1Q84. Magical realism. Bizarre, but can’t stop reading. I need to know mooore.
Rereading Le Guin’s Earthsea saga.
Personally, I think she might be on par with Tolkien and actually surpasses him in a few ways. The 4th book (about a tired mom just trying to get by and care for people in a fantasy world) is the best one, but you need to work your way there.
I liked the first book a lot, and recall liking the series less as it went on.
My experience was that the first book was fine, say 6,5/10. Just enough to move on to the the second, which I absolutely loved 9,5/10. Started reading the third with high expectations but it just didn’t engage me at all. Didn’t get through more than perhaps 25% of it.
I read the first one as a teen and loved it but couldn’t get into the second one. I loved it as an adult and I’m currently 80% of the way through the complete series. It’s got ebbs and flows but overall it’s definitely a masterpiece. For me it’s her mysticism that gives it real depth.
These are on my to do list. Currently been reading through Wheel of Time, which has been on my fantasy to do list for a while.
Finishing the Imperial Radch sci-fi trilogy (Ancillary Justice/Sword/Mercy) by Ann Leckie. Despite the agender language feature (everyone is addressed as she) the books deal more with colonialism, imperialism, and personal identity, rather than gender. Writing style is very information-dense, lots of thoughts and actions happening simultaneously. Compared to other science fiction that I read, it gets much more into the cultural and interpersonal situations, especially the second book.
The Stand by Stephen King.
It’s over 1200 pages long and I have always been scared of anything above six hundred pages.
It’s so good. It’s taking me a long time, but it’s worth it. As always, Stephen King never let’s you down. I just love his writing.
It’s so epic though. Such a great book.
Just finished them instead of reading them right now, but “The Left Hand of Darkness” and “The Dispossessed” by Ursula K. Le Guin. I liked the world building of the first far better, but it didn’t hit at the politics I wanted to read about as much as I wanted, the second being the opposite.
I don’t know why, but I just need content wrapped in sci-fi for me to find it enjoyable, and “The Dispossessed” in particular was what I was looking for, an exploration of anarchism grounded in examples and thought experiment.
Both of them are fantastic books, and definitely worth a read for anybody interested in science fiction, sexuality & gender, and anarchism.
I started the Left Hand of Darkness just a few days ago. It’s been interesting so far
Those are two of the best books I read last year.
No Flinching by Stephen King. It’s a good book, but you really have to go back and start with the Mr. Mercedes series.
Im reading The Bridge on the Drina, and the first Ahriman omnibus from the warhammer universe right now. Id recommend the first to anyone, its an absolute classic. The second I would recommend to anyone who likes warhammer or weird sorcerer bull shit.
Re-reading Shirley Jackson’s “The Haunting of Hill House” because its the best haunted house novel ever written.
I just put this one into my reader, after several quotes from Stephen king reminded me i have it pending…
Got this one on my list.
I read The Lottery by her in High School. Damn that is a good short story
Everything All at Once by Bill Nye. It’s a great guide on how to make a positive change in the world from a scientific perspective.
Though it was written in 2017, I’d say it is more relevant now than ever.
Nearing the end of When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi, which came out a few months ago. It’s a bit silly but I’d recommend it. The premise can be summed up as, “What would happen if the moon turned into cheese?”
I guess…uh…that it’d be less dense, so that’d dick up tides on Earth.
https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/moonfact.html
Mean density (kg/m³): 3344
https://eurekamag.com/research/001/061/001061121.php
At 8 deg C, mean densities of blockformed and conventionally-hooped cheeses were, resp., 1.094 and 1.091 g/ml.
So that’s 1094 kg/m³.
Basically, Earth’s tides would be about a third as strong, which I imagine would affect a bunch of things, especially coastal ecology. Dunno how much tides affect weather.
Also, probably alters the reflectivity of the Moon, so would affect the brightness of the Moon. Might affect a lot of nocturnal critters and such. Hard to estimate, since that depends a lot on what cheese is involved.
In the book, it kept the same mass and got a lot bigger. And of course much brighter.
Ah, gotcha. What type of cheese did it turn into, out of curiosity?
I think that might be too much of a spoiler 😄
I’ll have to check that one out when I finish the Old Man’s War series.
Master of the Five Magics by Lyndon Hardy.
Because i wanted to know what Megadeth and Rothfuss based their stuff on.
Just finished The Cutting Room by Louise Welsh. It was 3/5 for me. Pretty dark, explicit. The pitch was interesting to me but I didn’t feel it delivered too well.
I’m currently reading The Thursday Murder Club and it’s a delight at far, 37% in. No final judgement yet based on that.
Moon of the Crusted Snow and the sequel Moon of the Turning Leaves. Post apocalyptic novel following an Anisinaabe community. Well written and captivating stories.
I just finished Oryx and Crake the first of a trilogy by Margaret Atwood, I quite enjoyed it. It’s a short of dystopian sci-fi. I was put off by her at first because I was forced to read her in high school but I’m glad I gave her another chance.
I’m starting Les Misérables in French in the hopes of improving my written French.
Also working my way through Weapons of the weak which is about forms of peasant resistance.
That’s funny, I’m literally just about to start The Year of the Flood (it’s on the bed next to me), the second in that Atwood trilogy! I thoroughly enjoyed Oryx and Crake when I read it a while back.
How to read a book, by Mortimer Adler
“How to read a book.” Pg. 1
“Turn back to page 1” Pg. 2
