Finished reading セーラー服と機関銃 (Sailor Suit and Machine Gun) yesterday.

まとめ：この話は泉と呼ばれたある女の人についています。泉は普通のＪＫなんですけど、ある日泉の父親が突然交通事故で亡くなったら泉の命、生活、すべてが変わります。父親がヤクザの親分だったのを発見した泉は、目高組という組の次代の親分になるのがまったく信じられない。まず抵抗して一介のＪＫの生活をしたかったけど、泉は結局覚悟して着任した。でも、泉の人生は覆すように変わる、誰も予想できないほどに…危険、推理、修羅場、死、ヤクザの世界はこの本にこもって夢中で僕は読み三昧でした。そんなに長くなくて難しいもないので、日本語を学ぶ方はこの本を是非読んでください。

Summary: This story is about a girl called Izumi. Although just a regular high school girl, after Izumi's father dies unexpectedly in a traffic accident, her life, way of living, everything changes -- especially due to the fact that her father turned out to be the leader of the Medaka Gang, making her the next leader! Initially finding all of this unbelievable, Izumi tries to resist the calling of the Medaka -- wanting to remain a normal high-school girl -- but eventually decides to take up the post as the next leader. However, Izumi's life is going to upturn to an extent that nobody would have predicted...danger, mystery, carnage, death, this book depicts the world of the Yakuza in a way that left me in a trance, reading and reading until it became way too late. A real page turner, not very long nor terribly difficult either, definitely read this if you are learning Japanese (there's no English version after all! None that I could find, anyway)

Note: If the summary feels stilted, it's because I originally wrote it in Japanese, and trying to translate it back to English was a bit difficult -- which sounds strange especially since I thought of the original to begin with. I can't really explain it either. Although the translation is close -- and certainly, everything I say in the English version is consistent with my views on the book -- I omitted particular constructions from the translation since the equivalent was too unnatural.

Next up: コンビニ人間 (Convenience Store Person). Originally was planning to read 君の名は (Your Name) but then I found out it was the novelization of the movie, which I'd already seen years ago. Although I don't remember much of the movie, I don't think there's much point in reading books whose plot I already know most of -- indeed, reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone got rather boring, to the point where I was just reading for the sake of reading, since I knew what was going to happen anyways. All sense of mystery, wonder and excitement were gone because I knew more or less exactly what was going to happen at each point, and it wasn't the sort of series I would reread or rewatch.

Got through the audiobook version of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (The Official Movie Novelization) by Greg Keyes.

I'm gonna be honest: This was basically the plot of the movie written out and read by a talented voice actor (shoutout to Tim Campbell!) who performed the voices of all the different characters. It's not high art. It's about a giant monkey and lizard ultimately fighting another giant monkey and his army of mean monkeys. It's very blunt in its presentation...

And I loved every second of it because I'm a big manchild who goes nuts for kaiju movies. I saw the movie halfway through this and was still entranced by the action that was being described by Mr. Keyes in this. It described the thoughts and explicit motivations of the big monsters which was an appreciated luxury that the movie couldn't indulge in and the eight hours of narration expanded on things that the film didn't really show which was perfect to me. There's a bit where Kong mentions that Godzilla can't talk and just makes "screechy mean-nothing noises" that had me laughing pretty hard.

Again, this was a guilty pleasure for me and I can't defend it as GOOD literature on the level of Shakespeare, but I am glad I got through it.

Just posting those now, so I do not forget.

Vampira 040 - Die dunkle Arche (The dark Ark)

NSFW cover (mild nudity): http://www.romanhefte-info.de/Bilderweitere1/vampira_40_300.jpg

I just realised, I think I never counted the novel 39 as read. Huh.

Anyway, another story set in the past, as the title suggests. Apparently Vampires have been around since Noah's times, and they too built an Ark to survive the great flood. And apparently vampires of the old ages were a lot more powerful.

