I am reading mangas these days. Read first 4 volumes of Attack on Titans, but since I am reading these through 3-in-1 omnibus, going to read till 6th volume at least. Will decide the next book after that.
What about all of you, what have you been reading or listening to lately?
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I’m having a Mistborn summer, already coming towards the end of #2 of 7! Sandon Branderson sure does write long books, but these are like popcorn, lots of action and easy reads
Sanderson is a machine. I love how prolific he is. Whenever I’m in the mood to read his style, there’s always something new to pick up.
I read the Mistborn books about 10 years ago – and the follow-up series maybe 3 years ago. Very fun!
It’s time. I’ve started my annual trek through Middle-earth. I’m reading the first book of The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. I’ve been looking forward to this all year long. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to lose myself in Eriador.
I’m on my second attempt at the Lord of the Rings. The first attempt was I think in middle school with a copy from the library.
I hope you enjoy it. At this point, having read it every year for like 20 years, I must conclude that it is my favourite book. That being said, Tolkien’s writing, especially the slower pacing, is definitely not everyone’s cup of tea, so don’t feel bad if you just can’t get into it. There’s plenty of other great books to read.
Not quite reading it every year, but every five years or so. It is such a comforting read and one of my favorites as well.
Just finished Blindsight by Peter Watts (fucking excellent, possibly a new favourite)
Gonna try tackling House of Leaves again now that I’m all done school!
Interesting, haven’t read a hard sci-fi book in quite a while, going to check it out.
Definitely recommend Blindsight!
Thanks, have added it to my list.
Get echopraxia too (the sequal)!
Planning to! I also really wanna check out the rifters series, I really am quite fond of his style of writing.
This week I started The Dresden Files and have made it to the end of the second book in three days. So enjoying it so far!
Thanks for the rec ;p
Oooh, would love to hear what you think of the books as you continue with the series.
My initial thoughts so far are that the writing style / feel reminds me a lot of the Odd Thomas books from Dean Koontz but I will let you know as I go along how I am finding them :D
That’s a very strange comparison, but I only read 1 Odd Thomas book, and that was couple of decades ago, so don’t recall them clearly.
I can’t even put my finger on why it feels similar to me so I can’t quantify that at all, I guess it is just that. A feeling.
Continuing on with my summer reading, I’ve picked up I, Robot (Asimov) and Professor and the Madman (Winchester) from the library.
I also checked out Hatchet (Paulsen). My niece is reading it, figured it’d be fun and quick to join in.
On the listening side, I’ve been going through Disrupting the Game by Reggie Fils-Aime since he reads the audiobook himself. It’s very directed towards the business advice angle, but there’s good biographical and Nintendo history info in there.
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The Idiot is very good. Better than The Brothers Karamazov I think.
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I just finished Pachinko. I don’t get the hype. Interesting historical perspective regarding Koreans in Japan that I didn’t have. Decent story premise, but really flat writing. I cared enough to finish the book, but overall it was a big “meh” for me.
I started reading The Enemy by Lee Child. Not my first choice, but a friend gave me all her old books last Christmas so I feel somewhat obligated to read it. It’s easy to read, and it’s thrilling enough to compel me onwards, but the dialogue is vapid and there’s a lot of Clancyisms where the story will focus on over romanticising the army, kplus I think one chapter only existed so the author could use as many homophobic slurs as he knew, which was off-putting.
Every time I see those books I want to start singing “🎶Leeeeee Child, things are gonna get easier.🎵”
Currently working my way through book 3 of “The Sun Eater” series by Christopher Ruocchio. Enjoying the books so far!
