What are you reading these days?

I am late to the party but I am finally hip deep into the Wheel of Time and I get why people like it. The criticisms are fair too, but I am enjoying it a great deal.

Right now, I'm finishing up Bram Stoker's Dracula before I start the second surprise book from Brandon Sanderson. I think I might pick back up the Wars of Light and Shadow series by Janny Wurts.

I generally read sci-fi and fantasy, and I'm always looking for recommendations.

I just finished the first Dune book and liked it a lot. Really looking forward to the next movie. About to start Dune Messiah.

I also just reread the Void Trilogy by Peter F. Hamilton. They're not the greatest books ever written, but it's a fun sci fi series I enjoy rereading every few years. Start with the Commonwealth Saga if you want to get into the series.

I'm steadily picking my way through I am a Strange Loop by Douglas Hofstadter. Allowing time in between chapters has aided in the digestion of deeper concepts. Loop is also written with a sharp wit that smooths out the pacing between slower passages.

If you have ADHD and are even remotely interested in the mind, recursion, or the nature of consciousness, this is the book for you. The unusual formatting lends itself to quick bursts of reading when you get the impulse.

I just read the Locked Tomb series. I consumed all three books in about two weeks, and am eagerly awaiting the fourth.

It's unique blend of sci-fi and fantasy, as well as the unique narration through the three books (largely unreliable) really grabbed my attention.

I'd definitely recommend giving Gideon the Ninth (the first in the series) a shot if you're at all a fan of fantasy.

I recently got back into World of Warcraft, and with that I've started reading the books that cover the first two MS-DOS games Warcraft Orcs & Humans as well as Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness.

The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers. It’s the fourth book in the Wayfarers series and I’ve really enjoyed each book. The author’s style sometimes gets described as sci-fi cozy; they’re all about future civilizations and races creating communities and trying to understand each other and make each other comfortable.

I haven't been big into reading books in.. well, my whole life so far. But recently I watched a YouTube video that led to me picking up House of Leaves and I'm really enjoying it so far. I'm still early in but I spent more time reading a book today than I have in years.

I'm finishing up Cradle by Will Wight -- the final book comes out next week and I'm super excited. It's an asian fantasy series in a subgenre called "Progression fantasy" -- basically, the main theme of the series is the characters growing exponentially in power and skill, but also facing progressively larger threats and having access to more of the world.

It does a really great job with character development, world building without info-dumping, and building up big, interesting new plots that recognize the influence of previous parts of the story, even though the characters have moved on to something bigger.

Books in the past 30 days:

• The Island of Missing Trees - Elif Shafak. A story split between Cyprus and Great Britain, the book concerns the partition of Cyprus and the lingering effects that has even in the diaspora. Oh, and it has a fig tree as a narrator.

• Invisible Cities - Italo Calvino. Marco Polo discusses the cities he has visited with the Kublai Khan. You might think these cities are made up - they're certainly fantastical - but what do they suggest about real cities? I didn't like so much that women only appeared in the book as objects of male sexual desire.

• The Greengage Summer - Rumer Godden. This was on my reading list for quite some time as it's been mentioned on Radio 4 a couple of times. It's a coming of age (really, a 'growing up') slash unreliable narrator novel concerning a lower-middle-class family holidaying in France. I don't want to spoil a story I quite enjoyed, so I'll leave it there.

• Circe - Madeleine Miller. A retelling of stories pertaining to the minor Greek goddess, Circe. Admittedly I didn't like this one as I felt that the prose was stilted and, being a bit ungenerous, it read like YA.

• England's Green - Zaffar Kunial. A beautiful poetry collection with fascinating perspectives on unexpected and unremarkable aspects of life in England.

I'm currently reading Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata.

I just found out about the Stormlight Archive Series by Brandon Sanderson and have absolutely been in love. In about 5 months, slowly reading when there is downtime at work, I have read up to Book 4 - Rhythm of War. Soon, I am going to catch up to the series and will probably start the Mistborn Saga. At the speed that I am reading through these series though, I might need some recommendations soon for series like this.

Perdido Street Station has been on my list forever, and im finally tackling it via audio book. Glad I did, although also glad its audio book as it certainly has its lulls. Extremely unique though and I can see why it is still so popular.

I'm currently reading through Patrick Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind. I don't know why I took this long to pick up the Kingkiller Chronicles but so far I am enjoying it.

I'm also reading Sarah Maas' Cresent City books, I normally avoid a lot of bookstagram/booktok series but so far it's not bad.

