The Dispatcher by John Scalzi -- Interesting premise; I'm not sure what it is other than being an Audible short story but its cadence or something reminds me of Murderbot Diaries; definitely a decent listen and I will finish the other two.

Murder By Other Means by John Scalzi -- book 2 of series

Travel by Bullet by John Scalzi -- book 3 of series/ Probably the best of the three. Heavily influenced by Covid, which is an interesting backdrop.

The Suneater Series is fantastic, if anyone is interested in an epic sprawling space fantasy/opera.

I finished "Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole.

It was supposed to be funny, and there were some places where I laughed out loud. It was fun to experience street life in the poor, inner city section of New Orleans back in the 1960s.

But some of what might have been funny when I was much younger now just seems sad. The main character is a complete and total loser. He's verbally abusive of everyone including his own mother, who is non-deserving of it. It's like reading an entire book about Will Ferrel's character in "Wedding Crashers". Ma! Meatloaf!!

Supposedly there is an entire section of society similar to Ignacious called Neckbeards. I gotta admit, I don't know any of them, and if I did I wouldn't spend much time with them.

I tried reading it decades ago, and did not finish. This time I finished, and I'm not sure it was worth it.

From today's lens he's definitely on the spectrum.

Rudyjax said:

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From today's lens he's definitely on the spectrum.

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Yep. When it was written, Ignacious was just an eccentric character in a town full of eccentric characters. Today he would be diagnosed, medicated, arrested, prosecuted, exposed, cancelled, and ostracized.

Philo B 93 said:

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Rudyjax said:

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From today's lens he's definitely on the spectrum.

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Yep. When it was written, Ignacious was just an eccentric character in a town full of eccentric characters. Today he would be diagnosed, medicated, arrested, prosecuted, exposed, cancelled, and ostracized.

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I wouldn't go that far.

Rudyjax said:

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Philo B 93 said:

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Rudyjax said:

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From today's lens he's definitely on the spectrum.

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Yep. When it was written, Ignacious was just an eccentric character in a town full of eccentric characters. Today he would be diagnosed, medicated, arrested, prosecuted, exposed, cancelled, and ostracized.

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I wouldn't go that far.

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I should have stopped after medicated. I was on a roll. The guy was horrible to his mom, though. Also, imagine forging the signature of your company owner on a scathing, nasty letter to a supplier resulting in a law suit, and then organizing a strike/protest by the workers against your own company. There would be some legal action involved.

Finished The Fellowship of the Ring by JRR Tolkien.

Man…I struggled. It was good but I constantly found myself ready to be done with it. Very similar to the feeling I had when reading The Hobbit. Now I'm questioning if I want to continue with the next two. Someone tell me the next two books are more action..bc I felt like action was missing from this one.

Either way, my brother-in-law loaned me his copy of Dungeon Crawler Carl and has been on me to start it, so I think it's time I dive in. High expectations going in, thanks to this thread. I'm hopeful it won't disappoint.

Books read in 2026:

January
The Runaway Jury - John Grisham
The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

February


March
The Fellowship of the Ring - JRR Tolkien

The answer is yes you want to continue, then chase it with The Silmarillion

Completed: The Wizards and the Warriors by Hugh Cook. Fantasy story written in the 80s, first in a series of ten. I was surprised I'd never heard of it before, but I really enjoyed it. The style reminds me a little bit of Glen Cook (no relation that I know of), specifically his Dread Empire series - plain, easy writing not overly concerned with flowery text.

Almost done with Project Hail Mary - really good

Is The Martian a good read? I loved the movie

Is Artemis any good?

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I be been wanting to try the Remembrance of Earth's Past - Three Body Problem; but nervous since it's Chinese l-centric it won't translate well ... ?

SpreadsheetAg said:

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Almost done with Project Hail Mary - really good

Is The Martian a good read? I loved the movie

Is Artemis any good?

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I be been wanting to try the Remembrance of Earth's Past - Three Body Problem; but nervous since it's Chinese l-centric it won't translate well ... ?

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PHM is the best.
But i really like all 3.

Wolfpac 08 said:

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I read both PHM and The Martian last year (in that order). I liked The Martian better.

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Not a bad opinion.

Martian book and movie are my favorite combo.

SpreadsheetAg said:

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Almost done with Project Hail Mary - really good

Is The Martian a good read? I loved the movie

Is Artemis any good?

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I be been wanting to try the Remembrance of Earth's Past - Three Body Problem; but nervous since it's Chinese l-centric it won't translate well ... ?

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Loved PHM. Really enjoyed Artemis as well.

Have not read the Martian yet.

HawthornAggie said:

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SpreadsheetAg said:

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Almost done with Project Hail Mary - really good

Is The Martian a good read? I loved the movie
Is Artemis any good?

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I be been wanting to try the Remembrance of Earth's Past - Three Body Problem; but nervous since it's Chinese l-centric it won't translate well ... ?

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Loved PHM. Really enjoyed Artemis as well.

Have not read the Martian yet.

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This is me too. The Martian is on my list for soon.

I am currently reading The Martian.

