What book(s) are you currently reading or listening to? August 05
Had a pretty busy work week, hardly got time to read anything. So still on The Sunlit Man by Brandon Sanderson.
What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening to lately?
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Fahrenheit 451 :3.. there was a sale on books at my grocery store yesterday, and that one seemed to be topical to current events
Get it before it’s gone!
Have you read any of the other dystopian classics, like 1984 & Brave New World?
I've read a decent chunk of them :3.. don't think I did brave new world tho
What a good idea, a classic I never read yet. Will get it next.
The Kaiju Preservation Society. Really light, fun read.
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780765389138/thekaijupreservationsociety/
I am incredibly jealous you are reading this for the first time. It was my first Scalzi read and I loved it.
Scalzi was hired to reboot a classic sci-fi series. His book was "Fuzzy Nation", but the OG book "Little Fuzzy" should be read by everyone!
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/18137
I’ve read Fuzzy Nation and it was great too. I’ve enjoyed all of Scalzi’s books. I have a copy of The Complete Fuzzy by H. Beam Piper that I found at a thrift store after I read Fuzzy Nation. I haven’t read it yet, but it is on the ever expanding TBR
Little Fuzzy is totally worth it and you can probably blow through it in 2 hours.
Free and easy! Thank you! So begins my evening.
Same here, have Old Man's War lined up next.
"The Andromeda Strain" on my phone to pass time and "The Bear and the Dragon" on my Kobo.
Is it weird to read two books at the same time lol?
Loooooove The Andromeda Strain!
Such a great book, both the story and the fragmentary structure of it. Got a paper copy somewhere, must read that again soon.
EDIT - found it 😁
It depends on the setting your are listening to and reading the books. I listen to audio books on my daily commute.
So if you are listening to one book for the soul sucking drive and another to relax at the end of the day..
That's kind of what I'm doing now that you made me think about it. One book is usually a light read that is easy to hop in and out of and the other is usually more intensive. The light reads are for killing time and the heavier ones I read before bed.
Just two? Those are rookie numbers.
theorychapter above is also binge reading Crichton. It's weird, sometimes you don't hear a name for quite a while and then suddenly multiple people are reading them. 😀
The Andromeda Strain was my first Crichton book, loved it.
Radical: The Science, Culture, and History of Breast Cancer in America.
My best friend was recently diagnosed with breast cancer (very treatable and likely curable), and we both have the type of personality where it helps to deep dive/learn a lot about scary stuff. I picked out a few books for us to nerd out together on, and this is the first one. It’s super good so far, as frustrating as some of the aspects of the US healthcare system are.
Good luck to your friend, hope things work out well 🤞
All the best to you and your friend.
Hope she gets well soon!
I haven't posted in some time and while I did read some books in the interim, right now I'm back to reading The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan. I'm now on the seventh book, A Crown of Swords. People say this is where the series becomes a "slog" for some books. We'll see. I was already frustrated with the last book, since Jordan seems to be a bit too enamored with his own writing and progress is glacial.
Yeah, books 7-10 can be a bit of a slog, haven't read them in quite a while though.
Still on "Rama II", it's also been busy. Not much progress since last week.
I know the feeling. Have been on same book for last 2-3 weeks, and it's a Sanderson book which I generally glide through.
Currently I'm on holiday, and I haven't read a word in the last week.
Same, except an important deadline at work.
44% through War and Peace...stuck in the wolf hunt, going very slowly...
Just got James by Percival Everett. Been looking forward to it for a while, plan to start reading it this weekend.
I did the audiobook and really enjoyed it
this will be my next fiction read, but I don't know if I'll enjoy it because I never read Huck Finn.
Why did I have to see this post now?
Three books:
Righteous Victims by Benny Morris, the detestable Zionist who laughs about starving children. It’s very weird reading about Israel’s historical atrocities throughout this book given the author’s recent behavior.
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. About a quarter of the way in, and this book is strange. It has not proven its legacy to me yet, despite the descriptive writing and impressively gritty plot.
Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein. Some of these poems make me cry. That is remarkable.
Just wrapped up Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson. The book is better than the movie, and I enjoyed the commentary.
Try looking again in umm... 48 hours or so...
Fought my way through to the end of If on a Winter's Night a Traveller yesterday - it's a remarkable book, but I'm not sure if I actually enjoyed it exactly. Appreciated it as a challenging piece of post-modern fiction, sure... enjoyed... Kind of.
