What are you reading at the moment?

[naturally]

i thought it was pretty good but i couldn't shake the whole tumblr feeling the entire time

haven't seen the movie tho

[SrsSam77]

i thought it was pretty good but i couldn't shake the whole tumblr feeling the entire time

haven't seen the movie tho

I heard it was pretty overrated, anything specific that stood out about it?

[crackers]

tarot cards

[Sef]

I am about to start reading this, something I have been working towards for a long time.

Also, I am currently reading (and almost done with) Siddhartha by Herman Hesse. Interesting book, short book. Also recently finished The Stranger by Albert Camus, recommended to everyone.

[naturally]

I heard it was pretty overrated, anything specific that stood out about it?

definitely overrated, because i mean pretty much anything tumblr gets its hands on will be. it was better than i thought it would be because the worst i was expecting was another perks of being a wallflower, which it wasn't, thankfully. there are moments that feel a little pretentious like that though but overall it played out much differently than i thought it would and i don't regret reading it.

Also, I am currently reading (and almost done with) Siddhartha by Herman Hesse. Interesting book, short book.

i read this just over a week ago too. i liked it a lot but i think it's the kind of book that someone could read and become like the most pretentious person on earth afterwords. either way, i think it's very well paced in almost every aspect.

[bd648]

Yeah, Punpun is one of the most immersive manga I've ever read.

Also one of the top MAL recommendations for it is Koe no Katachi so obviously all you cats at the top of the page should check it out.

love and sex with robots.

Thanks for telling me about this.

gotta check that out.

actually i forgot i had read that. good stuff.

also oyasumi punpun! i did a character study on punpun for class a few months ago. It's def one of my favorite books in general. I had no idea anybody else had read it. Also, Manhole and anything by tsutsui testsuya are great reads. Just finished re-reading that. Also boys on the run is a great read. I'd suggest it if you liked punpun.

[naturally]

oh yeah i also forgot to say that i finished oyasumi punpun a bit ago as well and was kind of obsessed with it for a few weeks afterwords. i've never related so much to characters that i didn't want to relate to at all, and i think that's pretty powerful.

it puts you in a really weird mood sometimes, but i would agree that it's also one of my favourite books in general.

[crackers]

oh yeah i also forgot to say that i finished oyasumi punpun a bit ago as well and was kind of obsessed with it for a few weeks afterwords. i've never related so much to characters that i didn't want to relate to at all, and i think that's pretty powerful.

it puts you in a really weird mood sometimes, but i would agree that it's also one of my favourite books in general.

was intrigued by this and went to give it a read. I really like it so far, the art style is really interesting, and the story behind his uncle is so sad):

[Sef]

Has anyone here read Lolita? Is it any good? I really want an opinion on it, but I don't know anyone who HAS read it.

[rtil]

i haven't read much of oyasumi punpun yet but i don't really like how the main character is a ghost bird thing. seems kinda lazy. i'm guessing there's more to it down the road or something.

[naturally]

if only you knew how funny that comment is. oyasumi punpun is very self aware.

[rtil]

i gathered that much based on what i've read. i can tell the author has some obvious disdain and cynicism towards society.

[slack]

the author has a strange writing style, sentence structure is confusing at times, but i'm gonna finish it

[Sef]

the author has a strange writing style, sentence structure is confusing at times, but i'm gonna finish it

No Country for Old Men is a great book by the same author. Cormac Mccarthy is just overall great.

[SrsSam77]

the author has a strange writing style, sentence structure is confusing at times, but i'm gonna finish it

Oh no
whelp, have 'fun' man, just know that that book will change you.

[Bamyasi]

Not the biggest McCarthy fan but maybe I should try getting back into him with a more open mind.

the worst i was expecting was another perks of being a wallflower, which it wasn't, thankfully.

I thought that book was cute when I was 14. I definitely liked it better than anything I've read by John Green, but I guess Paper Towns and TFIOS were both pretty okay.

Has anyone here read Lolita? Is it any good? I really want an opinion on it, but I don't know anyone who HAS read it.

It's one of my favorite books. It probably hasn't affected me as much as my favorites from any given visual medium, but it's really not supposed to. Everyone owes it to themselves to at least read the first chapter if they haven't:

Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee-ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lo. Lee. Ta.
She was Lo, plain Lo, in the morning, standing four feet ten in one sock. She was Lola in slacks. She was Dolly at school. She was Dolores on the dotted line. But in my arms she was always Lolita.
Did she have a precursor? She did, indeed she did. In point of fact, there might have been no Lolita at all had I not loved, one summer, a certain initial girl-child. In a princedom by the sea. Oh when? About as many years before Lolita was born as my age was that summer. You can always count on a murderer for a fancy prose style.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, exhibit number one is what the seraphs, the misinformed, simple, noble-winged seraphs, envied. Look at this tangle of thorns.

Here's the whole book in pdf. The writing is definitely overcooked, but, like Punpun being a poorly drawn bird, it's that way for a reason. Also props for the Heller and Hesse and Camus and avatar.

i haven't read much of oyasumi punpun yet but i don't really like how the main character is a ghost bird thing. seems kinda lazy. i'm guessing there's more to it down the road or something.

