The 2020 Reading Thread

[Marilink]

I’d like to read more this year, so I’m starting this year’s reading thread which will hopefully make me somewhat accountable!

Post in the thread as you want to; 52 weeks of reading, post-as-you-finish, post batches of books every so often, whatever. Use this thread as your reading log, and recommend to each other if you want too!

[Heroine of the Dragon]

I've started-- A Kis Herceg - Antoine de Saint Exupéry

[I REALLY HATE POKEMON!]

Maybe I'll read one this year. Thinking about getting around to Mark Dice's "The Liberal Media Industrial Complex" at some point, but idk. Doesn't seem like anything I'm not already aware of.

[Marilink]

1. No-Drama Discipline: The Whole-Brain Way to Calm the Chaos and Nurture Your Child's Developing Mind

Starting off the year by reading through a parenting book. It's really good and I think I'll probably read it multiple times over the next years as my kids develop and I need to approach these situations differently.

[Booyakasha]

I just finished 'The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, 83 and 1/4 Years Old'. Sweet, funny and sad. I liked it a whole lot.

[Kargath]

I've started-- A Kis Herceg - Antoine de Saint Exupéry

A ... Hungarian translation of a French kid's book?
Do you have an English copy for reference to check if you got it right?

[Marilink]

That wouldn’t be a very efficient way of developing your foreign language reading level.

[United Nations]

Last year I read more than 52 books, but I didn’t keep track so I just know it was ~62-64. I’d like to keep track in this thread better, so here’s my first book of the year.

1. Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann

I’m a certified Osage, so I loved reading about my tribe’s history, even though it was more than tragic. It was horrifying what white people will do when a minority group becomes wealthier than any of them. Worth the read even though it still has me shivering about lack of human decency.

[I am nobody]

1. Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World (1/6)

Didn't end up finishing it last year. It's one third a biography of Genghis Khan himself, one third the history of the Mongol Empire(s) after him, and one third the lasting impact and legacy of the Empire after its effective end. The tl;dr is that his story is basically the most unlikely thing to have ever happened, despite not actually involving much luck, the Empire was basically the first modern state, developing everything from monetary policy to diplomatic immunity to intercontinental-scale trade and communication networks, and all that got overwritten by images of violent barbarism in the following centuries because of a combination of Timur and the Mughals, who claimed descent and actually were incredibly and sadistically violent, followed by good-old racism in Europe, when it was science to deny that anyone else had accomplished anything ever, followed eventually by nationalism in Asia, which blamed the Mongols for their countries falling behind Europe.

Overall well worth checking out.

[I REALLY HATE POKEMON!]

^^ It's horrifying what all races are capable of, history is just a man on man torturefest compilation.

[smol Kat]

Phew! Post-as-you-finish! The pressure is off! :P

1. Now That We're Adults by Lynn Almengor (1/9)

Came across a booth at MAGfest this year promoting women fiction writers and picked this one up on a whim (okay... I picked it up because one of the characters is named Kat). It revolves around a group of longtime friends finishing college and undergoing Life Stuff tee em and also they're all nerds. Not exactly groundbreaking stuff, not necessarily an amazing read, but it was definitely something I'm glad I read since as most of you know, I've been also going through Life Stuff tee em.

[Marilink]

2. The City by the Lake: A History of Hendersonville, Tennessee 1780-1969 by Timothy L. Takacs

Wanted to read up on the history of my new community. Most of it was very interesting; a few parts were very boring and I skimmed heavily. Unfortunately, because it's reading American History, there was of course a lot of mistreatment of American Indians to go through. This book was written in the early 80's and the topic was not handled very well.

3. Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes: Removing Cultural Blinders to Better Understand the Bible by E. Randolph Richards and Brandon J. Obrien

The promise of this book is a good one, and it made a lot of solid points I wrote down to remember. It took a fresh look some accounts that are very familiar to me and made me look at them in a different way. For that, I appreciated it. Unfortunately, some of the assertions seemed indefensible. When the book made a good point, it was great; when it made a questionable point, it was highly questionable. Sometimes the authors were so concerned with "Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes" that they may have begun to misread Scripture with Eastern eyes.

[I am nobody]

2.A World Undone: The Story of the Great War, 1914 to 1918 by G. J. Meyer (1/24)

WWI in most US textbooks is basically "Franz Ferdinand, trenches, Versailles, why are you still here, the '20s are coming", and the lack of context for any of it always bothered me. A World Undone closes pretty much all of those gaps in its 28 hour audibook runtime. It's a fascinating story of how a war no one wanted turned into one no one could stop, and how recruitment propaganda quickly turned it into one every government needed a clear victory to end without a domestic rebellion. It was four years of practically all involved blundering into the worst possible decisions at every step, and while it's understandable that no one wants to focus on something so thoroughly miserable, there are important lessons here that should really be more widely known.

[Valigarmander]

1. Megahex by Simon Hanselmann - ★★★☆ (Jan 7)
2. Dinosaurs Rediscovered by Michael J. Benton - ★★★☆ (Jan 9)
3. My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness by Nagata Kabi - ★★★★ (Jan 9)
4. The Complete Peanuts: 1950-1952 by Charles M. Schulz - ★★★☆ (Jan 15)
5. How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky & Daniel Ziblatt - ★★★☆ (Jan 15)
6. Archival Quality by Ivy Noelle Weir & Steenz - ★★☆☆ (Jan 18)
7. Hope in the Dark by Rebecca Solnit - ★★★☆ (Jan 23)
8. Fables: The Mean Seasons by Bill Willingham, et al. - ★★★☆ (Jan 23)
9. Fables: Homelands by Bill Willingham, et al. - ★★☆☆ (Jan 30)

So far my resolution to read more graphic novels this year has been a success.

[Booyakasha]

I read a real good sci-fi/alternate-universe/wired wired west book, name of Lindsay Ely-----------'Gunslinger Girl'. It was super rad. I hope that Ely makes it a series. I want to see more of Serendipity Jones, man.

[Heroine of the Dragon]

I have a French version, @Kargath... but that doesn't help me as I can't read French fluently. I can always listen to it online in English... but I am using it to practice my spoken Hungarian.

This past week, I read plenty of course materials. In English... for a sport instructor course.

I really need to read some fiction this coming week.

[Marilink]

4. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

After the first few chapters, I was really excited to just read a well-done first-person narrative from the perspective of someone with autism; but the book ended up being so much more than that. When I got to a certain point halfway through the book, I absolutely had to get to the end before going to bed. This is one of the best examples of how first-person perspective can be so intensely effective.

[Marilink]

5. Kafka on the Shore

This was my first experience with Haruki Murakami, and, uh, I’m not sure I’ll be going back to any of his stuff. I might read The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, just to see if it’s the same kind of surrealism but maybe more cohesive and perhaps, hopefully, less horny. Kafka reeeeally explored the Oedipus complex in a way I wasn’t expecting. I’m glad I read it, but I don’t think I enjoyed it. Then again, Murakami has me questioning my tenuous grasp on reality, so maybe I just don’t know anything about anything anymore.

[smol Kat]

I've honestly just been reading a bunch of articles published by the NAEA recently. Will be sure to finish an actual book soon (...ish...) so that I can review it. The articles are generally really interesting though!

[Booyakasha]

Just saw David Wong is doing a sequel to 'Futuristic Violemce and Fancy Suits' this year. Maybe I'll go reread the first one, just to get all het up and silly about it.