April Reading Thread

[tobl]

As I've said in other threads, we all know "that guy" who listens to music all the time. At work, on the bus, mowing the lawn, cleaning out the garage, driving to work, etc... Well, I'm "that guy," but it's audio books, not music. Any time my hands and/or eyes can't be spared for reading and my brain can maintain enough focus for it, I'm listening to an audio book. Of course, any time my hands and brain are not occupied, they're usually busy with a book.

Books are my first, greatest, and truest passion. I literally can not remember a time when I didn't read for pleasure. I'll be grateful to mom as long as I live for feeding that passion and never, ever, trying to censor what I read. And, there are so darned many books out there. I know I'll never read them all. I'll never even read all the sci-fi or fantasy books that are out there. But, it won't be for lack of trying! I've also been fortunate to work in an environment where I've gotten so good at what I do that I no longer need to fully engage my brain to do my job well, creating a huge chunk of time where, while I can't put my feet up are read a book, I can put on the headphones and "read" a book. I'm also an ameture photographer and spend a lot of time post processing images and dabbling in graphic design (I even have a zazzle store), making more time where I can indulge multiple interests. I've got 13 library cards connecting me to 11 different library consortia, all of them with ebooks and audio books available and I pretty well keep those cards maxed. Add in the thousands of titles I've picked up over my lifetime...

I set a goal to read 405 books this year and beat my previous record of 402. So far, it's looking good.

join the club . i'm 46 and until more or less 5 years, not couting comics or work or school books i had read something in the house of 6 to 7 000 books,many of them multiple times. in the last five i'm more into audiobooks so, at least something more like another 3 to 4 000 , many of them again multiple times. I'm also the guy that is always hearing them lolo which is a big problem for me because i'm always trying to find something new and interesting. it's not easy. Many books and series don't last 5 minutes because they can't catch my interest. There are also great surprises like david baldacci memory man. and i think some books, aldo being possible to be made in audiobooks, are better in normal book forma, like the count of monte cristo. Also, in my country with don't have many audiobooks,so i have to find them on line. We have libraries of course but none that lend on line.

 

[Extollager]

Among other things, W. G. Sebald’s The Emigrants.

 

[biodroid]

Does anyone know if the Lincoln Rhyme series by Jeffery Deaver becomes semi romantic? I heard that Amelia Sachs falls in love with Lincoln.

 

[Danny McG]

Does anyone know if the Lincoln Rhyme series by Jeffery Deaver becomes semi romantic? I heard that Amelia Sachs falls in love with Lincoln.

Yeah, I haven't read them all but in a fairly recent one they were living together and doing kissyface stuff

 

[Danny McG]

Trying this book now, a new author to me (I think!)

 

[Paul_C]

^ All three of her Broken Earth trilogy won Hugo awards for best novel, I liked them a lot.

 

[Pyan]

Restarted Seveneves last night at about 8pm, and finished it this morning at 7am, with three hours sleep in the middle. Amazing book.

 

[Elckerlyc]

^ All three of her Broken Earth trilogy won Hugo awards for best novel, I liked them a lot.

Ditto.

 

[Ian Fortytwo]

I'm reading Blue Moon, by Lee Child.

 

[Danny McG]

Trying this book now, a new author to me (I think!)
View attachment 62503

I got maybe three chapters in but the story/writing style just wouldn't gel with me. DNF.

Trying another detective story by Michael Wood instead - "For reasons unknown"

Back to sci fi once this Easter weekend is over (the worst one in my life - no hot cross buns!)

 

[tobl]

so, i just found out that clive cussler died in the end of february. Damn, that's a shame. Aldo many of his books were a bit over the top, i always loved his imagination

 

[Parson]

I've finished Spirit of the Bayonet by Ted Russ, this is the beginning of a trilogy entitled "Okami Forward." I'm not sure how I feel about this book. On the S.F. side it's top notch. It is a story about artificial intelligence married to high tech warfare. Lots of interesting ideas and it doesn't feel too far fetched. Surely nothing possible now. But in 50 years? who knows? On the story side it's a good story, moved along. It did follow three separate story lines, occurring at three separate times, and although you feel that they will have to meet, and they eventually do, it is not clear until very near the climax. not my favorite way of doing things. More to the point, it bordered on becoming too frustrating to read. It seemed that every move forward had no positive effect for the main characters. It is certainly the first of a series. At the end of the book, and it was a surprising and good --- possibly, but only possibly given the way things develop earlier in the book --- you are left feeling that you have only really started the story. Hence, the thilogy. I'll more than likely read book two, but there had better be good ending at the end of book three or I will be very peeved.

I'm not sure what's next. I've picked up two free classics I've never read "Little Women" and "Don Quixote" (surprisingly, I've used parts of these in sermons), Two Andrew Mayne mysteries The Girl Beneath the Sea and Murder Theory, and the first of a 25?! book Star Force Series by Jyr, Are-ki. The blurb said that that 95 million pages of this has been read in Kindle. If you figure 350 pages a novel that's a million books. So when I get there, I'll let everyone know what I thought. ----- You lot are bad for me! I rarely had a tbr pile before joining this forum.

 

[Pyan]

You lot are bad for me! I rarely had a tbr pile before joining this forum.

I'd make a terrible Preacher, but it's been a pleasure to help guide your feet onto the tbr way....

 

[Danny McG]

Another sci fi military book

The sixteenth watch by Myke Cole

 

[Rodders]

Is that the Coast Guard book, Danny? I’ve had my eye on that one for a while and I’ll be interested to know what you think of it.

 

[Danny McG]

Is that the Coast Guard book, Danny? I’ve had my eye on that one for a while and I’ll be interested to know what you think of it.

Yeah it is, I only did a few pages last night (a 5 year old had a bad dream so I was settling him down again for hours) but it looks like it's going to be a goody

I'll do a little review when I finish it

 

[Paul_C]

I've squeezed in a couple of novellas before committing to Foreigner, And Shall Machines Surrender by Benjanun Sriduangkaew and Ormeshadow by Priya Sharma both of which I liked a lot.

I've got one more before Foreigner, On A Red Station, Drifting by Aliette de Bodard, another novella from the Xuya Universe.

 

[Ian Fortytwo]

My reading is drifting again, however I have just received The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, A Trilogy in Five Parts, by Douglas Adams. I'm feeling better already.

 

[Dave]

I'm reading the first Book of Dust - La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman. I hadn't realised this was a prequel until I began reading. I'm not entirely sure if the second and third books are also set prior to Northern Lights aka The Golden Compass of the His Dark Materials trilogy. I don't want to know either, so no spoilers please. La Belle Sauvage (The Wild Beauty) is the name of the canoe owned by the main protagonist (in case you wondered.)

 

[HareBrain]

I'm not entirely sure if the second and third books are also set prior to Northern Lights aka The Golden Compass of the His Dark Materials trilogy.

Ah, well --

I don't want to know either, so no spoilers please.

Oh.

I've just started Bring It On Home, a bio of Led Zeppelin manager Peter Grant, inspired by (1) realising that he has the same name as the main character in Ben Aaronovitch's Rivers of London series, (2) that a disguised version of him might make a more interesting and colourful occult investigator, and (3) that I should write it.