I picked up Red Rising based on your rec.
I've got to slog through The Wager first because I'm determined to keep my non-fiction, fiction pattern this year.

Awesome! I'm jealous that you get to read it for the first time. Great series!

Finished The Lost World by Michael Crichton. Great book…I didn't like it as much as Jurassic Park, but that's not a knock. I felt like there was less action and more conceptual theoretics in this book. The story also seemed a bit repetitive from JP…almost like it was a sequel for the sake of a sequel, and wasn't really resolving any unresolved issues. I'd give it a solid B+

Now to figure out what's next. Likely something from the shelf bc my wife is sick of seeing B&N charges on the credit card statement.

Books read in 2025:

January
Slaughterhouse Five - Kurt Vonnegut (re-read)
A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle (re-read)
The Silent Patient - Alex Michaelides
Project Hail Mary - Andy Wier
Pines - Blake Crouch
Wayward - Blake Crouch

February
The Last Town - Blake Crouch

March
Dark Places - Gillian Flynn
Sharp Objects - Gillian Flynn

April
Red Rising - Pierce Brown
Golden Son - Pierce Brown

May
Morning Star - Pierce Brown
Echos of Reckoning - Ron Shaw

June
Dune - Frank Herbert
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - Mark Haddon
Still Alice - Lisa Genova
Dark Matter - Blake Crouch
Jurassic Park - Michael Crichton

July
The Lost World - Michael Crichton

Also because of this thread just finished golden son.

Want to go straight into morning star even more so than when I finished red rising. But will likely take a break to read foul ball with the baseball board.

Anybody read the Sun Eater books?

Quote:

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I've got to slog through The Wager

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This is a great book! Though to be clear I listened to it...
If you like that one, Endurance is another great one in that true life survival genre.
Also recommend "River of Doubt", same genre.

Agreed. Alfred Lansing's Endurance was remarkable. If anyone decides to read Endurance (Lansing's) for the first time, I recommend finding a copy of Caroline Alexander's, The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition as a supplement. Our local library had a copy and it provides more encyclopedia style detail and larger pictures.

Absolute said:

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Definitely spring for a kindle. I was hardcore books only, had thousands. Wife bought me a nook (Barnes and noble kindle) back in the day (probably because she was tired of my bookshelves and refusal to get rid of books) and I was hooked.

Since moved to the kindle. I read everyday. It is awesome to have a whole library at my fingertips In that small package.

Definitely get the kindle and don't try to use the app on an iPad or android tablet. I did for a while and found the eye strain part is real. Not sure how, but the paper white technology eliminates that problem.

---

I agree. I love my kindle, and the eye strain issue is absolutely significant, especially in areas that aren't well lit. With the backlit screen using whatever technology they have, there's relatively no eye strain compared to iPads. I didnt notice the significance until I got a physical book (the stand, which I'm still slogging through) and took it to read in a coffee shop I read at a lot. With the physical book, I suddenly realized that the lighting wasn't great in the part of the shop I tend to read in, and I couldn't read without it bothering me, whereas with the kindle I never noticed it at all because of how well they integrated their backlighting in their screen.

And for travel or reading away from home, it's a no brainer. I like to read outside, and often take it to the river or a lake to relax. Carrying that thin and light item is barely noticeable and takes up no space, but carrying a larger book is annoying at times.

Only negative is that I can't let people borrow them after I'm done, and often the kindle books cost more than the physical books for some reason. I have been buying more physical books lately because of that, and because sometimes you can get really good deals on used physical books.

One other note, which might've been noted before, but sometimes amazon gives digital credits if you choose to not do fast shipping. I can wait a few more days for most items in exchange for $1-2 here and there to go towards a new book.

Apache said:

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Quote:

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I've got to slog through The Wager

---

This is a great book! Though to be clear I listened to it...
If you like that one, Endurance is another great one in that true life survival genre.
Also recommend "River of Doubt", same genre.

---

Lol, same here. I listened to the audiobook of The Wager while doing stuff around the house and I really enjoyed it. In fact, I'm doing the same thing with The Plantagenets by Dan Jones right now. Its a history of the British line of succession from the 1100's through the 1300's. I've found it hard to physically read history like this, but listening to it is totally different for me.

My brother in law was just talking about that one as a short read/listen. I was trying to find an audio book for a 6 hour car trip with the family. We ended up starting the shining. Have you seen the movie Stand by Me? The Body is the book that the movie was based on. Hope you enjoy it!

