A community for all things related to Books.
Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch. 2nd book in thr Gentleman Bastards series. Sort of a heist story in a fantasy setting. Really fun read. Honestly would say it's in my top 5 fantasy series so far.
Edit: Also listening to the audiobook of Let Me In/Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist. Swedish vampire story. Not that far into it, but it's pretty damn good so far. Pretty disturbing in some little ways. But I'm not too far into it, so it hasn't gotten to the really good stuff yet.
Gentleman Bastards on my to-read list. Nice to hear such high praise for it.
Let the Right One In looks interesting, would love to hear what you think about it, once you have finished it.
Nothing interesting but I'm commenting to remind myself to check back later in case that other dude read that book I hated.
lol. That's a good reason.
Also, you can share non-interesting stuff too. Maybe there are some people here who like non-interesting stuff, who knows.
Ok. I’m in the middle of a few right now.
The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe by Douglas Adams; this one is all sorts of fun! I can’t believe I’ve never continued on with this series before.
Under The Whispering Door by T J Klune; this is a beautiful and funny story about a dead man as he tries to come to terms with his death and move on. We all are listening to this one in a road trip, and so far so good!
The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu; alllllmost done this one. I’m finally through the slog and into the interesting parts. I’m not entirely convinced that this book could have had the front half removed without much loss to the story, but maybe it comes more into play in the next books in the series? I dunno.
The Body Keeps The Score by Bessel van der Kolk; neuroscience meets psychiatry in this book about what trauma does to the mind and body. I’m loving this so far, I find it fascinating, though it’s obviously really heavy.
21 Lessons For The 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari; it’s alright, I liked his other books more.
I really tried to get through The Three Body Problem, but I just couldn’t… not sure why it didn’t “click” with me.
Honestly it took until probably 2/3 of the way through to get to the point, and 3/4 of the way through to hook me enough to even consider bothering with the second book. But, now it’s interesting and I want to know more
Pretty much everyone I have seen here, says the start is a slog to get through, so not a surprise it didn't click with you.
Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy is probably one of my favourite series. Glad you are enjoying it.
Lots of people are reading The Three Body Problem these days (not sure why) and everyone talks about how they had to slog through some parts. How is it still so famous with that?
Under The Whispering Door seems to have a fun concept. Would love to hear your impressions after you have finished it. Both for this and The Body Keeps the Score.
I loved Under the Whispering Door! I think it'll probably always be my favorite TJ Klune haha, doesn't matter what else he writes.
Someday I'll tackle The Three Body Problem and The Body Keeps the Score, but it seems like they'll each be tough to read through for different reasons.
Maybe I'll read that Douglas Adams, though, what a great list!
De Grijze Jager book 2, to work on my Dutch because I read the series in English (Ranger's Apprentice) at around 12 or 13 so I know it, but it is also written in past tense with some more complex words that I don't hear in conversation.
Just finished How to Change Your Mind by, Michael Pollen and it has a very objective and interesting take on psychedelics and therapy using them but it also seems like he didn't dive very deep at all into his experiences
I am looking at reading more cosmic horror like The Fisherman or The Hollow Places, but a lot of the books I have seen recommended aren't on Kobo and I refuse to use Amazon.
I have been planning to read Harry Potter in Spanish for about a decade now. One of these days though. One of these days.
How to Change your Mind looks interesting, going to check it out.
I have also been thinking about delving into some cosmic horror, though, I was mainly aiming more at lovecraftian horror. Haven't really looked up any book in the genre though. Do you have any recommendations?
Just finished NOS4A2 by Joe Hill, and liked it quite a bit. One minorly interesting thing I haven't seen before is that some chapters would end like "and then she tumbled into the" and the next chapter would be titled "Kitchen". This is the first Joe Hill book I've read, so it makes me wonder if he writes any characters that aren't severely broken in some way lol. Looks like there's a TV series adaptation, but it's only got 6.7 on IMDB so I'll probably skip it.
How is Joe Hill's writing compared to Stephen King's? I have mentioned before that for some reason I couldn't get into King, though I haven't read his most famous work, so going to give them a try soon. I have read tons of Dean Koontz though.
