this post was submitted on 05 May 2026
30 points (96.9% liked)

Books

7972 readers
81 users here now

A community for all things related to Books.

Rules

  1. Be Nice. No personal attacks or hate speech.
  2. No spam. All posts should be related to discussion or reviews related to books. (Please avoid posts that are just a link to the book and a generic summary)
  3. No self promotion.

Official Bingo Posts:

Related Communities

Community icon by IconsBox (from freepik.com)

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
 

Our Bingo for 2026 is Live! You can check Official Bingo Challenge Post and the accompanying Recommendations Post.

Big thanks to @JaymesRS@literature.cafe and @misericordiae@literature.cafe for all the work they do to arrange these!


As for books, reading Rosemary and Rue by Seanan McGuire (first book in her October Daye urban fantasy series). Didn't get much time, but slowly making progress.

What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening to lately?

all 33 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] banazir@lemmy.ml 3 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago)

I'm reading Warren Ellis's Transmetropolitan. An old favorite of mine, this comic book is heavily inspired by Hunter S. Thompson has many themes that are all too relevant even today.

[–] TransDesiTrekkie@startrek.website 3 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

I’m currently reading This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El- Mohtar & Max Gladstone.

I really love it and it feels like I’m reading poetry.

[–] JaymesRS@piefed.world 2 points 3 hours ago

It took me 2 tries to read it, I knew there was something beautiful there the first time but I wasn’t in the right place mentally.

[–] JaymesRS@piefed.world 3 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Just got the brand new Murderbot book by Martha Wells (Platform Decay) and I’m excited to tear into it.

[–] notwhoyouthink@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Started Starship Troopers and couldn’t get through the first chapter. Not for me, as warned by others in this sub it was quite dry and a mere inspiration for the movie.

Now I’m on to Neuromancer, which is already much better. First time read for me so no spoilers please if you choose to comment!

[–] bunkyprewster@startrek.website 1 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Was that Robert Heinlein? I read almost all his books back in the 70s as a teen. We loved them at the time but in retrospect he seems like kind of as ass.

[–] notwhoyouthink@lemmy.zip 1 points 17 hours ago

It was. Interestingly enough, from many of the reviews I read a lot of people love the author but don’t like this book. It made the use of the word ‘controversial’ on the cover description of the copy I have much funnier to me.

[–] Fredselfish@lemmy.world 2 points 23 hours ago

Love Neuromancer have the audiobook.

[–] makeshiftreaper@lemmy.world 2 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Hey! I'm one of the people who commented about Troopers. I don't fault you for stopping it, there's a whole chapter in the middle of it where they flashback to gradeschool and all of the kids agree with the teacher that corporal punishment for adults is really the only way to ensure a society doesn't fall apart

Neuromancer is great though! If you ever feel like you don't really understand what's going on that's pretty normal. It takes a couple of reads and even then a lot of the concepts are abstract rather than concrete

[–] notwhoyouthink@lemmy.zip 4 points 23 hours ago

Thanks for your comment! It was just too military heavy and dry. I’m a very visual thinker and the writing was quite dry and didn’t grab me at all.

So far I actually like the ‘dropped in the middle’ effect of Neuromancer, as it can be a bit tiring to read through a ton of explanations early on in a story with so much world building. I’d rather discover concepts through context and ‘living’ in the story a bit first. At this time I’m simply blown away by the fact the story was written over 40 years ago, however it’s still early on so that might change.

[–] TheMinions@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 hour ago) (2 children)

I have started a reread of This Inevitable Ruin, Dungeon Crawler Carl #7, just to refresh myself before the new book releases in a ~~few weeks.~~ week!

Path of Daggers (WoT 8) is on a bit of a hiatus, stuck at about 30% done with it, by chapter count anyway. Not that I don’t want to finish it, but have put it off for DCC. WoT will be there, but I don’t want to accidentally get spoiled on the new DCC book haha.

[–] Zoomboingding@lemmy.world 0 points 1 hour ago (1 children)
[–] TheMinions@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 hour ago

DCC or Wheel of Time? Thoughts on either? Haha

[–] Billygoat@piefed.social 2 points 22 hours ago (2 children)

I started doing the same thing with the inevitable ruin, then realized I do not remember nearly as much as I should, and started rereading the entire series.

[–] TheMinions@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 16 hours ago

I have just found out there is a recap chapter in my books! Might just have to read all of those haha.

I must have skipped them all on my first read cause it’s before the prologue. And I think my e-reader jumps to the prologue by default.

[–] TheMinions@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 21 hours ago

Yeah…. I should have started a proper re-read a few months back haha.

[–] Malyca@lemmy.zip 4 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Stormlight archive. Again. No, I don't care. Yes, I will reread it many times after.

