Books - what are you reading? (Official Book Thread)

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See, it was the other way around with me. I saw the films when I was younger and fell completely in love. Then I went on to loosely read the books afterward but never gave it is proper due.

And I'll admit, as a fan of the films first, I almost fell for the "it's too slow....nothing is happening" sort of outlook in the beginning chapters but once I caught on to what Tolkien was really doing....building a world that feels ancient, lived in, and rich with history, I was locked in 🫡.

I remember reading somewhere he wrote LOTR as a single volume but the publishers wanted to break it up. I actually only found out about The Silmarillion post LOTR but I plan on rewinding and diving into it next (after clearing a few reads off my TBR) before continuing with Two Towers & Return of the King.

I definitely appreciated the read now rather than my kid brain attempts at trying to digest it.

With The Silmarillion I would say that you should go in reading it like you are reading a historical religious text and not a prose novel like LOTR.

LOTR seems to get viewed as a YA book or something like that by today's audience but it's very much a book Tolkien wrote for people who read The Hobbit as kids who would've been fully grown adults when it released and I feel that shows in the text

Yeah he was forced to chop it up by the publisher. In a way it helped its success in the States because they were released as cheap paperbacks which was the format for genre fiction back in the day. If it came out here only as hardcover I don't know if it would've reached the heights of popularity it had back then.
I think they were all released fairly close together like the last three Dark Tower books (which I also suggest treating as one big book)

 

[Trav]

With The Silmarillion I would say that you should go in reading it like you are reading a historical religious text and not a prose novel like LOTR.

LOTR seems to get viewed as a YA book or something like that by today's audience but it's very much a book Tolkien wrote for people who read The Hobbit as kids who would've been fully grown adults when it released and I feel that shows in the text

Yeah he was forced to chop it up by the publisher. In a way it helped its success in the States because they were released as cheap paperbacks which was the format for genre fiction back in the day. If it came out here only as hardcover I don't know if it would've reached the heights of popularity it had back then.
I think they were all released fairly close together like the last three Dark Tower books (which I also suggest treating as one big book)

Oh, I'm already knowing....Im not going into The Silmarillion expecting a Fire and Blood historical retelling by any means

Every week on the Tolkien and LOTR subs, somebody pop in asking, “Should I read The Silmarillion?” after hearing how dense or intimidating it is....and it's like dawg, just sample a few pages for yourself. It’s 2025, every bookstore and app gives you a preview .

I def don't think that the world of Middle-Earth & more would've popped off the same droppin' in today's era.....not at all lol

 

[2 Up 2 Down]

Oh, I'm already knowing....Im not going into The Silmarillion expecting a Fire and Blood historical retelling by any means

Every week on the Tolkien and LOTR subs, somebody pop in asking, “Should I read The Silmarillion?” after hearing how dense or intimidating it is....and it's like dawg, just sample a few pages for yourself. It’s 2025, every bookstore and app gives you a preview .

I def don't think that the world of Middle-Earth & more would've popped off the same droppin' in today's era.....not at all lol

Personally, I didn't have a problem with Silmarillion because I'm use to reading stuff like that but it does throw a bunch of names at you which can feel a bit overwhelming. It does get easier when you start getting stories about the elves, I think.

True, but also today's fantasy is still trying to copy LOTR in some form or fashion. So many fantasy books today should be one or two books but are being stretched to three all because of LOTR which was one book cut into three. They try to copy the dense lore but Tolkien dedicated most of his life building it, so much so he created a new language.
Another big thing is that younger Fantasy writers have a YA quality to the writing due to growing up during the YA cash grab explosion with the Harry Potter success.

 

[Trav]

Personally, I didn't have a problem with Silmarillion because I'm use to reading stuff like that but it does throw a bunch of names at you which can feel a bit overwhelming. It does get easier when you start getting stories about the elves, I think.

True, but also today's fantasy is still trying to copy LOTR in some form or fashion. So many fantasy books today should be one or two books but are being stretched to three all because of LOTR which was one book cut into three. They try to copy the dense lore but Tolkien dedicated most of his life building it, so much so he created a new language.
Another big thing is that younger Fantasy writers have a YA quality to the writing due to growing up during the YA cash grab explosion with the Harry Potter success.

I've always felt like one of the main reasons everything gotta be a trilogy these days is because “duology” just don’t sound as sexy

Trilogies just got that marketable ring to them. But beyond that, I think the success of massive, lore-heavy worlds like ASOIAF, Wheel of Time, and now every film studio trying to build a shared universe out of thin air made it the “in thing” to stretch your IP instead of just creating something new that might not stick.

From my own experience world-building, I get it; the idea of laying all that foundation before the main story can even breathe is intimidating. I saw a Reddit post the other day where a dude said his pops been world-building for 40 years and is finally releasing his first book this September. 40 mf years! Folks don’t take that kind of time no more. All these industries push you to move fast, drop content, and capitalize on momentum. Mfs signing first time author to 3 book deals w/o ever seeing any of their work and now they feel the pressure to produce.

