Topic: Books You're Currently Reading?

@sorteddan Sounds like the kind of book a lot of people could use just now.

@BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN I'm quite good, thank you I'm currently on vacation and many activities demands attention, so I don't get to read as much as usual. I have a three and a half hour bus ride home tomorrow (been spending a lovely few days with the Swedes), so I fully expect to finish the fifth entry of the Murderbot Diaries, "Network Effect", then. Will probably post my thoughts on that during the weekend

Yeah, "Les Miserables" is absolutely something I'm up for, so I'll add it to my classics project.
Hope you are well, too, and that the summer is treating you well

@sorteddan That's so funny, because literally just yesterday I saw a video of Jon Stewart interviewing John Mulaney on The Daily Show and they referenced that exact event.

Will absolutely check out the book, sounds like just my jam

@get2sammyb Personally, I'd welcome any activity on this thread that relates to reading

@RogueCooper Cool! I got back into reading regularly in 2013 and since then I've read around 360 books. There really isn't anything that compares to getting lost in a great story, reading an interesting biography or learning about the world through compelling non-fiction.

While I don't own any Kindle hardware, the Kindle app and ebooks were instrumental in getting me back into reading again. The simple convenience of just opening the app on my phone on the bus to work and get right back into a book, for then to have it sync to the app on my work PC for some reading at lunch break, continuing on the bus home and even on my home PC for some evening reading is just something that makes reading completely hassle free. And wherever I am, I have at least one book with me (usually several, though ).

I am considering getting a Kindle reader as well, though. I am using my tablet for reading when on holiday and the like, but it is a tiny bit on the heavy side to be perfectly comfortable and the screen can be impossible to read in sunny conditions. As I understand it, the Kindle screens are quite good against glare. For now, though, just having the app on every digital surface I own serves me well.

Welcome to the club, and this thread, I'm looking forward to hear your thoughts on your reread (and thanks for reminding me that I need to get that one on my reading list )

I finished Martha Wells' Network Effectm the fifth entry in her "Murderbot Diaries" series. The first (and, so far, only) full length novel in the series is also the weakest, in my opinion. It's still a very good Murderbot adventure, but it felt somewhat slower and drawn out and while there were quite a few chuckles and some memorable new characters (Amara!) this one only just manages to get up to four stars for me.

This has been the summer of Murderbot for me, reading the series as well as watching the Apple TV+ adaptation, which is very good. Alexander Skarsgård is fantastic as the titular Murderbot, and the show is every bit as funny as books. Highly recommended!

I also read another novella from Stephen King's Night Shift collection. This time it was Trucks, which served as the basis for the movie "Maximum Overdrive". While I can't remember much from the movie (other than the ridiculous, but iconic, Green Goblin truck), I do remember that is wasn't very good. The novella, however, is a different matter entirely, very intense and enjoyable. Five stars.

I am also about a quarter in to Michael Connelly's The Waiting, his latest Ballard/Bosch novel, and so far it's really good. This one may go quickly

@RogueCooper Aha, I see, you're a.k.a. Peace Salad, right?. <tsk tsk> confusing an easily confused old man like that is not very nice
As far as I know, the profiles on Goodreads are public by default, not sure if you can even make it private (you can specify what information is publicly displayed, however, to an extent).

Thanks for confirming the screen quality of the Kindle device, btw; glad to hear you're happy with it
Speaking of graphic novels and Kindle, I've only seen B&W screens of it, so I was wondering how the colours are; if they're vibrant or if there's a trade-off there?

@RogueCooper
When I got my first kindle years ago I used it so much that one time I was reading an actual book and held my finger on a word waiting for the dictionary to show up... Doh.

Haven't read that one for years but enjoyed it back in my younger days, but then I was more into intoxicated wrecklessness at that point so the themes fit well with me. May have to revisit it some time as it's still in my collection... I do like boarding books.

@FuriousMachine I finished Les Miserables by Hugo today and thought it was a masterpiece. Highly recommend, despite a couple of sections similar to sections in Moby-Dick in the sense that I felt they were used as "padding", deviations from the plot where the author reflects and expresses their own opinions, basically, but both books are masterpieces, nonetheless.

And now I feel like my literary education of the classics is complete! ,I've started reading my copy of this month's EMPIRE magazine today, as well, and feel like I can move on to that, other mags and papers, Wisden and manga as well to maintain my literacy now.

Do you ever read any manga or have you in the past? How about anime if you don't read manga?

@RogueCooper
Forgot to mention earlier but you can get a load of free ebooks, mostly older out of copyright stuff if you check out Project Gutenberg at https://www.gutenberg.org/

Really good and easy if you've got one of the internet Fire models You could probably transfer them over to other Kindle models from a OF as well but I wouldn't know much about that.

@BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN Despite having been fascinated by Japanese culture and history for a very long time, manga and anime have never been anything that interested me. It's not something I would avoid, but there's not been anything that has caught my interest. They also typically use art styles I'm not overly fond of. Again, nothing against them, but they just don't do it for me. On the anime side, though, I'm not even sure what differs an anime from animated series/movie anymore, so there may have been some that I've seen that I like and that qualifies ("Blade Runner: Black Lotus", "Castlevania").

Also, I've not seen many of the famous ones, like "Akira", which I will rectify on July 16th, when that movie is showing at a cinema here. Already have my ticket and am looking forward to it. Will post my thoughts on that in the movie thread when the time comes

@FuriousMachine Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

@FuriousMachine On the topic of Japanese culture and history, I have ,just, coincidentally, started The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami ,who I have been told, despite this book being set in Japan, and I can't really tell, as style varies so significantly from author to author, writes in a "Western" style. But, yeah, the book seems promising so far, and if you want I can update you with my thoughts as I go along, since you say you are interested in Japanese culture and history.

@BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN I've been meaning to pick up Murakami again; I read a Norwegian translation of Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman one of his short story collections a little under 20 years ago that I really liked. That was around the time that I fell off reading regularly and it would take almost ten years before I got active again.
I would love to hear your take on him, so please post your thoughts

@RogueCooper I've decided to tackle some Dostoevsky and/or Tolstoy somewhere down the line, so I'm looking forward to hear your thoughts on "Notes..". Have you read any Dostoevsky before?

I finished the Star Wars book which was a lot of fun. I really like the villians in this series, I'll probably rotate at least one of these in each month until I'm finished.

I also read 'Fullmetal Alchemist Fullmetal edition volume 16' only 2 more to go before it's over.

Next up though is 'Chinese Whispers' I have really enjoyed this series. Thank you @FuriousMachine for getting me into this one. Hopefully it goes out on a high!

@RogueCooper Thanks, man I'm adding What I Talk About When I Talk About Running to my Wishlist now, and, couldn't help but notice your thoughts about Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment is actually my least favourite Dostoevsky book. Have you read The Brothers Karamazov (Easily his best) or The Devils ? (that's there in second place).

So, therefore, building on what Coop has said, @FuriousMachine ,I would highly endorse The Brothers Karamazov in addition to Crime and Punishment, which I may have to reread to perhaps gain a greater appreciation of, at this stage in my life. And, I will, of course, post my thoughts about The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle in due course.

@MightyDemon82 Really happy that you've been enjoying it, mate! In my mind, Chinese Whispers was one of the strongest in the series. Hope it doesn't let you down!

@RogueCooper Wow, the Trans Siberian Railway has been on my bucket list for a long time, so I'm positively green with envy over that. What an experience it must have been!

@BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN @RogueCooper I will probably start with "Karamzov", then, and move on to C&P if I like it. Thanks guys

@FuriousMachine Good luck! I reckon you're in for a treat!