Had a pretty busy work week, hardly got time to read anything. So still on The Sunlit Man by Brandon Sanderson.
What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening to lately?
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Just finished Adrian Tchaikovsky’s “Service Model” after really enjoying “Children of Time.” Fun, as this was a rare book that I and my sweetheart read at the same time, so we had fun talking about it. Not mind blowing, but very fun and with a loveable main character.
I am really struggling to read Umberto Eco’s "Name of the Rose." If anyone can give me a pep talk I’d actually appreciate it, but the incredibly long introduction set me back. I’m starting to pick up some Holmes/Watson vibes which I am tentatively enjoying, but motivation is low…
Which is why I am here looking for a new book!
I just finished Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett. I really enjoyed it, and felt like it’s a big improvement over the last few books in the chronological order of the series. Deals with problematic benevolence and imposing one’s will on others, and really cemented the personalities of the Discworld’s three primary witch characters Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, and Magrat Garlick. Laughed a little too hard at Magrat reading martial arts books about the Way of the Scorpion by Grand Master Lapsong Dibbler of Ankh-Morpork.
I also recently read The Last Unicorn, by Peter S Beagle, which I have mixed feelings about. Not unlike Witches Abroad, it deals with the concept of how people interact with the stories we well, and the written language is poetic and really lovely, but there is a discordant note about how people just kind of… become whatever a story demands of them. People gain maturity or magic powers when they fill the role that requires it in a story, and bad stuff happens with people resist stories. It means the only entity in this book with any real self-determination, or whose actions may actual matter, is the unicorn, who kinda doesn’t usually do much anyway and is not affected by stories and roles like mortals are. I don’t know, I appreciated the book and really enjoyed reading it, but something about the orderliness-of-existence that rubbed me personally the wrong way, though I felt touched by the characters’ pathos.
I also read The Kite Runner, by Khaled Housseini, which gave us an incredible, painterly portrait of the intimate relationship between two children, and went on to give us a window into the Afghan expat community in America, but I felt like the strength of the story was in the childhood relationship, and the book tried to stretch that story into a three-act story involving world politics that I don’t think worked. I like the overall feel of the book, but at times it felt like plot points were glued together in a way that didn’t feel genuine.
Finally I also read Love, Death, and Robots, the anthology of short stories used for the Netflix animation feature. I felt like it was a good introductory collection of science fiction short stories for people who might not be used to reading them; a good gateway from adaptation to source material. I didn’t care for all of them, and I liked most of them. I really loved:
- Three Robots, by John Scalzi,
- Beyond the Aquila Rift, by Alastair Reynolds
- Good Hunting, by Ken Liu
- Zima Blue, by Alastair Reynolds
- The Secret War, by David W Amendola
Today I’ve started ´The Voice of the Silence´ by Helena Blavatsky. It is a book that gives me good vibes, peace and calm. I’ve read about a 33% of it.
Clockwork angels! Got the whole trilogy now so im re reading the first one to kick it off.
Also ray kurzweils ai book. Very good.
I’m also reading Clockwork angel, twinsies 🙌
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
Great space fiction, if you liked the Martian you’ll dig this.
The LOTR series read by Andy Serkis. Beautiful Narrator. I started with the Silmarilion and am now almost finished with The Hobbit.
Gideon The Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Not usually my type of book but every time I try and get a few pages in, I enjoy what I read.
I really like the way she sets scenes and moves you through them. Her use of language is really fun and has top notch analogies.
About half way through Player of Games by Iain M. Banks.
Decided to re-read the entire series. Read it years ago and it’s as good the second time round.
I use my commute to alternate between audiobooks and podcasts. Just finished Death of Dulgath by Michael J. Sullivan. Catching back up on podcasts and then I’ll jump into book 4 - The Disappearance of Winter’s Daughter.
Why did I have to see this post now?
Three books:
Righteous Victims by Benny Morris, the detestable Zionist who laughs about starving children. It’s very weird reading about Israel’s historical atrocities throughout this book given the author’s recent behavior.
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. About a quarter of the way in, and this book is strange. It has not proven its legacy to me yet, despite the descriptive writing and impressively gritty plot.
Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein. Some of these poems make me cry. That is remarkable.
Just wrapped up Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson. The book is better than the movie, and I enjoyed the commentary.
Picked up:
Being Human: How Our Biology Shaped World History
while traveling recently. Haven’t gotten far yet but it seems like a good, fun science based read.
I went on a reading blitz in 2023 but haven’t done much since then, which kind of sucks.
I did Jemisin’s Broken Earth trilogy, loved it. Becky Chambers? Read everything she wrote. Love.
Some other things in there that were kind of dumb but enjoyable (Rysa Aoki’s Light From Distant Stars) or just shallow (Legends & Lattes) or forgettable (Alice Oseman’s Loveless) but I have tried several others and it isn’t sticking.
Too bad; I really do enjoy reading but nothing’s really taking hold.
I really liked Broken Earth too, and I have Becky Chambers on the TBR.
You could try sci-fi magazines or short-story collections (like The New Yorker’s Century Of Fiction which is over 1000 pages!) to find new authors you like and check out their work. Or you could double-down on Jemisin’s other books.
44% through War and Peace…stuck in the wolf hunt, going very slowly…
Black AF History
Fahrenheit 451 :3… there was a sale on books at my grocery store yesterday, and that one seemed to be topical to current events
Get it before it’s gone!
Have you read any of the other dystopian classics, like 1984 & Brave New World?
I’ve read a decent chunk of them :3… don’t think I did brave new world tho
