The Reading Room

12:01 AM

@Randal'Thor Yeah, I had to leave to go somewhere, so I couldn't make it too detailed

6:23 AM

@Randal'Thor I was waiting for the election to end since, due to all the meta announcements from SE, there was only space for one featured Lit meta post in our sidebar

Rand al'Thor

7:59 AM

Is anyone going to answer this bountied question? Preferably someone who speaks German - I found a few results but I can't tell how relevant/specific the German-language ones are.

Tsundoku

8:29 AM

@Randal'Thor I might try tomorrow; I don't think I'll find the time today.

Rand al'Thor

9:25 AM

Just finished "Second Opinion", by far the longest story in the 1982 Malgudi Days collection, nearly 20 pages where most of them are 3-5 pages. I'd thought it would be difficult to get through such a long story, but it flowed naturally and I was finished before I knew it.

Tsundoku

11:07 AM

I didn't manage to read any other Narayan novels besides The Painter of Signs. That novel was fun to read and I can recommend it.

b_jonas

11:32 AM

And I was re-readinng Hal Clement's "Mission of gravity" yesterday.

Does that count?

Rand al'Thor

Count for what?

Tsundoku

11:43 AM

It doesn't count for the currently running reading challenges, but if you post a question about it, it counts for the site :-)

Tsundoku

11:58 AM

> I purr, therefore I am. (René DesCats)

2

Rand al'Thor

> I purr, therefore I am a cat. (Natsumeow Sōseki)

2

Tsundoku

> I calculate, ergo I sum. (René DesMaths)

3

Rand al'Thor

12:33 PM

Wouldn't René DesMaths be ... well, the original one? :-)

DVK-on-Ahch-To

12:47 PM

@Gallifreyan That was before Stack Exchange company decided that "1984" was an instruction manual instead of dystopia

Also, congratulations @Randal'Thor!!!!

Strugatsky brothers would have been rather put off if I helped SE at this point

Although, I STILL owe a 30K long overly epic answer to Rand on SFF for "Night Watch" series timeline

for like 4 years running now iirc

i should probably polish that up and actually post

it is 90% done

or more

Gallifreyan

@DVK-on-Ahch-To Dang it, that's the one!

Gallifreyan

2:09 PM

I'm looking forward to reading it

Tsundoku

3:00 PM

@DVK-on-Ahch-To I hope the answer will be shorter than the novel :-P

Tsundoku

4:08 PM

A book-seller in Narayan's novel The Painter of Signs says that bookworms have sense of design:

> Book-worms posses a sense of design. Some books are tunnelled end to end, some they give up with the preface, in some they create a perfect wizardry of design, but confined to the endpapers, never an inch beyond.

> A real masterpiece must be read only in an ancient edition and you could easily recognize it by the fact that the book-worm has already gone through it end to end and left its testimonials in its own code.

Take that, e-books!

That reminds me that Andrew George wrote somewhere that one of the clay tablets found in Ancient Mesopotamia had also been tunnelled through by a worm. I bet archaeologist are still debating whether the worm was on a paleo diet or a low-carb diet.

Bookworm

1

Q: Where can I find R. K. Narayan's maiden speech to the Indian parliament?

In 1980 R. K. Narayan was appointed to the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of the bicameral Parliament of India. In his maiden speech to the Rajya Sabha, the author spoke of children having so much homework that they had no time to play. He focused on the school bag. “The school bag has beco...

Tsundoku

@Bookworm The fifteenth question in the Narayan reading challenge. For what it's worth, this is the highest number of questions ever generated by a single reading challenge. Admittedly, reading challenges lasted for only one month before 2020.

Rand al'Thor

4:37 PM

@Tsundoku Wow!

All the questions in this reading challenge have been asked within half a month, despite the two-month period of possibility.

b_jonas

@Tsundoku I have a story-id answer about it on Sci Fi. I don't have a question.

I don't think I can really ask any question about it unless I somehow get access to the sequels.

@DVK-on-Ahch-To I owe several long answers to the internet that I'm too lazy to write.

For years.

Tsundoku

@b_jonas Oh, i also have answers on my to-do list. But I don't think I promised them to anybody :-)

@Randal'Thor And three out of those fifteen questions reached HNQ.

Rand al'Thor

I've found the answer to your latest question, btw. Just need to transcribe it by hand ...

Tsundoku

Is it one of those I didn't find because I don't use Google?

Rand al'Thor

4:53 PM

Probably. I found it in a book which is on Google Books.

But per-page availability of things on Google Books seems to differ from person to person anyway.

Mithical

5:12 PM

@Tsundoku I'll definitely be posting fewer questions now that lockdown restrictions are lifting and I'm spending less time at home.

Rand al'Thor

@Mithical Oh, they're lifting in your country now? Lucky you.

Tsundoku

Here in Germany, lockdown restrictions are being lifted very gradually - except for the compulsory wearing of masks in public transport and supermarkets.

Mithical

@Randal'Thor Yep. And the restrictions are even looser for athletes, which I count as.

Tsundoku

Nobody really checks whether people on buses etc wear masks, but Germans are so law-abiding.

If bookworms were recognised as athletes, I would make it to the Olympics :-P

Rand al'Thor

5:36 PM

@Mithical Well, at least you got your Socratic during the lockdown ;-)

The Sphinx's Lair

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