I finished Fight to the Finish by Tim Cook (466 pages)

It's a history of the Canadian war effort in WW2, worth a read to anyone interested in that period as Canadians did more than Dieppe and D-Day.

The image looks off, I finished reading 2 books thus far (The Girl Who Leapt Through Time and Kiki's Delivery Service). Which would land me at 33% too, funnily enough.

Finished The Bluest Eye - Toni Morrison

10. Woman, Eating by Claire Kohda

Modern take on the vampire novel. Focuses on mental health, eating disorders, colonialism, aging parents, and all sorts of depressing topics that I won't go into greater detail about. This was easy to read and it contained several scenes that caught me off guard or made me expect the book to turn one way before it would turn a different way. It's a solid book that has an ending that comes a bit too fast but is rewarding regardless.

And we're back. The main readings will all be grouped under one number.

16) Helped with proofreading a financial help book, read some instruction manuals, read through some patterns for crochet projects, read some newspaper articles, read previews for upcoming books, read through some sewing patterns and instructions, read instructions for assembling a storage cabinet and garden bed, did some light reading on Bauhaus art along with read about Jasmine Becket-Griffith and her art.

Oy... This Spring Cleaning Session was more brutal than anticipated. Was hoping to get some reading in during the break but may have to push that off till later in month.

I just found this thread. Is it too late to sign up? If not, put me down for 30! I’ll make a detailed post of the 12 books I’ve finished so far this year. That includes a couple audiobooks, but no comics of which I read a lottt. Also in the middle of like 20 others, but that’s my problem.

Read the first chapter of Blood and Fire and I'm going to pass for now. It reads like a history book, and from what Google says, and my skim of random pages, that's pretty well what it is.

I've learned I have a preference for dialogue that moves the story line as opposed to action. I find myself glossing over the action if it's too drawn out.

I'm kind of struggling at the moment, I think I might just re-read another book. Anyone have any favourites to suggest?

Do you have a StoryGraph? You can find some tailored suggestions and look at what other people are reading. Complete strangers! And they’ll never even know. Or you can look at your friends’ book piles. They are more likely to know but not by much.

Have you read the Book of the New Sun series by Gene Wolfe?

9. Michael Pollen - Caffeine: How Caffeine Created The Modern World. Interesting short history on coffee and tea's proliferation into the western world, and the author's personal experience with cutting caffeine for 3 months

10. Andy Weir - The Martian. Somehow, I had not seen the movie to this so it was actually a suspense all the way through. I really liked the book, and after finishing it I tackled the movie. I found the movie rushed, and lacked a lot of the tangible suspenseful moments from the book (or just changed them for movie purposes).

I have not. If I get unbearable, it'll certainly be a tool I'll look into using.

No, but I'm definitely going to order the first book and dip a toe in. The reviews are phenomenal, thank you.

I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. Wolfe is one of the absolute best.

Done reading these books:

30. Hildur - Die Spur im Fjord, Satu Rämö, 368 pages

31. Der Angstsammler (Patient), Jasper DeWitt, 256 pages

32. Das Ministerium der Welten - Der Riss, Luzia Pfyl, 150 pages

33. Das Ministerium der Welten - Band 2: Der Wandler, Luzia Pfyl, 136 pages

34. Das Ministerium der Welten - Band 3: Die Geister von Rungholt, Luzia Pfyl, 151 pages

35. Das Ministerium der Welten - Band 4: Katakomben, Luzia Pfyl, 129 pages

36. Die Filiale, Veit Etzold, 400 pages

37. Die dunklen Lichter der Stadt, Stefan Holtkötter, 330 pages

38. Seelenmesse (Requiem), Geir Tangen, 480 pages

39. Kalter Neid - Ein Fall für Sommer und Kampmann: Band 1, Angela Lautenschläger, 368 pages

Hildur - Die Spur im Fjord:

Westfjorden, Iceland: Hildur Rúnarsdóttir lost her two sisters when they went missing on the way home from school. Now as an adult, she works for the police. With the grim loss of her sisters still looming, she has developped a strict sport regime to keep herself fit and her mind occupied.

But the cracks are not only shown in the ice when the corpse of a killed man emerges under the piled up snow of an avalanche - as the current murder case has ties to what happened to Hilgurs sisters that fateful day years ago.

Very good book. In a short text after the end of the book the author mentions that Huldur was first sort of like an imaginary friend of hers at first and you can definitely how well fleshed out the character is.

