Caught up to side stories in Side Jobs by Jim Butcher. It’s a short stories collection in Dresden Files universe. Only 1 short story and 1 novella remaining in the book. Short story is after next the book and the novella is after the book after that.
Now reading The Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King. I have this book in my library for over 15 years. Bought it a long time ago just by looking at King’s name, but then assumed it must be a part of a series (at that time all fantasy I had read were part of series), so left it for later and then forgot. Someone mentioned the book somewhat recently, and I looked it up again and found out it’s a standalone book, so finally reading it now.
It’s written in very different style from King’s usual work, like a tale told orally. It’s also a medieval fantasy, with kings, magic and dragons. Also, not as long, less than 400 pages. I am about halfway done, and enjoying the book. Should finish it soon-ish.
What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening to lately?
There’s a Midyear Bingo check-in post, do take a look. Even if you haven’t started this year’s Book Bingo, you can still join, as there are still 6 months remaining!
For details, you can checkout the initial Book Bingo, and it’s Recommendation Post . Links are also present in our community sidebar.
Don Quijote de Mancha by Miguel de Cervantes in its native Spanish.
Also finished a book by Herman Melville.
I finished Golden Son, the second in the Red Rising saga and moved right onto the third. It’s difficult to get into specifics without spoiling but I can see why people had better opinions of the second book. The pacing was nonstop from one thing to another which was a step-up from the first book that held you in the same setting for 2/3rds of the book. Nothing prepared me for the conclusion either, even though there are a dozen hints along the way. Now I’m wondering how the third is going to top it. I’ve read quite a bit into it so far but it’s only got an ‘okay’ from me, though the second felt the same in the beginning.
I’m planning to wrap up Morning Star in the following week, then I plan to reread Way of Kings in preparation for Winds and Truth next month.
I really should start Way of Kings, it’s going to take me almost an year to re-read the series.
I finished four ways to forgiveness, so now I’m on to the birthday of the world! Interesting stuff so far. Kind of a mindfuck though, to listen to all of these stories with themes on feminism, relationships, gender, society, and then for this current political farce to have happened.
I finished the short stories in my copy of I Am Legend by Richard Matheson. Some of them haven’t aged that well but overall I found most of them enjoyable.
I read Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. This book was absolutely amazing. If you want a short, atmospheric fantasy I highly recommend. I think this is a book I’ll return to routinely.
Now I’m reading Educated by Tara Westover. It’s a memoir about her growing up in a survivalist family in rural Idaho. She was not enrolled in school and didn’t even have a birth certificate for many years. I’m not very far in yet but it is fascinating and very easy to read.
I have Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell for many years, but haven’t gotten around to actually reading it. Have you read that one?
Educated sounds interesting, I have some interest in survivalism, but that sounds like an extreme example.
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell was alao very good! I really wish she wrote more but I’ve read she struggles with chronic illness so it’s hard to get more books out.
For Educated, while the survivalism is very present, the book is more exploring the impact it has had on the author’s upbringing and on her siblings.
I read as always several books at once.
One of them is Babel by R. F. Kuang. I was blown away at first, but after the first third of the book I’m not as as enthusiastic anymore. Everything to do with languages and translation is awesome, the characters are well defined but a bit one-dimensional so far, but I think the plot is nothing to write home about and has some „young adult“ vibes to me. It’s still good though, and I’m far from finished yet.
Another one is „the notebook a history of thinking on paper“ I just got it today, but it looks very promising.
The Notebook sounds pretty interesting. Do share your review when you are done with it.
Will do! Its pretty interesting so far.
Yup, I also got strong YA vibes from Babel. Got some other vibes too, but those are spoilers ;)
Started City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett. It’s pretty good so far, although I’m not sure if the world building is quite my taste.
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Finished There Is No Antimemetics Division by qntm. I started it with only a very cursory knowledge of SCP, and I think you could absolutely read this with none at all, as a standalone.
Bingo squares: Independent Author; Easy, Breazy, Read-zie; Now a Major Motion Picture (youtube miniseries); It’s About Time; Mashup; Institutional; (alt) Pseudonymous Work (hard); (alt) A Change in Perspective
Going to dive deeper in SCP wiki? Or that’s it for now.
Oh, nah, I’m good for now. I only have so much reading time!
You can solve the problem by removing “only” from your sentence. “I have so much reading time!”
A few weeks back I decided to reread Lord of the Rings.
About 90% of the way finished with that, but stopped when I realized I wanted to do a reread of Stormlight Archives for a refresher (particularly on Way of Kings and Rhythm of War) since I have now read all sorts of fun Cosmere stuff like Sunlit Man, Warbreaker, Mistborn 2, and Elantris since I picked them up.
Just wrapped on Way of Kings and am progressing much slower into Words of Radiance.
The Eyes of the Dragon is my favorite King story. There is a brief moment at the end which implies a tangential connection to other works.
I’ve been struggling lately to get through books for a few months. This week was a breakthrough in that struggle, I needed some distraction and was able to get the focus I needed.
I finally finished We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson and A Prayer For The Crown-Shy by Becky Chambers just as last week. I’m gonna start reading Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees which should be fairly quick and if I can; optimistically move onto Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman.