I've been reading loads of nonfiction, mostly focused on US intelligence agencies. Copying from my comment on this thread, I've gotten through all of these in the last couple of months.

Confessions of an Economic Hitman -- Exploring the American global empire (how it came to be, how it's maintained, and the repercussions of it), as told by a former economic hitman. (From the synopsis - "EHMs are highly paid professionals who use development loans to saddle countries with huge debts and force them to serve US interests.")

Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties -- A well-researched counter to the official narrative surrounding Charles Manson, written by a journalist who kept digging for twenty years rather than turn in an unfinished story. Explores corruption (both governmental and personal), culture, the propagation and acceptance of a plainly false narrative, and CIA mind control experiments. The aim of this book isn't to find out exactly what happened, but to present mountains of evidence that is counter to the official narrative, and it does a damned fine job of it.

Poisoner in Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control -- This one's pretty self-explanatory, but is incredibly thorough.

Blowback: The Costs and Consequences of American Empire -- A look at the consequences of the American empire's foreign policy. This book originally came out shortly before 9/11, but has been updated since. It looks at the consequences of American foreign policy from around the globe, but focuses a good bit on Asia. Lots of interesting info I hadn't heard before.

I'm currently on The Jakarta Method, which details the global anti-communist crusade lead by the US during and after the cold war.

Currently reading The Expanse series and Hyperion, slightly back and forth. Both pretty good I must say!

I am unsure whether I should start The Myth of Sisyphus or World War Z. Obviously very different, but those are the ones on my list currently.

Ecology Of Souls Vol 1 by Joshua Cutchin. It’s a great read, really enjoying the deep dive into psychopomps and Forteana in general.

I am reading Don Quixote.

I don't know why, but I am constantly surprised how incredibly good this 17th century book is.

Recently just finished reading every book in the Cosmere, loosely interconnected book series from Brandon Sanderson. Then just picked up the Wheel of Time and steadily going through it. It is kinda tough going from Brandons writing style to Robert Jordans but so far I'm enjoying it, especially the most recent 2 I read, I'm on 7.

Anyone have any recommendations for book series to read that are similar to both? Specifically with multiple characters POVs, and world building

Just started Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart. Not my usual genre but was highly recommended by my sober group.

I just finished Death in her Hands by Otessa Moshfegh. She’s such an interesting writer; something about the way she writes and unreliable (and often unlikeable) narrator is so compelling

Just finished re-reading Wool by Hugh Howey. Last read through the Silo series 9 or 10 years ago, enough time for me to forget almost everything that happens, so it felt a little bit like reading it for the first time again. The way Howey writes is just so enjoyable to me. I think I read the last third of the book in one sitting because I just couldn’t put it down.

I'm about to finish up Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban, which I've been all over.

It's set in England, long after a nuclear war that brought people back to a neolithic-ish lifestyle. The whole thing is written in a made up pidgin English type thing that winds up feeling a little bit like Chaucer (which makes a lot of sense — the ruins of Canterbury cathedral play a big role in the story). It takes some deciphering, but it makes it feel pretty unique, and there's a lot of thematic depth — it's definitely more than just the language gimmick.

It's not for everybody, but this is one of those books I've been so excited about that I feel compelled to recommend it to people.

I am reading a book called The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker. It is a book set in New York City in I think very early 1900's. The main characters are a woman made from clay brought to life by an old rabbi dealing in old religious magic stuff. and a Man made of fire who normally would normally be very powerful but had his powers blocked by someone who then trapped him in an old copper container. The two meet by chance and develop a relationship because of their differences from humans.

So far I love the book, but am only about 1/4 of the way through.

I’m reading The Wheel Of Time (Robert Jordan), the art of War (Sun Tzu) and Sophie's World (Jostein Gaarder). All of them in my native language : french.
To tell the truth, sadly I feel I have less time to read at the moment.

Finished '2001: A Space Odyssey'. I then wanted to get into a bit of a post-apocalyptic mood since recently starting a new Fallout 3 playthrough. Just started 'On The Beach' by Nevil Shute. Have a few others lined up that were recommended for anyone interested: 'Wool' by Hugh Howey, 'Dawn' by Octavia Butler, Roadside Picnic, The Postman, Alas Babylon, A Canticle for Leibowitz, Damnation Alley.

Will I read them all? Probs not, but I get on a tear sometimes deep-diving subgenres.

Been reading a lot of books on North Korea, such a fascinating, grim, dark place. Dear Leader: My Escape from North Korea is probably my favorite so far, next to The Aquariums of Pyongyang.

