this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2023
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Literature

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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!

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[–] FearTheCron 18 points 1 year ago (8 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

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.

[–] Higlerfay 4 points 1 year ago

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!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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!

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Man - 3 body problem (and the whole series) were a great read. What kind blowing shifts in perspective.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (3 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

One of my favourite books of all time. Do you have the full colour edition?

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[–] adi 9 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Just finished Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer (loved it, just discovered the "new weird" genre and it's totally my vibe). Now started reading The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, the structure of the book and the setting seems cool and intriguing.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Both great reads. I'd also recommend the second and third books following Annihilation, just know they are quite different. Good, but different.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Just got a few books from my local library that I'm excited to start. I'm starting off with "Focused Forward: Navigating the Storms of Adult ADHD" by James M. Ochoa which I picked out because it was the smallest book in the ADHD category, ha.

I also got a book on Linux/Unix, Diabetes, a workbook for Bipolar, a healthy snack book, and an organization book. Not too too sure if I'll be able to finish it all by the time they're due, but its a nice varied selection.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That second paragraph is peak ADHD lol.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I mean you aren't wrong! Hahaa.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The Expanse, the whole book trilogy!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

It's a bit more than a trilogy lol. It's a nonology!

[–] ice9 4 points 1 year ago

Amazing series, be sure to check out the novellas as well! There are some guides online that will tell you where they happen chronologicaly

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

H.P. Lovecraft - Tales of Horror

I've been blown away by all of this, up until the one I'm currently powering my way through (*Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath). It isn't terrible, though. Just feels very out of place after the overall tone and flow of his other work within the volume.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

Just started book 8 of The Expance series

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

I just finished up reading The Return of the King for the first time since childhood. I like it a lot more than I remember. I think two things stuck out at me most: how dense it was compared to modern fantasy and how great the hobbits were portrayed. Fantasy tends to portray great heroes that came from nothing (ex. the chosen one/orphan trope). However, the hobbits were solely because they were common that they were able to do things the great heroes of their age couldn't.

Since then I've started reading Vineland by Thomas Pynchon. I kept hearing Pynchon's name come up for about a month at random and figured I should pick up one of his books. He has a very frenetic style that can be a bit difficult to parse but I'm loving his sense of humor.

[–] B4tid0 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, a

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

After quitting Reddit finally getting to my book backlog. The Expanse: The Sins of Our Fathers and then got to pick another old Star Trek book.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

A Clockwork Orange!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Terry Pratchett's Jingo, currently. After that, more discworld.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Currently reading "Spies: The Epic Intelligence War Between East and West," by Calder Walton.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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 :)

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Currently Reading The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie. Also trying to get a Lovecraft book club off the ground over at [email protected]

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Got all three volumes of Capital on a whim, not very engaging lol.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I just started reading 'The Name of the Wind' by Patrick Rothfuss.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Making my way through Tigana by Guy Gabriel Kay. Really enjoying it so far.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I am deciding between finishing the long way to a Small angry planet or starting howls moving castle

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Bumped, a feminist dystopia where only teenagers can reproduce. The book is very confusing to get into (it's narrated by two teenagers in 2036, so you need to learn alll the slangs) and the writing style rubbed me off as amateurish, but it's been very entertaining nevertheless. It gets even funny when you get what's going on because teens be teens.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Now I'm reading Wheel Of Time, stuck on the 4th book.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Finished up To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini last week. Was a great read, a loooong book though. Just noticed that there is a prequel to the book so perhaps I will read that at some point, though it was not available at my library (at least as e-book).

Currently got nothing to read. And actually due to me being here instead of reddit I am cutting down on internet-time anyway so it would be a good time to start a new book. I have some ideas like Neuromancer, Slaughterhouse five, Project Hail Mary, The Forever War and Arrival but perhaps I'll find something completely different. I also read the Elder Race by Tchaikovsky a few months back and it was great, perhaps I'll read another one of their books next.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I'd highly recommend We are legion we are Bob and off to be the wizard to any fellow tech nerds

We are legion we are bob is about a guy whose brain is uploaded as an AI into a Von Neumann probe and sent into space to explore the universe.

Off to be the wizard is about a guy who finds out the world is some kind of simulation, and there's essentially one big file detailing absolutely everything that can be edited, uses it to go back in time and live as a wizard and make spells with his programming skills

Both of them have plenty of nerdy references and humour, would highly recommend

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

I've been reading Manufacturing Consent lately after hearing so much about it. It's very interesting through the new introduction and the first part, where the propaganda model is explained, but it drags some as the authors try to apply it to certain historical events, like the 1984 Nicaraguan Election.

Still, it's interesting, and while the model still applies to mainstream media today, the advent of the internet, smartphones, and social media's resulting displacement of mass media has lessened its effectiveness.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Roots by Alex Haley The Boat of a Million Years by Poul Anderson Ten Years of Madness: Oral Histories of China's Cultural Revolution by Feng Jicai

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Can You Forgive Her? by Anthony Trollope and The Count of Monte Cristo by Alenxandre Dumas.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I really need to get back into reading, the last series I read was The Stormlight Archive and I really want to read some more Cosmere books

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (4 children)

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)

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[–] ice9 3 points 1 year ago

I really enjoyed the Expanse books, so just started one of the Author's other series, the Long Price Quartet

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Started book #9 of Malazan this morning on a flight. It's been a long ride, and I'm looking forward to a climax. That's literature, right? ;)

Last night I started reading Children of Time out loud to my GF as we fell asleep. It triggered an excellent conversation about biological imperatives and evolution. Plus, Portia is cool ;)

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

nobody reads this junk here so i'll just shout at a cloud

a deadly education, naomi novik - this should finally unjam the block i've had on fiction; i don't do well with fiction when the world is burning. i've picked this up and set it down many times, but the novelty is that normally, a fiction book that stops after the halfway point to do world-building is one that will end up propping open a door. but in this one the late add increased my interest.

keep my heart in san francisco, amelia diane coombs - an adorable fluffy book set nearby that ended up on the to-be-finished pile during some political firestorm or other.

guide du routard, catalogne - americans don't want to see what i want to see and american guidebooks know it. i often drag in other people's guidebooks when i think about going other people's places.

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