hemingway’s debut the sun also rises, i went in blind and didn’t expect it to be about bull fighting. i enjoyed the vibe of the 1920s travel through spain and france, the aimless plot and the character interactions.
i learned that bullfighting is terrible and cringed at the casual anti-semitism all over the book
The Broken Earth Trilogy by NK Jemisin. Fantastic and heartbreaking. It’s kind of a crossover in science fiction and fantasy, set in a world that experiences apocalyptic levels of climate and geological change every few hundred years. Jemisin does excellent world building and a very admirable job of writing parts of the narrative in second person in a way that seems seamless/not gimmicky. Highly recommended.
I loved those books! In the beginning second person felt extremely weird, but the “resolution” of why it is written that way made so much sense that it made the books even more enjoyable IMO.
I just finished Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. Great book, that not only coined terms like “avatar” and “metaverse” (for better or worse), but is also really well written. It somehow manages to find a tone that is consistent for the dystopian worldbuilding, the silly and self-aware things that happen in the world, and the philosophical aspect dealing with culture, religion and free will. Highly recommend!
Everyone goes on about how important this book is, but I got barely 1/3 if the way through and bounced off it hard.
Horses for courses I guess.
I think it laid a lot of groundwork for books that came later. But as you said, not every book is for everybody.
And I’m currently reading his newest novel, Termination Shock. Quite different, but still has that Stephenson sense of world building that I love.
This was the first book of him I read, but I will definitely check out his other works if they’re all like this!
Currently reading war and peace by Tolstoi
1984 (nineteen-eightyfour) from George Orwell. Currently reading nothing but news.
