I'm reading Bram Stoker's Dracula for the first time ever. Can you believe I am 48 years old, a horror literature junkie, and never read it? It's true. I'm enjoying it a lot.
I studied it at university, it's an absolute classic. And it stays with you, I've not read it for over 20 years and can vividly remember small scenes
Death’s End, which is part of the Three Body Problem series by Cixin Liu
Three body problem series is fantastic in my opinion. I love that heavy sci-fi shit. And viewing the world from a different cultures perspective was fascinating.
Yes. Without going into spoilers, the event that started the Deterrence Era blew my mind. It’s so rare to have an unexpected reversal like that in sci fi it really caught me by surprise.
I really wish I could read it in the original Chinese. The translator did a great job though.
Well, now you're making me want to go back into the series. I liked the premise of the first, but found the writing foreign - which, hey, it is! I felt like I really should read more everyday Chinese fiction as I didn't understand a lot of the nuance and it felt less polished (to my American sensibilities) as a result.
Fairy Tale by Stephen King. Super fun read, I love him as an author and it’s refreshing to see his style in the fantasy genre.
I started this one in the middle of my 7 day camping trip last week. Maybe a quarter of the way through right now. Good so far, the first King book I've rear since around Gerald's Game somewhere.
That’s awesome. It’s super entertaining!
I really loved this novel. It gets better and better as you progress through it. I loved all the references to Jung, Gothic horror, and just about everything else! Enjoy!
Agreed!
After two weeks, I’m on the last chapter of paradise lost by John Milton! It was a weird read to end my summer of working through several of the epic poems. It’s one of the most beautifully written poems I’ve ever read, but Jesus Christ has it been a weird and difficult read. My fav part was when Jesus out of nowhere rides in on a chariot and chases satan off the edge of heaven. Genuinely not enough talk about how some of this shit felt like a weird fever dream twist.
This is on my to read list. I have an annotated copy to help because I've heard it's hard going but I know it's hugely influential and so keep meaning to get to it!
It was definitely hard going. I had multiple browser tabs open, the heavily annotated modern library version, and my years of Catholic upbringing to guide me through it all and it was definitely a journey. I read it right after reading Dante’s divine comedy and while the comedy and they both really blew me away. Half of Paradise Lost (and Dante too for that matter) is just really deep references to the Aeneid, the Iliad, the odyssey, and Ovid’s metamorphoses.
I've read Dante and enjoyed that a lot. It's interesting how Dante also puts a lot more of his contemporaries into the various parts of the afterlife then I was expecting; so footnotes can veer from talking about Greek mythology to minor figures from the civil war that had led to his exile. Which can be a little jarring sometimes!
I'm allllllmost done with Yumi and the nightmare painter. It's great! I was a little iffy on it at first. It was a little young adulty for my tastes (stereotypical teenage love interest awkwardness). But as per usual with Sanderson the end gets really good really quickly. Eager to see how it ends!
I loved how Sanderson-as-Hoid was outright mocking their teenage love story and edgelord takes
Sat at the library yesterday and read Open Borders by Bryan Caplan. He really breaks down how open borders benefit society from a capitalist perspective, but I find it helpful too. Anything to show others how closed borders are damaging, and how the idea of curbing immigration in America is rooted strictly in colonialism and racism.
The best part is I think it is presented in a very digestible, accessible way.
Otherside Picnic by Iori Mizayawa (In Japanese) - Amazing sci-fi novel, that takes inspiration from Roadside Picnic, and urban legends. Quite nicely written too, characters are quite likeable.
Lost Gods by Brom - Amazing concepts, the way Gods are portrayed there, and lots of nice mythology details there and there. The story is very much engaging as well.
The Wandering Inn - Looong, fantasy, and lots of fun world building
Half Share - Fun sci-if space opera? Regardless, pleasant experience.
I love the Wandering Inn, soooo long. While I'm not caught up, I am in Volume 9.
Currently, Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents for my audiobook and for my physical book its The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida. Both are excellent.
Apparently 10 articles that appear on my Kbin homepage in just ONE scroll (None of this is just being exaggerated) about Trump being indicted for 2020 events. I am not subscribed/followed to any political user, magazine or community. Yes, this post was included in the scroll, found it to be pretty funny
I'm very nearly done with 'The Precipice' by Ben Bova. Next is either 'Rock Rats' in the same series, or I start the Cosmere series by Brandon Sanderson. I've read all the Mistborn novels, and they're fantastic.
Sanderson writes books faster than I can read, so it's kind of daunting. Ben Bova is already dead, so I don't have the same problem with him.
Just bought Dune from a second hand store, never read it. Gonna start that soon!
Re-reading Hyperion by Dan Simmons. I read it as a teenager the first time, and I wonder if I'll get something different out of it in my 30s now. I'm also reading Heart of Dominance by Anton Fulmen along with my wife. More of a book for them than me, but it still has good information to glean regardless. If I want to include graphic novels, I also just finished Sunstone. It was sweet and entertaining.
I'm working my way through Christopher Alexander's The Nature of Order for a second time. It's only slightly easier to get through this time though. Before that was the full run of The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan (and Brandon Sanderson).
