Books. For the literati among us.

FootyLovin said:
Wow. After the podcast discussion I thought for sure you were a hard no on audiobooks.

ETA. Since you mentioned histories. I very much enjoyed Unbroken, by Laura Hillenbrand, as an audiobook.
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I have 2 issues with podcasts and only 1 applies to audiobooks. What they have in common is I prefer reading to listening. I'm really not much of a good listener outside of direct conversation. My mind wanders. But I'm mostly devouring very big histories I would mostly not otherwise read. Whatever I get is more than if I did nothing, there's no test, and I really don't care how much I retain. Even if I read them, three years later I'd remember little more than some sweeping threads and outlines and a few anecdotes. And I need something to fill my mind while rucking. I love music, but not as much as I once did. I do love to use time walking to work through my thoughts, and I can't listen to words while doing that so mostly when I ruck I switch between silence and audiobooks.

The problem exclusive to podcasts is the format and most people of the people on them bug the hell out of me. Someone touts an episode on an topic [X]. So I download it.

"In this episode our big topic is [X]. Blah blah my cat is sick and it makes me sad and she threw up her medicine on my couch. Please buy from our sponsor. Bah blah me and my boys had a great time at the last away day and here are boring stories to prove it. Please buy from our other sponsor. Again, the big topic is [X]. But first I want to talk bout [Y]. Again, our first sponsor is awesome. Now a special interview with an actuary about nothing you care about."
 
mgarbowski said:
I have 2 issues with podcasts and only 1 applies to audiobooks. What they have in common is I prefer reading to listening. I'm really not much of a good listener outside of direct conversation. My mind wanders. But I'm mostly devouring very big histories I would mostly not otherwise read. Whatever I get is more than if I did nothing, there's no test, and I really don't care how much I retain. Even if I read them, three years later I'd remember little more than some sweeping threads and outlines and a few anecdotes. And I need something to fill my mind while rucking. I love music, but not as much as I once did. I do love to use time walking to work through my thoughts, and I can't listen to words while doing that so mostly when I ruck I switch between silence and audiobooks.

The problem exclusive to podcasts is the format and most people of the people on them bug the hell out of me. Someone touts an episode on an topic [X]. So I download it.

"In this episode our big topic is [X]. Blah blah my cat is sick and it makes me sad and she threw up her medicine on my couch. Please buy from our sponsor. Bah blah me and my boys had a great time at the last away day and here are boring stories to prove it. Please buy from our other sponsor. Again, the big topic is [X]. But first I want to talk bout [Y]. Again, our first sponsor is awesome. Now a special interview with an actuary about nothing you care about."
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So first, I totally get what you are saying about audiobooks and silence during rucking (though for me it is running but I think the same is true).

Second, man do I think you were listening to the wrong podcasts. I hate the ones you describe. I never listen to that style. I'm not going to try to convert you. But this feels a bit like the guy who loves history who early on had someone share a bunch of romance novels and became convinced that books just weren't for him. Too bad. That guy might have loved books if only.
 
Every few years I come across a recommendation of Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian that intrigues me. Then I read a more detailed description and go “Nope. Not gonna read that.” Then I forget and a few years later it happens again.
 
mgarbowski said:
Every few years I come across a recommendation of Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian that intrigues me. Then I read a more detailed description and go “Nope. Not gonna read that.” Then I forget and a few years later it happens again.
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I was just talking about Cormac McCarthy with a client. One of those authors I feel like I should have read more, but then again, there are so many books, so little time.
 
FootyLovin said:
I was just talking about Cormac McCarthy with a client. One of those authors I feel like I should have read more, but then again, there are so many books, so little time.
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I haven’t read any. At least one next year. Just not Blood Meridian.
 
I heard a good recommendation for E.L. Doctorow’s The March. A few months later I confused it with Cormac McCarthy’s The Road and bought that instead. Ooof, a very different book to say the least. Terrific, but very dark.
 
Gotham Gator said:
I heard a good recommendation for E.L. Doctorow’s The March. A few months later I confused it with Cormac McCarthy’s The Road and bought that instead. Ooof, a very different book to say the least. Terrific, but very dark.
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The Road was my experience with Cormac. Yes, very dark.
 
All be honest I’m not quite sure what is brutal about these books because I haven’t read them excluding ‘the road’ which I found to be a very well written book about such a sad experience. But if I can take a guess that it’s mostly about brutal violence, then spoiler for ‘the poppy wars’ by R.F. Kuang has a scene depicting a masacre that still to this day makes my skin crawl just thinking about it. And what makes me gag is that it’s based on a historical event during the second Shino-Japanese war called the Nankin Massacre. I finished reading the first book but couldn’t do the second because the scene was just too graphic.
 