Just started my reread of The Restoration of Rome: Barbarian Popes and Imperial Pretenders after about 20 years. I remember enjoying it the first time. It’s a look at three separate attempts to restore the greatness of Rome (Theodoric in c475, Justinian c572 and Charlemagne c800)
Just finished:
- Lázár: a fascinating novel about an aristocratic Hungarian family from ~1880s through the 1950s. Man, they were awful people
- The Undiscovered Country: Triumph, Tragedy and the Shaping of the American West: I wanted this to be better than it was. A look at the eras of The West through men who epitomized the era… starting in the mid 1700s with George Washington and Daniel Boone, then moving forward to Sitting Bull and Wild Bill Hickok. Unfortunately the book falls prey to the “let me just give you a series of events with varying levels of detail” form of history instead of successfully weaving a coherent narrative across 180 years of history
- The Witch by Marie NDiaye: short listed for the 2026 international Booker prize after not much critical acclaim during the original printing in 1996. It was fine. An interesting story and a unique one at that, but didn’t say much. The translation from French to English was good, I think it could have been fleshed out more and been a better read
I’ve just finished The Sign of the Unicorn by Roger Zelazny. It’s book three of the Amber Chronicles. I’ve read it many, many times before, but not for about twenty years.
How are the Amber Chronicles?
Sorry, I missed this until now.
As much as I still enjoy reading them, I feel they’ve aged poorly. Not just because they’re completely out of touch socially, but they’re too small in their scope. I feel they’ll be a serious challenge to bring to the screen, like Colbert plans to. That said, if you like sword and sorcery fantasy and don’t mind the mysoginy then they might be for you.
Thanks for the info. I think I’ll just skip them for now. Too much other stuff to read.
Doing a reread of Book of the Long Sun by Gene Wolfe with chapter by chapter with alzabo soup along side!
Fantastic! I’m looking forward to my first reread of this series. Been 8 years since the first read though, so I’m waiting at least another 2
I’ve been holding off on short sun so I can really treasure the first read. Definitely a series I would wipe from my brain so I could read it fresh again haha.
I recently picked up I Will Kill Your Imaginary Friend for $200 by Robert Brockway and thought it was pretty good. So I looked for some more stuff by him and found Carrier Wave. It’s a mixed bag. The first parts are great, but then it kind of loses its way and meanders for a while, then the ending is just meh. It’s strongly influenced by The Stand (especially the ending) and World War Z so if you like either of those it might be worth a look.
After Carrier Wave I started There Is No Antimemetics Division and I’m about halfway through. It’s really good.
Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archive book 4, Rhythm of War. I opened Way of Kings for the first time 5 weeks ago and 3600ish pages later I’m still engrossed. I’d planned on waiting for the series to finish but I missed chewing through epic fantasy on this scale.
Once I’m caught up through book #5 I’m thinking its time for another go at Malazan.
Other than Martin, Rothfuss and Jordan are there any other works with similar scale/complexity/depth as Stormlight and Malazan?
Unconquerable Sun. It’s a sort of Alexander the Great in space with gender norms thrown out the window. Super detailed. Super layered. Amazing writing. Kate Elliott is one of my favorite authors based on this book!
Have you read the witness stuff yet? I read the first butbhavnt started the second yet.
Its definitely not the same scale, but I got into Glenn Cooks black company from malazan and loved it!
Who wrote The Witness? Not an easy title to search for 😅
I read Black Company yeaaars ago and the grimdark and gritty writing definitely primed me for Malazan. I’ll definitely look into it again!
I partly want 1000+ page epics for the dollar to hour ratio; trying to support my local bookstore but paying $20-30+ for paperbacks stings. The look on bookstore lady’s face when I showed up for #4 a week after buying #3 was definitely worth it, though!
Oh sorry! I mean the witness trilogy by Steven Erikson. A follow up to malazan. The god is not willing was the first of the trilogy. Definitely a touch different stylistically but I really enjoyed the first one. Its Erikson so it’s a pretty long one so might be like what you’re looking for?
Working through the Red Rising series by Pierce Brown I’m on the third book Morning Star at the moment.
I was at a local book store and saw Pierce Brown’s book, but they didn’t had the Red Rising in stock atm. Should get to it soon-ish.
