Whatcha reading?

[furf]

Mmmm books!
Whatcha reading? Whats your Goodreads lists look like? Are you a physical book person, e-reader person, maybe an audiobook person? Paperback or hardcover? Post about it!

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Been reading Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, nice interesting read about a guy in the early 1990s who donated his savings after college and suddenly left his family to venture out alone around the country, eventually being found dead in Alaska. It covers the many diary entries he wrote over the years and the accounts of the many people he befriended and worked for, including his family members and the possible reasoning surrounding why he dropped everything and disappeared.
It's been a nice way of keeping hubris in check: watching a lot of camping/bushcraft survival Youtubers has me thinking of how cool it is to do those things, but reading this book at the same time helps remind me that I'm not invulnerable, I'm not as capable as those guys. So I leave it up to them while looking for less dangerous ways of spending time outside this winter.

As for reading "method", I'm 50/50 on e-reader and a physical copy of a book (specifically paperback). I've been reading Into the Wild on my Kobo Glo e-reader but I am looking to buy a physical copy of it since Thriftbooks has it for like $5

I did also pick up Leviathan by Scott Westerfield at an old book store downtown couple weeks ago. I read that in middle school, and it's actually the second time I've bought it used within the last 6 years oddly enough. I had another copy of it at my old place but forgot about it when I moved, so now I have replacement copy of it. I haven't read it since middle school, but I've been looking to get back into it sometime hopefully soon. (Apparently it has a Netflix anime adaptation being made, and it looks passable but nothing too amazing imo)

I haven't updated my Goodreads in a while, but here's my "Want to Read" list I put together last year:

I've been trying to read more slowly but surely to break away from the doomscrolling and constant internet use, it's been pretty nice to just lay back on the bed with my cats next to me as I read a couple chapters before bed.

[BittyByte]

i just started reading house of leaves. not gotten very far, just the intro really, but ill get through it in time.

[ProbablyAlive]

I read an actual metric ton of stuff but mainly webnovels. Usually, online novels made by an Asian person because a lot of the good ones gets an adaption, usually anime. I don't mind sharing these, However for this post I will recommended books that you could find in a book store.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Adventure, Comedy
My favorite book and one I would recommend that you find an audiobook version of it. Very fun science-like adventure comedy. NOTE: the comedy is very British so it is very dry.

Angelarium
Spiritual, Religon
I know many of you probably dislike Christianity for obvious reasons, but I would still recommend this. Also its very much Jewish Mysticism of Kaballah or the Tree of Life and documenting angels and abstract beings while illustrating and writing about them. This is very much a acid trip while reading about angels and all the pictures are very pretty.

Caroline
horror, fantasy
I had never read Caroline as a child, despite it being a children's book; however it is really neat, also quite scary as an adult too.

I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream
Psychological Horror, Post-Apocalyptic
A short story, where you watch the last humans in the world be tortured by a angry supercomputer. F̸̰͖̘̌̂̍͘ü̴̹̎̏̒n̵͕̫̣̑̂́̊͜͜ ̷̧̩̖̾f̶͖̣̅̊̔͗̆ȏ̴̳̔̅r̸̨̩̙͇͆̋͝ ̴̡̡͔͉̙̍t̵͖̖̄͝h̴͙̪̉̃͐̽ḛ̸̃̔ ̵̯̯͋ẁ̴̗̦̪̰̤̏ḩ̴͍͍̘̳̿̄̆̎̚ö̴̬̭̍̈́l̴͈̭̊̉̑ȅ̸̱̔͘ ̸̻̹͇̗͆f̴͚̱̖̗͓̋̎̎a̸̋̉͛̃̋͜m̷̡͔̤̺̈́̏̄͝i̴̫̝̮̔͋̽̈́̈͜l̶̝̱͝ẏ̴̠̋̌̎̒

[furf]

Forgot to update this thread, but I've since finished Into the Wild on Dec. 10th. Afterwards, I bought a physical copy of it from Thriftbooks alongside a couple Agatha Christie novels: Murder on the Orient Express and And Then There Were None. (I also bought a couple Calvin and Hobbes books, one of them as a Christmas gift for @woolydrool )
I'm a few chapters into Orient Express, read a couple chapters over Christmas, but have been a little busy with work and commissions, so been a bit of a slow start on my Year of Reading theme.

[ProbablyAlive]

I'm planning on picking up the Angelarium. Not for any religious purpose, It is more or less a picture book and I think the art is dope. (There is a story here about a guy visiting angels and how they work and relate to him, Which I will most likely read too)

► Show Spoiler : art

[dant]

i'm trying to get into the habit of reading again even in the extremely limited offtime i have. though, it's pretty hard.

regardless, i've been reading 1979 by val mcdermid, and it's pretty fun. it's sort of like a mystery story about a journalist in 1979 scotland trying to help her friend get into the big leagues with stories, but while they're following a definite money laundering case, Stuff Happens. i like the way it's written, it's extremely english. that is to say, it has a lot of the conversational and dry humor that english lit has but also describes the scenes in ways that are very illustrative. like mcdermid is always describing how characters hold themselves because it's pretty critical to understanding how they are as people—the characters perceive each other in one way but omnisciently they are another way. it's pretty fun.

after this i'm hoping to read ocean's godori by elaine u cho. sci fi thing. it says it's blade runner esque but i don't know how true that actually will be. i find that a lot of sci fi dystopia these days is either blade runner or the giver. but anyway i hope it's fun.

just sooooo hard to find the time to read them! they're physical books and i prefer it that way, but that means i gotta be in a Mood to read and put extra effort in picking up the book. rrgrgrrhg.

[Kumakaze]

I've been listening to The Expanse on audiobook at work. I'm enjoying it - though the author tends to re-use and re-explain things WAY too often. I lost count of the times he's said 'keep a crew/station from drowning in their own waste' among other things.

The first one is the best one. Bit of a mix of scifi and noir detective stuff that explores how we fill out new niches and how human conflict evolves but remains generally the same... even in the face of new technology we can only poke with a stick and hope it doesn't completely destroy us or change us in the process. Following books are fun, especially if you like the characters, but it kind of loses its thread in an attempt to explore other options. To be fair it kind of needs to to cover the ramifications of the first book but I think it would have been good as a pulpy space detective series... oh well. I'd still recommend it. I guess there's a show?

Also tried The Sword of Shanara last year and did not like it. Its kind of depressing how often fantasy, my bread and butter, is just LOTR with a coat of paint. It makes it really hard to sift through to find the gems...

[dant]

Also tried The Sword of Shanara last year and did not like it. Its kind of depressing how often fantasy, my bread and butter, is just LOTR with a coat of paint. It makes it really hard to sift through to find the gems...

there is something I believe that applies to a lot of fiction. though, i've only been able to deduce it with sci fi because sci fi is my breadbutter.

>looking for a new sci fi book
>ask the bookstore worker if this book i picked up is blade runner or the giver
>she doesn't understand
>pull out illustrated diagram what is blade runner and what is the giver
>she laughs and says "it's a good book sir"
>it's the giver

i imagine it applies to most genress these days with their titular works that authors are inspired from and perhaps stick a bit too close to.

[Kumakaze]

>she laughs and says "it's a good book sir"

Fersure though. Every trip to the bookstore requires its own round of research, and every trip back does too because you find shit you've never heard of and need to figure out if its good or not... only 60 years worth of fans of whatever obscure series will tell you its the best thing they ever read...
you end up having to read it and hope no matter what.

[HotPinkGutz]

currently reading through the vampire chronicles by anne rice and the culture series by iain m banks. vampires are hot and space communism is cool