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What book(s) are you currently reading or listening to? January 27 (discuss.online)
submitted 9 months ago by to c/books@lemmy.world
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Finished The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson, 3rd book in the 2nd era of Mistborn!

Read last 150 or so pages in a single sitting. Very interesting where the story is going.

After finishing it, I wanted to focus on the other books I was reading but the ending made me start the Mistborn: Secret Histories novella right away.

The novella takes place in Era 1 (at least as far as I have read) but the recommended order is after The Bands of Mourning, as mentioned at the end of the book. Pretty interesting so far.

Still Readings Ultra-processed Food by Chris van Tulleken and The Bullet Journal Method by Ryder Caroll, but at very slow pace. Going to focus on them one at a time to speed them up.

What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening to lately?

For details on the c/Books bingo challenge that just restarted for the year, you can checkout the initial Book Bingo, and its Recommendation Post. Links are also present in our community sidebar.

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[–] 5 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (6 children)

Just finished reading „The Quiet American“ by Greene. I read it based on @adhd_traco@piefed.social suggestion. Thanks for that mate! I enjoyed it quite a bit. Although I thought Our man in Havanna was better, since it didn’t take itself as seriously. Any other ones you liked by Greene?

Right now I’m reading „The Crucible“ by Arthur Miller. Idk what to think yet, I only just started, but so far it seems quite good and unfortunately sort of on topic with all the tyranny going on in the world nowadays…

Edit: Just got done with the Crucible. I thought it was great. Definitely gonna try to catch the play some time soon. I probably liked it even more than „Death of a Salesman“ and I already loved that one. Next up: Probably either „The Nickelboys“ or „Berlin Alexanderplatz“.

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  • [–] 5 points 9 months ago (5 children)

    Glad you enjoyed it! Unfortunately my memory is really bad on his books. And what I liked back then as a teenager I might cringe at today. :) I think these two were my favorites.

    I remember reading Brighton Rock while in Brighton, though. It was written as a money-spinner, but apparently had pretty good reviews and he was happy with it. One site says it's one of his most famous works. Again, I don't remember anything about it 😅.

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  • [–] 3 points 9 months ago (4 children)

    Maybe I’ll check it out one of these days then… since you said your tastes have changed, what are you into nowadays?

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  • [–] 5 points 9 months ago* (3 children)

    Very different stuff. Due to chronic pain that affects my focus, I'm not reading thaaat much anymore, especially stuff for leisure, as it's even harder to focus when I'm supposedly relaxing. :)

    The closest, I guess, is Homer's Odyssey as an audio book (Emily Wilson translation) which I'm currently enjoying. In the beginning I thought she's going way too much into all the stuff surrounding the story, but after a while it made sense, and I'm grateful for it.

    Something I've read recently-ish: Psychopaths Anonymous by Will Carver. Kinda literary fast-food, unless you have an interest in the theme, but still both gruesome and funny. I think True Crime folks would enjoy this.

    The novel Children of Gebelawi by Naguib Mahfouz. He is a legendary Egyptian author. Someone told me he'd write his novels sitting outside cafes after work.

    Also by an Egyptian, and an easier read, I think, Beer in the Snooker Club

    Also currently reading: Ancient Egyptian Myths and Legends - Spencer, Lewis. This is somewhat leisure, I think, but non-fiction of course :)

    In a similar fact/fiction vein, I'm also working my way through: Strange Stories, Amazing Facts Stories That are Bizarre, Unusual, Odd, Astonishing, and Often Incredible.

    One of my favorite authors remains Haruki Murakami. Wind-up Bird Chronicle is my absolute favorite novel. Norwegian Wood, and 'Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World' come close behind.

    Broken Phoenix by Edmond Manning is something I really wanna read, to get some fantasy in there, but couldn't get my hands on yet 😭

    What kinda stuff do you enjoy?

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  • [–] 3 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) (2 children)

    That honestly sounds like a lot of very interesting stuff, thanks for the very thorough answer! I’m trying to stick to fiction, non fiction often feels too much like work to me haha. Used to be biiiig on fantasy and scify when I was young, like Lord of the Rings, Dune, Ender Series and Cosmere type stuff. Then I stopped reading for a while and afterwards I couldn’t really get into it again for some reason…

    So since I started again I’ve been working my way through mostly classics. Last year I was mostly into naturalist/existentialist/psychological realist novels with a focus on Russian, German, French and a few American authors. So stuff like Dostoevsky, Camus, Kafka, but also lots of plays by people like Hauptmann and Ibsen. Greene I read mostly as a nice lighter distraction in between, but I’m happy that it started off this conversation. I definitely wanna broaden my horizons a bit this year to get some more international perspective, especially since last year I read quite a few colonial novels, but very few that were narrated by the colonised. Also trying to read some more women since that is a huge blind spot for me… if you want, check out my StoryGraph profile for more. I’m trying to be thorough on reviewing the stuff I read and I’d love to get a little more social on there since I know no one who uses it yet. Here’s the link: https://app.thestorygraph.com/profile/flo1312

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  • [–] 4 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    Oh yeah, Dune is really cool :) It's only really through the fediverse that I got back in touch with fantasy. I see so many good titles mentioned. And after reading that really heavy stuff it only makes sense you're going for something lighter!

    I think I'll create an account on StoryGraph and message you to add me, as your profile is private :)

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