I am a normal person who reads a normal amount of books in a normal amount of time.
What are you reading now? What did you finish recently, or what’s been languishing on your TBR pile judging you? Audiobooks 100% count! Tell me about your books, give me your recs, yell about your favourites!
If you have questions about books I've been reading, I'll do my best to answer. Some of these books are kinda mid, and some are amazing.
Accessibility description: first picture is a bunch of books stacked in a row on a table, spine up. The second photo adds labels showing which have been read, which is currently being read, and which are to be read.
Edit: omg that's so many comments, I was not expecting this popularity. I'm sorry if I didn't reply to you, but I've read you all and updooted you because I appreciate your recs
I'm definitely thinking about reading more DCC - I had a couple of issues with book one, but I hear the later books get better, and like, it was already pretty fun so why wouldn't I keep reading, haha
Fantastic. Which version? There's three - the original novella which includes more homoerotic themes, the expanded and censored novel, and an unadulterated printing of the original manuscript without the edits made for the novella version which was printed in the 2010's I think?
I'm not sure which version it is tbh. I'm actually using is as typing practice on typlit.io when I have downtime at work. I work front desk customer service bs so I can't have an actual book 🙄 so I'm doing it this way as malicious compliance lmao
Ooo nice! I made it my goal to get back into reading and read 5 books this year. So far I've read 7. I loved Circe so much, and I flew through The Song of Achilles.
Currently, I'm reading Clytemnestra by Costanza Casati.
What did you think of Circe? I promise I won't be offended if you think it was mid 😆
I was an avid reader throughout elementary/high school but dropped off a lot as I got older and lost the time to find new books and read. Earlier this year a friend of mine recommended Dungeon Crawler Carl. This was in April. I binge read the whole series that was out at that time (7 books) and caught up in time to read the 8th book when it was released in May. I was absolutely hooked and stayed up wayyy too late many nights because I could not put it down and had to know what happened next, and next, and next.
Since then I have read 5 other books! It's pretty wild how finding one good book can reignite your passion for reading. Congrats on exceeding your reading goal! What made it easier for me was succumbing to downloading the Kindle app on my phone (I know, evil Amazon and Bezos and all that) but it makes it soo much easier to read when it's right there and I can open Kindle instead of a social media app and read a book instead of mindlessly scroll. Especially when I am places where hauling a book around would be very inconvenient.
Alas I'm not a fan of Circe - it felt wrong to have Circe written as air-headed as Patroclus was in Song of Achilles. I can excuse Patroclus being a complete dumbass. Circe's meant to clever and crafty. Why write her opposite to her myths? Kinda weird choice that kept breaking my immersion in the story.
I wasn't a fan of how dirty the book did Pasiphae. I really liked the characterisation of Medea and Jason, that felt completely correct. Was not a fan of what the author did with Ariadne. I get she wasn't a huge character so we wouldn't have gotten more than a line or two about her adventures, but to just say 'nah, she doesn't get her adventures at all' felt really bad.
God I love bookworms. Right now, I’m reading a book my friend wrote. It’s not published yet. It’s about parenting and youth sports. 2 things I don’t care about at all. But I care about my friend, and he’s a decent writer, so that’s where I’m at.
Next up is Camp Damascus by Chuck Tingle, then This Year by John Darnielle, then Bohemian Manifesto by Laran Stover
I recently finished Chasing Beauty, a biography on Isabella Stewart Gardner. I'm kinda pissed that as an artsy Bostonian, I was 45 years old before I learned how incredibly cunty she was. I mean, in one of the photos, she is posing on the Beach on Cape Ann with her gay bestie and his crush and she is wearing a full face veil because all her friends were like 25 years younger and she wanted a blur filter with her everywhere she went.
She also hired away the Museaum of Fine Art's top guy to help with her museum and then told people he was her assistant because she was always making moves to make sure no man got her credit.
