I can't compete with any of that. I have just read 'The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association' by Caitlin Rozakis (highly recommended) and am just about to start rereading Lord of the Rings for the umpteenth time. I'm also working my way through a book on the siege of York in 1644. Reading about other people surviving horrible situations is surprisingly comforting at the moment...
Might have been me @Boogie, I really liked it a lot.
I’ve just bought The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller on the recommendation of several friends. I need to re/read Persuasion first though for one of my book clubs.
I can't compete with any of that. I have just read 'The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association' by Caitlin Rozakis (highly recommended) and am just about to start rereading Lord of the Rings for the umpteenth time. I'm also working my way through a book on the siege of York in 1644. Reading about other people surviving horrible situations is surprisingly comforting at the moment...
OMG I just googled and she’s the daughter-in-law of DC comics person, Bob Rozakis!!! Awesome!!! (I grew up not only reading some comics that he was involved in, but also his “ask the DC answer man” in the back of the comics back in the 1970s!!)
I can't compete with any of that. I have just read 'The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association' by Caitlin Rozakis (highly recommended) and am just about to start rereading Lord of the Rings for the umpteenth time. I'm also working my way through a book on the siege of York in 1644. Reading about other people surviving horrible situations is surprisingly comforting at the moment...
OMG I just googled and she’s the daughter-in-law of DC comics person, Bob Rozakis!!! Awesome!!! (I grew up not only reading some comics that he was involved in, but also his “ask the DC answer man” in the back of the comics back in the 1970s!!)
(Yes, I’m that much of a comics geek.)
He also created the character Mr. E at DC, presumably not the same person as our new Shipmate @MrE …
I finally finished reading The Suttanipāta : An Ancient Collection of the Buddha’s Discourses Together with Its Commentaries (Bhikkhu Bodhi, translator). I have been slowly making my way through this. The Discourses themselves are pretty short and easy to read, but the associated Ancient Commentaries are a slog to get through. Often they read like a thesaurus. The discourse will use a word like "desire" then you flip to the commentary to read "desire: yearn for; crave; long for; wish for; hunger for; inclined to; thirst for; hanker for..." My favorite example (way near the end of the book): The discourse used the word "twice" to which the commentary, for some reason, felt compelled to inform me helpfully that twice meant two times.
Fortunately, the discourses were short, so that the book was the sort that you could read a couple pages, then put it down for several days or weeks and then pick it up again. Which is why it has taken me a couple years to get all the way through it. To finish it. To complete it. To read to the end....
Am now reading a biography of Dick Allen, a baseball player from the 1960s-70s. At the time the book was written he had not yet been elected to the Hall of Fame, but he was finally (posthumously) inducted last year.
I have just started Kurt Vonnegurt "Breakfast of Champions". I mean, Kurt is a legendary writer and this is - so far - viciously sarcastic. It is also hilarious, if you like a rather dark humour. Well, very dark in some places.
He has quite definitely taken the shackles off and is writing totally unconstrained. I am loving it. I have a few more of his on my kindle, so will enjoy getting into more if his.
Where do people get ideas for what to read from? I hear of people reading more books in a week than I'd read in a year - but in part it's because I really struggle to find books that engage me.
Is there a (reliable) "if you liked that you might like this" service somewhere?
@KarlLB, almost all my books are electronic, and sometimes the website will suggest something to me. However, I find my most helpful suggestions come from our own book club here on the Ship!
I'm reading one right now that was on a thread quite some time ago. (2024? 2025?)
@KarlLB, almost all my books are electronic, and sometimes the website will suggest something to me. However, I find my most helpful suggestions come from our own book club here on the Ship!
I'm reading one right now that was on a thread quite some time ago. (2024? 2025?)
It's knowing whether I'll like something that's the tricky part for me! I don't have a great hit rate; I finish less than half the books I start. Authors have to be quite obvious with me; I know that the received wisdom is "Show, don't tell", but you often have to explicitly tell me what you're showing me.
I notice with some pleasure that On The Calculation of Volume IV is now on pre-order and I should have my grubby mitts on one in early April.
I take recommendations from friends and the Ship (I've discovered several authors from recommendations on this thread). I sometimes find a new writer from the salesbot on Amazon: algorithms aren't always wrong. If I can, I borrow books by a new (to me) writer from a library or buy them second-hand to see if I like them before buying new books by them. Trying out a new author is an investment of time, but it doesn't have to involve spending money.
I don't think abandoning a book you're not enjoying counts as failure (or if it does, it's not your failure). Life is too short to read books you don't enjoy (unless you have to for work).
Comments
I’ve just bought The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller on the recommendation of several friends. I need to re/read Persuasion first though for one of my book clubs.
Thank you.
I don't think she has written as any other books?
OMG I just googled and she’s the daughter-in-law of DC comics person, Bob Rozakis!!! Awesome!!! (I grew up not only reading some comics that he was involved in, but also his “ask the DC answer man” in the back of the comics back in the 1970s!!)
(Yes, I’m that much of a comics geek.)
He also created the character Mr. E at DC, presumably not the same person as our new Shipmate @MrE …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Rozakis
Book fountain in Budapest 🙂
https://youtu.be/-ijoqHaVpjQ?si=SgMRPEE4wFiajhCE
Love it!
Fortunately, the discourses were short, so that the book was the sort that you could read a couple pages, then put it down for several days or weeks and then pick it up again. Which is why it has taken me a couple years to get all the way through it. To finish it. To complete it. To read to the end....
Am now reading a biography of Dick Allen, a baseball player from the 1960s-70s. At the time the book was written he had not yet been elected to the Hall of Fame, but he was finally (posthumously) inducted last year.
He has quite definitely taken the shackles off and is writing totally unconstrained. I am loving it. I have a few more of his on my kindle, so will enjoy getting into more if his.
Is there a (reliable) "if you liked that you might like this" service somewhere?
I'm reading one right now that was on a thread quite some time ago. (2024? 2025?)
It's knowing whether I'll like something that's the tricky part for me! I don't have a great hit rate; I finish less than half the books I start. Authors have to be quite obvious with me; I know that the received wisdom is "Show, don't tell", but you often have to explicitly tell me what you're showing me.
I notice with some pleasure that On The Calculation of Volume IV is now on pre-order and I should have my grubby mitts on one in early April.
I don't think abandoning a book you're not enjoying counts as failure (or if it does, it's not your failure). Life is too short to read books you don't enjoy (unless you have to for work).
I also reread my favourites.