Finished The Passage by Justin Cronin. First book in The Passage trilogy. Overall, liked the book. The start was slow, giving me Stephen King vibes, but it picked up the pace as it went along. It was too long though, and can’t get myself to start next one right away.
Read couple of son’s books to change pace. The Ghoul in the School by Marcus Rashford and Alex Falase-Koya, the second book in The Breakfast Club Adventures. And Unexpected Super Spy by Zanib Mian, second book in Planet Omar series.
Also read, and just finished 5 mins before this post, Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson, book 3 of his secret projects, and part of Cosmere, but a standalone book, which can be read without any knowledge of his other work. I loved this book. Like most of his “secret projects” books, couldn’t put it down once I picked it up.
Currently Reading… nothing. Just finished the previous book and haven’t decided what to start next… leaning towards next Dresden Files novel though… let’s see.
What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening to lately?
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Because ADHD I usually have at least 4 books underway at the same time.
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I’m just about to finish Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson.
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I just started Piranesi by Susanna Clarke.
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I’m also reading A City on Mars, a nonfiction book by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith.
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I started re-reading the Area X trilogy by Jeff Vandermeer, I think I’m still in Annihilation.
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I also started re-reading Dune by Frank Herbert, but honestly it’s such a slog that I think I got halfway through before getting frustrated. The worldbuilding may be interesting but holy shit is Herbert’s writing turgid.
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I’ve had a hard time getting into books for a number of years, but I recently read Lovecraft Country, and just dove into the sequel “The Destroyer of Worlds.”
A friend introduced me to Matt Ruff’s writing back in '95 wit Fool on the Hill, and I’ve been a fan ever since.
Never heard of it, but it looks interesting, will check it out.
How to argue with a racist by Rutherford.
The title is a bit sensational, it’s mostly pop-science about genetics.
I’m still finishing up with Good Omens by Neil Gaiman, but I got a Kobo ereader recently and have started to read The Stand by Stephen King. I have 36hrs to go apparently!
Edit: The Stand and not The Strand.
36 hours! That’s long. Though, that’s mostly how King’s books are.
Apparently, King went back and re-edited/revised The Stand to add things he liked and remove stuff he thought was pointless narrative, which made the book even longer.
I may also be reading a little slower to fully take in the words I’m reading. I think I have a habit of reading too fast and so I’m not really taking in a fuller picture of what I’m reading. So, not sure if that also factors in?
I didn’t like The Stand much. I read it a long time ago, and was pretty young back then, but I always though the book would’ve been great if he had just cut out half of the stuff.
Funny story, for a long time I kept confusing it with The Shining, and whenever people would mention Shining as his best work, I would always reply that well, it was just okay, and too long. It was only somewhat recently when I figured out that The Stand is a different book and I have never actually read The Shining 😀
Apparently, in 1990, it “was reprinted as The Complete & Uncut Edition. King restored over 400 pages of text that had been removed from his original manuscript, revised the order of the chapters, shifted the novel’s setting 10 years forward from 1980 to 1990, and accordingly corrected a number of cultural references.” according to Wikipedia.
I haven’t been able to put the book down but, I think I can see where young you was coming from. I’ve just got up to where a lot of stuff kicks off and that’s at least 600 pages in with 2200 odd left. The Shining is 447…
But, I absolutely loved The Shining and would recomend going to read the actual version of it, and not it’s strange much longer cousin, lol. It’s one of my favourites, along with Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman and Dissolution by C.J. Samson
Making it even longer? I just checked my copy, it’s the 80s version, with only 800 or so pages.
I’ll check out The Shining, and the other favourites you have mentioned.
Apologies, it’s 1153 pages. It’s 2830 on the reader though. But, yes, he restored 400 pages that had originally been removed from the original.
I would like to read The Shining again. Maybe later this year, or next.
Enjoy :)
Listening to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy audiobook. I read it once ages ago, and am enjoying getting to all the good parts I only vaguely remember. It holds up pretty well, there’s a reason people are still quoting it. I use the term “excitingly chunky” to describe the “developer chic” style of buildings that are getting slung up around me.
The biggest issue so far is that Trillian is the most fleshed-out woman in the series, and she’s basically a cardboard cutout that has “girlfriend” hastily written on it. It might get better later on (I’m almost done with the 3rd book), but I don’t recall it happening. I know it’s not really the point of the series, but as someone that doesn’t tend to notice this sort of thing, it was very noticeable.
“Hitch-22, A Memoir” -Christopher Hitchens
I re-listen to it once a year. R.I.P. Hitch.
I’m currently on The Liar’s Key by Mark Lawrence (book 2 of The Red Queen’s War). I’m really enjoying it though it’s not my favorite trilogy by him.
Which one is your favourite trilogy by him?
Of the ones I’ve read, Book of the Ancestor was my favorite. Hard to top assassin nuns, I guess.
Assassin Nuns? You have piqued my interest. Time to look it up!
I just finished Circe by M.Miller. Beautiful, didn’t expect it to be such a pageturner.
I need to bump that up my list
At the moment I’m reading Dead Souls by Gogol. I’ve been at it for a while. It’s a bit heavy for a summer read, but I’m enjoying it somewhat. It’s fun to see all the colorful characters that come across, but I have the idea a lot is going over my head as I’m not that familiar with the Russia of that time. It’s sad quite a bit is missing of the second part.
Only about 70 pages left. The next book will definitely be something lighter…
I have heard it mentioned before, but yeah, seems a bit heavy. Apparently the people the protagonist meet “typify the Russian middle aristocracy of the time”, so yeah, not knowing much about the Russia of that time may diminish the book.
Yeah, and of course the superficial stuff is easy to grasp, like one character is lazy, or the other more of a dreamer who achieves nothing. But you feel like there are things going over your head.
