I’ve just started reading The Wager. I’m a sucker for ship based media, and I’m hoping this’ll be no exception.
It’s my third book of the year after previously reading both A Clash of Kings and How to get rid of a president
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RISC-V Instruction Set Manual
No spoilers please I’ve not got round to picking this one up yet
The Wheel of Time (the whole saga). Going for the second book right now.
Nice. I finished the final book a couple of weeks ago. It’s one of the best series I’ve ever read!
Yeah. BTW, maybe I’m wrong but I can perceive a lot of LOTR influences in the first two books.
There are definitely similarities, I agree. The setting out on a quest, multiple important characters but one that has the most important task, Rand shows some similarity to Frodo in their background, and a dark lord that’s wants to wreath the world in shadow. But then, it must be hard for a fantasy writer to not be influenced by Tolkien.
Have either of you tried the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind? It was written after Wheel of Time and I feel like Terry borrowed/stole some ideas from Rober Jordan but personally I think the Sword of Truth was better written.
I have not, but it’s going on my reading list. Thanks for the tip. I like longer series, especially fantasy series that you can really delve into. So the Sword of Truth fits perfectly
I hope you like it :)
I liked the sword of truth series (and read the lot) but I think it was written for a younger audience than WoT - or maybe it just came out that way. What do you think? Zed is a great character, his exclamations like “bags” made me laugh when reading it.
I gave up on WoT when I got near the end of the series and had to wait for new books, then Robert Jordan died and I just never finished them. Is it worth picking them back up? I always had a doubt that Sanderson could finish them off in a fully satisfying way, even if he did have notes from Jordan.
I would say that it’s worth picking them up. Brandon Sanderson does a pretty good job. It’s not the same as Robert Jordan, but it doesn’t have to be. He does a goes job of capturing the feel of the series. And it reads differently from his own books, which isn’t easy to do. And I love how the story unfolds in the last book. There were definitely some story points I did not see coming.
I’ve also heard he did a great job.
I think WoT is more for a younger audience than SoT. Some parts of SoT are much more gruesome than anything I’ve encountered in WoT.
I haven’t finished WoT, I stopped on book 6. There are parts of the books I have a tough time getting through. There are many scenes where there are female characters talking about clothes and men and they just keep dragging on and on… That’s not why I read fantasy novels, most of those scenes could have been trimmed imo. SoT doesn’t really have that. Anyways, I heard Sanderson did a great job, once I finish SoT I plan to get back into WoT and finish the series.
Interesting, I’ll have to read them again and see what I think, I read them all over 10 years ago now.
I’m on book 5 right now and it’s quite the ride. Hope you enjoy it as much as I have been.
I’m re-reading the Lord of the Rings for the first time since I was about 14. Loving it!
I have that same kobo, do you not flip it when you’re holding it in your left hand? I find it so much more comfortable!
I’m laaaaazy as sin when I’ve finally got the kids to bed so I usually hold it in my right hand and then operate the thing by pressing the buttons with the same hand. If I have to move my left for anything other than moving my drink to my mouth I consider this a loss.
Maximum efficiency
By chance, I’m doing more or less the same as you. I initially read lotr when I was ~15 yo (I’m nearly 40 now). I also read it in French those years ago but I’m rereading now the real thing in English. Loving it too.
I remember when I read it the first time I was struggling with some of the dense description but it doesn’t bother me now (or I haven’t got to that bit yet)!
It makes me wonder if I’d enjoy Brave New World more as an adult, we were made to read it at school by our RE teacher (when we were about 15/16) and I found it so dreary :D
Brave new world is definitely a book you get different things from as an adult. It’s also a pretty quick read. I’d definitely recommend taking another look.
Getting deeper into The Expanse, now on #3 (Abaddon’s Gate). Finished the two prequels “Drive” and “The Butcher of Anderson Station”, the two original books of the series, and the “Gods of Risk” interlude.
Really loved Abaddon’s Gate, probably one of my favorites in the series (though they’ve all been very good!). I hope you enjoy it
Terry Pratchett’s Guards! Guards!. This is my first Pratchett book and I’m kicking myself for not picking these up sooner, like decades sooner. Like my life would have been different sooner :)
I bought all his Discworld books a while ago on humble bundle but have been too busy to start reading any of them yet. What made you decide to start with that one?
