Books You’ve Read 2021 (1 Viewer)

[DaveF]

2021 Thread!

Books You’ve Read 2020
Books You've Read 2018
Books You've Read 2017
Books You've Read 2016
Books You've Read 2015
Books You've Read 2014
Books You've Read 2013
Books You've Read 2012
Books You've Read 2011
Books You've Read 2010
Books you've read in 2009
Books you've read in 2008
Books you've read in 2007

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

I'm surprised at the lack of posts. With all the stay at home isolation I'd have guessed we're all at home reading.

OK I'm slowly working my way through Raven & Johnson's Biology. It's 1259 pages plus appendices. It weighs over 7 pounds. Very dense. When I was in college back in the early 1970s, I didn't have time in my schedule to take biology and now rue that fact. I'm at the place in the text where the Okazaki DNA fragments are replicating in reverse order. Very interesting.

I'm guessing this is the most common college text on the subject, as reported by Amazon sales volume. New copies of older editions go for almost nothing: this 2008 8th edition was $10 shipped off an Amazon partner. The present 12th edition is more like $125. The PDF copy of the 2017 11th edition is available for free download at college web pages in developing countries. I'm surprised that McGraw Hill hasn't closed those sites down.

Reading this book will take months as I'm only able to get through and digest about 8 - 10 pages a day.

Any bio majors here? Is this really the most common college text?

 

[jcroy]

I don't know about recently, but Raven/Johnson was widely used at colleges over the 1990s, 2000s, and early-mid 2010s decades. There was usually a huge pile of widely adopted textbooks at college bookstores, for classes which have hundreds of students enrolling.

Every time I went to a nearby college campus, I usually dropped by the campus bookstore/shop. (I haven't been to any college campuses in recent years).

 

[jcroy]

For dna specific stuff, I usually also read what was in an organic chemistry or biochemistry textbook which goes more into the molecular details.

 

[jcroy]

Any bio majors here? Is this really the most common college text?

I didn't major in bio.

Though what I used as a "cheat sheet" for bio and chem type suff, were the "schaums outline" books.

 

[titch]

Former Premiere editor and present film critic for RogerEbert.com and New York Times, Glenn Kenny's excellent tome about the making of Goodfellas, "Made Men".

This was the most enjoyable read, purchased after it received a stellar full page review in the October 2020 Sight and Sound. As the reviewer wrote: "....it's one of those books you can't believe hasn't been written already. Let's just be grateful it finally has".

 

[bmasters9]

The fourth of Lee Goldberg's Diagnosis: Murder books, The Waking Nightmare (now onto the fifth one, The Past Tense)

 

[Dennis Nicholls]

I just finished Stewart Brand's 2009 book Whole Earth Discipline. You may recall the name if you are older: he was famous for his Whole Earth Catalogs back around 1970.

See on Amazon

Brand uses the book to make arguments against many of the standard Green talking points. He argues strongly for adopting nuclear power, GMOs, and other things. A very interesting read although I quibble with some of his stands.

I bought the book "recycled" (used). How green is that?

 

[jcroy]

The fourth of Lee Goldberg's Diagnosis: Murder books, The Waking Nightmare (now onto the fifth one, The Past Tense)

Ever read any of Lee Goldberg's tie-in books of Monk?

 

[Tommy R]

After sticking with one book at a time for my last few books of the end of 2020, I found myself between 3 different books at the moment. Ugh!

The first one I started is The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden. I technically started it in 2020, but wasn’t very far into it once we crossed into 2021. I really like it, but have been having a hard time finding time to read since the new year started. This is usually a reason why I end up starting new books before finishing another, because when I can’t finish a book in a reasonable time I start getting impatient for variety and always have a number of books on deck tempting me. I only have 50 or so pages left, so I’m hoping I can get through the rest in the next day or two.

So a week ago I started that new Star Wars book Light of the Jedi. I’m less than 50 pages in, and I’m seriously considering DNF’ing it. It’s quite a bore and very uninteresting so far. It’s focusing on different characters in each chapter thus far and seems to have no focus at all. I just tried reading it right before coming on here to post, and I couldn’t even finish a chapter I’m so in-taken by it. This is my first foray (or attempted foray) into Star Wars novels, and I’m just not feeling it. Maybe if anyone here has actually read it already can tell me if it gets any better. Otherwise I’m gonna stop.

