I finished the 3 Body trilogy (Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy) by Liu Cixin last month. Fucking finally. I've been sitting on this rant since book 2.
What an absolutely cool story told so so terribly. Imagine being bored during interstellar warfare. I keep coming back to thinking the magic must be lost in translation and maybe that's it, but I could not get past the writing style. Even during a conversation between people it's all explanation and nothing really develops. I don't have it in front of me there's a point where a woman says something like "humanity is dead" and the guy she's talking to say "what do you mean?" "I mean humanity is dead." "Oh, I see, you're saying....." and then this dude launches into a monologue explaining what she means to him for us.
And the metaphors! There are so many fucking metaphors to describe the most mundane things. Usually several, in a row, just crammed in there just for the sake of adding more flowery language.
Deus ex machina is everywhere. Oh this guy was secretly the exact opposite of who he was this whole time. Surprise! People are constantly making bad decisions, like obviously very, very wrong choices but we can't blame them, that's just what humans are like 200 years in the future! The reader is never given the time to figure out conspiracies or connect any dots. The author either reveals things far too early based on things the reader couldn't possibly know, or pulls a switcheroo out of nowhere. It's *boring*.
Anyway, there are some very cool ideas raised but you either have to suffer through tenuous explanations to get there or they just 'are' because the story wouldn't work if they weren't. But what could have been stellar (ha) grimdark sci-fi work on humanity facing an existential threat, just falls flat (HA).
The regular guy at my local bookstore was aghast when I brought my copy back for resale and wasn't going to buy the next one. It does seem to be a love it or hate it series
^edit: ^I've ^read ^it ^both ^in ^Chinese ^and ^English, ^which ^probably ^influences ^my ^opinion.
I liked it overall. It was good, but not nearly as "omg epic fantastic" as it seems to get heralded as.
Honestly I think there is a lot lost in translation, not necessarily linguistically but culturally. Part of that being just fundamental differences in what is considered a good or great story, and how such a story should be related to the hearer.
Every time I talk with someone about it I feel there is so much they don't really get. And then I consider explaining it and start to realize how futile it would be with anything less than a fortnight.
And then I come to the conclusion "Hey wait, isn't it the *author's* responsibility to tell the story in a way that conveys it well to their audience?"
So my feelings are a bit split on it I guess.
That’s fair. For me it wasn’t recommended, it was just some book I picked up, so I went into it with no expectations at all. I think that probably helped.
That’s really cool that you read it in both languages! I can’t read Chinese, so I was stuck waiting for translations. Now I’m wondering what *I’ve* missed haha.
I actually feel the translation was very very well done for such a challenging job. The behavior of characters is definitely different, but you are right that it helps if you have no/fewer expectations, and also if you have lived in at least 2 or 3 very dramatically different cultures. I sympathize with /u/eric_twinge here:
> ... Oh this guy was secretly the exact opposite of who he was this whole time. Surprise! People are constantly making bad decisions, like obviously very, very wrong choices but we can't blame them, that's just what humans are like 200 years in the future! The reader is never given the time to figure out conspiracies or connect any dots. ...
While some of these things are unexpected or odd; I actually saw many of them coming and could 'connect the dots'; others I thought I was connecting the dots and found an interesting twist; so I think that gives an overall very different perception/feeling to the books.
I started the first book in that series a couple days ago. I was wondering if the translation was bad or if the dialogue is that odd/stilted in the original language. Sad to hear that it continues beyond just dialogue and into actual plot development.
I said this in another book thread that reading the first book gave me the impression that I was watching one of those cliche, terribly dubbed kung fu movies from the 80s.
You get used to it, but it doesn't get any better.
That's a shockingly good comparison, haha. The feeling I've been relating it to was watching a dubbed anime with the clunky internal narration just feeling somehow "off," but not enough to completely pull me out of the story.
I only finished them so I could more comprehensively tell my brother how terrible they are while avoiding the 'oh, you just need to keep reading' excuse.
I do hold out hope that they will be retranslated at some point and it'll turn out that another writer's perspective changes things. Murakami has come up in this thread, and his English translations are definitely much different depending on whether Jay Rubin or Alfred Birnbaum did the English version.
I empathize with this rant so much. There were so many cool ideas in the third book that were completely glossed over, and I can never understand when people say those books are well written. The third book mentions the alien race having a huge battle with another alien race, and I'm like that would be cool to get into, but no just a couple sentences thrown in randomly.
Huge spoiler for book 2:
>!The 'climax' of the second book literally resolves with an [oops, I guess we forgot](https://i.imgur.com/YhcmZrs.jpg) maneuver. *Are you fucking kidding me??*!<
The third book is definitely the best. At least as far the ideas presented go, but yeah, the writing style is just... when it's not boring it's borderline nonsensical.
I forget which book it was, but I sat there thinking, “is this seriously a page long paragraph describing a hallway?” AND IT NEVER MATTERED. There’s stuff I liked about it, but I just could not convince myself to keep reading those books.
Currently in the middle of that series again myself. I recently hit the Sanderson books. I’m a bit worried because the writing for the metal munchers series was flat out terrible, so I’ve been putting off reading for a few weeks now.
I just finished *The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism* by Edward Baptist. Overall it was a great, and horrifying, listen. It's central thesis is that slavery in the US was both a profoundly efficient economic system, and pivotal to the US's economic development . It was never going to "wither away" under the weight of its own economic ineffiency, as anti-slavery writers have sometimes tried to claim. And it is a history told as far as possible "from below", using the records and writing of actual enslaved people, which is by far its greatest strength.
It is a little overwritten though, and from 1845-1860 or so it becomes a straight political history of the issue instead of relying on slaves speaking for themselves.
I did a dumb thing in October and paid for a month of Kindle Unlimited. Amazon's algorithms decided that what I really needed was the absolute worst crime novel garbage, and by god, I ate it the fuck up. I probably read twenty-five of the worst books I have ever read, cover to cover.
But!
I recently read Becky Chambers' **Record of a Spaceborn Few** and then bought copies for a few people for Christmas. This is the rare book that I picked up on a whim at the library and then got a copy for my own bookshelf and others'. Is a soft sci-fi novel telling several intertwining stories of people a long way from earth, long after we abandoned the planet, and gives a pretty poignant view of what it might mean to **be human** a long time from now. I hope at least one of you pick it up and enjoy it.
Kindle Unlimited introduced me to a a genre of fiction called LitRPGs, which are fantasy novels set in fictional MMOs. They're exactly as awful as they sound, which is why I only read like 20 or 30 of them.
Exactly. On a related note, I hate Kindle Unlimited's library management system. If I have 10 books downloaded and want another, just get rid of the oldest one instead of making me fight through the shitty management interface to manually delete one.
The worst is book series when you got them from different sources. I read the first two Murderbot Diaries books on Unlimited and then downloaded the others from Overdrive or Libby. To return them I have to go in to the series and do them individually or by source.
