Topic: Books You're Currently Reading?

@FuriousMachine after listening to one chapter all I can say is the humour is definitely on point and overall it feels very familiar.

And yes, there's is a LOT of Latin I can now confirm.

In terms of the audiobook quality, Peter Kenny singing Gregorian Chant is top notch, possibly something taking it up a level from the book itself, unless you are prepared to partake in song, yourself, as the reader...
AaAaAaAaAaAaAaAhhhh-men 😅

Anyone who does like KCD should probably read or listen to this, for sure, too.

@Ravix Adding it to my reading list. It is nr. 937 If I manage to keep up this year's pace of 50+ books in a year, I may even get to it before I die!
I'm unable to get into audiobooks; I can't focus and my mind drifts as my "eyes get bored" and I start trying to multitask (which never works). It's different when I read, then I'm (for the most part) fully committed and focused. I know I'm missing out on some stellar readings. I have Stephen Fry's Greek mythology books coming up soon, and he's reading the audiobooks himself, so I may have to try again with those.

Finished The Ruined Map by Kobo Abe, I found it to be much more enjyoable than The Woman in the Dunes by the same author, so I would say if you felt you had to pick just one, go for the former over the latter. A perplexing puzzle of a book, the ending of which I won't spoil, but will just say I thought the book concluded appropriately and was consistent with the overall style of the plot.

Just started The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte, the lesser-known Bronte sister. Seems impeccably written so far.

@FuriousMachine Just curious, do you prefer physical or ebooks ,with regard to your consumption of literary material? I mean, I prefer physical copies of books myself, don't have a kindle or anything, I like the sensation of holding a book in my hands as I read it.

@BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN I also like the tactile feeling of holding a book in my hands, but there are some practical limitations there that makes me go Kindle for 99% of the books I read.
My biggest problem with printed books is that my eyesight struggles with them. If I want to read them I need a very well-lit area and I cannot have my contacts in, which makes it difficult to see anything else. I used to have glasses in addition to contacts, but my eyesight changes so frequently now that I've spent a fortune on changing glasses three times over the last five years and my last pair of a little over a year ago is all but useless to me now. So, for now, I'm contacts only.
Another reason is that I simply haven't the shelf space. I know I could borrow from the library, but that's not really a convenient solution for me. I'm hoping to move to a place where I can have a decent sized bookshelf, but skyrocketing housing prices is about to chase me from my home and force me into a smaller space instead.
The main reason for digital, though, is portability. I read on the bus to and from work, in my lunch break, whenever I'm stuck waiting for public transport that's always late and having my books available without having to carry a bag is very helpful and the only reason I manage to read as often as I do

@FuriousMachine I see, very good reasoning behind your decision, to keep things kindle-based, I feel.

I have given up on Anne Bronte's The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and would not recommend her book to anyone, unless they are ardent fans of her sister, Charlotte, or Austen's works, which I am not. Emily Bronte, on the other hand, is another kettle-of-fish entirely, I loved Wuthering Heights , with it's bleakness, moroseness and supernatural overtones.

I am currently hunting through an old copy of the Times Literary Supplement, for further recommendations that are more to my taste than Anne or Charlotte's works.

I'm curious, Furious, have you ever read the TLS or found any books worth reading in there?
How do you usually find your books?

@FuriousMachine Merry Xmas by the way!

A happy Christmas to my fellow bookworms here in the PushSquare community. I’ve just lit a few candles with a banger cup of fresh coffee and am about to read a little French. Hoping all of you have the chance to put your feet up this week and enjoy some prose with a little, well-earned quiet

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas.

Last night I finished The Exorcist, it surprised me. I look forward to seeing the film at somepoint. Before The Exorcist I read Slewfoot by Brom I will track down his other books as I enjoyed that one!

My final reads of 2024 are Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka and The Ghost Cat by Alex Howard.

@BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN Well, we don't get the Times readily here in Norway and I'm not aware of anything similar to the TLS over here, though I'm fairly certain such a thing exists, should I go looking.
With a to-read list currently numbering 935 novels of varying shapes, sizes and genres, I should probably avoid book recommendations for the next 20 years or so, but I keep stumbling upon books I get interested in reading, mainly in this very thread and through my connections on Goodreads.
As an example, I rarely explore classic literature and I've never really given Bronte or Austen any real consideration, but your mention of Wuthering Heights made me curious, so my list now stands at 936

@BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN @MightyDemon82 @Enriesto Hope you all had a great Christmas, too (and all the other bookworms on here, as well)

Finished Michael Connelly's The Late Show (Goodreads page) over the holidays. Introducing Renée Ballard, who seems to be Harry Bosch's heir apparent, this novel was a good introduction to the character and her corner of the LAPD. While her approach to solving cases felt a bit similar to Bosch, I still enjoyed how it all played out, even though the "main" case hewed a bit close to the blueprint Connelly used a bit too many times in the earlier Bosch books. Looking forward to following this character further. Four stars.

Next up is another Dragonlance novel about the second generations of heroes, Dragons of Summe Flame (Goodreads page).

Finished Secret Rendezvous by Kobo Abe. That was certainly a bizarre and provocative journey, definitely not one for the squeamish or faint-hearted. Needless to say, Abe certainly must have had a fertile and unique imagination. One of the most unusual and singular books I have ever read. I would say I found it more enoyable to read overall than The Master and Magarita by Bulgakov, but still had it's disturbing moments, so stay forewarned and forearmed before approaching the text, if it pleases you to do so.

Next on my list is Rashomon and 17 Other Stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa.

