Reading Sword of Destiny by Andrzej Sapkowski. Book 2 of The Witcher series.
What about all of you? What have you all been reading or listening to lately?
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I’m also reading The Witcher: Sword of Destiny. I haven’t got much left to go though, so I’ll need to either get the next book soon, or take a break and read some other books I have waiting for me.
How to make an apple pie from scratch. Glad I started it finally, but now I can’t get it done. It’s nicely written and all, but I’m well beyond what my brain is able to imagine now…
Still reading Red Country by Joe Abercrombie, sixth in The First Law series. Absolutely loving it, though I feel I stepped out of Medieval Times and into the Olde West(e). It’s been gripping since the first page, really like it.
And DCC book 6, The Bedlam Bride. Not sure I need to say much about it. If you’re here in this thread in the Fediverse, you’re aware of it, generally, if not specifically.
Ashes of Man by Christopher Ruocchio. It’s a good book so far. I like the series as a whole, but my pace of reading the books are getting slower as the years go on. It’s not that the stories are bad it’s that Ruocchio really shot himself in the foot by revealing the climax of the whole series on the first page of book 1 and fucking waiting 6+ more novels to get there.
I think I’m gonna switch to Neuromancer when I’m done this book. I need a short pallet cleanser.
Then I might tackle Infinite Jest or Gravity’s Rainbow out of curiosity.
The Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle, with supplementary watching of lectures. I like how thorough Aristotle discusses things, and how grounded they were. For example, I think he had said that a singular action does not make someone “virtuous” or “vicious”, but those label depend on whether an act was done consciouly or unconsciously, internal reactions and habits. Also, him discussing the difference between “particular knowledge” and “universal knowledge” felt like it made sense to me, but that’s probably because I’m neurodivergent, lol.
With the lectures (which I wouldn’t have watched without reading the book) my mind was sorta blown by a question whether “Intent”, “The Person”, and the “Consequences” was the most important, because a lot of the people interested in philosophy these days usually like to elevate only one aspect to importance. But as it stands, all of them are important.
Reading the book I also thought, since I am so interested in Philosophy and literally watch lectures for it, and Mathematics was valued and often used as a sort of illustrative point for their concepts, perhaps I should study Mathematics more thoroughly, starting from its philosophical roots? I literally suck at it. I think it would do me well to go beyond just using the mathematical formulas and try to understand it fundamentally.
Also earlier I had finished a book called “A Factory of Cunning” by Philippa Stockley. I don’t really have much to say about it, but it was a nice diversion, since I’ve read some heavy stuff before that. Also it’s kinda like a fanfiction of Les Liaisons dangereuses. Speaking of fanfiction, I had also read some time ago a book called “The Idylls of the Queen”, based on a small part of Le Morte d’Arthur, where a knight got poisoned. Though it calls itself a Tale of Queen Guinevere, it mostly focuses on Kay and Mordred’s investigation. I also would like to say, most of Arthuriana fiction is kinda like open source literature. Le Morte d’Arthur was more of a collection, for example, not the definitive canon, and in many adaptations some things are different, whether characterisation or parentage. Very interesting stuff.
Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky.
It’s pretty good as a light Sci Fi novel
I really enjoyed this one! The sequel, “Engines of Reason” just came out on Sept 1st, I’m looking forward to reading it!
Thanks, I’ll keep an eye out for it at the library!
Currently reading Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot. It’s a fun read, almost done.
One detail that surprised me is the amount of smoking in the book. It’s not a lot, but kinda weird that someone would light up a cigarette in a space station.
I’ve just recently finished a re-read of the entire main branches of the Robots and the Empire series. The eBooks include forewords by the author describing how the world was changing when he first started writing the characters, he was publishing before computers were invented.
Those books were also the first detective Scifi books as well.
That’s impressive, how many books is that combined?
It’s amazing what he foresaw in his writing. The lying robot reminded me of sycophantic A.I., and the robot laws and how they cause one robot to endlessly circle a pit reminded me of Optimality Theory, which is a linguistic theory from the 1990’s.
I just got the Foundation trilogy from the library, I think I will read that next.
He wasn’t thinking THAT far ahead. There’s quite a few continuity errors when he combined them 30 years later with the end foundation books.
There’s a few standalone books that are missed from the just the large 3 series.
