What book(s) are you currently reading or listening to? April 14
2mon 4d ago by discuss.online/u/dresden in books
Another week where I didn't get to read anything.
What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening to lately?
For details on the c/Books Bingo, check the Midpoint check-in post.
If there is another book that's more aligned with fediverse values, I'm not sure what that is.
Yeah, it's a fediverse favourite.
The Faith of Beasts!! Just showed up on my doorstep.
It’s book 2 of The Captives War from James S.A. Corey, same author(s) as The Expanse. One is George R.R Martins understudy.
It’ll help keep my mind off my mothers death.
My guy, I’m sorry for your loss.
Thank you, it’s just life though.
Loved the first book, but the short story that came out after it made me mad. I really hope it didn't spoil the identity of the great enemy.
They show them on the cover art from the polish edition of the first book, it jives with the short story.
Tap for spoiler
Aren't the main characters of the short story
Spoiler
just humans?
It seemed to me that they were the enemy the conquerers are scared of. The huge mystery that the first book ended with appeared to be resolved right there.
Reading: The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England
Listening to: The Eye of the Bedlam Bride
"People have bones for a reason, Carl"
Enjoy the book!
I just started book 6 too!
I enjoyed the Wizard's Handbook. I kinda want more stories written in that world.
Bit of a slow year for me, but currently reading Eric by Terry Pratchett.
I'm reading Dungeon Crawler Carl and listening to the complete Sherlock Holmes (I have no idea what's going on in the latter, I keep falling asleep).
I hope you find the time to read soon, OP.
I'm reading Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. I think I read this for school a long time ago. Good book.
Sure is. Read it for the first time about 2 years ago. Feel like I can taste that world. Really enjoyed it.
Oh awesome! I own this book and have not read it, it’s on my list to read this year.
Thanks! Things have started to settle a bit, hopefully everything will be sorted out soon.
I'm reading The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune. This covers my last bingo square: Cozy. I'm still early on but I'm really enjoying it so far. It's fun, not too serious, and exactly what I need right now.
I finished There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm last night. While the science fiction was cool, I had some difficulty because the timelines appeared to be jumping around. I guess it was thematic in the sense that our memories are/were incomplete similar to how a character might experience them in-story. I don’t read a whole lot of cosmic horror stuff, so the grandness of some of the descriptions felt different as though I were watching someone else play Shadow of the Colossus.
I’ve had 1Q84, Book 3 sitting on my desk begging and taunting me to finish it, so I might just get to that once and for all.
I also just read There Is No Antimemetics Divison and absolutely loved it. I get what you mean about the timelines but as an avid SCP content consumer I was pretty comfortable with it. It's worth noting that the book is pretty much a compilation of what was originally a more serial publication so that probably contributed to the breaks.
Hold up. There’s more SCP content? Is there prerequisite reading that would’ve helped the story make more sense for me?
Oh boy, you're in for a ride if you choose to go down this road lol. So the SCP Foundation is a wiki style serial and collaborative writing project that has been going strong since 2008. It's a sort of spinoff of the creepypasta genre of web serial work that has a semi-codified structure. There are tens of thousands of entries at this point and the range of topics and styles is immense. There are some authors that have done far more work than others and have a sort of established mini-lore canonization that sometimes conflicts with other authors and sometimes fits nicely within them. It's a true grab-bag of content so it's hard to say where to begin but memtics and anti-memetics play an ENORMOUS role in many many many of the stories and concepts. edit: when this book was published as a book, they kind of changed some things around so it isnt technically part of the foundation, hence why they say "the organization" instead
FURTHER EDIT (sorry not sorry): here is a link to an entry by qntm that serves as a basis for the beginning of what became the book, but in true SCP format meaning it is written as an entry in a government style database and follows the established format of first discussing the Special Containment Procedures of the Keter class entity. SCP-055
That’s so interesting that the lore is created by a community, but even moreso that someone can actually author a work based on their contribution! Pretty interesting to see how far apart the first and last entries of the story were published. This is a rabbit hole I think I am ok skipping for now lol
When the Moon Hits Your Eye - John Scalzi
Thr Fifth Elephant - Terry Pratchett
And re-listening through the Dungeon Crawler Carl series in anticipation of the new book releasing May 12
Reading "Mansfield Park" by Jane Austen ! I'm going through everything she's written, I finished Pride & Prejudice a few weeks ago and I just got this one !