They come in groups, in a way, but they also refer back any which way, anyway. I recommend just the order they were written, it’s worked well so far. (about half way through, I think)
Guards! Guards! is a great one to start with. It follows Samuel Vimes, captain of the Night Watch (police force) of the city-state of Ankh-Morpork (loosely based on London) as he deals with a dragon the size of a house showing up in his city and demanding gold. It was summoned by a small group of people with dreams of becoming the shadow government, using a book stolen from the library of Ankh-Morpork’s finest (and only) wizarding university. The spell allows them to summon a dragon, directly control all of its actions, and dismiss it at will. Their plan is a cinch: summon the dragon, have it eat a few people, terrorize the city a bit, then find some young upstart with something resembling royal blood and who knows how to flourish a sword and have have him volunteer to fight it. Put on a good show, dismiss the dragon at just the right moment to make it look like he killed it, and watch as the city celebrates and crowns him king. Then all that’s left is to puppeteer him from the shadows to rule the city. Unfortunately for the Elucidated Brethren, as they call themselves, the only party less thrilled about this than Ankh-Morpork’s existing shadow government is the dragon itself, who doesn’t take kindly to being summoned and even less kindly to being controlled. It doesn’t take it long to slip their shackles.
It’s now up to Sam Vimes and his ragtag crew of “watchmen” who run the other way when they see trouble to solve the case and find a way to get the dragon back where it came from before the whole city goes up in smoke.
Going Postal is also good. It follows conman’s-conman Moist von Lipvig as he wakes up in a very comfortable chair the morning after he was hanged, still rubbing his neck, sitting face-to-face with Lord Vetinari, Ankh-Morpork’s despotic ruler. Vetinari explains that he sees potential in Moist, so he paid the hangman not to kill him all the way, and is now offering him a better use for his talents: that of being Postmaster of the city’s derelict Post Office. Should he refuse he is more than welcome to reenact what a crowd full of people will swear they saw happen to him. After mulling it over, he takes the job, and arrives at the Post Office to find the place full top to bottom with undelivered letters. He can hardly walk through the hallways. Its only two occupants are Junior Postman Groat, who could be Moist’s grandpa, and Stanley, who, while the word “autistic” doesn’t appear anywhere in the book, absolutely is. He knows everything there is to know about pins (“Last year the combined workshops (or “pinneries”) of Ankh-Morpork turned out twenty-seven million, eight hundred and eighty thousand, nine hundred and seventy-eight pins,’ said Stanley, staring into a pin-filled private universe. ‘That includes wax-headed, steels, brassers, silver-headed (and full silver), extra large, machine- and hand-made, reflexed and novelty, but not lapel pins which should not be grouped with the true pins at all since they are technically known as “sports” or “blazons”, sir”) and when he gets upset he has what the book calls “one of his Little Moments” (which are never actually described). As a person on the spectrum myself, I have to hand it to Pratchett – the portrayal is exaggerated a bit, but all things considered not inaccurate (especially compared to some… ahem other portrayals of autism in the media that we’ve seen lately that I could mention. I will never forgive Sia for making the movie Music.) Sadly Stanley is very much a minor character. Anyway.
After the advent of the Clacks system (semaphore towers that claim to “send messages at the speed of light” – think telegraphs, but in a universe without electricity), the post office didn’t see much use, so it downsized. Mail just sort of piled up since there weren’t enough people to deliver it and throwing it away was illegal. Sleeping in amongst the mail, Moist swears he can hear the letters whispering their contents to him. He has visions of the post office in its heyday. This place is old, and it wants to return to its former glory.
They’re both very good books and Pratchett absolutely deserves his reputation as a British humorist who, as one newspaper put it, “wants us to feel and think as well as laugh.” Both these books have a lot to say on the subject of government and they say it in the best way possible. Can’t recommend enough.
Based on some random reddit thread. Its a good book to start i think. Just go for it
What s great introduction to the series! This was the first one i picked up as a kid, and I’ve read it (and the rest of the books) several times since! You’re in for a treat!
But enjoy the ride now! :) I am five books into the Night Watch-series, and will be picking up book six soon.
I love Vimes so much already!! Im listening to the audiobook of the witch series while gardening and love it too :)
I prefer reading to listening. But gotta make do when I can’t use my hands to read
I’m in a phase where I am testing out audio books for the first time, where I will read the physical book in the evening, the audio book when I travel by car and read the ebook-version when traveling to avoid lugging the physical books around. So far I like switching around a bit.
Started with this one too, finished every book in the series just a few months ago and they’re all pretty great.
Consider Phlebas. Wanted to start the Culture series for a long time. Have Roadside Picnic on the table too as another fun read.
Have fun, the Culture novels are amazing
@NOPper @Oneeightnine Rereading the Culture novels right now. They are my favourite books of all time.
Currently reading Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson.
I have a goal to work my way down the list of Hugo award winning novels
What a bizarre coincidence; that’s exactly what I came on to post!
Finished Red Mars a few weeks ago, started Green Mars a couple of days ago. I’d never read any Kim Stanley Robinson before, and I’m enjoying it so far.
Any other recommendations from your award-winners reading list?
Not yet! This is the first one and since it was green mars that won the award, I decided I’d just read the whole trilogy.
