What are you reading, watching and listening to? - All languages

[Glenn]

(Not to interrupt the other ongoing conversations...)

Among other things, I have just finished reading Children of Time and Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky, which are both works of science fiction (although the latter wears the trappings of fantasy). Children of Time alternates between the perspectives of future humans and artificially evolved intelligent spiders; the spiders and their worldbuilding are definitely the more interesting of the two.

(Another SF work that I read several years ago, Eifelheim by Michael Flynn, had the opposite issue. The three legs of the plot revolved around the inhabitants of a village in fourteenth-century Germany, the crew of an alien spaceship that crashes nearby, and a pair of near-future scholars investigating the event. The medieval humans (in particular, the village priest) are the main viewpoint characters and are described in considerable color and detail, while the aliens and the future humans are much less fleshed out.)

[alice]

A very thick book about the Reformation.

[Raphael]

A very thick book about the Reformation.

May I ask which one?

[alice]

A very thick book about the Reformation.

May I ask which one?

You may, and if you do, the answer will be Reformation : Europe's House Divided 1490-1700, by Diarmaid MacCulloch.

[Raphael]

You may, and if you do, the answer will be Reformation : Europe's House Divided 1490-1700, by Diarmaid MacCulloch.

Thank you!

[MacAnDàil]

People are a lot stressed and pent-up nowadays. We need more calm. I heartily recommend Stillness is the Key by Ryan Holiday and Instant Calm by Paul Wilson, both adressing this issue, the first from a more philosophical perspective and the latter from a more practical one.

[Raphael]

I just finished Rob Eastaway's Maths on the Back of an Envelope: Clever Ways to (Roughly) Calculate Anything, which is a generally delightful book about combining mathematics and common sense to approach question where just one of those on its own might not be enough, and doing rough-and-ready, not very precise but often practically good enough calculations without even needing a calculator app.

One minor criticism is that in a section on Metric/Imperial/US customary conversions, he doesn't mention the different sizes of US and UK pints, quarts, and gallons, which are a potential source of confusion in such matters.

While zompist never mentioned the book, I discovered it indirectly as a result of his advise to read some "comfort reads" in a time like this. The book doesn't offer a complete respite from Donald Trump, though, since one of the guesstimates in it is for the crowd size at Trump's first inauguration.

[Nortaneous]

Trhä - dájbulëhh ámhëlcoma taomseg Imhajl ëf Olbi gunahh

[Raholeun]

Trhä - dájbulëhh ámhëlcoma taomseg Imhajl ëf Olbi gunahh

I have long wondered if there's material publically available on his conlang.

[Travis B.]

Trhä - dájbulëhh ámhëlcoma taomseg Imhajl ëf Olbi gunahh

When I first read the title my immediate, first-second gut reaction was "what kind of mutant Gaelic is that?".

[bradrn]

Trhä - dájbulëhh ámhëlcoma taomseg Imhajl ëf Olbi gunahh

When I first read the title my immediate, first-second gut reaction was "what kind of mutant Gaelic is that?".

Mine was, ‘Am I having a stroke?’ (Again.)

[Emily]

just watched Kajillionaire (2020). i think this is miranda july's best movie yet

[Darren]

I just finished Rob Eastaway's Maths on the Back of an Envelope: Clever Ways to (Roughly) Calculate Anything, which is a generally delightful book about combining mathematics and common sense to approach question where just one of those on its own might not be enough, and doing rough-and-ready, not very precise but often practically good enough calculations without even needing a calculator app.

Reminds me of a problem along these lines I heard once - what are the chances that any two (non-bald) people in London have the same number of hairs on their heads? The intuitive, and wrong, answer is 'almost zero'; even with very rough estimates you can readily find the exact answer.

[Raphael]

I just finished Rob Eastaway's Maths on the Back of an Envelope: Clever Ways to (Roughly) Calculate Anything, which is a generally delightful book about combining mathematics and common sense to approach question where just one of those on its own might not be enough, and doing rough-and-ready, not very precise but often practically good enough calculations without even needing a calculator app.

