This week flew by pretty quickly. Didn’t even get time to read all the messages in last week’s post…
Finished Valour’s Choice by Tanya Huff. Book 1 of Confederation. Enjoyed the book, going to continue with the series, and may check some more of Tanya Huff’s work too.
Read Jujitu Kaisen Vol. 5. Nothing much to say about that, more of a manga goodness.
Started Dark Moon by David Gemell, a standalone fantasy book. This is my first Gemell book and I am enjoying it. I am about 1/3rd of the way in, and the world-building feels like something that can sustain a trilogy or even a longer series.
What about all of you? What have been reading or listening?
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Percy Jackson got a show?
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Ah man, too many streaming services. Thanks for the info, will add it to my list of “some day” shows 😀
Finished reading The Black Gryphon with my sibling. Was surprisingly progressive for when it was written, and although the non pov characters were very cardboard, it was a fun read.
Listening to Good Omens finally. I absolutely love the comedic writing, and about half the cast. The actual plot bites me to tears so I’ve had trouble focusing on it, but weirdly still enjoying it.
Started Perdido Street Station. New Crobuzon feels like he took the Cantina scene in star wars and expanded it to an entire city. And I love that the PoVs so far are an artist and a scientist just doing their thing.
I really enjoyed Perdido Street Station when I read it years ago, the weird fantasy of it feels so like extravagant and full in scope while also being grounded.
I’m certainly liking it so far. I’m not far in yet, though.
I finished Leviathan Wakes a little bit ago and am considering whether to jump right into Caliban’s War or to read something else in between. Probably would do something non-fiction if I did.
How did you like Leviathan Wakes?
I enjoyed it a lot! Its very popcorn-y and I breezed through it really fast. The hard scifi setting is really cool and feels very fleshed out and verisimilitudinous, the characters I was pretty lukewarm on tho, and it did feel pretty predictable but I’m hoping that will all get better in the sequels and it is just sortof “first bookisms” on that front.
I knew going in that the writers are kind connected to George RR Martin, and I felt like there were some cross setting parallel ideas between it and ASoIaF. Mid-read I heard that it had evolved out of a play by post forum rpg, which I thought was really cool in concept, but I also started to see the strings a little bit, y’know?
verisimilitudinous
This is such a fun word.
Thanks for the review. Didn’t know about it evolving out of a play by post forum rpg. Would love to hear what you think about sequels, once you have read them.
I’m still on Wheel of Time book 3 (The Dragon Reborn). I’ll probably finish it this week and move on to… book 4 lol. Trying to keep my momentum up as long as I can. Helps that I’ve been really enjoying the story so far.
Well, everyone is different, but it’s a long series, just don’t burn out on it. My method these days is to add lighter / something completely different in-between, but if this is how you enjoy reading, then binge on!
Yeah historically I’ve just binged through series but I’ve never read one so long and am a bit worried about it. I plan to join a monthly book club run by my library starting next month so that will force me to break things up (and push me away from reading almost exclusively fantasy). Hopefully it helps!
Laziness Does Not Exist by Devon Price PhD and The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell.
I’m enjoying both quite a bit right now.
I don’t think Devon Price would have named the book like this if he had met me. 😀
I’ve started JD Kirk’s Bob Hoon series
I really liked The Dublin Trilogy, and this is kinda like the Scottish version of that, but waaaay more sweary and violent
Bob makes me actually lol at least once a chapter
Just started Spark of the Everflame because my wife read the three books in the series on Kindle Unlimited in a weekend. I’m up to chapter 8 and it’s fantasy with romance elements. It seems interesting. I’m trying to finish all three before starting something else cause my wife wants to talk about it.
Currently, early in The Three Musketeers. Then, likely on to more low-level programming stuff like The Linux Programming Interface.
What drew you to The Three Musketeers? Have you read any other Dumas?
I’ve always been a fan of swashbuckling adventure stories. Having seen numerous film renditions of the book, I felt it was about time that I went to the source material. I am still early in the book yet but I have been enjoying the writing style, even if some of the cultural points are a dated by a few centuries (then again, I used to play a lot of ttrpgs and go to anachronistic festivals, so, not a big issue).
While I haven’t read any of his other works, I suspect that I will, as long as it doesn’t become too much of a slog.
I’d been planning to read Hebdomeros for some time - so that’s what I’ve finished recently.
Just looked up the wikipedia article on the book, and I am not sure I understand what it’s about… Any reviews?
It’s quite similar to Invisible Cities: it’s interesting as a curious piece with poetic language, full of dream-like images coming and going. I’d say Invisible Cities is somewhat more vigorous in this regard, but both are quite enjoyable.
Been progressing through The Queen’s Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner. I’m on the penultimate book of the series, Thick As Thieves. I did take a short detour to read The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
Le Comte de Monte-Cristo by Alexandre Dumas and Le Hobbit. Both in French because I need to really polish my French this year.
Ah, cool. What is your level of French? Can you understand the books without any/much use of dictionary?
I can follow mostly without problem, I get perhaps 98% of the words, the hard part is some grammatical constructions, but those have gotten easier the more I read. The Hobbit is my comfort text, it’s a story I already know by heart so I can work out the meaning of the words by my recollection of reading it in other languages (I’ve read it in both English and Spanish). Monte-Cristo is my practice text, I go chapter by chapter, first with the audiobook only, then again with both audio and text reading at the audio speed; then finally only the text at my own pace, checking every word I have trouble with. I’m reading it for the first time, which helps keeping the interest up. Also, eReaders are the ultimate language acquisition tools, I get Wikipedia, dictionary and translation in almost any language I could want in a single device.
I haven’t practiced my writing or speaking much though, which I will have to eventually.
Nice! I should start reading something in Spanish too.
I finished A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge about two weeks ago. I couldn’t find anywhere to rent the 3rd book, I haven’t heard the best things about it so I don’t want to buy.
So, I started Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks and am about 3/4ths of the way through. I’m reading before I fall asleep and sometimes the perspective shift makes think I dozed off and missed a key switch. But nope it’s just an instant complete perspective switch to another character/time. I’m still enjoying it but sometimes it gives me whiplash that I’m not a fan of here.
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