I actually haven't read much Stephen King, but my wife says they're pretty similar. He took the name Joe Hill because he didn't want to rely on his dad's name, but then a bunch of people were like "Does Stephen King have a new pseudonym?", so take that how you will.
Ah okay, probably not for me then. I am going to give Stephen King one last chance. Have one book of his that I am going to read, and then get one of his famous one, probably IT, let's see.
Have you read 11/22/63 by King? It’s not his usual style, but I really enjoyed it.
No, that's in the list of "one of his famous books", not sure if I will read that or something else. Whichever is the thinnest, I guess 😀
I think it’s certainly Thinner (oh look, a pun) than IT, and deviates from his other horror genre.
Heh, thanks for the info. Will check it out!
I just finished the first book of the Scholomance series by Naomi Novik. I started a new job and my brain has been there so I’ve fallen behind in reading. It was good and an interesting take on the “school for magic” genre.
Starting the second book in Max Gladstone’s Craft series. I read the first one for r/fantasy BINGO last year and really enjoyed it.
I have heard good things about Scholomance. Other than Harry Potter, the only other "school for magic" book I can think of is "The Magicians" by Lev Grossman. But I have only read the first book, going to complete the series some day.
The Craft Sequence looks nice, but he hasn't written anything since 2017, and Wikipedia says, "It will be followed by both novels and novella-length works starting in 2018.". Not going to start until I am sure the series is finished, or that he is writing regularly. 😀
The book that really got me started reading fantasy is also arguably a “school for magic” book from long before it was a trope. A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K Le Guin is a classic.
Gladstone is definitely still writing stuff. The Craft Sequence series is done at 6 books, but there is a new trilogy called The Craft Wars that is meant to wrap up the whole universe. The 1st book Dead Country came out in March with book 2 slated for April 2024 per fantasticfiction.com
Ah, it has been too long since I read the Earthsea books, I recall there was magic school, but don't recall how much of the book was about that. Maybe that means I need to re-read the books 😀
The cuckoo's egg by Clifford Still
I'm about halfway through. Really a must read for computing and/or security interested people. Or guys just nostalgic of the good old early days of internet.
Someone mentioned it a few weeks back too. Going to check it out.
Thanks for the recommendation!
I have just completed Sheridan Le Fanu's Ghostly Tales collection from Kindle Store couple of days ago, so I decided to re-read Carmilla. I must say, after reading most of his short stories, Le Fanu is definitely one of my favorite writers of all time.
That's high praise!
Never heard of him before, but just looked him up, and added his work to my wishlist. Thanks!
Just started to read A Child Called “IT”. Don’t remember where I got the recommendation, but ugh.. what a tough story!! (Content, not the quality of writing.. writing is great)
Definitely t.w. related to child abuse, though it seems like a fairly quick read.
I thought you are talking about Stephen King's IT, but then realised "A Child Called It" is the full name.
Just looked it up, and book seems very disturbing.
some of the abuse he suffered, from wikipedia page
He writes how his mother was physically and emotionally abusive towards him from ages 4 to 12. He describes how his mom starved him, forced him to drink ammonia, stabbed him in the stomach, burned his arm on a gas stove, and forced him to eat his own vomit.
What kind of mother was that? I haven't explored this topic much, and didn't realise there were people like that.
Yeah, I have to say it’s been a tough read. Haven’t finished it yet, but it saddens me to think that this is a real story and many other kids go through similar childhood trauma.
I sort of recently finished The Anomaly by Herve le Tellier, and I loved it so much I've been having trouble with other books.
I read The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro, and I'd read The Remains of the Day a while back, so I might read some more from him.
Just started Black Sun and it really started out with a bang, but I feel like I'm losing steam as it switches between characters. It might just be me, but I also think I just don't like reading about political games and machinations (except for in Game of Thrones, that was awesome).
Never heard of Herve le Tellier or Kazuo Ishiguro. Just looked them up, going to try some of their work.
Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse? Everyone has certain topics they don't like reading much about, maybe political games just aren't something that interest you.