Flipped a coin today on what new series to start. Options were Wayward Pimes, Dandelion Dynasty, Farseer (Realm of Elderlings), and Suneater. Farseer won out so off we go with Assassins Apprentice. First Hobbs book, have heard great things.

caleblyn said:

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Anybody read the Sun Eater books?

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I read book one and really enjoyed it. So much that I went ahead and got some special editions. My TBR list is just so chaotic and unstructured that I just haven't gotten around to the second book yet. I actually just ordered books four and five earlier today. I think I have a problem...

This one is shaping up to be a true modern sci fi space opera though so I am committed.

Eliminatus said:

---

caleblyn said:

---

Anybody read the Sun Eater books?

---

I read book one and really enjoyed it. So much that I went ahead and got some special editions. My TBR list is just so chaotic and unstructured that I just haven't gotten around to the second book yet. I actually just ordered books four and five earlier today. I think I have a problem...

This one is shaping up to be a true modern sci fi space opera though so I am committed.

---

I've heard its great. Will get to it one day. I have the same problem, my TBR list is daunting and I can never organize it in order because my mood would cause it to change daily.

Kaiser von Wilhelm said:

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Absolute said:

---

Definitely spring for a kindle. I was hardcore books only, had thousands. Wife bought me a nook (Barnes and noble kindle) back in the day (probably because she was tired of my bookshelves and refusal to get rid of books) and I was hooked.

Since moved to the kindle. I read everyday. It is awesome to have a whole library at my fingertips In that small package.

Definitely get the kindle and don't try to use the app on an iPad or android tablet. I did for a while and found the eye strain part is real. Not sure how, but the paper white technology eliminates that problem.

---

I agree. I love my kindle, and the eye strain issue is absolutely significant, especially in areas that aren't well lit. With the backlit screen using whatever technology they have, there's relatively no eye strain compared to iPads. I didnt notice the significance until I got a physical book (the stand, which I'm still slogging through) and took it to read in a coffee shop I read at a lot. With the physical book, I suddenly realized that the lighting wasn't great in the part of the shop I tend to read in, and I couldn't read without it bothering me, whereas with the kindle I never noticed it at all because of how well they integrated their backlighting in their screen.

And for travel or reading away from home, it's a no brainer. I like to read outside, and often take it to the river or a lake to relax. Carrying that thin and light item is barely noticeable and takes up no space, but carrying a larger book is annoying at times.

Only negative is that I can't let people borrow them after I'm done, and often the kindle books cost more than the physical books for some reason. I have been buying more physical books lately because of that, and because sometimes you can get really good deals on used physical books.

One other note, which might've been noted before, but sometimes amazon gives digital credits if you choose to not do fast shipping. I can wait a few more days for most items in exchange for $1-2 here and there to go towards a new book.

---

I was a STAUNCH physical book only person for a long while. Then multiple moves lugging around a many thousand book library finally broke me. Along with the reasons you posted.

Got a Kindle about 8 years ago and it was life changing. Still maintained a large library until about 4 years ago but I pared it down slowly while I had the Kindle and finally after my last move really ramped up the shrinking of it. At this point, I only focus on special and limited editions. The rest is Kindle. The convenience is just undeniable for readers of our scale IMO.

Not to say it is perfect. All these years later and I am still shocked Amazon does not have a native library collection app. Though Calibre is a damn good stand in. And I still am not a fan of the actual UI of the device itself. Though it has improved significantly last couple of years admittedly.

StinkyPinky said:

---

Eliminatus said:

---

caleblyn said:

---

Anybody read the Sun Eater books?

---

I read book one and really enjoyed it. So much that I went ahead and got some special editions. My TBR list is just so chaotic and unstructured that I just haven't gotten around to the second book yet. I actually just ordered books four and five earlier today. I think I have a problem...

This one is shaping up to be a true modern sci fi space opera though so I am committed.

---

I've heard its great. Will get to it one day. I have the same problem, my TBR list is daunting and I can never organize it in order because my mood would cause it to change daily.

---

In the middle of a trilogy currently but I think when I am done with that, I am just going to let this board decide what series I start next/finish. I have proven I cannot be trusted to do it myself apparently.

Really wish sometimes TA had a polling function.

StinkyPinky said:

---

Flipped a coin today on what new series to start. Options were Wayward Pimes, Dandelion Dynasty, Farseer (Realm of Elderlings), and Suneater. Farseer won out so off we go with Assassins Apprentice. First Hobbs book, have heard great things.

---

Been ages, but I remember enjoying it.