Oh no, more time without reading for you :(
I'm still working my way through "The Remaining" books. I finished book 4 yesterday and then did the two nouvellas today that sit in the middle, then straight away started book 5.
To begin with I enjoyed it but thought it was a bit mid, I didn't really like the hooraaa, US of A patriots vibe that I thought was going to be a lot more prominent throughout to begin with. Thankfully as it has gone on it hasn't been too heavy with that shit, a little bit of flag worship or how this country used to be so great bits here and there but I have found that it is easy to ignore and the story going on has been worthwhile to ignore that stuff.
I think I realised I was enjoying it more than I thought i was when I got a bit choked up at the scene where his dog was trapped up on the roof of a building and he was struggling through bouts of unconsciousness trying to get back to the dog and I really felt the emotion in that. And I'm a cat person!
So yeh, looking forward to continuing these books!
The Remaining is on of my favorite series! I've read the first 6 books at least 3 times each, and then reread the second set of 6, plus the 4 add on novels after that. I love me some post apoc fiction. Also, DJ Molles finds a nice way to make the characters a little more introspective than other series do, which I appreciate. Hope you stick with them!
Oh yeh, I love some post apocalyptic stuff too, I mean I'm nearly 200 books deep into the Deathlands series of books which says it all really xD
I will definitely stick with it for a while, my list only has 11 books on it though including the two novellas trust and faith. I know there is another series of books about Lee that I haven't looked into yet, I was going to see how I felt at the end to see if I wanted to pick those up.
I haven't heard of Deathlands before. 200 books might be a bit beyond my attention span haha. As for the Remaining, there are the 6 books, 2 novellas, the prequel (Project Hometown), then the follow on Lee Harden series that has 6 numbered books and 4 other novels interspersed in the timeline.
The official list is here. Enjoy!
Nice, thanks for the info and link, would you recommend the Lee Harden series as well?
And I don't blame you on Deathlands, I think the mainline books are up to ~165 or so, I completed one spin off that only has 5 books and I'm on about book 10 of 50 of a different spin off and I love it, just been taking a break with some other things as it has Ben around 2 years of constant Deathlands for me to get to the point I'm at xD
It has a lull in the middle where it isn't as good but it picks back up towards the end. All of the books are some what stand alone stories following the same characters with a pretty loose over arching narrative. The low in the middle are pretty much only connected by the characters and the books sit as standalone stories and I think that's one reason I liked it less at that point.
Yes, reading the Lee Harden series will wrap up the overall storyline. The Remaining series doesn't end on a cliffhanger or anything, but the next series evolves it further.
Ah OK, nice! Thanks :D
Ooh nice. May add it to my list.
And yeah, hopefully will get back to reading soon.
Currently rereading the "Children of Time"-Series by Adrian Tchaikovsky because the fourth book was just released and I really like to experience the first three again.
I'm a sucker for good Sciency Science Fiction and this series ticks practically all boxes of my special interests.
Also listening to the Warhammer 40k Series "Ciaphas Cain" by Sandy Mitchell, because it's funny and relaxing.
Also listening to "Sourcery" by Terry Pratchett on my way through the Discworld Series (again)
Highly recommend people to read the children of time series
Currently listening to the fourth book
AT is one my favorite contemporary authors, prolific af. While I adore and appreciate CoT series, my favorite series of his is The Final Architecture. Dogs of War is also fantastic.
Reading "Venomous Lumpsucker" by Ned Beauman. I'm about 50% through and I like it.
