Hey!! Let's get some action going! What are we reading?

[bfisher]

Originally Posted by issybird

Golly, I wish I could get it down to only two! Three is my ideal, four is most realistic, five is marginally acceptable in summer when I'll have two audiobooks going concurrently, one for swimming and one for dry land. Right now I'm at seven.

eek, indeed!

But I do find generally that when reading lots of non-fiction it has to be read in small bites, so I'm usually juggling books. I didn't do that nearly as much with pbooks, but with the ereader it is so easy to carry many books around and jump between them.

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by bfisher

But I do find generally that when reading lots of non-fiction it has to be read in small bites, so I'm usually juggling books. I didn't do that nearly as much with pbooks, but with the ereader it is so easy to carry many books around and jump between them.

I tend to have one book that I'm actively reading, with one or two others that I'm technically in the middle of. Your example reminds me that I took a couple of years to finish a certain book on politics - it wasn't long, but it was very dense and had hundreds of endnotes, so I had to take it in small bites. While I was technically in-progress with that one, I literally read hundreds of novels, and sometimes I would pause a novel to read a graphic novel or three. Before I switched to ebooks as my main reading, and even now when I'm focused on a tree-book, sometimes I'd change books when I was headed to a store that sold books... as a measure of protection against accusations of shoplifting. (I attend a monthly book club meeting that takes place at a local Books-A-Million. It irks me that I can't buy ebooks from the BAM website while I'm there and have the purchase credited to that branch.)

So, my focus is usually on one book at a time. Right now, for instance, I've got two short story collections open on my reader, but I also have an almost-completed graphic novel on my iPad that's been "open" for months because it's my emergency backup read. Once I find a suitable replacement, I'll probably finish that up and open a new e(mergency)book in its place.

[CRussel]

Just finished reading Hunter by Mercedes Lackey, the first in a new series/world. Rather better than several of her recent books, which I've found more than a little annoying and 'rushed'. This is a post-apocalyptic, parallel-world, creatures coming through, fantasy, with a youngish female protagonist whose powers keep getting better. (Hmmm, haven't we seen this before from her?) IAC, so far I've enjoyed the first one, going on to the second one.

[Dngrsone]

OMG, I just bought $15 worth of audio books. What was I thinking?

Good thing I just switched to unlimited data on my phone... it's something like 30GB of data to download all this.

[bfisher]

Originally Posted by Rev. Bob

I tend to have one book that I'm actively reading, with one or two others that I'm technically in the middle of. Your example reminds me that I took a couple of years to finish a certain book on politics - it wasn't long, but it was very dense and had hundreds of endnotes, so I had to take it in small bites. While I was technically in-progress with that one, I literally read hundreds of novels, and sometimes I would pause a novel to read a graphic novel or three. ... I also have an almost-completed graphic novel on my iPad that's been "open" for months because it's my emergency backup read. Once I find a suitable replacement, I'll probably finish that up and open a new e(mergency)book in its place.

I always used to have an emergency book on my phone that I could read in my dentist's waiting room and similar situations. I often took a year to read a non-fic book that way. More recently (two years ago ) I started to read John Ferling's The Ascent of George Washington as my backup book. I changed my phone six months ago, but forgot to transfer Ferling's book to the new phone. Thanks for the reminder - must do that.

[BenG]

The year is halfway over. This is what I've read so far. (I don't list books I didn't finish.)

https://www.goodreads.com/review/lis...sort=date_read

Short Stories:

Spoiler:

* reread
January
The Crystal Crypt by Philip K. Dick
Black Bargain by Robert Bloch
New Folks Home by Clifford D. Simak
Dusty Zebra by Clifford D Simak
The Big Front Yard by Clifford D Simak
The Delegate from Venus by Henry Slesar
Blood Brother by Charles Beaumont
The Darfstellar by Walter M. Miller Jr.
The Con Man by Frank Belknap Long
Unseen-Unfeared by Francis Steven

