Do audiobooks count?
Leviathan Falls by James S. A. Corey. It’s the final book in The Expanse series. Really got hooked on it. I haven’t made time to find another book since then though 🤔
They absolutely do! I don’t understand the snobbery against audiobooks. When Borges lost his sight he had to have books read to him, and just consider the amazing stories he came up with (and the literary devices he developed) to make up for his blindness.
They definitely count as ingesting books but there is a difference between reading a book and listening to an audiobook.
Reading IS the activity but I feel like with audiobooks people are typically driving or something where the book is in the background. Though maybe some people put on headphones and just sit and listen or something. I don’t know if this makes me a snob lol.
Also The Expanse was the first book series I ever read. It was so good. And it made me like the show less even though the show is still great.
I read up to Cibola Burn but then ran out at the time, I haven’t gone back since books beyond that came out. I need to start over. Would you describe it as a satisfying conclusion?
Yes, I was more than happy with the ending. Loose ends were pretty well tied up.
One day there’ll be an expanse movie that covers what the tv series didn’t… one day…
Last finished was Acceptance by Jeff Vandermeer. Currently reading Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir.
Project Hail Mary was excellent. Loved every second.
Same, I’m flying through it right now. Started it on Monday and already like 3/4 of the way through it.
Story-wise, it felt a bit clunkier than the Marsian but I liked the worldbuilding a lot.
I just finished Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. Great book, that not only coined terms like “avatar” and “metaverse” (for better or worse), but is also really well written. It somehow manages to find a tone that is consistent for the dystopian worldbuilding, the silly and self-aware things that happen in the world, and the philosophical aspect dealing with culture, religion and free will. Highly recommend!
And I’m currently reading his newest novel, Termination Shock. Quite different, but still has that Stephenson sense of world building that I love.
This was the first book of him I read, but I will definitely check out his other works if they’re all like this!
Everyone goes on about how important this book is, but I got barely 1/3 if the way through and bounced off it hard.
Horses for courses I guess.
I think it laid a lot of groundwork for books that came later. But as you said, not every book is for everybody.
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. I keep starting some books after this one but I can’t seem to finish anything.
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, and I hated it.
It takes a very cool premise, then fills it with incongruences and predictable twists that you understand chapters ahead of the protagonist. Then it all ends up being (SPOILERS AHEAD) a “humans used to literally talk to nature, modern society bad” mumbojumbo with some kind of unexplained multiverse in it.
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch – a really fun heist-y story set in an engaging and well-crafted fantasy world
Old Man’s War by John Scalzi - not high literature by any means, but a fun read nonetheless. Currently reading the sequel, The Ghost Brigades, which is equally as fun :)
I was recently reading Scalzi too! His blog is great too.
Last book I finished? The Dragon Reborn. Currently reading? The Princess Diaries.
Ayyyyy, are you reading The Shadow Rising soon? I liked it more than the Dragon Reborn.
Yep! Just need to find a bit more time for it. I’ve got a book club with a friend where we’re reading through the series.
I love that! If it’s your first time through, I hope you both enjoy it!
Last book on paper: D&D 5th edition Player Handbook (German edition)
Last novel on paper: Frank Herbert - Dune
Last audiobook: P. Djèlí Clark - A Master of Djinn
The Broken Earth Trilogy by NK Jemisin. Fantastic and heartbreaking. It’s kind of a crossover in science fiction and fantasy, set in a world that experiences apocalyptic levels of climate and geological change every few hundred years. Jemisin does excellent world building and a very admirable job of writing parts of the narrative in second person in a way that seems seamless/not gimmicky. Highly recommended.
I loved those books! In the beginning second person felt extremely weird, but the “resolution” of why it is written that way made so much sense that it made the books even more enjoyable IMO.
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
I just finished this yesterday! Great read esp since I’m right around the same age as the main characters all the gaming nostalgia rang particularly true to me.
Yeah I’m really liking it so far! I’m at the Both Sides section now and I really like the imagery the book paints in my head.
The Burning Land by Bernard Cornwell. It’s book 5 in the last kingdom series that the TV show is based off of. I love the time period.
I just finished Animal Farm and 1984, both by George Orwell. They’re fantastic books that offer an interesting perspective on the Russian Revolution and authoritarianism.
Most recently finished: The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher - an enjoyable, but not exceptional, folk horror.
Currently in the middle of: Finnegans Wake, Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky, Flashman and Madison’s War by Robert Brightwell, and a collection of Para Handy tales by Neil Munro.
Raft by Stephen Baxter. Part of the Xeelee sequence series.
Currently on book 2: Timelike Infinity and I’m liking it quite a bit.
