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How do!

So we’ve got one for telly, one for movies and one for music. But we don’t seem to have one for books.

And any kind of books. Digital books, paperbacks, hardbacks, science journals, comic books, Manga. Anything where you need to read with your eyes.

At the moment I’m not in a particularly novelly mood, so have been sticking to my 2000AD Ultimate Collection. Currently up to volume 152 out of 180. Which is good going for a part work originally billed as 80 volumes! Most recent volumes were Harlem Heroes (from 2000Ad’s earliest days, predating even Judge Dredd!) and Buttonman, from the early 90’s.

Both were highly enjoyable. And like its Judge Dredd counterpart, there’s only been one or two volumes I’ve just not got on with. So it’s a pretty decent endorsement of 2000AD’s overall quality and variety.

Not sure what’s next up. Halfway through a Ciaphas Cain book, and I know there’s a new one of that coming, and most importantly, a collection of the short stories from the omnibus editions coming. So probably that.

The thread you are looking for was just about mid way down the first page.
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/809570.page

 warhead01 wrote:
The thread you are looking for was just about mid way down the first page.
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/809570.page

Following your link, I tried to post something, but got a warning about resurrecting a 3+month old post. I guess it's time to restart.

I'm re-reading The Lord of the Rings for the umpteenth time, but this time around, I'm forcing myself to read all the songs and poems.

I’m reading a book on Scottish history and also following up on the rest of the Chris Claremont X-Men run as my son finishes them. Not much time to read these days, so just bits and pieces.


Re: LOTR, my first read through, I complained about to my wife about how all the songs and poems never had the payoff I was expecting (as a modern reader), and really made the book drag. My wife, who loves LOTR and learned elvish and dearvish scripts in high school, said, “You read the poems? Just skip them like I do.”

At the moment I'm following about a dozen or so novels on royal road, most of which are 2 to 3 chapters a week.
Also following a dozen or so web serials as they are translated, mostly chinese in origin, though 1 or 2 korean, the serials though I'm
checking up on every couple weeks so i can have a mini binge of reading.
Outside of that, I'd like to say i was diving into history novels like some of you seem to, but nah, just the random pulp fantasy/sci-fi novel when
the serials are on a lull.

 greenskin lynn wrote:

Outside of that, I'd like to say i was diving into history novels like some of you seem to, but nah, just the random pulp fantasy/sci-fi novel when
the serials are on a lull.

Nothing wrong with that. A podcast that I follow talks about that sort of genre fiction, and there are a whole lot of great authors to discover that way.

 JoshInJapan wrote:

 greenskin lynn wrote:

Outside of that, I'd like to say i was diving into history novels like some of you seem to, but nah, just the random pulp fantasy/sci-fi novel when
the serials are on a lull.

Nothing wrong with that. A podcast that I follow talks about that sort of genre fiction, and there are a whole lot of great authors to discover that way.

That's what i enjoy about royal road and some similar sites, you can catch some really solid authors that are just starting, in addition to getting to read some stuff months before its gets compiled and put on amazon and the like.

I am keeping up with my x men books in the krakoan era.

The really incredible compilation trades have unfortunately ended and now I am playing massive catch up on all the many/various series that make up the "Destiny of X" leading into Sins of Sinister.

 Lance845 wrote:
I am keeping up with my x men books in the krakoan era.

The really incredible compilation trades have unfortunately ended and now I am playing massive catch up on all the many/various series that make up the "Destiny of X" leading into Sins of Sinister.

Please let me know how that goes, if the stories are worth the effort. We got the Powers of X hardcover, but it’s more of a set up to the stuff you’re reading than a complete story.

Still on my Joe Abercrombie re-read. Just wrapping up Best Served Cold, and very much looking forward to the recently-announced movie adaptation...

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:

 Lance845 wrote:
I am keeping up with my x men books in the krakoan era.

The really incredible compilation trades have unfortunately ended and now I am playing massive catch up on all the many/various series that make up the "Destiny of X" leading into Sins of Sinister.

Please let me know how that goes, if the stories are worth the effort. We got the Powers of X hardcover, but it’s more of a set up to the stuff you’re reading than a complete story.

Everything Dawn of X through X of Swords is amazing. There are some less good series in there (one featuring Kwanon (the body Betsy Braddock was inhabiting as Psylock... it's complicated dumb comic stuff) to establish who she really is and her motivations in this new era isn't the best but has good foundational elements for the Hellions series which is just flat out one of the best.