Eliminatus said:

---

Kaiser von Wilhelm said:

---

Absolute said:

---

Definitely spring for a kindle. I was hardcore books only, had thousands. Wife bought me a nook (Barnes and noble kindle) back in the day (probably because she was tired of my bookshelves and refusal to get rid of books) and I was hooked.

Since moved to the kindle. I read everyday. It is awesome to have a whole library at my fingertips In that small package.

Definitely get the kindle and don't try to use the app on an iPad or android tablet. I did for a while and found the eye strain part is real. Not sure how, but the paper white technology eliminates that problem.

---

I agree. I love my kindle, and the eye strain issue is absolutely significant, especially in areas that aren't well lit. With the backlit screen using whatever technology they have, there's relatively no eye strain compared to iPads. I didnt notice the significance until I got a physical book (the stand, which I'm still slogging through) and took it to read in a coffee shop I read at a lot. With the physical book, I suddenly realized that the lighting wasn't great in the part of the shop I tend to read in, and I couldn't read without it bothering me, whereas with the kindle I never noticed it at all because of how well they integrated their backlighting in their screen.

And for travel or reading away from home, it's a no brainer. I like to read outside, and often take it to the river or a lake to relax. Carrying that thin and light item is barely noticeable and takes up no space, but carrying a larger book is annoying at times.

Only negative is that I can't let people borrow them after I'm done, and often the kindle books cost more than the physical books for some reason. I have been buying more physical books lately because of that, and because sometimes you can get really good deals on used physical books.

One other note, which might've been noted before, but sometimes amazon gives digital credits if you choose to not do fast shipping. I can wait a few more days for most items in exchange for $1-2 here and there to go towards a new book.

---

I was a STAUNCH physical book only person for a long while. Then multiple moves lugging around a many thousand book library finally broke me. Along with the reasons you posted.

Got a Kindle about 8 years ago and it was life changing. Still maintained a large library until about 4 years ago but I pared it down slowly while I had the Kindle and finally after my last move really ramped up the shrinking of it. At this point, I only focus on special and limited editions. The rest is Kindle. The convenience is just undeniable for readers of our scale IMO.

Not to say it is perfect. All these years later and I am still shocked Amazon does not have a native library collection app. Though Calibre is a damn good stand in. And I still am not a fan of the actual UI of the device itself. Though it has improved significantly last couple of years admittedly.

---

I will jump on the pile here and endorse all of these comments. I was a convert only less than a year ago. I was a huge physical copy advocate and couldn't relinquish the reading experience by going digital. After soooo many people telling me I won't regret it if I switched, I did it begrudgingly to try it out and use it only as a tool for travel, and maintain my physical reading at home. Since day one of the Kindle, I have not bought or read a single physical copy. It is that much better. Hard to explain until you try it. Just do it, you will have zero regrets.

Bernard Cornwell is awesome. He has to be considered the pre-imminent historical fiction author. One way to read his books if you never have is to read his series in chronological order of when they occurred in history. Never really thought of that until now but might be a cool way to do it.

Eliminatus said:

---

Kaiser von Wilhelm said:

---

Absolute said:

---

Definitely spring for a kindle. I was hardcore books only, had thousands. Wife bought me a nook (Barnes and noble kindle) back in the day (probably because she was tired of my bookshelves and refusal to get rid of books) and I was hooked.

Since moved to the kindle. I read everyday. It is awesome to have a whole library at my fingertips In that small package.

Definitely get the kindle and don't try to use the app on an iPad or android tablet. I did for a while and found the eye strain part is real. Not sure how, but the paper white technology eliminates that problem.

---

I agree. I love my kindle, and the eye strain issue is absolutely significant, especially in areas that aren't well lit. With the backlit screen using whatever technology they have, there's relatively no eye strain compared to iPads. I didnt notice the significance until I got a physical book (the stand, which I'm still slogging through) and took it to read in a coffee shop I read at a lot. With the physical book, I suddenly realized that the lighting wasn't great in the part of the shop I tend to read in, and I couldn't read without it bothering me, whereas with the kindle I never noticed it at all because of how well they integrated their backlighting in their screen.

And for travel or reading away from home, it's a no brainer. I like to read outside, and often take it to the river or a lake to relax. Carrying that thin and light item is barely noticeable and takes up no space, but carrying a larger book is annoying at times.

Only negative is that I can't let people borrow them after I'm done, and often the kindle books cost more than the physical books for some reason. I have been buying more physical books lately because of that, and because sometimes you can get really good deals on used physical books.