It was this set, and in this order. Most of them aren’t very long though so it didn’t take too much time.Thanks! I saved the image as a reference.
Along Came a Spider by James Patterson. I’m new to book reading as a leisure and I just found out that random book I read when I was a kid (Double Cross by James Patterson) has a lot of books in its series. I will start from here and see if I end up being a bookworm too.
Damn, Along Came a Spider and Kiss the Girls are two movies I remember watching when I was younger and really like them. Did not realize they were Patterson books.
Ohh, they were movies? Didn’t know haha. And Kiss the Girls is next on my list.
I hope you enjoy it!
Thanks, I’m enjoying it so far!
Currently reading Better Than Revenge by Bea Fitzgerald, The Lotus Empire by Tasha Suri, Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism by Kristen Ghodsee (about economic arguments rather than anything else) and We Will Not Be Silent by Russell Freedman.
I thought I’d give Zane Grey a try as I’ve never read a western. “Riders of the Purple Sage” is quite gripping.
I’ve just finished ‘Our Rights to Drugs’ by Thomas Szasz. It’s a controversial book but I think it’s worth reading. In my opinion, it has some interesting takes and some wrong ones but overall, I recommend it.
I’ll be reading Niezwyciężony by Stanisław Lem. It’s about a planet where abandoned robots have gone through an evolutionary process and become part of the ecosystem. It could happen to us!
I read this after playing the game. I think it was the book that coined the term necroevolution, and world-building was quite fascinating.
I had no idea there’s a video game. How is it?
It is a walking simulator with gorgeous environment and graphics. I liked the writing of the story as well, but I guess it is not everyones cup of tea.
Currently reading 2666 by Roberto Bolaño. It’s big but I’m committed to get through it, only 900 pages left!
Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett. I’m making my way through the Discworld in release order, excepting Guards, Guards! since I read it first. So far, the reputation of the series that you can feasibly start anywhere rings pretty true!
Wyrd Sisters is a good one, but my only problem with Discworld is that almost ALL of them are really good ones. :) I’m glad you’re going in publication order, even if there’s no real wrong way to read them. :) IMHO, that is the best way, even if you bounce around the disc a bit, I think they are more logical to consume as he wrote them since he evolved things as he went along. :)
The Witches have been my favourite of the books so far. I’m also going through in release order.
I’ve been reading some of the Discworld books sporadically. Soul Music most recently.
I had read The Colour of Magic a while back and recall not liking it. More recently, a friend invited me to a Hogfather watching party. I enjoyed it enough that I went ahead and read the book. That prompted me to read the other related novels.
Plus, on the recommendation of said friend, Interesting Times. That one was kind of a miss for me. I don’t care for Rincewind. Also, too much of the book felt like missed references to elements of a previous book.
Guards, Guards! might be the next one I pick up. Or maybe Thief of Time or Hogfather again.
Just finished A Natural History of Dragons by Marie Brennan and Soul Music by Terry Pratchett.
Just started Dragonsinger by Anne McCaffrey. I don’t remember yet whether I’ve read it before. I definitely read Dragonsong and Dragondrums years back, but I haven’t read all of the Pern books. Something made me think of them earlier this year, so I started requesting them from the library.
I’m about to start Assassin’s Fate by Robin Hobb. It’s the conclusion to a trilogy. I’m looking forward to it. Robin Hobb is one of my favorites.
Anytime I see the Realm of the Elderlings mentioned I get a little jealous. Not gonna say much, but unparalleled character in Fitz. Amazing story. The way Hobb wrote the two diverging storylines over the course of what, 17 books? Just a fantastic story. Wish I could read it again for the first time. I’m trying to talk a friend of mine into it. Got him to read (listen to) WoT, and I listened along with him, so I feel like this is doable.
Fitz is such a fascinating, frustrating, and somehow relatable character all at the same time. Kind of a tragic upbringing Unlucky in love for most of his life. Part of the royal family. Interesting job,.to say the least.
But he’s SO DAMN STUPID sometimes. I was practically ripping out my hair at how boneheaded he was in the opening chapters of the latest trilogy (Fool’s Assassin, I think).
But…if he’d been smarter, it would have been half a book. And his mistakes were VERY in keeping with his character from the previous books. Wonderful tales. Amazing author. Robin Hobb is one of my favorites.
