What have you been reading or listening to lately?
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Too busy to read for pleasure these days so I mostly just listen to audiobooks when I mow the lawn, but my lawn’s not very big.
I’m working through the industrial revolution Discworld books by Terry Pratchett. Finally finished Moving Pictures last week after like 6 months, started on Going Postal yesterday.
Reading Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie, a standalone part of the First Law series, after the initial trilogy. I really like the whole “nothing matters everything is what it is” sad and depressing vibe, it feels incredibly relatable.
Also doing a first listen (but not first time through) Wheel of Time, this time with a buddy of mine. We’re just about at the end, so going to need another book to listen to while I run, though probably gonna be DCC.
I just finished The Foundation Trilogy by Isaac Asimov. It was an interesting read, but sometimes felt more like a lot of historical short stories that were connected to each other.
Now I am reading Murtagh, the fifth book in the Eragon series by Christopher Paolini.
I was just thinking about that series. I read the first three I think when it first came out. I saw someone talk about how they reread it and decided it wasn’t as good at they thought it was when they first read it. But I’ve always thought I might still give it another go, mostly for nostalgias sake. Is this your first read through. Is it a concluded series?
I read the first four books of the series three years ago for the first time (I have not reread them since). I enjoyed it very much to learn about the world through Eragons and the other characters travels and eyes. Knowing beforehand what happens would take away some magic. But there is a lot happening in the story, so you might enjoy them nevertheless before you read on. The main story ends in the fourth book Inheritance.
Almost done listening to book five of Dungeon Crawler Carl with my wife; I’d read the first seven previously and enough friends talked about the series that she wanted to check it out. I like the print books but man the audio books are next level.
My wife recently expressed interest in DCC, not even to me, just saw it in our Amazon recent searches, and she’s like yeah, heard of this recently. Last book we read together was Blood Meridien, and let me tell you, not a good partner read, so hoping DCC can be a better one. It’s been a number of years since we read together.
It is a fantastic joint listen, I hope it gets you both reading together again!
How do you read books together? Do you mean that one person reads aloud or something else?
Ha, we did for a Blood Meridien, which is part of why it was awful and didn’t last long. But no, I mean read contemporaneous with one another, and we can chat about it.
Ah, I see. That sounds good, wish I could do that with my partner, but she doesn’t like the type of books that I read. However, the books she reads are somewhat interesting to me, but I am a slow reader while she’s a very fast one, so it wouldn’t work for two reasons — one is that she’d have to wait for me to catch up and the other is that I get the feeling of spending time reading something that I wouldn’t normally choose and the awareness of the books that I actually want to read sitting there and waiting for me. :) However, maybe if we did that with 1 or 2 books a year… I don’t really have anyone to talk to about books because most people around me don’t read :(
Ha, we are in a similar boat, you and I, although my wife has shown me some books (namely Blake Crouch) that I found to be very interesting and easy (not boring) reads. But she reads her stuff and I read fantasy and sci-fi, and that’s fine, we read next to each other in bed, so we’re “spending time” together or something like that, and she’ll tell me about what she’s reading.
I don’t really have anyone I read new stuff with, and so that’s why I’m here, to see if anyone’s reading what I’m reading. The answer is … No!
I liked Crouch’s “Dark Matter”, but it’s also sf. I used to only read fantasy, but have branched into other genres :)
McCarthy is one of my favorite authors because of his Border Trilogy.
Currently reading Bloom by Delilah S Dawson for the podcast which is a sapphic-themed horror.
Also dipping into Ursula K LeGuin’s short story collection The Real and the Unreal, which is very good.
Currently posting from alt account as my usual account’s instance is down.
Finishing Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb, I think I only have the last chapter left. Liveship Traders is among my favorite fantasy series, I’m liking Rain Wild Chronicles so far, but I’d say I enjoyed Liveship Traders more. But it’s only the first book of four, so that may change. It’s a slow read for sure…
So are you doing the whole Realm of the Elderlings, start to finish? Definitely my favorite series, even beat out WoT. The jumping between storylines (first person and third person, not to give away much) were such huge changes in tone. I want to continue talking but I’ll hold my tongue. I’m just jealous, if you are reading it for the first time, that you get to experience it all new.
I read WoT a few years back, and got a friend interested and so I’ve been doing a listen of that with him, and we are at the penultimate sequence of events there. I intend to eventually convince him to join me for a listen to RotE.
I don’t particularly like the Fitz books, except the very first one, sorry. I read the first Fitz trilogy, then Liveship Traders, then listened to audiobooks of the second Fitz trilogy and now here I am, reading Rain Wilds. I am in the minority, since people love Fitz and some even ask if they can skip LT :) It’s the opposite with me.
Totally understandable, the tone shift is very substantial. Glad you trudge through them, the thought of skipping a piece of a series is nuts to me. I think it’ll end up being a rewarding read regardless.
I think my problem is the 1st person POV in books featuring Fitz. Liveship Traders is more like all the other fantasy series with a rich cast of characters and shifting perspectives. Meanwhile, we can only see through Fitz’ eyes and learn of his interpretation of who did what and what HE felt about it. We don’t really KNOW why THEY did something, including the villains. What I loved about Liveship Traders was how deep Hobb went into psychology of her characters. Especially
spoiler
Malta, whom I hated and then loved, it was such a natural progression, so human, I can only applaud the author.
I’m getting a feeling that something similar may happen with Sedric in Rain Wilds. Currently I really dislike the guy.
Back to Fitz - I was expecting something else from books with “Assassin” in their title ;) I thought he was the worst assassin in the world, haha. Eh, I wish I loved those books like you do. But there’s something to Hobb’s writing, I have to admit she makes beautiful prose, her books give me pleasure from reading the words and sentences, apart from the story (I am not a native English speaker, but I read her books mostly in English).
