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Re: Books!
Posted: Fri Dec 17, 2021 7:24 am
by rainingman
Currently reading two books:
1. T.C. Boyle's
Outside Looking In - I recently read his short story The Shape of A Teardrop on The New Yorker, and it occurred to me that it'd been a while since I read any of his works. This one is engaging and funny, except the drag of an Introduction featuring Hoffman's first encounter with LSD's mind-altering properties. But the book does frame the craze (however shortlived) for consciousness expansion in the context of therapy and analysis. It aims to ask how we went from the couch to taking a synthesized substance expecting the same results as from analysis, and indeed more. Very engaging.
2. Trevor Noah's
Born A Crime - I hardly ever read anything by celebrities, coz one can never be sure just how much of their work was written by a ghost author. It's also sort of a rite of passage for celebrities to publish something. This one makes me wonder the same. Not sure how much of this book was actually written by Noah himself. It's ok as a tea-time read I guess.
Re: Books!
Posted: Fri Dec 17, 2021 1:00 pm
by Limewater
rainingman wrote:2. Trevor Noah's
Born A Crime - I hardly ever read anything by celebrities, coz one can never be sure just how much of their work was written by a ghost author. It's also sort of a rite of passage for celebrities to publish something. This one makes me wonder the same. Not sure how much of this book was actually written by Noah himself. It's ok as a tea-time read I guess.
I've never been suspicious of a comedian's book. Trevor Noah writes professionally, so I doubt he'd trust someone else to write in his voice.
For a politician, musician, or actor? Sure.
Except for Mr. T. I believe him unequivocally when he writes at the start of his autobiography that Mr. T doesn't need a ghostwriter.
Re: Books!
Posted: Sun Dec 19, 2021 11:56 pm
by rainingman
Limewater wrote:rainingman wrote:2. Trevor Noah's
Born A Crime - I hardly ever read anything by celebrities, coz one can never be sure just how much of their work was written by a ghost author. It's also sort of a rite of passage for celebrities to publish something. This one makes me wonder the same. Not sure how much of this book was actually written by Noah himself. It's ok as a tea-time read I guess.
I've never been suspicious of a comedian's book. Trevor Noah writes professionally, so I doubt he'd trust someone else to write in his voice.
For a politician, musician, or actor? Sure.
Except for Mr. T. I believe him unequivocally when he writes at the start of his autobiography that Mr. T doesn't need a ghostwriter.
You might be right. I just tend to have trouble believing such claims in general. Not right of me to diss him without evidence; suspicion alone is never enough after all.
Re: Books!
Posted: Tue Dec 21, 2021 8:54 am
by Limewater
rainingman wrote:You might be right. I just tend to have trouble believing such claims in general. Not right of me to diss him without evidence; suspicion alone is never enough after all.
Oh, I certainly don't expect a comedian's stories and general claims to be reliable. They are entertainers first, and you should never let the truth get in the way of a good joke.
I just expect them to write their own books.
Re: Books!
Posted: Tue Dec 21, 2021 10:46 am
by marurun
Limewater wrote:I just expect them to write their own books.
If you can write a joke, you can write a book! Amiright?
Re: Books!
Posted: Wed Dec 22, 2021 11:29 am
by Limewater
marurun wrote:Limewater wrote:I just expect them to write their own books.
If you can write a joke, you can write a book! Amiright?
If a thought pops into my brain, it's good enough to post! Amiright?
Re: Books!
Posted: Wed Dec 22, 2021 1:43 pm
by marurun
Limewater wrote:marurun wrote:Limewater wrote:I just expect them to write their own books.
If you can write a joke, you can write a book! Amiright?
If a thought pops into my brain, it's good enough to post! Amiright?
I can't tell if your post proves us both wrong or both right... I'm very confused right now.
Re: Books!
Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2021 1:58 am
by rainingman
Limewater wrote:rainingman wrote:You might be right. I just tend to have trouble believing such claims in general. Not right of me to diss him without evidence; suspicion alone is never enough after all.
Oh, I certainly don't expect a comedian's stories and general claims to be reliable. They are entertainers first, and you should never let the truth get in the way of a good joke.
I just expect them to write their own books.
Strangely enough, there is plenty of truth in the exaggerations and fabrications employed by comedians (at least the good ones - the "good" might be subjective, so I'd like to clarify that by good I mean the deliberately provocative kind: Burr, CK, Dave, Carlin, Hicks).
Re: Books!
Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2021 1:27 pm
by marurun
The best comedians aren’t just jokesters, but good storytellers as well. So it should be no surprise that a good comedian would at least be capable of writing an entertaining book.
Re: Books!
Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2021 10:54 am
by Jagosaurus
Love good story telling comedians. Big bonus points if comedian can casually bring in jokes from earlier stories into the current bits. Always makes me laugh to see the stories cross over somehow throughout a show.
Also, as mentioned some time ago, I did end up knocking out the first 3 books in this series:
Dread Empire's FallWorth noting the physical copies are well done with solid artwork and look nice on a shelf for full sized paperbacks.
Fun fact - Walter John Williams wrote the original book that inspired the Cyberpunk board game and ultimately Cyberpunk 2077:
Hardwired (novel)Overall, fairly solid books. No spoilers: book 1 has a bit of a young adult side plot about a main character (flash back to teen years) & book 3 randomly has a murder mystery side plot thrown in. Those both seem a bit out of place, but the sci-fi elements of the books are done extremely well done and the mix of alien races and lore behind the universe are engaging. I looked for fan art of the alien species and was surprised to find none.
If you're a sci-fi fan, they're worth checking out IMO, if you don't have a backlog of other established series. I wanted to try something fresh, and these kept coming up on forums posts I dug up. There are 2 side books (1 actually more of a novella), and he is in the process of finishing a second trilogy in the universe. So in all there will be 8 books total. I will circle back in time once he finishes book #8.
More on series:
Dread Empire's Fall - WikiAlso, just finished the 4th Halo novel,
Ghosts of Onyx & immediately am cracking open the next one,
Contact Harvest. These books do an amazing job of expanding on the game universe lore. Really interesting to see what got worked into future games from these books (currently in the 2006 release range).