I agree. My opinion of him has definitely fallen over the years as he seems to rely on shock a bit too much. I still have a lot of respect for his talent, but I doubt I’ll revisit any of his works. ‘Choke’ was decent. I heard the film based on it was awful though.
Yeah I have no desire to see the movie. Read a review. Seemed like a horse of another color. Didn’t bother.
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This.
Without a Kindle I’d be hella broke by now. I was also a “only the smell of real pages” type until I went to the local Caves many years ago and found I’d either read everything or the money I spent was prohibitive. The kindle paperwhite is as good as reading paper pages.
If you decide to get a Kindle, send me a PM.
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Edward Snowden Permanent Record audiobook
It’s honestly silly at this point, and especially abroad where the selection of English books is more limited, to be staunchly anti-e-reader. If you really loved to read, you’d just embrace it rather than complain about how pHySiCaL BoOkS aRe jUsT BetTeR and YoU cAn’T rEPlaCe thEm and ScrEeNs BaAAAaD!!! Okay duh, I’m pretty sure we all prefer the sensory experience of a book. But I like my e-reader a lot, too. Especially when traveling. It’s awesome.
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“Honestly silly” does describe me fairly well. It’s not like I’m spending a fortune on books either. When I’m in the States during summer vacation I just go to used bookstores and thrift stores, buy twenty or so paperbacks, and just carry them back with me. I’ve always got at least one other person there so it’s not heavy. I also love finding truly weird books in bookstores (and other places). Sometimes the hunting around makes it more fun.
I DoN’t KnoW WhY You WaNt To TyPe LiKe tHat. It’s a lot of work.
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Suit yourself.
I generally do.
Read anything good lately?
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Is anyone here acting like that? Some people are stating a preference, but no one is losing their shit about it.
At some point I turned away from fiction almost entirely and now I read a lot of nonfic. I’m currently reading The Swerve, which is about the beginning of the Renaissance movement. It is very neat.
Read that a while back. Something about the shift into modernity during the… Renaissance?
Yes. I like it so far. I also just finished a book about how we developed the sense of disgust. In short, it’s somewhat socialized/based in emotions, but it also developed as a kind of survival mechanism since generally the things that disgust us are also the things that can make us sick, and sickness can result in our demise. Like most things, it’s all about prolonging the species…
Ever since I read it I’ve been challenging my impulse to be disgusted by things, especially immaterial/ethical things and things that can’t actually make me ill, like really thin or really obese or just really ugly people.
Disgust as in moral outrage or as in things that inspire a sense of nausea? Or both?
Both! That’s what’s interesting about it.
I think overcoming that kind of reactivity can be a good thing. Keep fighting the good fight. 
Am nearing the end of “Harlot’s ghost.” Probably the most boring and annoying book I’ve ever read, War and Peace is a cinch compared to this ~1100 page tribute to Norman Mailer’s ego. I have to finish it now though…
Norman Mailer… yeah. I think I’ll be avoiding that one. I like some of his (much older) stuff, but not eager to read the rest of his bibliography.
Guy on the metro who’s older than me told me it’s unusual to still be carrying an actual book around.
And it was from interlibrary loan.
I spend a good chunk of every day reading on a Kindle Paperwhite. I would never go back to reading a “real” book. Old tech and they take up way too much physical space. Fire hazard.
I usually read 4-5 books at a time, fiction and non. I read like I used to read as a kid, meaning I read just about anything as long as it’s interesting or I can learn something from it.
I grew up in a small town with a Carnegie library. I had read almost every book in it by the time I was twelve. I am back reading like that now.
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The third book, Empire of Infields, came out last August. There is a surprisingly large volume of English-language scholarship on Taiwanese baseball: these three peer-eviewed books and at least one journal article.
There isn’t as much on the better known story of Japanese baseball.
Playing in Isolation was written by a native and gets you inside the machinery of Taiwanese baseball.
Colonial Project, National Game is the most interesting one, with the most engaging writing. One of my favorite books.
Taiwanese baseball has a rich tradition, with iconic events like Noko, Kano, and Hongye, and iconic players.
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