What books are you reading?

There are few things as compelling as a good book. Do you read any books, so I was wondering what you guys are reading? Doesnt matter if it is a novel, poetry, non-fiction or anything else. Maybe even a comic book.

I am reading 2 books right now.

The first is The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna. I am trying to get back into fantasy literature, as I have a friend who lovevs those books, and I want to get in on the fun too! Really enjoy it too, which really goes to show how good pacing can really improve a novel.

The other book I am reading is Preparing for the Next Pandemic by Professor Peter Hotez. Probably not a surprise I read a book like that considering my strong interest in public health :P

So what are you reading? And what are your favorite genres, hoping we can get a discussion on literature here :)

I’m reading Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson. Trying to take a break from more serious novels, and I was really in the mood for fantasy. Fav author is Cormac McCarthy.

I'm reading The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny, and Murder. It's good, very well-researched as there are all sorts of first-hand accounts (diaries, logs, etc) of this expedition that took place during the mid-18th century. It takes place in three or so parts: before the expedition, which was super interesting: apparently these boats started rotting during building so by the time you got your ship working it was already falling apart; and sailing was such a shit job back then they literally had to kidnap people to serve on these ships.

The second part takes place during the voyage, and it's pretty much screwed from the start. They set off out of England with the goal of sailing to the West coast of South America (Chile, I think) to raid Spanish galleons and along the way encounter all kinds of problems. Eventually The Wager, the ship in question, is shipwrecked and the crew marooned. It details how they survived, and how the crew split into a loyalist- and mutineer-faction system.

Then it goes into how some of them got back to England, and the that's sort of where I am at now. I guess if you survive and make it back without your captain, it's suspicious and there's a trial. So this crew launched this HUUUUUUUUUGE media blitz before any official trial could occur and wrote a book of their account to establish the narrative with the public before the admiralty could.

I tell you what: if you ever think you have it bad, read about about sailors in the 18th century. That was a hard life.

Non-fiction is hard for me to get through because it's a huge time investment and once I start reading I can't stop. And, seeing how I read before bed, it cuts into my sleep by a lot.

If you like sci-fi (well, more like sci-fantasy) I highly recommend the Red Rising series.

Very fun books, very fast reads if you enjoy it. There's like five (?) books and I think I read them all within a month (which is fast for me).

It starts off like Total Recall and Hunger Games, but then ventures into Warhammer 40K territory. There's space vikings, space salves, space navy, space marines, space greek demigods, space....whatever. It's fun fun fun.

Might have to check that out, I am generally not really interested in health outside of the basics, but the cultural, social, and political aspects of the COVID pandemic (not to mention bird flu, swine flu, ebola, and anthrax panics we seem to be constantly reminded of every few years) are pretty interesting and I should brush up on that.

I remember during the onset of the Afghan and Iraq war in the post-9/11 hysteria everyone was worried about a biological attack and there was a run on duct tape and face masks lol.

COVID had us short on...toilet paper.

Cormac McCarthy has so many classics under his belt. Good pick :)

I really love well researched books. When the authors don't do their homework, it really kills my immersion and frustrates me.

This also applies to video games: as a Nordic person, you can probably tell I was not huge on the 2 Norse of War games.

I also love a good historical fiction novel, read them a lot in middle school. Thanks for sharing your experiences. Glad to see other gamers share their passion in literature.

Thick asf!

Absolutely nothing. Haven't read a book in a long time now.

I think the last book I read was Hyperion by Dan Simmons.

I only read books about religion/sprituality. I have several Bibles, Qur'ans, Bhagavad Gitas and Books of Mormon. Right now I'm reading the Book of Isaiah, which is in the Bible, as well as 'Lectures To My Students' by Charles Spurgeon. Spurgeon was a 19th-century english pastor who's teachings are still widely revered among christians.

@DEVILinIRON: Comic books work too :)

Religious books are very much classic literature :)

On the topic of the bible. Have you read any of the Apocrypha?

I've read the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox apocrypha. I bought an NRSV [New Revised Standard Version] for that very purpose. However, I haven't read the Ethiopian Orthodox apocrypha. They have a bunch of books that aren't in other Bibles, like 1 Enoch.

