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StarTopic Books |ST| Now You're Reading with POWER

I recently got back into reading after my hand issues. I read the hobbit for the very first time and got hooked on comics. Would love some good recommendations since I used to read Star Wars and halo books mainly
 
Man, I really ended up slacking on reading this year. Partly it's because I lost my job in March, and I did a lot of reading at work during my downtime. I ended up having to readjust my reading goal to 35 books this year (down from 40). I'm almost back on track for that, so that's exciting!

I just finished reading Immortal Longings by Chloe Gong, which is an interesting fantasy book (with some sci-fi elements) about body jumping, inspired by Shakespeare's Antony & Cleopatra. Really enjoyable, can't wait to see the world expand in the next book.

Next up will be the new Stephen King book, Holly. I've heard some iffy things about it but I can't pass up a new King novel (that I only realized had come out last week).
 
Finished Empire Of Sand by Tasha Suri the other night. Towards the end I found myself going "this isn't how I wanted this to end" but then she wrapped it all up with aplomb and now I have to get the sequel at some point.
 
Finished Holly by Stephen King. I definitely understand the issues people had with it, as when it touches on real world current(-ish) events, it really comes across as preachy and just doesn't feel right.

But King is still a good writer, so when he avoids that the book is very engaging. Still probably my least favorite book of his, certainly the worst thing he's written with Holly Gibney in it.

Also picked up some books from Amazon for Prime Day, Slaughterhouse-Five and The Grapes of Wrath. I've read Slaughterhouse-Five before, but I recently read the graphic novel adaptation (which is absolutely fantastic, highly recommend it) and that got me in the mood to read the novel again. Couldn't find my copy so a new one was in order. The Grapes of Wrath is something I haven't read before but I do enjoy Steinbeck.
 
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Well damn, I'm on a roll I guess, cause I just finished The Frugal Wizard's Handbook For Surviving Medieval England by Brandon Sanderson.

Probably helps that the book is just so much fun. It's got a great premise and the story moves at a quick pace. Plus there are some excellent illustrations, and the phrase "Wait. Did I Just Do A Colonialism?"
 
I'm reading The Grapes of Wrath, and I honestly am not sure what to think yet. It's definitely well written (I haven't come across a Steinbeck book that isn't), but the structure seems a bit odd to me. Then again, I had no idea what to expect. I'm enjoying it though.
 
I’m reading Welcome to Night Vale and, as someone who didn’t really listen to the podcast, I am finding the writing style actively irritating, like Douglas Adams with ADHD. There are only so many times you can describe a thing as Exactly Like Something But Not Like Something At All before my eyes start to glaze over.

There are ideas here I’m enjoying but holy cow, focus on telling a story first and stop trying to psyche me out every single paragraph of every single page.
 
Legion of Primes said:
I recently got back into reading after my hand issues. I read the hobbit for the very first time and got hooked on comics. Would love some good recommendations since I used to read Star Wars and halo books mainly
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Star Wars has The New Republic series which I've so far liked and read.
 
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1upmuffin said:
I like that chapter but I understand why some might not, and why it doesn't make it into the movies.

I'm still reading Childhoods End, I've not been reading much lately, I need to fix that.
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Some of the things in the books were weird, like the Tom Bombadil stuff.
 
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Finished reading The Grapes of Wrath. Hell of a novel. It's dense and kind of hard to read, both for the dialect being sometimes hard to understand, and just for the fact that it depicts some awful stuff that's still an issue today. Made me frustrated sometimes. Also the ending is weird, but I do appreciate it.
 
KilgoreWolfe said:
Started a re-read of Slaughterhouse-Five and it's just as good as I remember. Vonnegut is just brilliant.
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I need to re-read that, I read it in high school for fun. Now that I'm older and I've read a bunch of other Vonnegut books I think I'd like it even more.
 
Finished The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson. It was nice to get back to the world of Scadrial, looking forward to picking up the rest of the books soon.

Next up, I'm gonna prove love and read Chuck Tingle's Camp Damascus.
 
Recently finished a first time reading of Elaine Cunningham's Songs and Swords series. Gonna sit here for a bit trying to conjure up a 3D image of the cancelled final book and rotate it in my mind palace.
 