I've been reading Tom Clancy's Patriot Games most recently after just finishing up the Hunt for Red October. All good quality reads, but Clancy's biggest mistake is that he assumes that everyone in the intelligence field is actually intelligent.

I've been tearing through some books in May/June

• East of Eden by John Steinbeck
• The Trackers by Charles Frazier
• The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
• The Wager by David Grann
• Deadwood by Pete Dexter
• And the Band Played On by Randy Shilts

My favorites of these were East of Eden and Deadwood. East of Eden has joined my list of all time favorites. First book in a long, long time that I finished and started immediately over. Deadwood was really good too. I was sad when it was over and I had to leave the world of Charley Utter and Wild Bill.

Welp, here I go reading Gravity's Rainbow again. This time, I'm much less confused on a literal level, and feel much more connected to the characters, but the thematic layer is even less clear. Approaching the end of Beyond the Zero, Slothrop feels less like a stock character than he did the first time, and keeping track of the various people is going a lot more smoothly. Pirate's burnout, Pointsman's obsessions, the boundaries between fantasy and reality all feel much more tangible this time, even if the last item is still tricky. Even knowing all of the "reveals" from the end of the book doesn't elucidate too much of anything.

The introductory chapter to Katje really struck me this time. A lot of the criticism of Pynchon's female characters often feels like it actively ignores the way that, for the males too, development is made through environmental description and objectification, rather than internality. Katje is a perfect example of that. Through her memories, her lens, the reader is introduced to Captain Blicero and Gottfried, and in nearly every phrase, there's a hint of herself, even though a literal summary would frame her purely as an object acted upon. You get a sense of her withered hopes, her muted but living agency, her particular degree of cynicism which is matched only by some of the most villainous characters, but still see that moral backbone, her refusal to just be a tool for espionage and manipulation, the core beliefs which motivate her to act beyond reason for the greater good. And of course, to contrast that, we have Jessica.

I don't know what to do with her. There are fragments of her perspective we see at times, and they hint at a flesh-and-blood character, one who isn't simply a prize to be fought over between Beaver and Roger, but it seems that, when writing her, Pynchon couldn't see past that framing. I wonder if she was based on a real-life paramour of his, someone for whom either intimacy clouded his ability to meaningfully convey her, or he simply couldn't see her as more than a totem of his own issues with women. Or maybe she's just a poorly-written character. It's a shame, the sections with her are reliably my least favourite, the intensely youthful male libido really seems to get in the way of the author's real strengths as a writer. It's possible I just don't like his brand of bodice-ripper pastiche, but some scenes, like the meetcute or the topless drive, feel like hollow mindless pleasure, without enough humour or insight to really carry my interest. I'm a romantic in the personal sense, a moment like "They are in love. Fuck the war." should have me nearly tearing up, but all I can muster is a half-hearted "woot" at best.

Over the last few weeks, Crying In H Mart, Kindred, How High We Go In The Dark, and the End of the World Running Club.

Crying in H Marr is good, but memoirs aren’t really my thing. Too much real life. Kindred was great and horrifying. How High We Go in the Dark was ok. I wanted the whole book to be about the first and last chapters. End of the World Running Club was a pretty funny post apocalyptic book with a cloud of asteroids decimating the northern hemisphere. It got into some deeper themes too and helped me think about my life a little differently. Also, we should all be yelling back at the sun.

I’m just starting Babel after hearing a recommendation on the linguistics podcast Lingthusiasm. It seems promising.

I just finished up Alice Bell's debut murder mystery Grave Expectations. Really impressive IMO. Especially so for the first novel from a new author.

Now I'm back to the Wayfarer series of SciFi novels, reading Record of a space born few. I really liked the previous books because they tell slice-of-life stories in a very elaborate and complete SciFi setting that I could easily see getting used for tabletop RPGs. High hopes for the third book!

I'm more into audio books these days, so not really reading, but I did just finish Childhood's End by Arthur Clarke, and next up on my list is The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.

I'm currently reading The Dark by Jeremy Robinson. It's been quite enjoyable so far, I'm at the 2/3 point of it now. Three days of darkness as in biblical prophecy with demons walking the Earth and it's roughly 2019. The main character is a war vet with PTSD.

Robinson has something called The Infinite Universe. Three sets of three books that are related to each other in the set but without an order. A fourth book in each set that ties all three together and then a final book that ties all three sets together. Each of the sets has some sort of unifying mystery or twist. Aliens, gods, demons, etc. I'm on #4 of the first set of 9. They vary from really great to just good and enjoyable. I've not run into a bad one yet.

