271–280 of 459 posts
The best were:
- The Eagle and the Hart, on Richard II and Henry IV
- In the Heart of the Sea, on a whale ship disaster that inspired moby dick
- The Siege, on a hostage taking at the Iranian embassy in London
Love narrative nonfiction.
Been a year of re-reads and some classics I never started b/c of thickness. Standouts for me were “A Tale of Two Cities” and “Norwegian Wood.” “Kafka on The Shore”, “Norwegian Wood” - Haruki Murakami “A Tale of Two Cities” - Dickens “Count of Monte Cristo” - Alexandre Dumas LotR, “Hobbit” - Tolkien “World Atlas of Coffee” - James Hoffmann “Anathem”, “Diamond Age”, “Termination Shock” - Neal Stephenson “A Timeless Way…
How much do you read weekly? This is an impressive amount of stuff
And on top of that: - sleepless nights, when you want to get back to sleep: 30 minutes - ... - just having a good series to grind through. - audiobooks during some manual labor (home restoration works for example).
So for me audiobooks + capability to read at night without disturbing others (dark mode + backlight on e-reader). And from that it adds up.
Top 5 fiction
- A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
- Trust by Hernan Diaz
- City of Thieves by David Benioff
- Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
- Widow Basquiat by by Jennifer Clement
Top 5 non-fiction
- Boom Town by Sam Anderson
- The Second Founding by Eric Foner
- The Club by Jonathan Clegg and Joshua Robinson
- The Mysterious Case of Rudolf Diesel by Douglas Brunt
- The Spy and the Traitor by Ben McIntyre
This year: - I read the entire “Frog & Toad” collection. Probably about 30 times, some stories more. - “Little Shrew’s Day”… probably 25 times. - Many of the “Construction Site” series books, especially the OG “Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site”. The “Garbage Crew” and “Airport” books featured heavily. - Started to mix in some “Pete the Cat” titles. - “Detective Dog Nell” got a lot of air play. Lots of others,…
The Lord of the Rings
Also highlights were:
- Brandon Sanderson "Wind and Truth" & "Yumi and the Nightmare Painter"
- Indrek Hargla most of "Apothecary Melchior" series (didn't read all yet :)
- Jim Butcher "Brief Cases"
- James Islington "The Strength of the Few"
Rest of the stuff:
- I. Hargla "Süvahavva" series
- John Gwynne "Ruin" & "Wrath"
- nobody103 "Mother of Learning" I, II, III
- Daniel T. Jackson "Gatebound"
- Brandon Sanderson "Frugal Wizard's Handbook for Surviving Medieval England"
Re-reads (mostly on audio for dozing off, but then got hooked .. again):
- James S.A. Corey "Caliban's War" & "Cibola Burn"
- George RR Martin "Game of Thrones"
- Robin Hobb "Assassin's Apprentice"
I had ChatGPT create a list of the top 100 literary classics of the past century and summarize them for me. While I'm waiting for Claude Code to write code for me I listen to the summaries like an audiobook. I'm planning to read a lot more than 100 books next year!
To each their own… but what’s the point? Just to know the plot / sequence of events?
This year: - I read the entire “Frog & Toad” collection. Probably about 30 times, some stories more. - “Little Shrew’s Day”… probably 25 times. - Many of the “Construction Site” series books, especially the OG “Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site”. The “Garbage Crew” and “Airport” books featured heavily. - Started to mix in some “Pete the Cat” titles. - “Detective Dog Nell” got a lot of air play. Lots of others,…
Back in the day, I read the Berenstein Bears more times than I wished (my wish would have been zero times), to my kids who are probably about the same age as you. It was such a relief when I could start reading them the Narnia Chronicles, and much later Lord of the Rings.
This year: - I read the entire “Frog & Toad” collection. Probably about 30 times, some stories more. - “Little Shrew’s Day”… probably 25 times. - Many of the “Construction Site” series books, especially the OG “Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site”. The “Garbage Crew” and “Airport” books featured heavily. - Started to mix in some “Pete the Cat” titles. - “Detective Dog Nell” got a lot of air play. Lots of others,…
Back in the day, I read the Berenstein Bears more times than I wished (my wish would have been zero times), to my kids who are probably about the same age as you. It was such a relief when I could start reading them the Narnia Chronicles, and much later Lord of the Rings.