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8% complete! Hippo has read 2 of 24 books.
Whoa, this went much deeper into languages than I expected! In a good way. This is probably something I'd want to come back and re-read; there's a lot of material that I haven't fully absorbed in the first round :P
@verglas@books.theunseen.city wait, so did you ever finish reading the rest of it? I guess it doesn't matter that much if it's short stories though. It sounds intriguing enough—both from your description and from the official blurb—that I want to give it a shot!
@Smileybone ooh yes this premise looks very interesting! Especially with the ethnic stereotypes thing 👀
From award-winning author R. F. Kuang comes Babel, a thematic response to The Secret History …
Pick one? Just one, of all these treasures? Robin didn't know the first title from the second, and he was too dazzled by the sheer amount of text to flip through and decide. His eyes alighted on a title: The King's Own by Frederick Marryat, an author he was, so far, unfamiliar with. But new, he thought, was good.
'Hm. Marryat. I haven't read him, but I'm told he's popular with boys your age.' Professor Lovell turned the book over in his hands. 'This one, then? You're sure?'
Robin nodded. If he didn't decide now, he knew, he'd never leave. He was like a starved man in a pastry shop, dazzled by his options, but he did not want to try the professor's patience.
— Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution (5%)
Me every time I enter a bookshop after a break 😜
The first book of a vast fantasy as rich and strange as Tolkien's "Lord of …
Therewith Lord Gro put up the parchment in his bosom and said, "Swift surgery. Needs must that we take them in their beds to-night; so shall to-morrow's dawn bring glory and triumph to Witchland, now fixed in an eclipse, and to the whole world peace and soft contentment."
— The Worm Ouroboros by Eric Rücker Eddison (Page 52)
Just the flowery language in which this is spoken—and also a reminder that "surgical strike" is by no means a new term! 😉
@PrimoNatura@books.theunseen.city when I started reading the blurb, at first I thought it was fiction! But then all the details sounded too real. What's the narrative style like—is it a birds' eye view or are we going into the heads of some of the characters, so to speak?
Came across this because the author used to edit a cool literary magazine which unfortunately folded, which sounds a lot like my situation. So I read some articles about her, which led me to this book, which has now ended up on my "to read" list!
Picked this up from the library because I had a free book slot and wanted something I could finish quickly without it lying on my "to read" pile :P
It's actually quite thoughtfully written; in the same "accessible to everyone" style as his fiction but (depending on your opinion of that) less cheesy. This guy really wants to improve the country but he's also sensible about it and not militantly nationalistic or anything.
This was recommended to me as a book which talks about the author's career in programming, but treating programming languages as languages and examining them from that angle. I've read a bit, and it already mentions Sanskrit, tech culture, language learning, and more!
Persuasion tells the love story of Anne Elliot and Captain Frederick Wentworth, whose sister rents Miss Elliot's father's house, after …
Persuasion tells the love story of Anne Elliot and Captain Frederick Wentworth, whose sister rents …
I have to read this at some point and...better late than never? 😛
From award-winning author R. F. Kuang comes Babel, a thematic response to The Secret History …
Content warning Mild spoilers for all of Babel
Okay, that was a great read! Right up till the end. I love how there's so many layers; at one level it's just a story about the trials of college and friendships, but there's also this cool subtle fantasy, and then there's the whole rampant colonialism happening in the outside world and Hermes and everything!
And somehow she managed to keep the whole "college story" vibe in the forefront for the entire first half of the book, with everything else just happening on a layer underneath (of course, after that things turned dRaMaTiC 😮)
@dosch@bookwyrm.social this is one book that I read recently but feel like I need to re-read already. The crazy thing is that it was written before the actual pandemic that we experienced!
Hippo
boosted
Station Eleven is a novel by the Canadian writer Emily St. John Mandel. It takes …
If not for food-, sleep- and toilet breaks I almost read this in one go. Harrowing and layered story that gives a surprising entanglement of characters.
Even days after finishing I still had ah-ha moments when I suddenly understood how and why some things happened and who was connected to whom.
Wish there was a sequel where you learn more about the characters. Some parts are eerily recognizable now we had a real pandemic.
Mind you; the book is not sci-fi! It is our world after a pandemic; no fancy, crazy tech is used or invented in the book.
From award-winning author R. F. Kuang comes Babel, a thematic response to The Secret History …
@smileybone has been sitting on my head to read this so I decided to give it a go :P
Also, the introduction makes me very aware of Oxford as a place; I think I wasn't so aware back when I was reading His Dark Materials (also partly set in Oxford). Maybe another series to revisit?
