Beast Posted July 8, 2020 Posted July 8, 2020 (edited) I am a huge reader. I absolutely love my Kindle Paperwhite and I read more or less every night without fail. I've just currently finished reading 13 Reasons Why and I'm really conflicted with whether I liked it or not, mainly because of how I felt about Hannah Baker. Currently, I'm reading 7 Days in Hell by Iseult Murphy and The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley. Any readers in the house? What are you reading? Oh and if you have Goodreads, add me! Edited July 8, 2020 by Beast 1
Ashley Posted July 8, 2020 Posted July 8, 2020 I'm mostly a commuter reader so not much of that happening. Currently half way through Yanis Varoufakis' Conversations with my Daughter which my friend got me got my birthday (as apparently he used to be his lecturer). Very slowly been reading They Fuck You Up (which was on my shelf for years and then took it on my short-lived trip and made it about half way through). Started The Cat and the City by Nick Bradley recently. I do sometimes finish books...
martinist Posted July 8, 2020 Posted July 8, 2020 (edited) I'm more into Audiobooks Currently listening to "Bruce Lee: A Life" by Matthew Polly There was another one I was listening to a few years ago called "The Fandom" by Anna Day. It's a book about some people going to a fan convention for a fantasy movie/book franchise called "The Gallows Dance" and getting trapped in the world of the movie/book franchise somehow before killing off the main character almost immedatly and screwing up the narrative. Actually quite a good book. I've got a credit laying in my audible account and i've been meaning to get Childhoods End later. Edited July 8, 2020 by martinist aditional information
Londragon Posted July 8, 2020 Posted July 8, 2020 Been reading a lot of fantasy fiction for the last few years. Finishing off The Second Chronicles of Thomas Covenant (which I read many years ago), so I can go onto the third and final Chronicles.
Dufniall Posted July 9, 2020 Posted July 9, 2020 I try to read every evening in bed before going to sleep. I have a Kobo eReader but we also have a library subscription so I still read the occasional paper book. Currently reading Kafka on the Shore from Haruki Murakami. I read The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, 1Q84 and Norwegian Wood as well, and I think he's become my favourite writer. I used to read a lot of fantasy (Robin Hobb, Tolkien, Christopher Paolini and of course George RR Martin) but lately I've shifted a bit more towards science fiction. Stuff like The Forever War, Dune, Leviathan Wakes and Ready Player One was also quite enjoyable for all the retro references. So if you have any recommendations in this genre let me know! I also like to read biographies from musicians. Johnny Cash, Lemmy from Motörhead, Bruce Dickinson from Iron Maiden and the two-parter from Moby were all quite good reads. Ah, life as a rockstar. Oh, and finally, my Goodreads profile: click! 1
Happenstance Posted July 9, 2020 Posted July 9, 2020 I love reading but I definitely have to be in the right mood for it. I can fly through books or take months to finish just one. At the moment I’m alternating between the Star Trek extended universe stuff and reading wrestling books. I still pick up all the kindle deals though so my library is packed at the moment with books to read next. The one thing I do love though is how easy it is these days to just carry on reading something wherever you are. If I’ve been reading on my kindle at home then I can just pick up where I left off on the kindle app on my phone during lunch at work for example.
LazyBoy Posted July 9, 2020 Posted July 9, 2020 (edited) Carlos Ruiz Zafron recently passed away, so it's a good time to recommend his most famous work Shadow of the Wind, a heartfelt mystery set in 1945 Barcelona. I read and recommend a lot of books, and none have been so universally loved as this book. No one who has read it has regretted it, so take the time if you're looking for something good. On holiday at the moment, so got 3 books to work through: Mindf*ck (about Cambridge Analytica), Orwell's Homage to Catalonia, and one from Mario Vargas Llosa - I'm a huge fan of South American Magical Realism (anyone else?) Edited July 9, 2020 by LazyBoy 1
Will Posted July 9, 2020 Posted July 9, 2020 I do enjoy reading but find it’s not something I set aside time to do, and so end up with no regular pattern for how much I do so. I also listen to a lot of audiobooks when I run, mostly so that my pace doesn’t get to fast and I stop early. Recently I re-read the full set of Narnia books for the first time since I was a kid and enjoyed them. Before that, I read a good few wrestling biographies which were very interesting. I’m currently listening to Contact while running. I love the story, but some of the detail the book goes into over the film is mind-numbing. It doesn’t help that the narrator they got for it is somehow more annoying than the main character in the movie ever was. Still, it’s enjoyable and an excellent way to spend the first half of my evening run.
