What're you reading?

[PurpleHello98]

I've been rereading Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett, but next I'm going to get into Axiom's End by Lindsay Ellis. Aliens in the mid 2000s just sounds right up my alley.

I've never read anything by Terry Pratchett, but I've heard good things about him. How is he?

Right now, I'm reading Jane Eyre for the fourth time. I just love it so much!!! For a long time it was my favourite book, though I think the Jane Austen books I've read recently might have overtaken it; I'm not sure about that.

[Memory]

I've never read anything by Terry Pratchett, but I've heard good things about him. How is he?

I'm a huge fan of both fantasy and satire, so Pratchett is one of my favorite writers along with Douglas Adams. They're very much in the same vein. The Discworld series spans... 40-ish books I want to say, but they're very easy to pick up out of order as well. There's an expansive cast of characters so there's a story for everyone somewhere in there I'd say.

[Melooon]

Iv been binge reading recently!

• Lots of Asimov Scifi books I mention in this thread!
• Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke - a scifi classic about aliens who arrive and turn earth into a "utopia"
• The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan - this is a 1600s religious book and its a slog, but Im interested in it from a cultural history context.
• Mark Twain’s Speeches - I read these on and off; I really love most of Twains writing and should read more.
• Youth by Asimov - Just finished this; it was pretty short but enjoyable - kinda like a Goosebumps episode!
• Algorithms to Live By - by Brian Christian - Non fiction talking about applying computer science algorithms to everyday life; its a nice casual way to freshen up on algorithms I should have studied more in college 

[xolta]

Recently I have been reading the book, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. While I find one of it weirdly old fashioned( like sci-fi thinking wed colonize mars by 2016) The themes of reality blurring that philp k dick dose is still in this but feel personally its done more compelling in other works of his like Ubik.   Still need to finish it.

[invader_gvim]

I AM CURRENTLY READING TWO BOOKS

By that I mean - I am actively reading one book and have been grazing through the other for a long time, catching various little stories from it like its the bible. The other book I have been plowing head long into because its KEWL.

Herodotus: The Histories

This is a history book full of lies. More specifically, it is filled with the kind of sincere lies that the teller does not realize are false - the kind that you can only get by going to your grandmother and asking her to describe a presidency that her dead mother lived through the term of. The book is one of the very first works of true historiography. The author Herodotus was a very well traveled man who spent a lot of time visiting rich people from across the Eastern Mediterranean in 450 BCE. He compiled various stories and folklore and legends from the people of Egypt, Persia, and other places. Greek nobility loved him for the stories he could tell and so he wrote them down.

It contains a lot of things which are obviously false, but that is not the point of reading it. If you want to really understand what people believed back then and how they saw the world - then this is a way better book to read than something like 'The Conquest of Gaul.'

My favorite story from it so far has been Herodotus's explanation of Egypt. It was a very religious society the structure of which felt very foreign to him (imagine going to a country where life is centered around a religion you don't practice) However, he describes the religion as something way less centralized than what we are used to, but perhaps much more familiar and comforting to Herodotus who was used to several city states each with their own cults.

Anyway, the Egyptians were a society where dietary restrictions influenced everyone's lives. It wasn't centralized though. One town might forbid the consumption of pork but another town might exclusively allow the consumption of pork and forgo consuming any other meat. In some cities he visited crocodiles were sacred while in others they were hated beasts that were killed on sight. According to him, the only consistency was cats. Everyone loves cats. They were sacred, and they would have funerals for them like they were people. It was illegal to ever harm a cat, and it was also illegal to step over a cat if it was in a doorway, as they were viewed as guardians.

He tells a story that the priests in Egypt told him about A pharoah who conquered the entire world.

Luck In The Shadows

I love the Nightrunner series so much that I reread this book often, especially now that I got that job as a security guard where I sit and guard an empty field for 16 hour shifts. Its the first in the series and it slaps hardcore. Picture something like the James Bond movies mixed with Lord of the Rings and that is a good way to describe the genre of this. The main characters are nightrunners, which are basically secret agents working on behalf of the monarchy of Skala (not the kingdom itself - the distinction is important to the characters actions in certain books.) They do such cool things as disguise themselves as bards in order to perform at a lords castle where an enemy diplomat is and steal his information when the party reaches a lull. There is also action such as a very intense sea battle. Diplomacy is there too with the third book being about securing a peace treaty with a kingdom of elves.

Lets not kid ourselves though. The reason I like this book - the reason everyone likes this book so much is because of the excellent and captivating male / male ROMANCE. Its genuinely sweeter than any other action adventure book's romance that I've ever read. If I had to guess why, it's because its not really the focus of the plot or the books. The two main characters don't become a couple until the end of the second book, and they don't get married until the very last book. They communicate like a couple does and more importantly they seem like friends in addition to being a couple. They work together as a team and when they don't work together as a team they communicate in a productive manner while still having the suspense of what if something goes wrong (if you like that sort of thing in a romance).

They have friends and relationships besides eachother and literally every character who has a name is memorable. Not once did I read this and go "who?" when the characters met someone they hadn't seen in a while. One of the books also has a very dissapointing villain in the  best possible way. I've never truly hated or felt similar to someone so hard as him. You might notice that I haven't mentioned this villain's name. Its because I don't want to spoil anything.

[Misanthropic Monster™]

I am currently reading 'Things I Can't Explain: A Clarissa Novel', it's an entertaining and must-read sequel for all fans of Mitchell Kriegman's Nickelodeon TV show Clarissa Explains It All.

I still watch the show, even to this day, and it still holds up having fantastic writing, direction, acting and situational comedy.

The book is a treat because it carries on Clarissa's life, cantering on her in her mid-20's and all her life experiences now. It's great and I am loving it. Just wish I realised it existed prior to two months ago haha! 

