General

hobbes21 wrote:

Have you read Norwegian Wood or Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki?

Lunar wrote:

Not yet. I added a couple more Murakami books to my to-read list. I have a handful of other books I want to get to before I go back to Murakami but suspect I'll read 3-4 more of his through various recommendations.

Okay now that I’m back into reading I figured I’d check this thread out.

I have 6 systems (ps5,switch,steam deck, pc, Xbox, and quest 3)

Audible and Kindle app have been a real game changer for me. I can listen to and from work and then easily pick up where I left off on my iPad or phone.

I’ve read 3 books so far just this month and I’m halfway through the 4th book of a series called Cradle. Genuinely hooked

21. Out of the Silent Planet (C.S. Lewis) - First time I'd picked up any of Lewis' sci-fi and I enjoyed my time with it. It's pretty short and as I understand, the second in the trilogy is about the same, but the third is longer than the first two clapped together. I like sci-fi that jumps into waxing and waning philosophy about humanity's role in the universe (like the latter books in the Ender's series) and Lewis gets into that a bit here. It was engaging enough that I'll likely finish the trilogy throughout the year at some point.

22. Shuna's Journey (Hayao Miyazaki) - I loved this, but I love Miyazaki in general. (Who doesn't?) Plenty to love here if you're familiar with Miyazaki's catalogue and it was really engrossing to see some of the influence that this story had his film work that followed the original Japanese printing of this story. And the art. Goodness gracious. I'll regularly flip through this one just to appreciate it visually.

23. Days at the Morisaki Bookshop (Satoshi Yagisawa) - This is one of those "cozy" books that I've seen people talk about here and there online, and hot dog, this one just hit me at the right time this week. It's a tender little slice-of-life. It's one of those books that hits you with book suggestions passively within the narrative itself, so I've got some more Japanese translations to track down. Got teary-eyed towards the end due to personal life experience connections, but I'd recommend this one. Goes down quick, goes down smooth.

Disquiet Gods by Christopher Ruocchio

picklenickel wrote:

23 books so far this year?! Damn that’s impressive

Finished books 4 (Skysworn) and 5 (Ghostwater) of the Cradle series

Good anime style power progression story

Shane12m wrote:

To be fair, I typically read a lot of shorter stories and collections, so I chomp through 'em fairly quickly. I made the mistake of starting three or four heftier books all at once towards the beginning of March that I need to get back to and finish out.

24. The Empress of Salt and Fortune (Nghi Vo) - Incredibly quick read. Partially because it's just 120 pages, but also because it was really engrossing. Follows a cleric chronicler listening to and recording the stories of a recently deceased empress. The writing is vivid and the mystery unfolds so beautifully. Will absolutely track down the remaining books in this series.

Cool, I just picked that up on Kindle (I think it was on sale).

Started Wind Up Bird, haven't read this since Modern Japanese Lit in college. It's bringing back some memories and some details. But still feels like a fresh read.

Binged Three Body Problem S1 this weekend on Netflix, started the first book on audiobook.

Finished Unseemly Science by Rod Duncan

10) Molly Zero by Keith Roberts (meh)

Black Science, whole series by Rick Remender.

Just finished book 6 of the Cradle series (underlord) damn I’m hooked

Shane12m wrote:

I read this whole thing not long ago - and the author tends to give all his books away for free digitally every now and again.

Kommie wrote:
I have book 2-6 already, but i'm waiting for a deal on book 1 so i can actually get it started lol

The first book is currently 99 cents.

image

Huh. Apparently someone already recommended this and it was cheap enough to put in the pile of shame. Guess I'll give it a go, I've got everything but book 12

(reads two pages) Wait, this is just fudging Harry Potter with Airbending

DarkFact wrote:

Haha I can see how maybe you might think that with the way it starts with something similar to the sorting hat

Well, I meant to read the first chapter and put it down until later but somehow I find myself on Chapter 5 now. Pretty decent hook

DarkFact wrote:

You probably got it when I posted a link here when he was giving all of the series away right before the release of book 12.

That's exactly what it was, I also have a lot of his stuff that was "ordered" on May 31, 2023.

Mystery solved!

I've got piles of books to read, re-read, and probably already read but don't remember so need to re-read them again. I also have a current pile of books I've read/finished up this year.