I've read quite a few books recently. I've mostly been reading a ton of fanworks the past couple years, but I decided to get back into reading books now that I have a library card and more time to. Here are some that I've enjoyed recently:

• The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells
  A set of sci-fi stories that are very pleasant to read. I thought the main character was very entertaining and a little too relatable at times.
• Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan
  One of those books that I feel everyone needs to read. My favorite part of reading this was going to Nasa's website every time Sagan mentioned an "upcoming development" and seeing how the mission went. A brilliant read.
• The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins
  A very good prequel to the Hunger Games series. Collins is a good story teller and this was a very interesting story to read.

Books I am currently reading:

• The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan
• The Maze Runner by James Dashner

I'm currently working my way through The Black Company series by Glen Cook, it's nice to have a fantasy series with "short" volumes, the books are around 300 pages and there's 11 in total if I'm not mistaken.

The premise bascially follows a band of mercenaries called The Black Company who work for the highest bidder, which in this instance is an evil tyrant. It's interesting seeing a story from the "bad guys" perspective, and the characters are horrible people, but very interesting to read about. It's great seeing the moral dilemma of working for the villain and how they feel about that.

I just finished Born a Crime by Trevor Noah. Super funny book and a great insight into South African culture that I wasn't aware of until reading it.

I also read Roots by Alex Haley. I had seen the series years ago and wanted to read the source material. Was sad to finish that one. What a great look into that horrible time.

I’m reading Michael Palin’s north korea journal book. I was expecting it to be a book of comedy like a stretch from Monty Python, but it’s very touching and obviously eye opening.

I'm still working my way through some stuff that's generally in the "North American high school canon". This time I'm working through Catch-22; I've just started it so I don't have much of an opinion yet but it's one I've been excited to get to. (So far my favourite of these has been The Grapes of Wrath but in high school I really liked Catcher in the Rye so I'm interested to go back to that one as an adult.)

I'm also working through the book Atomic Habits: Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results by James Clear. I try to get through a self-help book now and then and while some of them are real stinkers, I'm finding this one very clear and pretty persuasive. I've always believed that the formation and enjoyment of process is more important than the targeted result and he's articulated this in ways that have helped me really nail down the idea. I might want to "be good at X", but am I "a person who enjoys doing X"? Or am I just caught up in the idea of being successful, papering over the parts of the process that I would hate but that would necessary for achievement? I was also intrigued by the idea that your habits serve as evidence for your self-image and will be rolling that one around for a while.

Really I've always had a lot of trouble with forming habits: I have exactly one thing I consider a positive habit, and it's taking good care of my teeth. I've recently learned that I have ADHD and that's, uh, probably a big part of why most strategies for routine-forming have not worked all that well for me throughout my life. I used to jump from system to system to try and "fix" it; now, with more self-awareness, I'm no longer desperate to fix myself. I'm more curious, experimenting, thinking of things in terms of support for my shortcomings rather than a way to directly overcome them, and I'm letting myself seek out novelty as something enjoyable without feeling like it's a failure if I can't commit longer term. I may not EVER be a person with strong routines, even with the advice in the book, BUT I think I'm getting more out of Atomic Habits than I generally get out of similar books.

Finally, I'm also listening to the audio-book version of I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jenette McCurdy, as read by the author. I had mentioned way back in a previous thread that I had tried to do audio books and had difficulty paying attention to them, when I placed a hold on the book at my library I accidentally got the audio book instead of the paperback. I realized this at some point but the wait for this book was so long I didn't want to reset my place in line.

I'm enjoying it a lot - I'm not normally into celeb autobiographies, but even as an audiobook I think it was worth the wait. Although our circumstances were very different, I relate very strongly to the experience of being a child and trying to manage the emotions of an extremely unstable parent. There's a constant shroud of stress where sometimes a bit of hope or approval pokes through, and you'll run from one spot to the next, dropping all your own desires to get there faster. There's genuine love there, or at least what both of you think love is, but also so much anxiety and fear. It's complicated and she presents it really well.

Actually, I find the writing style very solid and satisfying overall. It leans towards being understated, which I like, and it's darkly funny in some places and heart-wrenching in others. I'm definitely going to check out some of the other stuff she's been doing creatively, such as her podcast, once I have the time.

I'm technically reading The Expanse but I had a stroke last year and have a hard time concentrating on reading. I've started reading the last book of the series (Leviathan Falls) but so far I've only made it through the prologue. I've never been able to concentrate while listening to audiobooks so I haven't even tried that with this one. I'm just waiting for my brain to get a bit better while avoiding spoilers.

