What are you reading? (August 2023)

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.

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.

Death’s End, which is part of the Three Body Problem series by Cixin Liu

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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

Just bought Dune from a second hand store, never read it. Gonna start that soon!

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).

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.

The second book in the Arc of a Scythe series. It's YA adjacent fantasy. Has been enjoyable.

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.

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.

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 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.

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

Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat.

I never really was that great at cooking, but I enjoy it and want to improve.

Just finished off The Deep by Rivers Solomon, a novella inspired by a song inspired by another song. Very compelling, character-driven narrative about generational trauma and slavery, plus a tinge of romance for the MC. Would recommend.

I just finished 'Player of Games' - Ian M. Banks. I liked it, it felt immersive.

Just started The Passenger by the late great Cormac McCarthy. I'm about a 3rd through, listening on audio book via Libby (read at 85% speed). It's a little hard not to put it in the context of No Country and the border trilogy - Mr. M does seem to have a type. I'm pleased that many of McCarthy's liberties with words seem to come through on audio, but I imagine I'm missing a lot. All in all I'm enjoying it. Next up my book club is reading All The Pretty Horses, so I'm in for the ride as it were. (Weirdly, there was a longer wait for his other work than The Passenger. I guess people are in the wait and see mode).

A friend recommended Midlife by Kieran Setiya. I have to say - it's quite dense, and I feel like I'm not doing it justice. I'll definitely keep going.

I randomly picked up Ruth Ozeki's Tale for the Time Being at the library and couldn't put it down. It really was the level up of literature I have been waiting for. While it did have a few words I needed to look up, it was generally very approachable and enjoyable to get through. What I also appreciated was that even though some of the subject matter is difficult, it is not so detailed and exploitive that it created a triggering response, at least for me. I really look forward to reading more of her work. I'm shocked I had never heard of her and only bumped into this book by chance!

About to dive into The Tin Drum again. Last read it 30 years ago...

«Elsewhere, Perhaps» - Amos Oz (1966).

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.

Friend's bookclub has been working through The Locked Tomb trilogy which has been fun (both to read and to watch other people encounter).

Outside of that, I've been slowly working my way through The Knot Book (about mathematical topology, not kinky stuff), a book about "The Shambhala guide to Sufism", and "Inside Scientology".

I've been going through library books trying to find something at least somewhat straightforward about the modern Sufis and their beliefs/texts/rituals, but all the books I've encountered so far seem to be way more concerned with the historical lens of "Westerners through the centuries trying to grapple with the concept of Sufism and disagreeing with each other about what it is".

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?

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.

The Foundation series by Azimov. I read it when I was a teenager and remembered very little. It's a lot scarier today.

'glyph' by Percival Everett (who has rapidly become one of my favorite authors).

Just finished the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy by Cixin Liu a couple days ago...it's reminded me of how mind-blowing and mind-expanding sci-fi can be. It's an incredibly bleak and yet somehow still hopeful series and aside from issues with how Liu handles characters, I can't wait to re-read it after I've had some time to digest the ideas in it. Definitely recommend if you like big ideas in sci-fi and can deal with some iffy character writing.

Right now I am reading An Urban History Of China by John Lincoln. It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but I am enjoying reading it, since I am a sucker for anything history.

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.