What are you reading? thread (we seriously don't have one yet?)

It is self-explanatory, what are you all reading right now? Maybe share what you think of the books you read too.

I'm reading an Esperanto book called Samideano which is an anthology of short stories making fun of the Esperanto movement, especially the really die hard "Fina Venkistoj" who take the language way too seriously and treat it more than just a silly hobby.

There was one short story about an Esperanto Zine that was supposed to be about the stereotypical Esperanto Zine, but I will be honest, I don't read many Esperanto Zines so I didn't quite get it. I did like the one making fun of Esperanto poetry and wordplay and stuff though.

The one story that I kind of found kinda boring so far, not because of the premise, but how poorly executed it was, was about a woman Esperanto speaker and it was later found out by a bunch of guys that she was hooking up with them all at the same time. The wrote it in a way that was kind of boring by only using one guy's perspective rather than multiple. Also, is there a hook up culture in Esperanto conventions that I am not aware of?

 

I'm reading The Unidentified, which is about cryptids (like Bigfoot, the Yeti, and the Loch Ness monster), sunken geography (like Lemuria and Atlantis), UFOs, and conspiracy theories, which I've read several times since it was published in 2020
I'm also reading an illustrated encyclopedia of prehistoric life (I'm reading the introductory sections and will then flip through it)
I've been reading an art history book but stopped reading it last week, so I might finish it later
I'm working through Keep Going with Latin and I'm listening to the exercises on YouTube

 

I've updated it in my own thread but I am currently finishing up Eye of the World. I've also been listening to a Song of Ice and Fire on Audio book.

 

Read two more short stories including the longest short story in the anthology which is back in the early 20th century someone who ropes in a black guy into Esperanto and basically treats him as a token and has him read scripts he writes and parades him around literally calling him his "black son" treating him like a child. The black guy has enough of it though and wants to learn beyond the basics of Esperanto for real and despite the fact that he has been treated better than he has all of his life, he still doesn't feel comfortable and feels like a show piece so he leaves the guy.

Then there is a short story about a brothel where all of the prostitutes speak Esperanto and that was the whole gimmick, no actual sex scenes are involved, but that would be hilarious if there was.

 

I'm reading posts on CWCki Club.

Spoiler

Not reading any books right now.

Also prefer comic over "text only prose" for (at least fictional) storytelling.

 

I like graphic novels and audiobooks for fiction, IDK I don't like to read novels
I read a lot of nonfiction

 

You can also include which comic books or graphic novels you are reading, it is literally discussing interesting things you are reading.

 

Calvin and Hobbes is set in the same state @ICanFeelTheCosmos0704 lives in

 

they show the waterfall in Chagrin Falls on the local news often - it's quite picturesque

 

almost looks like a scene in 日本 there

 

I ordered a set of The Mistborn Trilogy. I've never read Brandon Sanderson, but after that Wired article I wanted to give him money to spite the author of that article.

 

I am 20 pages away from finishing my anthology

Some of the short stories of note that I read were, some guy cheating on his wife at an Esperanto convention, something about the Fundamental Rules of Esperanto being a bunch of woman and this one creepy guy named "Zozo" tries to hit on him as a new rule proposed where any word that one didn't know could be replaced with "zozo" and they eventually tell him to fuck off.
There was also some short story which was basically just a bunch of technobabble in Esperanto and another one about really bad Passporta Servo guests and how you should vet your guests first.... yeah....

 

me when seeing a boring text only book:


"wow thats a lotta words"

 

I finished the Esperanto anthology. It is definitely not for beginners though since some of the jokes and wordplay can be a bit lost in translation. I would say 85 percent or so of the stories are worth reading and I did chuckle a few times.

Next I will read a Japanese Esperanto reader full of Japanese short stories translated into Esperanto.

 

So the Esperanto reader I am reading so far is made up of a bunch of excerpts of other things some of it include:

- An entry from A Diary of Anne Frank
- An essay on sponges and coral
- A scene from Shakespeare's King Lear
- A dream sequence of some sort of someone exploring Mayan Ruins
- An essay on the history of Esperanto in Japan

That is just to name a few

 

the last two essays on the list sound really cool
I'm reading a book called "How Not to be Wrong" by a mathematician
it's about the practical application of mathematical thinking to common situations

 

"chocolate + eggnog = maybe too much augh yeah"

 

I am already half way through the Japanese Esperanto reader. I think after this I am going to read Orm la Ruĝa which is a novel about Vikings. I took a peek in it and the font they use, although legible, is a bit unusual.

 

saw book at library: "The Skeptic's Guide to the Future"

One part said that if "antigravity" tech could be invented, it would be like what I said: a ship could simply float* into space instead of relying on risky and expensive rockets.

*[float]