3w ago

What book(s) are you currently reading or listening? March 20

Finished Amulet series by Kazu Kibushi.

Love the story and art-style. Highly recommended for fantasy fans, specially younger audience.

Read Changes by Jim Butcher, book 12 of The Dresden Files.

I was expecting some "changes" due to the name and how people talk about the book, but wow, they changed everything. From the first line of the book to the last, it was fully captivating.

Wanted to start the next book right away, but held myself back.

Read Aftermath, the novella after Changes, from Side Jobs , short-story collection in Dresden Files world. This was the last story in the book, so I have officially finished Side Jobs too.

Many side stories are from point of view of different characters, and this was also from another character's point of view. So it was interesting to see how they view the world and hear their inner monologue.

Looking forward to where the story goes from here.

Started Streams of Silver by R. A. Salvatore, 2nd novel in Icewind Dale series, which is a subseries of Forgotten Realms series (D&D world).

Just started it, haven't even completed chapter 1, so can't say much about it.

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~~ only 5 4 3 months to go!

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

23 comments

I finished 1984 by George Orwell last week and started Brave New World by Aldous Huxley a few days ago. I'm about halfway through so I should be finished with it by the end of the week.
Afterwich I’ll start The Deep History of Ourselves: The Four-Billion-Year Story of How We Got Conscious Brains by Joseph LeDoux. It’s a book I’ve been wanting to read for a few months so I hope it’s as good as it sounds.
I’m still reading Epictetus: The Complete Works by Robin Waterfield and The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday.
- what did you think of 1984, and what do you think of Brave New World?
  
  1984 is mostly easy to read until the last third. Before then it almost makes you have hope that the world in the book changes. Then it becomes more difficult to read due to what happens to the main characters. The last dozen pages were disheartening. I would recommend it to read at least one time.
  Brave New World is easier to read so far. The themes (people are all the same and just do as they are conditioned without quesion) have obviously been in other media for decades so there isn't anything that is too "new". I'll have to finish the book to really know what I think about it.

recently finished reading Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, highly recommend it - reminded me of House of Leaves in some ways
I just started chapter three of Excluded by Julia Serano (non-fiction, most recent chapter was about the transphobic policies of the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival)
bouncing around Side Affects: On Being Trans and Feeling Bad by Hil Malatino, I hated the introductory chapter(s) for the "academic" / queer theory style of writing that obscures more than it illuminates, but some of the later chapters seem to drop the pretense and there is some interesting content (e.g. loved learning about the trans Vanguard group sharing resources on how to drop acid in the 1970s, on the importance of foregoing self examination as beginner LSD users and instead "be with a beautiful person in a beautiful place doing beautiful things and being beautiful, and you will have a beautiful trip. Instead of thinking about yourself -- be.")

Binging the "dungeon crawler Carl" books by Matt Dinniman. I just started the fourth one, "the gate of the feral gods". I still like reading them for the mindless fun factor. I don't know if I'll read them all in one go, I've also got "midnight black" by Mark Greaney on my to read list, and I've always liked the gray man books. And I still haven't read the latest two Jack Reacher novels, but those are lower on the list this moment.
- Also just started book 4 of Dungeon Crawler Carl. Such a fun series. Doing the audiobook version though.

I know I'm late to the party but just started WarBreaker by Brandon Sanderson. Really liking the book so far.
Oh shit though you're reading amulet? I absolutely loved that series as teenager. Got all the books but in the wrong order. Still love the art and remember it fondly.
- Yeah, just finished reading the whole series. It's amazing. Hehe, I know all about getting books in wrong order. Now I collect whole series before starting to read it.
  Welcome to Cosmere! Have you read other Sanderson books, or is it the first one?
  
  Thank you! I have read others too. Just got finished the original mistborn trilogy but I started out with Tress of the Emerald Sea a while back from a friends recommendation. Took a few chapters but Tress is likely to be one of my favorite books. Still gotta re-read to properly place it though.

Kangaru chronicles

I’m reading Roadside Picnic, a 1972 Soviet sci-fi novel by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky So far it’s awesome!
And while I workout I’m listening to The Nineties by Chuck Klosterman. It’s ok, I lived through it so it’s like brushing up on the decade.

Gave up with Harry Potter. It sure does drag on a lot, in the later books. Now I am reading Onyx Storm. I forgot what happened in the previous Iron Flame, so I had to watch some recaps lol.

Cities, Peasants, and Food in Classical Antiquity. It's a bit dated, and honestly drier and more data-oriented than I was hoping.

The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi

Just finished Well of Ascension and started listening on Hero of Ages of the Mistborn series. I preferred The Final Empire to most of WoA, but the ending made me want to listen to HoA all day while cleaning today.
This is the first Sanderson series I have read, and so far really enjoying it.

I just finished the fourth "Beware of Chicken" book by Casual Farmer and it was great. I am really loving the series so far!
Before that was Torment from the Infinite series but I may have mentioned that in the last thread.
And just started book 57 in Deathlands!

Romance of Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong. It seems... fitting for our current time.

I just finished Picks & Shovels by Cory Doctorow... and I want to start another audiobook, but the new John Scalzi book (When the Moon Hits Your Eye) comes out next week and I kinda want to wait for that. Unfortunately I have a roadtrip on Monday, so I don't know if I'll be able to hold out or not.

Finished I'm Afraid You've Got Dragons by Peter S. Beagle. In general, I think it has pacing and tonal issues (be aware that it's not cozy all the way through!), but it was also cute in, like, an 80s-YA-fantasy kind of way. I don't regret reading it, but I think there are better books to recommend.
Currently reading Fever House by Keith Rosson. I guess I'd call this action horror? There's a severed hand that makes people near it want to be overly violent, and various players trying to acquire or get rid of it. Fast read, enjoyable so far.

I'm currently reading The Rebel by Albert Camus. But that was interrupted by a Library hold becoming available, so now I'm also reading Ghost Story by Peter Straub.

Just finished Four Aunties and a Wedding by Jesse Q. Sutanto. Part of the Aunties series, and a series of book I never thought I would read. Brilliant writing, a bit too dramatic for me, but highly recommend if you want to read the funnies.

I've been reading the Honor Harrington books, but they're getting harder to wade through. They're... uneven.
Going to finish the one I'm on ::: spoiler spoiler (Whitehaven thinks Honor is, like, SOOOO cute!) ::: and then take a long break. First stop will be the first "Captive's War" book from the Expanse guys.

The king killer chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss

23 comments