What are you reading these days?

I started reading The Chronicles of Narnia to my daughter at bedtime about a month ago and we started with The Magician's Nephew, which we just finished last night. I love these books. I more accurately, I love simple, straight-forward fantasy. There's just enough world-building in place to make it seem big and leave you wondering, but it doesn't beat you over the head with complexity.

And complexity is fine, and I love a good lore-heavy novel, but sometimes it's nice to just read "oh hey there was this world and a Kingdom called Charn and the queen was evil and magic and she basically nuked everyone into oblivion with magic. Anyway, here's Jesus Allegory Lion" Like that's fascinating, and while it leaves me wanting more it's fun to fill in the blanks with my imagination. Also I think the Wood Between Worlds might be one of my favorite places in all of fantasy.

On the subject of the religious subtext (bold, underscored, italicized subtext though it may be), I am agnostic and particularly disinterested in Christianity as a religion for my children (particularly the bitter flavor of it commonly found here in the US). But I honestly don't mind the allegory personally (though certainly understand why some people do!)

I finally finished Blood meridian a couple weeks ago and it was heavy going but still rewarding in the end. Not sure I will rush back to it though.

To counter that I started Jingo by Terry Pratchett. about 140 pages in and its really entertaining and a nice easy read. Maybe not as funny as some of the earlier books but thats maybe also because the themes are a bit too relevant right now.

Yesterday I binge-read the first half of There Is No Antimemetics Division, by qntm. It's an older story which just received a newly edited release along with an audiobook recording.

The setting is based on the SCP Foundation and it explores the concept of an antimeme. An antimeme is any entity or object that suppresses all information about themselves.

It's interesting to explore how one would document and battle against entities that have antimemetic properties. If you're interested in unconventional or non-standard magic systems I think this fits.

Audiobook journey through the Revelation Space books by Alastair Reynolds. I'm on the third book of the original trilogy and have one book left with a few short stories as well. It's been a good sci-fi space journey so far but I feel like there's tons of missed opportunities. He set up a very interesting world, at minimum.

Physically reading through Look to Windward by Iain M. Banks. Seems like a different Culture book so far...but then again most of them are quite different!

I just finished Orbital by Harvey This is realistic fiction about astronauts on a mission. I was told before I started that it is philosophical. I agree that it is philosophical but I would add it's reflective and meditative. It doesn't have an exciting plot but it has a lot of insight and I found it pleasant and restful to read.

I'm about to start We are Legion (We are BOB) for the Tildes book club this month.

I’m back on the Brandon Sanderson train! I finished his novella The Emperor’s Soul in less than 24 hours and wow I was blown away. The narrative pacing while adequately describing a new magic system was really compelling. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes fantasy, no prior Sanderson reading required (it’s listed some places as an Elantris sequel but it definitely isn’t). It’s about a magic user who works to reconstruct the soul of an emperor who narrowly survived assassination.

I’m now reading an earlier published novel of his, Warbreaker. The initial worldbuilding and pacing I’m not loving so far, nor am I huge fan of the magic system, but I’m early so I need to give it some time. My plan is to go through and read as many of his standalone novels/novellas as I can bear and then maybe finally circle back to Mistborn era 2.

After my frustration with the ending of 'Satantango' by László Krasznahorkai I decided to pick up Kazuo Ishiguro's 'The Remains of the Day', it was also recommended by a reader here. Pretty good book! I think it suffered a bit in the quality of the prose, but is not bad writing at all. I just really like dense, archaic prose. I rated it a 6.5/10, maybe a 7/10. The last 50 or so pages really make the book and I think it could have been written to be more devastating emotionally than it was. It was quite short, 250 pages and I think it would have benefited by being longer. I've also started listening to 'My Cousin Rachel' by Daphne du Maurier. I've previously read Rebecca which is an amazing masterpiece. I've also read 'The House on the Strand and 'The Scapegoat' but I don't really remember much about them. My Cousin Rachel is really good so far and the prose the very beautiful, du Maurier has a real gift for the English language.

Now it's time for Moby Dick and I will be making another post in this thread in the next few days laying out my case for why I love Moby Dick. (I'm still working on it)

Rocky Beach: Eine Interpretation

I am sorry if talking about comics is not allowed here, but I looked at the "comics" tag and didn't find a "What are you reading" automated topic. Also, Rocky Beach is a spin-off of a book series so hopefully it goes.

So, Rocky Beach is, as said, a spin-off of the very popular "The Three Investigators" book series.
Directly from Wikipedia:

The Three Investigators is an American juvenile detective book series first published as Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators. The characters known as the "Three Investigators" are three boys named Jupiter Jones, Peter Crenshaw, and Bob Andrews. Most of the novels cover some sort of mysterious events that seem to be supernatural at first (e.g. an ancient Egyptian mummy that appears to be whispering) but are ultimately explained scientifically.

The books (and especially radio dramas - the so-called Hörspiele) are also wildly popular in Germany with over 200 books and episodes being written and recorded. It is meant for maybe a bit of a younger public, but the books and radio dramas are a load of fun and the cases are really interesting. It's great stuff for some light reading and something to listen to for falling asleep.

So, back to the original topic. There are now 2 really beautiful comic book spin-offs called "Rocky Beach: Eine Interpretation" and "Justus Jonas: Eine Interpretation" and I am reading the first one now. It is an reimagining of the future where the three investigators are all grown up and a bit of introspection into the characters. The first book (Rocky Beach) is 200 pages long, but I am taking my sweet time with it because it's really beautiful and I'm engrossing myself into the art and the story.

I'm looking forward to seeing what case they solve and I am getting a feeling what the case is going to be after going through 50 pages. And then, after that, I get to enjoy the second book. All in all, up until now, a great recommendation and an absolute recommendation whoever wants to give the book series and radio drama series a try, they are really good.

I had a non-fiction month, then a horror month, I guess now I'm in... female protagonist month? I subscribed to the fairyloot combo subscription after a while on the waiting list and have received two boxes so far. The books are undeniably pretty but I was a bit worried whether I'd enjoy them enough to justify the high cost. I'm leaning towards "probably not" but it's not bad enough for me to have canceled it yet. I do like the surprise aspect.

Of those I first read Alchemy of Secrets which was a definite "meh" for me. Not objectionable and certainly a super easy super quick read with the occasional decent bit, but overall it lacked anything really interesting and the twists really felt lazy. Just very generic of a type I don't super care for.
And then I read Never Ever After which had some of those same issues but nowhere near as bad. I enjoyed it overall and the family aspect I think contrasts well with Alchemy as it's very much the same setup but handled better in my opinion. Both seem to set up sequels and hook into a bigger world but Never felt much more complete about it.

I read Lessons in Chemistry as I got a nice copy for free. I did not care for it.

I've also been reading some of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel novels as I found a bunch in my local bookstore's basement. I mainly read through the Wicked Willow trilogy, which I really quite liked. I wish that was how the TV series had ended season 6, it's a much better rendition. The last book was especially good. I do wish they had "gone all the way" but I understand why they couldn't. I also read Angel: Love and Death (the only novel this month that isn't female protagonist) which was in the "alright" range and I'm finishing up "Chaos Bleeds" (I had the game when I was younger), which I'm finding a bit painful.