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[LeeC]

I picked up Le Morte D'Arthur. Holy shit there are a lot of neighboring kings when Arthur is crowned. 

Wish there was a map. I cannot find a decent one from google.

[Theta9]

Nope. His first name is Edmund. I was sleepy when I wrote that...

Ah. The timeline doesn't work anyway.  Wm. Morris died in 1896. But now I want to go back and reread The Well at the World's End or The Water of the Wondrous Isles again.

[LeeC]

Damn Arthur. As soon as you are crowned king you get thrown into a war. You win a great battle seduce a maid and get her pregnant, fight another battle, "fall in love" with Guinevere and then get your half sister (he didn't know they were related) pregnant when she came to spy on you for her husband (the guy at war with you). Dude is getting everyone one pregnant except his wife! I can't help but feel like this is the medieval equivalent of the modern action hero. Manly McAwesome is so awesome he slaughters his enemies like a boss and so virile he gets all the hotties pregnant. Meanwhile, Merlin is essentially telling him what to do and pranking Arthur on the reg.

The "great battle" was interesting insight into dark age/medieval combat (or at least Malory's interpretation of it). It kind of reminded me of the Iliad except instead of fighting over fallen soldier's armor, they just unhorse each other, grab the horse, and give it to one of their allies that got unhorsed. Arms and heads are getting severed and ambushes from the bushes. Was fun but battle scenes have come a long way since Malory.

I'm only 1 hour into a 37 hour story but I feel like so much has happened that it could have filled its own novel, provided more detail and dialog was in place.

[Theta9]

I'm only 1 hour into a 37 hour story but I feel like so much has happened that it could have filled its own novel, provided more detail and dialog was in place.

Wait, so it's an audiobook?

[LeeC]

Yes. I almost exclusively do audio-books now during my commute to and from work. Its the only time I have to get any "reading" done which is tough to do with actual books on the train or while driving.

[Theta9]

I feel ya. My job is now driving a library truck so I've been getting back into audiobooks. I'm currently a few hours deep in my copy of Battlefield Earth that I made over a decade ago - the library had it only on cassette, not CD, and I had to digitize it in real time to my computer and convert to MP3. The full thing, including the author's introduction, is only 19 seconds short of 43 hours.

[Cornelius]

I'm only 1 hour into a 37 hour story but I feel like so much has happened that it could have filled its own novel, provided more detail and dialog was in place.

Well, Malory did try to tie all exiting stories and romances together, so there probably is one, or several out there.

[LeeC]

How many Ladies of the Lake are there? How are they different from the damsels of the lake?  I think either the translation is not adding up or Malory just expected the reader to understand or not care but dammit I want to know! Like who the fuck was in the water giving out Excalibur if The lady of the lake was the one on the shore explaining everything to Arthur and gave him her boat to get the sword? Then she dies a few chapters later. But how if she is suppose to be magical? Then Nimue shows up and is also a lady/damsel of the lake as well as others. Are they of different lakes? Is the one inside the lake the queen of the lake? Is there a hierarchy of some sort? Who is in charge? Is anyone in charge? How do they work?



Also I keep getting Morgan le Fay and Morgause confused which may explain why in other retellings they just combine the two sisters of Arthur into one. Half of the Le Morte D'Arthur articles I can find end up confusing them or combining them too, which makes me really distrust them since they obviously did not read the book they are reporting on.

Thus far, I really wish Arthur didn't marry Guenever, but instead got together with Nimue. No wonder Merlin liked her. She's so charming and helpful that she rescues Arthur a few times. Guenever has pretty much done nothing but sit around and eat cake.

[Thrillho]

So after starting it a month or so ago and stopping because of stress, I finally went back to Mort by Terry Pratchett and I feel like my mind has been blown open by ideas and observations about humanity.

I feel so much like I identify with Death. He tried dancing, drinking and fishing, the things that are supposed to be fun, right? And he couldn't understand them. This feels so much like my own AS interpretation of the world. He also likes to cook, loves a curry, and likes cats. I have definitely over-identified with him.

My partners are huge Pratchett fans and have almost all of his books. I've got a stack of four more Discworld ones they recommended I tackle next, and I'm doing Soul Music next.

