Welcome to year’s first weekly thread! How are you all doing? And what are you book / reading related resolutions for this year?
I started Ultra-processed Food by Chris van Tulleken
Just started it, but looks like an interesting read. It’s about the ultra-processed food we eat these days.
Also skimming through Ryder Caroll’s The Bullet Journal Method. Read this last year (or was that year before that?) and wanted to check something but decided to skim through most of it.
Still reading The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson, 3rd book in the 2nd era of Mistborn. It was going great but didn’t get to read much last week or so, should be getting back to it now.
What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening to lately?
For details on the c/Books bingo challenge that just restarted for the year, you can checkout the initial Book Bingo, and its Recommendation Post. Links are also present in our community sidebar.
I just got to part 3 of Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry, what a ride, loving it so far.
I’m about half way through Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut. And I just started The Witches by Roald Dahl. Trying to read as many banned books as possible this year. So far, I don’t get why any of them have been banned.
If you’re reading banned books, try Henry Miller. I love his work.
Tropic of Cancer is on my list! I don’t know much about him but I will add him to my list of authors to look into.
Just finished:
- How to Be Both by Ali Smith. Interesting concept (two stories, read them in any order, each story recontextualizes the other) that I think I’ll need to read again in the other order.
- Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico. Great satire, really enjoyed it
Haven’t picked my next one yet, but probably from this list:
- Spread Me by Sarah Gailey. Looks like a fun take on The Thing
- Sunward by William Alexander. Don’t know much about it, other than it was well reviewed
- The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) by Rabih Alameddine. Was well reviewed
Oh I loved How to Be Both. I’ve read most of Ali Smith’s novels and I’ll continue until I’ve read them all. How to Be Both might be my favorite so far.
- The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
- Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon
- Notes from Underground by Dostoevsky
How are the Notes from the Underground? I am thinking or reading them or Karamazovs.
As I recall, Notes is a pretty short read, and also pretty good. May I suggest reading it first, and then Karamazovs, which is a much longer book?
I read Notes about 25 years ago and don’t remember anything about. I read it recently after Crime and Punishment (which I liked) and some short stories including White Nights (I loved it at the time but feel very differently about it later in my life). I still can’t get through Karamazovs, though. I’ve tried multiple times, but it is so unbelievably boring for me.
I’m mostly reading it in order to follow Bakhtin’s Problems in Dostoevsky’s Poetics, so I’m kind of viewing it through that lens… I wouldn’t say it’s a compelling read on its own, but it’s interesting to see how Dostoevsky can create a character that engages in its own autonomous dialog with the reader.
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter is bloody fantastic. I love Stephen Graham Jones’ work.
I’m listening to the Obelisk Gate by N.K Jemisin. Second in the series of post post apocalypse fantasy/ sci-fi. Really enjoying the series so far. Well narrated too.
The Fifth Season has been on my list for a while. I should pick this up!
Pretty depressing world, but loved the series.
Just finished listening to:
- Every Tool’s a Hammer, by Adam Savage (self narrated)
- Moby Dick, by That One Guy (Anthony Heald narrating)
- Immune, by Philipp Dettmer (Steve Taylor narrating)
- Everything is Tuberculosis, by John Green (self narrated)
Just borrowed to listen, but haven’t started:
- Animal Farm, by George Orwell (Ralph Cosham narrating)
- Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury (Tim Robbins narrating)
Earlier in the year I listened to Kafka’s Metamorphosis in Persian, that was wild.
Libby is awesome
I’m on the tail end of Lord of Chaos (Wheel of Time 6).
108 more chapters to go. It feels like a lot has happened, but also not a lot has happened at all in the grand scheme of things.I am quite enjoying Jordan’s phrases of smoothing skirts, tugging braids, scrubbing hair, and knuckling foreheads/mustaches still.
I’ve been alternating between audiobooks and my e-reader, and my only complaint is that I cannot figure out how to pronounce Aes Sedai and Aiel names relative to howKramer and Reading do. I’m always off.
Jordan slows the pace of the plot down considerably at around Lord of Chaos, perhaps earlier. It can get pretty frustrating when the books are so dense, yet it feels like nothing actually ever happens. Jordan just keeps pulling more named characters in to the mix. I personally do like the series, but I have serious gripes with how Jordan chose to write some of the books.
Yeah. I have heard that from this point on the series slows considerably until Sanderson picks it up, but he still writes it as if Jordan was the author.
I don’t think WoT is conducive to Brando Sando’s signature Sanderlanche — actually, maybe it does, because I definitely felt like a there has been a point in each book where I can’t put it down until I finish it. Usually that’s the last 4-5 chapters. Or there is a fakeout climax and then the real climax happens like in
Tap for spoiler
Fires of Heaven
Edit: No idea what happened in the second paragraph, but I went back and reformatted it. I must have been distracted while typing it it.
A Christmas road trip helped me wrap up A Memory Called Empire. Absolutely loved it, fantastic book if you’re into scifi. Went straight on to the sequel, A Desolation Called Peace.
Just started Q-in-Law by Peter David. I’m not very far into it yet but it’s got Lwaxana and Q so I’m guessing it’s going to be “unstoppable force versus
immovable objectunstoppable force”.Heh, that sounds interesting.
Empire of AI by Karen Hao
A deep dive into AI history and current events. Very interesting and somewhat terrifying.
As a caveat, I’m not an AI advocate, and in fact, the more I read (listen) the more horrifying what is happening and has happened already I find it.
I received a lot of book for Christmas so I am going a bit overboard:
AFAQ - reading club here at Lemmy;
The Rebel by Camus - very good so far, kinda related to the afaq because he is talking about some political topics;
Shark Ends by Joe Abercrombie - this is the last one from the First Law series of his. The whole series is very good and is quickly catapulted to the near top of my favorites fantasy series; (I am listening this one)
The Trail by Kafka - I was depressed before the holidays and decided to read some Kafka. Also very good and also listening to this one.
I started The Book of Dust by Philip Pullman. I am loving it so far and I’m about halfway through. Baby Pantalaimon is soooo cute it makes me want to cry 😭
Pullman is an author I grew up loving. His Dark Materials was probably the most important and my favorite series I read as a kid, I was the same age as Lyra as the books were published. He’s an author that I will instantly purchase any book he has written and I’m so happy for the new trilogy!
Nice! I just finished the trilogy when the last book came out too!
Somehow this trilogy had fallen off my TBR list, but your excitement is making me move it to the top. It’s a great sign that you loved His Dark Materials and are still enjoying the new stuff–I’ll definitely check it out.
I really enjoy his work and keep going back to it. I think it was someone here that was reading it last year that really put it on my radar again. Then when the last of the trilogy came out last year, I picked it up so I can read all 3 quickly.
I’ve listened to the His Dark Material dramatized audiobook, which is narrated by Pullman. My head narrator is a mix of him and Attenborough. It’s great 😊
Oms en série by Sefan Wul, weird french sci-fi book about aliens that keep humans as pets.
I’m finishing up The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik. I plan to finish the last book in the trilogy next before going over to Isles of the Emberdark by Brandon Sanderson.
Structural Sin and the Death of Institutions, by Susannah Cornwall.
