What book are you reading...

[Cromulent]

Thought I would give "The Eye Of The World" (Robert Jordan) a try after watching the Wheel Of Time TV show.

Reserved at the library and after waiting ages turned up this week, so broke off a re-read of The Witcher books to make a start.

TBH about 60 pages in and I'm bored stiffless. Kind of reads like a low rent LOTR, drops you in this world which seems to take up pages and pages of prose but little in the way of action or setting the scene in a way that acquaints you with the world or generate empathy with the characters. In short, it seems very rambling and more than a little abstract. I see myself struggling to finish this book, let alone another 14 x 800 pages in similar style.

Who will convince me to perservere with it?

I've read the whole series a couple of times and absolutely love it. It does end up being a bit complex with all the different threads of the story but I'd highly recommend sticking it out.

 

[AndyCr15]

I read The Poet by Michael Connelly. It was a little odd, in that everything was seemingly handed to us, until three quarters of the way in and everything then got mysterious and started twisting. There was also maybe one too many twists, I'm not sure I fully understood the 'why' for the end. I think I prefer his work that is mysterious all the way, then maybe a twist and a reveal. (Currently enjoying Angels Flight)

 

[j.col]

I just finished Bosch book 5 (Trunk Music) and I'm nearly done with Reacher book 5 (Echo Burning) and I'm really enjoying them. I have one more Nick Stone in my library, but might drop them from my rotation.

Can anyone recommend any other series like Bosch and Reacher? Thanks.

The Logan Mcrae books by Stuart Mcbride are excellent imo.
I just re-read the whole Michael Connelly collection of books a few months back.

 

[j.col]

Thought I would give "The Eye Of The World" (Robert Jordan) a try after watching the Wheel Of Time TV show.

Reserved at the library and after waiting ages turned up this week, so broke off a re-read of The Witcher books to make a start.

TBH about 60 pages in and I'm bored stiffless. Kind of reads like a low rent LOTR, drops you in this world which seems to take up pages and pages of prose but little in the way of action or setting the scene in a way that acquaints you with the world or generate empathy with the characters. In short, it seems very rambling and more than a little abstract. I see myself struggling to finish this book, let alone another 14 x 800 pages in similar style.

Who will convince me to perservere with it?

Stick with it!!!
Its one of my favourite series of books i have ever read.
Admittedly there is a lot of waffle, and there are a few weak books in the series, but when its good its very good.
Its on my Kobo, so i will re-read the whole series soon, can't wait.

 

[Terminal_Boy]

Sounds like they’re written in a similar style to The Thomas Convenant books by Stephen Donaldson.

The first instalment of which is the only book that I got 3 chapters into before yeeting it into the bin.

 

[Meridian]

Best description I ever heard of Stephen Donaldson was: "What people who have never read good writing think good writing looks like." I read him when I was about nineteen and didn't know any better - and really enjoyed his stuff. Tried to re-read some about thirty years later and saw how accurate that quote was.

Currently reading "Babel" by R F Kuang. It's one of those books where even if you agree with the ideas (I do) you still wish the author could stop hitting you over the head with them. That said she has created a genuinely original form of magic, based on the problems of translation.

 

[checjb]

Best description I ever heard of Stephen Donaldson was: "What people who have never read good writing think good writing looks like." I read him when I was about nineteen and didn't know any better - and really enjoyed his stuff. Tried to re-read some about thirty years later and saw how accurate that quote was.

Currently reading "Babel" by R F Kuang. It's one of those books where even if you agree with the ideas (I do) you still wish the author could stop hitting you over the head with them. That said she has created a genuinely original form of magic, based on the problems of translation.

Same experience. I loved the original TC trilogy when I was in my early teens but tried again in my 30s and thought it was shockingly poor and Covenant was a truly awful protagonist.

 

[PC777]

Was recommended a Youtube video yesterday of Mark Lanegan reading a chapter from his autobiography, Sing Backwards and Weep, and bought the Kindle version soon after. Great book, 50% through already as very hard to put down.

He was the lead singer of Screaming Trees, one of the lesser known grunge bands, but it has lots of first hand memoirs of touring with and being friends with other more successful bands, including Alice in Chains and Nirvana, being good friends with both Layne Stayley and Kurt Cobain. Going through all the ups and mostly downs of success and serious addiction.

He's an excellent writer that passed away himself only a couple of years back, definitely one of the best music autobiographies I've read so far, I've read quite a few as well.

The free sample on Kindle is quite a few pages long and also Youtube has a few videos of his reading the audiobook as well.

 

[Vern1961]

Stick with it!!!
Its one of my favourite series of books i have ever read.
Admittedly there is a lot of waffle, and there are a few weak books in the series, but when its good its very good.
Its on my Kobo, so i will re-read the whole series soon, can't wait.

