I’ve just started reading The Wager. I’m a sucker for ship based media, and I’m hoping this’ll be no exception.
It’s my third book of the year after previously reading both A Clash of Kings and How to get rid of a president
I’m one of those people who reads several books at once, swapping between them depending on my mood and engagement. Currently the great mortality by John Kerry, the salted earth by Jeff Somers, woken furies by Richard Morgan, a journal of the plague year by Daniel Defoe, velocity weapon by Megan O’Keefe, and a couple of others that I may not finish.
Finishing the Lightbringer Series by Brent Weeks.
Next up is I think Murtagh by Christopher Paolini.The Wager sounds interesting but I’m not too much into non-fiction. How is it written? Does it feel like a fiction book?
I’ll be honest with you, up until this comment I thought it was fictional.
Wow haha I guess that says it all
I find nonfiction way too hard to focus on when I read it traditionally, but listening to the audio version instead has helped a lot. It becomes almost like a podcast that I can put on in the background while I do other stuff
Children of Ruin, by Adrian Tchaikovsky.
It’s the sequel to Children of Time that won the Hugo award a few years ago.
Children of time may be the best science fiction book I’ve ever read (out of hundreds), and I’ve been devouring everything else by Tchaikovsky ever since.
The dude has range, and has been incredibly prolific over his career.
And the writing style is incredible. He makes incredibly complex concepts/plots very very easy to understand and follow.
@sunbytes He has done a fantasy series called “Shadows of the Apt” too and that is incredible also.
Jane Eyre - charlotte bronte
Sadly my first one this year. Do you habe BookWyrm?
I’ve been using a service called Hardcover after switching over from StoryGraph last year. I’ve been searching for a ‘letterboxd for books’ for years and I think this is the closest I’ve found so far.
Hardcover is my favorite as well (though I’m still tracking in StoryGraph and Goodreads mainly because Goodreads does it automatically from Calibre). My only issue with Hardcover is that it’s got the worst book database so far but that’s a relatively easier fix with services like openlibrary. My link is in my profile for both.
Sorting the Beef from the Bull: The Science of Food Fraud Forensics. I saw it mentioned it in one of the threads about the recent apple sauce food poisoning, and it’s very interesting (whoever that was, if you are reading it, thank you!).
I finished A Memory of Light (the final book in the Wheel of Time Series) and The Last Metal by Brandon Sanderson. Now I’m rereading The Lord of the Rings.
I’m also reading The Recording Engineers Handbook and Complete Vocal Technique.
If you like fantasy you should definitely give the Name of the Wind a try. This is by far my favorite fantasy book.
I’ve read it and I loved it indeed. I hope The Doors of Stone comes out soon
Currently I’m reading (if audiobooks count) Bookshops and Bonedust by Travis Baltree
I’m enjoying it so far, I really enjoyed Legends and Lattes by Travis Baltree as well so when this one came out it was an instant buy
The DevOps Handbook: How to Create World-Class Agility, Reliability, and Security in Technology Organizations
I’m a huge fucking nerd and read mostly stuff like this. I’ve got a rousing book of user story mapping on deck next!
I would love to hear book recommendations from you. I can do software dev and I self host a few services personally, but I do guesswork at scaling services, security, automated deployments, CICD, etc. Do you have suggestions? (Agile books are also cool)
Half way through the fourth book in the Shopocalypse Series -
Buy Mort: 30,000 Leagues: How I Merged And Became New Earth Affiliated by Joseph Phelps and Damien Hanson
I was actually just reading about this series on Goodreads a few days ago; is it delightful, or simply Okay?
The Wheel of Time (the while saga). Going for the second book right now.
I’m on book 5 right now and it’s quite the ride. Hope you enjoy it as much as I have been.
Nice. I finished the final book a couple of weeks ago. It’s one of the best series I’ve ever read!
Have either of you tried the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind? It was written after Wheel of Time and I feel like Terry borrowed/stole some ideas from Rober Jordan but personally I think the Sword of Truth was better written.
