this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2023
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Literature

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There's a thread about how people find new books, and one of my favorite ways to find things to read was browsing comments from the weekly 'What are you reading' threads in r/truelit and r/books. So what is Lemmy reading?

I'm finishing The Passenger, and about to jump into John Williams' Stoner. Excited to see what is next!

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[–] FearTheCron@lemmy.world 13 points 2 years ago (8 children)

The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin. I love reading science fiction from people with engineering and science backgrounds. Another good book I finished recently was Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir.

[–] dynamism@beehaw.org 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Project Hail Mary was such a fun read for me! I loved how concrete the engineering problems were throughout the book. It kept me tied to the stakes of the story.

Haven’t been able to finish Three Body Problem, unfortunately, it kind of lost me within the first 100 pages. May have to give it another shot! I hear a lot of good things about it.

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[–] Maerman@beehaw.org 4 points 2 years ago (2 children)

If that's your vibe, try Blindsight by Peter Watts. It's a very technical examination of the phenomenon of consciousness which isn't afraid to get into the weeds, but never quite gets lost in them.

[–] FearTheCron@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Blindsight was great, I need to read it a second time.

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[–] Higlerfay@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

This book seems to have an equal measure of haters to fans but I loved the entire series. As it goes on it gets weird but imo was soo worth the read. Enjoy!

[–] sneezycat@sopuli.xyz 3 points 2 years ago (2 children)

That book (three-body) was weeeeird. Really thought it was going to go in a very different direction during the introductory chapters.

I don't know if I liked it but it sure made me think about stuff!

[–] FearTheCron@lemmy.world 2 points 2 years ago

I still haven't finished it so I am still forming an overall opinion, but its certainly interesting so far.

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[–] Firefox@midwest.social 9 points 2 years ago (3 children)

I just picked up a copy of house of leaves. Saw it referenced a few times in some other media I liked and figured I may as well check out the book itself.

[–] Maerman@beehaw.org 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

One of my favourite books of all time. Do you have the full colour edition?

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[–] oscillonoscope@beehaw.org 7 points 2 years ago

I just finished up reading The Return of the King for the first time since childhood. I like it a lot more than I remember. I think two things stuck out at me most: how dense it was compared to modern fantasy and how great the hobbits were portrayed. Fantasy tends to portray great heroes that came from nothing (ex. the chosen one/orphan trope). However, the hobbits were solely because they were common that they were able to do things the great heroes of their age couldn't.

Since then I've started reading Vineland by Thomas Pynchon. I kept hearing Pynchon's name come up for about a month at random and figured I should pick up one of his books. He has a very frenetic style that can be a bit difficult to parse but I'm loving his sense of humor.

[–] Stalinwolf@lemmy.ca 7 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

I've been blown away by all of this, up until the one I'm currently powering my way through (*Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath). It isn't terrible, though. Just feels very out of place after the overall tone and flow of his other work within the volume.

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[–] TheTrueLinuxDev@beehaw.org 6 points 2 years ago (2 children)

The Expanse, the whole book trilogy!

[–] probodyne@feddit.uk 3 points 2 years ago

It's a bit more than a trilogy lol. It's a nonology!

[–] ice9@lemmy.world 3 points 2 years ago

Amazing series, be sure to check out the novellas as well! There are some guides online that will tell you where they happen chronologicaly

[–] Witch@beehaw.org 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Just got a few books from my local library that I'm excited to start. I'm starting off with "Focused Forward: Navigating the Storms of Adult ADHD" by James M. Ochoa which I picked out because it was the smallest book in the ADHD category, ha.

I also got a book on Linux/Unix, Diabetes, a workbook for Bipolar, a healthy snack book, and an organization book. Not too too sure if I'll be able to finish it all by the time they're due, but its a nice varied selection.

[–] ABoxOfNeurons@lemmy.one 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

That second paragraph is peak ADHD lol.

[–] Witch@beehaw.org 3 points 2 years ago

I mean you aren't wrong! Hahaa.

[–] Kebab@beehaw.org 6 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Currently I'm finishing the fifth book of the Wheel Of Time by Robert Jordan. Next will be the sixth book of the Wheel Of Time by Robert Jordan :)

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[–] theDuesentrieb@beehaw.org 6 points 2 years ago (4 children)

Just finished Children of time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Absolutely amazing uplift-scifi, but you better stay away from it if you have arachnophobia

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[–] flashgnash@lemm.ee 6 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (4 children)

I'd highly recommend We are legion we are Bob and off to be the wizard to any fellow tech nerds

We are legion we are bob is about a guy whose brain is uploaded as an AI into a Von Neumann probe and sent into space to explore the universe.

Off to be the wizard is about a guy who finds out the world is some kind of simulation, and there's essentially one big file detailing absolutely everything that can be edited, uses it to go back in time and live as a wizard and make spells with his programming skills

Both of them have plenty of nerdy references and humour

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[–] adi@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago (4 children)

Just finished Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer (loved it, just discovered the "new weird" genre and it's totally my vibe). Now started reading The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, the structure of the book and the setting seems cool and intriguing.