Just finished The dark forest, by Cixin Liu. As far as I read this sci-fi trilogy, I think I enjoy it very much. Now starting the last novel in the series, Death’s End, by Cixin Liu.
Have you watched the show? How would you compare it with the book?
No, I always prefer reading novels before any movie/show because otherwise it disturbs the way I imagine the characters.
Same here. Unless I don’t know it’s based on a book, I prefer to read the source material first.
Currently Reading:
The Passage - Justin Cronin, just as I feared. Just like the first time (over a decade ago), I felt myself losing interest as time skip hits. The new characters were many and … uninteresting. Many are killed off before even fully developed, which dulled the effect. Currently chapter 46, bit eager to finish it up.
Well, the book just might not be for you, no point in forcing yourself when there is so much else to read. Though if you have reached chapter 46, might as well finish the first book at least.
might as well finish the first book at least.
That I’ll do. It’s kind of frustrated, I do love the premises and love the first part. But for some reason the new characters just simply doesn’t click with me. I am now in “The Haven”, something is not right here, it might get interesting.
I felt like that in the first few chapters after the time jump, but then got used to these characters. Hope you atleast enjoy the ending!
Oh, I got used to the characters, I just doesn’t find them interesting.
spoiler
The fact that “The Haven” is making deals with the smokes is not surprising, in fact I guessed it the moment it bought up how the fact the idea of “The Haven" is a impossibility. Of course, this is might only because the books has been out for over a decade and the same idea has been used over and over.
Heh.
As for the spoilery part, I guessed that too. But at this point in the book, you have to know that something’s up.
Are you going to continue the series?
I’ve currently got three on the go, because I’m like that. For my non-fiction, read-with-my-eyes selections, there’s two.
First, The Rebellious Life Of Mrs. Rosa Parks by Jeanne Theoharis has been really interesting. I’m not American, and so didn’t learn about her more than “she helped kick start the civil rights movement in the US by refusing to give up her seat on the bus”. It’s weird how much her story has been written over and forgotten, and I’ve enjoyed learning about her and all of her efforts, not just the single one she’s known for.
Next up, The Little Book Of Satanism by La Carmina has been fascinating. I’ve always been intrigued by the idea of religion, but am an avid atheist. I am however quite familiar with the history of how Christianity grew and took over the western world before morphing into the unrecognizable behemoth it is today, and with it, some incredibly toxic ideas have grown as well. The history of the idea of satan lives in this same ideology, and this book explores the history of where the idea of a devil comes from, and explains how the thing that Christians fear most sprang up from their own ideas. Fascinating stuff.
And lastly, I’m listening to Witch King by Martha Wells while I’m at work, and I’m going to be honest here, but I really don’t have a clue what’s going on in this story. I’m going to have to return to this book again one day, and probably read it with my eyes instead of my ears. The story is interesting, though, despite my struggle to follow along
I should look up The Rebellious Life Of Mrs. Rosa Parks, it sounds pretty interesting
It is! Turns out she had spent a lifetime fighting back. It wasn’t just some isolated incident, and she was far from the first person to refuse to give up her seat. The book sets all this straight.
Cool. Already added it to my wishlist. Will get it soon.
Typically I have multiple books going on at the same time for varietys sake, usually fiction and some-non fiction.
Right now I have besides me as my non-fiction choice; “Baltic Cities - Perspectives on urban and regional change in the Baltic sea area”, ed. Martin Åberg & Martin Peterson.
As my fiction book I’m nearing the end of “Termination Shock” by Neal Stephenson.
I’m back on Deathlands for a few books, still enjoying but have a few things ready to start next but haven’t decided what to try yet.
I have Yumi and the Nightmare Painter, Deathless saga or All Dead. The latter two are both the beginnings of series that I just want to try out without knowing anything about them, see if either stick.
Why does all your series names have Death in it? 😀
Yumi and the Nightmare Painter is a stand alone book, so you can read it anytime between other books. Also, it’s a pretty quick read.
I enjoyed Frugal Wizard so I know I’ll enjoy it, like the rest of his work, I’m just waiting for the mood to catch me I guess for that one.
And I didn’t realise until I wrote out that comment and thought to myself “hmmm seems to be a theme running here at the moment” xD I guess I like bleak sounding literature?
Have you read Simon R Greens Deathstalker? That is a glorious space opera that is another of my favourites and, surprise surprise, more death in the title xD
Heh. Unfortunately I haven’t read any of these “Death” series that you mentioned. Deathlands is on my list though (due to your recommendation), but want to finish some of the series I am reading before jumping into something so big.
BTW any recommendation on where to buy ebooks from? If I don’t want to use Amazon? I pretty much stick to physical books from our local store, so don’t have much idea about those.
Haha yeh that is fair enough, I am however now going to go out of my way just to find books and series with Death in the title purely to recommend on each of these weekly threads ;)
I’m afraid I don’t, as much as I’d like to be able to give you a good recommendation due to my hatred of amazon, I am a pirate through and through. If you want to go down that route then I can however recommend myanonamouse as the best place for everything eBook and audiobook related.
Haha, I would look forward to more Death books.
No worries about the site, I’ll look up something.
Just finished “Taking to Strangers” by Malcolm Gladwell. Currently reading “The Rise of Endymion” by Dan Simmons.
Will be looking for more sci-fi or sci-fi/horror to read next.
How is Talking to Strangers?
It was pretty good. Interesting look into why exactly we are unable to tell when people are being truthful or not. It discusses a lot of different situations like spies being found in intelligence agencies, judges/law enforcement, or the efficacy of “enhanced interrogation tactics”. It also touches on high profile cases like Nassar, Maddof, Bland etc.
Interesting. Thanks for the info!
