What are you reading?

[Silky Gooseness]

And is it any good? I’m interested…

[Aikári Salmarinian]

Silky: What I read, I post sometimes in my Little Corner where you can read about, in the privacy of that forum. But I only do if worth mentioning. What are you reading you like to share?

[Pele Alarion]

I'm reading The Stranger/The Plague by Albert Camus. It puts me to sleep very nicely because I find his writing to be very dry and boring...

[Drifa]

I am not sure what to read these days. I am way behind the times when it comes to new authors. I am listening to, The Name of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. It was slow at first, and I was not too sure about the narrator, but things seem to be picking up, and I am enjoying it. There are two other books in this trilogy, The Kingkiller Chronicle. Has anyone read them, and is it worth listening to them?

Does anyone have an author to recommend?

[Saranna]

Rothfuss is amazing , and the second book I thought was as excellent as the first. Sadly he, like GRR Martin, is being slow to produce the third which I am anxious to read. There is a shorter book related to the trilogy, 'The slow regard of silent things' which is one of the most fascinating books I have ever read but may not be to everyone's taste for its minuteness of description.

[Drifa]

Oh, thanks, Saranna! I should have informed myself before I posted. It was recommended to me by a co-worker. Perhaps he meant the third book is the one you mentioned.

What is it with authors these days, eh? Do they take on too much (charity, podcasts, interactive role-playing, games, series, comic books, etc.)? I am still waiting for the fourth book in the Abarat series by Clive Barker. I was almost a young adult when I last read it.

[Silky Gooseness]

Gosh the book I’ve been waiting the longest for is Captal’s Tower by Melanie Rawn - the last book was out in 1997.

I just finished reading “Clytemnestra” by Costanza Casati - an excellent read in a market kinda oversaturated with myth retellings. If you liked Circe/Song of Achilles you’ll probably like it - the prose is smooth and beautiful, and Clytemnestra is very well realised as a character

[Drifa]

Oh my god, Sil, 1997?? That is incredible, eh? It was the same with the Dark Tower series by Stephen King. So, it's a waiting game and a reread for sure when it comes to one's favourite series. Something to look forward to, I guess, if they ever finish them.

I will look for Clytemnestra by Costanza Casati. Thanks!

[Saranna]

Mikhail Bakhtin's 'The Dialogic Imagination' which is best described as a study of how the novel came to be and how it developed out of ancient world views and storytelling. It's heavy! But compelling, I can't manage more than 4-6 pages at a time but am totally engrossed in it. I've seen it described online as 'A novel by Mikhail Bakhtin' but don't read it if you are looking for fiction. Time consuming but worth every minute.

[Reikon Suchi-ru]

While I was on vacation, I read Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, the same guy who wrote The Martian. Absolutely excellent book, couldn't put it down!

[Silky Gooseness]

@Drifa - I’m not sure it ever will be finished tbh, but the two existing books are pretty good stories in and of themselves thankfully!

@Saranna that sounds fascinating but mind bending - perhaps something I would consume more easily as a documentary

@Reikon Suchi-ru I keep hearing amazing things about this…

I have just been reading the Eli Monpress books about a thief-wizard who doesn’t use magic in the conventional way. Loads of fun.

[Saranna]

Between bouts of 4-5 Bakhtin pages I am reading Michael Crichton's 'Next' for light relief mingled with apocalyptic terror! What does anyone else think of it?

[AnsonLongbottom]

Currently listening to new LoTR recordings read by Andy Serkis. They're amazing! So much better than the originals by Rob Indris (?) which I found a bit boring. I hope he'll do the Silmarillion as well!

[Chrysophylax Dives]

I don't suppose anyone has ever read Seven Pillars of Wisdom by T.E. Lawrence? I just started it yesterday - another Oxford man who serves in WWI and is clearly a bit off his rocker, but amazing writing. I don't think people read it today but if anyone has I'd be curious as to their thoughts.

[Chrysophylax Dives]

Mikhail Bakhtin's 'The Dialogic Imagination' which is best described as a study of how the novel came to be and how it developed out of ancient world views and storytelling. It's heavy! But compelling, I can't manage more than 4-6 pages at a time but am totally engrossed in it. I've seen it described online as 'A novel by Mikhail Bakhtin' but don't read it if you are looking for fiction. Time consuming but worth every minute.

Looking that up on Amazon now. Also this one:

I just finished reading “Clytemnestra” by Costanza Casati - an excellent read in a market kinda oversaturated with myth retellings.