Right now I am re-reading The Night Angel series. Brent Weeks finally released a new book set in that world so I am getting caught up on a series I have not read since before I had e-reading options lol.

I've had Black Company on my to read list for way too long so decided to dive in and so far I'm liking it. Granted I'm only in the 3rd book.
I have tried to keep away from spoilers and mostly succeeded, but one thing that I did pick up, instead of spoiling anything (I hope) is that some of the books are narrated by the Lady? I think? It would be so amazing seeing the story unfold from her point of view if that is so.

Aside from my book club which is reading Library of the Unwritten this month (which I really enjoyed), I've been working my way through some of the Dune books. Currently working on Children of Dune.

Last book I finished was Star Wars Jedi: Battle Scars in preparation of Jedi Survivor. Nothing all that special but wasn't bad either, and not saying no to some WLW in Star Wars.

Next up is going to be a bunch of sci-fi classics for a summer class I'm taking, looking forward to that! Frankenstein, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, The Left Hand of Darkness, Neuromancer etc... should be fun!

Raw Dog by Jamie Loftus - lighthearted and funny book about hot dogs, travel, and I guess a bit of life in general? Definitely recommend

I've also been on a Stephen King kick recently. I'm currently finishing up the Dark Tower series.

I recently finished reading Lab 257 by Michael C. Carroll. It is about Plum Island and the germ laboratory there that is run by the US government (currently operating under the Department of Homeland Security). It is a very interesting read about a place that actually exists and it’s deterioration despite housing highly infectious diseases. It’s slated to be shut down sometime in 2023 as a new lab is being built elsewhere. I definitely recommend the book. Feel free to provide your recommendations of similar books!

Currently in the middle of two fiction, two nonfiction and some poetry. I'm reading the Longings of Women by Marge Piercy, a book that starts with the life of a homeless cleaning woman and moves on to explore the lives of her clients. I'm also reading the Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne. This book is sad and funny and extremely well written. It's about an orphan in Ireland who grows up as a gay man before that was socially acceptable. I'm also reading Seeing What Others Don't by Gary Klein and the Cry For Justice an Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest edited by Upton Sinclair

Currently on book 3 of the Warhammer 40k Caiphus Cain series. It's my first time in the 40k universe and I am loving it so far. Think I picked a good book series to start off on honestly. I don't know much, yet I can understand what's happening without knowing the lore.

I am just about to finally finish the second Uplift trilogy by David Brin, collected into a single omnibus volume called Exiles.

I read the first Uplift trilogy when it was first released, and very much enjoyed it - particularly 'Startide Rising' and 'The Uplift War'. So, when 'Brightness Reef', the first volume in the second trilogy, was released in the 1990s, naturally I bought it and read it... and hated it. It was such a heavy slog. So boring. So slow. So bad. I actually gave up reading it and never finished it.

But, a few months ago, this series was mentioned in a thread in /r/PrintSF on Reddit, and some of the things people said about the second trilogy piqued my interest. So I bought the trilogy as an e-book omnibus, and started on it.

It's still a slog. It's still boring. It's still slow. But I've been determined to finish it this time. However, it's been a slow process because I forced myself not to read anything else until this is finished, but I don't want to read this, so I'm finding other ways to fill in time, instead of reading. (Interestingly, in the author notes for this volume, Brin admits that the story was originally supposed to be a single novel, but it got away from him and expanded into a trilogy. Maybe he should have kept it to novel length. It could do with a lot of trimming down.)

I'm about three-quarters of the way through the third novel. Big-picture things are being revealed and explained, and there's obviously a climax on the way, but I just don't care. In fact, I'm starting to get the impression that I won't like what's coming. Everything that's been developing in this final novel feels tacked on to the original series, and not organic at all. It's like he came up with one brilliant idea, and also wanted to continue the Uplift series, so he jammed his brilliant idea into this series where it doesn't fit.

It seems Brin loves stories where people merge with other creatures or where organisms of one species merge with organisms of another species. It's a feature of the climax of his novel 'Earth'. It's a major plotline in 'The Heart of The Comet', which he co-wrote with Gregory Benford (one of my favourite novels). And it's a central part of the ending of the Uplift series.

I've also decided I don't like the way Brin switches points of view so often. It works okay in some other books of his. For example, in 'The Heart of the Comet', the points of view came from only three central characters, which made it a cosy book to read, with characters I got to know. That worked extremely well. 'Earth' had more characters, and the character-switching worked okay, but was still a bit clunky in parts. However, this second Uplift trilogy has a cast of thousands, and we seem to end up spending a chapter or two inside each and every character's head. This is confusing, and I'm sometimes losing track of who's who - especially because having so many characters means it can sometimes be about ten chapters before we return to any given character, by which time I've forgotten where we left them. Also, some characters just disappear from the rotation without explanation, while other characters get added to the rotation halfway through the books.

