What book(s) are you currently reading or listening to? October 06
Had a pretty busy week and didn't get to read anything.
What about all of you? What have you all been reading or listening to lately?
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69 replies
Almost finished Carl’s Doomsday Scenario by Matt Dinniman. I’m intentionally dragging out the last few chapters because it’s so good.
Also, still working my way through Want Submitted by Anonymous Edited by Gillian Anderson. Fantastic book!
I am currently obsessed with DCC as well. It is impossible to put it down!
I’m about to finish the book, actually I did just have the bonus material to reads
It’s so good! But I want to savor its deliciousness.
Ooohh what bonus material? Is this outside the books? Or do you mean the epilogue?
I've been out of work sick, so it has been difficult to contain myself and not read all day.
It’s outside of the Epilogue. The versions of the first 2 books I read have parts of a bonus story called “Backstage at the Pineapple Cabaret”.
I totally get you! If I was sick, I’d probably do the same lol
Oh cool! What version of the book do you have? I have to looks for those.
I picked it up at Barnes and Noble. ISBN is 978-0-593-82026-1
The story is Backstage at the Pineapple Cabaret, maybe it’s online somewhere too.
Thanks!
I'm partway through the mainstream published version of There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm. The original was one of my favorite reads from 2024 bingo, so this kinda-reread is really comfy. I can't say I've noticed any big changes, outside of removing all mentions of SCP and reordering some chapters, but I also don't usually remember stuff in detail, so it's hard to say. I did flip back and forth between the two versions briefly at the start, and the part I was reading had definitely been rewritten, but it seemed to be mostly superficial differences rather than content.
(If your interest has been piqued by seeing other people in here read it, the original is still available here for free; just read the qntm-authored stories in order, including all of Five Five Five Five Five.)
I read the first series from that on the wiki a while ago, and recently went back and read Five Five Five Five Five. I absolutely love the ideas behind antimemetics, this kind of eldritch horror and how to deal with it. I was slightly disappointed towards the end, ::: spoiler ending spoiler the SCP seems to be portrayed as existing in conceptual space, an antimeme that prevents information about it existing while somehow being a self-sustaining idea? It's referred to as a "meme complex" on the 3125 page. But at the end it's portrayed more like a god acting in mysterious way, talking to the protagonist, existing in a way where it can be harmed with a gun. Not killed, but actually permanently injured? :::
Still a great story either way, and a good read for free, I had no idea it was published independently, have look into it!
I headcannoned that
::: spoiler spoiler
humanity wasn't learning about it, they were creating it as an entity with their exhaustive research and memory enhancing drugs. It's the old "Don't think about the pink elephant" trick gone rouge because the habitual abuse of these memory enhancing drugs will create a concept so detailed that it takes on a life independent of your own, and in this case their imaginary worst case 'what if' is literally an idea that sprang to life and ate them like a manifest collective anxiety attack with real force behind it. Hitting it with a human memory glue bomb effectively crystalized it into being an entity in the past rather than an entity still moving through our present.
:::
Just finished the new edition, and had a flip through the original to compare that section.
::: spoiler spoiler Since 3125 is just a collection of ideas, it's possible that as it corrupted humanity, human ideas also became part of its memeplex, fundamentally altering it to include a sense of self-preservation and understanding of communication. (The rewrite goes into more detail about ideatic space and how everyone and everything exists in it as concepts, grouped together in various ways.) Alternatively, Red voluntarily embracing 3125 pre-"Ojai" could have been the only thing that instilled human-like qualities into it. Hard to say.
Regardless, Red certainly seemed like a unique part of 3125, especially since he's described as "the piece of SCP-3125 which was capable of communication", and killing him removed that part of 3125. Maybe joining voluntarily was the difference, or maybe he had some sort of antimemetic-blocking property like Adam did, idk. He also seemed to retain more autonomy than other corrupted humans, but maybe 3125's concepts just filtered through him into something that sounded human (holding a grudge against Marion for shooting him at the lake, talking about "Us" and "Them", etc). Either way, I don't think Adam killing Red harmed 3125, per se, just changed the composition of the memeplex slightly.
(Does any of that make sense? My brain hurts now.)
