops here).

Bob is a Grand Master of SF and one of its most prolific writers, at times putting out what amounts to a novel per week. Previously I'd only read a few of his short stories, but wanted to try a novel - which this is, but it quickly turned out to be of the 'fix-up' kind (so compiled from previously published short stories), though the episodic nature fit the subject rather well. Next up on the TBR from Silverberg will be The Book of Skulls.

 

[smittycl]

Just got a new volume of previously uncollected pieces from Christopher Hitchens. I really miss this guy.

 

[Scuppers]

Just got a new volume of previously uncollected pieces from Christopher Hitchens. I really miss this guy.

View attachment 2116483

Indeed. As I do Gore Vidal, but they both went off the rails in the end.

With regard to reviews, I subscribed to The New York review of books and down loaded most if not all GVs book reviews. Make for great reeading. 1963-1997.

 

[smittycl]

Indeed. As I do Gore Vidal, but they both went off the rails in the end.

With regard to reviews, I subscribed to The New York review of books and down loaded most if not all GVs book reviews. Make for great reeading. 1963-1997.

Hitchens made the mistake of supporting the Iraq war but never really crashed and burned in my opinion.

 

[venividivicibj]

AtMoM wasn't in the anthology mentioned above, but I did buy it as a stand-alone along with that book (though sadly not in this beautifully illustrated version). Looking forward to reading it.

That's beautiful - thanks for sharing, ordered

 

[venividivicibj]

 

[HORNS]

Hunter Biden’s biography?

 

[SixOhNine]

Hunter Biden is 40% horse, so that's true. Historians couldn't write it in his autobiography if it wasn't. That's how books work.

 

[Kaplan]

Barry N. Malzberg: Beyond Apollo, 1972.

"I would like to live out the spaces of my life in amusement parks, narcotics parlors, and board rooms. I do not think that this is unreasonable."

In the future of 1981, a two-man expedition goes to Venus - but only one returns. What happened? Winner of the first annual John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, this (like the Silverberg above) was from the New Wave of SF, with its focus more on the exploration of inner than outer space.

Metafiction (the survivor talks about the book he wants to write - which may be the book you're reading), featuring a satirical look at the space program, a delightfully unreliable narrator and magnificently written by Malzberg, with the words just jumping off the page. A great read, consumed in a single sitting.

 

[Oswald Cornelius]

Just got a new volume of previously uncollected pieces from Christopher Hitchens. I really miss this guy.

View attachment 2116483

It's interesting--there have been at least two pieces of press claiming this is a new collection--I've had my edition a couple of years and just checked--it's copyrighted in Great Britain 2021.... not sure why it's coming across as 'new.' Here's one link from 1/1/24:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/01/books/review/hitch-in-time-christopher-hitchens.html

My archive.is is caught in Captcha hell (AGAIN!) and I don't have access to the digital NYT--but maybe it was just released stateside? I mean, I read this book over two years ago.

No real matter. It's an interesting collection, esp the bits and pieces one's interested in (I mean, doh.) If you're a Hitch fan I'm sure you've read his memoir, Hitch 22. What has slipped by some Hitch fans are Martin Amis's memoirs Experience and especially, Inside Story, which includes an extremely personal and touching take on Hitch's 'struggle' with cancer, final days and death.

He didn't get everything right but I often find myself wondering "How would Hitch think about this?" That's enough for me. I truly miss that guy.

 

[smittycl]

It's interesting--there have been at least two pieces of press claiming this is a new collection--I've had my edition a couple of years and just checked--it's copyrighted in Great Britain 2021.... not sure why it's coming across as 'new.' Here's one link from 1/1/24:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/01/books/review/hitch-in-time-christopher-hitchens.html

My archive.is is caught in Captcha hell (AGAIN!) and I don't have access to the digital NYT--but maybe it was just released stateside? I mean, I read this book over two years ago.

No real matter. It's an interesting collection, esp the bits and pieces one's interested in (I mean, doh.) If you're a Hitch fan I'm sure you've read his memoir, Hitch 22. What has slipped by some Hitch fans are Martin Amis's memoirs Experience and especially, Inside Story, which includes an extremely personal and touching take on Hitch's 'struggle' with cancer, final days and death.

He didn't get everything right but I often find myself wondering "How would Hitch think about this?" That's enough for me. I truly miss that guy.

Yeah, I also filter news through the Hitch-lens, wondering how he would have commented.

 

[Kaplan]

Gene Wolfe: The Shadow Of the Torturer, 1980.

"It was in this instant of confusion that I realized for the first time that I am in some degree insane."

This came highly recommended and it did not disappoint. SF that reads like fantasy, set on a very Vance inspired dying earth. Looking forward to the next three volumes that completes The Book of the New Sun tetralogy.

 

[Fueco]

I’m off an adventure canoeing to the Canadian Arctic.