Books

Been listening to Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky and so far it's fantastic. I've been asking my GPT4 for recommendations that might match a certain set of criteria. It recommended this one as something vaguely similar to the Bobiverse series be Dennis E Taylor, which I really like.

Picked up a nice hardcover edition of the first five John Carter books.

• Finished Finnegans Wake - which I had been reading across the year. The group this year allowed for a period of summing up at the end, so we have completed it already. Although the book as a whole was consistently just on the edge - mostly over the edge - of comprehension, the final section still conveyed a haunting degree of completion, ending and loss which, given that the whole book is circular and ends mid-sentence - resuming that sentence one the first page - was rather unexpected.
• Currently reading Sense and Sensibility - and enjoying Austen's dry wit.
• Currently reading Return of the Living Dad - another of the Virgin New Adventures Doctor Who novels from the 'wilderness years' of the '90s. A slow start to this one has picked up now that the crew have found Benny's long-lost father and his underground railway for aliens.
• Currently reading Historical Lovecraft - an anthology of Lovecraftian tales set at various points of history. A very mixed bag with only a couple of tales that stand out so far - and the editors' view of what constitutes 'Lovecraftian' seems extremely broad. Some interesting settings though, so I will persist.
• Currently reeading The Earth Transformed by Peter Frankopan - a history focusing the influence of climate and environmental factors on the development of our species and cultures. At times very informative, I'm finding that it does frequently digress, to give other examples or form parallels, to the point where the central argument of the section is almost lost. Extremely interesting as long as one can cope with that though.

I’m reading "The Time Machine" by H.G. Wells and I must say, I love his writing style! This is my second book by him. If anyone has any recommendations for something similar, I'm all ears!

On the bus reading is Howard's Collected Conan works. Great to read in short sessions and the lack of story arcs makes it perfect to put down for periods of time. There is Conan doing Conan stuff and "other characters".

Table stand book is Prof. David Thurfjell's "En lockton i ödemarken : om människans förmåga att besjäla världen" (A call in the wild: about mankind's capability to animate (??) the world)(rough free translation). It is about modern, often secular, Scandinavians (mostly I think) draw towards finding spirituality in the wild. Have but started it, picked it up after watching an interview with Thurfjell https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnCB5oywM7g

The last couple of month I listened to the Stormlight Archive series but recently took a break.

I started Reamde from Neal Stephenson again. Funny thing is that its normally not my genre. Computer yes but I am more into hard sci-fi (Hamilton or Tchaikovsky i.e.) or epic fantasy like Sanderson.

But this book totally took me away out of my comfort zone. Thats why I started it a second time. Last was 2 years ago. I am desperate looking for another out of the loop for me but couldn't find any, yet.

Just picked up a copy of Debt: The First 5000 Years

The Dresden Files audiobooks are so good. They're read by James Marsters of Buffy The Vampire Slayer and he just hits every tone and sigh of Dresden perfectly.

I'm actually finishing up The Olympian Affair, book 2 of Jim Butcher's new series Cinder Spires. It's steampunky magic with political intrigue, airships, and tribes of cats with their own language. The first book was a little meandering but the second one has been very interesting and more dynamic so far

Currently reading Van Diemen's Land by James Boyce, covering the early history of Tasmania (as a European colony). About a quarter of the way through and interesting so far.

Before that I went through:

• A LitRPG series called Apocalypse Tamer by Maxime Durand - standard LitRPG stuff with people gaining game like powers and the end of the world approaching. Wouldn't say it really stands out but easy reading and doesn't take itself too seriously.

• Un Lun Dun by China Mieville, a young adult aimed urban fantasy story about saving an alternate London from a self aware cloud of pollution. Plays around amusingly with various chosen one and saving the world tropes, pretty quick read.

• Reread Brass Man by Neal Asher - part of his Agent Cormac series in his Polity sci-fi universe. Interstelllar agent tracking down a criminal who has gained various powers, along with a few side stories. I find the Polity universe interesting, albeit somewhat grim for sci fi universes.

• Through the Storm by John Ringo and Lydia Sherrer - another one aimed more at young adults, a continuation of a near future sci fi series about teenagers playing a augmented reality game that is turning out to secretly have real world implications. I like the premise but it did seem like this book focused more than the first on inter character drama rather than action or progressing the behind the scenes story.