Vampira 041 - Die Rückkehr der Katze (The return of the cat)

Lilith mees Felidae again (get the title? Felidae is the latin name for cat). This time she gets the task to release an unknown entity that has been buried in a top down pyramid for thousands of years. Allegedly this unknown entity kills vampires, so it would be a huge help for Lilith to fight off her enemies. We'll see how this goes.

Finished the Throne of Fire by Rick Riordan.

Very busy couple of weeks and a lot of comic reading, so I’ve done a few audiobooks!

20. Everybody Thought We Were Crazy: Dennis Hopper, Brooke Hayward, and 1960s Los Angeles - Mark Rozzo, audiobook

Pretty good little book about the life of Dennis Hopper. Not as much about the history of New Hollywood and his film career as I’d like. It’s mostly about him as an art collector. Would only recommend it if you’re already familiar with and interested in that era of Hollywood and even then it can get pretty boring at points.

21. Cinema Speculation - Quentin Tarantino, audiobook

Finally did this one. I’ve read and twice listened to the Once Upon a Time book so I’ve been very much looking forward to finally grabbing this. It’s what you’d expect, he goes in deep on the movies listed in the chapter titles and namechecks hundreds more in the process. I’ve watched like ten of the movies mentioned in the last two weeks.

22. Pictures At A Revolution - Mark Harris, audiobook

An examination of Hollywood in the late 60s and the explosion of New Hollywood through the films of 1967 nominated for best picture in 1968. Totally fantastic.

Recent standout comics reading: Kawashima Norikazu’s 1986 horror manga Her Frankenstein, recently published in English for the first time, some issues of Garth Ennis’s Punisher, Hitman, and Preacher, some old issues of Heavy Metal, and more Fantastic Four. The Chuck Dixon Nightwing compendium is massive and great. I may add Preacher as a full book since I finally read the entire thing after starting it many times over the last 20-ish years. Absolutely brilliant.

I'm reporting in early this month. Gon ride the rest of the month with podcasts and music. Dont want to burn out.

American Predator by Maureen Callahan taught me about Isreal Keyes, a very thorough serial killer. You ever sit down with a buddy and talk about getting away with murder and get reaaally deep into it? Isreal Keyes embodies that conversation. I did listen to the LPOTL series on him, but I feel like they may have missed an interesting occult angle. I wonder if Isreal Keyes was seeking salvation through sin? So that he'd have something to be saved from? Or perhaps he was collecting afterlife slaves like Zodiac claimed to have?

Sure, I'll Join Your Cult by Maria Bamford caught me asking questions about my own empathy. If you dont know, Maria Bamford is, aside from being very funny, is mentally ill. Some of the situations she writes reminds me of how inconvenient mental illness can be experience first and second hand. I feel like we all know someone who's issues are a part of their identity or at least a quirk and, for me anyway, it i easy to forget that they have to live with these things in the first person which is weird torture of its own.

Forensic Psychology by David Canter is the first book of the year I put on my re-read list... because it was pretty in one ear and out the other. I think the over all theme is its not magic, its not like it is on tv, and technicians of the field are finding themself being called in to court more as time goes on.

Homesick for Another World by Ottessa Moshfegh is wet and viscous and gross and I enjoyed it.

The Fisherman by John Langan has fish person sex and Im still thinking about her contented sigh.

Caffiene: How Caffeine Created the Modern World by Michael Pollan is about my personal lord Caffeien and how it gave the world an alternative to fetid water, home brew beer, and wine. It also is totally cool and makes you temporarily smarter. If caffiene is trying to take over the human race by being ingested and absorbed into our bodies well then Iwelcome our caffeine overlords.

Crash by JG Ballard... welp. I think Im into cars now.

Hardcore History by Scott E Williams I saw another user read this up i picked it up too. Thanks!

okay, first "book" of the year: the 56-page long user guide to Adrian Thurston's Ragel State Machine Compiler

http://www.colm.net/files/ragel/ragel-guide-6.10.pdf

the guide is very comprehensive and sensible. it explains the tool completely, warns about problems and suggest some practices. it describes features without entering low-level computer theory, but you can see knowing theory of computation and formal languages helps understand every concept and feature. I'm thrilled to start experimenting and using it extensively.

