It's time. I've started my annual trek through Middle-earth. I'm reading the first book of The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. I've been looking forward to this all year long. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to lose myself in Eriador.

Just finished Blindsight by Peter Watts (fucking excellent, possibly a new favourite)

Gonna try tackling House of Leaves again now that I'm all done school!

This week I started The Dresden Files and have made it to the end of the second book in three days. So enjoying it so far!

Thanks for the rec ;p

I started reading The Enemy by Lee Child. Not my first choice, but a friend gave me all her old books last Christmas so I feel somewhat obligated to read it. It's easy to read, and it's thrilling enough to compel me onwards, but the dialogue is vapid and there's a lot of Clancyisms where the story will focus on over romanticising the army, kplus I think one chapter only existed so the author could use as many homophobic slurs as he knew, which was off-putting.

Working through the Red Rising series by Pierce Brown I’m on the third book Morning Star at the moment.

I just finished Pachinko. I don’t get the hype. Interesting historical perspective regarding Koreans in Japan that I didn’t have. Decent story premise, but really flat writing. I cared enough to finish the book, but overall it was a big “meh” for me.

Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive book 4, Rhythm of War. I opened Way of Kings for the first time 5 weeks ago and 3600ish pages later I'm still engrossed. I'd planned on waiting for the series to finish but I missed chewing through epic fantasy on this scale.

Once I'm caught up through book #5 I'm thinking its time for another go at Malazan.

Other than Martin, Rothfuss and Jordan are there any other works with similar scale/complexity/depth as Stormlight and Malazan?

I'm having a Mistborn summer, already coming towards the end of #2 of 7! Sandon Branderson sure does write long books, but these are like popcorn, lots of action and easy reads

Continuing on with my summer reading, I've picked up I, Robot (Asimov) and Professor and the Madman (Winchester) from the library.

I also checked out Hatchet (Paulsen). My niece is reading it, figured it'd be fun and quick to join in.

On the listening side, I've been going through Disrupting the Game by Reggie Fils-Aime since he reads the audiobook himself. It's very directed towards the business advice angle, but there's good biographical and Nintendo history info in there.

Currently working my way through This Inevitable Ruin the 7th book in the DCC series. Really enjoying this series and glad I picked it up.

Also listening to Queens at War the last book in Aliison Weir's series on English Medieval Queens. Thr series has been a bit hit and miss. Feels at times the Queen being documented isnt always at the forefront, but its a lot of information I never knew.

I'm currently very slowly making my way through The Invincible by Stanislaw Lem. Still in the setup phase about 20% of the way through; looking forward to seeing how it goes.

Last week, read/finished The Faerie Hounds of York by Arden Powell. Heavier on the romance than I normally go for, but the actual plot was intriguing, and the fae were thankfully kept quite alien. Kinda insta-lovey, kinda eye-roll romance trope-y in places, but if you don't mind that, it might be worth a look.

Currently working my way through book 3 of "The Sun Eater" series by Christopher Ruocchio. Enjoying the books so far!

Finished "BuyMort: Smart shopper" and started the third book "BuyMort: Rise of the Windowpuncher". They're a nice read, reminds me of the first books in the DCC series. On that note, also reading "a parade of horribles", the latest DCC book. That one is going to take a long time since I usually only read one chapter of it before going to sleep.

Just started my reread of The Restoration of Rome: Barbarian Popes and Imperial Pretenders after about 20 years. I remember enjoying it the first time. It’s a look at three separate attempts to restore the greatness of Rome (Theodoric in c475, Justinian c572 and Charlemagne c800)

Just finished:

• Lázár: a fascinating novel about an aristocratic Hungarian family from ~1880s through the 1950s. Man, they were awful people
• The Undiscovered Country: Triumph, Tragedy and the Shaping of the American West: I wanted this to be better than it was. A look at the eras of The West through men who epitomized the era… starting in the mid 1700s with George Washington and Daniel Boone, then moving forward to Sitting Bull and Wild Bill Hickok. Unfortunately the book falls prey to the “let me just give you a series of events with varying levels of detail” form of history instead of successfully weaving a coherent narrative across 180 years of history
• The Witch by Marie NDiaye: short listed for the 2026 international Booker prize after not much critical acclaim during the original printing in 1996. It was fine. An interesting story and a unique one at that, but didn’t say much. The translation from French to English was good, I think it could have been fleshed out more and been a better read

I've been having a great time reading Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa. Highly recommend this book.

I am currently reading the Pizza and Focaccia chapter from Flour Water Salt Yeast by Ken Forkish. I'm planning on making pizza later this week and realized I hadn't read the methodology in one sitting.

I am also reading Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges. I've started with with the Universal History of Iniquity. I'm enjoying them very much.