After X of Swords is Reign of X. Which continues to be really great I think the New Mutants is the weaker series here, dealing with the Shadow King influencing a new new generation of mutants who are kind of being mentored by the old New Mutants. This wraps up with a big event called the Hellfire Gala which is awesome and has major shake ups again establish some incredible stuff.

After the Gala, Trails of X is a little more hit or miss but over all still pretty great. This wraps up with Inferno and X Lives/X Deaths of Wolverine. Which bears fruit on the Moira in her No Place stuff established by in House/Powers and moves everything into Destiny of X.


Now here X Men Red and Immortal X men is just flat out fething amazing. Some of the best content in the entire line since house/powers. But we also gets some pay off on a lot of seeds. Sabertooth gets a book which becomes Sabertooth and the Exiles (pay off for his exile into the Pit from back at the beginning), another Hellfire Gala and all kinds of stuff. And all along you start seeing what Sinister has been up to which leads into this Sins of Sinister which is also amazing and starts getting into the Chimeras including the awesome Rasputin IV from House/Powers.

It's been a long road but you get a lot of great stuff out of it. Post Sins of Sinister some of the books coming out include a Apocalypse book which looks great.

I just finished Indecent Exposure by Tom Sharpe. A vicious satire of the South African Police as they existed under Apartheid, the sequel to Riotous Assembly.

It features undercover agents attempting to infiltrate communist saboteurs, exploding ostriches, aversion therapy using electric shocks, and a book fanclub.

 Lance845 wrote:

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:

 Lance845 wrote:
I am keeping up with my x men books in the krakoan era.

The really incredible compilation trades have unfortunately ended and now I am playing massive catch up on all the many/various series that make up the "Destiny of X" leading into Sins of Sinister.

Please let me know how that goes, if the stories are worth the effort. We got the Powers of X hardcover, but it’s more of a set up to the stuff you’re reading than a complete story.

Everything Dawn of X through X of Swords is amazing. There are some less good series in there (one featuring Kwanon (the body Betsy Braddock was inhabiting as Psylock... it's complicated dumb comic stuff) to establish who she really is and her motivations in this new era isn't the best but has good foundational elements for the Hellions series which is just flat out one of the best.

After X of Swords is Reign of X. Which continues to be really great I think the New Mutants is the weaker series here, dealing with the Shadow King influencing a new new generation of mutants who are kind of being mentored by the old New Mutants. This wraps up with a big event called the Hellfire Gala which is awesome and has major shake ups again establish some incredible stuff.

After the Gala, Trails of X is a little more hit or miss but over all still pretty great. This wraps up with Inferno and X Lives/X Deaths of Wolverine. Which bears fruit on the Moira in her No Place stuff established by in House/Powers and moves everything into Destiny of X.


Now here X Men Red and Immortal X men is just flat out fething amazing. Some of the best content in the entire line since house/powers. But we also gets some pay off on a lot of seeds. Sabertooth gets a book which becomes Sabertooth and the Exiles (pay off for his exile into the Pit from back at the beginning), another Hellfire Gala and all kinds of stuff. And all along you start seeing what Sinister has been up to which leads into this Sins of Sinister which is also amazing and starts getting into the Chimeras including the awesome Rasputin IV from House/Powers.

It's been a long road but you get a lot of great stuff out of it. Post Sins of Sinister some of the books coming out include an Apocalypse book which looks great.

Awesome. Hellions and Sins of Sinister especially sound appealing. But these are not available as trades? Are they all online in the Marvel subscription service?

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:

 Lance845 wrote:

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:

 Lance845 wrote:
I am keeping up with my x men books in the krakoan era.

The really incredible compilation trades have unfortunately ended and now I am playing massive catch up on all the many/various series that make up the "Destiny of X" leading into Sins of Sinister.

Please let me know how that goes, if the stories are worth the effort. We got the Powers of X hardcover, but it’s more of a set up to the stuff you’re reading than a complete story.

Everything Dawn of X through X of Swords is amazing. There are some less good series in there (one featuring Kwanon (the body Betsy Braddock was inhabiting as Psylock... it's complicated dumb comic stuff) to establish who she really is and her motivations in this new era isn't the best but has good foundational elements for the Hellions series which is just flat out one of the best.

