banazir

Oh heck, did not expect to see this one. Really unfortunate.

I honestly liked 8.1 quite a bit - once I installed Classic Shell to not have to deal with the new UI. A first year usability student could have foreseen the massive issues trying to weld a touch screen UI and a traditional desktop metaphor would raise, but Microsoft for some reason were completely pig headed about making it work. It didn't. It can't. You can not staple two completely different UI paradigms together and have it work smoothly. Other than that, 8.1 was remarkably good experience for me. It felt really snappy under the hood. Good OS brought down by hubris. Well, good for a Windows release, at least. Use Linux.

3.11 was pretty good. After that it's been a mixed bag. A bag of shit, but mixed.

The current situation we find ourselves in makes me think of this quote more than ever:

Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.

H.L. Mencken

Well, my opinion might not help you much, since I also love Transmetropolitan. But then, I also love Hunter S. Thompson's work.

Planetary is not much like Transmetropolitan, though. With Planetary, what I like the most is this sense of mystery. It's hard to describe. Planetary offers plenty of scenarios that open questions, only a few of which are ever answered, and that is kind of the point and appeal of it. It's also heavily intertextual, with a lot of references to other books, stories, comics and real events. It is, in fact, a study of the importance of stories in shaping our world, and our relationship with the stories we tell ourselves and each other. It's also a cool detective story with super heroes. It is many things. It is very sombre compared to the jocular Transmetropolitan.

So yeah, I love Planetary. I suggest maybe reading a few chapters to see if it grabs you. Can't hurt, can it?

I was thinking of the same book. It's certainly appropriate for younger readers and should hold their interest.

I'm currently reading Planetary Omnibus, one of my absolute favorite graphic novels ever, before starting The Dragon Reborn, the third book in The Wheel of Time series, by Robert Jordan.

The Wheel of Time is a bit curious to me. Even though the books are long, they feel a bit too dense, meaning it feels like there's constantly something happening with no breathers, and new characters and concepts are constantly being introduced. I'd love if Jordan took a bit more time to paint the picture, so to speak. No wonder I've forgotten almost all of it in a few decades. But despite all that, I've really liked reading the books so far. I might finish this series yet.

Is it though? Is it? Though?

For a slight change of pace, I'm reading Shou Arai's manga At 30, I Realized I Had No Gender before starting the second book of The Wheel of Time, The Great Hunt.

And nothing of value will be lost.

Jules Verne is good for a beginner, I think. Yes, the books are old, but they still stand up. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas is great.

For graphic novels, I feel like recommending Transmetropolitan and V for Vendetta. Both are dystopian sci-fi.

When I was a teenager, in the long-long-ago, I started reading the local translations of The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. I would sit at the kitchen table, drinking big cups of water and reading while everyone else had gone to bed already. Sometimes our cat would wander in to kitchen and I'd pet him. It is a fond memory. I think I eventually got almost half way through the series when I dropped it for what ever reason, I forget.

I recently bought the first three books and I'm reading through The Eye of the World, the first book in the series, in English. It felt like the right time to see if I'd still like the books. They are heavy tomes, so I can't guarantee I'll read all of it, but I'll give it a go.