What are you reading? (16 Viewers)

So far in 2023 I have finished:
  • Childhood's End - Arthur C. Clarke (read this originally as a teen, holds up really well)
  • The Curious Case of the Dog in the Nighttime - Mark Haddon (I recommend it even if reviews are highly divided.)
I am now reading October Sky by Homer Hickam. This is a reread and is the basis for the movie of the same name (one of my favorites). Actually, what I am reading is the retitled Rocket Boys which is the true-life memoir of Hickham. I am sure they did this to sell more books. Regardless, it is well-written and pretty fast-paced given what most autobios tend to be. I should finish it this week and then I am on to Prince Harry's Spare. MBR bought the book and my curiosity is piqued. I am not an Anglophile but I do find the machinations we're hearing about interesting.

My goal for 2023 is 24 books. Here is some of what is on the list (in no particular order):
  • The Wayfarers Series - Beck Chambers (four books: The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, A Closed and Common Orbit, Record of a Spaceborn Few, The Galaxy and the Ground Within)
  • She Wouldn't Change a Thing - Sarah Adlakha
  • To Sleep in a Sea of Stars - Christopher Paolini
  • Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories: And Other Disasters - Jean Shepherd
  • A Fistful of Fig Newtons - Jean Shepherd
  • The Ferrari in the Bedroom - Jean Shepherd
  • Micro - Michael Chichton
  • Natchez Burning - Greg Iles
  • You Remind Me of Me - Dan Chaon
  • A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder — How Crammed Closets, Cluttered Offices, and On-The-Fly Planning Make the World a Better Place - Eric Abrahamson, David H. Freedman
  • A Pirate Looks at Fifty - Jimmy Buffett (a reread)
I am also throwing in a couple of other classics like The Old Man and The Sea, Fahrenheit 451, and a couple of others.
 
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I tried to read Love in the Time of Cholera in Spanish. It got to be too much because I had to stop & translate so many words.
I tried to read GGM's other classic (Hundred Years of Solitude) in English but it got to be too much. I got the point (I think) after reading 30% and had no interest in reading the rest.

Also tried to read some other classics in 2022: Catch-22, Lolita, The Plague, and My Man Jeeves. The same thing happened with those: I appreciated the prose style and plot design, but felt no desire to finish. I finally understand why Lolita is a classic instead of smut, and enjoyed it very much, but it got repetitive. Maybe too much TV has rewired my attention span.

Highlight of 2022 reading for me was The Expanse series; it is neither new nor classic, but I am very glad I found it. Also several older books on consciousness, including Waking Up and Free Will by Sam Harris and Conscious by Annaka Harris.

Best new 2022 fiction for me was Cloud Cuckoo Land. Good but not great; interesting mixed history-and-future time model.

Best new 2022 non-fiction was An Immense World about animal senses. Second was Adventurer, a new biography of Casanova. Cinema Speculations by Tarantino was also fun.

The shelf for 2023 is bare so appreciate the recommendations in the posts above.
 
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Best new 2022 fiction for me was Cloud Cuckoo Land. Good but not great; interesting mixed history-and-future time model.
Yeah - this one is on my list as well.

I need to try a Kindle. I am a huge fan of having the actual books though.
 
So far in 2023 I have finished:
  • Childhood's End - Arthur C. Clarke (read this originally as a teen, holds up really well)
  • The Curious Case of the Dog in the Nighttime - Mark Haddon (I recommend it even if reviews are highly divided.)
I am now reading October Sky by Homer Hickam. This is a reread and is the basis for the movie of the same name (one of my favorites). Actually, what I am reading is the retitled Rocket Boys which is the true-life memoir of Hickhame. I am sure they did this to sell more books. Regardless, it is well-written and pretty fast-paced given what most autobios tend to be. I should finish it this week and then I am on to Prince Harry's Spare. MBR bought the book and my curiosity is piqued. I am not an Anglophile but I do find the machinations we're hearing about interesting.

My goal for 2023 is 24 books. Here is some of what is on the list (in no particular order):
  • The Wayfarers Series - Beck Chambers (four books: The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, A Closed and Common Orbit, Record of a Spaceborn Few, The Galaxy and the Ground Within)
  • She Wouldn't Change a Thing - Sarah Adlakha
  • To Sleep in a Sea of Stars - Christopher Paolini
  • Wanda Hickey's Night of Golden Memories: And Other Disasters - Jean Shepherd
  • A Fistful of Fig Newtons - Jean Shepherd
  • The Ferrari in the Bedroom - Jean Shepherd
  • Micro - Michael Chichton
  • Natchez Burning - Greg Iles
  • You Remind Me of Me - Dan Chaon
  • A Perfect Mess: The Hidden Benefits of Disorder — How Crammed Closets, Cluttered Offices, and On-The-Fly Planning Make the World a Better Place - Eric Abrahamson, David H. Freedman
  • A Pirate Looks at Fifty - Jimmy Buffett (a reread)
I am also throwing in a couple of other classics like The Old Man and The Sea, Fahrenheit 451, and a couple of others.

This made look back and my reading for last year. I realized I did nothing but technical books. I need to fix that in 2023..

Last year I read:
Kubernetes for vSphere Administrators
Windows Server 2022 & PowerShell All-in-One For Dummies
VMware VSAN 7.0 U3 Deep Dive

I mean, these are great for my career but all are pretty much a dry read.
 
I'm attempting Elegant Universe again. But this thing was originally written in 1999, and I'm wondering how out of date it might be, given the Hadron Collider and Higgs Boson and all that stuff. Anyone have a newer book like that about the latest and greatest physics concepts that's written for idiots like me?
 
I'm attempting Elegant Universe again. But this thing was originally written in 1999, and I'm wondering how out of date it might be, given the Hadron Collider and Higgs Boson and all that stuff. Anyone have a newer book like that about the latest and greatest physics concepts that's written for idiots like me?
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, by Neil Degrasse Tyson. My favorite book from 2021. Comprehensive and deep, but he makes it so simple a lawyer can understand it.

Also, The Big Picture by Sean Carroll. I understood maybe 70% of it.

We Have No Idea by Cham & Whiteson is fun.
 
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Yeah - this one is on my list as well.

I need to try a Kindle. I am a huge fan of having the actual books though.
I used to be the same way, until I had a room full of books that I didn't want to get rid of. Being in the Navy, I moved a lot, and it was a pain to pack them up all the time. I finally weened myself off of paper and picked up a Kindle. Love it!
 
I used to be the same way, until I had a room full of books that I didn't want to get rid of. Being in the Navy, I moved a lot, and it was a pain to pack them up all the time. I finally weened myself off of paper and picked up a Kindle. Love it!
Which one do you have?
 
I'm attempting Elegant Universe again. But this thing was originally written in 1999, and I'm wondering how out of date it might be, given the Hadron Collider and Higgs Boson and all that stuff. Anyone have a newer book like that about the latest and greatest physics concepts that's written for idiots like me?
I can recommend a few picture books.
 
I can recommend a few picture books.
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My latest deep dive into naval history. I have had the matching one for the Littoro class so was pumped when I saw this one
 

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