EPBOT Readers discussion
Reading check ins 2020
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Week 8 Check In
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Hi, everyone! This week kind of flew by for me.This week I finished Red Sister. I don't normally enjoy the "grimdark" fantasy subgenre as much. This one wasn't relentlessly grimdark and devoid of hope, and the characters were generally likable. I'm definitely interested to read the second book, but I need a break for something lighter first. This was my PopSugar choice for a book with a great first line (which I quoted in my week 6 update, for anyone curious).
I needed something lighter, so I'm currently reading The Infinite Noise, a novel based on the podcast The Bright Sessions. I started listening to The Bright Sessions last year and binged the whole thing in about two months. I'm counting this as the book recommended by your favorite blog, vlog, podcast, or online book club, which might be a little stretch, but the book was promoted via the podcast, so I think it counts. It covers some of the same material as the podcast, but in a different way and in much more depth.
QOTW: I used to be almost exclusively a sci-fi/fantasy reader, although I also read quite a few of my grandma's old Harlequin romances in secret when I was a young teen. I don't think I really expanded my reading horizons until I joined my old, now-defunct online fiction book club. I used to actively avoid nonfiction, horror, most romance, and pretty much anything labelled "literary" fiction.
The whole premise was that we would rotate through genres, nominate books from that genre, everyone would vote, and we'd have two books: one main selection that we all read together and one optional bonus selection. I think that's really where I started widening my reading scope by reading across different genres, just because there's something fun even about reading an awful book when you're reading it alongside other people and can share the experience. We also had some spin-off groups, including a nonfiction one that finally got me reading some nonfiction, too.
Of course, now I get all sorts of recommendations from this group, from FoE, and now this is the first year I'm doing a challenge. I'm still primarily a fiction reader, and mainly sci-fi/fantasy and some romance, but I am much more likely, I think, to take a chance on something new, especially if someone from here or the main FoE group recommends it.
Not a whole lot to report this week, with two finishes, one being a short story:Je remballe ma bibliothèque: Une élégie et quelques digressions, which is a non-fiction look back at the personal library amassed by the author throughout his life, and the deeper meaning he finds in books and libraries. Quite enjoyable as a fellow book hoarder. Would love to get my hands on the original English version. Used for prompt Ravenclaw/Ollivander/about a hobby or trade. I felt the Ollivander analogy was quite appropriate.
Adam And No Eve by Alfred Bester. I picked up this short story from a FB post in a reading challenge group by a guy who could remember the title. It's barely 10 pages long, and it was only after that I realized I'd read another work by this author. Used for prompt Slytherin/Snape/story about redemption.
That puts me at 15/60 for the One PHRC 2020 challenge.
QOTW: Reading challenges got me back into reading after a long dry spell and pushed me into other genres. Much like you Sheri, I now read way more non-fiction than I ever have before. If I look at my TBR pile of book fair purchases, there are four broad categories:
1. Books I picked up for professional purposes, which covers everything from productivity and marketing to creativity, the evolution of language and accounts of biblical translation and the development of dictionaries.
2. Memoirs, from Malala to Mötley Crüe.
3. Miscellaneous non-fiction.
4. Novels, mostly in the sci-fi, fantasy, and horror genres, with occasional incursion into thrillers and police procedurals.
Mod
I'm now almost finished with Assassin's Fate, which I'm hoping to wrap up tonight. I am in AWE of how Robin Hobb is bringing together story threads from the entire 16 book series to converge into quite the climax. I know that monster epic fantasy series aren't for everyone, but if you like diving into a good epic, this series is AMAZEBALLS. Here's the entire series if you are interested.
I made a small road trip this week - only a 2-hour drive each way, but that was long enough that I downloaded an audiobook from the library and now I have 2 more weeks to find the time to listen to the rest - As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride, which has been great fun! I just finished listening to the chapter about Cary Elwes and Mandy Patinkin learning to fence :)
And, I am still reading A Hat Full of Sky out loud to my third grader at bedtime. The Nac Mac Feegles send us both into fits of giggles.
I just picked up The Starless Sea from the library so that's next!
QOTW: I don't really do reading challenges, and I've always been a reader of both genre fiction and nerdy nonfiction. If anything, it's recommendations from my non-geeky friends that make me branch out into more mainstream books.
