So, What Are You Reading?

Do audiobooks count? Literature without pictures can't hold my attention.

I've been listening to Atomic Habits by James Clear. Its arguments and explanations have been very helpful and intriguing.

EDIT: Gosh, this is a weird page topper.

Edited by ChicoTheParakeet on Aug 23rd 2023 at 9:39:24 AM

If audiobooks don't count, I suspect this thread would be even more dead.

I'm listening to the latest Dungeon Crawler Carl, which is a masterpiece.

I'm currently reading

-The Red Knight

-The Model Student

-Shorefall (Foundryside book 2)

-Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder

-The Inhumans comic book by Grant Morrison

Finished Legend of the Condor Heroes: A Bond Undone (translated by Gigi Chang). An expansion on Jin Yong's kung fu mythos in a character-based direction, which was highly enjoyable as they begin to enter a more colorful oeuvre of kung fu fighting. The pacing is wack at the start but finds its groove by the middle.

Have started its followup, A Snake Lies Waiting (translated by Chang and Anna Holmwood). Even more bonkers than the last, if that were somehow possible.

Reread Good Omens in light of the new tv season to refresh myself. A seminal classic from both writers that was lightning in a bottle. GNU Terry Pratchett.

Reread Lovecraft Country because why not. It's a pulpy intersection between social realism and sinister magic, it's definitely preferable to the show, which wow that's a whole another can of worms.

Read Men of Tomorrow by Gerald Jones. A gripping chronicle of the various figures involved in DC's early creation, though with a very apparent slant towards the history of Superman. It loses steam by the final quarter, but I find that justifiable since its base premise was examining how the mob, businessmen, and creators came together to make comics a viable market, and it lost one part of that vital formula to keep it going.

Reading Tristan and Iseult (Gottfried von Strassburg's version, translated by AT Hatto) because I'm in the mood to read some classic literature. What gets me is how timeless the passion and intense human emotions of love and despair feel, as deftly conveyed by Strassburg and his translator of centuries later, even now.

Hmm...just to be on the safe side, do non-fiction books count?

I'd say yes.

All righty then!

Very recently finished:

Toutes les mathématiques du monde, or Every Math in the World by Hervé Lehning.

Carrier Combat, by Frederick Mears.

Currently reading:

When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler, by David M. Glantz - Quite possibly the single best overview of World War II's the Eastern Front.

Political Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction, by David Miller - Self explanatory, and how odd that both of them has same first name.

Edited by dRoy on Feb 4th 2024 at 8:51:20 PM

Currently halfway through Mick Herron's The Secret Hours.

Supposedly a standalone novel about a British government investigation into secret service misconduct. A deliberate lame duck effort that shouldn't have the power to find anything incriminating. But somehow does.

...at which point someone urgently (and violently) tries to deal with loose ends from a 1990s operation that ended badly.

I say "supposedly" a standalone, because it's clearly part of The 'Verse alongside Slow Horses and Herron's other spy books. He's just keeping those characters (mostly) offstage.

Very Recently Finished:

When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler, by David M. Glantz

Political Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction, by David Miller

Currently Reading:

Adolf Hitler: The Definitive Biography, by John Toland

Everyday Calculus: Discovering the Hidden Math All Around Us, by Oscar Fernandez

Edited by dRoy on Sep 22nd 2023 at 11:02:35 PM

Currently Reading: Stalingrad, a book by Antony Beevor narrating the Battle of Stalingrad, aka THE single deadliest battle in human history.

Stuff I've read since I last posted, sorted from least to most favorite: Red Dress in Black and White by Elliot Ackerman, "Young Zaphod Plays It Safe" by Douglas Adams, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish by Douglas Adams, Mostly Harmless by Douglas Adams, The Leper's Return by Michael Jecks, Wages of Sin by Penelope Williamson, Arcadia by Lauren Groff, The Heist by Daniel Silva, Black Coffee (novelization) by Agatha Christie and Charles Osborne, Child of Light by Terry Brooks, Naamah's Curse by Jacqueline Carey, A Forest of Stars by Kevin J. Anderson, Hidden Empire by Kevin J. Anderson, Carrie Soto Is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid, and The Bullet That Missed by Richard Osman

Also read A Hundred Things Japanese by Japan Culture Institute, a collection of one hundred short essays.

Currently reading: Horizon Storms by Kevin J. Anderson

I decided to start over with reading The Bonfire of the Vanities, but either I find the book boring due to each chapters length (despite its interesting writing style) or I'm suffering from readers block. Probably the latter.

Very Recently Finished: Adam Smith - A Primer by Eamonn Butler, which is basically a short introduction to Adam Smith's works and ideas.

Currently Reading:

Stalingrad, by Antony Beevor

Adolf Hitler - A Definitive Biography Part 2, by John Toland (I should really finish this already...)

The Maths of Life and Death, by Kit Yates

Finished Jin Yong's third book in the Condor Heroes saga. Some of the most galaxy brain plotting set to a still inimitably enjoyable cast, so I'd say it's a net positive all things considered.

Read Mario Puzo's The Godfather. Coppola's introduction in the anniversary edition that I read called it a pot-boiler with a potential epic lying underneath, all things considered, this is a ruthlessly accurate assessment. Puzo's strong character writing is put up against his awful pacing (so, so many backstory dumps up to the last chapter) and bizarre plot beats (Lucy iykyk) for a lopsided reading experience. It's still a compelling read in spite of everything (the Apollonia chapters made me want to throw the book).

