Books

Halfway through Dracula. It's strange reading the origin of so much media and tropes, but sometimes the language and hesitation in plot development really slows down the suspense.

I'm close to finishing The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. This month has been a bit rough in my personal life and I haven't, perhaps, been quite feeling it. Luckily, there's always next year.

I don't know what I'll read next.

East of Eden by John Steinbeck.

It is a bit lengthy, but it seems like each interaction is written around pithy wisdoms interwoven into the lives of interactions of the characters.

Each time it happens, it's like stumbling upon on a gemstone by a river, and keeps me anticipating the next unfolding of the plot.

The Anthropocene Reviewed, by John Green

finished it yesterday actually. The Book is a compilation of stories, memories and thoughts of John Green in the form of short reviews. Quick read, some stories had me laughing others are very touching, revolving around the loss of a dear friend or concerning his mental problems, but it's mostly about how John Green views Humans and Humanity, he appears to be a big fan which is a suprisingly refreshing take.

very recently got an e-reader so that i can get back into reading, i am excited to be able to post something! hopefully i will find some contemporary fiction to read soonish, it's a bit overwhelming right now so i am just reading stuff that has been sitting in my Calibre library. frankly it has been so long that i am not even sure what i like to read anymore.

anyway, last week i read Concrete Island by J.G. Ballard and now i am chewing through the Standard Ebooks collection of Clark Ashton Smith short fiction. i haven't particularly loved either but that's okay!

Finally got around to start The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin. Started and continuing as audiobook, but additionally I got the digital at about 10% in, to reread some passages.

Also, just yesterday, I picked up This is how you lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. Tried to go in as blind as possible and I'm so glad I did. Really enjoying myself here.

The same book as last week. I don't read that fast!

I'm halfway through "Cibola Burn" (The Expanse #4), it's a real page turner! So far my second favorite book of the series.

"Introduction to Mathematical Thinking" by Keith Devlin. Just an interesting (and short) book about the concepts around math.

And I'm slowly getting through a book about the history of Ottawa.

I'm in the final stretch - reading The Gathering Storm, book 12 in the Wheel of Time series.

This is the first of the three final installments co-authored by Brandon Sanderson.

I just started Groundskeeping by Lee Cole. A small town love story about a couple of writers. Really good writing so far (~20%)

Last week I finished King Sorrow by Joe Hill. I think the bones were great, but the author struggled to make the final conflict interesting. Too many threads, not woven together nicely. Still a good read, just didn’t quite land the plane.

I also read We the People by Jill Lepore… a history of the US constitution. Great stuff, fascinating to see the back and forth of parties (and sides of the political spectrum) changing their opinions on amendments. Basically, the party who doesn’t control the supreme court demands amendment and the other party fights it tooth and nail. There were some very sad parts looking at the arguments for (and against) women’s suffrage, emancipation and equal rights. Really gross to look back at the 1850s through 1960s opinion on anyone who wasn’t a white man

Reading 1984 rn.

I just started The Muderbot Diaries by Martha Wells.

Gonna stop at the store on the way home today and pick up Event Horizon - Dark Descent

It's a graphic novel prequel to the film. It goes over what happened to the original crew. There's also a sequel to the film coming out this year also in graphic novel format that I am excited for.

I am also still working through Echopraxia by Peter Watts, love it so far.

Been reading through the Shadowdark RPG rulebook by Kelsey Dionne, as well as the solo rules supplement and some third party materials. I highly recommend it if you like TTRPGs and want something more streamlined than 5e. I played it for the first time at a convention last month, and it really clicked for me.

I'm nearly finished with 14, Peter Clines, which has turned out to be great! Nice and slow burn of strange things happening in an LA apartment building, and slice of life of the protagonist, which has turned into truly out there concepts and strangeness. Would recommend to anyone who likes weird fiction and mysteries.

I'm also working my way through Shorefall, Robert Jackson Bennett, the second book in The Founders trilogy. It continues the interesting magic-hacking from the first book, but I still don't think Jackson Bennett has his dialog feet under him yet. I found that The Tainted Cup felt much more natural than this series. Overall still fun!

I’m currently reading Hamnet. I’m enjoying the book so far. There’s some small stuff I don’t like but overall it’s quite good.

I've been re-listening to the Cradle series by Will Wight. It makes me wish the series had gotten even a tenth the attention DCC did.

Human knowledge by Bertrand Russell. Probably going to keep reading it for a month or two hahahah.

A German "Küsten Krimi" (thrillers set on German islands in the north sea typically read by women in their fifties) which I picked up because the cover was nice, the book was heavily discounted due to defects on the back of the cover, and because I thought it was interesting that it was written by a husband and wife duo. It's not good. I feel like it is to normal books what an Instagram reel is to a movie. The vocab is straight forward, the prose is clear, and things are repeated way too often. The name is Wattenmeerfeuer for the German speakers on here.

Started "The Faith of Beasts" by James S.A. Corey, book 2 of The Captives War. It's okay. Kind of dark though. Less fun than the Expanse.

Last week read "Darksight Dare", book 16 of the Penric & Desdemona series, as well as "Out Law", by Jim Butcher, book, uh, 18.5 of the Dresden Files. The former was fluffy and cozy but also somewhat simple; the latter wasn't bad at all, and I'm curious to see where the setup goes.

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. Really charming and witty, with lots of references to classic Russian literature.

Ghost Nation: The Story of Taiwan and its Struggle to Survive by Chris Horton. Being a student of Taiwan history, there not a whole lot in it that I wasn't already aware of, but the writing is simply excellent. He's a great explainer and he deftly weaves the events that shaped history into a compelling narrative. Also, he was able to get sit-down interviews with some of the giants of Taiwan's democratization movement before they passed away, so the stories are first hand. This book is a gem so far.

Neuromancer

Couriers Outbound, Book 19 of "The Wandering Inn" by Pirateaba

I just finished The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie after bouncing off a couple of times over the years, and I enjoyed it.

While looking for my next book I decided to try this Dungeon Crawler Carl everyone's constantly banging on about, but reading the synopsis reminded me why I always change my mind at the last minute and find something else. I know you all love it here but man it sounds awful.

Dungeon Crawler Carl: The Gate of the Feral Gods

The whole series is excellent thus far. Definitely recommend it

There There by Tommy Orange
On The Calculation of Volume by Solvej Balle
The Ontogeny of Information by Susan Oyama

The Jellyfish Problem by Tessa Yang. A jellyfish specialist travels to a remote island to investigate reports of a massive jellyfish sighting. I'm 1/3 of the way through and it's certainly getting interesting.

The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo. It's an interesting look into Manchurian folklore, with Snow's explanations about how fox-girls like her see the human world, navigating potentially dangerous interactions with superstitious humans. The lady who sold it to me said it was excellent, but I'll have to see how it ends before saying if I agree.

It's a match for the 'Supplementary' bingo square, even though the author's note unfortunately includes "However, I realized readers might not be fond of footnotes so I cut back on them." There's plenty of room left in the margins, and she'd have heard no complaints from me if she'd done as she originally proposed. I like marginalia.

Finished Iron Council by China Mieville recently. What always does me in with the bas-lag books is how unsatisfying and "unclean" the endings are, and iron council certainly takes the crown.

Now i've read pretty much everything by mieville besides his shortstories, and im coming up short on what to read next. Any recommendations similar to mieville?