What Books Are You Reading ? (2025)

[Moonlover]

1 hour ago, connda said:

If you want some historical non-fiction which actually reads like an adventure fiction book try this one:

The Great Game by Peter Hopkirk
Summary from Goodreads:  "For nearly a century the two most powerful nations on earth - Victorian Britain and Tsarist Russia - fought a secret war in the lonely passes and deserts of Central Asia. Those engaged in this shadowy struggle called it 'The Great Game', a phrase immortalized in Kipling's Kim.
When play first began the two rival empires lay nearly 2,000 miles apart. By the end, some Russian outposts were within 20 miles of India.

This book tells the story of the Great Game through the exploits of the young officers, both British and Russian, who risked their lives playing it. Disguised as holy men or native horsetraders, they mapped secret passes, gathered intelligence, and sought the allegiance of powerful khans. Some never returned."

You'll come away with a better understanding of today's current Geopolitical turmoil, but also, it was just a marvel what the early explorers of Eurasia endured during their journeys into unexplored (by Westerners) regions of some of the most rugged country on the planet.  Like I said, it reads like a fictional adventure yarn, but it's historical accurate.
It remains one of the top 5 books I've read in the last 15 years.

Good tip. Thank you.

 

I've just checked on Amazon and the Kindle version is just 99 pence. That'll be my next read.

 

Right now I'm reading Sir Max Hastings' account of the Vietnam war. As a Brit I knew very little about it, so it's a real eye opener for me.

[Equatorial]

On 1/7/2025 at 9:16 AM, RuamRudy said:

Killing Commendatore by Haruki Murakami - I always find I need to push myself to get through his books and this one is no different, but for all its lack of pazazz or page-turning intrigue, there is a constant warmth and humanity in his writing that makes the effort worthwhile. 

 

Agreed. I just reread his novel Kafka on the Shore which remains my favorite of his books. 

[Moonlover]

2 hours ago, connda said:

If you want some historical non-fiction which actually reads like an adventure fiction book try this one:

The Great Game by Peter Hopkirk
Summary from Goodreads:  "For nearly a century the two most powerful nations on earth - Victorian Britain and Tsarist Russia - fought a secret war in the lonely passes and deserts of Central Asia. Those engaged in this shadowy struggle called it 'The Great Game', a phrase immortalized in Kipling's Kim.
When play first began the two rival empires lay nearly 2,000 miles apart. By the end, some Russian outposts were within 20 miles of India.

This book tells the story of the Great Game through the exploits of the young officers, both British and Russian, who risked their lives playing it. Disguised as holy men or native horsetraders, they mapped secret passes, gathered intelligence, and sought the allegiance of powerful khans. Some never returned."

You'll come away with a better understanding of today's current Geopolitical turmoil, but also, it was just a marvel what the early explorers of Eurasia endured during their journeys into unexplored (by Westerners) regions of some of the most rugged country on the planet.  Like I said, it reads like a fictional adventure yarn, but it's historical accurate.
It remains one of the top 5 books I've read in the last 15 years.

Another great book set in this region is 'Return of a King' by William Dalrymple. It's a true account of the 1st Anglo-Afghan War, when the British East India Company attempted to instal it's own puppet ruler in Kabul.

 

All went well at first, but in the end it resulted in a humiliating defeat , which lead to the retreat from Kabul and the subsequent slaughter in the Hindu Kush. I found it so fascinating that I've have read it twice.

[Equatorial]

Non-fiction: Harry Frankfurt - On Bull<deleted> - A contemporary philosopher analyzes the difference between bull<deleted> and lie. Bull<deleted> is definitely more insidious. 

 

Fiction: Joseph Heller - God Knows - a novel about a bitter old men reflecting on his life. 

[jaywalker2]

2 hours ago, connda said:

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir - Science fiction which is science based and with humor.  Movie in the works.
"Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish.
Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it.
All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.
His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species.
And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone.
Or does he?
 

I've read The Martian and Project Hail Mary and liked both of them.  Weir has a talent for making difficult scientific concepts understandable.

 

[connda]

4 hours ago, Moonlover said:

Another great book set in this region is 'Return of a King' by William Dalrymple. It's a true account of the 1st Anglo-Afghan War, when the British East India Company attempted to instal it's own puppet ruler in Kabul.

 

All went well at first, but in the end it resulted in a humiliating defeat , which lead to the retreat from Kabul and the subsequent slaughter in the Hindu Kush. I found it so fascinating that I've have read it twice.

Something like 1 person managed to escape without being killed.  Hopkirk covers that in his book if I remember right.

[connda]

Currently reading the Russian translation of a pretty strange and interesting Sci-Fi novel called Roadside Picnic by Boris & Arkady Strugatsky.  It's pretty good in the quirky way that I personally like my Sci-Fi.  It's 157 pages and can be picked up for free on archive.org.  I'm enjoying it! 

From Goodreads:
"Red Schuhart is a stalker, one of those young rebels who are compelled, in spite of extreme danger, to venture illegally into the Zone to collect the mysterious artifacts that the alien visitors left scattered around. His life is dominated by the place and the thriving black market in the alien products. But when he and his friend Kirill go into the Zone together to pick up a “full empty,” something goes wrong. And the news he gets from his girlfriend upon his return makes it inevitable that he’ll keep going back to the Zone, again and again, until he finds the answer to all his problems.
First published in 1972, Roadside Picnic is still widely regarded as one of the greatest science fiction novels, despite the fact that it has been out of print in the United States for almost thirty years."

https://ia600203.us.archive.org/21/items/TheThree-BodyProblem2024/Arkady Strugatsky - Roadside Picnic.pdf