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What book is everyone reading at the moment? Part 2.

A year or so ago, Rincewind and I did one of those "how many great classics have you read? quizzes and it got me started on a project. I compiled a list of The Best Literature (tm) from various sources. I made sure it included non-Western and translated stuff as well. Only novels, though. Obviously I took out what I had already read from those lists.

I ended up with 600 books.

I'm around 14 percent through right now, 87 books read I think? I'd have to check. The last one I read was The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene.

I alternate with history etc which is what I usually read so right now I'm reading The Castle in the Wars of the Roses by Dan Spencer.

I'm keeping a little blog of what I've read on the Lengthly Literary List and my thoughts because I'll never remember 600 books lol

Ffo ****.
 
That is an admirable project! Good for you!

I "keep score"of my reading on a spreadsheet. For various reasons, I rarely read physical books, preferring e-books on my Samsung 10" tablet.

I track only those books I download from libraries. I have access to three libraries, so that gives me a wide selection.

Since 2016, I have read 767 books, 40% non-fiction. This does include books I have read more than once, so I'll estimate that unique titles account for about 700 of the 767.


Keep reading!
 
Magrat said:
I use goodreads to keep track of what I've read. I couldn't possibly remember if I didn't. I have a spreadsheet for the Lengthy Literary List also.

I've read 1096 books since December 2011.

Ffo ****.
Click to expand...

About how long does it take you usually to read a book?
 
Magrat said:
A year or so ago, Rincewind and I did one of those "how many great classics have you read? quizzes and it got me started on a project. I compiled a list of The Best Literature (tm) from various sources. I made sure it included non-Western and translated stuff as well. Only novels, though. Obviously I took out what I had already read from those lists.

I ended up with 600 books.

I'm around 14 percent through right now, 87 books read I think? I'd have to check. The last one I read was The Heart of the Matter by Graham Greene.

I alternate with history etc which is what I usually read so right now I'm reading The Castle in the Wars of the Roses by Dan Spencer.

I'm keeping a little blog of what I've read on the Lengthly Literary List and my thoughts because I'll never remember 600 books lol

Ffo ****.
Click to expand...

Could you share that list?
 
Magrat said:
I use goodreads to keep track of what I've read. I couldn't possibly remember if I didn't. I have a spreadsheet for the Lengthy Literary List also.

I've read 1096 books since December 2011.

Ffo ****.
Click to expand...

Yeah this thread isn't really for me - I'd be posting a new book every day, sometimes 2.

Never thought of using Goodreads to keep track - I only found out during the pandemic that Amazon Kindle keeps tracks of number of books read and the titles but not in a very user-friendly manner when you are getting up in the hundreds of books per years.

ETA: Didn't know but you can find a better way to see your books - according to that since Dec 2010 I've read 2326 titles - those are my Kindle books. That seems about right. Did notice I had a significant uptick during the first year of the pandemic and that seems to be the new average so it's around 300 books a year now.
 
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Trebuchet said:
I'm reading none. I need to.
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Does not compute.

I cannot think of a single time in my life when I wasn't reading a book, I've always got at least one book open that I'm currently reading. I remember my other half giving up on me when one night I was puking my guts up into the toilet and I was still reading. Vomiting doesn't take up all your attention!
 
Trebuchet said:
I'm reading none. I need to.
Click to expand...
I taught myself to read when I was like 4 or 5 and I've not stopped yet. I listen to audiobooks while I embroider. We don't have TV or streaming or anything because rincewind and I don't use it. The kids have streaming services but they watch in their bedrooms.

My ex husband was one of those people who always has the TV on, no matter what is playing or anything. The noise gives me such a headache.

Ffo ****.
 
Darat said:
Yeah this thread isn't really for me - I'd be posting a new book every day, sometimes 2.

Never thought of using Goodreads to keep track - I only found out during the pandemic that Amazon Kindle keeps tracks of number of books read and the titles but not in a very user-friendly manner when you are getting up in the hundreds of books per years.

ETA: Didn't know but you can find a better way to see your books - according to that since Dec 2010 I've read 2326 titles - those are my Kindle books. That seems about right. Did notice I had a significant uptick during the first year of the pandemic and that seems to be the new average so it's around 300 books a year now.
Click to expand...
I'd never remember what I have read without GoodReads.