@Maroxad: I’ve read “The Assault on Reason” by Al Gore. Many good points made, in the book.

I also like Eat to live by Furrman. It’s a book about what to eat, and things to do to get into a better shape. Highly recommend!

I'm busy with these books

Aliens Omnibus Volume 1

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six

Wheel of Time books 12 to 14

Stephen King's Insomnia later this summer

How to Invent Everything by Ryan North

Basically come to see that historically humans are terribly bad at coming up with even the most obvious solutions to problems until they do.

I am reading Battle Royale by Koushun Takami. It's not so shocking after watching the movie but it's deeper as you read what the kids are thinking about.

Battle Royale is a truly great work! And what you described is a reason I prefer reading over watching movies and TV. Books often can go much more indepth.

Lots of classics there! Good picks!

"It is from their foes, not their friends, that cities learn the lesson of building high walls" -Aristophanes

Looked up the book. The book promotes a plant based diet (that slowly, but optionally reintroduces animal products).

Well, I am already vegan so yeah :P Also it is amazing how far Plant Based diets have come in the past 20 years. As research has been conducted, and vegans adapted their habits based on these.

Insomnia is such a trip. I love it, but it's a weird one!

Wind and Truth from Stormlight Archive.

Love Sanderson!

My house is a library, quite literally, so I'm constantly reading. At the moment I'm reading the Apocrypha, Esdras, Maccabees, Judith, and so forth. Also Morals and Dogma by Albert Pike. And for lighter stuff, Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson.

@Chutebox: Hell yes! Brandon Sanderson is the best!. Just re-read Rhythm of War to get ready for wind and Truth. I also heard that he's starting mistborn era 3 and the title of it is: Ghostbloods...........

@pcgamerlaszlo: The guy is a machine!

Just checked his website and he is indeed writing a book called Ghostbloods.

If you don't follow it, Brandon is really good at keeping fans updated.

https://www.brandonsanderson.com/blogs/blog/state-of-the-sanderson-2024#part-two-updates-on-primary-projects

I'm trying to make my way through Dune... and I don't care what anyone says, about 80-90 pages in, it's awful and makes no sense whatsoever at all. I've read online it really starts getting good around page 250 to 300... not sure I have that kind of patience though.

Don't get me wrong, I know there is rich lore and a lot going on, but just throwing around terms with no back story or explanation to what they mean and no glossary for a quick reference is ridiculous. Sure... it will probably all make sense 300 pages in, but then you'd have to go back and re-read the mess you didn't really understand to begin with, so you're just wasting your time.

Just my two cents, but if you're going to throw around family names, government branches, shadow agencies, history lessons, and nonsensical words with no context perhaps having a quick reference glossary would be helpful and entirely awesome, instead of just guessing at what it is or could mean or being completely confused just to find out 50 to 100 pages later it's inconsequential or a major part of the story and then be forced to go back for reference..

I'm trying to work myself through the sludge.. I really am.. but I don't know if I can do it.

I'm going to Barnes and Noble in a couple days, so I might check out Brandon Sanderson if anything catches my eye. If anyone else has any other suggestions throw them my way.

I picked up the Lord of the Rings illustrated edition. It's peanuts on Kindle but I wanted a hard copy so I did a ... Why not both?!

Seeing a lot of love for Brandon Sanderson this thread :)

"Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World" by Jack Weatherford

I saw some review calling it a bit too fan-boyish, but I don't mind. What Genghis Khan accomplished, from humble beginnings, is super impressive. I mean just having 16 million descendants must have taken a lot of effort 🤣.

Mongolian culture in general is fascinating to me. I didn't know that much about central Asia and its history before starting the book. Now I have also watched a couple of documentaries on YT. What a beautiful country 😊!

If anyone is interested I liked this one:

I just finished reading the Count of Monte Cristo, definitely one of my favorite books now. I typically like to read novels from the late 1800s to 1950s. So many classics to read I wish I had more time!

@ratchetclank92: Have you read Les Miserable or Hunchback of Notre Dame, yet?

@WitIsWisdom: Roadside Picnic, inspiration for S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

I lack the space for books, are e-readers like Kindle any good? Want something better than an iPad.

@horgen: Kindles are great, I strongly recommend them if you want to keep up with your reading.

