Dev’s Comments (group member since Sep 09, 2017)

Dev’s comments from the Nothing But Reading Challenges group.

just checking in to say that im hoping to finish my first book tomorrow or friday. then next week im gonna pick two shorter ones i think so i can get in the 3 that i'm supposed to have. im doing a fandom character week thing this week so im a bit slow

hey guys sorry i've been mia for a couple days, finding it very hard to stay focused this week! i started elysium girls today as my first book though so hopefully i can build up some momentum!

yeah that would be so helpful if it was on audio but also god i don't even want to know how long the audio book would be, like 50 hours or something lol anyway i got through all of them except one and i think im gonna do that one tomorrow before i officially start wheel stuff, might as well while i'm on a roll

★★★☆☆ “The Hospice,” 1975, Robert Aickman
this one was definitely interesting and had a very creepy vibe. also i could easily picture it as like a movie or episode of a tv show. kind of petered out there at the end but still pretty enjoyable i felt.

★★☆☆☆ “It Only Comes Out at Night,” 1976, Dennis Etchison
don't even remember what this was and i read it like 6 hours ago!

X “The Psychologist Who Wouldn’t Do Terrible Things to Rats,” 1976, James Tiptree, Jr.
ok first one i am not actually rating because i got not very far into it at all and discovered that he actually is doing mean things to rats and i don't want to read about it right now!

★★★☆☆ “My Mother,” 1978, Jamaica Kincaid
this one was very short but definitely had some interesting themes and imagery

★★★★☆ “Sandkings,” 1979, George R.R. Martin
actually really liked this one! wasn't sure how i was going to feel because i am never sure my feelings on ASOIAF and haven't read anything else by him but this was actually really good. i would maybe consider it more scifi than horror but it did get more horrory at the end.

[edit: ok i tried to read the beak doctor a i just cannot handle the purposely flowery language being used so i skipped it. too long to mess w/ all that. all caught up lol]

trying to knock a few of these out before wheel starts lol

★★☆☆☆ “The Ghoulbird,” 1967, Claude Seignolle
this was once again one of those that just went in one ear and out the other

★★☆☆☆ “The Sea Was Wet As Wet Could Be,” 1967, Gahan Wilson
i feel like i might have liked this more if i was more familiar with alice in wonderland or cared more about it? it was okay but i felt like maybe there were things i was missing never having read that.

★★★☆☆ “Don’t Look Now,” 1971, Daphne Du Maurier
this one took awhile to warm up but by the halfway point i thought it was pretty interesting and liked how it turned out.

hey everybody! i know i've been on a team with melindam before [waves] but the rest of you are new faces to me i think.

here's my shelf
https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

uh i'm from indiana so i'm on EST time and i guess i'm doing about as well as can be expected considering [waves hand around vaguely] everything. been having a lot of trouble reading this year but hopefully this will kick me into gear, i chose a low monthly goal at any rate.

um best books ...i did a reread of the monster of elendhaven which i absolutely adore and as for new books #veryfat #verybrave by nicole byer was absolutely hilarious so there are two WILDLY different recs for you lol

also i did do the hp tt and i was slytherin team draco!

one day late but finally caught up!

★★★☆☆ “The Other Side of the Mountain,” 1967, Michel Bernanos

this one was actually pretty good and i probably would have given it 4 stars if it had been like half the length it was because i just kept losing focus a lot. i guess it isn't that long in the grand scheme of things but it was probably almost as long as the other 8 stories in this section put together so i think it was maybe a bit long for an anthology like this. still it was pretty enjoyable.

yeah i got 2020 done almost immediately bc new releases and 2001 bc only one book, but the rest i'm like ooooh boy i'm not doing very well lol

★★☆☆☆ “Same Time, Same Place,” 1963, Mervyn Peake

this was just another one of those that i couldn't concentrate on for whatever reason. kind of upsetting since i'm planning on reading gormenghast because i loved the show so much, but i think they are very different styles of story so just because i didn't like this doesn't necessarily mean i won't like that

★★★☆☆ “The Salamander,” 1967, Mercè Rodoreda

skipped the long one to go to this one instead, i'll probably do the other one on sat or sun to finish out the month. this one is probably more of a 2.5 but i did like the symbolism of the witch burning and the salamanders and though it was interesting enough to bump up to 3.

★★★★☆ “The Howling Man,” 1959, Charles Beaumont

definitely liked this one although really it just makes me want to re-watch the twilight zone episode because i remember it being just slightly different in that adaptation. interested to hear your thoughts on it if you aren't familiar with it because obviously i knew the twist that was coming so it might read a bit differently for the first time.

nothing to do with the story but one time i said this was my favorite twilight zone episode and some random dude sent me a message that was like 'its okay but if you watch more of them you will see that there are better ones' and im just like alkdjfda i've seen them all bitch but thanks for mansplaining the twilight zone to me i guess?

did another short one today

★★☆☆☆ “A Woman Seldom Found,” 1956, William Sansom

this one i feel could have been better if it was longer or if there was more 'weird' stuff earlier on i feel. like it was so so short and i was just like 'what is so weird about this' and then the last few sentences were like (view spoiler)[ooooooh spoooky hand! (hide spoiler)] and i was like ??? ok???

i am very excited for the next one though! the howling man is my favorite twilight zone episode so i'm hoping the story it was based on will also be great.

went ahead and did two bc they're so short and now i'm caught up with you!

