Books

I just finished Project Hail Mary. A wonderful and fun read. Highly recommend if you like science fiction.

Just read an erotic romance, Heart of the Mountain by Snek Guy. It is about a mercenary going up a mountain to slay a dragon and take her hoard of gold. Things don't go quite as he planned. It was well written, but a bit too much smut for my taste. I wrote a bit more here.

Just started the My Best Friend is an Eldritch Horror series.

The Wheel of Time

I've read maybe 3 books all the way through in my entire life. My girlfriend has been trying to get me to read before bed and on the recommendation of some discord friends I purchased Infinite Jest and am a quarter of the way through it. It's been a jarring book with the tonal shifts and the way it rapid fires between characters and settings, but I've absolutely loved some of the perspectives and dialog that DFW creates. If anyone else is a fan, I'd love more recommendations in the same vein, specifically the type of warped humor and how it stems from the human condition.

Bit late to the party, but I just started reading the Final Empire, Mistborn series #1. Only a few chapters in, but I’m enjoying it so far!

I just started City of Refuge by Tom Piazza. It's a fictional account of two families in New Orleans during hurricane Katrina. I'm only 12% in but so far I'm impressed by how real I feel like the pov characters are.

Also reading Lichtenbergianism by Dale Lyles. It's about using procrastination as a creative strategy. 30% in, and juries out on whether I'll find anything helpful in it.

Currently: Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo.

Probably will jump into another Discworld novel next because I have so many things on my tbr list that I always have trouble to choose something and I go the easy way: discworld.

Ward by wildbow. Not technically a book but it's wonderful if you are into that genre and honestly probably still good if you aren't. Finished worm and while back and would definitely recommend that as well

To give a brief idea it's "what if super powers came from incredible trauma and were designed to be the worst possible power for them specifically" there's a lot more to it like A LOT but that is a general idea. It follows Taylor and her journey after gaining power. It's essentially her struggle to be in control of everything that goes on around her

📖 Les Furtifs by Alain Damasio

and

📖 Mathematica by David Bessis

A web book, the wandering inn by pirateaba

The Sword Defiant by Gareth Hanrahan. It's enjoyable.

I really wish he'd describe scenes visually, but it's character driven and he does a good job with their internal lives.

Iron Gold by Pierce Brown.

House of Leaves. It's sick. Anyone got other books that go off the rails like that?

I'm about two thirds of the way through Since We Fell by Dennis Lehane. And I finished The Stupidest Angel by Christopher Moore today.

I don't think Lehane ever really misses. His plots aren't usually all that dense but the characters are deep and compelling. And the writing is way better than it seems like it should be. Every once in a while you I read a line and think, "Where did that come from, and how did it get here?" He's a really talented writer.

Moore is not that. But he's fun and entertaining. This book was not his best effort. But it was fine. If you like Moore, you'll like this one we'll enough.

I have a couple of overdue library books I should probably finish and return, but instead I'm reading a couple volumes of Combatants will be Dispatched because laughing is better than being a decent human being.

Currently Reading:

The Iron Heel, by Jack London

Basically one of the first major political dystopias written in the modern sense. It's super cool too, basically the book is an old manuscript about an attempted socialist revolution, before the world was taken over by oligarchic tyrannical capitalists. There's basically two stories being told, one in the socialist narrative itself occurring in the past, and one in the footnotes, showing glimmers of some of the capitalist horrors in the "present time". Super neat way to tell a story, and I'm really enjoying it so far. It's super heavy handed, and I would maybe call it similar to a socialist version of an Ayn Rand dystopia, like Anthem, but you know... Actually good. And thematically opposite to any coherent thought Ayn Rand tried to impart onto her readers.

Paved Paradise, How Parking Explains the World, by Henry Grabar

Not too far into this one, but it's a non-fiction book about parking policy, and how parking has basically ruined American cities over the last 70 years. I've been really getting into city planning books lately, so we'll see how much I like this one. Some pretty eye opening statistics so far, and the writing style seems fine.

DNF'd recently:

Walden, by Henry David Thoreau

Jesus this dude is insufferable. I read a lot of dense stuff, and have read many authors that like the sound of their own voice, but Thoreau takes the cake. Preaches self-reliance and disparages philanthropy but squats on his buddies land and lives off of gifts from friends, while doing absolutely nothing and providing no value to society. The guy just exudes a "holier than thou" attitude throughout the whole book, with absolutely nothing to back it up. I quit after 100 pages of this absolute joke contradicting himself the entire time. He would occasionally stumble upon some brilliance that I found a bit insightful, but it was few and far between, and the 98% of the rest was pure, unadulterated garbage. I really haven't had this negative of a reaction to something I've read for quite some time, I generally like everything I read. Maybe I'm just too simple to understand his self proclaimed brilliance.

I’m about half way through The Obelisk Gate which is the second book of the broken earth series by N.K. Jemisin. I’m really enjoying it.

