What Else Are You Reading in 2018? Showing 2,851-2,900 of 3,893

[Wen]

Why are you sooooo fast? That's a giant book...

[Jemppu]

ALLEN wrote: "I've never understood the difference between a semigod and a demigod."

*hah* drat, my English fails me - was actually wondering, but too lazy to check

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Jemina, just tell him that semi-gods have 18 wheels.

(Semi is the name for an articulated lorry in the US)

[Jemppu]

Allison wrote: "Jemina, just tell him that semi-gods have 18 wheels.

(Semi is the name for an articulated lorry in the US)"

*hah* that could serve Achilles well - with his heel condition.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Jemppu wrote: "Allison wrote: "Jemina, just tell him that semi-gods have 18 wheels.

(Semi is the name for an articulated lorry in the US)"

*hah* that could serve Achilles well - with his heel condition."

haha! True!

[Travis]

Dawn wrote: "Song of Achilles is so beautiful and devastating. Circe is a great read as well, Madeline Miller is fantastic at mythological history."

Cosign!

[Trike]

ALLEN wrote: "I've never understood the difference between a semigod and a demigod."

I know a hemigod has horsepower and lives in Detroit, if that helps.

[Gabi]

Allison wrote: "No, Anthony, I'm still here! I'm hoping my audiobook comes in tomorrow or the next day. I'll eye-read it if it comes to that, though. This beast will be slain!

People who've read both SoA and Circ..."

I've only read Circe. It didn't get me emotionally, yet it was very well done and cleverly combines several well known myths to a greater picture. Since the novels are stand alones, I'd say it doesn't matter where you start.

[Jacqueline]

I don’t think it matters which order you read them. I read SoA before C but that was basically because she wrote it first.

[Travis]

Allison wrote: "People who've read both SoA and Circe, do either seem like a better starting point for her?"

Either one works. The way I think of the difference between them: Circe is more episodic, with an organizing central plot not really becoming evident until the second half of the book; SoA is more of a traditional novel, with a clear, powerful, organizing plot (and a couple of related subplots) driving it from beginning to end.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Thanks, friends!

[Soo]

Finished

The Mongoliad: Book One + 4 Shorts (Foreworld Saga Series is on KU) - I enjoyed the short stories more than the main book because they had a clear start & finish. The Foreworld Saga series is an interesting take of history, legends, fables, secret societies & fighting. The most annoying thing about book one is that it is clearly a step one of the tale. It has a rather abrupt ending. I am loving how the authors combined history & imagination for the series. Definitely a fan of this collaboration & will continue with the series.

The Long Earth - Rambling start to a series & feels more like a thought experiment cobbled with a loose story. I enjoyed the questions and ideas the story had me asking more than the story.

Shade's Children - Solid YA Dystopian. Parts of it made me think of XOM-B. I would love to talk about the ending with someone. lol

Speaks the Nightbird - 1st time I've read anything by this author. In the end, I wasn't thrilled by this book but I came away from the book with a great appreciation for the way McCammon writes certain scenes & establishes characters. My next take on him will be Swan Song. I really wanted to take out a red marker and edit this one down by 40%. lol

Three Mages and a Margarita (KU) - Fun, quick UF. It was just different enough to keep my interest from start to finish.

[Kaa]

I just finished the Roads of Heaven trilogy by Melissa Scott. I love the author's writing style, and this was really lovely space fantasy.

I've also been reading some excellent short fiction from Fireside.com.

On the negative side, I read Rat Queens books 1-5 a couple nights ago and found it a really disappointing experience. The first two books are enjoyable, but the storytelling in books 3-5 was messy and unsatisfying. And then I found out that one of the co-creaters who worked on the first two books was dropped from the series due to domestic violence charges. All in all, I don't think I'll be continuing, and I can't say that I'd recommend the series to anyone else.

Next up: Trying to finish The Poppy War, starting Null States and Royal Assassin for buddy reads, and moving on to Temeraire book 5.

[Jordan]

Kaa wrote: "I just finished the Roads of Heaven trilogy by Melissa Scott. I love the author's writing style, and this was really lovely space fantasy.

I've also been reading some excellent shor..."

Yeah, Rat Queens is so frustrating. When the first volume came out it seemed like it was going to be such an amazing series, and then it all turned out to be downhill from there. I keep reading it hoping they'll manage to get it to work again. :c

[HeyT]

I have five group bookshelf books left in order to finish my final reading challenge of the year and I've finally settled on A Closed and Common Orbit as my next choice. I'm also on book 6 of Wheel of Time (Lord of Chaos)

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Woohoo!! HeyT, you're so on track!

