Still reading Whispers Underground by Ben Aaronovitch. Book 3 of Rivers of London series.
Though, technically I hadn’t read anything last two weeks to it’s more of “got back to reading”.
It’s still book 3, but I found it interesting how different it is from Dresden Files. There is no forces of nature with personal enmity with the protagonist (yet), it’s just (magic) crimes being solved by (magic) police. More of a police procedural then whatever genre Dresden Files is 😀
What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening to lately?
For details on the c/Books bingo challenge that just restarted for the year, you can checkout the initial Book Bingo, and its Recommendation Post. Links are also present in our community sidebar.
I am currently reading Legends of Localization Book 1: The Legend of Zelda by Clyde Mandelin as part of a readalong with a friend. It focuses on the first entry in the TLOZ series and I’ve found it really interesting so far. I hesitate on reading fanmade gaming history books cause I don’t trust the information will be accurate or well-written but so far, so good.
I’ve just started another book (haven’t even finished the prologue yet) with another friend called Secrecy World: Inside the Panama Papers Investigation of Illicit Money Networks and the Global Elite by Jake Bernstein. This book got on my radar after I found out the Laundromat film is based on it. I suspect to get mad at rich people’s audacity by the end of it.
I’m currently almost completely through The Capital / Das Kapital by Karl Marx.
About two thirds of the way through A Wizard of Earthsea.
I adore this book.
Almost finished ‘Les entretiens’ de Confucius (in French, because, well, I’m French). Started today: ‘Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave’.
Work of fiction waiting to be started: Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’, J.M. Barrie ‘The complete Peter Pan’.
Lots of classics! Have fun!
Thx.
Yep, a lot of classics indeed. Moving back to print from ebooks a little over a year ago was also an opportunity to (re)read a lot of them as they can be found for dirt cheap, on the used market.
The Douglass one was annotated by the previous owner (I don’t mind that, provided that doesn’t make the page unreadable) and the funny thing is that their notes so far are really not focusing on what I’m getting out of this very unsettling text. In its own way, next to the text itself, this person’s notes are another enriching encounter.
That’s interesting. A luck find, I would say.
Depends the kind of book you read and the shop you’re visiting but it can be relatively frequent, and sometimes it’s more interesting than the others.
My French is very limited - probably straddling the border of upper beginner or lower intermediate - but I read through Barjavel’s La Nuit Des Temps and it was fuckin awesome.
I don’t know whether it’s because it made me spend more time on each word, or whether translating it made me put my own spin on the story and made it more personal to me. Who knows. Banger of a book.
My French is very limited - probably straddling the border of upper beginner or lower intermediate - but I read through Barjavel’s La Nuit Des Temps and it was fuckin awesome.
Nice! It is a great book and, if one excepts Jules Verne, it also was the very first French science fiction author I ever read. The book made a huge impression on me too. So much so that I then read all of what Barjavel wrote, SF or otherwise.
BTW, I would not consider anyone capable of reading a novel in a foreign language a beginner, even a ‘upper’ one. That too is awesome, if I dare say so ;)
Cheers friend. I follow a lot of Olly Richards’ stuff - a British polyglot - and got the idea from him after he recommended some books for learners of the language. I’m still not great - the lack of opportunity means I can’t really sharpen my skills - but I’m getting there. I read the French version of Twenty Thousand Leagues to my young son at bedtimes - and told him the story in English. I’m not sure whether it was the fantastic story that sent him to sleep or the frequent “ummmm” and “errrr” while I thought of the same expressions in English!
I’m rather hoping to pick up Le Grand Secret soon, I’m not really a SF person but his writing is very good!
I read the French version of Twenty Thousand Leagues to my young son at bedtimes - and told him the story in English. I’m not sure whether it was the fantastic story that sent him to sleep or the frequent “ummmm” and “errrr” while I thought of the same expressions in English!
That’s so great and nice :)
You put a (happy) smile on my face for the rest of the day and it’s 8AM here.
The Rivers of London books are fantastic, and keep getting better.
I’ve literally just finished reading the latest one, Stone and Sky.
This series keeps popping up on my To-Read list! Might do it after Wind and Truth.
