the great urban75 2016 reading challenge thread

[DotCommunist]

i read the books of the long sun ages ago. always intended to read more

Calde' of the Long Sun was my intro as a teen. I remember being amused when the sybyl (a robotic) needs a huge stone altar moving outside to perform rituals in front of a crowd and siezes upon an inspiration (to motivate biologicals, the robotics aren't quite the same as us) 'I need the strongest men please, the altar must be moved but only the strongest for it is heavy'

scramble as a full third of the crowd rushes to carry said altar into the daylight.

 

[toggle]

Calde' of the Long Sun was my intro as a teen. I remember being amused when the sybyl (a robotic) needs a huge stone altar moving outside to perform rituals in front of a crowd and siezes upon an inspiration (to motivate biologicals, the robotics aren't quite the same as us) 'I need the strongest men please, the altar must be moved but only the strongest for it is heavy'

scramble as a full third of the crowd rushes to carry said altar into the daylight.

i think what struck me was the return to the beginning thing. where any sufficiently advanced technology will appear as magic to a less technologically advanced society, the society that has 'devolved' will return to percieving technology as magic/religion. a society utterly reliant for it's existance on it's technology, that mystifies it. i think mainly cause i'd read a few other things that looked at posttechnological societies hiding the remnants of that. and this theme interested me as similar.

 

[DotCommunist]

i think what struck me was the return to the beginning thing. where any sufficiently advanced technology will appear as magic to a less technologically advanced society, the society that has 'devolved' will return to percieving technology as magic/religion. a society utterly reliant for it's existance on it's technology, that mystifies it. i think mainly cause i'd read a few other things that looked at posttechnological societies hiding the remnants of that. and this theme interested me as similar.

Scylla from the altar window. Only it isn't really a altar and isn't really a window right? Love the ambiguities and no hand holding of Wolfe's fantasy.

Also Patera Silk has the tutelage of a fencing master and what appears to be a sort of fantasy lighsabre

Very strange worlds he draws

 

[iona]

1/15 Foundation - Isaac Asimov

 

[pseudonarcissus]

4/20 The Vatican Cellars -Andre Gide

I'm having a few days off next week after working on site for the last month. After that it's back to the office, so I'm not going to be able to keep this rate going.

 

[D'wards]

1/20 - Peter Straub - Ghost Story

 

[marty21]

1/60 The Lost Starship - Vaughn Heppner.
2/60 The Lost Command - Vaughn Heppner
3/60 The Lost Destroyer - Vaughn Heppner

 

[Me76]

1/50 A Heat of the Moment Thing, Maggie Le Page
2/50 How to Build a Girl, Caitlin Moran
3/50 The Guest Cat, Takashi Hiraide
4/50 The Fire, John A Heldt - Quite a sweet time travelling story. Bit of a shit end, but ok.

 

[BoatieBird]

1/75 - Belinda Bauer - The Facts of Life and Death
2/75 - Stuart MacBride - Broken Skin
3/75 - David Mitchell - Cloud Atlas

4/75 - Daniel Woodrell - Winter's Bone

 

[Miss-Shelf]

1/10. Bear Bones Kathy Reich - good train reading fodder
2/10 Shakleton's Stowaway - by Victoria McKenna - this is a teen book - which makes it perfect bath and train fodder

3/10 Soppy by Philipa Rice - read it in 15 minutes as its a comic book - lovely illustrations of the little daily moments of being with a loved one

 

[Orang Utan]

1/60: Misha Glenny - McMafia
2/60: Chris Hadfield - An Astronaut's Guide To Life On Earth
3/60 Peter Goes - Timeline

 

[Yuwipi Woman]

1/50 The Yellow House: Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Nine Turbulent Weeks in Provence -- Martin Gayford
2/50 The Boxcar Children -- Gertrude Warner
3/50 The Delizia!: The Epic History of the Italians and their Food -- John Dickie

 

[chilango]

10/52: The Rhyming Rabbit Julia Donaldson

 

[sparkybird]

1/35 Wanting. Richard Flanagan
2/35 just kids patti smith

 

[ringo]

1/45 An American Outlaw - John Stonehouse
2/45 George's Marvellous Medicine - Roald Dahl
3/45 Cry, The Beloved Country - Alan Paton
4/45 Killer In The Rain - Raymond Chandler

 

[pennimania]

1? Room at the Top - John Braine
2 Life at the Top - "
3 Esther - Norah Lofts

 

[imposs1904]

1/52 Autobiography by Mother Jones

yeah, I've arrived. In your face sci-fi geeks and readers of children's books.

