Books

20% through Schilds Ladder from Greg Egan now. It's like Gregs other works, it's good.

I finished the Classic of Tea, but am still struggling through The Legend of Darkness. As my backup brain-resting book I've now got The Thirty-Six Strategems on the side. It's an interesting new edition that has all the strategems and classic commentary examples but also adds more modern ones from around the world and from spheres other than the military. It is, as so many of my books in this vein are, trilingual: the original text and commentary are in Classical Chinese, modern vernacular Chinese, and English. The examples are bilingual vernacular Chinse and English.

Just finished Trust, by Hernan Diaz. I read it without looking up at summaries or so before and at first I was a bit disappointed by the first part (and even asked myself if it would not be a dnf). But when I discovered there was 4 parts in this book, progressively revealing the facts, I told myself "what a great piece of literature it is". This is just a real performance for the author to write in 4 different style as if the part were written by different people with the key markers of each type of writing.

Just started The Whisperer, by Donato Carrisi.

I just finished Wounds by Nathan Ballingrud, a collection of short stories about hell. Holy fuck, Skullpocket is one of the best short stories I've ever read. I starts kinda silly and then... damn.

Most of the way through Tilt by Emma Patee. A story about a woman who's nine months pregnant in Portland when the Big One hits the Cascadia Subduction Zone (Massive Earthquake.) It's a fast, easy, insanely emotional read. Not a favorite, but I'm hooked.

I just finished Alien III by William Gibson.

It is a script for the third movie but was not used. It was later turned into a novel.

I listen to an audio book version and I am pretty sure it is was the movie script not the novel.

I picked up Project Hail Mary from the library this week. Only just started but I'm enjoying it so far.

I hate books. I hate books. I hate books. I hate pages. I hate bookmarking. I hate covers. I hate words. I hate passages. I hate authors. I hate reading. I hate left-to-right. I hate shelving them. I hate conversations. I hate twists. I hate mysteries. I hate waking up. I hate my job. I hate being alive.

I decided to start reading John Dies at the End, it's been pretty funny.

Currently reading Consider Phlebus. Read the entire series years ago but thought it was worth re-read. Just as good as my first time!

I just started Polostan (2024) by Neal Stephenson. I saw an interview where he said he's been sitting on the idea for a new trilogy for years and finally sat down to start it with this book.

More than 900 pages into Infinite Jest but i m not sure i like it... Started The Confederacy of Dunces on the side, really funny so far !

"Harlem Shuffle" by Colson Whitehead.

It's the 1960s and this dude is trying to make a go of a furniture store on 125th Street. He's an honest businessman who wants to help people in the community get good products at a reasonable price, and provide for his wife and kids.

Of course, being an honest businessman in 1960s Harlem is a bit different from being an honest businessman in say Darrian, CT. So what if he's doing a little fencing; hanging out with stickup men; aiding corrupt police, and suchlike?

Great depictions of the neighborhood with lots of action.

Currently reading Robert Anton Wilson's Cosmic Trigger II꧇ Down to Earth. This is a somewhat autobiographical trilogy, though mixed in with a lot of spiritualism, conspiracism, and some philosophy. I am mainly reading it due to my interest in discordianism. If you want to read part of it to check it out I would suggest reading down to earth, as it is far more readable than Cosmic Trigger I꧇ Final Secrets of the Illuminati.

I just finished Stephen Baxter's World Engines: Destroyer and while it was OK, I have the uncomfortable feeling that I'm discovering unsavory things about Baxter. There are commonalities in his main characters that are... unattractive? One main character, fine. But when the main character is basically the same character in different settings and with different names; and when the story literally contains "and then, everyone clapped"... well, I don't know. The writing is better than I could do, and I'm interested to see where it goes, but I don't know if I can enjoy the libertarian fantasy overtones. I'm torn.

I'm a couple chapters into A. Tchaikovsky's Shroud, and have great expectations. I know I like Tchaikovsky's world building and writing, and this looks so far like another novel (innovative?) premise from a great author.

Sundial by Catriona Ward. No spoilers but its a very dark psychological horror. I'm not far into it but I'm already hooked.

I finally made it to book 2 of Sanderson's Stormlight Archives.

Having recently finished Stormlight, I am very curious to read the Sunlit Man now!

I just finished Assassin of Reality by Maryna and Serhiy Dyachenko (book 2 of Vita Nostra). It honestly kind of felt like an afterthought to capitalize on the popularity of the first book. I didn't feel like it added much and preferred the open endedness of the first book.

Now I've started Wool by Hugh Howey, the first of the books the Silo show is based on. Too early to give my thoughts but the first few chapters were very closely followed in the show.

I am about 7 chapters in to The Brothers Karamazov. I had heard a lot of good things prior to reading it and knew it was a classic, but god damn is it good. Dostoevsky is an amazing author who can make you feel the essence of the scene he’s describing.

I am glad I started reading it when I did, any earlier and I don’t think I would have the same appreciation for it.

This kind of thread is really bad for my wallet.

I am reading The God of the Woods by Liz Moore. I am about 2/3 through and so far I am not really getting it. I don’t dislike it and it is well written but I am not entirely sure what about it is making people rate it so high.

I'm listening to Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson after finishing Red Mars

I recently finished Isles of the Emberdark which is the latest novel by Brandon Sanderson 😁. Really loved it - tons of Cosmere crossover and some interesting setup for the future.

I also have recently read A Darker Shade of Magic by V. E. Schwab. Enjoyed this a lot and am now onto the second in the series, A Gathering of Shadows.

Not much reading last week. Read Joe Haldeman's "a separate war". I already commented on the forever war last week, nothing to add to that. Currently reading "furiously happy" by Jenny Lawson. And still listening to "the eye of the Bedlam bride" in my commute. This will take a while to listen to, since my weekly commute time is about six hours, and the audiobook is 20+ hours. It is a good listen though, I read the previous books in the series, but listening is more fun in my opinion.

I’m currently reading Star Wars Allegiance

It’s my goal to read all of the Legends or Expanded Universe books in Star Wars, I’m currently over a third done, there’s about 120 books and this is around #44 iirc.

I alternate between a Star Wars and another book when done, my current “other book” is Asimovs universe, I’ve read the Foundation Series and am onto the Robots saga and the fourth Robots and Empire

Currently reading Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir.

__

Read:

The Crows by C.M. Rosens (eldritch horror chick lit... yes, for real) | bingo squares: different continent, creature, LGBTQIA+ (arguably HM), jerk HM

A woman moves into an old house on the outskirts of an unfriendly coastal town, where everyone seems to want her gone. Turns out, the house is sentient, and many of the townsfolk aren't entirely human, including her nearest neighbor, a human/eldritch horror-hybrid.

This literally reads like Bridget Jones' Diary-era chick lit, just with liberal amounts of horror (Lovecraftian and otherwise) thrown in. It's actually a solid mashup, though, and doesn't dwell on awfulness the way the yard-long content warning list makes you think it would. It could use an edit for continuity (and don't think too hard about the world building), but it got me out of out of my post-Fisherman reading slump, so I recommend it as a fluff read if it sounds like your jam. Sidenote: this is marketed on one of the covers as "cosmic horror romance", but while there is a something in the story, it doesn't drive the plot, and isn't what you'd expect from the "romance" label (but nice to see!).