BOOK HAUL/READING DISCUSSION THREAD

[nexscarecrow]

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I read and buy a lot of books. And I have decided to post about them here so that YOU (the person that is reading this thread) can read about them and that YOU (the person that is reading this thread) can also share your own book hauls!!! I'm not wasting any more time explaining the concept.


This is not the average amount of books I get in a week/month I'm just compounding everything ive got so far this year together so I have a lot to talk about it. Lets go!

The Silmarillion and The Fall of Numenor by JRR Tolkein: Ive recently been reading more of Tolkiens stuff ever since the really sexy new editions of LOTR came out. Excited to get to these.
Yours Cruelly Elvira by Cassandra Peterson: Ive always really admired Cassandra Peterson and Elvira as a goth entertainment icon, and her personal story is really interesting. Again really excited to get to this eventually.
Mistborn: The Fallen Empire by Brandon Sanderson: Arget told me to get it.
Elantris by Brandon Sanderson: Got this for Christmas and read through it, really enjoyed it and looking forward to reading more Brandon Sanderson stuff.
Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon: Im not going to lie I thought the cover was nice and the internet said it was good and had gay people so I bought it
Vampire Hunter D omnibus Volume 1 by Hideyuki Kikiuchi and illustrations by Yoshitake Amano: A long time ago someone on 4chan told me Vampire Hunter D was dope and I read a bunch of poorly translated light novels online illegally. Both of the Vampire Hunter D anime films are available for free on Youtube, I highly recommend Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust to basically anyone with eyes. Always thought Vampire Hunter D was really cool, and Yoshitake Amanos art is always a treat.
The Wheel of Time The Great Hunt and The Dragon Reborn by Robert Jordan: A lot of people have discussed WoT here before. I've now read the first two books and I've loved both of them. Probably will read The Dragon Reborn after I finish what I'm reading now.
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir: "Lesbian necromancers explore a haunted gothic palace in space!" if I have been successful in teaching the people in this community anything about who I am you should all know that this is exactly my shit. Ive been reading it and it's been a really long time since a book has captured me this hard. The characters are all really wonderful, and Tamsyn Muirs writing style really works for me.
Star Wars Jedi: Battlescars by Sam Maggs: I buy almost every new Star Wars book when they come out. I just finished this game and im excited for the next one. Will read this and write about it before it comes out.

As far as stuff I've finished recently. Elantris! Elantris was incredibly fun, I really enjoy the worldbuilding, the three title characters, and all of the supporting characters as well. The magic system and the mystery surrounding it were really interesting, and I loved figuring out the solution to that mystery with the characters.

Spoiler: spoilers

Hrathen in particular was so cool. Watching him struggle with his faith throughout the book, and that culminating in his redemption was so satisfying. I loved Sarene as well, really liked watching the ongoing political chess match between her and Hrathen. I think Raoden is probably the weakest of the three, the stuff happening around him is sometimes more interesting than he is himself, though I did still like him.

I hear rumblings of Brandon Sanderson working on a sequel to Elantris and id love to read it!

 

[Moosh]

Mistborn so good adda has a spell inspired by it, super duper good. Elantris is next on my list after the whole trilogy!

 

[xVigil]

Dawn of Wonder remains my favorite still, worth investigating some time

 

[Celestea]

am big lib girl. esp bc i read anywhere from 80-120 books a year, I live laugh AND LOVE the library. But here is my goodreads

chloé

chloé has 1,330 books on Goodreads, and is currently reading My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh

www.goodreads.com

love this thread tho

 

[BoredBrit]

what? we show pictures of our books and talk about them??

 

[Fortune]

I have only read like 7 books in the last 15 years

 

[Catalyst]

Absolutely love Tolkien, tried to read The Silmarillion 3 times and failed each time

 

[nexscarecrow]

UPDATES!!!

Finished Gideon the Ninth!
Absolutely one of my new favorites. I really enjoy the way Tamsyn Muir writes, the characters and story have drawn me in well enough that im dropping everything else to get caught up on the locked tomb series.