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Re WoT – did you mean Wheel of Time? It used to be my favorite series when I was a teenager. I am actually re-reading it after 20+ years, I’m somewhere in the middle. I learned it’s very difficult for me to read such a long series, though, because I keep forgetting everything between the books, it just takes too long for me.
Yep, WoT. I won’t read a series unless it’s complete (that’s probably not true but I try to stick to that because I’ve made the mistake before), so that I can just burn through. I thought RJ, and later Branderson, did a good enough job of reminding you of things later on. I also think my memory is good at books and stuff, bad at car keys and work.
And yeah, I found all the non-Fitz books to have a much happier feel to them. You’re on the boat, you’re in the wilds, you’re following these stories. It’s definitely more tradition fantasy. From the Fitz books though, I feel like we get this limited perspective of a character you literally watch grow up, and it’s got a much more serious tone to it. And it’s imperfect, and it’s meant to be I feel.
I don’t wanna talk a ton about it, but the series and it’s conclusion are great, love it all. Fitz’s growth just feels a lot more slow than the other books in the series, but him and his relationships all feel very intimate in a way that the other half of the series can’t capture.
Finished The Princess Bride. Honestly, I liked the movie better.
Started The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler based on someone’s recommendation in one of these threads. I’m liking it so far, but only a quarter into it so far
Really liked “The mountain in the sea”, and everything else I’ve read by Nayler. If you like this I recommend his other books, also Paolo Bacigalupi for near future distopias
I loved all the asides and backstories and extra world building in the novel. I actually wish the movie included more of it
I’m finishing Phillip Pullman’s “The Book of Dust” trilogy with “The Rosefield”
I heavily recommend the series to anyone interested in Magic, Consciousness, Fairies, and fighting a corrupt and evil Christian Church.
Pullman 's writing is flowing and subtle. Every pay off feels earned and all his foreshadowing is there enough that it feels like a mystery the reader can solve.
My favorite details are when details of events we’ve experienced in the book are mid remembered to other characters. Its often inconsequential, but I just love it when I know a character sounds so dumb for being wrong but they couldn’t know!
The Bible says so by Dan McLellan. I’ve always been interested in where the biblical canon comes from and how it became it’s current state. About four chapters in currently and I’m really enjoying it.
Never read it but I watch a lot of his YouTube videos and they’re great.
Keep us updated. I’m really interested. I like his short videos and have been wanting to check out his book.
I finished the book a while back and I reference it often.
Its really good. All of the book is formatted as long form responses with citations and solid academic reason without being inaccessible.
What jargon there is is fully explained in the intro or in the text.
It was in fact a wonderful resource for a modern interpretation for the bible and a resource on modern discourse around it if you’re not religious like myself.
Its good enough that I keep a spare copy to give to friends if they’re interested in interpretations of stories inspired by or from Dan.
Bart Ehrman is good for this too.
To add to this, I personally recommend “Did Jesus Exist” as the Dr. Ehrman follow up.
It has the same vibe as Dr. McClellan’s book while also being an incredibly useful popular academic book. Just as accessible and covers the second most important part of Christianity to understand, the origin as opposed to the current discourse.
“How Jesus became God” being a natural progression.
Re-read Persepolis. RIP Marjane Satrapi :(
RIP. She was an absolute gem
Reading and listening to multiple books as i cant just stick with one book till it finishes. So I’m finishing up Butter, Reading Dungeon crawler carl book 3 on audio and i read a couple of entries from John Steinbeck’s journal he kept during east of eden everyday before i go to bed.
I just finished Metamorphosis and started The Trial (Kafka, sorry Ovid fans) I’m struggling a little with the translation which doesn’t seperate dialogue by paragraph, but it is a lot easier, than I initially feared, to read.
One quality I take away from Kafka is how he makes you feel powerless and almost childlike in his worlds; you’re presented with these absurd scenarios that everyone else assures you are reasonable.
John Scalzi - When The Moon Hits Your Eye. Very interesting choice after reading Project Hail Mary. Another outer space mystery with the entire world trying to figure out what happened. I love John Scalzi books so I’m interested in seeing how this book goes.
Listening to Stormlight Archives - Rhythm of War while falling asleep. Kalladin in his own Die Hard situation is pretty awesome. I use books I’ve read before as something to fall asleep to because it stops me from ruminating or having an ear worm bug me for hours while trying to sleep. I now fall asleep in 5-10 minutes most nights. Sometimes it can still take over an hour to fall asleep, but at least I don’t stress out about not sleeping since I’m at least enjoying a story.
I’ll eventually do something similar for Stormlight. I’m listening to WoT for first time, but read it a few years back. I listen while I run. It’s good, because sometimes when I run I get tired, I guess, and don’t pay the greatest enough attention, so I wouldn’t want to be listening to material I wasn’t familiar with. I hate having to rewind.
That’s exactly how I got started with my sleep listening I wanted to reread WoT but was dreading the slog in the middle. So I figured if it put me to sleep, that’s no problem! It worked out really well and the slog really wasn’t too bad although there were some sections I just didn’t bother rewinding to listen to.
I finished up the Lord of the Rings trilogy today, loved it. Now I’m about a third of the way through a reread of Battle Ground (Dresden Files) so that I can get to Twelve Months, probably starting on Thursday. I also listened to ~40% of the last Alex Verus book, I’ll be finishing that in the next two workdays too. This is the one good thing about working night shifts in security.
Gardens of the Moon [Book 1 of Malazan: Book of the Fallen]
The series is a wild ride. If you atick with it, the payoff is excellent 👌