[Travis]

Finished Royal Assassin. That ending: wow! On the one hand, I can't believe I waited so long to read Robin Hobb. On the other hand, I'm ridiculously happy I have so many still-unread Robin Hobb books ahead of me.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Gah! Really must get to her. Maybe I'll have time in October, but I'm also really far behind in my TBR challenge and I wanted to work on that...

Decisions, decisions!

The Fated Sky was a lot more what I expected Calculating Stars to be. I had fun with it, and it got me misty more than once!

About halfway through Babel-17 because I'm a rebel.

About 80% through The Eye of the World because I need a reminder of why I rebel.

I may well finish both today or tomorrow, then onto the other group pick for October!

[Anna]

I'm in the middle of Bryony and Roses by the amazing T. Kingfisher, aka. Ursula Vernon. The entire first chapter was about rutabagas, and so far there has been very much gardening, and it's entirely wonderful! I've never been a great fan of Beauty and the Beast (don't hate me!) but this has that Vernon touch that makes everything magical.

I'm also very tempted to jump on the Hobb bandwagon, but I've been dreading it for years. I'm one of those who always wants to read a series in one go, and committing to 16 books isn't something I want to do right now, or probably ever. I should think of an alternate plan, maybe one trilogy per month? That might be doable.

[Gabi]

;) Anna, you can have my seat on the bandwagon. I'm about to give up (for the moment at least) book 3 is killing me. I already turned up the speed on the audio.

[Anna]

Oh no, I'm very familiar with the 2x me the hell outta this audiobook feeling!

[ALLEN]

I would think any audio read is not going to sound very stately if it sounds as though Alvin and the Chipmunks are reading it!

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Thank goodness for compression in audio these days, which does not chipmunk-ify sounds.

Actually, people mostly just sound like from back home, where no one closes their mouth fully to say words and you just sort of drop whatever part of the word doesn't allow you to tack on the next syllable you need to say.

A li' onna mow'en = I live on a mountain in Connecticut-ese. ;-)

Also, 2x me the hell out of here is going on my board of Anna-isms.

[Gabi]

Anna wrote: "Oh no, I'm very familiar with the 2x me the hell outta this audiobook feeling!"

I'm at 1.5 x, cause otherwise I don't get the text.

[Anna]

Not getting the text is sometimes the point ;)

[Gabi]

Anna wrote: "Not getting the text is sometimes the point ;)"

ROFL!!!!!!

[ALLEN]

When current (Illinois) Gov. Bruce Rauner speaks "to the masses" he wears the JCP type of plaid shirts and drops his "g's."

When he is seen heading into expensive formal-dress fund raisers (that are closed to the public) if the reporters can get a word out of him, he wears fancy clothes and definitely does not drop his "g's."

And all without high-tech supplementation. Who knew Gov. Rauner was such an expert in compression?

ETA: Allison, I apologize if this got too political.
Will delete or relocate if you wish.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

lolol. You're good, Allen ^^

[Dawn F]

Hah, I never listen to audio books at 1x speed, they can all be listened to at x1.25, and some even at x1.50 without losing coherency. To Say Nothing of the Dog is fine at x1.75, I swear the narrator reads in slow motion lol. But it does make it a much faster read, from taking 21 hours down to 12, haha.

[Anthony]

I finally, finally, finally killed that The Eye of the World beast dead dead dead. And I will forever wonder how it ever became as beloved and popular as it is. And I will not be continuing on with its beastly brothers in the series. It was just relentlessly mediocre and derivative and repetitive and each little scrap of near-goodness was immediately subsumed by more mediocrity.

On to the buddy read of Rendezvous with Rama, which will be my first-ever read of an Arthur C. Clarke novel. I’ve had many folks highly recommend this one in particular. So my hopes are high. But then again, I had many folks highly recommend The Eye of the World and we all saw how that turned out...But dammit, I will not let cynicism kill my hope!

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Congrats!! I read Childhood's End, and I liked his writing quite a bit (even if that particularly story was one I'd "seen" too many times since to enjoy it as it was probably enjoyed). Looking forward to hearing the results of the buddy read :)

[Soo]

I still like Eye of the World. =P

Good luck with Rendezvous with Rama. =) May it be better for you than EoftW.

[Dawn F]

I have, embarrassingly, never read an Arthur C. Clarke book either, but I *really* need to finish To Say Nothing of the Dog and Up the Walls of the World over the weekend first before committing to more buddy reads.

(Excuse the lack of clicky links, I’m on my phone.)