Happenstance Posted July 9, 2020 Posted July 9, 2020 I try audiobooks every now and again, the latest being The Witcher series but I always find that I end up dozing off if I'm not doing something else at the same time, but if I'm doing something else at the same time then I don't pay enough attention to the book.
soag Posted July 12, 2020 Posted July 12, 2020 I'm not a fan of audio books and definitely prefer a physical book over a e book if possible. Currently reading Different Seasons by Stephen King
Will Posted July 12, 2020 Posted July 12, 2020 58 minutes ago, soag said: I'm not a fan of audio books and definitely prefer a physical book over a e book if possible. I’d mostly agree with you on this as long as I don’t consider convenience. Audio books allow me to ‘read’ while I run or drive. E-books let me take my whole library with me wherever I go and have access to whatever I want to read whenever I want it. To me that adds so much to the equation it’s hard for me to consider a real book nowadays.
soag Posted July 12, 2020 Posted July 12, 2020 1 hour ago, will' said: I’d mostly agree with you on this as long as I don’t consider convenience. Audio books allow me to ‘read’ while I run or drive. E-books let me take my whole library with me wherever I go and have access to whatever I want to read whenever I want it. To me that adds so much to the equation it’s hard for me to consider a real book nowadays. Ebooks are great but I just like the feel of a real book. But sometimes I just can't find a book in physio form or it's much cheaper in ebook format then I go for the ebook.
Happenstance Posted July 12, 2020 Posted July 12, 2020 (edited) I always found physical books annoying, having to hold them open or prop them against something as I try to read. I love just holding my kindle or as I am doing at the moment, just reading on the kindle app using my ipad with it's stand so the only movement I have to make is tapping the screen to turn the page. The only thing I miss is keeping books on a bookshelf. The same with all my physical media, I did like seeing it on display. Edited July 12, 2020 by Happenstance
Cube Posted July 12, 2020 Posted July 12, 2020 I mainly read "young adult" books like Green Rider, Throne of Glass and Shadowhunters (although I'm reading the sequel series at the moment and it's really bad - the prequel series was great though, so I'll try the sequel to the prequel that starts soon). When I can, I prefer physical books. But mainly "mass market" paperback books. I can't stand hardback or the massive paperbacks that the first print run sometimes is.
Mandalore Posted July 12, 2020 Posted July 12, 2020 I hadn't read much for years, got back into it over lockdown. Finished off a few books I'd been half way through for ages, Sword of Destiny, The Secret Lives of Colour and How to Be a Footballer. Read all of Lady of the Lake and I've almost finished my first read on a Kindle, Season of Storms. I was a bit sceptical about the Kindle at first, but turns out it's really nice. I like how if there's a word I'm unfamiliar with, I can just hold down on it and it'll pop up with a dictionary definition.
Cube Posted July 31, 2020 Posted July 31, 2020 I finished The Dark Artifaces Shadowhunters trilogy. Towards the end of the final book was fine, but it was a slog. The series presumes that you've very recently read the main six books (and remember details about the three prequel books). The main characters and family are poorly introduced and you're still figuring out how old characters are even most of the way into the second. The main romance in it is bad, the author has a strange addiction to "forbidden romance". There is one that is interesting (between two male characters) but one of them just leaves with very little reason. The very ending was just odd and made no sense. One really bad moment is in the third book when it describes a character (that we only see once) as "Luke's sister". No character called Luke had appeared in this trilogy so far. Looking into it, he was a non-major character in some of the other books.
Beast Posted August 5, 2020 Author Posted August 5, 2020 On 31/07/2020 at 11:33 PM, Cube said: I finished The Dark Artifaces Shadowhunters trilogy. Towards the end of the final book was fine, but it was a slog. The series presumes that you've very recently read the main six books (and remember details about the three prequel books). The main characters and family are poorly introduced and you're still figuring out how old characters are even most of the way into the second. The main romance in it is bad, the author has a strange addiction to "forbidden romance". There is one that is interesting (between two male characters) but one of them just leaves with very little reason. The very ending was just odd and made no sense. One really bad moment is in the third book when it describes a character (that we only see once) as "Luke's sister". No character called Luke had appeared in this trilogy so far. Looking into it, he was a non-major character in some of the other books. I was thinking of reading that but I think I might stay away. Speaking of the author having a strange addiction to "forbidden romance"... I bought this for my Kindle yesterday and read 8% of it so far. It's pretty good. The Twilight Saga was always a funny one for me because I enjoyed the stories and most of the characters but I wasn't a massive fan of the way she wrote. If I remember correctly, I found it off-putting because the conversations became somewhat repetitive. However, so far, this has actually been good and it's been interesting. This is basically Edward's version of events in Twilight. So far, it really is like reading a whole new story and with a fresh perspective on something that's already been told, it's interesting. In fact, it's more menacing than anything. Bella's version was more "Oh my God, that boy keeps staring. I'm infatuated" and Edward's so far is "Look at all these humans walking about, they're pathetic. I could have their blood anytime". So far, so good but I think she'd be better doing New Moon considering Edward was gone for most of the time in that. Maybe she'll do a whole Edward series?