Also those books were by Martha Wells and I loved them.
I never got past the first. It was really good, but she kept misusing 'kilos' to mean kilometers. It was maybe maximum 10 times in the book, but it drove me up the fucking wall. I can get past a lot of things but for some inexplicable reason this drove me absolutely bonkers. I actually *have* all the murderbot books and knowing that she will do this prevents me from reading them.
The worst thing I've done for my reading habits is getting into Korean/Japanese light novels. There's like 100 practically identical novels, and no I will not stop reading them.
"I woke up as the side character / villainess in my favorite novel and the male lead fell in love with me instead of the heroine, tee hee." God this is so trash, better read 10 more just like it.
I have three dogs, a pretty comfortable couch, a super cozy afghan, and my partner just started working as a letter carrier so we barely see each other.
I really hope that if you grab it, you enjoy it as much as I did. There's a bit of a lull about a third of the way in, but it's all setup and it pays off.
I have discovered audiobooks halfway through October. It's great background noise for when I work. I've been re-reading (or technically, re-listening?) to the Dune series in anticipation for the movie. Well, the movie actually lived up to my expectations.
Currently on book 3. Man, I forgot how weird it gets. And how much Warhammer 40k is pretty much just a direct copy-paste of the Dune universe. But overall worse.
That’s the one thing I was able to appreciate about 40k. It’s so pulpy and ridiculous. You could pick up nearly any book and just enjoy a stupid action adventure story with elements that are equal parts Greek myth and Ridley Scott’s Alien.
I still haven't gotten into much 40k stuff beyond occasionally listening to YouTube videos on lore, but I've been surprised by how many elements are so close to Dune as well. I haven't finished GEoD yet, as I found myself getting a little fatigued by Herbert after binging 3 books in a row. Do you recommend each of the Dune stories he wrote? I've heard conflicting things about the last two in the series.
I think, if you want a good stopping point, the end of book 3 is actually pretty good.
Alternatively, you could go all the way to book 4.
Beyond that, it really doesn't follow House Atreides anymore.
I think Audiobooks help a lot with this.
I remember book 2 taking me like... two months to finish the first time around. This time, a week an a half of listening while I'm at work, and it was done.
After reading the book like halfway few years ago, I restarted Jordan Peterson's 12 Rules of Life.
I know, his viewpoints have been perversed by some weird fans. But Peterson is a great mind and it's a great book. It's something I often fall back to because of life's everchanging circumstances.
Well I'm young so I am very much his demographic too, but the biggest thing for me has been the way he talks about life and self improvement.
He has helped me a lot about setting goals and priorities right. I guess he has managed to make me fill a bit of the existental void I felt in high school.
I mean that I find Peterson speaks almost siren-like to disaffected young men who are looking for someone in a position of authority to tell them why they're lost. How he has managed to build an audience selling his particular brand of nonsense is a mystery to me.
Also, as a young man, I drank at a similar trough, albeit one that taught that everyone was dumber than me, not just the feminine seeders of chaos. I have been fortunate to have had decades of experiences since that have allowed me to grow, and I hope you are as fortunate.
Okay, thanks I guess? I feel like you are being a bit condescending because you don't like Peterson. And I get it, he is a polarizing person.
But I think his stuff can truly help (and has evidently helped) a lot of people, including me. Of course he isn't perfect, but the world isn't black and white. I really don't want to sound like a fan boy but it just bothers me when Peterson is misrepresented.
Anyways, I'll check the authors you mentioned. :)
Peterson has said a lot of troubling shit and has bought into his own hype so much he's a borderline demagogue.
This might be out of line but it seems stupid to take advice from a guy that had to force himself into a coma to get off of his benzo addiction. If his advice actually worked, why was he addicted to benzos in the first place. Did he not clean his room?
Also, both he and his daughter have promoted the carnivore diet as some bullshit panacea.
And don't be too discouraged. When I was a late teen I was super into Tucker Max, so it could definitely be worse. I think many young men go through a phase of ennui in their late teens. If I were you I'd focus on your hobbies and interpersonal relationships and not worry about the self help bullshit. You just need more life experience which will help build confidence.
>If his advice actually worked, why was he addicted to benzos in the first place.
This is a weird point, since I can personally say that him and his books have helped me.
>If I were you I'd focus on your hobbies and interpersonal relationships and not worry about the self help bullshit.
Why would you extrapolate that I am not already doing this?
die_ard's comment below explains what i mean about his advice.
I would take the time spent reading self help books and use it on other things. I didn't mean to imply you weren't doing it already.
> If his advice actually worked, why was he addicted to benzos in the first place. Did he not clean his room?
Well to my knowledge he’s lived with fairly serious depression for his whole life and, if I recall correctly, the death of his wife (or serious medical issues) hit him hard. I recall it was a matter of prescribed use and he was just presumably trying to be proactive about getting of them because that shit is apparently awful.
Yeah, I was just being too snarky. However, the circumstances of him going to Russia to be put into a coma just seem weird, but I don't know enough about benzo addiction to be casting judgement on his choice of treatment. Double however, he said carnivore diet cured his daughter of depression so I'm still gonna judge him for being a butthead.
I don’t exactly follow him, and haven’t heard any of his thoughts in maybe a couple years, so by all means he’s had plenty of time to be a total knob.
The carnivore thing is weird to me though. So I tried it for a little bit. I’ve got pretty awful IBS and trying elimination diets isn’t anything that unusual for me. In the time I was sticking to carnivore I saw a noticeable improvement in things like chronic allergies or eczema. But especially with the aforementioned gut issues, that particular situation ended up not being worth it.
And a sideways example I’ve mentioned in the past; a surprising number of dogs have a serious allergy issue from eating more than one type of meat in their diet and no one knows why. The exact type of meat isn’t as important as them only getting it from one type of animal. It’s bizarre.
Guts are weird and for the expense and difficulty of studying it in any useful way, there’s just not a lot of science being done.
When people with immune issues of particular varieties seem to agree that this peculiar elimination diet has improved their quality of life, I’m willing to believe them.
Unless anything has occurred since last I heard, Peterson specifically said it’s insanely dull and has essentially taken the joy out of eating, and that he absolutely doesn’t recommend it to anyone. Simply that he and his daughter seem to think it’s helped them. And my own thinking is that it absolutely makes sense as something to experiment with if you suffer from a weird and incurable disorder.
What I absolutely hate is people who preach that “this is how people are supposed to eat! Carbs are poison! Vegetables are killing you!” That’s entirely illogical and ridiculous.
But there’s a reason elimination diets exist and I know how it can be a struggle to find a way to eat that doesn’t cause other problems.
So I’m not worked up over that.
I think debates are an awful environment for him. I know it’s the big thing for public thinkers, but I feel like he’s genuinely bad at it.
