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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've been reading You Can't Win the autobiography of Jack Black, not the actor in School of Rock but rather the Canadian-American thief born in 1876. The book talks of his days hopping freight trains, pulling capers stealing watches, jewels, banknotes, his time in prisons in America and Canada, as well as his escape from a few of them. He talks of his addiction to opium, and how his habits kept him broke and constantly looking for another big score. He talks of the futility of prison as a method to reform people. It is a very good book! Jack talks of the darkest times in his life with good humour.
Still reading 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. So far so good. About 1/3 to go. I read some of his other books and I think I like this one best so far.
It didn't click with me as hard as something like The Wind-up Bird Chronicles, but it's still good. An interesting writer for sure.
What a coincidence, I am on the third book right now, about a third way through.
I have to say, I'm not super captivated by the story but by his use of metaphors. And maybe I just don't get some of the symbolism and the relations to real world happenings in Japan, since I am not well versed in the culture or the history.
But it sure is a fun read.
Nice coincidence! His books feel a bit like that to me too. While the story itself may not feel 100% gripping, it’s his style that feels interesting and kind of unique. There is a certain quality to his stories like it’s the real world but not quite. Always some magical element, but never something huge.
I do have some knowledge of Japanese history and culture. I’d like to think it’s adding to the experience, but my knowledge is far from in-depth or expert-level. We should exchange thoughts once we both finish.
I've been wanting to over time work my way through some of the classics, going generally chronologically. I did Epic of Gilgamesh and have more recently been working my way through the Epic Cycle/Trojan War and some related stories. I've done the Iliad and the Odyssey. Now I'm starting to get through Sophocles' and Aeschylus' work: Ajax, Philoctetes, eventually the Oresteia trilogy. It's been interesting. Hard to judge them against modern writing, but I do find there's things to enjoy and I like the broadening of cultural awareness reading them brings. I tend to bounce between those and some modern romance trash as palate cleansers.
That's been sitting on my shelf for a while! I've read some old Icelandic and Chinese myths/classics but haven't left the past thousand years (and apparently doing so can ruin some of the graphs in my tracker). Your idea of working through the really classic classics sounds intriguing. I suppose a lot of the enjoyability depends on the translation quality.
I read the Andrew George translation specifically and it was interesting. Not sure how it might differ from other translations out there. I did like how the author noted via either parenthesis or brackets in text which parts of the tablets (ha!) were totally known, which parts were missing but could reasonably be translated based on context clues. And which, sometimes quite large, sections were totally unknown because we simply haven't yet discovered an intact copy. I hadn't run into that sort of situation before. Couple of times I was actually wanting to know what happened, but alas, the records were incomplete.
It was fairly short altogether, but the biggest negative while reading was simply the repetition. There's a lot of almost children's book-esque repeating in it that I found annoying. Where we have a whole spiel we say to a person, then we go up to the next person and say the exact same thing. It was giving scribe at 11PM trying to make the word count and submit his assignment in time. Humbaba's voice is the Deluge, his mouth is fire, his breath is death. We say this time and time again. I had a better time once I just started skipping over the repetitive bits and tuning back in once the plot progressed.
Finally finishing The Tokyo Zodiac Murders. It's a Japanese mystery novel that, rather than featuring the murders as they happen, is about two amateur detectives investigating a 43-year-old cold case. I started reading it last year, got sidetracked halfway through, and I'm finishing it today.
One of the reasons I didn't finish it back then is because I got spoiled on the mystery before reading it. While watching creepy Vocaloid music I found a song that was basically a guy who would tell customers how to commit the perfect murder. The description mentioned it was a book, so I looked it up and found out that in English... It was the Tokyo Zodiac Murders. I had already seen it in my library before and had plans to read it someday because it sounded interesting, so that was frustrating.
That said, I still wanted to read it. It's a really creative trick behind the murders, one of the most unique ones I've seen. And I wish I had been able to read it totally blind, so I could have tried to figure it out myself.
