What book(s) are you currently reading? 27 July
What book(s) are you currently reading? 27 July
Hello Everyone!
What are you all reading?
I am currently going through a re-read of Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. Currently on 2nd book, Fool Moon.
101 comments
-
Just read an erotic romance, Heart of the Mountain by Snek Guy. It is about a mercenary going up a mountain to slay a dragon and take her hoard of gold. Things don't go quite as he planned. It was well written, but a bit too much smut for my taste. I wrote a bit more here.
Just started the My Best Friend is an Eldritch Horror series.
-
Is "My Best Friend is an Eldritch Horror" available as a web novel somewhere?
-
It was originally published on Royal Road, but has since been moved to Amazon.
-
-
-
I've read maybe 3 books all the way through in my entire life. My girlfriend has been trying to get me to read before bed and on the recommendation of some discord friends I purchased Infinite Jest and am a quarter of the way through it. It's been a jarring book with the tonal shifts and the way it rapid fires between characters and settings, but I've absolutely loved some of the perspectives and dialog that DFW creates. If anyone else is a fan, I'd love more recommendations in the same vein, specifically the type of warped humor and how it stems from the human condition.
-
I haven't read Infinite Jest, so can't recommend anything like that, but keep visiting these posts, I am sure you'll be able to find something you like.
Or you can create a separate post, asking for recommendations, it should get you more visibility.
-
-
I just finished Project Hail Mary. A wonderful and fun read. Highly recommend if you like science fiction.
-
I just started City of Refuge by Tom Piazza. It's a fictional account of two families in New Orleans during hurricane Katrina. I'm only 12% in but so far I'm impressed by how real I feel like the pov characters are.
Also reading Lichtenbergianism by Dale Lyles. It's about using procrastination as a creative strategy. 30% in, and juries out on whether I'll find anything helpful in it.
-
procrastination as a creative strategy
I want this. I like procrastinating! Share your opinions about finishing it.
City of Refuge looks like an interesting book. Going to check it out.
-
I got more inspiration from the Lichtenbergian book than new information. Among other things, it made me start a kanban for my personal projects and now I have less anxiety over how much I need to do and in what order. If you'd like, I'm happy to mail you my copy, since I'm unlikely to read it again.
-
-
-
House of Leaves. It's sick. Anyone got other books that go off the rails like that?
-
I'm pretty capable of setting down a book for extended periods of time and remembering everything when I pick it back up, and have a habit of hopping between books; so the list that I'm "currently" reading is... large. That said, focusing on the most active ones:
I'm just gonna say Discworld, for reasons elsewhere expounded upon. Mostly working through the City Watch stuff at the moment, Jingo should be on my doorstep in the next couple days. Knocked out Mort while I was waiting for it, might do Reaper Man too if it takes much longer.
I'm also thumbing my way through The Selfish Gene; I've always been fascinated by the concept of memetics, and that's its birthplace (while also being a pretty potent contextualization of evolutionary biology). Probably gonna pick up Extended Phenotype when I'm done.
Then there's Tristram Shandy, which I've had for a while but only recently had a chance to start properly. It's fun so far, takes a minute to get used to the writing style which is simultaneously archaic by modern standards and progressive for the time. I think "hobby-horsical" is gonna find a permanent home in my vocabulary.
Got about halfway through Gravity's Rainbow on a cruise a few years back, I might pick that back up soon actually now that I think of it. That one's pretty dense though, I might need to go back and skim what I read already to remember the character names.
Technically I'm listening to this one because he did read-throughs of a bunch of his books during COVID and I like the extra context he added, but Lon Milo DuQuette's 'Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot'. If you're into that sorta thing, I highly recommend DuQuette's work, he's both very knowledgeable and very accommodating to the casual reader.
There are a few other books living on my coffee table, but those are the most active right now.
-
Wow, that's lots of books. I am terrible at multi-tasking, and if I start more than one book, I have trouble ending either of them.
Tristam Randy, is that Tristam Shandy? "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman" or am I confusing it with something else?
I am thinking about doing these threads every week, or bi-weekly at most, so just sharing your active books is good enough. You can share the rest in next post.
-
Tristam Randy, is that Tristam Shandy?
Good catch, autocorrect. It's an interesting one.
-
-
-
I'm currently reading the new Michael Moorcock, Woods of Arkady, with new Justin Cronin novel The Ferryman on deck.
-
I feel I have heard of "The Ferryman" before, but this book has just released, so maybe it was in some other context.
Michael Moorcock seems to be a very prolific writer, but never heard of him for some reason. How are you liking the series?