February
Our Lady of the Sauropods by Robert Silverberg
Crucifixus Etiam by Walter M. Miller Jr.
Who Can Replace a Man by Brian Aldiss
A Thing of Beauty by Norman Spinrad
Billenium by J.G. Ballard
The Marching Morons by C. M. Kornbluth*
The Sea Was Wet As Wet Can Be by Gahan Wilson*
Extracurricular Activities by Yoon Ha Lee
Stability by Philip K. Dick
The Ethical Equations by Murray Leinster *
The Piper's Son by Lewis Padgett
The Gnurrs Come from the Voodvork Out by R. Bretnor *
Happy Ending by Henry Kuttner
Evensong by Lester Del Ray*
A Relic of the Empire by Larry Niven
The Soft Weapon by Larry Niven
Crimes and Glory by Paul McAuley

March
A Meeting with Medusa by Arthur C. Clarke
Where the Summer Ends by Karl Edward Wagner

April
Far Below by Robert Barbour Johnson
Built Up Logically by Howard Schoenfeld
Near Zennor by Elizabeth Hand
Watchbird by Robert Sheckley

May
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Prott by Margaret St. Clair
Mistress Sary by William Tenn*
Scherzo with Tyrannosaur by Michael Swanwick
Triceratops Summer by Michael Swanwick

June
Button, Button by Richard Matheson
The Cure by Lewis Padgett
But at My Back I Always Hear by David Morrell
Boule de Suif by Guy de Maupassant

July
Mr Lupescu by Anthony Bloucher
Voluntary State by Christopher Rowe

[issybird]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I have to finish reading them for the first time! I think one might be in my near future.

I've read the first 12 except for #3. I feel as if I've been blowing through them pretty quickly.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by BenG

The year is halfway over. This is what I've read so far. (I don't list books I didn't finish.)

https://www.goodreads.com/review/lis...sort=date_read

One of my long-term goals is to read all of Wodehouse in (more-or-less) chronological order.

[BenG]

They're like candy, so I'm trying to spread them out and read other things in between. Also the plots can be similar so spacing them out helps with that.

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by drjd

Finished The Elegant Universe by Brian Green. Dazzling in its brilliance, unprecedented in its ability to both illuminate and entertain, The Elegant Universe is a tour de force of scientific writing - a delightful, lucid voyage through modern physics that brings us closer to understanding how the universe works. Highly recommended for physics lovers.

<snip>

You might also like a book I read earlier this year - The Hunt for Vulcan...And How Albert Einstein Destroyed a Planet, Discovered Relativity, and Deciphered the Universe. I believe I noted elsewhere in this thread that it is like a love song to the scientific method. If this is a repeat rec from me, ignore me and move on

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Now to finish Deadly Decision by Kathy Reichs.

Which was OK. An interesting series of events, although I'd prefer a little more clever analysis, and a little less action.

Next up: Sharpe's Fury by Bernard Cornwall. The 11th in his Sharpe series.

[MickeyC]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

You might also like a book I read earlier this year - The Hunt for Vulcan...And How Albert Einstein Destroyed a Planet, Discovered Relativity, and Deciphered the Universe. I believe I noted elsewhere in this thread that it is like a love song to the scientific method. If this is a repeat rec from me, ignore me and move on

I've read both of them and, if you liked the Brian Green book, you will be very pleased with The Hunt for Vulcan.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by BenG

They're like candy, so I'm trying to spread them out and read other things in between. Also the plots can be similar so spacing them out helps with that.

Agree on both counts. And especially with some of the earlier books, whole portions were used in different US/UK editions; my strategy now is to read one now and plan to go back and fill in once I'm done.

[drjd]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

You might also like a book I read earlier this year - The Hunt for Vulcan...And How Albert Einstein Destroyed a Planet, Discovered Relativity, and Deciphered the Universe. I believe I noted elsewhere in this thread that it is like a love song to the scientific method. If this is a repeat rec from me, ignore me and move on

Originally Posted by MickeyC

I've read both of them and, if you liked the Brian Green book, you will be very pleased with The Hunt for Vulcan.

Ah, great... thanks for the recommendation! I was actually running short of science non-fiction in my TBR. I'll buy and read this book by Thomas Levenson soon.

Edit: Just bought it from Amazon.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

Next up: Sharpe's Fury by Bernard Cornwall. The 11th in his Sharpe series.

Which was the usual fun with Sharpe. A nice afterword.

Next up: All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders. Looking good so far.