I’m currently in the middle of my eighth? ninth? reread of Infinite Jest. Or re-listen, I suppose. The audiobook is just so damn good. I think it might be my favorite book of all time. When I finish the audiobook, I’m gonna read the paperback again.

I might be addicted to it. Which ironically is very relevant to the plot of Infinite Jest.
 
KilgoreWolfe said:
Finished The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson. It was nice to get back to the world of Scadrial, looking forward to picking up the rest of the books soon.

Next up, I'm gonna prove love and read Chuck Tingle's Camp Damascus.
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You just reminded me that I still haven’t read The Lost Metal. I need to get on that.
 
Wow, Camp Damascus was absolutely fantastic. Genuinely unsettling sometimes, but full of warmth and kindness. I loved it the whole way through.
 
Finished The Woman in Me by Britney Spears. It's just heartbreaking. Looking back to all of her pivotal moments from a fan's POV thinking she was on top of the world, but she was suffering so terribly.

You could say the book itself doesnt live up to its hype or build to any emotional depth from a storytelling point of view. I've seen some folks share that sentiment; that it reads like a teen diary. Part of me goes "isn't that the point?", but I also took this as a case study on American stardom and the dangers of family relationships mixed with business.
 
Happy new year, time to start new reading goals. I keep mine at 12 each year to have something easy to meet but also an amount I feel happy with, and always go beyond it.

I finished Breakfast of Champions, it was good though I don't know if I fully loved the amount of meta/4th wall stuff.

I'm reading the 6th wheel of time (previously was listening as audio book but I've been commuting less often/shorter distance). I need to start something shorter as well, maybe The Road? I've had that on my shelf for a long time.
 
I’m about halfway through “Killers of the Flower Moon”. I highly recommend it. It’s an extremely interesting and heartbreaking bit of American history. Want to get through it before I watch the movie.
 
I read too many books at once, so uh let me pick just a few... Well, I just finished The Oleander Sword by Tasha Suri tonight and now I'm going to sit here waiting for the third book. Yesterday I finished Dragonlance: Dragons of Fate and I am also going to sit here waiting for the third book.

Joined a book club on a Patreon server I'm in and will be reading Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia this month, too.
 
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Currently reading Parable Of The Sower by Octavia Butler & Directing Actors by Judith Weston
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merp said:
I finished The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

The "Scouring of the Shire" was weird.

Otherwise, I liked it. :p
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The thing about the Scouring is that it's thematically integral to so much of the novel, more a thematic and story climax than a narrative one. Consider the nature of the Shire and what it might represent, what it means to the characters and their quest, the pervasiveness of evil, the constant themes of industrialization and nature throughout the work with the interplay thereof and how those define this section.

But one of the clearest meanings in that section is probably embodied in Gandalf's words to the hobbits beforehand: "My time is over: it is no longer my task to set things to rights, nor to help folk to do so. And as for you, my dear friends, you will need no help. You are grown up now. Grown very high; among the great you are, and I have no longer any fear at all for any of you." We have here the fading away of what was, that melancholy which has permeated the work from the start, but we also have the seed of what follows, predicated here upon the ennoblement of the ignoble: the hobbits, small folk in a world of the big, have grown, and we can see this in the different ways the scouring plays out.

It's notable, perhaps, that a scouring is a cleansing. Evil tainted this previously idyllic part of the world, but it can still be cast out in the end.

The Shire was scarred, however, and we can parallel this with the scarring within Frodo as well. But the Shire found healing, and it seems Frodo's wound may never heal. He instead sets off for the Undying Lands. If we follow the proposed parallel here, though, perhaps there is hope for healing after all. In this way, the existence of the Scouring within the text could help turn a hopeless state into a hopeful one in the end.

The Scouring is a section that grounds so much of what has been presented in the novel and brings it all home. The written register of language even changes here in a manner that heightens this -- Tolkien varied the linguistic register throughout the work depending on factors such as location and actions (Take a look at Hobbiton and then jump to Rohan for a quick example), so this isn't even unusual, but it could very well contribute to the section feeling weird.

There's a neat parallel here between The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, where the earlier work could have narratively ended with the defeat of Smaug and the dwarves' reclamation of their home, but a skewing of fate draws the Battle of Five Armies to commence -- and how does the abject greed that led to this reflect the greed of the dragon? -- and even further with the auctioning of Bilbo's belongings while he was away.

