What are you reading?

Rum, beer, movies, nice websites, gaming, etc., without interrupting the flow of martial threads.

Re: What are you reading?

Postby Taste of Death on Wed Dec 25, 2019 7:16 pm

Vermeer in Bosnia by Lawrence Weschler
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/388423.Vermeer_in_Bosnia
There are writers who specialize in the strange and others whose genius is to find the strangeness in the familiar, the unexpected meanings in stories we thought we knew. Of that second category, Lawrence Weschler is the master. Witness the pieces in this splendidly disorienting collection, spanning twenty years of his career and the full range of his concerns–which is to say, practically everything.

Only Lawrence Weschler could reveal the connections between the twentieth century’s Yugoslav wars and the equally violent Holland in which Vermeer created his luminously serene paintings. In his profile of Roman Polanski, Weschler traces the filmmaker’s symbolic negotiations with his nightmarish childhood during the Holocaust. Here, too, are meditations on artists Ed Kienholz and David Hockney, on the author’s grandfather and daughter, and on the light and earthquakes of his native Los Angeles. Haunting, elegant, and intoxicating, Vermeer in Bosnia awakens awe and wonder at the world around us.
Last edited by Taste of Death on Wed Dec 25, 2019 7:17 pm, edited 2 times in total.
"It was already late. Night stood murkily over people, and no one else pronounced words; all that could be heard was a dog barking in some alien village---just as in olden times, as if it existed in a constant eternity." Andrey Platonov
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Re: What are you reading?

Postby Taste of Death on Wed Dec 25, 2019 8:17 pm

The Little Review Ulysses by James Joyce
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23360152-the-little-review-ulysses
James Joyce’s Ulysses first appeared in print in the pages of an American avant-garde magazine, The Little Review, between 1918 and 1920. The novel many consider to be the most important literary work of the twentieth century was, at the time, deemed obscene and scandalous, resulting in the eventual seizure of The Little Review and the placing of a legal ban on Joyce’s masterwork that would not be lifted in the United States until 1933. For the first time, The Little Review “Ulysses” brings together the serial installments of Ulysses to create a new edition of the novel, enabling teachers, students, scholars, and general readers to see how one of the previous century’s most daring and influential prose narratives evolved, and how it was initially introduced to an audience who recognized its radical potential to transform Western literature. This unique and essential publication also includes essays and illustrations designed to help readers understand the rich contexts in which Ulysses first appeared and trace the complex changes Joyce introduced after it was banned.
Last edited by Taste of Death on Wed Dec 25, 2019 8:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: What are you reading?

Postby Taste of Death on Wed Dec 25, 2019 8:20 pm

Grief Lessons: Four Plays by Euripides. Translated by Anne Carson.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1466.Grief_Lessons
Writing with a pitch and heat that gets to the heart of the unforgiving classical world, Carson, a poet and classicist, translates four of the 18 surviving plays by Euripides.

Includes Heracles, Hecuba, Hippolytus, Alcestis.
Last edited by Taste of Death on Wed Dec 25, 2019 8:21 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: What are you reading?

Postby everything on Thu Dec 26, 2019 6:36 pm

Born in Blood and Fire: A Concise History of Latin America
amateur practices til gets right pro til can't get wrong
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Re: What are you reading?

Postby Bao on Fri Dec 27, 2019 2:30 pm

My wife was kind enough to not ignore my wishing list this year and bought me a hardcover set of "The Seven Military Classics of Ancient China". Haven't read them all, so for the moment I am going through Jiang Ziya (Taigong)'s Six Secret Teachings (六韜) and The Methods of the Sima (司馬法).
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Re: What are you reading?

Postby Bao on Mon Dec 30, 2019 4:09 am

Just found this audiobook on Lord of The Rings. Some guy has done a really good job narrating the whole work and it's all for free. A few chapters and passages seem to be missing, but as an abridged version, it's still pretty complete. You can find a whole lot of other fantasy and other books on the same webpage.

https://tokybook.com/fellowship-rings-audiobook-01/
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Re: What are you reading?

Postby Peacedog on Mon Dec 30, 2019 4:15 am

Ars Notorio by Steven Skinner.
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Re: What are you reading?

Postby vadaga on Thu Jan 30, 2020 1:32 pm

'Rosens navn' by Umberto Eco and Inferno by Dante inter alia
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Re: What are you reading?

Postby meeks on Thu Jan 30, 2020 9:10 pm

There's someone on this forum that is an accomplished fantasy novel writer - haven't seen his stuff in a long time, but he wrote a book I really enjoyed. Was it Paul Fugazzatto? He also wrote something called 'the witch of the sands' (or something). His style of writing is right up my alley.
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Re: What are you reading?

Postby Ian C. Kuzushi on Thu Jan 30, 2020 11:12 pm

Pete!
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Re: What are you reading?

