Welcome to year’s first weekly thread! How are you all doing? And what are you book / reading related resolutions for this year?
I started Ultra-processed Food by Chris van Tulleken
Just started it, but looks like an interesting read. It’s about the ultra-processed food we eat these days.
Also skimming through Ryder Caroll’s The Bullet Journal Method. Read this last year (or was that year before that?) and wanted to check something but decided to skim through most of it.
Still reading The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson, 3rd book in the 2nd era of Mistborn. It was going great but didn’t get to read much last week or so, should be getting back to it now.
What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening to lately?
For details on the c/Books bingo challenge that just restarted for the year, you can checkout the initial Book Bingo, and its Recommendation Post. Links are also present in our community sidebar.
I just got to part 3 of Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry, what a ride, loving it so far.
I started reading Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. I wanted to read the book before the adaptation comes out.
Other than that I’ve also been reading The Murderbot Diaries. (Read 4 of the 7 books published so far).
SPQR by Mary Beard
Empire of AI by Karen Hao
A deep dive into AI history and current events. Very interesting and somewhat terrifying.
As a caveat, I’m not an AI advocate, and in fact, the more I read (listen) the more horrifying what is happening and has happened already I find it.
A Christmas road trip helped me wrap up A Memory Called Empire. Absolutely loved it, fantastic book if you’re into scifi. Went straight on to the sequel, A Desolation Called Peace.
I’m about half way through Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut. And I just started The Witches by Roald Dahl. Trying to read as many banned books as possible this year. So far, I don’t get why any of them have been banned.
I just finished the Book of Dust trilogy by Phillip Pullman, and just started Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin, which I’ve been wanting to read for like 10 years.
How would you rank Book of Dust relative to His Dark Materials (assuming you’ve also read them)?
Just finished:
- How to Be Both by Ali Smith. Interesting concept (two stories, read them in any order, each story recontextualizes the other) that I think I’ll need to read again in the other order.
- Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico. Great satire, really enjoyed it
Haven’t picked my next one yet, but probably from this list:
- Spread Me by Sarah Gailey. Looks like a fun take on The Thing
- Sunward by William Alexander. Don’t know much about it, other than it was well reviewed
- The True True Story of Raja the Gullible (and His Mother) by Rabih Alameddine. Was well reviewed
Oh I loved How to Be Both. I’ve read most of Ali Smith’s novels and I’ll continue until I’ve read them all. How to Be Both might be my favorite so far.
The Deep Sky by Yume Kitasei. Main part of the story takes place on a generation ship that has been sabotaged, but there are multiple flashbacks to MC’s childhood, astronaut training, politics and climate of the time. Pretty interesting so far.
Structural Sin and the Death of Institutions, by Susannah Cornwall.
I’m about 95% done Alchemised by SenLinYu. I know some people really didn’t like it, but I fall on the completely opposite end. I would havd finished it yesterday, but I forced myself to slow down and enjoy the last 50 pages.
Also in the middle of reading Boulevard Wren and Other Stories by Blindboy Boatclub. My partner has gifted me Blindboy’s latest book for Christmas, so I’ll be on to that this year, too.
I’m going to have an Alchemised hangover, so I might take a short break before I pick up my next.
If you are enjoying your current book about ultra processed food, I’d recommend That Sugar Book (and documentary “That Sugar Film”) by Damon Gameau.
Thanks for the recommendation, will take a look!
The Three Musketeers (English translation).
I’m reading Stranger in a Strange Land and How to do Nothing.
I’m really liking stranger in a strange land. What he imagined as sci-fi is interesting especially if you remember it’s written in the 60s. Lots of dialog, which I enjoy.
I’m not loving how to be perfect. I’m about 25% through, and it feels like most of it could have just been a blog post. Very verbose for the content provided.
Currently rereading The Exiled Queen, the second in Cinda Williams Chima’s Seven Realms series (one of my favorites). I read the first just before Christmas, then took a detour to read one of my Christmas presents - Symphony of the Sojourn by Rowan Alexandria Bennett, which I positively adored. It’s been a really good few weeks of reading, and I’m looking forward to continuing the Seven Realms, and then the follow up series - The Shattered Realms - after that.
My reading goal for the year is to actually track the books I read, so I can look back at the end of the year and actually remember what I read. I’ve downloaded the StoryGraph app to that end, now I just have to remember to use it…
Just finished listening to:
- Every Tool’s a Hammer, by Adam Savage (self narrated)
- Moby Dick, by That One Guy (Anthony Heald narrating)
- Immune, by Philipp Dettmer (Steve Taylor narrating)
- Everything is Tuberculosis, by John Green (self narrated)
Just borrowed to listen, but haven’t started:
- Animal Farm, by George Orwell (Ralph Cosham narrating)
- Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury (Tim Robbins narrating)
Earlier in the year I listened to Kafka’s Metamorphosis in Persian, that was wild.
Libby is awesome
