Tea & Books - What are you reading?

1992 Replies
curlygc said

I just finished The Giver, and I found it disappointing. I think I’m going to move on to All The Light We Cannot See.

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I got a kindle for Christmas and have been reading Wool from the Silo series. I like it. It’s like playing Fallout: Shelter.

t-ching said

Nice! I love my Kindle, enjoy!

Lynxiebrat said

Lol….I got a kindle for myself last spring…I am on it almost constantly!Its hugely increased the amount of books I read at a time!

Rasseru said

I LOVE my kindle. Im on my fourth & I want one of the new flashy ones (still got my first gen with the keyboard!)

curlygc said

I have a regular Kindle; I’ve been on the fence about getting one with a built in light.

The built-in light is very useful, actually. I got mine last year in a Black Friday sale for only about $75.

I read a lot but find it hard to find the time for pleasure reading and don’t want to carry a lot of books around even though I love the nostalgia of holding a real paper book. I borrowed my mom’s kindle for a few weeks to see if it was something I would use. My wife got me the new kindle paperwhite for a deal on a Christmas sale. I really like it. I like that it is so small and light and can hold a ton of books. I can keep it with me and read during small breaks in the day. The light make a big difference and is worth it.

Rasseru said

I found the nostalgia gets replaced by ability to read books with each hand, light weight, library etc. its a better reading device for sure, and the e-ink screen makes it so nice to read.

It isnt the light I want, but a more responsive kindle. The kindle touch is annoying (slower page turn than the 1st gen keyboard)

Rasseru said

@kristinalee – you are lucky for this being in the US – a paperwhite in the UK is a decent amount of money.

@Rasseru: Yeah, I’ve found this to be true for electronics in general. I was in Quebec for a year, and I guess… Due to the smaller market or something, I generally had to pay about twice as much for things like cell phones and other electronics.

Rasseru said

Your dollar price, change it to a pound sign and thats what we pay

Tony bought me a kindle a few years ago. Initially I longed for the feel of a ‘real’ book, but the convenience of instantly downloading books won me over. Nowdays my daughter jess has the kindle, I read on my ipad, which I actually like better. And it makes it easier to share books with her, since both devices are linked to my account.

mtchyg said

Wool and that whole series is awesome!

Lynxiebrat said

The Wool series is on my wishlist…not sure when I’ll buy it though.

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Now reading Mort by Terry Pratchett

Rasseru said

Have you read before, was it because I was talking about it the other day? Its my fave of the discworld. So good

It was suggested to me on Reddit, actually. So far, I’ve only read “Hogfather”. Is it odd that I find Death amusing?

Lariel: Definitely not odd. Death is one of the most beloved characters in the Discworld series. Pratchett’s family actually announced his death on Twitter by having Death say he and Pratchett would have a walk together.

I was also planning to Colour of Magic from the library.

Rasseru said

making me feel all nostalgic :)

My understanding is that The Colour of Magic is not a great book – it was the first Discworld book, but it took Pratchett a few to really find the voice of the series. (In fact, the book that you’re currently reading, Mort, is considered by many to be where Pratchett hit his stride. It’s the fourth one in the series.)

The first three books, including The Colour of Magic, were really meant as a parody of the Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories by Fritz Lieber.

I hear that so often, Christina, and yet the Colour of Magic is a book I personally remember very fondly.

I’ve got a thing for Rincewind, curiously enough I see the ultimate coward as my hero!

Maybe that and The Light Fantastic aren’t quite on the same level as later novels, but they’re still worthwhile reads in my opinion.

Equal Rites is pretty good too, though it does seem to be a bit more… detached from the rest of the series?

I really enjoy The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic, more than some of the later books in fact. Witches Abroad (Greebo is simply the best) and Hogfather are also two of my favorites.

Oh, and I forgot earlier: The Last Hero is fantastic and a whole lot of fun.

I’ve been planning on reading the Disc World books for a long time. Maybe this year…

Psyck said

Some of the Discworld books have been made into TV movies ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Pratchett#Television ), nothing great, but worth hunting out for fans.

‘Hogfather’ is a good movie.

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I’m reading the new English version of Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm printed through Penguin today while drinking some ripe. I requested the entire collection for Christmas to see how much has been adapted from it.
The stories are short and end rather quick… probably better to read a few a day so I’ll just slowly read at it.

Excellent!

I am brushing up on my German and am currently reading Franz Kafka’s ‘Die Verwandlung’, curiously enough also paired with a ripe.
Thanks for reminding me of the brothers Grimm, the short stories will make for splendid reading material in between other activities!

cookies said

Oh wow! I remember receiving a gorgeous hard bound gilded copy of their collected works one Christmas. I devoured those stories. I’m going to have to try and dig that out of my parent’s basement.

