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Post by smith on Nov 6, 2014 8:45:24 GMT 9
So I read The Running Man by Stephen King, the book that the movie was based on. It was OK. Nothing special. I don't really know if I'd recommend it.
I tried to make it through Dragon Crisis, a light novel by Kaya Kizaki, but I only go about half way through. It's a glorified cliche storm. That's the problem with a lot light novels, while they are fast paced and easy to read, half of them seem to be damn near the same story with the same characters and the same themes.
I have also been working through the Fist of the North Star manga series (thanks book-off). Awesome artwork and awesome story. They just don't draw them like they used to.
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Post by rmedhurst on Nov 24, 2014 9:48:52 GMT 9
I just read Kokoro in a translation by Meredith McKinney. It was good - also liked her translation of the Pillow Book.
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Post by emilytiger on Jan 15, 2015 13:32:24 GMT 9
I read Song of Solomon by Toni Morisson. It was the first of her novels I've ever read, somehow, and I really enjoyed it. I have been feeling sort of a renewed interest in the United States lately, so it was a perfect read for that curious mood.
Also recently read 君たちはどう生きるか? by Genzaburo Yoshino. I haven't read Sophie's World (although it's currently high priority), but at first I thought this was going to be sort of like that, intoducing philosophical thinking, but it was sort of more/different. There are stories from science, history, art. The most plot-like part of the book is a pretty standard sort of incident but oddly compelling to read nonetheless. I wish I had gotten to read this book when I was in elementary school.
Most recently, I finished the 2014 Newbery Medal winner from last year, Flora & Ulysses. Cannot really say I enjoyed it much and I've been trying to pick apart whether it's because I am just not the target audience or because it's actually not that good. (For reference, my favorite MG/YA author is Daniel Pinkwater.) If anyone has read it, I'd be curious what your thoughts about ch 26 are.
Currently reading 女坂 by Fumiko Enchi. It's in English as The Waiting Years and I really want to get a copy of my hands on that to investigate how it was translated. (I should just hurry up and buy it, dunno what my problem is.) It's kind of a challenging read in Japanese due to the Meiji setting, but soooo worth it. It starts off with a lady on a trip to Tokyo charged with the job of finding and bringing back a live-in mistress for her husband. If that's not a bang, I dunno what is.
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Post by elipsett on Jan 15, 2015 15:42:53 GMT 9
Almost anything by Enchi Fumiko is worth reading. As is anything translated by Julie Carpenter, although I seem to remember this particular book was John Bester.
I should still have a copy somewhere; it was required reading back in JLIT at the university, some time in the last century.
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Post by smith on Jan 21, 2015 14:00:27 GMT 9
I'm about halfway through A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick and it's like finding a diary I forgot that I wrote.
Also nearing the end of 餓狼伝 by 夢枕獏. The level of detail in the fight scenes he writes borderlines on absurd, but still a pretty good read.
Picked up a manga called GS美神 on the cheap (where would I be without Book Off?). For some reason I find myself enjoying old school manga a lot more than the newer stuff.
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Post by emilytiger on Jan 29, 2015 15:05:29 GMT 9
When I was studying at Waseda a professor there released a book 21世紀の世界文学30冊を読む. I bought it after seeing him talk a couple times. Anyhow, through that book I found Daniel Alarcón and am really enjoying War By Candlelight. Definitely planning on reading his novels, too.
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Post by smith on Mar 5, 2015 21:53:15 GMT 9
Does anybody have any good high-fantasy/sword and sorcery recommendations? I haven't read anything decent for a while now.
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Post by elipsett on Mar 6, 2015 15:25:44 GMT 9
If you haven't read the 獣の奏者 series by 上橋 菜穂子, you really should. Cathy Hirano is now translating it into English, and the first volume already took a major prize in the US. It's advertised as YA, but so are so many other fine books in the fantasy field (Elizabeth Walton and Lloyd Alexander spring to mind).
I have yet to find a Japanese thud and blunder series that can stand comparison to Fritz Leiber, Conan, or Karl Edward Wagner. Too derivative, or full of steampunk or girls with big swords and purple eyes.
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Post by rmedhurst on Mar 9, 2015 21:36:54 GMT 9
I am reading an anthology called 21st Century Science Fiction. Every now and then I like to catch up with some SF.
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Post by emilytiger on Apr 3, 2015 14:14:08 GMT 9
So my book club read 月山 last month. It's the story of a guy who gets snowed in for the winter at a temple up in the mountains. My experience of reading it was rather similar to weather in the book: Snowstorm! It was such a hard read (between the Yamagata-ben and the unfamiliarity of the cultural landscape in that place and time [around 1950, I guess?]) that I was really looking forward to some insight at the club meeting, but it turned out that no one else really got it either. Even the guy who suggested the book (who understands the dialect, even), said he didn't really get the "story" or the point, but was in it for the depiction of that historical moment, haaaa.
Other than that, reading and loving the Susan Bernofsky translation of Siddhartha.
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Post by smith on Jul 5, 2015 9:01:54 GMT 9
Just working through 魔法戦士リウイ which is actually a lot of fun. There are over ten novels in the series though, so I'm going to be at it for a while.
I also picked up the Japanese editions of The Hobbit. I haven't read them yet, but it will be interesting to see how they have been translated.
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Post by emilytiger on Jul 21, 2015 15:42:05 GMT 9
Book club did 塩壺の匙 last month—pretty challenging, but totally worthwhile. I only had time to read the title story, but I'm curious to read some of the others. 私小説!
This month we're doing something lighter on my suggestion, 指輪をはめたい. A guy falls and hits his head at an ice skating rink and forgets which of his three girlfriends he was going to propose to. I liked it so much I started putzing with a sample translation. Very quick fun read, if a little cheesy at the end.
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