What BOOK(s) are you reading?

1493 for a second time, this time in audio. This book is super thick on the details. Columbian Exchange, its effect on the development of slavery. Pretty doggone interesting American history.

I've been reading a lot less in quarantine and miss it. I used to read mainly on my train commute and actually liked the commute specifically because I could sit and read. I got through Monte Cristo, Lord of the Rings, and some other epics by just chipping away at them on the train. There's one epic that I've really wanted to read more and more over the years and now I've finally ordered a paperback of War & Peace (Briggs translation). Don't know how I'm gonna stick with it regularly working from home but definitely giving it a shot.

I don’t remember War and Peace being too bad outside of its length and the general difficulty of keeping track of the Russian names but don’t feel bad about skipping Tolstoy’s philosophy of history once you get to Napoleon’s chapter.

I’m reading Kim Stanley Robinson’s final work of fiction, Ministry for the Future. It is bleak and terrifying.

I'm reading War and Peace with a family tree, linking all the families, next to me.

This was really helpful. Downloaded from a Wiki, I think

I'm reading Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie. A friend had copies so it was very low impact at getting it to read. I was incredibly disappointed with the first volume (due to the general collective opinion of it) and was confused by the near universal praise I saw for it online. With my expectations now more in-line with what is there, I still find it to be firmly average. It's an easy read so I will probably finish the trilogy but I do not understand the praise that it gets, like at all. I do not have a way to describe it without sounding elitist, but do people just not read anything but generic fantasy? Maybe I just do not consume enough fantasy to find this mind-blowing.

I'm not sure what I am missing. It is perfectly okay, why all the acclaim?

Gary Sax wrote: Still reading Wolfe's new sun books and they are genuinely great and creative. Their women characters are pretty weird and not well sketched so far, but it seems like there's also something up with them so that could be the explanation.

I just picked up the long sun and short sun series at the surplus sale.

When I was young and had more free time, I read a lot of books. Even as an adult, I have continued to read at least a couple of books every month... until I bought a bigass tv in 2019. I haven't been to the library since March due to the pandemic, but I have three bookcases full of books that I could be re-reading. Recently, I made the effort, starting with a book that I haven't read in a very long time: The Doomfarers of Coramonde, by Brian Daley. The book has a striking cover illustration, but is fairly average quality fantasy, with one twist. A couple of the characters are from our world, and have guns. A few of you might recognize the name Brian Daley, as he wrote a trilogy of Han Solo books back in the early '80s.

Now I am re-reading a great fantasy trilogy that is also a Sherlock Holmes pastiche set in ancient China. The first book is Bridge of Birds, by Barry Hughart. A brief quote:

“Master Li, how are we going to murder a man who laughs at axes?" I asked.

"We are going to experiment, dear boy. Our first order of business will be to find a deranged alchemist, which should not be very difficult. China," said Master Li, "is overstocked with deranged alchemists.”

If you like Brian Daley, you should hunt down the GammaLAW books. If you like military SF, it's good stuff.

My horror book club soldiers on. This month was a double header:
1) The Bad Seed
and
2) The Fifth Child

1 - a classic thriller with a great stage play and Oscar nominated film to boot. I've not seen any of the made-for-tv remakes. The book is certainly a product of it's time. There's a lot of middle class house-wife hand wringing in the fifties.

2 - beautifully written. More middle class shenanigans, now with a stiff upper British lip. One horrific scene is still upsetting me. Odd, but a sequel was written ten years after the original. I had zero interest in reading it.

For February? Mapping the Interior by S G Jones.

Meanwhile, I'm plugging away at Charlie Kaufman's 'Antkind.'

Some time ago I decided to give a chance to Chuck Palahniuk's books. I read Fight Club in college and for that time it felt enough for me. It didn't impress me, as I thought at that moment Fight Club is too pretentious. I didn't understand why people around me were so impressed with it. This year while the holidays I gave him one more chance and read Invisible Monster. And wow it felt completely different. Better characters, plot twists that should be unexpected, indeed shocked me. So now I read Diary. Started it yesterday and by now I'm satisfied.

I'm kicking off Grant by Chernow, a 48-hour audiobook, about 1000 pages on paper.

I've been digging into The Battle of Petersburg by noted game writer and designer Sean Chick and it's magnificently dense, but my family is reading Grant at the moment so I'm joining in. Our G-G-Grandfather served under Grant so we have a little bit of skin in the game.

Grant having about as profound a reassessment as is possible for a historic figure to have in the last ten to twenty years, I'd say. In school I'd heard he was the worst president of all time because of the teapot dome scandal and corruption stuff. But little said about his assertive attitudes toward reconstruction and crushing the ku klux klan an whatnot.

I've been listening to "Revolutions" which is a very good podcast, with each 'seasons' on a different revolution. I'm listening to the Haitian revolution which has been incredibly informative and thought provoking.

The Blade itself by Joe Abercrombie. Low magic high political fantasy world. Enjoying the ride so far.

For all you booky people have a look at this novel KSer, note that it is an actual book rather than a game.

www.kickstarter.com/projects/itbboardgam...ure-book/description