Finished:

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

I think I need to read more of his work because this was excellent.

Started/in-progress:

The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu

The sequel to Three-Body Problem. It may have been was to give the series a buffer between entries, but I'm still enjoying this follow-up.

Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve

I will start this on audiobook when I head into work today. It was one of many I lined up in my queue this morning, so I'm excited for more audiobooks! (American Gods really got me into it).

I'm still reading The Dark Forest, by Cixin Liu and Good Omens, by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman, although I haven't actually opened any of them for more than a week. I feel like reading now though, so I'll probably finish at least Good Omens this week.

The dark forest, by Cixin Liu

I finished The Dark Forest, by Cixin Liu. I have no idea how to rate this book on Goodreads. The last 100 pages or so were amazing, but I didn't really like the rest of the book. I really understand the comments about bad dialogue, flat characters and sexism in this series now. I want to finish the trilogy, but I think I'll take a break from it with a few other books first.

I'm currently reading They mostly come out at night, by Benedict Patrick and A tree grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith.

I finished Norwegian Wood, by Haruki Murakami. I really didn't like the first half of the book as the dialogue was unrealistic and mainly reflected the thoughts of a randy teenage boy. I thought I would end up hating the book but the second half was much better and I was interested in what happened to the characters by the end of it so I think the book redeemed itself. I will try another Haruki Murakami book some time next year.

I started The Dark Forest, by Cixin Liu which is the second book in the Three-Body Problem trilogy. I really enjoyed the first book and it was exciting to revisit the story. I haven't got very far in this book yet.

My local library had a Graphic Novel month a little while ago so I got a couple out during that month and haven't stopped since. On the graphic novel front this week I read:

• Frankenstein, by Junji Ito I am still working through Junji Ito's collection. This novel covered Mary Shelley's Frankenstein story and had a selection of short stories at the end. The Frankenstein story was identical to Mary Shelley's novel from what I remember of it so didn't really add much. There was one stand out short story called "Pen Pals" which was excellent but I thought the other stories were fairly average. So all in all I didn't rate this collection as highly as Junji Ito's other works.

• The Walking Dead, by Robert Kirkman - Volumes 5 and 6. I am still enjoying this series. Volume 6 included a torture scene which was pretty shocking.

• Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, by Grant Morrison. I read the comic of this last week and it really got into my head. I was going to reread the comic but the copy I had included a script of the comic that Grant Morrison wrote for the illustrator. The script included some footnotes by Grant Morrison and references to mythology which was lost on me when I read the comic. In the script Grant Morrison also talks about some other ideas he had which weren't cleared by DC or whomever so they weren't included in the final story. Rather than rereading the comic I read Grant Morrison's script. I think this story is excellent and very dark.

This week I hope to pick up Akira as I loved the anime adaptation when I was younger.

Finished The Dark Forest, by Liu Cixin and started Death's End, by Liu Cixin, should be done with the series this week.

The whole series is good, but after the first book it seems like he's aiming to squeeze in too many concepts in too small a space and it ends up being somewhat chaotic, under-explored in some areas and over-explored in others. Not everything makes sense - which can be very jarring, especially in sci-fi, I rolled my eyes a number of times, but overall despite some flaws the series is pretty stimulating and well written.

I'm about halfway through The Dark Forest, by Cixin Liu. I still don't like it as much as the first book, but if it keeps getting better and better like this I just might by the end.

I will also start on Good Omens, by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman.

Finished The Unit, by Ninni Holmqvist. My favourite ever book is Never Let Me Go and I heard this was similar. I thought it was okay but I didn't enjoy it nearly as much. It is very sad in places but I felt the narrator focussed a bit too much on herself rather than caring for others.

I then read Junji Ito's Cat Diary, by Junji Ito which is a graphic novel. I really enjoyed some of Junji Ito's horror shorts so decided to pick up Cat Diary from the library. It is a light hearted story about Junji trying to win over the affection of his girlfriend's cats. I did find it quite enjoyable and cute.

I read Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka in a day. Had it on my To Read last for years. I liked it a lot.

I started The Dark Forest, by Cixin Lui which is the sequel to The Three-Body Problem which I throughly enjoyed. I haven't got far but it was great to be reminded of the characters and events from the first book so I am confident I will enjoy it.

I also started How To Be A Footballer, by Peter Crouch. I don't tend to read sport biographies but I like Peter Crouch and he seems funny so thought I would try it. I have also listened to Peter Crouch's podcast and a lot of the stories discussed on the podcast are covered in this book.

I have now read 50 books this year and whilst I wasn't deliberately targeting 52 books in a year it is always something I wanted to do so I'm quite happy with my progress this year. This week I read a novella and a graphic novel which can be classed as short books but I have read so huge books too so I hope it evens out.

about 2/3 through The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu, which is going to have to go back to the library before i finish i think. noooooo! also started Altered Carbon by Richard K Morgan, which is great so far, except for the MC's oft-mentioned turgid member.

I finished Good Omens, by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. Loved it, of course.

