What are you reading now?

[Travesty]

I have almost finished I'm in Love With The Villainess (light novel) 4, and it's enjoyable but books 3 and 4 have not been as good as books 1 and 2. The first 2 books had more emphasis on the main characters relationship, which brought out more comedy in the dialogue which was what I enjoyed most about the books. Will be reading the fifth book at some point.

Performativity (The New Critical Idiom) by James Loxley. Lately I have been taking university courses from performing arts field, which is where I have my degree on, but since it's been over 10 years since I graduated I feel like it's important to update my knowledge. Late last year and early this year I have had classes that were focused on performativity and it really clicked for me, and now am building a small reference library and reading more on the subject. This book has been a intresting read, and I will have to go through it again some day.

[MartyG]

If you want to have nightmares and not sleep well, then I recommend reading this.

Nuclear War: A Scenario

It's a timely reminder why we really don't want this to happen. You should probably read it even though it might stop you sleeping; it seems well researched, based on interviews with science and military experts.

[charlesr]

I've been given a Kindle. Now I can read without glasses again!

I'm reading Absolution Gap. It's the 3rd book in the Revelation Space series. Great science fiction.

[fuse]

Finished reading House of Leaves recently. It's got a lot of new attention following myhouse.wad turning some heads in the gaming space last year, mine included. You kinda can't talk about it without highlighting how it's presented - which is unusual, to say the least - and in toying with formats, structures, layouts, fonts and the like it certainly adds a hook for shmucks like me that aren't such regular readers.

The underlying story is pretty engaging in itself though; a young family move into a house where the father figure soon realises that one inside wall is bigger than it is on the outside. Things build from that first logic-defying discovery, but with the story being somewhat accidentally captured in a series of home movies that are compiled into a documentary, with you reading about someone's written assessment of this documentary while also having a parallel commentary running in its extensive footnotes from someone who has happened across this manuscript and whose total fixation on it appears to be distressing them greatly.

It has moments where it goes off on total tangents and is quite dull / crass, but there's also no shaking that all of this is all by design as it gets you to ask questions about each layer of narration you're weaving through. It has definitely stuck with me. I'm not sure this is a total recommendation, but I enjoyed it and am glad to have read it.

[Finsbury Girl]

Just finished Elantris by Brandon Sanderson. It's the first Sanderson stuff I've read outside of him finished the Wheel of Time which for me was hit and miss.

Anyway back to Elantris, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Yeah, not much happens but the characters drive it along extremely well and the main dude is such an admirable character, you just want him to succeed. So it was a great self contained book so I've now started down the Sanderson path and have started the Mistborn books, first up is The Final Empire. Early days but I'm enjoying it and am intrigued to see where it goes. The magic stuff with drinking the metal is definitely interesting.

[QualityChimp]

I reread John Dies at the End, which is decent, but I'd forgotten most of it, which is a review in itself, I guess.

I then listened to "Lost Cause" by Cory Doctorow after Dogg Thang mentioned a short story of his that he liked.
I found this underwhelming, if I'm honest, even though I agreed with most the points he was making.

Mainly rinsing political podcasts like a masochist, but I started 3 Body Problem, but the opening section seems to be a bit of a drag so far.

[Dogg Thang]

I then listened to "Lost Cause" by Cory Doctorow after Dogg Thang mentioned a short story of his that he liked.
I found this underwhelming, if I'm honest, even though I agreed with most the points he was making.

I haven't read that one. It's not my fault!

[QualityChimp]

It was the hacked toaster one that sounded interesting.

You can't win 'em all and it wasn't an awful book, just a bit uneventful.

[charlesr]

Just finished forcing myself through "Neuromancer", the book that The Matrix used many of its ideas from. Written in the 1980s, it must have been well ahead of its time in terms of technology and concepts, but it is pretty poorly written and, incomprehensible in many places and ends abruptly with zero satisfaction. Annoyingly the first half had me gripped enough to want to plough through to the end. I normally love geeky Sci fi.

[Dogg Thang]

Just finished forcing myself through "Neuromancer", the book that The Matrix used many of its ideas from. Written in the 1980s, it must have been well ahead of its time in terms of technology and concepts, but it is pretty poorly written and, incomprehensible in many places and ends abruptly with zero satisfaction. Annoyingly the first half had me gripped enough to want to plough through to the end. I normally love geeky Sci fi.

As much as I love cyberpunk, I've always found that a bit of a slog.

[QualityChimp]

Finished The Second Life of Mr. Hunt, which was pretty good! There was a lot going on, though. Death, souls, reanimation, aliens, space travel, vampires etc. so it didn't feel scattershot, but you had to roll with each new addition as another one would be around the corner. Might look into the series.

Started The Treatment, which is about aversion therapy in near-future Britain, that is reminiscent of the bit in Clockwork Orange where he's having to watch scenes of horror.
Not everyone is happy with what goes on at the clinics and there are several groups at play, each with their own agenda. Decent so far, but needs a good OMG moment to shift it up a notch.

My mates have been reading The Year of the Locust and it's been fun hearing their reactions as the plot gets crazier and crazier.

[wakka]

I Am Pilgrim was such a bonkers book. It was a great holiday pageturner, but if you sat back and thought about the plot for more than five minutes it was basically the most implausible thing imaginable

Still haven't read The Year of the Locust. Might pick it up.

[Golgo]

Shirley Jackson, The Sundial. Not as well known as The Haunting of Hill House or We Have Always Lived in the Castle, so I went into it not expecting too much. But so far it's every bit as incredible as them, and maybe even weirder from the outset. Her knack for creating deeply unhinged, sinister but also comical characters is unmatched in my view, much of it carried in delicate dialogue that might pass for a Jane Austen period piece - were Jane Austen possessed by Satan. Her use of architectural space to generate unease is also amazing in this book, as in the others I mentioned.

[QualityChimp]

I Am Pilgrim was such a bonkers book. It was a great holiday pageturner, but if you sat back and thought about the plot for more than five minutes it was basically the most implausible thing imaginable

Still haven't read The Year of the Locust. Might pick it up.

Pleeease read Locust. I can't wait to hear your thoughts.
Again, it's a perfect holiday pageturner, but even more preposterous than Pilgrim.
I told them there's a shark-jump moment and enjoyed them going "is it this bit?" and I'd go "keep reading!"

[wakka]

I will pick it up mate. I need an easy read, my life has changed a lot in the last few months, so, my concentration span has been really bad and I haven't been reading much. I started a The Dead Zone by Stephen King because I normally find him very readable but then in the first part of the book someone's really cruel to a dog so that kind of just made me feel bad and I haven't been back. So I think Locust will be ideal.

'Even more preposterous than Pilgrim' is a great pull quote for the back of the book tbh I'm sold.