Have now moved on to my second attempt at reading The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy (first published 1759).
First attempt was years ago, and I do think I'm getting more out of it now than I did then. It's quite challenging, with the old-fashioned language, and the many endnotes which I find useful in understanding but also distracting in maintaining a reading flow, but it's funny and I think I'm getting the overall gist. We'll see if I stick with it though!
I'm stalled in the middle of like 6 different books and I'm not feeling any of them at the moment.
I just DNFed Assassin of Reality as the second in the Vita Nostra series (I really liked the first book, but...), so I ended up rereading The Scholomance series by Naomi Novik instead.
I started the Four Quarters series by Tanya Huff last night, and I just aggressively don't care about any of the characters. I don't know what I'm looking for in books right now, and I'm getting a little cranky about it.
That's the worst feeling, but if you drop something that's meh, then there's all the more room for something awesome. Good hunting!
Oh no, that's the worst. Sometimes I can snap out of it with something that's fast-paced or complete fluff, but other times it's nails on a chalkboard for like a week. I hope you find something compelling soon!
Yeah, Vita Nostra's really cool so far (I'm at ~80% atm), but having read blurbs/reviews for the sequels, I think I'm done after the first one.
I started listening to Stephen King’s IT.
I have read and listened a number of his books, but never IT. I am only three chapters into to it and so far It is King at the top of his game.
There is something... cozy?... about reading IT. Not because there is anything cozy about the story, but there is something about his stream-of-consciousness writing style and approach to horror that satisfies, but only if you're into that style of narration, and it's one of those books you have to be content to hang out with, cause you're gonna spend a long time with it.
Absolutely. When it was published King was the reigning king oh horror
I just finished Eye of the World by Robert Jordan about two weeks back.
Been slowly working my way through Great Hunt (next in the Wheel of Time) but haven’t been able to dedicate as much time to it recently.
It’s good so far. It’s definitely hooked me more than the first book.
The Conquest of Mexico & The Conquest of Peru by William H. Prescott. I am only 200 pages in so I have a lot more to go but its good so far. For someone from the 1840s he does a remarkably good job at countering colonial propaganda and supremacist thought. There is still some of course but better than I expected
Reading the “Ender’s Shadow” series after finishing Ender’s Game.
Card is… something else. I’m on Shadow Puppets now, and while the previous books were good, his Mormonism is seriously showing in this one, with Petra being all baby crazy despite the fact they’re literally young teenagers.
It was weird to me finding out about Card’s anti-gay and Mormon views considering there were some rather homoerotic undertones to portions of Ender’s Game (or maybe I’m reading too much into it). Plus all the IVF and genetic manipulation stuff in the Shadow series. Though admittedly, the later Ender books (Children of the Mind, Xenocide) are utterly batshit, like he was having a mental wank.
I grew up in a boarding school and Ender’s Game really resonated with me when I was younger. Shame the author is an asshole. “Never meet your heroes” and all that.
Yeah, I can't read Card's stuff anymore. The 3rd and 4th Game books got real weird, and I only finished them because I didn't have much else to read. The first Shadow book about Bean was pretty decent, but it was mostly a retelling of Game from another perspective instead of a new story.
The Shadow series covers what happens on Earth after the events at battle school as all kinds of conflict breaks out globally, but it mostly centers on Bean , Petra, and Achilles, along with Peter Wiggin taking on a leadership role.
But a lot of it is just weird, and much like how the later Ender books go batshit, the later Shadow books involve Bean’s gigantism and sending his descendants into space.
Just finished Sphere by Michael Crichton this morning on my commute. And started State of Fear by Michael Crichton on my evening commute 😅. Kinda binging through his books currently and saving Jurassic park for last.
I remember his writing style was exciting. It's been so long since I read any of it, but I recall his books being pretty binge-able.
I'm still reading Controversies in Queer Theology by Susannah Cornwall. It's been a great read so far, and I'm currently reading a section about queer art in Christianity where she talks about the Ecce Homo art series of Elisabeth Ohlson, which contains such images as this:
::: spoiler spoiler
Nattvarden
:::
I finished two short novels and I did not like both: Everyday Is For The Thief by Teju Cole and You Dreamed Of Empires by Alvaro Enrigue.
