What are you reading right now?

Finally finished the Mistborn trilogy - first three books. Best fantasy I've read in a while, although it falls apart a bit in the middle the ending is worth it.

Currently reading American Psycho and it's much more brutal that I expected. The first third was fairly boring, but well written - then I got past the middle of the book and it's gotten wild.

I've read a lot of horror and violent books, but this one actually made me feel sick.
 
  • Dumb
Reactions: Abimelech
Hweeks said:
Currently reading American Psycho and it's much more brutal that I expected. The first third was fairly boring, but well written - then I got past the middle of the book and it's gotten wild.

I've read a lot of horror and violent books, but this one actually made me feel sick.
Click to expand...
I get what Ellis was trying to do in American Psycho, but I have the same feeling about it as I do Pulp Fiction; the concept is interesting, but it is massively overrated. I've read a lot of fucked up shit in my life, and done effectively, it can suck you into a strange world. It's not a pleasant experience, but it's absolutely compelling. The first part of American Psycho was okay, but it devolved into lists of clothes and schizophrenic stream of conciousness. I get that it's supposed to mirror the excesses and compulsions and emotional and social isolation of the American ultra rich in the 1980s and that an individual in that set could easily be a severely mentally ill schizophrenic psychopathic serial killer and no one would ever notice because everyone is so deeply narcissistic that they can't even tell the difference between multiple individuals that they call "friend" and it's not like any of them actually listen to each other either and the only character who allegedly has some form of emotional depth is even more obsessed with appearances than any of them otherwise she surely would have noticed that the object of her infatuation is a crazed black void wrapped in an attractive and compulsively maintained human suit and

Yeah. Rich people bad, poor people stupid. Got it.
 
  • Like
  • Thunk-Provoking
  • Agree
Reactions: World Famous Quasi Payer, Donut Coma, Chandelier and 1 other person
Hweeks said:
Finally finished the Mistborn trilogy - first three books. Best fantasy I've read in a while, although it falls apart a bit in the middle the ending is worth it.

Currently reading American Psycho and it's much more brutal that I expected. The first third was fairly boring, but well written - then I got past the middle of the book and it's gotten wild.

I've read a lot of horror and violent books, but this one actually made me feel sick.
Click to expand...
Man, mistborn the first time thru is such a ride. There's a whole 2nd series and the rest of the cosmere if you want more. Also the Secret History if you wanna know what Kelsier was up to during the events of those 3 books (and yes, he was up to something)
I felt the same way about American Psycho. Managed to find myself a hardcover copy, which is hard come by. Really enjoyed this book, but some of the scenes were a little too much for me.
I just skipped the chapters that are wholly about music critique. Sorry, I don't care about that retard Phil Collins. His music is bad and he's fat AND I would not have sex with him.
 
  • Agree
  • Informative
Reactions: World Famous Quasi Payer and Hweeks
Hweeks said:
Finally finished the Mistborn trilogy - first three books. Best fantasy I've read in a while, although it falls apart a bit in the middle the ending is worth it.

Currently reading American Psycho and it's much more brutal that I expected. The first third was fairly boring, but well written - then I got past the middle of the book and it's gotten wild.

I've read a lot of horror and violent books, but this one actually made me feel sick.
Click to expand...
I have the first Mistborn book, but I loathe Sanderson's writing style. Is it still worth reading?
 