We’ve got some big projects happening with work that are all coming due at the same time, so I haven’t been doing much reading. I am listening in small bursts to This Inevitable Ruin (Dungeon Crawler Carl) to prep for the book release in May and getting ready for Bingo to start back up on May 1st.
I hope people will be able to join us again! If you have questions, please feel free to ask.
Argh! I still have covered many boxes but still no Bingo. Was hoping to go for specific boxes in last couple of months, but didn't even get time to read.
That’s frustrating. I do really appreciate you participating with us and all your help that goes into it.
Yeah, I am going to see if I can cheat. I have quite a few kids' books which are very quick to read. I don't read most of them, but do check out a few now and then to discuss them and understand how their tastes are changing. 😀 Let's see if there are any that can get me Bingo!
I'm re-reading the Incarnations of Immortality septology by Piers Anthony. I read them originally as they came out, and I remembered having enjoyed them quite a lot. Upon a re-read, they're not as good as I remembered though certainly not bad. They're also quite a bit more dated than I recalled, but I suppose they weren't at the time of their release. Also IoI is one of Anthony's series with the least amount of his weirdness in it, but it's definitely there.
I also learned that he released the eighth novel in the series in 2007, but reviews are not encouraging so I'll be skipping that one.
This may not qualify as currently reading - however I just finished Nobody’s Girl by Virginia Roberts Giuffre yesterday. Fantastic and difficult (emotionally) read. Really connects the dots and gives an inside look into Epstein’s world as well as an incredible story of survival and self-empowerment.
I’m also re-reading 1984 by George Orwell. I read it for the first time ~15 years ago and it terrified me, now it’s terrifying in a whole new way.
Gonna need a lighthearted read after this.
As always, I've been keeping up with The Wandering Inn, reading the newest chapters as they drop on the website. Other than that I have a a good 8-9 smaller reads on RoyalRoad that I read ongoing as soon as chapters drop. Unfortunately I haven't had the time or mental capacity to continue my "real" (aka physical) book
I'm reading Inhibitor Phase by Alastair Reynolds. Nearly done with the series. I'm enjoying how the books jump around in time, space, and genre while all living in a basic rule space. Kind of like a less scattered Cosmere.
Excellent book! It wasn't my favorite of the Rev Space stuff but it was still very Reynolds and I can never get enough Clavain so I really enjoyed it.
Just finished Perdido Street Station and China Mieville had moved into one of my favorite contemporary authors positions.
So good.
I decided it is time to go through Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series. This will be the sixth time for me. It is the best of the best.
I recently finished Stephen King's Dark Tower series. I have never had such a rocky reading experience. Over all I enjoyed it but it was a very mixed bag. Some of the books were just okay, one or two were excellent, and at least one was truly terrible.
I'm listening to WoT with a friend, it's my second go through. Read it first time, and reading is preference, but the narrators do a nice job, and I can't read and run.
Dark Tower has been on my list but I've never seemed to get around to it. And I've read and enjoyed some King, but I have also not enjoyed some.
Michael Kramer and Kate Reading are pretty much the gold standard in the industry. Kramer is still kind of finding his voice for the first few books though
Half way through This Inevitable Ruin, Matt Dinniman, and loving it as all the others.
Listing to Foundryside, Robert Jackson Bennett, which is a cool concept but I'm struggling with the narration of the audiobook. Good enough to keep at it though! Would recommend it in another medium :D.
Just finished re-reading A Clash of Kings by G.R.R. Martin (A Song of Ice and Fire 2). It's a very cool book, but I didn't find it quite as consistently gripping as the first one. The first just has such incredible pacing imo.
Next one up is Caliban's War by James Corey (The Expanse 2). I have seen the TV show, and really liked the first book as well.
So do you not just blast through the series? Very interesting.
I'm on whatever book six is of the expanse, and probably gonna call it there. I won't take up ASoIaF due to its incomplete nature. I am a start-to-finish reader, whether it's just a few books or Realm of the Elderlings.
