What are you reading right now

[JSoup]

I've pretty much set aside most of the books I have to binge on various comics I've been wanting to read for years, with the one exception being Ernest Cline's second book, Armada. Another great book if you like loving, in your face geek references, but he wasn't kidding when he announced his second book would be a love letter to 80s action scifi movies. It reads like one, with a predictable plot and paper thin characters. Still, he's got a way about him that makes it interesting to read none the less.

On the comic list:
-Up to current in Saga.
-Up to current in Amulet.
-Some of God is Dead, before that got dumb.
-All of the modern D&D comics.
-The rest of Fables.
-All of Lock & Key (meh...).
-All of Transmetropolitan, holy crap is this good.
-To current in Usagi Yojimbo, and goddamn. None of that was what I was expecting and it's too bad I've waited so long to read.

[GrayGhost81]

Reading yet another book where the author uses hardly any punctuation and also run on sentences. And sentence fragments. And you bet your ass there isn't one quotation mark in this whole thing so good luck following the dialogue. Eileen asks me what I'm reading.

The Dog Stars.

Is that about Keanu Reeves' band.

Yes exactly that. No actually it's a postapocolyptic Cormac McCarthy ripoff but so far it's not that bad. So far.

[techwizard]

Reading yet another book where the author uses hardly any punctuation and also run on sentences. And sentence fragments. And you bet your ass there isn't one quotation mark in this whole thing so good luck following the dialogue. Eileen asks me what I'm reading.

The Dog Stars.

Is that about Keanu Reeves' band.

Yes exactly that. No actually it's a postapocolyptic Cormac McCarthy ripoff but so far it's not that bad. So far.

my first thought was that you were reading Cormac McCarthy, but if not then you'll have to tell me what you thought of that author after you finish. i really enjoyed The Road and need to read more McCarthy, could enjoy another author of a similar style.

[singlebanana]

Read a bit of McCarthy. A professor where I went to grad school was the foremost scholar on him. Blood Meridian is probably my favorite.

[techwizard]

Read a bit of McCarthy. A professor where I went to grad school was the foremost scholar on him. Blood Meridian is probably my favorite.

i've heard nothing but good about Blood Meridian, i'd really like to give that one a try. i've also seen it on some "most difficult books" lists, would you say it's a difficult read?

[singlebanana]

Read a bit of McCarthy. A professor where I went to grad school was the foremost scholar on him. Blood Meridian is probably my favorite.

i've heard nothing but good about Blood Meridian, i'd really like to give that one a try. i've also seen it on some "most difficult books" lists, would you say it's a difficult read?

It's a bit of a challenge in some places, but worth the effort.

[Cryptid Collector]

Fanfic and Sonic Comics because I finally got around to them and also have been getting back writing myself.

[Zagnorch]

Fanfic and Sonic Comics

How about fanfic based on Sonic comics? They got those, right?

[Cryptid Collector]

Fanfic and Sonic Comics

How about fanfic based on Sonic comics? They got those, right?

Yes, but it often tends to be a mismash of elements from all the continuities. One of the writers basically turned them into such an unholy mess of bullshit the current staff had to basically insert a cosmic reset button and reboot the whole thing to make the the universe serviceable again and I assume that's why.

Keep in mind I'm a decent enough writer to make a Sonic/Highlander crossover work but I still couldn't imagine trying to fix that comic in it's pre-boot state because he basically threw a baby-fit and said the remaining staff couldn't play with his toys (meaning all the characters and concepts he was able to claim as his doing were ripped out, some of them quite important to the plot) 

[JSoup]

Fanfic and Sonic Comics

How about fanfic based on Sonic comics? They got those, right?

Yes, but it often tends to be a mismash of elements from all the continuities. One of the writers basically turned them into such an unholy mess of bullshit the current staff had to basically insert a cosmic reset button and reboot the whole thing to make the the universe serviceable again and I assume that's why.

Are you talking about Archie Sonic? Cause the mess was made by the previous writer, Ken Penders, not giving a shit about Sonic and wanting to write about other characters. Ian Flynn, the current writer, was doing a damn good job cleaning up the mess. The reset button was due to an overreaction on Archie's part over a lawsuit with Ken Penders.

[Cryptid Collector]

Fanfic and Sonic Comics

How about fanfic based on Sonic comics? They got those, right?