I've got about 100 pages left of The Dark Forest, by Cixin Liu and just picked up A tree grows in Brooklyn, by Betty Smith for a book club I just joined.

I’m going to pick up The dark forest, by Cixin Liu again, after putting it on pause for about two weeks since I had to finish The Wall, by Marlene Haushofer before giving it back to the library. Looking forward to getting back to philosophical sci-fi.

The Wall was great, once I let go of not knowing where the wall came from, what it was made of etc.

The Dark Forest, by Liu Cixin

Finished The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu, started Death's End, the final book in the trilogy.

The Dark Forest, by Cixin Liu. Common criticism about the Three-body books are that the characters portraits are a bit flat. I didn't think it was so bad in the first book (I wouldn't call spoilers character flat), but now I've realized I'm pretty uninterested in whether most of the characters in this book live or die. I still want to know where the story goes though, so I'll keep reading.

I also started Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophesies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. Loving it so far, but didn't expect anything else :)

Finished:

The Three Body Problem by Cixin Liu

Started:

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu

Dropped Without Remorse, by Tom Clancy after about 100 pages in. It was recommended on a random thread and seemed like it would be action packed. In those pages John Kelly lost a pregnant wife, picked up a hitchhiker six months later and after having sex with her, cried several times. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Then he ran into a doctor and discovered the hitch hiker was on quaaludes. When does John start snapping necks and being a bad ass?

This week I started the sequel to Three-Body Problem titled The Dark Forest, by Cixin Liu. I read the first last year and liked the science/sci-fi but felt the characters were kind of robotic and unemotional.

Currently reading The dark forest, by Cixin Liu, the second book in the "Remembrance of Earth's Past" series. I loved the first book, so I'm very excited about this next part.

The Dark Forest, by Liu Cixin
Just finished it and it really blew me away. It was engaging from start to finish and the author really breathed life into the idea of how humans, both individuals and societies, would react given the knowledge that aliens are en route. Going to take a break from the series but come back and finish the trilogy very soon.

Finished: The Three-Body Problem, by Liu Cixin

Started: The Dark Forest, by Liu Cixin

Didn't get a chance to post last week, although I didn't finish anything either as I'd been traveling and had a bunch of work stuff taking up my reading time.

Since the last post two weeks back I've finished:

Lirael, by Garth Nix - I enjoyed the first one, so I moved right on to the second.

Abhorsen, by Garth Nix - I've enjoyed all three books in this series that I have read. Only minor complaint with book two and three was that they really felt like one book together that had been broken up just to keep page counts similar among the books. I plan on reading the next couple at some point once I free up a spot in the reading queue.

Currently reading:

Altered Starscape, by Ian Douglas - Just started this today so not much to say about it yet. It popped up on Overdrive as something that was moving well at some point, so I think I added a hold and it got delivered a couple days ago.

Kabuki: Circle Of Blood, by David Mack - Still dragging my feet on this too, which I often do with graphic novels in paper form. I just end up spacing out little bits for a while.

On deck: Been about a month since I had anything in paper aside from a graphic novel that I'm not actively reading. So I think soon will either be The Dark Forest, by Cixin Liu or Perdido Street Station, by China Miéville both of which are waiting patiently atop a pile of other books (these are both borrowed from a friend, so I should get them back at some point).

Finished The Three-Body Problem, by Cixin Liu.

Started The Dark Forest, by Cixin Liu.

Work got in the way, so my progress with the second book in the series isn't as fast as it was in the first, but the story is still interesting so far, and I've heard a lot of people saying that the series only gets better as you go, so I'm looking forward to my reading time this week.

I can't say anything about The Dark Forst without spoiling The Three-Body Problem, so, well, sorry for the lack of information on what the book is about.

Finished:

Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve

Started:

Circe by Madeline Miller

Still reading:

The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu

Finished:

Call for the Dead by John le Carre

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.

The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu

Started:

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carre

Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey

The Dark Forest, by by Liu Cixin, Joel Martinsen

about 100 pages in and im having a blast

Just finished The Dark Forest, by Liu Cixin and I loved it. Really interesting setup and a nice take on the Fermi-Paradox. I always like tech that is so advanced it borders into fantasy, and some of this, like the sophons, is just really fun to think about.

But it kind of made me wonder how far too often, the future is portrayed as if it was poured from a single mold. Like how all tech fits together perfectly and smoothly? But that's not how technology evolves, right? You can't have an entire city that looks like one single apple device. Even now, there are ancient roman bridges right next to bridges from the 70s.

Oh and the hibernation tech feels like a cop-out. I get that you need to conserve characters to string the narrative together, but with the lock on tech, you'd think it'd be much more of an issue, but the humans just have it.

Other than that, lots of fun.

I finished The Wall, by Marlene Haushofer. Did not think I'd like it as much as I did.

Currently reading: The Dark Forest, by Cixin Liu. I loved the first book in the trilogy, so I'm very excited for this.

I’m reading The dark forest, by Cixin Liu and The wall, by Marlene Haushofer.