SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
What should be the Book Club pick for December 2018?
|
Log In/Create an Account
| Top
| 34 comments
| Search Discussion
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
sillema sillema nika su
(Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday September 19 2018, @09:34PM (5 children)
I think I misvoted.
I selected Snow Crash because its old enough to have been super influential, some meme-opportunity, and maybe some debate about exactly how the author's predictions fit reality. For example I'd say the authors racial creationist worldview made the book world of the future diverge from our future world we're living in now. But the well's pretty dry, I'm having trouble thinking of what to debate. We can argue over who virtue signals the book is teh greatest!!!! AOL me tooooo! but other than "its a great book" I'm having trouble specifying why THE DISCUSSION would be great.
Likewise, my current favorite exercise book is named "The Barbell Prescription" and its a pretty good book, but being relatively non-controversial non-fiction I don't think we can discuss much about it. "Nah fuck it I'd rather be fat, weak, and die young" vs "yeah that a good book, lots of great references and citations too". That's kinda boring to discuss, no matter how good of a book it is to read. So much as I'd suggest everyone read that fine tome, I just can't suggest reading it as a book club discussion.
Anyway if someone who's read more than one of those books in the list would enumerate why book X would be a better discussion topic than book Y, that would be helpful. Note this is completely distinct from which book is better. An awful book that is none the less more interesting to discuss, would be a better discussion topic.
For example "Kren of the Mitchegai" is a crappy distasteful book that makes you want to wash your eyeballs after you read it, a world-building novel about a really shitty dude who's of a really shitty alien race. The author is actually pretty appealing aside from that awful book, I guess he just had to get "anti-hero" out of his system. But, despite it not being ... recreational in nature, its at least a good topic to shitpost about. For example, Kren is a parody of the Democratic Politician Hillary Clinton. Or if you'd prefer somewhat less politics, but still some, there's a lot to say about multiculturalism such that if you don't love Kren (the main character) more than your own race, especially if you're white, then you're a filthy racist. Or if you want no politics at all, there's some pure "WTF" in that story that doesn't make sense, like the whole brain thing has never been invented in the past seems unlikely like trying to pull my leg that evolution never invented that sex thing until Eve ate an apple, which doesn't really seem to match any science at all; such that the story of Kren seems simply ridiculous that "being an asshole" was invented by a biological planet after space travel, yeah right...
Or going the opposite direction, oh hell I had a blast reading "The Posleen Series" of books, but there's not much to discuss there. Or the "Troy Rising" series, holy cow loved that series worth every minute. But those aren't really "literary criticism" compatible, they're kinda like the book equivalent of an action flick with special effects, but maybe a little better. So in the "Troy Rising" series (the maple syrup dude) how much of Tyler Vernon (the main character, mostly) is a thinly disguised love story to Elon Musk? Or since this paragraph is turning into a John Ringo love-fest, how about a book like "The Last Centurion" which was pretty good, but there's not much to talk about other than how its a deadly accurate fictional representation of CNN, or how its a thinly ripped off remaking of Xenophon's Anabasis from 2500 years ago? Or "The March Upcountry" series is cool but I can't think of anything to say about it as a discussion point.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday September 20 2018, @01:03AM (1 child)
Snow Crash appears to be the winner by far, so the misvote doesn't mean much.
For the next poll I'm working out if we can change the code to allow more than 8 options. I might shuffle them randomly too. Point being that I could take in a bunch of suggestions, and include some of the books from the older polls, like this Rip Foster one that is doing well.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 25 2018, @02:00AM
RIP Foster? Rest in Peace, Foster? So, it's a book about Killery?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 20 2018, @01:53AM
Both non-fiction options are great for improving your decision making ability and discussion could be useful, but probably less interesting. If you liked The Black Swan, then you'd probably also like these.
Makers was an entertaining read and might be interesting to contrast its near-future projections with current reality and where we think tech and society will go.
The Metropolitan Man is one of the better examples of rationalist fiction and probably would be the first exposure to such storytelling for many here. It might rub some people the wrong way, but they could still have fun attacking the "smart" character's reasoning. The free audio version is very good and the length is reasonable enough that many could probably finish it with just their commute.
I'd suggest reading or listing to the first chapters of The Metropolitan Man and Makers, since they're free, and see if you like the style.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 24 2018, @09:55PM
I am a millenial and fuck this guy, the e-pit-o-me of the worst douche baggery.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday October 10 2018, @06:10PM
Blame the Russians.
or blame Canada
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.