I'm listening to Good Omens (obligatory fuck Neil Gaiman), but the audiobook is fantastic. Could easily see myself re-listening over and over as a comfort read.

Reading a memoir by Travis Alabanza called None of the Above, which is a memoir about the non-binary experience technically but I highly recommend to anyone who wants to see the gendered world we live in from a new perspective. It is so fucking good.

Looking forward to starting How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures by Sabrina Imbler. Another memoir which I'll be reading for my book club.

I've just finished The Sign of the Unicorn by Roger Zelazny. It's book three of the Amber Chronicles. I've read it many, many times before, but not for about twenty years.

I'm about to finish "Sheepfarmer's Daughter" by Elizabeth Moon. I started the book because after watching Superman last year I wanted something paladin related. I have to say it's been pretty good! The bits and pieces that are shown of the lore make the world very interesting, and the characters are good as well.

I'll probably take a break between the first book and the next one, but I'll try to finish The Deed of Paksenarrion before the year ends.

Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty. Super interesting so far!

Doing a reread of Book of the Long Sun by Gene Wolfe with chapter by chapter with alzabo soup along side!

I'm rereading Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. It's just as good as I remember it. I'm excited to continue with the series!

Currently reading The Dispossessed by Ursula K Le Guin.I read it decades ago and liked it but with increasing age comes an even deeper appreciation.

We're recording the next episode of the podcast on Friday, where we're talking about Delilah S Dawson's sapphic horror Bloom and I'll find out then what our next group read is.

I recently picked up I Will Kill Your Imaginary Friend for $200 by Robert Brockway and thought it was pretty good. So I looked for some more stuff by him and found Carrier Wave. It's a mixed bag. The first parts are great, but then it kind of loses its way and meanders for a while, then the ending is just meh. It's strongly influenced by The Stand (especially the ending) and World War Z so if you like either of those it might be worth a look.

After Carrier Wave I started There Is No Antimemetics Division and I'm about halfway through. It's really good.

About 1/3 through Still Life With Crows by Preston and Child. In a deviation from my usual pattern, I'm reading the AXL Pendergast novels in order, at least through the first four ( I don't have #5 and might skip to #13 next.)

Reading The Martian after reading and watching Project Hail Mary

https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/125163/just-add-mana

Just got started but I'm finding it pretty funny.

I'm listening to:

Couriers Outbound The Wandering Inn, Book 19 By: pirateaba

https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=The+Wandering+Inn

https://wanderinginn.com/

I listen to a LOT of audiobooks (+60 last year). This is one of my all time favorite series. The worldbuilding is on par with Discworld.

If i had one complaint, its that the author has TOO MANY plotlines. Which i think is a common problem with Royal Road books.

We Solve Murders by Richard Osman and Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates.

Struggling my way through Star Wars Planet of Twilight. Kids are out of school so harder to find dedicated time to read, but I also didn’t enjoy her last book either. After his is Dungeon Crawler Carl book 4.

This author (Barbara Hambley) just seems to want to describe everything as much as possible, yet there’s nothing to base it on. Yeah sure you’re talking some trees, but what are they? The lore just seems so empty.

I'm currently reading The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie. It's my third Poirot novel after Murder on the Orient Express and Murder on the River Nile. I think it will be my last.

They're fun books and well-written, but also very much alike. And that Poirot guy is getting on my nerves...

After this I have Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier waiting for me. I read it when I was a teenager when I found a copy from the forties lying around and even though it was a little too hard for me, I remember liking it. I'm curious to see how I'll like it now.

The Hunger of the Gods by John Gwynne, which is the second book in the Bloodsworn Trilogy. Very cool take on Norse mythology, culture, and Viking warbands. Highly recommend the first book The Shadow of the Gods.

Dragonsinger. I've been on a bit of a Pern kick lately.

I had read this book ages ago, but I only recognized maybe 2 chapters of it when I read it again.

I just finished the latest InCryptid, for the first time there were two POV characters and they're my two favourites, which was nice. It was pretty good. As usual the status quo got a bit shaken up by the end, but for once I'm not a big fan of it.

Being as vague as possible for spoiler reasons it feels like the author wanted to undo something she did years ago but couldn't just write around the changes that had already happened. Most of the main novels add new characters to the lineup and the most interesting part to me is seeing how the family adapts. The latest "new" character will potentially change the dynamic in an interesting way, but the novels are so hyper-focused that you don't really get to see much outside of the current immediate crisis. The short stories between books are fun, but there's never enough slice of life for me.

As for my gym audiobooking (The Wise Man's Fear), I am about halfway through my least favourite sections of the story. I have no idea how these spoiler tags are meant to work, so I'll just say Kvothe has finished learning to love, and now he will learn to fight, you know where I am if you've read it. In my head Tempi is Silent Bob, I know it's pretty much the opposite of his physical description but it's all I can see.