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What are you reading these days?
What are you reading currently? Fiction or non-fiction or poetry, any genre, any language! Tell us what you're reading, and talk about it a bit.
What are you reading currently? Fiction or non-fiction or poetry, any genre, any language! Tell us what you're reading, and talk about it a bit.
I'm rereading I Shall Wear Midnight by Terry Pratchett, on my way to re(rere)reading all Discworld novels. I only remember bits and pieces from it, so it's almost like reading it for the first time which is very nice. As much as I love the Guards series, the Tiffany Aching series is PTerry's best work to me, it's so fierce and angry and passionate. I really wish they were more popular as children's/YA books here.
I'm also reading The Last King of Osten Ard by Tad Williams, the sequel of my favourite fantasy series of all times. I hesitated for a very long time to read it because I love the original Osten Ard novels so much, but I am enjoying the heck out of this book. It asks all the questions I wanted it to - the scullery boy gets to be king and marry the princess, and then what?
Non-fiction-wise, I picked up Brigitte Hamann's biography of Rudolf, Crown Prince of Austria. I always enjoy Hamann's style, her book on Hitler's early years in Vienna is super interesting and goes into great depth about the social and cultural issues of Vienna/Austrian society at the time. I barely know more about Rudolf than the fact that he died in a suicide pact so I'm looking forward to learning more.
I've just started reading Terry Pratchett in my middle-age. Was never interested until I read a few comments about how he had changed people's lives and how amazing his books were. I've only read the first two so far, and I'm in the middle of Equal Rites now. I am enjoying them but wouldn't say I've fallen in love with them yet. Having said that, I have heard that his earliest books aren't his best, so I'm keeping an open mind.
I have laughed out loud on a few occasions, which is pretty rare for me when I'm reading.
Pratchett definitely learned a lot about how to write effective novels over the course of his career, and he also developed a unique perspective that many people resonate with.
If you want to try representative excellent books, out of order, you could in my opinion try Going Postal or Small Gods. The character development in the City Watch series is one of the most highly praised and was meaningful to me, but Guards Guards is not actually my favorite book in that group. I also love the witch characters in the books that are follow ups to Equal Rites, but the novel plots aren't quite there yet compared with later books.
Yeah, I would also say that Discworld hugely changed/influenced my life and my view of things. If you read them in order, you can see how he gets progessively more furious at the world. But he always remained hopeful about the ability of people to do and be better.
You probably have been pointed in that direction already because it's what Discworld people do but there is a reading order guide that's super helpful and shows what series which books belong to. Small Gods is a good standalone, if you feel like skipping around a bit - it was my first, and I have never thought about gods and belief the same way since (I realise it might not be everyone's cup of tea for that reason)
I have read so many of them multiple times, but I still laugh out loud at them. Or stare into space at a pun I missed twenty times before and only just understoof.
FYI, your comment had me take a quick look at the Osten Ard novels and they will be next on my reading list :).
Yessss, I hope you enjoy it! It was the first epic fantasy I ever read and it's still my favourite by Tad Williams, too. Although Otherland comes really close. When I finished Osten Ard, I went to the library and was like, is there any more like this?? and the librarian was like, uh I assume you have read Lord of the Rings already?
I had not. Cue another book to be in love with for I guess the rest of my life :D
Like @aspragus_p, I came to Pratchett late, too, and just recently finished the Death series. So good, but after five, I needed a break to let my brain rest. I'm going to get around to some of the others though. I will take a look at the Tiffany Aching ones.
I love Death so much. Reaper Man is my favourite from that series. You'll get to meet Death again in the Tiffany Aching series :D
I think that one is my favorite too.
YES that quote!
It's like, haha Death gets to retired and doesn't know how to be human, that's funny (also there's wizards). And then the book hits you over the head with the combine harvester and that conversation with Azrael
Recently I finished reading The Collapse of Complex Societies by Joseph Tainter. Sounds like a downer but it was a surprisingly fun read, because a lot of it was about dismantling various different working definitions of what that term means. It was also pretty funny going though different folks' arguments, because sometimes when you stopped to think for a second it really did come off just totally ridiculous. "Rome fell because the Romans were decadent hypocrites" doesn't really explain why their society didn't endure. They were plenty decadent, hypocritical, and mean all across their history, and overcame all kinds of different difficulties as they transitioned between different governmental forms and social arrangements. So what made them unable to continue? That's the angle the book is taking, with more than just the Romans, and I found it a pretty refreshing read. I used to be really interested in this sort of thing, but got turned off reading what I recognize in hindsight were tertiary, usually ideologically-driven sources, and/or the weird personal crusades of folks with a bone to pick. I'm not holding up Tainter as some sort of paragon of intellectualism but the approach was definitely one that is more aligned with how I go about stuff than a lot of the other material I've consumed.
