Third Perpetual Book Thread
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Excellent book for a certain kind of reader. My wife even enjoyed it!
He's a bad man doing good things and trying to not be too bad along the way. The later books are ok, but very different.
Measuring the World
Written by Daniel Kehlmann (Translated by Carol Brown Janeway)
I really enjoyed this historical fiction that follows the life and exploits of Alexander von Humboldt and Carl Friedrich Gauss (the botanist Bonpland doesn't even get a mention in the reviews, and he's one of my favorite characters).
Written by Daniel Kehlmann (Translated by Carol Brown Janeway)
I really enjoyed this historical fiction that follows the life and exploits of Alexander von Humboldt and Carl Friedrich Gauss (the botanist Bonpland doesn't even get a mention in the reviews, and he's one of my favorite characters).
This article on phys.org about the precipitous decline in reading in the U.S. has to be one of the most depressing things I've come across in some time:
A sweeping new study from the University of Florida and University College London has found that daily reading for pleasure in the United States has declined by more than 40% over the last 20 years.
A sweeping new study from the University of Florida and University College London has found that daily reading for pleasure in the United States has declined by more than 40% over the last 20 years.
I love DCC but I feel it leaves the LitRPG genre behind after the first like 3 books. The skeleton is still there but it is barely touched on.
Heh, my brain was like "wait, Dungeon Crawl Classics? People are reading rulebooks for fun?"
If anyone wants to buy digital books from Martha Wells (Murderbot and several fantasy series) and help a charity (World Central Kitchen): https://www.humblebundle.com/books/martha-wells-murderbot-and-more-tor-books
Realized Shroud wasn't Alien Clay (I thought I'd already read it because the description was close enough that I got them confused) and finally got it at the library. Yet another Tchaikovsky first contact novel, which implies contempt, but I love the fuck out of his stories and ate it up. I think I've read everything of his that interests me, but really need to sit down and go over his bibliography with a fine toothed comb and make sure. My current favorite living author...
I just re-read the Robert Jackson Bennett “The Divine Cities” trilogy. Really excellent stuff, and honestly I may have forgotten to read the third book at all somehow? I remembered bits of the first two as I was reading, but nothing of the 3rd.
Well recommended.
Well recommended.
I forgot to update the thread - I read Accomplice to the Villain, by Hannah Nicol Maehrer (bookshop.org). Book three of the tale of Evie Sage and the man she works for, The Villain. It was, as is par for the course for the series, quite silly. I enjoyed it quite a bit - we get more development of some side characters, some romantic payoffs (well, nearly) and a plot twist you could see coming from WAAAAY the hell over there and I'm honestly shocked didn't have someone playing dramatic piano notes in the text while it was happening.
Liked it, can't wait for the next one.
Up next? Warehouse, by Rob Hart (bookshop.org), about a) a dystopian future where an Amazon-like controls everything, b) a guy who has decided working for faux-Amazon is bad but it's better than what is going on out there, and c) a corporate spy. I really like the Assassins Anonymous books, so I'm hoping for good stuff here.
Liked it, can't wait for the next one.
Up next? Warehouse, by Rob Hart (bookshop.org), about a) a dystopian future where an Amazon-like controls everything, b) a guy who has decided working for faux-Amazon is bad but it's better than what is going on out there, and c) a corporate spy. I really like the Assassins Anonymous books, so I'm hoping for good stuff here.
necklessone
Ars Tribunus Angusticlavius
Finished The Tainted Cup and A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennet over the past week or so. I don’t read a lot of mystery, but the fantasy setting is neat and the characters have been fun.
Followed it up by rereading Stephen King’s The Long Walk ahead of the movie. It’s always been a favorite and the movie is getting decent reviews - might actually catch it in a theater.
Followed it up by rereading Stephen King’s The Long Walk ahead of the movie. It’s always been a favorite and the movie is getting decent reviews - might actually catch it in a theater.
Started it, didn't get that into it, but realized I had Recursion by Blake Crouch due back to the library sooner so read that and never got back to The Warehouse. Recursion was very good, by the way.
Picked up Green Mars (Kim Stanley Robinson) the other day, but haven't started it yet, hoping to finish Green and Blue this year and finish it out. I liked Red Mars a lot, but wished it had a little more of some characters, so I'm hoping to get that out of Green Mars.
After reading Dark Matter? I found myself severely disappointed by Crouch’s writing. Haven’t picked up anything else by him since. I know I’m in the minority here, and that’s okay. Y’all have fun with his stuff.