Also, the gun Adam shoots Red with is changed in the rewrite to be SCP-7381, the ray gun that deletes matter, if that helps. Can't shake off a bullet to the head if you no longer have a mind to conceptualize away the harm (or whatever was keeping him alive after the lake).
Edit: Maybe the unique quality Red brought was the idea of using communication to spread 3125; maybe 3125 included the concept of "communication", but not "communicate 3125 to other things". :::
Thanks for sharing the OG version, that's really cool. Looking forward to reading it based on all the recommendations here!
I strongly suggest the other books by him, especially Ra is quite a trip (in a good way), very weird but enjoyable :)
Thanks, already on my list! :)
I'm slowly getting through Anna Karenina by Tolstoy, having taken a short break to read something else for my book club last week. I'm really enjoying it but the pacing can be slow at points and it requires a certain level of concentration. I think it's one of those books where, once I'm finished, it'll leave a bit of a gap in my life!
Snow crash
First time? Enjoy!
I haven't started them, and it might be a while before I do so, but I did just get used copies of Donald Knuth's books on TeX and typesetting.
Knuth is an elderly computer science better known for his more-general algorithms work, but I've been interested in pen plotting recently. Most modern font formats define areas to fill in, whuch doesn't map well to plotting. I recently discovered that MetaFont, TeX's native font format, is based on pen strokes and defining a variable width on those strokes, which is more similar to pen plotting.
Kinda dry and older books, but I've been pretty fascinated by some of the pen plotter art on Reddit, and have been looking into what the current limitations are.
Currently mostly focusing on The First Socialist Schism by Wolfgang Eckhardt and although I'm still not quite halfway through I would highly recommend it. It's a primarily sourced based book about the ideological differences and figures that led to the breakup of the First International as well as the development of ideology's like Marxism, Anarchism and Social Democracy emerging form it.
I am reading how to ADHD by Jessica McCabe. Very insightful for me. Not all struggles I can relate to: I sleep like a baby, but most hit quite painfully home.
And still reading Path of Daggers by Robert Jordan. The aim is to finish this book before the end of the year. Problem is also that there are so much other books I want/have to read for my studies. It's a good problem to have. Read on!
I finished Limitarianism by Ingrid Robeyns, which was a nice encapsulation of some ideas on how to make things more equal for all of us. Unfortunately unlikely to be implemented, but great thought experiments. Also continuing my Culture re-read. Look to Windward this week, and wow what a ride this one is. Loved it.
I've been reading Ordinary Saints by Niamh Ní Mhaoileoin.
It's about a young woman who's lesbian who grew up in a very Catholic family and moves away to England to run from it all. It's a story about revisiting her past and facing her family.
There are a lot of Irish sayings and Catholic references, but the author works it in to the book really well so you don't have to stop the flow of reading to research any given topic to understand the context.
The most trouble I had was pronouncing some of the Irish names. Had my +1 to help me with that one, but that's me wanting to learning what they sound like. It doesn't take away from the book if you "pronounce" them in English.
Fantastic book. Would recommend.
The Complete Chronicles of Conan. I am re-reading it actually.
I highly recommend it
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/828878.The_Complete_Chronicles_of_Conan
I have been meaning to start Conan for a long time, but never see it on any bookstore, and never bothered to look it up online and order. Should do something about it.
I haven't read any of the Conan stories by other authors so I can't say if they are any good. The Robert E. Howard stories are fantastic, though.
Yeah, that's what I mainly care about. The original stories. Will check them out, thanks!
Currently reading The Godfather's Revenge by Mark Winegardner
I read the first book when I was a teen and finally got my hands on the second one last week. Think I read the first one like 5 times at least lmao.
This one is proving to be quite good as well, really sucks you in that world and I think it does the Mario Puzo novel justice, definitely would recommend it to anyone who loves The Godfather book/movies.
I am about half way through book 10 of He Who Fights With Monsters, still can't stop listening to it!
I had a brief beak from it with "Radical Remission - Surviving Cancer Through All Odds" which was an interesting read to prepare me for what is going to come in the future.
Didn't book 13 drop a day ago or something?
Yup, was released yesterday I believe.
Are you alright? 🥺
Thanks for asking. My wife beat cancer 15 years ago before we met but we have just found out the same cancer is back. I have no experience of anything like this so it is going to be a learning experience for me that I'd rather not have but there we go :)
Very sorry to hear about it. My wishes and prayers with you both. Hope she gets well soon.
