What are you reading in 2025?

[Voadam]

Arnie is a the final girl in Predator.

Absolutely.

 

[Voadam]

I'm not the person you're replying to, but Romance and ... Supernatural Thriller (not Horror). I've seen that attempted and the attempts I've been unfortunate enough to see inside have been (metaphorically) pulled apart by trying to please both masters (so to speak). Like, because each story-type wanted to dominate the novel, there was a strong "because you are neither hot nor cold" thing happening.

To bring this back to novels and reading . . .

My first thought is that Romance Supernatural Thriller pretty much seems Laurel K. Hamilton's whole thing for her Anita Blake series. magical vampire hunter who gets involved romantically with a vampire and werecreatures and deals with big dark supernatural plot stuff.

I read the first few in that series a couple decades ago so I can't say whether the whole series continued in that vein.

 

[overgeeked]

To bring this back to novels and reading . . .

My first thought is that Romance Supernatural Thriller pretty much seems Laurel K. Hamilton's whole thing for her Anita Blake series. magical vampire hunter who gets involved romantically with a vampire and werecreatures and deals with big dark supernatural plot stuff.

I read the first few in that series a couple decades ago so I can't say whether the whole series continued in that vein.

Exactly. Supernatural Thriller, not horror. The protagonist is a badass monster hunter, not a scream queen who happens to barely survive.

 

[prabe]

To bring this back to novels and reading . . .

My first thought is that Romance Supernatural Thriller pretty much seems Laurel K. Hamilton's whole thing for her Anita Blake series. magical vampire hunter who gets involved romantically with a vampire and werecreatures and deals with big dark supernatural plot stuff.

I read the first few in that series a couple decades ago so I can't say whether the whole series continued in that vein.

What I was getting at was that both of those are very much "story genres," and it's ... well, it was certainly beyond the capabilities of the author of the books I saw inside of to fulfill both of them adequately, if that makes sense. A given novel only has so much story-space, and the two story genres seemed to need more space than the novels had (it was a series).

Hamilton is ... interesting in some ways. The early ones were more focused on her professional work as a Supernatural Problem Solver. There was a point when the novels became, basically, porn. I do not know that she ever managed to thread the needle of getting all the genres she clearly wanted to be writing in, into any single novel. I also don't know if she ever figured out that her main was becoming more of a monster over the run of the series, because I never really read much--again, we recorded some of her books where I recorded audiobooks.

 

[TheAlkaizer]

I've found it difficult to get through Neuromancer. Definitely not my writing style, but for some reason I'm having a hard time getting through fiction lately. I've hard a tough year and it's difficult for me to focus. Non-fiction (mainly history) seems to be the exception. It's by far what I read the most of. So I dove in the history of Kievan Rus and the early medieval eastern slavic principalities.

 

[Autumnal]

I’m a very big believer in feeding your brain what it wants to read, within very broad limits. I’ve got times when one or more of my usual types just isn’t working, and trying to force it never seems to work out well. I wonder if historical fiction might split the difference?

 

[overgeeked]

I've found it difficult to get through Neuromancer. Definitely not my writing style, but for some reason I'm having a hard time getting through fiction lately. I've hard a tough year and it's difficult for me to focus. Non-fiction (mainly history) seems to be the exception. It's by far what I read the most of. So I dove in the history of Kievan Rus and the early medieval eastern slavic principalities.

Yeah. I do the same. It seems to come in waves. Fiction for a time then non-fiction.

I’m a very big believer in feeding your brain what it wants to read, within very broad limits. I’ve got times when one or more of my usual types just isn’t working, and trying to force it never seems to work out well. I wonder if historical fiction might split the difference?

Forcing things almost never works out well for me. I just end up hating the things I normally love.

 

[Retros_x]

I’m a very big believer in feeding your brain what it wants to read, within very broad limits. I’ve got times when one or more of my usual types just isn’t working, and trying to force it never seems to work out well.

Forcing things almost never works out well for me. I just end up hating the things I normally love.

That is the main reason I have like 10 unfinished books right now - not counting the ones I completely DNF. But these books I feel I will read at some other time, but not right now. I read much more and more happily since I started to stop reading a book if it doesn't feel right and don't force myself to "finish the job". This hustle culture mentality might work for working out in a gym, but not for recreational reading IMO.

 

[TheAlkaizer]

I’m a very big believer in feeding your brain what it wants to read, within very broad limits. I’ve got times when one or more of my usual types just isn’t working, and trying to force it never seems to work out well. I wonder if historical fiction might split the difference?

I fully agree, and I normally go this way. I always have dozen of books of different topics laying around.

But as I said, it's been a tough year and my mental health is not in the best place. And I found that it's difficult for me to sit down and read focused for a while. It's been a growing frustration. I have half a dozen RPG products on my nightstand that I can't get through.

I'm not forcing it, but a few times a week I pull out a book, give it a try and put it back when I find out I still can't focus.

It's kind of a different problem, one I'm not used to.

 

[Hriston]

In my experience, William Morris has his moments, and is undeniably influential, but his writing isn't as accessible to modern readers.

I'm not sure if he meant it to be accessible to readers of his own (Victorian) time. His relentless use of archaisms seems intended, rather, to place the reader into a relationship with the somewhat alien syntax of a high and far-off time. He literally does this at every conceivable opportunity in a way which never ceases to surprise.

Whereas Lord Dunsany, also a massive influence on Tolkien, is way more readable.

He's on my list, but I wanted to go back to the beginning of the genre first, so once I'm done with Morris, I'm planning on reading some George MacDonald.