Finished The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson, 3rd book in the 2nd era of Mistborn!
Read last 150 or so pages in a single sitting. Very interesting where the story is going.
After finishing it, I wanted to focus on the other books I was reading but the ending made me start the Mistborn: Secret Histories novella right away.
The novella takes place in Era 1 (at least as far as I have read) but the recommended order is after The Bands of Mourning, as mentioned at the end of the book. Pretty interesting so far.
Still Readings Ultra-processed Food by Chris van Tulleken and The Bullet Journal Method by Ryder Caroll, but at very slow pace. Going to focus on them one at a time to speed them up.
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’m currently reading 4 books:
- Beekeeping for Dummies
- Dragonlance - Dragons of Autumn Twilight by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman
- Invader (second book in the Foreigner series) by C.J Cherryh.
- The E-myth
Finished: Foundation by Asimov. Pretty great, I liked the repeated theme that violence is just a bad solution, not a “wrong” one. You can sit around arguing philosophy all day, but if one path involves death and destruction and the other avoids it then it’s hard to argue with results
In progress: Dragon Ball by Akira Toriyama. I got a color e-reader for Christmas so I’ve been seeing what Manga is like on it. It’s funny and plays pretty fast and loose with its own rules. It’s also much faster than watching the show
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.
Did you read the trilogy? And/or the broader universe?
I read Foundations as a start, then went and read the rest of his universe, and a bunch of his other works too!
Love the entire DB universe, I own the omnis for DB but sold the DBZ ones ages ago. Wish I didn’t.
It’s raunchy and I love it. I had to warn my niece about gokus balls when I lent it to her, you know what I’m referring too…
Foundation was for my bookclub so I just read that. I have read I, Robot and Nightfall and do like Asimov in general, I may come back to the series time permitting
There have been multiple times reading DB that I had to remind myself it was written by a dude in Japan in the 80s who had no idea it would be popular, let alone become a global phenomenon. Roshi and Bulma early on is a little gross, and Goku is way too fascinated with people’s groins. It’s still pretty fun
Just finished “The Rose Field” by Philip Pullman, book 3 in “The Book of Dust”. Was it good? I’m somewhat up in the air about that. I enjoyed the series but books 2 & 3 was just one book in 2 volumes; and that’s fine but it was somehow a bit… Unfulfilling. Ending felt a bit rushed as well; an additional 50 pages might have better fleshed out both the climax and a suitable epilogue.
Started “The Gone World” by Tom Sweterlitsch last night. Holy poop the 7-page prologue had me hooked immediately.
Agreed, that prologue is fantastic. I wish the rest of the book matched that tone and intensity better, but I still enjoyed it.
I really enjoy all of Pullman’s books, but I haven’t read any of the new dust books. I’m curious to jump in.
I have just started listening to The High Crusade. With English not even being my first language it’s really something else. Enjoying it this far though, and if I don’t understand anything anymore there’s still the option to get a used copy from back then for small money.
I’m a little over halfway through The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman. It’s been a slow reading week, but I’ll probably finish the book this week.
I love it so much :)
Just finished Slaughterhouse-Five. Currently reading On the Road, by Jack Kerouac. It’s good so far. I had no idea Beatniks were just bums that did lots of drugs and listened to Jazz. Fun stuff! Every generation is basically the same. Sex, drugs, sticking it to the man, etc… :)
How’d you like Slaughterhouse Five? Been meaning to get to it.
I really wanted to like On the Road. The whole movement and characters are so cool and sympathetic to me, but somehow it had too little direction for me to really enjoy it. I know that’s sort of the point though…
It was good. Not what I was expecting. I knew very little about it going in. I haven’t ready anything by Kurt Vonnegut until now but I will be checking out some more. The story jumps around in time quite a bit but it wasn’t too confusing. I did have to re-read a few pages but over all worth the read.
On the Road popped up randomly on a podcast I was listening to so I bought a copy because it sounded interesting. Parts of it do feel a bit directionless but overall it’s a fun story. Reminds me of one carefree hippy summer I spent doing nothing but being a bum back in the 90s.
