H.S. Stone's Blog, page 2

Reading challenge recap - re-reading favorite books

In June, I gave an update on my reading "challenge" this year, which was to re-read some of my favorite books. In summary, the challenge has been great. 

These are the books I re-read this year:

January - Elantris by Brandon SandersonFebruary - Find Her by Lisa GardnerMarch - The Final Empire by Brandon SandersonApril - When You See Me by Lisa GardnerMay - Arcanum Unbounded by Brandon SandersonJune - The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab July - Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sander...

After Z-Day holiday sale

You can now buy the Kindle version of the books in the After Z-Day series for only 99 cents each! That means you only have to spend a total of $2.97 for all three books. This sale will last through the holidays. If you're a fan of the zombie apocalypse or want to give a gift to someone who is, consider the After Z-Day series.

Book 1: Hopeless Book 2: Relentless Book 3: Soulless

 

George and the Galactic Games has a new cover!

My first published novel, George and the Galactic Games, has a new cover! This is the fifth cover for the book and definitely my favorite. I made the first two covers myself, and I wasn't too happy with either one, so I hired an artist to create a more professional cover. That cover lasted for a while until I tired of it and hired a different artist to create the fourth cover. The fourth one had served as the cover for the book for the last few years, longer than any of the previous three. I was...

Special edition books

 

 Midnight Edition of The Dandelion Dynasty from The Broken Binding

To the detriment of my bank account, I have become addicted to buying special edition books this year. If I had to trace the practice to any singular event, it would be Brandon Sanderson's Secret Projects Kickstarter. The premium hardcovers looked so much nicer than regular hardcovers that I wanted to populate my bookshelves with more special edition books. Now, a year later, I have one bookshelf where two-thirds of the books are...

The struggles of writing with an all-consuming, stressful day job

For those who aren't aware, I do not make my living as an author. I wish I could, but I don't sell nearly as many books as I need to in order to feed myself or keep a roof over my head. Instead, I have a day job that provides me with financial stability. I'm certainly not unique in that respect. Plenty of authors work a day job as their primary means of income.

I've been able to juggle writing and a day job for many years. All of the books I've written so far have been while I was working a full-...

Thoughts on NYT's 100 best books of the 21st century

After the New York Times published their list of the 100 best books of the 21st century, I saw quite a bit of commentary on it. There was expected criticism of the books on the list and books people thought should have made the list. Other posts from readers talked about how many of the 100 books they read and what their favorites were. I'm going to take the latter approach.

As I combed through the list, I was surprised to find that I only read 7 of the books. The ones I read (and their ranking o...

Update on re-reading five-star books

At the beginning of the year, I decided that my reading goal for this year is to re-read some of my favorite books. Six months into the endeavor, I'd say it's been a success.

These are the books I've re-read so far:

January - Elantris by Brandon SandersonFebruary - Find Her by Lisa GardnerMarch - The Final Empire by Brandon SandersonApril - When You See Me by Lisa GardnerMay - Arcanum Unbounded by Brandon SandersonJune - The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

If you're thinking, "Half of ...

The Dandelion Dynasty

I just finished reading The Dandelion Dynasty, and I need to let more people know about it because the series was so good!

There are four books in this silkpunk fantasy series:

The Grace of Kings The Wall of Storms The Veiled Throne Speaking Bones

I rated each book 5 stars, which I don't often do even for series I really like. Every book was great on its own, and the end result is one of my favorite epic fantasy series of all time. Among epic fantasy series that are already complete, The Dandelion Dyn...

Large print books

 

As I get older and my eyes lose the sharpness of youth, I appreciate large print books more and more. It's hard to believe that until about five years ago, I didn't know about large print books, and it hasn't been until 2022 that I started reading them. Before the pandemic, I'd noticed that there's a large print books section at my local public library, but the selection was limited, so I didn't browse there. It was only after a book I wanted was only available in large print that I checked one...

Long books that would be 5 stars if they were shorter

I just finished reading two long books, each over 800 pages in length. Both books are good but would have been better if they were shorter. The stories were great, I liked the characters, and I liked the writing. It just felt like a chore sometimes to wade through all the pages.

I have nothing against long books. Some of my favorite books ever are over 500 pages long, but they were books that managed to hold my attention throughout. The challenge with long books is that there are bound to be sect...