Discussion Books, books, books!

[AllanGH]

OK, we have music genre, movies, spare time, favorite food, and so forth, threads; but, how about the books (novels) that you enjoy reading?

What are the most recent titles that you have read/re-read, and what categories of written work appeal to you the most?

I've always been something of a Sci-Fi junkie, and just finished going through my Dennis E. Taylor books (The Bobiverse, Outland, The Singularity Trap, and so on) again. (John Scalzi is also a skilled author, among many others.)

Also, having been given an Audible gift membership a while back, I killed a few credits on the Taylor books and let them play on my daily drives to Los Angeles and back. I have to say that Ray Porter does an excellent job of voicing the stories--something that I did not expect.

 

[AngelTech]

I only read manga so I can only give my input on those books currently I enjoy Tokyo Ghoul.

 

[Ley]

I recently started reading books about North Korea, just ordered this one: (Click), I get it tomorrow, so impatient!

 

[USAFRet]

Currently gong through the Slow Burn series.

I also do a lot of cheap SciFi...armored Marines running around the galaxy, blowing things up.
I also do a lot of...most things...lol

Many things live on my Kindle, or are sitting in the NAS box waiting to be ported to the Kindle.

 

[Ley]

Many things live on my Kindle, or are sitting in the NAS box waiting to be ported to the Kindle.

Do you prefer Kindle over physical books?

 

[USAFRet]

Do you prefer Kindle over physical books?

Yes.
Takes up no space in the house, adjustable font size, backlight for reading at night, battery life for days, 100 books in my pocket.
The choices avaiable in the $10 Kindle Unlimited sub falls exactly in line with my reading preferences and choices.
This Slow Burn series is $0.00 for 9 titles.

And to be clear, a Kindle Paperwhite ebook...not a Kindle Fire tablet.

 

[DMAN999]

I also have a Kindle Paperwhite which is filled with a variety of genres:
Fantasy, Urban Fantasy (Iron Druid/Dresden Files), Horror, Wierd West, Cyberpunk, Crime/Detective, Historic Fiction, etc., etc., etc.
I am currently reading The Wolf's Call (1st book in the new Raven's Blade Series) by Anthony Ryan.
Next I think I will starting the Dead of Night series by Jonathon Mayberry since the 2nd book in the Raven's Blade series won't be out until 2020.

 

[Ley]

Fair enough... I've thought about buying one, every year I'm about to, but I end up not getting one because in my opinion, paper is 10x better. Call me old school or whatever, but going to the shop and picking a book feels amazing. I get why you prefer that over physical books but it's not my thing. I like stacking them up on my library and watching my collection grow over time. It's a good way to decorate my room, too 😀

 

[USAFRet]

I like stacking them up on my library and watching my collection grow over time. It's a good way to decorate my room, too 😀

Oh, I still have stacks and stacks of physical paper.

But once you move house a time or two...that can become a "Why am I moving this stuff AGAIN?"

 

[Ley]

Oh, I still have stacks and stacks of physical paper.

But once you move house a time or two...that can become a "Why am I moving this stuff AGAIN?"

True, or you could also keep the books that you've really enjoyed, and sell the others or donate them. I'm sure a library would be glad to take them!

 

[DMAN999]

I have had thousands of paper books over the years but I passed almost all of them on to people who I knew would read them.
Now I only have around 20 or so paper books that I kept because I knew I would re-read them every few years.

 

[NightHawkRMX]

To be honest I used to read a lot more than I do now.

I remember reading the 7 book entire shadow children series in under 2 weeks a while back. Sure they were only maybe 200-250 pages each, but i really liked that series.

A very dystopian society that kind of reminds me of north Korea.

 

[USAFRet]

True, or you could also keep the books that you've really enjoyed, and sell the others or donate them. I'm sure a library would be glad to take them!

And I've done that.

For me, the paperwhite and Kindle Unlimited just works.

 

[Ley]

For me, the paperwhite and Kindle Unlimited just works.

And you're right! To each their own I guess

 

[DMAN999]

I just checked my external storage drive and I have over 4000 ebooks going back to 2009.
D@#n I read a lot. LOL
I got the first Nook back in 2009 and kept that for 4 or 5 years and I have had 2 Kindle Paperwhite's since.
I just traded my last Kindle Paperwhite in for the newest waterproof version a few months ago.

 

[Ley]

I just checked my external storage drive and I have over 4000 ebooks going back to 2009.
D@#n I read a lot. LOL
I got the first Nook back in 2009 and kept that for 4 or 5 years and I have had 2 Kindle Paperwhite's since.
I just traded my last Kindle Paperwhite in for the newest waterproof version a few months ago.