Mr_Odwin Posted August 7, 2020 Posted August 7, 2020 On 05/08/2020 at 8:07 AM, Beast said: I was thinking of reading that but I think I might stay away. Speaking of the author having a strange addiction to "forbidden romance"... I bought this for my Kindle yesterday and read 8% of it so far. It's pretty good. The Twilight Saga was always a funny one for me because I enjoyed the stories and most of the characters but I wasn't a massive fan of the way she wrote. If I remember correctly, I found it off-putting because the conversations became somewhat repetitive. However, so far, this has actually been good and it's been interesting. This is basically Edward's version of events in Twilight. So far, it really is like reading a whole new story and with a fresh perspective on something that's already been told, it's interesting. In fact, it's more menacing than anything. Bella's version was more "Oh my God, that boy keeps staring. I'm infatuated" and Edward's so far is "Look at all these humans walking about, they're pathetic. I could have their blood anytime". So far, so good but I think she'd be better doing New Moon considering Edward was gone for most of the time in that. Maybe she'll do a whole Edward series? I read all the twilight books and then I read the early leaked version of this but I don't think I'll subject my self to the full 750 pages. To me the books were very moreish, but the whole time I was reading them it was obvious they were trash as well.
Magnus Posted August 7, 2020 Posted August 7, 2020 I just got an ad for Midnight Sun from Audible. I can't believe the audiobook is twenty-five hours long!?
Beast Posted August 7, 2020 Author Posted August 7, 2020 3 hours ago, Mr_Odwin said: I read all the twilight books and then I read the early leaked version of this but I don't think I'll subject my self to the full 750 pages. To me the books were very moreish, but the whole time I was reading them it was obvious they were trash as well. Honestly, so far, it's the best one out of the series. I'm with you on the whole "moreish but trash" thing. It's like Fifty Shades. It's completely crap and I knew it was but I wanted to know what happened. It's crazy how a story can have that effect. Twilight isn't complete trash and it's not as bad as people make out but it isn't the "greatest paranormal romance" either.
drahkon Posted September 1, 2020 Posted September 1, 2020 Haven't read a book in ages...just finished Dark Matter by Blake Crouch. Love the theme, love how it's written, hate the glaring plot holes and hate the ending. Gonna go with 1984 by George Orwell (or Eric Arthur Blair) next. Wanted to give that one a read for years. Maybe it'll push me into fulfilling my desire to read the great classics. 1
bob Posted September 2, 2020 Posted September 2, 2020 15 hours ago, drahkon said: Haven't read a book in ages...just finished Dark Matter by Blake Crouch. Love the theme, love how it's written, hate the glaring plot holes and hate the ending. Gonna go with 1984 by George Orwell (or Eric Arthur Blair) next. Wanted to give that one a read for years. Maybe it'll push me into fulfilling my desire to read the great classics. I read Dark Matter a couple of years ago and thought it was reasonably good. I guessed some of the plot from the beginning, but it still managed to surprise towards the end. Currently reading the Riyria Revelations. It's a trilogy of books, followed by a prequel trilogy. I Googled the reading order, and read that you could read them in publication order, or chronologically, and it would still make sense. So I started with the first of the prequel books, which was very good. It was then that i found that he is still writing the rest of the prequel books, and so I couldn't just read all of them in one go. So i've had to skip forward to the first of the main trilogy, and i'll have to go back and read the rest of the prequels once they're done. Bit annoyed as the order is all messed up.
Magnus Posted September 2, 2020 Posted September 2, 2020 I believe you should always read books in publication order. Serves you right for trying to be clever, Bob!
bob Posted September 3, 2020 Posted September 3, 2020 14 hours ago, Magnus said: I believe you should always read books in publication order. Serves you right for trying to be clever, Bob! Agreed. It won't happen again. However, in my defence, it was the author himself who said you could read them in either order, so i thought it would be ok! He just didn't mention that he hadn't finished writing all of them.
Rummy Posted September 7, 2020 Posted September 7, 2020 His Dark Materials. That is all. (srsly tho probs my fave trilogy/book series of all time i only grow to love it more as I age :p) 1
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