The thing is, the author actually pops in at two points to implore readers to try to solve the mystery. He explicitly states that he's given us all the clues needed for the answer, and challenges readers to try to figure it out.
And I really, really wish I could have experienced that. This book has actual diagrams—a map of one locked room murder, a family tree of the victims, a map of Japan with the body locations and tables relating to the victims and their bodies. Even already knowing the answer, I still flipped back to one of those when we were given a big hint to the culprit that would reveal their identity. I was flipping back to those diagrams repeatedly throughout the whole experience, just double-checking stuff.
I have never read a mystery novel with this sort of execution. It's less of a story and more of a puzzle, and I love that and wish I could have experienced it properly. I want to know if I could have actually solved the mystery myself, but alas, I never will.
That's the reason I nominated it for the Tildes Book Club, though it doesn't seem like it will make the cut. Of all the mysteries I've read, this one seems the most rife for discussion. I've made guesses and theories while reading other mysteries, but none directly challenged me or presented the evidence in this fashion to allow readers to solve it. If you like mysteries or puzzles, I recommend this book.
And if anyone knows of a mystery novel that's similar, with all the evidence laid out as actual evidence and facts for the reader, let me know!
I finished Cat's Cradle by Vonnegut last night. Quick fun read... something about it feels like Andre's story from My Dinner with Andre
We will be discussing Cats Cradle here on Tildes in the book club discussion at the end of the month. Please feel free to join us regardless of whether you intended this timing for your read of this book.
Wow one of my favorite books of all time. Bokonon's teachings will be forever etched in my brain. Always looking for members of my karass!
on it! :)
ooohhh I should reread it to be able to enjoy the discussion!
One of my favourite books from my teens! I just started Player Piano because something about the times we're in really calls for some Vonnegut.
I can understand that - I tried reading it when I was reading his stuff a lot when I was younger and couldn't get through it. I feel like I have more patience for it right now and I am years and years away from reading his other work.
he’s great. i’m thinking of going through it all again. there are only a couple i’ve not read, so far as i can remember.
like you said, perfect author for the time
Slowly trekking through book six of Steven Erikson's Malazan series The Bonehunters
It's a really extraordinary book and a series I hope to revisit more than once in my life.
I hope you enjoy the series! I'm on Dust of Dreams and for me each book just keeps building on the last, so I haven't found one I liked less than the previous entry!
If you ever want to chat about the series, shoot me a message some time.
You bet! If I were to say one thing, it's that my biggest original complaint about Erikson's writing had become it's most endearing quality.
He explains so little while in the same moment explaining so much.
The world is so richly described and feels incredibly 'lived in' by some of the most interesting characters I've ever met, but he doesn't often tell me where I am, who these people are or how everything fits together. There's never a primer for what's happening -- instead, it's on the reader to imagine the connections, pay closer attention to asides later on or visit the wiki.
Malazan fans learn to become information sleuths, and I love it.
Malazan is truly epic! It took me so long (7-8 months) to get through the 10 main books that it felt like saying goodbye to an old friend by the end of it.
Will you reread it at some point?
Definitely! Right now I’m waiting for the Kharkhanas trilogy to be out and I’m planning on reading those first.
I read a Danielle Steel book, Johnny Angel just for sake of experiencing how bad Steel's books really are (and this was the shortest one in the bookstore's basement). It's pretty bad but far from the worst book I've read. Like an above average Subway sandwich. This book is essentially that 90s TV show where the teenager eats a cheeseburger and then becomes a teen angel, except sappy. The younger brother was painful but I'm choosing to tell myself "product of the time" and avoid thinking about it.
Then I read Exhibit from last year. I did not enjoy reading it nor did I enjoy intellectually, especially when it comes to the way the infidelity and the fiance was handled.
I read one of those books people seem to rave about a lot: This is How You Lose the Time War. I wasn't expecting much as I often disagree with popular taste (especially right after Exhibit) but I quite liked it. The writing was fantastic and evocatively surreal yet consumable.
