Official Reading/Book Thread

[frescoelmo 1,276]

49 minutes ago, fishy said:

i finished All Systems Red last night, which is the first book in the Murderbot Diaries series. I grabbed it because the premise seemed fun, a post-capitalist society ruled entirely by a company that has eyes everywhere. Narrator is a half-human, half-bot created by the company who has hacked its government module and living undercover.

 

It's only 150 pages, was looking for something short to read while I waited for my hold on Piranesi to become available. This was a bit too short and I got a bit too invested. I liked the light reading though, good if you're looking for a break from long reads

 

This reminds me of a book I read earlier this year, Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart.  Near-dystopian future where retail/media rule all and both an entry-level employee and his boss falls for the same girl.  Thanks for the suggestion!

[Enorama 2,038]

On 4/24/2022 at 9:18 PM, frescoelmo said:

Suggestions for 2-3 books I want to bring on a trip this summer

 

About to finish my current book (got lazy and haven't read much lately)

 

 

Some of the top few books by average rating on my own summer to-read list, if you want to follow along.

[fishy 1,757]

just started Slapstick by Kurt Vonnegut. i love his writing and always forget how great it is until i pick up one of his books

[AJW 2,157]

HELLO BOOK WORMS. 
 

So quick back story I have never liked reading books. The first book I finished was a book for my English class in high school because I needed to pass the class to graduate. The second was Rich Dad Poor Dad which I actually really enjoyed. Those are the only two I’ve ever finished.

 

A couple weeks ago my friend gave me Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover and told me to read it. I forgot about it until today and I opened it up not really expecting to read a lot, then just close it and give it back. Well I read 70 pages before work and the second I got back I read another 50… over a third done the book. This book so far is about a guy and a girl with a weird first impression, they get to know eachother more through mutual connections, and they now have started to realize they like eachother and they did the nasty. There’s obviously a lot more details but yeah. I would never have thought I would enjoy a book like this but I guess I do. I can actually picture what I am reading which is exciting not because it’s a lot of sexual stuff, but because I’ve never really been able to do that before when reading.

 

So I have a feeling I’ll finish it in a couple days and was looking for suggestions on what to read next. It doesn’t have to be the same genre. I have no books at my place but I do live really close to an Indigo so I can go there easily. So let me know of any good books y’all enjoy!! 
 

(I am just getting into reading, so series of books isn’t my go to right now).

Edited June 9, 2022 by ajwllmsn

[fishy 1,757]

On 6/8/2022 at 10:47 PM, ajwllmsn said:

So I have a feeling I’ll finish it in a couple days and was looking for suggestions on what to read next. It doesn’t have to be the same genre. I have no books at my place but I do live really close to an Indigo so I can go there easily. So let me know of any good books y’all enjoy!! 

what'd you decide on?

 

in other news ... 

 

i just read Why Fish Don't Exist by Lulu Miller, a book about David Starr Jordan, a taxonomist and one of the founders of the eugenics movement in the United States. 

 

this book has me FUCKED UP. i didn't even realize it was a biography until after i had started reading it. the writing is amazing though, it reads like fiction and has autobiography laced into it, so you feel like the author is moving with you through the book. i loved it 

 

i learned so much about eugenics that i never knew, and i had to call my friend to info dump all the shit i learned because it's insane. highly recommend, and if you decide to pick it up... let me know 

Edited August 9, 2022 by fishy

[frescoelmo 1,276]

about halfway through this, super interesting, to be honest a little over my head but a lot of really cool information and GRAPHS

 

[AJW 2,157]

2 hours ago, fishy said:

what'd you decide on?

 

in other news ... 

 

i just read Why Fish Don't Exist by Lulu Miller, a book about David Starr Jordan, a taxonomist and one of the founders of the eugenics movement in the United States. 

