I thought this'd be a nice idea for a thread.
Share what book(s) you're reading, and feel free to share and debate your thoughts and opinions about it. Spoilers should be in hiders.
Here are my current reads:
Share what book(s) you're reading, and feel free to share and debate your thoughts and opinions about it. Spoilers should be in hiders.
Here are my current reads:
- Embassytown, China Miéville
A fascinating read thus far. The book is basically about a human enclave that exists within an alien city, called Embassytown, and the inhabitants' relationship with the Ariekei, a bizarre race whose language is unique in that it must be spoken with two mouths and it cannot express something like a metaphor, because it does not exist; devices such as similes must be made to be used. So for instance, there are characters in the novel who are similes in Language, and did something that the Ariekei (called the Hosts) now refer to in speech. The actual ambassadors to the Ariekei are cloned, and trained from birth to think as one mind and to speak Language. The main plot is interesting as well, though I'm only about halfway through. Avice, the protagonist, is interesting, and her narration and the overall style are fantastic. I'm enjoying it far more than my last Miéville novel, Perdido Street Station, which I disliked and had to force myself to sit through. Highly recommended for fans of challenging, fascinating sci-fi. - War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
Needs no explanation. I am loving this book so far. The first 200 pages more or less somewhat bored me (though I didn't get bored of the "tea party" scenes like many claim to do), because I wasn't invested in any of the characters, but once Tolstoy lays the ground work I became instantly hooked. The constant quotations in French get annoying, but overall the book is very simple to read and I can read 100-200 pages at a time without much difficulty. It's not a difficult novel at all, more a trial of endurance than anything. And the characters really start to grow on you. Pierre, Nikolai, Natasha, Andrei, and Sonya have really begun to stick with me, especially Andrei and Pierre. I'm about 800 pages in and I'm confident I can finish it by the beginning of next month, and started it this month. Lives up to the hype tbh. - The Great Game: On Secret Service in High Asia, Peter Hopkirk
Central Asia has always been a fascination of mine and thus I'm loving this so far. Soldiers, spies, empire; snowy mountains, searing deserts, trials of endurance on camelback, secret rendezvouses, exotic locales. What more do you need? It's both an informative history on the Great Game (the shadow war between Great Britain and Russia for dominion in Central Asia) and reads like an adventure novel. Recommended if you've ever had any interest in Central Asia. - The Call of Cthullu and Other Stories, H.P. Lovecraft
I'd never read Lovecraft so I decided to pick this up as a good spooky read for the Halloween season. This one is probably the most disappointing book I'm reading now. Although some of the stories are pretty good (I loved The Rats in the Walls, The Call of Cthullu, The Shadow Over Innsmouth, and The Colour Out of Space), Lovecraft's style gets far too redundant imo, though the ideas are interesting. It's a trial sitting down to read it, and I feel like I'm forcing myself at this point. I of all people have nothing against flowery prose, but the man just couldn't help himself. Still, I'm going to see it through to the end.