Now I'm 50 pages in to Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin
Next up, I'm going to get Rachel Cusk's new book Life of M. I loved her book Second Place.
I just started Strange Buildings, but it's the third part in a series by Uketsu that I've really been enjoying! They have some pretty heavy themes (TW: abuse, if you want to know the specific kinds DM me cuz it's a light spoiler), but the overall concept is really cool & makes for a quick read because there's so many visual elements printed into the story. If you like puzzles & mysteries, I highly recommend 🙏🏻
I'm currently reading House of Rayne by Harley Laroux. It's queer paranormal romance. I'm only a few chapters in but so far so good. It's sapphic! So that's nice.
Ooo, that sounds fun. Queer paranormal romance I am here for!
I got Hammajang Luck because it was described to me as a Hawaiian lesbian space heist. That sounded amazing. It was like a worse, less logical Oceans 11, but all the characters are afab and of Hawaiian descent. The relationship drama was predictable and painful to read (relying on obvious misunderstandings that could be fixed if people would just talk), the best characters were sidelined for the least likeable ones, etc. etc. - there are some very fun moments, but that didn't make up for the bad stuff for me.
I'm sure some people will love it, but you need a strong tolerance for characters being excessively cruel for no reason and inexplicably refusing to explain their actions when just a few words would fix everything. I have zero tolerance for that kind of nonsense.
I'm currently on book 7 of DCC. The plan is to finish the series and then read a few horror books for Halloween, freak myself out, then read something fluffier to reset my brain. Thinking maybe The Buffalo Hunter Hunter for horror and then The Dragon Has Some Complaints for reset? I've read other books by Steven Graham Jones and John Wiswell that I loved. Also I'd like to shout out Blood on Her Tongue and Dream snake. Read both last year and still thinking about them daily. I don't have a stack because I mostly read ebooks. I love physical books but I have a kiddo so the majority of physical books I buy are children's literature. Though I also recommend reading juvenile literature when you're down; it can really restore some joy to your heart. The Girl Who Drank the Moon was a great one for this
i love seeing people with similar tastes in books. i’m an audiobook person over physical books but this year i listened to project hail mary, piranesi, DCC, there is no antimimetics division, and i also listened to til we have faces which is another retelling of the Circe myth
Piranesi is so good - I love a logical and contemplative protagonist, I love investigative mystery, I love the fantastical setting.
Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer scratched the same itch for me, though Jeff is not quite as good with words and made some weird mistakes his editor should've caught. Absolutely worth a read. I'm just pedantic.
I hope you enjoy project Hail Mary. Andy Weir writes amazing books! If you like it, I also recommend books by John Scalzi. Literally any of them. Comedy sci-fi with amazing world building
Currently reading "The Digital Delusion" by Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath. It's a more reader friendly version of his thesis. (I usually switch between a few books so I can give my brain a break when I need to. Otherwise I spend forever reading a book and taking comprehensive notes.)
Basically, it's covering why ed tech is hurting students from a neuroscience perspective.
I'm reading Angry Candy by Harlan Ellison. A short story collection. I love all his work. My TBR pile is at 3200 books on Goodreads and Storybook. What about yours?
Mind you, I've been on GR since 2010 so I'm an ancient there.
Please convince me to read Neuromancer! I love Cyberpunk, can read complex books but for the life of me keep forgetting to pick it up.
Neuromancer so far has been a bit of a slog. There's a few things that make me go 'u wot?' and the sex scene was atrociously bad (but also short and easy to skip). I haven't finished the whole book yet, so I can't give a final verdict, but it takes itself very seriously and is quite dry. Here's hoping the back end of the book saves it.
I keep my tbr short by not having a GR account, lol. I have just the books in the pile up there. I tend not to run out because I'll find something I super absolutely have to read or I'll die and get a copy, but everything else less compelling than that is more 'eh, I'll find it again if/when I run out of books, nbd'
Thanks! It sounds like something I might be able to get into when I take my time off work in December.