Currently reading Elantris by Brandon Sanderson. Picked it up a long time ago and never finished it. Had some time out at a cabin and picked it back up. Pretty good so far.
Anderzej Sapkowski’s The Last Wish.
Who would downvote this? Lol
Praise Geraldo del Rivera!
Nearly all of those books are nice, quick reads. I read them before playing Witcher 3 and watching the NF series first season. It greatly enhanced the game; it made me dislike the screenplay version.
The second book in the Arc of a Scythe series. It's YA adjacent fantasy. Has been enjoyable.
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat.
I never really was that great at cooking, but I enjoy it and want to improve.
Currently listening to the mountain man series. A zombie apocalypse story but very different than most. I'm very much enjoying it. These stories are free on audible plus.
I am currently reading, which I do at night when I'm in bed, quantum void, which is the sequel to quantum space. Which I am also very much enjoying. And they are on Kindle Plus. Or whatever it's called.
I'm a bit of a sci-fi nerd. It's almost all I read.
Halo: The Fall of Reach. I decided to finally play through all of the games so I purchased the Master Chief collection, played through Halo 1, then read an article detailing the full timeline of events. According to that, I have 3 books to read before I can get to Halo 2. Fall of Reach is the Master Chief's origin story, while the next book is the novelization of Halo 1, and the third fills in the gap between Halo 1 and 2. Suffice to say, I've got a lot to read before I can get to Halo 2, lol. Fortunately, I love reading, so this should be fun.
Working my way through the novels set in the Eberron campaign setting from DnD, on the last series from the ones I have, on the second of four of the loosely connected by theme War-Torn series.
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/33726/first-contact
First Contact by Ralts Bloodthorne (no relation)
Eight Thousand Years after the Glassing of Earth, Terran Descent Humanity has largely become a post-scarcity society based on consent and enjoying life. With the discovery of another ancient race beyond the "Great Gulf", events and history collide to draw the Terran Confederacy into war against a hundred million year old empire that has always won and believes it always will. With allies and enemies of multiple species, the Orion Galactic Arm Spur will be wracked by warfare the likes of which have not been seen. Cracked, harried, wounded, and damaged, Terran Descent Humanity willfully throws itself against the universe itself.
"The universe hates you and will take away everything you love, laughing while it does so." - Terran belief.
How far in are you? Is it good? It sounds interesting to me.
Edit: oh wait. Maybe this is too much for me... "The story is 700+ chapters, and repeating characters do not start appearing until the Vuxten chapters"
I am on chapter 907. According to the Royal Road page estimate, that's over 10,000 paperback book pages equivalent. It's a helluva ride, and the price can't be beat.
Vuxten appears around chapter 50, iirc. He's not the first to recur, but he is a fan favourite.
I tend to read it in bursts. I catch up about once every 3 months.
Letters from my windmill by Daudet, narrated by Stephen Fry. Discovered this audiobook by accident, but couldn't help listening. Fry and Laurie read Daudet and Jerome, how cool is that?
Right now re-reading The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. It's a weird comic scifi dystopia set in England where literary allusions abound, puns and tropes are plot devices, and Jane Eyre gets kidnapped and makes the ending of the book better. There are so many John Milton's that they have a numbering scheme. Shakespeare is a target of forgery. It's also ferociously anti-war, and imagines a world in which Thatcher is alive and well, and the Crimean war had had two charges of the light brigade... And has continued until the 1980s.
I can recommend it on its own for the Richard III is Rocky Horror Picture Show scene.
A phenomenal summer read, light but intelligent. And it happens to be the beginning of a good series.
Dune and House of Leaves
I'm currently reading Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper, which is the first book in the Dark is Rising sequence.
I first read this book years ago, and what has stuck me ever since was the vivid use of imagery by Cooper. I've also watched the movie, but it's the book that has always stuck with me.
Currently reading Deep Work, the premise sounds interesting although the book starts of a little too money-focused for my taste. Finished Learning to Die in the Anthropocene, although it's refreshingly honest it didn't really have anything "Everything is F*cked" didn't say.
Currently rereading The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie, so I can then try Before They are Hanged. Also, so I can read this copy of Heroes I got on a whim. Abercrombie August.
The Foundation series by Azimov. I read it when I was a teenager and remembered very little. It's a lot scarier today.
I recently finished the 7th book in the Wheel of Time series, A Crown of Swords. I am currently contemplating whether to start book 8 or read something else to not get burned out. A Crown of Swords is the first book in the series I did not enjoy that much.
Definitely take a break! That's about the spot where most people struggle to get through. Take your time; there's a lot of setup, but the pacing is not great.
Also, I think book 8 is The One Without Mat, so it took me forever to get through it.
I've started Cyteen by CJ Cherryh - I'm the type of person that reads dozens of books at once but everything's else gone on hold for Cyteen.
Amazing so far but can't shake the feeling that I've read the plot in the beginning before. I think Cyteen is too long / complex for me to have read it as a teen and forgotten about it, but I have read the Alliance/Union series in pub order up to it. Is there another book in the series with clones that includes a dinner followed by + a river boat journey?
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