What are you reading in 2025?

[Nellisir]

Ok wow, such a strong reaction REALLY makes me curious!

It's...a certain kind of literature. From what little I know of his other work, it might be of a kind. And my reaction certainly said more about me than the book itself.

I took a class in college (way, way, way back...) on Chinese Literature. The instructor was Chinese*. And it made me aware of how "American" my biases and tastes were, in literature and storytelling. The conclusion of a number of those books rubbed me the same way, albeit less strongly. They just weren't...satisfying. To me. I like to think I've come to understand them more, but I'm not sure I'll ever "agree" with them.

*I mention this only to say that it wasn't an American instructor picking books they weren't familiar with the background context of.

 

[Pale Violet Light]

I haven't finished the book yet, but a lot of time has passed for Tenar…

I’m more talking about the world than the character. But honestly I’m still sore about The Farthest Shore. The Tombs of Atuan is perhaps my favorite YA novel of all time, and getting to the sequel and finding Tenar had been replaced by some bland prince was a rude shock.

 

[Cadence]

Red them through to my son (the big Vess art one) when he was 10 - with a few selective deletions of paragraphs in the later 3 volumes. He is a fan of all of them.

 

[Richards]

I read it like 10-13 years ago. Literally hurled it across the room upon finishing it.

The one time I hurled a book across the room was quite involuntary. I was a teenager, reading a scary novel in bed. My bed was situated halfway along the wall, with a floor lamp behind the headboard that was pointed over the headboard my way, which gave me much more light to read by than the overhead light, which was off. The book was about these little monsters creeping about in an old house, and I was at a part in the novel when they were approaching someone unaware of their presence, who was asleep in bed (and about to become their next victim). The little monsters were right about to strike...when the lightbulb suddenly burned out of my floor lamp.

I flinched like a madman, sending the book flying up over my head and across the room as I gave a shriek that would no doubt make a little girl proud. Then I slid off the bed and crawled over to the light switch to turn on the overhead light, so I could find my book (and figure out what page I was on when it took its sudden aerial trip). I don't think I got any more reading done that night.

Johnathan

 

[TiQuinn]

Currently listening to the audiobook of You Like It Darker by Stephen King during my daily commute. Most are narrated by Will Patton, whose unique voice is really engaging and fits the tone of King’s writing so well. Of the stories so far, most have been horror adjacent, trending more towards either crime or light sci-fi than outright horror, and the strongest has been the novella Danny Coughlin’s Bad Dream about a man who has a psychic experience where he discovers and reports the location of a dead body, and subsequently becomes the prime suspect of the ensuing investigation because of course, the police don’t believe him. It reads like a classic King story.

Others are far weaker, and one of the things that I’m consistently noticing is the narrative anachronisms that I imagine might be due more to King’s age. It can be as simple as encountering young kids named Mary or Willie who act more like a person ripped out of the 1960s or 70s than any kid I’ve ever encountered in the past 30 years. Other times it’s simply very old turns of phrases that I believe King could say but not the character he’s writing. But given these are short stories, it’s easy to move past them.

 

[Old Fezziwig]

Others are far weaker, and one of the things that I’m consistently noticing is the narrative anachronisms that I imagine might be due more to King’s age. It can be as simple as encountering young kids named Mary or Willie who act more like a person ripped out of the 1960s or 70s than any kid I’ve ever encountered in the past 30 years. Other times it’s simply very old turns of phrases that I believe King could say but not the character he’s writing. But given these are short stories, it’s easy to move past them.

He's had this issue for a while -- at least as far back as 11/22/63, where he gets away with it because of the nature of the story, or parts of The Dark Tower. It used to make me nuts, but now I find it goofy and endearing (most of the time -- Jerome in Mr Mercedes et al skirts all sorts of lines). I imagine it would stand out more on audiobooks.

 

[prabe]

He's had this issue for a while -- at least as far back as 11/22/63, where he gets away with it because of the nature of the story, or parts of The Dark Tower. It used to make me nuts, but now I find it goofy and endearing (most of the time -- Jerome in Mr Mercedes et al skirts all sorts of lines). I imagine it would stand out more on audiobooks.

Authorial tics--and King does have some--stand out more in audiobooks. When I worked recording them, it was not unusual for us to make fun of books (or series) for things that repeated often. There was one series where the author was going for a character being the strong silent (or at least terse) type, but he'd get into conversations, and he'd be an active (if silent) participant--so there was a lot of Character nodded and Character said nothing in those books. I know what the author was going, but man it flew off the page when read aloud.

 

[Old Fezziwig]

There was one series where the author was going for a character being the strong silent (or at least terse) type, but he'd get into conversations, and he'd be an active (if silent) participant--so there was a lot of Character nodded and Character said nothing in those books. I know what the author was going, but man it flew off the page when read aloud.

That's interesting -- it makes sense; I'd probably half read those sentences while reading and get the intended sense, but listening to it would be an entirely different story. Audiobooks can do some weird things -- I remember feeling trapped in a scene that I really wanted to get past when listening to Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth. It was deeply uncomfortable three times over: in the text as written, in the reading as read, and in the authorial voice as considered.

 

[Retros_x]

The conclusion of a number of those books rubbed me the same way, albeit less strongly. They just weren't...satisfying. To me. I like to think I've come to understand them more, but I'm not sure I'll ever "agree" with them.

I understand what you mean although this is one of the reasons asian literature is so interesting to me - because they have complete different understanding of dramatic structure and of course in terms of content vast cultural differences. Feels always quite fresh to me while Western literature has to do much more work to feel fresh and interesting.

I know what the author was going, but man it flew off the page when read aloud.

Thats the reason one of the most common writing advices is to read your text out loud or even better have somebody else do it.

 

[prabe]

Thats the reason one of the most common writing advices is to read your text out loud or even better have somebody else do it.

I've always understood that advice to be about sense, not repetitions--grammar errors will tend to jump out differently if you hear them than if you read them. I know that some authors shifted to unattributed dialogue after hearing how the dialogue tags jump out of audio (something that'll actually probably be worse with a narrator who does character voices).