This week flew by pretty quickly. Didn’t even get time to read all the messages in last week’s post…
Finished Valour’s Choice by Tanya Huff. Book 1 of Confederation. Enjoyed the book, going to continue with the series, and may check some more of Tanya Huff’s work too.
Read Jujitu Kaisen Vol. 5. Nothing much to say about that, more of a manga goodness.
Started Dark Moon by David Gemell, a standalone fantasy book. This is my first Gemell book and I am enjoying it. I am about 1/3rd of the way in, and the world-building feels like something that can sustain a trilogy or even a longer series.
What about all of you? What have been reading or listening?
Laziness Does Not Exist by Devon Price PhD and The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell.
I’m enjoying both quite a bit right now.
Finished reading The Black Gryphon with my sibling. Was surprisingly progressive for when it was written, and although the non pov characters were very cardboard, it was a fun read.
Listening to Good Omens finally. I absolutely love the comedic writing, and about half the cast. The actual plot bites me to tears so I’ve had trouble focusing on it, but weirdly still enjoying it.
Started Perdido Street Station. New Crobuzon feels like he took the Cantina scene in star wars and expanded it to an entire city. And I love that the PoVs so far are an artist and a scientist just doing their thing.
I really enjoyed Perdido Street Station when I read it years ago, the weird fantasy of it feels so like extravagant and full in scope while also being grounded.
I finished A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge about two weeks ago. I couldn’t find anywhere to rent the 3rd book, I haven’t heard the best things about it so I don’t want to buy.
So, I started Use of Weapons by Iain M. Banks and am about 3/4ths of the way through. I’m reading before I fall asleep and sometimes the perspective shift makes think I dozed off and missed a key switch. But nope it’s just an instant complete perspective switch to another character/time. I’m still enjoying it but sometimes it gives me whiplash that I’m not a fan of here.
Le Comte de Monte-Cristo by Alexandre Dumas and Le Hobbit. Both in French because I need to really polish my French this year.
Ah, cool. What is your level of French? Can you understand the books without any/much use of dictionary?
I can follow mostly without problem, I get perhaps 98% of the words, the hard part is some grammatical constructions, but those have gotten easier the more I read. The Hobbit is my comfort text, it’s a story I already know by heart so I can work out the meaning of the words by my recollection of reading it in other languages (I’ve read it in both English and Spanish). Monte-Cristo is my practice text, I go chapter by chapter, first with the audiobook only, then again with both audio and text reading at the audio speed; then finally only the text at my own pace, checking every word I have trouble with. I’m reading it for the first time, which helps keeping the interest up. Also, eReaders are the ultimate language acquisition tools, I get Wikipedia, dictionary and translation in almost any language I could want in a single device.
I haven’t practiced my writing or speaking much though, which I will have to eventually.
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