And yeah, that YA boom off the Harry Potter wave definitely changed how a lot of recent fantasy authors write. You can feel that in the tone and structure of some of today’s books—it’s more digestible, more cinematic, more "chewable". Not necessarily a bad thing....but different.

Like you said, Tolkien was literally building languages, like breh was doing linguistic side quests in the trenches

Most of us just trying to figure out what our made-up cities even look like .

 

[2 Up 2 Down]

I've always felt like one of the main reasons everything gotta be a trilogy these days is because “duology” just don’t sound as sexy

Trilogies just got that marketable ring to them. But beyond that, I think the success of massive, lore-heavy worlds like ASOIAF, Wheel of Time, and now every film studio trying to build a shared universe out of thin air made it the “in thing” to stretch your IP instead of just creating something new that might not stick.

From my own experience world-building, I get it; the idea of laying all that foundation before the main story can even breathe is intimidating. I saw a Reddit post the other day where a dude said his pops been world-building for 40 years and is finally releasing his first book this September. 40 mf years! Folks don’t take that kind of time no more. All these industries push you to move fast, drop content, and capitalize on momentum. Mfs signing first time author to 3 book deals w/o ever seeing any of their work and now they feel the pressure to produce.

And yeah, that YA boom off the Harry Potter wave definitely changed how a lot of recent fantasy authors write. You can feel that in the tone and structure of some of today’s books—it’s more digestible, more cinematic, more "chewable". Not necessarily a bad thing....but different.

Like you said, Tolkien was literally building languages, like breh was doing linguistic side quests in the trenches

Most of us just trying to figure out what our made-up cities even look like .

I remember hearing Martin say something along the lines of "we are all children of Tolkien". Like Nas said "name a rapper that I ain't influenced"
In a talk Martin had with Stephen King, he (King) thought the Wheel of Time book was terrible. I believe King said The Stand was his attempt to write an American LOTR. I know I have come across a number of references in his other books.


The resurgence via the films which led to a uptick in sales in Lord of the Rings books and most of what we had here was reprints of the trilogy edition. I bet the publishers initially pushed for trilogies from other fantasy authors to capitalize on that success.

The problem is the some of these new authors don't have that much story in them LOL.
I think those authors should read the old stuff regardless if it's all written by white men (there were quite a few [white] women writing fantasy and sci-fi back then too. I understand not liking the way white women were written but I think that is a bit overblown from what I read but there were random n-words thrown about that I never hear about. You'll come across more better written women than non white characters, so if my black ass can read (and become a fan) of classic sci-fi and fantasy than I know they can work through it. There are some amazing stories that are stuck in the past that feel more imaginative and subversive compared to today's stuff

Here is the King Martin talk

 

[Trav]

@2 Up 2 Down

Damn, he called that shyt trash? That's some supreme Kendrick type hate but I ain't mad

If you venture into the world of fantasy at all, you are def most likely one of Tolkien's sons one way or another lol. I was at this local book festival a couple of months ago & the majority of the fantasy authors (self publishing & otherwise), first thing they'd ask me was 'am I fan of series like LOTR' and how they have a trilogy planned, and yet their first book only like 150 pgs lol.

The Stand being King's “American LOTR”? . Interesting. That’s one of the next ones I’m diving into from him (maybe after Duma Key), so now I’m extra curious to read it with that in mind.

Have you read Wheel of Time? How u feel about jt? I’ve heard all types of opinions on it at this point. Also funny you mentioned women, because I came across somebody who said Jordan himself can’t write women well and so they prefer the modern stuff .

As for old fantasy? I don’t mind reading it, even with some of its flaws, because half the time, if the author ain’t drilling down on race or color, I just let my imagination take over. But that said, I look at what somebody like Ursula Le Guin said where she called out the assumption that fantasy characters are white by default, especially on the covers...

Even when they aren’t white in the text, they are white on the cover… If Black kids, Hispanics, Indians both Eastern and Western, don’t buy fantasy, which they mostly don’t, could it be because they never see themselves on the cover?... When [readers] realized Ged and the Archipelagans in Earthsea weren’t white, they felt included in fantasy for the first time.”

These publications be knowing what it is they're trying to do, even if it's not the author's vision. That's why I fukk with authors who are intentional about inclusion but still focused on good storytelling overall.

And the edition of Fellowship of the Ring I just finished reading had all this bts on the editing process and how when it started getting published in new spaces, editors would try to make their own changes but Tolkien was too obsessed (rightfully so) for that . Dude would rewrite, revise, and even push back on the tiniest changes as his work started getting published over here.

 

[2 Up 2 Down]

@Trav

These are my Tolkien books

I think people might get the wrong thing out of Lord of the Rings. Tolkien was building a European myth not just an epic story.

I haven't read Wheel of Time and really from what I read about it it doesn't sound that interesting. I wonder if it's current popularity is more due to its length and bragging rights in saying that you read the series.