Patient:

Parker H. is a young pychiatrist. When he starts working for a sanatorium in New England, the rumours of a patient catch his interest, a now thirty old man, only referred to as "Joe" who lives in the sanatorium since he was just six years old. Apparantly, all treatments have achieved nothing and the psychiatrists that tried treating him either went insane or even killed themselves. Obviously none of that scares Parker, as he is convinced that he can find the right treatment.

But Parker doesn't even know what waits for him and is quickly caught in Joes web.

Good spooky book.

Das Ministerium der Welten - Der Riss + Das Ministerium der Welten - Band 2: Der Wandler + Das Ministerium der Welten - Band 3: Die Geister von Rungholt + Das Ministerium der Welten - Band 4: Katakomben:

1925: The world is overrun by ghosts and monsters and the ony institution the stays in their path is the Ministry of Worlds. Melody, who works for Scotland Yard, is investigating a murder but the state of the corpse makes her realize that the case belongs the the Ministry. Their two best workers, River Fields und Norrick Lynch start working on the case but Melody decides to investigate herself - a dangerous decision.

Good series. The fourth book ends on a cliffhanger and it seems like there is not any news about a next book coming out, sadly.

Die Filiale:

Laura Jacobs works in a bank and after handling a bank robbery well by sneakily alarming the cops she is about to be promoted but at the same time her tenancy agreement for the house she lives in with her husband gets terminated, as apparently some big IT company wants to build a big facility in that area.

As Laura tries to save her house and prepare for her promotion, suddenly some shady bank account activities involving stealing big amounts of money from some of the banks clients are made by using her account - and she has to try to find ways to prove her innocence, but that turns out to be more dangerous than expected, as truly shady parties are pullling the strings in the background.

Solid book. Fairly tame for the most part despite being labelled as a thriller. Probably gonna read the two sequels.

Die dunklen Lichter der Stadt:

The young policeman Sven Maalouf can't believe his luck when he gets promoted to the murder squad - but that turns out to be a double edged sword, as he is supposed to report on any ill-doings that his co-worker Rosa Bertram commits. When she, against the wish of the police department, continues to investigate in a case that was labelled as accident, Svens conscience is put to a test, especially as the alleged accident seems to have ties to the current murder case that Sven and Rosa are supposed to work on. As such, Sven has to walk a tight balance between keeping his own job and not putting his partner in jeopardy.

Very good book. Not available in english.

Requiem:

The middle aged journalist Viljar Ravn Gudmundsson recieves a terrifying e-mail: an unknown person is proclaiming themselves to be a judge and that they will cast their judgment and kill a person for their illdoings the very next day. It could be a ruse but the unhinged nature of the text makes him send the email forward to the police. And guess what, next day a person is found dead and the murder seems be done in an amateurish way, with tons of fingerprints, etc. 

When the next person is killed and similiarities with plots from popular crime books become evident, the first impression of an amateur murderer are quickly cast aside, as the murderer seems to be always one step ahead. Can investigator Lotte Skeisvoll save the next person from the murderer?

Great book. Very bleak

Kalter Neid - Ein Fall für Sommer und Kampmann: Band 1:

Theresa Sommer, divorce lawyer, is cheesed off when her client doesn't show up in court and asks her aunt Hedwig to visit her house to pick her up. As it turns out, the client was killed the night before. Police man Kampmann struggles to find clues to find the real murderer but luckily, Hedwig has an interest in crime and does some investigating on her own.

Decent book. Surprisingly relaxed nature considering that murders happen and all that but I liked it.

Alright, I think I’m doing this right. First reading status update of 2024.

1. High Rise - JG Ballard, audiobook read by Tom Hiddleston
2. Time Out of Joint - Philip K Dick
3. Camp Concentration - Thomas M. Disch 
4. Dracula - Bram Stoker 
5. Comic Book Punks - Karl Stock, audiobook read by some British guy 
6. The Demolished Man - Alfred Bester
7. Fellowship of the Ring - J.R.R. Tolkien, audiobook read by Andy Serkis (reread)
8. The Forever War - Joseph Haldeman
9. The Dream Master - Roger Zelazny
10. Burning Chrome - William Gibson 
11. Children of Dune - Frank Herbert
12. Star Trek: The Next Generation - Immortal Coil - Jeffrey Lang

