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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.
Finished up the latest Dungeon Crawler Carl book, A Parade of Horribles. Feels like the ride is starting to come to an end and stuff that was set up all the way in Book 1 is about to pay off in full. If you're not a fan of Carl and the other crawlers pulling wild nonsense and defying death, I don't think this is going to change your mind, but if you gotten to this point, I think it pays off and set the stage for the last couple books pretty well.
For me, the last 20 percent of the book was wild. The earlier story was fine but not as gripping for me as some of the earlier books. But that ending.
I just finished Butcher's Masquerade yesterday, going to the book store today to grab the next one.
I'm halfway through the first, but I've already bought the next 7... looking forward to them and am glad to hear!
Currently about 3/4 of the way through Murtagh by Christopher Paolini.
It's been at least 15 years since I read the Eragon series, and while this is a continuation of that story, the author was very young has had a lot of time to age and mature. That said, I nearly quit reading in the beginning. It still felt very juvenile and I really struggled to move past that, but I'm glad I did. I still don't really jive with his writing style, but it has turned into a pretty good story and one I look forward to picking up.
I just finished a reread of Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir and started on Harrow the Ninth (also a reread). I first read both of them around the time Harrow came out so I wanted a refresher before finally getting to the third volume in the series and Harrow in particular is anything but straightforward, fun times.
Ooh one of my favorite series, I always pick up something new on a reread and you're in for a treat with Nona
I struggled more with the beginning of Nona than I did with the other two, but I'm really glad I stuck with it because it wound up being a really good read.
Recently finished Pnin for Tildes Book Club.
Finished Sediments of Time By M. Leakey about a life spent hunting primate fossils.
Currently Reading: Breakfast with Seneca- an introduction to Seneca's writing on stoicism.
Currently Reading Hamnet
Historical fiction about Shakespeare's son.
Currently Reading The Bastard of Istanbul I'm reading this because I loved Island of Missing Trees by the same author Elif Shafak.
I will soon start How to Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying for Tildes Book Club,
I just finished Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. I've been looking forward to it for a while, mostly because I love both jumping spiders and high-concept SF.
It took me a little bit to really get stuck in, but the last half/two-thirds or so went by in just a few days, I really enjoyed it. Some of the spiders biotech was a little straining on suspension of disbelief, but the interplay between the ark ship misadventures and the gradual development of spider-society was a lot of fun.
Spider-Spoilers re The Ending
I will say I didn't exactly love that the solution was kind of just "infect the humans with the empathy virus" instead of some more nuanced diplomacy. Viewing it as a transfer of a hard-earned spider Understanding to the human race feels a little better, but still kind of unsatisfying. I'll probably go read the sequel next, as I'm pretty curious what direction the author will take. I did like seeing the cooperative hybrid expedition at the end.
Also Kern's final fate/new existence inside of a programmable ant colony reminded me a bit of Aunt Hillary from Godel, Escher, Bach. I really liked that she was able to come around and finally embrace the spiders, even if they weren't the monkeys she was fixated on for so long.
Kind of reminded me of the Foundation books a little with its big time jumps and following societies rising and falling.
Lots of fun.
It seems simplistic but I found it satisfying. The spiders seem to have this way of sidestepping, finding lateral shortcuts around conflict. Like forming a connection with the ants instead of trying to eliminate them. Are the ants slaves, or is it a symbiotic relationship? Kind of both and it feels almost as murky with the humans. It feels like real life biology: gross, ethically ambiguous, and impressive.
The rest of the Children series is quite good as well.
I'll say I struggled getting into the second book and haven't reattempted it. I don't know why, but it didn't grab me as well as the first. I may be an outlier though
The second and third are both a bit different from the first, and from each other for that matter, but it is worth pulling through as they get pretty great and interesting by the end.
That's fair, I may try to give it another shot in the future, I really enjoyed the first one but I have struggled with some of Tchaikovsky's other books too.
I just finished the 4th one.
1 and 2, I absolutely love. I think the second was almost as good as the first. The nod thing was scary and fun at the same time (adventure!).
The 3rd had some good parts, like the crows. But the middle felt like a pointless slog. If half of that book in the middle had been cut down to a single chapter I would have probably liked it more.
The 4th one was better than 3rd. but still slow at times. The boring part of the 3rd book
Isn't as much a part of the 4th. but it was still there and I felt like it made a slow start.
I'm at 29% of Parade of Horribles, the 8th DCC book. It's ok so far and I'm sure it will pick up later.
But I was a little bored and I couldn't stop thinking about "the Diamond Age" the past few days. So now I'm reading that again for the 3rd or 4th time. It's been many years since my last read.
We'll see if I jump back and forth or what. They are very different styles so sometimes it's nice to have options.
I found Parade of Horribles to be a little slow at the start as well but it definitely does pick up.
Finally got around to having my IRL book club meeting, it went great! We did it outside picnic style on Memorial day, packed some beers, and actually ending up talking about the book for quite a while! As I said before, it was the first book of the Bobiverse. Most of us did not care much for it, me included, but I'm glad everyone was invested enough to have a discussion, and I look forward to our future meetings. As for the book itself, my main issue was a lot of the humor did not land for me. Felt very Reddit/nerd humor which is not something that works so well for me anymore. If I'd read this in middle or high school I think it would have clicked a lot better with my personality at that time. I thought the ideas and plot were fine, but I feel I had seen those ideas explored in better ways before.