I read a few small books that aren't super worth getting into like The Joy of Being a Bereavement Minister
The big book I finally finished was There But For Fortune, a Phil Ochs biography. I loved his music forever and had learned bits of his life at time but finally getting a narrative view of it all with the lyrics mixed in was a great experience. The ending was rough. God his last ~5 years were such a collapse. The violence and the way he talked himself out of consequences was the worst parts to learn about. It does seem like this book tried to, if not downplay, at least avoid perseverating on the violence. Similarly it repeatedly mentioned the FBI stuff but really didn't get into that or the more speculative aspects of his assault in Africa--which I totally understand why the author made that decision. I felt such a weird sense of relating though so much of his life is the total antithesis to my own. I also really enjoyed learning about the Yippies and of course that DNC Convention; I knew of the riots but didn't know the specifics or the role of YIP and the trials that followed. So much of what happened then is totally unchanged by a mere 60 years. It's hard not to feel like American politics and societal problems have all just been one continuous slide of the same trends that really started in that time. But the biography is a really great book, it's sent me further down the rabbit hole and I've ordered like 3 other Ochs related books.
I'm about halfway through Impractical Uses of Cake after finally finding a copy. It's quite good, first several chapters are a bit slow but when Jinn gets introduced it picks up. I feel like I might be missing some of the nuance due to a lack of experience with SEA but some of its critiques and portrayals are pretty clear.
ETA: Finished Cake. Loved it, one of my top 5. Just wish it was longer, it easily could have gone on more. I feel mixed on the ending, but in the best way. Their relationship leaves me kinda wanting to talk about it but it's the core part of the book. It has some similar themes of metaphor constructions (like physical constructs that are also metaphorical) as her other book and it's similarly bitter sweet. Like all my favorite books, I love it for how it makes me feel than really any of the intellectual bits.
Started reading the hobbit next. I have a box set with all 4 books, so I'll either follow up with the main trilogy or put the rest to the very bottom of my to-read pile where it'll be buried in cat hair and discovered in a millennia by archaeologists.
My mom had a whole book case filled with Danielle Steele in the 90s. While I never read a single one, I always admired how her slick hair to shoulder pads size ratio evolved over time on the rear cover.
Mid-80's, I could swear that she was just a circle stacked on an upside down triangle.
You might appreciate or even want to add to this discussion of This is how you lose the time war.
I just finished James by Percival Everett and found it a great read overall, certainly worthy of the praise it has been receiving. Everett makes great use of the 1st person POV to give James a rich internal life and to create a powerful impression of slavery as viewed from the inside as he explores both the brutal physical and spiritual torment endured on a daily basis alongside James' more philosophical contemplations of his experiences. Despite the heaviness the novel retains a great page-turning quality throughout, very much akin to Twain's tale, and Everett succeeded brilliantly in crafting a companion piece to Huck Finn that both subverts and elevates the beloved original in interesting ways.
I loved that book. I really like all of his writing anyways, but James really stands out. I went in thinking it would be kind of campy or corny, but it was anything but.
I started a biography of Molly Ivins, who is someone I admire.
I finished A Tale for the Time Being by Ozeki which is well written and intelligent with references to Proust and Heidegger and quantum physics and zen buddhist philosophy and teachings. I was captivated by the story but fair warning, the characters go through some extremely difficult experiences and two of them consider suicide as a means of escape. The narrative shifts perspective between a teenager in Japan and an adult woman in British Columbia. Towards the end the book does wierd things with time and causation but I liked it.
I am in the middle of Frozen River a historical novel about a midwife in the US shortly after the Revolutionary war. Edit finished.
I am in the middle of At the Feet of the Sun the sequel to the Hands of the Emperor by Goddard. It's myth and quest focused fantasy.
Edit I am about to start Cats Cradle by Vonnegut for Tildes book club
I just finished Anima Rising by Christopher Moore. It was a fun read but I did find myself losing interest by the end. I will read more of his stuff later.
Today I started Demons in the Darkness by Sagan and I'm now wondering if I should make my kids read it when they are in high school.
