What are you reading in 2025?

[Jeremy E Grenemyer]

Trying a thing this week

I like this idea.

I have finished the fungus book and have moved on to the audiobook version of Carlo Rovelli’s Reality Is Not What It Seems.

 

[Autumnal]

Rovelli is a pleasure to read.

 

[Retros_x]

I had quite a lot of criticism for this for the excessive amount of anachronism (particularly re: food & clothes, like, there's no way these people have clothing sizes, hell people that rich now don't use sized clothing, come on), and the weird isolation the empire exists in seems hard-to-explain

These anachronisms are also my only criticsm for the book which moved it from 5 to 4.5 stars. I will also never forget the rich people complain about their yachting crews at the ball. But maybe the empire is supposed to be more modern? The author was specialised in historical fiction before this book and that seems weird. She either
a) doesn't give a damn and maybe enjoys writing without minding historical details. Its a fantasy world after all.
b) there is some worldbuilding still to be revealed in the upcoming books that explains more of it.

The isolated empire has a much more higher chance to be explained in the upcoming books, I feel this could be very much connected to some of the lore reveals at the end of the book.

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

I finished my final Halloween season read, Kaden love's Toothsucker. Mixed feelings on it. The book throws a metric ton at the reader. The slang used felt forced and got old really quickly. But the core concept of a bunch of tooth-eating cybernetic vampires was solid.

Now I'm re-reading Walter Jon Williams' Voice of the Whirlwind.

 

[Clint_L]

I'm still reading Anathem. I can admire the complex world-building and ambition, but...man. There is so much exposition, and that's not even counting the literal dictionary entries that are a significant part of the text. In a way, it's very old school sci-fi, with a bunch of scientists and technocrats arguing and explaining to each other (I like the way Socratic dialogue is acknowledged). I just wish more happened. Thankfully, things seems like they are about to pick up, as our narrator just got assaulted and now the conflict with the mysterious space travellers has begun.

But it's a slog. Maybe I should have finally checked War and Peace off my list, instead.

 

[pukunui]

I finished my reread of the DL Chronicles trilogy. Definitely not literature but still fun to read. Some great characters and a good story overall, even if I disagree with some of the moralising (particularly Paladine’s justification of the Cataclysm).

Laurana is still my favorite character. I like her even more now that I’ve come to realize she has a strong vasovagal response like I do! The authors must have known someone with that condition (or one of them has it themselves). It’s funny I never noticed it before. I feel seen!

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm still reading Anathem. I can admire the complex world-building and ambition, but...man. There is so much exposition, and that's not even counting the literal dictionary entries that are a significant part of the text. In a way, it's very old school sci-fi, with a bunch of scientists and technocrats arguing and explaining to each other (I like the way Socratic dialogue is acknowledged). I just wish more happened. Thankfully, things seems like they are about to pick up, as our narrator just got assaulted and now the conflict with the mysterious space travellers has begun.

But it's a slog. Maybe I should have finally checked War and Peace off my list, instead.

This is how I feel about Don Quixote. I'm starting to wonder if all the people who claim it's the greatest novel ever -- a surprisingly common claim -- have just read the first few chapters and are pretending to have read the rest. I don't need to hear about Cervantes' beefs with other long-dead authors again, nor his apparent insecurities about whether writing is a respectable profession.

 

[prabe]

This is how I feel about Don Quixote. I'm starting to wonder if all the people who claim it's the greatest novel ever -- a surprisingly common claim -- have just read the first few chapters and are pretending to have read the rest. I don't need to hear about Cervantes' beefs with other long-dead authors again, nor his apparent insecurities about whether writing is a respectable profession.

I haven't read Don Quixote for reasons, but I will point out that it's really early in the development of the Western novel, and kinda foundational--which will have little-to-nothing to do with whether a given present-day reader will enjoy it (a persistent problem with old novels, really).

 

[jian]

I finished my reread of the DL Chronicles trilogy. Definitely not literature but still fun to read. Some great characters and a good story overall, even if I disagree with some of the moralising (particularly Paladine’s justification of the Cataclysm).

Laurana is still my favorite character. I like her even more now that I’ve come to realize she has a strong vasovagal response like I do! The authors must have known someone with that condition (or one of them has it themselves). It’s funny I never noticed it before. I feel seen!

Yeah, “you were all pissing me off so I dropped a mountain on you and then went and sulked for a few centuries” is far from ideal divine behaviour.

When we ran the DL modules the prevalent theory was that the Good gods had lost a massive series of bets with the Evil gods. Because the evil Gods cheat at poker.

“OK, so if we lose this hand then we’ll give you a five year head start and a hundred metallic dragon eggs!” (Loses hand.) Well, screw it, double or nothing!”

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I haven't read Don Quixote for reasons, but I will point out that it's really early in the development of the Western novel, and kinda foundational--which will have little-to-nothing to do with whether a given present-day reader will enjoy it (a persistent problem with old novels, really).

He was writing it in an early version of a serialized format, so even more than with Dickens, there's no reason for Cervantes to wrap things up or have a conventional story structure. A lot of this stuff is the kind of stuff that GRRM just puts in his blog instead, where it belongs.