Nice. It’s good to know that it keeps getting better.
The Left Hand of Darkness - I read most of it a few years ago, never finished it. On my way to finish it in a few days!
About 20% into Nietzsches Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Not an easy read but fascinating.
I’m 90% of the way through The Master and the Margarita. It’s a completely surreal plotline and I think it’ll help if I do some reading into the background (both the setting and the author’s writing process) once I’ve finished. It’s made me laugh a couple of times though, in particular:
spoiler
the scene in which the theatre accountant is desperately trying to deposit some cash, only to witness a group of employees involuntarily bursting into a sea shanty.
The Master and the Margarita
“Many critics consider it to be one of the best novels of the 20th century, as well as the foremost of Soviet satires.”
Looking forward to your review!
Great book. I hope to read it again, one day.
one of my faves!
I just finished Fahrenheit 451. It was pretty decent but the ending was kind of a letdown.
Now… I’m searching for a new book and don’t know what to read.
I feel like Fahrenheit 451 and 1984 go hand-in-hand if you haven’t read it already.
Yeah, I have read 1984 a while back ago. Was a really good book. I still think about Winston and o’Brain with the … scene.
I freaking dislike how Lemmy does the spoiler tag. So I will avoid what, I wrote previously.
Yeah. The spoiler tool is a little janky.
I haven’t read that book in so long, I can’t clearly remember what happens but I do remember it left me feeling rather hopeless.
Oh yeah, the book does give that kind of feeling. Especially the ending. However, I have decided to pick up Before Your Memory Fades by Toshikazu Kawaguchi. It’s the third book in the series of ‘‘Before the Coffee Gets Cold’’ and I do highly recommend the books.
The ending is kinda not amazing but it’s the rest of the book that’s worth so much. He was so spot on on so many things.
Now… I’m searching for a new book and don’t know what to read.
Also from Bradbury, have you read his Martian Chronicles? My favorite between the two ;)
About halfway through Roman Sexualities. I know the broad concepts, but the details elaborated on are fascinating.
Finished Roman Sexualities, very good but typically dry and academic in prose; moving on to Thomas Sankara: A Revolutionary In Cold War Africa.
ahem Any interesting tidbits?
Sure thing! It’s noted, for example, that scratching one’s head with one finger was considered a ‘dainty’ affectation and potentially indicating a passive homosexual - likely in relation to the connection Romans saw between vanity and passive homosexuality, with scratching one’s head with one finger being to minimize mussing one’s hair (Julius Caesar, famously handsome and vain, was noted by Cicero to scratch his head with one finger).
Another is that Romans considered a man performing oral sex on a woman to be more degrading than a man performing oral sex on another man, or receiving anal sex from another man. This is largely because the Romans didn’t conceive of sexual relations in the form of their partner’s sex, but in what acts were performed on who. Some men in Roman history are noted as liking men or liking women, but what defines their sexuality is not that, but rather whether they ‘give’ or ‘receive’. The former is entirely normal for a RESPECTABLE citizen; the latter is proof of some inherent servility and disreputability.
During the Principate, sexual and gender boundaries weakened with the rise of the autocracy of the Roman Emperor disrupting traditional social divisions. Part and parcel with this was a spike in concern from moralists about the decline of ‘traditional’ Roman morality. Nowadays, all the men are going down on girls, marrying boys, and worrying about their appearance! O TEMPORA! O MORES! 😭
Regardless of whether that kvetching represented an actual increase in such behavior (it likely did, to some degree), it gives insight as to how the Romans perceived sexuality as part of the broader social structure, not just a private matter. It was not that transgressing it made you ‘bad’ or adhering to it made you ‘good’, unlike later Abrahamic notions of sexuality; it was that transgressing it was a challenge to the social order of inviolable citizens who could ‘defend’ their liberty and their self from ‘intrusion’ of others. The worrying, thus, was connected to the worry that the autocracy of the Roman Emperor was stripping Roman citizens of their liberty-oriented mindset, and creating a more ‘servile’ citizenry and social order.
Still deeply down the TrekLit rabbit hole.