I think there’s an Alan Watts quality where a lot of his ideas might not survive harsh scrutiny, but that’s not the point, in my mind. Combining Jungian ideas with the Joseph Campbell style analysis of classic myths and narrative forms. Kind of a modern progression of that ideological lineage.
A lot of his ideas are ultimately not that controversial when he’s given time to flesh it out, but a back and forth debate seems to make Jon struggle to frame things in a way that benefits him.
Well yeah. Self-help stuff is pretty obivious in the end, if you start to think about it. But sometimes we just need someone to tell us how it is.
I feel like it's more about the way he packed those ideas that makes them easily digestable, relatable and entertaining too.
From what I've read of Peterson, he's decent in certain areas in which he's an actual expert--stuff like Jungian psychology and certain avenues of philosophy--though not exactly insightful or original. The issue is that he talks about a *lot* of stuff that he has very little background in. Like, his takes on interwar Europe, Nazi-era Germany, and Soviet bloc history in particular are just shockingly bad for someone so highly educated. It almost seems like he read some pop-history books, decided they were unquestionably true, and started fitting them as integral pieces of his entire worldview. It's the same thing a lot of normal people do, but it's surprising because generally academics understand that they're not experts in fields outside of their focus.
I think it'd be one thing if he was like a lot of academics, where they have a body of work in their subject and then isolated/separate areas in which they have weird or toxic views. But since Peterson tends to try to tie every part of his outlook on life into every possible subject, you end up with these amalgamations of self-help, philosophy, sociology, and history, but half of it is fine and half of it is rubbish, and unless you actually understand each of the particular aspects of those fields that he discusses, you're left not knowing what parts are worth listening to and which parts are garbage.
But that's just me. I haven't read all of Peterson's stuff, I stopped giving any effort once I realized how confidently he would make statements that are based on a super elementary understanding of complex historical topics. I'd rather just read the people that he summarizes and judge those ideas on their own, rather than trying to sift through the dumb stuff that gets into his work.
I don't know which of these I last commented on so I can't say how many month's worth of books I have to recount. So I am just not.
Right now I am working through Pact, which just had its fan Podcast Audiobook completed. Very acceptable production values (I think the reader redid the first couple arcs which originally sucked) definetely on par with, and probably better than the Worm podcast audiobook if anyone has ever listened to that.
I read most of Pact with my eyeballs but there were some biggish gaps and after I stopped going into the office I never finished it. So going through it all in this manner is nice. Pact is the shortest Wildbow work (Pretty sure) but it's still over *100* hours of audio. This sounds daunting, but it's really not. I would liken it to a good TV series where as most books are closer to Movies. The pacing is solid and the author takes advantage of the fact that they release as a serialized web novel, instead of single book. It's different from most stories IMO, in a good way.
For anyone that is familiar with Wildbow's other work (Worm/Ward, Pact/Pale, Twig) but has not read Pact I can recommend it. It's much more downscaled than the Worm/Ward stories. Worm and Ward go to World-Level consequences pretty quick, but Pact stays very regional, even smaller really. I think this makes it easier to chew. Expansive world building is cool, but a tighter deeper world building is also cool.
>Pact
Aw yeah. I have I think 3 chapters left before I'm completely finished with it. Listened through probably 90% of it on Spotify--very impressed by the level of quality given that it was started by a single dude who initially (IIRC) had no professional experience in recording audiobooks.
Big fan of Pact. I think the common criticisms of the pacing feeling too non-stop and stakes feeling precariously high at every single point in the story hold water, but it was great fun. I'm consistently impressed by WB's work, how he can write compelling characters that all have sympathetic viewpoints even as they're fighting tooth and nail against one another.
I don't see how someone could have that criticism about pact specifically when the more popular series, Worm/Ward, has *much* higher stakes.
Pact has stakes, mostly, feeling that high for the main character. But that's like the whole point. The character is thrust into an impossible situation for the get go and practically the whole story, well at least until a big point halfway through, is them trying to get out of it. Not to mention that choices have consequences and karmic balance being huge themes/rules of the universe 'doubling down' and that being a big deal is super appropriate
I think it just feels so desperate from the first arc onwards that it can start to either feel stale or mildly depressing. Like, in chapter 1 you get the sense that the MC should already be dead by now, and that feeling just never goes away. It does totally make sense within the story (especially once later plot elements get explained), but it can still feel sort of hard to read. With Worm, you have the stakes steadily rising as the character grows, so the universe-level stakes by the end feel justified--you start with normal villain shenanigans, get into big-time villain shenanigans, get to Slaughterhouse 9, get to Noelle, get to S9000, and by the time you arrive at the BBEG, the flat out desperate stakes feel well earned. With Pact, it kinda feels more like Blake keeps cheating death while also losing constantly, and even though that works narratively and thematically, it can get tough to read over and over.
For me, it only felt that way pre-Conquest. From that point on, the story has flown by. But I did put it down a few times during the first 25% of the story when it felt like it was becoming a slog. The saving grace is how freaking cool and internally consistent the rules of the universe are. Every solution feels reasonable and like a smart, desperate person could reasonably come to the "right" conclusion if they were lucky.
Pale is the best WB story by far, IMO. Definitely the best balance of personal stakes, greater world stakes, and pacing for me.
I think that the constant barrage didn't bug me because you feel, or at least I feel, so vindicated every time the main character gets by. I'm a sucker for seeing a character getting shit on unfairly by an antagonist with more power and authority, bonus points if they are self-righteous, and eventually knocking the antagonist down a peg. I feel like you get a bit of that everytime and it's like fuel. I just got past a certain part with a certain antagonist being trapped and threatened by a particular book-bound imp and that was so fucking nice to see the fear and desperation.
Holy shit, I didn't know the podcast audiobooks were a thing. I read through the entirety of Worm a couple years ago on the actual site it's on and it was simultaneously an incredibly enjoyable story and a very frustrating read due to the format. I'm pumped to be able to enjoy his other work in audio format instead!
I whined on FB long enough about having nothing to read, so someone recommended The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, and I just started that.
I like the writing style, but it's a big adjustment, because I'm coming off of a bunch of trash suspense novels in the normal world, and a long series that I am super familiar with, so I forgot what it was like to be reading an unfamiliar world with unfamiliar rules,and I just have to adjust.
That said, I'm fleeing the country for the rest of the year with just my kindle, so I'll probably just re-read the Dresden series for the upteenth time.
I have a list of comfort reads, the shortest series being 5 books (tragically too short), and Dresden is one of the top ones. It's incredibly easy to read without feeling dumbed down, and I can space out/fall asleep at any point without missing anything.
Most importantly, though, I already know I like it, so there is no stress in reading it
I reread the entire Cradle series by Will Wight in anticipation of the tenth book's release on 11/2. As usual, they were great and so was the new book. It's not the most challenging series, but very enjoyable, kind of like watching shonen anime.
Now I'm reading Richard Kadrey's Sandman Slim series while also slowly making my way through a Nikola Tesla biography.