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[–] B4tid0@lemmy.world 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera, a

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[–] lardasshardass@beehaw.org 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Though I'm not much of a reader anymore, my wife has been absolutely obsessed with Sarah J Maas' Throne of Glass series. I enjoy listening to her talk about it and sum up the stories, wouldn't be surprised if it ended up on Netflix soon.

Any recommendations for audiobooks to listen to at work? I'm big on science/science fiction and philosophy, anything that challenges my way of thinking really.

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[–] derek@lemmy.one 4 points 2 years ago (5 children)

Now I'm reading Wheel Of Time, stuck on the 4th book.

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[–] deigge@feddit.de 4 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Since November I'm slowly working through the The Witcher books. Just finished the 5th book recently and currently looking for a book I can read before I continue with the 6th book. Normally I read mostly in german but I'm thinking about picking a english book as my next book.

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[–] CrimsonOnoscopy@beehaw.org 4 points 2 years ago

Terry Pratchett's Jingo, currently. After that, more discworld.

[–] ice9@lemmy.world 4 points 2 years ago

I really enjoyed the Expanse books, so just started one of the Author's other series, the Long Price Quartet

[–] pootriarch@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

nobody reads this junk here so i'll just shout at a cloud

a deadly education, naomi novik - this should finally unjam the block i've had on fiction; i don't do well with fiction when the world is burning. i've picked this up and set it down many times, but the novelty is that normally, a fiction book that stops after the halfway point to do world-building is one that will end up propping open a door. but in this one the late add increased my interest.

keep my heart in san francisco, amelia diane coombs - an adorable fluffy book set nearby that ended up on the to-be-finished pile during some political firestorm or other.

guide du routard, catalogne - americans don't want to see what i want to see and american guidebooks know it. i often drag in other people's guidebooks when i think about going other people's places.

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[–] troyunrau@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Started book #9 of Malazan this morning on a flight. It's been a long ride, and I'm looking forward to a climax. That's literature, right? ;)

Last night I started reading Children of Time out loud to my GF as we fell asleep. It triggered an excellent conversation about biological imperatives and evolution. Plus, Portia is cool ;)

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[–] eli@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 2 years ago (5 children)

Currently listening to Dust by Hugh Howey (book 3 of the Wool/Silo books)

Ive also been slowly reading MaddAddam by Margeret Atwood (book 3 of the MaddAddam series)

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[–] katco@mstdn.social 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Finally almost finished with Neuromancer.

Then I'll be flipping to work mode and reading "The Grammar of Systems: From Order to Chaos & Back".

[–] Mummelpuffin@beehaw.org 3 points 2 years ago

Well, I'm using Bookwyrm to keep track of that.

[–] somethingclever@beehaw.org 3 points 2 years ago

I’m reading through Le Guin’s Earthsea cycle for the first time, and I’m currently on Tales from Earthsea. Fantastic, unique books.

[–] howler0502@sopuli.xyz 3 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Currently reading "Spies: The Epic Intelligence War Between East and West," by Calder Walton.

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[–] ElusiveQuality@midwest.social 3 points 2 years ago

Just started book 8 of The Expance series

[–] HisNoodlyServant@beehaw.org 3 points 2 years ago

After quitting Reddit finally getting to my book backlog. The Expanse: The Sins of Our Fathers and then got to pick another old Star Trek book.

[–] CheeseQueen@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 2 years ago (3 children)

I really need to get back into reading, the last series I read was The Stormlight Archive and I really want to read some more Cosmere books

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Kim Harrison’s Demons of Good and Evil that just came out yesterday :)

My partner is almost done with it already and is dying to talk about it but I’m taking my time xD

[–] ag_roberston_author@beehaw.org 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Making my way through Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay. Really enjoying it so far.

[–] TheSkoomaCat@beehaw.org 3 points 2 years ago

I've been getting into beekeeping so I'm soaking up as much info as I can. Just finished up Honey Bee Democracy by Tom Seeley. Fantastically interesting book regarding honey bee swarm preferences and decision making. Next up is an English translation of Beekeeping for All by Émile Warré, mostly because I want to read his thoughts on his hive style and management practices.

[–] styxbane@beehaw.org 3 points 2 years ago

I am deciding between finishing the long way to a Small angry planet or starting howls moving castle

[–] Maerman@beehaw.org 3 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I'm reading a book of short stories by John Sayles, called The Anarchists' Convention. There have been some absolute bangers so far.

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[–] Abel@lemmy.nerdcore.social 3 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Bumped, a feminist dystopia where only teenagers can reproduce. The book is very confusing to get into (it's narrated by two teenagers in 2036, so you need to learn alll the slangs) and the writing style rubbed me off as amateurish, but it's been very entertaining nevertheless. It gets even funny when you get what's going on because teens be teens.

[–] BakChorM33@lemm.ee 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson

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[–] tlwright@beehaw.org 3 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I'm working my way through Thinking, Fast and Slow at a chapter a day. It took me a minute to get his point (well near the 30% mark, that is) but it's illuminating about how people think.

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