Done reading these books:

4. Die Chroniken von Amber 1 - Die neun Prinzen von Amber (The Chronicles of Amber 1 - Nine Princes in Amber), Roger Zelazny, 268 pages

5. Die Chroniken von Amber 2 - Die Gewehre von Avalon (The Chronicles of Amber 2 - The Guns of Avalon), Roger Zelazny, 300 pages

6. Die Chroniken von Amber 3 - Im Zeichen des Einhorns (The Chronicles of Amber 3 - Sign of the Unicorn), Roger Zelazny, 271 pages

7. Die Chroniken von Amber 4 - Die Hand Oberons, Roger (The Chronicles of Amber 4 - The Hand of Oberon), Roger Zelazny, 272 pages

8. Die Chroniken von Amber 5 - Die Burgen des Chaos (The Chronicles of Amber 5 - The Courts of Chaos), Roger Zelazny, 222 pages

The Chronicles of Amber are a series of fantasy novels. The main character is Corwin, who at the start of the books suffers from Amnesia. If that sounds like an old trope to you then your'e right - however, the first book was written in 1970. Soon Corwin finds out that he is part of a family with magical abilities that lives in Amber - basically a fantasy parallel world, unlike the one where Corwin was thrown in after getting his memory damaged by an unknown party.

Corwin manages to gather some knowledge from one of his family members that was sent to the "Shadow Earth (same as our earth, basically) to watch over him and make sure he stays unaware of his past. He manages to return to Amber and from here unfolds a fight over the throne, that is currently up for taking after the old King, Oberon, mysteriously vanished.

Enjoyable series. The writing style felt pretty modern to me, I was surprised to find out that the books are fairly old. Apparently there is also a series of books called the Merlin Cycle that plays after these ones as well.

11) Creating Literary Stories: A Fiction Writer's Guide by William H. Coles

A useful resource for creating works of fiction for the uninitiated. To the point explanations and is pretty much laid out like an encyclopedia; but easier to read.

12) Online articles, medical journals, social media posts, forum posts, newspaper articles along with some book reviews

Not entirely sure on the number of pages but in all the readings totaled around the 300s.

It's been slow going more or less and got a new book to read rather quickly which is unusual. Still no WiFi fix for my kindle but as mentioned before it is still usable which is great because I got my mom to use it to read some books. Not sure how many more readings I'll get in by the end of the month but hope it's at least the one I got and maybe one more it all goes well.

19 - finished the Last Emperox by John Scalzi. It was a good finish to a trilogy with unexpected twists.

They count. Welcome aboard!

Hi! Put me down for 25. I can tell this year is gonna be a busy one.

Done reading these books:

9. Nordische Mythen und Sagen (Norse Mythology), Neil Gaiman, 256 pages

10. Dark Matter. Der Zeitenläufer (Dark Matter), Blake Crouch, 416 pages

11. Good Home, T.C. Boyle, 432 pages

Norse Mythology is a collection of short stories about the Norse Gods re-told by Neil Gaiman, spanning from the origins of the gods to Ragnarök. I am familiar with norse mythology and enjoyed this one. Also a good start if you're interested in the topic, as Neil Gaiman mentions some more in-depth books that inspired this one.

Dark Matter:

Jason Dessen is a happy man. He is in his thirties, has a wife called Daniela and a 15-year old son Charlie and teaches physics at a nearby college. All of this is taken away when he gets kidnapped by a masked man and injected with some unknown drug.

When he wakes up, he finds himself in some unknown laboratory. The scientists working there claim that he entered some device 14 months ago and vanished, only to return now. They claim that he is a renowned scientiest who won a trophy for his work in quantum physics - Jason Dessen comes to the conclusion that he must have been put in a parallel world where he never got together with Daniela nor had a child. From here he tries everything to return to his world and his family, an endevour that looks to have almost no chance of working out, as there are millions of possible worlds.

Great book. Deals with quantum mechanics, finding peace with your life decisions. Highly recommended.