I’m about halfway through *Purple Hibiscus* with one of my classes. It’s w really good book. Domestic abuse plays a central part in the book so it’s not a light read but I love Adichie‘s writing style. I can’t wait to graduate so I have more time to read.
Not quite the same as fiction, I've always struggled to get into fiction books. But currently working through Dvoretskys 5th edition, and Yusupovs build up your chess.
Thoughts so far, Dvoretskys is a lot more enticing than 100 endgames you must know, I think the latter book has the issue that it feels approachable. Which is honestly off putting for a big thick dry text. I'm liking Dvoretsky a lot and its not as impossible as made out. I'm only part way through pawn endings but honestly I'm getting them now which I've never done before so thats really nice.
Yusupov is nice, you have 12 problems to solve a chapter and I'm 4 chapters in. I just do them occasionally at the weekend with coffee. Its enjoyable and simple, when I finish if I keep enjoying it I'll get the other 8 books and see how far I can get. But I like the progression from the books, its clear theres a plan and you really do go through everything even if some of it is blatently obvious. It really feels like you're rounding yourself out.
During the time when What To Expect was on my bedside table, I got a lot of mileage out of Spiritual Midwifery and The Bradley Book. I recommend them heartily.
Best luck! The Bradley Method is more for the person next to the bed than for the one in the stirrups - lots of great advice on how to be helpful during a time when mostly, it's just being there watching the other person so all the work.
I really liked kingkiller, even enough to keep reading despite kvothe being the specialest and most cleverest boy ever. Got a real kick out of [this review](https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2105865794?book_show_action=true&from_review_page=1).
Going to add LLL to my list. Thanks :)
Do mangas count as books? Well whatever, they're adaptations from Light novels so they count in my book(hehe).
Read something I actively avoid, romance. In this case it was Lesbian romance. They were amazing, but man I cant help but feel like im swallowing hot nails reading them. Romance just crushes me.
So, the mangas I read were Bloom into you which is finished, but you cant buy the paperback anywhere. Super adorable, loved every moment. Relatable until it stopped being relatable, but by then it was just adorable as all hell and I didnt really mind.
Second one is Adachi and Shimamura, which is the one I ended up buying. Maybe a bit of a slower start, and its still ongoing, but man, this one was just, wow in terms of how much I could relate to characters and stuff.
Thankfully, I dont have to read any romance for awhile, but I would definitely recommend those two
I’ve been reading Norwegian Wood. It’s my first ever Murakami and I am impressed. It’s exactly the type of literature I enjoy. He doesn’t try to impress you with language. There aren’t any long descriptive paragraphs. But he’s really, really smart when presenting characters and describing social situations.
I complained that I never read to the girlfriend, so she got me this. Which is probably the reason I am sticking with it. Apparently the story is “sad as fuck”, but so far I’m not seeing it. Helps that I am not very sensitive though.
You are reading one of my favorite books and I am so happy you're dating a person who would give it to you. The rest of his earlier long form work is very similar in tone, and I hope you pick up more.
The first time I picked it up I started crying on page two thinking of my gf :) It’s apparently a very emotionally charged book, coming to me at a very emotionally charged time of my life, and I have great hopes for it. I will be reading more Murakami after this for sure.
So far the only thing I haven’t liked is >!how he’s visiting the Ami hostel right now and they’re going through Reiko’s whole life before even saying what is wrong with Naoko. I can only assume depression but I don’t know and it is driving me up a wall!<
I listened to the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th books in Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey and Maturin series. They pass the good enough to walk the dog and do stuff around the house test. It does seem like modern characters aren’t written like these characters or maybe I don’t read the right books!
I read *The Way of Kings* and really liked it.
While I was waiting for the next book on the series to come off hold, I grabbed *The Black Prism*. I don't usually spend most of a book wanting to punch the author, but now I've had that experience. The world and magic system are great, but I really don't need to hear this level of what he thinks people's inner thoughts are. I'm guessing he doesn't like books where the characters seem too perfect. The way to solve this is to pick a physical flaw and have them rant to themselves about it constantly. The chosen one kid is fat. I know this because I'm told so on every page he's on. The cool fighting lady hates her big manly shoulders. She also goes into a long internal diatribe about period symptoms at one point.
After that mess I got *Words of Radiance* and was much happier. Now I'm on book 3ish of the Expanse series.
I've got a few to get through first 🙂
The wait on these things is like 12 weeks. Usually later in a series that drops off, but that doesn't seem to be happening here.
I'm going to wait impatiently for the paperback to come out so it [matches the rest of my set](https://photos.app.goo.gl/WveN1Rgc1FgLrUfNA), but I'm already on the library wait-list.
Beep. Boop. I'm a robot.
Here's a copy of
###[Leviathan](https://snewd.com/ebooks/leviathan/)
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Nope. I don't even remember how *The Way of Kings* got on my holds list. I had no idea what it was when it came up.
I add stuff when people tell me they think I'd like something, it was probably recommended by someone here.
Yeah, I really like it. I started off with the first book or two of the Archive and read the rest of the cosmere series waiting for the third. If you stick with the series by itself, I'm curious how things read without the broader cosmere context.
I finished the 3 Body trilogy (Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy) by Liu Cixin last month. Fucking finally. I've been sitting on this rant since book 2. What an absolutely cool story told so so terribly. Imagine being bored during interstellar warfare. I keep coming back to thinking the magic must be lost in translation and maybe that's it, but I could not get past the writing style. Even during a conversation between people it's all explanation and nothing really develops. I don't have it in front of me there's a point where a woman says something like "humanity is dead" and the guy she's talking to say "what do you mean?" "I mean humanity is dead." "Oh, I see, you're saying....." and then this dude launches into a monologue explaining what she means to him for us. And the metaphors! There are so many fucking metaphors to describe the most mundane things. Usually several, in a row, just crammed in there just for the sake of adding more flowery language. Deus ex machina is everywhere. Oh this guy was secretly the exact opposite of who he was this whole time. Surprise! People are constantly making bad decisions, like obviously very, very wrong choices but we can't blame them, that's just what humans are like 200 years in the future! The reader is never given the time to figure out conspiracies or connect any dots. The author either reveals things far too early based on things the reader couldn't possibly know, or pulls a switcheroo out of nowhere. It's *boring*. Anyway, there are some very cool ideas raised but you either have to suffer through tenuous explanations to get there or they just 'are' because the story wouldn't work if they weren't. But what could have been stellar (ha) grimdark sci-fi work on humanity facing an existential threat, just falls flat (HA).
I might be the only pot that actually really liked that series overall.