I did like Dark Matter when I read it, though, not a ton (I have it 3/5 on my Excel sheet), but I liked Recursion much more, a 3.5 on that sheet. Looking back, Dark matter, wasn't all that great.
I would give Recursion a try, it does break the brain a bit. But yeah, if you're not into his stuff, it probably won't redeem your thoughts on his writing. They're the only two books I've read of his. Like Dark Matter, ending is very predictable once you get an idea of what's going on, about 2/3rds though the book.
I would give Recursion a try, it does break the brain a bit. But yeah, if you're not into his stuff, it probably won't redeem your thoughts on his writing. They're the only two books I've read of his. Like Dark Matter, ending is very predictable once you get an idea of what's going on, about 2/3rds though the book.
It took me a week to read Red Mars, four years to read Blue Mars, and six months to read Blue Mars. YMMV.
Ran out of new books in Audible for now, so I'm rereading the Culture novels. Consider Phoebus is being a bit of a slog, but I dimly remember that the real bad bit is done now. And it looks like Audible has finally decided to pay someone to read the rest of the books into a microphone, so hopefully by the time I'm done with the ones I have, there will be new ones!?
Though they don't technically have an order, the next one (The Player of Games) is much better then Consider Phlebas.
Wow, I think I read the first two of those when I was an early teen. It's been a minute.
Just finished Stone and Sky, the latest in the Rivers of London series. A good story as always, but I did have to stop a chapter or so in and go read one of the inter-book novellas just to get some background on a few of the supporting characters. That's the one slightly annoying thing about the series, there are so many stories outside of the "main" books that it's hard to know if the passing reference in the novel is something from a previous novel that I just forgot, or something from one of the side stories that I haven't read yet.
Been mostly reading LitRPG of varying quality.
Some of the longer running series are starting to go off. With no realistic limit on length of the book, some authors are just writing 1000+ slogs that aren't as enjoyable as earlier entries in their series. Lack of physical limitations and not paying for an editor leads to worsening reading experiences.
In better news, I picked up "The Grief of Stones" (sequel to "Tomb of Dragpms") and a novel/short-story "The Orb of Caraido" by Katherine Addison. These are additional entries set in her Goblin Emperor wold. There's another book that's a direct sequel to "Grief of Stones", but I'm not trying not to buy too many books at once (I also bought into the Martha Wells collection just to have all the books).
Some of the longer running series are starting to go off. With no realistic limit on length of the book, some authors are just writing 1000+ slogs that aren't as enjoyable as earlier entries in their series. Lack of physical limitations and not paying for an editor leads to worsening reading experiences.
In better news, I picked up "The Grief of Stones" (sequel to "Tomb of Dragpms") and a novel/short-story "The Orb of Caraido" by Katherine Addison. These are additional entries set in her Goblin Emperor wold. There's another book that's a direct sequel to "Grief of Stones", but I'm not trying not to buy too many books at once (I also bought into the Martha Wells collection just to have all the books).
I sort of liked Hydrogen Sonata. But I haven't read them all, by any means. The dialog among the ship computers was entertaining.
Excession's rights have been tied up in the USA for a while. A new edition looks to be coming out December 9th.
All of the culture novels are pretty interesting although I didn't really enjoy Matter compared to the rest of them.
All of the culture novels are pretty interesting although I didn't really enjoy Matter compared to the rest of them.
There's a story to that. As a kid in the late 80's and 90's, I loved to read. However, since we lived far from the library and didn't have much money, I only really read what I could get a hold of. Encyclopedias; classics; yard sale books; compilation books; books from school library, etc... That, and if we went to the library, I was too overwhelmed by the selection. I grew out of it because of English classes in high school made reading miserable for me.
25+ years later, Just after COVID, the Mrs. (who loves to read, and blasts through about a book every other day) and I went on a camping trip and I went to the library and took out The Mote in God's Eye for the trip and I re-realized how much I liked to read after that. So I've been picking up anything I can, older, newer, etc... Specifically, hard(er) sci-fi, stuff I can easily visualize, but I have been expanding out recently (i.e. Murderbot; Wayfarers; etc...). Not too many newer things, because I've never read a lot of the excellent stuff from pre-2k, if they weren't considered a classic.
