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Thread: What book are you currently reading?

  1. #3021
    TheDarkKnight's Avatar Compliance will be rewarded
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    Default Re: What book are you currently reading?

    It is stupid but also wonderful. And the show was renewed for season 2 already.

    Finished Bosch 3 and 4 (Concrete Blonde and The Last Coyote) AND the 7th Series of Unfortunate Events (Vile Village)

    14 books down this year.
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  2. #3022
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    Default Re: What book are you currently reading?

    Since Skyward Ive read the next 4 books in that series.

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    Default Re: What book are you currently reading?

    Now begun on Elantis and Warbreaker

  4. #3024
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    Default Re: What book are you currently reading?

    Just finished The Army of Flanders and the Spanish Road:



    Great read, a really interesting insight into the practicalities of maintaining (clinging onto?) a cruel war spanning decades. Parker writes clearly, assumes you already have a clue about the period and seems ( but I am not a military person, just an interested amateur) to know his military matters, but also (surprisingly for a military historian) is conversant with both current and past historiography (he cites Braudel, and is clearly aware of Acton's writing about the Counter Reformation among a host of apposite references). Juicy detail is marshalled into coherent arguable positions like a Maestre de Campo directing Corseletes into the battle line.

    Parker is also human enough to let his surprise and other emotions show in his description of events, but in a professionally restrained way. I'm not competent enough in the period in question (approx 1570's-1650's) to know if he made any blunders but its seems to my ignorant eye intellectually robust as well as informative. Nothing worse than when an otherwise competent historian makes an obvious basic error (in a recent history of Constantinople one historian mentioned the battle of Manzikert "taking place in Central Asia", and another "shortest history of democracy" declared confidently Demos was a Babylonian word (?) and this proved "Athenian democracy was imported from Babylon"-neither is a bad book but the level of ignorance in those blunders undermines the subsequent edifice of reasoning)

    Thank to user Anna Gein for the recommendation, please recommend more.
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  5. #3025
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    Default Re: What book are you currently reading?

    I'm kinda eh. I've only read 9 books since the last goal ended (though 17 overall in 2022 thus far) and I feel kind of burned out. It's not so much the books but my desire to do other things. And my subgoal (read the history of England through novels...pre-Roman britain and on) has basically hit a snag as soon as it started since the Boudica novels have been a lot...longer than I anticipated (Manda Scott is lucky she's gifted at writing well-done filler...this novel series could have been three much shorter novels than four 500 page ones).

    In any case, I finished Project Hail Mary by Weir this evening. I'm exhausted from a long and objectively terrible week of work. I may start the final Boudica novel tonight if I am unable to sleep.
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  6. #3026
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    Default Re: What book are you currently reading?



    A man must stand before the horrors of this world.
    A man must fight alone.

    Great novel


  7. #3027
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    Default Re: What book are you currently reading?

    Quote Originally Posted by TheDarkKnight View Post
    I'm kinda eh. I've only read 9 books since the last goal ended (though 17 overall in 2022 thus far) and I feel kind of burned out. It's not so much the books but my desire to do other things. And my subgoal (read the history of England through novels...pre-Roman britain and on) has basically hit a snag as soon as it started since the Boudica novels have been a lot...longer than I anticipated (Manda Scott is lucky she's gifted at writing well-done filler...this novel series could have been three much shorter novels than four 500 page ones).

    In any case, I finished Project Hail Mary by Weir this evening. I'm exhausted from a long and objectively terrible week of work. I may start the final Boudica novel tonight if I am unable to sleep.
    So you are up to the Roman period? The end of Roman rule is a minefield of schlock (sorry Last Kingdom etc are rollicking tales but as literature they are meh) and some brilliant novels. "Conscience of the King (Alfred Duggan) is a brilliant short novel about the barbarisation of Britannia, imagining a background for Cerdic Elesing semi-mythical founder of Wessex. Chapter titles are a blast "My Brother Meets with Misfortune" "My Father Meets with Misfortune" "The Misfortunes of Gertrude". Cerdic is portrayed as a sort of Arthurian Harry Flashman, an utter rogue who stumbles into historical importance...come to think of it George MacDonald Fraser probably pinched his idea from Duggan.