I didn't just mean classic Fantasy but science fiction also. I noticed a lot of authors did both back then(pre-90s), and that there were a number of sci-fantasy as a result. Something I also found interesting was that you could get a satisfying fantasy story in a single book and not have it being 500 plus pages.

The Stand has a lot of references to LOTR with the way it's structured and I recommend listening to The Kingslingers read along with it.

I can't remember if there were Dark Tower spoilers in it but probably so because the podcast started out with them going through that series before covering the tie-in books.
The Dark Tower can be seen as an American LOTR in the way that LOTR is very European in themes and setting, DT is very American in those aspects

 

[Trav]

Just put the on this one as well. Of course, it wasn't as immensely detailed as his usual work, nor did it plunge into the depths of the human psyche like he's renowned for, but as discussed previously, it is intentional. A lot more heavy-handed, straightforward & fable-like.

The chapters flew by, but the story really had a hold on me by the time da creh Peter started to formulate his plan. And then, when it was all said and done and that 'needle had stopped', I definitely wanted a more traditional King exploration of it all. But I'm sure I'll get that in some of his other work I have coming up on my TBR, but I was def invested in Delain.

Dat mf Flagg

 

[KnickstapeCity]

@Trav

These are my Tolkien books

I think people might get the wrong thing out of Lord of the Rings. Tolkien was building a European myth not just an epic story.

I haven't read Wheel of Time and really from what I read about it it doesn't sound that interesting. I wonder if it's current popularity is more due to its length and bragging rights in saying that you read the series.



I didn't just mean classic Fantasy but science fiction also. I noticed a lot of authors did both back then(pre-90s), and that there were a number of sci-fantasy as a result. Something I also found interesting was that you could get a satisfying fantasy story in a single book and not have it being 500 plus pages.

The Stand has a lot of references to LOTR with the way it's structured and I recommend listening to The Kingslingers read along with it.

I can't remember if there were Dark Tower spoilers in it but probably so because the podcast started out with them going through that series before covering the tie-in books.
The Dark Tower can be seen as an American LOTR in the way that LOTR is very European in themes and setting, DT is very American in those aspects

Brehs still reading hard pause and soft covers and all that?







#KindleGang we all we got

 

[Trav]

@Trav

These are my Tolkien books

I think people might get the wrong thing out of Lord of the Rings. Tolkien was building a European myth not just an epic story.

I haven't read Wheel of Time and really from what I read about it it doesn't sound that interesting. I wonder if it's current popularity is more due to its length and bragging rights in saying that you read the series.



I didn't just mean classic Fantasy but science fiction also. I noticed a lot of authors did both back then(pre-90s), and that there were a number of sci-fantasy as a result. Something I also found interesting was that you could get a satisfying fantasy story in a single book and not have it being 500 plus pages.

The Stand has a lot of references to LOTR with the way it's structured and I recommend listening to The Kingslingers read along with it.

I can't remember if there were Dark Tower spoilers in it but probably so because the podcast started out with them going through that series before covering the tie-in books.
The Dark Tower can be seen as an American LOTR in the way that LOTR is very European in themes and setting, DT is very American in those aspects

That shyt is

I just started grabbing me some sets, and special editions but it isn't anywhere like that yet. I have the The Silmarillion: Tolkien Illustrated Edition. And I have The Hobbit: Collectors Edition and then a normal box set for LOTR.

I feel you on WOT tho. Not sure if I will ever decide the time to going through that entire series but I do want to try one or two of em at least.

As for the “one-and-done” fantasy books; I get what you're saying. There’s definitely something to be said for a complete, satisfying story that doesn’t need to stretch across 500+ pages or a whole trilogy. But sometimes, if the world is really rich and immersive, I don’t mind staying in it for a while. I almost want to linger.

Good looks on the companion vid 🫡

 

[Trav]

Brehs still reading hard pause and soft covers and all that?







#KindleGang we all we got

I mean, I got a Boox (that just got bushed) + a Nook that I just copped, but there still is nothing like a freshly binded joint in your hands

Especially if it's one you hold near and dear too just for collection purposes.

 

[sjankis630]

Carl Hiaasen - Fever Beach
He always does funny books but this one is about MAGA down in Florida and is hilarious so far.

 

[KnickstapeCity]

I mean, I got a Boox (that just got bushed) + a Nook that I just copped, but there still is nothing like a freshly binded joint in your hands

Especially if it's one you hold near and dear too just for collection purposes.

Nikka reading Lord of the Rings and shyt and talmbout near and dear to your heart





Nikka acting like he got original autographs of Tacitus or Livy

 

[Trav]

Nikka reading Lord of the Rings and shyt and talmbout near and dear to your heart





Nikka acting like he got original autographs of Tacitus or Livy

You don't have an album you just had to have on vinyl? A movie you just had to have on tape/Blu-ray? Knock it off nicca

 

[JoelB]

I need to catch up to yall brehs, I've been slacking for the last couple months