Hubs has been out of town on business, so it's been a good week to read. And being that today is my last day of employment for the foreseeable future, the emotional escape is more than welcome. This week:Finished The Lance Thrower. I'd forgotten that this book is 100% Lancelot's backstory and the book ends right when he meets Arthur. That leaves a lot of ground to cover in the final book of the series, but I do really like how the stage has been set. I remember very little about The Eagle, too, only that there is some sort of twist on the whole downfall of Camelot- I just can't remember anything about what it is. So yay for what is basically a first time read! Will report back next week, and then with the series finished, it's time to attack my TBR list in earnest.
Read Witch's Oath and am still trying to figure out what happened to Terry Gookind's writing. It was so strong at his peak, and this series is so... well.... not. It's a decent story, and I'm still enjoying it on one level, but it lacks most of his subtly and nuance, and it almost feels like someone else trying to write these characters. If nothing else, these few short, easy popcorn reads have been a welcome diversion, though. I believe the next book (number 5 in the novella series) is supposed to be the last; I have a hunch on where this is all going, so we'll see if I wind up being right.
I've got three more queued up for next week while I wait for calls back on some job applications.
QOTW- I've always been pretty jaded against YA as a whole, and FoE has definitely encouraged me to read within it more widely. It's still not my preference, but I have discovered a number of books that I've really enjoyed that I otherwise would have passed up, and come to at least appreciate the why so many people love the genre. I also discovered graphic novels right around the time FoE was founded. I knew I liked what I'd already read, but the sheer volume of where to go next was super overwhelming, so a bit of direction from my fellow FoEs has been beyond helpful in blasting that door wide open.
This week I read Colour Scheme. I have been using Ngaio Marsh as a sort of stop-gap for when I haven't made it to the library or my requests aren't in, because there are a lot of them and they're available through Overdrive so I can pick one up last-minute, and I generally enjoy them. There's something about them that just seems sort of nice, even though of course someone's always died. Often the murder doesn't happen until halfway through, so there's a lot of characterization first, and generally a young couple fall in love.QOTW: I don't do any challenges, and I haven't been participating in the group for very long, but I generally do fairly well with diversity when reading on my own. I read vastly more mystery novels than anything else, but I do mix them up with nonfiction and other genres of fiction, so I feel decently well-rounded (I always feel like I don't read enough poetry; somehow I don't seem to hear about it like I do novels or pop-sci). I'm sure I'll start getting some ideas from the group!
In the last couple weeks I have finished a few audiobooks including:Maisie Dobbs - Set in the 1920s, it follows the story of Maisie Dobbs who is a private investigator in post-World War 1 London. At times it was a bit slow, but generally I liked it. I might pick up another book in this series, but not for a while.
Blood of Elves - After all of discussion and praise for The Witcher TV series on FOE, I watched it, loved it, and wanted more. I didn't realize the show was based on a collection of short stories that preceded the book series, so was quite confused when I first started listening to the book. After I got over that, it was pretty good. It reads like a TV show, so I was able to envision what was happening. No real plot though.... just lots of following the characters around. All of it felt like set-up to something that will happen later in the series. Apparently I'm not the only one who decided to do the books after the show because I'm pretty far down on the wait list for the next book.
The Woman in the Window - This is a story about a woman with severe agoraphobia. It was really interesting to listen to the life she created for herself inside her house. At first it felt like the story was unfolding slowly and not going too many places, but eventually I realized how all the pieces were related. When I had about 2.5 hrs left to listen, the book checked itself back in. Oops. :-( As soon as I make it to the top of the queue I'll be excited to see how it plays out. The ending of the book will be make or break for me and my opinion of it.
The Hate U Give - This one was available after my other checked itself back in and it was on my TBR list, so I grabbed it. I'm a little more than half way through and really glad I decided to read it.
The Starless Sea - I finally made it to the top of the wait list! I picked it up a couple days ago and am only on page 20, but so far I really like it. The Night Circus is one of my favorite books, so I have high expectations for this one. I love the way Erin Morgenstern creates universes - the descriptions are the perfect level of detail for me to imagine the whimsy while not getting bored by slogging through long paragraphs of wordy descriptions. Fingers crossed I feel the same way at the end.
QOTW: Reading challenges have definitely helped add re-ignite my love of reading and brought variety into what I read. And now, most of my reading variety comes from the recommendations here. Before a few years ago, I almost exclusively read murder mysteries. Committing to reading challenges helped me find really great works of nonfiction, fantasy, historical fiction, and so much more. Now I'm happy to read a variety of things and look forward to seeing what others here are reading and what they recommend!