I have not, but it’s going on my reading list. Thanks for the tip. I like longer series, especially fantasy series that you can really delve into. So the Sword of Truth fits perfectly
I hope you like it :)
I liked the sword of truth series (and read the lot) but I think it was written for a younger audience than WoT - or maybe it just came out that way. What do you think? Zed is a great character, his exclamations like “bags” made me laugh when reading it.
I gave up on WoT when I got near the end of the series and had to wait for new books, then Robert Jordan died and I just never finished them. Is it worth picking them back up? I always had a doubt that Sanderson could finish them off in a fully satisfying way, even if he did have notes from Jordan.
I think WoT is more for a younger audience than SoT. Some parts of SoT are much more gruesome than anything I’ve encountered in WoT.
I haven’t finished WoT, I stopped on book 6. There are parts of the books I have a tough time getting through. There are many scenes where there are female characters talking about clothes and men and they just keep dragging on and on… That’s not why I read fantasy novels, most of those scenes could have been trimmed imo. SoT doesn’t really have that. Anyways, I heard Sanderson did a great job, once I finish SoT I plan to get back into WoT and finish the series.
I would say that it’s worth picking them up. Brandon Sanderson does a pretty good job. It’s not the same as Robert Jordan, but it doesn’t have to be. He does a goes job of capturing the feel of the series. And it reads differently from his own books, which isn’t easy to do. And I love how the story unfolds in the last book. There were definitely some story points I did not see coming.
I’ve also heard he did a great job.
Yeah. BTW, maybe I’m wrong but I can perceive a lot of LOTR influences in the first two books.
There are definitely similarities, I agree. The setting out on a quest, multiple important characters but one that has the most important task, Rand shows some similarity to Frodo in their background, and a dark lord that’s wants to wreath the world in shadow. But then, it must be hard for a fantasy writer to not be influenced by Tolkien.
I’m reading To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini. It is a lot of fun so far. The characters are deep and believable. The plot is complex and interesting. I love it!
I just finished Whalefall by Daniel Kraus if you are looking for a gripping, hard-science, scuba survival thriller. The ending is so metal. The writing is great and the tension makes it hard to read and hard to put down.
I read Sleep recently, it’s really good!
What device is that?
A kobo Libra (maybe Libra 2?) I have one and it’s pretty nice. My pool for comparison is small though (had an old Sony reader a billion years ago).
Yup Libra2. Just about does the job. Kinda tempted to go for a larger screen next time.
Just finished War and Peace. Took me a good 6 months so I’ve been itching for my next book.
This week I started Comanches: The history of a People. I’ve read a few fiction books on the tribe but am excited to learn more about them.
Soil Science Simplified by Neal Eash and others, and Landrace Gardening by Joseph Lofthouse.
Soil Science Simplified is a bit textbook-y but it’s easy to understand, and it’s about soil in the context of, well, anything that could be used on or in the soil, such as in agriculture and building infrastructure. I’m not that far into it but if you remember clay, sand, silt and loam soil from Elementary, then it goes into much more, such as how the soil made out of certain minerals can behave like.
Landrace Gardening is a lighter read for me, and I’m honestly just reading it to feel persuaded to grow healthy plants. It does feel like the author is hammering his points into you, but there are some useful information here and there. Then I’m proceeding to Principles of Cultivar Development by Walter Fehr.
Why am I reading these? I got interested in preserving Siling Labuyo, a local cultivar of hot chili in the Philippines, which is gradually being overshadowed by Thai Bird’s Eye… Most people in my country don’t know what Labuyo really looks like nowadays, despite being popular in the past… the bird gods have randomly given us labuyo some time ago, and since labuyo has usually been grown wild, it has quite a high genetic diversity. I’m thinking of cultivating it. Maybe make a super labuyo and make it get popular by attaining the title of hottest chili again. But that’s obviously a pipe dream, lol. Anyway this is what ADHD does to you /shrug