What are you reading?

What the title says! c:

I’m currently, sort of, reading three books.

While I’m at work, I read a Broken Blade by Melissa Blair in my free time. I just started chapter one! It’s a new adult fantasy. We’re not allowed to read physical books, so I use Libby and Hoopla.

At home, I read They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera—a YA contemporary—and Romancing Mister Bridgerton by Julia Quinn—an historical adult romance, book four of the Bridgerton series. TBDATE is the only physical book I’m reading as RMB is through my phone (Libby).

I’m mostly only reading RMB just because I can’t wait for the third season of Bridgerton. xD Though I’ve only picked it up a few times because I’m focusing too much on writing and reading the other two books. :sweat_smile:

So… what are you reading? And what was the last book you read?

The last book I read was the Other Side of Perfect by Mariko Turk which was a YA contemporary and it was so good!

Also, also… bonus question: Do you have a reading goal this year? If so, how close are you to achieving it?

My main reading goal, always, is to read more books I did the previous year. Last year, I read seventeen books. This year, I just achieved it—the Other Side of Perfect was my seventeenth book! I did, however, want to try and reach for twenty books… which may not happen since I’ve been such a slow reader lately. But if I finish They Both Die at the End and a Broken Blade before December or mid-December, that’ll get me very close to that goal.

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The Tin Drum

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Nothing. I barely read.
I would rather write more than read.

What I read last time? That was Magnus Chase and that was months ago or something along those lines.

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What’s that about? :blush:

Randomly off topic, but I’ve always liked the name Magnus. :sweat_smile: Anyway, what was it about? :blush:

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It’s written by the same author who wrote Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Only this story focuses on Norse mythology rather than Greek mythology.

if my memory still serves me, Magnus (the main character) was a homeless kid who ends up dying and goes to a place called Valhalla to take on a duty where he has to save the day. He is also a demigod…I think.

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Oooh, are you trying the Elizabeth Filips experiment to read multiple books?

I did, and it doesn’t work…at least not for me. I can only read a max of two books at a time: one fiction, one nonfiction, and that’s the best I can do. So right now I’m reading Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay and Herland by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. ¯\_(ﭢ)_/¯

The last book I read was Dracula. I liked it, and I think I gave it four stars on Goodreads. My goal is to read 100 books for the annual Goodreads challenge, and I think I have like eight more books to read to win it. That’s easy, though, since Goodreads lists individual short stories and even individual poems as books. ☜(ˆ▿ˆc)

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Oh it’s a thing? I’ve always just done it. I thought everyone read multiple books at once :man_shrugging:

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I’m currently reading:

Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuc. Impeccable language… and it’s a translation! I’m watching the stage adaptation in a few weeks so I’m very excited.

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. I don’t know why. I was high one night and this is the first thing I reached for on my shelves. I’m not mad tho.

David Copperfield by Daddy Dickens. I’ve finally gotten round to it, but only because I want to read Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingslover. I don’t think it’s a requirement tho. Will probably spend Christmas reading this mammoth. It’s about time I revisited Dickens.

Fingers in the Sparkle Jar by Chris Packham. Part memoir, part natural history. It’s nonfiction but it reads like a novel. Again one of those books I’ve been wanting to get to.

And the latest issue of The Paris Review.

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I just finished The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub today. It was…okay. Decent, a bit boring, cliche ending, good main character though. Felt unfocused at times. The villain was two-dimensional for me and a bit cringe. Some parts were confusing and felt like they were just thrown in. Sometimes I wondered how Stephen King got to be such a prolific writer because some of his work is…just not good.

I am currently reading M.R. Carey’s The Girl with All the Gifts and I love it! It’s a great zombie story with incredible emotional writing. Some of the best emotional craft I’ve seen in fiction, especially for a sci-fi post-apocalyptic story. Definitely learning a lot from this one.

I’m also reading James Scott Bell’s Revision and Self-Editing for Publication, K.M. Weiland’s Creating Character Arcs (it’s alright…not the best but a decent method), and John Steinbeck’s East of Eden letters.

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Am I the only one who really doesn’t have the patience for readibg fantasy? Lol.