I remember struggling with On the Road, but someone reminded me that beatniks (including Kerouac) were frequently poets. I miss out on the lyricism sometimes, so this has inspired me to check if my library has an audio book version (it does, I’m 56th in line)
Three quarters through “Works of Vermin” by Hiron Ennis.
Pretty good, but if you want something much better, try The Scar by China Meiville.
I haven’t read Mieville yet, but while I was reading The Works of Vermin, I did wonder if there were similarities. Good to know!
His top two are Perdido Street Station and The Scar. Wasn’t crazy about The Iron Council, and UnLunDun felt like an overgrown YA.
Have fun.
He did a comic book called ‘Dial H for Hero’ which had its moments
I have a personal fondness for The City and The City.
The Scar has one element in it that is weirdly applicable to my favorite hobby, so I have spent way too much time thinking about just that thing.
Please expand on that.
Since a lot of the book was about radical body modification and a vampire ruled neighborhood I find the lack of context disrubing.
If I were to toss a coin, most certainly it would land on one side or the other; its just possible it might land on its edge. But if I were to make it part of a possibility circuit, I’d turn it into a coin of possible falls. A possible coin. And if I toss that, things are different. One of either heads or tails or just maybe edge will come up as before and lies there as strong as ever. That the fact-coin. And surrounding it, in different degrees of solidity and permanency, depending on how likely they were are a scattering of its nighs – its close possibilities, made real. Like ghosts. Some almost as strong as the factual , fading to those that are just barely there. When the clockwork is running, my arm and the sword mine possibilities. For every factual attack there are a thousand possibilities, nigh-sword ghosts, and all of them strike down together. When I switch on the sword, precision is the one thing I cannot afford. The more precise the strike the more constrained potentiality, the more wasted the Possible Sword. I must be an opportunist, not a planner. I must fight from the heart, not the mind.
My favorite hobby is social dancing in an improvised context. I prefer (slightly) following over leading (though I am skilled at both). At any moment, my partner could choose to move us in any direction, though much like the quote states, some ways are more likely than others. It is my job as a follow to be prepared for any of them and be able to perform them. The more that I think that I know what will happen, the less open I am to what may actually happen (and this can have negative consequences ranging from an unsatisfying dance to physical injury).
Somehow, I find none of this soothing…
Love that for me.
+1 for The City & the City
I tried to watch the TV adaptation and just couldn’t deal…
I didn’t know there was a TV adaptation, but my day is immediately ruined ☹️
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7205264/
If I had to suffer, then so should you!!!
Finished Josephine Tey’s Daughter of Time. Supposedly ranked the best crime novel of all time. I’m not sure I agree with the ranking, but can understand how it made the list. Detective Alan Grant, hospitalized from his previous case, investigates the historical murder of the Princes in the Tower, allegedly committed by Richard III. Grant’s research brings this into dispute and he labels this narrative Tonypandy, after the Tonypandy Massacre where Winston Churchill ordered the British Calvary to violently put down a Welsh miners’ strike. Which isn’t at all what happened, but is repeated anyway because it’s more politically expedient than the truth.
Moving on to Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. I intend to claim this one for the Late to the Party square as it’s a classic that people who know my literary tastes would have expected me to have read at least twice by now. I have the 60th anniversary edition with a preface by Neil Gaiman, 100 pages of supplementary end commentaries, and extensive margin notes contributed by an anonymous previous owner.
Just finished reading „The Quiet American“ by Greene. I read it based on @adhd_traco@piefed.social suggestion. Thanks for that mate! I enjoyed it quite a bit. Although I thought Our man in Havanna was better, since it didn’t take itself as seriously. Any other ones you liked by Greene?
Right now I’m reading „The Crucible“ by Arthur Miller. Idk what to think yet, I only just started, but so far it seems quite good and unfortunately sort of on topic with all the tyranny going on in the world nowadays…
Edit: Just got done with the Crucible. I thought it was great. Definitely gonna try to catch the play some time soon. I probably liked it even more than „Death of a Salesman“ and I already loved that one. Next up: Probably either „The Nickelboys“ or „Berlin Alexanderplatz“.
