Current Reading

I have always found it interesting to see what other people read and hear their thoughts on books, especially if I have read them myself, or as a source of book tips. Even if I don't really need more books to read. The to be read pile isn't exactly shrinking.

I have a bad habit of reading multiple books at once, so this will be a mix of reviews, early impressions and random musings about books in my to be read pile.

I started reading The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski after watching a couple of episodes of The Witcher on Netflix. The show didn't immediately capture my interest, even though a lot of people were praising it. Maybe it was partially due to not really being what I had expected, having assumed it would be more in line with the computer games inspired by the books, rather than the books themselves. I had neither played the games nor read the books, but having watched a couple of episodes and heard people saying the TV series was based on the books, I was intrigues enough to pick up The Last Wish, which I was told was a good starting place. I haven't finished the book yet, but so far so good, and it feels like the TV series has captured the feel of the books quite well. I quite like the episodic nature, while telling a larger story at the same time. It reminds me a bit of Buffy the Vampire Slayer back in the days. I heard the TV series has been renewed for another season, so I am looking forward to see where the story is going both on paper and screen.

I have always liked time travel stories, even though the interest mostly have been limited to movies and TV series. I particularly enjoyed the recent TV show Travelers, which had some pretty good ideas, and managed to wrap it up in a good way, which is far from a given when it comes to time travel. I have not really explored this interest in the written form though, but ended up reading Tim Power's The Anubis Gate a few years ago, which I really liked, and also convinced me that time travel stories can be done well in book form as well. A few weeks ago I ended up looking for time travel stories, and came across Ben Elton's Time and Time Again. I am familiar with Ben Elton since before, even though I haven't actually read anything by him, so it caught my interest. The book has an interesting idea, but I am not sure it is what I expected, and it does feel somewhat slow, as I am already a third through the book, and it barely feels like the story has started. I got ambushed by other books just as things started to happen so I expect it will be a quick read, when I get back to it.

On the non-fiction side I have been reading The Age of Em: Work, Love and Life When Robots Rule the Earth by Robin Hanson. I was vaguely aware of the author since before, and I remember thinking "Oh, I wan't to read that", when the book came out in 2016. I didn't get around to it until now though, which was mainly due to reading a review of the book on Slate Star Codex, a blog I can't recommend highly enough.

The Age of EM is attempting to predict what life will be like several generations into the future, when humanity first manages to emulate minds, i.e EMs, and how such an event would shape the future. This is of course based on a number of assumptions, which may or may not turn out to be true. Considering how difficult it is to predict the future, Hanson has put an enormous amount of work and effort into exploring the topic. It is without doubt interesting and thought provoking, and it raised questions that will stay with me for a long long time.

I will be back with an update on my current reading in  a week or two, depending on how much actual reading I get done.