What are you reading this week? [7/30/23]

What book is currently on your nightstand?
Seveneves

Who is the author?
Neal Stephenson

What genre?
Scifi

How do you like it?
I am on on part one. So far, so good.

Would you recommend it to others?
As of right now I would, but it is early yet. I like the writing style and pacing.

Seveneves is really fantastic. It was my first Stephenson read (listen) and I just dove in to his body of work.

Currently I have Equal Rites, by Terry Pratchett on my night stand. Satire fantasy (I think). Quickly read the first two paragraphs but other than that haven't started it yet. I enjoyed Color of Magic and Light Fantastic so looking forward to a new character lead to see how this plays out.

I listening to The Stars, Like Dust by Issac Asimov. It seems interesting about a son who's dad was charged with treason against the galactic Empire. I'm not fully invested as I was with The Currents of Space. But I'll see how the story pans out.

Isn't 'The Currents of Space' the second book of that series (following 'The Stars, Like Dust') ?

I've started the first one several times but never finished it for some reason... I live Asimov, but like Clarke, the books are so small they don't really allow for a lot of plot building. I'm the same way about visual media too. I can't watch movies anymore, they don't allow for long, detailed, plot progression of a TV series.
- Yeah I found that out afterwards. Each book of that series isn't connected as far as I can tell. Each follows a different main character.
  
  I don't enjoy movies they just kinda feel like a waste of time for me. I just have a hard time motivating myself to watch a 2+ hour thing feels like all movies are that length now.

I just finished Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky, and the first word to come to mind is a resounding "Eewwwwwwww". Just spiders, all the spiders. sigh It really was a very good book, and the story telling from the spider's perspective was wonderful, but 'ugh' it's hard to stomach some of the visuals they illicit. Definitely a solid recommendation though, and I can't wait to see where the next book takes the story. ~~(Maybe think twice if you have a thing with spiders and an active imagination?)~~

I also finished Morning Star by Pierce Brown earlier this week. I'm addicted to this story and can't recommend it enough... Although Morning Star ends on a pretty high note and I'm reluctant to move on to the next book because it started at a really low point and can only be downhill from here. I kind of want to hold on to the high point for a while before moving on to "Iron Gold".

Next up is Abaddon's Gate by James Corey, the first two were pretty good. I've seen all of the TV show, so I'm curious how the books differ from The Expanse.

LOVE the Children of Time series. All of them are fantastic!
Children of Time is on my reading list. I have heard great things about it. I may read it next.
- One of the few books that made me cry! I really loved it despite the spiders.

Lost Christianities by Bart Ehrman - History

It's really interesting, a book about the gospels and other books that didn't make the grade into the New Testament as we know it today and why not, even though they were popular at the time (roughly 100-300AD). Christianity sounds like it was chaotic in the early days with people believing all sorts of different things. Certainly could have been a lot more inclusive of different beliefs..,

I'd absolutely recommend but only if you're a history geek like me interested in this subject matter otherwise it'd be quite dry

I'm currently reading Atomic Habits by James Clear. Genre is non fiction... productivity? self help?

Anyways, I kind of like his ideas so far although some of them do sound like there's a huge survivorship bias going on. There's a bunch of "if this totally real person I met at some point in my life can do in, so can you!" which I'm not too on board with, but the general idea of starting a new habit on your terms is so far pretty enjoyable.

Currently reading Rhythm of War by Brandon Sanderson. It's fantasy and the whole series has been incredible so far. I highly recommend it if you're even a little bit into fantasy. This is the last book that's out and I just slowed myself down because the next one doesn't come out until next year.

I can’t wait for the next Stormlight book!

Audible just had a 2 for 1 sale and I found 4 that look intriguing to me and pulled the trigger on:

Projections by Karl Deisseroth
Being You by Anil Seth
The Anatomy of Anxiety by Ellen Vora
The Dragons of Eden by Carl Sagan

I haven't started any yet. I'll probably start with Sagan because he's a great blend of rational scientist and story teller. The other three look like moderately researched books on different aspects of the brain and I read as much as I can find on the brain and intelligence. I have a fairly lengthy list of ones I've read and consider interesting here.

Oh man, I've listened to Carl Sagan's Cosmos so many times in my life that I'm afraid it would be a Pavlovian response to him narrating an audio book... 😴😴
- Demon Haunted World is really good, too. I don't think he narrates any of it himself, though.