Finished Jedi Battle Scars!
This book is... fine. All the characters are really in line with how they are in the game, I enjoy some of the continued themes and story arcs. I liked the romantic arc Merrin got to go through but I did find the two new book only characters a bit disinteresting. I wouldn't really recommend it over other Star Wars novels unless you really really liked Jedi: Fallen Order A LOT.

Finished Harrow the Ninth!
Mild spoilers because I dont think theres anyway I can discuss this book without it.

Spoiler: HARROW SPOILERS

Harrow the Ninth is probably my favorite book that I have ever read. Its written mostly in the second person, its very confusing, and its VERY difficult to read. But you are so rewarded for going through it, unraveling the mysteries of the book is very rewarding, and its an experience I dont think ill ever be able to forget. I cant recommend Harrow the Ninth more. Bone Soup.

GOT MORE BOOKS!



Star Wars The High Republic Cataclysm by Lydia Kang: I buy every High Republic book as soon as they come out. This is the followup to another book Catalyst, which I complained started a little slow and took a little too long making me car about the characters it was introducing, but by the end I was really attached to them and enjoyed where the book went. Cataclysm will hopefully be able to side step that first issue, im looking forward to it.
Final Fantasy VII Remake Traces of Two Pasts by Kazushige Nojima: I love the Final Fantasy VII Remake! I expect the Tifa story to be fun but I think the Aerith story will likely not be super interesting since I think theyre hiding the things that make this version of Aerith til the next game comes out.
Harrow The Ninth and Nona The Ninth by Tamsyn Muir: Ive already a lot about the Locked Tomb series. You should read them.
Star Wars: The High Republic: Chronicles of the Jedi: An Illustrated Guide to the Galaxy's Golden Age by Cole Horton: A fun illustrated guide to the High Republic, ive skimmed through it already and all the art is gorgeous, ill probably post some when I read through the whole thing later.

 

[Bartooliinii]

When it comes to Star Wars, I recommend starting with Darth Plageuis (about the start of Palpatine) if you like the subtle manipulation of the Dark Side. If you're more a jedi kinda person, I'd say start with Master & Apprentice (Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan), which is sort of a Star Wars themed detective. If you want to go full Dark Mode, read the entire Darth Bane trilogy. If you like war stories, then Shatterpoint (Mace Windu) is surprisingly good! I'm not a guy to read war stories, but this one got me hooked. The story of Thrawn, even if you don't know the character prior to reading (like me) is really good as well. All high-rated SW books.

I used to play a lot of Runescape and there is a cool series of books about it, of which I recommend reading only the first book: Betrayal at Falador. It'll give you some nostalgia and the story is not bad either! It's fun to read about the RuneScape universe from an in-character point of view.

If you don't read a lot, let me help you get (back) into it with Terry Pratchett.

The books of Terry Pratchett's Discworld got me back into reading about 1 book every 2-3 months (courtesy of I am Wake for getting me into those). They're light, short, and incredibly funny. Of his Discworld saga (there are MANY books) I recommend starting with The Light Fantastic, Colour of Magic, or "Guards! Guards!". The latter of which I enjoyed the most of my 10+ collection of Discworld books, but it's good to learn to understand Terry's writing style by starting with the light fantastic.

Then there is the Kingkiller Chronicle, of which the last book will probably never get published because the writer has been sitting on that one for over 10 years. Nonetheless, it was very enjoyable to read for me, since the main character is a down-on-his-luck bard. My fiancé didn't like the books one bit. Once you've read The Name of The Wind and The Wise Man's Fear and want more; The Slow Regard of Silent Things is a piece of art, rather than a normal book, but it's really nice to stay in the Kingkiller Chronicle universe by reading it.

Of course, all the Harry Potter books are great, so definitely get those too. They are truly fun to read, even if you know the movies by heart.

I remember having trouble reading through the Lord of the Rings books, but since they're a big part of the very foundation of all later fantasy genre stories, they're kinda obligatory :^)

And of course, last but not least; the Communist Manifesto just to get out of the Capitalist echo-chamber that is modern society, it's good to read about different approaches and helps you to think outside of the box, even to matters as big as these.

 

[Heie]

I enjoyed the first ninth book over the second one in the series personally