Man, I should really brush up on my German…

I’m odd when it comes to reading… I only purchase Penguin Classic Deluxe books or Everyman’s Library hardback collection
:/
https://www.instagram.com/p/-xPzTgxYLE/?taken-by=liquidproust

Hah! I don’t stick to Penguin, but I do have a nifty Penguin H.G. Wells mug! (Have I ever mentioned how much I adore Wells?)

https://www.instagram.com/p/3WUhY1zH6_/?taken-by=chaiveck

I’ve actually read 95% maybe 100% of what Well has written…
After that I read almost all of Ray Bradbury.

Uniquity said

How did you find the Grimm? Hubby and I read Philip Pullman’s collection of brothers grimm fairy tales because I wanted a collection closer to the originals and I liked it, but didn’t love it. I’m a sucker for fairy tales, especially closer to the origins.

EDIT: Nevermind. I’m pretty certain we’re talking about the same book, haha!

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cookies said

Amazon has a ton of Agatha Christie Kindle books on sale for $1.99 so I bought… all of the ones I couldn’t remember the ending to and am working my way through those.

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Rasseru said

I loved the name of the wind. really needed something a bit different but familiar to change things up a bit.

Shae said

My husband just finished the second book in this series and loved them both! He’s anxiously awaiting the third and is trying to find other books to read to fill the time. Any suggestions for some that might be similar?

Rasseru said

No recommendations at all I’m afraid – generally I read horror & scifi and needed a change so started reading some fantasy :)

nycoma said

also awaiting the third.

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I just finished reading The Bazaar of Bad Dreams by Stephen King. Now I’m re-reading Gaia’s Garden by Toby Hemenway. It’s a permaculture book. I’m re-reading it to inspire me to start designing this year’s garden.

Zennenn said

Nice! Moved into a different house recently and left a large garden behind. I don’t know why I haven’t come across permaculture before. Have to see if my library has this.

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I’m deciding what to read right now… too. many. choices. Does anyone else follow The Tournament of Books over at The Morning News? I’m hoping the short list is up this week but it will probably be up next week. Here is the long list:
http://www.themorningnews.org/article/the-year-in-fiction-2015

Now I follow it.

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So, The Three Body Problem was excellent. Ken Liu did a great job on the translation, and the story was fascinating. Plus I learned a few things about the Cultural Revolution in China, a place and time in history about which my knowledge is sorely lacking. If you like hard science fiction, you should give this a try. I can see why it won the Hugo, and I think it is of a quality that would have won even in a non-screwed up Hugo year.

I am now reading my interim short stories and then I expect to start the fourth Dune book in the original series. I am going to read all six, eventually, but after that I’m not sure I’ll go back and read the others set in that world. Or if I do, I’ll do it years from now when I’m hard up for new reading material. There are just too many other things I want to read and though I really liked the first and second books, the third was a bit ponderous and I think six books in this world will be enough for me.

Psyck said

If you found the 3rd book ponderous, you will find books 4 to 6 far more so :-) They are still well written and thought provoking as you would expect. Good decision to not read any of the other books set in the Dune universe. I’ve gone through some of them and they are, well, just horrible in comparison to the original 6.

Thanks for confirming. :-)

I really enjoyed the Three Body Problem as well. It was interesting to see scifi through the eyes of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. I did spend the first 95% wishing there was more ‘sci’ than ‘fi’. Then the last 5% made me very happy. :-D All SCI no fi. Hah.

Rasseru said

arf. I had a real problem with the translation, I wont mention it here but some bits just rubbed me up really the wrong way. I dont have that much experience with translated novels though. I tried to read Murakami once and the same thing happened.

I loved it when the first exciting bit happened, but couldnt finish it and its been sitting in my kindle ever since. – CLT – I will defo finish it now, if you say the last part gets good. :)

@Rasseru, there was a lot of dragging on for most of it. My only real problem though was that most Chinese names all look the same to my Western brain. It was real hard to remember who was who. I was very pleased with the amount of fun the author had with the sciencey bits at the end though. :-)

Rasseru said

Its a trilogy as well, right? I will finish it at some point for sure

@Rasseru I had forgotten it was a trilogy. I’ll have to look for the others now.

Rasseru said

Hopefully its all Sci :D

It’s a trilogy, but the third book is not yet available in English. Re the translation, I don’t read any Chinese so I have no idea whether it’s true to the original, but I loved that I was always aware in the back of my mind that I was reading something not originally written in English, but never felt as though the English was awkwardly attempting to convey something that didn’t fully translate, if that makes sense.

It looks like my library has the second book in ebook format so I’m set. I’ll grab that as soon as I finish Wool. Reading the description I laughed again at the line “With the scope of Dune…” Hah. If you lead with that you had better darn deliver. The book is fine, but it is nowhere close to the scope of Dune.

Rasseru said

It wasnt the descriptions, it was the language used in the dialogue kept throwing me, it didnt feel right.

This feeling will have been influenced by my headspace at the time and what books I had read prior – I was reading a lot of good books at that time & that might have made it seem worse than it was.

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gmathis said

Just started The Marriage Bureau for Rich People by Farahad Zama. Promisingly pleasant. Jacket blurb recommends it to fans of No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, and it was 50 cents in the clearance bin. Two pluses already!

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