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

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

yeah my work decided to close til the 1st of april although said they'd pay us since it's just a week and a half [depending on how things go guess it could be longer] but im just like uuuugh overall. it's no fun having time off work if you can't actually do anything lol

plus i was supposed to see night vale in chicago this week and obviously it got postponed. the hotel gave me a credit but i booked the room at $100 less than their 'normal' rate so im worried that i am going to try to reschedule it for the new date and they're gonna try to charge me full price like ugh i don't want to have that fight with them.

yeah im okay, just kind of bored and annoyed lol

yeah my library is closed too, although luckily the comic i had on hold there showed up on a hoopla a few days ago lol the audio for the first book here was honestly not great and im not sure if i'll stick with audio or just switch to print for the next one

yeah we can try the next one and then if we're still not feeling it we'll find something else. i can start the second one whenever

yeah i do hope some time passes between books so we can see him grow up a little bit. i'm interested to see how his relationship with his mother develops as well now that she's going to be around more

unfortunate for people who celebrate easter but any sunday is great for me! i'm in, maybe this can finally kick my butt out of my slump lol

[edit] plans for today:

FINISHED ★★★★☆

FINISHED ★★★☆☆

FINISHED ★★★★☆

[edit 2] added another audio bc i listened to the first one too fast lol

FINISHED ★★★★☆

[edit 3] GOT EVERYTHING DONE! not sure how long i spent overall ...probably around 8 hours?

i went ahead and just finished up with the text version because i wanted to get through it. it was okay and in general i think i like both artemis and holly but unfortunately they seem to almost be the people we see the least of despite the fact that they really should be the main characters. it seems like their rivalry is going to be a large part of the series going forward though so maybe that will change.

i think the author was probably trying to limit artemis' pov so his actions and plan would seem more mysterious but i don't really like that bc he is the one i am most interested to get into his head and stuff. honestly i could take or leave this series at this point so it's up to you guys. people seem to like it so i'm assuming it gets more rounded out in later books but this first one was just like yeah it was okay but i'm not taken with it or anything.

and did the other one by the same guy

★★☆☆☆ “The Shadowy Street,” 1931, Jean Ray

honestly these were probably both more of a 2.5 for me so i rounded one up and one down. this one wasn't necessarily bad i guess but again it was just one of them that went right in one ear and out the other unfortunately. i do like the idea of a building that only one person can see though, definitely could do a lot with that small detail alone.

yeah there is a definite disconnect going on for me as well. i'm about 2/3rds of the way through and i am liking it so far but i think it's gonna be a 3 star read.

there just hasn't really been any development as artemis as a character beyond 'super good thief but also he's 12' and we're still spending most of our time with the faeries it seems. and i wouldn't mind if it was mostly holly because i like her but a lot of it is her captain and other people so i'm just kind of like hmmm.

agree that a younger narrator would have been good, i know there's a lot of adult narrators that sound younger but they seem to have gone more for the narrator type feel rather than trying to make the voice actor match the character. i guess it makes sense with the multiple POVs but yeah it is a bit weird.

did another one

★★★☆☆ “The Mainz Psalter,” 1930, Jean Ray

i'm starting to think my metric for 3 stars in this anthology is like 'has a plot that makes sense and i remember after reading' lol but this was pretty good. i'm not usually much for like ocean horror stuff but i thought it was interesting and it had a good flow to it. also interesting that this guy has two stories in a row in this anthology. i think i'll wait to read the next one though because it's also pretty long.

haha yeah it's about a young thief trying to restore his family fortune and apparently he's going to do that by stealing fairy gold? because obviously that seems like the easiest way. although i mean i guess if i was 12 that's probably what i'd go for too

i only got through chapter ...5 i think, about 2 hours and 20 min into the audio, today because i decided to apparently watch the entire first season of queer eye but i'm definitely liking it so far. i think it's interesting that we almost get more background info on and page space devoted to holly and the other faeries at this point rather than artemis. he definitely seems like he is going to be both very likable and also a horrible little shit but i can't wait to see more of him lol

hey guys, im hopefully gonna start this tomorrow. since it's so short i feel like i'll proooobably be able to listen to it in one sitting but we'll see lol

haha i am determined to finish this book by the end of the year! it will happen!

ok finally did one for this month

★★☆☆☆ “The Book,” 1930, Margaret Irwin

this one was ok i guess and the thing with the book was kind of interesting but i just couldn't focus on it and ended up not really caring what happened so 2 stars womp womp

@Mods can we get a thread for for 3/15?

ok i'll request the thread for sunday but we can start whenever

yeah i tried to start at the beginning with discworld bc that's just usually what i do but i hated it. i read the death ones and that was pretty good and have read a few of the tiffany aching books which were also pretty good. i just suggested the witches sub-series bc it's one i haven't started on and i know it has female characters in it - which is still my biggest complaint with some of them, that there is like One Female Character and she might be great but it's still not enough.

do we want to try to artemis fowl then? if nothing else it's a longish series so if we like it then we don't have to make another decision for awhile lol

re: the hell screen yeah i got the feeling the lord definitely did it on purpose to like 'teach the guy a lesson' which is i was so UGH about it. like let's hurt a woman to teach a man a lesson. groundbreaking! but since it's so old i will give it a BIT of leeway i guess.

re: the penal colony not sure exactly what was going on at the end with that one but i just liked it as a whole so i'm sometimes willing to let a weird end go. maybe there is a sequel to it or he was planning on but never did it? i don't know if leaving things 'open' in case there is demand for more is a more modern concept or not

i haven't read any of the ones for this month yet but i think we are both 'caught up' at this point at least lol i think it tend to leave these for the later part of the month and then go 'oh crap gotta do that!'

haha oh arden, you don't know what you've gotten yourself into