Thanks. Unfortunately it is incurable so she will never be "well" again, hopefully she can just fight it as best as possible and we can get a long life for her regardless :)
I won't give up that hope!
Good luck for the fight and a long life!
Oh my, I'm sorry to hear that :(, fuck cancer! Sounds like you're quite the partner for her, I wish you and her well. May she punch it back into remission, thanks for sharing your stuff with this internet stranger, I hope you know you and her aren't alone in this. ❤️🫂💪
Fiction: Nova by Samuel R Delaney
Non: Lies my teacher told me, forget the author but it’s great
Recently finished: dungeon crawler carl series
I just finished Moss'd In Space by Rebecca Thorne. Picked because it had a happy cover and the ebook was available immediately while I waited for another TBR book to be available from my library.
The lightness of the cover carries through the book. There's dangerous space travel, smugglers, conflicts between alien species, but overall the challenges never seem insurmountable (at least not for more than a couple sentences). It's light without being pure bubblegum. Even the romance part is light with more of the focus on familial relationship and friendships. Sequel slated for next summer and I have added it to my TBR.
Endless Blue Beneath - Shannon K. English
It was not good, unfortunately. Some cool mermaid vibes, but holy hell that ending. Imagine someone committing genocide telling someone who hadn't done anything wrong to 'be better.' Not to mention, it's mostly just miserable the entire time, the main character is insufferable and repeats her thoughts about her brother all the time, and then the love interest was a choice. For what little time was dedicated to her in the first place.
Not sure what I'll read next.
Almost done with Hollywood, Ending by John Green
Not what I'd normally read, but i liked Greens writing in The Anthropocene Reviewed and wanted to give his fiction a shot. I am enjoying the book, which is mainly about two young Actors who meet during shooting a Movie about Andy Warhol, which puts them in the spotlight of media outlets and lands them their next role in a major Blockbuster Movie.
Both of them had traumatizing things happening to them in their childhood, which now comes into focus during the presstour for the Warhol Movie.
I'd guess the book is mainly about how past trauma still influences those who endured it and a bit about the conflict between industrialized entertainment and the work of creating art itself and the effects that industry has on the artists.
overall: good book, glad i left my fantasy comfort zone for a bit.
Upgrade by Blake Crouch It’s a nice tight fast paced book. It suffers from the same problem all books about super intelligence have in that the main character just doesn’t feel all that smarter then everyone one else. But you can’t blame Crouch it’s really hard to write someone who’s mind is beyond our own. Martha Wells does a good job of it with Perihelion in Murderbot but their not the MC and we don’t spend time in their head.
Finished Lost Worlds by Patrick Wyman, its a history of how civilizations or the starts of them formed using what we know from the archeological records and newer DNA evidence. I enjoyed it as it was easily understandable and his story telling is pretty good. 8/10 overall i think.
Still working my way through the first He who fights with Monsters book. Its a litrpg like DCC took a bit but I am slowly becomming invested, I think. There are a lot of these and they all seem pretty long 600+ pages usually. Might slowly get through these and do something different in between. Guess I will know when I finally finish the first one, if I want to dive right back in.
Spent way too much time looking up the title "Finished Lost Worlds", because it seemed like a reasonable name for the description you gave 😅. This sounds right up there with The Dawn of Everything, thanks for sharing!
I am reading Accelerando by Charles Stross. It is simultaneously very cool and very boring. It reminds me a lot of Stephen Baxter and Greg Egan.
Here Goes Nothing by Steve Toltz for my boom club. Its ok so far, not a big fan of the protagonist.
I’m halfway through Star Wars The Ambush at Corellia, its book 1 of the Corellia trilogy and centers around Hans home planet, which hasn’t been talked about much chronologically yet, like at all in legends.
After this, it’s Operation Bounce House by Matt Dinniman, my brother grabbed it after hearing about me reading Dungeon Crawler Carl. So we swapped books on the weekend, my 8 DCC for the one book. I have borrowed close to 70 of his Star Wars books by now though.
I rolled over a goal a couple weeks ago too, 53 books read for the year. I thought I was going slower than one a week, but I guess not. I did crush almost a dozen in January though.