-
-
Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents. It's really good.
-
How is it, if read as a parenting-guide?
-
I think it could be extremely helpful in learning how to be mindful of your child’s emotions
-
-
-
Metro 2033
-
Great book. I’ve started to read it after finishing the PC game:)
-
-
Trying to read Into Thin Air, but I am getting bored by the background stories.
-
I was thinking about reading it some day. What are the background stories about? And are there too many of them?
-
Stories about Everest itself, the first hikers, the first summit, a few background paragraphs about the hikers/acquaintances, what they do, what are their achievements, Krakauer's magazine backstory and such, I left it on Chapter 5 few days ago and I think we are barely arriving to Base Camp.
It's not bad per se, I mean it works as an introductory bit, but I was kind of expecting the book to start at Base Camp. If I am guessing right, the climb will start on Chapter 6 (which is a a quarter of the book according to KOreader), will still try to keep on reading it.
-
-
-
Ward by wildbow. Not technically a book but it's wonderful if you are into that genre and honestly probably still good if you aren't. Finished worm and while back and would definitely recommend that as well
To give a brief idea it's "what if super powers came from incredible trauma and were designed to be the worst possible power for them specifically" there's a lot more to it like A LOT but that is a general idea.
Worm follows Taylor and her journey after gaining power. It's essentially her struggle to be in control of everything that goes on around her
Ward follows Victoria dallon and her struggle to manage a bunch of traumatized young adults as a hero team while dealing with a severely fucked up family
-
I consider those books light reading. Very good for listening to in the car. You should try his other book The Aeronaut's Windlass. He said he was going to switch between the two series and honestly I haven't checked if he's added to them. I really should, it was a ton of fun.
-
Yeah, they are pretty light and quick. Like that about them, not every book need to be dense.
As for The Aeronaut's Windlass, I try not to start unfinished series now (with some exceptions). He started Cinder Spire series about 8 years ago, and the second book is releasing in November of this year. I have read his Codex Alera series, and will read this when he finishes it.
He used to be a very consistent writer, releasing a book pretty much every year, let's hope he gets back into the groove.
-
-
Currently reading Blood of Elves.
-
Ah, The Witcher series. How are you liking it? Have you played any games? Or coming to it from the TV show?
-
-
The Lion: Son of the Forest by Mike Brooks. I'm on a Warhammer 40K kick lately, so started this after I finished the Eisenhorn trilogy
-
What would you say is a good place to start for someone who doesn't know anything about Warhammer 40K, other than some video games?
-
Whoa, sorry this is a late reply. I don't get notified if I get responses to my comments. Anyway, I can't find it, but there's a good resource on a subreddit I found before about book recommendations and reading order. In lieu of that, I can tell you what I remember: the setting, timeline, characters and lore are too many and varied to jump into, so focus on something smaller and more localized. A standalone series, or even a single novel, that's more relatable and more focused can introduce you to the setting and themes of warhammer 40k (or 30k, if it's related to the timeline around the Horus Heresy) better than some of the ones focusing on the bigger conflicts. All that to say, start with the Eisenhorn series of books.
Also, read up a bit on some articles about the lore for 40k available online, there's a few wikis dedicated to Warhammer 40k/30k. There's going to be spoilers, of course, but maybe focus on something you'd like to particularly know about the world of warhammer 40k, e.g spacemarines, the imperium, the other alien species, something more related to the tabletop game itself, etc. Then see if it's to your liking, and you can branch off from there and read books about topics that interest you. Hope that helps a bit!
-
-
-
Roadkill, by Dennis E. Taylor. I think it's probably his weakest book, but it's entertaining enough that I'll finish it. It is certainly not We are Legion.
-
The name made me think of Wile E. Coyote.
BTW I looked it up, and the author's name is Dennis E. Taylor, Dennis E. Miller is a VP Fraud Analytics of some big firm.
How is his Bobiverse series?
-
Ah yes, it is Taylor! Thanks for the correction. The Bobiverse series is amazing! It presents many technological and philosophical questions, while still being an easy read. It is entertaining and thought provoking. I love that series! The 4th book isn't as strong as the first 3, but the first 3 are amazing and the 4th is good. You should check it out if you like sci-fi and tech.
Edit: btw, I finished Roadkill last night and it is good. It's fun. It's more like YA than his other books, but still entertaining.
-
-
-
I recently finished the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. Wonderful books. I read it in order of subseries which is a good way to get into the books, but it does make it a bitt jarring when going back to the first books, before Pterry really found his stride. Once I get around to a reread I think I'll do it chronologically.