We can even go back further to a well-known example of such a returning home point in a narrative, with The Odyssey, when Odysseus finally makes it back home and (spoilers for a more than 2,000 year old work, I guess) finds Penelope's many suitors taking up residence in his home, and now he must reclaim it.

It might not follow typically expected narrative structures these days, which probably also adds to the feeling of oddity, but it makes its belonging clear.

1upmuffin said:
I like that chapter but I understand why some might not, and why it doesn't make it into the movies.
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I, however, have never forgiven them for removing it from the films, even if it might add another film's worth of runtime. There weren't enough endings in those anyway.

But, yeah, I was definitely disappointed when it wasn't in the film, and then again when it wasn't in the extended cut either, but I can see why it would be removed. And we at least still see change in the quartet themselves, a sort of melancholy of its own here, even if what's conveyed isn't quite the same. They can never return to the same home they once knew, even if it's just because they're not the same hobbits they once were; there's something there. I'm not sure it carries quite the same thematic weight and depth and nuance, though. It's certainly more palatable.

Anyhow, I should stop here or people might get the impression I have strong thoughts regarding the Scouring of the Shire.

Next up: Tom Bombadil!
 
GenOneCam said:
I’m about halfway through “Killers of the Flower Moon”. I highly recommend it. It’s an extremely interesting and heartbreaking bit of American history. Want to get through it before I watch the movie.
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Great book - loved how it was written as a slight mystery for a good chunk of it. The introduction of the FBI makes for such a turn in the course of events it’s hard not to root for the U.S. government at that point.

Movie is also excellent - the soundtrack is a particular highlight. Isn’t as all-encompassing as the book but still does the story justice.
 
I am going to try my best to read more this year and catalogue the results.

First read: Dracula by Bram Stoker [★★★☆☆]. I went to university for English Literature & Rhetoric, and haven't read this until now. What can I say? I read maybe 100 books over that degree. Do you know how many fucking books there are? Lots. Anyway: I enjoyed it! I always find it a little hard to come to a work after experiencing a thousand parodies of it first, and Dracula was no different. Many of the things it carefully lays out - the lack of reflection, the sleeping on ancestral soil, etc - are seen a mile away today, by virtue of it being such an iconic work. Even still, I enjoyed the often exciting hunt for Dracula, and the several decapitations along the way. "Captain's Log" was fantastic. I should see Voyage of the Demeter. The edition I read had a great essay addendum about the homosexual context of the work, which was well-written and illuminating. A good start to the year overall I'd say.
 
I got a few family members to read Dracula this past year by directing them to Dracula Daily, which uses the epistemological nature of the novel and sends you each day's entry according to when it's dated, from May 3 to November 7. Those who participated had a blast.

They all exclaimed how they'd somehow never read it before (even my sister-in-law, who has basically always been into Vampire media. I gave her a copy of Carmilla recently, which she also had never read, and she loved that too.)

big lantern ghost said:
I went to university for English Literature & Rhetoric, and haven't read this until now. What can I say? I read maybe 100 books over that degree. Do you know how many fucking books there are? Lots.
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I feel this viscerally. It's depressing and inspiring and awful.

big lantern ghost said:
"Captain's Log" was fantastic. I should see Voyage of the Demeter.
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I've mentioned this work earlier in the thread, but you might be interested in La Ruta del Hielo y la Sal by José Luis Zárate. It became a cult classic in Mexico following its 1998 publication and was released in English as The Route of Ice and Salt right around three years ago --January 19 -- by Innsmouth Free Press.


Patch notes: Forgot to include the English title. It's the same title, but even so.
 
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GenOneCam said:
finished Killers of the Flower Moon. Now reading Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson.
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That's going to be quite the whiplash! I like Mistborn a lot, even if it's a bit rough around the edges in a lot of ways. I should go back and revisit it at some point.
 
Supreme Overlord said:
I've mentioned this work earlier in the thread, but you might be interested in La Ruta del Hielo y la Sal by José Luis Zárate.
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Thank you for the recommendation! i just requested my library order it and place a hold for me.

Also reading Dracula in that format is very clever! Should I ever read it again, I’ll have to remember that.
 
I did the 52-book challenge!

