Topic: Books You're Currently Reading?

I've finished 'The Black House' fantastic book. Thanks again to @FuriousMachine for getting me reading Peter May books.

Next up 'The Thursday Murder Club' will start that tonight.

@FuriousMachine With regard to my post above, I was just wondering where you stand on literary biographies? It's slightly cheating a bit, I know, but I still consider myself to be obeying my recent 'no literature, just books rule' ,now that I consider myself to be more well-read than many years ago. This is because a biography of a writer still falls under the non-fiction or biography category, and isn't fiction or a novel, so therefore ,not Literature. Would you ever be tempted to read the biography of a literary titan from your own personal pantheon? If so, who would you most like to read about?

@BlAcK_Sw0rDsMaN I enjoy biographies in general, so sure, absolutely. I would vastly prefer to read about Hamsun than I would reading his prose (though I'm determined to give him another chance at one point, based on your recommendation). To be honest, though, I'm not sure I would be too interested reading analyses of any author's literary work, as I've never had any interest in deconstructing things to see how they were built and that extends to literary work (and other artwork, as well), but learning about the person is something I wouldn't mind at all. An author's life and experiences informs their writing, more often than not, so I'd be fine with that, but a deep analysis of their works wouldn't be of interest to me. It turns reading into something academic and I'm done with studies (at least for the time being - never say never).

I took a look through my to-read list for non-fiction books, as I suspected I had put a Mark Twain biography on there, but I couldn't find it so I think I may have thought to look one up and put on there and then forgot all about it. Or I didn't find any that piqued my interest. I did have a biography on the late, great Terry Pratchett on there, though. Looking forward to that one 🙂

@MightyDemon82 Happy to hear it 🙂I'll be moving on to May's "Enzo Files" series somewhere down the line and there are also quite a few standalone novels I haven't read. After liking both the "China Thrillers" and the "Lewis" series, I feel quite confident I'll like his other stuff as well.

Enjoy murder club; I'm finding it and its elderly members quite entertaining 🙂

I just finished Richard Osman's Thursday Murder Club, which I gave five stars in my Goodreads review
This marks my 50th book for the year!

Now, Geralt of Rivia has been waiting patiently in line for a long time and gracefully allowed me to bump him down the line a couple of times with nary a grumble, so now it is finally his turn when I start Andrzej Sapkowski's Crossroads of Ravens

@Ravix I’ve completed The Last Wish and started the Sword of Destiny. I did quite enjoy the first book and although I do like the individual stories, my brain looks for a way to connect it all and so I can’t help but try to make sense of it all, despite much of it being just isolated events to paint the backdrop of the world and characters with broad strokes.

I am however confused about the relationship between Yennefer and Geralt. Especially after getting into this first part of SoD where they meet up serendipitously as participants in the dragon hunting group. I’ve just finished the part where she talks about 4 years having passed since he ditched her, or something. I’m a little confused if I missed something, or will we find out later why they had a falling apart? There’s the part in the first book where Geralt asks the priestess about Yennefer passing through the temple and asked her to give those gems to Yennefer and the priestess (I forget her name) chides him and tells him it won’t help anything or some such. Anyway, I feel like I either spaced out on some important plot points or interactions between Geralt and Yenn, or perhaps the gaps in the story will be filled in later, or perhaps I’m just supposed to assume he did something selfish and was a jerk to her at some point 4 years ago? Am I missing something?

I have abandoned the James Joyce book, and have now started The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X and Alex Haley, with an introduction by Paul Gilroy. Fascinating stuff, so far.

@Th3solution so, the relationship timeline spans many (many) years, as do the short stories which are also in varying timeline order, which you will probably get a better sense of when you have read more and finally make it to the more linear Novels. I think it does start to unveil itself as you move through Sword of Destiny, though, so I wouldn't worry, and you will definitely get a sense of the ups and downs and what has been going on as you carry on. There are definitely a few key moments in SoD, and actually it is quite a prominent overall (background) theme for the book, i'd say. That said, it isn't always put plainly, but you can easily infer things from the words that are spoken, or even at times the ones that are not spoken, and you can definitely infer things from various actions and inaction.

I don't want to give a flat answer on specifics as my mind naturally muddles things back into the correct order so I don't want to say there is something you may have missed as there's a good chance you simply haven't got to that point yet. I'd say get back to me half way through 'Sword' if it still feels like you are missing something. But for now, I think all you need to know is that it is a bit complex and not always rosey. In fact i'm now certain a big part of one touchstone is revealed in the story you are currently on. And I know for a fact the part where I mentioned Peter Kenny really getting to explore Dandelion as a character is more in how Dandelion himself veiws the lives of the others around him, so he is a bit of a conduit between other characters and us as the reader in his role as an observer and, of course, documenter of the things that have been going on in the world and the lives of those he knows.