★★☆☆☆ “Mister Taylor,” 1952, Augusto Monterroso

i agree that this one was weirdly confusing for how short and seemingly straightforward it was. idk it's like my mind just kept wandering while i was trying to read it. definitely an interesting concept though

★★☆☆☆ “Axolotl,” 1956, Julio Cortázar

again i agree that this wasn't really weird and it was also another one of those that just seemed to go in one ear and out the other.

and another one

★★★☆☆ “‘It’s a Good Life,’” 1953, Jerome Bixby

this one was pretty good but honestly i skimmed a lot of it because i don't like reading about people torturing animals. i agree that it definitely read like a twilight zone episode and although i had a lot of questions while reading it they did get revealed at the end. probably would have given it four stars if i could just enjoyed it instead of worrying about the animal death.

ok i finally read another one!

★★☆☆☆ “The Complete Gentleman,” 1952, Amos Tutuola

i agree that this one was a little too neat / tidy at the end and like ...it did make way more sense than the excerpt we had as the first story but I was still like is there more context to this that I should be getting at the beginning or is this maybe like a story that one character tells the other in the larger main novel? It definitely had a kind of folktale feel to it so I could see that. Overall I just wasn't feeling it although I did laugh at the end when he was just like 'and that's how I got a wife' like aldkjfdsa thanks I hate it but also I am laughing so [shrug] A lot of the wording was also very clunky but I think that could probably be due to translation issues.

I'll try to read a few more soon but my brain is just totally nerfed lately and I have not been reading much at all.

i think i tried to read that at one point and couldn't really get into it

you guys might have to just go on without me for awhile because i havent really been reading anything except graphic novels or short stories lately and i don't think i can start a new series right now. also don't really see myself reading any urban fantasy for the foreseeable future and i know that's very much where we started and where you guys still are i think

yeah as we get into the 50s it's definitely like more recognizable as what i think of as a 'modern' story and also seeing some more authors that i recognize

i must have missed the part in town of cats where it said the narrator was on drugs but you're right that does give the story a completely different context. still pretty interesting to think about though.

and i agree that i will definitely remember the long sheet story far more than most of the others in this anthology but im still just like ...what exactly are you trying to say, if anything lol

i like how we're basically just dividing up these stories into lke 'comprehensible vs incomprehensible' as well -_-;

I apparently went a big mad and did all of this month's reading in one day. In my defense it was only like 38k and I haven't been reading much that isn't comics lately so once I started I figured I should just get through it if I can!

★★★☆☆ “White Rabbits,” 1941, Leonora Carrington
Short but pretty interesting. Although I am just like alkdjfda who thinks ‘oh this random neighbor I’ve never seen asked me for some rotten meat I’d better go buy some just specifically to let it rot’? It reminded me of a Magnus Archives episode where a dude’s upstairs neighbors just nails meat to every surface of his apartment though. I’m starting to wonder if the author of that has read this actually, it would definitely be his kind of thing

★★★☆☆ “Mimic,” 1942, Donald Wollheim
Another pretty interesting story, nothing too outstanding but had some good body horror and a cool premise

★★★☆☆ “The Crowd,” 1943, Ray Bradbury
I think this one is actually in The October Country bc about halfway through I realized I had already read it. This short story is pretty good and definitely has a Twilight Zone feel to it but overall I’m not really a fan of Bradbury’s short stories, some of his longer stuff is pretty good though.

★★☆☆☆ “The Long Sheet,” 1944, William Sansom
I feel like I should have liked this one bc it was similar to the penal colony one from earlier but this one I feel is more like some kind of weird metaphor for like ...idek, production or capitalism or something? And I’m not exactly sure what side the metaphor is on so I’m not sure if I should agree with it or not?

★☆☆☆☆ “The Aleph,” 1945, Jorge Luis Borges
Ok I didn’t actually finish this one so I think I’ve gotta give it one star. Basically I felt like we were making progress in this anthology re: comprehensible language and then this just came and slapped me in the face and I have no idea what was even supposed to be happening. #oops

★★☆☆☆ “A Child in the Bush of Ghosts,” 1949, Olympe Bhêly-Quénum
This one was okay but it was one of those where I found my attention wandering through most of it [and then he had a ghost orgy or something and I was like whaaat? Lol]

★★★☆☆ “The Summer People,” 1950, Shirley Jackson
I’m always kind of in two minds about Shirley Jackson’s stuff and I feel like usually either the pacing is off or there’s no payoff at the end. This one was probably more the later but it was still a pretty interesting story.