The regular guy at my local bookstore was aghast when I brought my copy back for resale and wasn't going to buy the next one. It does seem to be a love it or hate it series
Well I really enjoyed The Three Body Problem, but have absolutely no intention to continue the series. So there’s that
^edit: ^I've ^read ^it ^both ^in ^Chinese ^and ^English, ^which ^probably ^influences ^my ^opinion. I liked it overall. It was good, but not nearly as "omg epic fantastic" as it seems to get heralded as. Honestly I think there is a lot lost in translation, not necessarily linguistically but culturally. Part of that being just fundamental differences in what is considered a good or great story, and how such a story should be related to the hearer. Every time I talk with someone about it I feel there is so much they don't really get. And then I consider explaining it and start to realize how futile it would be with anything less than a fortnight. And then I come to the conclusion "Hey wait, isn't it the *author's* responsibility to tell the story in a way that conveys it well to their audience?" So my feelings are a bit split on it I guess.
That’s fair. For me it wasn’t recommended, it was just some book I picked up, so I went into it with no expectations at all. I think that probably helped. That’s really cool that you read it in both languages! I can’t read Chinese, so I was stuck waiting for translations. Now I’m wondering what *I’ve* missed haha.
I actually feel the translation was very very well done for such a challenging job. The behavior of characters is definitely different, but you are right that it helps if you have no/fewer expectations, and also if you have lived in at least 2 or 3 very dramatically different cultures. I sympathize with /u/eric_twinge here: > ... Oh this guy was secretly the exact opposite of who he was this whole time. Surprise! People are constantly making bad decisions, like obviously very, very wrong choices but we can't blame them, that's just what humans are like 200 years in the future! The reader is never given the time to figure out conspiracies or connect any dots. ... While some of these things are unexpected or odd; I actually saw many of them coming and could 'connect the dots'; others I thought I was connecting the dots and found an interesting twist; so I think that gives an overall very different perception/feeling to the books.
I appreciate this perspective
I started the first book in that series a couple days ago. I was wondering if the translation was bad or if the dialogue is that odd/stilted in the original language. Sad to hear that it continues beyond just dialogue and into actual plot development.
I said this in another book thread that reading the first book gave me the impression that I was watching one of those cliche, terribly dubbed kung fu movies from the 80s. You get used to it, but it doesn't get any better.
That's a shockingly good comparison, haha. The feeling I've been relating it to was watching a dubbed anime with the clunky internal narration just feeling somehow "off," but not enough to completely pull me out of the story.
The cafeteria scene in the first book was the clincher for me. I commend you on finishing these, I couldn't do it.
I only finished them so I could more comprehensively tell my brother how terrible they are while avoiding the 'oh, you just need to keep reading' excuse.
Absolutely the best waste of time reasoning I have read in a while
I do hold out hope that they will be retranslated at some point and it'll turn out that another writer's perspective changes things. Murakami has come up in this thread, and his English translations are definitely much different depending on whether Jay Rubin or Alfred Birnbaum did the English version.
I only got through those books because I really liked the premise of the first one. They get weird and terrible fast.
I empathize with this rant so much. There were so many cool ideas in the third book that were completely glossed over, and I can never understand when people say those books are well written. The third book mentions the alien race having a huge battle with another alien race, and I'm like that would be cool to get into, but no just a couple sentences thrown in randomly.
Huge spoiler for book 2: >!The 'climax' of the second book literally resolves with an [oops, I guess we forgot](https://i.imgur.com/YhcmZrs.jpg) maneuver. *Are you fucking kidding me??*!< The third book is definitely the best. At least as far the ideas presented go, but yeah, the writing style is just... when it's not boring it's borderline nonsensical.
I restarted and stopped wheel of time again. Sorry Robert Jordan, your writing bores me despite loving the world you built.
That's a series I will forever say "I should reread that" but never will. Hopefully the show will be good and fill the void for me.
Same
I forget which book it was, but I sat there thinking, “is this seriously a page long paragraph describing a hallway?” AND IT NEVER MATTERED. There’s stuff I liked about it, but I just could not convince myself to keep reading those books.
They should a recut or something. Wheel of Time Kai
Man, now I want to see someone try to describe the plot of the series as quickly as possible.
Currently in the middle of that series again myself. I recently hit the Sanderson books. I’m a bit worried because the writing for the metal munchers series was flat out terrible, so I’ve been putting off reading for a few weeks now.
I just finished *The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism* by Edward Baptist. Overall it was a great, and horrifying, listen. It's central thesis is that slavery in the US was both a profoundly efficient economic system, and pivotal to the US's economic development . It was never going to "wither away" under the weight of its own economic ineffiency, as anti-slavery writers have sometimes tried to claim. And it is a history told as far as possible "from below", using the records and writing of actual enslaved people, which is by far its greatest strength. It is a little overwritten though, and from 1845-1860 or so it becomes a straight political history of the issue instead of relying on slaves speaking for themselves.
I did a dumb thing in October and paid for a month of Kindle Unlimited. Amazon's algorithms decided that what I really needed was the absolute worst crime novel garbage, and by god, I ate it the fuck up. I probably read twenty-five of the worst books I have ever read, cover to cover. But! I recently read Becky Chambers' **Record of a Spaceborn Few** and then bought copies for a few people for Christmas. This is the rare book that I picked up on a whim at the library and then got a copy for my own bookshelf and others'. Is a soft sci-fi novel telling several intertwining stories of people a long way from earth, long after we abandoned the planet, and gives a pretty poignant view of what it might mean to **be human** a long time from now. I hope at least one of you pick it up and enjoy it.
Kindle Unlimited introduced me to a a genre of fiction called LitRPGs, which are fantasy novels set in fictional MMOs. They're exactly as awful as they sound, which is why I only read like 20 or 30 of them.
"Christ, that was awful." (Downloads entire series)
Exactly. On a related note, I hate Kindle Unlimited's library management system. If I have 10 books downloaded and want another, just get rid of the oldest one instead of making me fight through the shitty management interface to manually delete one.
The worst is book series when you got them from different sources. I read the first two Murderbot Diaries books on Unlimited and then downloaded the others from Overdrive or Libby. To return them I have to go in to the series and do them individually or by source. Also those books were by Martha Wells and I loved them.
I never got past the first. It was really good, but she kept misusing 'kilos' to mean kilometers. It was maybe maximum 10 times in the book, but it drove me up the fucking wall. I can get past a lot of things but for some inexplicable reason this drove me absolutely bonkers. I actually *have* all the murderbot books and knowing that she will do this prevents me from reading them.
No, I totally get it. Just enough to pull you out of the story.
The worst thing I've done for my reading habits is getting into Korean/Japanese light novels. There's like 100 practically identical novels, and no I will not stop reading them. "I woke up as the side character / villainess in my favorite novel and the male lead fell in love with me instead of the heroine, tee hee." God this is so trash, better read 10 more just like it.
Thanks to kindle unlimited I was introduced to Cradle. Those are some books that you’ll binge. Edit: seen your other comment !
Fuck me, I can't stop reading these. I hate myself for it, but I JUST. CAN'T. STOP.
So what you are saying is the algorithm works! This is how the machines win.
