What book are you reading now? and Fav. Author(s)?

[senryu]

Been reading a lot of older SF lately.

Highlights from the past few months were Ubik by Philip K Dick, Definitely Maybe by the Strugatsky's (better known for the excellent book Roadside picnic which was done as beloved film called Stalker), The Death of Grass by John Christopher, The Drowned World by JG Ballard, A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge and Fugue for a Darkening Island by Christopher Priest who recently passed away.

I also finally got around to reading East of Eden and it might be the greatest book I've ever read (isn't SF of course)

Loved Ubik. I've got East of Eden on my bedside based on hearing your and another person's testimonial of it being at the apex of writing on the same day.

[PenguinHunter]

Scotty - by Ken Dryden.

Wow... so much information in that book.

[doulos]

Loved Ubik. I've got East of Eden on my bedside based on hearing your and another person's testimonial of it being at the apex of writing on the same day.

Oh, enjoy!

Since mid-February the best ones I have read were:

The Long Tomorrow by Leigh Brackett
The Long Afternoon of Earth by Brian Aldiss (also called Hot House)
The Palace of Eternity by Bob Shaw

I listened to Blindsight by Peter Watts which SF fans seem to rave about and I really didn't like it. I think maybe I needed to read it at a slower pace and not in audio format to enjoy some of the more complicated topics in the book.

[PenguinHunter]

Anyone read this one yet?

Yay or Nay?

[YzermansLegacy]

I personally found it (Draft Day) "pretty good". Not fantastic but enough behind the scenes stuff to keep me interested.

PH you're big into the entry draft/prospects (like me) so you may also find it a bit lacking. In that sense it didn't meet my expectations/hopes - but it's still a good read.

Definitely worth a read for those not overly familiar with the draft/scouting. Some fun historical stories help balance it out from being too dry (just my 2c).

[finnys_fanatsy]

Anyone read this one yet?

Yay or Nay?

yup, i did read it, and as YL says its "good" not great. i like Doug Mac, but if you listened to ANY of his Pre-release interviews say on NHL network, they already discussed ny of teh really good stories..that being said if you were to ask me for one of them, i couldn't recall one so....

if you're like me and like reading books from guys that have been / are involved in the NHL then its right up your ally. if your looking for a book you cant put down..look elsewhere

[Axeman33]

Anyone read this one yet?

Yay or Nay?

I enjoyed it and I'm not much of a reader. Was a good read poolside in the DR a few weeks ago.

[Pengwin7]

For people that read - a lot...
I thought of something today - for which I have a question.


I find...
When I have gone searching for a "book review" in the past...
That...
They are mostly...
"Too positive"

Is it maybe that people have a respect for the "novel"... that dumping 1-2 years of time into a story is such that... it shant be criticized?
It is maybe that publishers send "free books" to their reviewers... and that the reviewers know that the "free books" will keep coming so long as their own published review is "positive"/glowing?

With movies... TV shows... I mean... they are on streaming platforms...
So critics can be a little more... well... critical.
It's not like Searchlight pictures can stop easily having their stuff reviewed by JimCritical.


And I don't read a LOT these days. I used to.
But I was on vacation and tried reading a book called "The Other Valley" - released just this year 2024...
The concept is... pretty cool.
But myself and my mom (who is pretty critical fiction reader)... both thought it was BAD... like... obviously bad... and boring... and trying to obtain a faux-fanciness with unnecessary bombardment of descriptiveness.

And when I went online looking for a review which might agree.
There was none.

And then I thought about past times when I went looking for a RECENT book review...
And I realized...
I don't recall seeing... a proportionally fair amount of NEGATIVE reviews of books.


Does anybody read BOOK REVIEWS enough to know... or link a website that has critical book reviews?
And - don't say "Goodreads"... or "Amazon".
I find that most book readers find their niche... or favourite writer... and just "like" everything if it has their "type" of story or ending.
Book readers themselves... I find... are too supportive of dumping their own time into a book.
Like... people won't read something and say "Not very good".
After dumping that time in... they just want... to recommend it... to show they read (?!?).
[btw - this is no criticism of anybody here... hopefully nobody interprets it as such.]
IDK. I find it strange - the amount of POSITIVE compared to NEGATIVE... among book reviews.


Does that make sense?

I'm sort of feeling like... maybe... there is NOT a truly solid critical book review site out there.
Maybe there is.


???

[PenguinHunter]

Does anybody read BOOK REVIEWS enough to know... or link a website that has critical book reviews?
And - don't say "Goodreads"... or "Amazon".
I find that most book readers find their niche... or favourite writer... and just "like" everything if it has their "type" of story or ending.

Does that make sense?




???

As I started reading your post - my thoughts went straight to the bolded above.

The only people that take the time to review books are ones that are reading from the same section of the library.
They don't venture out of their comfort zone and they enjoy their reads - so they review them and of course give them a good review.

I also wish there was something that could provide better all-inclusive and non-biased reviews for books... but I have given up and pretty much rely on word of mouth (which is not great at all because of personal biases)

[Godin]

I hadn''t read a book in decades until a couple of years ago when I thought i'd read one to see if I could get into it. I picked up John Grisham's latest book, 'The Judge's List' at Costco. I got into it and have read a few of his books since then. I have also read Scott Turow, who like Grisham, is also an attorney, as well Jim Patterson/Bill Clinton and David Baldacci, which are more murder mystery and suspense.

I have found it to be relaxing and addictive.

[PenguinHunter]

I hadn''t read a book in decades until a couple of years ago when I thought i'd read one to see if I could get into it. I picked up John Grisham's latest book, 'The Judge's List' at Costco. I got into it and have read a few of his books since then. I have also read Scott Turow, who like Grisham, is also an attorney, as well Jim Patterson/Bill Clinton and David Baldacci, which are more murder mystery and suspense.

I have found it to be relaxing and addictive.

John Grisham is great!

[finnys_fanatsy]

not sure if any of you follow F1 Drive to Survive, but I'm reading Surviving to Drive: A year inside F1, by Guenther Steiner.
81DakVikIOL._SY466_.jpg

its impossible to read this book with listening to the guy and using his voice in your head. its a diary / journal book, so it goes day by day. its only the third racing book i've read, the rest are Hockey related so its a bit outta my reading zone but i love racing so its a good mix.

im halfway through but its a solid 8/10 so far

[tweetdrivr]

I’ve found that reading poor reviews (1 or 2 stars) on Amazon often gives me a better impression of whether or not I’ll like a book. A lot of them are written by idiots, but a lot are not. I find it’s helpful to hear what people didn’t like to figure out if I should give it a shot.