I usually have a more eclectic grouping than this, but the last few months have apparently been almost all sci-fi. I’m including audiobooks, which are not a regular thing for me, but I’m trying to get into them more this year. I usually prefer non-fiction audiobooks and to read fiction, but I’m dipping into fiction ones a bit. I much much prefer to read fiction, though. I’m not including short stories unless I finish a collection of them, or comics of which I read a lottt. Some recent ones I’ve been enjoying are all of The Incal, various Judge Dredd stories, various works by Inio Asano, the Lee/Kirby Fantastic Four run, Roy Thomas and Barry Windsor Smith’s original Conan run, and the current Conan run by Jim Zub.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Immortal Coil - Jeffrey Lang

Immortal Coil is a story about Data, now imbued with emotions from the chip Geordi installed in one of the stupid movies, gaining a whole new perspective on the concept of death. Throughout his tenure as a commander in Starfleet and crew member of the USS Enterprise, he was of course surrounded by it. It’s only now, by looking back through the prism of his new emotions, that he can really come to terms with all of the loss he’s experienced. A lesser tie-in writer could make a premise like that feel more like fan fiction than an actual episode of Star Trek, but Jeffrey Lang really nails it. 

I read a lot of Star Trek books, and my favorite kind are the ones that give me a lot of homework. If you love an excuse to watch a bunch of episodes of the greatest TV show of all time, this is the Trek book for you. Immortal Coil is loaded with references to Data’s on screen life as well as tips of the cap to pretty much every exploration of AI and robotics in the history of Star Trek. It builds a web between all of those plots and characters to explore themes of ethical treatment of artificial intelligence in sentient beings, a coincidentally ironic twist on today’s constant discourse around ethical use of artificial intelligence as a tool. Immortal Coil also has a Trek-trope that I always love; comparing what’s possible in TNG vs TOS. Flint put the Enterprise in stasis and shrunk it down to the size of a toy? That’s Q-level shit and Kirk was dealing with it every other day!

The book isn’t just about looking backward. Data’s new outlook helps him solve a mystery that could reveal the next step in android technology as well as navigate a new relationship with the Enterprise’s head of security — a hot Japanese Mary Sue martial arts master that beats up Riker and grew up on a boat with an anime reference for a name. God, I miss the 2000’s. That’s probably why I’m reviewing a Star Trek tie-in novel on Newgrounds.com.

But most importantly, Immortal Coil features a supporting role by one of the best characters in the history of Star Trek, the thinking man’s favorite Starfleet engineer, Lieutenant Reginald Endicott Barclay III! *airhorn* *rap music plays*

[note: I wanted to insert a Blingee of Barclay smoking a joint with pixel sunglasses on and a sparkly overlay that said “thug life,” but apparently Blingee doesn’t exist anymore!?!]

I fuckin’ LOVE BARCLAY! Why the hell wasn’t he in Picard season 3!? Put him on the Titan with Shaw and Seven of Nine! And for that matter he should’ve been a main character on DS9. And Voyager. Hell, have him time travel to Enterprise. Barclay owns. A#1Duke of Starfleet. Just give him and Chief O’Brien a show on Paramount Plus. They can run a pub in Ireland! Or some kinda space shit, I guess. 

I digress. Much like Data himself, this was a more emotional experience than I’m used to from a Star Trek novel. Like all the best tie ins to your favorite franchises, it took me on a new adventure with characters I love while giving me a new lens through which to look at the older stories that built the foundation for this story to exist. Also setting it apart from many Trek books I’ve read is the fact that it makes at least a couple major contributions to Trek canon, while at the same time cleaning up some messy inconsistencies between series’. Unlike the pre-Disney Star Wars expanded universe, Trek books often exist in a liminal state between on-screen stories and rarely make big changes or introductions. That can make them easy to jump into — if you like a certain crew, just pick up a book with them on the cover with no worries about continuity. But it can make some of the stories feel a little less important in the vast tapestry of Star Trek. Though, one could argue that the episodicness of Star Trek is one of its major virtues and something the new Trek series’ severely, severely lack.

I’ve talked a bit here about the different types of Star Trek novels and the rarest kind, I believe, are ones that are a great Star Trek story while also being a great science fiction story. It seems to be a much more difficult balancing act than you’d think, because they tend to choose one or the other. Immortal Coil is most definitely both, and neither would work without the other. This could sit on any list next to the great science fiction stories regarding artificial intelligence and android life. Sure, it’s a pulpy TV tie-in novel, but to Star Trek, not Seaquest DSV or Farscape or something. When I start reviewing the Angel tie-ins and calling them great literature then you can call me a dumb fanboy. And that will happen. 

