Ron > Recent Status Updates

I'm learning to appreciate the "weird on top of weird" stuff of the main storyline. It doesn't really have a plot, but it's interesting in a creepy way. I still don't care for the flashbacks though. I feel like they fall under Faulkner's advice to "kill your darlings"; sure they're interesting to write and they allow the character to exhibit and explain your own quirks, but does it help the story?

Through the uncredited/undated Psalms and the book of Isaiah, now on to Micah. There are some good stories in the prophets' books, but the prophecies themselves are really long and dull.

I love following the obviously stupid choices, just to see where they lead. Sometimes it's a "what an idiot" death, sometimes it actually works out okay.

Having some doubts about this book. The Area X storyline is just weird on top of weird with no clear direction yet, and the flashbacks just seem to be there to check the appropriate lit-fic boxes: bullied kid, strained marriage, terminal disease, etc.

Pretty good overall, but the hit:miss ratio of the jokes could be better, and at the 60% mark it feels like we're just now getting to something resembling a conflict.

My paperback copy came in, so I'll get moving again soon on this. Curiously, while the ISBN matches the one here on Goodreads, my copy has 412 pages plus a reading guide, instead of the 288 shown here. I suspect they made the print larger so the reader has to turn pages more often, thus making the book feel faster paced.

"'I feel fine,' I lied." Weeeeak.

Because I don't have enough on my Currently Reading shelf, let's throw this one on *and* try to knock it out before the 14th so I don't have to pay for it.

As the title states, this is a chooseable path book, so for the sake of argument, I'm going to read this a couple times a day, and increment the counter by 5% for each distinct ending that I encounter. That's only twenty endings out of, like, a hundred, but it'll have to do.

The pop-culture version of Jonah seems to miss the point of the story. It's not about keeping one's faith in dire circumstances. Jonah knows why he's inside a giant fish; God told Jonah to do something and he tried to hide from it. His display of faith is basically his accepting that you can't escape fate.

I admire Mr. Bennet's commitment to frustrating his wife.

I'm not a big fan of the audiobook's narration, so I've ordered a paperback. I'll get back onto this in a few days.

Through chapter 3. Apparently it took 100 pages to say that the self is an illusion the brain creates to provide a sense of cohesion between our experiences, emotions, and ideas. Not that much of a stretch, considering we often act before consciously thinking and then come up with a justification later.

Through Part 1, which covers Disaya's severely messed up childhood. It's a good story so far (meaning tragic but interesting). It's tempting to start judging based on my pasty middle class college graduate standards, but that wouldn't really be fair. I'm a guest here. Least I can do is wait until I'm done and evaluate the work as a whole.

This is my first experience with urban fiction. Rather than start with a landmark work like "Pimp" or "The Coldest Winter Ever" (which I'll eventually get to), I chose something more along the lines of casual entertainment.

Chapter 2 was okay,not as strong as the first. TL;DR - We don't know what the stuff of consciousness is, but research suggests that it's not in any one place, nor is it immutable. He cites the studies on split brain patients suggesting that each hemisphere is basically a distinct personality guided by whatever memories and abilities it can access from its side.

Still very early, just enough to meet the Brethren. They also introduced Carrot, but he'll have to wait until later.

1 Kings 13, give or take. The two-kingdom setup is pretty firmly entrenched, and ruled by Asa and Baasha. I believe that puts us three generations past David.

Chapter 2 seems to be getting into the subject of what consciousness is. Both scientific and religious explanations leave plenty to be desired, and deep down we can only be sure of our own experiences, so introspection is the best way to understand our own consciousness.

(2/2) Just don't be that guy who exoticizes the East as being infinitely more enlightened. One, you'll look like a tool. Two, the point of this book is to approach spirituality from a rational standpoint.

To recap, religion isn't just a scam; it gives people a platform to explore the vastness around them and inside them. Unfortunately, most religions come packaged with beliefs that the author doesn't care for. Buddhism, however, has a core of empirically testable practices and doesn't require a belief in the otherworldly, so we'll start there. (1/2)

I like the author so far; he's the kind of atheist who doesn't automatically dismiss religion as a scam or mass idiocy. In order to have survived this long, he reasons, religion must satisfy some basic human need. Specifically, it is the most common path by which people engage in deep contemplation, and in so doing break free (however briefly) of the constant search for material comforts.

Around page 120, we seem to have resolved the crisis and be heading home. Then the action starts up again, but the writing seems a lot sloppier and riddled with simple typos. I wonder if the author finished the manuscript, realized it was only 120 pages, and hurriedly tacked something on.

(spoilers) We just got an infodump from the vampire, and it is awesome. - The werewolf was the result of a man getting bitten by a wolf who had been bitten by a vampire. - These vampires are descended from the biblical Goliath, who (though the vampire admits this is just speculation) was the son of a fallen angel. - When a vampire drains someone's blood, they get all his knowledge too. (Foreshadowing?)

First impression, this book is in desperate need of an editor. There are a few typos, like a reference to a "Peter built" truck or using "too" instead of "to." The bigger issue, though, is that phrases like "They settled on a snow-covered meadow or clearing about 300 yards by 300 yards". I think the author may have left the two words in, expecting to decide later or let the editor choose, but they never did.