Good Home is a collection of short stories by the author T.C. Boyle. I was unable to find an english version that has exactly the same short stories as this one. The stories give an insight into the daily lifes of a variety of people, a griefing man who lost his wife and eventually ends up with 1300 rats in his home, a boy who can't feel pyhsical pain being abused as a circus attraction by his family, a tired father in need of a vacation lying about his infant daughter being sick to lying further about her being dead and eventually crumbling under his own lies, an old woman returning to her house that is in a radiated area and many more.

I enjoyed most of these stories greatly. The Collected Stories of T. Coraghessan Boyle, Volume II: A death in Kitchawank is the book that is closest to this version, altough some of the included stories vary.

I read Stephen Sexton's book of poetry "If all the world and love were young" last week.

The poetry focusses on his childhood and relationship with his mother (and her illness), all seen through the lens of late 80s/90s kids entertainment (mario, donkey Kong etc.)

The book took me by surprise, I didn't realise how heavy it would and how moving at times. The aesthetic of video games I played as a child connected with me in particular, and it was a very impactful framing device.

If you live in the small subset of mario fans who like sad family poetry you might enjoy this 😂.

I'm now reading Jane Eyre!

January:

1. The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish - Katya Apekina

February:

xxx

March:

2.Sweet Salt Air by Barbara Delinsky

3.Barbara the Slut and Other People by Lauren Holmes 

4.Dark Matter by Blake Crouch 

5.Saga, Vol. 1 by Brian K. Vaughan 

6.Sex at Dawn: How We Mate, Why We Stray & What It Means for Modern Relationships by Christopher Ryan

7.Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan

April:

8.Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

9.How to Love (Mindfulness Essentials #3) by Thich Nhat Hanh

20: The Forever War by Joe Haldeman

I was not expecting to hit my goal so soon. Sadly I didn't finish on 4/20 but at least I got my goal in month 4/20! If I keep up this pace I'll reach 60 books this year but if in a couple more months I'm still going along I may need to adjust my goal.

Forever War really felt like Starship Troopers and Old Man's War and had some very interesting parts to it considering it was written in the 70s. Forever Free is also available for Kindle unlimited so I downloaded that next.

I didn't bother setting a goal this year and I don't think I want to now, but I did finally finish reading Dune.

Dune wasn't a novel I knew much about, other than it's one of those big name sci-fi books that people mention every now and then. I've probably done it a disservice by reading it over such a long period of time (I started mid/late 2019, I think) with big breaks in-between reading sessions, but it was an interesting read. Definitely feels like the kind of book that would have been fun to study in English class.

Hoping I can get through a few more books during the COVID lockdown, but I don't seem to do well when I commit to a reading target.

April has flown by a bit, and to be honest hasn't been a great month for reading (Corona got me down). Hopefully I can pick back up in May!

My last two books this month were pretty good though!

Some of my friends decided to do a book club while we are under lockdown - our first book is The Outsider by Albert Camus. We haven't discussed it yet, and I'm avoiding reading any analysis on it so we can just chat about it.

My thoughts at the moment: I felt both unsettled and intrigued by what I read. I haven't been able to form a complete thought on what I read - the only thing I feel sure of is that alienation was the key theme I saw. The main character isn't just alienated from other people, he's alienated from himself and his own feelings. He continually refers to himself as logical and removed, but his actions suggest that he is acting emotionally throughout.

There is definitely an examination of the meaning/meaninglessness of life, but I still amn't 100% sure at what I'm taking away from the book on that point. In any case, I enjoyed reading it and I'm looking forward to hearing what my friends thought.

"No one is too small to make a difference" is a short collection of speeches and writing from Greta Thunberg.

I read this in a day - It was interesting and if you agree with her message, quite inspirational. That being said, for such a short book, I had read/heard some of the speeches, and many had repetitive elements. I didn't mind this, but I did have an issue that one of the pieces was a facebook post she made - I had already read it online before. Some of these aspects made the book a little less enjoyable.

