Books The Books/Literature Thread

[Okido]

@Hawthorn asked me if there was a general thread for books and stuff, and after some searching, the few I could find were many years inactive - so hopefully this will remedy that.

Discuss your favorite books, genres, or authors... talk about things you want to read, or are currently reading... ask for book recommendations, or share your own! Have fun

If you want to discuss writing your own works, you can do so over in the Written Word - to talk about manga, visit our Animanga section - and for Western comics, there's a thread for that right here!

 

[airmail]

. . .you are enabling me.

Currently reading Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake and I cannot praise it enough! It's a fairly short one, but beautifully written and Sheldrake has a way of recapturing this old, childlike wonder in regards to the natural world. It's packed to the brim with information about fungi and their functions, but it isn't detached - you get pulled right into the fascination and love the author has for what he's studying. I haven't even finished the book, but I already feel much more appreciative (and awed by) all kinds of fungi, not just mushrooms. I'd recommend it to anyone, even if you're not particularly fond of nonfiction.

As much as I love it, though, my favorite author is still going to be Robin Wall Kimmerer. I think everyone should give Braiding Sweetgrass a try - I know I said Entangled Life is written wonderfully, but Kimmerer's style has this pull that just doesn't let you go. I've lost count of how many times I've read just this one, but I've heard lots of good things about Gathering Moss, too. If anybody's read either of these I'd love to know what they think !!

Sorry for all the nonfiction ^^; I'm also a big fan of Bambi, a Life in the Woods, Watership Down, The Last Unicorn, and Howl's Moving Castle! I'd love to hear recommendations for books similar to these or some more like the above two!

 

[Juliko]

Sorry for all the nonfiction ^^; I'm also a big fan of Bambi, a Life in the Woods, Watership Down, The Last Unicorn, and Howl's Moving Castle! I'd love to hear recommendations for books similar to these or some more like the above two!

Oooh! You like the original Bambi novel as well?! So do I! It's my favorite novel ever! I also love Watership Down, too!

 

[Beer&Nyquil]

unsure if this counts, but my best friend just lent me his copy of the first volume of berserk––i've never read manga before––and it's surprisingly engrossing

 

[Arceusgjengen]

Ruffen are the best books I have read.

 

[Blanc]

I also love Watership Down, too!

I’ve been meaning to read this one for a LONG time my best friend loves it. I’ve heard a bit about what it’s like and it’s a really intriguing tale! If we’re starting with favorite novels and current reads, then my favorite to this day has to be Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None— mostly because of what this novel means to me aesthetically. It was fun that my personal favorite character turned out to be the villain also! (Maybe you can pick them out too, hehe). It’s a murder mystery of 10 people trapped in a mansion on an island from a party invite by rbe supposed ‘U.N. Owen.’ The guests end up trapped there due to turbulent waters making them unable to leave, and thus they decide to stay. Every night, one person dies after another, it’s a race to see if they can discover the killer before there’s no one left to tell the tale.

It’s a fun one to think about and try and solve yourself as you go along.

I am currently going to begin reading ‘I Have a Secret’ by Yoru Sumino! It’s a more heartfelt novel about five highschoolers who struggle to be themselves and keep their talents secret. Their lives end up intermingling, and it may be what they need to open up… I need more tales about coming to terms with emotions or states of self, tbh!

 

[Kung Fu Ferret]

I've been too busy procrastinating to do this, but I really want to reread the Kane Chronicles trilogy that I have lying around my apartment.

 

[ii kanji]

Yay book thread!

I’ve usually got a few on the go. At the moment I’m actively reading Jane Austen’s Persuasion which is very good fun. I always thought I hated period novels but that’s because I’d never given them a chance lol - I just assumed they’d be sappy love stories. I watched the 90s BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice just before my wedding last year and loved it, and then went on to read the novel which is even better. Jane Austen is extremely witty and has an excellent hold on human personalities and interpersonal dynamics. Even though the setting is ye olde schoole, the characters feel timeless. The protagonist in Persuasion, Anne, is a big time introvert which makes a nice change from the usual parade of loud go-getters who often star in any given story.

My other two books that are slightly on the back burner at the moment are a translation of The Tale of the Heike (inspired by the excellent recent anime that @Juliko’s review persuaded me to watch) and a reread of A Game of Thrones. The Heike one is a fantastic yarn of an empire’s rise and fall but is, as all ancient epic texts are, a bit laborious to read. As far as AGoT goes, I wanted to reread the series so I might be prepared in case Winds of Winter is ever released, but tbh I’m on Eddard’s final POV chapter and I just can’t bear to proceed knowing how much more pain and misery I’m about to be inflicted with over the next few books so I might have to jettison my reread attempt altogether…

