- What book is currently on your nightstand?
- Who is the author?
- What genre?
- How do you like it?
- Would you recommend it to others?
I’m reading Jane Eyre again and realising that what happened to Rochester had to happen, because otherwise he would have controlled Jane for the rest of his life. This was the only way she got to control him.
I’m also reading Der Hausmann by Kolosowa and Night Watch by Pratchett
Historical fiction, modern fiction and sort of fantasy? I recommend all of them.
I started Hyperion by Dan Simmons last week and it has been a bit of a slog to get into it. The world building is fantastic, the scifi concepts are next level, but the way the writing style changes during each characters recounting of their time on Hyperion is disorienting and takes a while to get back up to reading it at a normal speed if that makes sense. I’d recommend it to any true scifi fan at this point, but my opinion is still in limbo on whether I like it… I’ll let y’all know later.
I had to take a break from it and read the second Murderbot novella Artificial Condition, which was an excellent distraction. :)
Still working on the Stormlight Archive as an ebook. That’s going to take ages because most of my reading time is audio.
For audio I got three books into Sarah J Maas’s Court of Thorns and Roses series. I think it’s less popular than her Throne of Glass series, but it’s included on Scribd and the other isn’t, so figured I’d start there. It’s fantasy, and scribd calls it young adult, but there are some pretty dark actions and dark choices the character has to make. I’m really enjoying the perspective you get, especially in book 2 and 3, but I can’t comment why without spoiling them.
Our Share of Night by Mariana Enríquez, translated by Megan McDowell
I’ve been reading such a long list of rave reviews from authors like Kazuo Ishiguro and Alan Moore and publications like the LA Review of Books as well as hearing the same from close friends that I finally bumped this book to the top of my backlog stack.
It’s a horror book set in the early '80s in Argentina, weaving the kind of mystical conspiracy of Umberto Eco’s Foucault’s Pendulum or Pérez-Reverte’s The Club Dumas and Ninth Gate novels over and through the very real state terrorism of the Argentinian Junta’s Dirty War. I’m only about 75 pages into the 600 or so, and the slow-burn opening is just now starting to unfold into something more overtly disturbing, but the deceptively simple/basic prose creates a remarkably sophisticated and subtle story that is creeping into me like magic. Disturbing magic, lol.
Highly recommend.
I’m currently working on two books. The first is Gunmetal Gods by Zamil Akhtar. The genre is Epic fantasy, it is very fast paced like break neck which is both good and bad. On one had something is always happening on the other I have no time to digest the content. I’d say it’s entertaining but wouldn’t say it’s amazing at the moment. If you like quick popcorn style books go ahead you may enjoy it.
The second book I’m listening to is Restaurant at the End of the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, genre is Scifi satire comedy. We’ve all heard about Hitchhiker’s and it’s sequels I’m just finally working through the books. I recommend it but the author’s humor seems jaded which is perfect for me lol.
I loooved Hitchhiker’s Guide! I never got around to reading the follow ups though. I’ll have to add those to my “To Read” list.
Been reading Guards! Guards!
Written by Terry Pratchett
Fantasy/Comedy
I’m absolutely loving it right now
For sure would recommend to anyone with a love of fantasy and snarky humor
Doing it as a trade of with one of my buddies. I’ve been trying to get him to read Dune for years because I know he’d love it and he finally agreed on the terms that I read this one. It’s been a win win because we’re both thoroughly enjoying our respective books.
I finished Guards! Guards! recently - loved it! For years I struggled to get into Discworld because I kept starting The Colour of Magic and then failing to finish it. Eventually broke the back of it and then progressed onto the other books - with hindsight I wish I’d done what I’ve seen suggested before, to start with something like Guards! Guards! instead of reading in release order.
Yeah my buddy had me start there under the logic that I would enjoy it so much that I would get utterly sucked into the series and he would finally have someone to talk to about it lol. Which is understandable because that’s the same reason I wanted him to read Dune. Neither of us really have many other friends that read unfortunately.
@Entropy Never did much like Color of Magic, but I love the guards books. Men at Arms and Night Watch are all-time favorites. Pratchett loved Carrot, but he was fascinated with Vimes (and Vetinari).
I found Colour of Magic fine once I got into it, but it took me several attempts before it clicked for me - usually made it perhaps 50 pages in and then failed to pick up to again, so restarted a few years later. Whereas when I started Guards! Guards!, I couldn’t put it down and blitzed through it in no time.
I particularly found that the Ankh-Morpork of Guards! Guards! was a far more interesting and settled setting than how it was depicted in Colour of Magic (where I thought it struggled to rise above being a generic fantasy parody and so never really caught my attention).