So it's back to non-fiction and my next book will be Empire of A.I. by Karen Hao.
The Southern Reach series and a bit of Clarice Lispector and Lydia Davis short stories added in for the psychedelic spice.
edit it is WAY easier to read these comments if you bold book, author, and series names!
Reminder surround text with one pair of asterisks to make italic text and two pairs of asterisks to make bold text.
I second highlighting the book, author, and series. I like to hyperlink to OpenLibrary myself.
Gideon The Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Not usually my type of book but every time I try and get a few pages in, I enjoy what I read.
I really like the way she sets scenes and moves you through them. Her use of language is really fun and has top notch analogies.
Still on book 1 of the Farseer series and still really liking it. She creates a warm and comfortable world that I enjoy being in.
I adore the whole world, and especially the Fool. Have fun!!
I just finished Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett. I really enjoyed it, and felt like it's a big improvement over the last few books in the chronological order of the series. Deals with problematic benevolence and imposing one's will on others, and really cemented the personalities of the Discworld's three primary witch characters Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, and Magrat Garlick. Laughed a little too hard at Magrat reading martial arts books about the Way of the Scorpion by Grand Master Lapsong Dibbler of Ankh-Morpork.
I also recently read The Last Unicorn, by Peter S Beagle, which I have mixed feelings about. Not unlike Witches Abroad, it deals with the concept of how people interact with the stories we well, and the written language is poetic and really lovely, but there is a discordant note about how people just kind of... become whatever a story demands of them. People gain maturity or magic powers when they fill the role that requires it in a story, and bad stuff happens with people resist stories. It means the only entity in this book with any real self-determination, or whose actions may actual matter, is the unicorn, who kinda doesn't usually do much anyway and is not affected by stories and roles like mortals are. I don't know, I appreciated the book and really enjoyed reading it, but something about the orderliness-of-existence that rubbed me personally the wrong way, though I felt touched by the characters' pathos.
I also read The Kite Runner, by Khaled Housseini, which gave us an incredible, painterly portrait of the intimate relationship between two children, and went on to give us a window into the Afghan expat community in America, but I felt like the strength of the story was in the childhood relationship, and the book tried to stretch that story into a three-act story involving world politics that I don't think worked. I like the overall feel of the book, but at times it felt like plot points were glued together in a way that didn't feel genuine.
Finally I also read Love, Death, and Robots, the anthology of short stories used for the Netflix animation feature. I felt like it was a good introductory collection of science fiction short stories for people who might not be used to reading them; a good gateway from adaptation to source material. I didn't care for all of them, and I liked most of them. I really loved:
I have The Kite Runner for quite a while, just haven't gotten around to reading it.
Didn't know Love, Death and Robots was based on short stories. Will take a look.
I’ve finally gotten around to The Expanse series and I’m about a third of the way into Cibola Burn, the 3rd book.
I really enjoyed the first two and I’m liking this one but it’s starting a bit slower then the other and I find the tension ratcheting up different not worse but different.
The hive mind generally says Corolla Burn is the slowest, so if you’re enjoying it you’ll likely enjoy those that come after.
Those books could have benefited from a more scrupulous editor, but are good nonetheless!
Yeah but I find most authors 4th or so books start need better editorship. I think it's more of an industry / ego problem. Once an author get to a certain level of notoriety they get editors who don't feel comfortable tell them to tighten up their work. A lot of authors figure it out around the 5th to 7th book though so sometime I just slog through I guess.
Heh, that's an interesting perspective.
I know they're a popular series, so I read the first one but I felt pretty let down by it, kinda tropey and felt like reading a screenplay. How do the later books compare to the first one?
Honestly, if you’re not in to the ‘cinematic’ writing style that the writers use that doesn’t change.
I personally like the imagery. I can see the Rosi and most of the people in it, in my head. They remind me of JK Rowling in that way., but your mileage way vary.
The second book is very much a redo of the first but better. Less tropey and the women are much better written. Chrisjen is such a great character.
The plots get changed up in three and four which is good so you might like them more but I can understand it’s no for everyone.
Currently reading (on different devices):
In a dramatic departure from usual scheduling I have only listened to one Deathlands book, number 101.
Other than that I have listened to "The Eyre Affair" and I am halfway through "Lost in a Good Book" these are the first two books of the "Thursday Next" series of books by Jasper Fforde.
