Last Book: Is Math Real? - Eugenia Chang
Reading: The Greeks, A Global history - Roderick Beaton
I would recommend both if either subject interests you.
“Is Math Real?” is a really fun book, and gives the brain a lot to chew on. It asks the “stupid questions” of math and explains why they aren’t so stupid.
“The Greeks” is incredibly well written and researched, and goes into many details that aren’t well known about Greek history. This is a subject that has always interested me because of my heritage, and I have learned a lot.
Would you care to share any examples of the math questions?
I can give you the first one!
The book opens up with “Why does 1 + 1 = 2?”, and goes on to explain an answer to the question, including ways where “1 + 1 != 2” and why.
The last book I read was Monstrous Regiment, a Discworld book that had somehow slipped past me.
It was pretty good. It’s more or less a stand alone book in the setting with some minor cameos by established characters. There is one conceit that the book runs on, which you’ll likely catch onto early, but it manages to mix up how it uses that conceit to keep it fresh enough. The ending big action set piece is contrived even for Discworld action, but the book really isn’t about the action anyway so it gets a pass. B+ book, one of the lesser Discworld books which still puts it way above most other books.
Such an awesome universe.
Last book: Murderbot Diaries - Network Effect by Martha Wells
Current book: Daring Greatly by Brene Brown
The first book is really fun. Lot’s of action and witty characters with a lot of development.
The second book might change your life. It made me realize just how much emotion I’ve not been letting myself feel for the last two decades.
Last book: The Hero of Ages (Mistborn) by Brandon Sanderson
Current book: Wind and Truth (Stormlight Archive) by Brandon Sanderson
I would 1000% recommend these books and other Cosmere books to anyone that enjoys fantasy but with the caveat of being aware of the Sanderlanche. Pretty much every book this guy writes takes time building everything up so it can feel quite slow, but then towards the end you get your avalanche of action, quick story progression, and answers to questions you get throughout the books.
I second this! Cosmere is a wonderful universe to get into! Here’s a nice illustration I found online for the reading order:
Just finished Empire in Black and Gold by Adrian Tchaikovsky, very much enjoyed that. I’ve just started Midnight and Blue by Ian Rankin. It’s off to a cracking start - Rebus is in prison, what the what now?
As ever though I’m reading dozens of books. Most disappointing is John & Paul, A Love Story in Songs, by Ian Leslie. I bought it after going to a talk by the author. I’m a Beatles fan since childhood, so I thought it would be interesting. Well I guess I’m not a REAL Beatles fan, because I’m finding it tedious. Chapter 7 and it’s still only 1962! I mean sure, it’s fascinating that as a child, George Martin’s family shared a communal lavatory with three other families, but please can we get back to the main subject?
Best of the rest is The Rise and Reign of the Mammals, by Steve Brusatte. Section 4 and we’re only up to the Cretaceous, lol. I love this book, not just for the critters, but for the paleontologists, some amazing characters with epic stories of working with teeny tiny bones.
Last: Undivided, by Neal Shusterman This is the 4th/last in his series that begins with Unwind. I really enjoyed the whole series and recommend for anyone who enjoys dystopian themes and doesn’t mind a touch of body horror.
Current: Mort, by Terry Pratchett. I’d read a bunch of the Rincewind Discworld novels ages ago and this is my jumping back in point for that universe. Would recommend to those who like silly fantasy and British humor.
Last book I finished was Hail Mary by Andy Weir. Solid read, get it done before the movie comes out.
About to start the Kaiju Preservation Project by John Scalzi, no idea on that one yet, but Scalzi does good work in general.
Last one I can’t reccomend is The Book of Elsewhere by China Miéville and Keanu Reeves. I’m a big fan of the BRZRKR comics so I jumped at the chance for a novel in that universe… aaand it’s largely unreadable. :(
The Neverending Story by Michael Ende
100%
Last book I read was Bee Speaker by Adrian Tchaikovsky. I normally love his stuff, and I loved both Dogs of War and Bear Head, but Bee Speaker was awful. Such a disappointment.
