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

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

Looks like it's only on Starz: https://reelgood.com/movie/repo-man-1984

Our October pick will be Finder by Suzanne Palmer.

One cool thing to note is that if you're an Audible subscriber this book appears to be included in their new collection of stuff you can borrow at no additional charge.

Shhh..that's not public yet..

if it's helpful you can do voice and video chat right on the S&L discord server.

Welcome Hugh.

Nexus by Ramez Naam

or

The Lives of Tao by Wesley Chu

Welcome Harold.

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


Personal: 34/50 (68% complete)
Sword: 12/15 (73% complete, 13% ahead of schedule)
Laser: 13/10 (130% complete)
Comics: 5/5 (100% complete)

This month I've added 1 Sword, 1 Laser, 0 Graphic novels.

I'm almost done with the September pick so that's at least 1 more sword. I have 3-4 newish fantasy books to read, so I'll probably listen to at least 1 or 2 of those. I also have a nonfiction library book I was reading and kind of lost steam on that I hope to finish. Maybe I'll finally get around to finishing the volume of the Boys I half read a few weeks back.

It's looking unlikely I'll hit 50 books this year. Normally I do 75->100. I cut down my personal challenge to reduce pressure on myself, but I didn't expect my reading to be down this much. Then again, who expected covid? Probably should have by January, but ah well.

August Results:

Sword Challenge
Total Participants: 291 (+4)
Total Read: 3,245 (+486)
Average Books Read: 11 (+1)
Total Committed: 5,162 (+44)
Average Books pledged: 18 (0)


Laser Challenge
Total Participants: 289 (+3)
Total Read: 2,681 (+399)
Average Books Read: 9 (+1)
Total Committed: 4,567 (-28)
Average Books pledged: 16 (0)

Doubtful, because the NOS4A2 has been cancelled. Unless someone else picks it up, but that seems unlikely to me.

Also, while I haven't watched all of Mr. Mercedes yet, as far as I know they still one book per season. They just did them out of order. Season 2 is from book 3 instead of book 2.

My understanding is season 3 (which I haven't seen) is supposed to be based on book 2 from what I read. Maybe they added some other stuff though to fix the continuity they broke by changing the order of the books.

Mr. Mercedes is also likely cancelled since the network it was on no longer exists.

I imagine both shows are going to shop around, but not sure how easy it is to get "saved" since few shows are in production right now.

The month has begun. Go forth and read and discuss (and make new threads)!

Am I the only one who is finding this year both painfully slow and still surprised it's already September?

Ugh 2020.

What does everyone have on their reading pile this month?

Yeah. I've read the book. My it was basically two parts. Part one was season 1, and part 2 is season 2, so it works out well.

A third season would have been new story afterwards.

I think the narrator is just "fine" and that it works OK in audio, but not a must listen.

However one bright spot for me compared to other books is the footnotes.

She starts each one with "footnote" and ends them with "end footnote".

Normally I've found footnotes a pain in audio, but she does a good job with making it apparent. I don't remember any other audiobook with footnotes where it was so clearly delinated.

AndrewP wrote: "Just finished up watching Season 2 of NOS4A2. This wrapped up the book nicely but made a couple of tweaks to the ending, leaving the possibility of a 3rd season. Great book, great TV show."

Sounds like there won't be a season 3. I've just started watching season 2 myself. Took me a few episodes to get back into it, but I'm enjoying it now.

FWIW, I always post the Monthly book club announcement 24 hours after the Patreon annoucement.

I post to both the goodreads group and the S&L Discord server.

September Event: https://www.goodreads.com/event/show/...

Stephen wrote: "I pick this up when it was a Daily Deal for Audible. So I am all set"

That must be why I have it!

I added this to my shelf back during March Madness nominations and ended up picking up the audiobook at some point, but haven't listened to it yet.

I haven't really been excited by the last 2 picks and couldn't get them from the library so I skipped them. Excited to jump back into another group pick again.

The September pick will be The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow