Books

I'm finishing up A Crown of Swords this evening.

I just started Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam.

Finally finished Universal Harvester by John Darnielle after stalling out on it for exactly three months, sadly. Devouring Anxious People by Fredrick Backman now and loving it. Only 10 books in for the year, and falling way behind my goal.

I just now finished "The Dawn of Everything" by Graeber and Wengrow, which was an excellent investigation into early civilizations and a nod to their cultural implications for modern society. Looking to steal ideas for my queue in this thread!

Currently reading The Light on Farallon Island by Jen Wheeler. It's a novel that follows the story of a young woman in the 19th century who takes a job as teacher for the few children of the lighthouse keepers on remote Farallon Island. As you read, you slowly learn about the life she has run away from.

Bit of a strange pairing, but currently reading:

Schoolgirl by Osamu Dazai

Faster: How a Jewish Driver, an American Heiress, and a Legendary Car Beat Hitler's Best by Neal Bascomb

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Arrival by Ted Chiang. Movie was great so though of reading this one. Only in the very beginning though.

I have been reading The Mongol Storm: Making and Breaking Empires in the Medieval Near East by Nicholas Morton which I am really enjoying. Nicholas has a clear way of describing events and putting them into context without getting too dry with it. I am also reading A Vast Conspiracy: The inspiration for Impeachment by Jeffrey Toobin which I am a little over half way into, but I am considering just giving up. I have been pecking away at this book for probably 2 months now. It's just too long winded. I don't need to know every single conversation, meeting, plot, dinner that people had - I feel this would have made an incredible long-form article in something like the New Yorker but a multi hundred page book seems to be pushing it for me.

Finished reading Blindsight by Peter Watts. I haven’t read this good Science Fiction book in a long time. On to Echopraxis, as it’s a double edition

I just finished The Deluge by Stephen Markley (all 900pp!)

It's basically a US-centric "narrative" of the 2030's, told from the PoV of about a dozen different characters, with the thread of climate change prominent throughout.

Really it's hard to describe it as good or bad, an enjoyable read etc. It is certainly well written, and characterisation is exceptionally good and detailed, but for me it was by turns scary, amusing, depressing, profoundly sad and wrenching in its humanity. I have no reason to doubt its accuracy based on the science.

It took me almost a month to read because I had to take breaks to get my "cognitive dissonance" recharged.

I would definitely recommend it.

It would make a good streaming series on Amazon Prime or Apple TV.

After a decade of literary fiction I'm going back to check on some more mainstream stuff. I'm reading The Dark Tower saga by Stephen King. Just starting the first book.

Stand on Zanzibar - John Brunner

Just finished Rules for a Knight by Ethan Hawke. Very sweet and sad book, enjoyed it very much.

I’m reading To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, but only because my girlfriend told me to read from more modernist authors. I’m liking her prose despite the dry beginning, but I’ll see how it comes along over time.

SS by Barış Pehlivan and Barış Terkoğlu. It's basically a book about Süleyman Soylu's crimes. It's indeed a heavy read, but I think the book does a good job with shedding light on who Soylu really is, so far (I'm at Chapter 5).

Victor Of Tuscon

Just finished Iron Gold by Pierce Brown. It feels kind of like a "bridge book" where it wasn't all that great compared to the others in the series so far.

Now I'm off to Shards of the Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky. I've started to read a lot of his stuff and I'm enjoying them all.

The Journey to the West, translated by Anthony C. Yu. Given that it is 100 chapters long and I'm still at chapter 6 it's gonna take a long time for me to finish, so I'm thinking about reading another book alongside it.

Chuck Palahniuk - Consider This

The Vanishing Hitchhiker by Jan Harold Brunvand. Recaptures the magic of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, but as an adult.

Exhalation by Ted Chiang. About 3/4 through so far and really enjoying it. The scifi concepts are great and I like that it doesn't always have a black mirror, technology is going to kill us ending.

The Book That Wouldn't Burn by Mark Lawrence. Such a cool fantasy concept, I'm about 1/4th of the way in.

I also finished Forth Wing this week. It was okay for what it was.

Read This Book on a Silent Hill: Meditations that they won't tell you about