Postby Ian C. Kuzushi on Thu Jan 30, 2020 11:14 pm

Over the next seven weeks I'm reading these gems:

Comprehensive Histories of Japanese Religion: General, Christian, and Confucian Surveys

Anesaki, Masaharu. History of Japanese Religion, with Special Reference to the Social and Moral Life of the Nation. Rutland, Vt.: C. E. Tuttle Co., 1963.
Bowring, Richard John. The Religious Traditions of Japan, 500-1600. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.
Deal, William E., and Brian Douglas Ruppert. A Cultural History of Japanese Buddhism. Wiley Blackwell Guides to Buddhism. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley Blackwell, 2015.
Kitagawa, Joseph Mitsuo. Religion in Japanese History. Vol. no. 7. Lectures on the History of Religions, New Series,. New York: Columbia University Press, 1966.
Nanjio, Bunyiu. A Short History of the Twelve Japanese Buddhist Sects. Washington, D.C.: University Publications of America, 1979.
Paramore, Kiri. Japanese Confucianism: A Cultural History. Vol. 14. New Approaches to Asian History ; Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2016.

Histories of Shinto

Breen, John, and Mark. Teeuwen. A New History of Shinto. Blackwell Brief Histories of Religion Series. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.
Grapard, Allan G. “Linguistic Cubism: A Singularity of Pluralism in the Sannō Cult.” Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 14, no. 2–3 (June 1987): 211–34.
———. “The Shinto of Yoshida Kanetomo.” Monumenta Nipponica 47, no. 1 (March 1, 1992): 27–58.
Hardacre, Helen. Shinto: A History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017.
Kuroda Toshio, James C. Dobbins, and Suzanne Gay. “Shinto in the History of Japanese Religion.” Journal of Japanese Studies 7, no. 1 (1981): 1. https://doi.org/10.2307/132163.
Sugahara, Shinkai. “The Distinctive Features of Sannō Ichijitsu Shinto.” Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 23, no. 1–2 (1996): 61–84.
Takenaka, Akiko. Yasukuni Shrine: History, Memory, and Japan’s Unending Postwar. Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2015.
Teeuwen, Mark. A Social History of the Ise Shrines. Divine Capital. Breen, John. Bloomsbury Shinto Studies; Variation: Bloomsbury Shinto Studies. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017.
———. “From Jindō to Shinto: A Concept Takes Shape.” Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 29, no. 3–4 (2002): 233–63.
Zhong, Yijiang. The Origin of Modern Shinto in Japan: The Vanquished Gods of Izumo. Paperback edition. Bloomsbury Shinto Studies. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2018.

Christianity in Japan

Elison, George, Fabian, Christovão Ferreira, and Shōsan Suzuki. Deus Destroyed; the Image of Christianity in Early Modern Japan. Vol. 72. Harvard East Asian Series,. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1973.
Leuchtenberger, Jan C. Conquering Demons: The “Kirishitan,” Japan, and the World in Early Modern Japanese Literature. Vol. Number 75. Michigan Monograph Series in Japanese Studies ; Ann Arbor: Center for Japanese Studies, The University of Michigan, 2013.
Mullins, Mark. Christianity Made in Japan: A Study of Indigenous Movements. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 1998.
Paramore, Kiri. Ideology and Christianity in Japan. Vol. 4. Routledge/Leiden Series in Modern East Asian Politics and History ; London: Routledge, 2009.

Ancient and Classical

Adolphson, Mikael S. The Teeth and Claws of the Buddha: Monastic Warriors and Sōhei in Japanese History. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2007.
Grapard, Allan G. The Protocol of the Gods: A Study of the Kasuga Cult in Japanese History. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992.
Kidder, J. Edward. Himiko and Japan’s Elusive Chiefdom of Yamatai: Archaeology, History, and Mythology. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2007. http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/11178830.
Philippi, Donald L., and Yasumaro Ō. Kojiki. 7th paperback printing. Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press, 1995.
Piggott, Joan R. The Emergence of Japanese Kingship. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1997.
Sakamoto, Tarō. The Six National Histories of Japan. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1991.

Medieval and Unification

Adolphson, Mikael S. The Gates of Power: Monks, Courtiers, and Warriors in Premodern Japan. Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2000.
Andreeva, Anna. Assembling Shinto: Buddhist Approaches to Kami Worship in Medieval Japan. Vol. 396. Harvard East Asian Monographs ; Cambridge, Massachusetts: Published by the Harvard University Asia Center, 2017.
McMullin, Neil. Buddhism and the State in Sixteenth-Century Japan. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1984.
Tsang, Carol Richmond. War and Faith: Ikkō Ikki in Late Muromachi Japan. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Asia Center, 2007.

Edo

Bowring, Richard John. In Search of the Way: Thought and Religion in Early-Modern Japan, 1582-1860. First edition. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 2017.
Hur, Nam-lin. Prayer and Play in Late Tokugawa Japan: Asakusa Sensōji and Edo Society. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Asia Center, 2000.
Nosco, Peter. Confucianism and Tokugawa Culture. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1984.
Ooms, Herman. Tokugawa Ideology: Early Constructs, 1570-1680. Ann Arbor, Mich.: Center for Japanese Studies, University of Michigan, 1998.
Williams, Duncan Ryūken. The Other Side of Zen: A Social History of Sōtō Zen: Buddhism in Tokugawa Japan. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2005.

