I spent a blissful period reading nothing but Wodehouse a few years ago. Such good times. I must resume that – there’s still so much I’ve not read yet.
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I felt exactly the same when I read the first book. Now I’ve read 3 books of the series, so still very early for me.
But it got better with the sexism (the first book was the worst for sure, it is not gone completely though) and the story also seems to expand beyond the “one case” a book style.
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Just finished Age of Innocence and wow do I hate it.
Okay, okay, that’s unfair. It’s a beautiful book, and the pacing is deliciously drawn out. But ooh it hurt my teeth from clenching my jaw. Everyone in the book is a bloody idiot, acts like idiots act, justify idiotic actions… infuriating.
The ending in particular… the gall. Gah. Awful. I hate it.
The singular most important question anyone who loves you can ask is “Are you happy?” It’s a simple question! It should have simple answers! Yes, I am happy: no, I am not happy.
The entire gods-damned book is all about everyone trying their hardest to do anything aside from actually being happy. To make sure misery is as universal throughout their society as it is for each of them.
Did I mention I hated it?
Now for 75 pages of reading about Pain for my “Healing through Reading” course. Wheeee…
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I’m re-re-re-re-reading Masters of Doom, about id software, who developed Wolfenstein, Doom, and Quake. It takes me back to a simpler time - I remember freaking out over Doom.
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I can remember the first time I saw Descent being played, and my brain “having a moment” after a few seconds of watching, when the player who had been flying through a tunnel flew out of the tunnel into a big room, headed up towards the ceiling, and then went into a hole in the ceiling – and now they were just flying through a tunnel again exactly like at the start, but… “up”? Maybe?! “What just happened?!?” cried the voice in my head, as my brain began recalibrating its understanding of computer games…
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I had a lot of fun with that. Sadly the multiplayer was a bit broken, at least in low player count games: if A killed B, B came apart in a shower of power-ups, which A would catch, and then be unbeatable.
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Currently plowing my way through the Kris Longknife books by Mike Shepherd. They are fun, much more fun than some reviews might suggest they are.
Space, ships going boom, intrigue, romance, death…
The stories have it all. Currently reading book 5, Audacious. Recommended for all the fans of space opera out there.
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I’m listening to Nona the ninth so far a lot easier to read than Harrow but just as cryptic on how it ties into the greater narrrative, I’m expecting another chapter of heavy exposition towards the end.
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Currently reading Fairhaven Rising by L.E. Modesitt Jr.
Also am culling my book collection and figuring out which books I don’t want anymore because I am going to be moving soon.
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Any fellow fans of The Bearded One may be interested in this - Alan Moore discussing his new short story collection with Stewart Lee. It’s a pretty perfect event for me although YMMV of course. Although it’s not his ‘first’ short story collection; I still have my copy of Voice of the Fire.
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Just finished 1984. While not the worst thing I’ve ever read, it may well be the most disappointing. (admittedly my expectations were quite high, due to the legend surrounding it)
If your POV character is saying stuff like “In a sense, it told him nothing that was new…” and “Chapter 1, like Chapter 3, had not actually told him anything he did not know,” that’s a massive hint that it doesn’t need to be in the book 
It didn’t tell me anything I didn’t know either!
Synopsis/Rant
- Part 1: Winston ambles about, almost (but not quite!) doing something.
- Early Part 2: Winston gets laid… not really what I’m here for, but at least something is happening…
- Late Part 2: 18 chapters in, we have the inciting incident! Winston is joining the rebellion… maybe. He gets The Book, which we have to slog through for a good 10% of the novel (one of the only times I’ve speed-read through a fiction piece)
- Part 3: Winston gets tortured to death, everybody go home. The End.
I wouldn’t be so bothered by the lack of narrative if the prose was beautiful. But it’s not. And I wouldn’t mind the ugliness of the prose if the narrative was engaging, but it isn’t. So at least I understand why no-one remembers more than “Big Brother is Watching” and “newspeak” from this book 
That’s all, just needed to vent 
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1984 Spoilers
What is hilarious to me to think about is how Orwell probably have written that long dry segment of Goldberg’s writing, and then he has to come up with a story to wrap around it
My biggest take away from that book is the Ministry of Truth. When asked what is 2 + 2. The point isn’t to say the “correct answer”. It’s about accepting whatever the Party tells you what the answer is
Anyway, Zamyatin’s We is a bit better.
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I still contest that it is a happy ending, and that is mostly the point of the book
Just finished reading Icarus Down by James Bow.
Pretty good YA sci-fi. Not perfect, but an enjoyable cotton candy read.
And, hey, a Canadian AND a local author to me (currently lives in Kitchener, apparently!)
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Aleays remember that a lot of the little details, like someone’s desk being taken away overnight, come from his time at the BBC.
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Most recently
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I finished Blandings Castle, Carry On Jeeves, Mike and Psmith, and Summer Lightning. The Wodehouse run continues apace here.
I also picked up Michael Chabon’s The Final Solution which has been a struggle for me in the past but just flowed this time. Something in the water maybe. I may crack open some of the other Chabon in the house.
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Finished Season of Storms last night so that’s me done with the Witcher. I got through this standalone story a lot quicker than I did the previous book.
Next is The Algebraist. I’ve read all of the Culture books but not any of the other sci-fi books by Iain Banks. That reminds me, at some point I need to pick up some more of his non-sci-fi.
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