Finished Jacked: The Outlaw Story of Grand Theft Auto by David Kushner today.

Really phenomenal book. I've loved several of the author's other works (particularly Masters of Doom) and figured that he'd do a good job with this material as well. He didn't disappoint. Really fun to see how some British kids created some of the most controversial video games ever made and how America really did lose its mind over "hot coffee" in GTA: San Andreas. I lived through the entirety of that era so none of it was "new" to me, but it was refreshing to have a skilled journalist talk to a variety of different figures on the cultural wars related to violent and sexual video games. Really gave me a new perspective on it all since, at the time it was happening, I was just a snot-nosed teen who hated the dumb adults for trying to ruin my friends and I's fun. I'm even at a point now where I do think it was a good thing that kids have to be carded to buy a rated M video game as their guardians should be involved in seeing what media they're consuming.

Plus, there's some great bits on Jack Thompson. The book makes an attempt to humanize the guy, but I still think he's a total wacko who got off on being more moral than "gamers".

Glad I read this. Mission passed. Respect +

Encountered a discussion on YouTube for one of the movieclips about why Godzilla kept returning to the Roman Colosseum and some say it's mentioned in the book. Then there was another discussion about how hyped everyone was getting about a potential appearance from Destoroyah.

18) Rabbit hole weather articles, forum and blog posts

The Rabbit hole weather articles that I've encountered over the past few weeks were actually about weather, but there were connecting articles that lead to other hosted articles. Some reached into the territory of archaeology while others focus on unexpected weather events that involved Hollywood icons.

Then came the forum posts that ranged in topics that included crochet, knitting, sewing, sites similar to GoodReads, and some heated posts from players about a botched in-game event. Then there were blog posts about food, supplemental insurance, and discount programs for medical and dental expenses.

19) 101 Super Cute Things to Draw by Lauren Bergstrom

An okay read with the promised cute things to draw bit. That said, the color palettes will take some getting used to.

Hoping to get some more reading in before the month is out.

Finished Economics and Politics in Weimar Germany by Theo Balderston, it was only 100 pages but man did he pack information into the sentences. I only managed to absorb and understand the large concepts, he presents 3 or 4 theories of inflation and what caused it at one point and it's very easy to get lost in the names of people and companies or banks that did X and what effects it had under theory V,Y,Z.

I'll revisit this topic, likely with a longer book so it's not a constant assault of new concepts, author clearly had a vast knowledge of the time period, I'm just lacking in the academic economics vocabulary.

Got extra reading in while waiting to go to work. It's three books but two of the three were a bit disappointing.

20) Corn by Charlie W. Sterling

Should've looked this up in advance before checking it out (digital library service) but I didn't. I was expecting something about corn care and growing but it was like a heavily abridged version of how corn grows and it's intended audience was children. There was no label stating this until after I finished reading it.

21) Growing Rose Flowers by Harshita Joshi

A very informative book about roses along with the many varieties that are on the market. The big downside is that there were no pictures to accompany the text. The good news about this book is that it got me interested in tea roses.

22) A Decade of French Fashion, 1929 - 1938 by Mary Carolyn Waldrep

The one that matched it's title and more. There is informative text and colorful pictures to match. Everything is eye catching with some pieces reminding of some female villan characters from comics. Outside of this I was doing a lot of checking with Google to figure out what some of the highlighted fabrics were as I'm not familiar with - though I'm sure they're out of my budget.