The phrase I said to them was that if Soul Music says as much to me about music as Mort did about life and death, my life might change just a little.

Before I carried on with Mort, I finished Colonel Roosevelt by Edmund Morris. I've discussed it before, the third volume of an extraordinary set of biographies.

Roosevelt is an individual I have a great deal of admiration for (while very, painfully aware of his many faults), and I was crying about a death that happened a century ago pretty much throughout the last few chapters.

This was a combination of things. Of an adventure with those books being over. Of an ending of a life that made many positive differences to the world, and paved the way for a later, even greater figure who I admire even more. But I have also found since my father died that I seek the lessons that you receive from a father through the great figures I admire through history, and it felt like a tiny sliver of losing him again. I don't regret this feeling, it was a special one to have. And finishing those three books, which believe it or not across their 1600 plus pages were an easy on-ramp for me to return to this pasttime, has reignited my passion for reading. The last parts of Mort were read voraciously in my lunch breaks at work at commuting to and from, and when I had some time to myself on Monday I found myself impatiently waiting for a YouTube video by someone I subscribe to to end just so I could get back to my reading.

I've missed reading being able to make feel this way.

[Theta9]

How many Ladies of the Lake are there? How are they different from the damsels of the lake?  I think either the translation is not adding up or Malory just expected the reader to understand or not care but dammit I want to know! Like who the fuck was in the water giving out Excalibur if The lady of the lake was the one on the shore explaining everything to Arthur and gave him her boat to get the sword? Then she dies a few chapters later. But how if she is suppose to be magical? Then Nimue shows up and is also a lady/damsel of the lake as well as others. Are they of different lakes? Is the one inside the lake the queen of the lake? Is there a hierarchy of some sort? Who is in charge? Is anyone in charge? How do they work?

"Fuckin' Ladies of the Lake, how do they work?"
- Mad Jester Gang

[JoeCovenant]

How many Ladies of the Lake are there?

Let's see...
Lady of the Lake,
Strange women lying in ponds
Moisten Bint
Aquatic Tart

Yeah.. quite a few!

[Cornelius]

If I remember correctly, Malory distinguishes between two ladies of the Lake, with Nimue as the most important.

Things sometimes get a bit chaotic, as he tries to tie together all he's heard or read, which definitely isn't helped by the fact that same character, depending on the version of the story, can get a slightly different name, copying traditions being what they are. As such, it has been suggested that Morgause, though the character first appears in the tradition as Anna, and later Sangive, has gotten her name as a corruption of Orcades (Orkney), under the influence of Morgana.

The matičre de Bretagne is really very fascinating to study as a tradition as well, to pluck apart all the different strands, and see how, when, and where the characters develop.

[Thrillho]

How many Ladies of the Lake are there? How are they different from the damsels of the lake?  I think either the translation is not adding up or Malory just expected the reader to understand or not care but dammit I want to know! Like who the fuck was in the water giving out Excalibur if The lady of the lake was the one on the shore explaining everything to Arthur and gave him her boat to get the sword? Then she dies a few chapters later. But how if she is suppose to be magical? Then Nimue shows up and is also a lady/damsel of the lake as well as others. Are they of different lakes? Is the one inside the lake the queen of the lake? Is there a hierarchy of some sort? Who is in charge? Is anyone in charge? How do they work?

"Fuckin' Ladies of the Lake, how do they work?"
- Mad Jester Gang

I wish I could like this post six times for the gag and the ICP alternative name.

[LeeC]

Reading more of "Le Morte d'Arthur"

I really like the tale of Sir Gareth of Orkney ,but there wasn't an ork in sight!  :engel: Thought it was funny that Lyoness's little sister was cockblocking her by summoning a knight to stab Gareth in the leg on the nights they wanted to bone-down before marriage. As we all know, nothing kills the mood like being stabbed in the leg. Siblings would do something like that.

I am currently on the "First and the Second Book of Sir Tristrams de Lione" which feels weird to me because I read "Tristan and Isolde" in college for a French culture class. They are very similar so it kind of feels like I am reading an extended version of a reboot. Its the same story but now with more knightly battles, slightly different backstories, and weird arbitrary facts. For example a girl really liked him and sent him 3 letters but he didn't get them because he set sail for Ireland to fight in a duel so the girl got depression and died. I feel like I could skip this whole chapter but I know I am going to miss something different or important if I do.

