What are you reading in 2025?

[AK_Ambrian]

The last novel I read was The Shards by Bret Easton Ellis. Next I may reread his first novel Less Than Zero.

 

[Retros_x]

Next I may reread his first novel Less Than Zero.

That was a bleak one, needed a palate cleanser after that. The sequel is a bit more "sophisticated", but still very uncomfortable to read.

 

[AK_Ambrian]

The sequel is a bit more "sophisticated", but still very uncomfortable to read.

Do you mean Imperial Bedrooms? I haven't read that one yet but plan to read it after I finish Less Than Zero. Actually my main reason for rereading LTZ is to refamiliarize myself with the characters because I heard a lot of them show up again in IB.

 

[Autumnal]

Finished Middlemarch by George Eliot this morning. It is a hefty thing - 32 hrs in audio - and worth every moment. Eliot puts a whole community under scrutiny, examine all the people around a trio of romances and marriages under the lens of she’s relentless, but also deeply compassionate, and very wise on the way our society shapes us beyond what we ever see ourselves. There’s a lot about how the hopes of youth do and don’t translate into adult reality, and what we do when things change on us, and about how often whims and random moments end up shaping us for years and generations after.

She’s also frequently very funny:

Sir James had no idea that he should ever like to put down the predominance of this handsome girl, in whose cleverness he delighted. Why not? A man’s mind—what there is of it—has always the advantage of being masculine—as the smallest birch-tree is of a higher kind than the most soaring palm—and even his ignorance is of a sounder quality.

And this description do a happy auctioneer:

Some saturnine, sour-blooded persons might object to be constantly insisting on the merits of all articles from bootjacks to “Berghems;” but Mr. Borthrop Trumbull had a kindly liquid in his veins; he was an admirer by nature, and would have liked to have the universe under his hammer, feeling that it would go at a higher figure for his recommendation.

The final chapter is a finale that describes some of what became of the characters later, and ends this way:

Her finely touched spirit had still its fine issues, though they were not widely visible. Her full nature, like that river of which Cyrus broke the strength, spent itself in channels which had no great name on the earth. But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.

I will be rereading this in years to come. There’s a lot to enjoy and ponder.

 

[Nellisir]

Finished Middlemarch by George Eliot this morning. It is a hefty thing - 32 hrs in audio - and worth every moment. Eliot puts a whole community under scrutiny, examine all the people around a trio of romances and marriages under the lens of she’s relentless, but also deeply compassionate, and very wise on the way our society shapes us beyond what we ever see ourselves. There’s a lot about how the hopes of youth do and don’t translate into adult reality, and what we do when things change on us, and about how often whims and random moments end up shaping us for years and generations after.
...
I will be rereading this in years to come. There’s a lot to enjoy and ponder.

I've had this around for years. Time to move it up to the top of the list (which is its own sort of list, currently at about 5-8 books, probably...<sigh>)

 

[Autumnal]

A couple BookTubers convinced me I’d like to go ahead and read some Victorian literature. They were right. I’ll be weaving some more in with my 2026 reading.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

As discussed in another thread here, I saw the 1992 Tales of Talislanta book (publisher - Wizards of the Coast before they became WIZARDS OF THE COAST) at my local used bookshop. $3 used with trade credit. Very nice condition. Will read, then decide if I want to sell on eBay.

Also, I got a new bookshelf, and moved a bunch of books on my to-read shelf over there. Alphabetized as I went, so now A-P is there. Happy to say no surprise duplicates. Just Wind in the Willows and Leaves of Grass. (Glad to have found my copies of Wind in the Willows, they were not where I thought they were when I searched earlier. Just in time for the Riverbank RPG arriving! They are also not on this shelf, for reasons. I like Nellisir in the post or two prior to this one talks about having a sub-list at the top of his to-read list. I also have that - a shelf of some 30-35 books.)

 

[Eyes of Nine]

You know who's books are surprisingly hard to find used in used book stores? Charles E Gannon.

 

[prabe]

You know who's books are surprisingly hard to find used in used book stores? Charles E Gannon.

I've noticed that books more than a few years old can be very hard to track down if you want a physical copy. Do you think that's at least part of what's going on with Gannon (who seems to be currently active, so it might apply).