Books

Working through the last of the audio books for "The wheel of time" series. Been over a year since I started the journey and been loving it. Going to be very bitter sweet when I reach the conclusion.

Been borrowing the audio books from the library

Path of Daggers book 8 from the Wheel of Time series. 21% atm. And some books related to my studies.

I just finished Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman this morning! Fantastic read!

I'm making my way through the "He who fights with monsters" series, after enjoying the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. I'm on book 9 at the moment. There have been some books that were a bit better than others in the series, but overall I'm very much enjoying it. It isn't like the most complicated or deep book series, but it's enjoyable.

Listening through Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

My reaction to it is kinda mixed. Some of the humor hits, some of it doesn't. I suspect part of that is that so much of both the style of humor and the specific jokes have seeped down into culture enough to not be surprising.

Stephen Fry, reading it, is definitely giving a performance.

The Chernobyl accident fascinates me, so I'm reading Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham. I have read INSAG-7 (a couple of times), so I think I have a decent layperson understanding of the accident. INSAG-7, however, is primarily a mechanical document, and I wanted to learn more about the human aspect of the operators. I have to admit, I'm disappointed, but it's not the fault of the book, since I set my expectations incorrectly. Apparently, Higginbotham interviewed many people involved in the accident over a decade, and I was hoping this was a more journalistic book with quotes and facts and figures. Instead, Higginbotham set out to tell the story of the accident, and that's how the book reads. This is a fine approach, just not quite the one I wanted to read. While I've caught a few errors, the book is well researched. It does irk me that he cites Grigori Medvedev in his work, since Medvedev's book is known to have inaccuracies. At the very least, Midnight in Chernobyl is far more accurate than the HBO miniseries.

I just finished The Reversed Centaur’s Guide to Life by Cory Doctrow a few minutes ago. The central argument is that when a technology exists that makes a human better in a way, that makes the human a centaur (part human, part tech — the usual term for this would be cyborg, but that’s not as funny). What we have now in the age of AI though, Doctrow argues, are a bunch of techs that ride humans to get better. It’s not an anti AI book per se, but does a good job of pointing out how easy it is to fall into the trap of supporting a system that offers nothing in return.

Same book as you!!

Plus Yesteryear on audiobook.

I'm rereading William Gibson's Neuromancer, it's been a while and I forgot how good it is.

Just finished Perdido Street Station definitely recommend as an amazing well built steampunk fantasy. Currently just started Omnivore's Deception so far a good book exposing the myths specieist's use to justify their oppression.

Still reading Dungeon Crawler Carl - I’m up to chapter 22 this week!

I finished The Invincible by Stanislaw Lem! I finally just sat down last night and spent an hour or so getting through the last 20%, and now I wish I'd done that sooner. It's a neat little story about an unknowable threat on an alien planet; a lot of time is spent with crew scientists conjecturing why things are the way they are, but neither the characters nor the reader ever find out for sure. I found this both refreshing (not having the answers keeps things interesting) and frustrating (lots of dialogue and musing bog down the pacing). The last chapter finally dispenses with so much talking, but then ends somewhat abruptly. I liked it, but more in a "the storytelling was interesting" kind of way.

Still picking out a new book.

Right now I'm listening to Theodor Seuss Geisel's 1954 masterpiece Horton Hears a Who!.

It's a wild tale of equality and friendship that seventy-two years later still has a lot to say to readers.

Currently reading: Children of Strife by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Children of Time #4). I really enjoyed books 1 and 2 in the series but found 3 to be a bit messy. This so far feels like a return to form and I'm enjoying it much more. The mantis shrimp seem to be an addition to stick to the older framework but I'll reserve judgment once I've seen more from the one character we've met

Just finished: Murder by Memory by Olivia Waite. An interesting little premise that blazes through so fast that you don't really get to examine the scenery or dive into any ideas. It's not bad, but if it's aiming to be a cozy mystery the rapid pace seems discordant

On the nonfiction side, The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. And then this morning I started The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson. Just finished A Little Hatred by Joe Abercrombie.

I am about halfway through A Parade of Horribles, the latest book in the DCC series. Really having fun with the series and super glad I picked it up

Also started Red Rising by Pierce Brown. Just got to the part where they are broken into houses. I am not sure I am feeling it but going to probably finish the book and see how I feel.

I just finished Villain by Natalie Zina Walschots. It was enjoyable but I think I preferred the first book of the series, Hench, more.

Now I've started reading Villa Coco by Andrew Sean Greer. It's too early to tell how I feel about it.

Just wrapped up back to back reads of the full DCC run and just finished Parade of Horribles, stuck with the theme and started Kaiju Battle Surgeon.

I started Learn My Lesson by Kate Robert while on vacation. I had to put a pause on that because it’s a bit too smutty as my daily driver book.

After I paused that book, I walked around the airport bookstore and picked up Devolution by Max Brooks. I was interested when I went to the airport bookstore on my way out, when I picked it up a second time on my way home, I decided to purchase it. I’m really digging the book a lot!

Death Defiant. From a local author here in Portland. YA Paranormal Romance. We've got some good local authors around here these days.

Wuthering Heights.

It was only mid twenties the last couple days so I was able to get some work done than get a decent reading break. I’m halfway through SW legends “Before the Storm”, it’s book 1 of a trilogy. It’s got a fairly obvious continuity error, but the first prequel movie was 1999 and this book was 1996. It says the Yoda was a hermit on Dagobah for over a hundred years, or close. I’m enjoying it, part of the story centers around Lando, and his partner Lobot from Cloud City who we haven’t heard from since Vaders little tea party there.

After this, it’s book 6 of DCC. I’m hoping the weather isn’t stupid hot and I can get some deck reading in. I enjoy just sitting with my feet in a bucket of water. Anything bigger like a wading pool and the dogs splash too much, can’t ruin my brothers books.

I'm stil reading Helm by Sarah Hall. For the second time while reading this book I got ill, but today I'm finally feeling a bit better. I'm almost done, so I'll probably finish it tonight.

It's a really beautiful book so far. I love the mix of different time periods and even writing styles. One story is really heart-wrenching, another is kinda thrillery, it's a good mix. I hope the ending will be as good.

on the short stories front i started & finished Fifty-One Tales by Lord Dunsany, which i enjoyed very much. i liked how lean his writing was, just enough detail to set a picture in the mind but not enough to overwhelm, and there were some lovely stories. now i am on an Arthur Machen collection, from it i have only read The Great God Pan so far and it's one of those situations where i can see why it was influential but simultaneously didn't like it as much as it gets lauded. i will keep trucking along with the collection for now but if i end up dropping this one, so be it.

i am also reading The House of the Wolfings by William Morris, a little over a third of the way through and enjoying it very much, i know there is a lot more of Morris to explore so i am excited. it is very enchanting and vivid, and i like how he pops a bit of verse in there. a few archaic words i have needed to look up as i could not quite discern from context, but that is fun too :)

I started Jazza's (an art YouTuber) book last week, The Ascendents. Pretty good so far. Im not quite half way through. the opening couple chapters read just like the first half of James Cameron's Aliens.