Damn that's a lot. Would you sell your old Paperwhite?

 

[DMAN999]

I would but I traded it back in to Amazon so my new Paperwhite only ended up costing me $40.

 

[Ley]

What a deal 😀

 

[AllanGH]

I also do a lot of cheap SciFi...armored Marines running around the galaxy, blowing things up.

In that case, I'm almost certain that you're familiar with Williamson's 'Freehold', 'The Weapon', et al; along with Weber's Honorverse?

 

[Deleted member 217926]

Currently slogging through the Gentleman Bastard Series by Scott Lynch. I'm about half way through the third one ( Red Seas Under Red Skies ) and it's taken me WAY longer than usual to read them. I've been on this trilogy almost 2 months when it would usually take me a couple of weeks to read all three. The first one was pretty good but they're just 'meh' overall.

I have thousands of books. I love fantasy, sci-fi, horror, mystery, crime, history etc. I'll read pretty much anything. I like actual books and just can't get into e-readers.

I am currently reading The Wolf's Call (1st book in the new Raven's Blade Series) by Anthony Ryan.

I'll have to check that out. I read the Raven's Shadow books.

John Scalzi is also a skilled author

I've read the first 3 of The Old Man's War books. I need to finish that series.

 

[DMAN999]

Currently slogging through the Gentleman Bastard Series by Scott Lynch. I'm about half way through the third one ( Red Seas Under Red Skies ) and it's taken me WAY longer than usual to read them. I've been on this trilogy almost 2 months when it would usually take me a couple of weeks to read all three. The first one was pretty good but they're just 'meh' overall.

I'll have to check that out. I read the Raven's Shadow books.

I couldn't get into the Gentleman Bastard series either.
I got about 3/4 of the way through the first book before I gave up.
The Raven's Blade series is a follow up to the Raven's Shadow series, which I also read.
I'm only a few chapters in but it is pretty good so far.

 

[DMAN999]

Here are a few more of my current Favorites:
Peter V. Brett - The Demon Cycle
Brent Weeks - Night Angel Series and Light Bringer Series
Patrick Rothfuss - The Kingkiller Chronicles
Glen Cook - The Chronicles of the Black Company

 

[Deleted member 217926]

I've read Night Angel but not Light Bringer. Read the Kingkiller books and even the Auri? is that her name? book but it wasn't as good as the first 2. He's turning into G.R.R. Martin with the slow book releases. lol

Lets see, a few fantasy author favorites.

Robin Hobb - Everything but the Soldier's Son books. Skip those.

Joe Abercrombie - First Law world books. All great.

Raymond E Feist - I've been a fan since the 80s and read the original Magician books as they were released. Ended up reading everything he's written.

Robert Jordan - Read The Wheel of Time as it was released. I have all of them in 1st edition hard backs. The series was finished by Branden Sanderson leading to----

Branden Sanderson - Love him. All of them with Mistborn and of course The Stormlight Archive being extra amazing. I want the next Stormlight book now! lol.

Steven King - In general I love King but his later stuff isn't anywhere near as good as the old stuff. I loved The Gunslinger world and how The Dark Tower ties all of his works together hence the mention here in fantasy. The Stand and The Talisman are two of my all time favorite books. I've read them both probably 10 times each.

Dragonlance - I've got around 30 of them. I went back and reread them a few years ago and they were still enjoyable although not as much as when i was a kid. Weiss and Hickman were the best authors of the bunch and I've read a few of their other series as well like The Deathgate Cycle and the Darksword books. I haven't read any of the newer Dragonlance stuff though.

Dennis L McKiernan - Very Lord of the Ringsish. Very. Especially the first trilogy and the follow up duology. But also an amazing world that I've read every single book and short story collection of.

Tad Williams. - Everything he's written. Memory, Sorrow and Thorn and the Osten Ard books are the inspiration for a bunch of later fantasy. He's in the middle of a new series based in that world now and it's good so far.

Terry Goodkind. I hesitate to even mention him because the quality of his books just went to hell but the first part of the Sword of Truth series is great. And then it's not. I read the whole first series and even gave the follow ups a chance but I just couldn't keep reading him. I think the last one I read was The Omen Machine.

That's just a few off the top of my head. 😛

 

[Deleted member 14196]

...armored Marines running around the galaxy, blowing things up.

Lol!! This made me think of Republican Space Rangers show from GTA 5. Television shows in the game are hilarious

😋

 

[AllanGH]

...once you move house a time or two...that can become a "Why am I moving this stuff AGAIN?"

::: sigh :::
Just a "time or two"?

First editions and signed copies will stay with me, though.