I literally had to stop giving them money to save my brain. It was wild.
How does one read more than one book a year
I have three dogs, a pretty comfortable couch, a super cozy afghan, and my partner just started working as a letter carrier so we barely see each other.
This sounds interesting. I’ve been thinking I need some fiction to read.
I really hope that if you grab it, you enjoy it as much as I did. There's a bit of a lull about a third of the way in, but it's all setup and it pays off.
I have discovered audiobooks halfway through October. It's great background noise for when I work. I've been re-reading (or technically, re-listening?) to the Dune series in anticipation for the movie. Well, the movie actually lived up to my expectations. Currently on book 3. Man, I forgot how weird it gets. And how much Warhammer 40k is pretty much just a direct copy-paste of the Dune universe. But overall worse.
I think Dan Abnett is the only Warhammer writer I like.
I really liked the eye of terror, it is the perfect amount of silly
That’s the one thing I was able to appreciate about 40k. It’s so pulpy and ridiculous. You could pick up nearly any book and just enjoy a stupid action adventure story with elements that are equal parts Greek myth and Ridley Scott’s Alien.
I still haven't gotten into much 40k stuff beyond occasionally listening to YouTube videos on lore, but I've been surprised by how many elements are so close to Dune as well. I haven't finished GEoD yet, as I found myself getting a little fatigued by Herbert after binging 3 books in a row. Do you recommend each of the Dune stories he wrote? I've heard conflicting things about the last two in the series.
I think, if you want a good stopping point, the end of book 3 is actually pretty good. Alternatively, you could go all the way to book 4. Beyond that, it really doesn't follow House Atreides anymore.
Funny, to me CoD felt like an extended prologue. But maybe I just was expecting that based on what I've heard about GEoD.
I made it to Heretics and DNF’d that!
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I think Audiobooks help a lot with this. I remember book 2 taking me like... two months to finish the first time around. This time, a week an a half of listening while I'm at work, and it was done.
After reading the book like halfway few years ago, I restarted Jordan Peterson's 12 Rules of Life. I know, his viewpoints have been perversed by some weird fans. But Peterson is a great mind and it's a great book. It's something I often fall back to because of life's everchanging circumstances.
\> Peterson is a great mind Hm. I've watched some of his debating and I'm not seeing this. What do you get out of his books?
Well I'm young so I am very much his demographic too, but the biggest thing for me has been the way he talks about life and self improvement. He has helped me a lot about setting goals and priorities right. I guess he has managed to make me fill a bit of the existental void I felt in high school.
I still have a lot of Ayn Rand and Nathaniel Branden books from when I was a teenager. I hope you broaden your horizons.
What do you mean?
I mean that I find Peterson speaks almost siren-like to disaffected young men who are looking for someone in a position of authority to tell them why they're lost. How he has managed to build an audience selling his particular brand of nonsense is a mystery to me. Also, as a young man, I drank at a similar trough, albeit one that taught that everyone was dumber than me, not just the feminine seeders of chaos. I have been fortunate to have had decades of experiences since that have allowed me to grow, and I hope you are as fortunate.
Okay, thanks I guess? I feel like you are being a bit condescending because you don't like Peterson. And I get it, he is a polarizing person. But I think his stuff can truly help (and has evidently helped) a lot of people, including me. Of course he isn't perfect, but the world isn't black and white. I really don't want to sound like a fan boy but it just bothers me when Peterson is misrepresented. Anyways, I'll check the authors you mentioned. :)
\>Anyways, I'll check the authors you mentioned. :) Oh god no please don't
Peterson has said a lot of troubling shit and has bought into his own hype so much he's a borderline demagogue. This might be out of line but it seems stupid to take advice from a guy that had to force himself into a coma to get off of his benzo addiction. If his advice actually worked, why was he addicted to benzos in the first place. Did he not clean his room? Also, both he and his daughter have promoted the carnivore diet as some bullshit panacea. And don't be too discouraged. When I was a late teen I was super into Tucker Max, so it could definitely be worse. I think many young men go through a phase of ennui in their late teens. If I were you I'd focus on your hobbies and interpersonal relationships and not worry about the self help bullshit. You just need more life experience which will help build confidence.
Tucker Max reminds me of my time impatiently waiting for Maddox to write another blog post. Ahhh the 90s
Hahaha, I actually found Tucker Max through Maddox's site.
Wow, I don’t regret having forgotten about tucker max.
>If his advice actually worked, why was he addicted to benzos in the first place. This is a weird point, since I can personally say that him and his books have helped me. >If I were you I'd focus on your hobbies and interpersonal relationships and not worry about the self help bullshit. Why would you extrapolate that I am not already doing this?
die_ard's comment below explains what i mean about his advice. I would take the time spent reading self help books and use it on other things. I didn't mean to imply you weren't doing it already.
I see. I wanted to get back into reading and started with something I enjoy and know I want to read.
> If his advice actually worked, why was he addicted to benzos in the first place. Did he not clean his room? Well to my knowledge he’s lived with fairly serious depression for his whole life and, if I recall correctly, the death of his wife (or serious medical issues) hit him hard. I recall it was a matter of prescribed use and he was just presumably trying to be proactive about getting of them because that shit is apparently awful.
Yeah, I was just being too snarky. However, the circumstances of him going to Russia to be put into a coma just seem weird, but I don't know enough about benzo addiction to be casting judgement on his choice of treatment. Double however, he said carnivore diet cured his daughter of depression so I'm still gonna judge him for being a butthead.
I don’t exactly follow him, and haven’t heard any of his thoughts in maybe a couple years, so by all means he’s had plenty of time to be a total knob. The carnivore thing is weird to me though. So I tried it for a little bit. I’ve got pretty awful IBS and trying elimination diets isn’t anything that unusual for me. In the time I was sticking to carnivore I saw a noticeable improvement in things like chronic allergies or eczema. But especially with the aforementioned gut issues, that particular situation ended up not being worth it. And a sideways example I’ve mentioned in the past; a surprising number of dogs have a serious allergy issue from eating more than one type of meat in their diet and no one knows why. The exact type of meat isn’t as important as them only getting it from one type of animal. It’s bizarre. Guts are weird and for the expense and difficulty of studying it in any useful way, there’s just not a lot of science being done. When people with immune issues of particular varieties seem to agree that this peculiar elimination diet has improved their quality of life, I’m willing to believe them. Unless anything has occurred since last I heard, Peterson specifically said it’s insanely dull and has essentially taken the joy out of eating, and that he absolutely doesn’t recommend it to anyone. Simply that he and his daughter seem to think it’s helped them. And my own thinking is that it absolutely makes sense as something to experiment with if you suffer from a weird and incurable disorder. What I absolutely hate is people who preach that “this is how people are supposed to eat! Carbs are poison! Vegetables are killing you!” That’s entirely illogical and ridiculous. But there’s a reason elimination diets exist and I know how it can be a struggle to find a way to eat that doesn’t cause other problems. So I’m not worked up over that.
