I’ve put together a collage of some books from last months What are you Reading? post. It’s mostly random, but the more discussion something gets the more it stands out to me. Going forward I’m going to make a new post every month to talk about what people are reading.
Here is last months post. What are you Reading? (July 2023)
At any rate, what are you currently reading or plan to read in August?
I’m about half way through The Fall of Hyperion. It’s great
Just finished Hyperion so I guess that will be soon for me. Might read something else in between first though
Im halfway through The color of magic by Terry Pratchett, I’ve read a few other discworld books but I thought it was time to start the first book an try to read them all in the “right” order.
It’s probably the weakest of the Discworld books (at least from what I read of them). You can tell that he’s still developing the world and it’s much more just a fantasy spoof as opposed to the social satire masquerading as fantasy spoof that those books then more and more turn into.
The Bobiverse books were great. Can’t wait for more. I’ve been reading Expeditionary Force which is where the Skippy’s come from. Also Rythm of War by Brandon Sanderson.
Fuck, Rhythm of War is awesome. I might have to go back and read the whole Stormlight series with my kids.
4th book was a huge let down. Dragged on and on about really nothing.
I really enjoyed Heaven’s River, but I also enjoy a slice of life book, and really liked all the world building with the otter world, I can definitely see where you are coming from though.
The Stormlight archive- Brandon Sanderson
Children of Time - It’s fantastic. Easily digestable space fair about giant intelligent spiders in their war with ants. Humans are involved but I care little for them. Not going to lie, I’m mainly there for the chapters narrated by the spiders and they are expectional.
Loved the children of time! I don’t think I quite have arachnaphobia, but some of the spider chapters really creeped me out! (In a good way!)
I love spiders. One of my fondest spider memories is sitting at the park drinking a diet coke. There was a little jumping spider on the table and he (she?) was sharing the condensation on the bottle. Every time I set it down it would run over & lick the bottle. Cutest spider ever. Loved Children of Time so much.
Just finished Frugal Wizards Guide, by Sanderson.
It wasn’t what I was expecting, but found it weird and fun. As per most of Sanderson’s books, I fell down the sanderlanch, and read it in 2 days.
About to finish Snow Crash, and I was just thinking about reading Seveneves afterwards. Is it good? How does it compare to Cryptonomicon and Snow Crash (the only other Stephenson books I’ve read)?
Seveneves is fantastic, one of my favorites. My favorite Stevenson books are probably Cryptonomicon>Anathem>Seveneves>Reamde
Oh man, glad to hear that! Going to the bookstore to grab it tomorrow. Thanks for the recommendation mate.
Just started reading it. What a fantastic opening line! The Moon blew up without warning and for no apparent reason.
Yeah! I did a doubletake when I read that opener. It was dramatic but also, so what if the moon blew up? Then the implications are laid out and the whole story starts moving pretty quick. Now I have to do a reread!
Until I read Project Hail Marry, Seveneves was my favorite book.
The only other Stevenson I got around to is Crypto (really enjoyed, putting a foot into “love”). My friend is a Stevenson nut, and is incredibly lukewarm on Seveneves, and I couldn’t tell you why. Go in as blind as possible (that infamous opening line is fine). It is a RIDE.
Currently listening to The Dark Tower 7 and about to start The Fall of Hyperion. I’m new to The Hyperion Cantos, but the first book hooked me so I’m looking forward to diving back into it.
Just finished the three body problem. Started recursion and then probably will do the dark forest.
Just about to finish the final book in the Remembrance of Earth’s Past Trilogy (Deaths End). Have just picked up The City and the Stars for my August read as Cixin Lui was giving me Arthur C. Clarke vibes with his incredible hard sci-fi epic
Finished Prelude to Foundation (fantastic!), now starting Children of Ruin (so far so good).
Just started reading “To Sleep in a Sea of Stars”. (Christopher Paolini)
It’s huge, but so far the pacing moves quickly enough to keep from getting bogged down.
Finished Tiamat’s Wrath last week and have started Foundation’s Edge. The Expanse has been excellent, but i am starting to find The Foundation to be a bit tedious. Second Foundation started to just feel silly with all the psychic abilities just thrown in all of a sudden and all the characters are starting to blend into each other as non-descript 1950’s Americans. That being said i am enjoying Foundation’s Edge a lot more than Second Foundation but am lookin forward to finishing it so i can move on to Dune Messiah.
I was re-reading The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Heinlein, which I read about 15 years ago and really enjoyed (even bought it for a friend as a gift). On the second read through… I found it much less entertaining (though the connection between the computer and the current LLM/AI hype is interesting), got about half-way through and basically stopped. I probably won’t finish it, which is kind of sad. Oh well, tastes change I guess.
Would mort count?