Twenty years ago I read a few of the Richard Jury mystery series by Martha Grimes until I read one that featured a scene in which two children are murdered in a fashion that was so disturbed I just dropped the entire series. It wasn't at all violent either. It was all the more unsettling because the series is in many ways on the more light-hearted side of murder mystery series.
 
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CCMore said:
All be honest I’m not quite sure what is brutal about these books because I haven’t read them excluding ‘the road’ which I found to be a very well written book about such a sad experience. But if I can take a guess that it’s mostly about brutal violence, then spoiler for ‘the poppy wars’ by R.F. Kuang has a scene depicting a masacre that still to this day makes my skin crawl just thinking about it. And what makes me gag is that it’s based on a historical event during the second Shino-Japanese war called the Nankin Massacre. I finished reading the first book but couldn’t do the second because the scene was just too graphic.
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If it makes you feel any better I liked each subsequent book in that trilogy less than the one before it. Dipping out after book one is fine.
 
CCMore said:
All be honest I’m not quite sure what is brutal about these books because I haven’t read them excluding ‘the road’ which I found to be a very well written book about such a sad experience. But if I can take a guess that it’s mostly about brutal violence, then spoiler for ‘the poppy wars’ by R.F. Kuang has a scene depicting a masacre that still to this day makes my skin crawl just thinking about it. And what makes me gag is that it’s based on a historical event during the second Shino-Japanese war called the Nankin Massacre. I finished reading the first book but couldn’t do the second because the scene was just too graphic.
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Blood Meridian doesn't have nearly as much narrative as the others and can end up just overwhelming you with bleakness and violence.
 
joe said:
If it makes you feel any better I liked each subsequent book in that trilogy less than the one before it. Dipping out after book one is fine.
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I’ve read ‘Yellowface’, ‘The Poppy Wars’, and ‘Babel’. And I’ll be honest her writing style drives me crazy. She doesn’t like to keep a relative straight line with her narrative. Events dictate way too much of the protagonists actions and the protagonists actions don’t dictate much. Ironically, ‘Yellow face’ is the only book where it works, and Kuang herself said that she really didn’t like the way she wrote that book.
 
Another bleak series is Don Winslow's "Cartel" trilogy on the Mexican drug trade (The Power of the Dog, The Cartel, The Border). You may remember him from the excellent book Savages.

The trilogy is excellent, but there is an incredible amount of creatively rendered, mostly senseless violence. I actually had to take a break during the second book because I found that it was affecting my mood. I still haven't read the third book, but that has more to do with it not being on my local library's app for digital borrowing.
 
CCMore said:
I’ve read ‘Yellowface’, ‘The Poppy Wars’, and ‘Babel’. And I’ll be honest her writing style drives me crazy. She doesn’t like to keep a relative straight line with her narrative. Events dictate way too much of the protagonists actions and the protagonists actions don’t dictate much. Ironically, ‘Yellow face’ is the only book where it works, and Kuang herself said that she really didn’t like the way she wrote that book.
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I preferred Babel to any of the Poppy War books. I am planing to skip Yellowface since it seems extremely not my thing, but will probably read Katabasis eventually since it sounds more like Babel.

Kuang's output it absolutely insane. She's 29! She's publishing these while in grad school and then a phd program! How?!

I agree that Rin in particulary (heroine of the Poppy War for anyone still following) lacks a lot of agency. Stuff just kind of happens to her for three books. I really struggle in book three trying to remember what had happened; it felt like it had been several years since book two but it was only about six months.

The books are fine as entertainment, I don't get a lot of the literary weight & awards placed on them.
 
joe said:
I preferred Babel to any of the Poppy War books. I am planing to skip Yellowface since it seems extremely not my thing, but will probably read Katabasis eventually since it sounds more like Babel.

Kuang's output it absolutely insane. She's 29! She's publishing these while in grad school and then a phd program! How?!

I agree that Rin in particulary (heroine of the Poppy War for anyone still following) lacks a lot of agency. Stuff just kind of happens to her for three books. I really struggle in book three trying to remember what had happened; it felt like it had been several years since book two but it was only about six months.

The books are fine as entertainment, I don't get a lot of the literary weight & awards placed on them.
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I very much agree with your entire take aside from Yellowface. But I can understand how it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. I agree that what she is doing is impressive. But after 3 separate books, I don’t see the appeal nor understand the awards. But hey, that’s why there are so many authors from now, through the past, and into the future. Everyone can find their own cups of tea.
 
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