After X of Swords is Reign of X. Which continues to be really great I think the New Mutants is the weaker series here, dealing with the Shadow King influencing a new new generation of mutants who are kind of being mentored by the old New Mutants. This wraps up with a big event called the Hellfire Gala which is awesome and has major shake ups again establish some incredible stuff.

After the Gala, Trails of X is a little more hit or miss but over all still pretty great. This wraps up with Inferno and X Lives/X Deaths of Wolverine. Which bears fruit on the Moira in her No Place stuff established by in House/Powers and moves everything into Destiny of X.


Now here X Men Red and Immortal X men is just flat out fething amazing. Some of the best content in the entire line since house/powers. But we also gets some pay off on a lot of seeds. Sabertooth gets a book which becomes Sabertooth and the Exiles (pay off for his exile into the Pit from back at the beginning), another Hellfire Gala and all kinds of stuff. And all along you start seeing what Sinister has been up to which leads into this Sins of Sinister which is also amazing and starts getting into the Chimeras including the awesome Rasputin IV from House/Powers.

It's been a long road but you get a lot of great stuff out of it. Post Sins of Sinister some of the books coming out include an Apocalypse book which looks great.

Awesome. Hellions and Sins of Sinister especially sound appealing. But these are not available as trades? Are they all online in the Marvel subscription service?

Both. Available online but I would use Wikipedia to find the correct reading order for the various series.

If you wanted to get trades, Dawn of X, Reign of X, and Trials of X are collected together as kind of anthology trades that release in more or less correct reading order for all the various series including one offs (like a Giant Sized) or limited/mini series spliced in with the ongoings. So if you wanted to buy physical trades I would hit Ebay or some such and look for Dawn of X vol 1 etc etc...

After Trials you need to switch to trades of individual series because the anthology format got discontinued (to my massive disappointment).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dawn_of_X
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reign_of_X <= This includes Trials.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destiny_of_X

The comics currently being released are the aftermath of Sins of Sinister and is called Fall of X. There are some series called "Before the Fall" (still under the Fall of X Banner) and we are being told the next Hellfire Gala is going to trigger some major changes that put the mutants back on the backfoot a bit, though nobody is fully sure what that means. It seems like at the very least the Krakoan gate system is going to be taken out so the mutants will end up scattered a bit.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
I’m reading a book on Scottish history

Got any recommendations? Currently reading In Search of the Dark Ages to fill in my English gap between the end of the Romans and 1066. At some point I'd like to crack Scottish history too.

Just for general interest, I’d recommend anything on Neolithic Orkney.

Went there a couple of years ago and it blew my tiny tartan mind.

Given how relatively recently Orkney became part of of Scotland, it would depend how the next man defines Scottish History of course.

Thank you, Lance845. I’ll start reading up on the order and organizing a list of trades to get for my son.

 Henry wrote:

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
I’m reading a book on Scottish history

Got any recommendations? Currently reading In Search of the Dark Ages to fill in my English gap between the end of the Romans and 1066. At some point I'd like to crack Scottish history too.

Not really. I got a basic introductory history book that doesn’t even cover my clan’s basic history as a gift, so that’s what I’m reading. Once I have the basics, I’ll get one of the more reputable books about my clan…then probably just a bunch of the Osprey books with the pretty pictures.

I’m not sure where to start either for a more in-depth history of Scotland. I’ll welcome suggestions.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Just for general interest, I’d recommend anything on Neolithic Orkney.

Went there a couple of years ago and it blew my tiny tartan mind.

Given how relatively recently Orkney became part of of Scotland, it would depend how the next man defines Scottish History of course.

Neolithic Orkney [or Scotland] would really do it for me. Did you see any interesting titles when you visited?

Currently rereading Ian M Banks' Excession. One of my favourites.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Thank you, Lance845. I’ll start reading up on the order and organizing a list of trades to get for my son.

 Henry wrote:

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
I’m reading a book on Scottish history

Got any recommendations? Currently reading In Search of the Dark Ages to fill in my English gap between the end of the Romans and 1066. At some point I'd like to crack Scottish history too.

Not really. I got a basic introductory history book that doesn’t even cover my clan’s basic history as a gift, so that’s what I’m reading. Once I have the basics, I’ll get one of the more reputable books about my clan…then probably just a bunch of the Osprey books with the pretty pictures.