If you don't mind saying what about it makes you think about having your kids read it?
They are still very little, 4 & 6 and I'm already wondering how we (spouse and I) will navigate parenting in the algorithmic internet we now have. While I don't plan on giving them unfettered access to the internet I also want them to be capable critical thinkers. I haven't read too far into it, but the book opens strong as it goes into the dangers of conspiracy theories and pseudoscience and how seductive they can be to us.
Sagan is also very passionate about science to the point where it is contagious. I want my kids to look up to people who demonstrate a love for learning. Obviously I don't want to make them read it but we have already watched some Cosmos together. My 4 year old was very drawn to his narration and the space images and we have been talking a lot more about the Cosmos together.
Oh, that is neat. I wonder if you could read it or parts of it, to them as they get older.
I recently finished No Human Contact by Pete Earley, which is about the development and history of the solitary confinement system in the US. It was a really fascinating read. I've only read two of Earley's novels but I really like his style of non-fiction writing/investigative type writing. Now I'm reading Convenience Store Woman by Sakaya Murata. Completely different type of novel, but I needed a short, easy, light-ish read. I've been an avid reader since I was a kid but I'm unfortunately super slow with reading these days . Hoping to change that because there are so many books on my ever-growing to-read list!
I just found out about Pete Earley via Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson. It seems like he's written a lot of detailed nonfiction work, so I'm going to be on the lookout to see if I can get anything that sounds particularly interesting from the library. Circumstantial Evidence is the book that was mentioned - it was written about one of the main clients that Mr. Stevenson writes about, Walter McMillian, who was sentenced to death for a crime that he couldn't have committed, since he was at a fish fry with 30 witnesses. (There was a lot of wincing while reading Just Mercy.)
Thank you for sharing both of these titles with me! I just looked up both and now have them on my to-read list. I'm also going to see if I can get 'em through my library. I can see Just Mercy being a difficult (but important) read. I imagine I'll be doing a lot of wincing as well. I've also been wanting to read Earley's Crazy: A Father's Search Through America's Mental Health Madness, which is about both his experience navigating the mental health and justice systems after his son is arrested for breaking into a home in the midst of a psychotic episode, as well as the mental health system itself.
IDK if you're an ebook person, but if you are I can send you the ebooks for Earley's The Hot House, No Human Contact, and Crazy (if this is breaking any rules please let me know and I will edit!).
Currently reading: Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore, The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones (really excited for this, I just picked it up and the writing style seems like it'll be super engaging), The Secret Keeper of Jaipur by Alka Joshi (audio), Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune (audio with partner), The Songbird and the Heart of Stone by Carissa Broadbent.
Just finished: Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson. A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas (this was a reread because I've now read 4 or 5 Throne of Glass books and wanted to see if I hated this less now that I'm used to her style. I did hate it less, and I found the print reading experience to be way better than the solo narrator audiobook. I originally gave it a quarter of a star and gave it 3 this time. I still find it problematic but the issues seem way less glaring.). Morning Star by Pierce Brown. World Without End by Ken Follett.
Up next: Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo, Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver, Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez.
My audiobook listening has decreased drastically over the last several weeks. Work has been super heavy on customer interaction, and I can't listen and email at the same time. I also have something like two or three thousand pages to read with my eyes by the end of the month... wish me luck!
I read Cat’s Cradle in 2002. I was in high school. I am 100% sure most of it went over my head. I want to read that again. I also barely remember anything so that works. I did recently read Breakfast of Champions.
TIL this exists. I really enjoyed Pillars of Earth, so adding this to my list.
The Orenda by Joseph Boyden. 1640s New World setting. The story follows three narrators: Bird, a Huron war chief; Christophe, a French Jesuit missionary sent to bring 'les sauvages' to Christ; and Snow Falls, whom Bird adopts as his daughter after his war party kills her Iroquois parents. A captivating and vivid world.
Also set in the 1640s - albeit a different part of the world and non fiction: The Wager by David Grann. The true account of HMS Wager as she sets out with four other Royal Navy ships of the line to hunt a Spanish treasure fleet off the coast of Chile.
