The Reading Room

1:26 PM

Cordelia Fine’s explosive study of gender politics, Testosterone Rex: Unmaking the Myths of Our Gendered Minds, has won the 30th anniversary Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book Prize.

user15026

3:44 PM

Started reading Zen and the Art of motorcycle Maintenance today and so far I don't get why it's so popular, it mostly makes me want to punch the author

Gallifreyan

4:26 PM

@BESW What is sensational about it, though?

user61230

4:59 PM

@Ash Really? Interesting. It's been sitting on my to-read shelf for a while, now.

user61230

What about it irritates you?

user15026

@Emrakul The author is incredibly pretentious. Like I am 40 pages in and so far all I know is that he is so much better at motorcycles than his friend because he maintains his on his own and his friend doesn't and that's because his friend is afraid of technology or something and he is not and therefore that is why his friend and wife don't have a perfect relationship

user15026

A lot of it seems to be "look at me I am the best at being a person"

user61230

H...uh. I've definitely heard it's, uh, kind of rambly like that. That sounds, yeah, downright pretentious, though.

user61230

Is there an obvious symbolic layer to it, or is it just... an interminable ramble?

user15026

5:04 PM

You can tell he's trying to be symbolic, but his pretentiousness is making it hard to take any of it seriously.

user61230

That, makes a lot of sense.

user61230

I'd really recommend The World According to Garp, since it's... not like that, at all.

user61230

But it's sad to hear. Ah, well. Will probably read it as a case study anyway. Plus I already have it, soooo...

user15026

5:25 PM

Yeah, I am going to finish it because I started it but man, I don't get the draw of it

8:46 PM

Not sure on tagging for this; any advice appreciated. (@Hamlet)

Before posting I considered oral-literature, but after doing a bit of research, it seems the change in moral was after it had already been written down.

@Ash <insert platitude about how popularity =/= quality> ;-)

user15026

@Randal'Thor I am actually just giving up on it now because it is so bad

Q: Why does the Emperor-Over-the-Sea play such a small role in the Chronicles of Narnia?

Also, if it contains anything worth asking a question about, that tag could do with some populating.

Bookworm

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The Emperor-Over-the-Sea is referenced at several points during the series. The Stone Table, Deep Magic and the Deeper Magic were all set in motion by him, and he is the father of Aslan. At the same time, he does not directly enter the series; he does not appear to be present in Aslan's Country ...

0

Q: How and why did the story of King Cnut change?

The 11th-century king Cnut/Knut/Canute of Denmark, Norway, and England is today best known for the story of how he sat on the beach commanding the waves to turn back. The original (?) account of this story, written in the 12th century by Henry of Huntingdon, uses it to illustrate Cnut's humility:...

history-of-literature myths

@Ash Oh wow. How often do you just give up on a book? (for some idea of just how bad that makes it)

user15026

@Randal'Thor Rarely.

user15026

8:53 PM

Because of my "I can't mock what I've not read" rule, I push through a lot of bad things.

user15026

My GR list has 81 abandoned books, and I started tracking about 4 years ago

user15026

I read 200-400 books a year.

2

@Ash Starred for incredibleness.

And ditto: there are very very few books that I've given up on partway.

user15026

My goal this year is 400, although I am at 332 already, so I dont think I will have trouble there.

Though there are a few series that I've started, read one or two books, gone 'meh', and never finished.

8:58 PM

That's... like a book a day. There aren't that many books I want to read in a year.

... assuming you don't mean 15 page board books... those I read a lot of.

@Ash Is Persepolis on your read or to-read list, by any chance? ;-)

user15026

@Randal'Thor Oh yeah, I have done that

user15026

@Randal'Thor On my already-read list. I love her work (I think I own most of it)

> How representative is The Very Hungry Caterpillar of the actual life cycle of a caterpillar?

realism

user15026

@Catija More than, right now. I read a lot. (Although a bunch of those are 150 page romances so they're quicker to swallow whole)

9:00 PM

@Ash Where do you find the time? I mean, assuming you don't have one of those jobs where part of your day is sitting around reading...

user15026

@Catija I read when I walk, I read on the bus, I read at lunch, I read before bed....I also read at 800-1000 wpm

@Ash There was one series I dropped partly because the name of the 2nd book was Oceans of Blood. I mean, sure, it's horror, but come on! Not sure if I'd want to be seen reading that on public transport. (But that wasn't the only reason: the series was essentially a cheap cash-in on a previous series by the same author.)

@Ash Ah. Public transit would help. I drive everywhere. I used to do that, actually...

You read when you walk? That's hard-core.

@Randal'Thor Good peripheral vision, I assume.

9:08 PM

It's not as difficult as you think... I used to do it all the time... still do on my phone, sometimes...

Yeah, same.

I do most of my reading while standing in lines or sitting with my dad.

user61230

Same, I read a lot walking or on transit. Though, the book I'm reading right now is vivid red and has a swastika on it so I'm er, walking around less with that.

@Emrakul Mein Kampf?

There's a book we might be able to get some interesting questions about, provided nobody goes off the rails politically.

I would get a LOT more reading done if I used mass transit.

user15026

@Catija Yeah, taking the bus everywhere means I can read a lot :)

user15026

9:19 PM

@BESW That and I generally go the same paths places so it's easier because I have that familiarity

user61230

@Randal'Thor They Thought They Were Free

user61230

Very, very worth reading.

user61230

But, ah, you know, not... happy.

Transit is good for books. AJ Hall wrote a lot of her LoPiverse stories in the Chunnel on her Blackberry.

Napoleon Wilson

9:46 PM

@Catija Well, you can still do audiobooks (though, that might not be considered "reading"). I just started with that for the same reason of having to drive much.

@NapoleonWilson My commute is only 15 minutes by car... not much use for "reading" even in that sense.

Napoleon Wilson

Hmmm, but that wouldn't be much different on a bus either.

@NapoleonWilson You're used to European transit systems... It'd take me an hour.

Napoleon Wilson

I see.

user15026

@BESW That name sounds familiar.

user15026

9:55 PM

@NapoleonWilson car to work - 10 min. My transit commute - 45-60 depending if the train at the switching yard changes my route.