Read My Roommate is a Vampire by Jenna Levine.
It’s a rom-com, which I don’t generally read, so I can’t judge if it was actually good or not. Personally, it felt too much like one of those K-Dramas, where a poor girl meets super rich guy, who is super handsome, and she keeps thinking about her all the time. Except this one has a Vampire. Not a big fan, but overall it was a fine time pass.
Bingo squares: Jude a book by its cover.
What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening to lately?
For details on the c/Books bingo challenge that just restarted for the year, you can checkout the initial Book Bingo, and its Recommendation Post. Links are also present in our community sidebar.
Currently reading “The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle” by Haruki Murakami. I’m about a third of the way through it, great book so far, highly recommend.
I just finished reading Foreigner, by CJ Cherryh, which I thought was a fantastic book about first contact and understanding vs communication between alien races, though the main character can sound more than a little petulant as he gets jerked around, then because he can’t relax he whines (a lot) about not having his human-goods catalogues so he can at least see a human face once in a while. Dude had a lot on his mind, so you know, I get it. For the book bingo I went with one book per square, and to be honest that was my free square because I bought almost all the books in the series and wanted to get reading them. Glad I did.
Before that I read By the Sword, by Mercedes Lackey; I’m lukewarm on it. Interesting world, great action-adventure stuff, and the main character is a likable, emotionally-mature woman leading a mercenary life in a rough world - it has its good points, but the overall tone of the story itself felt flat for me. I didn’t know it’s one of a bajillion books in the same world that Lackey wrote in, so IDK, might try another book from that pile sometime. For the bingo it satisfied the “Orange Cover Art” square due to lots of yellow leaves and hair in the art. Kind of a stretch, but I really couldn’t find something more orange-y in my collection.
I’m currently reading Nine Princes in Amber, by Roger Zelazny. It’s a really creative take on modern faerie-realm stuff that feels more like it pulls “modern day” back into European mythology rather than the way urban fantasy feels like it pulls fantasy into a more modern realism. The plot is fairly simple so far, but it’s the first in a series of relatively short novels, so I might just read a few more of them in a row and see where it goes. For the bingo, this was the “Title with a Number in It” square.
This has been such a fun way to cut into my oversized library of books I haven’t actually read yet.
CJ Cherryh and Roger Zelazny both are on my list but haven’t gotten around to reading them yet. Don’t see them getting mentioned these days either.
I’m halfway through listening to The Handmaid’s Tale. I went in blind and there have been some moments which are shockingly similar to recent events in the USA. I’m loving the way the world is slowly revealed to the reader.
I have finally committed. I’ve started Sir Terry Pratchett’s Disc World, starting with the Color of Magic, and I intend to proceed by publication order. We’ll see how long this one takes to finish. 😛
I started reading that series recently as well, and I’m quite enjoying it, and I’m taking the same approach to reading them in publication order. I’ve got Witches Abroad on my to-read list for the bingo, for the “Cozy” square. I didn’t enjoy Pyramids or Eric, though, those gave me weird vibes; I found Eric pretty dismissive of women, and Pyramids was weirdly insulting towards middle eastern contributions to science and math, but to be honest there were still parts of those books that were creative and worth reading, even if they didn’t meet Pratchett’s usual standards.
Hope you enjoy them.
I started in mostly the same order last year and I’m already nine books down. I wanted to carry on with the Rincewind arc more than start new ones, but I actually ended up delaying some of my favourites so far.
“Consider Phlebas”, by Iain M. Banks.
A lemmy thread about favourite fictional society to live in introduced me to The Culture, I’m extremely intrigued by this post-scarcity anarchist space hippy commune and want to find out more.
It’s british space opera, which I incredibly enjoy and it allegedly deconstructs the “lone protagonist has wide raging influence”-trope which I’m also going to enjoy.
Wind and Truth - Latest entry in Brian Sanderson’s flagship Stormlight Archives fantasy series. I wanted to like it but if I’m being honest with myself, it’s been going downhill since everyone became a Jedi in the second book.
lol at everyone becoming a Jedi, haven’t seen it described like this before.
Dragons of Autumn Twilight, the first book in an excellent series that I haven’t read for 15+ years. Catching up with my old friends has been fantastic.