Currently I’m reading Old Man’s War by John Scalzi.
Oh no, I’m sad to hear Bee Speaker disappointed. It’s on my list - I also loved Bear Head. I’ve just finished Empire of Black and Gold, first book in his Shadows of the Apt series. It was pretty good, good enough for me to try the next Apt book.
Last book: Children of ruin. I didnt really like this one, while i was in awe of the brilliance of Children of time.
Currently reading a non-fiction book called The genius of birds. I already knew from direct experience how smart birds are, including ones that people perceive as dumb, like pigeons. But this book really gives a different perspective in how birds are complex creatures that adapt to their environments in intelligent ways, and how other birds will instantly copy these novel ways.
The Puppet Masters by Robert A. Heinlein, and now onto Invasion of the Body Snatches by Jack Finney. After that I will then read Village of the Damned by John Wyndham.
Last book : the wheel of time (#5) by R. Jordan. I don’t really recommend. I mean the story’s great but the way the characters are written is dull and sexist (men saying that women are mysteries, women complaining about how men are dumb and other ridiculous clichés), it feels like following people that are somewhat the worse of both teens and boomers, it takes me out of the book every single time. I prefer the king killer chronicles (P. Rothfuss) although we’re still waiting for the last book.
Current book : Trapped (C. Lackberg and H Fexeus) it is a great polar, with nice twists, I recommend!
For me, the wheels came off the bus in the fourth book of Wheel of Time series. I realized I just didn’t care about another road trip where the gang becomes separated and runs off in different directions.
Yeah that too, you’re right. You get hooked into the rythm of one group and, at the next chapter, you’re taken away from them, following another part of the story in which you are not currently invested.
I could only just get through Name of the Wind many years ago. As I was reading it something just felt off and was bothering me massively, I then came to the realisation that the main character (Kvothe) was just too perfect. His flaws were the world around him, not himself, and really the only fault that could be considered was that he was so good at everything he would do too much and get burnt out.
Is the second book better, and would you say it’s worth reading given the third one is nowhere in sight?
That’s interesting. I didn’t feel that way so I’m probably not the best to say whether it changes in book 2. It probably doesn’t as both felt like a fairly coherent story with an homogeneous approach. Anyone else felt that Kvothe was too perfect and would be able to enlighten us about whether it gets better in book 2?
If you like heroes that make mistakes and aren’t perfect (which completely makes sense btw) maybe you’d enjoy the Dresden files by J. Butcher (low urban fantasy in which you follow a mage in Chicago).
Last book (reading with my kid): The Wild Robot Escapes. Definitely would recommend, nearly on par with the first.
Current book: The Wild Robot Protects. Would recommend if you’re a fan of the series; otherwise, it seems like a step down so far.
I am reading Moon Zappa’s autobiography, I just finished 1000 Acres by Jane Smiley, which I REALLY recommend, and I’m also reading the collected Wendell Berry, Margaret Atwood’s latest short story collection Babes In The Woods, and the book about the Toronto Gay Village murders. All very good, I am decidedly not into true crime but it happened close to me and one of my friends was part of the Village and they told the cops several times that people were going missing. I feel awful for all the victims, but especially for the very closeted religious ones whose wives and children got to find out their fathers were queer because they found parts of them in a planter, and the whole world got to find out too. It’s not nice to posthumously out someone even under the circumstances when it will have such a profound effect on their families.
Last finished: The Unaccountability Machine: Why Big Systems Make Terrible Decisions—and How the World Lost Its Mind by Dan Davies.
Currently reading: Language Machines: Cultural AI and the End of Remainder Humanism by Leif Weatherby.
They’re about how two mid-20th century intellectual movements (cybernetics and structuralism, respectively) that would have provided valuable tools for managing contemporary issues (institutional collapse and artificial intelligence) were sidetracked in the 70s and 80s by other movements (neoliberalism and poststructuralism), and proposals for updating them for our present needs.
