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What'cha Reading?

Behemoth

Behemoth

Dostoevsky is immortal!
(he/him/his)
Adrenaline said:
I really don't get the point of "skimming" a book. If you don't want to read it why are you reading it.
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It probably depends on the circumstances, but in the case of the Wheel of Time I could see wanting to know the general big plot points during the "slog" so you're informed going into the last few books without wanting to get bogged down in the minutiae that gives the slog its name. So it's selectively skimming a few books. I agree that skimming an entire series doesn't make sense to me.
 
Rosewood

Rosewood

The metal babble flees!
(she/her)
I am all but incapable of skimming--every time I've tried, I've guiltily gone back and fully read the skimmed part. I envy people who have the capacity for it, since my approach on getting stuck on a slow-moving or boring section is usually to DNF the book.
 
Violentvixen

Violentvixen

(She/Her)
Yeah, if there's a section that I can't stand (poor writing, no plot development, etc) of I just read the first sentence of each paragraph. If the language continues to be boring and/or no plot events seem to be happening or no other change I keep skimming until either of the above changes.

I don't have a rule about it or anything, but if I get to a point where I feel like I'm skimming a lot I definitely give up on the book. Usually that means reading a synopsis, and if after reading that I find there's something interesting after I stopped I'll skip ahead and read that. If it seems a lot better then I'll restart the book.
 
FelixSH

FelixSH

(He/Him)
The only parts I skim are long action scenes and basically every time sex is described. Especially the latter is insanely boring to me.
Exposition, though, I can read for pages. Love that stuff. That's why Asimov is one of my favourite authors.

Anyway, skimming makes sense, if there is a scene that doesn't work for you, while the rest of the story does. I'd compare it to using cheats in a game, to skip a part that you dislike, or are bad at (like an escort mission), while playing the rest on regular difficulty.
 
zonetrope

zonetrope

(he/him)
FelixSH said:
The only parts I skim are long action scenes and basically every time sex is described. Especially the latter is insanely boring to me.
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Yeah, this. The only way I managed to get through Dhalgren is by mentally hitting fast forward every time characters started going at it for six pages at a time.
 
Büge

Büge

Arm Candy
(she/her)
After I read the Those Who Bear Arms duology (The Gunrunner and Her Hound and The Spy and Her Serpent by Maria Ying) I switched back and read Mirrorstrike, the second of the Her Pitiless Command trilogy by Benjanun Sriduangkaew (the first being Winterglass). It was equally as strong as the first one, and had quite a thrilling climax. I'm appreciating the continuing romance between Nuawa and Lussadh.

Then, I switched gears completely and read Before You Say I Do by Clare Lydon (I actually bought it for something to read on the trip Kylie and I took to visit my family, as its cover looks more... conventional than the others). It's a novel about Jordan, a wedding planner/bridesmaid-for-hire who falls head over heels for the bride she's working for, and Abby, the bride-to-be, is likewise smitten with Jordan. It's a sweet story, pure romance, with some sexy scenes. Word of warning: there is infidelity, so be advised.

Finally, I swerved back and read The Grace of Sorcerers by Maria Ying. It's an AU story set in a world where magic is real, and mages, warlocks and other spellcasters hold true power. Viveca Hua is the greatest warlock of her day and captures Yves, a powerful demon, to help destroy her hated enemy. Unbeknownst to Viveca, her sister Olesya has been cursed with a wasting magical disease, and has caught the interest of a weretiger named Dallas. It's an extremely fun twist on the stories and characters that the Maria Ying team had developed in the previous two "realistic" books, but it's no less thrilling (in every sense of the word).
 
masterthes

masterthes

Before moving on to Knife of Dreams (thank God the slump is over), I'm taking a bit of a break and read a graphic novel or two, starting with Irredeemable Omnibus, Volume 1 by Mark Waid
 
masterthes

masterthes

First volume was great, the second volume, a little less so. Got into some science stuff that was a bit over my head, but overall, totally recommend the series. Next, continuing to take advantage of my free Comixology trial run and reading Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Ultimate Collection, Volume 1 by Kevin Eastman
 
Violentvixen

Violentvixen

(She/Her)
After having approximately 8 billion people recommend it to me I picked up and finished The Swimmers by Julie Otsuka. I liked it a lot, made me desperately miss the calm of the water then it turned into a book about more than just swimming. The writing style is pretty unusual, but damn it works. Interestingly a lot of people argue that it's not a novel but actually a novella followed by some short stories. I think that's a pretty interesting argument, especially for a book about perception and memory.
 
shivam

shivam

commander damage
(he/hiim)
new Tad Williams just came out! I am rereading Empire of Grass to refresh myself before getting started with Into the Narrowdark.
 