I would recommend this book to any fan of, not just TNG, but all of Star Trek. You probably need a basis of understanding of not just the involved characters, but the referenced episodes. But is it really homework when it’s that fun? And I recommend it especially to fans of Reg Barclay, which should be everyone. 

Just finished Cracking the Nazi Code by Jason Bell, 312ish pages.

It's about a Canadian spy named Winthrope Bell (no relation to the author) that was in Germany from 1919-1920 and realized what the Nazis were up to before they had began to consolidate power.

His intelligence work helped thwart German Freikorps trying to take over the Baltics in 1919 and he met with Robert Borden, Woodrow Wilson, and David Lloyd George, heads of state for Canada, the USA, and Britain.

Ultimately his work on the state of Germany after the Treaty of Versaille was shelved by MI6, only allowing him to publish piecemeal excerpts from it which didn't gain any public support. He advocated for material and financial aid to Germany as a means to combat radicals as he noticed most of the demobilized troops from the army just wanted a paycheck and were only supporting fringe groups as a source of income.

This was an idea Keynes had later, but since Keynes wasn't under a classified security clearance he is the one that got credit for this in history.

Honestly the story of how this guys classified papers were found is quite amazing, Winthrope Bell was a student of Husserls, the great philosopher and phenomenologist, at Gottingen, and Jason Bell, the author of this paper, was researching Husserl at Gottingen when he found an unpublished dissertation by a student of Husserls (it belonged to the spy Bell).

The dissertation was missing pages, which Jason Bell tracked back to a university in Maritime Canada, when he asked if he could see the papers the university had to ask the English government for permission to unseal the documents since they were classified, but since 100 years had passed they acquiesced, and this look at early intelligence work by MI6 was dropped in Jason Bells lap.

Quite the book, light on citations in parts but the majority of it comes from Bells spy papers so that's to be expected.

I just started The Man by Becky Lynch, which I picked up at Wrestlemania when I was in Philly; I'm 50 pages in which I read at the gym this morning between sets so I don't expect this one to take long.

I read another book

Book number #2

The Ruins

I seem to be following a pattern where I read books that Stephen King loves. Not only that, but it's very similar to the last book I read, The Troop. Just like The Troop, a group of people are stuck in an area that they can't leave. In the Troop, it was an island. In the Ruins, they're stuck in the jungle and they can't leave because a group of Mayans won't let them. It's basically a quarantine zone. They won't let them leave because the people are infected with spores and also a sentient vine monster is trying to kill them all. In the Troop, the scouts get infected with parasitic worms.

3 things:

1. Just like the Troop, there's a character in The Ruins where he thinks there's a vine monster inside of his body, but nobody else believes him. In the Troop, one of the scouts believed that there were parasitic worms inside of his body. I found the comparison to be interesting and it made me think of the Leo pointing meme when I was reading that part in The Ruins.

2: Big spoiler: Don't continue if you don't like spoilers

Everybody dies but then 3 days later, help arrives. That got me. They just had to wait 3 more days. I'm not sure if it would help though, the Mayans still won't let them leave.

3: There's a movie? I gotta check it out.

I love this book. Good stuff.

16. Bullet Train – The Japanese book that got turned into the recent Brad Pitt action movie, about a group of assassins getting stuck on the same train. Other than the movie having a Western cast and a completely different ending, the movie is somewhat faithful to the book. Though, the Prince in the book is a much more manipulative sociopath who delivers lengthy cynical monologues about humanity, whereas in the movie, the character has a more simplified revenge plan.

17. Harley Quinn by Tini Howard – I have slowly been catching up on my comics pile. The recent run by Howard is ok enough. I liked the initial set-up: Harley becoming a professor at the community college, but the whole multiversal mystery killer/hijinks felt too much like the previous writer’s final story arc and I was bored by the end of it. The upside was that each issue had a back-up story set in a dream, so different artists and genres are used. One was a Junji Ito homage, and another was a Heroic Fantasy tale. The Knight Terrors tie-in issues were good though.

18. Blood, Sweat, and Chrome – A detailed account on the chaotic production of Mad Max: Fury Road over its 20 years of development. The book draws heavily from new interviews with the cast and crew, including director George Miller. Even the camera operators, prop designers, and the “War Boys” stunt team provided insight on their experiences on the movie.