★★☆☆☆ “The Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnoles,” 1951, Margaret St. Clair
THE GNOLES ARE BACK! I still wasn’t wild about this story but at least I actually had a fairly clear picture of what a gnole was this time

★★☆☆☆ “The Hungry House,” 1951, Robert Bloch
This is another one where the concept is fine but I don’t feel like I’m 100% sure what it’s saying. Like to me obviously the male character is being hypocritical in how he talks about the women in the story but I’m not sure if the author realizes that or if he really is like ‘oh wow women are just sooo vain’. Even if it’s supposed to be more tongue in cheek I’m never really sure how I feel about male authors writing about female body image. There’s a quote that is like ‘you painted a woman because you thought she was beautiful, then you put a mirror in her hand and called it vanity’ which I think about a lot when I read things like this. Also it’s been so long since I’ve seen Psycho [and never read the book] so I can’t really like idk get a sense for what this guy is ‘like’ I guess?

Doing another one

Start: April 14, 2020
Level: Sequence (51 + books)

01 The Miserable Mill [A Series of Unfortunate Events Book 4] by Lemony Snicket
02 Aru Shah and the Tree of Wishes [Pandava Quartet Book 3] by Roshani Chokshi
03 Lumberjanes: The Shape of Friendship by Lilah Sturges
04 Die for Me [Killing Eve Book 3] by Luke Jennings
05 Sword in the Stars [Once and Future Book 2] by Amy Rose Capetta
06 Heavy Vinyl: Y2K-O!, Vol. 2 by Carly Usdin
07 Shades of Magic Vol. 3: The Rebel Army by V.E. Schwab
08 Who's a Good Boy? {WTNV Scripts Book 4] by Joseph Fink
09 Playing with Fire [Skulduggery Pleasant Book 2] by Derek Landy
10 Saga, Vol. 3 by Brian K. Vaughan
11 Camp Jupiter Classified: A Probatio's Journal by Rick Riordan
12 Shorefall [Foundryside Book 2] by Robert Jackson Bennett
13 The Faceless Old Woman Who Secretly Lives In Your Home [WTNV Book 3] by Joseph Fink
14 Starcrossed [Magic in Manhattan Book 2] by Allie Therin
15 The Austere Academy [A Series of Unfortunate Events Book 5] by Lemony Snicket
16 The Dead Town [Frankenstein Book 5] by Dean Koontz
17 Stay Out of the Basement [Goosebumps Book 2] by R.L. Stine
18 The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy [Montague Siblings Book 2] by Mackenzi Lee
19 The Gryphon's Lair [A Royal Guide to Monster Slaying Book 2] by Kelley Armstrong
20 The Adventure Zone: Petals to the Metal [Vol 3] by the McElroys
21 Crowded, Vol. 2 by Christopher Sebela
22 Isola, Vol. 2 by Brenden Fletcher
23 Rick and Morty, Vol. 11 by Kyle Starks
24 Moonshine [Cal Leandros Book 2] by Rob Thurman
25 Madhouse [Cal Leandros Book 3] by Rob Thurman
26 Ten Arrows of Iron [The Grave of Empires Book 2] by Sam Sykes
27 The Wounded Ones by G.D. Penman
28 Rick and Morty Presents Vol. 2 by Tini Howard
29 Drowned Country [Greenhollow Duology Book 2] by Emily Tesh
30 The Tea Dragon Tapestry [Tea Dragon Society Book 3] by Katie O'Neill
31 The Survival of Molly Southbourne [Molly Southbourne #2] by Tade Thompson
32 Saga, Vol. 4 by Brian K. Vaughan
33 Rachel Rising, Volume 2: Fear No Malus by Terry Moore
34 A Killing Frost [October Daye Book 14] by Seanan McGuire
35 Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls: 100 Immigrant Women Who Changed the World by Elena Favilli
36 The Old Guard, Book Two: Force Multiplied by Greg Rucka
37 Giant Days, Vol. 14 by John Allison
38 Saga, Vol. 5 by Brian K. Vaughan
39 Rachel Rising, Volume 3: Cemetery Songs by Terry Moore
40 Rachel Rising, Volume 4: Winter Graves by Terry Moore
41 Rachel Rising, Volume 5: Night Cometh by Terry Moore
42 Rachel Rising, Volume 6: Secrets Kept by Terry Moore
43 Rachel Rising, Volume 7: Dust to Dust by Terry Moore
44 Alias, Vol. 2: Come Home by Brian Michael Bendis
45 Hack/Slash: Resurrection Volume 2: Blood Simple by Tini Howard
46 Deathwish [Cal Leandros Book 4] by Rob Thurman
47 The Archive of the Forgotten [Hell's Library Book 2] by A.J. Hackwith
48 Roadkill [Cal Leandros Book 5] by Rob Thurman
49 The Ersatz Elevator [A Series of Unfortunate Events Book 6] by Lemony Snicket
50 The Vile Village [A Series of Unfortunate Events Book 6] by Lemony Snicket
51 Lady Mechanika vol 6 Sangre by Joe Benítez

finished everything! and added in because i finished my first audio book too fast lol struggled with finishing my print book but finally got through it and really enjoyed everything else. didn't really keep track but i would say i spent about 8 hours reading/listening