Mike > Recent Status Updates

This is one of the least boring books I've read in a long time.

It's not that there's no progression in this book at all, but the progression is too subtle. I do want to enjoy this for the fascinating information about biology, but there are too many distracting problems.

For a vet with no demonstrated interest in literature, this is surprisingly well-written.

This is pretty interesting information, in spite of my problems with the format.

I'm not sure how much this is a general memoir, and how much it's exclusively about Herriot being a vet. Like, does he really have so little of a life outside of being a vet that the only other noteworthy thing he does is court this woman?

Souvenirs by Tim Federle: 5/5 Well-written and funny

Inertia by Veronica Roth: 2/5 (DNF) Good premise, bad execution

Love is the Last Resort by Jon Skovron: 2/5 (DNF) Unfunny, uninteresting

Good Luck and Farewell by Brandy Colbert: 4/5 Writing meh, good character development

Brand New Attraction by Cassandra Clare: 2/5 Badly plotted, boring characters

We would lose very little if Haskell didn't include his personal experiences here. Most of the book consists of him seeing a flower or snail or something, and then six or seven paragraphs detailing research he's done on that flower or snail. It's fairly interesting research, but the framing device is odd and unnecessary. And the writing can get overwrought at times.

There are a few very funny moments in this book, certainly. Although on the whole, being a vet sounds like it really sucks.

In Ninety Minutes Turn North by Stephanie Perkins: 2/5 (DNF) The introduction to this story was very tedious, and I'm not a big fan of Perkins' writing style. She seems to be trying too hard to write symbolism into the story, and it ultimately doesn't amount to much other than a cheap aesthetic. The protagonist had some potential, but other than that... meh.

There's a goddamn reason this was published as two separate books in Britain. I know that this book isn't actually that long in the grand scheme of things, but it feels like it goes on forever.

The End of Love by Nina LaCour: 5/5 This is so well-written and adorable. Optimistic, but realistically so, and very memorable.

Last Stand at the Cinegor by Libba Bray: 2/5 (DNF) Predictable, awkward, and forced. The characters were nice, but other than that, it's useless.

Sick Pleasure by Francessca Lia Block: 2/5 Confusing, full of infodumps, and distancing. It fails to be atmospheric.

Seriously, I have been kind of hard on this book in these updates. This really is well-written, and entertaining, if only mildly so.

Head, Scales, Tongue, Tail by Leigh Bardugo: 3/5 This story definitely has its problems, the biggest being just how bland of a character Gracie is. It also relies hugely on infodumps, particularly towards the beginning, so the first half of the story is kind of a drag. But it improves towards the end - I do like the premise of the story, and the twist at the end was good.

I'm trying to figure out how to read this. I guess it's Haskell using his personal experience as a framing device to give us his research? It's just surprisingly dry for something based on personal experience, and I feel like the information is going to get badly organized as time goes on. But we'll see.

Hey, it's those chapters of all-dialogue that Ness used to do in The Crash of Hennington. Only they're better here, because unlike the ones in Crash of Hennington, these conversations are part of a book that I actually enjoy.

I feel like I would like this a lot better if I had time to read it faster.

This is incompetent, on a basic level. The opening chapters needed to be replaced with something that takes place within the time frame of the story, maybe relating to a sub-plot. And Polonsky needs to find a better way to give us Grayson's background than just infodumping it. I am overall very nervous about where this is headed - these opening pages are clumsy and amateurish.

I keep trying to sum up why I'm not very into this book, and all I can come up with is, "It's boring." Like, there are very few actual problems with this book, except for a general lack of interesting things happening.

There are an obnoxious amount of stories about how Herriot was right when other people were wrong. I'd say that's the most annoying thing about this book so far.

I don't know why I can't get into this the way I'd like to. Like, on a technical level, I'm praising this - Anderson is an extremely versatile and talented author, and he deserves a ton of acclaim. But at the same time, I don't find this book particularly interesting or enjoyable.

I wanna know what the pox party is. Can we get to that part already?

This isn't bad exactly, it's just kind of tedious. I think it's the writing style that's holding Anderson back - I understand what he's going for, but by today's standards, it's just too stilted and distancing to be effective.

People tend to describe the premise of this book rather than the plot, and I'm starting to see why. There's just not much happening here. And I mean, that was kind of the case with Feed as well, but there, it served to flesh out Titus and the world. Here... I'm just not seeing that as much. Although maybe as the book goes on, this will make more sense.

Well, this is certainly a very compelling premise. I'm kind of nervous about where this is going to go, but I've certainly never seen anything like it.

I kind of like this better when I read this as a memoir about how frustrating it is to be a vet, rather than something supposed to be funny.

This is going to be difficult to get through. Not necessarily because it's bad, but just because it does seem to be authentically written like a Victorian-era novel. Not exactly what I expected from M.T. Anderson based on Feed, although I guess it makes sense. I'm still too early in to judge if this is good or not.

This is legitimately one of the funniest mangas I've ever read. Which is odd, because this isn't a gag manga or anything. I think it's just a testament to how much of a supremely skilled writer Arakawa is that she can insert so much genuinely good humor into an otherwise serious series.

I feel like I'm being kind of hard on this book, because I've been conditioned to hold a bias against books set in the English countryside. This really is pretty funny, and I wish I had time to read it faster.

This is getting less and less interesting as it goes on. This is what Liar would be like if Justine Larbalestier was more interested in confusing and shocking us than saying something.

As far as books that ask you to jump from chapter to chapter semi-randomly and have almost no chronological order go, this is pretty well-structured. There actually is somewhat of a progression of tone, simply because of the information Palahniuk chooses to withhold and when he decides to reveal it. This structure is terrible for showing any kind of emotional truth, but it might be good for the drama.