What book(s) are you reading in 2020?

[postodave]

I am reading Foundation by Isaac Asimov. It's really good so far.

It declines at it goes on. The basic idea is a dodgy one. The idea is that on a mass scale human behaviour becomes predictable. Hence those who know how to control it have to run the universe. And we have to cheer on the people who believe that. Hence the whole thing is basically totalitarian. As an antidote I recommend Popper's Poverty of Historicism.

[Sir Sorcerer]

I am reading Foundation by Isaac Asimov. It's really good so far.

[Rothgo]

Given that the TV version of The Runestaff seems to be on track to actually exist, I thought I'd go re-read the book(s) in anticipation. Its been many, many years Mr Hawkmoon!

[zlogdan]

I am reading "Onde Kombi Alguma Jamais Esteve: O Taura No Fim do Universo" by Gilson Cunha, which has received the prize of the best 2020 Brazilian science fiction book. I have extreme difficulty coping with humorous science fiction, but Gilson has made me enjoy it maybe because it is at one level, a homage to the geek culture from the Brazilian perspective without having to use expected stereotypes from Brazil: samba, soccer, carnaval, favelas.

My brother has given me two awesome new hardcover issues of LeGuin's "The Dispossessed" and "The Left hand of darkness" which are two marvelous books regardless of any political affiliation or personal ideologies.

[In_Loos_Ptokai]

I've just finished Isabel Allende's My Invented Country. I got started on Vikram Seth's A Suitable Boy, but have been making very very slow progress. I've just finished Stephen King's Langoliers.

[dasNdanger]

Making slow progress on the reading front. Finished Mann's Ghosts of Karnak in late summer, then read some cooking magazines...lol...and now halfway through Crooked River, by Preston and Child (A Special Agent Pendergast novel). I am liking it very much. Their first few Pendergast novels, starting with Relic, and ending with Still Life With Crows, were excellent. Then they got a bit weak, dealing with a lot of family drama and stuff that muddied the stories. But the last one (Verses for the Dead) and this one feel more like the older stories. I think it also has a bit to do with the overall change in storytelling; they went from more detailed, heavier descriptions that created this wonderful atmosphere that drew the reader into the scene to a breezier style that makes for a faster read, but in doing so much of the atmosphere was lost. I'm getting used to it now, but I miss the earlier books.

das

[Pietro_Mercurios]

I tried to read the unlimited dream company by JG Ballard and a clockwork orange by anthony burgess but I didn’t finish either. I might try reading ballards short fiction. I did read Kane of Old Mars by MM which was good and am currently on the haunting of hill house by Shirley Jackson with viriconium by m john harrison ordered from the library..

You could try, The Drowned World, or The Crystal World, they're some of Ballard's earlier & best stories. Read one, or both of them, first & then read, Empire of the Sun. 😉

[Peacefulpie]

I tried to read the unlimited dream company by JG Ballard and a clockwork orange by anthony burgess but I didn’t finish either. I might try reading ballards short fiction. I did read Kane of Old Mars by MM which was good and am currently on the haunting of hill house by Shirley Jackson with viriconium by m john harrison ordered from the library..

[zlogdan]

Gene Wolfe is always a good choice.

Back in 2015, I bought the ebook "The Third Head of Cerberus" and started reading it. After the first story, I couldn't get into the second one so I stopped reading it. I never thought Wolfe was a bad author thank God and I mostly blamed myself which has been good. One year later I had the great idea of reading "Shadow Of The Torturer" and since then my life has changed. I did read "The Third Head of Cerberus" again but at this time I loved it.

I am so accustomed to his style that I feel bored with authors that go into the very minutiae to explain and narrate everything. I see myself loving dictionaries and symbolism. I couldn't get into all of his short stories however but loved a lot of them.

[Doc]

Gene Wolfe is always a good choice.

[zlogdan]

I am in the middle of a reader's block but I am reading Gene Wolfe's Interlibrary Loan and loving it.

[Pietro_Mercurios]

The start is an utter slog. Is it worth it in the end? How many reach the end? As you've already committed your sheckles to the affair, its entirely up to you!

A. It was secondhand.

B. I'm not totally unversed in the various references & 'Easter eggs,' obvious or obscure. There's a certain perverse pleasure (jouïssance?), in their gradual unveiling.

C. It's plainly true, as recent evidence has shown, there's an all encompassing Conspiracy, for every occasion. The nuttier the better.

[Doc]

While I feel compelled to read more Peake after seeing some of this thread (I’m a fan, but haven’t read any of his work for years), I’m knee deep in some of Natti Ronel’s work on positive criminology, which has a lot in common with some restorative justice models, but is more deeply invested in rehabilitation. About to try Charlie Jane Anders’ City in the Middle of the Night. I’ve read a little of her short fiction and commentary, so I have high hopes.

[Rothgo]

... Yesterday, I bought a copy of Umberto Eco's, Foucault's Pendulum. Looking forward to that one. More relevant than ever.

The start is an utter slog. Is it worth it in the end? How many reach the end? As you've already committed your sheckles to the affair, its entirely up to you!

[Sir Sorcerer]

However, I did read & enjoy Pleij's, Dreaming of Cockaigne. Medieval Fantasies of the Perfect Life. That was a fascinating read.

Thanks for mentioning this, it sounds super interesting. I just finished Ginzburg's The Cheese and the Worms: The Cosmos of a Sixteenth-Century Miller and was searching for more books on utopian thought in the Middle Ages.