As a change of pace i continued with Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Something of a whiplash change from Discworld and a it got me a bit too amped when reading right before bed. Still a very fun and interesting read.
Now onto SAS: Rogue Heroes, which i started earlier but have yet to finish.
-
I have read about a quarter of Discworld novels, wanted to read them all in released order, but couldn't find many books. I plan to start the re-read again once I have found some of the remaining books.
-
The books are very much worth rereading. The layers of jokes and references are so deep that you likely won't catch all on the first or second reads.
I can recommend The Annotated Pratchett File, https://www.lspace.org/books/apf/, for an in depth review of a lot of jokes and references. It explains a lot of things that are hard to catch if you haven't grown up in England. Many things i thought Pterry had made up for the Disc is just references to real world things and events.
-
-
-
Currently Reading:
The Iron Heel, by Jack London
Basically one of the first major political dystopias written in the modern sense. It's super cool too, basically the book is an old manuscript about an attempted socialist revolution, before the world was taken over by oligarchic tyrannical capitalists. There's basically two stories being told, one in the socialist narrative itself occurring in the past, and one in the footnotes, showing glimmers of some of the capitalist horrors in the "present time". Super neat way to tell a story, and I'm really enjoying it so far. It's super heavy handed, and I would maybe call it similar to a socialist version of an Ayn Rand dystopia, like Anthem, but you know... Actually good. And thematically opposite to any coherent thought Ayn Rand tried to impart onto her readers.
Paved Paradise, How Parking Explains the World, by Henry Grabar
Not too far into this one, but it's a non-fiction book about parking policy, and how parking has basically ruined American cities over the last 70 years. I've been really getting into city planning books lately, so we'll see how much I like this one. Some pretty eye opening statistics so far, and the writing style seems fine.
DNF'd recently:
Walden, by Henry David Thoreau
Jesus this dude is insufferable. I read a lot of dense stuff, and have read many authors that like the sound of their own voice, but Thoreau takes the cake. Preaches self-reliance and disparages philanthropy but squats on his buddies land and lives off of gifts from friends, while doing absolutely nothing and providing no value to society. The guy just exudes a "holier than thou" attitude throughout the whole book, with absolutely nothing to back it up. I quit after 100 pages of this absolute joke contradicting himself the entire time. He would occasionally stumble upon some brilliance that I found a bit insightful, but it was few and far between, and the 98% of the rest was pure, unadulterated garbage. I really haven't had this negative of a reaction to something I've read for quite some time, I generally like everything I read. Maybe I'm just too simple to understand his self proclaimed brilliance.
-
Interesting list of books. Not the kind of thing I usually read, but The Iron Heel looks to be an interesting book. I would also be interested in hearing what you thought about Paved Paradise once you are done with it.
As for Walden, if you didn't know anything about Thoreau and his life, would you still think the same about the book? I am just wondering if it's the contradiction between his life (which I know nothing about) and his work that turned you off.
-
Honestly I noticed the contradiction first, then looked up his life as I got progressively more and more annoyed with him. The first time I noticed it was when he talked about the benefits of solitude, and denigrating people who felt loneliness. Then, not much later, he mentioned his "solitary location" is a measly 2 MILES from a town, and a railroad goes right by him. He literally hears the train whistle every day, and seems trains and train riders all the time, while acting like he's in solitude Alaska or something. He also mentions that people visit him almost every day. Of course you don't get lonely you idiot.
Basically I noticed some contradictions in his writing, and his tone was just so insufferable so I started looking up things to learn more about him. The more I learned, the more I realized I just hate this guy.
-
-
-
Psychology of Time Travel. It's an interesting twist on the topic!
-
The synopsis sounds interesting. How are you liking it?
-
It's fantastic. Each chapter hops to another character in another time period, each one filling in another piece of the story. It has a very pragmatic approach to time travel with time spent developing time traveler slang, thought given to personalities that thrive or struggle with time travel, and how time travelers interact with their other selves (they frequently cross their own timelines). The time travel organization even has its own detective agency and court system!
It was a lot of fun to read with the details of the time travel agency fitting in nicely with the development of the story. I highly recommend it.
-
-
-
I have a couple of overdue library books I should probably finish and return, but instead I'm reading a couple volumes of Combatants will be Dispatched because laughing is better than being a decent human being.
-
laughing is better than being a decent human being.
Heh, that made me chuckle.
