Once you’ve read that, get a copy of Nightwatch. Much the same cast of characters, but it’s widely considered to be Terry’s magnum opus. That book is a damn work of art.
My ‘big read’ this year is Finnegans Wake - which I am (or have been) reading week by week along with the TrueLit sub on reddit. It would be a profoundly different experience to read it without the analysis and discussion going on there, so that is something…
Otherwise, I am reading The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher, which is engaging and entertaining, as was her The Hollow Places which I read immediately before. I am also dipping into a collection of the Para Handy tales by Neil Munro, which are a cosy - if stereotypical and patronising - glimpse into another time and pace of life.
I have just returned from a couple of weeks away during which I finished an anthology of Clarke Ashton Smith short fantasy tales (all about the atmosphere: story and worldbuilding are very much secondary and character scarcely features); Haldor Laxness’s The Atom Station (a sparse look at the clash of modern - written in 1948 - and traditional Icelandic values); and Blackwood’s The Willows (an extrapolation of the original idea of “panic” - as several of this other tales are).
I’d not heard of it until last week, when folks on r/books were singing its praises in a thread, so figured I’d give it a shot. Yeah, it’s enjoyable. Definitely aimed squarely at the middle of the YA crowd, but it’s an easy read at a time when my brain isn’t letting me really get into any books.
Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
Snow Crash is good, but IDK. It just isn’t pulling me in the way I expected it to, so it’s taking me too long to get through.
Then I have some Jack Reacher novel on my bedside table waiting to be started, and I was just eyeballing a collection of H.P. Lovecraft stories on my shelf.
I’m currently reading through Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. I’m a fan of SciFi, and cyberpunk especially. This book was on my reading list, and I decided to pick it up while in the bookstore the other day.
So far I’m really enjoying it. It feels a bit more pulpy than some of the other cyberpunk classics such as Neuromancer and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, but that’s not a bad thing. It certainly doesn’t take away from the entertainment in my opinion. Not every book needs to have a grand philosophy behind it.
I guess I should finally read Snow Crash, but other books keep getting in the way. I just finished Neuromancer which surprised me with how well written it was. No idea why, but I expected the classics to be more … exhausting.
Do you think it is worth starting the series for someone who did not really enjoy the Games due to the writing and thought the first season of the show was a mess?
I love the show and Witcher 3, but absolutely cannot stand the books, so perhaps yes? Maybe it’ll be the other way around for you, if it can be this way 'round for me.
I usually have a print/ebook and an audio book (for the car) going at the same time.
For print book, currently reading Crooked Kingdom, one of the books in the Grishaverse series/world. I, uh, got a little obsessed after watching the first season of Shadow and Bone a year or two ago.
For audiobook, currently listening to Children of Ruin. Not too far into it yet, but I loved loved loved Children of Time (also listened to the audiobook version), so I’m excited to see where this one goes.
I really want to read Children of Time. I actually did start it and got half way through, but I have such an intense arachnophobia that I had to give up because I kept dreaming of spiders and waking up terrified. I enjoyed his writing style, though, and am curious about his new trilogy coming out.
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