The eyes of the dragon by Stephen King
this post was submitted on 02 Jun 2023
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The Two Towers. I’ve been needing to read more slowly in the past few years for health reasons, and I am finding lotr just so perfect for that. The nature descriptions are absolutely to die for.
"After all, why shouldn't I write about trees for three pages? It's my own book, my precious." - JRR Tolkien
PRECISELY.
Currently reading Hitch hikers guide to the galaxy really fun reads though it got weird in some places
Hello, first post here. :D I'm reading A Favourite of the Gods by Sybille Bedford.
Welcome!
I finished A Favourite of the Gods by Sybille Bedford, feel like it was an interesting snapshot of the life and mannerisms of rich European nobility ~WW1, but Bedford was part of that group and doesn't seem to realize her intensely spoiled characters might not be so sympathetic to people outside of it. I read A Compass Error, the sequel, first, which includes a lengthy chapter summarizing the plot of A Favourite of the Gods.
Also finished Translation State by Ann Leckie - if I could go back in time and DNF'd this at ~75% I would, I had a really great time with the first part but did not think the ending was well thought out and it irritated me. This is the newest book in her Radch series but they seem to be advertising it as a standalone.
Also reading Dare to Go A-Hunting by Andre Norton, Palimpsest by Catherynne M Valente, and End of Watch by Stephen King.
The Murderbot Diaries.
I've been enjoying it, it has a surprising amount of heart for a series about an emotionally damaged not-robot.
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Pattern Recognition, William Gibson.
Gibson is tough to get into, personally, but his stories are very cool!
Currently reading "Brave New World", Aldous Huxley. Next up Isaac Asimov's Foundation.
Foundation books are great! Go for it!
My current read is Abarat by Clive Barker.
I'd not heard of it until last week, when folks on r/books were singing its praises in a thread, so figured I'd give it a shot. Yeah, it's enjoyable. Definitely aimed squarely at the middle of the YA crowd, but it's an easy read at a time when my brain isn't letting me really get into any books.
Barker has a fascinating imagination. I finished Coldheart canyon recently. I almost walked away repulsed many times but there was good story under all his signature flair. After Imajica I will try to read anything he writes.
Black House, by Stephen King and Peter Straub
Finally finished with Pattern Recognition, William Gibson. It was... nice, it definitely felt like Gibson was uncomfortable writing in the present tense.
Next up is a Brazillian book, As águas-vivas não sabem de si by Aline Valek
I usually have a print/ebook and an audio book (for the car) going at the same time.
For print book, currently reading Crooked Kingdom, one of the books in the Grishaverse series/world. I, uh, got a little obsessed after watching the first season of Shadow and Bone a year or two ago.
For audiobook, currently listening to Children of Ruin. Not too far into it yet, but I loved loved loved Children of Time (also listened to the audiobook version), so I'm excited to see where this one goes.
I really want to read Children of Time. I actually did start it and got half way through, but I have such an intense arachnophobia that I had to give up because I kept dreaming of spiders and waking up terrified. I enjoyed his writing style, though, and am curious about his new trilogy coming out.
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Just started Howl's Moving Castle. Liking it so far!
Not exactly like the movie, but it's pretty close.
I legitimately did not know there is a book. It’s my favorite movie so I might pick this up.
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Not a Beehaw member, but still gotta answer it, lol.
Been enjoying post-modernist books right now, and just straight philosophy. It's all so intriguing.
Reading the classic White Noise by Don Delillo, in the middle of Discipline and Punish: The Birth of The Prison by Michel Foucault. Finished Shibumi by Trevanian a month or two ago, one of the most funny and badass reads I've been through. Looking forward to picking up some Byung Chul Han books after reading a PDF of his book The Burnout Society.
Currently working my way through the Three Body Problem series. They are very good but I'm not sure how much I'm enjoying them, they are pretty bleak in places.
Fantastic novels. Skip the redemption of time though. It's terrible
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My 'big read' this year is Finnegans Wake - which I am (or have been) reading week by week along with the TrueLit sub on reddit. It would be a profoundly different experience to read it without the analysis and discussion going on there, so that is something...
Otherwise, I am reading The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher, which is engaging and entertaining, as was her The Hollow Places which I read immediately before. I am also dipping into a collection of the Para Handy tales by Neil Munro, which are a cosy - if stereotypical and patronising - glimpse into another time and pace of life.
I have just returned from a couple of weeks away during which I finished an anthology of Clarke Ashton Smith short fantasy tales (all about the atmosphere: story and worldbuilding are very much secondary and character scarcely features); Haldor Laxness's The Atom Station (a sparse look at the clash of modern - written in 1948 - and traditional Icelandic values); and Blackwood's The Willows (an extrapolation of the original idea of "panic" - as several of this other tales are).
