I’m about 400 pages into War and Peace, and I’m blown away. The story is rich in themes, well-developed characters, history and ideas. At the same time, it is a gripping read and nowhere near as tough as I feared. My only regret so far is that I wish I had bought a translation that kept the French intact; I am switching between translations – I read the free Maude translation digitally, and my physical edition was translated by Anthony Briggs. While both are enjoyable, neither indicates which character is speaking in which language. But it's important to know, because Tolstoy puts a lot of meaning into how characters express themselves.

Anyway, is anyone else reading it at the moment, or has anyone read it in the past? How do/did you like it?

I need to finish The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin. I'm just over halfway but it's not really providing me with any new ideas.

I think it's a good book for teenagers or someone who hasn't really thought about the themes in this book.

Still making my way through the Discworld, on the witches now. Just finished Witches Abroad and just started Lords and Ladies.

I finished Blood Rites, book 6 of Dresden and felt pretty Meh about it. I didnt really find the story in that book that interesting. It doesnt bore me to the point of stopping, so still finished it up, but I didn't love it.

Currently towards the end of Deathlands 158 which came out earlier this year at some point. It is a nice return to some characters I know very well. Story itself is a bit similar to lots that have come before but it also has elements of linking the stories of Deathlands and Outlanders more cohesively which is nice.

After this I have a couple of new things to try out so looking forward to getting into those as well. The Laundry Files and Red Rising.

Checking out Other Worlds Than These, the new Stephen King book & final book in the Talisman series. As far as modern King goes it's one of the better ones. Quite nice being to read about Mid-World again.

Finished A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again recently except for the David Lynch essay, want to watch the movie first. First foray into DFW, I like his writing style so far. Started Meditations on First Philosophy, getting through it very slowly. Listened to the first two Murderbot books, liked them more the further in I got. Second I thought was better than the first. About to start listening to Jade Legacy. Not the biggest fan of this series, but since I'm listening and not reading (helps with a long commute) I figured I'll just wrap up the series.

I just finished Tender is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica (disturbing and brilliant - nothing has made me feel that way since reading Fahrenheit 451 a decade ago), and now I'm onto Sarafina by Philip Fracassi. Going to need something lighter after this one, I think.

I started Victor Hugo's Les Misérables, I'm suprised how colorful and interesting the language is but still it's easy to read.

Finished Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir. I've complained enough the past couple weeks about the pacing, so I'll just say my opinion didn't change, and the payoff wasn't worth the build up (imo). The epilogue did kinda make me want to see what would happen next, but I have no immediate intentions of coming back to this series (if ever).

Read/finished The Extraordinary Adventures Of Arsène Lupin, Gentleman-Burglar by Maurice Leblanc, the first collection of Lupin stories. I found this absolutely delightful, and a nice palate cleanser after Harrow. I'm gonna throw the whole series on my TBR, and read them when I want something cozy. They're free on Project Gutenberg/Standard E-books!

Currently reading The Elementals by Michael McDowell. I started this some time ago, but wasn't sucked in, so I put it down in favor of something else. Surprisingly easy to get back into, even though my memory of the first third is a bit hazy. Of course it's slow-paced, the bane of my existence, but the characters are interesting, and I have hopes it'll ramp up.

I'm re-listening to How to Be Perfec t by Michael Schur, as I've been on a beginners philosophy kick lately. It's a fun light overview of Moral Philosophy and using the Good Place cast as part of the voice cast makes the whole thing breezy. Also the full body slams on Ayn Rand and her Objectivism 'Philosophy' made me laugh out loud.

"The wandering inn" volume 4. The series gets more structured during this volume, making for a better reading experience. I already liked it, but it was sometimes difficult to follow during volumes 2 and 3.

I made no progress on anything really this week due to work.

Still listening to Iron Gold and readingcAmber and Iron.

This week isnt shaping up much better but hopefully i can find time/force myself to read more.

Two hundred some pages into The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. by Neal Stephnson and Nicole Galland, and I'm thinking about dropping the book, which I rarely do. It could have accomplished in fifty pages what it's taken two hundred some pages to do.

While it occasionally has its moments, it's so boring. Which should be impossible. The whole government set up is a goldmine for comedy, and somehow it's still dull.

I just finished The Dawn of Everything. An anarchist presentation of other ways of living and what could have been. Amazing, thought inducing, challenging in all the good ways (and long, plenty of meat to chew on)

Still working my way through Ian Fleming's Goldfinger, but also now reading through Jessica Fern's Polysecure.

I'm still working on We are Legion(We are Bob) and Seasons of Glass and Iron, but nearly finished both. Not sure what I'll pick up next, yet.

Just started foundryside. Interesting "magic" system so far.

Didn't get as much reading in as I thought I would, so I'm still on The Passion by Jeanette Winterson. So far I'm not entirely sure what to make of it, but it doesn't really feel like my cup of tea.

Finished Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty. Apparently her books are quite popular with the wine moms. That's not me, but even I thought this was a good family mystery.

Next up I think is going to be Ringworld Throne by Larry Niven. I read the first two Ringworlds a while ago, and recently came into possession of the sequels Throne and Children.

I just finished reading Donald D. Hoffman - The Case Against Reality. I skipped some pages when it got into physics because i am not that bright when it came to that stuff; otherwise it's a good book and i do agree with how each species have their own interface, i.e we don't see reality as it is, rather what benefits us for our survival and procreation. It's a bit wordy too. Right now, I am reading Joseph Conrad short story The Idiots just for the sake of improving vocabulary and English, and probably will read his other ones as well. BTW am i the only one who sees his writing a bit hard to grasp, his description are always wordy.

A few months ago, I finished Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. While i did resort to dictionary for some words, but i didn't experience any difficulty understanding there, unlike Joseph's stuff, so my English isn't that bad i think.

I bought The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd like 20 years ago and somehow it never made it to the top of my stack. It stayed with me all these years though 2 moves including one overseas, and I finally started it. Love it so far.

I finished book 1 of Dungeon Crawler Carl!

I recently finished Magical Girl Mechanical Heart by Natalie Maher and Are You Even Human by Natalie Maher. Both are heavy and dark, SciFi/fantasy. Best things I have read in years. I can't wait for the next books.

Current reading Memory's Flame, The Wandering Inn, Book 20.

i'm a stephen king fan from way back, but at some point i stopped finding his work worthwhile, but i recently decided to take up some of his more recent work. just finished fairytale: the novel and later. fairytale was okay, but didn't wow me. later on the other hand i found really compelling, a great shorter story.

right now i'm reading a self-published book one of my college history instructors wrote years ago. it's about a guy in 1968 who has to decide what he's going to do about the draft. while it's a bit clumsy in some ways and really calls out for an editor i'm finding the local historical aspects of it pretty fascinating.

i'm also still reading an indigenous people's history of the u.s.. it's fascinating and well written, but non-fiction tends to get set aside for novelty. i'm still commited to finishing it.