Topic: Books You're Currently Reading?

@MightyDemon82 Oh, nice! That looks like a great resource. Until recently, Asian mythology and legend is not as popularized over here and so it would be helpful to have a general background like that. Chinese, Korean, and Indian media are becoming gradually more pervasive in the West and Japanese culture has been popular but is growing even more so too. Thanks!

@Th3solution I'm also curious about Wu Cheng'en's Journey to the West, so if you (or anyone else on here) should happen to read it, I would love to hear your thoughts. I would also love to know which version to go for, as there seems to be a few. The first one I came across was a translation titled Monkey, A Folk Tale From China which clocks in at around 300-350 pages (which also had editions titled "Monkey, A Journey to the West).
That sounded fairly manageable, but then I stumbled across one titled Journey to the West, Volume 1 which is a somewhat heftier read at 570-ish pages, with three more volumes to follow. That could be an interesting project to tackle one day. That particular translation was apparently the first translation bringing the entire saga to western audiences and was published in 1983. It appears to be a fairly accessible translation, though I expect it to be a bit challenging for me.
Still, I might give it a go one day and maybe falling back on the shorter version if it ends up being too heavy.

@MightyDemon82 And once again my reading list grows thanks to you (I've already added Japan Story and The Japanase Myths to it). To quote Blackadder: "You're not making any friends around here, you know" (but, seriously, you actually are )

@Th3solution And, speaking of adaptations, seems there is a fairly recent animated version of the story out, called The Monkey King (IMDb page). Going to try to track that down and check it out.
Edit: And lo and behold, it's on Netflix

@Th3solution @FuriousMachine No problem.
I may end up getting the set, as I'm fascinated by myths, legends and theology. Even though I'm not a religious person, I just love reading about it all.

I just finished Four seasons in Japan by Nick Bradley and highly recommend it. Now I have to read his debut Cat in the City.

@FuriousMachine Yeah, I think it would be really interesting to delve into the history and it might enhance my gaming and cinema enjoyment too.

Speaking of, I do see that Monkey King animated movie and reckon I might give it a whirl. Disney+ actually has a fairly new show (based on a graphic novel) called American Born Chinese and I started watching that. It’s also loosely related to the Journey to the West lore, with one of the lead characters being the son of the Monkey King from the old tale.

I think it’s kind of like how we have characters like Zeus or Hercules or King Arthur show up randomly in our media, even when it may not be very authentic to the source material, there’s just a inherent cultural knowledge of these mythical characters. The Monkey King, Sun Wukong is one of these kinds of characters in the East, I guess.

@MightyDemon82 @Th3solution I'm also very interested in myths and mythologies and have always wanted read/learn more about them, but quite often the source material would be difficult and inaccessible to modern readers. Even as a kid in Norway, I would be fascinated by Norse mythology, but getting the "proper" stories would be difficult. Marvel Comics were the most accessible source for these things for me, and they did take a few liberties .
I read Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology (Goodreads page) and that was a very good retelling of the original myths for modern audiences. I hear Stephen Fry's Great Mythology series (Goodreads page) is similarly good for Greek mythology, but I haven't gotten around to those, yet. I'm also looking for something like that for the Arthurian legends, where Monty Python is my most reliable source for those particular tales, for the moment

I started to watch American Born Chinese when it first came out, mainly because of my undying love for Michelle Yeoh, but I couldn't really get properly into it. I haven't fully given up on it, but it has kind of fallen by the wayside for me, for now.

@FuriousMachine The Gaiman Norse book is one I’ve been meaning to pick up for a while but my reading has ground to a halt since having my kid.

@FuriousMachine yet more books for the never-ending list. Arthurian legends is another one I've always wanted to get into watching stuff like Sword in the Stone and Merlin, I'm a huge Hellboy fan, loved how Mignola incorporated those stories into his own. Probably one of the best comics out there if you like Myths,legends the occult and supernatural as well as a hefty side of punching Nazis.

My Mrs and I just got back from a few days away but she's not feeling great and it's been raining all morning so I started reading Starve Acre and will probably be finished it by lunch, in-between checking she's OK. Also got Maus which I might start. I know it's a comic but reading is reading whether there are pictures or not 😉.

@MightyDemon82 "Maus" is a masterpiece.

@LN78 It's one of those books I should have read 20 years ago when I first got really deep into the comic scene, but other books always got in the way. Spotted a copy of the complete Maus, in the local bookstore of the place we were at, for our wee break. My wife kindy bought it for me.

@Thrillho It's definitely worth picking up if you manage to find the time in the future.