Done reading these books:

46. 21 Tage, Ann-Kristin Gelder, 352 pages

47. Die Affäre (The Lover), Helene Flood, 512 pages

48. Die Erbin (Sycamore Row), John Grisham, 720 pages

49. Die Beute - Auf der Flucht mit der Mona Lisa, Dirk Husemann, 496 pages

50. STONE BLIND - Der Blick der Medusa (Stone Blind), Natalie Haynes, 384 pages

51. Die Singularitätsfalle (The Singularity Trap), Dennis E. Taylor, 496 pages

52. 50 Sätze, die das Leben leichter machen, Karin Kuschik, 320 pages

53. Der Sturm (The Survivors), Jane Harper, 396 pages

54. Inferno, Dan Brown, 688 pages

55. Der Geisterbaum (Ghost Tree), Christina Henry, 512 pages

56. Spy Coast - Die Spionin (The Spy Coast), Tess Gerritsen, 464 pages

57. Tintenwelt 1 - Tintenherz (Inkheart), Cornelia Funke, 576 pages

21 Tage:

One day Louisa recieves a freightening E-Mail, it claims that she will meet her demise in 21 days. She recieves further messages that make worrying predictions about events that will happen to her, and to make matters worse, no matter what Louisa attempts, these events all end up happening. Who is behind this attack? Why do these messages seem eerily similiar to Louisa? She has only a few weeks to solve this riddle.

Pretty good book. Not available in english.

The Lover:

Is it better to lie to the police or to your husband? When Rikkes neighbour Jørgen, who she had an affair with, is found dead in his apartment, Rikkes secret is bound to get revealed eventually. One last period of time to come clear and confess the truth to her husband Åsmund. But Reikke is afraid of the consequences - and the fact that the murderer can only be someone who lives in the apartment house, as well.

Pretty good book even though not much of a thriller. Fair warning, this one is very slow paced.

Sycamore Row:

Seth Hubbard has planned his death well: instead of further suffering from his terminal cancer, he made a new will and hanged himself and made sure that one of his workers finds him soon after. The new lone inheritor is the black housekeeper Lettie Lang.

On the same day, Jake Brigance revieves a letter that was sent by Seth Hubbard, that orders him to become the will excecutor - but Seth Hubbard was a very succesful business man and as such, the inheritance attracts all sorts of parties, including big-shot law firms.

Good book. Mostly slow paced and could have benefitted from being a bit shorter.

Die Beute - Auf der Flucht mit der Mona Lisa:

France, 1940: Colonel Pieere Delort recieves a gigantic task: evacuate over 3000 pieces of art from the Louvre before the German army gets their hands on them. At first, a big amount of trucks is planned for this undertaking but after the German invasion starts, only a handful, mostly damaged trucks are left over and Delort has to rely on his talent of making a great plan to save the art pieces, all while holding the one he cherishes the most alongside him in a briefcase, The Mona Lisa...

Great historic book. Sadly not available in english.

Stone Blind:

Medusa grows up peacefully with her two Gorgon sisters - until the dreadful day when Poseidon forces himself upon her in the temple of Athena - which angers Athena so much, that she decides to punish Medusa - from that day on, her hair is made of snakes and her gaze turns any living being into stone.

Even though the transformation and its repercussions are painful, Medusa continues her life with her sisters, until one fateful day the self proclaimed hero Perseus seeks out to hunt for her head ...

Great book. As big fan of greek mythology, cool to see the story of Medusa and Perseus told from another perspective.

The Singularity Trap:

Ivan Pritchard wants to afford a better life from himself and his wife and kids and decides to get hired as a space miner. As new crew mate of the "Mad Astra" he faces some unfriendly treatment at first. When the crew finds a meteorid with plenty of valuable minerals, Ivan comes in contact with a strange substance that replicates itself and turns his whole body into chrome, leading to him being put into quarantine and as news about this leak to earth, unrests break out because the question arrives: who made this alien material and how close could they be?

Solid book.

50 Sätze, die das Leben leichter machen:

Self Help Book with fifty sentences that supposedly make your life easier, each explained with example scenarios. Pretty standard suff but I found the chapters about decision making pretty useful and the writing style with good amounts of humour better than your average self help book that is oozing with super-serious energy.

