Books

Almost done with The Hydrogen Sonata by Banks. Not sure yet what to read afterwards. It's a luxury problem. I have too many books I still have to read. Choices, choices.

Working my way through the Cosmere. Doing “The Bands of Mourning” right now. Love Mistborn, can’t wait to get to Stormlight.

I'm still reading Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson (Stormlight book 2). It's going great so far! Some moves that I really wasn't expecting from Sanderson. And amazing characters all around.

Just finished Expanse 7 (and 7.5) novella. Loved them. Number 7 has been my favourite so far. Also just finished 3 novellas making a trilogy called Binti. I try to read authors different gender or race from me. Binti trilogy was a fun and interesting read. If you don't love it, after book 1 (around 150 pages) it wraps up in a way you wouldn't need to read the others.

Reading my first non-fic for the year now. I usually try to read 4-6 non-fiction out of my 30-35/year. Reading "Down With the System" by Serj Tankian. I'll probably make "Walking Disaster" and "Smart, but Scattered" two of my others this year.

Waiting for my reading buddy to catch up so I can start Stormlight 5 and read "Between Two Fires"

I just finished The Housemaid, by Freida McFadden and found it to be a gripping page-turner, very quick to read, and thoroughly enjoyable. However, I was a bit disappointed by the ending, which didn't quite match the level of the rest of the book. It seemed like the author struggled to find a satisfying conclusion. As is often the case with such an engrossing read, the ending can feel a bit underwhelming. Perhaps an 'open' ending would have been a better choice.

I just started The Housemaid's Secret by Freida McFadden, continuing with the series and hoping it will be equally gripping.

Currently I'm a few chapters into Wind and Truth. It's the last book in the first arc of the Stormlight Archives and I've been enjoying it so far. No major revelations have been made yet but the story's going at a great pace.

I'm still deep into He who fights with monsters by Shirtaloon. Need to pick up some pace though, when I want to finish my bingo on time. Still two entire books to go!

I recently finished the Silo trilogy by Hugh Howey and absolutely hated it lol so now I'm doing the Mars trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson and absolutely loving it

I'm just about done with Shaman by Kim Stanley Robinson, I've read most of his work and this might be his strongest work. It's clear from the Mars and science in the capitol trilogies that the man is obsessed with stone age culture so it's an obvious choice of setting for him and unlike much of the rest of his work it's a simple and self contained story.

I'm also a few chapters into Julia by Sandra Newman, a retelling of 1984 from Julia's pov. Very evocative and well written so far, looking forward to the rest of the book.

Still working on Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman. I'm finally halfway through! It's still enjoyable, and not slow at all, but I'm starting to get impatient to finish it; I might have to try a bit harder to find time to read.

A re-read of Dune Messiah. Plots within plots. I usually do a re-read between new (to me) books. My last book was Stormlight 5, I'm still digesting it, but Dune is probably doing to be finished tonight.

I my plan was to read Parable of the Talents next, it's my first time through Earthseed. The first one, Parable of the Sower, I struggled to start just because I heard the world is bleak and I didn't want more bleak in my life. The world is certainly bleak.

If not Earthseed I might start re-reading Mistborn for Era 3 while thinking of something new to read. I did two new books back-back Parable and Stormlight, so it's only reasonable to do 2 re-reads next.

Just about finishing listening to The Kremlin's Candidate. And just started reading (yet again) The Lord Of The Rings. This time on Kindle.

I have just finished The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart and Jesus Christ was it a slog to get through. I dont know if it was the way it was written (auto biographical style) or something else but I found it took a really interesting idea / concept and managed to deliver it in the most mind numbingly dull way.

It went far too in depth on some of the situations described during the course of the book that I really felt were unnecessary and ignored other opportunities to expand on other, more interesting aspects.

On the whole I wouldn't necessarily say it was a bad book but would I recommend it to anyone? I doubt it.

After this I went back to my comfy place at the moment, being the deathlands books for number 46 to find they have changed half of the cast of voice actors in the Graphic Audio adaptation I listen to.

I guess it makes sense in terms of how long they will have been recording these books but the new voice actor for the main character is fucking dire compared to the one I'm used to and lends the character a different feel in a particularly negative way.

I'm not going to give up with them yet and I hold out the hope it will get better. Failing that hopefully I'll at least get used to these new actors.

On the whole a disappointing week!

• The Critique of Digital Capitalism by Eileen Joy
• Shakespeare for Children by Charles and Mary Lamb