Welcome back after the holidays! Hope you had a good time, and your new year is starting well!
I didn’t get much time to read, so still reading The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson. Third and final book the of Mistborn series (first era).
What about all of you? What have you been reading or listening to lately?
There’s a Midyear Bingo check-in post, do take a look. Even if you haven’t started this year’s Book Bingo, you can still join, as there are still 6 months remaining!
For details, you can checkout the initial Book Bingo, and it’s Recommendation Post . Links are also present in our community sidebar.
Eat That Frog! by Brian Tracy
I’ve found it hard to get past the first few chapters as I’m actually trying to implement the advice. Planning the day the night before and constantly asking the question “Am I doing the most important task to achieve my goals?” during productive hours has been life-changing in actually making progress towards my projects, but also rather stressful. Perhaps I’m in the minority, but I procrastinate a lot by doing busywork- organization, cleaning, responding to lower priority inquiries, researching tangential things to the task at hand, etc. It’s been a difficult habit to break
Just finishing up a re-read of The Dresden Files with Battle Ground. Damn, it’s punchy.
Then I’ll be on to some reading around the Cosmere ready to read Wind and Truth. Excited for that one!
So I put down “Death Mask” about half way through. It’s not that I disliked it, but I found it getting a chore to read it. I might come back to it later.
I picked up Dennis E Taylor’s “We are legion (we are Bob)” after, and just finished reading it. I read it almost in one session, so pretty good in my opinion. Besides this, I guess I was also due for a slight genre change.
Currently reading fiction:“The vanished man” by Jeffery Deaver.
Currently reading non fiction: “Homecoming” by John Bradshaw.
I am going to try and read 52 books this year. Let’s see how it goes.
I’m re-reading my way through the early Essalieyan novels by Michelle West, to refresh before I read the latest book. It’s definitely scratching my epic fantasy itch. I’m so glad she moved to Patreon and self-publishing instead of giving up on finishing the story!
If you count graphic novels, I’m currently making my way through Sandman.
We definitely do.
It has been on my wishlist for a long time. How are you enjoying it?
Only about halfway through, but it’s been fantastic so far.
Reading a Finnish historian’s book based on his studies about slave trade in Eastern Europe, Finland and Karelia during the middle ages. No english title or translation, that I know of, but I’ll try to translate it:
Korpela, Jukka. 2014. Idän orjakauppa keskiajalla - Ihmisryöstöt Suomesta ja Karjalasta. SKS, Helsinki.
Korpela, Jukka. 2014. Eastern slave trade in the middle ages - Abduction of people from Finland and Karelia. SKS, Helsinki.
I have always heard about African slave trades, not much about slave trades in Eastern Europe. Should look up something on the topic.
There’s also a lot of other materiel written about Roman and Southern European slave trade during roman times and post-roman collapse in the so called dark ages.
Humans have been kinda the worst for most of history, pretty much everywhere.
The Exiled Fleet by JS Dewes. Really fun scifi and I dove into The Exiled Fleet immediately after finishing the first book, The Last Watch.
Just looked it up, it looks interesting.
Reading a couple things at the moment.
Wrapped up Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson a few weeks back. Before that I had been rereading Stormlight in it’s entirety now that I have nearly caught up with the Cosmere (outside of White Sand and the secret projects besides Sunlit).
I didn’t finish that reread and am smack in the middle of Oathbringer, which might be my favorite of the Stormlight novels.
Additionally just 10 minutes ago I finished Demon Copperhead, which was really quite fantastic in my eyes. I have family from Appalachia - my parents left the area in the late 90’s after moving to a city in the late 80’s. So it brought back a lot of memories of grandparent visits and trailer parks and gorgeous nature. And also all the burned out wrecked homes you can see if you ever drive around.
Other than Stormlight Archives, I am at same place in Cosmere with you, well also The Rithamist, but I am going to ignore that for now, will read when the sequel is coming out.
I know some folks swear that Rithamist is Sanderson’s best work and I am hesitant to try it.
I’ve tried Yumi a couple times, but haven’t been able to get into. I am excited to read Tress, however.
Finished earthsea except tales. Finished Livesuit by James sa Corey. Almost done with red rising by pierce brown now. Like them both a lot. Quite a welcome change of pace from leguin. I loved her stories but I listened to all of hainish and earthsea one after the other thing , so I’m ready for things with a bit more pace for a bit 😜
Heh, that’s a lot of reading. Any plans on what to read next?
Oh I’m just going to go through the rest of the red rising series. After that I’ll probably move on to malazan
The leguin books were over the last few months, I’m not that prolific ha. Livesuit and red rising were over the last two weeks, I just missed the last book thread
I’m reading Mistborn finally, and I’m enjoying it. I made a new years promise to read the nook books I paid for and never touched, or got one chapter in and quit. They’ve just been sitting there for a decade. Next up is Hell: A Novel.
My fiancée told me to read Dracula, so that’s what I’m reading now - between the 1st time she told me and now I’ve read the Green Mile and the Running Man, so I couldn’t postpone it any longer.
I’m listening to At the Mountains of Madness after having finished the Fall of Hyperion, as a break from Hyperion Cantos.
For the last few years I have doing a ‘big read’ of something over the course of each year - War and Peace, In Search of Lost Time, Finnegans Wake and, in 2024, Romance of the Three Kingdoms. There is some enduringly memorable material in each of those, and reading them has been quite an experience but I have decided to take a break from that format of reading and just have a year of SF in 2025 - catching up on some that I have long meant to read, starting with Dan Simmons’ Hyperion. Just finished the Scholar’s Tale so far and am thoroughly hooked.
Otherwise, I am most of the way through Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner - which I believe was recommended in this community a while back - which is notable if for no other reason than it includes the first use of the term infangthief that I have encountered since reading 1066 And All That in my teens. And also a recent Doctor Who audionovel The Lord of Misrule by Paul Morris, which is an enjoyably nostalgic tale featuring some beloved characters (as read by Jon Culshaw), but overall nothing exceptional so far.
Currently in the middle of Tress of the Emerald Sea. Just finished Task Force Hammer.
Stormlight book 5 just came out and I finished it about 2 weeks ago.
Just bookmarking for recommendations. I should read more.