    The Arthurian side has been told over and over. Cornwall's Warlord kept it tight, there's a lot of imitators. From the Romantic side stuff like T H White is very twee I'm afraid. The very skilled Rosemary Sutcliffe gets all Gotterdammerung about Britannia Lost, but her many novels create a sort of path from the fine Eagle of the Ninth to (to my mind) the rather desultory Road to Camlann. There was an odd novel Hild that (a bit like Cornwall) tried to show the crossover between Celt and German in North Britain (7th century iirc), so its not like "aliens invade they're destroying everything (sobs)" and more about how there's a mosaic of tribes and kingdoms and religions and temporary alliances, and what in hindsight are decisive moments are at the time a slow drift or series of smaller changes. It had promise but I think the trilogy has stalled.

    However I'm just twittering away remembering the many novels of my youth and younger adulthood that I pored over. No doubt you have your own list, and can find your way.
    Jatte lambastes Calico Rat

  8. #3028
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    Default Re: What book are you currently reading?

    It's not so much the books but my desire to do other things.
    You did compress like 10 years of reading into the last year.

    In any case, I finished Project Hail Mary by Weir this evening.
    What did you think of it? I never checked it out because I heard it was basically the same thing as the last book.

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  9. #3029
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    Default Re: What book are you currently reading?

    Quote Originally Posted by Cyclops View Post
    So you are up to the Roman period? The end of Roman rule is a minefield of schlock (sorry Last Kingdom etc are rollicking tales but as literature they are meh) and some brilliant novels. "Conscience of the King (Alfred Duggan) is a brilliant short novel about the barbarisation of Britannia, imagining a background for Cerdic Elesing semi-mythical founder of Wessex. Chapter titles are a blast "My Brother Meets with Misfortune" "My Father Meets with Misfortune" "The Misfortunes of Gertrude". Cerdic is portrayed as a sort of Arthurian Harry Flashman, an utter rogue who stumbles into historical importance...come to think of it George MacDonald Fraser probably pinched his idea from Duggan.

    The Arthurian side has been told over and over. Cornwall's Warlord kept it tight, there's a lot of imitators. From the Romantic side stuff like T H White is very twee I'm afraid. The very skilled Rosemary Sutcliffe gets all Gotterdammerung about Britannia Lost, but her many novels create a sort of path from the fine Eagle of the Ninth to (to my mind) the rather desultory Road to Camlann. There was an odd novel Hild that (a bit like Cornwall) tried to show the crossover between Celt and German in North Britain (7th century iirc), so its not like "aliens invade they're destroying everything (sobs)" and more about how there's a mosaic of tribes and kingdoms and religions and temporary alliances, and what in hindsight are decisive moments are at the time a slow drift or series of smaller changes. It had promise but I think the trilogy has stalled.

    However I'm just twittering away remembering the many novels of my youth and younger adulthood that I pored over. No doubt you have your own list, and can find your way.
    I have finished Boudica, to a rather unceremonious end. I'm thinking I somehow am missing an epilogue cause it ends abruptly with her death and nearly EVERYONE else surviving which was...odd.

    Boudica tetralogy was the start of it and covered basically 30 - 61 CE. Next up is Eagle of the Ninth, unless I decide to go with Dietrich's Hadrian's Wall or the Vindolanda books (I don't think I will...I've had my fill of this period already and I want to kind of get through it now.)

    My notes, straight from the google doc
    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

    Boudica (4 books) [DONE]
    Vindolanda (4 books) (Maybe?)
    Hadrian’s Wall (William Dietrich) (Maybe?)
    Eagle of the Ninth (3 books) [LOOK INTO HER OTHER BOOKS TOO!]
    Warrior Druid of Britain (4 Books) (Maybe? Kind of tired of anything involving druids after Boudica)
    Warlord Chronicles (3 books)
    Bernicia Chronicles (9 books)
    A Time For Swords / A Night of Flames (2 books)
    Saxon Chronicles (The Last Kingdom) (13 books)
    Dunstan
    The Whale Road Chronicles (4 books) (Maybe?)
    The Lionheart (3 Books)
    Agincourt (Cornwell)
    Bloodlines (Igullden) (4 books)
    {Look for something set during the English Civil War maybe}
    Pirate books?
    The Fort (Cornwell) [Represents French and Indian and Revolution]
    Horatio Hornblower (11 books) or Aubrey-Maturin series (20 books)
    Sharpe Series (25 books)


    No sure yet on some of these obviously but it's a general outline.