I wish he'd narrow it down to just a handful of characters and stick with them. It reflects the fact that he's got a hundred different things happening in parallel to each other, which is also hard to keep track of. And, then some characters will start a chapter at one point, skipping some action, which they then recall in a flashback. It's like Brin doesn't want the reader to be able to follow what's happening.

Honestly been reading Solo Leveling lately, been taking a break from traditional books after reading the first 2 Enders Game novels. But I am going to pick up Project Hail Mary once it becomes available on Libby

I just finished Hail Mary by Andy Weir. I couldn't put that book down. I don't know what to do with my life right now lol It was one of those books.

I just started The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton. It's a curious premise, like a murder mystery in Groundhog Day or Happy Death Day, but each day "you" are in a different body. I'm excited to see how it plays out.

I've been reading a ton over the past year, it's something I picked up with the birth of my daughter as its easy enough to pick up and put down a book.

I started reading the James Bond novels and generally enjoyed them massively (although Fleming is definitely a product of his time). My favourites were,

• Moonraker (a must read for anyone wanting to read the Bond novels in my opinion)
• Casino Royale
• From Russia With Love
• You Only Live Twice

I then kept reading Bond with the continuation novels, there's a lot of these and I've not read them all but I started with Kingsley Amis "Colonel Sun" which is a pretty good Bond story and is the only non-Fleming novel that the Eon movies have taken material from officially (the torture scene in Spectre uses dialogue from Colonel Sun).

I then moved on to John Gardner's run (these range from meh to pretty poor). There's not really a stand out but the two that I could maybe recommend if you must are,

• Licence Renewed
• Icebreaker

I haven't read any of Raymond Benson's run of Bond novels yet but I've got Zero Minus Ten and High Time to Kill to read and I've heard his run is actually pretty good.

After Gardner I moved on to Sebastian Faulk's "Devil May Care" which I found to be a great novel in the same vein as Fleming with a cool Bond villain, Dr Gorner, a megalomaniacal chemist and business magnate.

I do have Jeffrey Deaver's "Carte Blanche" in my bookcase but haven't gotten round to reading it yet, he essentially resets the time line and sets Bond in the present day with him being a veteran if the War in Afghanistan rather than World War 2.

Next was William Boyd's "Solo" which I thought was fun although lacked a distinctly Bondian main villain in the mercenary Kobus Breed.

I then moved on to the Antony Horowitz trilogy which I found to be fantastic, some of the best Bond novels since Fleming. "Trigger Mortis" was my favourite with some absolutely jaw-dropping action set pieces that could slot into a James Bond film with ease and a truly great Bond villain in Jason Sin. Then "Forever and a Day" which is great and really fleshes out the origin story for Bond only hinted at by Fleming in his novels. Horowitz finishes his trilogy with "With a Mind to Kill" which is still pretty great but is the weakest of his three in my opinion, there's just parts where it drags a little.

I've got Kim Sherwoods "Double or Nothing" which doesn't actually feature James Bond but other 00-Agents and Charlie Higsons "On His Majesty's Secret Service" released on the King's coronation but also haven't got round to reading these either.

Then I moved on to Stephen King and I've really enjoyed all of his books I've read which are,

• Shawshank Redemption
• The Body
• The Mist
• The Shining
• Doctor Sleep
• Misery

I then read "Dark Matter" and "Recursion" by Blake Crouch. I enjoyed both of these novels, two big dollops of pop science with the mindfuckery of Christopher Nolan Inception or Interstellar, great fun.

After these I moved on to "The Punch Escrow" by Tal Klein and I hated this book. The hero and main character has the smug snarkiness of a Marvel superhero and is super quirky because he loves listening to 80's New Wave, everything I hate about popular media over the past decade in book form. Which is a shame because there's some cool hard sci-fi concepts explored here (which are all thoroughly explained in footnotes).

Finally, I've moved on to "The First Law" trilogy by Joe Abercrombie. I'm about half way through the first book "The Blade Itself" and I'm enjoying it! Fun main characters (especially Inquisitor Glokta), cool setting and it really seems like there's a big story building in the background whether the main characters want it to or not (which I love).

