Still reading Cold Days by Jim Butcher, the 14th book in Dresden Files series.
Yet another busy week but things have started to settle down, got back to reading properly yesterday and have reached the point where we get some interesting reveals. Very excited about where it goes from here.
What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening to lately?
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Just finished Best Served Cold by Joe Ambercrombie. It was a bit of a disappointment compared to the other books of his I’ve read, but maybe I need a break. I’m part way through Half the World by the same author.
Just finished The Second Death of Locke. Good, but I think it works better as a romance than anything else.
Currently reading Hooked by Emily McIntire. I’m enjoying it, but the book opening is pretty brutal. I’m glad the book has an author’s note at the beginning because it’s not a book for everyone.
Just finished a couple of Fear Street books I found at the library for cheap. I kind of read those to prep me for Hooked. I’m going to drop them off at a local little free library location
Also finished the Consortium Rebellion trilogy by Jessie Mihalik. I absolutely loved this series. It had all the right amounts of science fiction and romance that made me so happy.
I’m going to start reading “Endnotes 1: Preliminary Materials for a Balance Sheet of the 20th Century”.
Today the first four volumes of the Endnotes collective arrived at my home and I’m eager to read them. To refresh my memory, I’m going to reread the first one.
The first volume, as its title suggests, reviews what happened in the twentieth century from the perspective of communization theory, which is nothing more than the expression of the communist movement in the current cycle of struggles. It contrasts two positions: that of Théorie Communiste, which is more determinist and argues that victory was impossible in that context, and that of Gilles Dauvé, who claims victory was possible, had certain errors or deviations not occurred.
For fiction I’m reading “Thud!” By Pratchett. For non-fiction I’m reading " The Traitor and the Spy"
Just finished the expanse. Starting isles of the emberdark.
Stuff is really stressful right now, so I’m just sorta retreating into the comforting hole of Discworld.
I started reading Demons by Fyodor Dostoevsky. It’s about the spread of new ideas, namely nihilism, in the mid-1800s Russia. As such, the topic reminds me of Ivan Turgenev’s Fathers And Sons, which I remember liking. This is a hefty tome, so it’ll take me a while to get through it.
I’m listening to There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm right now. It’s both fun and terrifying at the same time.
I just finished listening to Service Model by Adrian Tchaikovsky and really enjoyed it. It was a nice departure from the Dying Earth Breaking Down theme, even though it was definitely a Dying Earth Breaking Down story. It was like a wholesome, lighthearted Earth dying.
I’m also reading The Farthest Shore by Ursula K Le Guin to my boys right now. They go to sleep in minutes after starting it and have no idea what is going on when I ask them about it in the morning, but it’s a great book and I’m enjoying reading it even after they go to sleep.
I’m so happy that There is no Antimemetics Division is back in print. I found out about it right after the self published edition went out of print, so I made do with JVSCP’s reading on YouTube. I picked my copy of the new edition up this weekend and am excited to dig back in.
Dexter in the dark. Been reading the Dexter books lately, pretty good, just about done with this one.
After catching all the way up with The Wandering Inn webserial, I decided to try other webserials I might like.
I’ve now read all the available content for Pale Lights (by ErraticErrata, who wrote A Practical Guide to Evil which I loved, this new one’s also great), the first four books of Beware of Chicken (thumbs up, will definitely continue), and just started He Who Fights with Monsters (I’m halfway through book one, but I don’t hate it).
I tried Zenith of Sorcery (since I remembered enjoying Mother of Learning well enough) but the currently available material didn’t really grab me. I might try again in a few years.
I’m not sure what happens when I’ve totally caught up with all these…I don’t know if I have the patience to only read one story segment a week, or if I’ll end up pausing for longer stretches so there’s more at one time.
The last week or so has been busy for me too so it’s been sporadic, but I’ve been reading through Brigands and Breadknives by Travis Baldree. It’s the first true sequel to Legends and Lattes given that the second book in the series is a prequel. It reunites a main character from Legends and Lattes with a friend from the prequel. I’m enjoying it so far but not quite as much as the prior 2 yet, but I’m still only about 40% in.
I’ve been in the mother of all reading slumps (since I hit my very modest yearly goal of 12+ books), but I’m back and I’m currently reading Orientalism by Edward Said for non-fiction. I’m also reading two short-story collections: A Century of Fiction in The New Yorker edited by Deborah Treisman, and Africa Risen: A New Era of Speculative Fiction edited by Thomas, Ekpeki and Knight.
The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin.
Warlock by Oakley Hall. A Western novel about the town of Warlock and it’s a very good example of revisionist western: where characters are shades of moral grey instead of classic old west good vs. Bad.
The writing though does a lot of effort to make dialogs appear old-timey (was written in 1958) and characters will often go around to beat some desert bush, making some conversations dreadful.
Regardless, a solid recommendation for anyone with a western itch.