Man, those books were my jam back in grade school. I gotta pick them up again sometime.
I’ve been working my way through the chronicles of the Black Company, currently on Silver Spike. I do love grounded, grim high fantasy with a mouthy but self-deprecating protagonist, might be my most pumpkin spice opinion ever
Recently finished Stephen Fry’s Mythos audiobook, which is incredibly lovable. I listened through it twice in a row.
Ok I can’t stand it anymore.
Love the thread, but can you please put the word “to” after “listening”?
Again, with love…
I have been reading The Way of Kings for what seems like the past ten thousand years. Why are these books so long???
… you do know that every subsequent book in the series longer than the previous one, right? ._.
I do. Thankfully I’ve really enjoyed it so far, but I have to put it down for extended periods from time to time because of fatigue. I started it in late April and I have about a fifth of the book left.
Slow and steady wins the race! 😀
The art of batting. Just started it. Big fan of the writer (Jarrod Kimber) and the sport (cricket).
I fell down the journaling rabbit hole and got into Digital Minimalism, by Cal Newport.
I downloaded a bunch of classics from Project Gutenberg. I’m reading Frankenstein finally.
Nice! It’s a classic for a reason. Very different from many of it’s adaptations though
That’s one of the reasons I wanted to read it. I never got to it when I was in school and figured that there is no time like the present. I’ve just started but so far it is a really interesting window into the views of the world in the early 1800s. The magnetic North pole was considered a scientific mystery, and the Northern Passage from Europe to the Americas was considered a foregone conclusion that would be solved in a few years by plucky explorers!
I finished One Hundred Years of Solitude recently and really loved it. The blend of real life events and magical elements was beautifully done. It felt like an elderly relative was recalling their memories whilst embellishing them with little touches of magic. SO MANY family members, but each of them was unique. In terms of the Bingo, I’ve added it to ‘Set in War’ (though it would have also fit in several other categories).
I’ve just started The Wager by David Grann. It seems really fascinating so far and has already given me quite an insight into maritime life. I didn’t realise until now that it recounts a true event!
I read Gabriel’s Love in the time of Cholera, and while I don’t remember much about it now, I loved his writing. It was one of the major reason I started learning Spanish (but never got around to properly study and reach a level where I could read a book), cause I wanted to experience his writing as he has written them.
Should just read it now. Even if I learn Spanish, to be able to reach a level where I can read a book of this caliber and fully enjoy the writing, it would take a long time.
I’ll have to give it a go! He has a lovely way of writing, really capturing those little details of people and places.
Would love to hear what you think about it.
Unfortunately it won’t be any time soon, I have a huge backlog of ebooks to get through xD
Heh, no worries. Take your time!
This year I have been catching up with some SF: broadly alternating Banks’ Culture series with others. A few weeks back, after finishing Use of Weapons, I read McCarthy’s The Road - which kinda counts as SF - and that spoiled other books for me for a while. His excellent, sparse use of language topped off a brilliantly understated and impactful tale.
Life got in the way for a bit following that, and rather than going into the next Culture novel, I happened to have Niven and Pournelle’s The Mote in God’s Eye to hand and so started that, but not only was the writing extremely mundane compared to McCarthey, but the setting of “Nelson’s navy in space” left me comparing it to O’Brien’s Aubrey and Maturin tales - and it didn’t do well on that front either.
So I will not continue with that one and will be starting Excession - which I believe many find to be the best of the Culture books - shortly.
Any favourites in SF, from this year’s reads?
The first three of Dennis E Taylor’s Bobiverse tales, definitely: easy reads and the most compelling that I have read for a long while. The next ones may be too - I just decided to take a break before continuing.
Also Dan Simmon’s Hyperion for it’s breadth of styles if nothing else.
The early Murderbot diaries by Martha Wells. After the first five there were some elements that started to get a little repetitive, so I took a break there. I expect to enjoy them again when I restart though.
And then The Road, of course, which is by far the most literary, and probably The Player of Games so far from the Culture tales.
The least favourite would be This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone, which I found naïve and unconvincing.
Thanks for the recommendations.
Dan Simmon’s Hyperion is often mentioned here, should move them to top of my wishlist.
Working my way through Hyperion again! Never finished it, lost interest pretty fast, but now I want to see how it all ends.
