Reading When Moon Hits the Eye by John Scalzi.
What about all of you, what have you been reading or listening to lately?
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I just finished Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel, which I quite liked, and am now on to Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy.
Bit of a shift!
I’m reading Martha Wells, The cloud roads. I think she’s going to be my new obsession for a bit. I want to wait till they’ve finished making telly shows of her Murder Murderbot series before I read them, books are always better, so I digest the worst first.
I’m nearly finished with 14, Peter Clines, which has turned out to be great! Nice and slow burn of strange things happening in an LA apartment building, and slice of life of the protagonist, which has turned into truly out there concepts and strangeness. Would recommend to anyone who likes weird fiction and mysteries.
I’m also working my way through Shorefall, Robert Jackson Bennett, the second book in The Founders trilogy. It continues the interesting magic-hacking from the first book, but I still don’t think Jackson Bennett has his dialog feet under him yet. I found that The Tainted Cup felt much more natural than this series. Overall still fun!
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. Really charming and witty, with lots of references to classic Russian literature.
Finished Iron Council by China Mieville recently. What always does me in with the bas-lag books is how unsatisfying and “unclean” the endings are, and iron council certainly takes the crown.
Now i’ve read pretty much everything by mieville besides his shortstories, and im coming up short on what to read next. Any recommendations similar to mieville?
If you’re looking for more weird fiction, someone created a thread asking for similar recommendations
Thanks mate, looks like a good post to come back to
Neuromancer
Brian Wilson’s autobiography.
East of Eden by John Steinbeck.
It is a bit lengthy, but it seems like each interaction is written around pithy wisdoms interwoven into the lives of interactions of the characters.
Each time it happens, it’s like stumbling upon on a gemstone by a river, and keeps me anticipating the next unfolding of the plot.
Oh, that’s a great book! A heavy read for sure. A friend aptly called it ‘nourishing’, which is true of most Steinbeck. Just one of his books sates you for quite a while. I’m glad to hear you like it!
Ghost Nation: The Story of Taiwan and its Struggle to Survive by Chris Horton. Being a student of Taiwan history, there not a whole lot in it that I wasn’t already aware of, but the writing is simply excellent. He’s a great explainer and he deftly weaves the events that shaped history into a compelling narrative. Also, he was able to get sit-down interviews with some of the giants of Taiwan’s democratization movement before they passed away, so the stories are first hand. This book is a gem so far.
I’m close to finishing The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. This month has been a bit rough in my personal life and I haven’t, perhaps, been quite feeling it. Luckily, there’s always next year.
I don’t know what I’ll read next.
Finally got around to start The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin. Started and continuing as audiobook, but additionally I got the digital at about 10% in, to reread some passages.
Also, just yesterday, I picked up This is how you lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. Tried to go in as blind as possible and I’m so glad I did. Really enjoying myself here.
This is how you lose the Time War
Fantastic book! I greatly enjoyed it when I read it last year (maybe 2 years ago? Time flies…)
Hey I’m also reading LeGuin right now! The Left Hand of Darkness for me. I’ll admit to not being entirely absorbed by it for a bit but I’m in the climax right now and the writing is stellar.
I’d heard about Left Hand of Darkness. The sequence that starts about 2/3 of the way through was a big surprise to me, but I wasn’t mad about it.
I want to say more, but I don’t want to spoil it for you!
Halfway through Dracula. It’s strange reading the origin of so much media and tropes, but sometimes the language and hesitation in plot development really slows down the suspense.
I read that when I was 16, and loved it. I still have it today! I wasn’t really world wizened enough to realise it was a bit stuttery here and there, at the time, I would have likely thought it was me.
I didn’t think much of Dracula, took me forever to get through it. And yet I liked the 90s movie (maybe cause I’m a sucker for oldman )
very recently got an e-reader so that i can get back into reading, i am excited to be able to post something! hopefully i will find some contemporary fiction to read soonish, it’s a bit overwhelming right now so i am just reading stuff that has been sitting in my Calibre library. frankly it has been so long that i am not even sure what i like to read anymore.
anyway, last week i read Concrete Island by J.G. Ballard and now i am chewing through the Standard Ebooks collection of Clark Ashton Smith short fiction. i haven’t particularly loved either but that’s okay!
I’d love to hear your thoughts on Clark Ashton smith if you are up to going into more detail. He’s one of my favorites and I so rarely see him mentioned. He was a contemporary and friend of both Robert e Howard and HP Lovecraft, and I personally found him better at sword & sorcery than Howard and better at weird fiction than lovecraft.
ahh that’s cool that he is a favourite! i did vaguely know he was buddies with lovecraft but that was the sum of my knowledge about him before this.
i have finished the collection now and very much enjoyed his descriptions of settings and objects, so while many of the stories were not quite my jam i did appreciate his prose and would like to explore more! alas i am not a words person (nor a brains one) myself so that is about all the detail i can give. though i may say it started some cogs turning, i would like to start a drawing based on a setting in one of the stories because it became so vivid in my mind.
Interesting, have never heard of him, going to keep an eye on any response you get.
Great that you started reading again! I had also been on a hiatus for a few years and picked it up again last winter. It took me a while to find stuff I enjoy reading and sometimes I still choose books that aren’t right for me, but I’ve learned that it’s okay to just not finish a book. If I’m not enjoying it, why continue? There are so many books out there, there is bound to be a better one.
yeah that’s fair! i don’t mind not finishing things but i have to be having a bad time and feel like i am getting nothing out of it. mostly i can find worthwhile elements in media that otherwise is not my jam, it is kind of a challenge i give myself, to find buried treasure in a way. if something isn’t even fun for me in that way then it is definitely time to hit the bricks tho.
Which ereader did you get?
it is a Boox Go, i don’t think i needed the colour but i am not one to complain about such a nice birthday gift!
nice! I was tossing up between boox and kobo when i was in the market for an e-reader, but settled on the kobo. Happy (late?) birthday!
ahh kobos look really nice too! and thankyou, it is definitely late but i will take the good wishes anyway :)
Welcome back to reading!
If you want any suggestions you can ask here, or just make a separate post.
thankyou! i ought make a dent on my backlog, but once i figure out more about what i might be looking for i will certainly do just that!
The Anthropocene Reviewed, by John Green
finished it yesterday actually. The Book is a compilation of stories, memories and thoughts of John Green in the form of short reviews. Quick read, some stories had me laughing others are very touching, revolving around the loss of a dear friend or concerning his mental problems, but it’s mostly about how John Green views Humans and Humanity, he appears to be a big fan which is a suprisingly refreshing take.
If you’ve been keeping up with the vlogbrothers videos (as I have) there’s not many stories you haven’t heard before; it’s fine, but I was a bit disappointed.
yeah, i think almost all the stories from the book where part of the podcast by the same name, but i didn’t knew about that before picking up the book. I was vaguely aware of John Green as the author of “the fault in our stars”, which never seemed like my jam, and the only other touchpoint i had was the first epsiode of Hank Greens “Humans”-Podcast, which made me think he might have stories i’d enjoy, which i did.
The same book as last week. I don’t read that fast!
I’m halfway through “Cibola Burn” (The Expanse #4), it’s a real page turner! So far my second favorite book of the series.
I am on the same book from last 3 weeks, and I read kinda fast (not as fast as many people here, bust when compared to “average” people), so don’t worry about it.