I'm currently reading through Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. I'm a fan of SciFi, and cyberpunk especially. This book was on my reading list, and I decided to pick it up while in the bookstore the other day.
So far I'm really enjoying it. It feels a bit more pulpy than some of the other cyberpunk classics such as Neuromancer and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, but that's not a bad thing. It certainly doesn't take away from the entertainment in my opinion. Not every book needs to have a grand philosophy behind it.
I guess I should finally read Snow Crash, but other books keep getting in the way. I just finished Neuromancer which surprised me with how well written it was. No idea why, but I expected the classics to be more … exhausting.
do comic books count? i just started reading DCeased. otherwise i've finally cracked open Lolita, it's an interesting but disgusting read.
I’m halfway into “Guards! Guards!” by Pratchett. My first story of his, and I’m having so much fun!
ahhhh welcome to the discworld!!
You'll love these books!
Jealous you get to read them all for the first time.
Once you've read that, get a copy of Nightwatch. Much the same cast of characters, but it's widely considered to be Terry's magnum opus. That book is a damn work of art.
#GNUTerryPratchett
Yeah, I already have planned to read the whole night watch saga. Then I’ll see what other side of the Discworld to move on to
Expeditionary Force: Match Game
I've been reading through the Anne of Green Gables series (L.M. Montgomery). It's one of my comfort reads, and I've been needing it.
I also just finished the Phryne Fisher series by Kerry Greenwood. I would have read more of them, but she hasn't written any more yet.
I highly recommend the focus on the family Radio Theatre dramatization of Anne of Green Gables! Obviously focus on the family is highly problematic and this is no endorsement, but you can find the CD version used. The score and sound production is high quality, and Anne is played by Mae Whitman, who voices Katara in Avatar: The Last Airbender.
Currently reading Building a Second Brain by Tiago Forte, and in tandem I'm also going through HBR Project Management by Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez.
I'm restructuring my whole organization structure around PARA and CODE as described in BASB (It resonated with me because I realized I was already doing a form of PARA with my work files), and with that using Project Management as a primer for establishing how to complete my personal projects (I've always been bad at this because somehow I never registered personal stuff as projects in the way that I register my work projects). I'm an engineer so I have some project management experience, but I know I'm missing knowledge here and there so this is a twofer in educating myself on managing both my projects at work and my projects at home.
I'm also reading my way through Hamlet after becoming obsessed with the Kenneth Branagh adaptation. I've listened to two separate Librivox dramatizations and bought a dramatized version on Libro.fm.
Just started House of Leaves! Been super interesting so far, I love when books, movies, or games break tradition and do something truly unique
I'm reading The Stranger, by Albert Camus. It's a short read and I'm already focusing on some of The Atlantic's recommendations in the Summer Reading Guide.
The Tao of Pooh.
I'm reading Elektra by Jennifer Saint. After reading Circe and The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller I wanted to keep reading retellings of Greek mythology but I'm kinda struggling to get through this one. The story is really sad so maybe that's part of it.
Killing Comendatore by Murakami. It's late here and I always like reading his stuff at night.
Demons of Good and Evil by Kim Harrison. I've been reading the series since 2004, and I do a little happy dance every time a new book comes out.
I have 2 going right now:
- Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk
- Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
Snow Crash is good, but IDK. It just isn't pulling me in the way I expected it to, so it's taking me too long to get through.
Then I have some Jack Reacher novel on my bedside table waiting to be started, and I was just eyeballing a collection of H.P. Lovecraft stories on my shelf.
Snow crash was great back in the days! I recall 14 years old-me being upset at the "wrong acronym* but I remember it as great fun. I was coming from the darker novels and short stories by Gibson and Sterling and the lighter touch by Neal Stephenson (and others, like ... Rudy Rucker if I am not mistaken) felt nice, while at the same time did not drop the expectations on being engaged on the same kind of reflections/analyses on the human nature like the previous cyberpunk novels.
Those were the times! Plus, I was playing a lot of Cyberpunk 2020 (the tabletop rpg)... :-)
Yeah, I'm not sure what isn't connecting with me. You know how when you try to get into an early, influential work - be it a book, movie, whatever - you see the origin of all kinds of tropes and you KNOW this thing came first, but you can't get over the tropiness of some things? I think that's kind of what it is.
I'm determined to finish it this week though, I need to move on to other things.
I had to return Tress of the Emerald Sea before finishing it because my library loan ran out, but I placed a libby hold so I should be able to start up again soon. I enjoy it while I read it but for some reason I don’t feel a strong urge to continue it after I put it down, so I’ve been reading it for like, two hours at a time once a week or so.
Meanwhile, I checked out Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries, by Heather Fawcett and am enjoying it very much so far.
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