RIP (Read In Progress) Wednesday

[phantomtomato]

What are you reading this week? Are you planning your October reading yet?

Comments

[spiralsheep]

Just finished Final Destination, a non-fiction book about trains (no, rly), and begun book 94. Days at the Morisaki Bookshop.

In September I began a new A-Z reading challenge that will probably continue into 2026. Apart from that, my October reading should be library loans and To Read shelf, but.... :D

[greetingsfrommaars]

just picked up Terry Pratchett's Guards! Guards! again after wandering away for a few months. also recently read This Is How You Lose the Time War and enjoyed it!

[mxroboto]

ahhhh adore This Is How You Lose The Time War! Enjoy your Terry Pratchett book!!

[silversea]

Starting Locklands by Robert Jackson Bennett, I feel like the beginning hooked me more than Shorefall, but we'll see if my interest holds.

[pedanther]

Between books at the moment.

On the non-fiction side, I've finished Sapiens (interesting book) and haven't decided what to read next.

On the fiction side, this week I read Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas by Jules Verne, in the recent F.P. Walter translation. It's got so much factual exposition that it might almost have a case for being counted my next non-fiction book, if only so much of it weren't wrong.

Yesterday, I went to the local library's semicentennial celebration and came away with anniversary-branded book bag, pen, fridge magnet, bookmarks, and cupcake, and also a library book which will probably be what I read next. It's a historical detective novel, Death of a Foreign Gentleman by Steven Carroll.

[mucky]

Oh, hey, I read that translation of 20,000 Leagues under the Seas this year, too. I was amused by how hot-blooded Ned was, given the stereotype of Canadians today.

[dark_phoenix54]

I am currently reading T. Kingfisher's Hemlock and Silver, and, sadly, a small pile of books on breast cancer. Bah.

[cornerofmadness]

Oh yes I have my plans for October reading (I'm still trying to finish the Popsugar challenge which dictates a lot of my choices off my TBR pile)

I'm working on Cards on the Table by Agatha Christie

[screechfox]

Just finished Young & Damned & Fair by Gareth Russell, about Catherine Howard, Henry VIII's fifth wife.

I also finished Fingersmith by Sarah Waters, which was so compelling. I'd seen The Handmaiden, so it was fun seeing how it was similar in some ways but also had some very different elements.

Now partway through The Other Olympians by Michael Waters, and about to start Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler as my fiction read.

[bluapapilio]

I'm doing the reverse, I'm about to watch The Handmaiden after having already finished the book. =P There's also a movie for Fingersmith (as well as Tipping the Velvet)!

[valoise]

I just finished two books written in 1929, one from the library and one from my own stash. The Seven Dials Mystery by Agatha Christie was not one of her best. Instead of having the main character solve the crime she's been steadily digging into, she gets knocked unconscious and has the entire plot and killer explained to her when she wakes up. Literary mansplaining.

How We Lived Then, 1914-1918 by C. S. Peel was a detailed account of life in Britain during WWI. Peel worked at the Ministry of Food during the war and did extensive travel around the country as part of her job. Because she had a wealth of interviews with people about how they were doing during the war, she uses a lot of first hand accounts in the book. I like social history that includes working class folks, not just the middle and upper class, and Peel is very good at that.

In October I want to catch up on short fiction & my TBR pile, but I've got my eye on some newer books that I'll probably grab from the library. First I probably need to decide what I want to read for the Oct. 2 book review I signed up for.

[mxroboto]

Oh wow that social history book sounds fascinating, gonna add it to my library list!!

[valoise]

You can read How We Lived Then online or download it here: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/000403034

[mxroboto]

Ooh thank you!!!

[pauraque]

I usually write book reviews two or three weeks in advance of when I plan to post them, so I am sort of already in my October reading? I'm reading Dracula for the first time.

[petrea_mitchell]

Finished Saints of Storm and Sorrow a couple days ago. It turned into a bit of a slog near the end.

Just finished inhaling When Among Crows. A nice short book was what I needed.

[mxroboto]

Finished The AI Con by Emily M Bender and Alex Hanna. Very illuminating and layperson-friendly explanation of how to see through all the hype surrounding "AI" and what some of the ramifications of this shortsightedness may be. Highly recommend to anyone who wants to understand what this technology is that's getting crammed down our throats.

Started Ursula K LeGuin's The Lathe of Heaven. My first book of hers! Adore the premise, a little underwhelmed by the prose but she's also been hyped up to me by almost everyone so that's on me. Kinda crazy how prophetic some of it is, this was written in 1971 but has characters that are deeply touch averse due to overcrowding and simultaneous isolation, and reference to some of the populace "overidentifying with machines" while others are terrified of them. Incredible foresight into human reaction!