My favourite green book that actually deals with much darker ecologies is The Revolt Against Humanity: Imagining a Future Without Us by Adam Kirsch. Short and concise review of a(nti)humanism and transhumanism, much, much better than a long babble called The Ahuman Manifesto by Patricia MacCormack.

Beloved has been on my to-read ASAP list for about a year. I read Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison in April and as much as I appreciate the racial issues presented, I wasn't very satisfied with execution - too explanatory and in your face and thus a bit boring. The writer also wants to show off his skill, and he does it in an irritating way.

Also, Thoughts on Black Metal by Khalil Boughali is such a short and nice overview of essential black metal features, I would recommend it to anyone who wants to get into the genre as well as to the long-standing fans, it's just beautifully packed info.

I only read The Invisible Man in a huge rush in high school when I had to finish the shit to do some test, as somehow I'd missed that I was supposed to read it over the summer. I don't remember it.

Beloved is a tremendously painful thing but so beautiful. Just life all at once coming at you.

Just started Suttree today. A Cormac McCarthy novel is always head spinning at first (all these long ass sentences, weird word choices, no dialogue quotations or tags), but then you find your way in and it's just great and evokes pictures in your head so well.

I think writing is great because really good prose can just transcend anything you know and bury itself in the skull. Talented writers can just create something from nothing.

^
You hyped Beloved to me, I have to pick it up in late October/November when we get rid of these horrible heat waves. Painful and beautiful sounds just like my cup of black tea.

Cormac McCarthy is on my to-read list as well, the style you described sounds like Requiem for a Dream.

Invisible Man might be too violent for school, yet we also had to read some brutal stuff like When Pumpkins Blossomed and Crime and Punishment.

Started reading the Illiad by Homer, finally. I am reading in Greek, translated by the amazing poet Nikos Kazantsakis. As a Greek I feel honored that such an amazing piece of poetry and literature has been written in my mother tongue.

As for the poem itself... well it the Illiad we are talking about. The themes, the wording, everything is perfect.

If it was written in Greek and you are reading it in Greek, why is there a translator?

I recently bought the Lombardo translation of The Odyssey after watching this video:



Also, speaking of the Greeks, I just finished The Greeks: A Global History by Roderick Beaton. I thought it was pretty good; although, Beaton breezed through some parts given he was covering thousands of years in less than 500 pages. It could have been longer but was good for a compact history of the Greek-speaking peoples from ancient to modern times.

The shit about Alexander the Great and later Rome and later modern Greece trying to retake Istanbul/Constantinople from Turkey was pretty dope.

I learned some shit.

The Greek spoken today is not the same as that spoken 3000 years ago. That's like asking someone who speaks modern English to read Beowulf without a translation

Roger that. Never mind Beowulf. I can't even read Shakespeare. I had to buy the Norton training wheels edition of Macbeth.

You are right! But I will be the nerdy, "ACTHUALLY" Reddit guy and say that Ancient Greek - the Attic dialect - is closer to Modern Greek than Beowulf's English is to modern English. An average Greek can read and understand the New Testament which was written in Greek Koine around 2000 years ago.


Greek is unique as a language for it has hold up its main form, grammar, syntax and even most of its vocabulary for its sole existence. We Greeks are being taught Ancient Greek in school; though in a really counter intuitive way. We basically try to "translate" or so to say to modern Greek. But I would love to get me an original version of Homer's books.

Also Beowulf; man this poem is EPIC! I read it twice in the space of 6 months. Really enjoyed it.

I also read Aurelius's Meditations which was written in Greek. I found it to be very redundant. The introduction was the best part.

In Aurelius's defense, the book was originally just his private journal, IIRC. And it's got some excellent lines here and there ("You are but a small soul carrying a corpse," I think is one). But yes, as with any of the big titles in Stoic ethics, I wasn't able to get to the end - it does feel redundant in a way. I remember dreading having to give a talk on Stoic ethics, like, "It boils down to two or three sentences, how am I going to fill an entire hour?"

I get the impression that most ethical systems really aren't that "complicated," but there is an art to bringing one to life via illustration and extended commentary.

I,m reading Antony Beevor - Crete The Battle and the Resistance. Great book.

Ryan Holiday has managed to build an entire youtube channel around it, Daily Stoic. He has over 1m subs.

Just read Foundation recently, having never read anything by Asimov before. I gotta say, it was a bit of a let-down compared to how legendary it is.
I can appreciate how influential it is, but I thought it was fairly boring.

A few words on Ronja rövardotter (Ronia, the Robber's Daughter), a modern classic in children's literature by Astrid Lindgren.

