RJ - Slayer of Trolls’s Comments

RJ - Slayer of Trolls’s comments from the 2025 Reading Challenge group.

Note: RJ - Slayer of Trolls is not currently a member of this group.

I finished my 11th of the year:


The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

And I'm starting:


Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges

I finished my tenth book of the year:


A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

And I started reading:


Beast in View by Margaret Millar

I finished The Creeping Man and The Adventure of the Lion's Mane. Both stories shared some similarities. They were both interesting ideas that were different from other Holmes stories. But unfortunately both of them ended up being a little bit far-fetched and unlikely in their conclusions. I liked them both but not as much as other Holmes stories. Lion's Mane was the second story narrated by Holmes himself with no appearance of Watson at all.

I finished The Problem with Thor Bridge. I thought the ending was a little bit unlikely but otherwise it was a good story.

I finished The Adventure of the Three Garridebs and liked it more than the two prior stories. It didn't take long to catch the similarities to The Red Headed League but I enjoyed it anyway.

I finished my ninth book of 2019:


Night Has a Thousand Eyes by Cornell Woolrich
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

And I started reading:


The Axeman by Ray Celestin

I read a couple more:

The Adventure of the Three Gables was similar to some other Holmes stories with (view spoiler)[someone committing a crime for reasons that might not be wholly evil and Holmes settles matters outside of the court system (hide spoiler)].

The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire (view spoiler)[doesn't actually have any vampires! That's fine of course, but I was disappointed in the ending which I found a little unrealistic. (hide spoiler)]

I thought both of these stories weren't quite as good as earlier stories in this collection and in the series.

Marc wrote: "Illustrated version, yes?..."

Funny you mention that. I read the non-illustrated version a few years ago and loved it. This time around I'm going to read the illustrated version: Neil Gaiman And Charles Vess' Stardust

I didn't realize until I read the Wikipedia entry that the illustrated version is actually the original version of the story. The non-illustrated conventional novel was published a year or so later. I believe (but am not sure) that the text of the two books is the same and the novel simply lacks the illustrations.

I finished The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone - it's also not narrated by Watson but is instead told in the third person. I enjoyed it.

Congratulations to the winner! I thought all of the entries were excellent this year.

I finished the second story: The Adventure of the Blanched Solider. It had the unique twist of being narrated by Holmes instead of Watson. In fact, Watson doesn't make an appearance in the story at all, just a couple of offhand mentions. The ending wasn't too much of a surprise but it was still interesting and I liked it.

I finished number 8 for the year:


Chop Wood Carry Water: How to Fall In Love With the Process of Becoming Great by Joshua Medcalf
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

and I started reading:


Wooden: A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court by Steve Jamison and John Wooden

I finished The Adventure of the Illustrious Client and liked it. Like you mentioned Ashley there was no real mystery in this one but still plenty to do for Holmes and Watson. Someone's past did eventually come back to haunt him, but not in the usual way, so that was refreshing.

I thought the brief introduction was interesting, in which Doyle blatantly says that he's sick of writing Holmes stories. I think there have been times during the series that I had gotten the feeling that Doyle was tired of Holmes, but most of those times came earlier in the series, prior to The Hound of the Baskervilles.

I finished two more which brings my 2019 total to 7:


House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski
Rating: 2 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...


Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

And I started reading:


The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett


The Reader by Bernhard Schlink

I think "what counts as a book" is a question that everyone has to decide for themselves.

For me, I only count traditional books that were published as stand-alones regardless of length (although I would make an exception, say, for those Neil Gaiman short stories that are published with a large amount of illustrations in book form, and I would probably NOT call those a "book") for the purposes of my reading challenge. I also don't count graphic novels, regardless of length.

But I know people who do count comic books and short stories in their annual challenge total, and that's fine of course. It's just not what I do.

I finished my fifth book of the year:


The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

And I started reading:


The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle

Starting today!

Ashley wrote: "...This was my favorite book of short stories so far."

Mine too!

I'll be starting this one in the next few days after taking a brief Sherlock Holmes recess. Has anyone else started yet?

I can't believe I have almost finished the massive volume of The Complete Sherlock Holmes that has been sitting on my bedside table for over half a year! We're down to the final few stories now...

Kristin wrote: "@Brittany - I would recommend NOT watching the show if you haven't already. Despite what many people say, I am finding the first book and the series to be very, very similar. I wish I would have re..."

Regarding your first spoiler, (view spoiler)[I always thought Drogo wasn't trying to rape Dany but he just hadn't had any experience in consensual sex and didn't even know what it was or how to do it, which coincides with his culture's male-dominated rape-and-pillage traditions. I thought he and Dany had to learn together, since she was a virgin prior to marriage, how to make the experience less painful and eventually pleasurable to her. (hide spoiler)]