Gord’s Comments (group member since Apr 06, 2017)

Gord’s comments from the Vampires, Weres and Fae! group.

I guess I kind of get it. I just figured that with the whole serial killer aspect and how quickly this upended her life she would want to distance herself from it all. At least until she can either return to her norm or find a new norm for herself.

Meels wrote: "Their reaction to the whole thing was weird, Gord. Like, big deal? It’s not like you inherit serial killer-ness."

There was that and I just didn't get the weird obsession with help her "mom". She is essentially a total stranger and you are throwing your everything into helping some you don't know and for all you know could be just manipulating you.

Aundrea wrote: "I'm struggling. I'm still bored at 43%. It isn't even that it isn't action packed, but I'm not clicking with these characters. I'm going to try to push through, but it's hard when I don't really ca..."

That is what I was struggling with. I didn't care about the characters and I wasn't buying into what was happening in the book itself.

I'm reading/listening Race to the Sun currently and rather enjoying it so far. One thing that I am loving about audiobooks is the help with pronunciation. Especially when it comes down to books that pull from other cultures. For instance this is based on Navajo culture and there is a smattering of Navajo words in the book. I'll be honest here, I'd have no idea where to even start with trying to pronounce these words. Having someone else help with that makes it so much easier and it adds a layer of immersion to the book.

Not sure what happened last night but oh man I crashed hard. Maybe that walk home took more out of me than I thought but if I was lucky I made it to 8ish last before just sleeping hard and deep. Lately I've been getting up at 2-2:30ish but this morning I pulled myself out of bed about 4ish and that was only because I knew I had to get lunch made. I could have easily stayed in bed for another hour or two.

Today felt extra hot on my walk home. I know that those of you who live further south than I do will laugh but it was 14c/57f and it just felt to hot for me. Not full on oppressive heat but definitely getting into that "it's to damn hot" territory.

Time to start the final week of the month and it's going to be so much fun *insert buckets of sarcasm here*. This is shaping up to be another chaotic busy week and that is before it even starts.

I'd figured I'd do a last minute update before starting the week.

The Great Filter -3 Stars
This was an alright popcorn, turn your brain off, and coast kind of book. I read/listened to this for a challenge and I got what I signed up for. It's a gamelit novel heavily inspired by the Fallout series, in particular Fallout 4. Basically the world gets nuked, it's revealed that humanity is nothing more than a giant simulation and we are out of time. After the world is nuked the admins turn on full fledged game mode (level ups, experience points, stats, perks etc) and now humanity is nothing more than entertainment for the galactic community. You get pretty much what you would expect from this novel. One thing I grew tired off was the constant perk/stat/item descriptions. I know this is a staple of this genre and in physical books I can just kind of skim over this stuff but with an audio book I'm kind of stuck listening to it over and over and over again. This is definitely one of those books that make me glad I have a library card. For the great price of free this is a palatable book. If I had to pay money for this I'd be a lot more critical and probably a bit harsh on this thing.

V for Vendetta -4 Stars
Another Alan Moore book and again it's for another challenge. His name keeps coming on these "Greatest Book of X genre" kind of lists and because I'm allowed to use comics it gives me reason to read them. This came out in the 80's and I can easily see why this became a classic. This book is about a full on fascist Britain after the end of WWIII and the anarchist known simply as V. This book tackles a lot of heavier themes and I liked that V was more an idea than a character. We do get hints to his back story but we never know who he truly is and what his motivations are. By the end of the book he straight up becomes a symbol more than anything else. I have a bit of a hard time explaining why I liked this book as much as I did but it really clicked with me. That being said there are some issues. There are times where the story wasn't as strong and kind of rambled a bit. I also wasn't a fan of the art. It made it real difficult at times to tell what was going on or who a particular character was. It's definitely the art of the time but I'm just not a fan of this kind of comic art.

