There’s a thread about how people find new books, and one of my favorite ways to find things to read was browsing comments from the weekly ‘What are you reading’ threads in r/truelit and r/books. So what is Lemmy reading?
I’m finishing The Passenger, and about to jump into John Williams’ Stoner. Excited to see what is next!
The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin. I love reading science fiction from people with engineering and science backgrounds. Another good book I finished recently was Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir.
Project Hail Mary was such a fun read for me! I loved how concrete the engineering problems were throughout the book. It kept me tied to the stakes of the story.
Haven’t been able to finish Three Body Problem, unfortunately, it kind of lost me within the first 100 pages. May have to give it another shot! I hear a lot of good things about it.
I personally think the author wrote The Three Body Problem as a prequel to set up for the sequel book, The Dark Forest. Maybe I was just more invested in the world they built at that point?
If that’s your vibe, try Blindsight by Peter Watts. It’s a very technical examination of the phenomenon of consciousness which isn’t afraid to get into the weeds, but never quite gets lost in them.
Blindsight was great, I need to read it a second time.
Right? It just slaps so hard.
Do we perhaps know each other IRL? Blindsight was great, but I still have the nagging sense that I missed a big portion of it. Definitely mind expanding.
This book seems to have an equal measure of haters to fans but I loved the entire series. As it goes on it gets weird but imo was soo worth the read. Enjoy!
That book (three-body) was weeeeird. Really thought it was going to go in a very different direction during the introductory chapters.
I don’t know if I liked it but it sure made me think about stuff!
I still haven’t finished it so I am still forming an overall opinion, but its certainly interesting so far.
Yeah - the opening section really sets you up for something entirely different. I’m glad I stuck with it. 3 Body & the sequels kept me thinking new things during the pandemic
Man - 3 body problem (and the whole series) were a great read. What kind blowing shifts in perspective.
Greg Egan is another great author like that. Diaspora is a posthumanist acid trip with a ton of esoteric math thrown in. Absolute blast.
Awesome, adding that one to my reading list!
Noted
I just picked up a copy of house of leaves. Saw it referenced a few times in some other media I liked and figured I may as well check out the book itself.
One of my favourite books of all time. Do you have the full colour edition?
Yes! I splurged for the hardcover because I thought it would be a book I’d want to go back to a few times later on, and I’m really happy with how high quality it is.
I don’t even know if “reading” is the right verb for engaging with that book. It’s practically a different kind of activity.
It’s a dense read, but I enjoyed it. I’ll admit that I enjoyed it more when I became willing to skim over spots when it got a little too tedious. I’ve got my own theory on what’s going on, and I’d talk about it if I knew how to insert spoilers.
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You’re a few ahead of me on the re-read; Lords and Ladies is my next one. I’m taking my time though, I started in 2019.
GNU Terry Pratchett.
That’s great! Whenever I’m feeling down, his books are mental comfort food that help me re-center. GNU sir Pterry!
I’ve been blown away by all of this, up until the one I’m currently powering my way through (*Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath). It isn’t terrible, though. Just feels very out of place after the overall tone and flow of his other work within the volume.
I love his dream cycle stuff, it’s so vivid, but it’s definitely jarring read alongside the horror.
It certainly has its moments, when his description of something really stirs something inside of you and lights up your imagination. I loved this one:
“There is a great canal which goes under the whole city in a tunnel with granite gates and leads to the inland lake of Yath, on whose farther shore are the vast clay-brick ruins of a primal city whose name is not remembered. As the ship drew into the harbour at evening the twin beacons Thon and Thal gleamed a welcome, and in all the million windows of Baharna’s terraces mellow lights peeped out quietly and gradually as the stars peep out overhead in the dusk, till that steep and climbing seaport became a glittering constellation hung between the stars of heaven and the reflections of those stars in the still harbour.”
That one really put me there. But then you get to the space cats and it kind of brings you out again.
I just finished up reading The Return of the King for the first time since childhood. I like it a lot more than I remember. I think two things stuck out at me most: how dense it was compared to modern fantasy and how great the hobbits were portrayed. Fantasy tends to portray great heroes that came from nothing (ex. the chosen one/orphan trope). However, the hobbits were solely because they were common that they were able to do things the great heroes of their age couldn’t.
Since then I’ve started reading Vineland by Thomas Pynchon. I kept hearing Pynchon’s name come up for about a month at random and figured I should pick up one of his books. He has a very frenetic style that can be a bit difficult to parse but I’m loving his sense of humor.
Just got a few books from my local library that I’m excited to start. I’m starting off with “Focused Forward: Navigating the Storms of Adult ADHD” by James M. Ochoa which I picked out because it was the smallest book in the ADHD category, ha.