Currently on my nightstand would be Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick, but I haven't started yet and can't say much more. Just finished Forge of the High Mage by Ian C Esselmont last night though, which is a continuation of a prequel series to Malazan book of the fallen. It's a high fantasy series with great world building, and can make readers feel a full range of emotion over the first of the series. I highly recommend the series. My first try I couldn't get through the first book because the authors don't spoon feed you what you think you need to know and I was just to confused for being 400 pages in. But I'm really glad I went back to it, definitely my favorite series and I've gone through twice now

I've got 3 going at the moment:

[Physical]
The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy Ultimate Collection - Douglas Adams
Technically this is 6 books back to back - it's the whole series. These are some of my favorite books of all time, and I make sure to re-read them every few years to keep them fresh in my mind. I would recommend this series to everyone.

The Andromeda Strain - Michael Crichton
Another one I've read previously and love. I read this many years ago and I've been craving some Crichton again recently so I decided to start back here. I recommend this to anyone who likes a good, science-based thriller.

[Audio]
Nuking The Moon - Vince Houghton
This is an interesting book so far, but it's not a favorite. I'm not super fond of the author's writing style. It's got a bit longer to impress me before I put it down and move onto something else, though. I can't recommend it yet - we'll see.

I keep forgetting about Michael Crichton. I read the reviews on that book and they seem really hit or miss. I've never read any of his books, but I'm a fan of sci-fi and mystery so you caught my attention there. Knowing that it would be my first Crichton book, would you recommend this one, or would another be a better starting point to get me hooked on his style?
- I probably wouldn't recommend The Andromeda Strain as your first Crichton. Although it's among his earlier books, it can be pretty dry at times, so you really have to be a fan of the science part of the sci-fi.
  
  Something like Micro, Prey, or Next would probably be better places to start - those are among his later works (in fact he passed while writing Micro), and they have pretty good plots which move along at a fun pace. Sphere gets an honorable mention here too.
  
  If you like any of those and you're willing to try something a bit more on the sciencey side, check out Jurassic Park.

Death by Neil Gaiman. Genre is comic book/fantasy. Really enjoying the stories, recommend it to anyone but especially to anyone who's read The Sandman.

Is this a continuation of the same story universe? Death as in 'one of the endless' - Dream's sister?

Currently reading Sandman:Book of Dreams. It's fantasy. This one of my husband's books that we've had forever and I've never read. It's an anthology of short stories by various authors and it's surprisingly good. Would definitely recommend even if you aren't familiar with the source material.

Is this by Neil Gaiman as well? I've read a bunch of his Sandman comics, which are wonderful, but I think I would appreciate Morpheus even more in a novel!
- It's not by him. It's a collection of short stories from other authors for the Sandman source material. Gaiman does write a blurb before each entry about how he knows the author and how the story fits into the world.

Currently reading Witch King by Martha Wells. It’s fantasy, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it (nearly finished). I’d definitely recommend it. Great world building and super interesting characters.

Currently listening to The Passage by Justin Cronin. It’s fantasy that feels more like post-apocalyptic scifi. Either way it’s great. Gripping. I don’t want to stop listening! I’d absolutely recommend it.

Wayward by chuck wendig. Sequel to wanderers.

My nightstand is full of Hi-Fi equipment I don't use. Let's not think about that too much right now, though...

I'm going to be continuing Neuromancer by William Gibson and/or The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle. Neuromancer is arguably the first Cyberpunk novel, and The Lost World is, ah... adventure, I suppose?

I'm enjoying both so far, though I've not gotten very far in Neuromancer. I'd recommend Neuromancer if you wanna see how Cyberpunk got its start and how much (or how little) has changed since then. I'd recommend The Lost World if you can get past how dated and alarmingly racist it can be. That's something that can be quite frustrating about works from that period. It'll be a rollicking good time, and then you get slammed in the face by a racial slur.

I'm reading the frugal wizards handbook for surviving medieval England.

It's a part of Brandon Sanderson's kickstarter project.

I guess it's a scifi/fantasy.

I'm only a few chapters in so far, but I would reccomend it. Brandon always writes good books and this was born out of writing a private novel to his wife during covid.

He wrote four books actually during that time and the first was Tress of the emerald sea. I finished that one earlier this week and it was amazing. Highly recommend. It's a classic fantasy trope with a good twist. If you can get a copy, you should.

right now, i am reading deep work by cal newport

I just finished "The Singularity Trap" by Dennis E Taylor. Super fun SciFi book! Ich you don't know his Bobiverse books you're missing out.

Fun fact: I first found him by reading Outland, which I was surprised to find out takes place almost exclusively in my home town. I wish he'd come back and write more in that series, it was a pretty fun concept.

Edit: Posting this got me curious and it turns out he published a sequel called Earthside earlier this year!
I'm kind of sad, I looked for the bobiverse books but they don't appear to be in the midcontinent public library system. 😢
I found the bobiverse books on kindle unlimited! It's next on my list. :)