If you are still stuck by the end of Sword i'd say you maybe missed something, but I think you are probably right on track ready to be slowly fed details by the natural flow of the books.

What I do know is that I find their relationship very easy to understand (obviously I've read all the books, but everything was learned from the books themselves so, i'm confident you won't be confused for that long) and I think it is really well written relationship with some pretty interesting aspects explored, especially in a mere fantasy tale. To me it is one of the most real elements of the books.

As for trying to connect things in general, it will definitely take more short stories because of the aforementioned timeline jumps as everything starts to come together in a unique way as it moves towards a more linear goal, so I'd just relax and take it all in and enjoy the ride 😄

@FuriousMachine Congrats on your fiftieth, that's no easy achievement. I'd be afraid to check mine, but if it's one each day or one each two days then it's rather up there. I'll pop over to Goodreads in a while and look, and drop you a like while I'm at it. Did Santa Claus bring you any books?

Actually @Ravix might like this one, I've read it twice now. It's niche, I haven't found many if any books about Screamo and I've probably read maybe thirty books about Metal and Black Metal. Those are more common because of the rich history and events surrounding the genre.

@Ravix Ok, that’s really helpful. With the holiday craziness I didn’t get to read/listen much and so I’m still paused in that opening ‘Sword’ story, so I should just try and finish that at least before getting concerned. And if I recall correctly, Sword of Destiny was actually the first book published, so now that I think about it I doubt Sapkowski would just drop a major relationship onto new readers without eventually getting all the appropriate background into the book eventually. It was just such a whiplash with how The Last Wish ends Geralt’s literal ‘last wish’ being implied that Yennefer is saved or that he gets to romance her or whatever. I don’t think it ever said exactly what he wished, only that it ended with them having an intense rollick and her seemingly falling hard for him. So when the very next story I hear is her being completely cruel to him and telling him not to touch or say a word to her, I was properly confused. Of course then I remembered the interaction with the priestess that foreshadowed something going on where he’s trying to gift her the gems. Anyway, I’m happy to hear I’m on track and I’ll alert you if things don’t clear up in the coming chapters.

As a related aside, I’m already pondering 2026 goals and plans and getting back into reading is going to be one of my smaller focuses. I don’t think I’ll be nearly as prolific a reader as most of the folks on here [cough], @FuriousMachine, [cough] but even getting a small number of books read (or listened to) will be more than I’ve been doing for the last few years.

@GirlVersusGame Thanks, it's the second year in a row I managed 50+. Granted, some of the books counted were short novellas, but the average length across all 50 is 350 pages (according to Goodreads stats, anyway) and I'd say that is common length for a novel sized book, so it evens out.

A book a day is something I'll never achieve, unless I teach myself speedreading, and I sort of doubt I could pull that off and still retain any memory of what I'd read. I seem to average around a page a minute, so unless I can stop working or sleeping (or both) then I think 50 pr year is a realistic goal to shoot for in my case

No books from Santa, but I did buy (and start) my first Norwegian language book in probably 20-30 years: The first novel in the series about detective Harry Hole. Been meaning to read those for a while, but as I need to shop outside of my normal bookdealer to get them, I keep forgetting about them. Visiting my sister this holiday, she reminded me that a Netflix series based on the books arrives at the end of March, so I figured I'd try to get through as many of them as possible until then (at least up to and including the fifth novel, which the series first season adapts). I'm liking it so far

@Th3solution Yeah, volume shouldn't be a goal unto itself, in my opinion. I do feel a sense of pride and achievement when I cross the 50 mark, but if I don't and I still feel I've managed to read as much and as often as I wanted to, I'm happy When I got back into reading back in 2013, I'd read around 10 - 15 pr year, but as my to-read list grew, so did my appetite for reading and here we are.
I see that my average rating on Goodreads is 4.2 of 5 stars, so it's been a year full of good books for me. Hope your reading plans for 2026 will bring plenty of enjoyable and fulfilling reads

@FuriousMachine Thanks for the encouragement, and also the wise words. My gaming consumption has taken a similar turn — that is, I’ve been trying to focus on the quality of the experiences rather than just tying to rush through everything. Like you say, the risk there however is the compounding growth of the back catalogue.

I do think I’ll set a quantitative goal (… effective goals kind of have to be measurable) but it will be a really low number, and will hopefully just serve as a nudge to get me back into it.