Thursday Next: "Set in the Nextian Universe, where the ChronoGuard monitors the time stream, the Crimean War never ended and literature and croquet are national obsessions, the series follows the adventures of Thursday Next, Literary Detective and Jurisfiction agent. "
The Eyre Affair: "Acheron Hades, Third Most Wanted Man in the World, steals the original manuscript of Mr Chuzzlewit and kills a minor character, causing him to disappear from the pages of every copy in existence. But this was just a warning, his real target is Jane Eyre, who is kidnapped from the pages of literature. With the help of her uncle Mycroft, a genius inventor, Thursday enters the pages of Jane Eyre, teaming up with Rochester to foil Hades and rescue his beloved Jane."
lost in a Good Book: "Thursday's husband Landen has been eradicated by the Goliath Corporation. They'll bring him back, but only if Thursday releases their top agent whom she trapped in the pages of The Raven. Unfortunately, the works of Poe are restricted, so newly minted Jurisfiction agent Thursday Next will need some help in the form of her new mentor, Miss Havisham."
The entire universe is an absurd alternate history with ridiculous shit happening constantly and I'm loving it!
I won't stand this! You need to catchup! Won't hear any excuses next week!
How are you liking the Thursday Next series, heard kinda mixed stuff about it.
I know, for shame!
I am enjoying the Thursday Next books so far, I like how odd they are but I'm definitely not as drawn to them as I am some other stuff where I can't wait to get into the next book of the series. I'm not going to drop the series yet as I am still enjoying it but this week I have gone back to deathlands again after that Thursday next respite xD
Deathlands FTW!
Picked up:
Being Human: How Our Biology Shaped World History
while traveling recently. Haven't gotten far yet but it seems like a good, fun science based read.
I went on a reading blitz in 2023 but haven't done much since then, which kind of sucks.
I did Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy, loved it. Becky Chambers? Read everything she wrote. Love.
Some other things in there that were kind of dumb but enjoyable (Rysa Aoki's Light From Distant Stars) or just shallow (Legends & Lattes) or forgettable (Alice Oseman's Loveless) but I have tried several others and it isn't sticking.
Too bad; I really do enjoy reading but nothing's really taking hold.
I really liked Broken Earth too, and I have Becky Chambers on the TBR.
You could try sci-fi magazines or short-story collections (like The New Yorker's Century Of Fiction which is over 1000 pages!) to find new authors you like and check out their work. Or you could double-down on Jemisin's other books.
"The Giza Power Plant" by Chris Dunn, nonfiction.
As a mechanical engineer it was absolutely fascinating and should be a must read for technical people.
Now starting the follow-up "Lost Technologies of Ancient Egypt" by the same author.
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
Great space fiction, if you liked the Martian you'll dig this.
Loved the book. Looking forward to whatever he writes next!
Me too. I am now pretty excited for the movie.
They are making a movie? I didn't even know that!
Yep, Ryan Gosling is the star. The first teaser is on YouTube.
Just watched the trailer. Not sure how I feel about it.
I’m currently reading Who’s Dead, Doc? by J. M. Griffin It’s the second book in a trilogy.
It’s a cozy murder mystery about a woman named Jules who runs a rabbit rescue. In the stories, she and her telepathic bunny named Bun solve murders that happen in her small rural town in New Hampshire. I absolutely love it 💚
You had me at telepathic bunny!
I'm on Shakespeare for Squirrels by Christopher Moore. I recently worked through Lamb, A Dirty Job, and Secondhand Souls by him during a couple of long road trips.
I picked up reading You by Caroline Kepnes assuming I might be able to get back into print reading with material that I'm vaguely familiar with ( I watched a season of the show years ago), but I've stalled with it the same as I have every time when attempting reading over listening in recent years.
I recently read his Practical Demonkeeping but didn't like it too much. I had heard about him quite a bit, and there was a sale so got 4-5 of his books but not sure I want to continue.
About start Horns by Joe Hill.
I just finished The Courage to Be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga. It introduces the reader to the philosophical and psychological concepts developed and popularized by Alfred Adler. I thoroughly enjoyed it and found it to be possibly transformative for my own life and outlook.
Starsight from brandon sanderson and dune messiah
I just recently read Dune Messiah myself, it felt like a great and sudden left-turn from Dune.