Read Sikandar Chowk Park by Neelum Saran Gour. A fascinating character drama in India as the narrator muses on everyone's predetermined death in the titular park as their lives slowly meander their way to their end, all with the backdrop of various Indian societal conflicts. The ending is surprisingly pessimistic, but the emotional character beats are strong. A particular highlight was a wife and her alcoholic husband crying together as she realize he's relapsed in spite of all her attempts to care for him when he had a liver failure, it's some powerful stuff.

Still making my way through Tristan and Iseult. It's fun to see how Iseult slowly catches up with the plot and goes through the five stages of grief next to a bathtub in ten minutes.

Rereading Emma, my personal favorite Austen book as it's been a while since my last read.

I've changed jobs recently and has now something like 1h to 1h30 of train every day, so I've decided to go through my rather massive backlog. Almost exclusively horror and fantasy books.

Right now I'm going through an anthology compiling every single Edgar Allan Poe's short stories ; and as it's a old french edition, it's the translation by famous poet Charles Baudelaire. The Raven apparently isn't included though, which surprises me.

Finished reading The Maths of Life and Death, by Kit Yates.

Now started reading THE DRUNKARD'S WALK: How Randomness Rules Our Lives, by Lenoard Mlodinov.

Been trying to read Hummingbird Salamander by Jeff Vandermeer, and I’m finally almost done.

It’s about an average woman who becomes entangled in the remnants of an eco-terrorist, and soon has people coming after her. A great slow-burn thriller with the hanging threads of climate change and whether or not we have free will over our modern lives. I haven’t read any of Vandermeer’s stuff before this (except Annihilation’s film adaptation), but this is really good existential conspiracy stuff.

Edited by CanuckMcDuck1 on Nov 9th 2023 at 9:25:56 AM

Just finished the second book of Warformed Stormweaver, which came out a few days ago. Very good, takes all the set-up of the first book and runs with it. Also confirms that Rei's S-ranked Growth is leaking to his friends, so they can keep up with him.

I haven't read it yet, but that spoiler makes a lot of sense.

I was really wondering how everyone else would keep up after the end of Book 1, where it was clear Rei was going to basically be impossible to keep up with.

I read Wakespire by Sarah Lin last week, which I really enjoyed. Amongst that type of book I think she's definitely an author who is a cut above the rest.

I've also been trying to finish off a few books I started in the past year but got distracted from for one reason or another.

I picked up Queen of Coin and Whispers again which I've really been enjoying a lot. I'm also halfway though Saint Death's Daughter which, while good, is something I'm just not really gelling with unfortunately. I'll finish it though.

Edited by 32ndfreeze on Nov 12th 2023 at 12:14:25 AM

I'm always reading and rereading multiple books at a time, so instead of listing absolutely everything I'll post some highlights...?

Starting around the end of summer and ending last month, I read Elaine Cunningham's Songs and Swords series for the first time. First time I've read anything written by her, and now I want to read more of her DND books. Really like how she writes characters. Wish the final book for Songs and Swords could have been finished, but ah well.

Tracked down a copy of The Best of the Realms III, which I'll start reading soon. I bought this one for a specific story, but the collector in me wants the other two volumes now...

Also started rereading October Daye by Seanan Mc Guire from the beginning, because when I started reading the books I only got to 5 or 6, and that was awhile ago, so why not start over? Seanan is honestly one of my favorite authors. My mind really clicks with her writing style.

Looking forward to the next Murderbot, too. I'm on a "fantasy genre only" rule right now for Na No Wri Mo (I'm writing fantasy for it), so I'll have to wait until December for that one.

Currently reading: ...Too many to count, embarrassingly enough, even though at least 7 of them are for my current webnovel writing job.

Finished reading:

Capitalism: A Very Short Introduction, by James Fulcher.

The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives, by Leonard Mlodinow

Started reading: The Republic, by Plato. Yes, the OG of the philosophy works.

Just finished Kitty Cat Kill Sat, and it was beautiful. Basically, an immortal cat is stuck on a heavily armed space station, so she tries to blow up threats on the surface below her. Unfortunately, she doesn't have thumbs. Or a voice.

.....PHHHHHHHFFFFFF

Okay, I HAVE to read that one once I'm done through most of my reading backlog.

So, since my last post, I've read two anthologies. The first was called "l'o10sée", and is a collection of short stories interspaced with a few columns where some authors talk about their favourite SF novels, which was put together to celebrate the 10th anniversary of a french line of books called Folio SF. The other was an anthology of Robert Silverberg short stories called Trips.

And I'm currently reading Clive Barker's Imajica. So far it's... Really freaking weird.

Finished reading:

• The Republic, by Plato.
• (An abridged version of) Nicomachean Ethics, by Aristotle
• Seven Brief Lessons on Physics, by Carlo Rovelli
• Nature's Numbers: The Unreal Reality Of Mathematics, by Ian Stewart
• How Fascism Works, by Jason Stanley

Currently reading: Literary Theory: A Very Short Introduction, by Jonathan Culler

And hoo boy, the Fascism one was...very heavy and had a lot to unpack.

Edited by dRoy on Dec 7th 2023 at 8:28:10 PM