[Saranna]

Now on 'The Anatomy of Bibliomania' by Holbrook Jackson. Almost reaching the end of Vol 2 (of 2) Maybe not to everyone's taste but as a bibliomaniac - or perhaps more accurately a bibliophile and retired librarian, it's a pleasurable read to me.

[Aikári Salmarinian]

I am reading a thick book on the history of West-Europe, 375AD - 800AD. Bought over a year ago, but considering all took place over the last ten months I hadn't much energy to take up what I was reading. But I am picking up as all of that tiredness has gone and my memory works perfectly.

[Drifa]

Has anyone read anything by N.K. Jemisin?

[Rivvy Elf]

@Drifa The Fifth Season is quite good.

Currently I'm reading Jin Ping Mei (The Golden Lotus). I love it.

[Drifa]

Thanks, Rivvy! I will check it out.

I listened to The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald today just for the heck of it. I enjoyed it very much,

[Dungeon Delver]

I will second @Rivvy Elf's recommendation of Fifth Season. It's been a few years since I read it, but the dynamic use of second person POV is worth the price of admission.

[Aikári Salmarinian]

I just finished the Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelmsson, was quite nice.

[Chrysophylax Dives]

After several months on this site, and recent pressure from various quarters including the Dwarf, I have just purchased The Silmarillion on kindle. Will let you know what I think of it.

[Drifa]

Oh, wonderful! Mind you, I've heard a lot of people say that the Silmarillion is hard to digest in one gulp. Good luck with it.

I've been listening to the Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin on and off for a while. I am finding it hard to get into. But I won't give up. Maybe when the seasons change, and the long winter days stretch ahead, I will enjoy it more.

This week I came across an audiobook by Robert Silverberg called, Lord Valentine's Castle, sort of a science fantasy. I am getting a real kick out of it and it makes the time go by super fast, which I like.

[Chrysophylax Dives]

Surprisingly, The Silmarillion is quite good. Unfortunately, as yet I've only got as far as the making of the Dwarves (it is curious that Eru speaks to Aulë - sound with no image, a bit biblical). I say this because if I had only read a little further I reckon I would have got the Hobbit's latest riddle!

Is it really good to have the time go by faster? In Catch 22 there is a character who spends his life staring at the ceiling cultivating boredom because it makes the time seem slower, which means he feels that he lives longer.

[Chrysophylax Dives]

Got bored with The Silmarillion. It was good at first but now there are just too many Elves. So I've put it aside for a while and am reading Michael Crichton's 'Eaters of the Dead' which is a retelling of Beowulf - or at least draws heavily on it - with the story told by a 10th century Arab from Baghdad who gets sent on a mission to the Bulgars but ends up in Heorot. Great fun, and (so far) not an Elf in sight.

[Ephtariat]

@Chrysophylax Dives There's a very good 1999 film adaptation of that novel, it's titled "The 13th Warrior", and has Antonio Banderas playing the Arab.

[Chrysophylax Dives]

OOoh. Well, the movie was a bit not good, and tbh by the end the book was not so hot either. I went back to M.R. James ghost stories.

[Chrysophylax Dives]

[Saranna]

I am reading several books at once, thanks to a nasty virus that made me too unwell to do anything that involved standing up for very long, or thinking clearly enough to write. Most of the last three weeks were spent on the sofa, reading.

I am very much enjoying Adam Ncholson's 'The seabird's cry' which gives deep insight into the natures and lives of many seabird species. I am astonished by how much we now know about them.

About to follow that with 'Old Gold' which is a poetry collection by Ben Batten, a writer from Cornwall. I have enjoyed (and written reviews on Goodreads and Facebook for) all of Ben's previous books.

Also I am looking forward to the next book in my handy reading pile affter that, '42: the wildly improbable ideas of Douglas Adams.' I gather these are the last discoveries of writings left behind by Adams at his untimely death.

And once my brain comes back there's going to be Andy Orchard's 'Critical Companion to Beowulf.' I really hope I shall be up to that one!

[Aikári Salmarinian]

Saranna: Wow that is quite much, all in the same period of time. I think you are fan of Ben Batten.

I am reading a bible on the folk movements across Europe between 375AD - 800AD. I am well past page 200 and have to read another 400 pages. It is a period where not much documentation survived off, that academics dare to use. But unofficially there is much more and even interestingly. I don't know why the academic world is so much on fact checking. The society back then, didn't have this at all. In Roman times quite a substantial people could read and write, but the later time appeared that their descendents were by the circumstances illiterate again. It is quite interesting to me, that I meet peoples again I heard off in the past, but never much knew off really, than a name and a few shallow facts.