I'm doing a reread of Human To Human by Rebecca Ore. It's the third book in the trilogy.

It's an old scifi series from the early ninties, but holds up well. I absolutely love how she designs her aliens.

The first book is Becoming Alien.

re-reading the Malazan, Book of the Fallen. Currently on Toll the Hounds. I'm enjoying the re-read.

I recently finished the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. Wonderful books. I read it in order of subseries which is a good way to get into the books, but it does make it a bitt jarring when going back to the first books, before Pterry really found his stride. Once I get around to a reread I think I'll do it chronologically.

As a change of pace i continued with Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Something of a whiplash change from Discworld and a it got me a bit too amped when reading right before bed. Still a very fun and interesting read.

Now onto SAS: Rogue Heroes, which i started earlier but have yet to finish.

I consider those books light reading. Very good for listening to in the car. You should try his other book The Aeronaut's Windlass. He said he was going to switch between the two series and honestly I haven't checked if he's added to them. I really should, it was a ton of fun.

Psychology of Time Travel. It's an interesting twist on the topic!

Roadkill, by Dennis E. Taylor. I think it's probably his weakest book, but it's entertaining enough that I'll finish it. It is certainly not We are Legion.

Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents. It's really good.

Metro 2033

I'm pretty capable of setting down a book for extended periods of time and remembering everything when I pick it back up, and have a habit of hopping between books; so the list that I'm "currently" reading is... large. That said, focusing on the most active ones:

I'm just gonna say Discworld, for reasons elsewhere expounded upon. Mostly working through the City Watch stuff at the moment, Jingo should be on my doorstep in the next couple days. Knocked out Mort while I was waiting for it, might do Reaper Man too if it takes much longer.

I'm also thumbing my way through The Selfish Gene; I've always been fascinated by the concept of memetics, and that's its birthplace (while also being a pretty potent contextualization of evolutionary biology). Probably gonna pick up Extended Phenotype when I'm done.

Then there's Tristram Shandy, which I've had for a while but only recently had a chance to start properly. It's fun so far, takes a minute to get used to the writing style which is simultaneously archaic by modern standards and progressive for the time. I think "hobby-horsical" is gonna find a permanent home in my vocabulary.

Got about halfway through Gravity's Rainbow on a cruise a few years back, I might pick that back up soon actually now that I think of it. That one's pretty dense though, I might need to go back and skim what I read already to remember the character names.

Technically I'm listening to this one because he did read-throughs of a bunch of his books during COVID and I like the extra context he added, but Lon Milo DuQuette's 'Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot'. If you're into that sorta thing, I highly recommend DuQuette's work, he's both very knowledgeable and very accommodating to the casual reader.

There are a few other books living on my coffee table, but those are the most active right now.

I'm currently reading the new Michael Moorcock, Woods of Arkady, with new Justin Cronin novel The Ferryman on deck.

Trying to read Into Thin Air, but I am getting bored by the background stories.

Just about to finish Witch King by Martha Wells (dead tree edition), and just starting The Passage by Justin Cronin (audiobook edition)

I'm a little over halfway through "Devils unto Dust" by Emma Berquist. It's a zombie story set in late 19th century Texas. It took me a while to decide to read it, as honestly I just wasn't that into another zombie story. But damn is it well written!

Stealing the book description:

Keep together. Keep your eyes open. Keep your wits about you.

A horrifying sickness has spread across the West Texas desert. Infected people—shakes—attack the living, and the surviving towns are only as safe as their perimeter walls are strong. The state is all but quarantined from the rest of the country. Glory, Texas, is a near ghost town. Still, seventeen-year-old Willie has managed to keep her siblings safe, even after the sickness took their mother. But then her good-for-nothing father steals a fortune from one of the most merciless shake hunters in town, and Willie is left on the hook for his debt. With two young hunters as guides, Willie sets out across the desert to find her father. And the desert holds more dangers than just shakes.

This riveting debut novel blends True Grit with 28 Days Later for an unforgettable journey.

Finally pushed through The Sound and the Fury. Definitely lived up to it's reputation for being difficult and inscrutable. Probably could have just stuck with the spark notes on this one, frankly.

I picked up Ovid's Metamorphoses on a whim and I'm finding it surprisingly fun and approachable. I've always had a healthy appreciation for western mythos, so this is a fun little dip back into that world for me, and I am also enjoying going back and reading some academic commentary once I finish a section. Makes me feel like I'm back in college in a good way.

I also started The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and I'm really enjoying her prose so far. I am a little surprised, frankly, with how much I'm enjoying this one and how hard it is to put the book down. Maybe because I tend to select books I don't expect to like, but rather which I believe will be beneficial to read (which provides it's own form of enjoyment for me, rest assured).

Also trying to maintain momentum on my second read through of Infinite Jest. One of my favorites, even (especially?) the second time through.

Last year I read mostly nonfiction so I guess this year I've swung in the other direction as I've read almost exclusively fiction so far.