It's kinda like TV shows, I've had a few that I start while they're still airing, and when the next season comes out I find myself completely lost. Gotta stay fresh.
Hmm, no, I have been alternating a bit between different series and different books. I'm not really a "binger" anymore, I kinda prefer to let books "settle" a bit before I go on to the next one I think. I might continue with the 3rd right after, or there is something else I'd rather read first, who knows. It is only a matter of what I feel like reading then and there.
With TV shows I am a big fan of the weekly episodes that many people seem to despise. I love the anticipation and community discussions in the weeks between episodes.
I get not wanting to start ASoIaF, I probably wouldn't too considering I doubt he will ever finish it, although I think the publisher will probably get someone else to finish it at some point. For me it was kinda a nostalgia thing, as I read them way back and was curious how they would hold up now.
I'm almost done with Sadomasochism and the BDSM Community in the United States by Stephen K. Stein.
Recently got to intermediate level with studying Japanese myself for fun, so I've been reading 「魔女の宅急便」aka Kiki's Delivery Service the original 1985 novel.
It's SOOO adorable OMG!!!
I'm almost at the end of The Twelves, by Justin Cronin. It's a bit more fast paced than The Passage which is the previous volume of the series that I read just before but a bit less "deep" also. Anyway, this is a very good trilogy so far, really gripping. Of course, once I finish, I will continue with The City of Mirrors.
I had my issues with the series, have read the first two, but haven't gotten around to the third yet. Not sure I want to continue.
Well, personally I'm at 30% of the third and I enjoy it. In my opinion, for what I already read, the second one is a bit behind the first and last (at least the beginning) where I really find back what I loved in the first (basically the author take time to give the context about characters in full details).
Now, if you don't enjoy, well everyone his own tastes, don't feel ashamed to not finish the series (or even a book), there are so many other books you may love, why wasting time just "to finish"...
Currently reading five books:
- Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray (it’s basically Real Housewives of Regency London. Loving it!)
- The Wings Upon Her Back by Samantha Wells (grimdark steampunk!)
- The World is Full of Divorced Women by Jackie Collins (racy 70s chick lit)
- Blue Skinned Gods by SJ Sindu (a blue boy in Tamil Nadu, India is believed to be the reincarnation of a Hindu god)
- Invisible Doctrine: The Secret History of Neoliberalism by George Monbiot & Peter Hutchison (freedom only for the rich while the rest of us are oppressed, surveilled, and exploited)
Currently reading The Will of the Many. It's very decent. Great idea well implemented.
My main gripe is the author definitely used a thesaurus too much. I'm all for uncommon vocabulary (Adrian Tchaikovsky is a master here), it just goes too far on the odd occasion.
Minor gripe though. It's very solid bedtime reading and I've enjoyed it. Nearly finished.
Stardust!
I love this book. Very unfortunate about the writer being a shit.
I'm currently reading "The Ax" by Donald Westlake. I think it was recommended in one of these threads a few months ago actually.
It's about a paper salesman who murders people with similar resumes to himself in order to open up more job opportunities for himself. Its a pretty interesting perspective on capitalism.
Awee sorry to hear you couldn't get to any reading dresden. Hopefully that changes!
I finished Player One by Douglas Coupland last week, and now felt drawn to read my first ever Terry Pratchet novel - Nation. The writing is superb; the chapter with the milk made me disgustingly laugh. Including Nation, understanding another being seems to be the core theme of my last 3 reads.
On the nonfiction side, finished Metaphors We Live By. It was a lot more academic than I was expecting, aside from that, it was a fascinating and well laid-out argument of the human thinking process based on metaphor. Now gearing up (soon) to read a folllow-up by the same authors, Philosophy in the Flesh. Also finished another one yesterday, which I didn't mention last week (as I tend to bounce between books), Introduction to Design Thinking for UX Beginners by Uijun Park - it was a good refresher and learned some new things. Today, I started The AI Mirror by Shannon Vallor, a solid intro to the subject of AI in our current time.