Such books I read were:

The Boomerang of Hatred: On Racism in the USA by Svetlana Alexandrovna Chervonnaya

Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care by Kelly Hayes and Mariame Kaba

Revolting Capital: Racism & Radicalism in Washington, D.C., 1900–2000 by Gerald Horne

History of the Communist Party of the United States by William Z. Foster

Introduction to Logic (14th Edition) by Irving M. Copi, Carl Cohen, and Kenneth McMahon

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

A Feast for Crows (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 4) by George R. R. Martin

The Destruction of Reason by Georg Lukács, introduction by Enzo Traverso, trans. by Peter Palmer

Economics of Racism II: The Roots of Inequality, USA by Victor Perlo

Analog (The MIT Press Essential Knowledge series) by Robert Hassan

Unmasking Autism: Discovering the New Faces of Neurodiversity by Devon Price, PhD

----

These aren't all the books, just the ones I found most interesting. I plan to read book #5 of A Song of Ice and Fire soon enough (which is named A Dance with Dragons, my favorite book within the series). I'm doing a re-read of the series and will include the Dunk & Egg books as well, which I'll be reading for the first time ever. I also finished The Lord of the Rings trilogy and will continue reading books from Tolkien's "Legendarium" (probably The Silmarillion next). I plan to also read the Octavia Butler's sequel to her novel Parable of the Sower. I'm going to continue reading The High Republic books for Star Wars, as an aside.

As to the non-fiction I read, I read some communist literature and some books exploring neurodiversity, especially as it pertains to Autism and ADHD. I felt that the book Analog was unexpectedly a great book and really made me interested in analog technology and other things that were analog. I think physical media was missing from my life. Still kinda is. And I'm willing to delve more into it later on. I also wanted to learn more about logic and how it "worked." Like, what counts as being completely logical? And how does language affect what we think is logical? So I read Introduction to Logic, though in the end, I felt it was a bit too dense for me. Economics of Racism II: The Roots of Inequality (exploring the economical roots of racism in the United States) and The Destruction of Reason (exploring Nazi thought and how it was eventually created) are both by socialist writers, though both are likely dated by this point (still, those two books were enlightening to me). As an aside, I would highly recommend Let This Radicalize You: Organizing and the Revolution of Reciprocal Care by Kelly Hayes and Mariame Kaba if you want to get into activism and organizing (or especially if you're already an activist of some sort).

If you intend to read or re-read the series of novels A Song of Ice and Fire (which is what the TV show Game of Thrones is based off of), I suggest the YouTube channel DavidReadsASoIaF:

 
Red Monster said:
I’m currently in the middle of my eighth? ninth? reread of Infinite Jest. Or re-listen, I suppose. The audiobook is just so damn good. I think it might be my favorite book of all time. When I finish the audiobook, I’m gonna read the paperback again.

I might be addicted to it. Which ironically is very relevant to the plot of Infinite Jest.
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Following up on this, I’ve finished the book again.

I actually finished the relisten that I posted about here back in November, and I just finished another relisten. This time it wasn’t the official audiobok, but rather the Infinite Cast podcast. It’s a show where a couple reads the entire book, endnotes included, and give some commentary on each section. Molly, who does the reading, isn’t as talented as Sean Pratt, but she still does a great job, especially considering she isn’t a professional audiobook narrator.

This is the second time I’ve listened to this book via this podcast. The official audiobook doesn’t include the endnotes, but the podcast does. The endnotes aren’t strictly necessary to get the gist of the story and to enjoy the book, but they add a ton of context and help with getting a grasp on this monster.

I do still want to read it again for sure. But reading books doesn’t really fit into my life at this point in time, not like audiobooks do anyway.

Every time I get through Infinite Jest, I find new things. This is a deep book. I freaking love it.
 
I'm reading The Road, good so far.

Also, there's a nice Humble Bundle for Discworld books right now. They are on Kobo so you have to use Calibre to remove the DRM if you want to use on non Kobo devices.

Infinite Jest is one I should probably read someday.
 
1upmuffin said:
I'm reading The Road, good so far.

Also, there's a nice Humble Bundle for Discworld books right now. They are on Kobo so you have to use Calibre to remove the DRM if you want to use on non Kobo devices.