It was clear that most of the difficulties stemmed from filming in a desert for 9 months, as well as letting the entire cast, main and background, get involved in the worldbuilding and creating their characters’ backstories, which is unlike any modern blockbuster. It worked out in the end, though a leadership change at WB had to happen. There are also some details on the upcoming Furiosa prequel, which was written years ago and had planned to be an anime instead.

19. The Final Days – Basically a sequel to All The President’s Men, covering the final year of Richard Nixon’s presidency before his resignation. It goes all into the details of the many scandals within the larger Watergate scandal, such as the Saturday Night Massacre and finding the smoking gun tapes. It is off-putting how several members of the Nixon White House played a role in shaping the modern-day political landscape after Watergate. Also, I have never seen a more devotedly loyal yes-man like Press Secretary Ron Zeigler, and that includes anyone and everyone in politics today.

This week’s reads:

13. The Atrocity Exhibition - J.G. Ballard 

It’s everything you’ve heard it is and more. I’ll be able to collect my thoughts about it after I’ve read it nine or ten more times. 

14. Rites of Spring - Modris Eksteins, audiobook

A very enjoyable listen about the rise of modernism and its ties to the events of World War I. If you’re just looking for a straight history of WWI, this might not be the book for you. But if you’re looking for a broader look at the cultural moment, plus the moments before and after, this is great. 

15. Mirrorshades - edited by Bruce Sterling

The anthology that cemented the luminaries of the cyberpunk movement. A couple of the stories are pretty boring, or have aged into cliche (even though they’re the ones that created the cliches), but on the whole are of course amazing. Required reading for any cyberpunk fan. 

Good week. Also reading some of Mike Grell’s Green Arrow run, the new issue of Ennis’s James Bond, and started the new collection of Initial D.

Just finished The Man by Becky Lynch, WWE wrestler.

It's about her life from being a kid to having her own kid while getting into, out of, then back into wrestling.

If you're not a wrestling fan it's worth reading just so you can see more of the behind the scenes and politicking that goes in in creating a show.

Up next is Dark Archives, a book about books bound in human skin.

Finished 2 books last week.

11: Going Postal by Terry Pratchett

Going through some more discworld audiobooks for my commute.

12: Eyes of the Void by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Continuing a series I started last month. Very good. Will read the 3rd book in a bit

11. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë

A classic for good reason. I don't have much to add besides that. The reputation of this book speaks for itself. Glad to have finally read it.

Man, that was the one of the three bigger books I just could not get through in a literature class in Highschool. Of the three Crime & Punishment? No problem. Billy Budd? A bit dense, but got through it. Jane Eyre? Fought through a bit less than half of it and then went to sparksnotes. Maybe I'll try it again one day.

13: Making Money by Terry Pratchett

Although I worry I won't like the later Discworld books again I feel like they still hold up. I do wonder if he was able to continue the series if he was going to have Moist become a rival for Vimes. It seems like something that Vetinari would orchestrate to consolidate his power as both men could eventually have become threats to his power.

I’m declaring this the summer or cyberpunk. I don’t care when whatever pagan solstice you recognize happens, I’m celebrating already.

16. Vermilion Sands - J.G. Ballard

Ooooh baby. Ooooooh baby! OOOOOOOOH BABY did I love this book!

A series of short stories set in the once posh and luxurious, but now faded and desolate vacation destination town of Vermilion Sands, the third book by J.G. Ballard I’ve read this year knocked me right on my ass. It may even be my favorite I’ve read of his so far.

As a fan of road trips and explorer of California, the setting of the resort town once populated by Hollywood starlets and artistic luminaries now harboring aging socialites, trend chasing boutiques, and creatives who don’t really create anything rings truer than it even must have back when the book was published in 1971. Ballard was so prolific, but several decades later much of his bibliography is often overshadowed by his major works like Crash and High-Rise.

Few writers reward a deep dive more than J.G. Ballard. This book in particular should be on any list of great cyberpunk works and I can’t think of a time I’ve seen it mentioned as such. And I read a lot of lists of cyberpunk shit. The last story in Vermilion Sands in particular, The Thousand Dreams of Stellavista, could stand next to some of the best cyberpunk short stories I’ve read. One of the shorts is even about a group of poets who have just completely forgotten how to write without the aid of entering prompts into a machine learning AI word processor and another is about paintings that paint themselves. I don’t know if that has any relevance to any discussions happening today. Probably. Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe. I don’t know.