I’ve just finished reading ‘Whalefall’ by Daniel Kraus. For someone with a weak spot for deep-sea stories, there’s no better word fit for it but cool.
On its surface it’s about a chap seeking his dead dad’s body out in the ocean, getting swallowed by a whale and seeking a way out- beneath it there’s a struggling father&son story where neither really understood the other, and could not communicate any other way than by diving. The kid tries to prove himself to everyone, but most of all his dad, at least in death.
The diving chapters progress in PSI, which is the pressure unit indicating how much air he‘s got left. It is absolutely packed with diver and marine biology lingo that’s fun to learn abou and, surprisingly, not overwhelming or dry. I now want a knife made of giant squid beak.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_2334.jpeg
    IMG_2334.jpeg
    90.8 KB · Views: 15
  • Like
  • Informative
Reactions: World Famous Quasi Payer, Hweeks, MerriedxReldnahc and 2 others
Girahira said:
I’ve just finished reading ‘Whalefall’ by Daniel Kraus. For someone with a weak spot for deep-sea stories, there’s no better word fit for it but cool.
On its surface it’s about a chap seeking his dead dad’s body out in the ocean, getting swallowed by a whale and seeking a way out- beneath it there’s a struggling father&son story where neither really understood the other, and could not communicate any other way than by diving. The kid tries to prove himself to everyone, but most of all his dad, at least in death.
The diving chapters progress in PSI, which is the pressure unit indicating how much air he‘s got left. It is absolutely packed with diver and marine biology lingo that’s fun to learn abou and, surprisingly, not overwhelming or dry. I now want a knife made of giant squid beak.
Click to expand...
Things to Do in the Belly of the Whale
Dan Albergotti
Measure the walls. Count the ribs. Notch the long days.
Look up for blue sky through the spout. Make small fires
with the broken hulls of fishing boats. Practice smoke signals.
Call old friends, and listen for echoes of distant voices.
Organize your calendar. Dream of the beach. Look each way
for the dim glow of light. Work on your reports. Review
each of your life’s ten million choices. Endure moments
of self-loathing. Find the evidence of those before you.
Destroy it. Try to be very quiet, and listen for the sound
of gears and moving water. Listen for the sound of your heart.
Be thankful that you are here, swallowed with all hope,
where you can rest and wait. Be nostalgic. Think of all
the things you did and could have done. Remember
treading water in the center of the still night sea, your toes
pointing again and again down, down into the black depths.
Click to expand...
 
  • Like
Reactions: Girahira
Finished Viriconium. I liked the first part, The Pastel City (dying earth sci-fi), loved the second part, A Storm of Wings (weird eerie dying earth sci-fi), and liked the third (In Viriconium). The short stories that make up the final part were ok. I'll definitely be reading more M. John Harrison.

soft breathing said:
Love at Six Thousand Degrees by Maki Kashimada
Click to expand...
I picked this up because I was also intrigued by the generational trauma theme and I think I had a slightly better time with it, trying to sort out all the intentionally muddled symbolism. But yeah, not great.

Then I read Andrew Doyle's Free Speech. I wasn't really the reader he had in mind, since he wrote it to persuade people on the other side. It seemed well-argued to me, but I wonder if it would convince people opposed seeing as it's the same arguments people have been making for ages, just condensed and with historical and current-day examples.

After that I read I Pose by Stella Benson because Andrew Doyle recommended it when he was on Andrew Gold's podcast. I absolutely loved it. Benson was a suffragette and this is her first novel, written in 1915 so there's still a bit of
1.png
2.png
3.png
Anyway it's about a gardener who meets a suffragette and ends up travelling to the West Indies with her. Gorgeously written, compelling characters, funny, there's even some fourth wall breaking. Best novel I've read in ages.
 
  • Informative
  • Like
Reactions: World Famous Quasi Payer, glass_houses, Safir and 1 other person
Recently finished Fight Them on the Beaches which was pretty fun. It's a anthology of short stories having to do with alternate history, in particular the Unmentionable Mammal.

To those not in the know: In Alternate History, Operation Sealion (the proposed invasion of Britain by the 3rd Reich) is a complete meme due to how it has been done to absolute death and the fact that pretty much every single scenario has been war-gamed to death and tried. It's a dead horse not worth beating.

The book, however, disagrees. It decides to prove that actually you CAN still write good AH with Sealion if you are creative. And it succeeds.

The last short story is a small essay on Sealion itself and why it is a meme. If you are unfamiliar with the genre I recommend you start by reading that essay (the last chapter) and then go back to read the rest.

I don't want to spoil it much, but the shorts are all good. The authors all take different approaches and most importantly different views of what exactly counts as a "Sealion story". Most of them are not even set during the operation, but they are still related to that Unmentionable Mammal and the results of it's antics on history and the wildly different takes are very amusing.
 
