#11. A Storm of Swords

Best book of the series yet. Full of ups and downs and twists. The ending especially is a shocker that wasn't included in the TV series.

It was also the longest single book I've read being north of 1100 pages.

21: Battle Group Avalon by Glynn Stewart

Continuing on this series. Still enjoying it. The main character has managed to mostly destroy 2 starships named Avalon. It would have been funny if Stewart also included a ship named Camry or Corolla.

The Cipher by Kathe Koja!

I've been searching high and low for books that would make me feel grimy, and this one hits that sweet spot so well. Everything from the body horror of main character Nicolas' transformation into more hole than man; to the existential horror of having a living, breathing, mind-controlling hole below your apartment. One that not only wants you in a metaphorical sense but also in a sexual sense. The themes of rot and decay in this book tangle with the more subtle themes of rebirth or even creating a completely new being in such an intense and heartbreaking way, all around a 10/10 read.

3) Simply Crochet Issue 135 and Simply Sewing Issue 107

I've combined them because I was doing some skimming. Very interesting issues with articles on creative processes and lots of cool projects. Currently still working on the beret project from the Simply Crochet issue of which I've made a mistake somewhere but refuse to frog (take apart).

4) ChatGPT for Startups by Steven A Ridder

Remember that Metaverse Investing book from last year? Well, this is an improvement on that in terms of the content being readable. That said, the text repeats itself continuously.

If you can survive the repeating nature of the content, then you'll learn some interesting tidbits about the program and its capabilities. That said, you will need a web browser open to look up information and definitions as some parts aren't explained well.

Honorable Mentions:

Reading gardening how-to guides and learning about how the flowers I got from the store are actually low maintenance.

Hoping to get some more reading in this month but things have been coming up out of the blue non-stop. PS: BK 2 was mentioned on March 31st. Yes it was a collection of random readings but I still counted it.

Would almost bet money on it being written primarily by the bot.

Done reading these books:

51. Kummer aller Art, Mariana Leky, 176 pages

52. Die fliegenden Zauberer (The Flying Sorcerers), Larry Niven & David Gerrold, 336 pages

53. Zone, Jan Valetov, 528 pages

54. Das letzte Einhorn (The Last Unicorn), Peter S. Beagle, 256 pages

55. Der Hundertjährige, der aus dem Fenster stieg und verschwand (The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared), Jonas Jonasson, 432 pages

56: Neobarbaren : Plünderer (Neobarbarians : Pillagers), Klotz van Ziegelstein, 420 pages

Kummer aller Art:

This is a collection of short stories told by the narrator and having themes like sleeping problems, avoiding conflicts and other daily life anxieties. Despite the sad title (Sorrow of all sorts) the book is actually really funny and I would recommend it if you happen to be able to read german as this is not available in english.

The Flying Sorcerers:

In a word bereft of any technolgical advancements but ripe with Magic, the wizard Shoogar is wideley regarded as the best of his village. All of that changes when a stranger with a spaceship crashes on that planet. Of course, to make things even, Shoogar fills the spaceship with toads and other yucky stuff, breaks it and the heart of Purple, who believes that he is stuck on that foreign planet forever. Even Shoogar kinda feels bad so Purple and the village try to work together and cobble together a flying machine by combining magic and technology.

Great book. If you like books by Terry Pratchett, this one might be worth reading.

Zone:

A virus has escaped from a military base, changing the DNA of any human that comes in contact with it by making them rapidly age within one hour when they are older than or become 18 - meaning that within a short time, everbody above that age dies and left is a world in complety disarray.

The books starts 90 years after the virus got released to the world by accident and follows the story of Tim, a 17 years old bookworm who found hints of a cure in the diary of the daughter of a scientist who worked on the virus. But getting to that laboratory is not easy, as the distance is long and filled with danger, as law and morals have died long ago and with everyone having short lives, most have a consequences be damned attitude.

Great dystopian book. Sadly found no hint of an english version for this one, either.

The Last Unicorn:

The last Unicorn lives alone in a forest until the uncertainty about being truly the last of its kind become unbearable and make the Unicorn go on a journey, alongside the talent-free wizard Schmendrick. Soon they arrive at the castle of Haggard, a cold, evil king, who holds they keys to the knowledge where all the other unicorns went.