I’m still reading The First To Die At The End and that’s becoming a bit of a slog lol.

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If I am being honest, I rather write fantasy than read it…sometimes.
I don’t get other people’s fantasy writing but my own. Which is weird.

I like how I personally do fantasy which isn’t really fantasy. It’s more like science-fantasy or my version of it.

Weird, huh?

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But isn’t reading a prerequisite of writing?

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Yeah…which makes it even weirder for me.

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Yeah. That makes sense kinda.

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And here I thought I was talking some nonsense. LOL!
:sweat_smile:

Still, feel that way little bit.

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I’m currently reading Firehand by Andre Norton (with help of another author I didn’t catch the name of… :face_with_hand_over_mouth: )

The last book I read was one of my own (because I’m constantly rereading my novels to try to motivate future books) which was “Of Dhampirs and Warlocks”

Reading Perdido Street Station by China Mieville VERY SLOWLY.

What it's about:

Okay, so, I’m in the middle of reading it, so I can only tell you a basic summary. Uhm…okay, so there are two main characters. One is a human scientist man named Isaac Gremnebulin, I think it was. The other is his sculptor lover khepri named Lin. Yes, there are khepris in this world. She’s got red skin, a woman’s body, and a bug for a head. She uses sign language with her human hands.

Isaac is like a science maniac and he’s into studies about energy and I think close to magical energy. There are some creatures in this world that can kind of sort of use magic, I guess? :stuck_out_tongue: Lin is an outsider who has left the part of the city that houses her race the most. Her relationship with Isaac is a secret.

One day a giant bird species comes to Isaac for help to fly again because he had to sheer his wings off for punishment. Meanwhile, Lin is offered a high-paying secretive sculpting job for a mysterious client. The story is basically Isaac doing research to find out how to make the bird creature fly again while Lin is secretively working on her project, while, there’s some upset in the city and rebels are around. Isaac and Lin are friends with some of the rebels.

Isaac’s research to make the bird creature fly soon turns deadly. Idk what’s going on with Lin.

My thoughts so far about the book:

This book slogs in some parts because of the info-dump, but finally at the halfway point, as most books are like, the long-awaited incident has occurred (deadly research). I knew it would in some way. I didn’t anticipate it would in this way.

Things are turning a wacky again. There’s a hotel? where each room is a portal to another part of the world? and one goes to hell with a demon talking in echoes and riddles? what is going on? :crazy_face: …not sure what to think of this.

The author’s foreshadowing is easy to catch for me. So, when I see it, I remember it and then when it comes around again, it’s like, “I see you. I see you. I know what you’re up to.”

But we’ll see. Maybe Mieville has some extra surprises up his sleeve, who knows?


The last book I read was, A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. Easy five star. The EASIEST all year. What an awesome author.

What it's about and what I thought:

It’s about the hardships that these two women, Miriam and Laila, go through in Afghanistan from 1959 to the 1980s around the war with the Soviet Union and the rise of the Taliban.

Two POVs in third person. First is a young woman, Miriam, who loses her mother and is forced into marriage with this abusive older man. Second is a much younger woman, Laila, who lives in the same town and when tragedy strikes her family, she has no choice but to become the second wife of the first woman’s abusive husband.

The POVs begin from childhood, so you’re really following along these two lives. You really realize how a change of POV really switches everything up. Miriam’s POV paints Laila’s family as happy and good, but it’s not all sunshine there, either.

It’s so good. It’s heavy obviously, because it’s a war story with lots of depictions of DV and depression, even suicide and suicidal thoughts, so definitely not for those who find that triggering. But I gave it a five star and the easiest one all year. Beautiful book about the reality of hardship with characters you cannot help but cheer on. But it’s not like they’re perfect. They have flaws. Even the kindest characters have flaws. It’s so real.

I was coming to the end of the book and thinking, yes, this book is a five star, no doubt.


Nope. I’m a mood reader. If I do make a goal, I will promptly ignore it :stuck_out_tongue: I guess one goal though is to finish Perdido. Hopefully by the end, but we’ll see.

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