What book are you reading since when, and how far have you read it?
Before that, The Great Gatsby. Same thing - forced to read earlier, then decided to read again. I missed so much about it the first time around.
It's kind of sad how education can tarnish classics in this way.
To re-iterate another commenter, Code by Prezold is surprisingly good (based on first few dozen pages). I had low expectations based on what seemed like hype, but so far it's holding up. It reminds me of the way that James Burke in his series Connections wove what seemed to be entirely disconnected technological threads together.
It is really social-science fiction if that makes sense - the premise is a mathematical model that can predict the future of an intergalactic civilization, with social and technological decline, dark ages and recovery.
The plots are various political intrigues the characters participate in to move civilization forward.
Billion Dollar Spy, Hoffman (I’m kind of obsessed with Cold War espionage)
SICP, JS edition (great read, I do a lot of JS work and I’ve learned a lot, despite time spent studying the language itself, and I’m still in the first chapter)
Topoi, Goldblatt (tough read, but Category Theory calls to me)
The Order of Time, Rovelli (his work is the clearest explication I’ve yet encountered of how QM might really be)
Helgoland, Rovelli (ibid)The Left hand of Darkness - since two weeks
Seven Brief Lessons on Physics - since three weeks nearly finished
Breakfast of Champions - since a month - can't find the damn thing to finish the last chapter
Space 2069 - since two months - half way
Snow Crash - since three weeks - first chapter
Leonardo Da Vinci - Walter Isaacson - two months - nearly finished
I've finished a bunch this year but you didn't ask about those...
My TBR pile is about 140 books long at this point, so I don't think I'll run out of things to read. :)
Previous book was the innovators dilemma. Both are kind of cliche books, good reads though which pull me out of the IT technical stuff which one has to read nowadays to keep up.
Of course there's my eternal struggle to read an "eternal golden braid". But that has stalled due to a chapter being incredibly meta it just hurts the brain
Shout out to my boox note Ereader. That thing has been a godsend.
Cheating here accounting other recent reads, but I've finished a couple others in the intervening time. Long Way to a Small Angry Planet (Chambers, 2014, reread), Dark Tower (book 7), (King, 2004). Pattern Recognition, (Gibson, 2004, reread). Revolution Business (Book 5 of Merchant Prince, Stross, 2009). Aurora (Stanley-Robinson, 2015).
I have some other stuff I read at a more leasiurely piece-by-piece pace, mostly materialistic philosophy / nerdery.
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Since Jan 1st. Ashamed that I'm only 130 pages in (~660 total). Life just keeps getting in the way were I don't make the time to sit down and read. Been over-indexing on my career and reading technical stuff after hours. It usually takes me a month or two to get through a book. But half a year later and I've barely put in a dent.
It also doesn't help that the book is mind-bending and incredibly postmodern and effectively has a plot structure not unlike the movie Inception, with footnotes taking over the entire page for several pages before falling off completely. Not exactly a "quick read before bed."
I'm also reading Seveneves by Neal Stephenson. Started less than a month ago, am at p256/867. It's not my 'priority book', but I've been enjoying it when my brain needed a break from the seashells.
I've heard about, and tried to get into the Discworld a few times, but it never really happened. I think I tried Guard! Guards! twice. Maybe I was in a different headspace, or maybe it was just not for me. But then I tried Small Gods, and it's the best thing I've read since (the nutrition label on the back of) sliced bread. No, really, it's lovely! I'll be done tomorrow according to my Kobos statistics, and then I just need to figure out what I'm gonna read next. Cannot wait to find out about all the things out there in the Discworld that I don't know about yet.
Westward Ho been meaning to read it since I was about 10 years old and this spring I remembered I had a 100 year-old copy that's been sitting on a shelf for 20 years so I started it. Again, haven't picked it up in months. Thanks for reminding me.
"The Ugly Chickens" (novella from "1981 World's best SF" collection). My 12 year-old still likes it when I read to him at bed time, so we've been reading it for the last two nights. At least this one I know I'll finish soon, or I'll hear about it :-)
I just finished Devolution by Max Brooks, it was good but not really in my wheelhouse. I didn't realize when I started reading it, but he also did World War Z, which I felt the same way about, and also recently finished reading
Before that I finished Artemis by Andy Weir, good but not great. Read because I had recently finished The Martian and absolutely loved it.
_Midnight Riot_ by Ben Aaronovitch A fun read set in London about a new cop who sees ghosts and finds out he has ability to do magic . He becomes an apprentice to a master magician who also happens to be an inspector for the the police department. Started about 2 weeks ago maybe and just past half way. _Ask Your Developer_ took precedence for a while but now give each equal attention.
