What are you currently reading?

[ibanezmonster]

Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria (The Empty Box and the Zeroth Maria)



http://www.goodreads.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&query=Utsuro+no+Hako+to+Zero+no+Maria

Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria, tells the sinister story of Kazuki Hoshino, who is almost madly attached to his everyday life, and his antagonist Aya Otonashi, who suddenly transfers into his class—for the 13,118th time. She majestically announces to "break" him, without paying heed to anyone else around them.

This is but the start of a dark roller coaster ride that turns the two against themselves, the people around them and the one who may be god. Read on as their relationship slowly changes and they go against their most basic values in their struggle against the world itself.

This is a series of 7 light novels that I discovered on MyAnimeList. The average rating was 9.2 (rank #2), with 60% of those who have read it giving it a 10.
And on goodreads, the last two novels in the series have a 4.47 and 4.48 rating, which is incredibly high for that site.

Considering I love stories with repeating timelines, I'm just going to have to read this. 47 pages in and I can tell this is going to be really, really good stuff. Of course, at 1800 or 1900 pages, it's quite a monster and will take a really long time to finish.

[Henk]

Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria (The Empty Box and the Zeroth Maria)



http://www.goodreads.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&query=Utsuro+no+Hako+to+Zero+no+Maria

This is a series of 7 light novels that I discovered on MyAnimeList. The average rating was 9.2 (rank #2), with 60% of those who have read it giving it a 10.
And on goodreads, the last two novels in the series have a 4.47 and 4.48 rating, which is incredibly high for that site.

Considering I love stories with repeating timelines, I'm just going to have to read this. 47 pages in and I can tell this is going to be really, really good stuff. Of course, at 1800 or 1900 pages, it's quite a monster and will take a really long time to finish.

Better than watching screens all the time.. Hope you enjoy the novels. You have to use your imagination in contrary to films and gaming. It will give you opportunities to relate to your own life more, making your life probably more interesting, even if it is boring. Your experience of everyday life will get richer. Embrace it. This may sound like the most stupid advice to you, but the more you flow and fuse with virtual worlds on screens and identify with avatars, the more deattached to and so the more boring your life gets.

Just some thoughts for thinking. I'm reading the book Mind Change now, really good stuff. It's all about this. Not boring at all to be confronted with how we live nowadays. Especially for people, like you and me, who interact a lot with screens. She gives a lot thoughts for reflection. Still reading, the most interesting chapters are ahead of me still. It's not just negative, it's also about how we can use the digital technologies for the better.


http://www.amazon.com/Mind-Change-Digital-Technologies-Leaving/dp/0812993829/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top?ie=UTF8

[nickcar]

fan fiction!!!!!!!!!!!

[The new erato]

A very good read, prompted by my 3 week long summer vacation in Austria/Hungary/Slovakia/the Czech Republic this summer.

Now I want to go back!

[SimonNZ]

Keep coming across references to this book in other things I've been reading - so clearly high time I took a look at it.

[Artem]

That is a great book. I love Sebald. I discovered him a few years ago and quickly read almost everything that was published by him.

[Jaakko Keskinen]

[ibanezmonster]

Better than watching screens all the time.. Hope you enjoy the novels. You have to use your imagination in contrary to films and gaming. It will give you opportunities to relate to your own life more, making your life probably more interesting, even if it is boring. Your experience of everyday life will get richer. Embrace it. This may sound like the most stupid advice to you, but the more you flow and fuse with virtual worlds on screens and identify with avatars, the more deattached to and so the more boring your life gets.

I'm reading this on my computer screen, too, btw, because there is no published English version. It's just a fan translation.

I finished volume 1. "Hakomari" is the nickname of the series.

Anyone who enjoys a good psychological thriller will enjoy this. Very reminiscent of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, my all-time favorite anime which involves trying to escape from an endless time loop that often ends in violent murders and insanity, all while trying to understand the workings of what is actually going on.

I think HakoMari can be classified as "Chaos Theory". It's completely erratic, yet very systematic. It's completely irrational, yet makes absolutely perfect sense. It's abstract, yet completely logical. It messes with your head like nothing else from essentially the first sentence of the first volume and it never ever stops, but neither does it stop fascinating you with what it's capable of. The plot twists are so incredibly difficult to predict, but they always make you feel like the answer was so obvious all along once the truth is revealed. It's just that well-written, and as a result it never fails to make you smile and impress you.