 

this book has me FUCKED UP. i didn't even realize it was a biography until after i had started reading it. the writing is amazing though, it reads like fiction and has autobiography laced into it, so you feel like the author is moving with you through the book. i loved it 

 

i learned so much about eugenics that i never knew, and i had to call my friend to info dump all the shit i learned because it's insane. highly recommend, and if you decide to pick it up... let me know 

I went back home to visit and I found a bunch of old hockey books… biographies, stories, etc… so I’m slowly starting those up!

[JardyB10 4,865]

6 hours ago, fishy said:

what'd you decide on?

 

in other news ... 

 

i just read Why Fish Don't Exist by Lulu Miller, a book about David Starr Jordan, a taxonomist and one of the founders of the eugenics movement in the United States. 

 

this book has me FUCKED UP. i didn't even realize it was a biography until after i had started reading it. the writing is amazing though, it reads like fiction and has autobiography laced into it, so you feel like the author is moving with you through the book. i loved it 

 

i learned so much about eugenics that i never knew, and i had to call my friend to info dump all the shit i learned because it's insane. highly recommend, and if you decide to pick it up... let me know 

I love eugenics! I’m very interested

[Enorama 2,038]

10 minutes ago, JardyB10 said:

I love eugenics!

 

You would.

[JardyB10 4,865]

20 minutes ago, Enorama said:

 

You would.

500+ hours in Crusader Kings, how could I not? Plus eugenics is almost my middle name!

[fishy 1,757]

2 hours ago, JardyB10 said:

I love eugenics! I’m very interested

shitty joke, 0/10

[KaleebtheMighty 1,509]

After putting books down to focus on the kids and other things, I finally picked up reading again. Went out and bought myself a book, and what a great book it was!

 

If any of you are into Sci-Fi, I highly recommend Hyperion. Just a fantastic book that doesn’t really have many over the top “cheesy” moments. I think it does a great job on building up the characters involved in a really fantastic way.

 

[Ledge 1,131]

One Up on Wall Street by Peter Lynch

 

The Penguin History of Canada by Robert Bothwell

 

I'm feeling......wise 

[Aimee 1,134]

I'm struggling to stick with any one book and also struggling to find something to hold my attention long enough to read more than a chapter or two before setting and forgetting. (Thanks, ADHD)

 

Currently have bookmarks and tissues and other household objects stuck in:

 

Doctor Who: The Ruby’s Curse - Alex Kingston

The Hobbit - J.R.R Tolkein (running the e-book and audio book at the same time because the writing style doesn't work with my brain when trying to read it)

The Lost Apothecary - Sarah Penner

Skandar and the Unicorn Thief - A.F. Steadman

 

I might just give up and pick up Eragon to try and get my drive to read going. 

 

[jacobcarson877 2,541]

24 minutes ago, aimkin said:

I might just give up and pick up Eragon to try and get my drive to read going. 

This exact strategy always works for me!

[Gustav 6,429]

3 hours ago, aimkin said:

I'm struggling to stick with any one book and also struggling to find something to hold my attention long enough to read more than a chapter or two before setting and forgetting.

 

I absolutely feel this and it's why I haven't read much recently. I like to tell myself that it's just because I'm busy, but in reality I just don't seem to have the attention span for it.

 

Let me know what you think of The Hobbit--I tried to read it once and didn't get much out of it for the above reason.

[Aimee 1,134]

Just now, Gustav said:

 

I absolutely feel this and it's why I haven't read much recently. I like to tell myself that it's just because I'm busy, but in reality I just don't seem to have the attention span for it.

 

Let me know what you think of The Hobbit--I tried to read it once and didn't get much out of it for the above reason.

I miss when I had not only the time but the motivation to read. I have stopped and started so many books over the last year it's just sad. 

 

And will do! 

[diamond_ace 3,112]

On 12/6/2021 at 10:36 PM, Ledge said:

I'm currently reading Once a Runner by John L Parker Jr, and I'm really enjoying it so far. Even though hockey is my main sport, I did cross country for the first 'trimester' of sports, and my dad has this huge bookshelf of sports books, so he gave me the best one about running he had after I did well in a race and was enjoying the sport. I'm not too far into it, but it's definitely one of the more adult-oriented books I've ever read, so I find just picking up on some of the linguistics is fascinating. It's also a real neat perspective, I highly recommend it so far.