I'm Kinda Chubby and I'm Your Hero Vol. 1 -4 Stars
This is just straight up sweet fluff and I enjoyed it. The book is tagged as "boys love" but there isn't even the faintest hint of romance. It's about two guys that become friends through being fans of what the other does (patisserie and an actor). Could it eventually turn into a romance at some point in the future? Maybe, but for right now it's just a sweet story about two guys becoming friends and gaining confidence through each other. I want to read the next book but it's not out yet.

The Hunters Guild: Red Hood, Vol. 1 -4 Stars
This is such a huge frustration. I found this series originally through some art I discovered online. Then I found out, many months afterwards, that my library was carrying the series and decided to check it out. I find the premise of this series to be pretty intriguing and I want to read more. That's where the problem starts. There are only three books because Shonen Jump cancelled the series before it even had a chance to start gaining steam. I know that this happens a lot but this is the first time I've encountered it so early in the story. I do plan to read the other two books just to see if the story suddenly takes a sudden change that warrants the cancellation but I don't see it yet.

As for what is next

Race to the Sun This is another challenge book that I'll be working on this week. Yes, I am working on a lot of challenge books as of late but I'm trying to address some really old challenges where I'm down to the dregs that just don't get completed with my normal reading.

Yu-Gi-Oh! (3-in-1 Edition), Vol. 8: Includes Vols. 22, 23 & 24 I'm finally getting back to some Yu-Gi-Oh and I need to get this done so I can return it to the library.

Oh that game! I've seen a few people playing that and it looks hilarious.

Alright, I'm doing this a bit early but I just finished a book and I need to talk about it.

The Supernatural Enhancements -2 Stars
This is the book I have to talk about and oh boy do I have things to say. On a broad level I like what this book was trying to do but something happened in the execution. In the beginning of the book I was all on board with what this book was doing but as things went along I got bored, confused, and by the end I was just left feeling unsatisfied. This book is a haunted house/paranormal mystery/adventure kind of book. Our MC known only as A inherits a house from a 2nd cousin who was stupid rich. Him and his companion Niamh show up at the house and the book starts. This book is told in an epistolary style with everything being told through diary entries, dream diaries, video recordings, camcorder footage, audio recordings, letters, notes, etc. For me this is a bit of a double edged sword as it's interesting but it also creates this barrier between the me and the characters. I never feel a connection with the characters as I don't know what they are thinking, feeling, etc. Some of these sections were interesting and other ones were beyond boring. For instance there is a section that goes into painstaking detail about how they broke this code. This section went on for pages about how the code works, how our characters figured it out, how they broke the code, etc. It just dragged on and on and on. There were other sections that were from "scientific journals" that felt like sandpaper for my eyeballs. There were these dry, boring sections full of "science" jargon and I just don't feel like they added anything to the book.

Then there is the ending of the book. I'm not going to spoil anything but the book took a super hard turn in the last 30 pages and just ended with a bombshell that just created more questions then it answered. Not in a good cliffhanger kind of way that we all love to curse and hate but in a way that just felt like the book itself was unfinished. Honestly this kind of goes with the broader feeling of the book. It felt like it was trying to do a lot of different things but not really succeeding at any of them because it was trying to do to much at once. For instance the haunted house aspect of the book starts kind of strong only to be shelved and forgotten for most of the remainder of the book. No real explanation about it either. It was just a haunted house because reasons. Same with the whole secret society/cult thing. It was there but not really until it had to be and when it was there it just never felt fully fleshed out.

As for the characters we now absolutely nothing about A at all. Not his name, not his motivations, not the reason he is there, nothing. Niamh was a kind of interesting character and her being mute was an interesting twist but again there was that barrier with the writing style. It also can't be overlooked that Niamh is an underage characters, mid to late teens, and A ends up having a sexual relationship with her and he is definitely older than her. That definitely didn't need to be there. If you wanted to explore them being in a relationship then make her older. There was absolutely no reason for her to be the age she was. Alright, I think my ranting for this book is over.