The Survivors:

Kierans life changed forever twelve years ago, on that dreaded day when a girl got lost in the sea and his brother died due to his fault. Now, married and with a child, he returns to his childhood place and soon after a young woman is murdered - and the case seems to be connected to the events of twelve years ago.

Good book about the feeling of survivor guilt.

Inferno:

Fourth book of the Robert Langdon series. When Robert Langdon wakes up in a hospital, he can't recall anything from the last two days and finds himself, much to his surprise, in Italy. According to doctor Sienna Brooks, Langdon was working on revealing the secret of Dantes "Inferno" - but now several agencies seem to want him dead and Langdon has to try his best to stay alife and stop a catastrophic event.

Decent book. Same formula as the other books in the series.

Ghost Tree:

When two girls are found dead in the small city Smiths Hallow, the fourteen years old Laura knows that the murders will go unpunished - as the murderer of her father also didn't get caught one year ago, leaving her father with a ripped out heart right under the so called Ghost Tree. Why did her father and the girls have to die? Why are people quickly, almost magically forgetting the murders so quickly? Something is awry in Smiths Hallow and whatever is behind all of it is also reaching its claws for Laura.

Good book. First 100 pages before the supernatural aspects kick in are a bit rough but otherwise good.

The Spy Coast:

Maggie Bird is around sixty years old and a retired CIA agent enjoying her life on her small farm in Maine, taking care of her chickens. But the ripple effects of her last mission that made her decide to quit have reached her and several attempts on her life are made - meaning that Maggie and her old neighbours, also former CIA agents, have to shake off the dust and use their old tricks to find out who is behind the attacks on Maggie.

Good book.

Inkheart:

First book of the Inkheart series. One stormy night, Maggie and her father Mo, a bookbinder, get visited by a visitor called Dustfinger, who warns them that a man called Capricorn seeks them, specificially a book that is in Mos posession. But there is more to Capricorns and also Dustfingers origins - and they are tied to Maggies mother disappearing nine years ago and why Dustfinger calls Mo "Silvertongue".

Great book. I read the first three of the series some years ago and last year a new entry came out, so this seems like a good time to read the books again.

Hey YOU, the one with those unposted May books, post 'em!!!

@argile @Asandir @Atlas @AxolotlGav @CarterSterling @CappyCatII @Darklion0 @Dean @detergent1 @door88 @DrSevenSiezeMD @Frontlined-Backend @Ganon-Dorf @Gimmick @GonzaloAtWork @Haggard @JerseyWildcard @Joltopus @Malachy @OlTrout @OneThousandMeeps @Pingu @Prinzy2 @PudgieDaFrog @Sheik13LoZ @SlutasaurusRex @SourCherryJack @StrangInk @TecNoir @TehPoptartKid @TopazAzul @UnderWhirl @Urichov @YendorNG @Yomuchan @ZJ

11. Martha Wells - All Systems Red. A diary of a self-described murderbot (security android) as they protect a team of scientists on a hostile planet.

12. Christopher Golden - Alien: River of Pain. Takes place during the opening act of the movie Aliens, from the perspective of the colonists that Ripley's team eventually goes to visit.

+1

I reread the Amulet series by Kazu Kibuishi. I was in middle school when they originally came out, and the last book in the series finally came out this year. Finally, closure. I'm not super into graphic novels or comics usually. I either just read as fast as I normally would and miss all of the art, or the pacing feels off because I get stuck admiring the artwork. I'm still me and have those problems reading these books too. Buuuuuuuuuut I don't care. They're just that good and I love every page on them.

The last book did feel sort of rushed and thrown together. The quality of the artwork was there. The story was indeed wrapped up and ended. It just felt like it was written more because the series needed to be put out of it's misery (6 years between #8 and #9 oof) than because he felt like the story was done. I enjoyed reading all of them again but the feeling I was left with was just "well that's it I guess". The ending very much left things open to a sequel, which I am looking forward to reading. I will probably have grey hair by then but hopefully not be too decrepit to see the pages.