Reminds me of a problem along these lines I heard once - what are the chances that any two (non-bald) people in London have the same number of hairs on their heads? The intuitive, and wrong, answer is 'almost zero'; even with very rough estimates you can readily find the exact answer.

I think that example is actually used in the book.

[Nortaneous]

Trhä - dájbulëhh ámhëlcoma taomseg Imhajl ëf Olbi gunahh

I have long wondered if there's material publically available on his conlang.

Sometimes he posts grammar notes on Patreon.

[Ares Land]

Last Call, by Tim Powers.
The idea is that poker and playing cards is a way to deal with the supernatural; the big bad's plot revolves around a special Poker game played with Tarot cards.
I liked it a lot and kept me busy all weekend. Parts of it turned out difficult to follow; I don't play Poker at all so I tended to skip pages a lot

Incidentally, I learned that Americans don't play Tarot? It's a card game played with Tarot cards (though we use a more mundane Tarot deck for that, not the ornate one used for fortune telling). The game isn't much like Poker though -- it's like a less complicated version of bridge. I can't say I ever noticed any supernatural events during the game.

The TV series From. Sort of like 'Lost' in the horror genre. Very creepy, especially when I watched it at night.
What We Do In The Shadows, silly but very funny.

[rotting bones]

I'm hoping to get through Benjamin Studebaker's new book Legitimacy in Liberal Democracies. The book argues that governments in "embedded democracies" are losing legitimacy while their populations don't believe in any alternatives. This means the internal contradictions will keep getting stronger without leading to revolution. The book tries to show what such a society would look like.

This thesis sounds way too optimistic to me. It looks to me like 21st century intellectuals are laying down a royal road to fascism across the world.

[rotting bones]

Incidentally, I learned that Americans don't play Tarot? It's a card game played with Tarot cards (though we use a more mundane Tarot deck for that, not the ornate one used for fortune telling). The game isn't much like Poker though -- it's like a less complicated version of bridge. I can't say I ever noticed any supernatural events during the game.

It's available in BoardGameArena under the name "French Tarot". That might have been the most confusing card game I've ever tried to play. IIRC the victory condition is a mathematical formula you have to calculate.

The last bluffing game I enjoyed on that site was probably Skull. It's very simple and takes only 8 minutes to play.

[zompist]

Last Call, by Tim Powers.
The idea is that poker and playing cards is a way to deal with the supernatural; the big bad's plot revolves around a special Poker game played with Tarot cards.
I liked it a lot and kept me busy all weekend. Parts of it turned out difficult to follow; I don't play Poker at all so I tended to skip pages a lot

I really like Powers. Last Call is fun, though the plot verges into tall tale territory.

Incidentally, I learned that Americans don't play Tarot? It's a card game played with Tarot cards (though we use a more mundane Tarot deck for that, not the ornate one used for fortune telling). The game isn't much like Poker though -- it's like a less complicated version of bridge. I can't say I ever noticed any supernatural events during the game.

I have to say I didn't know there was anything you could do with a Tarot deck besides fortunetelling and summoning demons.

[Ares Land]

I really like Powers. Last Call is fun, though the plot verges into tall tale territory.

I bought a bunch of Powers books a few years ago. Actually it was you mentioning The Anubis Gates that reminded me I hadn't read them! I'm on On Stranger Tides now.

Incidentally, I learned that Americans don't play Tarot? It's a card game played with Tarot cards (though we use a more mundane Tarot deck for that, not the ornate one used for fortune telling). The game isn't much like Poker though -- it's like a less complicated version of bridge. I can't say I ever noticed any supernatural events during the game.

I have to say I didn't know there was anything you could do with a Tarot deck besides fortunetelling and summoning demons.
[/quote]

It's really a card game first! The occult associations came later.
As a teenager, I actually knew how to use a Tarot deck for fortunetelling. I wish I could tell something deep about the cards channeling Jungian archetypes -- the sad truth is they're mostly channeling the Barnum effect