Books - What are you reading?

The Air From Other Planets
Why We Build
The Shortest History Of Germany
A Beautiful Question: Finding Nature's Deep Design
On the Black Hill

Thanks for the reccomendations, will look into those. If anyone else is interested in that sort of thing, I finished Giovanni's Room by James Balding the other day. Would highly reccomend.

Unrelated but does anyone use Goodreads? I signed up yesterday to keep track of what I've been reading following a big clear out of books I don't think I'll revisit. I rated about 50 books, hoping to get decent suggestions. How likely am I to find some relevant bangers based on my reviews of other books?

Giovanni's Room looks great, cheers! Will give it a read.

I do use Goodreads. I've found the recommendation system pretty ropy. It doesn't try to group books by any kind of internal similarity, just lets you sort them into shelves, and bases recommendations on shelf plus user rating. You need to get really granular with your shelves to get some use out of it. It's a little bit better if you look at the "people also liked..." lists on individual books, but it's variable. E.g. I always seem to get great recommendations on individual books for pop science, but terrible recommendations for sci-fi.

The goodreads rating system itself is pretty shit. Some people use it the way goodreads want you to use it (where 2 stars means you thought it was average). Other people use it the way most 5-star recommendation systems are interpreted (where 3 stars is average). So because not everyone is using the same system, you can't really trust the ratings.

Groups and lists are a bit better for discovery as they're curated and voted on by actual human beings and can be more thematically consistent.

I'll get granular with your shelves if you keep on with that business bollocks.

I work in publishing, dahling. You get nowhere in this industry if you can't surface the right concepts within your domain

I use Goodreads but mainly for keeping track of what I've read (I've started too many books, got a fair way through and realised I'd read it) and what I want to read.

Recommendations are OK but a bit hit and miss. They're probably best on individual titles but you don't need to sign up to see those.

One feature I do like is that you get an email every month with new books being released by authors that you've read.

Ah right, sounds like my dream of a website that automatically reccomends books that I will definitely love has died. Good to know that people still find it useful though!

Absolutely devoured this (it's only short). It's been around awhile but was new to me. I don't run but that didn't hinder my enjoyment of it at all.

1 Attachment

I haven't read any Murakami in a while. I might try and tackle the 2nd (massive) volume of 1Q84 whilst I'm off work with a fucked toe.

I'm currently about halfway through "The Plague" by Albert Camus, it's really not cheering me up.

I've been meaning to try What I Talk About..., will add to the list. Just finished the Border Trilogy by Cormac McCarthy for the umpteenth time. One of those books I return to on an almost yearly basis.

Just starting on The Flight of the Falcon by Daphne du Maurier, which I paid £1.50 for in our now sadly closed local charity book shop.

I'm getting into Bad Blood at the moment. The book about the Theranos scandal.
So much fun. Highly recommended.

I finished The Plague by Camus the other day. I found it quite hard to get into, I much preferred The Stranger. Having said that it could be because I've been up to my eyeballs in painkillers recently.

I've just started on Annhilation by Jeff VanderMeer, based on a recommendation by a friend. About 60 pages in and enjoying it so far.
Seems similar to a less spooky version of Roadside Picnic by the Sturgatsky brothers.

I much preferred The Stranger

The The Meursault Investigation by Kamel Daoud is worth a read (a google will show why these two books are related).

Latest book club book was Outline by Rachel Cusk. Will probably read the rest of the trilogy because of it. Can't remember what is actually next in our book club, something by James Joyce I think...

Sounds interesting, just ordered a copy seeing as it was only £2.45 on eBay! I also ordered the second book in the Southern Reach Trilogy seeing as I've read half of Annihilation (The first in the trilogy) today. I'd reccomend it to any sci-fi fans, it's quite unsettling.

Have just finished "The Trial" by Kafka as I've read all the Murakami books that are available on the kindle and he's supposed to be the most Murakami-esque author. Or rather, I think Murakami is Kafka-esque.

It was alright but not quite as good as a Murakami. Maybe it's time for a proper book again as I haven't read "What I talk about when I talk about running".

@ltc do it, I loved all of 1Q84.

‘The Islanders’ by Christopher Priest has a slightly Murakami vibe to it. I would recommend.

I just started ‘The Power’ by Naomi Alderman. Only a few chapters in but I’m already well on board.

Sorry, I missed that as the tag didn’t work. Glad you liked it a little - I do know what you mean about the language. It’s a different style to the way he wrote the Heliconia books (which I really rate).

cant recommend this enough

true stories told well

1 Attachment

I finished the first part of 1Q84 a couple of years ago, I'm not sure if I need to reread it before starting the second part. Will I be lost if I just jump back in?
Also, has anyone read all 3 of the Southern Reach trilogy? I loved Annhilation but am really not keen on Authority. I'm nearly done with it but have found it incredibly dull and not particularly well written. Is it worth reading Acceptance?

I reckon you’d probably remember what you need to. It might even improve it, thatbthng Murakami does where he unexpectedly loops round to link up with something he told you early on in the story, it’ll be even more of a surprise for you?!

I finally forced myself to finish Authority by Jeff VanderMeer, 80% mind numbingly dull, badly written shit. Unfortunately it sort of picks up enough in the last 40 pages to make me want to read the 3rd book in the series, mostly in the hope that it's much more like Annhilation.

Don’t bother. I couldn’t make it to the end - just got bored of it meandering.

I disliked all 3 of those books, I wish I had never bothered reading them

Thanks for the heads up! I'll leave it I think.

What was it about Annhilation you didn't like? I thought it was great!