It does not go well. She becomes damaged and lost in a storm coming around Cape Horn and wrecks on a desolate island. Then there is a mutiny.
Currently reading Beneath a Scarlet Sky, by Mark Sullivan. WWII Italy 1944-45 spy story set in and around Milan. Unlikely hero protagonist, and it's also based on true events! It would make an excellent movie. Similar writing style and pace to All the Light We Cannot See.
The Orenda has been on my list for a while. Thanks for reminding me!
john gardner october light
i'm not sure what it's about yet, but i think a lot of it is about judgments of taste and value. and relational dynamics. and themes of being caught out of time, which resonate a lot for me but hit a little different now that the book itself is out of time too—it feels very solidly situated in the 70s when it was written, but i have very little context for that time period. and it has a lot of american history references i don't really get either (mostly revolutionary)—why's sam adams a communist and ben franklin a nudist?
also there's a b-plot with an old man who needs weed for chronic pain but has no way to get it, licitly or otherwise. very cute and quaint
and, of course, gardner is a brilliant writer. what interests me lately in art is structure, progression, connection, and he seems to have a mastery of the interplay of those on the whole gamut of large to small
i'll reproduce one passage that hit me kinda hard when i read it
a couple pages
“We’re our own worst enemies,” Horace had often said. (Now what on earth had brought that to mind?) [Sally] discovered that a line from the book was idly repeating itself in her head. _Close our noisy mouths and accept divergent lifestyles._ Horace would no doubt have agreed with that, though for reasons not quite pure. (She was no child; she could accept impurity of motivation. All of us hold back. We all “hedge our bets,” as her friend Estelle’s husband Ferris used to say.) As he grew into middle age—though he’d once been a talkative man—Horace had fallen more and more into the habit of silence, especially with her. When he came home from the office he’d do nothing but listen to his music and read, though perhaps inside his mind he talked endlessly to himself. Not that he’d been sullen! She’d never known a more contented man. He was quiet, merely. Men frequently grew more quiet and withdrawn as they got older. It had been the opposite with her. She’d started out a quiet one, but now in her old age she liked nothing better than a little conversation when the mailman came, or the insurance man, or when she met old friends at Powers’ Market.She could remember well how hurt she’d been at first by Horace’s unwillingness to talk. She’d been jealous, in a way, and hadn’t been altogether wrong to be. It had come to a head as they were speaking one night—or rather she was speaking—about her sister-in-law, about Ariah’s cooking, actually, and about cooking in general, though what was in the back of her mind was an image of Horace wiping dishes, up at her brother’s house, some weeks before, joking with Ariah and little Richard. Horace was at work tonight on his map of next year’s flower garden; Sally, here in their own kitchen, did the dishes alone. Horace seemed to listen to her talk of Ariah without interest, speaking not a word. “My,” she’d finally said, “you’re certainly the quiet one tonight!” She’d put her fists on her hips, smiling hard, giving him no choice but to say something.
He went right on working with his map and colored pencils, and after a minute he said, “Are you aware that we have on this planet, or used to have, something like ten thousand languages maybe more?”
“That’s a great many,” she’d said, studying him, putting up her guard.
He nodded. “Yes sir, it’s the last frontier.” He eyed his map, for a moment holding it away from him. “You’d think we’d all get together and try to speak one language, wouldn’t you? It would improve understanding, advance the cause of peace.” He glanced at her and grinned, pleased with himself, secretly remote.
She’d said nothing, still studying him, smelling a trap.
“Well, we never will,” he’d said, shaking his head, still grinning that private, insufferable grin that wasn’t meant to be understood—putting down the yellow pencil, picking up a blue one. “Children will continue to say ‘I and him,’ scold them all you like, and your brother will continue to say ‘Here I be.’ Peace and understanding—” He looked over her head, thoughtful. “That’s the dilemma of democracy.”