@FuriousMachine That's still really good going considering you work a job too, unless it also allows you to read books or plug in an audiobook while you work. One of the friends on there works in a library, she should be working, but instead spends all day reading. I do the same thing obviously, but she gets a wage from it. I tend to start then not stop until I finish so it would be an early morning thing until mid-evening. It's a big part of how I've learned English, there's so much repetition in the words and if I find one I don't understand I just look it up. One day you'll retire? and then just read books all day? I know a lot of collectors who spend their life collecting, their goal is to retire and then read them all.

Your first Norwegian language book in so long? That should sound a little odd to hear but I understand what you mean. I'm not sure if it's the collector mentality but I don't buy or read as many Russian books anymore. I don't use a lot of English in my daily life but I think English is easier to preserve on printed paper. One day I'll donate everything to a library, or build a library and of course it needs to be accessible. Is it harder to find actual physical bookstores in Norway now? I try to focus entirely on specific stores, I like to support their business but it feels like many of them are engendered. The exception being rare and antiquated books, which are my go to. So many of the bigger ones, chain stores have gone into liquidation.

At the moment I'm reading:
Apollo 20: The Untold Story of a Mission That Never Happened, History’s Strangest Deaths, How to Lose a War: The Story of America's Intervention in Afghanistan, Humboldt: Life on America’s Marijuana Frontier, Tales From Development Hell (New Updated Edition): The Greatest Movies Never Made?, Hezbollah: The Global Footprint of Lebanon’s Party of God, The Mystery of Skara Brae: Neolithic Scotland and the Origins of Ancient Egypt, Christmas: A Biography, Beyond the Tower: A History of East London, Einstein's Monsters: The Life and Times of Black Holes (3rd time, it's fascinating) Breaking the Chains of Gravity: The Story of Spaceflight Before NASA, Designing Detroit: Wirt Rowland and the Rise of Modern American Architecture, Brutalist Britain: Buildings of the 1960s and 1970s, The Old Magic of Christmas: Yuletide Traditions for the Darkest Days of the Year (I finished that this afternoon)

That might seem like a lot but it's not Christmas here until January so all I'm doing is reading all day, I have another thirty or so to get through once I finish those. It's mainly all learning, I do like some fiction but I feel that the urge to learn is stronger and books are by far my best tool to do that. I think my last fiction books were the works of M. R. James, all of H.P. Lovecrafts work and perhaps three more editions of Dracula, that would have been Halloween.

@Th3solution Yeah, that's a good plan. For the Goodreads reading challenge, I will typically set a goal I'd consider low for a "good" year where I'll have lots of time for some nice reading (like this year), but high enough that I will consider reaching it an accomplishment if it's been a year busy with other things.

And speaking of backlogs, I find that organising my to-read list and making loose plan for my next 30 or so books also keeps me stoked for what's coming down the line. Helps to have some exciting titles next in line if the book I'm reading is good enough to want to finish but still a bit "heavy" to pick up, metaphorically

@Th3solution ooh, we can discuss the Last Wish interpretations and characters a bit more now. So yes, you may need to infer a little more than just a frolick and a romance, but I imagine you are being intentionally obtuse 😁

All the following is discussion from The Last Wish book, but i'll spoiler tag it for anyone else that has not read that.

All in all, this is why I like Sapkowski's style, I think. He subverts traditional fantasy, includes his own world veiws and personality (very classic European dry humour, cynical, tragic and self deprecating, but still hopeful and believing in doing what is right) and the characters and how they interact in the stories are heavily influenced by these things.

As you aren't getting to read much more maybe a little discussion about the first book would be good. Sometimes it helps absorb the book a little more if you have someone to talk about certain moments with, to share your own interpretations of events and all that kind of thing. So i'll be happy to read through and chat about your own thoughts, if you like 😄

@Ravix I didn't even notice you were there. I thought these were the one person.

Is it the same character?

@GirlVersusGame I read on the bus to and from work and also in my lunch break, but audiobooks doesn't work for me; I can't concentrate enough on them, so I listen to music while I work (and read, for that matter) instead.
As for the low volume of Norwegian language books, it is simply the case of there not being all that many Norwegian books I've been interested in (and until recently, Norwegian e-books have been quite expensive, compared to their English counterparts). And most of the authors I read write in English and I read English nearly as well as I read Norwegian, so no need to expose myself to a potentially clunky translation when the original language will do

Thankfully, physical bookstores are still hanging on here in Norway, there are a couple of chains who are doing fairly well. I think this also comes down to language; I believe the Norwegians who prefer reading in Norwegian are still the majority and they seem to prefer physical books. Which is good. As we've been over earlier in this thread, I would vastly prefer physical myself, but right now it's simply not feasible for me, so I'm happy that there still seems to be enough of a customer base to keep the bookstores alive
And they typically stock a a lot of board games, too, so I make a point of supporting the stores by buying my board games there as often as I can (and my sister loves reading physical books, so I always get her gift cards for her birthday).

