Books

Because ADHD I usually have at least 4 books underway at the same time.

• I'm just about to finish Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson.

• I just started Piranesi by Susanna Clarke.

• I'm also reading A City on Mars, a nonfiction book by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith.

• I started re-reading the Area X trilogy by Jeff Vandermeer, I think I'm still in Annihilation.

• I also started re-reading Dune by Frank Herbert, but honestly it's such a slog that I think I got halfway through before getting frustrated. The worldbuilding may be interesting but holy shit is Herbert's writing turgid.

Found all the Animorphs books online and I'm reading them for the nostalgia. I forgot how weird they are lol.

I am also reading a DnD campaign book because I'm DMing on Sunday

Listening to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy audiobook. I read it once ages ago, and am enjoying getting to all the good parts I only vaguely remember. It holds up pretty well, there's a reason people are still quoting it. I use the term "excitingly chunky" to describe the "developer chic" style of buildings that are getting slung up around me.

The biggest issue so far is that Trillian is the most fleshed-out woman in the series, and she's basically a cardboard cutout that has "girlfriend" hastily written on it. It might get better later on (I'm almost done with the 3rd book), but I don't recall it happening. I know it's not really the point of the series, but as someone that doesn't tend to notice this sort of thing, it was very noticeable.

I just finished Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks. It was very good

Caliban's War (book two of the Expanse). I think this is only my first reread? apparently it's the only book I'm reading at the moment which is pretty unusual

Currently reading:

• Solarpunk: Ecological and Fantastical Stories in a Sustainable World
• A Brief History of Equality

Next up:

• Capital and Ideology ???

'The dark half' by Stephen King, almost finished the book. The last books I read also were Stephen King's, I like how the stories go, it's unexpected every time. Loved 'Cujo' and 'The Institute' particularly (Running man was good too) !

Finally cracking into the He Who Fights with Monsters series. Enjoying the first book so far. The voice actor has a good voice.

The wisdom of crowds and Hyperion

Typically I have multiple books going on at the same time for varietys sake, usually fiction and some-non fiction.

Right now I have besides me as my non-fiction choice; "Baltic Cities - Perspectives on urban and regional change in the Baltic sea area", ed. Martin Åberg & Martin Peterson.

As my fiction book I'm nearing the end of "Termination Shock" by Neal Stephenson.

I've had a hard time getting into books for a number of years, but I recently read Lovecraft Country, and just dove into the sequel "The Destroyer of Worlds."

A friend introduced me to Matt Ruff's writing back in '95 wit Fool on the Hill, and I've been a fan ever since.

"Hitch-22, A Memoir" -Christopher Hitchens

I re-listen to it once a year. R.I.P. Hitch.

I'm still finishing up with Good Omens by Neil Gaiman, but I got a Kobo ereader recently and have started to read The Stand by Stephen King. I have 36hrs to go apparently!

Edit: The Stand and not The Strand.

I’ve currently got three on the go, because I’m like that. For my non-fiction, read-with-my-eyes selections, there’s two.

First, The Rebellious Life Of Mrs. Rosa Parks by Jeanne Theoharis has been really interesting. I’m not American, and so didn’t learn about her more than “she helped kick start the civil rights movement in the US by refusing to give up her seat on the bus”. It’s weird how much her story has been written over and forgotten, and I’ve enjoyed learning about her and all of her efforts, not just the single one she’s known for.

Next up, The Little Book Of Satanism by La Carmina has been fascinating. I’ve always been intrigued by the idea of religion, but am an avid atheist. I am however quite familiar with the history of how Christianity grew and took over the western world before morphing into the unrecognizable behemoth it is today, and with it, some incredibly toxic ideas have grown as well. The history of the idea of satan lives in this same ideology, and this book explores the history of where the idea of a devil comes from, and explains how the thing that Christians fear most sprang up from their own ideas. Fascinating stuff.

And lastly, I’m listening to Witch King by Martha Wells while I’m at work, and I’m going to be honest here, but I really don’t have a clue what’s going on in this story. I’m going to have to return to this book again one day, and probably read it with my eyes instead of my ears. The story is interesting, though, despite my struggle to follow along

I’ve started reading Uprooted by Naomi Novik and Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel. Uprooted is going more pleasantly than I was expecting. I’ve heard a lot of mixed opinions about it but so far I’m enjoying it. It’s too early to form an opinion on Sea of Tranquility but it’s been a good read so far as well.

How to argue with a racist by Rutherford.

The title is a bit sensational, it's mostly pop-science about genetics.

I'm rereading some of my huge shelf of Battletech novels. I'm on Stackpole's Assumption of Risk and his odd 80's handling of race is pretty awkward. I'm enjoying the space-fuedal politics, though!

I'm currently on The Liar's Key by Mark Lawrence (book 2 of The Red Queen's War). I'm really enjoying it though it's not my favorite trilogy by him.

I'm about done with Winter, the last book in the primary Lunar Chronicles quartet. It's been a really great read thus far, like the rest of the series. I'm excited to see just how the big bad gets their comeuppance, as well as what becomes of the cast of characters. Then I'll be on to the two addendum books to the series - the first is a series of short stories, but I didn't know how they relate yet. The second is a novela about the backstory of said big bad, which should be intriguing.

I picked Weak Heart by Ban Gilmartin back up, and am now about 2/3 of the way through. It's a fast read, and I'm enjoying it, despite my irrational dislike of first person present tense.

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Finally finished On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers. If you like Pirates of the Caribbean or Monkey Island, with a random dude getting caught up in a swashbuckling pirate adventure, this ticks (almost) all the boxes (it's not humorous). I was pleasantly surprised that the magic system makes reference to actual vodou, rather than just the pop culture version, and that there's a bits of history in the background you may recognize if you like pirate stuff. The pacing is a series of lulls and swells of action, rather than a steady build to a single climax (although there is a final culmination of events); I was never bored, but I also didn't find it un-put-downable, and I'm not sure how much of that was the writing, and how much was being too sleepy to read more than a few pages a night.

Bingo squares: Water, Water Everywhere; What's Yours Is Mine (probably hard mode?); Eazy, Breazy, Read-zie; Stranger in a Strange Land (hard mode); (alt) A Change in Perspective

Just finished "Taking to Strangers" by Malcolm Gladwell. Currently reading "The Rise of Endymion" by Dan Simmons.

Will be looking for more sci-fi or sci-fi/horror to read next.

Just finished The dark forest, by Cixin Liu. As far as I read this sci-fi trilogy, I think I enjoy it very much. Now starting the last novel in the series, Death's End, by Cixin Liu.

Currently Reading:

The Passage - Justin Cronin, just as I feared. Just like the first time (over a decade ago), I felt myself losing interest as time skip hits. The new characters were many and ... uninteresting. Many are killed off before even fully developed, which dulled the effect. Currently chapter 46, bit eager to finish it up.

At the moment I'm reading Dead Souls by Gogol. I've been at it for a while. It's a bit heavy for a summer read, but I'm enjoying it somewhat. It's fun to see all the colorful characters that come across, but I have the idea a lot is going over my head as I'm not that familiar with the Russia of that time. It's sad quite a bit is missing of the second part.

Only about 70 pages left. The next book will definitely be something lighter...