masterthes

masterthes

I continued with reading a few graphic novels over the weekend. After the Turtles, I read Die by Kieron Gillen. I overall enjoyed it, kind of like Jumanji meets D&D. I'll definitely read more by him in the future, and then I read Darth Vader - Dark Lord of the Sith by Charles Soule, which I really enjoyed because Star Wars. Now, it's back to the Wheel with Knife of Dreams
 
Rascally Badger

Rascally Badger

El Capitan de la outro espacio
(He/Him)
Circling back to the skimming discussion, I do a lot of skimming, but mostly when I am reading a book I've read before. The Wheel of Time books are a good example; sometimes I want to read a particular portion of one of the books, but I feel a need at least a little refresher of how the book got where it was going, so I skim all the stuff to the part I'm really interested in.
 
karzac

karzac

(he/him)
masterthes said:
I continued with reading a few graphic novels over the weekend. After the Turtles, I read Die by Kieron Gillen. I overall enjoyed it, kind of like Jumanji meets D&D. I'll definitely read more by him in the future, and then I read Darth Vader - Dark Lord of the Sith by Charles Soule, which I really enjoyed because Star Wars. Now, it's back to the Wheel with Knife of Dreams
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If you want a follow up to DIE, then you should read The Wicked & the Divine next. Similar themes and vibes.
 
lincolnic

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
I read Chuck Klosterman's The Nineties, which while enjoyable to read, ultimately left me feeling wanting a bit more. It felt like every chapter ended right as he arrived at whatever point he wanted to make, when it felt like he could've kept going and synthesized something more from them. I liked it, but I guess it felt kind of surface level overall.

Then over the last two nights I finally read Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughan, and holy crap was this good. I'm really glad I got the whole series from the library at once, because I could not put it down. I only have one nitpick about something that happens at the very end -- if everyone agrees to stop time traveling, how does Wari get to 1988? Beyond that, absolutely great. Makes me excited to pick up Saga again when the next trade collection comes out in October.
 
Behemoth

Behemoth

Dostoevsky is immortal!
(he/him/his)
There are roughly one thousand Aes Sedai at the time of the events of Wheel of Time, and Crossroads of Twilight features. Them. All. Aes Sedai scheming. Aes Sedai having tea. Aes Sedai dreaming. Aes Sedai fretting about the weather. Aes Sedai advising. Aes Sedai walking from point A to point B. The one thing the Aes Sedai DON'T do is advance the plot. I'm so glad I've finished that book and started Knife of Dreams, the point at which the series supposedly gets good again.
 
Dark Medusa

Dark Medusa

Diamond Crusader
(He/they)
So I just finished Moon Witch, Spider King, the second book in a series started by Black Leopard, Red Wolf. I'm personally not sure why they're marketed as the African Game of Thrones, because they're honestly very different, the only real tie here is that they're somewhat low-fantasy political and fantastical books. The main conceit tying the series together is that they're one large narrative, but each book has a different point of view, and they're all unreliable. The writing style is sort of difficult to follow (I figure it's being written in an African-English colloquial style, but I'm not an expert), and the topics often get a bit crude for my taste.

But wow, the world itself is just so interesting and involved. MW,SK starts about 150 years before the main plot in BL,RW, since we're following the story of Sogolon, the Moon Witch. Where BL,RW focused more on the fantastical fellowship and quest to find a lost boy from the point of view of Tracker, a (obnoxiously) misogynistic... well, tracker (it is said he has a nose), Sogolon's story reveals a lot more of the political structures and players in the grander schemes. Not that Sogolon particularly cares.

Honestly, it had been about two years since I read the first book, so it was very difficult for me to follow what sorts of information changed from one POV to the other, and there aren't any resources I could find online that were written to help through this. The differences become more pronounced when you actually catch up chronologically with the events of the first book (...like 3/5ths of the book in, or even later), and I honestly am pretty excited to learn who the POV character is for the final part of the trilogy, and whether it'll shed light on what is truth and what isn't. Both books stop at the same point in history, with Tracker and Sogolon giving their sides of the story to an investigator, but maybe we'll get to go past that point in time in the third book? Either way, the author has said that the third book is going to be in the horror genre, so I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
 
Behemoth

Behemoth

Dostoevsky is immortal!
(he/him/his)
Dark Medusa said:
So I just finished Moon Witch, Spider King, the second book in a series started by Black Leopard, Red Wolf. I'm personally not sure why they're marketed as the African Game of Thrones, because they're honestly very different, the only real tie here is that they're somewhat low-fantasy political and fantastical books. The main conceit tying the series together is that they're one large narrative, but each book has a different point of view, and they're all unreliable. The writing style is sort of difficult to follow (I figure it's being written in an African-English colloquial style, but I'm not an expert), and the topics often get a bit crude for my taste.