[–] TheMinions@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 hour ago

Journey before Destination.

[–] cinoreus@lemmy.world 4 points 22 hours ago* (last edited 22 hours ago)

Had started foundation by Isaac Asimov, thought it's been a while since I last read it. I am still a newbie reader, but loved it so far. I am pretty amazed by science fiction as a whole in how well politics is written, my last read was first dune book.

[–] herculeskan@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 day ago

I'm reading "don quijote part 2" from Miguel de Cervantes, I'm going on the chapter 30, I really like the don quijote stuff, it's just get better in every chapter, I think is better than any other anime

[–] slartibartfast141@piefed.zip 3 points 22 hours ago

I finished listening to Neuromancer today. Not once did I want to DNF, but I still don't know what the fuck was happening. Just enjoyed the vibes I guess. I'll have to reread, maybe in print next time, to get some more out of it.

Started Reaper Man as well, I've found Discworld to be so comforting.

[–] iamthetot@piefed.ca 2 points 21 hours ago

After not reading really at all in April, back at it this week. Finishing up The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley.

[–] Krusty@quokk.au 2 points 21 hours ago

Music, the brain, and ecstasy - how music captures our imagination by Robert Jourdain.

It's extremely well written and starts from a scientific perspective of how our ears evolved over hundreds of millions of years to appreciate music.

[–] Gerald@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 22 hours ago

the dog stars

[–] Libb@piefed.social 2 points 23 hours ago
  • Tolkien, 'The Hobbit'. A re-read, started last night.
  • If I can get my hands on an English edition at a reasonable price, next I would like to read Narnia (the full cycle). As a non-believer myself, I have a lot of respect for CS Lewis as an essayist (pieces like 'The Abolition of Man' is an almost perfect description of why/how most Western educative systems are indeed failing and, well, most of what I've read even when he focuses on spirituality was quite... rich and stimulating), and I would like to see how =I will appreciate his work as a novelist :)
  • Just finished the first volume of the French edition of Cordwainer Smith 'Instrumentality of Mankind' which I started almost by accident and ended-up liking so much I ordered the next 3 volumes of that translation (I was not able to find an English edition). Fascinating work.
[–] yenahmik@lemmy.world 2 points 23 hours ago

The Everlasting by Alix E Harrow. I'm about halfway through and it is a very interesting mix of fantasy, time travel, and exploration of PTSD. So far I would recommend if you enjoy folk lore and fantasy.

[–] Fredselfish@lemmy.world 2 points 23 hours ago

Warriors: A Dangerous Path by Erin Hunter

Audiobook Infiniti Gate by M.R. Carey

[–] makeshiftreaper@lemmy.world 2 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago)

Just finished:

All You Need is Kill - Of the 2 movies and this, this has by far the most compelling ending. I don't really like how the time loop thing is handled but the mechanics aren't the most important to the story

Will Destroy the Galaxy for Cash - I love this series. If you're looking for a modern day Douglas Adams this is pretty close

In progress:

Diaspora by Greg Eden - Woof, this starts dense and I don't have the impression it's going to get easier. I'm curious how challenging it will get. Still, it's a fun start for the story

[–] pancake@sopuli.xyz 1 points 21 hours ago

I finished Real Tigers by Mick Herron (Slough House book 3). It was enjoyable and gripping for most of the book. I had a hard time following the final action sequence, but that's a common problem I have in action-heavy books/movies, so doesn't really reflect on the book.

Now I'm reading Dragonsinger by Anne McCaffrey (Harper Hall of Pern book 2). I've been really enjoying the Pern books so far, especially this trilogy. I find the main character very likeable, the story is simple but compelling, and the creatures are super fun. A great read all around.

[–] Catma@lemmy.world 1 points 23 hours ago

Finished Cult Following: The Extreme Sects That Capture Our Imaginations—and Take Over Our Lives by JW Ocker. Was interesting but at the felt a bit shallow? Maybe i was expecting more of a deep dive on how cults form/beliefs. Not sure was short so maybe that was it. As an aside fuck the guy that ran the ant hill kids cult. That was probably the worst thing I have heard.

This week i started The Enemy Within by Christie Golden its a D&D book set in Ravenloft. Its next one the series I have. Its ok so far.

Also started audiobook of Queens of the Conquest by Allison Weir. Found myself wanting to do more historical/academic books lately at least for audiobooks. Not far into it but it is informative so far.

I skipped the last book I had for The Remaining after I got maybe 4 hours in. It was a prologue to the main story and I just didn't really care for the american army man crap.

So went back to do some Outlanders for a bit before trying out the Lee Harden series of books (which is more "The Remaining").

Outlanders is good although it is getting a bit wild with many different dimensions going on at the moment.