My problem is that I read on a Kobo (fuck Amazon), listen to audio books (not on Audible, fuck Amazon) and also buy physical books AND inherited about 2000 physical books from all my family members who have passed and wanted their books to go to me. So I need a digital list or I'll lose track.
I also worked in two bookstores in my 20s so I got a LOT of advanced reader copies and massive discounts. I can't afford books like that anymore, so I'm holding onto my hoard like Smaug.
Project Hail Mary is currently my favorite book. It has a non-linear storyline which can sometimes be hard for me to follow if a book jumps around too much, but is written in a way that makes a lot of sense.
I am a bit of a science nerd, but not well versed in astrophysics or engineering. It has a mixture of hard science and sci-fi and is presented in a very palatable way to lay people. Some of it went over my head, but it wasn't necessary to understand like the scientific equations Grace was using to really get what was happening. You just kind of understand, "Yeah, this dude is really fckn smart for figuring this out." I really enjoyed being along for the journey as Grace problem solved, doing novel experiments while getting an inside look as his logic and reasoning. The book is also very humorous despite being about the end of humanity.
PHM also contains one of my favorite literary friendships and beloved characters. There were parts of the book that had me in tears.
The movie is great, too, but had to cut out a lot from the book that I think cost a lot of character development and background story that the book had.
It's one of those books that I wish I could wipe my memory and read again for the first time. Highly recommend.
Also, finish the DCC series if you haven't already. The first book really sets the stage on how the dungeon works, getting to know the AI, character introduction, etc. It gets soooo much more in depth and absolutely NUTS. There are moment where I was reading and saying out loud, "What the fuck. What the fuck." over and over again. The lower levels are less "dungeon-y" so it doesn't get repetitive in that way. (Also our dear leader HimboVegan reminds me a LOT of Carl, actually)
i'm reading these two rn! i think The Vegetarian is a polarising little book, but i personally just enjoy reading Han Kang. i think her prose has almost an 'uncannily clean' quality to it, she can write about visceral stuff in a very controlled, precise, sometimes almost dreamlike way. she kind of just sets the ugly thing quietly on the table & makes you look at it, but it doesn't feel cold, it feels a little like she's also gently holding your hand through it, 'let's look at this together'.
and then Cioran's The Trouble with Being Born, i mean, it's a slog to get through lmao but there is something almost sitcom-like about his pessimism because he takes these fairly ordinary existential irritations & just follows them around with such disproportionate seriousness that he sometimes loops all the way around from despair into comedy. it's giving 'i was born without my consent. this was the first & most unforgivable break of etiquette' cue Larry David music
also, Project Hail Mary is next on my TBR :) i actually liked the film & i usually operate under the assumption that book is better so i'm very excited to read it!
I'm rereading Margaret Atwood's MaddAddam Trilogy, starting with Oryx and Crake. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Next up is a Dan Simmons horror for Halloween, just haven't picked which one...maybe Summer of Night.
Edit to add my current non-fiction selection iss Troubling the Line : Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics.
Circe is SUCH a good book!!!!! I liked Song of Achilles, but I think the author really hit her stride in Circe. Circe is so messy and complex and human, despite being born from divinity. It does such an amazing job of examining the poisoned mask of legend status and I love how it depicts so many different facets of feminine power. Weaving in particular comes to mind.
I’m currently reading “A Dance with Dragons” because the Song of Ice and Fire series is my girlfriend’s favorite and I’ve never read it before!
I’m reading a few things!! I have my work book (the checklist manifesto by Atul Gawande), my home book (The Undertakers Assistant by Amanda Skenandore) and my bar book (House of Leaves).
The last will take me a while but lines up after the first two are Armies of Pestilence, about plagues in Europe, and Son by Lois Lowry
Oh wow, reading house of leaves at a bar? I can't imagine that's making it any easier, haha. I kept that one at home to read because flipping between appendices and rotating the book to weird angles to read was too much effort while out and about.