But wow, the world itself is just so interesting and involved. MW,SK starts about 150 years before the main plot in BL,RW, since we're following the story of Sogolon, the Moon Witch. Where BL,RW focused more on the fantastical fellowship and quest to find a lost boy from the point of view of Tracker, a (obnoxiously) misogynistic... well, tracker (it is said he has a nose), Sogolon's story reveals a lot more of the political structures and players in the grander schemes. Not that Sogolon particularly cares.

Honestly, it had been about two years since I read the first book, so it was very difficult for me to follow what sorts of information changed from one POV to the other, and there aren't any resources I could find online that were written to help through this. The differences become more pronounced when you actually catch up chronologically with the events of the first book (...like 3/5ths of the book in, or even later), and I honestly am pretty excited to learn who the POV character is for the final part of the trilogy, and whether it'll shed light on what is truth and what isn't. Both books stop at the same point in history, with Tracker and Sogolon giving their sides of the story to an investigator, but maybe we'll get to go past that point in time in the third book? Either way, the author has said that the third book is going to be in the horror genre, so I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
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I haven't read these (although I have the first one loaded on my Kindle), but the whole "Game of Thrones of X" thing is to speculative fiction what "The Dark Souls of X" is to video games; i.e., pure marketing pablum. The Expanse was also marketed as "Game of Thrones in space!" and it's like, no, not really.
 
masterthes

masterthes

I read some great graphic novels over the weekend. First was the first volume of American Vampire by Scott Snyder and Stephen King, The Last Ronin by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, and to prepare for the upcoming series, She-Hulk Epic Collection Vol. 3: Breaking the Fourth Wall by John Byrne. Now, reading The Gathering Storm by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson. Can't believe only 3 books to go!
 
Violentvixen

Violentvixen

(She/Her)
My classics book club is reading Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, I'm liking it so far. It's also going a lot faster than I expected! Maybe I will get through this 800 page beast in a reasonable amount of time...
 
masterthes

masterthes

My graphic novel reading this weekend included reading both volumes of Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning's run on Guardians of the Galaxy (with the exception of The Thanos Imperative and Annihilators), which I really enjoyed. Now, I'm starting on Towers of Midnight
 
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masterthes

masterthes

This past weekend, for my graphic novel reading, I decided to read some supplemental Sandman material, which I never got around to: Endless Nights and The High Cost of Living. Wasn't a huge fan of Endless Nights. The Despair and Delirium sections were too WTF for me. The High Cost of Living was much better.

Anyway, the moment has finally arrived. After more than twenty years, I will be finally finishing The Wheel of Time with A Memory of Light!
 
Johnny Unusual

Johnny Unusual

(He/Him)
I finished The Comics and the Origins of Manga by Eike Exner, which details some of the lesser known aspects of the birth of the medium, specifically the role of the rising popularity of Western comic strips and specifically Bringing Up Father, which was a big deal over there. It's pretty technical and dry at times (specifically "audio visual" comics IE comics with word balloons as opposed to narrative text at the bottom) but it is interesting to see where what began as keeping up what was seen as slick and modern (Western "manga") gave rise to it's own unique voices. However, since it is about the origins, the latest is extends is to Osamu Tezuka and even then it's more about the people who immediately preceded him, even if the splashes they made wasn't as big. It's interesting to see the influence of comics that are largely forgotten by both cultures playing a key role in Western and Japanese comics.
 
lincolnic

lincolnic

can stop, will stop
(he/him)
Just read an old book first published 1953 called The Kraken Wakes, which was apparently reissued earlier this year. It's a British sci-fi novel from John Wyndham, who's most famous for writing Day of the Triffids. I guess the book is one of the early examples of climate fiction in the canon. The plot: inscrutable aliens come to Earth and immediately dive into the deep sea all over the globe. No one knows what they're doing or if they want anything. Most people don't believe they exist, because very few people actually saw it happen. Of course, they eventually make their presence known.

It's an interesting read! For a book that's almost 70 years old, the language and the dialogue are fairly modern, though the writing style leaves a bit to be desired. There's a lot of telling instead of showing, and even though it's a relatively short 230-ish pages, the plot moves pretty glacially. What I did like (and/or sigh about) is how prescient a lot of it seemed. The plot spans years, and even when presented with undeniable proof of the aliens' existence (and how they're wreaking havoc around the world), many people still refuse to believe they're real. World governments are generally only interesting in the economic impacts. Even the main characters, when they're not pursuing the main plot, just kind of...live their lives.

When the plot does advance, it happens very suddenly and often in unexpected ways. I wish there was more of that instead of characters spouting exposition at each other, but that's most likely just part of it being a book from the 50s. It wasn't bad by any means, but I'm not sure I'd recommend it unless you were in the mood for something specifically from this era.

Now I'm gonna reread the Locked Tomb books in preparation for the new one next month.
 
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