Yes, but it often tends to be a mismash of elements from all the continuities. One of the writers basically turned them into such an unholy mess of bullshit the current staff had to basically insert a cosmic reset button and reboot the whole thing to make the the universe serviceable again and I assume that's why.

Are you talking about Archie Sonic? Cause the mess was made by the previous writer, Ken Penders, not giving a shit about Sonic and wanting to write about other characters. Ian Flynn, the current writer, was doing a damn good job cleaning up the mess. The reset button was due to an overreaction on Archie's part over a lawsuit with Ken Penders.

Considering how many of his characters had major roles, I don't how much they could've done without just completely ripping the comic apart and somehow removing a large number of the supporting cast. I haven't read very far but it's amazing how many characters (some of them pretty major) on it's Tvtropes page are listed as "currently off-limits due to the Penders lawsuit." The man literally tried to torch the comic out of spite.

[JSoup]

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Fanfic and Sonic Comics

How about fanfic based on Sonic comics? They got those, right?

Yes, but it often tends to be a mismash of elements from all the continuities. One of the writers basically turned them into such an unholy mess of bullshit the current staff had to basically insert a cosmic reset button and reboot the whole thing to make the the universe serviceable again and I assume that's why.

Are you talking about Archie Sonic? Cause the mess was made by the previous writer, Ken Penders, not giving a shit about Sonic and wanting to write about other characters. Ian Flynn, the current writer, was doing a damn good job cleaning up the mess. The reset button was due to an overreaction on Archie's part over a lawsuit with Ken Penders.

Considering how many of his characters had major roles, I don't how much they could've done without just completely ripping the comic apart and somehow removing a large number of the supporting cast. I haven't read very far but it's amazing how many characters (some of them pretty major) on it's Tvtropes page are listed as "currently off-limits due to the Penders lawsuit." The man literally tried to torch the comic out of spite.

Not..really. Penders had been going on about how he was working up to taking Archie to court over the matter, but he didn't pull the trigger. Archie sued him first to settle the matter.  There doesn't seem to be a decent summary of events out there yet, but all of the relevant articles are on TSSZ. Basically, Penders was going to lose because his contract was with Archie, who's contact was with Sega and that contract stated that if it's put in the comic, Sega owns it lock, stock and barrel. But before Penders could lose, the case was thrown out, since Archie had shown themselves to be no so on the up and up about this whole contract thing.

The slowing down of the love story sub-plots, the ignored family interactions, the removal of all Echidna characters outside of Knuckles and then, finally, the full reboot, were all done at the behest of a paranoid Archie and a slightly annoyed Sega. If they left well enough alone, the comic probably would have just kept on chugging at the amazing pace it was already running at.

Edit: Found just about the best summary you're going to find here. Got a few of my points wrong and this summary gets a few things not perfectly right, but there you are.

[techwizard]

how did either sega or archie support that sort of cross-over? it makes absolutely no sense to begin with, sounds like a desperate move from one or both parties to try reaching out to new audiences.

back to reading:
Don Quixote - still taking my time with this one but i've been making better progress lately, i have about 200 pages left out of 940. i think my favourite recurring joke is Don Quixote getting pissed off at Sancho for his ridiculous use of proverbs in nearly every sentence.

a while ago i finished a book recommended by my girlfriend called Fishbones by Jisuk Cho. a story about a couple of high school kids, one of whom is part of the Mafia. it was entertaining but i didn't like how it was written, each chapter felt episodic because from what i understand it was released online originally in chapter-length installments. it didn't flow well in novel format, but otherwise i enjoyed it for what it was.

[JSoup]

how did either sega or archie support that sort of cross-over? it makes absolutely no sense to begin with, sounds like a desperate move from one or both parties to try reaching out to new audiences.

That was basically it. Supposedly this explanation was pieced together from different people who worked on the project, but with the lawsuits going and Archie's Sonic freakout, the team needed more time to flesh out the Mega Man stories and complete Sonic reboot scripts. The cross-over ate up a full year with basically fanfiction (and was people liked it, it wasn't that bad). They liked it so much, they had another one about a year later.

[JamesGoblin]

I have somewhat unusual habit of either dropping a book after only 10-15 pages or re-reading the same one for 4-5 or even more times (especially if I like it a lot) and/or (re)reading more of them simultaneously.

Besides some "boring" chess ones, I'm currently going (on and on...) through some 20th century Serbian writers (typically never even translated to English, thus no point in giving titles, I guess), Proust's "In Search of lost Time" and Camus' "The Stranger".