Modern

Brownlee, John S. Japanese Historians and the National Myths, 1600-1945: The Age of the Gods and Emperor Jinmu. Vancouver, BC: University of British Columbia, 1999. http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/11279313.
Chamberlain, Basil Hall. The Invention of a New Religion. Champaign, IL: Book Jungle, 2010.
Isomae, Jun’ichi. Religious Discourse in Modern Japan: Religion, State, and Shinto. Vol. volume 6. Dynamics in the History of Religions,. Leiden: Brill, 2014.
Josephson, Jason Ānanda. The Invention of Religion in Japan. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2012.
Ketelaar, James Edward. Of Heretics and Martyrs in Meiji Japan: Buddhism and Its Persecution. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1990.

Pacific War and Contemporary

Brian Victoria. Zen at War, Second Edition. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2006.
Reader, Ian. Religious Violence in Contemporary Japan: The Case of Aum Shinrikyō. Vol. 82. NIAS Monograph Series ; Richmond: Curzon, 2000.
Rowe, Mark. Bonds of the Dead: Temples, Burial, and the Transformation of Contemporary Japanese Buddhism. Buddhism and Modernity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011.
Suzuki, Daisetz Teitaro, and Richard M. Jaffe. Zen and Japanese Culture. 1st Princeton classic ed. Vol. 64. Bollingen Series ; Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2010.
Thomas, Jolyon Baraka. Faking Liberties: Religious Freedom in American-Occupied Japan. Class 200, New Studies in Religion. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2019.
Theoretical and Sociological Concerns

Bell, Catherine M. Ritual Theory, Ritual Practice. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.
Berger, Peter L. The Sacred Canopy: Elements of a Sociological Theory of Religion. [1st ed.]. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1967.
Certeau, Michel de. The Writing of History. New York: Columbia University Press, 1988.
Clifford Geertz. “Religion as a Cultural System.” In The Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays, 87–125. Fontana Press, 1993.
Eliade, Mircea. Myth and Reality. 1st Harper Colophon ed. Vol. CN446. Harper Colophon Books ; New York: Harper & Row, 1975.
Foucault, Michel. “Of Other Spaces.” Diacritics 16, no. Spring (1986): 22–27.
James E. Ketelaar. “The Non-Modern Confronts the Modern: Dating the Buddha in Japan.” History and Theory 45, no. 4 (2006): 62.
Kertzer, David I. Ritual, Politics, and Power. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988.
McCutcheon, Russell T. Manufacturing Religion: The Discourse on Sui Generis Religion and the Politics of Nostalgia. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
Smith, Jonathan Z. Imagining Religion: From Babylon to Jonestown. Chicago Studies in the History of Judaism. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982.
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Re: What are you reading?

Postby Taste of Death on Fri Jan 31, 2020 1:57 am

The Muqaddimah by Ibn Khaldun
https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691166285/the-muqaddimah
The Muqaddimah, often translated as “Introduction” or “Prolegomenon,” is the most important Islamic history of the premodern world. Written by the great fourteenth-century Arab scholar Ibn Khaldûn (d. 1406), this monumental work established the foundations of several fields of knowledge, including the philosophy of history, sociology, ethnography, and economics. The first complete English translation, by the eminent Islamicist and interpreter of Arabic literature Franz Rosenthal, was published in three volumes in 1958 as part of the Bollingen Series and received immediate acclaim in the United States and abroad. A one-volume abridged version of Rosenthal’s masterful translation first appeared in 1969.


Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Things_Fall_Apart
The novel follows the life of Okonkwo, an Igbo ("Ibo" in the novel) man and local wrestling champion in the fictional Nigerian clan of Umuofia. The work is split into three parts, with the first describing his family, personal history, and the customs and society of the Igbo, and the second and third sections introducing the influence of British colonialism and Christian missionaries on Okonkwo, his family and wider Igbo community.


Butterfly Fish by Irenosen Okojie
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25730083-butterfly-fish
With wry humour and a deft touch, Butterfly Fish, the outstanding first novel by a stunning new writer, is a work of elegant and captivating storytelling. A dual narrative set in contemporary London and 18th century Benin in Africa, the book traverses the realms of magic realism with luminous style and graceful, effortless prose.
"It was already late. Night stood murkily over people, and no one else pronounced words; all that could be heard was a dog barking in some alien village---just as in olden times, as if it existed in a constant eternity." Andrey Platonov
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Re: What are you reading?

Postby fuga on Fri Jan 31, 2020 7:49 am

Yes, Meeks, I've written a few things. Happy I could entertain you. I'm working on a new novella now. Thanks for the support.

Right now I am reading A Lush and Seething Hell and am in awe of the writing.
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Re: What are you reading?

Postby RickMatz on Fri Jan 31, 2020 8:03 am

Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet.
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Re: What are you reading?

Postby aamc on Fri Jan 31, 2020 1:34 pm

Tombstone by C.J.Sansom
Gender Mosaic by Prof. Daphna Joel and Luba Vikhanski
Software Estimation by Steve McConnell
Difficult Women by Roxane Gay
The Naked and the Dead by Norman Mailer
Last edited by aamc on Fri Jan 31, 2020 1:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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