What are you reading

[ShadowcatX]

I listen to audiobooks more than I read physical books nowadays, sadly. I just finished The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub and before that Fairytale. Both are very good. Decided to take a break from King so I got a book by Joe Hill (Lol) Nos4a2. Seems good so far.

[SpatulaOdoom]

Audio books are great when you are doing something with your hands that might get a little tedious. For example my stepmother used to listen to audio books all the time while sewing.

[ShadowcatX]

I listen while driving. I drive about 4 days a month. I love them.

[AnotherDragoon]

I'll confess, I'm one of those fools who reads multiple things at once. Sometimes I even finish them! Currently, I'm riding an obsession with stinky foods and microorganisms so, I'm feeding that with a little divergence from my normal fiction and reading Wild Fermentation by Sandor Ellix Katz, and The Sourdough School by Vanessa Kimbell. Also reading the Terry Pratchett classic, The Color of Magic to keep things light.

[Nyx89]

I'm usually reading multiple books at once too, typically one fiction and one non-fiction, but right now I'm really only reading This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger and quite enjoying it.

[Inuvash255]

Just finished Snow Crash. That book was kinda wild! O:

I really enjoyed the third act; though the actual ending left something to be desired. Like... I can guess what happens next, but it would have been nice to have a bit more of an off-ramp after all the explosions.

[Wynamoinen]

The offramp to explosions is explosions!

Try out Stephenson's more-recent Seveneves. Most of the exposions happen in the first 50 pages, and then there are 800 pages of offramp.

[Inuvash255]

800 pages of off-ramp might be too much! xD

It's just always a bummer when you finally click with the characters of a novel, and there's just no sequel.

***

I still have Sanderson's Words of Radiance and Lynch's Republic of Thieves collecting digital dust on my audiobook reader.

I hesitated on the former because I found The Way of Kings to be exhausting in its length and in Sanderson's admittedly good but omg-so-frustrating way of leaving the reader on cliffhangers before switching perspectives.

As for the latter, I don't want to catch up until book 4 is released (supposedly this year)! I hate the idea of knowing that there's not a new Locke Lamorra book waiting in my library.

***

So I'm kinda juggling the idea of one of those, another cyberpunk/sci-fi classic (I'll check out Seveneves), or maybe continuing one of the Anne Rice series I've dipped into (Lestat and the Mayfair Witches).

[Wynamoinen]

Seveneves is not really cyberpunk. And you're right, 800 pages is too much. The fist 400 pages are such a relentless plod into despair (those big explosions at the start are, um, REALLY big) that I just couldn't hack the second half.

I liked his Cryptonomicon a good bit more. It's not cyberpunk either, but it's kinda proto-cyber? Nazis, enigma machines, some MMO video game nerdery.

[Zagros]

Two books right now:

"The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water" by Zen Cho - described as "found family wuxia". It's fun.
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The Last Days of the Dinosaurs - a narrative of what (probably) happened in the hours, days, months, and years after the meteor strike that created the Chicxulub crater. Surprise: the dinos probably died a lot quicker than you think!
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[prometheous100]

Crimson Tides by David Hair, book 2 of the Moontide series.

First book was ok, bit explicit for my taste. Second book is also ok, but I think he's starting to go overboard with some of the descriptions of certain things.

Also recently: Arcane Ascension series by Andrew Rowe.
I can't claim it's 'good', but I really like the world, and I read them alongside the audio book and the reader IS good. And the books are just FUN. My wife had caught up on all of the War of Broken Mirrors and... whatever the other series in the same world is (Seven Sacred Swords?). I didn't develop a taste for those. Back in December 2021 we listened to "10 easy steps to defeat a demon lord" by Rowe and again, not really 'good' but it was a lot of fun and it got us hooked on the author.

[Raylorne]

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I found this book at a bus stop and it was highly regarded on google so I took it home. Promptly forgot about it. I bought a point and click video game months ago called Ken Follett’s The Pillars of Earth. It was on sale for like $4. Great game so far, and it’s based off a highly regarded book.

Looked at my bookshelf the other day and it clicked. So now I’m going to read this book.

[charredwinter]

That's a fun way to convince oneself to finally read a book on the shelf.

After reading Zachary Ying per my last post, I just finished Jennette McCurdy's I'm Glad My Mom Died. And I dunno if it's the residual affects of the Mob Psycho finale (which I am blaming for making me start crying at every little emotional moment since) or if it's my connection to the themes in her book, but dang.

[Nyx89]

I've been wanting to get into reading books set in the Forgotten Realms, and so now I am reading Elfshadow by Elaine Cunningham and really enjoying it, loving all the references to stuff I've only ever read about in the context of campaigns. It's a lot of fun.

https://a.co/d/dYB2ne1

[Hellella]

Originally Posted by Raylorne

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I found this book at a bus stop and it was highly regarded on google so I took it home. Promptly forgot about it. I bought a point and click video game months ago called Ken Follett’s The Pillars of Earth. It was on sale for like $4. Great game so far, and it’s based off a highly regarded book.

Looked at my bookshelf the other day and it clicked. So now I’m going to read this book.

I can also recommend the series! It takes a few liberties with historical accuracy but has some very good performances and is faithful enough to the original.