[levya]

I'm currently reading Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree, about an orc who gives up adventuring to open a coffee shop in a city where no one knows what coffee is. It's pretty cute so far, though I wish there was a bit more conflict and interesting twists (though I'm only halfway through so that might change). Still, I really enjoy the idea of slice of life set in a fantasy setting and I'd love to read more stories like this one!

[apricior]

Hiii

I'm currently reading two books!

• The Otherwhere Post by Emily J. Taylor, for work! I started it this morning and I'm really liking the vibes and the aesthetic. I don't think it's gonna be my favorite book in the world, but I am enjoying the worldbuilding and writing style.
• We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson, for fun! I really loved The Haunting of Hill House and I've had WHALITC on my bookshelf for long enough, so I decided that it was time to stop procrastinating and getting into it. I'm only one or two chapters in, but the main character's psyche is fascinating to me, so I'm excited to see where it goes

[fauxclore]

I've been finishing the Sprawl Trilogy by William Gibson, after binging the Action Button Review of Cyberpunk 2077 for the nth time.
I must admit, reading sci-fi that was written prior to the 90s/00s is many times a difficult balancing act of "ok, I'll just ignore this blatant example of sexism/racism/homophobia for the sake of a good concept". But, incredibly, these books have aged great! And the prose is seriously underrated, Samuel Delaney kind of quality. If you read a lot of sci-fi and fantasy, you forget what good literary prose is like. I would say reading William Gibson is on par with Ursula K. LeGuin on the level of "this person really know how to use the english language to paint a tableaux".

After this, I want to go back to reading more nonfiction, and deepen my understanding of the world through philosophy and sociology. I don't really know what comes next, but it's always like this, I will need to mourn the good book I'm reading now before deciding what comes next.

[CrypticEyes]

Currently reading an anthology called "It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror".
Each chapter focuses on a different person's queer experience and how it intersects with their experience with horror cinema, usually either one or two movies interwoven into their story.
It's a really interesting perspective on how someone's experience with queerness can intersect and bring new meaning to the media they consume!

[xXWebMasterXx_Gina]

I recently got laid off my job so I've really committed myself to reading more in my time between job-searching to stay productive.


As I write this, I just finished up my first Franz Kafka story, The Metamorphosis. It was quite the ride! Humorous, heartwarming, anxiety inducing and tragic at the same time. Above all, I adored how Gregor was written; as absurd as his thoughts were on the surface (also functioning as part of the comedy), they were immensely believable and to an extent are how I figure I would react as well, worrying about worldly circumstances over well.. the metaphysical. I look forward to reading more of Kafka's work if I can expect to see more brilliant depictions of a character's inner-thoughts and reasoning.


Prior to that I read through the Ghost In The Shell manga; it's a little more comedic than I was expecting and honestly a little hard to follow at times but the art was very nice; especially when it came to the scenes depicting the net and consciousness!


Also throughout, I've been reading a variety of stories by Harlan Ellison. I first read one of his more popular pieces, I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream, back in 2014 and have been obsessed with his work since. The way he writes is just.. so visual and grounded. The dialogue is fast and always detailed. I especially love it when his characters talk as if he himself is talking; it straddles the line between real and imaginative. I could listen to him talk all day, and sometimes I do! He did audio books of some of his works and they are a real treat! (Check out his readings of Jeffty Is Five, IHNMAIMS, and Prince Myshkin, and Hold the Relish)

Take for example, one of the stories I read not too long ago, Laugh Track. It follows a character who works in television, who, for most of his life is haunted by a laugh track that prominently features the laugh of his late aunt. For the first half of the book, the narrator explains how the track has been used throughout the industry and names several real-life sitcoms, which at first led me to believe this to be some true story played straight with an underlying somberness. But as the story progresses it gets more ridiculous. There is talk of "sweeteners" some shadowy agents of the TV industry that can turn even the most bottom barrel slop into prime-time. The way the narrator talks about them makes sweeteners seem more powerful than any secret government agency. And well as things dip into the fantastical and the story shows its true colors, that might just be the case! It's grounded, it's philosophical and it's funny as hell too!

[A5eel]

Just finished two books actually,

The Shadow of the torturer by Gene Wolfe : super cool dystopian fantasy/sci-fi book, gene wolf writing is genuinely very fun to read, tho this man depictions of women is horrendous. kinda won't continue the series cause of that

Angels before man : AHHHHH this book genuinely broke me, it's a queer retelling of the fall of Satan, it's been reccomended to me by my best friend, it has very beautiful prose and a devastating story   

[Eunice]

"Youth at the Gate" by Ursula Bloom. She was a British novelist, reporter and biographer, and lived from 1892 to 1984. Her autobiography is of her years as a young woman during WWI. She and her mother were accused of being German spies, simply because their surname sounded German, and her mother had been educated in Germany. They lived in real poverty, but because her father was a parson, they had to live as though they had money. She married an aristocratic and wealthy man, but he turned out to be a seriously ill alcoholic, and he eventually died of the Spanish flu. Her mother was ill with breast cancer and had several operations, conducted on the kitchen table in their home! It's an amazing book, showing how people's lives changed, and not always for the better. I've read a few of her romance novels. I don't really like romances, but hers are very good.

[jensen]

I'm currently reading Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames. My friends from when I was in school were all down for my idea of creating a book club last year. The first book only 2 people finished, but we gave it another go using the Fable app to keep notes and a book more of us would enjoy. Again only the same 2 people finished it, neither being me. So a year later here I am actually reading it so the 3 of us can book club a new book! 

Edit: finished this today! Great book, onto finishing another book I've been ignoring...