What have you been reading or listening to lately?
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Burn by Peter Heller. Im digging it. I read The Dog Stars years and years ago. This dude can write a page turner.
Henry David Thoreau - Walden
So far I only read the first chapter, Economics, and I’m not sure what to think of it. On one hand HDT clearly had a great capacity for identifying issues with society and capitalism, on the other hand his reaction to these feels like a capitulation, almost like a suicide. He diagnoses all those social issues, but instead of looking for a collective solution he takes the most individualistic course possible. He even states that this isn’t feasible for everyone and that wants others to go their own way. But if everyone lived his way there would be no human society possible. He states that cooperation isn’t really possible while at the same time taking advantage of cooperation (living on people’s land, help setting up the cabin, his mom washing his clothes, etc). The Indians who he praises so much were living under very cooperative social constructs, helping one another. Looking forward to seeing where this is going…
The Dungeon Anarchists Cookbook.
Third book in DCC, I believe.
I’m enjoying The Princess Bride. It’s charmingly meta
I finished two books this past week:
The Magician King by Lev Grossman (The Magicians book 2). I mostly enjoyed this one. I felt there was a lot of character growth in certain characters and a lot of exploration of mental health and healing. The ending soured me a bit, but I think I understand why the author went that route.
I also read Macbeth by William Shakespeare. I mostly knew the story already from pop culture, but it was nice reading the full thing. I think this is one of the more enjoyable and approachable plays of his that I’ve read.
I’m now on the last Magicians book, The Magician’s Land. So far I’m liking it quite a bit, but we’ll see how he sticks the landing.
I just finished Platform Decay by Martha Wells, and am moving back to Dungeon Crawler Carl for book four The Gate of the Feral Gods By Matt Dinniman.
How did Platform Decay turn out? I enjoyed the first set of Murderbot books, but the last few seemed like they were running on fumes. Was this one any good?
I know what you mean. There is definitely a shift after the greycris arc is over. Platform Decay is pretty good though. It is a rescue mission on a corporate torus (ringworld) where things keep going wrong.
I’m listening to Pole Position a racing romance by Rebecca Carrey. It’s fine, I don’t know if it’s because I’m listening instead of reading it, but it’s dragging.
After this is done, I’ll probably listen to Ready Player One.
Finally Out - Letting Go Of Living Straight by Loren A. Olson, M.D. and
Before We Were Trans - A New History of Gender by Kit HeyamThey are the first two books I checked out at the library after coming out, if anyone has any other good recommendations by all means.
Woodworking by Emily St James is an amazing book. It’s fiction about a trans woman in her 30s finally coming out, and a trans teenager who has already been out for a while.
Sounds perfect! Thanks so much for your recommendation :)
Nearly done with reading A Parade of Horribles, Matt Dinniman! It felt like it took a little while to get ramped up, but I’m enjoying the chaos as things continue to spiral. Unsure what I’ll read after this.
For my audiobook, I’m about a third of the way through Isles of the Emberdark, Brandon Sanderson, which may be my favorite of his special novels so far. Very cool to see how things are all tying together in the broader cosmere. Well thought out strategy on how to expand a short story. Only quibble is Sanderson still doesn’t seem to write natural dialog. It never feels like a something someone would actually say.
Finished Pretty Girls by Karin Slaughter (5/5), now reading My Husband’s Wife by Carla Kovach.
Slaughter writes some great books. I’m surprised no one has turned her book series about the rural medical examiner into TV show. But if they did, it would probably turn out as bizarre an adaptation as Will Trent.
I read Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky which I enjoyed. I now started Children of Ruin, also by him.
spoiler
It’s cool, he made me root more for the spiders than the humans :) but it all turns out nice fortunately. I am not that far into the second book, but I think it’s interesting so far
Enjoy. I’ve recently finished the 4th one in the series and enjoyed them all
Finally reading The Lord of the Rings.
Almost at the end of Fellowship, but I must say it has been a bit of a drag.
I will most definitely finish it, but from all the hype I did have slighty higher expectations.
It’s also very likely that since I have already seen the movies and loved them, and already know what is going to happen, it has somewhat taken away from the book experience.
Although the whole Bombadil section was new, and I did not find it especially interesting.
The first book is always a bit of s drag. Up until Moria at least. After that the pace picks up and the narrative gets split, which makes for better pacing and slow burn cliffhangers.
Bear in mind that LOTR started out as a sequel to a children’s book, and changed into something new about halfway through FOTR. So you’re literally seeing the epic fantasy genre being born on the page in front of you.
While technically true, I feel that this is a bit of a misnomer. Even though LotR is usually considered the archetypal example of “epic/high fantasy”, based on the other most popular works in the genre I think that LotR (and the rest of the non-Hobbit legendarium) is better described as “myth”, and I think that fans of epic/high fantasy coming to Tolkien are often disappointed for this reason.
For me the disappointment went the other direction - I read LotR first, and then I went on a fantasy reading binge and was repeatedly let down because I couldn’t understand why none of it felt like Tolkien.
I did read The Hobbit and enjoyed it quite a bit. It felt much smoother.
Also read his short stories “Farmer Giles of Ham” and “Leaf by Niggle”.
About a third of the way through Blood Meridian. Basically just feels like more of The Road but less gloomy and with more of the old ultraviolence.
Claims that this is the Great American Novel leave me mystified. I realize that this book as an “anti-western” isn’t doing quite the same thing as the morally gray Spaghetti Westerns were, but I still can’t help but think that they did it better.
Probably won’t read any more McCarthy after this.
I will never understand all the hype placed behind “The Road”.
Same. It was fine for post-apocalyptic lit but nothing spectacular.
This one ended up on my DNF list. I heard the buzz about it and wanted to see what the fuss was all about. But I just didn’t see it.
Starting the bra dragonlance chronicles. I feel its aged poorly.
Listening to Ward by Wildbow (again). Just redid Worm, they’re both so good.
Loving Worm. It’s the perfect audiobook because it doesn’t seem like it ever ends. is Ward the sequel?
It is indeed! Which audio production did you go with?
Worm Audiobook Project. Is there another? This one is good, but some of the interludes are really low volume.
That’s the one I like too, and the same team that does the Ward audiobook. There are a few others that have popped up since but some are unfinished and dont look like they’ve been added to in a while. There are definitely some rockier parts but it was a huge job and they nailed it overall
Heck yeah! I read Worm a couple years back and I’ll second it being an excellent read. I wasn’t quite as hooked by Ward, but it has been a bit, so maybe it’s about time to try again.
