Currently reading Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder.
Is it particularly good? Honestly, no. I think all the characters except for the protagonist are frustrating, and if she ends up in a relationship with any one of them I'll be greatly disappointed.
Am I having fun? Kinda. I won't pick up the second book unless they introduce a great sequel hook, though.
1356 by Bernard Cornwell. Its cheesey typical damsel in destress stuff set in a bloody french chevauchée, but I'll be damned if it aint a whole lof of fun. Think the expanse, but with horses as worse charachters.
I'd not heard of it until last week, when folks on r/books were singing its praises in a thread, so figured I'd give it a shot. Yeah, it's enjoyable. Definitely aimed squarely at the middle of the YA crowd, but it's an easy read at a time when my brain isn't letting me really get into any books.
Finally finished with Pattern Recognition, William Gibson. It was... nice, it definitely felt like Gibson was uncomfortable writing in the present tense.
Next up is a Brazillian book, As águas-vivas não sabem de si by Aline Valek
My 'big read' this year is Finnegans Wake - which I am (or have been) reading week by week along with the TrueLit sub on reddit. It would be a profoundly different experience to read it without the analysis and discussion going on there, so that is something...
Otherwise, I am reading The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher, which is engaging and entertaining, as was her The Hollow Places which I read immediately before. I am also dipping into a collection of the Para Handy tales by Neil Munro, which are a cosy - if stereotypical and patronising - glimpse into another time and pace of life.
I have just returned from a couple of weeks away during which I finished an anthology of Clarke Ashton Smith short fantasy tales (all about the atmosphere: story and worldbuilding are very much secondary and character scarcely features); Haldor Laxness's The Atom Station (a sparse look at the clash of modern - written in 1948 - and traditional Icelandic values); and Blackwood's The Willows (an extrapolation of the original idea of "panic" - as several of this other tales are).
Currently working my way through the Three Body Problem series. They are very good but I'm not sure how much I'm enjoying them, they are pretty bleak in places.
The Trouble With Peace, by Joe Abercrombie. Glad to be in a mood where I enjoy his cheerful cynicism again. Curious to see if any good deed in the whole long tale (this is book 7, depending on how you count) will remain unpunished though.
I usually have a print/ebook and an audio book (for the car) going at the same time.
For print book, currently reading Crooked Kingdom, one of the books in the Grishaverse series/world. I, uh, got a little obsessed after watching the first season of Shadow and Bone a year or two ago.
For audiobook, currently listening to Children of Ruin. Not too far into it yet, but I loved loved loved Children of Time (also listened to the audiobook version), so I'm excited to see where this one goes.
I'm currently reading through Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. I'm a fan of SciFi, and cyberpunk especially. This book was on my reading list, and I decided to pick it up while in the bookstore the other day.
So far I'm really enjoying it. It feels a bit more pulpy than some of the other cyberpunk classics such as Neuromancer and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, but that's not a bad thing. It certainly doesn't take away from the entertainment in my opinion. Not every book needs to have a grand philosophy behind it.
Currently reading Thinking Fast And Slow. Have been wanting to read something like it for a while now but my motivation just doesn't kick for me. I aimed to finish this book at some point this year
Currently reading Building a Second Brain by Tiago Forte, and in tandem I'm also going through HBR Project Management by Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez.
I'm restructuring my whole organization structure around PARA and CODE as described in BASB (It resonated with me because I realized I was already doing a form of PARA with my work files), and with that using Project Management as a primer for establishing how to complete my personal projects (I've always been bad at this because somehow I never registered personal stuff as projects in the way that I register my work projects). I'm an engineer so I have some project management experience, but I know I'm missing knowledge here and there so this is a twofer in educating myself on managing both my projects at work and my projects at home.
I'm re-reading Middlemarch by George Eliot. I had forgotten how funny it is in places, and what a wry and surprisingly modern voice she has (once you get used to the 19th Century writing style).
I'm reading The Stranger, by Albert Camus. It's a short read and I'm already focusing on some of The Atlantic's recommendations in the Summer Reading Guide.
I'm reading Elektra by Jennifer Saint. After reading Circe and The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller I wanted to keep reading retellings of Greek mythology but I'm kinda struggling to get through this one. The story is really sad so maybe that's part of it.
A very interesting sci-fi book that was a little slow for the first 50 or so pages but then really took off after that. It's honestly caused meany sleepless nights as I stay up far too late reading because I just can't put it down.
Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
Snow Crash is good, but IDK. It just isn't pulling me in the way I expected it to, so it's taking me too long to get through.
Then I have some Jack Reacher novel on my bedside table waiting to be started, and I was just eyeballing a collection of H.P. Lovecraft stories on my shelf.
I just started reading the Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch. I am loving the dry humour and the perfect snapshot of London. It took me entirely too long to get to these due to going through an urban fantasy burnout, so I'm pleased I have so much to look forward to.
I’m rereading Anil’s Ghost by Michael Ondaatje. I read it when it came out and was deeply moved by it. Even though it was a huge success when it was released it feels like it feel off a cliff of people’s consciousness a year or two later.
Not a Beehaw member, but still gotta answer it, lol.
Been enjoying post-modernist books right now, and just straight philosophy. It's all so intriguing.
Reading the classic White Noise by Don Delillo, in the middle of Discipline and Punish: The Birth of The Prison by Michel Foucault. Finished Shibumi by Trevanian a month or two ago, one of the most funny and badass reads I've been through. Looking forward to picking up some Byung Chul Han books after reading a PDF of his book The Burnout Society.
I am reading "Maskiner som tenker: Algoritmenes hemmeligheter og veien til kunstig intelligens" (Machines that think: The algorithms' secrets and the way to artificial intelligence) by Inga Strümke. I have learned many new terms, as well as artificial intelligence's history and fundamental concepts.
I just completed The Terror by Dan Simmons and I am currently reading the second book in the Malazan series by Erikson, Deadhouse Gates.
Malazan is amazing.
I found quite difficult to assess the Terror. It was quite a long read for the first 700 pages, then I really enjoyed the last 2 hundreds. But in retrospect I appreciate this slow pace so ... I am not sure about my judgement. In the end I am glad to have read it. I also learned a lot about people and cultures of the Artic circle.
After the Malazan novel I will probably follow upon the third one, but I could also switch back to (re) reading Iain M. Banks or reading Peake's Ghormenghast for the first time.