Oh, you don't like it. That was one of the most immediate things that made the novelty stand out to me when I was first getting into it. I want to hear your opinion first but I mean don't you think it contrasts well with the (literally) photo-realistic backgrounds? Doesn't it make the story more immersive when you're not making judgements about the character based on appearance? Maybe you're just totally out to lunch?

Also Asano Inio is definitely an optimist (wink). Does anyone know the latest on his (rumored) sex-reassignment surgery? I've been kind of out of the loop.

I've been reading a lot of poetry but I won't post any because poetry is gay.

[rtil]

i haven't read much of oyasumi punpun yet but i don't really like how the main character is a ghost bird thing. seems kinda lazy. i'm guessing there's more to it down the road or something.

Oh, you don't like it. That was one of the most immediate things that made the novelty stand out to me when I was first getting into it. I want to hear your opinion first but I mean don't you think it contrasts well with the (literally) photo-realistic backgrounds? Doesn't it make the story more immersive when you're not making judgements about the character based on appearance? Maybe you're just totally out to lunch?

no, no and no

i don't like it because it's jarring (in a bad way) and because of its simplicity it has an extremely limited range of expression. i'm sure there's a deliberate reason the author had for doing it but i'm not aware of it yet, unless the reasons you stated are why he did it. in which case i am not any more or less interested in punpun's plight because he's a ghost bird thing and almost no one else is.

[slack]

the author has a strange writing style, sentence structure is confusing at times, but i'm gonna finish it

Oh no
whelp, have 'fun' man, just know that that book will change you.

yeah i've been meaning to read this book ever since i saw the movie, my father gave it to me on my last birthday and i've finally decided to actually read it

[Bamyasi]

i don't like it because it's jarring (in a bad way) and because of its simplicity it has an extremely limited range of expression. i'm sure there's a deliberate reason the author had for doing it but i'm not aware of it yet, unless the reasons you stated are why he did it. in which case i am not any more or less interested in punpun's plight because he's a ghost bird thing and almost no one else is.

Well I'm sorry you feel that way. I can see how you might think it's gimmicky but personally I thought Punpun's (apparent) design was very well integrated right from page one (when the artist is teaching you how to read the comic), is just as subtly expressive (if a bit more context-dependent) than any illustration by Mori Koaru or whoever, and makes for an interesting counterpoint with the comic's "dark" subject matter. The design also allows the reader to take a more active role in the story than he or she would otherwise, being forced (through the author's guidance) to infer Punpun's feelings by substituting them with his or her own, tipping the piece very far to the "cool" side of the McLuhan scale, which I like. If you're looking for a narrative justification for Punpun's appearence, you might be being too literal. Adding an extra layer of artificiality to a piece makes it feel more visceral and immediate to me because the act exposes just that, the inherent artificiality. Also don't you think Aiko is cute?

Everyone's childhood/adolescence sucked in a different way, but maybe it helps reading Punpun if one's youth sucked in a specific way. Maybe. I can't speak for everyone. I did read Punpun just as much with my guts as my eyes, though. Life experiences shouldn't have any bearing on objective critique, and I still think Punpun's top shelf stuff. It did immediately appeal to me though, so I can't say if your opinion will change with further reading. Plus, there was a (serious, if you ask me) dip in narrative quality from around the end of volume six to the beginning of volume ten. Asano more than makes up for it, though.

[naturally]

i don't like it because it's jarring (in a bad way) and because of its simplicity it has an extremely limited range of expression. i'm sure there's a deliberate reason the author had for doing it but i'm not aware of it yet, unless the reasons you stated are why he did it. in which case i am not any more or less interested in punpun's plight because he's a ghost bird thing and almost no one else is.

i originally was going to point out that it's his whole family and not just punpun but then i figured that's what you meant by 'almost no one'. i'll go right ahead then and say that he's drawn in many different ways throughout the comic depending on his state of mind or age. everyone sees him as human despite this. there's even a sketch someone draws of his face that you only see scribbled out.

maybe i was a bit vague in my post, so at least let me say this in the author's defense: if inio asano were a lazy artist i very much doubt there would be as many empty scenery panels as there is throughout, as bamyasi said, because even if you had never read any manga before i think it's very noticeable.

i feel it's really important for me to say that i would never genuinely recommend oyasumi punpun to anyone. i won't argue with you for not liking it because i know very well it's not for everyone. i actually don't really like the whole trend that's going around recently with people talking about it so much, as hipster as that may sound, because i feel like it detracts from it in a weird but strong way. that may be how i heard about it in the first place, but i think recommending it is a very bad idea. to be blunt though, i think not liking oyasumi punpun for the way he's drawn alone is the most one dimensional reason i've heard for disliking it.

it took me awhile to get through the entire thing and for most of the beginning i wasn't truly enjoying it. i could tell there was a point, but it wasn't apparent for awhile. i'm personally glad i stuck around and heard him out, but i think that's a decision someone has to make for themselves. oyasumi punpun can be very nihilistic at times, and never seems to be able to decide whether it thinks people are inherently good or bad in nature, but the ending left me with a bittersweet feeling that i'll never be able to forget.