Whatcha Reading these days?

I just finished Felicia Day's autobiography, You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost).

As someone who's struggled with game addiction, personally (and deeply) understands the appeal of a virtual self, explored the Internet while it was still a wild frontier, battled depression, grew up in an environment very unlike that of my peers, and enjoys creative endeavors (except she actually finished a screenplay and I haven't written anything of substantial length in years), there was a lot I could appreciate.
 
thats pretty awesome.

I'm in the midst of reading the Boron Letters.

Its a set of letters a copywriter sent to his son while he was in prison. Its interesting because a lot of it is, how you should live your life, eat right, do "shovel work" to make sure you stay healthy and humble, and then copy writing tips.

Not sure why he went to prison yet, but the author does joke that he needs to go to prison every few years so he actually writes the books he wants to read.
 
I just finished reading Star Wars: Rise of the Empire, a collection volume containing the new canon's novels Tarkin and A New Dawn along with three short stories. The short stories varied in awesomeness, but the novels were great, and the value pricing for them all made the whole affair a real treat.

Finished just in time to pre-order (so it can be delivered digitally overnight) the novelization of Force Awakens to begin reading tomorrow morning. :D

"I really like Star Wars," he said, wearing a Star Wars shirt just given to him for Christmas.
 
Kendrik said:
I just finished reading Star Wars: Rise of the Empire, a collection volume containing the new canon's novels Tarkin and A New Dawn along with three short stories. The short stories varied in awesomeness, but the novels were great, and the value pricing for them all made the whole affair a real treat.

Finished just in time to pre-order (so it can be delivered digitally overnight) the novelization of Force Awakens to begin reading tomorrow morning. :D

"I really like Star Wars," he said, wearing a Star Wars shirt just given to him for Christmas.
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I've read Tarkin and Sith Lords. Not bad. I like the back story on Moff Tarkin. I'm thinking of reading The Force Awakens. It appears to give a bit more detail on things I'm curious about from the movie.
 
The novelization was definitely good. My wife and I went to see the movie today, but they had assigned seating, and we wouldn't have been able to sit together. Crazy. Guess it'll be another week before trying to go. haha

With the novelization done, despite picking up Red Harvest for fifty cents today, I'm switching gears from Star Wars to Tom Clancy for a bit, starting with Without Remorse. This'll be my first real encounter with Clancy (I'm not counting the Splinter Cell book I read, penned by someone else, as his work).
 
Not really a New Year's Resolution, but trying to read more in 2016. So first book I'm reading is The Martian by Andy Weir. I wanted to read it after watching the movie just to know how he came up with the engineering and botany aspects.
 
Waiting on Shadows of Self from the library. It's part of the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson.
 
That's... book five in the series? I still need to get on the series. Read half of the first book. Parted with my copy in my last move, so it'll need reacquiring.
 
Been working on the novel, "Split The Party", the follow up to NPCs by Drew Hayes. Doesn't seem to have the same bounce and fire that NPCs did, still a worthwhile read. A note on (R)evolution, it was starting to improve and do well then it ran into some rather explicit sex scenes and I dropped it for a bit, may try to get back into it after skipping over the trash that does not add to the plot. *sigh* Why do so many newer novels feel like it is necessary to throw in the trash? Yes, yes, I know the Bible contains murder, rape, etc., but it never depends on explicit shock value.
 
Kendrik said:
That's... book five in the series? I still need to get on the series. Read half of the first book. Parted with my copy in my last move, so it'll need reacquiring.
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Book 5 - though it is almost like a 2nd trilogy as 4-6 follow different characters much later in time.
 
So, shared universe with points of contact. Understood. I was wondering since I thought Mistborn was set up as a closed trilogy when Alloy of Law came out (to my surprise). Wondered how this new book fit into the scheme.
 
Yeah, the first trilogy was set more middle ages while the next is set in a more industrial revolution era.
 
I'm just about done with a series called to Codex Alera by Jim Butcher (6 books). If you're not familiar with Butcher, he began his best known work The Dresden Files while he was in college. He wrote it on a dare from one of his professors and somehow ended up selling a twenty book series to a publisher. He started The Codex Alera as part of another dare, that he couldn't write a story combining the Lost Roman Legion with Pokemon. It's not like the Pokemon series or movies, the "pokemon" are elemental furies which people can control and use their powers. Naturally, its' the story that pulls the whole thing together.
 
I didn't know about that one. I should check it out. I want to get on his new series at some point.
 
I read that series recently. Thought they were pretty good.

I tried the Dresden series book 1 but couldn't get through it. Too much shock and awe, I suppose.
 
On Monday I started re-reading all the Bryan Davis books I have, beginning with the Echoes From The Edge series.
 
Patriot said:
I read that series recently. Thought they were pretty good.

I tried the Dresden series book 1 but couldn't get through it. Too much shock and awe, I suppose.
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I can get that. His first three books are not as polished as his later work and as each book goes on, it becomes much darker. I was kind of worried after reading the third book, but in the fourth, Harry begins to turn a corner. One of the interesting things about the series is the expansive and immersive universe he's created. As the series develops we learn more and more about his universe. Basically, all the fairy tales are in essence true. There is real magic, trolls, fairies, etc. As the story develops we run into agents of The Fallen as well as Angels and their agents. In his world God exists (they call Him the Great White God) and Harry ends up thwarting plots by the agents of the Fallen. I'm not sure where Butcher is on his own personal spiritual journey but he does understand the Christian faith better than most authors I've read (Christian authors excluded of course). Harry knows God exists (Jesus is mentioned but has not made an appearance) but believes that he is not "good enough" and thus has tended to "not take a side" despite the fact that he has helped defeat the plots of the Fallen. This leads to some interesting conversations (and some great sermon material) between an Archangel and Harry about faith. I'm curious to see where this leads eventually.
 
So I'm at a lull in my reading these days. Anyone have any good suggestions for a decent series? I enjoy SciFi and Fantasy and if the story is good I could read something set in a more real world.

I'm currently waiting for the 3rd book in the King Killer trilogy to be released as well as the next one in the Mistborn series. I'd prefer for it to be mostly 'clean'. I can deal with some language but I'd prefer to avoid graphic descriptions (both gory and sexual).

For instance, I didn't make it through the first Jack Reacher novel because it was downright disgusting (gory). The first Dresden book suffered a similar fate though it wasn't as bad as the Reacher novel.

If you have any recommendations on a series you have read that was pretty good I'd appreciate it.
 
The Utterly Uninteresting and Unadventerous Tales of Fred The Vampire Accountant by Drew Hayes
followed by,
Undeath & Taxes

Light, very funny and clean.
 
Sadly, my library doesn't have that title available as an E-Book and I'm not inclined to listen to the audio book they do have available. I'll put that on my list of items to eventually get around to.
 
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