Good book. The cold hearted nature of Haggard left quite the impression, lets's hope that none of us ever meet a Haggard in our lifes.

The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared:

Allan Karlsson is 100 years old (first shocker, I know) and lives in an old people's home. Just as a fine wine his no fucks given attitude has only gotten stronger with the passage of time and as such he bounces to firmly avoid the planned celebration of his birthday, subsequently steals a briefcase with 50 million from a gang member and almost becomes a serial killer while making a bunch of friends and looking back into his past where his eagerness to not get involved with politics with no fail lead to him playing a key note in numerous events like the creation of the nuclear bomb.

Good book. A bit random at times but overall enjoyable. There is a sequel as well, will read that one at some point.

Neobarbarians : Pillagers:

Year 2987: In a Cyberpunk future, Jimmy King doesn't feel like a monarch, as his Lifescore has dwindled after he got thrown out of the Education container, a sort of university, and his now unaffordable knowledge-boosting modules were ripped out of him to make up for a fraction of his debts. With options gone, Jimmy turns to crime and gets hired for a job that pays well and seems easy enough to pull off: escort a romantic interest for a stranger who hides his identity. Unfortunately for Jimmy, that event is closely watched by various interest groups like mercenaries and underground gangs.

Good book. The writing is a bit chaotic and not everything that happens is explained and not everyone who appears gets introduced with enough backstory to not leave stuff up for guessing but I overall liked it. This is book one of a series, but as of right now no other titles have been published.

Plot twist: it was written by the very first mostly non flesh cyborg and this is the first attempt to create dialogue with us flesh people so that a strong bridge leading to joyful cohabitation can be built.

i afk for a year and the general forum has been deleted uhh

on the plus side, i can't remember what my last goal was but i didn't meet it so whateverrrrrrr. however this year i'd like to set a reasonable goal of 12 books

and on the plus side. i'm already 7 books down thanks to rereading harry potter properly. i only read 4 of the books as a kid so it was interesting seeing the story unfold properly in the books instead of the slimmed down version shown in the movies.

philo stone: pretty fun read though it suffers a bit by having to have certain things happen at the right time during the school year so the random skips forward like suddenly it's now halloween leaves something to be desired.

chamber of secrets: basically same as the above, the polyjuice potion is probably the perfect example of delaying the plot so things can happen as they need to do for a end of year climax but it also benefits much more from having a looming undertone of horror. and lockhart is such a funny character

prisoner of azkaban: my fave book of the series, THE book

goblet of fire: wish i didn't know what happens but brilliant

order of the phoenix: brilliant

half blood prince: the other shining star of the series

deathly hallows: the first half with just running around with harry/ron/hermione is a bit meh for me but the latter chapters are brilliant. my fave chapters of the whole series are the prince's tale + king's cross.

on the whole, i'd say rowling is a master of setting things up and having them pay off. not to mention the achievement of creating such a wide variety of interesting characters. but i'd say the best thing about the books is the journey you are taken on with the growth of the characters and ever increasing complexity of the darker themes like they just keep getting gloomier and gloomier. it's quite ambitious to put that type of stuff into a series primarily aimed for a young audience but i guess it's clever at the same time to make something that is sympathetic for people of all ages.

i guess if i'd have to rank the books, for me, it'd be like: prisoner > half blood prince > goblet > order of the phoenix > deathly hallows > then just chamber/philo stone. it's unfair to put the first 2 last but they are short and suffer from having to establish the world first.

An Introduction to Project Management 5th Edition by Kathy Schwalbe

Positive Child Guidance 8th Edition by Darla Ferris

Only 60% of the way through the next wheel of time book, so in the meantime...

#3 Mossflower by Brian Jacques

Yep, it's a kids book. I read 5 to 10 pages a night to my son, who loves it. We are nearing a point that he could read it himself (he is 9, but the book has a lot of regional dialect that makes it tough to read), but I hope we continue our nightly reading sessions.