Finished the Star Trek: Destiny trilogy early last week (amazing, BTW) and am now through the first two books of the DS9: Millennium trilogy.
Do let me know for all the “must reads” that you come across. I’ll probably never read all the Star Trek books but I can read some of the best ones.
I actually did a post a while back asking for recommendations since, yeah, there’s a lot of them and I really only have time for the “must reads”.
https://startrek.website/post/28030285
So far, I’ve read two and 2/3 (one single, one trilogy, and 2/3 of another trilogy). I can recommend them all as “must reads” (unless Millennium falls apart in the 3rd book; just started it last night).
- A Stitch in Time
- ST: Destiny
- DS9: Millennium
Probably next up is the first in the “Titan” series (as recommended by someone in that post). I only bought the first one in that series. If it’s good, I’ll buy the rest of them.
Cool, thanks for the list. Will look them up!
I just finished my first ever audio book. Always thought this was not for me because I like reading, you know. Then I gave a try, and that’s indeed better than I thought. With audio book I can enjoy literacy while doing activities that never would allowed me to do so, like working (for stuff which do not require 100% concentration) or driving (especially in traffic jams). And I really enjoyed having a story told to me, you know a bit like a madeleine de Proust, something bringing you back to childhood.
So for the first one I choose one in my native language, French. À retardement, by Franck Thilliez. This is a great thriller around topics on psychiatry, psychotic criminals and so on. I thought it was very well written and, knowing a bit of the topic through the stories of my psychologist partner, I think it’s very well documented about the illness and management of it in asylums (although there are parts that are pure fictional without any scientific veracity).
I’m also reading to another French novel, Le signal, by Maxime Chattam. This is an horror story, maybe inspired by what Stephen King could have written (but as far as I’m in not as good as King - but ok it’s very difficult to reach). One interesting suggestion, in the introduction of the novel, the author suggests some music to listen while reading (horror movies soundtracks), never done that before and this is a very good idea (I don’t have the ability at each reading session but when I did it, indeed I enjoyed more the book).
I’m still working through Drew Hayes Super Powereds series, I’ve finished book 3 and am reading a spin-off called Corpies that takes place during book 3.
The quality has definitely improved. Still could have benefited from a good editor but not quite as much as before. It’s moved into A tier.
I thought you might give up after the last one. Glad it improved.
Oh, I have finished plenty worse series 😂. I read the first two books of a trilogy that was cancelled because it was so bad once.
lol, don’t even know how to reply to that 😀 Have fun, I guess!
Allow me to be clear, I was not aware that it had had been canceled until I tried to find the third book in the series, but when I found out that it had been canceled, I was like, “yeah… That makes sense“. 😂
I’m reading “This is How You Lose the Time War” and “His to Be Perfect” currently.
I recommend both of them!
This is How You Lose the Time War is pretty divisive from what I’ve seen. Unfortunately I fell on the side that didn’t care for it.
Oh, I had no idea it was divisive. It won a Hugo, a Nebula, and was Amazon’s top seller in sci-fi for a time.
Is it because it’s an epistolary novel?
Divisive in the sense that I’ve found people either love it or hate it. I think people have different reasons. Personally I found the prose way, way too purple to the point of being pretentious. I also found the two characters’ voices were practically identical which is extra surprising because they were even written by different people.
I dunno, it was like a 4.5/5 idea to me with a 1.5/5 execution. Just my opinion.
Oh gotcha. I totally agree the two characters voices are so close! I had to go back a couple times in the beginning to recheck who’s part I was currently reading.
I’m reading through The Long Walk for a second time, mostly because it seems like they insist on forcing every Stephen King story into a movie, regardless of how little it makes sense.
The Long Walk is bleak. Something tells me the Hunger Games guy can’t hope to deliver nearly the same level of bleakness that the book insists on.
I never finished the Long Walk (had to return a borrowed copy before I was finished). The concept is interesting and hits a personal note as I was forced to walk for long distances throughout my childhood, sometimes to a traumatizing extent.
Apparently there was a screening of the film that required viewers to walk on treadmills at 3mph for the entire length of the movie and if they stopped, they were removed from the theater.