I missed last week's check-in entirely - my mother in law passed away after a rapid decline only two months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, so I was mostly offline during my drive out for the funeral and to pick up my wife. So I apologize if I am repeating things from my last check-in here - I'm a bit off on where I left off!I'm pretty sure that last time I checked in I was reading The Secret Adversary, which was enjoyable, and listening to The Paper Magician, which was fun and felt like a really extended Studio Ghibli crossover fan fiction project. I'll probably check out the sequels eventually, but it was more atmosphere than plot, so I don't feel compelled to rush out for them right away.
Next up was The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups - it's the next book for the online alumni book club that always picks things that take forever to get from the library, so I decided to get ahead of the game and read it now. I really enjoyed it - I never would have picked it up on my own, but it was really interesting and made me think about all of the organizations that I've been part of over the years differently. It's classified as one of those business/self-improvement books that seem to be marketed to sales bros, but I highly recommend it to anyone that's interested in why groups function (or not) the way they do.
I then read Lexicon, which I'd put on my list after hearing about it in another Goodreads group. The premise was really intriguing, but the execution was a bit lacking. There was a bit of a "men writing women" vibe (if you haven't ever looked at that Twitter account, you really should) that was off-putting.
By the time I finished that, my hold for IRL Book Club #3's next selection was in - The Color of Magic. I'd never read anything by Terry Pratchett before, but he's one of those authors that everyone seems to love and recommends all the time, so I was looking forward to this one. Perhaps because of those expectations, it was a bit underwhelming - there were some mildly amusing moments, but the story never really grabbed me, and I don't really feel inclined to seek out additional books in the series.
After that, I decided to try another one from the same Goodreads group that I mentioned above and read Imager, which I really enjoyed - but I didn't realize until about 80% of the way through it that it's the first book in a seemingly quite lengthy series! That's on me for not reading the description more carefully, but I was a bit disappointed that some of the major questions weren't answered by the end - which is totally valid for a series, but I had to adjust my expectations late in the game. I'll definitely seek out the next one to find out what happens next.
With all that other reading, my hold for Maybe Someday nearly ran out before I could start it, so I only made it halfway through the electronic version before it was automatically returned. The audiobook was immediately available, so I decided to switch to that. I really enjoyed the written book, and the overall story - but the audio version was awkward with spoken song lyrics (I'm guessing due to copyright issues?) and character voices that I'm sure were well-intentioned but came across more stereotypically than they probably would have in print. I'm not a romance person, but I do enjoy Colleen Hoover's writing, and this might be my favorite of hers so far.
IRL Book Club #1's selection came in just in time for the funeral trip, and it was a really interesting one to read during that time - Mostly Dead Things. The dead things in the book are (mostly) animals in the form of taxidermy, but the family in the book was also affected by a relatively recent death and it was interesting to read their story while watching the in laws go through their own grieving process. The book is one of many I've seen in recent years that suffers from unfortunately misdirected marketing - it's not a comedy, and I have no idea why the publisher is attempting to push it as one. I would likely have enjoyed it more from the beginning if I hadn't gone in with misaligned expectations, and I suspect that will be a major topic in the book club's discussion of it - which is particularly unfortunate because it really is a thought-provoking story in its own right.
I'm currently reading Annihilation, yet another that I put on my list from that other group, and I'm really enjoying it. I'm about halfway through, and I really don't know where it's going to end up. I remember seeing previews for the movie and thinking that it seemed so generic that I wasn't interested, but I now wonder if that's because they didn't want to give things away in the preview. so I might watch it one of the 23 times a month it's on TV once I've finished the book. :)
QOTW: As you can see from this update alone, I read all kinds of things I never would have heard of otherwise based on book clubs and Goodreads groups - I can't even tell you how many of my favorite authors I've discovered that way. Of course there have been many that weren't exactly lifelong favorites, too - but I love the variety of being prompted to switch between genres and styles. I certainly never would have looked at the business section before the Culture Code, and I've become much more open to things classified as romance after multiple good experiences with books that I wouldn't consider "traditional" romance but are shelved there.
Mod
The Color of Magic is Pratchett's first book, and honestly I don't think it's one of his better ones. There's all sorts of charts out there that give suggested reading orders, and breaks the whole set of discworld books up into little series. I personally tend to like the Death books and the Witches books best.
Also, the Annihilation movie wasn't great, they lost most of what made the book so good. Or i should qualify, my husband who didn't read the book thought the movie was good. Me, who loved the book, thought it was a terrible adaption. Also as a note, I thought Annihilation was the best book in the series, the next two were nowhere near as good for me.
