What book(s) are you currently reading or listening to? September 22

Currently reading Isaac Asimov's I, Robot. It's a fun read, almost done.

One detail that surprised me is the amount of smoking in the book. It's not a lot, but kinda weird that someone would light up a cigarette in a space station.

Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett. I'm making my way through the Discworld in release order, excepting Guards, Guards! since I read it first. So far, the reputation of the series that you can feasibly start anywhere rings pretty true!

I'll be reading Niezwyciężony by Stanisław Lem. It's about a planet where abandoned robots have gone through an evolutionary process and become part of the ecosystem. It could happen to us!

Carl’s Doomsday Scenario by Matt Dinnaman

I’m taking my time because I know I would just blow through the series and be sad when it’s over. I understand why the Dungeon Crawler Carl series has gotten so popular.

Finished Dungeon Crawler Carl book 2 (Carl’s Doomsday Scenario) last week. Started Roadside Picnic but found the translation unreadable. Might be an audiobook choice if at all.

Currently reading Woken Furies by Richard Morgan. It is book 3 of the Takeshi Kovacs trilogy (Altered Carbon). The cyberpunk techno laden prose is a bit difficult to follow, so I started to whisper sync it (read book and listen to audiobook simultaneously) once I hit chapter 5. As the previous two Kovacs books, it is an excellent stylistic example of the cyberpunk genre, although it tends to not get nearly as political and dystopic as the genre usually does. Maybe book 3 bucks the trend.

Once done I will either finish the Eisenhorn trilogy (Warhammer 40k) or continue reading Book 4 of Sanderson's Stormlight Archive. Had to drop it after binging the first three in one go.

Fed Up by Daniel E. Lieberman. It's pretty depressing talking about corruption of the food industry, diet gurus fleecing people of their money, and how ineffective most diets are. It's written by an anthropologist who discusses where our diets come from and compared historically to what different cultures ate at various times. Very informative, very interesting, but pretty depressing about how shitty people are profiting from vulnerable people just wanting hope and health.

Currently reading 2666 by Roberto Bolaño. It's big but I'm committed to get through it, only 900 pages left!

Just finished A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan and Soul Music by Terry Pratchett.

Just started Dragonsinger by Anne McCaffrey. I don't remember yet whether I've read it before. I definitely read Dragonsong and Dragondrums years back, but I haven't read all of the Pern books. Something made me think of them earlier this year, so I started requesting them from the library.

I'm about to start Assassin's Fate by Robin Hobb. It's the conclusion to a trilogy. I'm looking forward to it. Robin Hobb is one of my favorites.

I Shall Wear Midnight, as I get closer to the end of this Discworld readthru.

Don't sleep on Discworld, and don't sleep on the Tiffany Aching "young adult" series. imho, "young adult" was probably thrust on Sir Terry for marketing or whatever, or he wanted to get more younger people to read the novels, but whatever the reason, apparently some people avoid the Aching novels, and that's a loss for them. :)

Just finished Children of Strife by Adrian Tchaikovsky, book four of his Children of Time series. Magnificent, truly. Best one yet.

Now I'm finishing H.N. Turteltaub's Over the Wine Dark Sea, that I put down to read CoS. It's also magnificent so far. I really appreciate how Dan Carlin's Hardcore History podcast gave me an ancient seafaring primer that this book is really living up to.

Finished The Last Days of Jack Sparks by Jason Arnopp. Last week I complained it was overlong; turns out it was just a slump in the pacing, as I enjoyed the last 25-ish% much better. I have some minor quibbles with some of the explanations at the end, but overall, I liked it.

Read/finished Full Speed to a Crash Landing by Beth Revis. This was short and zipped along quickly. I didn't love the MC's personality, but the cat-and-mouse aspect was great, so I'll probably end up putting the next one on my TBR.

Currently ambling my way through The Summer Book by Tove Jansson. Each chapter is a little story about an older woman and her granddaughter, who are living on a Finnish island. If you like the Moomin books, you'll probably vibe with this as well.

The Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle, with supplementary watching of lectures. I like how thorough Aristotle discusses things, and how grounded they were. For example, I think he had said that a singular action does not make someone "virtuous" or "vicious", but those label depend on whether an act was done consciouly or unconsciously, internal reactions and habits. Also, him discussing the difference between "particular knowledge" and "universal knowledge" felt like it made sense to me, but that's probably because I'm neurodivergent, lol.

With the lectures (which I wouldn't have watched without reading the book) my mind was sorta blown by a question whether "Intent", "The Person", and the "Consequences" was the most important, because a lot of the people interested in philosophy these days usually like to elevate only one aspect to importance. But as it stands, all of them are important.

Reading the book I also thought, since I am so interested in Philosophy and literally watch lectures for it, and Mathematics was valued and often used as a sort of illustrative point for their concepts, perhaps I should study Mathematics more thoroughly, starting from its philosophical roots? I literally suck at it. I think it would do me well to go beyond just using the mathematical formulas and try to understand it fundamentally.

Just finished the Nord Stream Conspiracy and it was entertaining, gave a bunch of background I didn’t know about. Jumped back into the Phoenix Project, a book about DevOps, and a book I have to read in small bites because it stresses me out.

I just wrapped up the Disaster Gays Detective Agency by Lev AC Rosen. Sadly, I was disappointed.

Re-reading the Culture series by Iain M. Banks. Managed to finish Player of Games, and Use of Weapons this week (Consider Phlebas is a skip for me). I loved this series when I first read it a few years back, I love it even more now. The entire universe is extraordinary and he clearly spent a lot of time thinking about the details to paint such rich and vivid stories. How lucky we are that he did, and how tragic for all of us that he left so soon.

Finishing up Vagabond by Tim Curry, and nearly done with The Silverblood Promise by James Logan.

I just finished He Who Fights With Monsters 9 today and still enjoying it a lot.

Having a brief break with Radical Remission: Surviving Cancer Against All Odds which is a rare non fiction forray that has been dictated by life as it is currently.

Rereading the Thomas Covenant series after running across a post about it.

I'm into the second trilogy now and I'm finding that the experience is different than when I was younger. I'm also experiencing it different now that I've written long form fiction.

Still loving it, just in new ways.

Finally finished "rationality from ai to zombies", I don't recommend it (repetitious, author arrogant AF). Reading ng the jellyfish problem (someone else here was reading it), its alright, I find myself a little tired of the main character.

I often feel my feelings about books are really dependent on when o come across them.

Redwall!

Ashes of Man by Christopher Ruocchio. It's a good book so far. I like the series as a whole, but my pace of reading the books are getting slower as the years go on. It's not that the stories are bad it's that Ruocchio really shot himself in the foot by revealing the climax of the whole series on the first page of book 1 and fucking waiting 6+ more novels to get there.

I think I'm gonna switch to Neuromancer when I'm done this book. I need a short pallet cleanser.

Then I might tackle Infinite Jest or Gravity's Rainbow out of curiosity.

I just wrapped up Replay by Ken Grimewood. I read it back in ‘89-‘90 when it first came out in paperback and I was a young’un and it really stuck in my head. When I saw my local library had it for check out as downloaded audio, I figured I had to give it a go again almost 30 years later.
It’s a fantastic story of a 43 year old man who has a hart attack in 1988 and wakes up in his 18 year old body in early 1963. You’d think it would be a bog standard fantasy about getting it right this time or something but instead it turns out to be a lovely stirring story about loneliness and finding someone, anyone to share your time with. Really great book that hits harder now that I’m older.

Finished Morning Star this week, really enjoyed it a solid 9/10 for me. Red Rising trilogy as a whole probably 8.5 or 9/10? The first book really takes forever to get going.

I am struggle bussing through Between Two Fires. It feels like it should be right up my alley, medieval France, horrorish vibes, knights, but it just isnt. I am near the end so will finish it in the next day or two but maybe my fault for sticking it out. Probably should have dropped it, but i have trouble doing that.

Along Came a Spider by James Patterson. I'm new to book reading as a leisure and I just found out that random book I read when I was a kid (Double Cross by James Patterson) has a lot of books in its series. I will start from here and see if I end up being a bookworm too.

