What are you reading at the moment?

[Taxsis]

Mrow~

[bd648]

very short read about a young boy and a deaf girl. very good story
http://www.mangapark.com/manga/koe-no-katachi/c0/all

haru showed this to me despite him not liking it. i thought it was really good.

and i've just been going thru some random scientific papers on cybernetics and control systems. interesting stuff.

[rtil]

how could you not like it

[BluPhoenix]

very short read about a young boy and a deaf girl. very good story
http://www.mangapark.com/manga/koe-no-katachi/c0/all

i remember haru sharing that a while ago and also really liking it

[houzatosis]

I've been reading Kafka's The Trial on and off, and I just finished a book about the Brucke period.

[Gilthwixt]

Since TBA seems to really like gaming and anime I think I'll plug this author's stuff that I really enjoyed:



This is The Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks. It's a high fantasy coming of age story that mixes a lot of my favorite plot elements: magic, assassins, political schemes, lonely immortality. The easiest way to describe it is basically the plot of a Fire Emblem game, but where an Assassin character is the star instead of the usual Lord, and with the writers of an HBO original series instead of Nintendo. That might actually sound terrible and overdone to you depending on your tastes, but I really liked the characterization, and Brent Weeks is pretty talented at writing action scenes. He's also much better at pacing than say, George RR Martin in my opinion. If Martin had written this series it'd have dragged out to six books or more instead of three.



This is his ongoing series, The Lightbringer; the third book comes out next year. It's also high fantasy, but rather than your typical medieval eurasia setting, it takes place in a unique universe where light and the visible spectrum are the basis of the world's magic and resulting religion/politics. The closest thing I can compare it to is the emotional spectrum of the Green Lantern comics, but the use of color and their associated emotions is the only similarity. I won't delve too deeply into the mechanics, but they're really well developed. Picture someone who uses red magic as being able to shoot liquid fire from their hands, and someone who uses green magic as being able to form things like weapons or armor out of a green glassy substance; if someone is born with the ability to do both, they could form grenades that explode into green shrapnel.

Plot wise, it's an interesting tale driven by the idea that the ruling political and religious authority is built on a lie, and all of the main characters get wrapped up in the conspiracy as it comes crashing down. Well worth reading if you like fantasy novels.

[Bamyasi]

Speaking of gaming and anime...

I finished this a little while ago and it had Metal Gear Solid, Akira and GitS references, so it must be good (don't ask me because I have no idea)!

[crackers]

Completely unexpected when I picked this up. A disturbing and difficult read - not due to the vocabulary, but it's truly hard going plot-wise. I love the concept of the book though. Where 'Lord of the Flies' meet a rural Danish setting, the prose is - for the most part - well translated, with the writing deceptively simple and spare. I'm really not one for verbose and dense texts (seriously, when Herman Melville wrote Moby Dick he inked it in fucking treacle it's so thick), but I really enjoyed this. It's not an especially long book either.

I'll just do a quick overview of the plot here:
When Pierre Anton decides that "nothing matters", and climbs up into a tree, his classmates decide to prove him wrong by creating a huge construct of things that matter the most them. Since this makes them search their hearts and question their own conflicted and complex desires, the story quickly turns allegorical - in the most harrowing, yet seductive way. The action takes place in a small town somewhere in the Danish countryside in a low-key world which quickly seems cut out to become nightmarish, as more and more is set at stake.

In terms of teenage disillusionment and existential angst, it's up there with 'The Catcher in the Rye'. That being said, it's definitely not a young teen book. Don't confuse books like this with the hormonal driven pap that dominates the shelves today that share the 'angst' feeling. If you're looking for a book that makes you think, try it.

[Stu4U]

stumbled upon this
http://tapastic.com/episode/2139

[BluPhoenix]

also reading through wangan midnight online i guess

edit:
OH and uh aku no hana (the flowers of evil)

[Bamyasi]

Those are all good manga.

Did anyone read the last volume of Oyasumi Punpun?

[iinnkk]

Those are all good manga.

Did anyone read the last volume of Oyasumi Punpun?

I was literally just about to make a post about Punpun, but yes I did
I'm re-reading it again so I can remember some aspects of it better.

[Bamyasi]

We should have a discussion when you're done. I might end up rereading it too.

For anyone who hasn't read/finished it: BakaBT, MangaHere.

[naturally]

i'm actually on ch 66 on oyasumi pun pun right now but i've been reading it on and off for about 3 weeks. i kind of want to savour it because i knew pretty early into it that there's something about it that i'm never going to forget.

also reading snow crash & love and sex with robots.

[Bamyasi]

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.

[rtil]

the koe no katachi one shot is really sweet. it's being made into volumes now, not sure how that will go.

[Bamyasi]

I'm just going to dump the first chapter so you guys are forced to read it.

[naturally]

love and sex with robots.

Thanks for telling me about this.

no problem. i'm aware of how ridiculous it sounds but it's a pretty interesting read regardless.

also thanks for making the read the first chapter of pun pun twice.

[michaell]

americas great depression by murray rothbard

[SrsSam77]

Picked this up after finishing wild at heart (which was the most bible thumpingest book I've read in awhile) because I heard it was as definitive as it could get when it comes to describing masculinity.
It was good, the entire book was a deconstruction of the Grimm's brothers tale of Iron john and talked about the role of men and masculinity and how it has changed over time and what things must happen to a boy before he can truly be a man.
7/10 Would read again if I was a 35 year old with more life experience.