Last book I finished? The Dragon Reborn. Currently reading? The Princess Diaries.
Ayyyyy, are you reading The Shadow Rising soon? I liked it more than the Dragon Reborn.
Yep! Just need to find a bit more time for it. I’ve got a book club with a friend where we’re reading through the series.
I love that! If it’s your first time through, I hope you both enjoy it!
Do audiobooks count?
Leviathan Falls by James S. A. Corey. It’s the final book in The Expanse series. Really got hooked on it. I haven’t made time to find another book since then though 🤔
They absolutely do! I don’t understand the snobbery against audiobooks. When Borges lost his sight he had to have books read to him, and just consider the amazing stories he came up with (and the literary devices he developed) to make up for his blindness.
I read up to Cibola Burn but then ran out at the time, I haven’t gone back since books beyond that came out. I need to start over.
Yes, I was more than happy with the ending. Loose ends were pretty well tied up.
One day there’ll be an expanse movie that covers what the tv series didn’t… one day…
They definitely count as ingesting books but there is a difference between reading a book and listening to an audiobook.
Reading IS the activity but I feel like with audiobooks people are typically driving or something where the book is in the background. Though maybe some people put on headphones and just sit and listen or something. I don’t know if this makes me a snob lol.
Also The Expanse was the first book series I ever read. It was so good. And it made me like the show less even though the show is still great.
I just finished Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. Great book, that not only coined terms like “avatar” and “metaverse” (for better or worse), but is also really well written. It somehow manages to find a tone that is consistent for the dystopian worldbuilding, the silly and self-aware things that happen in the world, and the philosophical aspect dealing with culture, religion and free will. Highly recommend!
And I’m currently reading his newest novel, Termination Shock. Quite different, but still has that Stephenson sense of world building that I love.
This was the first book of him I read, but I will definitely check out his other works if they’re all like this!
Everyone goes on about how important this book is, but I got barely 1/3 if the way through and bounced off it hard.
Horses for courses I guess.
I think it laid a lot of groundwork for books that came later. But as you said, not every book is for everybody.
Last finished was Acceptance by Jeff Vandermeer. Currently reading Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir.
Project Hail Mary was excellent. Loved every second.
Same, I’m flying through it right now. Started it on Monday and already like 3/4 of the way through it.
Story-wise, it felt a bit clunkier than the Marsian but I liked the worldbuilding a lot.
The iRobot series by Asimov. Going into Foundation now.
I loved the ‘Foundation’ series! The 1st is in my top 5. ‘I, Robot’ was such a fantastic book as well, infinitely better than the movie.
I loved the first Foundation, but never read beyond that, for some reason. I know I have the first trilogy around here somewhere. I should dig up the other ones.
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, and I hated it.
It takes a very cool premise, then fills it with incongruences and predictable twists that you understand chapters ahead of the protagonist. Then it all ends up being (SPOILERS AHEAD) a “humans used to literally talk to nature, modern society bad” mumbojumbo with some kind of unexplained multiverse in it.
Old Man’s War by John Scalzi - not high literature by any means, but a fun read nonetheless. Currently reading the sequel, The Ghost Brigades, which is equally as fun :)
I was recently reading Scalzi too! His blog is great too.
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. I keep starting some books after this one but I can’t seem to finish anything.
The Broken Earth Trilogy by NK Jemisin. Fantastic and heartbreaking. It’s kind of a crossover in science fiction and fantasy, set in a world that experiences apocalyptic levels of climate and geological change every few hundred years. Jemisin does excellent world building and a very admirable job of writing parts of the narrative in second person in a way that seems seamless/not gimmicky. Highly recommended.
I loved those books! In the beginning second person felt extremely weird, but the “resolution” of why it is written that way made so much sense that it made the books even more enjoyable IMO.
Last book on paper: D&D 5th edition Player Handbook (German edition)
Last novel on paper: Frank Herbert - Dune
Last audiobook: P. Djèlí Clark - A Master of Djinn
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch – a really fun heist-y story set in an engaging and well-crafted fantasy world
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
I just finished this yesterday! Great read esp since I’m right around the same age as the main characters all the gaming nostalgia rang particularly true to me.
Yeah I’m really liking it so far! I’m at the Both Sides section now and I really like the imagery the book paints in my head.
hemingway’s debut the sun also rises, i went in blind and didn’t expect it to be about bull fighting. i enjoyed the vibe of the 1920s travel through spain and france, the aimless plot and the character interactions.
i learned that bullfighting is terrible and cringed at the casual anti-semitism all over the book
The Burning Land by Bernard Cornwell. It’s book 5 in the last kingdom series that the TV show is based off of. I love the time period.
Upgrade by Blake Crouch. Great book.