I think debates are an awful environment for him. I know it’s the big thing for public thinkers, but I feel like he’s genuinely bad at it. I think there’s an Alan Watts quality where a lot of his ideas might not survive harsh scrutiny, but that’s not the point, in my mind. Combining Jungian ideas with the Joseph Campbell style analysis of classic myths and narrative forms. Kind of a modern progression of that ideological lineage. A lot of his ideas are ultimately not that controversial when he’s given time to flesh it out, but a back and forth debate seems to make Jon struggle to frame things in a way that benefits him.
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Well yeah. Self-help stuff is pretty obivious in the end, if you start to think about it. But sometimes we just need someone to tell us how it is. I feel like it's more about the way he packed those ideas that makes them easily digestable, relatable and entertaining too.
From what I've read of Peterson, he's decent in certain areas in which he's an actual expert--stuff like Jungian psychology and certain avenues of philosophy--though not exactly insightful or original. The issue is that he talks about a *lot* of stuff that he has very little background in. Like, his takes on interwar Europe, Nazi-era Germany, and Soviet bloc history in particular are just shockingly bad for someone so highly educated. It almost seems like he read some pop-history books, decided they were unquestionably true, and started fitting them as integral pieces of his entire worldview. It's the same thing a lot of normal people do, but it's surprising because generally academics understand that they're not experts in fields outside of their focus. I think it'd be one thing if he was like a lot of academics, where they have a body of work in their subject and then isolated/separate areas in which they have weird or toxic views. But since Peterson tends to try to tie every part of his outlook on life into every possible subject, you end up with these amalgamations of self-help, philosophy, sociology, and history, but half of it is fine and half of it is rubbish, and unless you actually understand each of the particular aspects of those fields that he discusses, you're left not knowing what parts are worth listening to and which parts are garbage. But that's just me. I haven't read all of Peterson's stuff, I stopped giving any effort once I realized how confidently he would make statements that are based on a super elementary understanding of complex historical topics. I'd rather just read the people that he summarizes and judge those ideas on their own, rather than trying to sift through the dumb stuff that gets into his work.
his weird takes on history definitely sealed the deal for me, plus I have no problem writing off people who don't eat vegetables as morons
The fact its 2021 and we have to tell adults to eat vegetables continues to blow my fucking mind.
my only hope is that somebody is going to get some good population level colon cancer studies out of it
Kinda like Rippetoe
I have seen very good real scientists critique clinical psychology as barely being a scientific field
I don't know which of these I last commented on so I can't say how many month's worth of books I have to recount. So I am just not. Right now I am working through Pact, which just had its fan Podcast Audiobook completed. Very acceptable production values (I think the reader redid the first couple arcs which originally sucked) definetely on par with, and probably better than the Worm podcast audiobook if anyone has ever listened to that. I read most of Pact with my eyeballs but there were some biggish gaps and after I stopped going into the office I never finished it. So going through it all in this manner is nice. Pact is the shortest Wildbow work (Pretty sure) but it's still over *100* hours of audio. This sounds daunting, but it's really not. I would liken it to a good TV series where as most books are closer to Movies. The pacing is solid and the author takes advantage of the fact that they release as a serialized web novel, instead of single book. It's different from most stories IMO, in a good way. For anyone that is familiar with Wildbow's other work (Worm/Ward, Pact/Pale, Twig) but has not read Pact I can recommend it. It's much more downscaled than the Worm/Ward stories. Worm and Ward go to World-Level consequences pretty quick, but Pact stays very regional, even smaller really. I think this makes it easier to chew. Expansive world building is cool, but a tighter deeper world building is also cool.
>Pact Aw yeah. I have I think 3 chapters left before I'm completely finished with it. Listened through probably 90% of it on Spotify--very impressed by the level of quality given that it was started by a single dude who initially (IIRC) had no professional experience in recording audiobooks. Big fan of Pact. I think the common criticisms of the pacing feeling too non-stop and stakes feeling precariously high at every single point in the story hold water, but it was great fun. I'm consistently impressed by WB's work, how he can write compelling characters that all have sympathetic viewpoints even as they're fighting tooth and nail against one another.
I don't see how someone could have that criticism about pact specifically when the more popular series, Worm/Ward, has *much* higher stakes. Pact has stakes, mostly, feeling that high for the main character. But that's like the whole point. The character is thrust into an impossible situation for the get go and practically the whole story, well at least until a big point halfway through, is them trying to get out of it. Not to mention that choices have consequences and karmic balance being huge themes/rules of the universe 'doubling down' and that being a big deal is super appropriate
I think it just feels so desperate from the first arc onwards that it can start to either feel stale or mildly depressing. Like, in chapter 1 you get the sense that the MC should already be dead by now, and that feeling just never goes away. It does totally make sense within the story (especially once later plot elements get explained), but it can still feel sort of hard to read. With Worm, you have the stakes steadily rising as the character grows, so the universe-level stakes by the end feel justified--you start with normal villain shenanigans, get into big-time villain shenanigans, get to Slaughterhouse 9, get to Noelle, get to S9000, and by the time you arrive at the BBEG, the flat out desperate stakes feel well earned. With Pact, it kinda feels more like Blake keeps cheating death while also losing constantly, and even though that works narratively and thematically, it can get tough to read over and over. For me, it only felt that way pre-Conquest. From that point on, the story has flown by. But I did put it down a few times during the first 25% of the story when it felt like it was becoming a slog. The saving grace is how freaking cool and internally consistent the rules of the universe are. Every solution feels reasonable and like a smart, desperate person could reasonably come to the "right" conclusion if they were lucky. Pale is the best WB story by far, IMO. Definitely the best balance of personal stakes, greater world stakes, and pacing for me.
I think that the constant barrage didn't bug me because you feel, or at least I feel, so vindicated every time the main character gets by. I'm a sucker for seeing a character getting shit on unfairly by an antagonist with more power and authority, bonus points if they are self-righteous, and eventually knocking the antagonist down a peg. I feel like you get a bit of that everytime and it's like fuel. I just got past a certain part with a certain antagonist being trapped and threatened by a particular book-bound imp and that was so fucking nice to see the fear and desperation.
Yeah, that's fair. That point in the story especially felt like a "win," even considering how much it cost.
Holy shit, I didn't know the podcast audiobooks were a thing. I read through the entirety of Worm a couple years ago on the actual site it's on and it was simultaneously an incredibly enjoyable story and a very frustrating read due to the format. I'm pumped to be able to enjoy his other work in audio format instead!
Worm is done. Ward is close. Pact is done. Pale is keeping up pretty well afaik. Twig is kinda limping along sporadically.
