What are you reading ?

Originally Posted by Redglyph
Prime Reading, or Kindle Unlimited? Funny thing, I tested Prime Reading but it's not available in all countries of Europe, only a select few. It reminds me of this Steam issue with the EU (geoblocking not allowed in the Union) and I'm wondering if that doesn't fall under the same law

That sucks but yeah its prime.

It gives me access to a bunch of free novels, movies and songs.

I've not taken advantage of the book reading part of prime yet, I got a membership simply for the delivery options since I don't drive, but the telly and film options are already paying huge dividends. I'm sure Bezos doesn't need my moolah, but for now that's a subscription that I'm keeping.

Originally Posted by Thrasher
wiretripped, Three Body Problem is in my queue. Let us know how it is.

Originally Posted by Zloth
I liked the very start of it but, when it got to the story proper, my interest dropped off hard. Maybe it was the cultural differences but the reactions people were having just weren't making any sense to me.

Yeah, I have a similar feeling. First book was okay-ish. I'm about 20% into the second one, The Dark Forest, at the moment, and it's kinda nonsensical. Maybe it's the translation, maybe the cultural differences, but yeah, it's hard to get 'into it'.

I'll stick with it because I am incapable of abandoning a book series (which is how I ended up plowing through the entire, god awful Sword of Truth series), so hopefully it gets better.

I finished Elantris, a novel by Brandon Sanderson, one he did just before the Mistborn series. I've always meant to read this but never got around to it, during the holidays I picked it up and decided to make it so. It's a solid read, a bit simplistic now when you compare it to his later series, but the writing is solid and, being his first work to get published, I wondered how it would stand. If you enjoyed any of his other works, I think you'd like this as well.

Next up for me will be a re-reading of Martin's Throne series. I prefer the Wild Card books, but since I've not read these since the last volume came out (almost ten years now), I thought it might be fun. And might knock the taste of the finale out of my brain.

Originally Posted by Carnifex
Next up for me will be a re-reading of Martin's Throne series.

That's almost 10 years since his last book… that must make a few people quite nervous!

Reminds me of The Wheel of Time, those were long waits between books and I'm not good at keeping the names and plots in my head for long periods while I'm reading other books. Then, sadly, the original author passed away before the end of the series, which was completed by someone else.

The whole series spans over a little less than 23 years (15 with the same author), and it's more than 24 years for A Song of Ice and Fire. Imagine writing a story for that long, I don't know how they do it.

I'm a much bigger fan of the Wild Card series than I am the Ice and Fire one, so as long as those keep coming out regularly, I'm a happy camper. There is so much to read and revisit these days that I'm not worried about future books, after taking a few stabs at writing myself, I know what a fickle field it can be. People often tend to forget that the Wild Card series was here first, so I can completely understand his loyalty to that brand, and the friends that are involved with it.

Well it's a big if as I doubt Martian will live long enough to finish the books. He's already talked about finding a co-writer to finish it. So we shall see I guess.

As long as Bran is not crowned King I'll be happy.

Recently I have been reading a lot of collections of scary stories and horrors.

Last night I polished off book one of Ice and Fire, I think it was my fifth time reading that particular volume. The set up of things to come is so well done, I'm reminded of just how pale the television series was in comparison to these fine novels. The exposition is solid, some of the later books meander a bit, with quite a few red herrings tossed in for good measure, but this first book I think every single word has merit. I picked up book two, A Clash of Kings this morning, and I'm about twenty pages into that one, now.

And book two of Ice and Fire, Clash of Kings is now in my rear view. While I'm not exactly certain how many times I've actually read the first three novels, my second volume fell to pieces during this re-read. At least the third book, A Storm of Swords, seems to be in better shape. I do have signed hardbacks of all five books (a perk for supporting a kick starter project some years ago), but I prefer not to handle those.

do audiobooks count?
I recently joined Audible, and listened thru a couple books. I had corrective laser surgery on my eyes, and it's lead me to being farsighted in my old age, and my eyes dry up really quickly when reading. It's made reading for extended periods difficult, I'm trying to work my way thru the Iliad(of all books to try and read w/ this problem), and I'm almost to the end but it's been a struggle.

Priest of Bones by Peter Mclean (narrated by John Lee)
Pretty good fantasy / gangster story that revolves around a crime boss and his crew that come home from war, to see their turf devastated and taken over by an occupying crime syndicate, and they must take it back. Brutal, sometimes funny, and with a few endearing characters made this a fun listen. Solid narration, a little more "I said/he said/ she said" than was needed, due to the good narration, but I realize he's reading it verbatim - perhaps that's the downside of audiobooks. Not enough to be that annoying tho.
A bit predictable fantasy fare, I kinda saw everything coming as the book progressed, but it was still worth the monthly credit imo.