The third book I’ve started is Elantris by Brandon Sanderson. I started it Friday night and have made it to 100 pages this morning. I’m really liking it and feel like it won’t take me too long to finish. I’ve been meaning to read his stuff for a while and thought this would be a good place to start. Judging by the first 100 pages of Elantris, I’m already looking forward to having him in my reading cycle for a nice long while.

 

[TravisR]

So a week ago I started that new Star Wars book Light of the Jedi. I’m less than 50 pages in, and I’m seriously considering DNF’ing it. It’s quite a bore and very uninteresting so far. It’s focusing on different characters in each chapter thus far and seems to have no focus at all. I just tried reading it right before coming on here to post, and I couldn’t even finish a chapter I’m so in-taken by it. This is my first foray (or attempted foray) into Star Wars novels, and I’m just not feeling it. Maybe if anyone here has actually read it already can tell me if it gets any better. Otherwise I’m gonna stop.

I haven't read it yet but you're the first person that I've seen that hasn't raved about it. Personally, I tend to enjoy the Star Wars books that focus on the movie characters since I 'know' them more.

 

[Tommy R]

I haven't read it yet but you're the first person that I've seen that hasn't raved about it. Personally, I tend to enjoy the Star Wars books that focus on the movie characters since I 'know' them more.

Maybe I just need to keep reading. Sometimes there’s a threshold to pass before things get interesting; I’ve read books that take 100 pages or more before I ended up really liking them. I’ve always liked the idea of reading SW novels, so maybe I’ll stick it out a little longer.

 

[bujaki]

My daughter, 40+ years old, an expert on SW lore, thought it was excellent. Well written, etc.

 

[HawksFord]

I recently re-read Natasha Pulley's 2015 historical fantasy The Watchmaker of Filagree Street and I've started the new sequel The Lost Future of Pepperharrow. There's a bit of steampunk, a touch of the supernatural, and lots of clockwork devices set in the late 19th century.

For non-fiction, I just finished a biography of James Strang, The King of Confidence by Miles Harvey. Strang was a fringe character in the early history of Mormonism and one of those fascinating characters from 19th century American history who was constantly reinventing himself.

 

[bmasters9]

Diagnosis: Murder #6, The Dead Letter

 

[DaveF]

Moderator Hat: I took the liberty of changing a couple images above to "thumbnail". The full size for a lot of book covers take up a lot of screenspace. If you could do thumbnails, that might help folks out using smaller screens (smartphones, small laptops, etc.). (Using above for easy illustration, not to point fingers at anyone.)

 

[bmasters9]

Moderator Hat: I took the liberty of changing a couple images above to "thumbnail". The full size for a lot of book covers take up a lot of screenspace. If you could do thumbnails, that might help folks out using smaller screens (smartphones, small laptops, etc.). (Using above for easy illustration, not to point fingers at anyone.)
View attachment 86559

Never considered that-- I didn't know that my large-sizers were taking up so much space; I had them large because some who use the smartphones might have trouble seeing the images, and I was trying to make it easier.

That said, that is not a bad idea though.

 

[DaveF]

It’s a wash either way on an iPhone. But it helps a lot on my iPad.

 

[Jason Goodmanson]

After sticking with one book at a time for my last few books of the end of 2020, I found myself between 3 different books at the moment. Ugh!

The first one I started is The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden. I technically started it in 2020, but wasn’t very far into it once we crossed into 2021. I really like it, but have been having a hard time finding time to read since the new year started. This is usually a reason why I end up starting new books before finishing another, because when I can’t finish a book in a reasonable time I start getting impatient for variety and always have a number of books on deck tempting me. I only have 50 or so pages left, so I’m hoping I can get through the rest in the next day or two.

I originally picked this one up because the idea of incorporating the Russian mythology was interesting. Really enjoyed the full trilogy (I know some would say it's YA, but is that really a bad thing? This series along with Laini Taylor's Strange the Dreamer duology are excellent reads.)

Even got to meet Katherine Arden at ECCC in 2019 and had her sign all my books. She then knocked her water glass over and very nearly ruined all of my books. Left me a nice inscription about spilling water to make the signatures extra special.

 

[Tommy R]

I finished the first and already bought the second. I’m sadly not well versed in Russian mythology, but it’s something that I definitely have an interest in. Can’t wait to get the second one started. It crossed my mind that it sort of had a YA feel to it, but like you said, not a bad thing.