Reading short story anthologies of Nebula award winners in the past. I picked it up just wandering around the library. Big fan of Ted Chiang's works in particular (the one I have is The Merchant and the Alchemists' Gate). I don't have much free time so I enjoy being able to read in a single session.
I'm re-reading Lord of the Rings with two friends, one of whom has read before and one who has not, and isn't a big fantasy lover. So far it has been amazing, moreso than I recall. I read it the first (and only) time when I was pretty young, probably around 13, and rightly loved it. In the meantime I have stayed "engaged" with the universe by reading The Silmarillion, Children of Hurin, playing games, reading about the lore online, etc. But that being a while ago, and being quite young, I am finding there is SO much that I either did not absorb the first time or have forgotten. It has once again imparted on me such a sense of wonder and grandeur. Some of Tolkien's turns of phrase are just unparalleled, and I've found myself often re-reading sections or sentences to really soak up what is being said. It has been wonderful so far. Right now I'm a little under 100 pages into Two Towers.
Even though I saw the movies over 20 years ago when they originally aired and kept in touch with the lore in general, I never read the novels and always kinda regretted it, since I love the general lore and world of LotR like crazy. I got sick about a week ago and thought "This is it, now's the time!". I started reading them finally over the weekend and WOW, they are so nicely written, I don't know why I had such trouble starting them. The only thing - and I think that's what turned me away from them in the past - is, that I really had to manage my expectations regarding the pacing. I thought the story would play in Rivendell by page 70 or so, yet at that point Frodo, Pippin and Sam barely left Bag End lol I also never expected the first 30 pages to be an almost scientific telling of Hobbit and pipe-weed lore breakdown, but I actually enjoyed it in the end
The pacing of Fellowship is the hardest hurdle to get over for new readers I think. I’m reading along with a friend who has never read them before, and I had to really keep encouraging g them to push through! It picks up around Weathertop and from there, in my opinion, there are very few slow points in the series. Some, but they’re not too extended.
I have decided to watch Mushoku Tensei at the start of month; got hooked up and now I have read until novel 22.
Never thought I would obsess for a light novel like this again. Now with only 5 novels left until finale I have yet to decide what to read after this. Any suggestions ?
Same thing that happened with me, watched the show then couldn't wait.
I'm not sure about another one with quite the same feel. It's generally considered one of if not the best in the genre. Slime is decent, although generally more lighthearted (less actual threat to characters and such). Overlord is interesting in a "rooting on the bad guys" kind of way, but I've become a bit more skeptical as apparently the author fell out of interest with the series a bit after 10 and it sounds like there's some potential finishing issues, either accomplishing it or quality-wise. Both of them have anime as well if you want to get a taste - the Overlord anime kind of goes off the rails with poor quality after the first season, but the Slime anime is pretty good. Goblin Slayer might also work in a sort of grimdark context.
Tried to read Overlord, didn't hook me as much because I felt zero tension.
Slime could work, since its seasons are not in rapid production and I've grown tired of waiting for them.
Goblin Slayer is also nice but I have a problem with it because its world doesn't seem to exist without its characters.
Hmmm... it is Slime then, should probably start from the beginning.
If you haven't already, you should read "A Journey of Black and Red". Same author, and imo a slightly better story. Ariane is even more fun than Viv.
I'll have to add that one to the To Read list. The question is, does she have an Arthur equivalent... (squeee!)
Started the fiction Thomas Chaloner series of books written by Susanna Gregory. Follows a spy by the same name and his adventures in 1660s London. Currently on book 3, its not a complicated read and is entertaining enough to keep me going.
I am currently reading A Psalm for the Wild Built by Becky Chambers. It's fine, I guess. Despite the fact that it is a novella size book, it is taking me a while to get through it. The only reason that I picked it up at my library is that I saw a Martha Wells (the Murderbot Diaries author) quote on the front cover.
