WHAT have you finished reading recently? A Prophet without Honor, an alt-history novel told in letters about a German officer who leads to Hitler’s downfall in 1936.
WHAT are you reading now? Precipice, Robert Harris. As Europe drifts into suicide in autumn 1914, the British p.m. is undone by an affair.
WHAT are you reading next? Will focus on All Power to the Councils, I think, for the Germany interwar series.
Today’s prompt from Long and Short Reviews is: What genre do you want to read more of?
Hmm. Science fiction, I suppose. I know that sounds wild because it’s a healthy category, but I don’t feel like I read a great deal of it, and a lot of my SF is just technical thrillers set a bit in the future. Looking back on the year, I’ve read maybe five real SF stories, stuff like Dune, The Dispossessed, and Shelli. There’s so much SF I haven’t read, like almost all of Heinlein, bar a few titles like Starship Troopers and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. There are other SF greats like Ellison whom I’ve never touched.
Apropos of nothing, here’s some music. I stumbled on it while trying to find the name of the “Play the sunset!” piece in Mr. Holland’s Opus and keep listening to different covers of it.
Reading Freely 
sci-fi is what read most of as well I think. It’s an easy genre to get lost in.
Interesting that you haven’t read Heinlein’s most famous book. I read a LOT of Heinlein in my teens/20’s and liked (most) of it. I’m ‘planning’ to re-read quite a few of the best SF from my youth over the next few years. Maybe we can buddy-read ‘Troopers’?
Troopers would be a re-read for me as well (I linked to the review), but I’d be up for it! Stranger in a Strange Land is the main one I’ve read that would surprise people, I think.
DUH! I misread your comment to mean that you *had* read most of Heinlein! I wasn’t impressed by ‘Strangers’ which I thought was rather over-hyped. Last time I read ‘Troopers’ was (as often the way) around 40 years ago so it’ll be interesting to see if my views on it have changed (I remember enjoying it a lot). I’ll give you plenty of advanced warning when I’m thinking of the re-read. Just turning my head to the right & looking at my bookshelves, I’ll probably start my re-reads with Arthur C Clarke – maybe early in the New Year. I’ve got a substantial reading project planned for 2025, so I might get the Clarke out of the way first.
Clarke would be another! I’ve read 2001 and a short story or two. Interested in your big 2025 project!
I used to read all the old science fiction of the 1930s and 1940s and 1950s when I was young, and I loved the fun and the action and the visions of the future. I hope to read several scifi books during November, Science Fiction Month, if all goes well.
So do I!
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress was a good read!
If you haven’t read The Martian or Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir yet and are open to suggestions, they are both great contemporary science fiction novels.
Lydia
Oh, I’ve read all of Weir! Happy to take any and all suggestions, though.
I don’t read a lot of sci-fi, but I have recently discovered John Scalzi and am going through his entire backlist.
<a href=”https://nerdyreadergirl.wordpress.com/2024/10/02/wednesday-weekly-blogging-challenge-october-2-2024/“>My post</a>
Scalzi’s one of my favorites — if you haven’t read Agent to the Stars, it’s one of his funnier novels.
Thanks for the rec! I read Starter Villain earlier this year and just adored it.
The audiobook for that one was a hoot — Wil Wheaton performed it!
Yes, and he was perfect. He also narrated Redshirts which I loved. Wesley Crusher narrating a meta version of Star Trek, how perfect.
No one does incredulous quite like Wil Wheaton!
I’m also more and more in the scifi mood. Escapism? Probably. I’m almost done with my 4th list for the Classics Club, and my plan is to focus on classic scifi for my 5th list.
You’ll find my WWW in this post: https://wordsandpeace.com/2024/09/29/sunday-post-115-more-of-summer/
WOW! Fourth go-round with CC is VERY impressive.
SF is just such a broad category that I’m not surprised you feel like don’t read much of it despite the fact that I associate you with SF 😂! Good thing Science Fiction Month is coming up then isn’t it hahaha 🙂
I loved Heinlein back in the day, but for me he hasn’t aged well. His Libertarian fantasy that a society with lots of guns would be super-polite and lawful falls a little flat in the age of continuous mass shootings.
I really enjoyed Kate Elliot’s Unconquerable Sun, which – with your interest in historical fiction – might be fun. It’s a gender-swapped bio of Alexander the Great reset as space opera in a post-Earth human society.