I also read The King's General, by Daphne du Maurier. This is sort of a Gothic romance set during the English Civil War. Just like with Rebecca, du Maurier does a great job of selling the appeal of a romance with a total bastard, in this case Sir Richard Grenvile, the titular king's general. He does many terrible things throughout the novel, but he's also very charismatic and entertaining in his own way. Unlike in Rebecca, the narrator has a considerable amount of agency, despite being confined to a wheelchair for the majority of the novel. The English Civil War is a fascinating period of history, and there was clearly a lot of research done to capture the setting. Would recommend!
Now I am about halfway through Molloy, by Samuel Beckett. I have previously read a lot of his short stories, and this book resembles the stories of his I enjoyed the most. A narrator with a very strange perspective on everything that happens to him, interacting with the world as his body decays and seemingly with little understanding about what is going on. Like his other stories I've read it is very funny, and I look forward to the second half which features a different narrator.
Sixty Days and Counting by Kim Stanley Robinson. He's a lovely writer and this is a bit different from his space-based sf; it's set in almost-contemporary near-future USA, addressing global warming and its remediation. A great read which I'm enjoying; to my mind his best book so far.
This Goodreads page (loathsome Amazon!) is a poor description of Robinson's simple, elegant writing and clear, generous story.
I'm on Bobiverse volume 5. This has been the most fascinating series. I'll be sad when I'm done with it.
I only read up through the end of book 3. I thought it was over and didn't even realize there were two more books; it really felt like the end of a trilogy. And looking at the published dates, they weren't out when I finished the third book.
I guess I've got some more books to pick up.
The Signed Box Set you can buy on the author's page is indeed a trilogy. The books do take a somewhat different direction after book 3 (or, really, do they?), but they're none the worse for that.
I only have 350 pages left and I'm going on holiday in a few days :( What to do
Doesn't leave me much time to find my next book. That usually takes weeks of effort. Maybe get his Quantum Earth series.
I'm most of the way through Solaris (audiobook) and have barely started in on DCC #7 and Children of Ruin (book 2).
I was at my parent's house last week and while browsing through my old books from college I came across Don DeLillo's Mao II. It was a book that I was assigned to read as a naive and arrogant 19 year old STEM major. Resentful that I was being forced to take an English class for my liberal arts degree, I only just skimmed it and cranked out a barely passable generic paper. But it caught my eye this time so I decided to give it another shot. It has been a very interesting read exploring themes of mass belief, isolation, terrorism, and the vanishing role of the writer as a force for cultural impact. I haven't finished it yet, but I will definitely be looking to read more DeLillo after I do.
I haven't read as much during the last two weeks, in part due to juggling sick kids, sick me, and team members being out at work during some major incidents. I also figured I'd stop including books I'm not making progress on until I start picking them up again since it inflates the list for the time being, unless they were ones being read during the last list.
I did find out that I am able to read at a decent speed on my phone in split-screen mode while also doing agility in Old School Rune Scape. Not sure if I'll get another bond soon, but It was fun doing both at once.
Finished:
Under the Eagle by Simon Scarrow is a story about the roman empire during Claudias' reign following a young man who has been granted his freedom through joining the 2nd Legion. This was a very enjoyable read. Quick with a good amount of actions
Eternity Road by Jack McDevitt released in 1997 - The story follows an expedition in post apocalyptic world to find a mythical location that was used to store and preserve knowledge/history of the pre-apocalypse world. I thought it was a great read and it is also interesting in that it gets a mild "retro" futurism thrown in as the apocalypse takes place in the 2200's so we have some predictions on what technology would be like in the form of surviving technology.
Mountain Man by Keith C. Blackmore released in 2011 - A zombie novel that follows a more average joe character (main character was a house painter) starting 2 years after a zombie break out has destroyed the modern world. He found an off the grid house with a wall outside of the smaller city in Canada where he lived after things broke out and has been living there and scavenging that city to help him stockpile food before the Canadian winters kick in. From what I've gathered it takes place in a near future (at the time of release) sometime in the late 2020s.
This was a shorter novel that was quick to read through. I enjoy zombie books occasionally and this was nice having it follow someone who wasn't currently/previously a member of the armed forces. The main character drinks a very unhealthy amount of alcohol to cope with the zombies and his experiences.
Progress made
The Fellowship of the Ring - Read a few pages but haven't had that point where it hooks me and I start reading several chapters, but as always with The Lord of the Rings I read in spurts when the mood takes me
The Silmarillion - I managed to read the first couple of pages, but it is harder for me to find time to sit down and just read my physical copy so this is probably going to take me awhile to read.
I've been working through the Legacy of the Force series. I just finished Sacrifice and am now on Inferno. I knew where
Spoiler
JacenSpoiler
MaraI'm definitely starting to look at ebay listings of Fate. Sucks knowing that after Fate it's over (minus that one comic series), fuck Disney. I gave in and bought a lot of assorted earlier books - though I've totally lost track of which ones I listened to on audiobook previously (other than the really good ones like Bane and really bad ones like Shatterpoint).
The Book of New Sun by Gene Wolfe might be my best read this year. It has so many layers, and it tests my mind to notice inconsistencies.