Seriously, if you're thinking about upgrading your book read count, I highly suggest having kindergartners.
Now if you want something I'm reading without the kids around: Witchblade Compendium 2. I read 21 out of 50 chapters. Been reading since early/mid June. Would not recommend so far, but I heard that after chapter 30 (issue 80 of the series) it gets good, we'll see.
A bit over halfway through, reading a chapter every few days.
The Elementary Particles by French author Michel Houellebecq finished last week had started about a month ago.
Might is Right by Ragnar Redbeard about halfway through
Napolean: A Life by Andrew Roberts started in the spring, about 1/2 way through had to take a break to read shorter books. Will get back to it, great book but very long.
Last week, I started and finished The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel.
During the past two months, I read 1) Perfectionism: A Relational Approach to Conceptualization, Assessment, and Treatment by Gordon Flett, Paul L. Hewitt, and Samuel F. Mikail, 2) Bad Science by Ben Goldacre, and 3) Neurosis and Human Growth by Karen Horney.
Currently reading: 'Inhibitor Phase' by Alastair Reynolds (60% read), 'Wayward' by Hannah Mathewson (50%), '10,000 Light Years from Home' by James Tiptree Jnr (50%), 'Rust for Rustaceans' by Jon Gjengset (20%), and 'Hands-on Rust' by Herbert Wolverson (10%).
Also, I'm in 25% of Deep Learning by Goodfellow. I started it two months ago but had a long break.
When I was a teenager, I read yearly ~75 fiction books. Being an adult I read less, but I'm more careful with the lecture choice given the limited time.
I had recently went on the boat the "RRS Discovery" and on the same day "HMS Unicorn" both in Dundee and it got me amazed by the Age of Sail.
The people of those days were made of strong stuff!
I hope to go and see "HMS Victory" of Lord Nelson fame at the end of the year because of that book.
Always looking out for new reading material so love these threads.
On the last few chapters about private property. Justice Scalia's jurisprudence and his views on what the role of SCOTUS ought to be is profoundly thought provoking.
I'm in a bit of a lull unfortunately, it seems like every recommended book I've read recently is a dud. I read every day so my demand is high.
About half the way through it. Would recommend
The Ministry for the Future, Rise and Fall of Third Reich, Benjamin Franklin's biography by Walter Isaacson, Leonardo Da Vinci's biography, Crafting Interpreters, The Overstory
I took a break to read At The Mountains Of Madness. That made me feel a little better by comparison.
Since then, I've read several of the author's other books — and recently I've been re-listening to The First Law trilogy. (Steven Pacey is the best Audible narrator in the game.)
Losing Ourselves: Learning to Live without a Self by Jay Garfield
The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War by Clark
The Napoleonic Wars: A Global History by Mikaberidze
An Introduction to Programming in Emacs Lisp by Chassell
The Girl from the Channel Islands by Lecoat
Recently completed:
Leviathan Falls by Corey
Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia, 1600-1947 by Clark
Showstopper! the Breakneck Race to Create Windows NT and the Next Generation at Microsoft by Zachary
Mercury Rising: John Glenn, John Kennedy, and the New Battleground of the Cold War by Shesol
Seeking Love in Modern Britain: Gender, Dating and the Rise of 'the Single' by Strimpel
The Club: Johnson, Boswell, and the Friends Who Shaped an Age by Damrosch
Come Fly with Us: NASA's Payload Specialist Program by Croft
Aerial Warfare: The Battle for the Skies by Ledwidge
De Gaulle by Jackson
1913: The Year Before the Storm by Illies
Vichy France by Paxton
Year Zero by Reid
And the Show Went On: Cultural Life in Nazi-occupied Paris by Riding
The Kinsman Saga by Bova
The Triumph of William McKinley: Why the Election of 1896 Still Matters by Rove
La Place De La Concorde Suisse by McPhee
End of a Berlin Diary by Shirer
Seizing the Enigma: The Race to Break the German U-Boat Codes, 1933-1945 by Kahn
Hell and Good Company: The Spanish Civil War and the World it Made by Rhodes
The Forgotten Depression: 1921 : The Crash that Cured Itself by Grant
Bernard Baruch by Grant
Wool by Howey
Project Hail Mary by Weir
Fantastic book. Super hard to read, given the current events here in the USA. Paraphrasing, Kotkin's thesis is that revolution only succeeds when the elite stop defending the current regime.
I've since been wondering what our elite will do, when push comes to shove.