Oh, I more or less just finished Blue Mars, but had to take my time getting through it all. But I’ve enjoyed it! Now I just started reading The Ministry for the Future :)
Some parts of the mars series are definitely a slog, I feel like that’s almost inevitable with books that change to the perspective of different characters a lot. Some characters just aren’t as interesting as others or they suck as a person and I don’t really care about what they think. But so far in this series I’ve liked the ideas that have developed and I think the setting is really interesting.
Yeah, agreed. Blue Mars unfortunately had a little more of that the I remember from the other two. But the overall world building is impressive and interesting, and I don’t regret reading any of it.
It is fitting that it has received a Hugo award, as Les Miserable by Victor Hugo definitely fits into the same category - he could waffle on about very uninteresting things for pages on end before returning to the interesting parts of the story.
Same, Blue Mars was a bit slow for me also.
Lol I haven’t read any of Victor Hugo so I wouldn’t know, but it’s at least been good practice for speeding up my reading by looking at what’s actually important. Kim Stanley Robinson does a phenomenal job of recounting geography (areography) and routes that I unfortunately have no point of reference for, but they honestly matter very little beyond “this is in the north, this is in the middle, this is in the south”.
Ministry for the future looks good.
Great series. Red mars was my fav out of these.
I’ve just started the third book in The children of time trilogy, children of ruin
How do you like books 2 and 3? I really liked book 1, but was nervous that the other books wouldn’t be able to compare/maintain the same tone so I haven’t picked them up yet.
The second book is not as great as the first one but still really good imo, I literally started the third book this morning so I can’t really say anything yet
Are you a bit further in now? I wasn’t a huge fan of the second, so hopefully things have improved with the third!
I tried to read romeo and juliet today and they talk funny. 😂
Do you bite your thumb at me, sir?
No sir
But i bite my thumb
Jane Eyre - charlotte bronte
Sadly my first one this year. Do you habe BookWyrm?
I’ve been using a service called Hardcover after switching over from StoryGraph last year. I’ve been searching for a ‘letterboxd for books’ for years and I think this is the closest I’ve found so far.
Hardcover is my favorite as well (though I’m still tracking in StoryGraph and Goodreads mainly because Goodreads does it automatically from Calibre). My only issue with Hardcover is that it’s got the worst book database so far but that’s a relatively easier fix with services like openlibrary. My link is in my profile for both.
Why did you leave storygraph? I just got on it because I wanted an online log of some sort. I dont mind it so far. Although I literally just joined 3 weeks ago
Just finished reading The Wager, fantastic book.
Currently readingA Separate Peace because I was convinced my high school self was just too immature when he labeled it as the worst book he has ever had to read… it’s not the worst book I’ve ever had to read but it’s not a good book either.
Next up will probably be either The Guns of August or Teddy Roosevelt’s autobiography.
Almost halfway the third book of the Three body problem series, deaths end by Cixin Liu. Excellent series
I read the first one pre-Covid and never picked it back up for second. Is it worth returning to the series??
I haven’t read the third one yet but the second is incredible. Absolutely pick it back up.
Yes, its accessible sci fi. Second one has a slow start but really picks up in the second half. The third is a bit more balanced in that regard. Highly recommend.
Just finished Dune Messiah. It was good, but I liked the first one more. Feel like it could’ve been shorter, while at the same time I feel like I would’ve appreciated more info on how the jihad affected people outside Arrakeen.
I’ll probably start on either Colour of Magic or Gardens of the Moon next.
The DevOps Handbook: How to Create World-Class Agility, Reliability, and Security in Technology Organizations
I’m a huge fucking nerd and read mostly stuff like this. I’ve got a rousing book of user story mapping on deck next!
I would love to hear book recommendations from you. I can do software dev and I self host a few services personally, but I do guesswork at scaling services, security, automated deployments, CICD, etc. Do you have suggestions? (Agile books are also cool)
You and I are taking very different paths, so my recommendations may not be fully relevant. I’m working on guiding companies how to fix their already broken IT departments while you’re down the technology side. For starters, I’d choose a cloud to focus on, because like it or not, companies use Google, Amazon, Azure or a combination of the three. From there, I’d read probably the most boring thing you can: The well architected framework documentation!
These guides are going to make you ask yourself a ton more questions which will really guide your reading. They will cover most operational topics for that given cloud, but will also apply broadly across all operations platforms.
As mentioned, that Devops handbook is a real barn burner. It tells you what exactly you need to implement to create an environment where the technology, processes and people behind your IT are scalable.
As I said, I’m working on organizational change, and doing so requires that people will agree to work with you. All the technology in the world is worthless if you can’t get people to work with it. So these books were good. I’d recommend reading them simply to help you advance in your career:
How to Win Friends and Influence People
The one I’m going to read next is User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product
