What are you reading?

[Thorn]

In prepping for Hillfolk, I decided to give Hamlet's Hit Points a go.  I'm about 40 pages in and I'm loving it so far.  It is giving me a little more of a direction to go in when I am designing a scenario.

[Adam_Autist]

Just started listening to Memory, Sorrow Thorn by Tad Williams. The premise of an actual medieval style fantasy is intriguing rather than just modern day people with swords etc.

Edit: Just read the first issue of Marjorie Liu's Monstress comic. It's a fantasy that has a Korean/ Chinese feel to it and it's dark and brutal. It's amazing.

[trinite]

My wife and I returned from vacation in New York City with about 30 books. The ones I'm starting with are In the Dust of This Planet: Horror of Philosophy vol. 1 by Eugene Thacker (a philosophy book about supernatural horror), to go with my new Penguin Classics edition of Thomas Ligotti's Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe.

On a lighter note, I'm also continuing my researches into the Black Death. So I picked up Osprey's German Medieval Armies 1300-1500 and The Medieval Underworld by Andrew McCall.

[SynapticError]

I've just wrapped up a few books.  14 by Peter Clines, kind of like a Cthulhu Mythos novel focusing on architectural horror that I liked, Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, which I loved,  Embassytown by China Mieville, a really weird sci-fi horror novel focusing on xenolinguistics, and Dune, which I've tried to get into on my father's recommendation but it seems like I need a dictionary on the world to really enjoy it.     

[trinite]

I've just wrapped up a few books.  14 by Peter Clines, kind of like a Cthulhu Mythos novel focusing on architectural horror that I liked, Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, which I loved,  Embassytown by China Mieville, a really weird sci-fi horror novel focusing on xenolinguistics, and Dune, which I've tried to get into on my father's recommendation but it seems like I need a dictionary on the world to really enjoy it.   

The edition of Dune that I read -- way back in high school, I think -- included a glossary in the back. It was very helpful.

I really liked the first book, but when I tried to get into the sequels I found them too complicated and inhumanly-scaled to enjoy. I couldn't figure out who I was supposed to cheer for anymore, or even what the various factions were trying to achieve.

[clockworkjoe]

Currently reading Populuxe by Thomas Hine. A history of the unique mid 1950s style that we associate with Fallout and Leave it to Beaver. Fascinating stuff really.

[Tim]

Finishing up The Ithaqua Cycle from Chaosium. I have always had a fondness in my heart for the wind walker so enjoying it. Three August Derleth stories so your own mileage may vary but these were not such naked pastiches that I enjoyed two of the three of them.

After this I got a few nonfiction books on my pile but my wife via the magic of the kindle gifted me a book called "Detective Strongoak and the Case of the Dead Elf" which I am dubious about but it is now my husbandly duty to read.

[CADmonkey]

Another entry in the theme of "Awful things in Canadian History":

I've just finished reading Obasan, a novel about a Japanese Canadian girl who was separated from her parents and interred in a ghetto as an "enemy alien" during WWII.  Written by Joy Kogawa, a Japanese Canadian woman who was interred in a ghetto as an "enemy alien" during WWII, Obasan is a simply heartbreaking story about families and communities persecuted and destroyed by our racist government.

Another depressing book that more Canadians ought to read.

[trinite]

Finishing up The Ithaqua Cycle from Chaosium. I have always had a fondness in my heart for the wind walker so enjoying it. Three August Derleth stories so your own mileage may vary but these were not such naked pastiches that I enjoyed two of the three of them.

After this I got a few nonfiction books on my pile but my wife via the magic of the kindle gifted me a book called "Detective Strongoak and the Case of the Dead Elf" which I am dubious about but it is now my husbandly duty to read.

Hey, it can't be as awful as Bian Lumley's "Clock of Dreams" novels, which feature lots of fighting Ithaqua --and also such gems as Cthulhu's good-guy half brother, Kthanid.

[Tim]

Hey, it can't be as awful as Bian Lumley's "Clock of Dreams" novels, which feature lots of fighting Ithaqua --and also such gems as Cthulhu's good-guy half brother, Kthanid.

Kthanid and I are real tight bros man. Don't you disparage him!

[The Lost Carol]

Just finished devouring one of my Christmas presents, Humans of New York: Stories, by Brandon Stanton. It's a book version of his blog, with photo essays of various New Yorkers, from all walks of life. Even if you frequent the blog (which I don't,) the book was very valuable; not just for bigger, high rez photos, but also for composition's sake. In the blog he posts photos and interviews as they come; in the book, he can compose the photos and interviews in a logical or appropriate pattern. The content of the interviews, the pairings of photos of similar composition, etc., are matched to give them more impact. Worth a read, for sure.

Also 'finished' Hc Svnt Dracones by Pierce Fraser (will always need to copy paste that $&^!$@ title...) The book was an enjoyable read. It is, truly, EP + Furries... yet the book never rests on that laurel. The way he writes of the world can at times even make you think less of your characters as animals and more of what the book is supposed to show; posthumanism taken to its logical conclusion, as this universe is literally post-human. The book has immersive world building that draws you into the corporations, factions, and big bads of the book. And above all... also very, unexpectedly funny. From snippets of one species' views of another to the descriptions of how much you suck with a 1 in a skill, there's some good humor to be had. The one thing is I did skim the rules section; it is immense and at times Eclipse Phase hard to digest, and also knowing that I won't be running it any time soon meant that it was also kinda pointless to dive too deep. Regardless, a fun read, an interesting system, and I look forward to Tom's mini-campaign coming up.

As for my next read, not sure what. One of my Christmas presents to myself was the all Delta Green everything tier of the Delta Green II Kickstarter, so I got a lot of ground to cover before the Agent's Handbook comes out in the spring. I'll need to dig up the reading order and get started with the novels and short story collections. Also, with how shitty their present state is I've been itching to read some of the classic X-Men stories, so I might delve into my collection.

[Alethea]

Recently finished After the Fall (very good, do recommend) and Gentleman Joe and the Red Queen by Louis McMaster Bujold - it's the latest in her Vorkosigan series. I really enjoyed it but I think you're not going to get a lot of the emotional and relationship impacts unless you've already read the series.

Currently working my way through Thing Explainer by Randall Monroe and the Fate Core System.

[Adam_Autist]

The new supernatural crime series The Burned Man/ Don Drake book. If you like Hellblazer you might like this.

Also the Goon Squad series. A superpowered police procedural by the Johannes Cabal feller.

[Vivax]

Recently finished Finch by Jeff Vandermeer, it's a detective noir set in a city being colonized by horrible, alien, fungus creatures. Dark, atmospheric and moody with a heavy emphasis on corruption and creeping decay. I also just finished The Devil's Alphabet, a strange body-horror family drama about a man who grew up in a small town where people randomly differentiated into 3 new phenotypes. The betas, round, self-impregnating, hairless women, the alphas, meaty obese people with anger issues and odd pheromones and Deltas, extraordinarily tall, gangly people with gorilla-esq hands and grey skin. The plot revolves around an estranged, normal, son, reuniting with his depressed Alpha father when his childhood sweetheart dies.

Currently working my way through Vorrh, a African colonialist fever dream.

[Alethea]

Finished Thing Explainer and have about 100 pages of Fate Core left. I will make it by the end of January dang it