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What are you reading?

I just finished Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski. I don't know if it's the translation or the less than stellar transition from short stories to a novel, but Blood of Elves didn't do much for compared to The Last Wish or Sword of Destiny. However, I'm starting Time of Contempt tomorrow, so here's to hoping it'll come close to The Last Wish or Sword of Destiny.
 
I have recently finished reading the first two Dumarest books by E. C. Tubb, the Winds of Gath and Derai. They remind me what I enjoy of older books, the page count isn't bloat. Each book is only 150 pages long and manage to tell a complete story, granted there are 30 some Dumarest books which I do intend to track down over time.

As for the stories themselves, Dumarest is a sci-fi and one of the inspirations behind the TTRPG Traveller. Most notably the low birth passage where there is a chance of not making it out of suspended animation in both works. The titular character Earl Dumarest is a traveller by nature and is from our future earth. In this setting though earth is considered a fable at best or mark of a fool. Who goes and calls a planet dirt?

Winds of Gath has Dumarest wind up on a planet he does not want to visit because the ship he was on gets chartered by some royalty to go see some once a year natural phenomenon. There is a back drop of intrigue and action as Dumarest just passes through the lives of others. Derai has him being contracted to escort a woman, Derai, who falls in love with him and him her and the tragedy that develops from there as she's a telepath and member of a planets nobility.

Not high literature by any means; but I had fun with them.
 
Time of Contempt was better than Blood of Elves, but I still think the short stories are Sapkowski's best works. At the moment I'm reading Baptism of Fire, which had a promising start. Seeing how The Swallow's Tower and The Lady of the Lake aren't in English yet, I'll be starting Gene Wolfe's The Book of the New Sun series next Monday.
 
I'm a terrible person.

Last week was the first week in three months that I haven't read and completed a book. I was going to read Gene Wolfe's The Shadow of the Torturer and The Claw of the Conciliator, but with a friend's recommendation I decided to read Patrick Rothfuss' The Name of the Wind. Long story short? It's bad. Slightly longer story? It's really bad. I'm not a great writer nor have I ever claimed to be one. At best I'm an average writer, but it doesn't take a New York bestseller to know mediocre writing when I see it. Rothfuss' prose simply doesn't do anything for me and don't get me started on how dull the characters are.

Yesterday I started Half A King by Joe Abercrombie and I'll finish it Sunday. I then plan on finishing the rest of the series, in the following two weeks. Admittedly I had Abercrombie fatigue after reading his First Law trilogy and Best Served Cold, having to put Heroes done. However, I consider Abercrombie to be an amazing writer, perhaps even better than Martin. Abercrombie is like Martin, if Martin had an editor.
 
Gene Wolfe is always a good choice. I need to re-read his Book of the New Sun, see what I pick up now that I've read it once. I will agree with you on Rothfuss, I've read both of his novels and I'm not even sure why. The words are fairly engaging but nothing stellar, the characters empty and I'm just not intrigued at all by the world he's presented. Yet I still read them.

Abercrombie is just a fun writer in my mind. I've not read his Red Country or Half a King books; but I have loved the way he just pulls you into the setting. Glokta was by far my favourite character and Best Served Cold book. If I were to compare him to Martin it'd be his first three Ice and Fire books, which I just burned through when I encountered them. I had to force myself through Feast of Crows and the last one I can't bring myself to finish.

Currently I've been reading Leiber's Swords of Lankhmar. Revisiting Fafhrd and Grey Mouser is always a delight, and a great source of inspiration for my world building.
 
Nihilistic_Impact said:
Gene Wolfe is always a good choice. I need to re-read his Book of the New Sun, see what I pick up now that I've read it once. I will agree with you on Rothfuss, I've read both of his novels and I'm not even sure why. The words are fairly engaging but nothing stellar, the characters empty and I'm just not intrigued at all by the world he's presented. Yet I still read them.

Abercrombie is just a fun writer in my mind. I've not read his Red Country or Half a King books; but I have loved the way he just pulls you into the setting. Glokta was by far my favourite character and Best Served Cold book. If I were to compare him to Martin it'd be his first three Ice and Fire books, which I just burned through when I encountered them. I had to force myself through Feast of Crows and the last one I can't bring myself to finish.

Currently I've been reading Leiber's Swords of Lankhmar. Revisiting Fafhrd and Grey Mouser is always a delight, and a great source of inspiration for my world building.
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I heard the New Sun series is similar in that it's first person with an unreliable narrator. To think I chose a no body over a man who won a Nebula award and was a Hugo nominee eight times. Right as you already know what happens, allowing you to focus on your attention on what's going on in the background.

Abercrombie is only second to London in my eyes. Like you said he's able to create a rich and beautiful if grim dark world, with nearly living, breathing characters. I'm still a little salty about Shivers and Monza. Don't get me wrong I didn't like how Logen's and Ferro's relationship ended, but Shivers and Monza ended up was just tragic. Oh so you mean when Martin was a writer and not a literary whore? Don't get me wrong he should make money from his work, but he's milking it for all it's worth. I find it laughable when people are excited for Winds of Winter, when it's only going to lead to disappointment.