"Do you have a wish?"

I don't think myself able to write an objective critic to HakoMari, not while the last volume is still so vivid in my mind. As such, this is not a review, but a love letter to this wonderful novel.

HakoMari is, in a nutshell, a wild ride. A crazy, reckless and downright cruel wild ride.

Next up: the only volume that isn't regarded so highly. But I will continue on, because it supposedly only gets better after volume 1, and that was some pretty amazing stuff already.

[Henk]

Started reading this book thursday.



He has an interesting face, so I hope it means it's a good book. First pages are nice.

"Over the past two centuries or so, capitalism has undergone profound changes--economic cycles that veer from boom to bust--from which it has always emerged transformed and strengthened. Surveying this turbulent history, Paul Mason's Postcapitalism argues that we are on the brink of a change so big and so profound that this time capitalism itself, the immensely complex system within which entire societies function, will mutate into something wholly new.

At the heart of this change is information technology, a revolution that is driven by capitalism but, with its tendency to push the value of much of what we make toward zero, has the potential to destroy an economy based on markets, wages, and private ownership. Almost unnoticed, in the niches and hollows of the market system, swaths of economic life are beginning to move to a different rhythm. Vast numbers of people are changing how they behave and live, in ways contrary to the current system of state-backed corporate capitalism. And as the terrain changes, new paths open.

In this bold and prophetic book, Mason shows how, from the ashes of the crisis, we have the chance to create a more socially just and sustainable economy. Although the dangers ahead are profound, he argues that there is cause for hope. This is the first time in human history in which, equipped with an understanding of what is happening around us, we can predict and shape the future."


Trying to spend at least some hours in a productive way today.

[Karl Henning]

The results explain why it's so rare for "a good guy with a gun" to stop active shooters. According to the FBI's report on active shooter events between 2000 and 2013, only about 3 percent were stopped by a civilian with a gun. Unarmed civilians actually stopped more incidents — about 13 percent.

[kishnevi]

http://www.eoneill.com/texts/blemie/contents.htm

The Last Will and Testament of Silverdene Emblem O'Neill.

[SimonNZ]

"Fallen Glory: The Lives and Deaths of Twenty Lost Buildings from the Tower of Babel to the Twin Towers" - James Crawford

[Artem]

Experimental novel, a story within a story, similar to some of Italo Calvino writing. An elderly writer is writing his final script, while a talented young female composer decides to become a writer under the influence of hypnosis.



I never paid attention to the Booker prize, but I decided to give a try to their finalists this year. Obioma is a young writer, not yet 30 years old, and The Fishermen is his debut. It is an impressive novel with very good story. It starts almost like a classic Achebe novel, folk like, but get more disturbing and grim by the end.



Anne Tyler was another finalist of Booker prize this year. I never heard of her before but that is her 20th or 30th or something book, which was rather enjoyable. It is a story of a family, nothing extraordinary, but her clear writing style makes it an enjoyable read.

[aligreto]

"Fallen Glory: The Lives and Deaths of Twenty Lost Buildings from the Tower of Babel to the Twin Towers" - James Crawford

Interestingly I heard that being promoted on the radio only yesterday.

[Mookalafalas]

Anne Tyler was another finalist of Booker prize this year. I never heard of her before but that is her 20th or 30th or something book, which was rather enjoyable. It is a story of a family, nothing extraordinary, but her clear writing style makes it an enjoyable read.

Anne Tyler is a phenomenal writer, but you want to go back to the 60s, 70s, maybe 80s ( pre-pulitzer, anyway)for her best stuff.

TD:
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[The new erato]

Beevor on the Ardennes.

[stingo]

While I liked The Fishermen, I wasn't really emotionally attached to the characters. Still, a stunning first effort.

[Karl Henning]

Muslim judge sworn in on Koran in New York

Fox News is reporting this, so apparently it is newsworthy.  So here is my question:  Why should not a Muslim be sworn in using the Koran?  There can be no legal compulsion to use the Bible, right?  I am inclined to say Nothing to see here, folks.

Dog-whistle journalism?

[Brian]

Were I made a judge, they'd have to swear me in on a study score edition of the Beethoven symphonies!



...or maybe the Constitution?

[Todd]

Dog-whistle journalism?

Catering to their audience.  Lefty sources do the same thing.  Check out Salon, or, for a more timely example, Melissa Harris-Perry's racial analysis of Darth Vader.