Well I'm now 120 pages in and yes the story suddenly picks up after the Trolloc attack. I will need to find myself a decent map of the ETW world as the Tolkienesque ones in the book are a bit squinty for my old eyes.

Biggest issue is that 800 pages is a lot to get through in my normal reading routine for a three week library loan, which will probably be reserved again already so can't renew. Have to step up my reading time vs. gaming or do something like FSX where I can start a flight going then read while it runs in the background.

But yes the encouragement is appreciated, thank you.

 

[j.col]

Well I'm now 120 pages in and yes the story suddenly picks up after the Trolloc attack. I will need to find myself a decent map of the ETW world as the Tolkienesque ones in the book are a bit squinty for my old eyes.

Biggest issue is that 800 pages is a lot to get through in my normal reading routine for a three week library loan, which will probably be reserved again already so can't renew. Have to step up my reading time vs. gaming or do something like FSX where I can start a flight going then read while it runs in the background.

But yes the encouragement is appreciated, thank you.

I find myself in your position now and again.
But if a book grabs you, i find games etc. often take a back seat lol.

Have you ever considered going digital eg. E.books?
I think i have over 2000 books on my pc lol

edit.
My E.book folder is 32gb, the average size of a book is about 500kb. Most of the books are doubled eg. in Epub & Mobi formats with the occasional .Azw format.
So an average size for a book on my pc is about 1.2mb.
So i have roughly between 25k to 30k books on my pc

 

[Doco]

I took a notion middle of last year and picked up a fair ammout of classics, as well as a few other books that I thought would interest me

Finally got through them within the last month, as I'm not currently reading them, and they are in the read pile, il not list them

But replenished my to read pile to keep me going a while, currently reading to kill a mockingbird, on track to finish it tomorrow by the looks of it.

 

[Cromulent]

Currently reading The Colour of Magic by Pratchett. I read it before about 15 years ago and decided to get it as an ebook. Loving it so far. Next read after that is The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy which I have also read in the past but many years ago.

 

[Terminal_Boy]

Same experience. I loved the original TC trilogy when I was in my early teens but tried again in my 30s and thought it was shockingly poor and Covenant was a truly awful protagonist.

That would appear to have been my problem. I tried to read the first TC book in my mid-20s having already read a bunch of other fantasy and sci-fi novels by good writers.

 

[Taziir]

I find myself in your position now and again.
But if a book grabs you, i find games etc. often take a back seat lol.

Have you ever considered going digital eg. E.books?
I think i have over 2000 books on my pc lol

edit.
My E.book folder is 32gb, the average size of a book is about 500kb. Most of the books are doubled eg. in Epub & Mobi formats with the occasional .Azw format.
So an average size for a book on my pc is about 1.2mb.
So i have roughly between 25k to 30k books on my pc

Getting an ebook reader absolutely transformed my reading habits (I'm using a cheap one from the rainforest).
I'm currently up to book 8 or so in Wheel of Time - agreed some parts are very baggy where characters are pottering around and not really progressing the plot - these parts could have done with tighter editing. Story telling is excellent when the author comes up with the next curveball to disrupt things.

I took time out from the series to pick up Origins by Dan Brown (at the urging from my wife). As usual he's still obsessed by religion, but given the book came out 7 years ago his take on AI developments and it's impact feel remarkably contemporary.

 

[Bassmansam]

Book 3 of the farseer trilogy. I do like reading but im terribly inconsisntent. One week i can read 20-30 mins before bed and then the next i won’t pick it up at all and so on.

 

[j.col]

Book 3 of the farseer trilogy. I do like reading but im terribly inconsisntent. One week i can read 20-30 mins before bed and then the next i won’t pick it up at all and so on.

If you like the Farseer trilogy, try her Liveship Traders books, i actually preferred them.

 

[Bassmansam]

If you like the Farseer trilogy, try her Liveship Traders books, i actually preferred them.

Definitely on the list, although i’m going to do the kingkiller chronicle next.

 

[Vern1961]

Have you ever considered going digital eg. E.books?
I think i have over 2000 books on my pc lol

TBH I prefer paper books over PC or something like Kindle. Just call me old fashioned! I mean I spend a fair bit of time looking at the iPad and/or PC screen gaming etc. so it's nice not to burn the retinas out with even more VDU usage (maybe a topic for a separate thread).

Anyhow just passed Page 200 in Eye Of The World and really getting into the story now. To anyone else picking this up have got to reprise the advice I was given earlier, stick with it and get through the first few chapters which are basically akin to "A Long Awaited Party" in LOTR FOTR.

 

[potatolord]

Finished Flashman and the Mountain Of Light.

It's about the first anglo-sikh war and is very well-written, and funny, too.

 

[RobHu]

Definitely on the list, although i’m going to do the kingkiller chronicle next.

I wouldn't risk the kingkiller chronicle until the 3rd book is out if I were you. It's about a decade late so far! The first two books are amazing though.