I'd recommend giving the Shattered Sea trilogy a shot. While it's a "young adult" series, I find it to be highly enjoyable as Abercrombie sticks to his grim dark guns. It's also a lot more cheerful than his First Law and First World trilogies.
 
Reading the manuscript of a guy who really needed a beta-reader as part of a critique exchange. I guess the last thing I read, if you count Audio Books, was a few books on investment by Robert Kiyosaki, like Rich Dad Poor Dad. The last fiction book I read? Sweet jesus, I need to read more. It was the last Dresden Files novel, right when it came out like a year and a half ago.

It doesn't help that I keep getting recommended "young adult" novels like Maze Runner stuff that runs on pure garbage pretenses. "We're gonna try to make a vaccine by feeding children into a meat grinder, because adults are stupid and putting people in groups is wrong!" There was this SNL skit about the "group-jumping young adult protagonist who shows up with the plot device conveniently in his pocket". So cliche it hurt. "GROUP JUMPER: THE MOVIE! Put him in a group...and he'll jump right the fuck out of it!"
 
I started reading Jazz by Toni Morrison a while back but haven't had the time to finish reading it. Classes have started so the only things I really read are my textbooks and study guides.
 
Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett..

And I just got e-books for just about every Battletech novel for my pulp Sci-Fi fix.
 
After posting here a little bit ago I realized just how long it had been since I last read any good fiction, so I just ordered two novels by China Mieville which I hope are good. Kraken and Railsea. Kinda steampunk-sounding but who knows.
 
And since yesterday: A dance with dragons.

THANKS god! I had the translated copies first and while the first books were gorgeous the translation of the last Martin SUCKED. So bad I couldnt read it. But now I have the original and am so happy!
 
I have a terrible habit of reading three ot four books simultaneously: "this is my living room book," I'll say, "and this is the book I'm reading in bed because I forgot my book in the living room, and this is the emergency back-up book in my car, and..."

I suspect I'm not alone in this. :)

Anyway, I'm currently reading Consider Your Options, which is an introductory text about equity compensation plans. And Carl Sagan's Pale Blue Dot. And Hammer Down by Moira Rogers. And a book of Norse myths whose title escapes me at the moment. And Pride and Prejudice, using an app that sends 2 - 3 chapters to my phone each day.

Focus? I don't needno stinking focus!
 
We have two cars, so I have a book for each. One car has Titus Groan, the other Bacchus and Civic Order: The Culture of Drink in Early Modern Germany the Culture of Drink in Early Modern Germany.

I generally have one or two books that I read at work, I recently just finished Ghost Brigade, so I need to pick a new one for work.

Then I have three books for the bathroom:
Crusader Warfare Volume 1 Byzantium, Western Europe and the Battle for the Holy Land
Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier
Guerrillas and Generals: The Dirty War in Argentina

On my night stand I have:
The Spanish Holocaust: Inquisition and Extermination in Twentieth-Century Spain
Northwest of Earth: The Complete Northwest Smith
Tales of the Dying Earth

In the living room I have:
Cities Under Siege: The New Military Urbanism
The Swords of Lankhmar
The Artillery of the Dukes of Burgundy, 1363-1477

And this has nothing on the books currently shelved tell I pick them back up again, such as Midnight Tides, Fourth Crusade: The Conquest of Constantinople or The Sagas of Icelanders. To only name a few.

So yes, I read multiple books at once because I often jump books as my interests change from day to day.
 
The Alexiad by Anna Komnene.

Speaking of which, @Nihilistic_Impact, is set literally during the same time frame I think as Crusader Warfare Volume 1 Byzantium, Western Europe and the Battle for the Holy Land. Would you consider it a good read for any Byzantine historian?
 
I've not read enough of it yet to say for sure, and I have no academic backing to really declare it good or bad as well; what I will say is that from the foreword is that the author is endeavouring to present the crusades as multi-faceted events driven not just by religious furore.
 
-Observing The Erotic Imagination by Robert Stoller.
-The Fairy Tales of Hermann Hesse by Hermann Hesse.
-I'm waiting on a package from Amazon containing Tales from Both Sides of the Brain: A Life in Neuroscience by Michael S. Gazzaniga.
 
Custer's Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America by TJ Stiles.

Oh, and I am rereading: "Option volatility and pricing strategies"
 
I'm finishing Half the World by Joe Abercrombie later today, and if Brand and Thorn don't get together I'm going to boycott future Abercrombie books.....Not really, but still. I love grim dark as much as the next guy, but come on Abercrombie let people be happy for once. Even if it's a little bit. Still Half the World like his other works is amazing, regardless of the Shattered Sea trilogy being for "Young Adults".
 
Working on Half A War now and man does Abercrombie know how to pull at my heart strings. I'm just glad Brand and Thorn got together in the end. Here's to hoping the same for Rin and Koll, along with Raith and Skara. I'm not ashamed to say I have a soft spot for romance.

Edit - Fucking Abercrombie. I won't spoil it for potential future readers, but I'm not to happy with what just happened.
 
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