Hey Beehaw (and friends)! What’re you reading?
Novels, nonfiction, ebooks, audiobooks, graphic novels, etc - everything counts!
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Death’s End, which is part of the Three Body Problem series by Cixin Liu
Three body problem series is fantastic in my opinion. I love that heavy sci-fi shit. And viewing the world from a different cultures perspective was fascinating.
Yes. Without going into spoilers, the event that started the Deterrence Era blew my mind. It’s so rare to have an unexpected reversal like that in sci fi it really caught me by surprise.
I really wish I could read it in the original Chinese. The translator did a great job though.
Well, now you’re making me want to go back into the series. I liked the premise of the first, but found the writing foreign - which, hey, it is! I felt like I really should read more everyday Chinese fiction as I didn’t understand a lot of the nuance and it felt less polished (to my American sensibilities) as a result.
I actually just finished Three Body Problem yesterday. Really fascinating perspective and lots of big ideas, even if the characters could be better and there could be less telling and more showing. But can’t wait to get my hands on the rest of the trilogy!
Just bought Dune from a second hand store, never read it. Gonna start that soon!
I’ve started Cyteen by CJ Cherryh - I’m the type of person that reads dozens of books at once but everything’s else gone on hold for Cyteen.
Amazing so far but can’t shake the feeling that I’ve read the plot in the beginning before. I think Cyteen is too long / complex for me to have read it as a teen and forgotten about it, but I have read the Alliance/Union series in pub order up to it. Is there another book in the series with clones that includes a dinner followed by + a river boat journey?
Friend’s bookclub has been working through The Locked Tomb trilogy which has been fun (both to read and to watch other people encounter).
Outside of that, I’ve been slowly working my way through The Knot Book (about mathematical topology, not kinky stuff), a book about “The Shambhala guide to Sufism”, and “Inside Scientology”.
I’ve been going through library books trying to find something at least somewhat straightforward about the modern Sufis and their beliefs/texts/rituals, but all the books I’ve encountered so far seem to be way more concerned with the historical lens of “Westerners through the centuries trying to grapple with the concept of Sufism and disagreeing with each other about what it is”.
Dune and House of Leaves
I’m very nearly done with ‘The Precipice’ by Ben Bova. Next is either ‘Rock Rats’ in the same series, or I start the Cosmere series by Brandon Sanderson. I’ve read all the Mistborn novels, and they’re fantastic.
Sanderson writes books faster than I can read, so it’s kind of daunting. Ben Bova is already dead, so I don’t have the same problem with him.
Anderzej Sapkowski’s The Last Wish.
Who would downvote this? Lol
Praise Geraldo del Rivera!
Nearly all of those books are nice, quick reads. I read them before playing Witcher 3 and watching the NF series first season. It greatly enhanced the game; it made me dislike the screenplay version.
I recently finished the 7th book in the Wheel of Time series, A Crown of Swords. I am currently contemplating whether to start book 8 or read something else to not get burned out. A Crown of Swords is the first book in the series I did not enjoy that much.
Definitely take a break! That’s about the spot where most people struggle to get through. Take your time; there’s a lot of setup, but the pacing is not great.
Also, I think book 8 is The One Without Mat, so it took me forever to get through it.
Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat.
I never really was that great at cooking, but I enjoy it and want to improve.
«Elsewhere, Perhaps» - Amos Oz (1966).
About to dive into The Tin Drum again. Last read it 30 years ago…
Right now I am reading An Urban History Of China by John Lincoln. It might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I am enjoying reading it, since I am a sucker for anything history.
Just finished the Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy by Cixin Liu a couple days ago…it’s reminded me of how mind-blowing and mind-expanding sci-fi can be. It’s an incredibly bleak and yet somehow still hopeful series and aside from issues with how Liu handles characters, I can’t wait to re-read it after I’ve had some time to digest the ideas in it. Definitely recommend if you like big ideas in sci-fi and can deal with some iffy character writing.
https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/33726/first-contact
First Contact by Ralts Bloodthorne (no relation)
Eight Thousand Years after the Glassing of Earth, Terran Descent Humanity has largely become a post-scarcity society based on consent and enjoying life. With the discovery of another ancient race beyond the "Great Gulf", events and history collide to draw the Terran Confederacy into war against a hundred million year old empire that has always won and believes it always will. With allies and enemies of multiple species, the Orion Galactic Arm Spur will be wracked by warfare the likes of which have not been seen. Cracked, harried, wounded, and damaged, Terran Descent Humanity willfully throws itself against the universe itself. "The universe hates you and will take away everything you love, laughing while it does so." - Terran belief.
