So what are you reading this year 2021?

[Blue]

I've started reading a compilation of the first 3 Garrett PI books by Glen Cook. Entertaining mostly, but yeesh, the sexism/misogyny! These were written in the late 80's, it looks like he decided Heinlein wasn't sexist enough.
So far though it's mostly background. He's not here to write about how bad women are. Just mentioning it when women do show up now and then.

A good part of that is the Noir Hard-boiled Detective style that he's emulating. It does get better later on.

 

[Blue]

I'm hoping it'll be good, and I'm taking comfort in the fact that the other two of the author's novels I picked up (having been written over a decade later) are in that "overly tall" paperback format that are usually reserved for best sellers.

Do you mean trade paperback format vs. mass market paperback? It's not a format they bother with for everything, and basically assumes there's a hardcover which not all books get. The trade paperback is the same layout as the hardcover, and usually has better quality and acid-free paper compared the the smaller mass market paperback.

 

[Blue]

Just finished Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, based ona recommendation from the Summer Reading thread. I enjoyed it, a solid 7.5-8 for me. It had been compared to The Lies of Locke Lamora, but didn't quite live up to that for me. One reason could be that except for a early scene that introduced three of the main characters, there was a lot more tell than show until halfway through the book. Of course, Lies is a very high bar - it's a standout that even the later books in the Gentleman Bastard's series haven't been able to match.

Would recommend, and planning to pick up more by Leigh Bardugo.

Which brings me to a tangential question. Shadow and Bone by the author has been made into a Netflix series that's gotten good reviews from friends. Has anyone that has consumed both suggest if I should read then watch, or watch then read?

 

[Richards]

Do you mean trade paperback format vs. mass market paperback? It's not a format they bother with for everything, and basically assumes there's a hardcover which not all books get. The trade paperback is the same layout as the hardcover, and usually has better quality and acid-free paper compared the the smaller mass market paperback.

I'm unsure of the proper terminology, but the standard paperback book is about 4" wide and almost 7" tall. Lately, some of the better-selling books have been coming out in a taller format, still only about 4" wide but now 7 1/2" tall. I suppose it's to make them stand out more or something, but it irritates me, especially when I have a series that started out in standard paperback format (like the "Agent Pendergast" series by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child) that now comes out first in hardback and then in the "tall" paperback format. So much for standardization on my bookshelf!

There's also an even larger format, about 5 1/4" wide and 8" tall, that's comparable to a hardback book but comes in paperback format. Is that the trade paperback size you referred to?

Johnathan

 

[Blue]

I'm unsure of the proper terminology, but the standard paperback book is about 4" wide and almost 7" tall. Lately, some of the better-selling books have been coming out in a taller format, still only about 4" wide but now 7 1/2" tall. I suppose it's to make them stand out more or something, but it irritates me, especially when I have a series that started out in standard paperback format (like the "Agent Pendergast" series by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child) that now comes out first in hardback and then in the "tall" paperback format. So much for standardization on my bookshelf!

There's also an even larger format, about 5 1/4" wide and 8" tall, that's comparable to a hardback book but comes in paperback format. Is that the trade paperback size you referred to?

Trade paperbacks are the layout for the hardcover, so the page size is the same though as a whole it's smaller because the cover is flush, nto projecting. But it it's only half an inch taller, it might just be a mass market in a different format. Then look to the quality and thickness of the paper to tell if it's a large mass market or a small trade.

Here's a handy infographic I found about the differences between trade paperbacks and mass market paperbacks.

Source: Mass-Market Paperback Books Vs. Trade Paperback Books: A Guide For Self-Publishers |

 

[Khelon Testudo]

A good part of that is the Noir Hard-boiled Detective style that he's emulating. It does get better later on.

It is getting slowly better. I'm in the second book.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Just read The Aeronaut’s Windlass by Jim Butcher.

Honestly, as much as I love the Dresden Files, Ithink this book is just a stronger work. Either way though, Butcher is a master of making the reader care about what happens to the characters.

 

[Blue]

It is getting slowly better. I'm in the second book.

It's disturbing viewed through today's lens, but it's not something present in any other body of work and the intensity that he mimicked the style fades as he continues. Though I think the vocabulary stays mostly true to that source even as the rest of the writing (and the protagonist) changes so if that's too much of a barrier you know it now.

 

[Blue]

Just read The Aeronaut’s Windlass by Jim Butcher.

Honestly, as much as I love the Dresden Files, Ithink this book is just a stronger work. Either way though, Butcher is a master of making the reader care about what happens to the characters.

I enjoyed Aeronaut's Windlass, but for me I put it above his earliest Dresden and some of the Codex Alera, but behind late Dresden and well behind middle Dresden. But I've agreed with a lot of your book assessments before and it's sitting ten feet from me after my wife read it, so maybe I'll give it a re-read.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Finished Alexander's The Book of Three. Still magical, still wonderful.

Now I'm re-reading Robert Asprin's MYTH-ing Persons. Haven't read that one since I was a kid.