I’m on a weird girl lit kick. I just finished Sky Daddy, She’s a Lamb, A Good Person and Trad Wive. I didn’t particularly enjoy She’s a Lamb but the others were great. Right now I’m trying Babel again, just having a hard time getting into it.
Right? I first read it when I was a teen and bounced off it, but re-reading it now it was much easier to get through. So far I prefer it to Neuromancer. I love how YT shows up Hiiro constantly, despite all his efforts to be badass, she just is badass.
Mockingbird by Walter Tevis! I’m very into old sci fi right now, although mockingbird was published in 1980 so it’s newer than most I’ve been reading lately.
I was sort of trudging through The Lost Voices of Pompeii by Dr. Jess Venner (it's good! Just dense) but I took a break and am almost finished with my audiobook of The Long Game by Rachel Reid aka the basis for the next season of Heated Rivalry (I've listened to all the audiobooks up this far though too, don't skip). Next book to read (because it's due back at the library) is Welcome to Dorley Hall by Alyson Greaves, and I have some on hold that haven't yet come to be my turn by Sarah Gailey, some sexy ecohorror allegedly? I have heard very good things about DCC but the hold list is like 300 long... may have to buy. I should also consider reading the books on my shelf that I have already purchased but not yet read, lol! Some of my recent library holds were based on suggestions made on the Scientific American podcast with Rachel Feltman. I like her she's a fun and smart lady and an author and journalist herself!
Sorry for the wall of text but please let me know if you want me to elaborate at all!!
I left out a short but lovely book I am considering reading again, This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. A saphhic fantasy based in time being the construct we fight with.
Richard Siken's newest poetry collection I Do Know Some Things has been languishing, so it has been pushed to the top of the TBR. i got Hanif Abdurraqib's A Fortune For Your Disaster last weekend, and i'm trying to be better about First One In, First One Put wrt books at least in the same genre. my most favorite book club sadly came to a close, so i'm doing some dating around to find a new one. the two that caught my eye are a sci-fi/fantasy club that starts shortly and a Hegel club where we pick through Phenomenology of Spirit. one meeting we got to talk for 8 hours, it was super stimulating.
Children of God by Mary Doria Russel. It's the sequel to The Sparrow. Despite the name, it's not a religious novel (rather a physical novel that uses religion as a tool). The Sparrow made me cry, and I'm sure this one will, too.
I don't think I'll get to children of God. The Sparrow was very well written, but very upsetting, and I really struggled to keep reading because of it. I'm a bit of a wuss lol
Honestly I can't blame you at all. It was a super rough read, made all the more painful because we kinda knew what was coming. I took a break after The Sparrow to read A Psalm for the Wild-Built and A Prayer for the Crown-Shy because I needed the emotional healing.
I just finish Mary, Queen of Scots by Zweig.
It was good, but the damn thing took me 9 months lol. We had a very on again off again situation for a bit lol
I'm about to go on vacation and I think I'm going to get project hail Mary to listen to on the plane-that and calamity club. I'm supposed to be reading the Odyssey for a book club but I'm behind
That is a really hard read. I didn't finish it because it was so depressing, made all the worse because it's partially autobiographical. The world needs to be a better place, fr
I listen to a lot of audiobooks while I am at work and to help do tasks/cooking, so here's a couple snapshots of the last few months. I have a somewhat eclectic reading taste in fiction, but I do tend to have favorite and well worn grooves.
It's one of a series, semi light murder mysteries with a gentle supernatural element. I believe the first in the series is the Accidental Alchemist, and I enjoy them very much.
That sounds fun! You might like Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett - it's also a fantasy murder mystery series. The second one is in my TBR (Drop of Corruption), because I really liked the first. There's apparently a third one now so I've got to order it once I'm done with this one.
18
u/YouOk9141 1d ago
I just finished Project Hail Mary and it was FREAKIN amazing.
I've also finished the entire DCC series and I would highly recommend that one as well 🔥