Welcome to year’s first weekly thread! How are you all doing? And what are you book / reading related resolutions for this year?
I started Ultra-processed Food by Chris van Tulleken
Just started it, but looks like an interesting read. It’s about the ultra-processed food we eat these days.
Also skimming through Ryder Caroll’s The Bullet Journal Method. Read this last year (or was that year before that?) and wanted to check something but decided to skim through most of it.
Still reading The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson, 3rd book in the 2nd era of Mistborn. It was going great but didn’t get to read much last week or so, should be getting back to it now.
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 just got to part 3 of Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry, what a ride, loving it so far.
I started reading Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. I wanted to read the book before the adaptation comes out.
Other than that I’ve also been reading The Murderbot Diaries. (Read 4 of the 7 books published so far).
I’m about half way through Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut. And I just started The Witches by Roald Dahl. Trying to read as many banned books as possible this year. So far, I don’t get why any of them have been banned.
If you’re reading banned books, try Henry Miller. I love his work.
Tropic of Cancer is on my list! I don’t know much about him but I will add him to my list of authors to look into.
Empire of AI by Karen Hao
A deep dive into AI history and current events. Very interesting and somewhat terrifying.
As a caveat, I’m not an AI advocate, and in fact, the more I read (listen) the more horrifying what is happening and has happened already I find it.
The Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei. Main part of the story takes place on a generation ship that has been sabotaged, but there are multiple flashbacks to MC’s childhood, astronaut training, politics and climate of the time. Pretty interesting so far.
A Christmas road trip helped me wrap up A Memory Called Empire. Absolutely loved it, fantastic book if you’re into scifi. Went straight on to the sequel, A Desolation Called Peace.
Just finished:
- How to Be Both by Ali Smith. Interesting concept (two stories, read them in any order, each story recontextualizes the other) that I think I’ll need to read again in the other order.
- Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico. Great satire, really enjoyed it
Haven’t picked my next one yet, but probably from this list:
- Spread Me by Sarah Gailey. Looks like a fun take on The Thing
- Sunward by William Alexander. Don’t know much about it, other than it was well reviewed
- The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) by Rabih Alameddine. Was well reviewed
Oh I loved How to Be Both. I’ve read most of Ali Smith’s novels and I’ll continue until I’ve read them all. How to Be Both might be my favorite so far.
- The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
- Glorious Exploits by Ferdia Lennon
- Notes from Underground by Dostoevsky
The Buffalo Hunter Hunter is bloody fantastic. I love Stephen Graham Jones’ work.
How are the Notes from the Underground? I am thinking or reading them or Karamazovs.
I’m mostly reading it in order to follow Bakhtin’s Problems in Dostoevsky’s Poetics, so I’m kind of viewing it through that lens… I wouldn’t say it’s a compelling read on its own, but it’s interesting to see how Dostoevsky can create a character that engages in its own autonomous dialog with the reader.
I read Notes about 25 years ago and don’t remember anything about. I read it recently after Crime and Punishment (which I liked) and some short stories including White Nights (I loved it at the time but feel very differently about it later in my life). I still can’t get through Karamazovs, though. I’ve tried multiple times, but it is so unbelievably boring for me.
As I recall, Notes is a pretty short read, and also pretty good. May I suggest reading it first, and then Karamazovs, which is a much longer book?
SPQR by Mary Beard
I’m listening to the Obelisk Gate by N.K Jemisin. Second in the series of post post apocalypse fantasy/ sci-fi. Really enjoying the series so far. Well narrated too.
The Fifth Season has been on my list for a while. I should pick this up!
Pretty depressing world, but loved the series.
Just finished listening to:
- Every Tool’s a Hammer, by Adam Savage (self narrated)
- Moby Dick, by That One Guy (Anthony Heald narrating)
- Immune, by Philipp Dettmer (Steve Taylor narrating)
- Everything is Tuberculosis, by John Green (self narrated)
Just borrowed to listen, but haven’t started:
- Animal Farm, by George Orwell (Ralph Cosham narrating)
- Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury (Tim Robbins narrating)
Earlier in the year I listened to Kafka’s Metamorphosis in Persian, that was wild.
Libby is awesome
Structural Sin and the Death of Institutions, by Susannah Cornwall.
I just finished the Book of Dust trilogy by Phillip Pullman, and just started Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin, which I’ve been wanting to read for like 10 years.
How would you rank Book of Dust relative to His Dark Materials (assuming you’ve also read them)?
I’m on the tail end of Lord of Chaos (Wheel of Time 6).
108 more chapters to go. It feels like a lot has happened, but also not a lot has happened at all in the grand scheme of things.I am quite enjoying Jordan’s phrases of smoothing skirts, tugging braids, scrubbing hair, and knuckling foreheads/mustaches still.
I’ve been alternating between audiobooks and my e-reader, and my only complaint is that I cannot figure out how to pronounce Aes Sedai and Aiel names relative to howKramer and Reading do. I’m always off.
Jordan slows the pace of the plot down considerably at around Lord of Chaos, perhaps earlier. It can get pretty frustrating when the books are so dense, yet it feels like nothing actually ever happens. Jordan just keeps pulling more named characters in to the mix. I personally do like the series, but I have serious gripes with how Jordan chose to write some of the books.
Yeah. I have heard that from this point on the series slows considerably until Sanderson picks it up, but he still writes it as if Jordan was the author.
I don’t think WoT is conducive to Brando Sando’s signature Sanderlanche — actually, maybe it does, because I definitely felt like a there has been a point in each book where I can’t put it down until I finish it. Usually that’s the last 4-5 chapters. Or there is a fakeout climax and then the real climax happens like in
Tap for spoiler
Fires of Heaven
Edit: No idea what happened in the second paragraph, but I went back and reformatted it. I must have been distracted while typing it it.
I’m about 95% done Alchemised by SenLinYu. I know some people really didn’t like it, but I fall on the completely opposite end. I would havd finished it yesterday, but I forced myself to slow down and enjoy the last 50 pages.
Also in the middle of reading Boulevard Wren and Other Stories by Blindboy Boatclub. My partner has gifted me Blindboy’s latest book for Christmas, so I’ll be on to that this year, too.
I’m going to have an Alchemised hangover, so I might take a short break before I pick up my next.
If you are enjoying your current book about ultra processed food, I’d recommend That Sugar Book (and documentary “That Sugar Film”) by Damon Gameau.
Thanks for the recommendation, will take a look!
