20
votes
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 finished The Stand by Stephen King and was blown away, truly one of the greatest American stories. It's a long read but so worth it.
I started On Writing by King as well via audiobook and it's a great writing resource as well as a mini autobiography. Fascinating listen. I'm starting to "double-fist" books, one audiobook during work and driving and one physical book.
I just finished Fahrenheit 451, and started Lord of the Flies, since I'm reading so much these days I figure I should read the books I didn't read in high school. Luckily most are small and I can finish in a matter of days.
Please recommend anything, I'm a sponge right now and want to read everything I possibly can.
“It was a pleasure to burn.” Such a powerful opening line from 451. Ooof. You hit some classics for sure!
A lot of Bradbury's stuff gives me the "Old man yells at clouds" impression, but I keep reading them because they're written so beautifully, F451 in particular.
As an old man who feels like he's yelling at clouds frequently, I appreciate you ;)
Of Mice and Men,
Travels with Charley,
The Sympathizer,
The things they carried
I remember reading of mice and men, one of the first books I felt. I should definitely read it again.
Travels with Charley was a book I faked doing a report about and that's the kind of thing I'm trying to rectify, strangely enough. Definitely adding to my list. Speaking of my list and John Steinbeck, I have the Grapes of Wrath on there as well.
I want to read Hemingway and books like Moby Dick too. But worry it might not be my thing, but lately everything has been.
The things they carried has been assigned in many highschools and colleges but your student years might have been prior.
Upton Sinclairs the Jungle and Animal farm and Call of the Wild are also good
We read Boy's Life by Robert McCammon in high school English. I honestly don't remember much of the specifics, but the emotion of loving the book sticks with me. Looking at reviews now, it seems to be well thought of. I was surprised to find it classed as horror, although we also read The Bluest Eye and Beloved by Toni Morrison so I may not have been well calibrated back then.
I loved the stand, that was a formative book for me as a kid and I’ve re read it a couple times. Unfortunately I also feel like I would’ve enjoyed it more if I had just thrown the book down a well without ever reading the last couple hundred pages.
No spoilers:
I found the ending severely underwhelming, but I’ve found the ending of most Stephen King novels either disappointing or underwhelming - it’s almost like he spends so much time building the characters and the story that he runs out of time to wrap it up satisfactorily. Ex: tommyknockers, the stand, the shining, etc
—-
Recommendations: Have you read Vonnegut? Slaughterhouse five is a great book
Oh very much so, Vonnegut was the one who helped me kick off my reading spurt this year. I read God Bless You Mr. Rosewater, Slaughterhouse 5 and Breakfast of Champions. I read Cats Cradle years ago, but it's probably due for a reread. Rosewater I think was my favorite for some reason, for years I hyped the other two up in my head so maybe that's why.
You're not the only person who I've seen say they don't like the way the Stand ends, but I enjoyed it for certain characters, others endings left a little to be desired. The final protagonists ending was pretty cliche but there was also a point where I got so emotional during one characters last passages I almost spit in the book at them. Something I've never felt before.
Cory Doctorow. I recently binged some of his works and he is amazing at giving views into potential near-futures. He writes about technology, climate change, freedom / human rights and the inter-relations of these topics and others.
Carl Sagan: Cosmos, and also The Demon Haunted World.
Garon Whited: Nightlord series. A logical, rational physics teacher becomes a vampire wizard. 'Why does it work that way?' 'It's magic, that's how it works.' 'That is frustrating, unsatisfying, and I am unwilling to accept that!' (I'm very much paraphrasing, but it gives you a glimpse into the writing / humor style)
Mother of Learning by nobody103 / Domagoj Kurmaic. A long-completed web serial, it has sat at the #1 spot on RoyalRoad's 'Best' page for years, for excellent reason. A very satisfying novel in a magic using civilization, the story follows the perspective of Zorian Kazinski as he heads to university... and dies. Then wakes up back home just before heading to university. Again. And again. Gold standard time loop story.
Andy Weir: Project Hail Mary and The Martian. Excellent near-future storytelling.
