1mo ago

What book(s) are you currently reading or listening? January 07

Welcome back after the holidays! Hope you had a good time, and your new year is starting well!

I didn't get much time to read, so still reading The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson. Third and final book the of Mistborn series (first era).

What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening to lately?

There's a Midyear Bingo check-in post, do take a look. Even if you haven't started this year's Book Bingo, you can still join, as there are still 6 months remaining!

For details, you can checkout the initial Book Bingo, and it's Recommendation Post . Links are also present in our community sidebar.

68 comments

I'm reading Mistborn finally, and I'm enjoying it. I made a new years promise to read the nook books I paid for and never touched, or got one chapter in and quit. They've just been sitting there for a decade. Next up is Hell: A Novel.
- Ah, the books I have paid for but never touched... I would recommend (as I often do) to not force yourself to read everything in backlog before getting anything else, if something else catch your fancy, you should take a break from your backlog, otherwise it can cause a burn out.

For the last few years I have doing a 'big read' of something over the course of each year - War and Peace, In Search of Lost Time, Finnegans Wake and, in 2024, Romance of the Three Kingdoms. There is some enduringly memorable material in each of those, and reading them has been quite an experience but I have decided to take a break from that format of reading and just have a year of SF in 2025 - catching up on some that I have long meant to read, starting with Dan Simmons' Hyperion. Just finished the Scholar's Tale so far and am thoroughly hooked.
Otherwise, I am most of the way through Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner - which I believe was recommended in this community a while back - which is notable if for no other reason than it includes the first use of the term infangthief that I have encountered since reading 1066 And All That in my teens. And also a recent Doctor Who audionovel The Lord of Misrule by Paul Morris, which is an enjoyably nostalgic tale featuring some beloved characters (as read by Jon Culshaw), but overall nothing exceptional so far.
- Oh, I think you mentioned that previously. I was looking forward to what you start this year, but you shouldn't force yourself, better to take a break then get burned out.
  How did you like Hyperion? I have seen it mentioned a lot but never got around to reading it.
  First time reading/hearing the word "infangthief", TIL!
  
  It proved to be a busy week, so I have not quite finished either Hyperion or Confessions.... However, I would definitely recommend Hyperion. Each section is better than the previous, taking in a great range of genres and telling some very human tales against some excellent worldbuilding.
  Confessions is a curiosity, and probably not for everyone, but I am glad to have (almost) read it.

Currently in the middle of Tress of the Emerald Sea. Just finished Task Force Hammer.
Stormlight book 5 just came out and I finished it about 2 weeks ago.

Been reading Bernoulli’s Fallacy, both fascinating and disturbing… Glad I got into it.
- If you like that, I’d recommend E.T. Jaynes’ Probability Theory: The Logic of Science (which Clayton repeatedly praises) next. Bernoulli’s Fallacy is good as at exposing the theoretical and historical flaws of conventional statistics, but Jaynes’ book is a more thorough overview of Bayesian statistics.
  
  Thanks I’ll check out a summary see if it floats my boat.

I’m just finishing up The Book of Elsewhere by China Miéville and Keanu Reeves.
- Keanu Reeves has co-written a comic book, and a novel? Why did I never heard about this. Going to check out both.
  How's the book? (and comics, if you have read those)
  
  I’ve not read anything else in the series, but Elsewhere was a lot of fun—probably the most interesting take I’ve seen on how extreme longevity would mess with your psyche.

Stephen King - Holly
Not far in it yet but glad it's not 1000+ pages.
- A Stephen King book that's not 1000+ pages? I should take a look at it!

Just finished reading the Witcher Blood of the Elves & plan on reading The Stormlight Archive: Wind & Truth next

I recently finished Wind and Truth (Stormlight Archive #5) and was extremely pleased with the end of this era.
I am currently (re)reading A Darkness at Sethanon by Raymond E. Feist (Riftwar Saga #3). This series isn’t as good as I remembered from when I was in high school, but it’s reasonably entertaining on the whole.
Not sure what I’ll read after that. If anyone has a good fantasy / sci-fi recommendation let me know! Keep in mind, I’ve read all Sanderson has to offer :)

I finished The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson (Stormlight book 1). Massively enjoyed this one. Spent more time than I should have during the holidays reading it.
Now I'm reading The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. It's a historical fiction novel set in occupied France during World War 2. I'm finding it ok so far. It's easy to read and the plot is fine, but I'm not very emotionally invested and don't love the writing style.
Edit: I want to clarify that the topics and themes visited in this book are very emotionally heavy. However, the writing feels like an emotional stiff arm to me. It's just so distant and impersonal, that it reduces the impact of the difficult topics.

