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.

The topic of "What to Expect in 2019" got me all excited! Although I have to admit I was hoping for lottery numbers or stock market picks or sports winners...

I'm excited to be raising my goal above where it was last year. More comments to come soon!

Ashley wrote: "The Adventure of the Six Napoleons and Other Cases. [spoilers removed]

The Adventure Of The Three Students [spoilers removed]"

Good job Ashley! You're almost done.

Great goal Winter!

I finished #84:


The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Rating: 5 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

And I'm starting:


The Chimes by Charles Dickens

oshizu wrote: "I just want to say a big thank you to our moderators.
Thank you for all you do to make reading all the more fun, meaningful, and rewarding for us all!..."

Agreed! Thank you mods!

By the way, finishing this book marks 2/3 progress through the entire Holmes series! Three more books to go!

Scott wrote: "This was really good, the Stephen Fry audiobook version really brings it to life. It was also nice reading this after the other Holmes books because there is similarities in the way Holmes and Wats..."

I'm glad you liked it. I thought it was one of the better Holmes stories. I haven't listened to the audiobook.

I finished two more which brings me to 83 for the year:


Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...


The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle, Fiction, Mystery & Detective by Arthur Conan Doyle
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

And I started reading:


The Power of the Dog by Don Winslow

I finished The Adventure of the Second Stain and liked it a lot. It had one of the more complex plots of any of the Holmes short stories which made it especially enjoyable.

Now I'm going to take a brief Holmes break then I will start reading The Valley of Fear in early December.

I'm in for this one but I'm going to start reading it around December 15th and finish on Christmas Day.

I finished two more:

The Adventure of the Missing Three-Quarter - college sports! But it's back to (view spoiler)[someone's past comes back to haunt them (hide spoiler)]. Also it's not as much a mystery as it is an attempt to (view spoiler)[follow someone who knows he is being followed (hide spoiler)] but at least it does keep you guessing as to what's actually going on.

Adventure of the Abbey Grange - here's a little different twist where the crime appears to be solved early in the story, but of course it isn't

I finished #81:


The Hand of Oberon by Roger Zelazny
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

And I started a re-read of:


The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

I'm hoping to wrap this book up Monday or Tuesday before I take off to visit relatives for Thanksgiving. Then I'll take a short break before getting to the December read of The Valley of Fear.

I finished two more:

The Adventure Of The Three Students is Holmes catching a cheater! Fun stuff.

The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez is regrettably (view spoiler)[ back to the same ol' "past comes back to haunt someone" formula (hide spoiler)]

Kristin wrote: "RJ, are you Randy? Angela Jr, I will remove you from the list for now."

Yes. I changed my screen name because there's some other Randys out there in my groups. No RJs though.

I just finished #80 for the year:


Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

And I started reading:


The Ministry of Fear by Graham Greene

I finished two more, and both of these were much fresher storylines than the tried and true "secret past comes back to haunt someone."

The Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton is about (view spoiler)[a notorious blackmailer. Holmes is employed to get some incriminating letters back for a client, but when Milverton turns out to be unreasonable about the matter Holmes and Watson become burglars to get the letters back. (hide spoiler)] It's probably the most unique storyline yet for Holmes,

Sherlock Holmes and the Adventure of the Six Napoleons: Case 9 is about (view spoiler)[ someone going around London breaking busts of Napoleon. Of course something is hidden inside one of the busts, it's not too hard to figure out. (hide spoiler)] Still there's lots for Holmes to do in this one and I don't remember another story with the same plot.

I finished The Adventure of the Priory School which was a longer story than most. I liked it because Holmes and Watson did a lot of detective work instead of just showing up somewhere and obtaining a quick confession.

I also read The Adventure of Black Peter which was a bit of a disappointment because it was very similar to many other Holmes stories (view spoiler)[(what's that you say? A terrible secret from the past comes back to haunt someone?) (hide spoiler)] and also because it was relatively short.

Angela Jr. wrote: "Hey guys, I'm unfortunately gonna have to drop out of this buddy read and the rest of the series too. Have fun reading :)"

Sorry to hear that Angela!