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What book(s) are you currently reading? 10 August

This was a nice week for book reading. Don't usually get this much time generally.

Finished The Last White Man by Mohsin Hamid. I didn't like the writing style initially but got used to as I read along. It's a small book, just a little more than 100 pages. An umm... interesting read.

Got my copy of The Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson. Really liked the book. It was a fun, light book. There was much less action than I was expecting, after reading the announcement of the book, but that didn't make book any less enjoyable. Finished the book in two days, which I rarely get to do now.

Grave Peril by Jim Butcher. Book 3 of Dresden Files. I have just started it, but it's the same Dresden Files. Nothing to say about that.

What have you been reading?

56 comments
  • I just started The Bullet Journal Method by Ryder Carroll.

    • I have been using bullet journal for years now, but funnily enough I have never read the book. You made me realize that, so going to order it right away. 😀

      • It's pretty incredible how so much of the history aligns with my issues. It's a great book. I have a good feeling about it being able to help organize my life.

  • I just started "Leviathan Wakes", the first novel in The Expanse universe. According to Google I'm about 25% through, and I'm loving it!

    I'm not much of a reader, but I just can't seem to put this down !

    • I would love to hear what you think about The Expanse. Have been looking for an interesting sci-fi series to start.

      • I hope I'm able to properly communicate my thoughts to you! Haha

        Alright, so to start, it reads sort of like a tv show, in the way that every chapter we get a shift in perspective and what character we are following. It shifts between 2 narratives. Sort of like every chapter is a different episode. Perhaps I just don't read enough, but this constant back and forth seemed a little odd to me in a written medium? Including the prologue, we get 3 different character POVs.

        As for the pacing, it isn't slow, but it isn't fast either. I'd say it's well-paced, but each POV seems to have a slightly different speed, where a chapter for one character could be just a typical day, the chapter for the next character could span a few weeks. This doesn't interrupt the story much at all, and it really seems to only serve to enhance the readers immersion in this world and how fast or slow things move in space and "The Belt" as it's called in the series.

        Speaking of the world, so far, it has been built and established pretty wonderfully. 114 pages into the first book of the series, and the writer never seems to shoehorn in exposition into the narrative, but rather it's, usually, a tasteful cutaway to a flashback of sorts that explains perhaps who they're talking to/about, or what event happened to kick off a chain reaction and why, etc.

        I have encountered 1 misspelling so far earlier in the book, and it's probably just me, but it's stuck with me since.

        In terms of its actual writing and language used, the author uses basic, everyday language, with a few "$5" words sprinkled in that can sometimes cause confusion, although that could just be due to my limited personal dictionary. Overall, it doesn't detract from the story, especially if you're willing to take a moment to look up a word or 2 every couple chapters.

        In terms of "sci-fi"-ness, so far everything the entire series has taken place either in the empty vacuum of space, or smaller stations scattered throughout the solar system. The way the author describes some everyday actions and activities, and their difficulty or impossibility in the altered gravity of space and/or space stations really sucks me into the universe as it makes me believe that even though these people are humans, they're living an entirely different existence, with different rules.

        I said a lot, especially for only being 114 pages into the first book, but it has sucked me back into reading, and I commend it for that.

        Also, a few articles I've seen scattered across the internet when searching for other books in the series have called it "the greatest sci-fi series of the decade" for whatever that's worth to you.

        Oh, and they also have a "major" tv show based on the books.

        Hope this comment answers a few questions for you :)

  • Halfway through a reread of Blood Rites (also Dresden Files), halfway through The Way of Kings by Sanderson & Thankless in Death by JD Robb, just finished book 3 of Seanen McGuire's Incryptid series but I'll start 4 tomorrow and should have it finished by Sunday, I sprinkle in the Incryptid short stories whenever I have half an hour to spare, and I just started the first of the Resident Evil novelisations but that one's going to be a pretty low priority and will probably take months. I have a very slow job.

    This is my first Sanderson book and I'm really enjoying his style so far, I've had him on my reading list for years and should have gotten started sooner.

    • Wow, that's a lots of books.

      Blood Rites is the book that made me stop reading Dresden Files, because I couldn't get the book, and I didn't want to miss one book and read the next ones. Stared the re-read after getting the book (and about a decade after I stopped).

      Have you read rest of the books in "in Death" series? I have read couple of romance novels by Nora Roberts a while back, but haven't read her crime novels, or well any crime series at all (except couple of novels in Robert Galbraith's Cormoran Strike). Would you recommend her in Death series a good starting point for crime novels?

      Seanen McGuire's October Daye and Wayword Children has been recommended to me many time, but haven't gotten around to them yet. Maybe after Dresden Files. How are you enjoying the series?

      I didn't know Resident Evil novels exist, but with such a big franchise, it makes sense. Any idea, if they are any good?

      Last but not least, welcome to Cosmere! Brandon Sanderson is currently my favourite fantasy writer, so glad you got to start reading him!

      • Thankless in Death is book 37, plus a few shorts, and I've been reading them all up to this point. They're fine. They're mostly an easy read, I usually get through them in a couple of nights each depending on when I'm working. Sometimes they surprise you though, the killer in this book is particularly horrible, and there's a lot of competition considering I'm several dozen books in. Some of the books are really good, but I don't read any other crime, nor do I know anything about policework. The overarching story of the main character getting her life together is the most interesting part, but you only really get a trickle of that each book so if you get into it you're stuck there for about 60 novels. I started in about 2008 with Creation in Death and read maybe 10-12 of the books randomly because I was a broke teen who took what he could get, that book was good enough that it hooked me and got me back a over decade later to give the series a complete read.

        I haven't read any other McGuire. Incryptid is almost a guilty pleasure, the first 2 books were ok, but I really enjoyed the third. The series switches point of view characters every couple of books so I haven't seen everyone yet, but that's something I enjoy except for the fact that when you get attached to someone they might not show back up for a while. This one I've been listening to rather than reading, Ray Porter does the narration for book 3's character and he's fantastic. They even got the narrator from the first two books in for all of 5 lines in a phone call, which was a nice surprise. I mainly got into these (and Patricia Briggs's Mercy Thompson books) to fill time before the next Dresden Files, but they're both enjoyable enough.

        In my opinion Resident Evil's story is absolute balls, and I don't expect the books to be any better. I'm like 20 pages into the first one so I can't fairly judge that yet.

  • I’m finally getting around to reading The Goblin Emperor and just finished The Giver. I managed to never read it before, ¯(ツ)/¯.

    Somewhere in the middle of Grave Peril is where the Dresden books really seem to hit their stride and become more consistently good in my opinion.

    • The Goblin Emperor gets recommended a lot, let us know how you like it. As for The Giver, I haven't read it either, the movie didn't make me much interested in it, thought that could just be the fault of the movie.

      Well, I haven't gotten a time to read since I started the book, so maybe will reach that point soon!

  • Just finished Shadows Linger by Glen Cook. Was a bit frustrating that the first half was more of a crime thriller than the milfic of the first book, but the back half was a great ride.

    • Nice! I have got the first three books, but haven't started the series yet. How are you liking it overall?

56 comments