This is book 2 of the series. Think Animals of Farthing Wood meets The Hobbit compete with poems and riddles. The Woodlanders this time wage war against a tyrannical wildcat and her army of vermin in a prequel story to the first book, Redwall. This was my favourite series when I was about 10 years old, and it deserves more love 25 years on.

17) The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Volume 1 – A literary crossover series by Alan Moore and the late Kevin O’Neill about a group of characters from 19th century literature working together to stop a mad villain. I read it years ago and didn’t care for it, but I actually liked it this time around. I understood some but in no way all the references from 19th century Western literature and British culture. And as much as I like some of Moore’s stories, I don’t like his usage of sexual violence as a signifier for immoral characters.

18) Meet Me in Another Life – This is a strange pseudo-romance book. It seemingly follows different versions of two people across the multiverse, and their inevitable meetings in Cologne, Germany. Though how their meetings happen is a matter of circumstance, and their relationship is not always romantic; sometimes it is platonic or familial. Each chapter is a different meeting, which later gets viewed differently later when context is added. An overarching narrative doesn’t happen halfway through when the duo realizes their realities are overlapping and restarting, EEAAO-style and things get turned sideways.

19) The Fire Never Goes Out: A Memoir in Pictures – A graphic novel memoir by ND Stevenson, covering life events and emotional states between 2011 and 2019, before his transition. There are some good highlights, like getting Nimona published and meeting his future wife, and low points like battling depression and dealing with gender dysphoria.

22: Q-Ship Chameleon by Glynn Stewart

Continuing this series. The starship captain who used to command a big honkin supercarrier is going to black ops to pretend to be a pirate. Felt like a refreshing change of pace for the story and I enjoyed it.

Finished my 4th book.

Less Than Zero, by Bret Easton Ellis. A tale of privilege, detachment, and youthful alienation.

It's about a young man named Clay, who returns home to Los Angeles from college during break. Clay and his friends, all of whom come from wealthy families, seem to live for nothing but empty hedonism. Constant drug use, going to clubs, and hooking up. The guys even hook up with each other.

It's pretty bleak. Definitely not a fun read.

Clay can only have empty, meaningless interactions with just about everybody around him. Even his psychiatrist, and his own family. Everyone is completely detached and self-centered.

It's similar to American Psycho, which Ellis also wrote. Touches on lots of the same themes of how empty the 80's yuppie culture is, and how all these people tend to have identical looks, and interchangeable personalities. It doesn't touch on horror nearly as much as American Psycho, but the darkness really ramps up towards the end.

If anyone else has updates for May get 'em out.

@Absurd-Ditties @argile @Asandir @AxolotlGav @Dean @detergent1 @DoctorPac @door88 @DrSevenSeizeMD @Electricket @Ganon-Dorf @GlassPen123 @glazedeyez @GonzaloAtWork @Haggard @JerseyWildcard @Joltopus @Malachy @OlTrout @OneThousandMeeps @poopypeter @Prinzy2 @PudgieDaFrog @SecretBoxFox @Sentio @SlutasaurusRex @TecNoir @TehPoptartKid @tisak @TopazAzul @Urichov @Yomuchan @ZJ @Zymbot

Life's been weird lately, so I'm just gonna drop what I've read and call it that. I think this is my sixth? Dream Town by David Baldacci

#12. Comedy Writing Secrets: The Best-Selling Book on How to Think Funny, Write Funny, Act Funny, And Get Paid For It by Mel Helitzer

Been in a mental rut of perpetual boredom and negativity, and this was the ticket to get out of it. I've had this book for years and read it several times, and never fails to get my imagination going and pull me out of my brain fog. It's only 300 pages, but I'm forever pausing and self-reflecting on a scenario that applies to a particular subject or chapter.

It's also got a ton of jokes and one-liners to emphasize their points.