I also got a book on Linux/Unix, Diabetes, a workbook for Bipolar, a healthy snack book, and an organization book. Not too too sure if I’ll be able to finish it all by the time they’re due, but its a nice varied selection.
That second paragraph is peak ADHD lol.
I mean you aren’t wrong! Hahaa.
Just finished Children of time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Absolutely amazing uplift-scifi, but you better stay away from it if you have arachnophobia
I really enjoyed that series, particularly the first book. I’m nearly finished with The Final Architecture series as well and while I haven’t seen as much praise for it I’ve been really enjoying it.
Really enjoyed this series!
Good novel but I have to say I was a bit annoyed with it by the end. Not quite sure why but for me it slightly overstayed its welcome.
Yeah! Its amazing. I love the ending!
The Expanse, the whole book trilogy!
It’s a bit more than a trilogy lol. It’s a nonology!
Amazing series, be sure to check out the novellas as well! There are some guides online that will tell you where they happen chronologicaly
I’d highly recommend We are legion we are Bob and off to be the wizard to any fellow tech nerds
We are legion we are bob is about a guy whose brain is uploaded as an AI into a Von Neumann probe and sent into space to explore the universe.
Off to be the wizard is about a guy who finds out the world is some kind of simulation, and there’s essentially one big file detailing absolutely everything that can be edited, uses it to go back in time and live as a wizard and make spells with his programming skills
Both of them have plenty of nerdy references and humour
Adding to my tbr - not usually into that kind of genre but that piqued my interest! Thanks for the rec!
Both of them are fairly sci-fi/tech themed. Not for everyone but for those who are into that stuff it’s great
Yeah, that’s the one. Fantastic book, listened to it with my family on long car trips, good memories
Currently I’m finishing the fifth book of the Wheel Of Time by Robert Jordan. Next will be the sixth book of the Wheel Of Time by Robert Jordan :)
@Kebab
Heck yeah! Books 5 and 6 are among the fan favorites.
Just finished Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer (loved it, just discovered the “new weird” genre and it’s totally my vibe). Now started reading The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, the structure of the book and the setting seems cool and intriguing.
Both great reads. I’d also recommend the second and third books following Annihilation, just know they are quite different. Good, but different.
I also just finished it
If you liked Anniliation and the rest of the trilogy (well worth it!), Check out Our Wives Under The Sea by Julia Armfeild.
Man, I read the book maybe two years ago and it just… sort of left no impression. The world was neat and weird but fuck it was weird. Maybe I need to consider a re-read at some point.
The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, a
Taking me back!
Though I’m not much of a reader anymore, my wife has been absolutely obsessed with Sarah J Maas’ Throne of Glass series. I enjoy listening to her talk about it and sum up the stories, wouldn’t be surprised if it ended up on Netflix soon.
Any recommendations for audiobooks to listen to at work? I’m big on science/science fiction and philosophy, anything that challenges my way of thinking really.
All hail SJM 😂 I love the theory (quickly becoming canon) that TOG, ACOTAR and CC are connected. I’m so excited for the future of the universe.
Recommend Meditations by Marcus Aurelius - changed my outlook on life. Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor e. Frankl had me ugly crying - and again, changed my outlook.
nobody reads this junk here so i’ll just shout at a cloud
a deadly education, naomi novik - this should finally unjam the block i’ve had on fiction; i don’t do well with fiction when the world is burning. i’ve picked this up and set it down many times, but the novelty is that normally, a fiction book that stops after the halfway point to do world-building is one that will end up propping open a door. but in this one the late add increased my interest.
keep my heart in san francisco, amelia diane coombs - an adorable fluffy book set nearby that ended up on the to-be-finished pile during some political firestorm or other.
guide du routard, catalogne - americans don’t want to see what i want to see and american guidebooks know it. i often drag in other people’s guidebooks when i think about going other people’s places.
I read this junk!
Now I’m reading Wheel Of Time, stuck on the 4th book.
@derek
One of us
One of usLoved Wheel of Time, but damn does it slow down a lot after the first three books. There are some really awesome moments in the next ones but there are so many threads to follow that the overall story sometimes barely moves in the course of a book. It speeds back up again a little after Sanderson takes over for the last three.
Yeah, that’s why I’ve stopped reading it. But its so good to learn English, I sometimes return to it over and over again.
I’ve also liked The Black Company series, that was a good read for like 3 first books.
I forced myself to finish book 10 which is said to be the most boring one. Lost motivation to finish the series and still stuck at book 11. Still hoping to pick it up and finish the series one day.
Something like that was with me and Dark Tower. I’ve tried to read it for 3 times, but I’m always stop at Susanna’s song.