How is "Combatants will be Dispatched"? I have read Chinese and Korean light/web novels, but am not acquainted with Japanese ones. Any recommendations?
-
Combatants will be Dispatched is hilarious. It might be the dumbest, most useless cast of characters I've ever read about. After a couple of volumes most of the main conflicts are problems they caused for themselves which is very satisfying.
I find I read a lot of web novels (or more commonly the graphic adaptations) to tweak certain tropes I crave now and then. It's not often I find one that is actually just a satisfying read chapter to chapter. Light novels are often similar, but they've gone through some more editing and development so it's more common for a volume to actually be some sort of satisfying chunk of story to read.
If you're looking for genuinely good reads, I recommend Apothecary Diaries, Death's Daughter and the Ebony Blade, or the Monogatari series. If you want some dumb fun there are so many options, but The World's Finest Assassin Gets Reincarnated in Another World as an Aristocrat, Konosuba, and I've Been Killing Slimes for 300 Years and Maxed Out My Level are a few different but good ones.
-
-
-
I’m about half way through The Obelisk Gate which is the second book of the broken earth series by N.K. Jemisin. I’m really enjoying it.
-
I loved the series, but felt the books are quite dry. Not really a "fun" read.
-
I can see that, but I think the dramatic plot points and twists are a good payoff for the slower parts of the story. At least in the first book I got a little bored with all of the traveling, but when they finally get where they are going it picks up significantly.
I’m loving this thread. Lots of ideas for my next reads!
-
-
-
The Wheel of Time
-
Currently: Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo.
Probably will jump into another Discworld novel next because I have so many things on my tbr list that I always have trouble to choose something and I go the easy way: discworld.
-
Discworld is always the right answer!
Looked up Crooked Kingdom, and learned the word "dilogy", I always thought for two books it was duology, first time I ever seen the word dilogy.
-
Wow, never heard of dilogy either. I had to Google it to see it for myself. I guess you're never too old to learn something new.
-
-
-
I'm doing a reread of Human To Human by Rebecca Ore. It's the third book in the trilogy.
It's an old scifi series from the early ninties, but holds up well. I absolutely love how she designs her aliens.
The first book is Becoming Alien.
-
📖 Les Furtifs by Alain Damasio
and
📖 Mathematica by David Bessis
-
Les Furtifs looks interesting, from what I could glean. Is it available in English?
And Mathematica is just a Mathematics book, right?
-
I do not think that Les Furtifs is available in English yet...
As for Mathematica, yes it is about the Mathematic however at a personal development level. David Bessis tries to explain that people's brain is compatible with the mathenathic. Some people wrongly think that they are bad at this because nobody taught them how to do. For him abstraction is something that need to be trained. An example is that each one of us can easily imagine (to watch in our head) a perfect circle even if it does not exist in our reality. The author explains that to do Math is to learn to fail, to make mistakes, to correct our intuition.
-
-
-
Prelude to Foundation, by Isaac Asimov.
I really like how characters in this book think things through logically before acting.
-
I'm about two thirds of the way through Since We Fell by Dennis Lehane. And I finished The Stupidest Angel by Christopher Moore today.
I don't think Lehane ever really misses. His plots aren't usually all that dense but the characters are deep and compelling. And the writing is way better than it seems like it should be. Every once in a while you I read a line and think, "Where did that come from, and how did it get here?" He's a really talented writer.
Moore is not that. But he's fun and entertaining. This book was not his best effort. But it was fine. If you like Moore, you'll like this one we'll enough.
-
re-reading the Malazan, Book of the Fallen. Currently on Toll the Hounds. I'm enjoying the re-read.
-
A web book, the wandering inn by pirateaba
-
Swann's Way by Marcel Proust
By far liked it. His style is surely captivating.
-
The Cuckoo's Egg.........a nonfiction about catching a computer hacker in the 1980's. Great book if you are a techie.
-
I just finished Uprooted by Naomi Novik. Overall, I really enjoyed it.
-
Bit late to the party, but I just started reading the Final Empire, Mistborn series #1. Only a few chapters in, but I’m enjoying it so far!
-
The Sword Defiant by Gareth Hanrahan. It's enjoyable.
I really wish he'd describe scenes visually, but it's character driven and he does a good job with their internal lives.
-
I used to skip all the visual descriptions, didn't care much about them (also, didn't understood half of the words used to explain the appearance of things or people). I have started to pay attention to them now, but I would probably still like a book that doesn't worry about these too much.
Is it a series? Or a single book?
-
There's definitely a balance to be struck with descriptions. Too little beats too much, IMO, but I appreciate a little food for my imagination.