Martha Wells: The Murderbot Diaries. Hilarious humor. A cybernetic slave soldier has hacked theirself to remove their limiters and control software, allowing them to slaughter their enslavers if they should choose to do so. They use their freedom to download as much entertainment media as possible to stave off boredom and go about doing their job to avoid being noticed, all while maintaining a sarcastic inner monologue about the incredibly stupid decisions of the clients they are assigned to keep alive, who all seem determined to do all the things that would result in them not being alive.
The Caves of Steel by Asimov. It's a murder-mystery set in a dystopian world where the whole population of earth lives in huge megacities and has to subsist off of yeast grown in vats. Amusingly, the cause of the dystopia is that the population reached the utterly absurd, unsustainable total of 8 billion people.
This is a really great book. I read it many years ago, and just reread it about 6 months ago. Really enjoyed it.
Every time I am in an urban setting dealing with public transportation, I think fondly about the slidewalks with graduated speeds (maybe that is not what they were called, it has been a long time).
mild spoilers
One of my favorite parts of the novel is the way Bailey has to master his agoraphobia to go outside. As someone who has been afraid of heights my whole life, but has had to do some harrowing (for me) things at heights, I found it comforting and also inspiring.
(granted I haven't finished it yet) but I love how viscerally the book captures the psychology of the characters. All the different customs/ideas/fears feel so believable the way they're presented.
I was behind the book club with Piranesi because I took a detour into Borges's La biblioteca de Babel; I liked both of them and got some extra satisfaction that Duolingo had refreshed enough college Spanish to be able to get through the original Borges. Now I'm in the middle of The Dispossessed but will hopefully catch up to the book club for June.
With my daughters we're about halfway through The Mysterious Benedict Society which has been fun so far. I like how little puzzles are dropped along the way that the kids can try to solve but they don't make or break the experience if they don't figure them out. I hope the rest of the book continues that.
My son and I are near the end of The Owl Apprentice, which is the third part of a trilogy with The Squirrel Squire and The Cat Ninja, and they've been alright but I feel like they haven't quite lived up to their potential. I understand that they are books for young children, but it feels like the books just repeat animals fighting or dueling when they could have had more interesting plots.
How old are your kids?
The girls are 10 and 12, the boy is 7.
You didn't ask for recommendations but the Chronicles of Prydain, and the Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents are books I would read to my kids if I had any.
I'm the kind of person who always welcomes book suggestions, so thank you! We have previously visited Discworld for The Wee Free Men and liked it, so Maurice would probably be a winner. Prydain sounds fun also, but I would like your opinion on what age would be best for it (I'd be reading it to them).
I think Prydain is good from eight to fourteen.
The circle of Magic series by Tamora Pierce is similar. But Prydain has a nice mix of serious and funny
The Assassins Apprentice by Robin Hobb.
Sloooow to start but it's getting going. I'm curious to see where it goes as I forget how exactly this series hit my list.
I've read everything from Robin Hobb and it's all great!
It's highly recommended as well written and character driven. Not everyone likes it but it is well crafted
I finished the Farseer Trilogy, but thought it was just fine. Read them because a friend recommended them as his favourite fantasy books. Different strokes, I guess.
Finally finished Ulysses! Took me quite a while, and a lot of breaks, but glad I pushed through. Probably will wait a minute before starting my next challenging read, which will likely be either Gravity's Rainbow or Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon.
I've also started Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolf. Not very far in but very much enjoying the world building so far.
Just to toss out another option, I remember liking The Crying of Lot 49 if you want a smaller dose of Pynchon.
Thanks for the rec, but have already read and enjoyed! Also already did Inherent Vice, those two were enough to convince me to go for the hard stuff lol
When You’re ready, Naked Lunch is a stop on that train.
Coincidentally, I have actually just picked up a collection containing Naked Lunch as well as his first two novels, Junky and Queer. Read a bit of Junky but haven't committed to the full read. Thanks for the rec!
I finished The Attention Merchant by Tim Wu--
It chronologically explores the development of the advertisement industry and the attention economy from newspapers, radio, TV to computers/internet, phones. Unfortunate but also fascinating seeing how much advertising is integrated into and influences modern culture/life. Great read.
The murder mystery Murder Must Advertise is an interesting picture of advertising in the 1930s or possibly earlier if that interests you
Eisenhower in War and Peace, Jean Edward Smith
About 60% of the way through. I wanted to learn more about Eisenhower after realizing I knew nothing about such a looming figure in American history (President, WWII, Interstates, etc, etc), especially given my interest in Band of Brothers, having visited Normandy, etc.
