What'cha reading?

If anyone is keeping track, I kind of stalled on the Cormoran Strike book: I'll get back to it at some point…

Right now, I'm crawling through the Chronicles of Elantra by Michelle Sagara. I've only got the first two so far (I'm pacing my expenditure as I could easily slurp up the whole lot in one go but I need practice at moderation :p ) but they are really good.

I've been listening to Corey talking about how aliens are presented in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and these books dial that up to 11: the non-humans are really non-human.

I'd love to discuss this with anybody who can cope with not spoiling me for books I haven't reached yet: I would totally understand how difficult that might be :D
 
I usually have two threads going: physical books at home, and audiobooks for my long commute to/from DC.

In the former, I just finished Artemis, the new novel by Andy Weir, and autographed by him at Politics and Prose last month. Industrial espionage story set in the first city on the moon in the near future; I especially like the shuttle to the Apollo 11 Visitor's Center :). Excellent book for those who liked The Martian.

In the car, I'm rereading Dune for the nth time, because I'm also listening to the Dune podcasts from Mythgard. Apropos which, does anyone else start singing "This Old Man" when they hear "Kwisatz Haderach?" e.g.,
With a Kwisatz Haderach, give the worm a clone! ...

btw, Dr. Olsen asked if anyone was surprised by anything which happened in the book. I was surprised/thrilled when the shield wall blew up and a battalion of freaking SANDWORMS came through it! Then was seriously let down when the Fremen just parked them and jumped down to fight the Sardaukar hand to hand, rather than running over a few hundred of them first and ramming their ships.

Boatman
 
Where do people go for their audiobooks? I usually buy books on my Kindle, if available, but Amazon doesn't always sell the audiobooks versions too.
 
Interesting. I believe Kindle's audiobooks are provided through Audible, but they don't seem to include all of them. I guess Kindle must only have the ones that have been synched up to the text.

Thanks!

EDIT: The Silmarillion audiobook isn't available in the US?! What country do I have to visit to be able to purchase the audiobook?
 
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I have a much smaller number of audiobooks available, but they're FREE!! at overdrive.com with an account through my public library

Also, only an older range of books, but FREE! at Librivox.com - and Amy Sturgis reads for them!

I move that we ask Tom Shippey to read aloud any book of his choice - do I hear a second?
 
In addition to The Hitchhikers Guide, I'm also reading Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (and listening to Corey's podcast on it way back when) since it is Christmastime. I'd read Tolkien's translation many years ago, but this time I'm trying the Middle English.

I also recently started the Dresden Files and am on book 4. I'm enjoying them so far and each book is progressively better then the previous so that is a good trend.
 
I've started listening to Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell so that I can listen to the Mythgard class. I was a little worried, because several of the reviews said it started slow for the first few hours, but they couldn't have been more wrong! I've found the book thoroughly enthralling from the first minute!
 
For Yule, my elder child gave me The Good Master, one of my childhood favorites, and The Singing Tree, the sequel which I never knew about until recently!
 
I'm currently reading Beren and Lúthien and I love it! It's a pity, but only a few parts of the History of Middle-Earth are in my possession, so it is really great for me to dive into this story and it's history a little deeper than before.
 
Much to my surprise, I am rather enjoying reading Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen. And much to my disappointment, I've found that the version I got from Amazon has been vandalized with 21st century poplib hate-mongering.

Nevertheless, I am sufficiently intrigued to keep reading, hoping to learning whether Catherine will end up with Mr. Tilney while chuckling over the folly of late 18th century British aristocrats. The name "Lobelia" keeps coming to mind.
 
I'm about to begin Five Children and It by E. Nesbit as a reward when I meet my next deadline :)
 
hoping to learning whether Catherine will end up with Mr. Tilney while chuckling over the folly of late 18th century British aristocrats.
The Baen Free Library http://www.baen.com/catalog/category/view/s/free-library/id/2012 hooked me into the Liaden series, and when I read Local Custom I just couldn't help comparing it to Austin. Jane Austin's romance in Pride and Prejudice is between people of different social class, and the wacky misunderstandings that can cause: Local Custom is similar, but this romance is between people from actually different planets, so the opportunities for wacky misunderstandings are even greater!
 
only an older range of books, but FREE! at Librivox.com
Actually, that's Librivox.org and I've listened to a fair number of novels from there, and have some recommendations!

Librivox only has audiobooks of works that are out of copyright, so in general, that's 90+ years old. They are read by volunteers. Some are read by computers. There was a rush of computer-readings about fifteen years ago, and those are very bad. But the very worst of the human volunteers are even worse! However, the best of the human readers are as good as any professional paid readings you'd buy on Audible. There are also some ensemble readings, where a group of people "act out" by each taking one character's part (I haven't heard any of these that I'd recommend, though). I also don't recommend the audiobook "collaborations" where each chapter is read by a different reader: that just loses the story's continuity for me (your mileage may vary). So, my favorite readers:

Mil Nicholson is a professional actor, and she's English, and her renditions of Charles Dickens are just wonderful. If you like Dickens at all, you owe it to yourself to listen to her readings.

Adrian Praetzellis does an awesome read of Kenneth Graham's The Wind in the Willows. I also like his reading of The 39 Steps and a few others, so I thought I'd be able to stand a full read-through of Tess of the D'Urbivilles but no: I just can't stand the constant shame and degradation of the title character, even when it is well-read! My college girlfriend was supposed to read that book for class and she complained about it too.

I haven't actually listened to an audiobook in quite a while now. I have about six hours a week of commuting time, but Professor Olsen is now creating something like six hours of content each week, and I can barely keep up while also trying to catch up with past classes I missed and throwing in an occasional NPR podcast (I really like Radio Lab, and Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me, and, and...)
 
The Baen Free Library http://www.baen.com/catalog/category/view/s/free-library/id/2012 hooked me into the Liaden series, and when I read Local Custom I just couldn't help comparing it to Austin. Jane Austin's romance in Pride and Prejudice is between people of different social class, and the wacky misunderstandings that can cause: Local Custom is similar, but this romance is between people from actually different planets, so the opportunities for wacky misunderstandings are even greater!
I would love to see something from the Liaden Universe® given the Mythgard treatment, although I would prefer a sequence of books rather than a singleton: some of the fun is watching how they string occurrences and people together across time and space :cool:
 
I would love to see something from the Liaden Universe® given the Mythgard treatment
I really have quite a list of books, myself, that I'd love to see Corey explore. But it's so much more a popularity contest than it "should" be...I have little hope that any obscure books could make the voting cut. Here's my top four:

Riddley Walker by Russel Hoban - hard to read because it's all in a "simplified" future spelling (much easier if you read it out loud: the sounds work!). A thousand years after nuclear war, England is finishing the transition from hunter-gatherers to farming and rediscovering ancient technology.

Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin - this is his only SF book, though many others have some elements of Magical Realism. Hard to describe, but awesomely good. In the end, they give a pass on The Rapture, because life's just too much fun.

Grendel by John Gardner - the Beowulf story from the monster's perspective. 'Nuff said?

The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold - there's a curse on the Royal House of Chalion: what can the loyal Caz, broken man that he is, do to help? In the lands of the Five Gods, it turns out, a whole lot: all he has to do is sacrifice his own life -- three times!

P.S. "Liaden Universe®" always gives me a chuckle... :rolleyes:
 
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