The book is from 1981 and a film adaptation was made in 1984. I saw that film as a kid and it must have struck a chord with me because I always remembered scenes and images from it. A few weeks ago, I finally bought the book and read it straight away. It moved me immensely, probably in part because of nostalgia but also because it felt like meeting a dear friend after 35+ years. It's a fantasy story that revolves around Ronja, whose father is the leader of a gang of robbers. She befriends the son of a rival group's chieftain and together they explore the wilderness that lies at their doorstep. They learn about the dangers but also the nourishing power of nature. Their friendship and dependence on each other grow while at the same time they can't ignore the bond that family holds. It's beautifully told by Lindgren and illustrated by Ilon Wikland. Even if it is children's literature, I daresay this is a book for all ages. One of my all-time favourites!


Ronja in the nocturnal forest. True & kult before that was a thing.

Just got a book about Lou Reed and find it very interesting. Lou Reed: A Life, by Anthony DeCurtis

Another book with strong black metal vibes - Heliogabalus; or the Crowned Anarchist by Antonin Artaud. Lots of blood, deviant acts, dark magic and gruesome marvelous descriptions.

I was really impressed with SUTTREE. McCarthy just has this way with words where it's like he's writing poetry, just the story ebbing away for a while in favor of this crazy language play. The story was rich and seedy, funny and sad and a lot of stuff. The American southeast made ugly and weird and beautiful. I read it in between driving around in Knoxville where the bulk of it is set and lounging around small-town downtown Bryson City where I live, and sometimes by the river in Asheville. I think that's how you get the most out of this kind of thing. What a talent.

I have finished reading Antony Beevor - Paris After Liberation 1944 - 49. Interesting book. Now i,m reading Max Hastings - Armageddon.

Siddhartha. Herman Hesse. Rosner translation. 1951.

7/10 horny monks

Rubicon by J. S. Dewes.



I love me some sci-fi, and this encapsulates that. I found the story a bit hard to follow with all the different types of antagonists, but it all came together at the end. If you're into books that read like science fiction TV shows or video games, I highly recommend it. Very good read.

^Sounds good. Thanks for the recommendation.

You're very welcome.

MM, books...I will be ordering "Dr, Jekyll & Mr. Hyde" in hardcover soon..I like the classics myself and I also love Stephen King and Nora Roberts...Ann Rice also wrote some amazing books...

Agreed. I gave it a spin a while back, and still find stoicism to be somewhat interesting as a philosophy but that book is way overhyped - he kind of just rephrases the same "it is what it is" sentiment a million ways over the span of the read. No wonder it's been such ripe pickings for "inspirational" instagram accounts.



I liked this one. When coming to the classics for the first time, it's always helpful to start with the ones like Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde because they're enjoyable yet also not too daunting.

The newest book I read through was a translation of the epic of Gilgamesh. It's a story that I'd been aware of for quite some time yet never got around to actually reading it until recently. I was surprised to see that the tale itself isn't that long at all; I was expecting a challenge for some reason, but in total the work was barely 50 (tiny) pages. Despite the brevity, it was really rewarding. Highly recommend it to anyone.

Started "Disquiet Gods" Book 6 of The Suneater by Christopher Ruocchio.

It's the penultimate book so hopefully is a banger.

Moby-Dick is a pretty stunning read. The stuff Melville does is enough to make you want to quit writing. Astoundingly proficient and just so good and detailed in everything. A story of obsession and the breadth of the world and a bunch of shit.

I appreciate Moby Dick mostly for its humour. References to ancient texts are not my thing and some digressions get really boring. Melville's cetology is obviously outdated and I had to review literature for the actual facts. As a biologist, I find old-fashioned science both amusing and irritating (if someone accepts it as truth in our times).

I'm a slow reader and have been reading The Manuscript Found in Saragossa for about a year now, but it's still interesting and fun hence why I haven't given up on it. Basically, it's a frame-story, where the whole thing follows a Spaniard from the Napoleonic Wars' grandfather, and he goes on these adventures that involve Muslims, gypsies, the ancient Wandering Jew and other supernatural things. Often times, he's listening to someone else tell their story and within that story, someone else is telling a story so there's a lot of stories within stories within stories. Because of that Matroyshka doll like structure, it does take a second for me to get my bearings to figure out whose story I'm following, but it doesn't take that long and like I said, it's still very fun to read.

I take it as an unreliable narrator thing - an uneducated 1800s whaler rhapsodizing about stuff on pure feelings. And yeah I was unsure what I'd think of the long sections that digress from the story, but that's what I meant above - the writing and style is just unparalleled.

^ There is a lot of intertextual parody and a big middle finger to the transcendentalists. It is indeed a novel encompassing different genres and styles, there is even a section resembling a (Shakespearean) play. Literary critics are responsible for putting it in the canon - it was not widely popular in Melville's lifetime.