Now back to Game of Thrones. (Imagine if it was a series about the one and only toilet in the world)

Hellboy: The Right Hand of Doom by Mike Mignola

Done reading these books:

57. Behemoth, T.S. Orgel, 576 pages

58. Das Sanatorium (The Sanatorium), Sarah Pearse, 512 pages

59. Aus dem Schatten des Vergessens (Never Forget: A Victor Lessard Thriller), Martin Michaud, 640 pages

60. Die Abenteuer des Apollo 1: Das verborgene Orakel (The Trials of Apollo Vol 1: The Hidden Oracle), Rick Riordan, 400 pages

Behemoth:

2198: Earth has become inhabitable and the rest of humanity has been distributed over three spaceships that have developped vastly differently. One of the main characters, Laohu, living on the spaceship Zheng He , is a genetically modified soldier - his DNA has been enhanced with the strength of Tigers, other people of the ship have undergone similiar treatments, with the DNA used being based on the Chinese horoscope.

At the beginning of the book, all three ships discover a foreign object that turns out to be a seemingly abonded alien spaceship and as all three colonies are in dire need of more ressources, all of them send a group to capture the ship for themselves. But as it turns out, that spaceship is more alien in nature than first expected.

Great book. Liked how well fleshed out the different spaceship colonies were. Sadly not available in english.

The Sanatorium:

After her last case being traumatic, detective Elin Warner is currently on hiatus from her job and decides to visit her brother in a hotel in the Swiss alps. Soon after, her brothers fiancée goes missing and as usual, a storm cuts the hotel off from the outside world and as such Elin finds herself forced to investigate as a murderer who seems to have ties with the dark past of the hotel lurks in the shadows.

Book is decent. Pretty standard scenario of a locked from the outside world place and the main detective dealing with a tragic past. 

Never Forget: A Victor Lessard Thriller:

Montreal, current times: the well known psychologist Judith Harper gets brutally murdered. At the same time, the lawyer Nathan Lawson (fitting name, I guess) goes missing. Soon after, a homeless person, with the briefcases of the previously mentioned people in his pocket, commits suicide by jumping off a buiding.

Detecive Victor Lessard and his partner Jacinthe Taillon have their work cut out for them as all of these cases seem to be connected with each other and also with the darker aspects of American history....

Great book. Was at first a bit sceptical that all the plot lines would wrap up nicely but they do and make this a great crime book. The characters are fantastic too. There are more books in this series, will check those out in the future.

The Trials of Apollo Vol 1: The Hidden Oracle:

First book of the The Trials of Apollo series. Plays after the events of the Heroes of the Olympus series, with Apollo being the main character and being punished by Zeus and turned into a human being with most of his powers gone or atleast severly weakened (including his appearance being painfully average instead of breathtakingly beautiful) and thrown down to earth. From there, Apollo is forced to become a servant of the Demigod Meg and together they have to find a way to make the Oracle of Delphi work again, as Apollos old rival Python has taken the Oracle under its wing .. or scales, you get the idea.

Good book. The writing definitely benefits by being first perspective again, as that goes along with a return of the funny inner monologues and Apollo, being on heavy Copium daydreaming of his glorious past appearance and abilities to stop crumbling under his averageness is plenty of fun. Next month I'll read the other four entries of the series.

Vampira 020 - Das zweite Leben (The second life)

Lilith returns with Duncan to Finland, where she hopes to finally find a cure for the pestilence that was ravaging in Sydney a while ago. Against all odds the scientist does

indeed present a serum. They return to Sydney and inject Beth with it. But it seems like it was a trap set up by Landru. While all other patients seem to return to normal, Beth

still is the complete opposite of how she used to be.

Vampira 021 - Tattoo

NSFW cover (topless nudity): http://www.romanhefte-info.de/Bilderweitere1/vampira_21_300.jpg

Lilith meets a strange Vampire. Seemingly another one that got created after the disappearance of the lily goblet, by the same woman that also created Lilith's mother Creanna.

At first she things "Tattoo" is going to help her, but his goal is the same: Destroy all vampires, INCLUDING Lilith. She barely escapes with her life after a fierce battle.

Meanwhile, Duncan leaves Lilith to travel to Uruk, Mesopotamia. He feels a strange calling and just needs to travel there.