[LeeC]

Typically for Christmas I usually give two gifts. One is the real gift and the other is the joke/goof gift. Just meant to be funny or a jab. This year the real gift for my wife was a pregnancy pillow (Baby 2 is due in July! Genetic tests shows its most likely a girl!). 
 

This is the joke gift:


The back cover:

It's been several months since the 2016 presidential election, and "Uncle Joe" Biden is puttering around his house, grouting the tile in his master bathroom, feeling lost and adrift in an America that doesn't make sense anymore.

But when his favorite Amtrak conductor dies in a suspicious accident, Joe feels a familiar desire to serve- and he leaps into the role of amateur sleuth, with a little help from his old friend President Barack Obama (code name: Renegade). Together they'll plumb the darkest depths of Delaware, traveling from cheap motels to biker bars and beyond, as they uncover the sinister forces advancing America's opioid epidemic.

Part action thriller, part mystery, part bromance, and (just to be clear) 100 percent fiction, Hope Never Dies imagines life after the oval office for two of America's greatest heroes. Together they'll prove that justice has no term limits.

[Theta9]

I work for the county library system now and I've seen that book a couple of times.

[Case]

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jan/02/the-drought-is-over-mass-us-copyright-expiry-brings-flood-of-works-into-public-domain

[Case]

So after starting it a month or so ago and stopping because of stress, I finally went back to Mort by Terry Pratchett and I feel like my mind has been blown open by ideas and observations about humanity.

<snip>

I've missed reading being able to make feel this way.

One of my all-time favorites.

[pwhodges]

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jan/02/the-drought-is-over-mass-us-copyright-expiry-brings-flood-of-works-into-public-domain

That's not so much good news as a partial reduction of the effect of some particularly bad news, if you see what I mean.

[Theta9]

So after starting it a month or so ago and stopping because of stress, I finally went back to Mort by Terry Pratchett and I feel like my mind has been blown open by ideas and observations about humanity.

I'm actually rereading this one now.

[Is it cold in here?]

Shane Bauer, "American Prison"
Miraca Gross, "Exceptionally Gifted Children"
David Weber, "Through Fiery Trials"

[Theta9]

Growing Up in Public by Ezequiel Garcia.
The coworker who lent me it also lent American Splendor which I haven't started yet.

[LeeC]

I am picking up Le Morte d'Arthur again. I put it down for awhile because I have a habit of falling asleep on trains.

I am kind of surprised there is a few knights from India and a prominent knight named Palamedes that is middle eastern running around in England in Le Morte d'Arthur. I have a feeling if Netflix or the BBC ran a Le Morte d'Arthur show they would get flak for having such characters, even though they were in the stories.

Also, is the questing beast just a giraffe?

"following the Questing Beast that had in shape a head like a serpent's head, and a body like a leopard, buttocks like a lion, and footed like an hart; and in his body there was such a noise as it had been the noise of thirty couple of hounds questing, and such a noise that beast made wheresomever he went"

[Cornelius]

I never thought it was, really. It sounds smaller. But I may be confusing with The once and future King which draws quite openly on the Morte dArthur.

One romance has Gawain travel to India, to retrieve a flying chessboard, and he marries the Indian princess, as well. Turns out the legend is a bit more diverse than most people realise.

[Theta9]

The Heart Goes Last (audio) by Margaret Atwood.
Atwood has a flair for writing really bleak dystopian sci-fi.

[LeeC]

One romance has Gawain travel to India, to retrieve a flying chessboard, and he marries the Indian princess, as well. Turns out the legend is a bit more diverse than most people realise.

You know, it seems like Gawain is the one knight that pretty much gets with every girl that he comes into contact with. He's quite the rake.

[Blue Kitty]

I've been going though the Eyeshield 21 series like crazy. I don't know why I'm so into it, but I love it and I can't get the books out of the library fast enough

[Is it cold in here?]

"The Little Book of Stoicism".

[Is it cold in here?]

"Words on the Move", about how language changes and works in real life.

[Thrillho]

I finished Richard Nixon: The Life.