What to Believe?: Twelve Brief Lessons in Radical Theology by John D. Caputo. After I had finished Caputo's excellent primer "How to read Kierkegaard" I was interested in reading more of his works. He is an affable and clear writer. Great fun.

During the holidays with my family, my brother convinced me to give "He who fights with Monsters" by Shirtaloon a try. I'm currently about 30% deep into book one. It's my first time reading LitRPG and even though I'm not quite sure about the genre I'm enjoying this one quite a lot.

Just bookmarking for recommendations. I should read more.
- If you are looking for specific kind of books, you can start a thread for recommendations too.

My fiancée told me to read Dracula, so that's what I'm reading now - between the 1st time she told me and now I've read the Green Mile and the Running Man, so I couldn't postpone it any longer.
I'm listening to At the Mountains of Madness after having finished the Fall of Hyperion, as a break from Hyperion Cantos.
- Hehe. Dracula is good. If you are having trouble with it, there's also Dracula Daily - https://draculadaily.com/ . As the book is written as journal entries, they send you that day's entry, it starts in May (I think) and finished in November.
  
  I'm having a blast. The only problem that I have is that I realised I might want to listen to it as an audiobook.

Just finishing up a re-read of The Dresden Files with Battle Ground. Damn, it's punchy.
Then I'll be on to some reading around the Cosmere ready to read Wind and Truth. Excited for that one!
- Oooh, nice, I still have a few books to go in The Dresden Files, just hope he releases the next one soon.
  
  I wouldn’t be surprised if we hear more soon and it’s published by end of year early next.

Finished Chalice by Robin McKinley; the world-building's a little funky, and it's not my favorite book by her, but I still found it cozy and enjoyable. Now I'm sloooowly making my way through Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman. It's enjoyable so far, I just haven't been reading much lately.

Finished earthsea except tales. Finished Livesuit by James sa Corey. Almost done with red rising by pierce brown now. Like them both a lot. Quite a welcome change of pace from leguin. I loved her stories but I listened to all of hainish and earthsea one after the other thing , so I’m ready for things with a bit more pace for a bit 😜
- Heh, that's a lot of reading. Any plans on what to read next?
  
  Oh I’m just going to go through the rest of the red rising series. After that I’ll probably move on to malazan
  The leguin books were over the last few months, I’m not that prolific ha. Livesuit and red rising were over the last two weeks, I just missed the last book thread

Reading a Finnish historian's book based on his studies about slave trade in Eastern Europe, Finland and Karelia during the middle ages. No english title or translation, that I know of, but I'll try to translate it:
Korpela, Jukka. 2014. Idän orjakauppa keskiajalla - Ihmisryöstöt Suomesta ja Karjalasta. SKS, Helsinki.
Korpela, Jukka. 2014. Eastern slave trade in the middle ages - Abduction of people from Finland and Karelia. SKS, Helsinki.
- I have always heard about African slave trades, not much about slave trades in Eastern Europe. Should look up something on the topic.
  
  There's also a lot of other materiel written about Roman and Southern European slave trade during roman times and after the post-roman collapse in the so called dark ages.
  Humans have been kinda the worst for most of history, pretty much everywhere.

Reading a couple things at the moment.
Wrapped up Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson a few weeks back. Before that I had been rereading Stormlight in it’s entirety now that I have nearly caught up with the Cosmere (outside of White Sand and the secret projects besides Sunlit).
I didn’t finish that reread and am smack in the middle of Oathbringer, which might be my favorite of the Stormlight novels.
Additionally just 10 minutes ago I finished Demon Copperhead, which was really quite fantastic in my eyes. I have family from Appalachia - my parents left the area in the late 90’s after moving to a city in the late 80’s. So it brought back a lot of memories of grandparent visits and trailer parks and gorgeous nature. And also all the burned out wrecked homes you can see if you ever drive around.
- Other than Stormlight Archives, I am at same place in Cosmere with you, well also The Rithamist, but I am going to ignore that for now, will read when the sequel is coming out.
  