The first time I read The Hobbit and LOTR was in the mid to late 70s and I loved them so much I reread them probably thirty times over the years. A couple of years ago I started to read the Hobbit again and stopped about 25% in; it just didn't interest me that much anymore. I do believe you'll enjoy finishing the trilogy, but based on your reading history, you'll probably enjoy DCC more.

Like the others said, The Martian is an outstanding book and definitely worth the time to read. Artemis isn't bad, but not as good as either PHM or The Martian.

There's a reason Artemis isn't talked about much. In my opinion, the protagonist is just not likable.

I liked her, enough to enjoy the book.

She's certainly not a favorite book character, but is probably a more realistic depiction of normal humans.

I really enjoyed the Martian and thought it was slightly better than PHM. I've not read Artemis yet.

I loved the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy! It's one of the best series I've ever read. The concepts though made my head hurt trying to understand/comprehend/visualize things that are just too advanced for my brain (like dimensions higher than the third). Great book although I wasn't a fan of how the trilogy ends.

SpreadsheetAg said:

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Almost done with Project Hail Mary - really good

Is The Martian a good read? I loved the movie

Is Artemis any good?

----

I be been wanting to try the Remembrance of Earth's Past - Three Body Problem; but nervous since it's Chinese l-centric it won't translate well ... ?

---

I haven't read Artemis but it is on my bookshelf. I will some day but the mixed reviews here have dampened my initiative to do so.

I personally think The Martian is better than PHM but maybe because I read it first and PHM started out very similar but (for me) kind of jumped the shark. The Martian is more of a fictional Appolo 13. Whereas, PHM is more of a pure SciFy type story. Just my 2 cents.

Zombie Jon Snow said:

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Cinco Ranch Aggie said:

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I see some old friends of mine from way back in the early 80s ... Salems Lot, The Shining, The Stand, Carrie, The Dead Zone - I had all of those printings. Carried them back and forth to school every day while reading, teachers started to hate me for that.

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yeah that run of books at the front left top shelf is there for a reason - those are the first SK books I got more or less in order in about a 2 year period from 1980 to 1982 all in paperback. The first hardback I got was Pet Sematary in 1983.

1980 I was 14 and my mom wanted me to read in the summers and said I could read whatever I wanted. I had seen The Shining on HBO by then and started with Salem's Lot. These are what got me hooked.


Salem's Lot
Night Shift
The Stand
Carrie
The Dead Zone
Firestarter
Cujo
Different Seasons
The Shining - i read this later as I had seen the movie

I picked up Cycle of the Werewolf and The Dark Tower later as I recall. And they are a different size/format then standard paperbacks so I have them elsewhere (Dark Tower books together the first 4 anyway) and Cycle of the Werewolf is a taller thin paperback format so it's next to Pet Sematary at the back of the top left shelf with hardbacks.

After that it was mostly hardbacks except the Dark Tower books and The Green Mile serial releases and The Bachman books for a long time. The paperbacks in the front are things I skipped on first release and went back and got later. then the most recent stuff is typically bottom left.

I'm running out of space now. Gonna start being a little too packed soon.

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A good one that hasn't been mentioned yet is Needful Things. Also Dr Sleep is a good one and a sequel to The Shining.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DViqE4eDNiJ/?igsh=MWxnZG9xcW54aGJ1NQ==

A Defense of Calvinism - Charles Spurgeon. Chapter from his autobiography of the same title and 7 sermons.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42795321

Stiger's Tigers (book 1) by Marc Alan Edelheit -- Roman Legions meet Dungeons and Dragons (elves,Dwarfs, Gnomes, Rangers, Paladins, Wizards, etc)

I enjoyed the first book, on to the next.

Had to go to Philly for work for a few days, read Artemis on the plane rides. It was....fine. enjoyable quick read. Will make a fun movie if they punch up the dialogue.

No Life Forsaken by Steven Erikson
Book 2 of the Witness Series, which is a follow up to The Malazan Book of the Fallen

Back to Seven Cities, more marines, more whirlwind, more new and old characters, more awesome.

SpreadsheetAg said:

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Finished PHM; starting The Martian

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Ditto, just finished PHM as well. As an engineer enjoyed it. Didn't blow me away. Wanted to read it before watching the movie and weird thing is now I'm not sure I'm excited for the movie (because I know whats going to happen )

Finished - Sherlock Holmes stories: A Scandal in Bohemia, The Red-Headed League, A Case of Identity, The Boscome Valley Mystery, The Five Orange Pips, The Man with the Twisted Lip, The Adventures fo the Blue Carbuncle, The Adventure of the Speckled Band, The Adventure of the Engineer's Thumb, The Adventure of the Noble Bachelor, The Adventure of the Beryl Coronet, The Adventure of the Copper Beeches, all from 100 Eternal Masterpieces of Literature, Volume 1 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle These were all re-reads, as one of the first books I got when I bought the first Kindle was The Complete Sherlock Holmes

Started - Heart of Darkness from 100 Eternal Masterpieces of Literature, Volume 1 Joseph Conrad. This one was a required reading book for high school, which I never finished. I guess I have more patience these days, as it seems much more interesting now than it did then.

If you aren't familiar with how Andy Weir wrote and got published, check it out. It is fascinating.