• Reread a few Discworld books, they're basically all worth a re read every now and then.

The Book of Dave by Will Self - I've enjoyed everything I've read by him, most recently, prior to this, was Umbrella.

Land of the Lustrous by Haruko Ichikawa for something light. First manga I've read, and very glad I picked it up, though gets expensive as the volumes add up.

Next up I have a couple things by Graham Greene.

I’ve been reading through a short story collection of Edgar Allan Poe and really liking it. The variety of genres he wrote in is really impressive and I can definitely see how a lot of later novels were inspired by his works! I also never knew just how old they were (1800s!).

I'm reading Hard Reset by Django Wexler on Audible. It's a small little guilty pleasure sci-fi about a pilot and an archeologist repairing a warbot on a post-apocalyptic earth. The performance is very good. After I'm done with that I'm gonna read Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris. I always like to theme a book around the holidays.

On Kindle, I'm reading How To by Randal Monroe. I'm not sure about it currently, I'm bouncing off some of the humor, even though I love XKCD. I'm also reading Dragons of Crumbling castle to my son who is 3 months old. I'm almost done, so after that, maybe the Hobbit? My wife is reading him Roald Dahl's The Witches. When I'm done with How To, I'm moving onto Carpe Jugulum in my second reading through of Discworld.

Then, on MoonReader I've got a PDF of Dan Abnett's Legion from an old Humble Bundle. I don't know about it, I think he put in too much jargon. Usually I love his writing, ever since I read his run on Guardians of the Galaxy, and I'm a Chaos Space Marine fan. Hell, I also love conmen and tricksters, so the Alpha Legion book for the Horus Heresy should be right up my alley, but I'm getting lost in the weeds with it. When I'm done with this one, I'll move onto the next book in the Horus Heresy novels. I should have it since I alway get the Warhammer Humble Bundles.

Just finished The Last One by Will Dean

Definitely recommend if you're looking for an easy reading thriller

I am currently listening to vampired hunter D 1. I have been curious about the D books for a while and I finally I decided to listen to them.

All the Pretty Horses by McCarthy. Enjoyable though the lack of quotation marks both annoys and somewhat speeds up reading.

Just finishing up The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

I'm currently reading Monbiot's Regenesis, a book on the problems of modern day agriculture and a vision of a new future for food. I'm currently about halfway, and it's mostly still about the problems of the current agricultural practices, but it's already intriguing and throught-provoking.

I just finishef Accelerando by Charles Stross, a really weird and complex scifi novel with lots of interesting concepts. And now I started Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut.

Finished The End and the Death Volume II by Dan Abnett. Its really good but unless there is a ton I am missing there isn't really enough for much of a third and final book in this end game trilogy for the Siege of Terra. Feels like it should have been two books not three, may be I will change my mind end of January when the next one comes out.

Also finished Matter by Iain Banks. Its another good book but it suffers being read back to back with the rest of the series during my read through of the Culture series. I do not think the story is as strong as it could be. Spoiler:

Now reading Surface Detail by Iain Banks. Penultimate Culture book, then I can read the revised Tolkien's letters and his bibliography. First non fiction in a very long time.

Finished The Fisherman, by John Langan. It's a great story, well written an very enjoyable.

Just started: Infinite Powers: The Story of Calculus - The Language of the Universe, by Steven Strogatz

For the non-fiction enthusiasts:

I still need to finish "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks" . It's been very good so far! Talks about the emergence of human cell cultures and Henrietta's family.

Also, "Mistakes Were Made But Not by Me" is a good recent book I read. It's about cognitive dissonance and gives a lot of real-world examples. It's basically a collection of micro stories that illustrate its points.

Just finished Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson, and Mistborn: Secret History by Brandon Sanderson.

Currently listening to The Lost Metal by Brandon Sanderson.

Finished:

• Tomorrow Tomorrow Tomorrow
• Jingo

Currently reading

• Left Hand of Darkness

Just started Arkady Martine's A Memory Called Empire.

I just finished Scalzi's Interdependency trilogy which was entertaining but very Scalzi. I think the next time I read him I'll take it in smaller doses. Irreverence can be entertaining and refreshing when it's a garnish to another style but Scalzi just keeps scooping more of it into the bowl here.