Books

Currently making my way through The Guns of August. It's pretty dense compared to what I usually read but something about the writing style makes each chapter fly by faster than expected!

Currently reading Baseball: an illustrated history. Quite a thick book so I'll probably be reading it for a while. It's a nice change of pace since the book I was reading last month was pop fiction

Number Ones by Tom Breihan

A history of the songs that made it to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 list. I'm really enjoying it!

I'm finishing up A Crown of Swords this evening.

I just finished The Deluge by Stephen Markley (all 900pp!)

It's basically a US-centric "narrative" of the 2030's, told from the PoV of about a dozen different characters, with the thread of climate change prominent throughout.

Really it's hard to describe it as good or bad, an enjoyable read etc. It is certainly well written, and characterisation is exceptionally good and detailed, but for me it was by turns scary, amusing, depressing, profoundly sad and wrenching in its humanity. I have no reason to doubt its accuracy based on the science.

It took me almost a month to read because I had to take breaks to get my "cognitive dissonance" recharged.

I would definitely recommend it.

It would make a good streaming series on Amazon Prime or Apple TV.

After a decade of literary fiction I'm going back to check on some more mainstream stuff. I'm reading The Dark Tower saga by Stephen King. Just starting the first book.

I just started Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam.

I'm just about to start Berg by Ann Quin, which seems to be about a man who stalks his dad and mistress through a seaside town. It looks really good from the first few pages.

Stand on Zanzibar - John Brunner

I’m reading To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf, but only because my girlfriend told me to read from more modernist authors. I’m liking her prose despite the dry beginning, but I’ll see how it comes along over time.

I'm finally reading Declare by Tim Powers. All I can say is holy shit I never knew how much I needed this book in my life.

Chuck Palahniuk - Consider This

The Journey to the West, translated by Anthony C. Yu. Given that it is 100 chapters long and I'm still at chapter 6 it's gonna take a long time for me to finish, so I'm thinking about reading another book alongside it.

Exhalation by Ted Chiang. About 3/4 through so far and really enjoying it. The scifi concepts are great and I like that it doesn't always have a black mirror, technology is going to kill us ending.

Just finished Iron Gold by Pierce Brown. It feels kind of like a "bridge book" where it wasn't all that great compared to the others in the series so far.

Now I'm off to Shards of the Earth by Adrian Tchaikovsky. I've started to read a lot of his stuff and I'm enjoying them all.

Bit of a strange pairing, but currently reading:

Schoolgirl by Osamu Dazai

Faster: How a Jewish Driver, an American Heiress, and a Legendary Car Beat Hitler's Best by Neal Bascomb

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Finished reading Blindsight by Peter Watts. I haven’t read this good Science Fiction book in a long time. On to Echopraxis, as it’s a double edition

Currently reading The Winter Fortress by Neal Bascomb. It’s a good read so far!

SS by Barış Pehlivan and Barış Terkoğlu. It's basically a book about Süleyman Soylu's crimes. It's indeed a heavy read, but I think the book does a good job with shedding light on who Soylu really is, so far (I'm at Chapter 5).

The Book That Wouldn't Burn by Mark Lawrence. Such a cool fantasy concept, I'm about 1/4th of the way in.

I also finished Forth Wing this week. It was okay for what it was.

Read This Book on a Silent Hill: Meditations that they won't tell you about

Victor Of Tuscon

The Knights of Erador (The Echoes Saga: Book 7) by Philip C. Quaintrell (Kindle Edition)