This was a nice week for book reading. Don’t usually get this much time generally.
Finished The Last White Man by Mohsin Hamid. I didn’t like the writing style initially but got used to as I read along. It’s a small book, just a little more than 100 pages. An umm… interesting read.
Got my copy of The Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson. Really liked the book. It was a fun, light book. There was much less action than I was expecting, after reading the announcement of the book, but that didn’t make book any less enjoyable. Finished the book in two days, which I rarely get to do now.
Grave Peril by Jim Butcher. Book 3 of Dresden Files. I have just started it, but it’s the same Dresden Files. Nothing to say about that.
What have you been reading?
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I am currently reading The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett. This was really rough at the start to get into it. I have a hard time with fantasy stories that throw a ton of made up names at me since I have such a hard time remembering “normal” names. But I got over the hump and have started to enjoy it.
Here’s the list of books, recent to oldest, I’ve read since Reddit went down. I decided that instead of purely replacing Reddit, I would use my time better. I haven’t read this much since before high school.
I, Robot-Isaac Asimov The Player of Games-Iain M. Banks The Secret History-Donna Tartt Circe-Madeline Miller Shogun -James Clavell Flowers for Algernon-Daniel Keyes Only Human-Sylvain Neuvel Waking Gods-Sylvain Neuvel Sleeping Giants-Sylvain Neuvel
A lot of people recommend starting the Discworld series with Mort rather than The Colour of Magic (I’m not actually sure the reason, perhaps something to do with growth into the style?) But I hope you enjoy the book, and series, should you continue with it
The first two books are stylistically (and canonically) quite different from the later books. The first two books are more likea sketch shows. There isn’t much of a story besides getting Rincewind in a new predicament.
The humour and especially the characters are also less… Developed. Death for example is quite cruel in the first books.
The first books also mainly make fun of fantasy tropes, while later books use Discworld more as a mirror to explore social issues on our world.
I just started “Leviathan Wakes”, the first novel in The Expanse universe. According to Google I’m about 25% through, and I’m loving it!
I’m not much of a reader, but I just can’t seem to put this down !
I would love to hear what you think about The Expanse. Have been looking for an interesting sci-fi series to start.
I hope I’m able to properly communicate my thoughts to you! Haha
Alright, so to start, it reads sort of like a tv show, in the way that every chapter we get a shift in perspective and what character we are following. It shifts between 2 narratives. Sort of like every chapter is a different episode. Perhaps I just don’t read enough, but this constant back and forth seemed a little odd to me in a written medium? Including the prologue, we get 3 different character POVs.
As for the pacing, it isn’t slow, but it isn’t fast either. I’d say it’s well-paced, but each POV seems to have a slightly different speed, where a chapter for one character could be just a typical day, the chapter for the next character could span a few weeks. This doesn’t interrupt the story much at all, and it really seems to only serve to enhance the readers immersion in this world and how fast or slow things move in space and “The Belt” as it’s called in the series.
Speaking of the world, so far, it has been built and established pretty wonderfully. 114 pages into the first book of the series, and the writer never seems to shoehorn in exposition into the narrative, but rather it’s, usually, a tasteful cutaway to a flashback of sorts that explains perhaps who they’re talking to/about, or what event happened to kick off a chain reaction and why, etc.
I have encountered 1 misspelling so far earlier in the book, and it’s probably just me, but it’s stuck with me since.
In terms of its actual writing and language used, the author uses basic, everyday language, with a few “$5” words sprinkled in that can sometimes cause confusion, although that could just be due to my limited personal dictionary. Overall, it doesn’t detract from the story, especially if you’re willing to take a moment to look up a word or 2 every couple chapters.
In terms of “sci-fi”-ness, so far everything the entire series has taken place either in the empty vacuum of space, or smaller stations scattered throughout the solar system. The way the author describes some everyday actions and activities, and their difficulty or impossibility in the altered gravity of space and/or space stations really sucks me into the universe as it makes me believe that even though these people are humans, they’re living an entirely different existence, with different rules.
I said a lot, especially for only being 114 pages into the first book, but it has sucked me back into reading, and I commend it for that.
Also, a few articles I’ve seen scattered across the internet when searching for other books in the series have called it “the greatest sci-fi series of the decade” for whatever that’s worth to you.
Oh, and they also have a “major” tv show based on the books.
Hope this comment answers a few questions for you :)
Thanks for such a detailed response. I know there’s a TV show based on the series, but I don’t know anything about it. I am going to look up the series on my next visit to the bookstore.
I am reading The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook by Matt Dinniman, book 3 of the Dungeon Crawler Carl book series.
Hey I just started The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky. It’s a huge book so expect to be occupied for a while!
Nice! Good luck!
I just started The Bullet Journal Method by Ryder Carroll.
I have been using bullet journal for years now, but funnily enough I have never read the book. You made me realize that, so going to order it right away. 😀
It’s pretty incredible how so much of the history aligns with my issues. It’s a great book. I have a good feeling about it being able to help organize my life.
I am reading Project Hail Mary now.