    Quote Originally Posted by Akar View Post
    You did compress like 10 years of reading into the last year.



    What did you think of it? I never checked it out because I heard it was basically the same thing as the last book.
    Loved it. It was a bit similar to Martian (the book before Hail Mary was actually Artemis, Akar ) but still very enjoyable.
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  10. #3030
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    Default Re: What book are you currently reading?

    Quote Originally Posted by TheDarkKnight View Post
    ....
    My notes, straight from the google doc...
    You've done some homework there, interested to hear from you how they are (I like the period and as Cyclops Jnr grows up I'll have more time for reading again).

    Just to flog that dead horse, I'd bung in Duggan's Conscience of the King. Fiction but his work is in the class of "well researched entertainment that helps you understand the period better, but not as boring as Sir Walter Scott". His work on Lepidus (the weak leg of the second triumvirate) Three's Company was a masterpiece describing the breakdown of the Roman political system from the PoV of an elite member.
    Jatte lambastes Calico Rat

  11. #3031
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    Default Re: What book are you currently reading?

    I really don't know what to read next. I have a vast library full of academic books, mostly archaeology and classics and I do tend to read historic fiction. But, I do also enjoy a very good story, whatever the context, any suggestions? Difficult to say, not knowing me...

  12. #3032
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    Default Re: What book are you currently reading?

    Just started in "Framing the Early Middle Ages: Europe and the Mediterranean 400–800" by Chris Wickham. Other authors for the period I've read include Halsall, Heather, Goffart and Ward-Perkins. It's a fascinating period in the history of Europe, because so much changed, yet so little evidence (comparatively) remains, which means there's a very lively academic debate with strongly contrasting points of view.
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  13. #3033
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    Default Re: What book are you currently reading?

    I'm at 20 books so far this year. I can't see myself being able to continue my goal for a while. I simply seem to be unable to find a book I like to stick with. I have probably started and stopped 6 books in the last 2 weeks while only finishing 2 others.

    I'm trying The Fall (the second The Strain book) and then World War Z. If those two dramatic genre shifts don't get me out of this rut I will take a break. I have been wanting to play video games more anyway so maybe this is just a good time for a break anyway.
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  14. #3034
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    Default Re: What book are you currently reading?

    Oh man, WWZ is probably one of the best books I've ever read. You're going to love that one.

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  15. #3035
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    Default Re: What book are you currently reading?

    I certainly hope so.

    I'm making progress on The Fall. Should be able to finish it by Monday.
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    Default Re: What book are you currently reading?

    Cool well if you don't like it you'd better not show your face around this part of town again, mister.

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  17. #3037
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    Default Re: What book are you currently reading?

    Quote Originally Posted by Akar View Post
    Cool well if you don't like it you'd better not show your face around this part of town again, mister.
    Soon...I finished The Fall last night. So today I should be able to start WWZ

    21 books.
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  18. #3038
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    Default Re: What book are you currently reading?

    Quote Originally Posted by TheDarkKnight View Post
    Soon...I finished The Fall last night. So today I should be able to start WWZ
    Great little book. Prose isn't always top notch but that fits with the staging of the book, and it passes the critical test, its interesting.

    Quote Originally Posted by TheDarkKnight View Post
    21 books.
    I've read 2 new books this year and maybe 10 rereads, and a few more new ones for Cyclops Jnr. I'm old.
    Jatte lambastes Calico Rat

  19. #3039
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    Default Re: What book are you currently reading?

    I will agree the book is great. I'm more than halfway done (first week back at work has been rough, haven't been able to read much and because of how the book is structured I really have to focus on each and every "short story" for lack of a better word.

    Should probably finish it on Saturday after my hike.
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  20. #3040
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    Default Re: What book are you currently reading?

    I'm glad you're enjoying it. I don't know if audiobooks are your thing but the WWZ (UNABRIDGED!!!) audiobook is ing amazing - it has an all star cast including people like Alan Alda.

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