Rob’s Comments (group member since Jul 06, 2012)

Rob’s comments from the The Sword and Laser group.

Just started my re-read of the Expanse. It's been about 7 years since I read Leviathan Wakes

Our next meetup will be Saturday, July 31st at 12pm at McGinty's!

Please be vaccinated if you wish to attend

911 Ellsworth Dr
Silver Spring MD 20910

https://www.mcgintyspublichouse.com/

Going to try to use Discord for RSVPs. You can use emotes on my post there [Y]es, [N}o, [M]aybe.

Alternatively you can just reply to this thread.

I will be making a reservation on Monday July 26th. Please Reply by then.

Welcome Divya. I'm sure the members of this group can more than fill your TBR list up with some staples of the SFF genre.

You can check out the What Else are you reading threads to see what our members are doing, but you can also make your own thread in that section if you want to ask for some suggestions.

For my own personal challenges, I'm finished with:


Personal: 16/25 (64% complete)
Sword: 9/5 (180% complete)
Laser: 4/5 (80% complete)

I finished reading 1 fantasy book and 1 mystery book in June. I'm also most of the way through a 3rd book which would finish my Laser challenge.

However I only did about 6 hours on my road trip (which is roughly 13 hours of driving round trip). Normally I take that trip in colder weather. This time I rode with the windows down and sunroof open for much of the drive up and the drive back, which dramatically cut down my audio time.

At the pace I've been doing lately I think I need to start my Expanse re-read by the end of the month, then listen straight until November. We'll see how that goes. I have some other stuff I want to listen to this summer.

June Results:

Sword Challenge
Total Participants: 126 (+5)
Total Read: 1,818 (+269)
Average Books Read: 14 (+1)
Total Committed: 3,677 (+70)
Average Books pledged: 29 (-1)


Laser Challenge
Total Participants: 128 (+3)
Total Read: 1,624 (+266)
Average Books Read: 13 (+2)
Total Committed: 3,395 (+55)
Average Books pledged: 27 (0)

AndrewP wrote: "For people who know how to parse the Goodreads data, is there a way of finding the number of 'likes' you have on a particular review? I don't see that info in the download."

Sorry, just saw this now. I don't believe that's included with the CSV export unfortunately.

Our very own Veronica Belmont is a guest on Brian McClellan's new Podcast

July is here and so is a new thread. What will you be reading this month?

Re the mid credit scene:

(view spoiler)[according to Nerdist, the guy with the hammer is "Boastful" Loki.

Not being a comic reader I know nothing about any of these things, but I like the care they always put into easter eggs/details for the comic fans. (hide spoiler)]

The month has begun..go forth and discuss!

I thought this week's episode was really good, and I'm looking forward to seeing next week's.

That mid credit scene was interesting and confusing.

Welcome Steve.

Please don't make me lock the thread. Take the conversation to another thread.

Please take this stuff to another thread and not in quick links

I've been putting off trying Culture books for awhile. I've heard some folks say this book is a bit of a tough entry and that The Player of Games is a better one.

Personally I hate skipping books and always read in series order, so I guess I'll finally give this a go.

Our July pick will be Consider Phlebas by Iain M. Banks

Brad wrote: "I’m starting to think my time with books is coming to an end. I can’t seem to read anymore, it’s been getting worse for years and now I struggle to read a few paragraphs at a time. "

I've had that same issue the last year or so myself. If not an end, maybe time for an extended break? Reading (and this group) should be a fun hobby. If you're not enjoying it, stepping away is probably the right call.

That said, I didn't particularly love Colour of Magic. I enjoy some of the later Discworld books much more.

I've found though my enjoyment of reading or a particular book can be largely dependent on my mood. So if you're just not in the mood for anything/reading I can see that also being a factor.

If nothing else you can hang around the TV and Movie threads assuming you're still watching and enjoying SFF that way.

I'm not sure if that's an official date or just a guess on Amazon's part.

Update: Looks like it is: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/tit...

For me it kind of ties back to some of my most read authors. I've binged all of Dresden on a reread, which was like probably 13-15 books at the time.

I also will do all 7 Harry Potter books every few years.

I did a big re-listen of 14 Wheel of Time books a few years back as well.

I'm planning to binge the Expanse books 1-8 before Leviathan Falls comes out. In fact, given how slow I've been at listening to books lately, I should maybe start that soon/next.

There isn't a release date yet, but it's been finished so maybe later this year or early next year. Ideally I'd love to time it perfectly and do all 9 back to back, but likely to do that I'll have to postpone reading the final book right when it comes out.

That was my assumption, yes.