Why am I counting 9 books as 1? My goals are more about effort than quantity and that was one book of effort to me. Also, this still being on newgrounds and all, ur mom said that was fair. Ya know. After I fucked her. So there. :P

Rebel Without a Crew by Robert Rodriguez

23. Moonraker – The third James Bond book by Ian Fleming, with the villain being a 50s era tech millionaire and his nuclear-powered rocket. With the three Bond books I have read, Fleming apparently loves writing about fancy food and card games in extensive detail. I never played bridge, so the whole plot-relevant bridge game in the first hundred pages was boring to read through; I skimmed through parts of it. Not much action goes on in the book until halfway through. Second half is better, except for the LONG villain speech on how he survived the war and got rich.

24. Star Wars: Brotherhood – Set sometime after Attack of the Clones, it follows Obi-Wan and Anakin investigating the cause of an explosion on a neutral planet, while both deal with new responsibilities in the Clone Wars. I listened to the audiobook, and I was surprised by the high production value: voice modifiers, sound effects, and music by John Williams. The narrator also does a good job as several characters, especially Yoda. The story is a lot more political than I expected, in that the Republic, Separatists, and Trade Federation are all tied up in diplomatic red tape during wartime.

Good book overall, if one ignores the fact that all the Younglings in the book will be killed in a few years. Plus, Anakin's sand hatred gets a funny mention.

The Spire by William Golding; finished it like ten minutes ago because I was motivated to have something this month

Finished Ken Baumann's Earthbound book today. It's the first in the series from "Boss Fight Books" which specializes in these sorts of tomes about video games.

I liked this book, but it was a LOT different than the first "Boss Fight" Book that I read which was the one on Spelunky which was written by the game's creator. THAT particular book was all about design decisions that he made as an indie developer while THIS book was about one relatively famous person's experience with a Nintendo game from the 1990s. Other than a brief forward at the start by a man who localized the Earthbound SNES game in the USA and a quick mention of an interview with said localizer, the Earthbound book really didn't have much insights on the making of the video game that you couldn't find elsewhere.

With that said, I enjoyed hearing about Ken's experience with the game and getting his takes on what the various towns, enemies, and themes in the game meant as I'm a nut for the original game, but, then again, I'm the type of lore and analysis nerd that would read endless forum posts about the same subject matter.

So...I guess I'm saying that if you're also a retro RPG dork, you'll probably like this, too? Maybe not....

And I forgot one more for May, since it didn't leave much of an impact.

24. Star Wars: Jedi: Battle Scars – Taking place between the events of the games Fallen Order and Survivor, half of the plot features Cal and the Mantis crew trying to find a cloaking device before the Empire does. The other half involves space witch Merrin’s relationship with a former Stormtrooper, which eventually transforms into a queer love triangle that becomes part of the cloaking device plot.

I really didn’t expect the book to be bizarrely more sexually charged than nearly every Star Wars media, most of which avoids sex, romance, and even kissing. Not much of a lead-in to Jedi: Survivor, other than showing the team's reasons for their eventual falling-out prior to Survivor but not the actual falling-out itself.

Got 2 to add that I finished yesterday, for a total of 4 for May

16: Paladin's Strength by T. Kingfisher

A sequel to Paladin's Grace but following another of the Paladins as he leads a team across the continent looking for the monsters that were kind of the B story in the first book. It was very good, like the first with some interesting twists and a satisfying ending. There are a few more in the series but my wife really wants me to get into The Completionist Chronicles with her and she's already on book 8.

17: Lords of Uncreation by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Finished up another trilogy by the author of Children of Time. Great world building and scary monsters but man I felt like I was dragging through this series. There were some wordy paragraphs full of SAT vocab words that I had trouble with. But I still enjoyed it and there's very good story telling in the series.

Here's my count for May. Still running behind my goal. Already loaded up the first Completionist Chronicles for the commute and I have a new ARC from Glynn Stewart on my kindle to start out June

May (4)

14: Wartorn Stars by Glynn Stewart

15: Paladin's Grace by T. Kingfisher

16: Paladin's Strength by T. Kingfisher

17: Lords of Uncreation by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Just one again for May.

I re-read the Godfather.

Out of a routine, hoping to get back soon.

Read the last Kane Chronicles book. The serpent's shadow. By Rick Riordan. Enjoyed this trilogy a lot and found I'd forgotten it it in the years since I last read it. I liked the characters, and the narration was fun. It always had me looking forward to more.

LITFAM UPDATE: JUNE BOOM SOON EDITION

Welcome to the mid-point, bookaroos, where things are very gradually warming up!! Big progress last month with @Pingu breaching the 100% club perimeter while @detergent1 and @ZJ broke out of the trecherous 0-zone, the latter with a walloping +5. Blaze on into the next chapter fam, June boom imminent, pagemaster OUT 🎤⬇️

Top Fam

1. @Asandir (12)
2. @Joltopus (8)
3. @JerseyWildcard, @StrangInk, @TopazAzul and @ZJ (5), everyone's a winner

@argile @Asandir @Atlas @AxolotlGav @CarterSterling @CappyCatII @Darklion0 @Dean @detergent1 @door88 @DrSevenSiezeMD @Frontlined-Backend @Ganon-Dorf @Gimmick @GonzaloAtWork @Haggard @JerseyWildcard @Joltopus @Malachy @OlTrout @OneThousandMeeps @Pingu @Prinzy2 @PudgieDaFrog @Sheik13LoZ @SlutasaurusRex @SourCherryJack @StrangInk @TecNoir @TehPoptartKid @TopazAzul @UnderWhirl @Urichov @YendorNG @Yomuchan @ZJ

Since school is finally out, I can focus on reading again. So, there may be some Trials of Apollo books coming up later this year!

I'm actually reading a lot, but not exactly books.

let's say I finished a few days ago the excellent RFC 9112 which describes HTTP 1.1 https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc9112

it is written by Fielding, Nottingham and Reschke and dates June 2022, summarizing several memoranda really really well.

okay, I just finished another "book". RFC 3986 about the generic syntax for Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), by Tim Berners-Lee et al. https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc3986.html

18: Ritualist by Dakota Krout

My wife really likes this series and wanted to listen to it again in the car with me. It's about a former army soldier who was paralyzed and uploads his consciousness into an RPG video game sort of like WoW or Skyrim.

The game is made for people to play in pods and be fully immersed, including feeling pain and fatigue. He quickly joins a guild and starts leveling up and starts to break things in odd ways leading to the AI or developers getting kinda snarky with him when sending notifications or quest updates.

It's pretty absurd and funny although I could have done without the audiobook narrator going on for 5min with his whole stat sheet every so often when he levels up or completes a quest. My wife says it gets better about that in the other books so we'll continue on to the next in the series.

Just finished book 2 in the Wheel of Time, The Great Hunt.

I remembered a lot from this one having read it 15 years ago, but one error I think Robert Jordan made was how fast Rand became a blade master, in book one he'd never picked up a sword, then at the start of book two he'd been training with a blade master for 3 months, and throughout the book he would practice on his own, but then when gets in a fight with a real blade master he beats him after taking a few wounds.

Obviously he has plot armor, but he seemed to beat the guy who claimed himself actually worthy of the title too easily and without having a real fight or any more training, I would rather have had this fight take place in book two, or have Rand use magic to get through it so it's something to build on later.

Still a great book, I couldn't put this one down.

Going to read a book about creative writing and character arcs next, then maybe a book on economics by Thomas Sowell before I pick up book 3 in the Wheel of Time.

Inkheart

This isn't a story, this is a love letter to literature and reading in general.

Just having the power to materialise anything you read is so cool... even if it springs out a tyrant in the process.

I really liked reading this, it was such a brilliant adventure to go through. I may be able to get the other two books, but I'll have to see!