Currently reading - "How to Disappear" by Frank M. Ahearn w/ Eileen C. Horan

Books I've read so far in chronological order this year:

"The Sexual Life of Catherine M." by Catherine Millet
"Pathfinder Tales: Reaper's Eye" by Richard A. Knaak
"The Spook's Apprentice" by Joseph Delaney (book 1)
"Pathfinder Tales: Bloodbound" by F. Wesley Schneider
"The Spook's Curse" by Joseph Delaney (book 2)
"Ghosts of Punktown" by Jeffrey Thomas

Finished book 5 A Court of Silver Flames by Sarah J Maas.
I'm about to start her other series, Crescent City.

25. American Gods (Neil Gaiman) - This is a re-read for me. (I think it's the fourth or fifth time I've read it, actually.) But! This time, I listened to the audiobook version while working on renovating the living room and making some new fixtures/furniture pieces during the evening. Neil Gaiman is one of my all-time favorite authors and I love American Gods. There's some scenes in here I could leave out and am not crazy about, but I do think it serves the narrative without feeling superfluous. The overall writing and storytelling here is fantastic.

The last time I read American Gods was back in 2020 after my wife and I had closed on our house - which just so happens to sit at the foot of the the very real mountain where this fictional narrative hits its climax. That was kind of a surreal and wonderful experience too. A storm was starting to roll in just as I closed the book.

This won't be the last time I read American Gods. I'll probably read it again in another three of four years.

Finished Custodian of Marvels by Rod Duncan

I finished Hell's Angeles by Hunter S Thompson. Nothing special.

11) Kalin: The Dumarest Saga Book 4 (of 33) by E.C. Tubb
I love these. 29 left to go!

Think I incremented everyone properly. If I goofed kick me

Oh, I misread the original post...

I own the following:

Sega Genesis
Xbox One S
Playstation 4
Gamecube
Nintendo Switch (if we're considering that a system)
and while technically I haven't played with it in a long time, I do have Xbox 360 as well...

Blade Of The Immortal Deluxe Volume 2-10

I read some of this years ago, but when I searched a couple years ago I saw they were reprinting it in Deluxe hardcovers. Super violent, bloody with great artwork. Fudge Shira. That guy sucks.

HybridCRoW wrote:

Congratulations, you beat the challenge. You can stop reading now!

Why I'll never stop reading...

tch

26. Bushido: The Soul of Japan (Inazō Nitobe) - Found out that there's a huge list of audiobooks via Amazon Classics that are included in a Prime subscription, so I took advantage of that to read (listen) to this lil book while working around the house over the last couple evenings. There's some interesting historical information herein, but I wouldn't call this electric by any means. There is a bit where it discusses how Japan's external cultural influences have never really been a result of subjugation, but rather a humility inherent in their existing culture that's open to learn and continually grow.

27. To the Lighthouse (Virginia Woolf) - This one. Where to start? Finally getting around to this after a good friend recommended it a couple years back. I just finished it a couple minutes ago by our little fire pit and with a nice scotch. (Appropriate, as the book centers around the Isle of Skye in Scotland.)
This is my first Woolf book. I'm not overly familiar with her writing, just passingly familiar with some of her personal tragedy and history. To the Lighthouse is written in a stream-of-consciousness style where the reader is constantly jumping one ship directly onto another character's ship that's sailing in the opposite direction. A mashup of prose and poetry. There's a whole section comparing Mr. Ramsey's intellectual achievements by comparing the totality of human thought to the predictability and order of the English alphabet. And the sucker, well-accomplished and bright, is "stuck on Q" and we read his own struggles against the thought that he might never move beyond it. I'm going to have to come back to this one again in the future and re-read it. It meanders and wanders along. While I thoroughly enjoyed it, it's so here-and-there that it feels a bit like whiplash. (In a good way.)

re:Woolf - I'm ashamed to admit that I've done very poorly with my attempts to read some of the great author's stream of consciousness masterpieces. I just can't follow what they're writing to be honest.

James Joyce is another big one that I just can't even. Faulkner too. I did read every word of Orlando by Virginia Woolf. I was hoping it would somehow come together for me if I kept reading, but it never did. Ah well. Now, I just mostly avoid such things. Maybe if I took a course about a book like that I could get enough insight to understand them.

Some random comment I read on Amazon was talking about how some (most?) people read purely for entertainment. While others might also pursue writing that challenges them or enlightens them, broadens their mind. I do this, but I have my limits as well.

bill wrote:

Yeah my brother reads like that a lot, to broaden the mind or for enlightenment haha, but then again he was a philosophy major. I’m def in it for pure entertainment, nothing more, nothing less :)

Just finished book 8 of Cradle. The longest book of the series (500 something pages compared to 300)
With book 7 not ending how I wanted initially, it really payed off