The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski
It was alright, but felt kind of uneven. I found some of the short stories much more interesting than others. I read it while playing the first game on PC. I can see why people are into this series but it’s not really my thing.
The Pilo Family Circus by Will Elliott
Very outlandish sort of horror comedy. Usually not what I like to read but I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. Decent.
Omon Ra by Victor Pelevin
I was pretty disappointed with it. It started out promising but quickly lost me. There’s a kind of whimsy to some of the more satirical and absurd moments in the book that just puts me off.
It had been a long time since I last read them, so I decided to give The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings another read-through. Something I had been meaning to do for years.
The Hobbit — A fun and entertaining romp, but with more depth than you might first expect. Bilbo is a great protagonist to root for. Two parts stood out most to me: 1) Bilbo’s riddle-filled encounter with Gollum (it is no surprise LotR would bring him back), and 2) Bilbo’s moral dilemma toward the end (in which he has to betray his dwarf friends to try stopping a war from breaking out).
The Fellowship of the Ring — The first half of this was definitely slow going (it takes so long to get out of the Shire…), but the second half was very engaging, full of adventurous twists and turns. After Frodo, my favorite character in LotR was probably Boromir, the most conflicted member of the team (and what can I say, I’m a sucker for tragedies).
The Two Towers — I didn’t want to do too much comparing with the movies while reading these, but the first half of this felt nowhere near as exciting as the film’s take on the events in Rohan and Fangorn. I found myself liking the second half quite a bit though, as the tension between Frodo + Sam and Gollum gave their perilous journey an extra spice.
The Return of the King — Overall enjoyed this book the most for the trilogy. The stakes are as high as can be, and all the characters have to perform their final brave acts in a great variety of scenarios. There is arguably the world’s longest epilogue after “it is finished,” but I found it all interesting—especially the final two chapters, wherein lies the heart of the story IMO. Even the heavenly Shire is not spared from the atrocities of war, and though the four hobbits manage to quickly reclaim it, the destruction is reflective of Frodo’s own inner state. A bittersweet and impactful conclusion.
This may make me sound a bit out of touch, but what are everyone’s thoughts on ebooks? While I still love visiting my library and borrowing paper books, as well as the very rare one I actually buy, I have found my love for my Kindle to grow over the years. I have had two so far and will likely buy another before the decade is up and they are not only very convenient, but don’t take up as much space as paper books. As I age, I find the need to shed some of my stuff anyways so this gives me an excuse not to purchase a paper book if it has an ebook version and is a decent price.
eReaders are a great way to read eBooks borrowed from public libraries. My partner and I don’t buy a lot of eBooks but we do borrow the quite frequently. When I buy eBooks I try to buy DRM free ePub files from stores/distributors/authors rather than buying from an outlet like Rakuten or Amazon. Also a fan of eReaders with full open ePub access over locked down ecosystems like Kindle, because it eliminates the whole conversion step from ePub to Kindle file.
The regular Kindle is in black and white though, and still available… Are you referring to a more specific model that’s now discontinued?
I used to read ebooks regularly, but in recent years I’ve been much better at getting through novels via audiobooks. Can go for walks outside and get some reading in at the same time. Spotify now has a lot of audiobooks available as part of its basic plan too, so I don’t even need an Audible account anymore. If you want to save money, most libraries also have an app of some kind that lets you borrow audiobooks. You’ll likely have to wait a while for more popular stuff (and more niche stuff I’m into is often unavailable) but it’s worth looking into.
For me they made me read again. My eyesight isn’t the best anymore, my hands have a hard time to hold bigger books and e-books that allow me to change the letter size and format and the background color etc. made reading so much more convinient, that my e-book reader is the one thing I carry around with me everywhere. I could live without a smart phone, but when my first reader broke I panicked.
I use a tolino, not a kindle and I love that it works perfectly with my library and also in combination with calibre we are able to share books between family members.
What doesen’t work for me at all in e-format are comics. Even on PC it’s not the same thing, everything with lots of pictures actually. For text only it is perfect.
I hate to say it. But there was a spurt awhile back i listened to a bunch of novels via audio and now I don’t think I would want to read a novel the old way again.
Just finished reading The Girl That Can’t Get a Girlfriend by Mieri Hiranishi, and It was a lovely read. It being an autobiographical manga on the woes Mieri faces being a lesbian in the modern dating scene, I found it to be hilarious, cute, heartbreaking and often within the same page. I would highly recommend reading this if you can. I was able to find a copy at my local library, so I have no doubt others can do the same, but I would also recommend purchasing it as well.
If people haven’t checked out the Ready Player One audiobook with Wil Wheaton as voice actor it is fantastic. I remember driving to and from work just enthralled by it.
Fascinating stuff! Google recommends a lot of archeology and ancient civilization news stories to me and I’m always just amazed at how people lived. We can learn a lot from history.
Dune has probably been the sole constant I’ve had during the last couple of months, now I’m on book 3, halfway there. It seemed quite notorious that the saga was initially conceived as a single book, and that book 2 was a way to expand an universe into more books. Fought my way through book 2 and starting book 3 feels like getting back into what it was in terms of pacing and not making every single plot story happening in the head of the characters, please!
I think LotR will always be my benchmark on worldbuilding. I find myself reading/watching/anythinging fantasy sagas and thinking “yeah, this world is good, works, it’s coherent, but it’s not Tolkien”. It might be a tad too christian for me in terms of the moral absolutes present, but world building, second to none.
Something that I never thought was even a factor was that some eReaders might help you getting into genres you’re not that into and where your mind drifts away easily. Happened here with the Duna saga: saw first handledly how someone who’s not into science fiction at all got completely immersed due to the factor that an eReader can actually talk to you and read out loud with you while you read, marking a pace and helping you focus. That, for me (someone who can’t at all read anything non sciencey on a screen, heresy!) makes them worthy of existence and valuable even.
Still a work in progress so I can’t talk on anything other than the first two books. From those two, the first one is considerably better than the second in my opinion hahah.