In my own personal self interest, I’d like to ask y’all what you’re reading. Not only do I need more book recommendations, but I’m part of a book club and following along with so many chapters a week is reminding me of college.
Anything counts! Fiction, non-fiction, personal / professional development, ttrpg rule systems, or even fan-fiction!
Currently:
Book Club just finished Leviathan Wakes from The Expanse series. I’ve read all of them via audible when I worked in my warehouse job, but it’s really scratching the itch for Sci-Fi I’ve had lately. It feels oddly realistic in a “This sounds like it could actually happen” sort of way, which is neat. The “Protag” Holden is what we call a bona-fide dummy, though. I like Amos and Miller.
My DriveThruRPG order was just completed and I’ll be receiving the Stars Without Number Rulebook for more TTRPG shenanigans. Uses a d6 system that a few friends are excited about since the OGL news from WotC is bad vibes abound. You can also find a free edition on DriveThruRPG, but it doesn’t have AI rules in it.
Book Club is now starting Ice Planet Barbarians, which I’ve been told is interesting in a smutty way. Only 305 pages long, though.
The Big Boss™ of the place I work at is recommending Descartes meditations, so that’s on order right now with a local shop. It’s pretentious by the sound of it, but the place I work at has a rule where if the Big Boss™ recommends a book, it goes on the company card.
I finished Blood Meridian last week. I’m not a very fluent reader so it took me a while and I had to reread a bunch of pages but I got there. Obviously it’s fiction but as an amateur history-buff it’s haunting that there is real, historical basis for that kind of casual cruelty.
Now it’s time to smooth out any newly-formed wrinkles in my brain with good ol’ dumb, fun Warhammer schlock.
I was reading the most recent Frontlines book, but I just stopped for some reason and never picked it back up.
Trying to decide if I want to pick up Prince Harry’s memoir or not because I fell into that gossip HARD during the last three years. But I really hate nonfiction stuff so I dunno.
I have not been very good about reading this past year. It’s been a busy year! I read and write a lot for work so it can be hard to pick up a book to read for fun when I spent the last work day reading some dry text or something else.
On and off for the past couple years have been all the Robert E. Howard Conan books. I also read a little bit of Guin Saga and the Elric books my friend loaned me.
Also got a bit into art history for a hot minute and was reading Understanding Illuminated Manuscripts because some of that stuff is bonkers and inspiring for my artistic brain.
OH! What a choice for a book club. Be prepared for some steamy stories! I binge a buncha them at the start of the pandemic when my depression was really bad. You can get through them rather quick if you skip all the smutty parts LOL.
Otherwise it’s a cute series, I read it when it was self published and I recently saw a copy at my local bookstore as an official publication. Curious if it’s different from the self published version and some of the copyrighted stuff got scrubbed out.
The author made it obvious they’re a Star Wars fan and my one gripe is they would reference Star Wars things to describe stuff but because I’m not a Star Wars fan, I had no idea what was being referenced and had to just interpret it on my own.
I started the trilogy and only half way through. Aliens pick up our signal and will be here to displace us in 400 years. How does this affect Humanity while living under such impending doom? Is this what the universe is, a dark forest of kill first or run the risk of being killed?
Even though I’m only halfway, i do know some of the majory points to come, and those spoilers make me more interested.
By Michael Moorcock? If so I highly recommend reading the other books that are part of the Eternal Champion series.
Gotta love Howard’s writing, he creates an amazing story! The original Conan stories are great!
Some others I can recommend for older Sci-Fi: The Barsoom Novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Lensmen Series by E.E. Smith. Battlefield Earth by L. Ron Hubbard is an amazing story as well (just don’t judge the book by the movie!)
One of my favorite authors is Robert Heinlein, depending on what type of stories you like not everything he has written may appeal to you but some of my favorites are: JOB: A Comedy of Justice, Stranger in a Strange Land and all of the books centered around the Lazarus Long storyline.
That’s a funny coincidence, I was just going through my Kindle backlog and noticed I never got around to reading Ice Planet Barbarians. Had no idea it was originally inspired by Star Wars though.
I’ve been on a horror kick lately. Just finished My Life As A White Trash Zombie (turned out to be more urban fantasy than horror but I really enjoyed it) and now I’m a few chapters into From Below by Darcy Coates. Not liking it quite as much as Gallows Hill, the last book of hers I read. Her ensemble cast books never quite hit as hard as the ones about a solitary protagonist.
I’m also reading Lab Girl, a memoir from a geobiologist. It sort of weaves in her thoughts about plant life as a metophor for the human experience as she talks about how the love of science has shaped her life.
It’s a slight bit bleak but… I’m reading a book called Suicide by Édouard Levé.
It’s a pretty weird read as a lot of it is written in second person and covers a VERY dark look at the topic it’s named after but I’ve found it pretty fascinating.
This is an awesome thread. I am an avid reader because I have a lot of downtime at work.
I just finished “Lonely Castle in the Mirror” by Mizuki Tsujimura. It’s a Japanese take on fairy tales. It really hit home for me as it is also about bullying.
Right before Christmas I read “It’s All About Me,” which is Mel Brooks’ (he of Producers and Blazing Saddles fame) autobiography.
I’ve spent so much of my youth only reading fiction; I’m finally getting around to reading non-fiction. First up is Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States and, once I’m done with that, Bertrand Russell’s A History of Western Philosophy.
I just started reading Pandora by Susan Stokes-Chapman; it combines two of my favourite things (Greek mythology & Georgian England). I’m enjoying it but I’m not too far in so fingers crossed!
And because every year is the year that I resolve to get my life sorted, I’m working through The Empowered Highly Sensitive Person by Amanda Cassil. It’s really good so far but I always enjoy theory more than practice so we’ll see how it goes.
Besides the sometimes overly long and wordy story of Arknights not much honestly. I’ve been thinking of reading thief of time by Terry Pratchett since I’ve had that lying around for years at this point.
I saw somewhere before it even made its way to Kindle it was Avatar fan fiction with the serial numbers filed off. So if anyone’s a fan of Avatar this series might be their jam haha.
My complaint about star wars is also really minor btw. The character describes an alien as a somethingsomething from star wars and I’m like, idk what’s that is. I think good lesson for would be writers is try not to use a too nerdy of a reference or you may alienate your reader if they’re not in the know.