I'm reading what interested me next in my TBR pile, "Brave New Brain: Conquering Mental Illness in the Era of the Genome". I think I'm only up to chapter 3 so far, but it is proving to be an interesting read. It basically is about how the brain operates and how mental illnesses are really "brain diseases" (when something "goes wrong" in the brain). The prologue mentions there will be sections focused on anxiety and depression; Alzheimer's; and schizophrenia. I am looking forward to reading some more of it tonight before bed!

I teach Literature (at high school level) but my tastes don't run toward the traditionally literary. My standard line is that if it's Literature, I only work with it when I'm on the clock. In all seriousness I do love my job, though and am currently procrastinating working on materials for a Donne course.

Currently almost done with Herman Wouk's Winds of War and War and Remembrance. A bit 70s potboiler at times but he gives an excellent overview of the sweep and flow of the European Theatre and to an extent the Pacific Theatre. Harrowing and very compelling exploration of the Holocaust too.

I'm a sucker for epic historical fiction sagas and this is my second readthrough. I went back to it after reading Wouks The Hope and The Glory which were about Israel's first twenty five years of independence. He pulled off the task of giving a Jewish-PoV overview of the period without being very anti-Arab (and foreshadows the shift from socialist Zionism to nationalist Zionism), a sharp contrast to Leon Uris who wears his prejudices more clearly on his sleeve.

Wouk is a better writer than other big historical saga writers like Michener and Ken Follet (who I still enjoy but with a clear awareness of their flaws).

Next up are

The Godwulf Manuscript by Robert Parker. I'm not a crime buff but somehow this caught my eye. The Spencer series (of which this is the first) is supppsed to be quite interesting.

I also have on hand a re read of 999, a horror collection and I need to finish reading The lovecraft Squad (pulpy Weird fiction anthologies in a shared universe). Weird fiction is something I personally find fascinating and I'm conducting a brief readthrough of some seminal Weird pieces with a couple of students.

Audiobook-wise, I'm listening to Bruce Catton's Grant Moves South

Comments and recommendations are welcome.

The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon

My first Pynchon book, and everything they say about his writing is true. Sometimes it takes a rereading of half a page to truly understand what have I just read, and him using various names and references doesn’t help the overall flow of the book, but still I’m greatly enjoying it. At 40% atm, and it only got more interesting.

I wanted to tackle Pynchon’s work for a long time now, and after having a McCarthy phase where I only wanted to read his books, I decided again that I intend to switch between 4-5 acclaimed authors. I was considering Cormac McCarthy — Thomas Pynchon — Ernest Hemingway — Vladimir Nabokov — Don DeLillo.

As a side refresh/chill read I intend to engage more with Discworld books by Pratchett. I already finished three books in Watch series, one in Death series and Small Gods (which is my favorite of Discworld atm).

Anyone got any suggestions, feel free to shoot! My next Pynchon? Next DeLillo (read only White Noise)? Anything else?

I’m currently reading on tensura volume 17

I just finished Thirteen by Richard K. Morgan, as an audiobook. I enjoyed it quite a bit, but some of the plot lines were a bit hard to follow since I didn’t always give it my full attention, thats my fault though.

One thing I really liked, was that it seems like the author had put quite a bit of thought into the repercussions and limitations of the advanced technology he created. There were these super smart AI type things that had access to basically unlimited data, but there was so much data that sometimes a human would be able to find things better if they had a better idea of where to look.

It definitely went on longer than I expected, and the middle dragged a tiny bit. It almost felt right on the edge of needing to be a trilogy of short books with more fleshed out ideas, or a shorter novel. I was excited to see where it went when the main plot thread had been relatively wrapped up and I had almost 5 hours left.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book. One of my favorite SF books in awhile, and pretty unique.

Am reading the complete Witcher series of books on Kindle. Unfortunately I don't read very fast and usually on read for a few minutes before going to sleep, so it it likely going to take me a couple of years to read it all! Am really enjoying it though.

Warhammer 40,000: I am currently reading The Lost and the Damned, which is the second book in the Siege of Terra series; but that makes it book 56 in the Horus Heresy series. It's taken me about 5 years to get to this stage. Just a few more books to go!

I am reading Leigh Cowart's Hurts So Good - about the science of masochism. It starts off with a fairly graphic description of the author's own sexual masochism, but delves way into other forms of masochism that aren't just kinky (e.g. ultramarathon runners, people who eat hot peppers for fun) etc. and goes deep into the science of pain on purpose. Very interesting - about halfway through and I really like the way she writes - irreverent but also generally enthusiastic

I've been going through The Expanse series recently. It's been really good, lived up to my expectations since I watched a chunk of the Amazon series first. I really like they way they portray gravity, there's no gravity generation or anything like that you either have to be under thrust or in a rotating ring. Characters have preferences over which gravity they prefer and then you get issues arising when gravity isn't available for whatever reason. Currently in book 4 which isn't quite past where I was in the show so I'm excited to see what happens after.