  • Informative
Reactions: World Famous Quasi Payer, Hugbox Kommissar, cold comfort and 1 other person
With the upcoming shitshow that is Star Wars the Acolyte, I've decided to get back into parts of Star Wars I do like and decided to start reading some EU Novels. I recently finished Jedi Apprentice The Call to Vengeance Which I really enjoyed the entire series so far has been good despite being for preteens. Just started the next book The Only Witness. I forgot how much I enjoyed Jude Watson's writing.
 
  • Like
Reactions: World Famous Quasi Payer
After going too far into Russian sci-fi and then getting burned by the sheer cruel scale of A Fire Upon the Deep, I've started Ian Banks's The Culture series.

Goodness, I don't know how to be objective, my first impressions are too strong and too context-dependent: criticize Banks's Culture and its philosophical underpinnings all you want, but this techno-utopian backdrop is delightful following my other recent readings. It gives me a feeling similar to Star Trek:TNG (and makes me thankful that, unlike Star Trek, no Culture media has gotten a Current Year +x TV series made; Banks is already preachy and I'm sure modern screenwriters would zero in on that to the exclusion of everything worth depicting).
 
  • Like
  • Informative
Reactions: World Famous Quasi Payer, Hweeks, cold comfort and 1 other person
Merry said:
Just finished The First Law and Age of Madness series. Seriously great characters and world building in it. Looking forward to the next trilogy in the world. Sharp Ends was really excellent too
Click to expand...
Please tell me that the trouble with peace gets better half way through... I like Joe's work but this feels a bit like a slog.
 
Merry said:
Just finished The First Law and Age of Madness series. Seriously great characters and world building in it. Looking forward to the next trilogy in the world. Sharp Ends was really excellent too
Click to expand...
I just finished The First Law series and I'm making my way thru Best Served Cold right now.

I fucking knew that bitch was fucking her brother. I can smell an incest plotline from a mile away
 
  • Feels
  • Deviant
Reactions: Safir, Merry and if the light takes us
crowabunga said:
After going too far into Russian sci-fi and then getting burned by the sheer cruel scale of A Fire Upon the Deep, I've started Ian Banks's The Culture series.

Goodness, I don't know how to be objective, my first impressions are too strong and too context-dependent: criticize Banks's Culture and its philosophical underpinnings all you want, but this techno-utopian backdrop is delightful following my other recent readings. It gives me a feeling similar to Star Trek:TNG (and makes me thankful that, unlike Star Trek, no Culture media has gotten a Current Year +x TV series made; Banks is already preachy and I'm sure modern screenwriters would zero in on that to the exclusion of everything worth depicting).
Click to expand...

The Culture series is great, but some of the books kinda drag. The best one is Consider Phlebas followed by Excession. The rest are ok, but not as good as those 2.
 
Hweeks said:
Finally finished the Mistborn trilogy - first three books. Best fantasy I've read in a while, although it falls apart a bit in the middle the ending is worth it.

Currently reading American Psycho and it's much more brutal that I expected. The first third was fairly boring, but well written - then I got past the middle of the book and it's gotten wild.

I've read a lot of horror and violent books, but this one actually made me feel sick.
Click to expand...
I thought Brandon Sandersons writing was dry and boring. I don’t understand the appeal at all. I tried very hard to care about the characters enough to sit through the writing but I couldn’t.

I’m currently reading The Mote In God’s Eye

Anyone have any nonfiction recommendations that have to do with the American Legal system?
 
  • Like
Reactions: World Famous Quasi Payer and Hweeks
cemetery support said:
I thought Brandon Sandersons writing was dry and boring. I don’t understand the appeal at all. I tried very hard to care about the characters enough to sit through the writing but I couldn’t.

I’m currently reading The Mote In God’s Eye

Anyone have any nonfiction recommendations that have to do with the American Legal system?
Click to expand...
That's a criticism I've heard a lot about him, and I can see why. I can't really put my finger on it, but his writing style is "simpler" than most fantasy writers. That may be what put you off, but for me it was refreshing to not have to keep track of 70 different houses (looking at you GOT).
 
  • Like
Reactions: World Famous Quasi Payer
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back