 

[imposs1904]

1/35 Wanting. Richard Flanagan
2/35 just kids patti smith

Read that as Wanking. I think I need some shut eye.

 

[toggle]

5 books I've owned more than 3 years -8 - 9 - 10 -
5 books i buy during the year -
5 books that are 2 inch thick hardbacks that challenge me to look at them -
5 local history books -13 -
5 local fiction books -
5 fiction books not set within anglo/anglicised culture -
5 books that are about teaching myself new skills -
5 biogs/autobiogs -
5 translated fiction books -
5 of himself's books -12 -
10 pre 20th century fiction books -16 -
10 books I'd need for the lit review when i get off my arse and pick the bloody project -
5 books for the other thing I've got planned -14
10 books that i got the idea to read on this thread (or last years) -4 - 5- 18 -
5 non fiction books that aren't history - 1- 2
10 audio-books -3 - 11

1. Lynne Truss - eats shoots and leaves.
2. tansy Hoskins - stitched up
3. marie kondo- the magic art of tidying up
4. marie brennan - a natural history of dragons
5. joe abercrombie - half a war
6. octavia butler - parable of the sower
7. octavia butler - parable of the talents
8. cj cherryh - merchanters luck
9. cj cherryh - rimrunners
10. cj cherryh - cuckoo's egg
11. neal stevenson - cryptonomicon
12. paul wady - guerilla aspies
13. atkinson - mining sites in cornwall
14. margaret fuller - women in the 19th century
15. peter f hamilton - fallen dragon
16. harriet beecher stowe - uncle toms cabin
17. alice walker - the colour purple
18. marie brennan - the tropic of serpents
19. gail dines - pornland

 

[Manter]

1. The shadows of self- Brendan Sanderson
2. Angel of storms- Trudi Canavan
3. The innocent Mage- Karen Miller
4. The awakened Mage- Karen Miller
5. A blight of mages- Karen Miller

 

[QueenOfGoths]

1. "11.22.63" - Stephen King. Very well written, I enjoyed it but a little long winded

 

[BoatieBird]

1/75 - Belinda Bauer - The Facts of Life and Death
2/75 - Stuart MacBride - Broken Skin
3/75 - David Mitchell - Cloud Atlas
4/75 - Daniel Woodrell - Winter's Bone

5/75 - Kate Atkinson - Case Histories

 

[Me76]

1/50 A Heat of the Moment Thing, Maggie Le Page
2/50 How to Build a Girl, Caitlin Moran
3/50 The Guest Cat, Takashi Hiraide
4/50 The Fire, John A Heldt
5/50 The Worst Day of my Life,So Far, MA Harper - story of family and caring for Alzheimer's. Good.

 

[Manter]

1/75 - Belinda Bauer - The Facts of Life and Death
2/75 - Stuart MacBride - Broken Skin
3/75 - David Mitchell - Cloud Atlas
4/75 - Daniel Woodrell - Winter's Bone

5/75 - Kate Atkinson - Case Histories

Did you enjoy it?

 

[toggle]

5 books I've owned more than 3 years -8 - 9 - 10 -15 -
5 books i buy during the year -17 -
5 books that are 2 inch thick hardbacks that challenge me to look at them -
5 local history books -13 -
5 local fiction books -
5 fiction books not set within anglo/anglicised culture -
5 books that are about teaching myself new skills -
5 biogs/autobiogs -
5 translated fiction books -
5 of himself's books -12 -
10 pre 20th century fiction books -16 -20 -
10 books I'd need for the lit review when i get off my arse and pick the bloody project -21 -
5 books for the other thing I've got planned -14
10 books that i got the idea to read on this thread (or last years) -4 - 5- 18 -
5 non fiction books that aren't history - 1- 2
10 audio-books -3 - 11