I have some dregs left of books that McKay's didn't want to trade for in-store credit. I'm currently re-reading Dragon Tears by Dean Koontz. I started Grey Mountain by John Grisham but it seems kinda dull. I also started Arguably by Christopher Hitchens, but I don't remember if I've read it before.

I thought I'd give Zane Grey a try as I've never read a western. "Riders of the Purple Sage" is quite gripping.

Currently reading Perdido Street Station by China Mieville after enjoying The City and The City. I love how thickly he lays on the descriptions of the filth and dread, the opening introduction in PSS is pages without a single redeeming feature described.

Finally finished Children of Time after 8 months (no time to read and feel guilty if I do). About to move on to a second book, but I am going to take a pit stop at a bad Noir detective novel that I got from a humble bundle "Quarry".

Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

It's pretty good as a light Sci Fi novel

In the pursuit of completeness, I am forcing myself through Steve Brust's Khaavren Romances. They are prequels to his Vlad Taltos series of books that are written in the style of Alexandre Dumas, and as such are often intentionally insufferably tedious to varying degrees of entertaining. I'm not hating them entirely, but the pacing is very, very slow compared to the Vlad Taltos books, which I enjoy much more. I'm up to book 13 of those, and on the third of five Khaavren Romances.

I'm working my way through Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman, and it reminds me in hugely of Otherland, Tad Williams. I haven't picked up a Gaiman book in a while, somewhat due to the controversy around him, and I'd forgotten that I do enjoy his prose. Overall, it's only fine. I keep falling asleep reading if that's any indication of interest ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

And finally finished Heretical Fishing, Haylock Jobson. Boy was that book not for me. I think I get the appeal of a permutation of the cultivator progression fantasy genre, but wow the writing really wasn't for me. Sooo dramatic all the time about the littlest things, constantly talking about how the air felt in lungs, sun on face, etc. And the relationships, while "wholesome" did not feel grounded or real. I don't the I'll be continuing the series.

I began reading Darconville's cat by Alexander Theroux. Another doorstopper for this year, wish me luck.

Sword of Destiny is such a good one, those early Witcher short stories have more punch than the novels honestly. I'm listening to the audiobook of Piranesi again because nothing else scratches that weird quiet itch, plus catching up on a couple of audio drama podcasts on my commute.

I've just finished 'Our Rights to Drugs' by Thomas Szasz. It's a controversial book but I think it's worth reading. In my opinion, it has some interesting takes and some wrong ones but overall, I recommend it.

Finished up Purity by Jonathan Franzen. Took a little longer to get through than I'd thought, either because I had other things on my mind, or because I reread the confusing parts. There are some complicated strands of plot, told out of chronological order, but I think it eventually fits together sensibly. I'd recommend this one and might take a chance on one of Franzen's other books.

SO recommended the Throne of Glass series and that I start with the prequel, I've been sitting on the third short story of the book for a while now.

Other than that, I'm in the middle of 3 different light novels:

The Weakest Tamer Began a Journey to Pick Up Trash v13

Mushoku Tensei v16

Seirei Gensouki v27

Judge my choice of light novels, or my inability to finish one before starting another, it's fine, I'm just as bad when it comes to watching TV shows. I cannot binge watch to save my life.

Still reading Red Country by Joe Abercrombie, sixth in The First Law series. Absolutely loving it, though I feel I stepped out of Medieval Times and into the Olde West(e). It's been gripping since the first page, really like it.

And DCC book 6, The Bedlam Bride. Not sure I need to say much about it. If you're here in this thread in the Fediverse, you're aware of it, generally, if not specifically.

Currently reading Better Than Revenge by Bea Fitzgerald, The Lotus Empire by Tasha Suri, Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism by Kristen Ghodsee (about economic arguments rather than anything else) and We Will Not Be Silent by Russell Freedman.

How to make an apple pie from scratch. Glad I started it finally, but now I can't get it done. It's nicely written and all, but I'm well beyond what my brain is able to imagine now...