Books

Roadside Picnic by Arkady Strugatsky. If not the original "Stalker" book, one of them. Fast fun read.

I'm rereading Malazan Book of the Fallen this year, but adding in some of the Bauchelain & Broach short stories and maybe a few Esslemont books too. This'll be the third go round for the first 5 books and the second reread for the last 5. It's amazing how many tiny details are planted in the first books that pay off by the end of the series. The references, foreshadowing, and thematic follow throughs are insane and I pick up more each time.

I'm in House of Chains right now.

I've been lax on reading 1984 by George Orwell due to starting Epictetus: The Complete Works by Robin Waterfield. I like it so far, it's definitely a palate cleanser from the dystopian themes of '84.

I do have an anthology on poetry that I also sparingly read. I'll probably read one poem later tonight.

In the mornings I try to read the daily page from The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday but I don't always get around to it.

D&D Players Handbook

Working my way through 'The Misfits' series by Simon Brading. Excellent. A steam punk alternative to the Battle of Britain and so on. First of the series is Battle Over Britain ;-)

FINALLY finished the TJ Klune sequel to House on the Cerulean Sea, whatever it was called. I've really enjoyed their other books, but this one was such pappy crap. Every single sentence was designed to tell you how special and wonderful being different is, to the point that the story was boring as shit.

A week later and I'm 500 pages into Wind and Truth by Sanderson.

I have just started And all so quiet by Mareike Fallwickl. I'm reading the original in German, so not sure about the English translation. Anyways, I loved The Rage That Remains, it's been almost a year since I devoured it in a few sittings and I'm still thinking about this book on the regular. So I really hope And all so quiet can keep up with it.

Just finished Money: Master the Game by Tony Robbins. A friend asked me to read it knowing I can't stand the author. The advice isn't anything revelatory, if you haven't read a good bit about retirement this isn't a bad book. But he uses 25 words when 3 would do, and doesn't really talk about the people who failed so it's very much survivor or outcome biased.

I'm about to re-read First Break All the Rules and will start Half Share by Nathan Lowell. I really loved quarter share and am excited to get to book 2 in the series.

The Earthborn trilogy by Paul Tassi. Would recommend, nothing too groundbreaking but very enjoyable.

I think my 5th time reading those books, love em.

Busy week. Only managed to finish up Soviet Workers and Late Stalinism: Labour and the Restoration of the Stalinist System after World War II, which I started a bit ago.

Finished the fifth and sixth books in the "old mans war" series. I am now starting "dungeon crawler Carl" by Matt Dinniman. I had it on my ereader, I don't know why or when I put it there. So I'm going in blind, will give an update how it went next week!

Still reading I'm Afraid You've Got Dragons by Peter S. Beagle. It's still light and fluffy fun, but it's starting to feel kind of muddled. Like, I thought I was getting a story about a dragon catcher that hates his job, but that's been sidelined in favor of a story about a prince that doesn't want to rule. There's been a sprinkle of "legendary dragon? nah, that doesn't exist anymore" foreshadowing, but the plot's been very low stakes otherwise. Not sure if it's a framing issue (there's a lot of POVs) or a narrative one, but maybe it'll all come together later on.

Recently finished a re-read of Lord of the Rings, and am working my way through The Silmarillion again now. Found them in gorgeous hardback editions that also have Tolkien’s illustrations. Ideally once I’m finished with Silmarillion I’ll start in on Tolkien’s other works that I’ve never read at all - Unfinished Tales, Morgoth’s Ring, etc.

Just finished Authority by Jeff VanderMeer. Although not quite as big a mindfuck as the first novel in the series, it was still a gloriously unnerving, tense novel, and still deeply strange. Loved it.

Just started Babylon's Ashes in the Expanse series. So far a little slow to start; but then they often seem to be. I have faith that I'll get into it when it gets going.

Currently reading "Lungo la corrente" ("along the stream"). It's a nonfiction book about the impact that the fading gulf stream is having on Europe, from Azores to Svalbard, in terms of climate and biodiversity. Spoiler alert: not a reassuring read.

I don't believe it exists translated.

The Martian

The Concise Laws of Human Nature

Alternating between fiction and non-fiction, I finished N.K. Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy and I'm currently reading Memory for Forgetfulness by Mahmoud Darwish.

I'm currently listening to Educated by Tara Westover. I've also been reading The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August but I've put that on hold because I realized I'm not good at reading more that one book at the same time haha.