Double check in for me. I was away last week with friends and only had my phone and this is so much easier on my laptop.
I finally finished Early Socratic Dialogues aka sodding Plato. I was waiting to post until I was done and I finished this afternoon. I didn't read this entirely for enjoyment so much as my ongoing project of reading the books I bought for uni entirely rather than just the bits I needed for the essay/class. I read one of the dialogues for an essay back then and re-read that along with the rest. Overall it's got a good study aid built in thanks to the commentaries, talks a bit much about the translation details for my personal taste, but is overall interesting. Even if I do want to shout at the characters in the dialogues on a regular basis.
I also finished Amberlough since my last check in. Overall I enjoyed it but I got too confused by the political system to give it top ratings. I'm not sure if was my inattention or poor description on the part of the author. I failed to get either the closest real world equivalencies or the general descriptions until too late and it kind of spoiled it for me since politics is such a central theme. I did like the characters a lot though. I don't think I'll bother with the other books in the series even though there was a bit of a cliffhanger it was closed enough for me to not bother.
Just started Lies Sleeping, which is Rivers of London #7. It's been a while since I've read one and I read most of the previous ones at a rush so I hope I remember all the details I need to. I'm looking forward to it though.
I finally finished Early Socratic Dialogues aka sodding Plato. I was waiting to post until I was done and I finished this afternoon. I didn't read this entirely for enjoyment so much as my ongoing project of reading the books I bought for uni entirely rather than just the bits I needed for the essay/class. I read one of the dialogues for an essay back then and re-read that along with the rest. Overall it's got a good study aid built in thanks to the commentaries, talks a bit much about the translation details for my personal taste, but is overall interesting. Even if I do want to shout at the characters in the dialogues on a regular basis.
I also finished Amberlough since my last check in. Overall I enjoyed it but I got too confused by the political system to give it top ratings. I'm not sure if was my inattention or poor description on the part of the author. I failed to get either the closest real world equivalencies or the general descriptions until too late and it kind of spoiled it for me since politics is such a central theme. I did like the characters a lot though. I don't think I'll bother with the other books in the series even though there was a bit of a cliffhanger it was closed enough for me to not bother.
Just started Lies Sleeping, which is Rivers of London #7. It's been a while since I've read one and I read most of the previous ones at a rush so I hope I remember all the details I need to. I'm looking forward to it though.
Thanks, Sheri - if I decide to make another Discworld attempt, do you have a favorite starting point that you would recommend? And I appreciate the heads up on the subsequent books in the Annihilation series - I'll go ahead and push those to the end of my list. :)
Mod
Since my personal favorites involve witches and Death, I'd start with either Mort or Equal Rites.
Here's a chart that sort of shows the series/relationship within all the discworld novels
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discwor...
Tiffany Aching is also fun, that's a bit more YA and starts with Wee Free Men. She's also a witch, so tangentially related to the witches books.
Thanks, Sheri! Wee Free Men was apparently one of my mother in law's favorites, since it was in the set of books they had displayed at her funeral, so maybe I'll go there next - but should I read the witches set on the chart first?
Mod
Then I'll just go straight for that one next time I'm so inclined. Thanks, Sheri! :)
Mod
EPBOT Readers
Books mentioned in this topic
Lies Sleeping (other topics)Amberlough (other topics)
Early Socratic Dialogues (other topics)
The Paper Magician (other topics)
The Color of Magic (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Colleen Hoover (other topics)Ngaio Marsh (other topics)
Robin Hobb (other topics)
Hope everyone had a good week!
Had a bit of a lackluster reading week, couldn't get settled.
I finished:
Home from the Sea - re read just because I kept flitting around unable to focus.
Relative Fortunes - finally settled down and finished this. It was just ok. It tried too hard to be convoluted and twisty but nothing really came together. Counted for book set in the 20's for popsugar.
currently reading;
The Count of Monte Cristo - got into the 200's now, picking up a bit. Still so long!
The Power - audio re-read for my book club
The Prey of Gods - just started, going to be my book with a robot/ai/cyborg. Looks like fun, ai uprising meets vengeful goddess, set in South Africa.
QOTW:
Has doing reading challenges, or being in this group/ FoE opened up any new genres for you that you used to avoid, or simply didn't know about?
For me, doing reading challenges has opened up nonfiction. I used to actively avoid it, but i've read quite a few good ones. And I got the recommendation for Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup here, which I loved.