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I've been going through the nights watch series of discworld books, I need a funny distraction from all this bullshit in the real world.
Their commentary on the common person thinking a king will fix everything is too fitting though, especially now...
Ho boy. It's a good read, but I wouldn't count on it being distracting. Be prepared to be confronted with potent reflections of the bullshit.
But in a funny way.
Definitely, but also in a very real way. And those real problems seem bleaker when you don't see a Vimes in the real world to fix them.
I think the second Hyperion book rounds out the story nicely. I've never read about what is said online but I listened to both a couple of times, loved them, but never felt the need to read any further than that.
Consider Phlebas isn’t really characteristic of the Culture series as a whole—don’t hesitate to start somewhere else if you tried Phlebas before and it didn’t hook you. (They all work as stand-alone novels, with just a few tangential recurring characters.)
I agree with you, also The player of games is a lot more accesible as a first book in the series. I've never read the last three books though, at some point I decided I had enough SF for a while.
Yes, I had read that they were all stand alone and I may do, but I will give CP a while longer before I do. I don't dislike it, but following PHM, it is a rather different pacing.
I’m about done with Character Limit, it’s about Musk’s takeover of Twitter. It’s super fascinating, an absolute page-turner. If that whole shitshow remotely piques your interest I’d recommend it.
Finished the Bobiverse series. It was a nice read, but I don't think the last one leaves room for another book in this series. I'm gonna start "all systems red" by Martha Wells next, see how that goes. I'm not to sure about the novella format though, I like doing a little longer with a story.
I did Bobiverse and Murderbot straight through a few months ago. They pair nicely!
I also caught up on the Bobiverse recently! According to his website, Taylor plans at least ten books, though I see what you mean with the most recent having few leftover threads to follow.
Finally read Animal Farm. My takeaway was that any form of government eventually devolves to corruption. Despite having read the last lines in the past, was surprised when it ended.
About to finish A Short, Sharp Shock by Kim Stanley Robinson. It's a bit surreal, not sure where it's going, but it's a quick novella.
Love his writing, but damn, the Mars trilogy burnt me out on geography. I have a fair vocabulary, but Robinson must have majored in the subject.
I have these on tap if anyone cares to comment. Guy on reddit shared his Gdrive ebooks with me years ago, these sounded interesting.
Read Eifelheim a couple of times, downloaded it because I don't have a good copy. It's a fascinating look at how crash-landed and ill aliens are treated in Medieval Germany. The author is sometimes a little heavy-handed with the, "did you know this was the origin of this belief\word\thing\whatever?!" But yeah, I did not know those things and it was a great learning experience.
Children of memory by Adrian Tchaikovsky about 75% of the way through. What if jumping spiders and octopodes and slime mold and ravens evolved Human level intellect 9/10 series would recommend again.
The second in that series is one of my all time favourites.
We're going on an adventure.
Just finished Grant and Sherman: The Friendship That Won The Civil War.
Puts into perspective the brilliance of both men, and how utterly prickly Sherman was.
Does it require any knowledge of the Civil War?
Not particularly. If you don't know any of the background of the Civil War, you certainly won't learn it from the book, but as long as you have a rough idea where the major US states are, the narrative is easy enough to follow.
Thanks for the info!
I'm about 600 hours in on https://wanderinginn.com/. Just started book 8. Really enjoying the series. I still have hundreds of hours left in the series. I started reading it years ago and went to the audiobook. Feels pretty good.
Now I know how people feel like with their soap operas 😆.
I have been thinking about starting a new webnovel, this looks like a good option, have heard it mentioned a few times.
There's no way to buy ebooks for anything other than kindle though, so if I get into it, would have to find some way around that.
I was able to get it on the kobo. I'm not sure what you mean by anything other than kindle?
Got a batch of W40k books. Finished "Brutal Kunning", working on "Da Big Dakka" right now. Orks are brutal, hilarious, and almost philosophical at times, and I'm enjoying the stories from their perspective because they're the only ones really enjoying their lives in 40k (besides the poor grots...)
Nice. Recently got Eisenhorn omnibus, my first foray into W40K books. Haven't started it yet though.
Assuming I like the series, any recommendations where to next after that?
I'm new to the books myself, but the general consensus I've seen online is to read about the factions you'd like. That's why I picked Orks :) I got through a few chapters of Eisenhorn and it's, so far, not quite as action packed as the Ork books I've finished but IMO has much better world and character building.
Heh. Okay, let's see how the world is, can take a look at overall book list after that.
I have been reading Anathema by Neal Stephenson. I'm about a fourth of the way through and it's been great. I've read two or three of his other books which I've really enjoyed. Cryptonomicon became one of my favorite books. But so far this has been up there as something that may top that, it's been pretty good so far. I hope it ends well.
Anathem really benefits from having some background familiarity with western philosophy, and Plato’s theory of Forms/Ideas in particular. If you’re fuzzy on that, you might want to do a quick review before you get too far into the book.
I'm listening to "the light of all that falls" which is the third book in this trilogy by James Islington.
It's an interesting fiction with a couple of good magic systems, there's a lot of world building to take in, tons of places, characters, the concept of watching each other's memories, seeing into the post and future. Can be a bit hard to follow at times but it's engaging enough
Reading right now „Déjà Dead“ from Kathy Reichs. It‘s so good that i already dreamed of it last night … but it was a nightmare xD
I read (part of?) this a few years ago, but it wasn't for me. However, your comment reminded me that it might be something for my wife, so it helps out!
Currently half way through Morningstar, third book of Red Rising by Pierce Brown. I think I'll have it finished roughly a week from now and then move on to the fourth book. Still enjoying the series, and it's nice to be able to talk to my wife about it as she's on Lightbringer. There's quite a bit of overlap with what we read, but she tends towards cozier books than I do, and I'll listen to stuff like the darkstar trilogy which I think she wouldn't enjoy at all
I am still reading Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson (Stormlight book 2). I'm about 3/4 of the way through and enjoying it immensely. However everything I've read so far feels like set up, which is a little frustrating because mistborn did not have this feel to it.
Finished Sandman and Joyce's Dubliners.
Restarting Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson after setting it down over a decade ago. Usually I can just pick up a book I paused right where I left off, but I completely forgot what any of those made-up words meant.
A Feast For Crows, by GRRM. I recently finished up The Three Body Problem. It’s a decent book, and I enjoyed reading it, but I don’t feel the need to read it again.
I try to read books without knowing anything going in; just the title and author. I just finished Piranesi and The Sparrow, which were both good and benefitted from knowing nothing. I grabbed The Witches are Coming off my pile because some more fantasy sounded good. Definitely a bit of whiplash coming off some dark sci-fi, expecting some lighter Pratchett-esque witches, and getting a collection of non-fiction feminist humor essays. It's a good read, but I really set myself up for disappointment.
While I don't like going in fully blind, but I do try to avoid reading back cover summary, they sometimes spoil some of the stuff that can be very interesting when you reach it in text naturally.
I'm 80% through Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman. My plan to set aside more reading time last week failed, but I'm nearing the finish line nonetheless!
時をかける少女. I suck at reading japanese and the only way to get better is to (try to) do it. Not the most interesting as a dude in his 40s who's not generally into this sort of genre (written in the 60s, it's about an elementary school girl with some sort of ability to experience other times), but the internet was correct in that it's about the right level of difficulty. I do kinda dislike some of the dated stuff (not useful, which is my primary concern) and there's a ton of jargon to learn. Overall, it's ok for it's purpose, though it's certainly not something I'm excited to pick up when time allows.
I recently started reading Stolen Focus by Johann Hari. I want to see if I can somehow regain control over my focus