I’m a big Agatha Christie fan bulbaWave: @Blanc) so my mother-in-law decided I needed to experience something other than Hercule Poirot’s flamboyant exploits and lent me a copy of a Dorothy Sayers novel called Murder Must Advertise which I’ve just finished. I feel quite mixed on it to be perfectly honest. On one hand, I loved learning about the advertising industry in early 1900s London (the miss-en-scène of the story) but on the other the central mystery was unravelled really fairly early on with no satisfactory twist in the ending. I’m also not at all a fan of the detective Lord Peter Wimsey a handsome, multitalented, snobbish Oxon and aristocrat who looks down on every other character without exception. Poirot is much more humane in comparison…

As for all time favourites, I have a few I always return to. Johanna Spyri’s Heidi and the English version of Little Women (which does not include the second half Good Wives where everything falls to pieces lol) are both up there as feel good heartwarmers. Likewise an obscure novel called Tender Hooks by Moni Mohsin never fails to make me laugh and warm the cockles of my heart with the slice-of-life exploits of the superficial and silly upper-middle class Pakistani protagonist who learns during the story what is really important in life. (The Castafiore Emerald falls into the same category for me of the Tintin comics as it’s so very fun and lighthearted.) I also love the original Old Kingdom trilogy by Garth Nix - Lirael the outsider librarian and her mad talking dog friend most of all - for its grand sense of adventure and magical universe. Of course I can’t not mention Harry Potter in that context (death of the author death of the author death of the author…) And finally Memoirs of a Geisha which I know is a historical and cultural clusterfuck but the story is just so absorbing!

 

[Frozen Fennec]

Currently reading Circe by Madeline Miller, very good read so far, some slight changes from actual Greek Mythology in which Circe is shown to have been responsible for an event or two happening or a person or two coming into existence.

 

[noctiluca]

I'm currently reading Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, and Heidi by Johanna Spyri. I've read Alice's Adventures in Wonderland before but never when I was young... I'm almost done with it though I've been very distracted lately and I'm a slow reader. It's a very delightful book and I enjoy seeing how alice rationalises her reality (or dream, I suppose) she's living in. Heidi though, I've never read before. I'm on Chapter 4 or so and I hope to resume reading soon, but I'm distracted with Pokémon Sword and with work...

Also, I tried reading Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, but I have since become bored of it after Part I. I never read it in school (it was never assigned but I did read Animal Farm). Also, Child of All Nations by Pramoedya Ananta Toer which stopped reading after 80 or so pages. The first book, This Earth Of Mankind, was much better though I was reading that one for class...

 

[Aulos]

I've been listening to audiobooks at work and really enjoying that. Although I stick with non-fiction. I've been listening to historical books mainly. I've most enjoyed lately Bart D Ehrman's books on early Christianity. Especially "Lost Christianities" which talks about the books and religious beliefs that did not make the canon.

I'm a nonbeliever, but I like to understand how the religion came to be from the perspective of an ancient history nerd. lol

 

[impervious_gakko42]

I've been reading Cancer Ward by Alexander Solzhenitsyn since September. I'm usually a much quicker reader, but I kinda got bored of it in the middle and started reading other books. It's incredibly well written, if a little dense at some points. Many times I've inadvertently skimmed a page and had to go back because I was totally confused. Definitely not what I would call a "light read," but I would totes recommend it to anyone who's into contemporary Soviet fiction.

 

[Harryghost]

I was an avid reader back as a child. I loved reading all sorts of books, be it magazines, story books, journals or course books. Emphasis on was though, because it's been seven months since I started reading The Phantom of the Opera and I still haven't finished reading it; it's not even that long, but I bring myself to finish it lol

 

[ToxicWhiskers]

I don't read a lot of fiction books these days, but I do enjoy reading the odd autobiography if that counts. I've just started reading My Wild Life by Simon Cowell (not THAT Simon Cowell, but the founder of Wildlife Aid, a charity that I've raised money for in the past).

My favourite ones have to be two of Brian Blessed's books, Absolute Pandemonium (his main autobiography and has a brilliant segment where he talks about his time working on Flash Gordon) and The Panther In My Kitchen (a collection of his animal-related memoirs).

 

[Johtohfiller]

Reading Dracula for the first time, took me long enough. It lives up to the hype, I can see it becoming one of my favorite books.

 

[Beer&Nyquil]

Half of Dracula is awesome. About half of it is an interminable slog

 

[mastermind lissi]

I’m rereading the hunger games series cause I’m way too into this

Spoiler

just read the part where rue dies. :( I’ve said this in other places but it just hit so hard this time[/SPOILER]

 

[Mythra]

I'm reading 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea after reading an abridged illustrated version as a child. I compared the two translations I found at the bookstore before going with the older one.

One day I'll be fluent enough in French to read the original.

 

[EzloSpirit]

I'm rereading Heartstopper, since I bought all the books a couple weeks ago. I original read them digitally from the library, but I wanted to have persistent access and support the creator. (Pay her due royalties, Scholastic, you towering monolith.)

Isso wholesome.

 

[colours]

i started getting back into Animorphs approximately 2 or so weeks ago! on book 20 atm but things are nuts so far and it's really reminding me why i loved this series so much as a kid!