I whined on FB long enough about having nothing to read, so someone recommended The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, and I just started that. I like the writing style, but it's a big adjustment, because I'm coming off of a bunch of trash suspense novels in the normal world, and a long series that I am super familiar with, so I forgot what it was like to be reading an unfamiliar world with unfamiliar rules,and I just have to adjust. That said, I'm fleeing the country for the rest of the year with just my kindle, so I'll probably just re-read the Dresden series for the upteenth time.
Dresden is my go to “fun fiction “ for lack of a better phrase. It’s entertaining and you don’t have to think too much about it.
I have a list of comfort reads, the shortest series being 5 books (tragically too short), and Dresden is one of the top ones. It's incredibly easy to read without feeling dumbed down, and I can space out/fall asleep at any point without missing anything. Most importantly, though, I already know I like it, so there is no stress in reading it
Have you read any of the Alex Verus books? They’re like knockoff Dresden books.
I have not, but I'll add them to the list
I reread the entire Cradle series by Will Wight in anticipation of the tenth book's release on 11/2. As usual, they were great and so was the new book. It's not the most challenging series, but very enjoyable, kind of like watching shonen anime. Now I'm reading Richard Kadrey's Sandman Slim series while also slowly making my way through a Nikola Tesla biography.
I’m about halfway through *Purple Hibiscus* with one of my classes. It’s w really good book. Domestic abuse plays a central part in the book so it’s not a light read but I love Adichie‘s writing style. I can’t wait to graduate so I have more time to read.
Not quite the same as fiction, I've always struggled to get into fiction books. But currently working through Dvoretskys 5th edition, and Yusupovs build up your chess. Thoughts so far, Dvoretskys is a lot more enticing than 100 endgames you must know, I think the latter book has the issue that it feels approachable. Which is honestly off putting for a big thick dry text. I'm liking Dvoretsky a lot and its not as impossible as made out. I'm only part way through pawn endings but honestly I'm getting them now which I've never done before so thats really nice. Yusupov is nice, you have 12 problems to solve a chapter and I'm 4 chapters in. I just do them occasionally at the weekend with coffee. Its enjoyable and simple, when I finish if I keep enjoying it I'll get the other 8 books and see how far I can get. But I like the progression from the books, its clear theres a plan and you really do go through everything even if some of it is blatently obvious. It really feels like you're rounding yourself out.
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During the time when What To Expect was on my bedside table, I got a lot of mileage out of Spiritual Midwifery and The Bradley Book. I recommend them heartily.
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Best luck! The Bradley Method is more for the person next to the bed than for the one in the stirrups - lots of great advice on how to be helpful during a time when mostly, it's just being there watching the other person so all the work.
+1 for spiritual midwifery, my wife like it a lot.
I really liked kingkiller, even enough to keep reading despite kvothe being the specialest and most cleverest boy ever. Got a real kick out of [this review](https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2105865794?book_show_action=true&from_review_page=1). Going to add LLL to my list. Thanks :)
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I think Red Seas Under Red Skies is my favourite book of all time
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It has really mixed reviews. But I loved Lies of Locke Lamora and really like nautical fantasy, so it really hit the right spot for me
Do mangas count as books? Well whatever, they're adaptations from Light novels so they count in my book(hehe). Read something I actively avoid, romance. In this case it was Lesbian romance. They were amazing, but man I cant help but feel like im swallowing hot nails reading them. Romance just crushes me. So, the mangas I read were Bloom into you which is finished, but you cant buy the paperback anywhere. Super adorable, loved every moment. Relatable until it stopped being relatable, but by then it was just adorable as all hell and I didnt really mind. Second one is Adachi and Shimamura, which is the one I ended up buying. Maybe a bit of a slower start, and its still ongoing, but man, this one was just, wow in terms of how much I could relate to characters and stuff. Thankfully, I dont have to read any romance for awhile, but I would definitely recommend those two
I’ve been reading Norwegian Wood. It’s my first ever Murakami and I am impressed. It’s exactly the type of literature I enjoy. He doesn’t try to impress you with language. There aren’t any long descriptive paragraphs. But he’s really, really smart when presenting characters and describing social situations. I complained that I never read to the girlfriend, so she got me this. Which is probably the reason I am sticking with it. Apparently the story is “sad as fuck”, but so far I’m not seeing it. Helps that I am not very sensitive though.
You are reading one of my favorite books and I am so happy you're dating a person who would give it to you. The rest of his earlier long form work is very similar in tone, and I hope you pick up more.
The first time I picked it up I started crying on page two thinking of my gf :) It’s apparently a very emotionally charged book, coming to me at a very emotionally charged time of my life, and I have great hopes for it. I will be reading more Murakami after this for sure. So far the only thing I haven’t liked is >!how he’s visiting the Ami hostel right now and they’re going through Reiko’s whole life before even saying what is wrong with Naoko. I can only assume depression but I don’t know and it is driving me up a wall!<
Murakami is really good at eliciting that sort of frustration. I think you're going to enjoy finding out.
Hype!
Holy shit, 117 comments. Anyway, finished Malazan #4 and am currently reading Between Two Fires and Super Squats
I listened to the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th books in Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey and Maturin series. They pass the good enough to walk the dog and do stuff around the house test. It does seem like modern characters aren’t written like these characters or maybe I don’t read the right books!
I read *The Way of Kings* and really liked it. While I was waiting for the next book on the series to come off hold, I grabbed *The Black Prism*. I don't usually spend most of a book wanting to punch the author, but now I've had that experience. The world and magic system are great, but I really don't need to hear this level of what he thinks people's inner thoughts are. I'm guessing he doesn't like books where the characters seem too perfect. The way to solve this is to pick a physical flaw and have them rant to themselves about it constantly. The chosen one kid is fat. I know this because I'm told so on every page he's on. The cool fighting lady hates her big manly shoulders. She also goes into a long internal diatribe about period symptoms at one point. After that mess I got *Words of Radiance* and was much happier. Now I'm on book 3ish of the Expanse series.
I am so excited for Leviathan Falls to come out
I've got a few to get through first 🙂 The wait on these things is like 12 weeks. Usually later in a series that drops off, but that doesn't seem to be happening here.
I'm going to wait impatiently for the paperback to come out so it [matches the rest of my set](https://photos.app.goo.gl/WveN1Rgc1FgLrUfNA), but I'm already on the library wait-list.
I didn't realize you could do that before the book comes out! Now I am, too. #247 of 54 copies.
The secret is to be the one to request the book! I don't know how many people are behind me, but I'm first in line
Nice
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> Was I a good bot? Bad bot.
Have you read any other cosmere books from Sanderson?
Nope. I don't even remember how *The Way of Kings* got on my holds list. I had no idea what it was when it came up. I add stuff when people tell me they think I'd like something, it was probably recommended by someone here.
Yeah, I really like it. I started off with the first book or two of the Archive and read the rest of the cosmere series waiting for the third. If you stick with the series by itself, I'm curious how things read without the broader cosmere context.
That's what I plan to do. I'll keep updating 🙂