Originally Posted by Carnifex
And book two of Ice and Fire, Clash of Kings is now in my rear view. While I'm not exactly certain how many times I've actually read the first three novels, my second volume fell to pieces during this re-read. At least the third book, A Storm of Swords, seems to be in better shape. I do have signed hardbacks of all five books (a perk for supporting a kick starter project some years ago), but I prefer not to handle those.

You may consider using an e-reader, unless you really prefer the paper books. For novels, at least, it doesn't make sense for most other types of books (or dedicated ones )

I've been using a Kindle for years now, my first reason was the ridiculous place all those books were taking. I used to travel a lot, and the light weight was welcome, together with the lighting when reading in a plane. The books are usually cheaper, and you get them instantly.

For books like Ice & Fire, I also enjoyed their X-Ray system, which give you a brief overview of any character, and where he/she appears in the book. That feature is just great! I know there's a very useful wiki with an interactive map, but this is the next best thing when you can't / don't want to browse on Internet

I have a kindle, and sometimes use it, but I much prefer the tactile feel of actually holding a book, feeling and smelling those pages. It evokes so many childhood memories, a kindle simply cannot compete with that, though I do use mine sometimes. But the preference is a real volume with pages.

Yeah, I do like a real book, and am quite happy with bookshelves everywhere.

I have a full A4 Android ereader, which I use as much as possible for reading articles and textbooks, and so on. I run a Wallabag docker on my server, which saves articles in a readable format, and lets you read them on your devices later. I'm very fond of that for anything of significant length. I just find the e-reader screen much more relaxing, and less distracting.

the good thing about Kindle, is that you can read it on any device (ie a computer). So for people w/ jacked up eyes like me, can blow it up to a ridiculous size, and it really helps.

Also, there's an online service i really like for the classics, you can read on any device, called Owleyes. It's free, but you can pay 5 bucks a month for ease in using annotations and such (really handy for old archaic texts like the Iliad)

https://www.owleyes.org/

I've never heard of that owleyes service, that's pretty neat. I'm a big fan of ANYTHING that helps people read, like I was told often as a child, "we don't care what you read, only that you do read."

Yes, I think this sort of thing is helpful. I'm a fan of the No-Fear Shakespeare editions, where they print a simple translation of each line on each facing page. Some people moan that you kill it if you reduce it to simple language, but I think the point is to make it accessible to more people. Apart from the verse, you've got allusions and references to all sorts of things an Elizabethan audience would have understood, but you have no chance. If people struggle over every line, you're going to lose 90% of the ones that might have got into it.

Then you can move on to deeper critical editions, that get a lot more into the ideas in the poetry.

Originally Posted by Redglyph
I've been using a Kindle for years now, my first reason was the ridiculous place all those books were taking. I used to travel a lot, and the light weight was welcome, together with the lighting when reading in a plane. The books are usually cheaper, and you get them instantly.

I used to prefer books, but I really came around to loving my Kindle. It is light-weight and compact, and I can bring all my favorite books with me in the palm of my hand. I read a lot before bed, so the lighting is very handy. It's simply so convenient.

Unless if it is a book I really want a hard copy of, it's Kindle books all the way for me.

AC:Odyssey got me wanting to get back into studying ancient Greece (who says games are good for nothin)

reading A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War

Brutal. I've known cursory information about the Peloponnesian war, but this goes in-depth on just how truly insane this war was, and the people, politics, geography, religion, even agriculture's role. Wracked by plague that kills nearly a quarter of the population, Athens is nearly brought to it's knees right at the outset. Even claiming Pericles himself, and his family.

The methodology and tactics of the war evolved is pretty fascinating: the evolution of the hoplite phalanx, fighting "honorable" battles, to the descent into lightly armored mercenaries, guerilla tactics, and wholesale slaughter of combatants and non-combatants alike.

I'm about halfway, and while it's an exhaustive account of the history, I'm still pretty gripped. It definitely helps to know a bit about the region, factions, and personalities of the era, as there's a lot of names being dropped. I've had to stop and google more than once!

I'm reading the prequel books to Dune, or the prelude books? Not sure what they are called in English, reading them in Dutch at the moment, as I happen to have them lying around from a purchase I did over 10 years ago.
I'm in the second book, The House Harkonnen, and up to now it has been quite good. I like that I get to know more about the background of some of the characters and events that took place not too long before the original Dune books.