This is the only one I've read by this author. I picked it up largely for her reputation for her more famous, a long way to a small angry planet. To be honest I didn't enjoy it. It was okay but the lead character was insufferable and the novel largely felt like a contrived conversation about philosophy and ethics. The setting had promise and was quite cozy for those who are interested in that.
I agree with that it seems to be really heavy on the ethics and philosophy side of sci-fi, which for me is part of the reason it is taking me weeks to get through an ~ 150pg book. Maybe it would be better if I had listened to it instead (like I had done with Dune and Animal Farm, books that I really like), after I have put it down for a while. And quite frankly, I have half an mind of dropping it all together, dispute being half way through it. It is taking such a long time of getting any where.
I also agree with on this. Like the setting was promising and anyone that is interested in that setting will have a blast reading it. Sadly, that person is not me. And like I had said in my original posting about the book, I only picked it because of the quote by Martha Wells on the front cover. And one thing that I like about is that it is well written, which annoys me because I want to like it more, than I actually do.
As a big fan of the Murderbot series, I'd also be hard pressed to pass up a Martha Wells rec. Incidentally, have you read Well's other, fantasy, works? How would you rate or compare them with the MB series?
The only one that I had read would be Witch King. I had enjoyed reading it, when I did read it. It wasn't as good as the MB series, but it would be a 7 or an 7.5 out of 10 book, if that makes sense. The premise of the book is that the main character is trying to figure out what had happened to him because his memory is missing, and coupled with the fact that he is an important figure in an alliance that is quickly shaping up to be an actual nation, is interesting. And the book does have two plot lines, one for the present day that deals with the aforementioned plot. And Another that deals with the last and basically the history of the characters.
Reading this one along side MB, really show her anthropology background, with her ability of building vastly different culture groups.
Really got into The Murderbot Diaries as of late after hearing about the Apple plus adaptation. It scratches my itch for sci fi serials as well as some top notch character work for our lead. There’s a bit of an issue where all the humans that it runs into kind of blend together, but the later books get a little better about that.
Because I love this series so much, I'll attribute the faceless character of the humans to Murderbot's neurodivergence. It does get a little better later in the series.
Just finished the most recent one. Murderbot the character has personal struggles I relate to and adventures that keep things exciting.
Murderbot Diaries is arguably the most fun that I had with a book series in a long time. And I read the ones that were out before the newest one, in a week, just one after another.
To be fair It says that it really did not care for humans before It had left It's contract, so to It, humans were just all the same. So, you can look from the perspective of Murderbot learning and gaining experience of interacting with more humans throughout the series.
I'm currently reading Saving Faith by David Baldacci. I'm still very early into the book so I can't talk much about about it. I'm a big fan of Brad Meltzer so I'm looking for similar books. I'm more of a fan of his earlier (legal thriller) stuff than his latest novels. Any Suggestions?
I'm not sure of this is an exact match, as I don't think I've read Brad Meltzer, but I particularly remember enjoying The Fist of God by Fredrick Forsythe. As I recall, the audiobook was narrated by George Guidall, one of the greats of that time.
Thanks for the recommendation! I'll check it out.
Still working on Memory Sorrow and Thorn. Now starting the second half of To Green Angel Tower. Excited to see how it all concludes!
Also have resumed my reading of Ulysses. I just finished Laestrygonians. It's definitely a challenge, but I'm getting a lot more from it than I would have expected. Loved Dubliners and Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, so glad this is working for me as well. I'm using the New Bloomsday book as a companion, reading the chapter in ulysses first and then the bloomsday chapter that cooresponds.
Edit: Plural -> singular
How are you finding the New Bloomsday books as a companion? Do they add a lot to the experience of reading? I've tried and failed with Ulysses before but that was just diving in without any extra context. Wondering if I should give it a go again with some commentary alongside.
Edited to fix, it's just the one New Bloomsday Book. I would certainly recommend it. I've been surprised whenever I go to the bloomsday chapter of just how much I actually did pick up, but there's still a ton of information there to help out, and if there's a part that is too obtuse to understand it provides a lot of clarity. If you haven't I'd also recommend reading Joyce's earlier works, I think having read through them ahead of time helped me quite a bit, especially Portrait.
Oh hello, someone who reads Osten Ard :D I'm reading the sequel right now and I'm having such a good time with it.
