Yeah, donāt give up on Dosty yet, heās much better on the second read. Really.
Try The Idiot, the humor and appreciation of the absurd comes into focus.
Gawd I love books!!!
Hereās to our odd little corner of OverGrow!
-Grouchy
PS Binging on Michenerās Mexico & Caribbeanā¦. Fing cold in New England!
I am going to keep going for sure. It just seems he was paid by the page, as many were at the time.
And i did want to try tolstoy next, but will check out Gogol as well.
@Foreigner how do you like the kindle versus a book?My fiance got one and seems to like it.
hmmm
For Gogol Iād recommend starting with his short stories. Specifically āthe overcoat.ā If you like it youāll like it all. āDead Soulsā is his big work but itās slightly inaccessible, but worth it.
I think I have a kobo, but same thing. I prefer real books but for traveling the ereader has itās advantages.
I like to dog ear pages and flip back and forth which is hard to do on the kobo.
Busted. I know.
This was a good read, any Stephen Kinzer is good. All the Shahs Men is a great view into some of the beginning of US intervention into Iran as well.
Kindle Rawks! Seriously, for serious readers the bargains alone are a soul deal. You can buy a kindle book w everything Tolstoy ever wrote for two bucks. And itās searchable, w bookmarks! And you can highlight to the text and add your own brilliant insights! Book nerd nirvana!
Sorry, verbosity driven by OG homegrown.
Donāt sleep on Chekhov either! Accessible short stories abound.
Somehow this is my first time seeing this thread. Anyways. I just finished the audiobook of 33 Strategies of War by Robert Greene, which I highly recommend to ppl that are interested in human nature; i.e people watchers.
If you know Robert Greenes style of using historical examples to push his point, then get ready to learn a lot about Napoleon 
ā he gets a lot of mentions. Kinda gives me a lil incentive to go see the movieā¦
Agreed. Plays too if youāre into that sort of thing.
What is a good intro to Chekhov?
Oh and I can check out books from the library direct to my device too which is a nice perk.
I used to read a lot. In 2020 I thought I would try to get back into it so I purchased a Kobo (basically a Kindle but freed from the Amazon ecosystem). I stupidly did not spring for the model with dark mode. Itās too bright to read in bed with all the lights off even with the brightness at like 3%. At some point last year I got my library card hooked up to this app called Libby on my phone, which does have dark mode, so I was able to churn through āThe Three Body Problemā completely on my phone lol. That was probably the last book I read all the way through, and I loved it. I couldnāt get into the sequel quite as much though. I probably read through the equivalent of half a 19th century Russian novel in forum posts every week though 
With more drama too 
When everything is lost, itās our stories that survive.
How do we weather the end of things? Cloud Cuckoo Land brings together an unforgettable cast of dreamers and outsiders from past, present and future to offer a vision of survival against all odds.
Constantinople, 1453:
An orphaned seamstress and a cursed boy with a love for animals risk everything on opposite sides of a city wall to protect the people they love.
Idaho, 2020:
An impoverished, idealistic kid seeks revenge on a world thatās crumbling around him. Can he go through with it when a gentle old man stands between him and his plans?
Unknown, Sometime in the Future:
With her tiny community in peril, Konstance is the last hope for the human race. To find a way forward, she must look to the oldest stories of all for guidance.
Bound together by a single ancient text, these tales interweave to form a tapestry of solace and resilience and a celebration of storytelling itself. Like its predecessor All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerrās new novel is a tale of hope and of profound human connection.
Anthony Doerr is possibly my favorite contemporary author and I think this is my favorite of his works. Honestly probably my favorite book I have read in years. Cloud Cuckoo Land is a very ambitious story of the value of preserving text and those who make it their calling, and how those texts can bring humanity hope. There are so many other themes woven within it, but that was the main one I took with me. I will be reading this very soon as there was so much I missed on the first read I think.
Its actually almost three different stories that take place 1000ās of years apart that Doerr somehow weaves togetherā¦ its really impressive. One taking place during the siege of Constantinople in 1453 following a cleft lipped boy and his oxen that were drafted into the Ottoman army and a young seamstress who lives in Constantinople. One taking place in Idaho where a lost and lonely autistic boy is trying to find his way in a world he doesnt understand, and one that doesnt understand him. And one on a Spaceship hurtling through space carrying humanities last hope of survival.
It also has samples from āCloud Cuckoo Landā - a fictional text written by Antonius Diogenes dispersed in between the different narratives - a story of a shepherd who traveled to the ends of the world because he mistakenly believed The Birds by Aristophanes was a true tale about an actual city hidden in the clouds. So its a book about an imaginary book. Which is the sort of shit right up my alley. I know some of my friends that read it struggled with how it jumped around between characters, but everyone I know who finished it raves about it.
PS Ok I got a little into my descprition of that bookā¦ I didnt realize it was that long of a post until i hit sendā¦ 
Solid SciFi Whatsit called, āThe Dark Forest Dilemmaā That one haunts me. 
Some of my other favorite books/series are:
The Hyperion Cantos - An amazing sci-fi book written in the style of Chaucers Canterbury Tales
The Orenda by Joseph Boyden - A visceral and violent take on 17th century Canada and focuses on a Jesuit Missionary and a Huron warrior.
A real account and almost journal of RM Patterson who prospected, hunted, and canoes his way up the Nahanni River in the 1920ās - a wild and untouched part of Canada. Looking for gold, but finding something much more valuable in the very land around him.
I started with Ward No. 6 and Other Stories I think itās a Barnes and noble collection but there are tons of others out there with different compilations of stories.
If youāre enjoying historical fiction then Iād recommend Ken Follett. He got me turned on the genre!
Pillars of the Earth is an absolutely fantastic book, I wasnt as enamoured with the sequels though.
