Started Fated by Benedict Jacka, first book in his urban fantasy series Alex Verus.
What about all of you? What have you all been reading or listening to lately?
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I just finished a concise bio of Napoleon by David A. Bell. Now I’m reading The Wine Bible. The real doozy was a couple weeks ago when I read The Death of Ivan Ilyich in one sitting. As someone of middle age, boy that hits different than it would have 10 years ago. An axe for the frozen sea within us, indeed.
I’m about to start my first read of Moby Dick. Currently reading the LOTR books.
I finished “The Diamond Age” by Neal Stephenson and “Hail Mary” by Andy Weir, now I’m working on “Ulysses” by James Joyce.
And just… holy shit, how much more remarkably difficult it is to read Ulysses as opposed to the other two. The Diamond Age is a good bit of sci-fi, if a little dense, while Hail Mary felt like reading a childrens story for how easy it was. Now Ulysses is so massively dense, with no quotation marks, constantly referencing Shakespeare, speaking in 4 different languages thus far, while ricocheting from thought to thought, scene to scene like a bullet fired inside a closed metal chamber. It’s a massive shift.
Picked up Marina by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, good read so far!
Bridges his YA fiction with his adult works.
Re-reading Frankl’s “Man’s search for meaning”.
Just finished the farseer trilogy, part of the realm of the enderlings by robin hobb. Started the livetrader trilogy which is next in line and I had to drop it.
Book 3 of the farseer trilogy really becomes insufferable, made me hate the main character, and has an unsatisfactory ending. And the amount of sexual assault /rape in the books skyrockets to a degree that makes the act feel trival. I had to drop the first book of the next series a couple chapters in when a character thinks about his sexual assault as a minor paragraphs after meeting him.
SA isnt a deal breaker for me, especially in fantasy. Ive read a song of ice and fire. But I dont like how trivialized it is, and that combined with what a miserable character Fitz becomes I just decided i didnt want to go through it again. So now I’ll need to find something else to read.
The SA of the character(s) in Liveship do end up being important to the story, but it’s definitely not easy to read about. The characters in Liveship are all somewhat insufferable, too, but a lot of them grow through the series.
The whole realm of the farseer collection don’t get… Better. I loved them all, but they were kinda depressing all the way through. If you didn’t like the first trilogy I don’t think you will find any redemption in the rest of the books.
I once read (so this is secondhand for sure) that Hobb spoke about having main characters have bad things happen to them so that folks who’ve endured such atrocities in real life can have a hero that reminds them of themselves. And I’m paraphrasing the paraphrasing, and this is going back in my memory as it’s been a while since I read it.
The series definitely isn’t one where books end and you feel cherry, generally. Half the series focuses on Fitz, and you basically watch his entire life, and he’s far from perfect.
There’s sixteen books, and Hobb squeezes the story out of all of them.
Still working on A Memory of Light by Brandon Sanderson. After having complained of the slow pacing of the books, it feels weird to say the final book moves too fast in the beginning. It has since settled in to a more reasonable pace though, so that’s okay.
I would love to hear what you think about the ending.
Have been working my way through debt by david graber, and waiting for an order of books that should have arrived a month ago.
Pretty interesting book about the creation of debt and money, though i feel at times it requires a baseline knowledge in both economics and the english language i dont quite possessCurrently reading Carl Jung’s Answer to Job. It has been extremely fascinating.
Currently reading The Jennifer Morgue by Charles Stross. I picked up a hardbound collection called OnHer Majesty’s Occult Service that had The Atrocity Archive and Jennifer Morgue in one. I read AA years ago, so this has been fun.
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro. Wasn’t my initial planned read after previous book, however, I realized the movie is coming out this week. It’s my first novel by him, I’ve been blown away as it’s so lovely and poignant with a dash of cheekiness in regards to the human experience. So happy I started it, as I’m enjoying it more since my last two reads were disappointments.
On the non-fiction side, I’m reading Designing for the Digital Age by Kim Goodwin. Another title I’ve discovered through the author Erika Hall, who ascribes the book as an essential read – of which I can see why. It’s a masterclass of a book, despite it being published in 2009, the info I’ve read so far is evergreen (irrespective of AI “hype” of today).
I’m finishing Snow Crash and Will start Do androids dream of electric sheep? Afterwards
I started October Film Haunt by Michael Wehunt. I’m about 15% into it, and it’s alright so far.
I’m reading Sharp Ends by Joe Abercrombie. Each time I move to a new section in the book, I feel like I missed reading something else, and need to remind myself that’s how this book is. I’m enjoying it filling in some gaps in knowledge and basically reliving scenes from completely different perspectives. First Law is a great world that he’s built.
And listening to This Inevitable Ruin, book 7 in DCC. Feels like chaos at times, as the books tend towards more and more. I sometimes feel like it’s too big. Still very much enjoy it, although it feels like information overload.
Finished Implacable by Jack Campbell and Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey.
I’m in the middle of Galactic Patrol by “Doc” Smith and The White Dragon by Anne McCaffrey.
Coming soon from the library: I have The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and Dragondrums by Anne McCaffrey on hold!