I’m not sure where to start either for a more in-depth history of Scotland. I’ll welcome suggestions.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote:
Just for general interest, I’d recommend anything on Neolithic Orkney.

Went there a couple of years ago and it blew my tiny tartan mind.

Given how relatively recently Orkney became part of of Scotland, it would depend how the next man defines Scottish History of course.

Neolithic Orkney [or Scotland] would really do it for me. Did you see any interesting titles when you visited?

I did indeed!

Ring of Brodgar, Skara Brae, pretty much all of it. Including an ongoing excavation of a recent discovery, Ness of Brodgar

https://www.orkney.com/things/history/listing/ness-of-brodgar

It’s a tricky place to get to, and not cheap as a result, but if you can go? GO!

Mad Doc, I’ve been doing a bit of looking for a book on Neolithic Orkney, and while I’m finding some promising leads, I thought you would enjoy this pitch for the first book on Skara Brae Amazon wanted me to see:

Reveals the striking similarities between Skara Brae and the traditions of pre-dynastic ancient Egypt as preserved by the Dogon people of Mali

• Explains how megalithic stone sites near Skara Brae conform to Dogon cosmology

• Examines the similarities between Skara Brae and Gobekli Tepe and how Skara Brae may have been a secondary center of learning for the ancient world

A few things;

Atomic Habits by James Clear as my 'improve yourself' book.

Sons and Lovers by Lawrence as my DEAR time book when the students are reading at school.

Ulysses by Joyce (10 pages between other books)

The America Trilogy by John Dos Passos for my American Literature A-level teaching.

And waiting on the End and the Death pt2.

Plus a couple of other books that are lying around the bed.

10 pages is about as far as I made it into Ulysses, too.

I recently reread A Study in Scarlet and The Sign of Four (I also skimmed the other two Sherlock Holmes novellas). I find them very interesting and recommend them to everyone if only for the historical aspect. A great element of reading older literature is that it makes historical references (Mormon exodus to Utah, Indian Rebellion of 1857, Pinkerton Agency, in the case of the Holmes novels) that you might not otherwise come across. Sadly, I think I've lost my copy of The Three Musketeers which by itself is an excellent novel, but is further elevated by piquing my interest in the era.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
10 pages is about as far as I made it into Ulysses, too.

I'm about 100 pages in, but 10 pages goes a long way...

This book atm. I have long standing interest on shikoku henro(and walked part of it in 2017-2019) so been reading a ton but mostly it's been from viewpoint of individuals who have walked once or twice(much like i did though these ones generally did all at once or at least completed. I'm still about 600-700km short). This one goes more toward the people for whose life is all about that for various reasons.

Been a while since got new book on subject. Got tired of searching for new books as oniy ones i found were guides but this is fairly new release.

I'm currently reading through the 4th volume of Otherside Picnic.

There are also several monthly manga and comics I keep up with.

MarkNorfolk wrote:
Currently rereading Ian M Banks' Excession. One of my favourites.

That is probably my favourite Banks book also. Peak culture awesomeness, and the Affront are hugely entertaining.

 BobtheInquisitor wrote:
Mad Doc, I’ve been doing a bit of looking for a book on Neolithic Orkney, and while I’m finding some promising leads, I thought you would enjoy this pitch for the first book on Skara Brae Amazon wanted me to see:

Reveals the striking similarities between Skara Brae and the traditions of pre-dynastic ancient Egypt as preserved by the Dogon people of Mali

• Explains how megalithic stone sites near Skara Brae conform to Dogon cosmology

• Examines the similarities between Skara Brae and Gobekli Tepe and how Skara Brae may have been a secondary center of learning for the ancient world

Somehow missed this!

If memory serves, the main accepted theory is whomever built Skara Brae originated in Portugal, and the monolith building worked its way back, North to South.

I’m really not knowledgeable enough to challenge even the drafters of theories though!

Faith And Vengeance Audio Collection: https://www.audible.com/pd/Faith-and-Vengeance-Audiobook/B09MDJXN3L

started on the Transcendent Green book series while i had some downtime and the internet was uncooperative
Litrpg with a less doom and gloom then normal system apocalypse event
Fun read, and unlike most in the genre, its set in Scotland with a lot of gaelic thrown in, compared to the usual fare
that tend to be either set in generally rural america