Nixon is undoubtedly one of the most fascinating people in American political history. There is SO much good in him, and it just got erased by his less compassionate qualities until he became infamous for his failures. And then, after that, he was an outcast from everyone; Democrats hated him, and he was too liberal for the Republicans. Reading about his viewpoints on some things for the time, like abortion, religion, homosexuality and civil rights - or even, ignoring his viewpoints and looking solely at his pre-Watergate record, which quite frankly I think should be the real measure of a politician - is pretty amazing. What a great man he could have been. I'm not sure he ever had a chance.

I've started reading now, Jeff Tweedy of Wilco's autobiography, We've Got to Leave So We Can Come Back. After the upsetting news about Ryan Adams recently, reading Jeff's book is a breath of fucking fresh air. I'm almost scared to keep reading due to how much I like it so much, and how much more it makes me like him.

[cybersmurf]

I've got to look whether the latest Expanse novel is available for me, should've been released somewhen this month.

But I have yet to finish the Altered Carbon book, and it's quite different from the Netflix show though. yes, the characters are the same, and the main story probably is, too, but maaaaaaan the details are so different, and I'm not even talking about small ones

[Grognard]

David Brin's The Postman
A pre-movie copy I found.

Fiction's Law still stands: the Book is always better than the Movie.

[JoeCovenant]

David Brin's The Postman
A pre-movie copy I found.

Fiction's Law still stands: the Book is always better than the Movie.

The exception which proves the rule?
The Witches of Eastwick.

One of only two books I put down without finishing... (both, before I reached the third chapter. The other was 50 Shades of Garbage Grey)

[cybersmurf]

David Brin's The Postman
A pre-movie copy I found.

Fiction's Law still stands: the Book is always better than the Movie.

The exception which proves the rule?
The Witches of Eastwick.

One of only two books I put down without finishing... (both, before I reached the third chapter. The other was 50 Shades of Garbage Grey)

Isn't the latter some fan-fic gone viral, riddled with errors of all kinds?

[LeeC]

Picked le morte d'arthur back up. Seems like a bit of a slog now. Like its all filler episodes. One of my favorite knights just died game of thrones style.

I am thinking of picking up Good Omen after this. The trailer for the show looks interesting.

[hedgie]

Isn't the latter some fan-fic gone viral, riddled with errors of all kinds?

Twishite fancic, if I recall.  The original was trash writing and not worth the pixels wasted on the Kindle edition (not to mention glorifying abuse).  The fanfic is even WORSE.

[Tova]

David Brin's The Postman
A pre-movie copy I found.

Fiction's Law still stands: the Book is always better than the Movie.

The exception which proves the rule?

*twitch*

If there's an exception to the rule that "the Book is always better than the Movie," then the rule is disproven...

("Thank you, Bernard...")

[Grognard]

tonight's reading ... just gotten started.

"Voyage Across the Stars" by David Drake.

concept: take "The Odyssey" and wrap it in a military sci-fi setting.

[LeeC]

Just got through the Tale of Sir Tristan books 1 and 2 of Le Morte D'Arthur. That was a long one! It felt like I was watching an adventure show with a lot of filler episodes. Don't get me wrong, his story was fun and fascinating but there were moments when it dragged and recycled the same story over and over. I understand that Malory probably took all the Tristan stories everywhere and strung them in one story but man it was just a slog at certain points. I took a long break from it and listened to podcasts instead. It ended differently than the story I read in college but it was still fun to flesh him out more. And a quick shout out to Palamedes. Poor guy is a great knight but his jealousy always gets in his way. Its pretty human to tell you the truth and there were many times he called Tristan his friend only for the jealousy to crop up and they fight or he calls him his sworn enemy.

There were two other stand out characters of the story. Sir Dinadan the sassy knight of the table round (Seriously this guy was the comic relief but without making him doofy. He had the quips and jokes to bring levity to everything while also being a great fighter and knight). And then there was Sir Lamorak de Gales who was a pretty badass character in his own right. I am trying to figure out the best way to explain his role in the story.

If Tristan was Aang (The hero)
Palamedes would be Zuko (rival/nemesis but they team up)
Lamarak de Galis would be Toph (Badass friend)
Dinadan would be Sokka (the smartass who can hold his own)
which would mean Iseult would probably be Katara with Kink Mark as Azula?