1. Lynne Truss - eats shoots and leaves.
2. tansy Hoskins - stitched up
3. marie kondo- the magic art of tidying up
4. marie brennan - a natural history of dragons
5. joe abercrombie - half a war
6. octavia butler - parable of the sower
7. octavia butler - parable of the talents
8. cj cherryh - merchanters luck
9. cj cherryh - rimrunners
10. cj cherryh - cuckoo's egg
11. neal stevenson - cryptonomicon
12. paul wady - guerilla aspies
13. atkinson - mining sites in cornwall
14. margaret fuller - women in the 19th century
15. peter f hamilton - fallen dragon
16. harriet beecher stowe - uncle toms cabin
17. alice walker - the colour purple
18. marie brennan - the tropic of serpents
19. gail dines - pornland
20. jane austen - pride and prejudice
21. jeffrey klaehn - filtering the news
22. tyler stoddard smith - whore stories

 

[Pickman's model]

5 books I've owned more than 3 years -8 - 9 - 10 -15 -
5 books i buy during the year -17 -
5 books that are 2 inch thick hardbacks that challenge me to look at them -
5 local history books -13 -
5 local fiction books -
5 fiction books not set within anglo/anglicised culture -
5 books that are about teaching myself new skills -
5 biogs/autobiogs -
5 translated fiction books -
5 of himself's books -12 -
10 pre 20th century fiction books -16 -20 -
10 books I'd need for the lit review when i get off my arse and pick the bloody project -21 -
5 books for the other thing I've got planned -14
10 books that i got the idea to read on this thread (or last years) -4 - 5- 18 -
5 non fiction books that aren't history - 1- 2
10 audio-books -3 - 11

1. Lynne Truss - eats shoots and leaves.
2. tansy Hoskins - stitched up
3. marie kondo- the magic art of tidying up
4. marie brennan - a natural history of dragons
5. joe abercrombie - half a war
6. octavia butler - parable of the sower
7. octavia butler - parable of the talents
8. cj cherryh - merchanters luck
9. cj cherryh - rimrunners
10. cj cherryh - cuckoo's egg
11. neal stevenson - cryptonomicon
12. paul wady - guerilla aspies
13. atkinson - mining sites in cornwall
14. margaret fuller - women in the 19th century
15. peter f hamilton - fallen dragon
16. harriet beecher stowe - uncle toms cabin
17. alice walker - the colour purple
18. marie brennan - the tropic of serpents
19. gail dines - pornland
20. jane austen - pride and prejudice
21. jeffrey klaehn - filtering the news
22. tyler stoddard smith - whore stories

if you're doing 2" thick books you might want to make them pre-war when the paper was thicker.

 

[toggle]

if you're doing 2" thick books you might want to make them pre-war when the paper was thicker.

one is. but tbh, i had a few specific books in mind for that. whopping great, but fairly new full size hardbacks. i picked that as a list item, cause they are always on my to-read list, but so bloody inconvenient to go through that i put them aside. cause i can't read them in bed, and that's usually where i read paper books atm. bloody great stack of them. most are well over that thick. the rest are close enough. although there's about half of that stack that could well go into one of the other sections.

i will at some point be asking for recomends with translated and non anglo fiction.

 

[Me76]

I need two classics to read this year(although checking last year's list I only did one ). I always try and make sure one of them is one I haven't read before. I have had the Scarlet Letter on my Kindle for ages but haven't ever been able to get past page 10.

Any other suggestions?

 

[Pickman's model]

one is. but tbh, i had a few specific books in mind for that. whopping great, but fairly new full size hardbacks. i picked that as a list item, cause they are always on my to-read list, but so bloody inconvenient to go through that i put them aside. cause i can't read them in bed, and that's usually where i read paper books atm. bloody great stack of them. most are well over that thick. the rest are close enough. although there's about half of that stack that could well go into one of the other sections.

i will at some point be asking for recomends with translated and non anglo fiction.

octave mirbeau

 

[Pickman's model]

I need two classics to read this year(although checking last year's list I only did one ). I always try and make sure one of them is one I haven't read before. I have had the Scarlet Letter on my Kindle for ages but haven't ever been able to get past page 10.

Any other suggestions?

castle of otranto
the monk - matthew lewis