Anyway, Red Mars was one of the first few I read after getting back into it, and I loved it, but I've been so excited reading other stuff, I'm just now getting to Green Mars, but that's only because I happened to see it on the shelf at the library when I walked through grabbing a book recommended to me in the ADHD thread. I knew it was on my Excel sheet, so I thought "Why not".
Use of Weapons is the next one I want to read, of the ones in the Culture series, it's the one I can't seem to get a hold of in the county library system. Since I live in a such a heavy pacifist, Anabaptist, Mennonite, area, I suspect no one has bought it and then donate due to the title alone.
I might have to rectify that for the County Library system.
I wouldn't recommend Excession as an audiobook. There are lots of time stamped conversations between the minds that get pretty tedious being read out loud.
Economics in America
An Immigrant Economist Explores the Land of Inequality
Deaton, Angus
Deaton is a professor of economics at Princeton, Nobel laureate and co-author of Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism. The book is a tour of economics from his viewpoint, he takes apart the discipline and those that practice it, explains its history and tries to inform us of the impact of economics on public policy - which he thinks in minimal and is Ok with that. He is not a fan of American health-care.
He's a good writer and makes a dry subject enjoyable. There were a few chapters that I skipped due to reasons.
Check it out, from our local library.
An Immigrant Economist Explores the Land of Inequality
Deaton, Angus
Deaton is a professor of economics at Princeton, Nobel laureate and co-author of Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism. The book is a tour of economics from his viewpoint, he takes apart the discipline and those that practice it, explains its history and tries to inform us of the impact of economics on public policy - which he thinks in minimal and is Ok with that. He is not a fan of American health-care.
He's a good writer and makes a dry subject enjoyable. There were a few chapters that I skipped due to reasons.
Check it out, from our local library.
I had no idea there were rights issues - have to find my old copy around here. I thought Excession was the best of the Culture novels, and I enjoyed them all.
Sea of Glory
America's Voyage of Discovery
The U.S. Exploring Expedition of 1838-1842
Author: Nathaniel Philbrick
Philbrick tells the story of one of America's earliest and most ambitious attempts at a voyage of exploration and scientific discovery. It follows a group of six sailing vessels commanded by Charles Wilkes, a man that after reading this book, I have very mixed feelings about. Over the course of several years, the expedition among other things named the continent of Antarctica and collected specimens of all types that eventually became the foundation of the Smithsonian Institution.
America's Voyage of Discovery
The U.S. Exploring Expedition of 1838-1842
Author: Nathaniel Philbrick
Philbrick tells the story of one of America's earliest and most ambitious attempts at a voyage of exploration and scientific discovery. It follows a group of six sailing vessels commanded by Charles Wilkes, a man that after reading this book, I have very mixed feelings about. Over the course of several years, the expedition among other things named the continent of Antarctica and collected specimens of all types that eventually became the foundation of the Smithsonian Institution.
Tore through The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hogson between yesterday and today. That was an experience. I love how she plays with POV and tense throughout, real omniscient narrator stuff. Real mashup of setting vibes, and twists and turns all the way through. Very fun.
Enjoyed the novella Automatic Noodle by Ars contributor Annalee Newitz. It’s about a group of robots inheriting a ghost kitchen in a newly-independent California with bot “human rights”. I guess you could describe it as “cozy” and I love the world building.
Looks fun. Wishlisted - my local book store doesn’t have it, unfortunately.
I've quite enjoyed the various Murderbot novels, and there's a pile of them available via a Humble bundle for another 2 days: https://www.humblebundle.com/books/martha-wells-murderbot-and-more-tor-books?
Neat. It’s halfway across the country from me
.I’ll probably order it through bookshop.org in a bit.
I'm Gone
by Jean Echenoz,
Just finished this fun read, borrowed from the library. While the blurb given doesn't really do it justice, let's just say that Echenoz is rendered into English by Mark Polizzotti with great effect, carrying an interesting plot with humor, strong characters and some good twists and turns. With an introduction by Lily Tuck.
Now for the blurb:
My edit ( ) above, not sure why they wrote that.
Finished "The Orb of Cairado".
It's definitely a short read, a novelette.
The plot felt familiar, like the author took the bones of a story I've read before and then wrapped it in the flavor of the Goblin Emperor world.
It was a pleasant read though. I enjoyed it and wouldn't mind other books with the main character.
It's definitely a short read, a novelette.
The plot felt familiar, like the author took the bones of a story I've read before and then wrapped it in the flavor of the Goblin Emperor world.
It was a pleasant read though. I enjoyed it and wouldn't mind other books with the main character.