Glad you enjoyed it! Unfortunately my memory is really bad on his books. And what I liked back then as a teenager I might cringe at today. :) I think these two were my favorites.
I remember reading Brighton Rock while in Brighton, though. It was written as a money-spinner, but apparently had pretty good reviews and he was happy with it. One site says it’s one of his most famous works. Again, I don’t remember anything about it 😅.
Maybe I’ll check it out one of these days then… since you said your tastes have changed, what are you into nowadays?
Very different stuff. Due to chronic pain that affects my focus, I’m not reading thaaat much anymore, especially stuff for leisure, as it’s even harder to focus when I’m supposedly relaxing. :)
The closest, I guess, is Homer’s Odyssey as an audio book (Emily Wilson translation) which I’m currently enjoying. In the beginning I thought she’s going way too much into all the stuff surrounding the story, but after a while it made sense, and I’m grateful for it.
Something I’ve read recently-ish: Psychopaths Anonymous by Will Carver. Kinda literary fast-food, unless you have an interest in the theme, but still both gruesome and funny. I think True Crime folks would enjoy this.
The novel Children of Gebelawi by Naguib Mahfouz. He is a legendary Egyptian author. Someone told me he’d write his novels sitting outside cafes after work.
Also by an Egyptian, and an easier read, I think, Beer in the Snooker Club
Also currently reading: Ancient Egyptian Myths and Legends - Spencer, Lewis. This is somewhat leisure, I think, but non-fiction of course :)
In a similar fact/fiction vein, I’m also working my way through: Strange Stories, Amazing Facts Stories That are Bizarre, Unusual, Odd, Astonishing, and Often Incredible.
One of my favorite authors remains Haruki Murakami. Wind-up Bird Chronicle is my absolute favorite novel. Norwegian Wood, and ‘Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World’ come close behind.
Broken Phoenix by Edmond Manning is something I really wanna read, to get some fantasy in there, but couldn’t get my hands on yet 😭
What kinda stuff do you enjoy?
That honestly sounds like a lot of very interesting stuff, thanks for the very thorough answer! I’m trying to stick to fiction, non fiction often feels too much like work to me haha. Used to be biiiig on fantasy and scify when I was young, like Lord of the Rings, Dune, Ender Series and Cosmere type stuff. Then I stopped reading for a while and afterwards I couldn’t really get into it again for some reason…
So since I started again I’ve been working my way through mostly classics. Last year I was mostly into naturalist/existentialist/psychological realist novels with a focus on Russian, German, French and a few American authors. So stuff like Dostoevsky, Camus, Kafka, but also lots of plays by people like Hauptmann and Ibsen. Greene I read mostly as a nice lighter distraction in between, but I’m happy that it started off this conversation. I definitely wanna broaden my horizons a bit this year to get some more international perspective, especially since last year I read quite a few colonial novels, but very few that were narrated by the colonised. Also trying to read some more women since that is a huge blind spot for me… if you want, check out my StoryGraph profile for more. I’m trying to be thorough on reviewing the stuff I read and I’d love to get a little more social on there since I know no one who uses it yet. Here’s the link: https://app.thestorygraph.com/profile/flo1312
Oh yeah, Dune is really cool :) It’s only really through the fediverse that I got back in touch with fantasy. I see so many good titles mentioned. And after reading that really heavy stuff it only makes sense you’re going for something lighter!
I think I’ll create an account on StoryGraph and message you to add me, as your profile is private :)
Ah my bad, didn’t even know it was private. Now it should work.
It’s been a bit since I’ve posted in one of these, and in that time I read the first 2 books of the Ransom Riggs series, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children Then followed it up with the brand new Dresden files book Twelve Months by Jim Butcher.
Also, during this time I’ve been doing a second go through of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series this time the audiobooks just because I have heard them praised so highly and they are definitely one of the best audiobook productions I’ve heard. I’m currently on the second book of that.
