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PaperclipPerfector  18hr ago (text post)   766 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for February 22, 2026

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So, what are you reading?

I'm still on Macpherson's Possessive Individualism and the rest of the backlog. Slow progress. Also reading Legend of the Galactic Heroes again.

Finally finished Marx thank god. Expect an effort post about this in March. Am currently working on Spinoza, The Knight by Gene Wolfe, and The Golden Compass in Italian.

Also reading Legend of the Galactic Heroes again.

I tried watching the anime, after it seeing it shared as an example of a "rational"(ish) anime.

The first episode (all that I bothered watching) disappointed me greatly. The so-called strategic genius won a fleet battle against all odds by using tactics obvious to a particularly bright seven year old. Someone tell me if it's worth persisting despite poor first impressions.

Strategy-wise, don't expect anything too impressive.

LoGH runs on the strength of its (many) characters, the variety of its situations, its sometimes impressive handling of serious topics, the fairly well-developed political and social standpoints of the two main protagonists, and the remarkably high quality of the dialogue. And of course, the unforgettable Yang Wen-li.

(I'm talking about the original anime. The remake is quite good, but not as good.)

I finished No Life Forsaken. It was okay. I feel like Erikson has lost some of his touch. The "hidden" characters were too on the nose. It felt too much like an avengers-slop style full of team-ups/guest appearances. The dialogue was boring and without gravitas, the only interesting thoughts were those about worship which has been done better in his other books. Even the tropes just felt well-trod which is something I remember, maybe incorrectly, as something he was better at pathfinding previously. Lastly for a Karsa Orlong series there is a specific dearth of actual Karsa appearances, which is disappointing.

Still on Ubik, about halfway through.

I'm working on finally reading the backlog of books I acquired towards the end of 2025. Just finished Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett, the only book of his that I've read. It wasn't bad, but didn't really inspire me to read more. There is some wit there, but I didn't find the book as funny as the author's reputation would've had me think. And the plot, while serviceable, was nothing super interesting (and also the everyone is secretly a girl thing got kind of old by the end). Overall, meh/10.

I also read but didn't finish a book called The Expectant Detectives by Kat Ailes. Honestly not something I would normally read, but my local book store had "blind date" books and I thought it might be interesting to go with something unknown. The blurb on the wrapping promised a "funny, cozy British mystery" which sounded promising enough, but I didn't enjoy it at all. The premise of the book is that an eight months' pregnant woman moves from London to a small rural town with her boyfriend, and gets caught up in a murder mystery when the shop owner hosting her prenatal class dies in mysterious circumstances. Unfortunately, the book also reads like it was written by Reddit. Partly in tone, but also in frequent asides for the protagonist to preach the good word of feminism, and comments about "adulting" that leave you no doubt whatever about how much of an adult the speaker isn't. The worst part came towards the end of what I read, when the protagonist shares with a friend that she's worried her boyfriend is "getting into right-wing politics", and goes so far as to say that she would more easily be able to accept him having an affair than that. It was a really awful book, don't read it. I made it through a third before giving up, and flipping to the back to see who the killer was.

Next up is Isles of the Emberdark by Brandon Sanderson. I don't expect it to wow me (as the novella it is based on didn't), but I also don't expect to hate it either. We'll see.

If you’re interested in Pratchett, you should read something older. Monstrous Regiment was written only a few years before his Alzheimer’s diagnosis and several years after his writing started to show signs of his mental decline (e.g., reduced vocabulary). Also, I haven’t read all of his books, but of those I have read, Monstrous Regiment was my least favorite.

Good to know. I didn't choose this one (it was a Christmas gift from my sister), so I'm open to the possibility of reading another. Any in particular which you would recommend?

Any of the following are good places to start:

Pyramids

Guards!Guards!

Wyrd Sisters

Reaper Man is good but it's best to read Mort first

FWIW I have consistently found Pratchett to be overrated.

He's an absolute mindblower if you're a teenager, though.

Mark Douglas' Trading in the Zone. After realizing that consistently successful investing/trading is to a very large degree a mental and emotional game. Thus a lot of time and effort should be spent on that aspect.

Ground State: Expeditionary Force Book 19 by Craig Alanson; I ended up wanting his brand of humor again more quickly than I'd anticipated!

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