She hadn’t been fooled by his fancy talk, and in a sudden flash of hurt feelings and indignation shed lashed out, still smiling: “Why don’t you just run away with her?”
He hadn’t pretended not to know who she meant. “I never said that’s what I want, Moogle.” (It was one of the pet names they’d called each other.)
“Everything she makes tastes of onions,” she said.
He shook his head, smiling, saying something in French. He knew she knew no French. After that he would say nothing, and gradually it came to her—it made her scalp prickle what it was he’d meant: people had all those languages in order not to be understood. They were castle walls. She had cried that night, understanding that there were things about her that he did not want to know, and parts of himself he would hide from her, wall off, even if he spoke of them. She’d learned to accept it, though it was natural to be watchful and suspicious. It was at about that time that he’d begun to read aloud to her. What she thought of it she wasn’t quite sure, though she’d quickly grown used to it.
Due to a recommendation from here I started reading Discworld and simply can't stop. I usually don't read fantasy but this has really been the perfect type of read for difficult times.
A few weeks ago I was in a cafe having a cafe and on a bookshelf next to me was The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien. I recall it being required reading probably in high school, but I was a terrible student then and only a very mild reader, but these days I'm pretty voracious when it comes to reading, especially when it comes to war stories and memoirs and being that I'm not well familiar with Vietnam, it seemed like a natural fit.
I'm about halfway through it at this point and very much enjoying it; it's got some funny stuff in it, as well as plenty of darkness and feels very indicative of what happens when you take teenage boys, hook them up with weapons of war and basically give them carte blanche to do what they please. I guess I don't have a ton more to say about it, but it's just pretty interesting; I won't call it a fun read, but it certainly feels illuminating.
While on vacation I finished reading Virginia Woolf's Orlando. It's a lot different than the stream-of-consciousness works of hers I've previously read, but still fantastic! She had such a gift for beautiful prose, and I love the character of Orlando and all the wild adventures. Would recommend, also a very funny book.
After that I started reading my next Pynchon tome, Against the Day. I'm a couple hundred pages in, and very much enjoying myself, although I feel a little overwhelmed with all the different locations and characters. Mason & Dixon was a lot smaller scale, this feels more comparable to Gravity's Rainbow but maybe even more scattered. I like the focus on anarchism and the Colorado Coal Wars, and interested to see where else things go.
I also began an ASOIAF reread. I last reread it in about 2021, so it feels fresh enough and it's always a lot of fun looking back on the books through the lenses of theories I've read up on over time, and trying to figure stuff out myself.
I'm listening to the 4th book of the Southern Reach trilogy, Absolution (Jeff Vandermeer).
I have a general question on interpretation (but no end spoilers, please, I've just started part 3 of book 4):
Do you read these books more or less literally, in the sense that it's just a story with a lot of weirdness in the world?
Or, do you infer any metaphorical/symbolic interpretations?
I feel like I mostly read them literally, but the descriptions are so rich I sometimes wonder if I'm missing out on a deeper metaphor/allegory. On the other hand, there's a line in the forth book:
to paraphrase...
Near the end of part 1, Old Jim wonders to himself if he should have interpreted the biologists' recounts more literally. It made me wonder if this is a suggestion for the reader to do the same; sometimes a weird story is just a weird story.
I just finished the All Souls Trilogy (and have 4 and 5 on standby for when I'm done with the book club book). They're such long but enthralling books. I have to say though, I looked up the show to see what the actors look like for the characters they chose, and man, it's disappointing that they cut some awesome characters, and the two main characters look nothing like they're described in the books. Guess I won't watch the show.
For my book club, I'm reading The Haunting of Velkwood by Gwendolyn Kiste, and I'm enjoying it so far. My club generally only reads paranormal type books, especially written by women. This book is about three women from a first-person POV about how their nieghborhood became haunted and vanished off the map, but they were able to escape it.
Almost finish with Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin by Timothy Snyder and what a book. It should be required reading about WWII and humans overall. While very fact based and sometimes dense it's also based on eyewitnesses and dairy entries from important actors in that period. It's a harrowing but amazingly important book and I can't recommend it enough.