I am currently trying to read House of Leaves because of MyHouse.wad, a Doom mod.

I admit it's been hard for me to follow, but I understand that's supposed to be one of the selling points. The formatting is very interesting, and it's something that only works with a physical book. I've never seen anything like this before.

I just finished Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros about a week ago and haven't stopped thinking about it. A book hasn't grabbed me as fast, or gotten its hooks into me as deeply, in a LONG time. The sequel is out in November and I can't wait!

I have no idea how to wait that long...I don't feel like another book or series will grab me as much as this one did. Highly recommend if you're into fantasy!

I'm currently re-reading the Demonata series by Darren Shan. I loved those books when I was a teenager, and they still hold up in my opinion. I'm also reading "Gyo" by Junji Ito. Manga's not really my cup of tea, but Ito really knows how to captivate the reader.

I'm currently listening to the Audiobook of "To Light A Candle" by Mercedes Lackey and James Mallory and as time permits reading "Equal Rites" by Terry Pratchett. Mercedes Lackey and Sir Terry are two of my comfort authors, and I've read a lot of Disc World but I've never read Equal Rites so it is nice to have a book from him I haven't read yet. I also have a Korean light novel I'm waiting for the next installment of, called "Under the Oak Tree" by Suji Kim. I may be too heavy on the fantasy side right now and I may balance out with some Historical fiction or Science Fiction next.

I'm re-reading The Malazan Book of the Fallen. It's not for everyone but I do think it's the best piece of literature written in the last 50 years. It's a post-modern work with a fantasy setting. If you like dragons, gods, stories spanning 5,000,000 years, aliens, and dinosaurs with swords for hands, it's the book for you

I am just finishing Tress of the Emerald Sea, which was the first book from the Brandon Sanderson Kickstarter. I love Brandon Sanderson. He is my favorite author. I started reading the Mistborn trilogy and then fell in love with the Stormlight Archives series. He put out 4 new books during the COVID-19 pandemic, and I heard that he was doing a Kickstarter to publish them last year. The first book arrived a couple of months ago, but I had to finish the other book that I was reading before picking up Tress.

First off, the book looks amazing as far as aesthetics. The artwork is perfect and the cover feels like a collector piece, as just looking at it is reminiscent of a piece of artwork. The book itself has a slightly different feel to it given the narration (no spoilers). I enjoyed it, but it was more obviously a theater of the mind and less refined than those larger series. Once again, this could have been due to the narration style/narrator, or because it was finished primarily in isolation over a short period during the pandemic.

Overall I enjoyed the book and am looking forward to getting the second installment of the 4 books any day now. For those of you unfamiliar with the Kickstarter, he is sending out 4 books over this year and is shipping them at the end of each quarter. I believe that they are separate themes and not related to each other. I look forward to posting about the next one when I finish it!

BIG poetry kick the last few months. Muriel Rukeyser, Tracy K. Smith, CP Cavafy, Megan Fernandes, Marina Tsvetaeva, Peter Berg; anything by Edward Hirsch. For anyone interested in poetry but unsure of where to start, may I enthusiastically recommend "How To Read A Poem" by Hirsch. The title makes it sound like a stocking stuffer from the impulse rack, but it's one of the most approachable and informative books I've read in an extremely long time; thorough and comfortably-paced. I've already given away two copies since I read it in February.

Recently finished "Time Will Darken It" by William Maxwell after seeing him recommended by Alice Munro. It was . . . okay. It felt very much like a mid-century artifact; suuuper reconstruction-era small town North, with a couple of jarringly racist chunks for its single family of black characters, and nothing but patience for its white characters' follies that make up the plot. If its tone wasn't soberly lodged between Garrison Keillor and William Styron it might be satire; the main crisis of the book is so sweetly idiotic that it could be from Oscar Wilde.

Just started Blood Meridian again after last reading it ~10 years ago. It's interesting to read McCarthy while reading all this poetry; it kind of makes me wish that McCarthy were just writing poetry instead of configuring his writing into a novel's structure. I remember liking Blood Meridian & No Country, but I hated, hated The Road. I've got Suttree queued up next and am excited for it. Roger Ebert always called it his favorite of McCarthy's.

edit: a word