I still need to read the latest two, but been catching up and binging Murderbot and just obsessively 😅 love seeing them all together in this series view!
Some of my favorite cover art 🖼️
Every day I get a new “daily pick” recommendation based on my reading history/library, and they all are incredible classics I’ve neglected, I can’t pick 🫠 I see these recommended on Reddit a bunch too, so where do I start; have one you’d recommend highly? Thanks!!
Pictured is three recs from BookSorted site-
Blood Meridian by McCarthy
The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Tolstoy
East of Eden by Steinbeck
Every day I get a new book recommendation, normally based on my reading preferences/past favorites… but today, today I got a pick “beloved by the community”. Today I got Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson.
Now, I’ve never read any Sanderson, and honestly it’s outside what I’d normally call my favorites (some fantasy, but mostly hard scifi and more literary magical realism like Zafon). but honestly have always been meaning to check him out, because I gotta see what the fuss is about before passing any judgement one way or the other. And thus I’m taking this as a sign to get off my arse and make it happen!
I hope Mistborn is a good place to start?? What do you guys think? 🫡 Cheers!
I’ve been enjoying looking forward to a daily book recommendation each morning based on my reading history/preferences, while I drink my cup of coffee of course. Sorta become my new morning ritual 😅 and today is a good day, as I’ve been thinking about reading Robin Hobb for a while.. and now eager to checkout Assassin’s Apprentice. Any fans? Readers? Think my love of coming of age stories like Name of the Wind, political intrigue like GRRM, and character sense stories is a good match? Cheers!
I started reading thanks to Ray Bradbury’s Illustrated Man when I was just a kid. I still remember the first time I experienced stories like The Vauldt and Kaleidoscope. So much heart, and beauty, and terror all in one.
I haven’t enjoyed less scifi’y stories like Dandelion Wine and to a lesser extent Something Wicked.
Where would you recommend I go next? Pictured are the 5 books of his I read ranked/in order based on some fun head to head matchups of my library/reading history. Thanks!
… and why is it also A Court of Thorns and Roses 🌹 😅 💕
(Pictured are my favorite series so far, with A Court of Thorns and Roses at the top of a rankings page/site. Second image shows the books in the series with my little scores next to them.)
Hey all, I'm a huge fan/nerd and so put together a little webpage that shows which Discworld books are most read, highest rated (1500 is an 'average' book... uses Elo ratings like Chess) and most loved (show up in someone's top 10 books of all time) using data from BookSorted. Obviously not a ton of readers yet, but still sorta fun - and will get more accurate as more people matchup books in their library and such.
Anyways, hope you enjoy! Just a fun side project for the morning. Let me know how your favorite does, and if not working/anything you want me to tweak, cheers!
Recently I got a recommendation to read Cloud Atlas based on my library, and even though I bounced on it many years back, the pitch was too good to pass up... and I loved it this time around! Not sure if my review/reactions are gonna be all that exciting, but what a beautiful novel...
The more I let it sit with me the more it "worms" its way into my mind (apologies to Adam Ewing) over time. The "connections" between the stories are not overtly clear, but the subtly I think is what makes it so thought provoking. If you get really hooked you'll find yourself doing research and exploring/learning more even after you've read.
I won't spoil the stories themselves, but give my prefernce on each for those reading/have read and curious to discuss more... Ordered by favorite:
Okay, alas, this post is longer than the novel! Hope more people read it and absorb, it's wonderful.
Hey all, I read The Book of the New Sun a long time ago and really enjoyed it, although sure I missed a lot/was a little confused. But the prose was beautiful. Anyways, since I’ve been running these little head to head matchups of books in my library to get personalized recommendations.. and this popped up. Hadn’t thought about exploring other Wolfe, but prob should have. Sounds really interesting - and cites my love of Cloud Atlas, Speaker for the Dead, Canticle for Leibowitz and some others.
What do you think, is this a good next Wolfe destination? Makes sense with my preferences? Don’t know much else about it. Cheers!
As you can see from my score (1809) Hyperion is top of my personal list, but awesome to see it’s loved across the community too- site lets you compare books you’ve read head to head to get a ranking (Elo scores like chess), get recs based on it. Yes nerdy, but I love this kind ot stuff. Need to track down the rest of the series now and see how they compare!
Hey all, I don’t read a lot of historical fiction (mostly scifi fantasy as you can see), but The Cemetery of forgotten books by Zafon - starts with Shadow of the Wind - is my favorite all time series, so figured I’d try and poke around and see what else in that vain I can venture into and discover. Also, there doesn’t seem to be a great place to discuss his novels, so hoping this is it :) cheers!
Just some light fun on a Friday afternoon… share your your top fantasy/scifi series’s of all time!
Mine is based on some 6,000+ head to head book comparisons that lead to those average scores per series, so it’s taking each book into account individually (every book in the series needs to be high quality to score high). I’d probably reorder a few manually (I still gotta read book 3 of New Crobuzon for example) but still fun to see.
My number 1 is more magical realism than fantasy, but I’ll die on the sword or The Cemetery of Forgotten Books being the best piece of literature of all time 📚
Anyways, what ya got!? My top 20 are pictured but you don’t need to be sooo comprehensive (verbose?) 🫠
Help me make the impossible choice! 😬 I'm running head-to-head matchups of every book I've read to get some fun stats and recs, and I knew this one was coming; 139 matchups deep and here we are.
{Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey} has been my first love for years, no notes. A frequent reread. {The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow} blew me awaythis year and I haven't stopped thinking about it since I closed it. Both explore the legend of women that get shaped by the politics around them, but 25 years apart and diff in how that story gets told. Both incredible. ⚔️👑 vs 🔁⏳
Anyone else read both? Who would you pick??
Also, bonus! What book matchup would wreck you 😅
I posted two months ago a recommendation I got to read Le Guin's The Word for World is Forest; I finally got it from the library, and greatly enjoyed! At the time one comment mentioned comparison to Avatar.
However, now having read, I'm sorta at a loss for words given how heavily Avatar seems to have "borrowed" from Le Guin's story. Earth's colonists exploiting a fertile planet isn't uncharted territory of course, but the behavior of the colonists... and especially the main character/bad guy Davidson... felt like a carbon copy of Avatar's main baddie the Colonel. And even the natives "dreaming" concept was pretty close to the spiritual exploration of the Na'vi.
Yet James Cameron never gives credit to Le Guin for anything, does anyone know more about this?
On a lesser note, there's the Ewok's in Star Wars that live on Endor. And Le Guin's natives (described very similiarly to Ewok's) have a city called Endtor on their planet. That feels like a more forgivable... perhaps even "nod" to Le Guin; at least compared to copy and pasting an entire plot.
But anyways, just sorta blown away. Had me checking dates of when each came out (Le Guin's work proceeded both of course), trying to learn more. Would love any further insight, especially if ever acknowledged by Le Guin/estate etc.
Whats your favorite? If you’ve read a handful do you how would you order? I’ve been doing a bunch of head to head comparisons of books I’ve read to get some fun rankings/stats and it’s landed me at this ultimate Vonnegut sorting. I think I might quibble over Breakfast being ahead of Sirens, but otherwise that’s my list.
Whats yours? And excited to see which next book I should pick up based on your favorites! Cheers!
Help me pick out of these 3 😬 I’ve been comparing books I’ve read head to head to get a personalized daily recommendation, and these are the last three that have been picked for me. Curious what you think? Anyone you really loved? Thanks!
I first picked up East of Eden over ten years ago but couldn't get through it. It felt simultaneously too depressing and, honestly, traumatizing at the time. I was also probably too young to appreciate Steinbeck's weight, and I ended up dropping it.
But I see this book praised as a masterpiece all over Reddit, so it’s been on my TBR list for ages. I’m a total stats nerd, and I've been running head-to-head matchups of all my past reads to generate daily personalized recommendations. Today, East of Eden finally popped up as the winner. The universe has spoken, it's time to give it another go.
Before I start, would lvoe your takes... For those who re-read it later in life, does the bleakness morph into something more redeeming, or does it just get heavier when you have more life experience? Also, how is the audiobook? I’m considering listening to it this time around as I mostly only have time on my commutes.
Either way, excited to give it a go and join the club, thanks for any advice!
Hey all, newish to the subgenre (at least as it’s become more an official thing)… is there a fantasy romance award or just general book award that you trust or look to? Hugo’s? World fantasy?
And anything in particular published in 2026 so far that you think should be “up for” one?
Cheers!
I posted a few weeks ago a recommendation I got to read Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch vs Man in the High Castle; I finally got around to Three Stigmata thanks to your encouraging, and glad I did!
Sure my review/reactions are not gonna be all that exciting (or unique), but figured I owe it to the group to say thanks and let you know how it went...
Probably my second favorite PKD now, behind Ubik. I read Ubik first a few years ago, loved the acid trip wildness of it; and Three Stigmata definitely had that same vibe. Given Ubik was my first experience with any book like that, I think it just holds a special place in my mind; not sure which I'd prefer if I read them in different orders.
Three Stigmata definitely hits deep on the pain and confusion that must come with drug use; which I personally don't know much about, but can feel deeply in PKD's writing. Reminds me of A Scanner Darkly, which also really hit deep. Scanner was more depressing I think... felt more real/human. But, Stigmata more fun. Either way I left feeling like there's a whole world of abuse, depression, etc. that's extremely hard to climb out of.
Anyways, excited to get around to The Man in the High Castle at some point soon too. Sounds like that one will be a lot different, but glad I'm revisiting some of the PKD novels I've missed over the years.
Cheers!
I’ve been meaning to read Blood Meridian for years; tried twice before but for whatever reason couldn’t get past 5% or so (so not a real effort). Felt like I’d need a lot more focus to understand it than I had at the time.
This week I got it as my daily recommendation based on my library/prefs with some pretty convincing pitch points, so I think it’s time to really commit! The rec highlights my love of The Road, No Country, A Canticle for Leibowitz, and some more bits.
Curious though if Blood Meridian is known to be more challenging than Cormac’s other works? I assume the rec is right that if I enjoyed those other works of his I probably will this one too? Also, Has anyone done the audiobook - ill advised perhaps?
Anyways, appreciate any takes/advice going in, cheers!