I also listened to The Notebook Trilogy by Ágota Kristóf for my bookclub. I really didn't like it. It's completely rinsed of pathos and I understand that it's a deliberate choice and style but it made it rather boring and monotone. While this could heighten the feeling of indifference of the sad story and thereby in a reverse way make it more impactful it had the opposite effect on me and I lost my interest by the end and struggled to finish it. The narrator actually did a decent job reading this book so I must conclude that this style just isn't for me. I'm looking forward to discussing it with my friends in out newly started bookclub though because I have a feeling they all love it.
Sweet! Thanks for the WW2 suggestion. I end up reading a lot of WW2 books and don't feel like they usually get a lot of traction here. This one sounds pretty interesting.
Cool! I'm not a history buff or anything and it took me quite some time to finish it but it's worth it. Especially considering today's global political climate it makes you think. Timothy Snyder in general is always a good read IMO.
I just finished Play Nice: The Rise, Fall, and Future of Blizzard Entertainment by Jason Schreier. I can't say how good of a general read this might be to non gamers, but I was absolutely enthralled by it, even as someone who was already aware of most things that happened at Blizzard (I've been playing their games nonstop since I first started in World of Warcraft in 2006). I found the old history of Blizzard particularly fascinating since I didn't know much about them from the pre Warcraft III days, and even up to the Activision acquisition. It was both fun and horrifying to read about most of the company's history, tbh. I think Jason did a good job of setting appropriate tones for different sections while both being able to report accurate accounts as well as make it an exciting read. I do appreciate that he made proper slimeballs like Kotick truly come off as the scummy, greedy slugs that they are, and he didn't even have to do anything besides outline how those sleazeballs actually do act. Punches were not pulled and it was a good reminder of how awkward the games industry still is and how it's in a constant fight between people who want to make art and people who want to make money.
As an aside, I'm still just as conflicted about playing Blizzard games as I have been for 10ish years now. I keep finding myself going back because nothing ever feels quite as good as a good Blizzard game, but I'm keenly aware of the power struggles in the company and how shitty they've been between that, how they treat their employees, and the multiple controversies they've had. At the very least, I appreciate having more insight into the workings at that company than I did before. I do recommend this book to gamers, at least. It wasn't a particularly difficult read, I was able to knock it out in 3 sittings and it's very digestible.
I'd say the one thing that was missing for me is that the book lacked detail in certain spots. Like when I came across the chapter where Jason was finally going to talk about World of Warcraft's development and release, I started getting goosebumps at the thought of it, since WoW is one of the most culturally impactful games ever made as well as a very formative game for myself and a game that I still play 20 years on. While some time was spent talking about the cultural impact, definitely, I feel like it could have been emphasized even further how big of a deal this game was; a reader who didn't play WoW at the time probably wouldn't be able to grasp just how big this game was from this book alone. Not a big complaint, but it was one chapter where I came out of it wishing there was a bit of a deeper dive.
I just finished the Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler. The second in the Philip Marlowe series. While Chandler is a product of his time (racist), there is some real homoerotic parts of this book that are super curious to me. Two chapters of working with an ex-cop (Red) that he can't stop describing in such a way that makes me think they are going to kiss. But of course hard-boiled private dicks don't kiss men (boooo).
Those books are a fun romp, and I love the private detective genre. Next up is probably giving the novel Inherent Vice a roll since its one of my favourite movies.
As for the next book I'm actually reading, I started on Player Piano by Vonnegut. From what I understand its not as out there as his other books I have read (Slaughterhouse Five, Cat's Cradle, Breakfast of Champions). But even just a chapter in I'm enjoying it.
I'm reading a French/Spanish bilingual version of Pedro Paramo to do some language laddering. I speak French much better than Spanish and have a degree in it, but I picked up Duolingo Spanish a few years ago right before the pandemic started. I just wanted to layer some reading on top of my app/flashcard-based learning, and reading a physical book also helps me fall asleep faster at night.