That's awesome, grats on the goal!
Thanks! It wasn’t a goal I was gonna stress myself with if I wasn’t going to make it, but it does feel good to read “a book a week”.
More than a handful of them were around 800 pages, those feel like they should be multiple books. But same time I also read a lot of anthologies, those are “one book” and not multiple stories or even novellas depending on their size.
I’m gonna read Murderbot next, and I got paired volumes for the novellas, so I’m debating if I treat those as one themselves or track the individual original novellas.
Oh wow, you went hard. I got through around 50 last year (which was way more than I'd planned, and not something I intend to try again), but only a few were over 400 pages, with maybe a dozen novellas.
Anything in the super-long range you read that you'd recommend? I'm always hesitant to pick up anything with a high page count b/c they often seem like they're long just to be long, and slow pacing and me don't mix.
DCC I just finished, earlier this year I read Ken lius translation of Cixin Lius Three Body problem, one of the books was up there. Silo was also good, the first book is a collection of short stories, and the other 2 books are decently long.
The Captive War series book 2 by James S.A Corey came out, it’s gonna be trilogy, so may want to wait if you like only going into done series.
Other than that, it’s just random Star Wars books that crest just over 5-600. And previously read the last couple years would be Dune, and some anthologies. I’m not a fan of the super long book myself.
All these books are ones I alternate between reading all of Star Wars Legends chronologically.
Congratulations on the reading goal, that's mighty impressive! 💪🥳
Thanks! My optometrist gave me shit at the start of the year for reading “too much”, so now I’ve got some reading glasses and I’m supposed to be following the “20/20/20” rule.
Read for 20 minutes, than stare at something 20 feet away from 20 seconds to rest they eyes.
Those Silo novels were fantastic though >.>
Haha, the joys of getting older. Ohh glad to hear about the Silo series, on my tbr :3.
Just got the new Peter Straub/Stephen King novel yesterday. Very excited about it but waiting for the weekend to begin.
Keep us posted please!
Volume 3 of "the wandering inn". I still like it, though I'm not as invested in some newly introduced characters.
Canyon Fires by Wes Boyd.
Just finished The Inspector Bordelli series by Marco Vichi.
Really enjoyed it.
There are 6 books in the series that are translated to English but apparently there are more in the series that haven’t been translated.
But don’t be put off. The 6th book really feels like a proper and satisfying ending to the series.
It’s set in 1960’s Florence. It’s heavily character driven with multiple characters appearing throughout the series. But that isn’t to say the plots are weak - they’re not.
The first book (Death in August) is a basic whodunit, but introduces you to characters the you’ll experience and see grow through the series.
Thoroughly enjoyable.
Going to check it out, thanks for the recommendation.
S.A.T.A.N. vs C.H.R.I.S.T.: the War for the Human Mind
Just about to finish Master and Commander. 19 more books in the series to go!
Burned through two slim paperbacks last weekend: A Little Lumpen Novelita by Roberto Bolaño and The Tunnel by Ernesto Sabato. On my e-reader (which I use mostly for older classics), I just finished The Fortune of the Rougons, the first of Émile Zola's Rougon-Macquart cycle, and am partway through the introduction for The Kill, the second.
My slower, long-term reads currently include re-reading Moby Dick, which I feel I didn't absorb too well on the first read (a quarter of a century, ago as a middle-schooler), a huge collection of short stories by Anton Chekhov, another huge collection of short stories by Guy de Maupassant, and Proust's masterpiece, In Search of Lost Time (two volumes down).
Busy week too. Read two chapters of Watership Down...that's it. Work sucks.
How are you liking this? I got it a little while back when I was looking for interesting novels where characters are animals. Haven't gotten around to reading it yet though.
So far, it is very interesting but because of work, I haven't been able to read much more since my comment. That said, the language is very much so geared for a younger audience, and I'm also not sure how receptive I am to cute bunnies suffering.
Oh, I am fine with books for younger audiences, but suffering cute bunnies might be difficult to digest. Thanks for the heads up, looking forward to your review as you progress further in the book.
I try to squeeze some reading in breaks. When I get home I am just tired, I probably should read more though.
Finshed reading:
Currently reading: