I'm rereading the second Amber series (about Merlin).   Mixed in is a book on Scandinavian and Celtic correspondences in myth.  I'm reading it a few pages at a time, because:  A. It's an academic work.  B. It's not very good--poorly written and organized with most of the thoughts original to the author very tepid.  It's a testament to my interest in the source material that I've stuck with it.  

The gaming ideas for me when reading Amber are amusing.  I have no desire whatsoever to run an Amber game, not with the Amber system or any other system.  Like a lot of Vance's work, I don't think much of the Zelazny stuff translates directly into a game setting very well.  Every time I read them, though, I get inspired to pull all kinds of bits into my own settings, twisted to fit an RPG instead of a novel.  I rather like Zelazny's version of Merlin "hanging" spells as an alternative explanation for D&D "Vancian" magic, for example.  A direct translation would be cumbersome, but the rationale would be easy enough to do in a game.

Mostly I've been reading for a professional certification exam that I have coming up in December (dang COVID - was going to be last month) but I've also been reading Friedman's "Capitalism and Freedom" and I've been going through "How to Write Adventure Modules That Don't Suck" again.

I am a Dresden fan though (I started just before Changes came out - so I was first left at that cliffhanger!) so I'll have to pick up the next novel. Maybe I'll go through the last few via audiobook while running as a refresher. (The reader is pretty good.)

I'm juggling several books at the moment: Post-Captain, the second in the Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian; The Bloody Crown of Conan, second in an anthology placing the Robert E. Howard's Conan fiction in the order he wrote it; The Well at the World's End by William Morris, and The Caverns of Thracia by Jacquay for my weekly B/X game.

1. Post-Captain helps me think in terms of moving from one interesting scene to another. If I ever run Burning Wheel again, I think I may benefit from the author's ability to elide the boring bits.

2. The Bloody Crown of Conan contains "The People of the Black Circle", "The Hour of the Dragon", and "A Witch Shall be Born". Conan is, of course, totally cool and kick-ass, and should be required reading for anyone desirous of running some good Sword and Sorcery.

3. The Well at the World's End is great for getting into the worldview, and vocabulary, of a medieval English setting. Morris wrote it in the 19th century, but imitated older styles of writing. It takes some getting used to the flow of it.

4. Thracia is pretty fun so far. I only wish my players would get deeper in, but our weekly session isn't long enough to progress very far, and they struggle with indecision. Two PCs killed, four retainers downed, and we are on the second level of the dungeon. Being Thracia, the levels are so riddled with secret passages and teleportation and pits and what-not that this could change in a moment.

Whoa, y'all, thanks for reminding me of the Dresden Files! The new book is out now??? Wow. I'll have to read Skin Game first since it's been so long.

But recently, I read through the Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson. It's like this huge payoff series for fans of his Cosmere stuff. It's also got some amazing character work. There are 3 focal characters, and while 1 is divisive(I quite like it), the other 2 are just amazing. Chef's kiss. In the 3rd and most recent one, something happened that had a massive emotional impact on me. Not ashamed to admit I cried a little.

I'm now starting the First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie. It's apparently super popular, selling like hotcakes, and . . . it's off to a slow start. I have to admit a couple of the characters are starting to grow on me, but some days I have trouble starting with it. Real magic was just introduced, so I'm hoping the story picks up from there.

ETA: *cough couch ahem* ALSO IN GAMING, I recently acquired both City of Mist core books as well as Blades in the Dark. Both are heavily influenced by Powered by the Apocalypse, and City of Mist also borrows a lot from Fate. So I understand they aren't most people here's cuppa. But I think they're fascinating, and I want to try them out sometime. I just really love trying out new systems and doing the same thing different ways. (Yes, I'm also that bitch that has to try this month's new flavor of Doritos! Guilty!)

I've currently got bookmarks in...

• Seeing Things How They Are (Searle)
  
• The New Mechanical Philosophy (Grennan)
  
• Mind & Cosmos (Nagel)
  
• Embodiments of Mind (McCulloch)
  
• Representation in Cognitive Science (Shea)
  
• Brain Computation as Hierarchical Abstraction (Ballard)
  
• Introduction to Information Theory: Symbols, Signal and Noise (Pierce)

No gaming stuff. I've barely read through the D&D 5e PH, despite running that game (I might've opened up the DMG at some point, but honestly can't recall). I haven't bothered with fiction for a long time, at this point.

The hero with a thousand faces - Joseph Campbell

Currently reading "Renegades" superhero fiction by Marissa Meyer. Doing it for research purposes, and it's a surprisingly fun read.

Also reading:

Steelheart - Brandon Sanderson (also for research)
Cape - Kate Hannigan (also for research)

Just finished Snowcrash.

Literally just started Storm Front tonight.  I like trade paperbacks so I have plenty of time for a full series re-read.

Best gaming-inspired/related thing I've read recently has been The Grey Bastards by Jonathan French.  

Recently re-read and caught up on the books I missed in the Garrent, PI series by Glenn Cook.

I read from the Enchiridion (Epictitus), and Meditations (Marcus Aurelius) nearly every day.

Quote from: GeekEclectic;1140076

I'm now starting the First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie. It's apparently super popular, selling like hotcakes, and . . . it's off to a slow start. I have to admit a couple of the characters are starting to grow on me, but some days I have trouble starting with it. Real magic was just introduced, so I'm hoping the story picks up from there.

STICK WITH THEM.  TRACK THEM ALL DOWN.  If you like gritty at all, totally a worthwhile ride.

Quote from: FelixGamingX1;1140107The hero with a thousand faces - Joseph Campbell

Oooh. Been meaning to read that.

Quote from: Ratman_tf;1140116Oooh. Been meaning to read that.

Every person really interested in myth probably should, but go in skeptical and prepared to wonder what all the fuss was about. It's that rare example of a book you should read that is highly overrated.

Quote from: GeekEclectic;1140076I'm now starting the First Law trilogy by Joe Abercrombie. It's apparently super popular, selling like hotcakes, and . . . it's off to a slow start. I have to admit a couple of the characters are starting to grow on me, but some days I have trouble starting with it. Real magic was just introduced, so I'm hoping the story picks up from there.

Fair warning: I found Abercrombie a much better writer than storyteller, which led to... at least in my experience... that the deeper into the trilogy I got the more frustrated with the books I got.  The characters do not have arcs, in fact you might even say they tend towards negative arcs, regressing as characters, and the second book in trilogy could be described as a literal waste of time... I won't explain that so as to not SPOIL anything.

Ignition: An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants by John D. Clark.

I first ran across references to this book in Derek Lowe's blog, specifically his 'things I won't work with' section. Up until recently it's been out of print, but Rutgers University just printed up a new batch (presumably at the behest of Elon Musk).

It's a bit heavy in terms of subject matter -- I strongly recommend you have at least a basic grounding in physics and chemistry before you read it. But if you have that, it's an interesting tale of how rocketry and propellants evolved through the 50's to the 70's.

Money quote, when discussing chlorine trifluoride, a rather notorious early propellant:

Quote"It is, of course, extremely toxic, but that's the least of the problem. It is hypergolic with every known fuel, and so rapidly hypergolic that no ignition delay has ever been measured. It is also hypergolic with such things as cloth, wood, and test engineers, not to mention asbestos, sand, and water-with which it reacts explosively. It can be kept in some of the ordinary structural metals-steel, copper, aluminum, etc.-because of the formation of a thin film of insoluble metal fluoride which protects the bulk of the metal, just as the invisible coat of oxide on aluminum keeps it from burning up in the atmosphere. If, however, this coat is melted or scrubbed off, and has no chance to reform, the operator is confronted with the problem of coping with a metal-fluorine fire. For dealing with this situation, I have always recommended a good pair of running shoes."

Quote from: Spike;1140158Fair warning: I found Abercrombie a much better writer than storyteller, which led to... at least in my experience... that the deeper into the trilogy I got the more frustrated with the books I got.  The characters do not have arcs, in fact you might even say they tend towards negative arcs, regressing as characters, and the second book in trilogy could be described as a literal waste of time... I won't explain that so as to not SPOIL anything.

Hmm.  The trilogy blends together for me a bit; I'll give you that some of the main characters don't learn and in fact backslide.

The setting is grim, but has a good underlying sense of black humor, and pockets of hope.  Outside the trilogy I found "The Heroes" to be the biggest slog (and almost entirely skippable), and "Best Served Cold" my standout favorite - you could -almost- read it alone and out of order, but it will lead to spoilers for the trilogy.

I haven't dipped into his other series, or the new trilogy in this world.