Current Events > CE Book Club - Whatcha reading lately?

(+) Yeah! (+)

I was in Mexico the last week and I got to read a few books actually! Which is odd for me to say because I love reading its just not the first thing I think of to do in my free time.

I'm hoping this topic and the great joy I got from this week of reading will change that.

What I finished in Mexico

The Gunslinger by Stephen King: My first foray into Stephen King (I was a Crichton kid, Sue me), it was intriguing for sure and I enjoyed it. I am intending on reading the rest of the Dark Tower series, but not literally EVERYTHING.

Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson - Fucking LOVED it, and am going to head out probably today to grab the other novels. Really love the way he writes, the story telling, the world building, all of it. Tells the story of a world where a legendary hero was supposed to save it, but he turned all tyrant and evil after destroying the big bad.

I am 200 pages into Seveneves by Neal Stephenson. This one is overly technical science fiction thus far. The world is lost as the Moon starts to break apart and that causes the planet to have to go through 5000 years of the moon raining its remnants upon the planet. It takes place like in current time at the start so a lot of the first half of the novel is about the planet trying to figure out how to create an Ark type project to allow the human race to live above the planet while this happens for 5000 years. Realistic so not like some crazy space age tech is created, it's about current tech and what they could manage.

I'm about halfway through The Bee Sting by Paul Murray at the moment. Absolutely superb book.

I've been making my way through the Daevabad Trilogy, really good middle eastern themed fantasy. I'm almost done with the second book and can't wait to see where it goes.

TC, if you're gonna read some Stephen King, I highly recommend "The Dead Zone." I think it's his best work and the way the story flows together is phenomenal.

Anyway, on topic, I'm getting set to read "Mem." I'm in a book club and this is this month's choice. I have until Saturday evening to get through it. I have no idea what it's about, or anything, heh. I love going in blind to a book.

Im currently busy with Sandworms of Dune.

then next month im going to buy and read some old Stephen King stuff like Insomnia and Talisman

then Stephen King has a new short story collection book coming in April or May

Spangled by Gary Jennings

This spell book I found

Children of the Sun by Daniel Nsengimana.

it's written, and self-published, by a young dude a friend of mine knows.

the writer was also in an episode of American Vandal, which I thought was hilarious.

anyway, the book's overview:

In a reimagined precolonial Africa, a powerful king's nephew comes home to find his nation on the brink of war. Unsure of his own next move, he joins his royal warrior cousins on their westward march to stop an invasion. Though he has no plans to fight, other problems find him on the road, pushing him toward an instability of his own.
Back in the kingdom, a more distant relative is called upon to keep the peace in a land missing most of its strength. As the overt invasion looms above, she leads the king's defense against an enemy they cannot see, gathering strength right there at home. All the while, old wounds inside the family and out are brought to the surface, threatening to unravel all the players involved. The demons of the past converge with the troubles of the present, giving way to an uncertain future for them all.

I've recently listened to audiobooks for:

• Trevor Noah's Born a Crime
• Cassidy Hutchinson's Enough
• Liz Cheney's Oath and Honor

I tried to start the first Harry Potter book, but I'll have to double check to see if I started the right one. It seemed like the beginning of the audiobook I have was in the middle of something happening prior.

rereading the stand for the 8th time

Reading 2 and about to start 1

• Sasaki and Peeps Vol. 2: While I Was Dominating Modern Psychic Battles with Spells from Another World, a Magical Girl Picked a Fight with Me ~You Mean I Have to Participate in a Death Game, Too?~ by Buncololi
• Abandon by Blake Crouch
• Orion Colony by J.N. Chaney & Jonathan Yanez

I just finished reading three books while on vacation: The Last Unicorn, Still Alice, and Childhood's End. I really enjoyed Unicorn.

Gotta get back into the Eragon series with Murtagh.

An Choill by Liam Mac Coil

I try to read one or two books written in Gaeilge every year so I don't forget how to read the language.

Shadowblade posted...

Gotta get back into the Eragon series with Murtagh.

I remember people being pissed off with the series. I read the first one and found it was fine for a younger writer.

Re-reading on Basilisk Station, probably going to re-read the entire Honor Harrington series.

for Stephen King, I recommend hunting down an earlier print of The Bachman Books.

it has four stories (Rage, The Long Walk, Roadwork, and The Running Man).

I've only read the first two, and thought they were really good.

also, I say "earlier print" because iirc, King wanted Rage taken out of print because of the mass shooting epidemic the country has, and it might be difficult to find it otherwise.

Small Gods.
Slowly going through the Discworld series.

I finished up the second Daevabad book and I just love this trilogy so far. If they stick the landing on the third this might be one of my favorite fantasy stories.

Do you guys tend to buy books or do you use your local library?

I'm a little over 100 pages into Eye of the World
So far I've been enjoying it, I think it'll take me a minute before I finish it.

I'm like 80% done with Child of God by Cormac Mccarthy.

Lester is going through some tough times rn. Serves him right .

I don't use a library. Tbh I just read ebooks that I buy through Amazon or uhh other methods. I can't read unless it's pitch black in my room. Just have my phone on low brightness. I

Just finished Halo: Epitaph. Borrowed the Percy Jackson series with a library card so going to get through those within the next month or so.

I have this bad habit of starting series that are ongoing and not currently finished. It started 30+ years ago when I was in high school and started The Dark Tower Series when only 2 books were done. It happened again with George R.R. Martin's A song of Ice and Fire and again with Patrick Rothfuss Kingkiller Chronicle series.

It's why I'm hesitating on starting anything by Brandon Sanderson like The Stormlight Archive.

I like reading long, epic multi-book series so I have run into this habit of the last 10 years just rereading some completed series I enjoy. I'm currently rereading The Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind. I know from past book topics most people don't like his writing but *shrug* it is a series I enjoy and that I started back in the late 90's when on my ship. I ended up liking it and it is a fully completed series. I reread it like once a year. I'm currently on book 10 out of 15 of the main series.

Also I buy and own all my books. I like to hold and use an actual book. I won't read a book off of a digital device.

I did finish child of god last night. It was enjoyable. Made me feel isolated and disgusted in some parts which is always cool. I did feel bad for Lester a little bit toward the end tbh when I thought he was about to be tortured by a group of men (like vigilantes). I don't mind him dying due to ill health.

Idk what to read next tbh. prob something more lighthearted tho.

Just put in another 160 pages or so into Seveneves.

When it isn't bogged down in so much technical jargon and whatnot it is a thrilling read. I find myself kinda skipping past some of the more overly technical stuff to get to the better stuff, lol.

"White Gold" by Giles Milton

In his megalomaniacal pursuit to build the largest palace complex in the northern hemisphere, stretching 300 miles between two of his cities, the sultan of Morocco used tens of thousands of European slaves either captured at sea by Barbary pirates, or through Viking-style raids off the coast of England and other countries. Captives were treated to some of the most horrific conditions imaginable, at least 15 hours hard labor per day with disease and torture for the sultan's entertainment killing even more. Thousands of slaves were burned through and sacrificed for the sultan's massive vanity project, which survives today mainly as rubble. Hardly 30 years passed before an earthquake hit and caused the ceilings to cave in. The court fled in a panic, never to return. Today the remaining walls are makeshift homes for the area's poor.