  I know some folks swear that Rithamist is Sanderson’s best work and I am hesitant to try it.
  I’ve tried Yumi a couple times, but haven’t been able to get into. I am excited to read Tress, however.

The Exiled Fleet by JS Dewes. Really fun scifi and I dove into The Exiled Fleet immediately after finishing the first book, The Last Watch.

Currently reading fiction:"The vanished man" by Jeffery Deaver.
Currently reading non fiction: "Homecoming" by John Bradshaw.
I am going to try and read 52 books this year. Let's see how it goes.
- Good luck with your challenge! I haven't done 52 books in a year in a long time, if ever, but I think I might be able to do it this year. Have some graphic novels and kids' book lined up, which are pretty quick to read, so they may help boost the numbers, but then I also have Stormlight Archive re-read planned, and they can take me a while, so maybe not.
  
  That's a great suggestion, thanks.

Currently reading Imperial Radch by Ann Leckie, a sci-fi trilogy about a sentient warship that goes rogue.
- Interesting. Is the warship from starship's warship or is it antagonist of the book?
  
  The warship is the protagonist of the book!

Eat That Frog! by Brian Tracy
I've found it hard to get past the first few chapters as I'm actually trying to implement the advice. Planning the day the night before and constantly asking the question "Am I doing the most important task to achieve my goals?" during productive hours has been life-changing in actually making progress towards my projects, but also rather stressful. Perhaps I'm in the minority, but I procrastinate a lot by doing busywork- organization, cleaning, responding to lower priority inquiries, researching tangential things to the task at hand, etc. It's been a difficult habit to break
- That's interesting. I am kind of similar and have been trying to break my habit of procrastination. Let me know how it goes, specially when you finish the book.

25% if the way into "The Fall of Hyperion"

Been reading For Whom The Belle Tolls (2024) by Jaysea Lynn. I am positively surprised by this book. Easily a five star book based on the first 25% I have read so far.
It's a story about Lily who dies and ends up in Afterlife as a soul, like everyone else does. As it turns out, Heaven, Hell, deities of Greek mythology, Valhalla, and all the religions you know and don't know, are real and they all co-exists in Afterlife. I quite like the humor and the rich and imaginative world the author has created.
- That sounds interesting, will check it out!

Just picked up a copy of 1984. Read it in high school, but it seemed like a good time to reread it.
- It seems like time is always getting better for 1984.

So I put down "Death Mask" about half way through. It's not that I disliked it, but I found it getting a chore to read it. I might come back to it later.
I picked up Dennis E Taylor's "We are legion (we are Bob)" after, and just finished reading it. I read it almost in one session, so pretty good in my opinion. Besides this, I guess I was also due for a slight genre change.

For a slight change of pace, I'm reading Shou Arai's manga At 30, I Realized I Had No Gender before starting the second book of The Wheel of Time, The Great Hunt.

I'm re-reading my way through the early Essalieyan novels by Michelle West, to refresh before I read the latest book. It's definitely scratching my epic fantasy itch. I'm so glad she moved to Patreon and self-publishing instead of giving up on finishing the story!
- That's a looong series. What happened with publishing?
  
  I'm not entirely sure--the publisher for this series may have decided that it wasn't popular enough to bring in new readers and was unwilling to publish this last arc to conclude it. I remember when I found the Patreon the author started, the first post I saw (possibly the intro?) talked about how she had struggled to try to provide an entry point into the larger series when she started the first new book, and that it was a bit of a relief not to have to worry about that anymore. If someone's supporting the Patreon at this point, they've either read or intend to read the rest of the series anyway.

If you count graphic novels, I'm currently making my way through Sandman.
- We definitely do.
  It has been on my wishlist for a long time. How are you enjoying it?
  
  Only about halfway through, but it's been fantastic so far.

68 comments