Ffo ****.
 
I am reading ' The materials of the artist' by Max Doerner. it says on the cover it is the the most valuable book in existence on the craft of painting. I am inclined to agree.

It has extensive chapters on the techniques of the old masters, I can hardly imagine how the author could have amassed such information. It must have been the work of years of research. It also goes into detail about preparing surfaces for painting on, and the use of modern oil paints, among other materials..
 
I'm currently reading a short story collection by Alastair Reynolds. This is after having read his excellent novella Slow Bullets and prior to that his novel Revelation Space. Those were both excellent, a sort of slowly revealed compelling sci-fi mystery with a gripping plot in both cases.
The short story collection is good so far, but I'm only just close to finishing the first story.

Recently read Eliezer Yudkowsky's Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, which I think people on here would probably enjoy. It's sort of a "assume everything in Harry Potter's world actually worked that way, how can you make actually make sense" kind of exercise, along with Harry being a genius who tries to use his understanding of science to research how magic works. It also reminded me a bit of Andy Weir's books in the highly competent and intelligent people trying to solve problems (and depicting this in ways that make sense and the reader can somewhat participate in). Pretty fun, but also just great gripping fiction and he does a good job with the characters. It might help if you've read some Harry Potter, but I only read the first 3 or so books, and that was 20 years ago so I don't remember all that much (wasn't a big fan really, but I remember thinking they were okay at the time).
 
A friend gave me a copy of Tom Clancy's Executive Orders. I'm a couple of hours and around 200 pages in.

It's utter drivel, but I find it really difficult to stop reading a book once I've started:o
 
I've been working my way through The Uplift Universe books by David Brin. I liked the first three books in this series quite a bit, I think it's one of the best series I've read in a while. The third book, The Uplift War, is my favorite, but all three are good.

I'm now reading the second series of three books. These are written about 10 years after the first three. They pick up the story about the dolphin crewed starship from book two of the first series. This is the ship that had started all the fuss when they accidently stumbled on what may be old spaceships and actual remains from the race that presumably started the practice of Uplift and set the mold for civilization in the Five Galaxies at least two billion years ago.

The first book in this set is Brightness Reef, which I didn't care for. It just dragged on way too much.

The next book in the second trilogy is Infinity's Shore and I finished that a few nights ago. Much better! It's a very similar style to the previous book and picks up immediately where the previous one ended. But for me it just seemed there weren't all long character expositions that didn't seem to add much to the story. It still has character expositions and great character development, but I thought it was all much better at telling the story. I liked this one quite a bit.

I've started the last book in the series Heaven's Reach and so far it's holding up well. I'll check back when I finish it.
 
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Roboramma said:
I'm currently reading a short story collection by Alastair Reynolds. This is after having read his excellent novella Slow Bullets and prior to that his novel Revelation Space. Those were both excellent, a sort of slowly revealed compelling sci-fi mystery with a gripping plot in both cases.
The short story collection is good so far, but I'm only just close to finishing the first story.
Click to expand...

I've heard about Reynolds and wanted to read some of his stuff but haven't. I think now I'll try some. Thanks for the reminder.
 
I'm reading Hidden, book 5 in the Alex Verus universe. I'm enjoying it, especially the fact that he doesn't have power creep but utilizes his limited skills in a variety of ways.
 
Fresh out of the Department of "WTF are these things you're reading":

"The big conservation lie" by John Mbaria & Mordecai Ogada: If you are at least a little interested in habitat and wildlife conservation you should read this, even though in many cases you can't really know what is true and what is slander. And even though there are no serious solutions proposed other than "let's go back to our roots", it still offers a lot of food for thought.

"White Hunters :The Golden Age of African Safaris" by Brian Herne: I'm no hunter and don't like hunting but this is so much more than a history of hunting in Africa. A whole army of colorful characters, many of them famous royals, politicians, actors, businessmen etc parade through its pages and the stories told are those of bloody wars, amazing feats of courage and foolishness, fortunes made and lost and above all, the magical wildlife of Africa. Well researched and written by someone who met many of his protagonists.
 
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