This post gave an overview of different options, and after initially leaning Ambrose due to name recognition, I am glad I gave Smith a try instead.
It has been utterly engaging. The writing is straightforward, it feels neither overly critical nor overly favorable, and the sheer amount of citations and interesting stories is mind-blowing. I've loved every minute of it.
I am reading Jean Edward Smith's biography of FDR right now, and am similarly enjoying it for the depth and breadth of the sources. I recommend it to anyone who enjoys not just the president but also for anyone who's interested in learning about that period in American history (starting in the late 1800s and running through FDR's terms in office). That time period informs so much of our world today even though so many things are different now, and I for one didn't get really any learning besides a few highlights in school.
that's an amazing blog! have you read about other presidents on its recommendations?
I haven't - I found this when looking for guidance on an Eisenhower biography :-)
Project Hail Mary for Tildes book club,
Tony Morrison Beloved,
Cutting for Stone by Verghese,
Erotic Stories for Punjabi widows
I just finished Project Hail Mary last night, and am looking forward to talking about it with everyone now! It was soooo good, and a real page tuner. I probably shouldn't have stayed up as late as I did to finish it, but I genuinely couldn't stop reading it. :P
p.s. It definitely reminded me of The Martian in terms of how realistic the science felt, which isn't surprising given it's the same author. So it was right up my alley. Surprisingly, I think I actually liked Project Hail Mary better though.
I finished The Lies of Locke Lamora, I thoroughly enjoyed it actually, although I do have my gripes. Overall it's a super fun heist novel, great world building, cool characters, loads of great twists and turns and the Gentleman Bastards are great especially Locke himself.
While I enjoyed some of the Interludes, a few of them happened at exciting moments and it sucked all the fun out to have to slow down and hear about how Locke became who he is. I also found it a bit long, I reckon that a number of pages, section and Interludes could be cut throughout the novel and the book wouldn't really lose anything.
But I've added the 2nd book to my to-read list so it definitely left an impression.
I then started and finished True Grit in 2 days, a record for me post becoming a father! What a fantastic novel though, it's just a great read start to finish, the character of Mattie Ross comes through so well via the text and Rooster and LeBeouf are really fun, verbally sparring with each other but got each others backs when it's important. Such a short book too, crazy how much is packed in to those pages!
I'm currently reading Snow Crash at the moment, about 100 pages in so far, seems cool, Hiro Protagonist is such a great name! The last cyberpunk (can Snow Crash really be called cyberpunk, if anything it seems like a satire of cyberpunk, cyberpunk taken to its most absurdist extremes) novel I read was Neuromancer and I adored that book so I'm excited to dive into the genre again.
I loved The Lies of Locke Lamora, but couldn't finish the second book. But that may be because I read the first book on paper and the second on Kindle. I can't get quite the same level of enjoyment out of digital books, even the old paper-like Kindles.
Four books!
First, for my book club I'm reading Aliens: Phalanx. It's basically "what if aliens invaded a bronze-age society"? I only have familiarity with Alien from pop-culture (I haven't seen any of the movies), but it's been an enjoyable read. I'm about 60% of the way through, and the pacing has been enjoyable so far but I'm unsure how they'll wrap up the (perceived) plot threads with less than half remaining.
For my "Drama" book I'm on The Dark Tower series book 3, The Wastelands. Good ol western adventure, Stephen King's writing is enjoyable and the plot has been fun and mysterious so far.
For my "silly" book I'm reading the 8-Bit Theatre 20th Anniversary Script Book. For those not familiar, 8-bit theater was a long-running silly sprite comic from the mid aughts, which I read at the time. For the 20th anniversary, in lieu of releasing an anthology (because the sprites are 100% definitely copyright violations), instead it's a script of each of the comic panels. The author also provides lots of commentary and meta-jokes, to the point where I think it's actually more enjoyable reading it this way than the actual comics.
Finally, for my "serious" book I'm reading How to Be Antiracist. It's been eye-opening, and as a white guy I appreciate the perspectives it gives me of other people's experiences, so that I can better empathize and overall just develop myself.
Just started the Foundation trilogy and am finding it awesome.
I postponed this so much because I heard a lot that it was dated and it is not that good and I am not finding any of that true.