Vampira 022 - Ausgeliefert! (hard to translate this title: It means "to be at the mercy of someone", but that doesn't sound quite as catchy as the original title)

Weakened from her battle with "Tattoo", Lilith is picked up by paramedics, who deliver her into a hospital. Here, the chief of the hospital realises what powers Lilith and her dress have. He decides to contact an old friend in the military, with the goal to extract Lilith's blood to use as a drug to create super soldiers (what else?). But lo and behold, Lilith gets rescued by yet another enemy, who wants to kill her to get re-accepted into his clan. Again, Lilith manages to overpower her enemy by sheer luck (and a thick plot armor, of course).

Enjoy A Feast for Crows, things get really good in the next two books, then join the rest of us in existential anguish as we wait for the next book.

Almost forgot that I finished Prisoners of the Castle, a book about Allied POW's in the Colditz prison for "German hating" prisoners. The actual word they use in German has no English equivilent according to the author "deutschfeindlich" but the book covers the many escape attempts of the officers, and the guards efforts to stop them. The guards weren't SS but were wehrmacht, so the level of brutality wasn't nearly what it was in concentration camps, in fact the prisoners did a better job brutalizing each other in a game they invented called Stool Ball where the objective is to knock the other teams captain off of a stool by any means necessary, it was essentially Rugby combined with the UFC 1 ruleset. There was also a Swiss delegate that made regular trips to the camp to ensure the Geneva Convention was being upheld.

Three points of interest that I found in the book:

1. Birendranath Mazumdar, and Indian born officer in the British army, was imprisoned here, he had hoped to join with the other officers in their escape attempts but was met with racism and skepticism about where his allegiances lie and wasn't allowed to serve on any secret escape committees. The Germans in Berlin were well aware of this and wanted to stoke more animosity between him and the prisoners so they arranged a trip for Mazumdar to Berlin to meet with Subhas Chandra Bose, the leader for Indian independence from Britain and someone the Nazi's were backing to that end. Mazumdar, while incredibly sympathetic to the cause for Indian independence declined the offer of freedom in return for joining Bose, as he had sworn an oath to King George and would see that upheld. They sent him back to Colditz where he thought this would have proven his loyalty, but the other prisoners assumed he was now an informant and refused to let him participate. Rather than continue on in his current conditions in Colditz, he went on a hunger strike, and after 16 days and nearing death, they transferred him to an Indian work camp where him and another prisoner escaped and walked some 900 kilometers to neutral Switzerland. They should make a movie about this mans resolve and honor.

2. Errol Fyinn, determined to escape, was sent to solitary more than any other prisoner, this had a noted effect on his mental health and he decided to feign madness in an attempt for an amnesty release. His attempt succeeded, but unfortunately for him they transferred him to a concentration camp. Having seen the Jewish people and their suffering he remarked that what he was seeing wasn't possible, and confessed to making up his illness and was transferred back to Colditz, where unfortunately he went mad from imprisonment. He was eventually released when the prison was liberated, but never settled in to civilian life having lost part of himself during his years there.

3. The psychology as the allied front advanced was something incredible, and given that the head guard kept a diary and many of the prisoners wrote about their time in the castle we got a good look at what both sides were thinking. The prisoners had a secret radio tuned to the BBC and were well aware of the advancing army, if the bombs falling on the horizon weren't indication enough. There was a large number of SS in the town surrounding, and Colditz was where they kept the high profile prisoners in addition to the officers (Churchill and the Queen both had family in this prison, as well as "the generals nephew" who lied but they couldn't prove otherwise). The prisoners began to realize that the SS would likely slaughter them before they could be liberated and began making appeals to the guards to have access to the armory. Eventually the guards acquiesced and the prisoners took charge of the prison. It's much more dramatic than what my recollection is doing justice, but this was one of the most interesting psychological events I'd ever seen.

Overall I highly recommend this book, lots of creative escape attempts, the psychology aspect was among some of the most intriguing I've ever read as well.

Currently I'm almost finished a book on 1945 in the context of Canadian history and how that year was the most important for defining Canada in the modern era.

5) Freelancer Magazine Issue 9

Another fun issue with lots of interesting articles, reading and listening recommendations, interesting animal co-workers, a Top of the Shops special feature, co-working and freelance meetups and a fun recipe provided by The Deaf Chefs food truck (I think I can prepare the recipe without messing it up too bad).

