So what are you reading this year 2021?

Cadence · Feb 15, 2021

Finished reading all of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe (and related) books. There weren't many where I actually found myself paying attention to the clues because the characters were so front and center and engaging. I'm trying to reread and see if anything jumps out that I missed the first time through.

Ralif Redhammer · Feb 15, 2021

Finished reading Headley's Beowulf translation. The language is modern and muscular, but still maintains the alliteration and cadence. It practically begs to be read aloud, loudly.

After reading the history of Sword & Sorcery volume, I found myself with an itch to re-read some R.E. Howard. So I am now reading Kull, Exile of Atlantis.

Li Shenron · Feb 15, 2021

I have started to re-read all the Lovecraft bibliography, in case I missed something.

Richards · Feb 16, 2021

I finished off Dean Koontz's Breathless in less than 24 hours - it was 337 pages long, but the print was almost at Large Print size and I'd bet in a normal-sized print it would have been closer to about 200 pages. A good read, but not one of his better novels, as he had about four different characters having their own story and some of them didn't get pulled together into the main plotline until the very end. And the deal with the twin at the farmhouse made no real sense at all; it almost seemed like that plotline didn't really need to have been in this book at all.

Anyway, now I'm trying out Superhuman by Michael Carroll. It deals with the first supervillain, an immortal superhuman from 4,000 years ago who's being brought into the present day somehow, where he'll end up being fought off by a band of young heroes who have recently discovered their own powers. I'm not sure if this is a Young Adult novel or what, but at fifty cents from a library book sale I figured it was worth a shot.

Johnathan

Blue · Feb 16, 2021

Zaukrie said:
Private Investigator series by Glen Cook. It was a fun little book, if you can get by some sexism and racism (aimed at other fantasy races)......I also own the second one in the series, so I'll likely read that in the coming weeks.

There's a lot of the Garret P.I. books. They absolutely build on each other though each book is self contained. They're of varying quality between fun and pretty good. I've collected them over the years, mostly from second hand stores.

Cadence · Feb 17, 2021

Blue said:
There's a lot of the Garret P.I. books. They absolutely build on each other though each book is self contained. They're of varying quality between fun and pretty good. I've collected them over the years, mostly from second hand stores.

I love the first six volumes (and think it has a lot of inspiration for D&D like games). I think seven through nine are worth reading, but they make me a little sad because the plot ideas and most of the writing is strong, but there are spots in each where the (non-graphic) writing about interpersonal relationships with the opposite sex felt juvenile and repetitive. Re-editing a few pages could have made them as good as the first six to me. I wish 10 never happened, and it don't think it really regains its footing after that (although a character introduced in nine really starts shining, and another character who was definitely not shining gets shown the door).

Mallus · Feb 17, 2021

I'm still reading Agatha Christie, following our early pandemic binge-watch of every episode of the David Suchet Poirot series. Death on the Nile is a terrific good book (as opposed to her The Big Four which is a terrific bad book). So in my early 50s I am finally discovering the appeal of the mystery genre.

Perhaps I should have read fewer books with dragons, spaceships and mutants on the cover?

Nellisir · Feb 17, 2021

Mallus said:
I'm still reading Agatha Christie, following our early pandemic binge-watch of every episode of the David Suchet Poirot series. Death on the Nile is a terrific good book (as opposed to her The Big Four which is a terrific bad book). So in my early 50s I am finally discovering the appeal of the mystery genre.

Perhaps I should have read fewer books with dragons, spaceships and mutants on the cover?

No. But check out Raymond Chandler.

Eyes of Nine · Feb 18, 2021

Mallus said:
I'm still reading Agatha Christie, following our early pandemic binge-watch of every episode of the David Suchet Poirot series. Death on the Nile is a terrific good book (as opposed to her The Big Four which is a terrific bad book). So in my early 50s I am finally discovering the appeal of the mystery genre.

Perhaps I should have read fewer books with dragons, spaceships and mutants on the cover?

Or potentially, you read the exact right number of books with dragons, spaceships and mutants on the cover so that at exactly at this moment in time your brain was perfectly poised to love the murder mystery genre.

Ralif Redhammer · Feb 19, 2021

I finished R.E. Howard's Kull, Exile of Atlantis. Way better than I remembered. I used to think of Kull as a dry run for Conan, a less interesting prototype. But Kull is, more than any other character, a reflection of R.E. Howard's depression. He broods, he suffers from melancholy, he philosophizes, ponders existence.

Now I've finally moving to the conclusion of N.K. Jemisin's Broken Earth trilogy, with The Stone Sky. Been slowly savoring this series, but it's time to see how it ends.

So what are you reading this year 2021?

Cadence

Legend

Ralif Redhammer

Legend

Li Shenron

Legend

Richards

Legend

Blue

Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal

Cadence

Legend

Mallus

Legend

Nellisir

Hero

Eyes of Nine

Everything's Fine

Ralif Redhammer

Legend

Similar Threads