It moves a lot faster than the tv show, which I dropped before ending season 1.
I really loved this trilogy. The second and third are somewhat different since they were actually written as novels instead of novellas smushed together, but I think they’re even better than the first (which is great).
Never had much interest in the show because it seems impossible to adapt well.
I’ve been neck deep in NOS4A2 by Joe Hill. I came in blind, but the title made me think vampires. Well, that appears to be a wrong guess, but this book is impressive as hell. It’s smooth, fast, well-designed, and very creative. I don’t want to go too deep into the details (spoilers, etc.) but if you like your horror with a healthy dose of weird, give it a shot.
The Laws of Human Nature - Robert Greene: A fascinating book on human nature and why people react in certain ways. It has changed my perspective greatly in how I view others and analyze my actions. There's some over-simplifications in the book but in general I feel that it is pretty accurate.
Ghost Town Living: Mining for Purpose and Chasing Dreams at the Edge of Death Valley - Brent Underwood: I watch Brent's YouTube channel on his journey restoring Cerro Gordo so it's cool to get more of a backstory to what's going on over there.
Robert Greene fanboys are, in my experience, best kept at arm's length (not calling you one, just explaining why I haven't read much from him). I'm curious about his takes in Laws though, any stand-out pieces for you?
And Brent's videos are great, good to know the book is worth it, too.
I "recently" finished Permanent Record, the Edward Snowden autobiography. It was a very interesting read and an insight into the mundanity of working in the government, even in something as "glamourous" as intelligence and the toll that doing what's right can have.
I am currently reading Pirates of Barbary by Adrian Tinniswood, I'm about halfway through and it has been fascinating. A whole chapter of maritime history that I'd never heard of before.
Two books at the moment, Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett which is pretty entertaining.
And I just started The Three-Body Problem Liu Cixin.
Which I was not expecting that much of but I'm having issue putting it away at night... which already resulted in 2 days of way to little sleep.
Hope the book stays this interesting!
Thief of time is one of my favorites
I’ve made some decent progress on the second Mistborn book, Well of Ascension. I definitely think the first book was better, but I do really like Sanderson’s world building, so I think I’ll stick with it.
Unfortunately, my wife and I both weren't able to finish the second book. For her, it was a deliberate choice, but I seem to recall that I just lost interest in it and never ended up picking the book back up again. We liked the first one and Sanderson's Wheel of Time books, so I've long wondered if I wrote it off too easily.
The Kingdom (Jo Nesbø)
I've been a fan of Nesbø for a number of years now, but I kinda fell off of the Harry Hole series. So when I was doing some travelling, I picked up one of his standalone books on sale.
It's very good! At least so far; I'm a bit over halfway through it. It gradually unravels the events surrounding a mysterious fatal accident, and the relationships between the family members that were involved. There have been a few times during the book so far that I thought I knew what had happened, but then another detail emerges that changes my whole understanding. It's very well crafted. Just hoping it will stick the landing.
I’m in a fanfiction writing exchange group. We recently had an exchange and now it’s time for everyone to round-robin read (and review!) around 135k words to complete the exchange. I’m working through the bulk of that this weekend.
That sounds fun! What universe is the fan fiction for?
Equestria
That's a large community from what I can tell! I'd bet it's nice to have so many people to share a writing and love for something with. Do you make your own characters for the world or use existing ones mostly?
I mostly use existing ponies. There are also hundreds of background ponies who may as well be OCs, but they have a fan-assigned name to complement their canon color scheme and quirk (singular).
I just started The Club Dumas by Arturo Pérez-Reverte after finishing The Body by King. After quick read, I'm going to do James by Percival Everett and then Dr. No by the same.
I could be wrong, but I think The Club Dumas is going to enter the genre of 'librarian thriller' or something...
I've been slowly slogging my way through Kraken by China Miéville.
Since I'm reading the e-book through Libby, it tells me…
So, yeah, it's quite slow going. But the physical book was a gift from my brother, so I'm keeping at it.
I'm working on Cities of the Plain, the third book in Cormac Mccarthy's Border Trilogy. Halfway through, but I don't like it quite as much as the other two books, though there's some potential for the back half of the book. So far, I give it three out of five beans on tortillas.
Three things I read this week so far: