also – i just posted this on a whim to get some discussion going in this community. seems to be the largest one out there, so hopefully we get more interaction here! let me know if you’d like to see this weekly or if we could get a bot to do it on a weekly basis. not a mod here or anything i just wanted to see what everyone else is reading
I like the idea of a weekly thread, it’s nice to get new book impressions that way! :)
I’m reading Black House, by Stephen King and Peter Straub. About half in the novel, I had some difficulties to be taken with it, but I start being hooked up, we will see… My opinion so far is that it’s not at the level of it’s prequel (The talisman, by Stephen King and Peter Straub) that I read just before and was very gripping.
Finished: T. Kingfisher’s The Twisted Ones, which was very easy reading - a folk horror kinda sequel to Machen’s The White People. I read it straight after her The Hollow Places, and although both were engaging, the similarity of protagonists and overall story arc suggests that they are probably best not read in quick succession: too repetitive.
Continued: Finnegans Wake - reading it through the year. Just completed ‘The Night Lessons’ in book 2, which went from slightly comprehensible to utterly incomprehensible and back to slightly again, and added the columnar format with side notes by Shaun and Shem and footnotes by Issey just for fun…
Resumed: Robert Brightwell’s Flashman and Madison’s War - the fifth of his prequels to George McDonald Frasier’s Flashman series. Although entertaining and well researched in general, this is perhaps the weakest of this series so far - which is probably why I had put it aside and not resumed until now, a couple of months after moving house, when I paused. The historical events that Flashy is involved in are scattered and episodic by nature which is probably the root of the problem with this book. Brightwell hasn’t found a strong unifying arc to overcome that.
Started: The Foxglove King by Hannah Whitten, but a chapter in I was not finding anything appealing to me, so abandoned it.
Started: Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Children of Time. A chapter in I am very intrigued at the setup and keen to continue.
Nice! Are you reading FW with TrueLit? I actually started but had to quit… I was reading Ulysses at the same time and just couldn’t keep up. But, it gave me enough of a taste that I’ll definitely return to it someday.
Yes. Without the insights from TrueLit, the entire thing would be incomprehensible.
I can certainly see that FW and Ulysses would be far too much.
Cool, well, I may go back to the archived TrueLit posts when I do read it :) Enjoy!
I’m in the middle of a brain-candy cozy mystery “The Diva Cooks a Goose”, which is okay. I’m also reading nonfiction “Anne Boleyn and Elizabeth I”. My teen and I are going to see the musical “Six” soon and I’ve been trying to learn a bit about the queens beforehand. I do like this one so far.
I’ve finally gotten around to “Fire and Fury: Inside the trump White House”, and I have to say: this is an absolute drama story. Like, there’s intrigue and scheming for days.
It’s simultaneously hilarious and horrifying that what feels like reading a kind of soap opera or reality show is a legitimate account of what went on in the White House.
The First Philosophers by Robin Waterfield. It summarizes each of the presocratics and gives you a selection of their fragments and testimonies about them.
Someone here at lemmy suggested World War Z. Bought it, read it, loved it
Trying to get trough Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo. I like it but I don’t know why it’s taking me so long to finish. Next on my list is A Hat Full of Sky - I love discworld books so much!
im about to hop into my first discworld book soonish!
Lord of Chaos. Book 6 of The Wheel of Time. Almost done. I’m really really enjoying these books.
sounds great! im at The Dragon Reborn at the moment, halfway there. unfortunately my attention span cant read that much in such a short amount of time so ive been stalling forever
I understand that. The books tend to be hard to get going. Redescribing each location and character in each book. But it really starts picking up halfway. I’m about 80% done with the book now.
That all being said, the descriptions are extremely vivid and add so much.
This past week I read A Dreamer’s Tales by Lord Dunsany, and the short stories The Doom that Came to Sarnath and The Cats of Ulthar by H.P. Lovecraft. The latter are part of the book club at !lovecraft and the former to get some background on what Lovecraft was reading at the time.
I just started Endymion after finishing Fall of Hyperion the other day. The Hyperion duology was fantastic and an instant favorite for me. I’ve heard the Endymion books are good, but different, so trying to temper my expectations a bit. So far so good.
That’s good to hear. I loved Hyperion but have been reluctant to start Endymion because of hearing the same sorts of things about it.
I am reading The Motorcyle Diaries by Che Guevara in spanish.
Finished:
- Anthropocene Reviewed - John Green
- Happy Place - Emily Henry
In Progress:
- The Maidens - Alex Michaelidas
Eyes of the Void by Adrian Tchaikovsky. The third book in an awesome space opera trilogy.
Mad Ship by Robin Hobb. Every book I read by her further makes her one of my favorite fantasy writers.
I’m almost done with Wyrd Sisters and my love for Pratchett only grows the more I read him.
Wyrd Sisters has a bit of a bumpy start (more like a few molehills) but once it hits it’s stride it really flies. Every paragraph has a gem but they wizz by so fast that I find I can’t remember anything but the feeling.
Also lovely audiobook with Indira Varma narrating. They did great managing all the stage direction and other odd formatting in the book. And she does just the right amount with all the oddball voices.
I’ve read a few Discworld books here and there but this time I hope I can really dive in. Pratchett puts me in such a good headspace especially with gestures around generally