I'm currently reading Wilkie Collins' The Moonstone; it has all the fun from Moby Dick, minus the boredom. XIX century literature can be quite entertaining, whilst retaining that nice patina of rounded characters and opulent language.

The fans of sci-fi in the veins of Brave New World should try We by Yevgeny Zamyatin; the style of the later is superb, almost like a giant prose poem.

^Need to check out We, thanks for the reminder. Been on an Ursula Le Guin binge for a few years now and haven't been reading many other authors, but am starting to branch out again.

I started Moby-Dick a few years ago and got a decent way in, but got busy with school stuff right at the section after they start the voyage and he's basically introducing the crew and such, and never picked it back up again. It has a way of interrupting its own narrative momentum that makes it a little rough going. I do plan on resuming and finishing it at some point, though. It doesn't feel like the sort of book that you can read in bits and pieces, you kinda have to immerse in it.

Similar experience recently with Oliver Twist, too. It's the first Dickens I've actually read, and I've stalled about 50 pages in. Maybe it's mostly that I'm not super in the mood right now to read about a miserable urchin getting kicked around by life, but there's also something in his writing style that's pretty up front - a kind of over-wordy sarcasm - that I'm not that into. Will come around to it after a while and see if it clicks more.

Moby-Dick isn't a breezy read by any means, but yeah - the disruptions to the narrative are what make it what it is at the end of the day. The way it's all woven together is stunning.

Reading The Battle for Leningrad, 1941–1944 by David M Glantz

Glantz is specialist on the eastern front in WW2. Interesting book.

"The Rule of Three" by Sam Ripley



I didn't mind this one. The first third or so of the book is extremely depressing, and doesn't really get much more happy after that. I enjoyed the writing style and how the narrative weaves together (and a nice little hidden message/easter egg that's revealed near the end of the book), but it's not one I'd read again.

"The Silent Patient" by Alex Michaelides



I read this one in quick time because I was curious to see how it would end. The story is about a woman who shoots her husband and then never speaks a word afterwards, and it's up to a psychotherapist to try and talk to her to find out exactly what happened. You know a twist is coming as you read the book, as nothing is what it seems, and yet I was still surprised at the twist that eventually came. A very good read for those that are interested in psychological thrillers.

Those sound really interesting. It sounds like a niche a close friend and I often talk about- the fragility of humanity, and that which will happen after what we've built collapses or declines.

I've got Ecotopia on my to-read list. Revolt Against Humanity sounds really interesting.

To fellow goths, I'd recommend Gavin Baddeley's Goth: Vamps & Dandies and Roger Luckhurst's Gothic: An Illustrated History.

I finished Lowry's Under the Volcano yesterday. It's one of the most boring books I have ever read. Before that I read American Tragedy by Dreiser and it kept my attention for most of the time, but beware - the climatic murder happens only after circa 400 pages. Naturalistic tidiness happens to suit me better than modernist drunkenness.

That sounds so good! Throwing that on the list of things to read. I'm just now getting back into fantasy and I'm really enjoying it.

My book club has turned me onto some really good fiction lately.

- The Book that Wouldn't Burn by Mark Lawrence. It has been a long while since I'd read any fantasy beside Conan and I was pleasantly surprised by how this one read. Lawrence is good at building worlds and telling stories, but he's also a great author. He writes in a way that keeps you engaged, providing just enough detail for you to build the world in your head, but still makes it feel like you missed something. It was a pleasure to read this book, even though the setting ends up being pretty distant from the world we live in right now.

- Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence. Awesome book. While the characters aren't as strong and the main character is a little bit of a mary sue and is pretty arrogant, his back story is interesting and explains why he is the way he is. The world itself is awesome, and there's a few points in the book that kind of blew my mind as I figured out the context. I won't spoil it, but it's really cool and creative; especially the story about where Jorg's family's sword came from.

- The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie. Currently 3/4 of the way through this one, and I'm loving it. The entire Logen arc is especially interesting, and so well written. One part that's stuck in my head is when it's talking about him walking through the frost covered forest of the north, talking about his boots crunching through the frosty shingle that had formed on the duff that makes up the forest floor. The other characters are also interesting in their own way, and very well balanced- not a single mary sue, and they're all different in their own ways, representing completely different parts of the social landscape. I'm really enjoying the book. My only complaint is that so much of Glokta's inner monologue is about his much pain he's in. I feel as if the point has already been made.

The magic actually refers to the ancient Roman pagan practices; Heliogabalus is a pseudobiography in the avant-garde vein and not exactly a fantasy genre.
Artaud was in a lunatic asylum and wrote some letters with elements of fantasy and dreams though - he was so dellusional and paranoid (about some supposedly magic stick)...