There’s a thread about how people find new books, and one of my favorite ways to find things to read was browsing comments from the weekly ‘What are you reading’ threads in r/truelit and r/books. So what is Lemmy reading?
I’m finishing The Passenger, and about to jump into John Williams’ Stoner. Excited to see what is next!
I’m reading The Anglo-Saxons by Marc Morris. It’s non-fiction. Morris’ books have a good narrative, but they are scholarly works. I haven’t gotten very far into The Anglo-Saxons yet, but one bit I greatly enjoyed was the author drawing parallels between Beowulf and Tolkien’s Rohirrim, all while discussing the archaeological evidence for feasting halls and the zeitgeist of the people who’d built those halls.
Finished the sequel to Becky Chamber’s A Psalm For The Wild-Built. Can’t recommend this series more highly for a glimpse into a calming and peaceful alternative future.
How does it compare to A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet? I read that whole series, but the first book was my favorite out of all of them.
I’ve read that series as well. Both are amazing, but I prefer the Monk and Robot (Psalm of the Wild-Built) series a bit more. If you liked A Long Way To A Small Angry Planet, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
I just started it last night! Looking forward to the rest.
I was so gutted to hear there won’t be a third book, the series is my favourite recent discovery.
What? I had no idea it wasn’t continuing. That’s so sad to hear.
Currently I’m finishing the fifth book of the Wheel Of Time by Robert Jordan. Next will be the sixth book of the Wheel Of Time by Robert Jordan :)
@Kebab
Heck yeah! Books 5 and 6 are among the fan favorites.
Just getting started on the last book of the Cradle series by Will Wight. Enjoyed the first 11, and hoping it’s as good!
I just picked up a copy of house of leaves. Saw it referenced a few times in some other media I liked and figured I may as well check out the book itself.
One of my favourite books of all time. Do you have the full colour edition?
It’s a dense read, but I enjoyed it. I’ll admit that I enjoyed it more when I became willing to skim over spots when it got a little too tedious. I’ve got my own theory on what’s going on, and I’d talk about it if I knew how to insert spoilers.
I feel like this is gonna be one I’ll need to make a few passes on to really get everything that’s going on
I don’t even know if “reading” is the right verb for engaging with that book. It’s practically a different kind of activity.
Now I’m reading Wheel Of Time, stuck on the 4th book.
I forced myself to finish book 10 which is said to be the most boring one. Lost motivation to finish the series and still stuck at book 11. Still hoping to pick it up and finish the series one day.
Something like that was with me and Dark Tower. I’ve tried to read it for 3 times, but I’m always stop at Susanna’s song.
@derek
One of us
One of us
I’m reading a book of short stories by John Sayles, called The Anarchists’ Convention. There have been some absolute bangers so far.
Very interesting! Added to my list!
Sayles is great, especially his dialogue. He is a pretty compelling filmmaker as well.
I’m working my way through Thinking, Fast and Slow at a chapter a day. It took me a minute to get his point (well near the 30% mark, that is) but it’s illuminating about how people think.
What a great book. Keep going - worth it
Want to learn more about the team who did this work? The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis is a great read about how Kahneman and Amos Tversky collaborated on it.
Oh that sounds good. Thanks for the rec!
Currently listening to Dust by Hugh Howey (book 3 of the Wool/Silo books)
Ive also been slowly reading MaddAddam by Margeret Atwood (book 3 of the MaddAddam series)
Wool (all of it) is awesome.
I just did a re-read (or relisten) of Dust because of the Apple adaptation!
Also I read the Maddaddam series last year and found it to be enjoyable and very well written.
Honestly having a rough time with the last MaddAddam book. Im too invested in what’s currently happening to really want to go over Zebs past. Other than that tho ive really enjoyed the series
How is the narration? I’ve noticed that even my favorite books are so boring if the narrator is bad.
Personally ive been enjoying it a lot. But i also listen to a lot of audio books. There arent a lot of times ive had to stop listening to books. I think a lot of modern audio narration has gotten really good
The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin. I love reading science fiction from people with engineering and science backgrounds. Another good book I finished recently was Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir.
Greg Egan is another great author like that. Diaspora is a posthumanist acid trip with a ton of esoteric math thrown in. Absolute blast.
Awesome, adding that one to my reading list!
Noted
If that’s your vibe, try Blindsight by Peter Watts. It’s a very technical examination of the phenomenon of consciousness which isn’t afraid to get into the weeds, but never quite gets lost in them.
Blindsight was great, I need to read it a second time.
Right? It just slaps so hard.
Do we perhaps know each other IRL? Blindsight was great, but I still have the nagging sense that I missed a big portion of it. Definitely mind expanding.
That book (three-body) was weeeeird. Really thought it was going to go in a very different direction during the introductory chapters.
I don’t know if I liked it but it sure made me think about stuff!
I still haven’t finished it so I am still forming an overall opinion, but its certainly interesting so far.
Yeah - the opening section really sets you up for something entirely different. I’m glad I stuck with it. 3 Body & the sequels kept me thinking new things during the pandemic
This book seems to have an equal measure of haters to fans but I loved the entire series. As it goes on it gets weird but imo was soo worth the read. Enjoy!
Man - 3 body problem (and the whole series) were a great read. What kind blowing shifts in perspective.
Project Hail Mary was such a fun read for me! I loved how concrete the engineering problems were throughout the book. It kept me tied to the stakes of the story.
Haven’t been able to finish Three Body Problem, unfortunately, it kind of lost me within the first 100 pages. May have to give it another shot! I hear a lot of good things about it.
I personally think the author wrote The Three Body Problem as a prequel to set up for the sequel book, The Dark Forest. Maybe I was just more invested in the world they built at that point?
I’m reading The Historian by Elizabeth Tova. It’s been a difficult read because I have to actively fight the urge to skip ahead and see what happens—the story is so tense and stressful and I can’t take it LOL.
Re-reading Kaiju Preservation Society because I needed something light and fun. It still delivers on that promise !
Got all three volumes of Capital on a whim, not very engaging lol.
History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell. Going for a cursory overview because of Philosophy club at my uni that has pretty cool people.
Ooh! I’ve seen it referenced a few times, but never got around to it. What do you think of it so far?
It’s pretty cool, I’m still on the Greeks, so I think that’ll take a while. It’s pretty long and a little dry, but I’m learning a lot. One of my colleagues recommended the book The Passion of the Western Mind, as well.
just finishing The Indifferent Stars Above about the Donner party - really great. these folks were built of different stock than we are.
