What have you been reading this April?

[NekroRider]

NekroRider wrote: "I've finished Unnatural Death tonight and loved it. Another brilliant Sayers mystery and ahead of its time.

I haven't started yet, but think The Five Red Herrings wi..."

While I started Five Red Herrings some days back, I had a few days of not having reading time and by the time I came back to it was not as into it. Since I'd only gotten a chapter in, I decided to put it back in the pile and do A Scanner Darkly instead. So that's my current read - so far so good.

[Mary]

I think Five Red Herrings is the worst of the Lord Peter tales. At least it can be skipped without issue.

[NekroRider]

Mary wrote: "I think Five Red Herrings is the worst of the Lord Peter tales. At least it can be skipped without issue."

Yeah that's what I've been hearing. But my "completionist" brain has trouble letting me skip books in a series, especially when its by an author I normally love 😅

[Pierre]

I just finished Intruder and shall start reading Protector this evening, 14th book in the Foreigner series.

[Andrea]

NekroRider wrote: "Yeah that's what I've been hearing. But my "completionist" brain has trouble..."

Oh, you have "completionitis" too? Good to know I'm not the only one. I think I've only ever DNF two books...yeah, a book has to be REALLY bad for me to not finish reading it eventually. Same applied to a series. I have very many unfinished series, but that's not because I don't intend to get to them, I just can't help also starting new ones at the same time :)

I create a "Series Tracking" post in this forum to kind of help me keep track of how I'm doing at actually progressing/finishing series and keeping an eye on how many new ones I'm starting.

[NekroRider]

Andrea wrote: "NekroRider wrote: "Yeah that's what I've been hearing. But my "completionist" brain has trouble..."

Oh, you have "completionitis" too? Good to know I'm not the only one. I think I've only ever DNF..."

Yep, I've definitely got a serious case of "completionitis" too. And same here on DNFing. Although I'm not sure if I have low standards or what, but it really takes a lot for me to actually dislike a book so much that I can't finish it or don't get some kind of entertainment out of it, lol. There are a couple of books that have remained unfinished for some years, but I fully plan to finish them one day!

I've started using your Series Tracking thread this year, actually. Always love an excuse to make more reading tracking lists 🤣

[NekroRider]

I finished A Scanner Darkly last night. The main character was written quite well and PKD did a good job at writing Bob Arctor's progressive detachment from reality. Even if it wasn't necessarily his main point, I especially liked the way the origins and "purpose" of Substance D were tackled, and (view spoiler)[ the way it was revealed that Arctor was used/sacrificed and discarded by the government he worked, which gave multiple layers to impacts of Substance D on people's lives at the hands of corporate interests and government response. I liked Donna's character quite a bit in the end too (hide spoiler)] Main thing that bothered me was the casual sexual harassment and violence references throughout the book that were a bit too gross to be able to easily ignore. Yes, "of it's time" and all that, but some books do better on certain things "for their age" than others, at the end of the day.

Aaanyway, now I'm on to some more Carol Berg with The Spirit Lens, first book in the Collegia Magica series. I'm only a couple of chapters in, but I'm enjoying the prose and atmosphere. I also love that the main character is an archivist/librarian.

[Andrea]

Still in April, I finished the third book in the Le Cercle d'Eloan trilogy. It wasn't bad, it just had some weird ideas at times, but was pleasant enough to read and hey it was free since I got it out of a book exchange box. I'll put it back in for someone else to enjoy now.