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What books are you reading?
wraith808:
Is it available for purchase? Then the link should be removed.
panzer:
rjbull:
When I need a new book, my nook suggests books in the genre that I read.-wraith808 (August 15, 2016, 03:55 PM)
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Thanks... I'm still stuck in the print age, on the whole. I used to get suggestions for general books from various print sources, e.g. the book reviews pages of a decent newspaper, but as I don't take a paper now, that's gone. A pity, as I miss recommendations for travel books in particular. I scan such sources as come my way, of course.
For fantasy and science fiction, I tend to rely most on Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine's book reviews, and also on the stories themselves. I picked up on Lavie Tidhar (mentioned above) because he had an outtake from his 'Bookman' world published as a short story in Asimov's. I just looked at their web site, which features the current edition, August 2016. They naturally don't make a great deal of their fiction available for free, but there a few extracts, and what looks like the complete text of their reviews, main page > Current issue > On Books. Historically they use several reviewers who take it in turns. I'm not so keen on Paul Di Filippo, but it takes all sorts. Norman Spinrad is always on a mission.
Other F&SF sources have been various author sites and blogs; some authors list blogs they frequent. Sarah Ash used to, but doesn't now. Webmasters like giving sites a spiffy makeover, but it doesn't always mean more useful information for the user. And blogs and other useful sites keep disappearing. I've occasionally looked at Fantasy Book Critic, and there I've just spotted a new series by highly entertaining YA writer Philip Reeve, author of the "Traction Cities" series and of Here Lies Arthur. Like others, I'm somewhat Arthured-out, but this is a nice take on the legend, taking a pragmatic approach rather than a mystical one, rather like Rosemary Sutcliff did. His Arthur is a Dark Age protection racketeer; Merlin a con-man on an epic scale; Camelot a jerry-built mud hut; all related by a very down-to-earth Lady of the Lake.
As for whodunnits/thrillers, they tend to be well covered in regular paper sources; even my casual perusal turns up new names. On rare occasions I've trawled the Crime Time web site. Once I find someone whose work I like, the Internet makes it easy to track new works by that author.
panzer:
MilesAhead:
@derekbd I am about 2/3 of the way through the first volume of the 3 Body Trilogy. I am just at the part in the game where the 3 suns align and everything gets pulled apart etc.. :)
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