@MightyDemon82 Not sure about Starve Acre as I saw the word "devastating" was used to describe it, but the ravenous reading list will not be refused, so on it went
I've yet to read any Hellboy, but it is something I've been meaning to get around to. Same with Maus, actually. The last ten years or so I've been very bad at setting aside time to read "dead tree" variants, as reading happens on the bus to and from work (or anywhere, really), on my lunch break, in various waiting rooms, cafe's and similar. Seeing as I prefer to travel with only items I can fit in my pockets, the Kindle app on my phone is where it's at and it is not very suitable for reading comics.

Though, maybe if I bought some physical TPBs I'd be more inclined to find the time to read them? Worth a shot I'll give it a go with Maus. And I hope the missus feels better soon!

Finished Richard Matheson's "Stir of Echoes", which was a nice little ghost story that's showing its age a bit, but still works if you take it for what it is. I gave it 4 stars in my Goodreads review. Will try to track down the Koepp adaptation with Kevin Bacon as I seem to remember liking it way back when.

Next up is the very final Discworld novel, "The Shepherd's Crown" by the late, great Terry Pratchett. Think it'll feel weird to not have any new, unread Discworld novels to look forward to.

@LN78 you weren't wrong when you said it was a masterpiece. A book everyone should read!

@FuriousMachine I'm the opposite, I love collecting books and am currently looking at designs for making the 3rd room in the house into a library. She's much better, thanks. She gets really bad Migraines that can sometimes last a few days, but she's up and about again today.

Next up for reading is The Fire Maker. Recommended by @FuriousMachine. No doubt another rabbit hole which will add more books to the list!

@MightyDemon82 Glad to hear she's feeling better. An ex used to get vicious migraines as well and they are no laughing matter; I could tell by her obvious suffering.
Shelf space is at a premium in my tiny apartment and is taken up mostly by my movie collection and my fast-growing vinyl collection. I am, in fact, looking to digitize my old DVD's (at least the ones I haven't bought on 4K yet) and put them in storage to make room for more vinyl There they will join my already digitized CDs and read paperbacks. If I ever manage to get to a larger apartment, I'd love to display my books again, but for now only a select few hardcovers are given space. A library room sounds like a sweet project! Lots of luck to you with that

As for Maus and finding time to read physical books while at home, I realized that I'm still only halfway through a huge "picture book" about BioWare ("Stories and Secrets from 25 years of Game Development"), so I've decided that if I'm a good boy and manages to finish that one, I can have Maus

Hope you'll enjoy "The Firemaker". It was a solid four stars (of five) for me. The second book, "The Fourth Sacrifice" was a little bit weaker, but still good. If you end up enjoying Peter May's writing, you should absolutely check out his Lewis trilogy (Goodreads page) which I thought was even better. This is a weird thing to say about crime thrillers, but I find the cases that are being investigated are maybe the weakest part of his books, but his characters and sense of location more than makes up for it. He made me reevaluate a lot of old prejudices and preconceptions I had about China, as he effortlessly transported me there and let me view the world through the eyes of a Chinese cop. And I swear I could feel the salty spray on the chill wind blowing in from the raging Atlantic when I was reading the Lewis trilogy

@FuriousMachine @Th3solution I, too, am interested in the Monkey King stuff, with Black Myth Wukong being on my gaming list next year. Do you reckon that movie would be a good introduction to the game? As well as American Born Chinese of course.

@Thrillho Congratulations on your child, I, too, am interested in Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology works, should be good to pick up at some point.

@TheBrandedSwordsman From what I can tell, I doubt there is much carryover from things like the Monkey King movie or the Disney show other than having the mythical character Wukong as a central part of the story and setting. I get the feeing that the Black Myth Wukong game will probably be a closer adaption on the original Journey to the West tale, which is all about an adventurous journey with multiple interactions with challenges and evil along the way. Seems a great set up for a Souls-like game!

Currently reading Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian, his most graphic book so far and utterly compelling. Bounced off a couple of books this year but McCarthy’s books always get me back in the groove.

Also picked up A Most Wanted Man by John Le Carre from the library to start alongside. I’ve read Tinker, Tailor… and thoroughly enjoyed that. @TabulaRasa let me know how you get on with your Le Carre read too 👍

@TabulaRasa I’ve only read a couple of Le Carré books but that’s my favourite as it’s so understated and never clear which way it’s going to go.

I got lost on Tinker Tailor as I found there were too many characters who are all middle aged white dudes and blurred into one which made it difficult for me to follow

@AgentCooper I was quite indifferent to Blood Meridian as it seemed graphic for the sake of it and the central plot seemed a bit of a mess. I’m very much in a minority though with that opinion.

@Thrillho Admittedly the violence and gore shocked me a little as it is quite gratuitous in the first 100 pages, though I’m yet to decide whether it serves the narrative at all that well other than presenting a world that is uncompromising and brutal.