Sorry, I know this is old, but given just how much of my life centers around running, I've read this several times and it is a fantastic book. Was less a fan of the sequel, Again to Carthage, primarily because of which specific character from the first book does not appear in the second (the one most similar to my own experiences in that regard). It's also good, just less good imo.

Edited December 24, 2022 by diamond_ace

[diamond_ace 3,112]

Also, as for my own personal reading history, I'll admit I'm the guy who genuinely likes some of the "school made me read it" books - I'll put a row of asterisks after the ones I first discovered through various classes, if you only want strictly outside of that realm, although as a literature/journalism double major I had some fairly out there classes so they're not all ones where you'd expect that to be the source. (I also most strongly suggest the last book mentioned before the asterisks)

I saw someone early in the thread mention Dostoyevsky's Notes from Underground, and yes. Definitely a fan of that one. As far as other ones specifically from the country who must not be named I liked Tolstoy's Kreutzer Sonata, as well as a few Chekhov plays (even wrote an additional act to Cherry Orchard back when I was in high school - that was like 20 years ago don't ask me to find it). 

 

Other books I enjoyed that I first encountered through various classes: first off at the risk of sounding really strongly like "that guy" I do like some Joyce. Portrait of the Artist? Dubliners? Yes. Finnegans Wake? Noooooo. I appreciate the artistry but no, that thing is a mess, it's more puzzle than book and I quite like not having a headache. Speaking of artistry, basically any Kimiko Hahn poetry collection has to be pretty high up for me, not your traditional "school" type book but it was in one of my poetry electives back at Pitt so I count it. Hahn is my favorite poet by a mile, which is saying a lot since I'm technically one as well (one poem published in an anthology - not nearly enough to have a real accomplishment, but hey it's something).

 

This leads me to my single biggest recommendation of all books, ever: A Universal History of Iniquity by Borges. It's a collection of semi-historical accounts of famous disreputable figures of history, where he weaves some of the truth, some of the lies, and some things occupying the space in the middle, all into cohesive narratives and you never quite know which parts are the true parts. In some of these cases, the figures aren't entirely real themselves, so it's more a combination of "false that has been known as true" and false than strictly true and false, but most of them at least allude in some ways to a real person and a real story.

*****

 

Fantasy novels: I very much enjoyed the Riftwar Saga by Raymond E. Feist, it was one of the series that first got me into the genre (the other I'll mention in a bit). One of my SBA players was even named after a character in this series, Arutha ConDoin. (Or for his full title that I made sure to put in a handful of game threads until the simmer expressed annoyance at it: Arutha conDoin, the Prince of Krondor; Lord-Marshal of the Western Realm and of the King’s Armies of the West, Heir Apparent to the throne of Rillanon.) I loved this series and recommend it highly - Silverthorn is slower but it's necessary to set up Darkness at Sethanon, which has more going on.

 

The other series that got me into the genre was the Redwall series by Brian Jacques, although I'll admit that has a bit of a younger target demographic. The characters very much play out the normal knights and castles stuff but they're also all animals; mice, weasels, foxes, badgers, etc. Still definitely something I enjoyed at the time and might look back in on at some point, even if it might be a bit odd for a 37 year old.

 

Others etc (sports books mostly): Fittingly for VHL in particular, Bill Boyd's Hockey Towns was a good one, about basically the lives of the more minor figures in the sport: guys in juniors who will likely not get drafted and this is kind of their last desperate crack at it, all the way up to former NHLers just getting out there in older players' leagues to keep doing the thing they enjoy.