Maybe this is a bad example.

Well we're off to seek adventure with Lancelot and the Sangrail saga.

[Theta9]

If Tristan was Aang (The hero)
Palamedes would be Zuko (rival/nemesis but they team up)
Lamarak de Galis would be Toph (Badass friend)
Dinadan would be Sokka (the smartass who can hold his own)
which would mean Iseult would probably be Katara with Kink Mark as Azula?

Maybe this is a bad example.

Not at all! Avatar analogies are always awesome! 

[cybersmurf]

Not at all! Avatar analogies are awesome! 

Damn. I guess I'll have to watch it then. that's a few days lost to binging, right? [or rather won to binging, by what I've heard]

[Theta9]

Not at all! Avatar analogies are awesome! 

Damn. I guess I'll have to watch it then. that's a few days lost to binging, right? [or rather won to binging, by what I've heard]

One of the best animated series in recent memory.

[LeeC]

Not at all! Avatar analogies are awesome! 

Damn. I guess I'll have to watch it then. that's a few days lost to binging, right? [or rather won to binging, by what I've heard]

One of the best animated series in recent memory.

Its really good. Season one can be a bit weird though as its very "kiddie" at times but by season two it grows up. Season 2 is by far the best IMHO

[LeeC]

Reading "Caves of Ice" another Cain novel from Sandy Mitchell in the volume I have (I dont think it calls itself and omnibus but it pretty much is). I came across this paragraph at the very end of chapter 3:

'I haven't a clue' I admitted, scooping up my laspistol up from the floor where I had fallen.  As I did I noticed a thick smear of ichor on the ice. The sight cheered me remarkably, not least because if I'd managed to wound the creature it was unlikely to come back for a while. 'But it bleeds.' I thrust my sidearm back into the holster on my belt with a sense of grim satisfaction. 'And if it bleeds, we can kill it.'

[cybersmurf]

Reading "Caves of Ice" another Cain novel from Sandy Mitchell in the volume I have (I dont think it calls itself and omnibus but it pretty much is). I came across this paragraph at the very end of chapter 3:

'I haven't a clue' I admitted, scooping up my laspistol up from the floor where I had fallen.  As I did I noticed a thick smear of ichor on the ice. The sight cheered me remarkably, not least because if I'd managed to wound the creature it was unlikely to come back for a while. 'But it bleeds.' I thrust my sidearm back into the holster on my belt with a sense of grim satisfaction. 'And if it bleeds, we can kill it.'

Laspistol? Is this Warhammer 40000?

[TheEvilDog]

Yes, Caves of Ice is the second novel in the Ciaphas Cain, HERO OF THE IMPERIUM, series of novels.

[LeeC]

Yeah I just finished "For The Emperor" a few days ago which is the first novel in the "Hero of the Imperium" volume/omnibus. There's some short stories in between each novel too. Its been a fun ride so far. I get a bit of a Blackadder and Baldrick vibe from Cain and Jurgan which is pretty cool in a Warhammer setting. Jurgan even has a few "cunning plans" to share.

The novels (thus far) follow the great hero Ciaphas Cain's memoirs where he reveals he is not all that heroic at all and is a self claimed coward as he's more concerned with his own skin than the mission, unlike most other commissars. He gets stuck with putting together two Valhallan regiments, that were cobbled together from survivors of a recent Tyranid campaign, into one regiment. One regiment is all males, the other all females. So he resolves to make them a co-ed regiment, the first of its kind as far as I am aware in the Valhallan army. Comedy and action ensues.

[cybersmurf]

I guess I'll have to give a 40k novel a spin, once I'm done with Tiamat's Wrath (The Expanse No. .

[TheEvilDog]

If you do start with a 40k novel, start with one by Dan Abnett, preferably First & Only. Doesn't get into too much of the more esoteric elements and reads more like a Sharpe novel.

[LeeC]

I don't know. To the uninitiated I always suggest the Space Wolf omnibus, simply because you start off from the pov of a literal viking and learn about the universe through his primitive understanding. But I am sure everyone likes to suggest their favorite or their first 40k novel.