So what are you reading this year 2021?

[Nellisir]

Finished Thieves World's Wings of Omen. Thieves World is one of my foundational fantasy works, having read it a little too young, so it's hard for me to be objective about the series.

Reading, or rereading, personal "foundational works" is pretty awesome. I can very clearly attribute my interest in D&D to Joel Rosenberg's The Sleeping Dragon, in which a group of college gamers is transported to a fantasy world by their gamemaster/professor. I also encountered the 1e Monster Manual around that time, and made up my own system using what was noted in the novel (levels started at A and went up) and the MM. Alas, many of my notes* flew (literally) out the window during a drive from NH to Alabama for a Christmas vacation. Fortunately, my older AL cousin played ACTUAL D&D....

(Side Note: The fate of one of the characters early on in the book STILL stands out in my mind as a stellar example of This Is Not Like Other Books; Here There Be CONSEQUENCES! I love this whole series, to be honest.)

As a teen in the mid and late 80s, other serious influences were Guy Gavriel Kay, Robert Holdstock, CJ Cherryh, and a few others I can't recall right now. I feel like my fantasy world should be a lot more cerebral than it actually is....

*I had Ewoks as a PC race, I remember that much. And stats were on a 1-6 scale.

 

[KahlessNestor]

Still reading Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. by Ron Chernow.

Still reading Night of the Hunter by R. A. Salvatore.

Finished reading The Strange Death of Europe by Douglas Murray.

Still reading The Battle for Spain by Antony Beevor.

Still reading Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life by Jordan B. Peterson.

Still reading Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

Still reading Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb.

Still reading Changes by Jim Butcher.

Still reading A Lone Habitation by Seanan McGuire.

Still listening to Lux by Brandon Sanderson.

Still reading Black Widow: Forever Red by Margaret Stohl.

Still reading The Battle for Skandia by John Flanagan.

Still reading Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson.

Still reading Critical Role: Tal’dorei Campaign Setting by Matthew Mercer.

Sill reading Discrimination and Disparities by Thomas Sowell.

Still reading The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien.

Started reading Midnight Blue-Light Special by Seanan McGuire.

 

[Scars Unseen]

Finally closing in on finishing my 7th reading of Worm. Debating on moving on to another reading of the sequel or picking back up where I left off on Pale before I got distracted.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Still reading Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. by Ron Chernow.

Still reading Night of the Hunter by R. A. Salvatore.

Finished reading The Strange Death of Europe by Douglas Murray.

Hey congrats on completing a book lol (gentle ribbing, no harm meant)

Started reading Midnight Blue-Light Special by Seanan McGuire.

Been interested in this series. If you are willing, would love to hear non-spoilery feedback on discount Armageddon and this one...

 

[niklinna]

I am halfway through Nueva Historia del Tango by Hector Benedetti. Taught myself Spanish a couple years ago before going to a tango workshop in Buenos Aires, and picked that up while there. Reading it has definitely improved my fluency of not only the language, but also the music & dance!

 

[Zaukrie]

Just picked up the omnibus version of the Deed of Paksanarrion (which I've read several times, but not for years).

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I wouldn't pick up on the series until later, but back in the day Guardians of the Flame had ads all over Dragon magazine.

My foundational works would be the aforementioned Thieves World, The MYTH series, Tolkien's Middle Earth works, Beowulf, The D'Aulaires Norse and Greek books, and a dash of Poortvliet and Huygen's Gnomes.

Reading, or rereading, personal "foundational works" is pretty awesome. I can very clearly attribute my interest in D&D to Joel Rosenberg's The Sleeping Dragon, in which a group of college gamers is transported to a fantasy world by their gamemaster/professor. I also encountered the 1e Monster Manual around that time, and made up my own system using what was noted in the novel (levels started at A and went up) and the MM. Alas, many of my notes* flew (literally) out the window during a drive from NH to Alabama for a Christmas vacation. Fortunately, my older AL cousin played ACTUAL D&D....

(Side Note: The fate of one of the characters early on in the book STILL stands out in my mind as a stellar example of This Is Not Like Other Books; Here There Be CONSEQUENCES! I love this whole series, to be honest.)

As a teen in the mid and late 80s, other serious influences were Guy Gavriel Kay, Robert Holdstock, CJ Cherryh, and a few others I can't recall right now. I feel like my fantasy world should be a lot more cerebral than it actually is....

*I had Ewoks as a PC race, I remember that much. And stats were on a 1-6 scale.

I've got Sheepfarmer's Daughter on my list to re-read. When I was rediscovering my love of all things fantasy and D&D right when Fellowship of the Ring came out, I went to the library and got a couple of books almost at random, based just on covers and back blurbs. Three of the books were GRRM's A Game of Thrones, the first Elfquest collection, and Moon's Sheepfarmer's Daughter. I can still remember walking home from the library in winter, the city so quiet that you could hear the snow falling.

Just picked up the omnibus version of the Deed of Paksanarrion (which I've read several times, but not for years).

 

[Zaukrie]

Gatherer of clouds..... It's interesting to think about how differently Guy Kay writes Chinese vs Sean Russell...... Russell feels like he's telling a western story, moreso than Kay did. Both are good, just different feeling.

So, I think I really liked these two books, but I'm not sure I loved these two books......

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

I recently got into Brandon Sanderson's books. I love them.

Last month I read the Rithmatist, Way of Kings, Words of Radiance, and Oathbringer.

I just finished Mistborn.
Currently reading Rhythm of War (The Fourth book in the Stormlight Archive).

If you think you've read a long book before, look up the Stormlight Archive. Brandon Sanderson is planning on there being 10 in the series (he's working on the 5th book now), and all of them are well over 1,000 pages. I've read some long books and series before, but this is something else.

 

[Scars Unseen]

If you think you've read a long book before, look up the Stormlight Archive. Brandon Sanderson is planning on there being 10 in the series (he's working on the 5th book now), and all of them are well over 1,000 pages. I've read some long books and series before, but this is something else.

Pretty close to Worm, then. Worm is around 11,000 pages long (serialized), and the sequel, Ward, is around 4,500 pages.