 

Given my running background, there's quite a few there for me. Obviously I won't rehash too much of Ledge's recommendation of Once a Runner, or the slightly-less-but-still-good sequel Again to Carthage, but another running book I enjoyed (and yes it's a bit cliche among the running community) was Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. It's about the Tarahumara tribe and how they run in their community, and when a few of their members entered Western States (big legendary ultrarunning event) and did better than most of the people who'd specifically been training for that race. Also Eat and Run by Scott Jurek, and a few Dean Karnazes ones (especially Ultramarathon Man) but I don't expect those to have much interest for people who aren't already runners. Surprisingly, I didn't get that far into Haruki Murakami's What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, despite it being Murakami, a well known and established author, rather than a runner who happens to have written a book. I might have to give that one another shot sometime.

[jacobcarson877 2,541]

5 hours ago, diamond_ace said:

Redwall series by Brian Jacques

Second this! I've actually been going around to my local used bookstores to find this series, and I have most of them but the first book, Redwall, funnily enough.

[Enorama 2,038]

16 hours ago, aimkin said:

I might just give up and pick up Eragon to try and get my drive to read going. 

 

You heard they're making a mini series or new movie or something eh? I was so pumped for the movie as a kid and remember walking out of it thinking "wait, movies can be bad??".

 

Re: the rest of your comment, whenever I get in a similar rut or if I have just finished a particularly trying book, I just go and pick up a Hercule Poirot story. They're always easy page turners, about 200 pages, and have a very predictable structure. Just very digestible and good to get me back into a groove.

 

As a general update, my reading list for the year so far consists of:

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

Murder in Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie

Lord Edgware Dies by Agatha Christie

Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin

Blood for Blood by Ryan Graudin

Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley

The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton

Gallant by V.E. Schwab

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Ring Shout by P. Djeli Clark

The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik

Poirot Investigates by Agatha Christie

 

I'm also shipping out to Hawaii today so I'm hoping to get another handful of books done in my 18 days on a beach down there. Specifically hoping to get through:

The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik

Ruination by Anthony Reynolds

Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan

The Maid by Nita Prose

[Aimee 1,134]

5 minutes ago, Enorama said:

 

You heard they're making a mini series or new movie or something eh? I was so pumped for the movie as a kid and remember walking out of it thinking "wait, movies can be bad??".

 

Re: the rest of your comment, whenever I get in a similar rut or if I have just finished a particularly trying book, I just go and pick up a Hercule Poirot story. They're always easy page turners, about 200 pages, and have a very predictable structure. Just very digestible and good to get me back into a groove.

 

As a general update, my reading list for the year so far consists of:

The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

Murder in Mesopotamia by Agatha Christie

Lord Edgware Dies by Agatha Christie

Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin

Blood for Blood by Ryan Graudin

Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley

The Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton

Gallant by V.E. Schwab

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Ring Shout by P. Djeli Clark

The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik

Poirot Investigates by Agatha Christie

 

I'm also shipping out to Hawaii today so I'm hoping to get another handful of books done in my 18 days on a beach down there. Specifically hoping to get through:

The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik

Ruination by Anthony Reynolds

Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan

The Maid by Nita Prose

Yes! I'm very excited about the tv show. Paoilini himself is actually going to be involved and he's said that he basically agrees that the movie did not do the story justice. So he's going to be there from casting to the editing bay and I'm very excited to see what he is able to get them to do. I picked it up the year it was released and it's the book that got me to realize I actually do love reading. 

[fishy 1,757]

17 hours ago, aimkin said:

The Lost Apothecary - Sarah Penner

this book took a while for me to get into but ended up enjoying it. it isn't one of my favorites and tbh its better to be read quickly with low expectations. i absolutely would not blame you if you abandoned it

[OrbitingDeath 3,198]

Completed my goal of 10 books this year with finishing Lady of Caladan, time to move to Heir of Caladan

[Aimee 1,134]

Picked a book to start the year with: The X Ingredient by Roslyn Sinclair. Thought it was just lesbian fiction. Turns out it's Devil Wears Prada fan fic turned published work. I've read fan fic online and published but the fact that I didn't know is pretty funny.