August 2021 Reading Discussion

[The Judge]

I've a lot of novels still hanging around from months ago, and a new one I'm currently stalled on is The Food of the Gods by HG Wells, one of the SF Masterworks series, the supposed humour, satire, intelligence and message of which completely escape me.

So I've been reading it alongside a couple of The Invisible Library novels by Genevieve Cogman which are at least light-hearted and easy to read if not particularly sophisticated or memorable.

What are you reading this month?

 

[MartinChis]

After giving up on Hothouse by Brian Aldiss, I'm now finishing off The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson.

Published the same year as The Lord of the Rings but, to me, the more enjoyable read.

 

[Danny McG]

I'm starting a re-read of The Death Gate Cycle....not sure if I'll complete it all

 

[hitmouse]

Still chugging my way through Diary of an Unknown Indian by Nirad Choudhuri.

 

[thaddeus6th]

Danny, what book are you up to?

At the risk of sounding absentminded, I left a gap of at least 16 years between finishing the first (and liking it) and buying the second.

I'm reading the fourth book in the Chronicles of the Black Gate (and also two versions of Polybius' works). Liking it a lot, I think there are just two more to go. Interesting world, nice plot twists, glad to be back to it after a little hiatus.

 

[Danny McG]

Danny, what book are you up to?

I'm maybe halfway through book 2 Elven Star.....I first read them all as soon as they were published as I was well in with a local librarian, they were advance ordered and I was phoned as soon as they arrived because they were reserved for me first (free!)

 

[Dave Vicks]

Not sure which Audible.com book to get.ZOMBIE,SPACESHIP,WASTELAND by Patton Oswalt.Or OFFBEAT a collection of stories by Richard Matheson.
Any suggestions?

 

[biodroid]

I'm starting a re-read of The Death Gate Cycle....not sure if I'll complete it all

I would love to read them but they are not available on Kindle international for me, althought the DragonLance and Dark Sword books are strange enough, oh well.

 

[tobl]

kevin sinclair, condition evolution. suprisingly funny

 

[alexvss]

I got a little behind on my novel reading. When I finish the ones I've started I'll read Something Wicked This Way Comes and then The Three-body Problem.

I was also a little behind my mag reading, so I've spent much of my sunday listening to Escape Artists Podcasts. I still need to listen to five stories to keep up with them.

 

[thaddeus6th]

Danny, while the latter six books I bought new, the first one is a clearly used copy I got from a second hand book store as a child on holiday. I used to love browsing those.

 

[dask]

Next up:

 

[Hugh]

"Galactic Empires" anthology edited by Brian Aldiss.
Good value: 649 pages, combining volumes 1 & 2
Great nostalgic space opera fun.
In his introduction Aldiss refers to the days when SF writers amused themselves with intergalactic swashbuckle rather than trying to be serious :
"When sf writers began taking themselves seriously, they tended to abandon their imaginations and rely instead on the predictions of think-tanks or on extrapolations from scientific journals and population statistics; the result was a descent into greyness, a loss of the original driving force, an espousal of literalism".
This was your recommendation @BAYLOR: many thanks, I really enjoyed it.

 

[Bick]

I’ve just started Into the Storm, by Taylor Anderson. Good so far.

 

[Dave Vicks]

Ordered ZOMBIE SPACESHIP WASTELAND by Patton Oswalt. On CD

 

[Randy M.]

Currently reading/critiquing a friend's manuscript, a first novel, a mystery. Aside from that, not reading a lot except for infrequent dips into Jack London, Hemingway and the Constitution, a collection of essays by E. L. Doctorow. His discussion of Nixon to Reagan to Bush (41) feels extremely timely. His comments on Jack London are insightful, I think, and also on Hemingway, love him or hate him, who Doctorow views as the writer whose work seems to have guided American fiction's direction since the 1920s. I really need to tackle Ragtime one of these days.

A few pages into a novel, I decided it wasn't for me just now, and so pulled out a short story collection instead: Lisa Tuttle's The Dead Hours of Night. Maybe it'll get me past my reading funk.

 

[Ian Fortytwo]

Currently reading Word Perfect, by Susie Dent.

 

[Danny McG]

@Randy M.

A few pages into a novel, I decided it wasn't for me just now,

What book was it?

 

[Randy M.]

The Book of Skulls by Robert Silverberg. A GoodReads book club was reading it and I've had a copy for years. But right now my head just wasn't into it.

 

[chongjasmine]

I am on my way through reread of winternight the wheel of time.
Also, I am currently reading a few beneath ceaseless skies magazines!