Currently on book 3 of the Abhorsen saga (which actually goes by the name 'Abhorsen' after Sabriel (book 1) and Lirael (book 2).
How are you finding it? I really enjoyed that series and the nature of magic in that world.
Really good so far, else I'd never made it to book 3. I tend to drop books nowadays if I don't really get into them right away.
The LOTR series read by Andy Serkis. Beautiful Narrator. I started with the Silmarilion and am now almost finished with The Hobbit.
I have started and stopped Silmarilion multiple times. How did you find the experience of listening to it?
Serkis is a gem, I could listen to him read anything. The story was OK, seemed like a high level history of the realm from creation to after the LOTR books. I wish there was more on the origin of Sauron, it seems like he just kinda shows up one day.
I just finished the hobbit and recognized a few connections but I’ll probably have to read the Silmarilion again once I finish LOTR to piece more of it together.
Reading Vita Nostra by Marina & Sergey Dyachenko, along with Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz when I need a break from Vita Nostra's slow pacing.
__
Finished:
No One Will Come Back for Us by Premee Mohamed (fantasy and cosmic-y horror short stories) | bingo: minority author, alliterative, short HM
I don't really have a description for this one. A few of the stories have a shared setting; a few others have a war/revolution theme.
None of the stories in this were bad, they just didn't all appeal to me; the shared-setting ones were coincidentally my favorite. I've realized that part of my issue with collections/anthologies is that I'm stuck diving in blind for every single story, hoping that the author/theme is enough to carry my interest.
About half way through Player of Games by Iain M. Banks.
Decided to re-read the entire series. Read it years ago and it’s as good the second time round.
Currently reading:
Richard Schwartz - No Bad Parts. It's an introduction to Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy.
Michael Cisco - Antisocieties. A short stories collection about loneliness and isolation, definitely in the weird literature area, gives Ligotti vibes.
I use my commute to alternate between audiobooks and podcasts. Just finished Death of Dulgath by Michael J. Sullivan. Catching back up on podcasts and then I'll jump into book 4 - The Disappearance of Winter's Daughter.
Today I've started ´The Voice of the Silence´ by Helena Blavatsky. It is a book that gives me good vibes, peace and calm. I've read about a 33% of it.
Cool. What is it about?
The author discusses spiritual transcendence and describes the steps needed to achieve a higher state of the self in order to reach Nirvana. One of these steps, for example, is mentally detaching from pleasure and pain.
That spiritual philosophy is a combination of Eastern religions like Buddhism or Hinduism and some Western elements similar to Gnostic Christianity. It’s called Theosophy.
Ah, interesting!
The Boomer Bible, as a pdf.
Just finished Adrian Tchaikovsky's "Service Model" after really enjoying "Children of Time." Fun, as this was a rare book that I and my sweetheart read at the same time, so we had fun talking about it. Not mind blowing, but very fun and with a loveable main character.
I am really struggling to read Umberto Eco's "Name of the Rose." If anyone can give me a pep talk I'd actually appreciate it, but the incredibly long introduction set me back. I'm starting to pick up some Holmes/Watson vibes which I am tentatively enjoying, but motivation is low...
Which is why I am here looking for a new book!
Black AF History
The Siege of Vraks, by Steve Lyons
Parable of the Sower, Octavia E. Butler.
It started a bit slow, but it's really picking up.
Clockwork angels! Got the whole trilogy now so im re reading the first one to kick it off.
Also ray kurzweils ai book. Very good.
I'm also reading Clockwork angel, twinsies 🙌
Im excited to read the 2nd and 3rd. Been listening to the album a ton while reading of course !
After Infernal devices there is the Last hours series (sequel to Infernal devices)
I just (30' ago) finished Le tueur intime, by Claire Favan. Since I'm French native speaker (Belgian), read it in French although I mostly read in English (but when the author is French, better to read the original version). My opinion is mixed, on the story itself, I never considered giving up, I wanted to learn what happens next so a good page turner. I, however, had more difficulties with the writing style which I do not enjoyed that much. I also found that there was a bit too much repeated details on the crimes. After finishing it, I thought that the hero found too easily the solution and that some stuff were poorly studied by the author and thus there was a lack of realism.
What's next, I don't know, maybe I will (as often) find it in this community ;)
Hee hee, 'listening to books'