That's a solid list! I've been wanting to read a bit more about Skara Brae, but after reading the reviews I can tell that Laird Scranton's angle isn't what I'm looking for. Fascinating place, have you been there? I've been twice, most recently last summer, and can heartily recommend it. The Orkney Islands have tons of fantastic places to visit, from stone circles to barrows to castles and more. Fantastic place

@GirlVersusGame mine is a sad henry of Skalitz (KCD) crying at being shunned by PushSquare at christmas that ended up looking similar in colour pallette and style to Sol's AI Milo Ventimiglia-alike wizard(?)

Also, apologies I probably was due to reply to you somewhere at some point about something (others too) but i've been christmassing a bit lately. Now... If you were to read The Witcher books, you'd have my undying attention, of course 😛 and as this is the book thread I may just have to make sure I get another PushSquarian onto 'the path' but you may be the biggest challenge yet.

@FuriousMachine Fascinating place, have you been there? I've been twice, most recently last summer, and can heartily recommend it. The Orkney Islands have tons of fantastic places to visit.

• I've been to the more remote parts of Scotland, the Highlands but I would like to visit. I've been to other sites like Stonehenge, The Valley of the Kings (Egypt is one of my favorite countries for historical value) Abu Simbel, Bagann in Myanmar (dangerous, don't go there) for it's temples, Gobekli Tepe but that was very brief, a lot of the more remote sites in Syria, Israel, Iran, Kuwait. Just not a lot of Europe. Some English castles when I wanted to see where a lot of my favorite Hammer Horror movies were filmed. I followed their locations guide book and plotted a course between each one. Most are scattered around the South of England so it was easy enough. I think Syria stands out the most, there was a different energy. Past and modern resilience. The people are like those of the Lebanon, they've been through so much and they still make you feel so welcome, the men are gorgeous too, their hospitality is truly remarkable. Iran too, Persians are some of the warmest people I've met and very proud of their culture and history. They've given the world so much in art and science but people are afraid to visit, like most of the places I go.

I haven't visited many Mosques, I have what you might call agoraphobia and those particular buildings though quiet feel very open. Which doesn't help with frequent travel, there are places I'd like to visit but they are much too busy like Dome of the Rock. That's where exceptions like Madain Salih and Petra can be made. We had to get up at four in the morning just to see the Pyramids. I don't know if you know Bamiyan Valley in Afghanistan, that was recent, this year. It's heavily controlled by the Taliban so you don't get tourists, but it's beautiful. Syria is so beautiful too but so many people might never visit, the same for Pakistan. There are sites like Moenjodaro that most people might not even know exists. I haven't seen many sites in Africa, nor in Asia, but I've been all over the Middle East and soaked in a lot of their history. I wanted to visit some places in Japan but again they are far too busy. I'd like to eventually visit a Native American reservation, I find their culture and folk fascinating. I've seen historical sites in the DPRK too, but those weren't 'real' and very tourist free, the whole city was.

I'd like to visit Verdens Ende in your country, I learned about it after a visit to Megiddo in Israel. I think the only place I haven't been to is Alaska. I'd like to visit Fairbanks, it's full of huskies, also Aoshima, it's an island full of cats. I don't have a bucket list, it's not tourism either, I just accompany and sometimes historical sites like that are manageable. Reading about the others fills in the gaps if that makes sense.

Actually another place that was recent that you might know was Rennes le' Chateau. I've you've read much about the history of the Templar Order or of the Priory of Scion you'd know it. If you've read Michael Baigent's Holy Blood Holy Grail it would sound familiar. It plays a key role in that whole 'Jesus Mystery'. There are more sites in Israel that I'd like to visit too but they pack them full of tourists so the sense of security is there which helps with the anxiety but there are just too many people. And of course I recently found out what's happening there now so that puts me off visiting too. I've visited a number sites in Mexico too but the names escape me, it was a different kind of energy.

If I ever go back to America I'd like to visit Wardenclyffe Tower, Nikola Tesla is a kind of idol to me so I see that site as deeply historical too. He had the same thing of looking at something and taking it apart in his mind, rotating it, then forming his conclusion. I thought everyone did that, then I found out otherwise after I started reading all of his autobiographies. Such an amazing man, he could have changed the world for the better, free energy for all, but greed prevailed. I think he was born in the wrong time.