My top favorites from this issue outside of the food truck and animal co-workers is the Tiny Garden piece, Newsletter Love and "We Were all Thinking It." The Tiny Garden piece was highlighting how anyone can start and nurture a garden where ever they are no matter how little space they have. Was excited to learn about the pomegranate tree varieties as the ones we have are sending mix messages about what they want to do.

Newsletter Love because Austin Kleon and his newsletter were highlighted. In addition to him, Angela Lyon was also featured with her newly released newsletter (I started following her on Instagram earlier this year when I was trying to kickstart a writing challenge).

Last but not least is Jo Watson's piece "We Were All Thinking It." She's basically discussing her view on the latest chat-bot craze while using examples from her unpleasant experiences with self-checkouts at the store.

17: Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison

18: The Word is Murder - Anthony Horowitz

19: Notes from a Small Island - Bill Bryson

20: The Sentence is Death - Anthony Horowitz

5 for May. I was hoping to finish another discworld but my wife and I are on different schedules this week and we were partway through the audiobook of The Last Continent together.

May (5)

18: Lady of the Lake by Andrzej Sapkowski

19: Stellar Fox by Glynn Stewart

20: Pyramids by Terry Pratchett

21: Battle Group Avalon by Glynn Stewart

22: Q-Ship Chameleon by Glynn Stewart

I read stuff I swear. I’ll write about it when I get home. In a few days.

Same. My books are just very big so, they take longer to finish. I think the one I'm on is like, 580+ pages.

Toot toooot! Procrastinator train pulling in!

The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R Carey

Got into an argument with some friends over this one. They'd abandon humanity and become fung.

Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat

If you want to get good at cooking, then you must pay attention to how you cook. If you think something you made tastes good, its probably because of one of these four elements.

Jesus, Interrupted by Bart D. Ehrman

Contradictions and how they got in the bible.

In the Darkness of Shadow Moses by Nastasha Romanenko

Found my copy on Spotify!

Hell's Princess by Harold Schechter

If this book taught me anything, its that America is scarred of a burly, strong, hot, independent, hard working, tall woman.

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

How to smile without creasing your lips: just remember we're all gonna die and none of this means as much as we think it does. But, like, not in a nihilistic way.

The Sociopath Next Door by Martha Stout

The world isn't full of bad people, but 1 in 25 are sociopaths.

Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata

About being a cog in need of a machine.

#4 The Path of Daggers (book 8 of The Wheel of Time) by Robert Jordan

Another book down in the series. Many of the reviews I read before starting the series rated this the weakest, and I can see some of the reasons why. This book felt quite disjointed, with all of the major protagonists involved in their own plotlines, with mixed results. Once again there were also a whole bunch of twists dropped right at the end of the book, with next to no buildup.

Having said that I felt the pace here was better than the last couple of books, with significant plot events happening frequently. Certainly the overarching story feels like it has pushed on a bit, even if character development was minimal in many cases.

Looking forward to the next one, and the long awaited upturn of the later books.

I'm 4 days late in my reporting , I suppose it'll be better than not posting it at all.

Saga of the Swamp Thing: Book Three

by Alan Moore, Stephen Bissette, John Totleben

The Arabian Nights (AmazonClassics Edition)

by Andrew Lang

Soviet-Afghan War: A History from Beginning to End (The Cold War)

by Hourly History

The Man in the Iron Mask (AmazonClassics Edition)

by Alexandre Dumas

Battle of Jutland: A History from Beginning to End (World War 1)

by Hourly History

In Our Time (AmazonClassics Edition)

by Ernest Hemingway

The Metamorphosis (AmazonClassics Edition)

by Franz Kafka, Ian C. Johnston

How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States

by Daniel Immerwahr

The Pleistocene Era: The History of the Ice Age and the Dawn of Modern Humans

by Charles River Editors

Quantum Radio

by A.G. Riddle

I finished The Mark of Athena today! It was great! it took longer than I expected but, I really enjoyed watching the character grow. Next up in the series is The House of Hades.