1. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- Douglas Adams (8/10) A classic I had never read before...friend gave me the paperback for Christmas. Enjoyable and now I understand references I've heard many times over the years like 42, towels, mice etc.
1. Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling 8/10 I actually didn't enjoy this one as much as I expected, it was still very good and I wonder with it if I would enjoy it more on a second read through the series.
That's probably the book with the most varying opinions. A lot of people have it as one of their least favorites and a lot have it as one of their favorites
2018 1. The Lost Gate *8.0 2. The Gate Thief *5.0 Love Orson Scott Card, and book 1 had a really unique magic system/universe and excellent world building. Book 2’s dialogue and character development were trash and plot was pretty dull. Probably won’t even read book 3. Book 1 definitely worth the read if you like short, interesting fantasy books.
The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock Holmes #9) - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (6/10) - The last collection of Sherlock Holmes short stories. Thought Case Book and His Last Bow were weaker than the rest of the Sherlock Holme's work. This concluded my reading of the whole Sherlock Holmes collection.
1. Words of Radiance (The Stormlight Archive #2) - Brandon Sanderson **Re-read** 2. Edgedancer (The Stormlight Archive #2.5) - Brandon Sanderson **Re-read** 3. Persepolis Rising (The Expanse #7) - James S.A. Corey (8.5/10)
I'm also in the Stormlight game. Almost halfway through with Oathbringer. Will read the Misborn Trilogy afterwards.
Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer - 7/10 Slogged a little in the middle but incredible descriptions of an insane story. Golden Son - Pierce Brown - 9 /10 Just as good as Red Rising, reading Morning Star now. Beneath A Scarlet Sky (Audible) - Mark Sullivan - 8/10 If even part of the story is true, its incredible, and the book is really well written. Handmaid's Tale (Audible) - Margaret Atwood - 6/10 - I really dig the concept and the best parts of the book were when they talked about how shit went down and the bad guys got control of the government. The rest was ok,I don't love stream of consciousness which was how this felt a lot of the time. It would have probably been better in print, as it was hard to know if it was the narrator or the girl's own thoughts at times. Not bad, not great.
1.) Gretel 8/10 Was alright and an easy read. Somewhat of a horror novel. Had a feeling of a young woman coming to age story, but the 2nd half of the book was pretty good. First half was a little slow. Had some twists I didn’t see coming. 2.) Deadly Illusions 8.5/10 Quick read. Finished it this afternoon while the power was out. Took me about 3 hrs. Murder mystery involving a killing much like a magic trick gone wrong. Young woman gets sawed in half. Takes place in London.
The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock Holmes #9) - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (6/10) Persepolis Rising (The Expanse #7) - James S.A. Corey (8.5/10)
1. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- Douglas Adams (8/10) 2. Everything Bad Is Good For You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter -- Steven Johnson (6/10) People commonly describe popular entertainment as getting dumber, being for idiots etc. Author makes the case that it's growing more sophisticated over time and people are along with it. (Duh). The book came out in 2005 and may have lost some of its impact in the last 13 years as we've seen stuff like Netflix make it unquestionably clear that entertainment is getting smarter. Not an earth-shattering book overall but I love stuff about media, Marshall McLuhan etc. so I wanted to read it. 3. Strangers to Ourselves: Discovering the Adaptive Unconscious -- Timothy Wilson (9/10) Pretty well written, though not the best I've come across in psychology. Rating it so high because it literally blew my mind. What if I told you that you are not only unaware of the vast majority of your own thoughts/actions/emotions etc, and not only unaware but literally never could become aware? There's the conscious and the subconscious -- but most is made of the unconscious. Fascinating and disturbing
The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock Holmes #9) - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (6/10) Persepolis Rising (The Expanse #7) - James S.A. Corey (8.5/10) Strange Dogs (The Expanse #6.5) - James S.A. Corey (7/10)
Hoping I can jump in here with you guys. I read a pretty wide variety of books as you can see below. Starting Empire of Cotton by Sven Beckert and Love in the Ruins by Walker Percy now. 1. The Three Body Problem - Cixin Liu 2. Fire and Fury - Michael Wolff 3. To The Back of Beyond - Peter Stamm
Glad to have another guy who dabbles in nonfiction here; most of these guys won't read anything that's not a storybook with a series # in it
No but looking at his bibliography, that "The Moral Animal" would be right up my alley. I've read several E.O. Wilson books on evolutionary psyc as well as a few others. I think I heard some hype about that "Why Buddhism is True" last year and it sounds intriguing as well. Not that I need to know why Buddhism is "true", but because I'm interested in how Eastern religious/philosophical traditions connect with Western science
1. Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling 8/10 2. Ring of Fire by Brad Taylor (Pike Logan Series #11) 7/10 I didn't think this was as entertaining as some of the other books in the series but was still an enjoyable and quick read while working through some other books. 3. Rebel Yell: The Violence, Passion, and Redemption of Stonewall Jackson by S.C. Gwynne 10/10 This was very good and was very detailed and well researched. I haven't read any other biographies of Stonewall but want to read some of the sources that Gwynne used in the book. There was a lot of information in it that I didn't know about Stonewall before reading even though I've read a number of books on some of the battles that were covered in the book.
1. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- Douglas Adams (8/10) 2. Everything Bad Is Good For You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter -- Steven Johnson (6/10) 3. Strangers to Ourselves: Discovering the Adaptive Unconscious -- Timothy Wilson (9/10) 4. Brave New World -- Aldous Huxley (8/10) *reread* I read this book in high school and thought it kicked major ass. Didn't enjoy it quite so much this time. I used to think 1984 and BNW stood shoulder to shoulder but now think 1984 is a good bit better, at least in how it relates to the actual modern world. If anybody wants to discuss BNW I'm down because I have some questions... Spoiler Why would they leave "savages" alive to potentially corrupt people? Why not just kill them? Why send dissidents to an island instead of killing them too?
Just finished Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian. Holy gore, but I really loved it. That guys attention to the smallest details is pretty incredible.
1) The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive # 1) by Brandon Sanderson 9/10 2) Words of Radiance (The Stormlight Archive # 2) by Brandon Sanderson 10/10
Spoiler Wasn't murder being nonexistent a big part of their society? Also seemed like they were isolated enough that the savages and exiled had no chance to corrupt, it'd be like worrying about some tribe in the Amazon affecting our lives. Funnily enough though, literally just started 1984 today for the first time
I’m also reading 1984 for the first time right now. Started it last weekend and will hopefully be finishing it this weekend
1) The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive # 1) by Brandon Sanderson 9/10 2) Words of Radiance (The Stormlight Archive # 2) by Brandon Sanderson 10/10 3) Edgedancer (The Stormlight Archive # 2.5) by Brandon Sanderson 10/10
All of Sanderson’s cosmere books are interrelated. Warbreaker has already had some caregiver and some pretty obvious carryover into Oathbringer
They're related but not to a level where you can't read Oathbringer without reading Warbreaker. At the same time, having read Warbreaker and other Sanderson books helps give deeper insight into the Cosmere related sections of SLA and any characters who appear in both
1. We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy - Ta-Nehisi Coates 2. A Dance with Dragons - George R.R. Martin 3. Basketball (And Other Things) - Shea Serrano 4. The Tragical History of Hamlet Prince of Denmark - William Shakespeare
Any 1984 noobs want to weigh in with an update? Started a book that's gonna take me a month at a minimum to finish
I'm listening to it and its great, the performance by the reader is really good too. Maybe 3 or 4 hours in, really creepy and affecting as it should be.
1. Last Argument of Kings - Joe Abercrombie 2. Best Served Cold - Joe Abercrombie 3. Red Country - Joe Abercrombie 4. The Way of Kings (reread) - Brandon Sanderson 5. Words of Radiance (reread) - Brandon Sanderson 6. Edgedancer - Brandon Sanderson 7. Oathbringer - Brandon Sanderson 8. Scorched Shadows (Hellequin #7) - Steve McHugh 9. Snapshot - Brandon Sanderson
1. We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families (Phillip Gourevitch) - 9/10 - Very well written book detailing the events that led to the Rwandan Genocide, the Genocide itself, and the aftermath. I was 8 when this occurred and knew little about it aside from vaguely recalling a few news stories. Includes some great interviews with principal characters like Paul Kagame and other survivors. Would absolutely recommend 2. A Thousand Splendid Suns (Khaled Hosseini) - 8.5/10 - A beautiful story with captivating prose. My main beef would be the author's insistence of splicing in Farsi words directly followed by the English translation. I enjoyed learning those but felt that it messed with my flow as a reader. 3. The Warmth Of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration (Isabel Wilkerson) - 8/10 - Book on black migration to the industrial North. An impressive work of scholarship by Wilkerson but I really think this book needed a better editor. Many themes were unnecessarily repeated and at times I felt like I was being reminded of things that I just read. Still, a worthy read on a topic that hasn't gotten its due attention, IMO.
This is a book I'd like to read...I think it was talked about in the book "Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City" that I read. Or maybe it was "The Third Coast." But yeah, being from SC I didn't know much about the history of places like St. Louis and Chicago and how much they were shaped by the "great migration." I am currently reading the book "The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism"; have you heard of that?
I think the most surprising things to me were 1) how you can trace the populations of each Northern city directly to a limited number of certain states. For instance, if you were a black migrant in DC, you were pretty much guaranteed to be from Virginia, the Carolinas, or Georgia. It makes sense given the limited railway options but I guess I'd never considered it. Most of these migrants kept close contact with fellow migrants from their community; there was likely an Abbeville County (or insert other county), SC club in Philly or DC or wherever that met often and 2) how the migration was misconstrued by social scientists of the time. Most assumed that the Migration would end after the labor shortage tied to WW1 ended. In actuality, it only increased in scope through the 50s. If you do read it, you should know that while the book covers the entire Migration as a whole, it spends quite a bit of time with 3 particular migrants and their life story; one in Chicago, one in LA, and one in NY, each migrating in a different decade. It sort of skips around between their stories and the overarching Migration in which they participated. I have not heard of your current read but am interested in your thoughts.
This shit tripped me out reading "American Nations"...my first dumb assumption was who moved to an area hundreds of years ago has little to no effect on how that area is now. So wrong. Crazy how you can see the story of the past written into today and just barely concealed under a layer that you can look beneath. The book I'm reading now also suffers from being dense but that happens a lot with these history books...some people just straight up write for the general audience but a lot of these books produced by scholars are for other scholars so it's gonna be chock full of citations and charts and shit.
Love Hosseini. I get the critique but like you said, the man can write. I recommend his other two books if you liked ATSS enough.