That being said, if you liked her or care about the environment strongly - this is a decent read.

Books read this month:

1. Dutch House by Anne Patchett
2. If All the World and Love Were Young by Stephen Sexton
3. The Outsider by Albert Camus
4. No one is too small to make a difference by Greta Thunberg

Only 60% through Forever Free by Haldeman so I may as well get this out of the way since I'm back to work tomorrow.

April has been one of my best months since I started along in these threads. Reached my goal for the year. 6 books.

January (4)

1: Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky

2: Welcome to the Occupied States of America (First Contact) by Peter Cawdron

3: The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

4: The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien

February (5)

5: The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien

6: The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien

7: The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien

8: Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein

9: Storm Front by Jim Butcher

March (5)

10: Fool Moon by Jim Butcher

11: Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

12: Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie

13: Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie

14: Provenance by Ann Leckie

April (6)

15: Maelstrom by Peter Cawdron

16: The Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick

17: The God Engines by John Scalzi

18: The Accidental President: Harry S. Truman and the Four Months That Changed the World by A.J. Baime

19: The Last Emperox by John Scalzi

20: The Forever War by Joe Haldeman

Maybe I should set a goal. I'll say 10.

Just finished my second book, Northern Lights by Philip Pullman. I guess it's more teen/YA fiction, but I was actually hooked from start to finish, which is probably how I made it through 400 pages in 4 days (quite a lot for me).

Was having a clear out in my spare room and found this book. I remember getting it for free a while back but never read it. Saw it emblazoned with "global bestseller" on the cover, so thought I'd give it a go. Glad I did. It's the first part of a trilogy called His Dark Materials that I think was released in the 90's. Hopefully going to read the next two at some point, because it ended leaving me really wanting to know what happens next.

Conveniently, the BBC produced a TV adaptation of this last year. I think it only covers the first book so far, so I'll give that a watch too. Be interesting to see their take on it.

oh that sounds neat, would you recommend that? i've been meaning to get into norse mythology but haven't found the right book yet. i tried reading this other book about norse mythology (The Penguin Book of Norse Myths: Gods of the Vikings by Kevin Crossley-Holland) but i found it extremely dry and really hard to get into

lmao 400 pages in 4 days seems like a crazy amount to me. i think the only time i've managed to read (for leisure) an amount like that in that time frame was when i was reading where the crawdads sing. couldn't put it down. hooray for YA fiction!

I would recommend it, yes. Especially if that other work you mentioned was too dry - Neil Gaiman is a fantastic storyteller. Most of his other books revolve around weaving a great narrative out of myths and/or urban legends.

It's a lot for me too. I just Googled the word count of the last 2 books I read:

Dune - approx. 188,000 words

The Northern Lights - approx. 116,500 words

Not really a massive difference, but it took me considerably longer to get through Dune. I think mainly just because it is more of an adult style book and is a much more serious read. Where as The Northern Lights was just a fun (albeit dark, at times) adventure from beginning to end.

Also found out the the American title for The Northern Lights was The Golden Compass. I remember seeing the poster for the film adaption that used the same title, although never saw it. Might have to check that out too, but reviews don't look particularly good.

Oh yeah if anyone else has updates for April try to get them in.

@Absurd-Ditties @Asandir @Atlas @Boss @DistractedDuck @FoAngel @Ganon-Dorf @Haggard @Joltopus @Kiwi @Little-Rena @Malachy @MercyfulDeath @Peaceblossom @Peregrinus @Phobotech @Quisty @RainyG @SevenSeize @TheReviewTrickster @TopazAzul @Welldoneshellfish @Yomuchan @ZJ

april

9.simply organized by connie cox and cris evatt

10. masters of deception by michelle slatalla and joshua quittner

really need to speed up if I wanna come close to finishing any text boox.x

i find that the more serious/factual a work is, the harder i find to sit with it for extended periods of time. i read this book last year about the history of the shipping container which is a fascinating read _but_ it is hard (for me at least) to read hundreds of pages of that at once. i like to let content like that sit around in my head for a bit

neat, i will add that to my list and check that out after i get through the books i'm knee deep in. the only neil gaiman book i've read is The Graveyard Book (because Tim Ferris kept shilling it on his podcast) and i loved that. it reignited my desire to read more fiction