One other note, which might've been noted before, but sometimes amazon gives digital credits if you choose to not do fast shipping. I can wait a few more days for most items in exchange for $1-2 here and there to go towards a new book.

---

I was a STAUNCH physical book only person for a long while. Then multiple moves lugging around a many thousand book library finally broke me. Along with the reasons you posted.

Got a Kindle about 8 years ago and it was life changing. Still maintained a large library until about 4 years ago but I pared it down slowly while I had the Kindle and finally after my last move really ramped up the shrinking of it. At this point, I only focus on special and limited editions. The rest is Kindle. The convenience is just undeniable for readers of our scale IMO.

Not to say it is perfect. All these years later and I am still shocked Amazon does not have a native library collection app. Though Calibre is a damn good stand in. And I still am not a fan of the actual UI of the device itself. Though it has improved significantly last couple of years admittedly.

---

Amazon owns GoodReads if you consider that a library collection app. My confusion with that is that I don't think the GoodReads UI has changed since it was launched however many years ago. And it has weird wonky stuff with how it works. It's as if Amazon bought it and then has no one dedicated to maintaining it.

Cornwell isn't an author I've read before, but I do like the historical fiction genre, and the Sharpe series was enjoyable. When you say to read them in chronological order, do you mean across all his books, or within a series. My knowledge of British history is pretty slim, so any of it would be "new" to me.

lurker76 said:

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Cornwell isn't an author I've read before, but I do like the historical fiction genre, and the Sharpe series was enjoyable. When you say to read them in chronological order, do you mean across all his books, or within a series. My knowledge of British history is pretty slim, so any of it would be "new" to me.

---

Across all of them. Doesn't really matter where you start with any one series so might as well read them based on when they occurred in history.

IOW, start with the series that occurred first in actual history. Then read the series that comes next in history.

Pac1698 said:

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My brother in law was just talking about that one as a short read/listen. I was trying to find an audio book for a 6 hour car trip with the family. We ended up starting the shining. Have you seen the movie Stand by Me? The Body is the book that the movie was based on. Hope you enjoy it!

---

Oh cool, yeah I love Stand By Me. Will get to it once I finish out the EMP series I'm reading.

The biggest thing for me was downloading a Kindle reader to my phone. It meant I always had something to read when waiting in line or in a waiting room, so it made my life better right there.

It is also incredibly handy if you keep certain texts around for research.

An unexpected bonus happened when I downloaded 'The Joy of Cooking'. Kindle allows you to search by word, so you can enter an ingredient, and find multiple recipes.

It's little uses like that which make having a Kindle worth it, and I used to be a big physical book person myself.

Do y'all prefer a certain type of reading on a Kindle?

I really like interacting with a physical book (taking notes, underlining, etc), especially when it's more of a learning type of book.

I could see enjoying the Kindle when reading more for entertainment.

ECC said:

---

Do y'all prefer a certain type of reading on a Kindle?

I really like interacting with a physical book (taking notes, underlining, etc), especially when it's more of a learning type of book.

I could see enjoying the Kindle when reading more for entertainment.

---

I only read certain types of books on the Kindle. We went from 50/50 physical vs Kindle almost back to 75/25 physical vs Kindle. I agree with everyone on here about Kindle's advantages.

I love mine but my use cases are only the following:

- Fun fiction: zombie apocalypse, Dungeon Crawler Carl, Dresden Files, long series like Cornwell's Saxon series, etc.
- Travel: way better than hauling around physical books.

That's pretty much it; now admittedly my Fun Fiction % of overall reading is feast or famine so I may go longer periods reading Kindle with a certain series and then not touch it for months.

I do not read any non-fiction on Kindle and I do not read any books that will have maps (big Fantasy stuff) on Kindle The latter actually may be better on Kindle since you can work around maps that get obscured by the spine of a physical book, but flipping back and forth on a Kindle is painful to me. Plus, my Kindle is on the older OS which basically makes it slower than AOL dial-up so it's just not conducive for moving around other than turning the page.

I do not use the notes feature in Kindle as I would never go back to them anyway so I don't waste my time.

We bought a kindle for everyone in our family and share the same library. We told our kids they didn't need to ask to buy their next book. (We could see what they bought of course.) That was over 20 years ago, and we now have 1,449 books in our library. (In fact, I recently went to buy Wool and found my son had bought it in 2017.)

There's only one downside to using a Kindle. If you sneeze while reading a physical book, the drops go away when you turn the page. With a Kindle, the drops are on every page.