Infinite Jest is one I should probably read someday.
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As for me, I'm reading:

Star Wars: The High Republic: Midnight Horizons by Daniel José Older

Star Wars: The High Republic: Convergence by Zoraida Córdova

Smart Brevity: The Power of Saying More With Less by Jim VandeHei, Mike Allen, and Roy Schwartz

The Art of Active Listening: How People At Work Feel Heard, Valued, And Understood by Heather R. Younger

The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon

----

Good books thus far. I'm especially enjoying The High Republic series of novels. The novels are better-written than the other Star Wars novels within Disney's Expanded Universe and better than most novels in the Legends continuity. The Legends continuity, I felt, basically got bad with the Yuuzhan Vong, but it had its fair share of good novels in other places of the continuity. I feel that The High Republic series is a return to form for Star Wars novels (at least, whenever they were at their best) and will continue reading these novels. Smart Brevity is something I needed for my own writing skills and The Art of Active Listening is what I needed in my life in general. It's honestly a book I really admire because I'm often nodding my head at the pages or really reflecting on them. As for The Wretched of the Earth, I'm going to withhold judgment on it for now as I'm not that far into it yet.
 
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Picked up a ton of old SF paperbacks in Canada. Just finished this one. Weinbaum's tragically short career writing for science fiction pulps in the 30s is considered revolutionary, bringing a new level of sophistication of ideas and craft to the young genre. These stories are still a delight, particularly A Martian Odyssey and The Lotus Eaters, which have treatments of alien psychology that still feels fresh today. The sense of wonder, humor, wit, and adventure still shines through. Some racism and sexism, but relatively mild compared to contemporaries.
 
SammyJ9 said:
That's going to be quite the whiplash! I like Mistborn a lot, even if it's a bit rough around the edges in a lot of ways. I should go back and revisit it at some point.
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Yeah I intentionally chose something light and easy after “Killers of the Flower Moon”. So far I’m enjoying it. It’s nothing revolutionary but it is a nice easy read.
 
big lantern ghost said:
Thank you for the recommendation! i just requested my library order it and place a hold for me.

Also reading Dracula in that format is very clever! Should I ever read it again, I’ll have to remember that.
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I hope you like it! And, yeah, the Daily runs every year beginning in that timeframe if you ever do decide to check it out.



Anyhow, the "Best Disney Villain Song" thread is prompting me to hop back over here because of "Hellfire." If anyone is itching for a book that has an antagonist to whom that song would absolutely apply, The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden has exactly what you're looking for.
 
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An author referenced at least once in a Godard film, and the plot is about as clear as a later era Godard film, this pulp SF novel from the 40s reads like a surrealist take on the genre.
The writing is so bad it wraps around to being amazing
Unsurprisingly a favorite of Philip K Dick
Its also like, proto Dienetics
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Phosphorescent Skeleton said:
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An author referenced at least once in a Godard film, and the plot is about as clear as a later era Godard film, this pulp SF novel from the 40s reads like a surrealist take on the genre.
The writing is so bad it wraps around to being amazing
Unsurprisingly a favorite of Philip K Dick
Its also like, proto Dienetics
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“Gosseyn was cold with the cold which derives from the nervous system.”

…what. That sure is a sentence all right
 
Anyone have tips for keeping reading costs down while not having a public library? The real dilemma is that after relocating I now live in an unserviced area. Getting a PLAC/resident card at the nearest library is an option for the future, but I can't fit it into my budget right now.

Going from having a library within walking distance to this has been a real culture shock for me.
 
Krusiv said:
Anyone have tips for keeping reading costs down while not having a public library? The real dilemma is that after relocating I now live in an unserviced area. Getting a PLAC/resident card at the nearest library is an option for the future, but I can't fit it into my budget right now.

Going from having a library within walking distance to this has been a real culture shock for me.
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Used books? I do not know the english term for used books stores in usofa, but here we have stores that only sells used books. Usually the prices are way lower.
We also have some kind of display where people let books for other people to discover, but these books are pretty bad (mostly usofan self-help).
 
Finished up Ubik, my first Philip K. Dick book. Absolutely loved it couldn’t but it down. Don't know what took me so long, his surreal jumble of philosophy, humor, and sf is so good to me. Like Vonnegut without the pretension and more genuine weirdness (I like Vonnegut btw).
Also started Toni Morrison's Jazz, and this might be the most beautifully written book I've ever read.
 
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