The Mist -4 Stars
This was the only other thing I completed this week and it was pretty solid. If you have been following me for a while you know I have some mixed feelings about King. As a teen I enjoyed his books but as an adult I find that I don't enjoy his books as much. The Dark Tower series being the exception to that of course. There are definitely elements of his books that I enjoy but there are also sections of his books that just feel bloated. Sections that don't really feel like they were necessary and cause the book to drag. This book didn't suffer from that issue. Now it's not my first time reading The Mist but it's been a while since my last read of this book and it held up well. The story was spooky, I liked the horror elements, I like the ending, it was just a quick entertaining read.

Now for what is next.

The Great Filter I'm currently listening to this on audio and it's alright so far. It's a post apocalyptic gamelit novel and it's inspiration is pretty clear to me. This is far from high literature but so far it's at least entertaining. After that I've got a couple challenge books lined up to pick from.

For physical books I've got some manga to read so I can get it back to the library before next weekend.

Weird thing to be happy about but you take the small things when you can. I did my laundry this morning and for the first time in months both driers were working properly. I didn't have to sort my laundry and hang dry some of it because it wasn't working right this week when it was fine the week before. It just makes the whole process seem quicker and easier. Now I am back to trying to finish my book before I go to the library today.

I'm listening to The Great Filter currently and lets just say the author was clearly inspired by the Fallout franchise. Irradiated ghouls, check, mutated dogs, check, giant bipedal lizards, check. The bipedal lizards are deathclaws which are mutated chameleons in Fallout lore. The entire story takes place in a nuclear wasteland as well. What really sealed the deal though was when the MC was picking his perks (it's a game lit novel) and most of the names are pulled straight from the Fallout games. In fact, judging by the perk system alone, I would have to go so far as to say the inspiration for this novel came from Fallout 4.

Just to be clear though there are differences and it's not just a clone of Fallout. There are also other references that I've caught. Like ones to One Punch Man and to Tremors.

It's finally Friday!

No real plans for the weekend. Laundry, reading, naps, going for my walk on Saturday.

LMAO, our summer inventory dates were announced today and it's on the weekend that my local anime convention is happening. I booked that week off last year well in advance and people laughed at me for doing that. Who's laughing now huh?

I got Vietnamese and now I'm stuffed but feeling great. With vermicelli I can't have the fish sauce, obvious reasons, so I get the chili sauce and soy sauce, mix them together, and have a spicy/salty dish. Now I'm ready for a nap.

Meels wrote: "I’m still doing Whole30 strictly, so still no eating out for me.day 19, and I’m doing okay. Surprisingly, I haven’t missed eating out that much. I thought for sure I would be DYING for some sushi. ..."

Who wouldn't dream of pizza though???

Oh! The other dangerous food thing I discovered the other day while I was out for lunch time walk. In the strip mall where I get some of my lunches they are putting up a new building and it's a Starbucks. I'm not one of those people who can't function with out their daily cup of sugar from Starbucks but I've taken a liking to it for sure. Which is odd because younger me wouldn't be caught dead in a Starbucks. I know it's expensive and probably overpriced as hell but on my current wages an occasional treat isn't going to break me.

"oh no! please don't twist my arm and make me read this series that I totally didn't have one my TBR..."

Low on my radar was the W.I.T.C.H. Part I: The Twelve Portals, Vol. 1 series. Not sure why but it was something that caught my eye and it has a dedicated fan base. I was browsing through the new comics that my library had just brought in when I couldn't help noticing something. For what ever reason some librarian brought in all 30 volumes of this series and they all came in at the same time. The new list was essentially dominated by this one series. Needless to say I've requested my copy of volume one and I'm preparing to set off on a new adventure, if I like the first one that is.

The place I go to has a vegetarian spring roll vermicelli bowl that is delicious. I get that and their green onion cakes which are these big fluffy slices of heaven.