Started keeping track in June and have 15 checked off, should finish the rest of a David Sedaris book before the 1st and might get through the current audiobook I listen to when hiking or in the car.
That is probably light as I know I wasn’t keeping track of all the audio books but not by too much. Hmm, looking at my listening history on Audible I listened to another 17 books, so 32 in total.
Nothing much stands out, starting on John Green’s books was good, I’ve liked his Youtube stuff for a while and have enjoyed everything of his I’ve read. The Slow Horses series by Mick Herron have been a lot of fun. Trying to transition to reading instead of watching so much Youtube stuff and it is going alright. Remembering why I like reading real books and e-readers when most of my book content has been via audio books the last few years. Hoping to get through a couple of real books a month next year in addition to a bunch of hiking/walking around audio books as well.
I read 24 this year, but one was The Power Broker, which I think is as long as 6 books. Some chance I might get through another one by midnight tomorrow.
My favorites this year:
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow - Zevin - discussed elsewhere in this thread.
Empire of the Summer Moon- Gwynne - also discussed elsewhere
An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us - Yong - gave me a lot to talk to people about over the last year. Yong’s a great non-fiction writer.
The Overstory - Richard Powers
Nettle and Bone - Kingfisher - This was a standalone fantasy novel, unlike any other fantasy novel I’d ever read.
I don’t give 5 stars to a lot of books, gave that to Immense World and The Overstory.
Might have finished more audiobooks than real books this year. Its just so much easier to get a chapter done while grocery shopping. Since I dont own a car a do a lot of stuff by bike or by foot so there is quite some time to get through some stuff.
Read Dumas “Count of Monte Christo”, a star wars novel, Empire of the summer moon, the final Carl Morck book by Jussi Adler Olsen, another thriller by my favourite crime author. I am just not disciplined enough when it comes to going to bed and read a chapter instead of sitting in front of the computer until the last minute.
I get so annoyed by a grammatical error in books, specifically simultaneous actions that should be consecutive actions.
Example: Wiggling out of the shirt, he put it on the hangar in the closet.
This is written as a simultaneous action. You can’t wiggle out of the shirt at the same time you put it in the closet. It should be a consecutive action.
He wiggled out of the shirt and put it on the hangar in the closet.
After he wiggled out of the shirt, he put it on…
He wiggled out of the shirt, then put it on…
I am reading Falling by TJ Newman and it is full of these things.
Falling by TJ Newman is a good thriller for fans of the movie Carry On. A pilot receives a message that he must either crash the plane or let his family die. A real page turner.
Everyone Here is Lying by Shari Lapena is a GREAT thriller perfect for anyone wanting a modern Agatha Christie. Lots of twists, edge of your seat pacing, fantastic prose. Would recommend anything by this author.
After the conclusion of the Test for Echo tour in 1997, the band entered a five-year hiatus primarily due to personal tragedies in Peart’s life. Peart’s daughter Selena died in a car crash in August 1997, and his wife Jacqueline died of cancer in June 1998. Peart took a hiatus to mourn and reflect. During this time, he travelled extensively throughout North America on his BMW motorcycle, covering 88,000 km (55,000 mi).
Masked rider is a bike tour in Africa released 1996
Ghost rider is a motorcycle journey from 2002 after his entire family died
Far and near
Far and wide
Far and away
These three books are motorcycle journeys while on tour. Reminds me of the style your book has. He’s not writing about the band or shows. He’s just going to cool places and writing about it.
So I finally finished the Stand and I will say that the book was very good/great (8.5 10)
As I posted earlier, it started slow, which was fine, and often jumped between character experiences which kind of broke the flow of things + made it a bit more difficult to follow along with the intricacies of the characters, which I kind of struggled with and didn’t like. But the book got a lot better when the characters came together and the life or death issues + the unique strengths and weakness of each character made it exciting to want to continue to read. I think I read the last quarter of the book in one day which is something that I never do.
Misery is a great read. He does some fun stuff with the typography to simulate the main character writing on a typewriter. And then there’s always the torture scenes that are cringe inducing.
Have you seen the movie or have the pleasure of coming to Misery fresh?
I actually picked Misery because despite it being a popular book, I really don’t know anything about it other than the title and what you just said. So I thought It would be fun to start up a book with no info going in.
I thought about reading IT because its a classic obv, but I’ve seen the movie and didn’t want to bite down on another 1000+ page book on something that I kind of know what the general substance is going to be about. I obv knew a lot about what the stand was about but I don’t know nothing about Misery so that might make it a little bit interesting - kind of like the Gunslinger and the Dark Tower for me.
Nice. I hope you like it. I think you’re much more likely to enjoy Misery. I’ll stay quiet so you can go in as blind as possible.
Oof I don’t blame you with IT. That’s quite a commitment. Not knocking the novel, which is acclaimed of course, but I think King does his best work with short stories like Shawshank or shorter novels like Misery. I think my current favorite novel from him is The Long Walk.