I started "Atomic Habits" because I’m in need of self help books right now I guess, and I know often times self help books have this stigma about how obvious and repetitive the content is. The last few books I’ve read like this my fiancé has made a comment about; she listens this podcast that makes fun of these kinds of books I guess and it keeps demotivating me so now I want to find something else to read. (Not trying to paint my fiance as a bad person, it was more of a mention than anything else but makes it not fun anymore for me knowing what the podcast is about and that every book I try to read to better myself appears on them.)
Self help books can be terrible, but I've also derived real benefit from some of them. One trick I use is to choose a book written by a subject matter expert. For example I might choose a book written about fighting procrastination by a psychologist with a thirty year career counseling procrastinators.
Algorithms to Live by is a book I was recommended here on Tildes and I thought it was excellent. I appreciated Atomic Habits although someone on reddit commented that Atomic Habits is built on the research of a different author who also wrote a book.
Thank you! That's good advice. I'll have to check that book out. The synopsis is right up my alley, I often compare some of my actions/tasks to programming so the fact that there's precedent with a book like this is intriguing.
Which author and book is it based on?
As someone who used to really respect one of the hosts of that podcast, keep in mind that their standards are absurd and they constantly shift their goalposts in order to justify their clever title. Atomic Habits is fine, and nobody is going to come away from it with toxic ideas of self-improvement like some others in the genre might lead readers to. The worst you can say is that some examples are trite and that none of it's new advice. That's hardly a sin. If you were getting something out of it, don't let a podcast host's addiction to smugness ruin that for you.
I think any attempt to better yourself is commendable, and any criticisms against should be taken with a handful of salt.
I really liked Atomic Habits. I actually just reread it last month. There's a lot of actionable advice, which is basically impossible to implement all at once. The first read through helped me establish some new habits. Now I'm trying to use the "habit stacking" advice to hang new habits on the old ones. Compared to other books, it's more of a coherent manual rather than a research summary.
It's not that long of a book, and you can probably quickly skim through the anecdotes. So if you're interested in the material I would recommend reading it.
Iain M. Banks - Use of Weapons
Just started reading Mediocre by Ijeoma Oluo. I read her previous book, So You Want To Talk About Race, a few years back and I've been excited to pick this one up. Haven't had a good chance to really dig into it though.
I just finished Doom Guy: Life in First Person by John Romero. All in all it was an interesting read. I really enjoyed the first chapters about his early life. I'm a sucker for a great autobiography. The later chapters became too repetitive with the details about how he designed this level or that level. I lived through (and played) all the games he helped create, so from that perspective it was really interesting to me.
Speaking of great autobiographies, I would recommend You Cannot Be Serious by John McEnroe and James Kaplan, even if you're not a tennis fan. Just a fantastic book. The opening prologue/chapter where he discussing Sept 11th is just fantastic.
Have you read masters of doom? Its more about id and the whole team just being a rockstar lifestyle game dev crew going from pitching mario on pc to nintendo to daikatana. Very fun read.
Yes, I did and definitely enjoyed it!
I'm reading some lightweight but fun steampunk post-apocalypse fiction. It's the Strike a Match series by Frank Tayell.
It's enjoyable - he sets up an interesting world (AI destroyed everything, the south of England, especially around Bournemouth, survived and is rebuilding) and he has interesting characters. It's nice and easy to read which I need at the moment.
I just finished How To Read Donald Duck this morning and moved on to Steppenwolf before i started work.
HTRDD was great, i could see it being very revolutionary for when it came out in Chile. Even now it raises some fantastic points about the unrepresented parental figures that ive not seen mentioned anywhere. Its not eye opening if you roll in anti-capitalist circles but a great read nonetheless and a good reminder to watch all modern media through a critical lense, especially in countries outside America where one culture is appropriated and used to disseminate a particular world view to another.
I finished Brit Marie was here which I found moving and satisfying. It's a novel that seems true to human nature.
I finished the Last Graduate, the second in the Scholomance series and I loved it.
I'm part way through Mel Brooks autobiography
I just finished System Collapse, book 7 of the Murderbot Diaries. A sequel to book 5, Network Effect. It's more of what you've come to expect and that's not a bad thing. I've seen some reviews opining that it feels like cut material from book 5, and maybe it's a bit more shallow than book 5, but I enjoyed it quite a bit. I don't really read this series to have my expectations subverted, and they can't all be knock-outs, but I think there's quite a bit here that deepens and extends the MB world.
