What are you reading these days?

Re-reading A Wizard of Earthsea, still working through Children of Virtue and Vengeance, though I'm having trouble focusing on either -- not bc of them, but I've not been able to focus on reading much lately.

I'm also on Manga Guide to Databases and reading a lot of blogposts, etc. about Emacs.

These days I'm really drawn to the cyberpunk genre. I finished reading Neuromancer for the second time a few weeks ago and just started to read Akira. Still at the first volume.

Speeding through Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang. I had previously read the titular story (and seen Arrival), but the rest are just as good. I got a copy of Exhalation as well so I’ll probably just read that next. I’ve been on a huge kick this month, I think this is my sixth book just this month. Feels great to be reading more.

• İlber Ortaylı Zaman Kaybolmaz: A heavy book full of dialogs (like conservation. idk true word.), about life of İlber Ortaylı, famous turkish historican. Very bilaterally for me.
• Supersimetri, Gordon Kane: Book about modern physic, quantum, standart model and of course supersimetri. I doesnt understand too much. Little bit complex for peoples like me.
• Anatomy 101, Kevın Langford: I start reading for this for my possible education in biomedical engineering. Warp-up for university.

I decided July is going to be the month i clean up my kindle a bit and read things that i started but never finished for whatever reason.

The Camp of the Saints. Jean Raspail. How to write anything on this book... It was well written, the racism was everything people claim and yet it's hyperbole lost any power the racism might have had to the reader. If you can handle the well known racism its worth a read.

The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus. I dont have the patience for this type of philosophy and/or i wasnt in the mood. I finished the last 20 pages or so but absorbed very little.

Inside Iran: The Real History and Politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran by Medea Benjamin. Poor book on Iran. Felt like a collection of generic articles written by someone who went on holiday somewhere once rather than what the name suggests. Its the sort of book someone with no knowledge on Iran reads and then uses their new found knowledge to have arguments online.

The Mongols and the Islamic world. by Peter Jackson. Great book. I love the mongols, there was a period a 6-7 years back when i devoured everything mongols. This book is up there with the best of them. Scholarly but readable, it covers everything from conquest to religion to trade without feeling like it is glancing over any of the subject. . If you are interested in the Islamic world or the Mongols this is a must read.

I finally finished "Dune"! Yay...

Now I'm onto a crappy sci-fi called "Ghost Brigades," the sequel to "Old Man's War." It's entertaining, but definitely not deep in any way like Dune was/is. I could use some more serious sci-fi recommendations for when the local library opens up again.

Also, due to that local library being closed, I did try out an audio book for the first time. I listened to "Boom Town," the story of the city where I grew up. I loved it, but I wonder how the book is for someone who isn't from Oklahoma City. Anyone else read/listed to it?

Deception Point (Audiobook, Norwegian translation)

I was going for a long drive, so I looked through mom's audiobook CDs and picked the one that looked the most interesting. The only Dan Brown novel I've read previously was The Da Vinci Code back when it was all the rage, which I really enjoyed. This one; not so much.

Early in the book we're told NASA has found an object in the Arctic ice that will more or less turn everything upside down. There's a lot of secrecy around it, but the president of the USA is preparing a televised speech, which he is sure will secure his struggling re-election campaign.

Most of the characters are fine, and I love to hate the main antagonist. The mystery is intriguing. My main problem with the book is the pacing. I think it could have been a solid book if it was condensed into maybe half its current length; it just spends way too many words to get to the point. There's actually a scene fairly early in the book (on the 3rd disk, if I recall correctly) where the main protagonist is listening to a long-winded scientific explanation, and the narrator explains how exasperated she is that the scientist can't get to the point, and I think it makes for an excellent analogy for this whole book.

I haven't finished it, and probably never will, though I am still curious about the central mystery. Maybe I'll read some spoilers online, so I can put it to rest.

Outer Darkness volume 1 (comic)

As a contrast to Deception Point, this sci-fi/horror comic got straight to the point and sucked me in from the first page. It follows a down on his luck spaceship captain who is given command of the human navy's best ship for a dangerous and mysterious mission. The ship's colourful crew includes exorcists and quantum-mathematicians from a variety of alien species, who help protect the ship and its crew from the ghosts and demons that inhabit our galaxy.

I love both the cast and the world-building, so after finishing volume 1 I'm now really looking forward to reading more. It's possibly the best comic I've read this year. The writer also worked on Chew, which I haven't read but now plan to check out.

• The Evolving Self: A Psychology for the Third Millennium, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
• WTF?: What's the Future and Why It's Up to Us, Tim O'Reilly
• Grave Peril, Jim Butcher
• Mars by 1980: The Story of Electronic Music, David Stubbs

The Quantum Magician, and other spec fic scifi

I started the Foundation Series by Asimov, but couldn't really get into it. So I just finished The BrainTrust by Marc Stiegler and started the second volume this morning. I'm also listening to the third Lady Astronaut book The Relentless Moon, by Mary Robinette Kowal which is every bit as good as the first two books