2025 is here and I've been reflecting a bit on my journey with the written word for the past year.
2024 was a surprisingly good year in books for me. I was almost certain that I wouldn't get as much time reading this year as I usually do, so I lowered my reading challenge goal to 25 books, from my usual 30. The end result turned out to be 52 "books" read in 2024. I put "books" in quotes, as some of them were novellas the size of mere (digital) pamphlets, but, according to the stats on Goodreads, the average page count of all 52 works were 378, which is a fairly normal novel size.

The first novel of the year was James Clavell's Shogun, a fantastic epic that set the bar very high for the novels to follow. One of the easiest five star ratings I've ever given.

I finished Andrzej Sapkowski's Witcher series and Peter May's China Thrillers; two series that's provided quite a bit of entertainment. I also started, and finished, William Gibson's Sprawl trilogy, which, while not bad, left a little to be desired, as well as the almost uniformly excellent John Cleaver series by Dan Wells. Highly recommended!

2024 saw fresh novels from some old favourites in the form of Stuart Turton's The Last Murder at the End of the World, Peter May's The Black Loch (a new entry in the "Lewis" series) and Mercy of Gods by James S.A. Corey, of "Expanse" fame. All of these were very good reads, but interestingly, none of them reached the heights of their respective authors' previous work, in my opinion.

Some of the new authors I got introduced to this year that impressed were, in addition to the aforementioned Dan Wells, Grady Hendrix with the brilliantly titled The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, Amor Towles (A Gentleman in Moscow) and Percival Everett (James).

The latter two were heavy contenders for favourite novel of the year, only slightly edged out by the breadth of a samurai's blade by "Shogun". I really cannot recommend these three novels enough.

Another pleasant surprise was Exodus - The Archimedes Engine by Peter F. Hamilton. I've struggled with Hamilton's books before, finding them very dense, but this one offered no resistance and was a shining example of great stories woven together with sublime world-building (or, rather, universe-building).

There was plenty of time for "comfort" reads as well: 10 Michael Connelly novels set in the Harry Bosch universe was consumed, no less than two happy reunions with one of my favourite characters, Holly Gibney, in Stephen King's If It Bleeds and Holly. I also returned to the world of Krynn with some new (to me) Dragonlance novels, the quality of which was varied, but had a consistently high nostalgia factor to see me through the rough parts.

All in all, a pretty fantastic year for reading for me. Apologies for the long post, but if any on here are looking for something to read, maybe some of these may be of interest?

Happy new year fellow readers and may we all have a fantastic 2025 with lots of gripping, edifying and compelling books to read

I would love to hear how you guys would sum up your reading year! Which were your favourites? Any disappointments or unexpected pleasant surprises? Any that's taken up residence in your mindspace and refuses to go away, for good or ill?

@PeaceSalad Happy to hear that you still find it worthwhile to pursue fiction (and hopefully fun, too). I remember you saying that you wanted to make an effort to read more earlier in the year
Coming across a boring or dense novel can easily put a halt to such an endeavor, which is why I've found that having a couple of alternatives I'm excited about on hand is very useful, as I can then quickly discard the one that doesn't provide joy and immediately get back on the horse again with one that has a good chance of being a compelling read. Luckily, I haven't had a DNF for quite a while, but I've been close a couple of times.
While I found Blood of Elves to be one of the weaker novels in the series, it was still quite a good read, so I should think you'll enjoy that one as well.
Happy new year, mate; may you have lots of fun and engaging reads in the year to come

@PeaceSalad Took me a while to stop feeling like I would somehow have failed at something if I didn't finish a book I started; then along came Jack Kerouac's "On the Road" and I realised that life is just too short to spend massive amounts of time on something I didn't truly enjoy. Haven't looked back since!

Finished Dragons of Summer Flame, by Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman, which has the dubious honor of being the most unsatisfying Dragonlance novel I've read yet. It seems the intent was to chuck out all the old and usher in the new, which could be a good thing if it had been executed well. As it stands, it just felt like going through the motions and very few of the sacrifices the characters made had any heft, mainly because most of them were strangers to me. I don't know if someone who's read every single Dragonlance novel between this and the original trilogy would have felt more of a connection to these characters, but I sure didn't. Even the returning characters from the OG chronicles felt thin and wasted. Two and a half stars.

I've also started Burning Chrome, a short-story collection by William Gibson and intend to use it as a palate cleanser in-between novels. I finished the first novella, Johnny Mnemonic, which is set in "the Sprawl" of Neuromancer fame. This is a tight and fast novella with an insane amount of world building for such a short story. Very good, five stars.

I've been wanting to read something of Nathan Ballingrud, so when I learned that The Strange was getting adapted, it seemed like a good place to start. Apparently, it's a sci-fi western in the vein of True Grit, set on Mars. Should be interesting.

Finished Rashomon and 17 Other Stories: Penguin Deluxe Classics Edition .I found the first third of the book to be excellent, and while the second and third sections of the book were good also, but I didn't enjoy them as much as the Japanese-mythology/samurai-influenced content in the first third of the book. Still worth reading for the first third, and the final, autobiographical secton suggested that the author led quite a troubled life, dying young and struggling with his mental health.

Oh, and to sum up my reading year, Moby-Dick: Penguin Deluxe Classics Edition and The Portable Chekhov were the highlights, with works by Kobo Abe being notable for their singularity and literary quality, I also greatly enjoyed The Portable Mark Twain but I am unsure if I read that the previous year, along with James by Percival Everett.

@FuriousMachine Hey man, how are you? Hope all is going well, fellow PushSquare bookworm! .I was just wondering how you turn the titles of books into Goodreads links on here? Thanks in advance!