4. James Clear - Atomic Habits

5. Alan Jacobs (translator) - The Gnostic Gospels

6. Shawn Stevenson - Sleep Smarter

Atomic Habits - probably the best single volume (that I've read) in regards to building good habits and breaking bad ones. Not much else to say, definitely read it if it's a topic you're interested in and have somehow missed this one.

Gnostic Gospels - collection of early Judeo-Christian writings branded heretical and re-discovered fairly recently. Probably the most well known is the gospel of Judas, which reinterprets Judas as having been a pawn in Jesus' meta-game and then throws in a whole load of bonkers new cosmology. The gnostics to me seem to have been concerned with fixing the plot holes of the old and new testaments and so their writings often involve re-contextualizing bible events to be more coherent. What we end up with is an altogether very different religion, and it's most interesting to me just how far removed one christian sect could be from another, even right near the start of the religion you had wildly varied beliefs.

Sleep Smarter - some good stuff in here, but it veers into pseudoscience and shilling for faddish bullshit like $200 'earthing mats.' Stevenson seems great in interviews so I hope he's just overly credulous with these products and not intentionally trying to mislead, but then he seems to have deals with several specific brands which comes off shady.

I was ready to call this the most cohesive guide to better sleep but these elements rendered the whole thing garbage to me, may as well be a compilation of buzzfeed articles with ads for wacko magic products thrown in.

Very close to finish the second Dark Materials book, but I won't finish it before the update. Damn, I will have to work extra hard to reach my goal this year.

Used my Covid check to get some maintenance done on my car, knocked out this book a professor recommended for me years ago.

It's an old book, clearly written around ww2 (where he even cites a gallon of milk costs 20 cents or something) but it does have solid advice. Grear wisdoms to hone an entrepreneurial vision, addressing strong mental attitudes, how to frame goals in a productive way, and acknowledging conquering fears. I recognized my professor's curriculum lifted from this book in "Thoughts = Behaviors = Results" among other truths. Solid read, would read again.

Also, I wrote and published another book.

January:

1. The Deeper the Water the Uglier the Fish - Katya Apekina

February:

xxx

March:

2.Sweet Salt Air by Barbara Delinsky

3.Barbara the Slut and Other People by Lauren Holmes 

4.Dark Matter by Blake Crouch 

5.Saga, Vol. 1 by Brian K. Vaughan 

6.Sex at Dawn: How We Mate, Why We Stray & What It Means for Modern Relationships by Christopher Ryan

7.Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan

April:

8.Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

9.How to Love (Mindfulness Essentials #3) by Thich Nhat Hanh

10.Tampa by Alissa Nutting 

11.The Boho Manifesto: An Insider's Guide to Postconventional Living by Julia Chaplin

I haven't finished any of my April reading. I'm in the middle of 3 books.

Shame on me.

SHAME.

Nothing for me this month, been really busy on my next video unfortunately my reading has suffered.

I did finish “The Subtle Knife" (second book of "His Dark Materials"). Had I realized I only had 1 1/2 pages to go, I would have finished it yesterday, heh.

The story did take quite an unexpected turn (but I didn't really know what to expect after the ending of the first book either). I am curious how the story will play out in the third book.

what did you think of crawdads! i read it in feb and i loved it for the most part. the ending kind of annoying me a bit. i've seen a lot of people on reddit/goodreads bashing it but i found kya to be extremely relatable

I didn't like it haha 😆

I also recommend Norse Mythology. Gaiman did a pretty good job consolidating and putting down on paper some of the disparate oral stories from Norse legend. There isn't really that much known about it like the Greek pantheon. It doesn't feel complete because the mythology at this point is no longer complete as stories have been lost to time.