Aye I’m reading one of Sanderson’s secret projects right now! It’s the latest one. I don’t want to spoil the title for anyone. But it hasn’t been one of Sanderson’s best works in my opinion. Feels a bit YA. But as long as I get some extra Cosmere knowledge I’m on board!
Halfway through a reread of Blood Rites (also Dresden Files), halfway through The Way of Kings by Sanderson & Thankless in Death by JD Robb, just finished book 3 of Seanen McGuire’s Incryptid series but I’ll start 4 tomorrow and should have it finished by Sunday, I sprinkle in the Incryptid short stories whenever I have half an hour to spare, and I just started the first of the Resident Evil novelisations but that one’s going to be a pretty low priority and will probably take months. I have a very slow job.
This is my first Sanderson book and I’m really enjoying his style so far, I’ve had him on my reading list for years and should have gotten started sooner.
Artemis by Andy Weir. I’m a little over halfway through and thus far I am really enjoying it. I didn’t know what to expect when I started it, so I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how fun it is.
I’m finally getting around to reading The Goblin Emperor and just finished The Giver. I managed to never read it before, ¯\(ツ)/¯.
Somewhere in the middle of Grave Peril is where the Dresden books really seem to hit their stride and become more consistently good in my opinion.
I usually have a few books going at once. Some print, some digital that I can read in bed with the lights out, and some audio that I can read in the car or while exercising.
I just finished Plath’s The Bell Jar, found that one quite enjoyable. Very pretty prose throughout.
I’ve been reading Ovid’s Metamorphoses which I’m finding surprisingly approachable given it’s age.
I’m making good progress on my second read of Infinite Jest.
I’m nearly through with The Black Echo which is a pretty run-of-the-mill police drama recommended to me by a friend. It’s part one of a lengthy series started in the 90s,but I don’t think I’ll be following along with the rest of them. It was fine and pulpy. Nice to put on when I didn’t need to pay much attention.
I’ve just ordered a few books by Siddhartha Mukherjee which look interesting.
Nice list of books! Which translation of Metamorphoses are you reading?
As for The Black Echo, why are all crime series so long? PDFuego mentioned J. D. Robb’s in Death series in this thread below, and it’s also 30+ books. Well, the good thing is, if you end up liking the books, you don’t have to wait for the next one, but they just keep going.
Just looked up Siddhartha Mukherjee, his works looks interesting. Which ones did you order?
I got the Penguin Classics edition of Metamorphoses. It’s working out great for me, but I don’t really have any scholarly investment in the text. Just reading because I always liked the old mythos.
I got all 3 of Mukherjee’s books as well as Outlive by Peter Attia and Better by Atul Gawande. Why do doctors have some burning desire to tell us about Ignaz Semmelweis? It seems impossible not to mention the guy in your early chapters if you’re an MD. I don’t know what I’ve gotten myself into.
I don’t typically read crime novels, but I’m also not one to turn down a recommendation from a friend.
Thanks for the info.
I have never really read any books by MDs, so can’t comment on Ignaz Semmelweis part. Though I am looking at the Cancer one by Mukherjee, so may get it soon.
I did get The Black Echo couple of days ago. Though haven’t started reading it yet.
Fat Talk: Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture by Virginia Sole-Smith. I just started it so no opinions yet.
I just looked it up because title seemed interesting, would love to hear what you think about it.
It was interesting. You don’t really think kids are that exposed to diet culture but it’s in everything.
I’m reading The Hero of Ages from the Mistborn trilogy right now. I’m only on chapter 9, but it’s a little “meh” so far.
On audiobook, I’m listening to Joe Abercrombie’s Best Served Cold. I’ve read it before, but wanted to reread the six books in the First Law universe before I jump into The Age of Madness, but I had heard good things about the audiobook version. Say one thing about Steven Pacey, say he can voice act!
I read Mistborn quite a while ago, and remember liking it a lot, but I have heard from people that Mistborn is probably his weakest series, in terms of writing. How did you like the first two books?
As much as I don’t like grimdark, First Law was a pretty good series. I have two standalone novels left, want to read them before continuing to Age of Madness.
The Mistborn series is just OK, but I want to see the payoff and how this ties into the Cosmere as a whole. I actually disliked it so much the first time I read Mistborn that I gave up halfway through; I thought it was absolutely the dumbest magic system I’ve ever read.
I came back to it after reading the Stormlight books, which is also a dumb magic and currency system but such an epic story I got past it much more easily. The Mistborn series feels a little too YA for me, but I do really like some of the characters.
I actually like his magic systems. Very scientific-y. If you didn’t like his magic systems in Mistborn and Stormlight, don’t read Elantris. 😀
The Stormlight magic system is a lot better than the metal system in Mistborn to me, but the goofiness of using essentially marbles as money just sticks with me. I just picture Adolin constantly walking around with like a cartoon money sack from a bank filled with spheres.
Heh, that is a funny image. Though, people did use to carry gold / silver / copper coins, so maybe it’s not that different. Different kind of spheres for different stuff, having couple of pouches on you, rest in some chest.
