Hey Beehaw (and friends)! What’re you reading?
Novels, nonfiction, ebooks, audiobooks, graphic novels, etc - everything counts!
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I’m reading Bram Stoker’s Dracula for the first time ever. Can you believe I am 48 years old, a horror literature junkie, and never read it? It’s true. I’m enjoying it a lot.
I studied it at university, it’s an absolute classic. And it stays with you, I’ve not read it for over 20 years and can vividly remember small scenes
Death’s End, which is part of the Three Body Problem series by Cixin Liu
Three body problem series is fantastic in my opinion. I love that heavy sci-fi shit. And viewing the world from a different cultures perspective was fascinating.
Yes. Without going into spoilers, the event that started the Deterrence Era blew my mind. It’s so rare to have an unexpected reversal like that in sci fi it really caught me by surprise.
I really wish I could read it in the original Chinese. The translator did a great job though.
Well, now you’re making me want to go back into the series. I liked the premise of the first, but found the writing foreign - which, hey, it is! I felt like I really should read more everyday Chinese fiction as I didn’t understand a lot of the nuance and it felt less polished (to my American sensibilities) as a result.
I actually just finished Three Body Problem yesterday. Really fascinating perspective and lots of big ideas, even if the characters could be better and there could be less telling and more showing. But can’t wait to get my hands on the rest of the trilogy!
Otherside Picnic by Iori Mizayawa (In Japanese) - Amazing sci-fi novel, that takes inspiration from Roadside Picnic, and urban legends. Quite nicely written too, characters are quite likeable.
Lost Gods by Brom - Amazing concepts, the way Gods are portrayed there, and lots of nice mythology details there and there. The story is very much engaging as well.
The Wandering Inn - Looong, fantasy, and lots of fun world building
Half Share - Fun sci-if space opera? Regardless, pleasant experience.
I love the Wandering Inn, soooo long. While I’m not caught up, I am in Volume 9.
Re-reading Hyperion by Dan Simmons. I read it as a teenager the first time, and I wonder if I’ll get something different out of it in my 30s now. I’m also reading Heart of Dominance by Anton Fulmen along with my wife. More of a book for them than me, but it still has good information to glean regardless. If I want to include graphic novels, I also just finished Sunstone. It was sweet and entertaining.
Just bought Dune from a second hand store, never read it. Gonna start that soon!
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat.
I never really was that great at cooking, but I enjoy it and want to improve.
Right now re-reading The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. It’s a weird comic scifi dystopia set in England where literary allusions abound, puns and tropes are plot devices, and Jane Eyre gets kidnapped and makes the ending of the book better. There are so many John Milton’s that they have a numbering scheme. Shakespeare is a target of forgery. It’s also ferociously anti-war, and imagines a world in which Thatcher is alive and well, and the Crimean war had had two charges of the light brigade… And has continued until the 1980s.
I can recommend it on its own for the Richard III is Rocky Horror Picture Show scene.
A phenomenal summer read, light but intelligent. And it happens to be the beginning of a good series.
Dune and House of Leaves
I recently finished the 7th book in the Wheel of Time series, A Crown of Swords. I am currently contemplating whether to start book 8 or read something else to not get burned out. A Crown of Swords is the first book in the series I did not enjoy that much.
Definitely take a break! That’s about the spot where most people struggle to get through. Take your time; there’s a lot of setup, but the pacing is not great.
Also, I think book 8 is The One Without Mat, so it took me forever to get through it.
Letters from my windmill by Daudet, narrated by Stephen Fry. Discovered this audiobook by accident, but couldn’t help listening. Fry and Laurie read Daudet and Jerome, how cool is that?
I’m currently reading Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper, which is the first book in the Dark is Rising sequence.
I first read this book years ago, and what has stuck me ever since was the vivid use of imagery by Cooper. I’ve also watched the movie, but it’s the book that has always stuck with me.
Currently reading Elantris by Brandon Sanderson. Picked it up a long time ago and never finished it. Had some time out at a cabin and picked it back up. Pretty good so far.
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I randomly picked up Ruth Ozeki’s Tale for the Time Being at the library and couldn’t put it down. It really was the level up of literature I have been waiting for. While it did have a few words I needed to look up, it was generally very approachable and enjoyable to get through. What I also appreciated was that even though some of the subject matter is difficult, it is not so detailed and exploitive that it created a triggering response, at least for me. I really look forward to reading more of her work. I’m shocked I had never heard of her and only bumped into this book by chance!
I read ‘the book of form and emptiness’ by her a few weeks back and absolutely loved it. also looking forward to reading more of her.