YouBet said:

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ECC said:

---

Do y'all prefer a certain type of reading on a Kindle?

I really like interacting with a physical book (taking notes, underlining, etc), especially when it's more of a learning type of book.

I could see enjoying the Kindle when reading more for entertainment.

---

I only read certain types of books on the Kindle. We went from 50/50 physical vs Kindle almost back to 75/25 physical vs Kindle. I agree with everyone on here about Kindle's advantages.

I love mine but my use cases are only the following:

- Fun fiction: zombie apocalypse, Dungeon Crawler Carl, Dresden Files, long series like Cornwell's Saxon series, etc.
- Travel: way better than hauling around physical books.

That's pretty much it; now admittedly my Fun Fiction % of overall reading is feast or famine so I may go longer periods reading Kindle with a certain series and then not touch it for months.

I do not read any non-fiction on Kindle and I do not read any books that will have maps (big Fantasy stuff) on Kindle The latter actually may be better on Kindle since you can work around maps that get obscured by the spine of a physical book, but flipping back and forth on a Kindle is painful to me. Plus, my Kindle is on the older OS which basically makes it slower than AOL dial-up so it's just not conducive for moving around other than turning the page.

I do not use the notes feature in Kindle as I would never go back to them anyway so I don't waste my time.

---

These two posts hit on what I see as the biggest, if not only, drawback to reading an ebook. Using maps for reference, whether a work of fiction or a history book, is not convenient at all. With a printed book, you can always bookmark the maps and easily find them for checking and reference to the events going on. With a Kindle, it isn't that easy.

lurker76 said:

---

YouBet said:

---

ECC said:

---

Do y'all prefer a certain type of reading on a Kindle?

I really like interacting with a physical book (taking notes, underlining, etc), especially when it's more of a learning type of book.

I could see enjoying the Kindle when reading more for entertainment.

---

I only read certain types of books on the Kindle. We went from 50/50 physical vs Kindle almost back to 75/25 physical vs Kindle. I agree with everyone on here about Kindle's advantages.

I love mine but my use cases are only the following:

- Fun fiction: zombie apocalypse, Dungeon Crawler Carl, Dresden Files, long series like Cornwell's Saxon series, etc.
- Travel: way better than hauling around physical books.

That's pretty much it; now admittedly my Fun Fiction % of overall reading is feast or famine so I may go longer periods reading Kindle with a certain series and then not touch it for months.

I do not read any non-fiction on Kindle and I do not read any books that will have maps (big Fantasy stuff) on Kindle The latter actually may be better on Kindle since you can work around maps that get obscured by the spine of a physical book, but flipping back and forth on a Kindle is painful to me. Plus, my Kindle is on the older OS which basically makes it slower than AOL dial-up so it's just not conducive for moving around other than turning the page.

I do not use the notes feature in Kindle as I would never go back to them anyway so I don't waste my time.

---

These two posts hit on what I see as the biggest, if not only, drawback to reading an ebook. Using maps for reference, whether a work of fiction or a history book, is not convenient at all. With a printed book, you can always bookmark the maps and easily find them for checking and reference to the events going on. With a Kindle, it isn't that easy.

---

I absolutely agree. Maps are useless on the kindle IMO. They always seem to be way too small and often aren't clear, and you can't really zoom in to see much of anything.

Also one other thought that occurred to me from the last few posts, but if there are glossaries at the end that are intended to help as a reference through the book, you might not even realize that they're there until you literally hit the last page of the book. Thats what happened when reading the game of throne series. Would've helped a lot with all the damn names and families haha.

And as mentioned, going back and forth between places in books is a bit challenging, but bouncing from one chapter to the other isn't terribly difficult once you get the hang of process that is efficient for your use using the software as long as you know which chapter to go to (which actually was easy when chapter names were descriptive like with game of thrones. But skimming back to look for certain scenes of chapters is nearly impossible if you don't know which chapter it is. Thats a huge win for physical books for me, as sometimes you just want to jump back to remind yourself of something real quick, but thats almost impossible with the kindle unless you put in a bookmark beforehand.

Also good points. All of these issues are solvable with good software so at some point they likely get solved but right now it's just not efficient.

All the Colors of the Dark by Chris Whitaker was a good read.

Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson cleared up a bunch of questions for the Stormlight Archive series.

ECC said:

---

Do y'all prefer a certain type of reading on a Kindle?

I really like interacting with a physical book (taking notes, underlining, etc), especially when it's more of a learning type of book.

I could see enjoying the Kindle when reading more for entertainment.

---

You can highlight text in a kindle