The Books/Reading Thread

Just started reading this. Introduction's already got me hooked.

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Will finish it. Today. Maybe. Or tomorrow. It has to be finished. I'm not sure it needed to be nearly 900 pages. Though I think I probably enjoy most the parts that bore a lot of readers. Don't really give a fuck about any of the characters but the 'hard' sci fi stuff is cool.
 
last read: Kon Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl and Magicians of the Gods by Graham Hancock

currently reading: Supernatural by Graham Hancock and The Witching Hour by Anne Rice.
 
My Top 10 mystery and thrillers of 2016. They could be published in either hardcover or paperback during the calendar year.

01. WHAT YOU SEE (2016 PB),*DRIVE TIME (2016 REISSUE) BY HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN

02. THE INNOCENTS (2016 HC), THE REDEEMERS BY ACE ATKINS (2016 PB)

03. FOREIGN ECLAIRS BY JULIE HYZY (2016 PB)

04. OVERWATCH BY MATTHEW BETLEY (2016 ARC)

05. DARKTOWN BY THOMAS MULLEN (2016 ARC)

06. ORDER TO KILL BY VINCE FLYNN / KYLE MILLS (2016 HC)

07. THE HOLLOW MEN BY ROB McCARTHY (2016 ARC)

08. MEMORY MAN BY DAVID BALDACCI (2016 PB)

09. A FATAL CHAPTER BY LORNA BARRETT (2016 PB)

10. READING UP A STORM BY EVA GATES (2016 PB)

A bunch of books by authors that normally make my list with no problem didn't make it this year because while I purchased them, I haven't yet gotten the time to read them. I was pretty surprised to see three "cozy" mystery novels make my Top 10.
 
I read "Story of Your Life" back in undergrad, but was excited to revisit it after seeing the movie Arrival. Ted Chiang is fucking incredible:

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Gone through about four essays already in this collection, which is superb so far. Greif co-founded the magazine n+1. These essays originally appeared on that platform, which is intended for pieces that don't quite fit in academic journals but are also more critically oriented than journalistic pieces:

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An awesome collection that I need to re-read. Too bad he doesn't publish more. That cover is awesome too, by the way. Hopefully the movie will make more people read Chiang.

I just finished "Division By 0" a couple days ago. That story moved me. I can't think of another SF writer at the moment who can extract such affect from a field as emotionless as mathematics.
 
I finished reading Hank Phillippi Ryan's Say No More the other day. I liked the book and how the author tied the various plots together. I went to a signing for her and another author I like last night.
 
For science fiction fans, here's a link to Steven Shaviro's "favorite SF of 2016." Definitely some good stuff on this list, and a lot that I'm excited to go read.

http://www.shaviro.com/Blog/?p=1415

Just some standouts that I really want to read are Gemma Files's Experimental Film, Cixin Liu's Three Body Problem trilogy (the final installment came out in 2016), and Matthew De Abitua's The Destructives.