Kindles are great!

I personally use my ASUS ROG Ally to read books which works well too!

Another win for handheld PCs. I am sure TheEroica Agrees :)

I'm currently reading Exodus: The Archimedes Engine by Peter H. Hamilton. It's making me even more exited about the game. I really like it and the world is really interesting.

I read a lot of Sci-fi, fantasy and horror. I'm also really big into history, but I nowadays mostly watch history youtubers, because there are so many great channels like The Great War, all Indy Neidell's channels, Oversimplified etc. but I still read historical fiction.

E-readers are amazing. I basically have a library in my pocket, I think I've over 1000 books on my Kindle. I've only used Kindles so can't compare them to others, but I like Kindles even if I'm not a fan of Amazon.

Most recent book I picked up was Les Misérables, but I haven't cracked it open yet.

@jaydan: Abridged or unabridged? :D

It's a book that becomes better after several reads for that reason. My book did have a glossary though..

At this point it is about beginning to read again. Read like 170 pages of one book this summer. Book is OK, but iPad is not.

Isn't that even worse than an iPad?

Excellent! Life Before Death.

@horgen: I wouldn’t recommend it for such a purpose but I commend Maxorad for the attempt haha. Kindles are much better for the eyes.

I should add I’ve been pecking my way through James Clavell’s Shogun but needed to take a break. That book is so damn long and dense, and I’ve read two novels from Dostoevsky.

Its definately not optimal for reading. But it works. I use the thumb stick to change pages.

For sure!

I only use this because I dont need more electronics in my house.

@Litchie: Interesting, thanks for the heads up. Perhaps I should print one out from online if I can find one.. or just buy a different copy.

I got an unabridged copy.

This is the exact copy I got, from Barnes and Noble.

@jaydan said:

@DEVILinIRON said:

@jaydan: Abridged or unabridged? :D

I got an unabridged copy.

This is the exact copy I got, from Barnes and Noble.

Pretty cover. Its been a while. Thought I just read the abridged version back in the day. Nope I read the 1400+ pages. I read through Waterloo. Yes, I remember now.

@Maroxad: I just got the final book of Brandon Sanderson's mistborn series. Which would be the 7th book in the series?

Great read, tho I find it harder and harder these days to just chill out and read a good book, instead of playing a video game I got on steam sale for 80% off.

Them steam sales.

I have built a habit of buying only one game every 2-3 months. Helps me maintain other hobbies and habits.

@DEVILinIRON said:

@jaydan said:

@DEVILinIRON said:

@jaydan: Abridged or unabridged? :D

I got an unabridged copy.

This is the exact copy I got, from Barnes and Noble.

Pretty cover. Its been a while. Thought I just read the abridged version back in the day. Nope I read the 1400+ pages. I read through Waterloo. Yes, I remember now.

Yeah, this one is a fatty so it's the full copy.

I can't imagine reading an abridged version of any piece of classic literature. To me that feels like a cop-out from the original intention of the story and the way it was written, which at least for me that's pretty important to preserve the original content of the story.

@jaydan said:

@DEVILinIRON said:

@jaydan said:

@DEVILinIRON said:

@jaydan: Abridged or unabridged? :D

I got an unabridged copy.

This is the exact copy I got, from Barnes and Noble.

Pretty cover. Its been a while. Thought I just read the abridged version back in the day. Nope I read the 1400+ pages. I read through Waterloo. Yes, I remember now.

Yeah, this one is a fatty so it's the full copy.

I can't imagine reading an abridged version of any piece of classic literature. To me that feels like a cop-out from the original intention of the story and the way it was written, which at least for me that's pretty important to preserve the original content of the story.

You're right. I'm such a pothead.

Reviving this thread. I gave up on Warbreaker, just couldn’t get into it. Currently reading Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs, surprised how much I’m enjoying it. Burroughs was a crazy MF.

Teach Yourself Complete Spanish. It's pretty condensed, and only goes up to B2 but the DuoLingo course was a bit sparse on the grammar. It's a well laid-out book, and alongside watching some serials in Spanish, I'm actually making some headway. :)

I was annoyed about having to drop formal Spanish studies, but this is much cheaper and seems to be working out okay.