What Books Are You Reading?

Hey that’s Agatha Harkness.

Not that it matters.

Actually, it’s Kathryn Hahn. :wink:

Great basic introduction to this island history which helps understand present situation and Taiwanese way of thinking

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Just finished this on the porch. Good timing too as the hot hot sun has come around the house.

I have thumbed through but that’s it.

I’d recommend it. It won’t change your life though it is a nice nudge. The final chapter is all about another GREAT book that was instrumental in changing my path early in my life.
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This one, The Denial of Death, I’m interested.

Can’t recall if read or not but I will.

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It’s brilliant. I reread it every few years just to make sure I’m not drifting too far from the shore.

I’m reading a novel written in the present tense. I find it a bit odd, but should it bother me? Does it bother you? I know it technically is wrong, but it also seems like a frivolous rule.

I don’t read much fiction but Haruki Murakami is one of my favorite authors. His works do not feel as though they’ve been translated. Was this good?

Well that’s disappointing.

I’m prepped now with Haruki Murakami’s first few books on my ereader to re-read them chronologically instead of the random order I read them before.

Wondering if The Wind-up Bird Chronicle will hit me the same as the first time.

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I tend not to re-read books but would consider it for Murakami.

Myself I have a certain sort of nostalgia for Norwegian Wood. I don’t know why but this book lives in the same place in my memory as when I read Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms.

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What rule? How is it ‘technically’ wrong? Who says a story has to be written in present tense?

From Charles Dickens’ nineteenth century work Bleak House to modern classics like the Divergent series, the English language is full of great novels written in the present tense.

A good example of a successful novel written in the present tense is the young adult series The Hunger Games , in which we experience the events of the story through the first person POV of our protagonist Katniss Everdeen.

John Updike credits the influence of movies on his decision to write Rabbit, Run in the present tense, as he hoped to emulate the narrative voice normally found in cinema.

https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-write-a-novel-in-the-present-tense#how-to-write-in-present-tense-understanding-the-4-present-tenses

I wouldn’t describe “Divergent” as a “modern classic” (just seen the movie, haven’t read the books), but there’s a few precedents in there. Just looking up ‘present tense books’ on Goodreads gives you 1,728 choices, including “The Handmaid’s Tale”

I thought it was a rule that a fiction had to be written in past tense. Most books are like that.

“I walk out into space with my ray gun. I aim it at the alien’s face.”

noop. And as of yet, I have not received a fine or warning from the Internet Writer’s Guild.

It’s usually easier, and most stories happen in the past, even if only a few minutes ago. I’ve even read a story in future tense, but it didn’t really work.
It’s like most fiction is third person, some is first, very very rarely second.

I remember reading my first Conan story (the Barbarian, not the Japanese detective) when I was twelve. and trying to puzzle out where this historical fiction was taking place. Suddenly he runs into a giant slug- and I was highly indignant. Science Fiction, okay, but in other stories you’re just allowed to make up anything you like?

Fantastic book. It’s on my list of books that I want to re-read.

Though the follow-up didn’t sell as well (not that many books do), I probably took a bit more away from it. His thesis is a lot harder to wrap up in a single sentence and he really needed to wade into the muck a bit to get to the part that he was aiming for.

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Im currently reading Stolen by Grace Blakeley.
I’ll write more when I finished the book.
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