Probably get back very soon to Ms. Peregrin’s, but I’m also quickly finishing up The Invention of Hugo Cabaret before I get back.
Oh snap, Book 18 is out? I’m in!
It had been a bit since my last read through, but As song as you recall the 2 prior books you should be good. Enjoy, I really did.
Oooh, how’s Twelve Months? I am at Cold Days so no spoilers 😀
I have been sitting here for five minutes to try and figure out how to describe it…
And the best I can do is tell you that it is very emotionally raw and it’s probably not the type of book that most people would be able to just sit down and read cover-to-cover. It’s sooo good.
Hmm… poor Dresden, wonder what Jim put him through this time.
I am speeding up my reading of Dresden Files, will fully catch up later this year.
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Actually just started Chrysalis 6: Antvance into the Unknown this morning.
The entire series has been interesting so far!
I’m still settling on a new book rn, but I went on kind of a reading binge last week.
Finished:
A Case of Life and Limb by Sally Smith (mostly cozy historical mystery with legal elements) | bingo: different continent, x of y HM, new, alliterative, cozy
The reclusive barrister from the first book is drawn into another mystery while preparing for a court case rife with scandal.
This was a little less cozy than the first book, but I liked it just as much. I do hope the next one will break the pattern of ‘seemingly separate court case turns out to be related to the mystery’, though.
Obscura by Joe Hart (scifi thriller with mystery and horror elements) | bingo: none!
A scientist working on a cure for an Alzheimer’s-like disease is convinced to travel to space to diagnose a team of astronauts with similar symptoms.
For as many issues as I had with this, it was still enjoyable. The horror/thriller/mystery parts were fun, but the physics were applied spottily, and I did a lot of eye rolling at the repeated railroading of the MC by others to avoid explaining the situation, only for them to later explain the situation.
Teacup Magic: The First Collection by Tansy Rayner Roberts (cozy fantasy of manners with romance and mystery elements) | bingo: different continent, indie, short HM, steppin’ up HM, cozy
A trio of novellas about an upper-class young woman falling into magical mysteries and adventures with her friends and love interest.
These were charming, fluffy fun that I will happily read more of. Skip if you prefer detailed world building, or acknowledgement of privilege.
I finished Ghost Story by Jim Butcher. This was my least favourite book the first two times and I wasn’t looking forward to it, but it was really good this time through. I think it’s because I read a physical book instead of listening to the audiobook this time, and this one is much slower and more contemplative. Memories are such an important part of this story, so being able to read entire pages of scene-setting, that go in detail into everything that Dresden was seeing & feeling, and everything they mean to him, were much more effective in a medium that lets you sit with things for a moment and really take it all in. Loved it.
I’m in Fellowship of the Ring now, gonna alternate these with Dresden files. I only just watched the films for the first time in the last year or so and I read The Hobbit last month (didn’t watch those ones). No thoughts on it yet except I’m glad we didn’t stick around in Hobbiton for very long, I really don’t like the people there for the most part.
Ghost Story is contentious, it’s just such a huge change of pace from the typical book in the series, and much more introspective. I enjoy it more and more each time I read it though.
Actually a very slow year for me, when it comes to books. Currently only reading the book Mort by Terry Pratchett.
But what a good choice that is.
Honestly, the whole discworld series is phenomenal, but I appreciate it differently now as an older man, compared to when reading them as a youngster.
Finished: The Hour of the Predator by Giuliano da Empoli. Very underwhelming after having made great promises. The book draws parallels between modern “leaders” and Cesare Borgia, but due to the tight structure (1 leader per chapter) and the many irrelevant anecdotes of the author’s time among “important” people, the parallels never get examined closely or even in an interesting manner.
Currently reading: thanks to this Lemmy post I discovered the Garth Marenghi books. I’m now 20 pages into the first one, TerrorTome, and I like it a lot. The typical Garth voice, serious and funny at the same time, setting up another silly story. I can’t wait to pick it back up.
