Read a lot more this year than the last several years combined. Nonfiction In chronological order: A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn - unrelenting, I had to break it up with multiple fiction books between the sections. The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt - I read this following kb's recommendation, it has given me some food for thought at the last few family gatherings. The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow - also read because of kb's recommendation. This one had a lot of history I had never heard before, and new context for a lot that I had heard. Highly recommend. 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann - interesting, but less impactful than the Dawn of Everything. Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman - argues against common ideas that human nature is bad. I didn't get much out of it. Fiction in no order, I jumped between series as audiobooks were available from the library: Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand - better than I remembered Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe by George Eliot - so much slower than I remembered The last four books of the Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold (the only ones available as audio) - the background setting of the Galaxy was a little confusing since I jumped in at the end, but the stories are self contained. If I remember correctly these were recommended to me years ago as an example of how women write scifi with less wooden characters and more emotion than men, though the comparison was mostly to golden age of scifi authors. I liked the books. Definitely not 'hard' scifi, but I'll argue they're definitely scifi and not 'fantasy with spaceships and lasers.' A couple of the Peter Wimsey mysteries by Dorothy L. Sayers - cute, kinda twee Firsrt quarter of Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace - was reading this and liked it, but had to return it and then had no desire to check it out again once I picked up something less self referential. Ra by qntm - fun idea, but chaotically written. Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman - fun Isle of the Dead by Roger Zelazny - Sometimes I search an author on hubski, trying to get an idea of whether I'll like a book. I was searching Neil Gaimon and found this recommendation for several Roger Zelazny stories. I had heard of Zelazny but never read anything of his. It made a bigger impression than anything else I read this year. Thanks kleinbl00 for leaving that recommendation for someone else eight and a half years ago. The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny (Corwin books) - enjoyed these. The Witcher by Andrzej Sapkowski - enjoyed all of these, though I thought the short stories were more engaging and the novels leaned more on political intrigue.
I tried to get into 1491 but... it rubbed me the wrong way. I think it flew in the face of a lot of stuff I already knew, and generally minimized anything that didn't suit their cozy theories. kind of like The Big Fix, which I'm halfway through because of dublinben's recommendation. Yeah it's kind of hopeful but it also relies on things like "nuclear accidents really aren't that bad if you take Soviet statistics at face value" and "we'd all be better off if we trusted oil oligarchs to audit their own environmental impact statements." It is neither as dire as the uninhabitable earth nor as imaginative as Fully Automated Luxury Communism. Where are you that only the last four books of the Vorkosigan saga are available? I gave it a run again a few years back in storyworld order and made it to, I think, "Memory" where Bujold just straight up throws away Miles' mercenary fleet in order to write cozy bullshit. Which, I guess, is what you do when you get old? Anyway I read "The Warrior's Apprentice" when it was still a ratty first-edition paperback you buy at grocery stores and it was pretty good as far as sixth-grade me was concerned but I put that series away with no regrets at uhhh thirteen years in. Also holy shit you made it through all of Amber. I stopped at Book 4 and I don't think I'm alone. Now read Earth Abides. The world is divided into two camps: those who have read Earth Abides and those who haven't.
I could get them all on paper from the library, I just couldn't get the others as audio for no money or effort on Overdrive. Yeah they're kinda cozy, but it must put you off more than me. I read a couple Peter Wimsey books and didn't regret it. To be clear I made it through the 5 Corwin books, haven't read the other 5. I have read Earth Abides!Where are you that only the last four books of the Vorkosigan saga are available?
Overdrive is so weird. This is the second time I"ve been reminded that just because I can get it on Overdrive doesn't mean everyone can. For a while I had my Los Angeles Public Library card loaded up next to my po-dunk redneck Seattle County library card but the Snohomish County one nukes the shit out of LA every time. I think I was pissed because I really liked the swashbuckling side of things and really hated the Gormenghast-fake palace intrigue bullshit because she writes Palace Intrigue as if she's writing about King Friday and Lady Aberlin. Sci fi writers suck at palace intrigue which is okay if your baseline is 1-world government let's go fight space aliens but whenever they set up some bullshit fake lines of succession nonsense that mostly just illustrates that their understanding of politics comes from the World Book Encyclopedia? I tune out.