I've just started There is no Antimemetics Division which is a compilation of the author's work exploring human memory and consciousness through the medium of SCP-like short stories; in some cases they are actually SCP entries the author wrote specifically for the SCP wiki. I'm only 2 stories in but am so far delighted.
Iv found myself in a bit of a non fiction slog. I'm reading 2 books and listening to an audio book while on the bus to work.
So I'm reading Tim Marshall the future of geography and Peter gelderloos the failure on non violence. The audio book is how migration works by hein de haas. All very interesting books but not overly relaxing.
Just started Outland by Dennis E Taylor. I re-read the Bobiverse books then Roadkill so this is the next one.
I had read the Bob books before but never followed up with his other works. I'm enjoying them, not too heavy and sensible scifi.
I've nearly finished reading A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam. It's set primarily in Bangladesh during the 1971 war for independence and I'm really enjoying it, both as a novel that evokes that time and place and as a lesson in the history of that time. It's interesting to compare to Phillip Hensher's The Friendly Ones which I read a few years ago and is also partly set during that period (and partly in Sheffield in the UK).
I've also started up again with Jenny Erpenbeck's Kairos/ Cairos. It's absolutely fantastic but slow going for me because I'm reading it in German. It does a great job of telling a personal story of life in East Germany which exists mainly outside the realm of politics (at least for now; we're creeping towards 1989 so I assume that will change at some point). She's a fantastic writer and just at that point of being interesting enough to keep me hooked while not having to stop and start every sentence because the German's too complex.
Argylle by ‘Elly Conway’ is a spy thriller that is written by a character in the upcoming movie of the same name. There were rumors that this novel was written by Taylor Swift… but I really doubt it.
The book isn’t bad, but it isn’t great, either. it’s too long for an airport thriller but a little too ‘this happens then this happens’ to be remembered.
Midnights, the Eras tour plus the film release, the Taylor's version releases, then a book and a movie based on it? That would be a banner on an already banner year. I think the next rumor would have to be that T. Swift is secretly twins.
I'll have to find it, but there was this great video where a guy broke down Swift's obsession with certain numbers. If its true, its the best... but its a fun idea regardless.
This tiktok has enough of it to get an idea. The other one I saw got into all even deeper, but I can't find it. I think this one breaks down the 112 theory.
Haha, what a wild trip. Honestly, if it is her, I wish her well, and if it isn't her, then whoever it is might want to just sell the identity on to her to avoid everyone's disappointment.
All I could think of watching that 112 stuff was this scene from the move Pi. In other news, I need to go rewatch the movie Pi
I love Pi! Definitely worth another watch. The commentary track isn't too bad, either. Also, Mark Margolis always looked the same age. Great actor.
"Prophet Song" by Lynch. It won the Man Booker Prize and I read a lot of good things about it. However, while the story is indeed interesting, some stylistic choices just don't sit well with me. I know that the omission of paragraphs is supposed to make you feel claustrophobic and that the omission of quotation marks is supposed to make you focus more, I find both of these things just make reading harder and less pleasant. Maybe I should've bought this one as a "real" book and not for my Kindle. My e-reader may add to the reduced readability.
I'm not going to mention the name, but I started reading what was supposed to be smut and ended up reading some 15 or so chapters in spite of it not actually being smutty. It turned out to be something of a vampire fanfic in disguise, which I found interesting probably entirely because the minimal use of the supernatural, which lead it to relying on it's mysteries to compel me. But now that the cat is out of the bag I'm probably going to drop it.
Currently reading through the stormlight archive from Brandon Sanderson. I started with Mistborn, liver the original trilogy so much that I really wanted to read stormlight because it's really his main cosmere project and I've heard nothing but good things about the series. I really haven't read a book series like this since college over a decade ago with the legend of drizzt series, but the characters of vin and Elend, with sazed thrown in was an excellent mesh of character building. The original Mistborn trilogy really drew me in and I just want to dive into the main chunk of the cosmere universe with Stormlight.
I'm currently reading "Consider the Lobster," by David foster wallace, and am loving it so far. His essays are so well written and I love the footnotes. It's unlike anything else I've read. Every year to start the year I read a Wallace book, hoping to finish Infinite Jest after I read all his other stuff. I love dfw.