These all help progress my Bingo sheet.
Yeah, finished the book, it was pretty interesting.
Glad you are back to reading!
Currently reading One Dark Window, the first book in the Shepherd King series by Rachel Gillig. It’s fun and interesting, with a good magic system. The romance aspect is a little obvious and over-done at times, though.
I really liked Eyes of the Dragon when I read it 30 years ago. It was fun and different from his other works. It was maybe the second fantasy book I ever read, so the new type of world was eye opening to me at the time. Not sure how I’d like it now, but I really enjoyed it then.
Ooh, I liked Eyes of the Dragon. Enjoy!
I just finished Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, and just started Fagles’ translation of Homer’s Odyssey. Chapter 1 was surprisingly engaging and follow-able… I was prepared to feel lost, as I haven’t done “classics” like this before. But then, I did do a fair bit of research on which translation to pick, and this one did stand out as readable, so maybe I shouldn’t be too surprised.
I’ve been wanting to read the Iliad and odyssey, but the ones I’ve read have been so hard to follow and I lost interest. I’ll have to look this one up, thanks!
yeah, np! This is the video I used to make my pick. This guy compares a couple of passages in a bunch of different translations. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLn_wmedmT0 good luck!
Cormac McCarthy is difficult to read too. So if you can read his books I am sure classics shouldn’t be too much of an issue.
Ha, yeah, that’s a good point! It was pretty thiccc/dense.
Currently on Book 7 of the Malazan series by Steven Erikson, “Reaper’s Gale”. Started book 1 back in June, still working my way through them. The whole series improved tremendously after Book 3 finished, it’s been a heck of a ride so far.
3 to go. How do you like it? I started with book one last month then got side tracked by some of Stephen King’s books. I don’t think I’m mentally ready for a 10 books journey yet
So many conflicting feelings.
- Book 1 was okay, not too bad, I was curious where it’d go
- Hated book 2, it was way too dark and I saw the ending coming from a third of the way in
- Book 3 was also WAY too dark, an absolute downer
- Book 4 had an amazing character arc over the first third, the rest was pretty okay
- Loved book 5. Absolutely a masterpiece
- Seriously enjoyed book 6
- Book 7 is very good so far!
They’re all SO long, too
Damn, now I’m curious
The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla
Probably my fifth go around with this book. First time listening to it on audiobook.
I finished off Mr Mercedes which was good but probably not high up there in terms of Kings books for me. I think Eyes of a Dragon was his attempted at writing a YA novel for his kids if I remember rightly. I enjoyed it but again not one of my favourite King books.
As always I’ve done a couple of Deathlands books this week and still enjoying it greatly.
I also read Flux by Jeremy Robinson which is the third book in the Infinite series. It was another really good book and another one that really reminded me of Koontz and the way he writes. The end of it ties in really nicely with The Others which was the second book and adds some further back story into the universe and that story that I wasn’t expecting throughout the story which was a nice surprise.
I have the fourth book ready to go and may start on that after a couple more Deathlands books :D
On the side I have spent a few hours editing Underwood and Flinch (by Mike Bennett) podcast releases I have the files for into a cohesive audio book with none of the podcast preamble and shit talking. I’ve listened to it a couple of times already and editing it has tempted me back for another listen which I may so sometime soon. If you’d like a modern day vampire story I strongly recommend checking it out!
I may have asked this before, but what are your favourite King books?
I really like the Dark Tower series, the world and how it is built, the concept etc but the last couple of books are quite frankly mid at best. They aren’t bad but I find the end kind of unsatisfying.
I really like the majority of his work but my favourites in no particular order would probably be -
The Talisman
Needful Things
Desperation
The Regulators
Black House
Cell
11/22/63
The Green Mile
I think xD I didn’t want to make the list too long but honestly it is hard to pick for me.
I once started The Gunslinger, but couldn’t get into it. May give it a try again.
Heh, thanks for the list. It can be difficult if you like the author / genre, so thanks for doing it anyway! I have The Talisman in my backlog for many years, should give it a read. Have heard of 11/22/63 and The Green Mile but all other names are new, will take a look at them.
No worries, I’ll look forward to hopefully hearing your thoughts on some of them in future weekly threads :D
I’ve been meaning to read Side Jobs - does it finally explain the sasquatch? Gotta do something while I’m waiting for the next book!
I’m currently doing a re-listen to Name of the Wind and catching a lot of references I missed on the first read and first listen.
There is no Sasquatch in any of the Dresden Files novel or short story yet. So, don’t know.
Dresden met a Sasquatch named Strength of a River in His Shoulders between Fool Moon and Grave Peril to help him with something. He only exists in short stories until Peace Talks.
Ah okay. Will look forward to reading about him.
The Bigfoot bit is explained in 3 stories in the collection Brief Cases or the separate Working for Bigfoot collection that just features them.
Ah, okay, thanks! I love reading them, but James Marsters is phenomenal on the audio books, so maybe I’ll check that collection out as well.
I am at the end of The Amityville Horror by Jay Anson. It’s an overflow from Halloween season reads. I kinda hate it but I’ll finish it.
