The 2nd "What are you reading now" thread

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BEaston said:
I read it a long while ago so I can't remember exactly but from memory it kind of just picks up pace throughout the book to the ending.
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Yeah it's picking up now in 'Book Two', and like I said before it's a strange one, I'm not disinterested, but I'm not gripped, but at the same time I do enjoy reading what comes next.

Took me a while to get my head around the different terminology for things as well which probably didn't help, and getting my head around different characters.
 
BEaston said:
The First Law trilogy is one of the best modern fantasy series IMO. While not as far-reaching as some other series, in terms of scope of plot and number of characters, it's a simple, fun read with good characters and really good fight scenes. Some brutal encounters in there.
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I'd been putting it off for a while but the 2 book tubers I watch the most both love The First Law so I figured I should get around to reading it.

I am already loving Glokta and Ninefingers and the story hasn't even really gone anywhere yet. I can already tell Abercrombie's character development is going to be top class.
 
BEaston said:
The First Law trilogy is one of the best modern fantasy series IMO. While not as far-reaching as some other series, in terms of scope of plot and number of characters, it's a simple, fun read with good characters and really good fight scenes. Some brutal encounters in there.
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He has a unique talent for making the reader like characters who are, by any objective standards, utterly detestable.

I have often thought that A Song of Ice and Fire could have been wrapped up in one very short volume if Ned Stark had just put in a call to Logen Ninefingers and Ferro Maljinn.
 

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Currently Reading,

Walk the Wire, David Baldacci

Last Few Books I have read before the above

The Good Turn, Dervla McTiernan
Stop at Nothing, Michael Ledwidge
Lost, James Patterson
Nine Elms, Robert Bryndza
The Runner, Stephen Leather
The Janes, Louisa Luna
A Minute to Midnight, David Baldacci
The Chestnut Man, Soren Seistrup
The Cabin, Jorn Lier Horst
A Grave for Two, Anne Holt
I Will Miss You Tomorrow, Heine Bakkeid
The Deserter, Nelson DeMille
All out War, Sean Parnell
The Solar War, A.G. Riddle
The Extinction Agenda, Michael Laurence
Slowly we Die, Emelie Schepp

All good reads.
 
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gaskin said:
Dune is on my long to be read list so I am glad to hear people like it.
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Yeah same. I'm currently reading American Gods, about halfway through. I've seen series 1 of the show and I think I would've enjoyed the book better had I not watched that. The books ok but hard to get a real sense of where it's heading though I feel it's starting to pick up at the moment. Can't stop seeing Ian McShane as Wednesday in my head though

I ordered the Sicilian (sequel to Godfather) and Infinite Jest from Dymocks in March - still waiting on Infinite Jest and they cancelled my order of the sicilian a couple of weeks back. I ordered Sicilian again today from Book Depository.

I've also got "The Death of the Fitzroy Football Club" on my shelf to read when I finish American Gods and a tonne of other books that have liked up over the years.
 
I finished Russell Brand's Booky Wook 2 last night, and thought it was OK but not as interesting as his first. Pretty much just his cakewalk to stardom and tracked some of the more controversial moments of his career in the late 00's. A lot of it was pretty self-indulgent, and quite tawdry, but it's what you'd expect.

I also completed The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen earlier in the week and loved it. I'd been aware of the book for a little while, but found it op shopping pre-Covid and had to get it. One of the most unintentionally funny books I have read in a while, great writing and character development and strangely relatable. So many cool little scenes.

After those few I started The Shell Collector by Anthony Doerre. I finished All The Light We Cannot see earlier in the year, and initially found it a bit slow paced, but the writing itself is phenomenal. Such an intense ending, and some really powerful chapters throughout. Definitely recommend reading it at least once.
 
Memoir of a Gulag Actress - Tamara Petkovich
 
Can anyone recommend me some similar books/authors to:

DFW - Infinite Jest
Jonathan Franzen - The Corrections
Bret Easton-Ellis - American Psycho

Basically anything pretty cerebral with a lot of OTT detail about the characters and the author going off on some lengthy tangents about concepts only loosely related to the narrative.
 
La Dispute said:
Can anyone recommend me some similar books/authors to:

DFW - Infinite Jest
Jonathan Franzen - The Corrections
Bret Easton-Ellis - American Psycho

Basically anything pretty cerebral with a lot of OTT detail about the characters and the author going off on some lengthy tangents about concepts only loosely related to the narrative.
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Have not read any of the three named but from your description classics such as The Brother's Karamazov, Anna Karenina and Don Quixote fit.

Shorter and more modern works such as White Noise, The Wind Up Bird Chronicle and One Hundred Years of Solitude also somewhat fit.
 
La Dispute said:
Can anyone recommend me some similar books/authors to:

DFW - Infinite Jest
Jonathan Franzen - The Corrections
Bret Easton-Ellis - American Psycho

Basically anything pretty cerebral with a lot of OTT detail about the characters and the author going off on some lengthy tangents about concepts only loosely related to the narrative.
Click to expand...

Sounds like a lot of Stephen Kings fat novels like The Stand, IT, or Under the Dome.
 
La Dispute said:
Can anyone recommend me some similar books/authors to:

DFW - Infinite Jest
Jonathan Franzen - The Corrections
Bret Easton-Ellis - American Psycho

Basically anything pretty cerebral with a lot of OTT detail about the characters and the author going off on some lengthy tangents about concepts only loosely related to the narrative.
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Use the GNOD Literature Map, and just type in any of the abovenamed authors.

https://www.literature-map.com/
 

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FredLeDeux said:
Use the GNOD Literature Map, and just type in any of the abovenamed authors.

https://www.literature-map.com/
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Nice little tool. I typed in BEE and it came up with William Burroughs, Hunter. S Thompson and JD Salinger who I’ve enjoyed. I’m looking for something more modern though, say 1990’s onwards.

Ill have a play around, and scour Book Deposity.
 
Ocha905 said:
Have not read any of the three named but from your description classics such as The Brother's Karamazov, Anna Karenina and Don Quixote fit.

Shorter and more modern works such as White Noise, The Wind Up Bird Chronicle and One Hundred Years of Solitude also somewhat fit.
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Which do you most highly recommend of the modern modern books? I’ve had Don Quixote suggested to me a few times, and I’m sure it’s a $10 Penguin Classic.

I’ll have to pick it up next time I’m a Dymocks. (Pending it being open)
 
La Dispute said:
Which do you most highly recommend of the modern modern books? I’ve had Don Quixote suggested to me a few times, and I’m sure it’s a $10 Penguin Classic.

I’ll have to pick it up next time I’m a Dymocks. (Pending it being open)
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Toss up between Wind Up Bird Chronicle and One Hundred Years of Solitude. WUBC is a breezy read but OHYoS is more satisfying despite being harder to follow and probably fits your criteria more.
 
La Dispute said:
Been meaning to read IT for a lot time. I loved the first remake.

I have Pet Sematary on the shelf too.
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IT is certainly filled with character detail to the point of deflecting away from the main story. One of Kings last drug filled narratives before he went cold turkey.

Pet Semetery I haven't read as the 89 film put me off but did read his foreword to the book where he mentioned he may have gone too far. That sounds interesting.
 

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The 2nd "What are you reading now" thread

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