What are you reading in 2025?

[Vael]

I am devouring the Dungeon Crawler Carl series. I am currently on book 5.

Just into Book 3, and it's been a little over a week since I got book 1.

Also, I just read "This is How to Lose a Time War", which I also really enjoyed. I'm just stoked I'm back to reading, haven't been reading this much in awhile

 

[Autumnal]

I really need a new audiobook for my commute. I have kind of run out of WW2 era espionage books, and books about the history of video games, comics and RPGs. I need a really compelling nonfiction narrative but no true crime.

Peter H. Wilson’s books on the Holy Roman Empire and on the Thirty Years War are amazing. Huge - each is more than 30 hours long - and meticulously organized so that I almost never got lost, with great narration.

Everything by M. David Litwa is worthwhile, bringing all kinds of fresh light to the centuries after Jesus. Just don’t get the one with Virtual Voice.

The Roman Empire And The Silk Routes by Raoul McLaughlin is one of those rare books that really changed my view of the world, showing the depth and complexity of ties between Rome and China despite them knowing almost nothing about each other. There’s also a whole lot of practical stuff about what they did with the goods they got, how much they cost, the whole deal. I loved it.

Fifth Sun by Camilla Townsend. A book about the Aztecs that takes you from zero to understanding, making its subjects fascinating - very cool in some ways, very awful in others, never dull.

 

[Autumnal]

I'm just stoked I'm back to reading, haven't been reading this much in awhile

Getting back into the reading groove is great!

 

[overgeeked]

Fifth Sun by Camilla Townsend. A book about the Aztecs that takes you from zero to understanding, making its subjects fascinating - very cool in some ways, very awful in others, never dull.

I have that one in my TBR pile. If people are looking for more in that vein, here's a few. Aztec Thought and Culture by Miguel Léon-Portilla. The Aztec by Duncan Ryan. Conquistador by Buddy Levy. I don't know if they're good or terrible as they're also in my TBR pile.

Do you know of any good history books specifically about the unification of Germany?

 

[Autumnal]

Mesoamerica: I’ve read Aztec Thought And Culture and loved it, though it’s more academic and presumed you know more already. I can’t speak to the others yet.

Edit: is The Aztecs published by Reaktor? If so, I’ll recommend it sight unseen; the whole line is great for introductory info and wonderful photos.

Unification of Germany: Peter H. Wilson’s book Iron and Blood is about and supposed to be as good as his others. Note that iron and blood are very popular for titles of books about Prussia and the empire. Beyond that I’d have to dig out my notes.

 

[gban007]

I really need a new audiobook for my commute. I have kind of run out of WW2 era espionage books, and books about the history of video games, comics and RPGs. I need a really compelling nonfiction narrative but no true crime.

Not sure if fits bill but I always enjoy David Attenborough's ones, whether autobiographical like Life on Air, or his reading of his various Life series novelisations of the TV shows. Once saw him in one if those 'in conversation ' things at a theater which was great.

 

[Autumnal]

Oh, they reminds me: Neil Peart’s travel books are all great. He loved being out on the road in his motorcycle, seeing new sights, meeting people and discovering what’s interesting about them, the whole deal. Combine that with the inside view of being part of Rush, and you get these uniquely delightful treats.

 

[jian]

The Library at Hellebore by Cassandra Khaw is not my usual bag - a dark visceral body and existential horror Scholomance story - but it was undoubtedly well written and I feel satisfied for having digested it. I also now know a thing about figs that I wish I didn’t know.

 

[Autumnal]

Reading Cassandra’s stories can give you many such moments, yeah.

Probably the Cassandra Khaw book least likely to give you a complex is Hammers on Bone, a modern-day Cthulhu Mythos that gives a look at the other side of an exchange in Lovecraft. Highly recommended.

 

[Mannahnin]

Suldrun's Garden (Lyonesse trilogy), Jack Vance (1982). First read. I'm enjoying it immensely so far.

I was searching back through the thread for references to Foundation and spotted this, which I must have overlooked before. How did you like it, and did you read the other two? I love the series unreservedly. Up there with LotR for my favorite fantasies.

Right now we're in the middle of Foundation, by Asimov. Which is a comparatively light/quick read. It's got a number of the amusing foibles of Golden Age SF (all the smoking, for example, and the near-total lack of female characters), but its large influence on the genre is clear. 40k getting the tech priests from here seems obvious, as well as the sheer scale and concept of the galactic imperium. I feel like A Canticle for Leibowitz does the time skip thing better, but it's also later and I imagine Miller probably drew some inspiration from Asimov's example and improved on that element. It's interesting that they're both assembled from short stories originally published in serial form.

That was near the start of the second half of Foundation and Empire.

I have the trilogy collected in a single volume.

I’m now at the start of Second Foundation.

As an aside, I do not recommend the prequels / sequels that Asimov wrote much later. They are rubbish and only serve to tie Foundation and the Robot series together. (“It was a robot all along!”)

Today I think I'm going to crack Asimov's Foundation and Empire, as I read Foundation earlier this year and it was a nice quick one, so will be a palate cleanser before I dig into Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord, our next book club selection.

Just finished F&E, which shares most of the foibles of the first, though I appreciate that we got a woman as a central character. The twists all seemed pretty obvious, but maybe it's just that they're relatively tropey now. It was still an enjoyable, light read, plot buzzing speedily along. I think I will finish out the trilogy, maybe after I finish this month's book club read, which is denser stuff.