It's the first book in a series (I think). It's epic fantasy, but it's set in the Happily Ever After. The protagonist is part of the motley crew that defeated the big bad twenty years earlier.
His previous series (Black Iron Legacy) was a lot of fun. Of recommend them both.
-
-
-
Just about to finish Witch King by Martha Wells (dead tree edition), and just starting The Passage by Justin Cronin (audiobook edition)
-
Martha Wells is on my to-read list, specifically her "Books of the Raksura" series and "The Murderbot Series". Haven't had a chance to read anything yet though. How did you like Witch King?
Let us know how you like The Passage, it has been a long time since I read a nice Vampire story.
-
I love Martha Wells’s work. I’m very much enjoying Witch King. I have also read the Murderbot books and Books of the Raksura. Highly recommend all of them!
-
-
-
I'm a little over halfway through "Devils unto Dust" by Emma Berquist. It's a zombie story set in late 19th century Texas. It took me a while to decide to read it, as honestly I just wasn't that into another zombie story. But damn is it well written!
Stealing the book description:
Keep together. Keep your eyes open. Keep your wits about you.
A horrifying sickness has spread across the West Texas desert. Infected people—shakes—attack the living, and the surviving towns are only as safe as their perimeter walls are strong. The state is all but quarantined from the rest of the country. Glory, Texas, is a near ghost town. Still, seventeen-year-old Willie has managed to keep her siblings safe, even after the sickness took their mother. But then her good-for-nothing father steals a fortune from one of the most merciless shake hunters in town, and Willie is left on the hook for his debt. With two young hunters as guides, Willie sets out across the desert to find her father. And the desert holds more dangers than just shakes.
This riveting debut novel blends True Grit with 28 Days Later for an unforgettable journey.
-
This sounds interesting. Will check it out.
I am actually up for some Zombie novels, which ones do you think are some of the best?
-
I finished Devils unto Dust yesterday and can confirm that it was superbly written all the way through, and I very much reiterate my reccomendation.
As for other zombie novels, it's not really a genre I'm super into, hence the reluctance to get started on this one. That said, World War Z is a book that I hear is far better than the movie. Isn't that always the case?
-
-
-
Finally pushed through The Sound and the Fury. Definitely lived up to it's reputation for being difficult and inscrutable. Probably could have just stuck with the spark notes on this one, frankly.
I picked up Ovid's Metamorphoses on a whim and I'm finding it surprisingly fun and approachable. I've always had a healthy appreciation for western mythos, so this is a fun little dip back into that world for me, and I am also enjoying going back and reading some academic commentary once I finish a section. Makes me feel like I'm back in college in a good way.
I also started The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and I'm really enjoying her prose so far. I am a little surprised, frankly, with how much I'm enjoying this one and how hard it is to put the book down. Maybe because I tend to select books I don't expect to like, but rather which I believe will be beneficial to read (which provides it's own form of enjoyment for me, rest assured).
Also trying to maintain momentum on my second read through of Infinite Jest. One of my favorites, even (especially?) the second time through.
Last year I read mostly nonfiction so I guess this year I've swung in the other direction as I've read almost exclusively fiction so far.
-
Nice list! I looked up The Sound and the Fury, from wikipedia:
It is nearly unanimously considered a masterpiece by literary critics and scholars, but its unconventional narrative style frequently alienates new readers. Although the vocabulary is generally basic, the stream-of-consciousness technique, which attempts to transcribe the thoughts of the narrators directly, with frequent switches in time and setting and with loose sentence structure and grammar, has made it a quintessentially difficult modernist work.
Interesting. Will add it to the list of "literary classics, some day" to-read list.
Which translation are you reading for Metamorphoses? And any interesting academic commentary you can link to? Recently, I have been thinking of reading some of the older, historical work, starting with the most obvious choice, Homer's Odyssey. Haven't started it yet though, so many things to read, so little time.
And respect for reading books that are beneficial to you!
-
Yeah, The Sound and the Fury was a doozy. I'm no stranger to difficult books and I generally like stream-of-consciousness modernist writing, but this one really tested me! I'll have to revisit it some day I think.
I have the Penguin Classics edition of Metamorphoses which credits David Raeburn as the translator. I've dabbled in the Iliad/Odyssey but frankly have found them entirely too dense to be worth my effort with the primary text. I... Haven't found a lot of good resources for Metamorphoses yet. I have just been Googling "Metamorphoses Book 3 discussion" when I finish a section and perusing the submissions.
-
-
101 comments