Reading American Midnight, about how civil liberties were absolutely fucked after the US entered World War I.
Rereading Le Guin’s Earthsea saga.
Personally, I think she might be on par with Tolkien and actually surpasses him in a few ways. The 4th book (about a tired mom just trying to get by and care for people in a fantasy world) is the best one, but you need to work your way there.
These are on my to do list. Currently been reading through Wheel of Time, which has been on my fantasy to do list for a while.
I liked the first book a lot, and recall liking the series less as it went on.
My experience was that the first book was fine, say 6,5/10. Just enough to move on to the the second, which I absolutely loved 9,5/10. Started reading the third with high expectations but it just didn’t engage me at all. Didn’t get through more than perhaps 25% of it.
How to read a book, by Mortimer Adler
“How to read a book.” Pg. 1
“Turn back to page 1” Pg. 2
Nearing the end of When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi, which came out a few months ago. It’s a bit silly but I’d recommend it. The premise can be summed up as, “What would happen if the moon turned into cheese?”
I guess…uh…that it’d be less dense, so that’d dick up tides on Earth.
https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/moonfact.html
Mean density (kg/m³): 3344
https://eurekamag.com/research/001/061/001061121.php
At 8 deg C, mean densities of blockformed and conventionally-hooped cheeses were, resp., 1.094 and 1.091 g/ml.
So that’s 1094 kg/m³.
Basically, Earth’s tides would be about a third as strong, which I imagine would affect a bunch of things, especially coastal ecology. Dunno how much tides affect weather.
Also, probably alters the reflectivity of the Moon, so would affect the brightness of the Moon. Might affect a lot of nocturnal critters and such. Hard to estimate, since that depends a lot on what cheese is involved.
In the book, it kept the same mass and got a lot bigger. And of course much brighter.
Ah, gotcha. What type of cheese did it turn into, out of curiosity?
I think that might be too much of a spoiler 😄
Re-reading Shirley Jackson’s “The Haunting of Hill House” because its the best haunted house novel ever written.
I just put this one into my reader, after several quotes from Stephen king reminded me i have it pending…
Got this one on my list.
Gilgamesh the King, by Robert Silverberg
Im reading The Bridge on the Drina, and the first Ahriman omnibus from the warhammer universe right now. Id recommend the first to anyone, its an absolute classic. The second I would recommend to anyone who likes warhammer or weird sorcerer bull shit.
mtg has well written books based on its lore if your into that. its best to start on early sets, because each blocks have books as sorty of “trilogy”, because you wont be able to get the context without reading the 1st volume of a set.
No Flinching by Stephen King. It’s a good book, but you really have to go back and start with the Mr. Mercedes series.
Just finished The Cutting Room by Louise Welsh. It was 3/5 for me. Pretty dark, explicit. The pitch was interesting to me but I didn’t feel it delivered too well.
I’m currently reading The Thursday Murder Club and it’s a delight at far, 37% in. No final judgement yet based on that.
Master of the Five Magics by Lyndon Hardy.
Because i wanted to know what Megadeth and Rothfuss based their stuff on.
Currently reading: James Acaster’s Classic Scrapes. A funny collection of stories from his childhood, an enjoyable read. I’d recommend it if you’re looking for something light and funny.
Before this, I gave up on the book All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai, after about a hundred pages. I just couldn’t get into it, the story kept halting in favor of flashbacks and setting the MC’s backstory. I hate stories not starting soon enough with the actual story. Unnecessary to say, but I would not recommend this :)
Everything All at Once by Bill Nye. It’s a great guide on how to make a positive change in the world from a scientific perspective.
Though it was written in 2017, I’d say it is more relevant now than ever.
If you like fantasy and haven’t read any Brandon Sanderson then do yourself a favour and get on it!
My personally favourites are the Mistborn books but it isn’t exactly an easy choice because literally everything he writes is great in my experience.
I just finished Tress of the Emerald Sea which is a shorter standalone book but still great!
I’m also all in on the Cosmere books, I’m halfway through the Stormlight Archive and it’s amazing!
I’ve got “Alcatraz vs the Evil Librarians” to read next but I’m not sure if that is a cosmere based novel or not. Either way I’m sure it’ll be good though!
Almost done stormlight archives. Have you done that? I have the first mistborn book but haven’t started it yet. Looking forward to it though.
I have indeed, although not the newest book that was released more recently. I want to go back and read everything again but that is quite a time commitment before doing the new book and I’m not ready for that just yet :D
It is very much on par with Mistborn in terms of the story and writing, I just prefer Mistborn that little bit more because I love the concept of the magic system in that but honestly there isn’t a lot in it.
I’m busy working my way through Steven Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen series.
It’s a very dense set of books with a ton of lore, but I’m enjoying it a lot (I’m at the sixth one so far).The only downside is that I read them on an e-reader and can’t quickly look at all the detailed maps and glossaries whenever I want.