I'm currently reading Portrait in Sepia by Isabel Allende. I read some books by her years ago, which I loved, so when I saw this one in a tiny library, I had to take it. I'm not far in yet, but it's a great read so far.
I finished both Murder on the Orient Express and Murder on the River Nile by Agatha Christie. They were both fun and well-written, but I don't think detectives are my cup of tea. I may read some more of her work if it's snowing and I'm in front of a fireplace or something. They're cozy to read, even with all the murders taking place.
To catch a fascist by Christopher Mathias
Reading and Listening: "Chemistry 2e" Openstax
I just finished Adulthood Rites by Octavia E. Butler. It’s such a good book and the second in Lilith’s Brood (or Xenogenesis trilogy).
Finally finished Shadows Upon Time. Really enjoyed the sun eater series in the end. The first book took a bit to get past because it felt like it just was a lot of other books and movies.
Started the Gate of the Feral Gods. Book 4 in the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. Enjoying it so far but am not far in the book.
Will also probably start Project Hail Mary audiobook this week. Heard a lot of good so hope its not oversold
Currently reading Velocity Weapon by Megan E. O’Keefe. It was a little slowish to start, but the build up of the characters was important and it really takes off. I’m really enjoying this and kicking myself for not reading it sooner. Mid-book I said wtf out loud and my partner looked concerned before he realized it was because I was reading. Not the first time that’s happened, not going to be the last.
I’m sorry you didn’t get to read this week. I hope you get to soon 💚
Thanks for sharing this series on the last thread, ended up adding it to the tbr as a result!
You’re welcome! I hope you enjoy it
Birthright in the Impavidus Cycle trilogy by M A Vice. I'm a few chapters in and so far its mostly just the tragedy of a serial killer born into that role and getting headpats by his dad for murdering real good, and not having any meaningful contact with anyone else or any frame of reference for what he's doing. It reminds me of hanging with my racist family in a sad kinda way.
I just picked up a nice edition of Robin Hood by Henry Gilbert, which I'm somewhat ashamed to admit that I did not realize had been adapted from all the old ballads into an actual novel (in 1912!)
Weird Gutennberg has his King Arthur book but not this...
#currentlyReading #books #Dickens
Trudging through The Pickwick Papers and recognizing the travelogue of story form from Terry Pratchett to Don Quixote. Plots? Who needs a long plot when you can have lots of little ones?
In the audiobook, cracking up at the number of words containing "v" when Sam Wellington or his father expound on anything.
@dresden
That is Sam Weller not Wellington.
Sometimes iykyk.
Shadow and Bone series
Veeerrryyy slowly making my way through The Cadaver Client by Frank Tuttle, number 4 in a fun series about a PI in a fantasy city. It's nice and light (and very short), I just haven't been reading more than a few pages a day.
I'm reading The Wax Child by Olga Ravn for next episode of the podcast. We found out after choosing it that it was longlisted for this years Booker Prize and to be honest, I can see why, it is utterly brilliant and, as athesitic Satanists, right up our street as its a re-telling of a 17th century Danish witch-burning - based, as they all were, on bullshit, lies and the male religious zealots hatred of women. Not a happy story but it is wonderfully written.
I'm also reading Kit Whitfield's In The Heart of Hidden Things which is the second in her Gyrford Series - if you like fantasy novels set in a rural, agricultural alternative England in which the Fae are an everyday thing (not tinkerbell type faries, I mean proper morally ambiguous Gaelic/Celtic type faeries) then this series is for you.
Now reading "Newton's wake" by Ken MacLeod. Haven't read too much of it yet, but so far so good. I was previously reading "an inside job" by Daniel Silva, but I put it away. Like I mentioned last week, this series has always been very Israel-centered, but the last two books Silva is clearly ignoring the elephant in the room. He does so by pointing at several European countries. Once I noticed it while reading it, I also noticed the story was severely lacking in depth because of it, characters are very one dimensional and sometimes do very weird things just to get a plot twist going.