What a damn book. 

17. Psycho Shop - Alfred Bester and Roger Zelazny

Not an entry in the Summer of Cyberpunk, but still sci-fi.

On assignment for a niche magazine, a writer visits an other worldly shop that exchanges quirks and traits of its customers for more desirable ones. The shop is unstuck in time and someone from seemingly any period can walk in at any moment to swap out their speaking cadence or a certain phobia for a new ability or understanding of an ancient language. You get there by wishing hard enough, but as we learn more it’s revealed that something much more cosmic and possibly sinister has brought our protagonist into the establishment owned by an alien cat man from the future. 

Psycho Shop is a novel started by Alfred Bester and completed by Roger Zelazny, but released after they were both dead. If you’re a fan of either or both of their work, you’ll have a good time reading this entry in a subgenre I call Basically Doctor Who. An enigmatic and ancient being whisks a befuddled everyman on  a journey through time as they go on adventures involving aliens, historical figures, and universe threatening super beings. You know, basically Doctor Who.

There’s a lot more going on than that, of course, like a romance with a snake lady and the unraveling of the core mystery regarding who what when where why and how our protagonist has been thrust into this predicament. Theres very little info about this book online, but I’d be very interested to learn more about what parts come from Bester and which are from Zelazny. I feel like I had a pretty good inkling during portions, but I really want to know more like if some of the big twists were set up by Bester and knocked down by Zelazny or if he added them whole cloth after he picked up the manuscript. 

@StrangInk Reminds me of a conversation in the comment section of a video clip from the Voyager series where Barclay successfully makes contact with Voyager in the Delta Quandrant. There was even one such comment where one suggested that Barclay be left alone for a few days in a lab to find a solution for everybody's problems.

@TehPoptartKid The movie is interesting. Haven't read the book but it might be similar to The Relic where there are some differences between the novel and movie.

Wasn't planning on checking in just yet but thought I'd go ahead and do it while I remembering.

17) Bauhaus Movement Characteristics: A Quick Guide to Bauhaus Design Philosophy by Adil Masod Qazi

A relatively quick read; however, I was expecting more. Not in terms of content, but in terms of actual examples like images and such to further the discussion.

Honorable Mention:

Bauhaus 1919 - 1933 (English Version) by Michael Siebenbroctt and Lutz Schobe

I have this as an honorable mention because I did more skimming than reading. That said, there are some nice images showcasing examples of Bauhaus design pieces. This includes but isn't limited to physical objects like toys, furniture and kitchenware along with a variety of art pieces such as paintings and illustrations.

Another interesting tidbit was learning that Bauhaus was both the name of a school as well as creative movement. It not only applied to 2D mediums but also to everyday objects including garments. If you have time to spare, definitely give it a read just make sure it's in a language you know (I didn't take note of this till the last possible moment).

Give Barclay an hour on the holodeck and he’d fix everything

3 This month:

Spirits Abroad by Zen Cho

Comedy Comedy Comedy Drama by Bob Odenkirk

Red Rising by Pierce Brown

+1

I said I was taking a break from Neil Gaiman and from stuff that's been made into movies. Then I got sick and read American Gods. In my defense I didn't know they made a show out of it until about halfway through and I happened to see a post about it on reddit.

Of course it was good. I have the big version. The chonky boi. I was almost tempted to consider every part a point, but I sailed through that motherfucker and enjoyed every bit of it. I will say some of the sex stuff made me feel like a prude. The point is that these absurd or penis-y things are just a fact of life. Yada yada media literacy. I understand it. And I like it? But also just throwing a line about and hanging mans boner at me when I'm not expecting it was uncalled for and hit me like a sack of wet mice. Gaiman does that in his work a lot. I still have not gotten over the Stardust sex scene. Not so much that it was there, just that it was an audiobook and the effect was basically a strange man saying VERY saucy things directly into my ears while I was trying to work. Actually, while I'm thinking about it, I'm still not over the fucking foot worm either. Do I even like reading?

I am also grieving the loss of my favorite bookmark. It was an aquarium ticket from one of the first real dates with my partner. I looked through every book I've read recently and it's nowhere to be found. Idk I just needed to vent that to some other book people. I feel like y'all get it.

Got one more in:

Funny You Don’t Look Autistic

Finished Daughter of the Deep by Rick Riordan. Lots of fun, kept me glued and finished in a few days.