Btw I’m loving Up the Walls of the World! It took a bit to get into but now I’m completely engrossed! Just lacking time to finish as fast as I’d like.

[Rachel]

I still like eye of the world too - you can pop in to the thread for my comment in state dependent learning 😊

[Rachel]

Actually I liked EotW back in the 2000s sooo

[Anthony]

Soo wrote: "I still like Eye of the World. =P

Good luck with Rendezvous with Rama. =) May it be better for you than EoftW."

Thank you, I hope I hope I hope!

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Soo, you seem to have near absolute patience for books! So, I am not surprised you like EotW and don't mean to knock it. In the immortal words of Hoban "Wash" Washburne, "some people juggle geese."

[Faith]

I was disappointed by Foundryside. My review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Jen]

I really enjoyed Rendezvous with Rama

[Soo]

Allison wrote: In the immortal words of Hoban "Wash" Washburne, "some people juggle geese.""

lol Juggling Geese!

Nah. Considering the range of books I read when I was a kid/teen. My reading quirks have become much more defined. Audiobooks have definitely added to my experience.

If you can read the Hobbit, everything else seems less overdone in comparison. I loved that book in 5th grade. I can't get into the book now and I've tried a few times.

I've read the Wheel of Time series (books 1-7) several times. I think it's a matter of involvement. If you enjoy something about the story, most meh/off parts aren't going to annoy you. If you're stuck in critical review mode, nothing may save you from picking the story apart. If you are reading for fun, I do not see the point of reading a book that you cannot get into or have a growing pile of negatives. There are always exceptions but those are few.

I devoured any book I could get my hands on when I was a kid. School library books, home children/regular encyclopedias, children/regular bibles, Greek/Roman mythology, Shakespeare, Poe, etc.

Back then, every book was a question mark. What will this one be about? So I would read it to find out. Way less judgemental back then.

Right now, I try to avoid books that put me into Critical Review mode with a Red Pen & Chopping Block. Exception to that one is Midnight Robber. That one will be fun to dive into with a critical eye. It has a lot going on. Hopefully the pen & block will stay in the work room. LoL

Audiobook Speeds: I am enjoying the process of figuring out how to change my hearing perception and comprehension. 1.70-1.85x sounds more or less normal. 1.95-2.5x sounds fast. I start off at around 1.85 and steadily increase over the time I am listening. Brain gymnastics. Yay!

Ex: The Curse of Chalion sounded fine at 1.95x and the issues that Allison had with it were not apparent. Less notable pauses & stuff.

[Anna]

Soo, what app do you listen with that let's you change the speed with 0.05 increments?

[ALLEN]

http://somepeoplejugglegeese.com/about/

[Gabi]

Anna wrote: "Soo, what app do you listen with that let's you change the speed with 0.05 increments?"

my audible app let's me do this, for example. I'm at 1.55 at the moment.

[Anna]

What the hell? Mine only has .25 increments. I want my money back!

[Soo]

What Gabi said. Audible & Overdrive are the two apps I use for listening to audiobooks. Overdrive is not that great with speeding up so I try to use that one less.

I finished Alternate Routes and I realized I was blah because I have to wait for the next book in the series. Tim Powers has become one of my fav authors because of the knowledge he weaves into his stories. This one is a surrealistic UF adventure. If you live in LA, you'll note many local tidbits.

Currently Reading/Listening:
Sparrow Hill Road
#Starstruck
Eyes to See
Legion: The Many Lives of Stephen Leeds

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

ALLEN wrote: "http://somepeoplejugglegeese.com/about/"

Exactly this! Everyone loves something, and everyone loves it a bit different. Don't look too hard, the answer is just "because I do!"

Anna, my phone app lets me do it in tiny increments, but my computer is 25% increments.

Soo, excellent points, and I think you're right. Once a spell is broken for you, unless the mechanics of the book are interesting by themselves, you're in trouble!

[Soo]

Anna wrote: "What the hell? Mine only has .25 increments. I want my money back!"

Software differences? I am in the US.

[Anna]

Do you all have Android phones? My iOS Audible has always only had 0.25 increments :(

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

I'm currently reading Arsenic for Tea - a Murder Most Unladylike Mystery. I'm liking it better than the first, so far, but that's partially because I went in with different expectations, I think.

I'm planning on starting Dreadnought soon for the buddy read, but I book I've been waiting on since June finally came into the library today, so now there are choices... :-/

[Soo]

@Anna - I don't have Audible on my laptop. I only have Android devices: cell & tablets. I'm pretty sure the software is slightly different per OS and brand.


@colleen - What are your choices?