---
title: Reading
language: en
ref: misc-books
translationKey: misc-books
disable_feed: true
---

I'm not the bookworm I used to be, reading mostly mainstream books. Some books
I read and liked:

- <i>Dế Mèn phiêu lưu kí</i>, a famous children book in Vietnamese about an
    arrogant cricket who learned humility and altruism during his journey.
- <i>The adventures of Valya and Karik</i>, a Russian children book (my copy
    was a Vietnamese translation) about the adventures of shrunken children in
    which they learn about small animals around them.
- <i>Sans famille</i>, a story about a child who had to leave his family for
    poverty, though now that I think about it, it sounds like children
    trafficking and child labor.
- <i>Nineteen Eighty-Four</i>, a dystopian tragedy that is often mistaken as
    criticism of socialism, while the actual object is authoritanism and mass
    surveillance.
- <i>The Hobbit</i> and <i>The Lord of the Rings</i>, the well-known fantasy
    franchise
- <i>Inheritance Cycle</i>, often labeled as rip-off <i>Star Wars</i> by haters
- <i>Gulliver's Travels</i>, a book that's supposed to be satire but I didn't
    know enough to understand these deep meanings.
- <i>Le petit prince</i>, a novella with a childish theme but discuss many
    aspects of life in a lighthearted way.
- [Ellana][ellana] (<i>Le Pacte des MarchOmbres</i> series) (French)

Books I'm reading:

- [Ellana: L'envol][ellana-2] (<i>Le Pacte des MarchOmbres</i> series) (French)
- [Tous les hommes sont mortels][hommes-mortels] (French)
- <i>The Necromancer</i> (<i>The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel</i>
    series)

Dropped:

- [XKCD what if](what-if)
- <i>A Storm of Swords</i>(<i>A Song of Ice and Fire</i> series)

See also: [book reviews](/en/book-reviews) I wrote on this site.

[what-if]: https://store.xkcd.com/pages/if-you-re-looking-for-the-what-if-book
[ellana]: https://openlibrary.org/works/OL24210815W/Le_Pacte_des_MarchOmbres_-_Ellana
[ellana-2]: https://openlibrary.org/works/OL24339191W/Ellana_l%27envol
[hommes-mortels]: https://openlibrary.org/works/OL13053706W/Tous_les_hommes_sont_mortels