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Red Rising
Red Rising by Pierce Brown Published: 2014 Narrated by: Tim Gerard Reynolds Series: Red Rising #1 Length: 16:12 (401 pages) I went into this knowing absolutely nothing. The sequel to this, Golden Son, won the Goodreads award for science fiction novel of 2015, so I thought I should check the series out. Those Goodreads awards are a little silly, because the people voting haven’t read all of the novels nominated, but it at least meant that it was enjoyed by a lot of readers. I’m glad I did pick this up, because it turned out to be my favourite novel of the last year (or at least one of them…I…
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The Best of Robert Service
The Best of Robert Service by Robert W. Service Published: 1976 (poems originally published somewhere between 1907 – 1956) Length: 126 pages I started reading this nearly two and a half years ago, just after my dad passed away, because The Cremation of Sam McGee was a poem he used to recite in his youth at his Masonic meetings. I really enjoyed that one, but then put it on my shelf after only reading half the poems in the book, forgetting about it entirely. It wasn’t until recently when I happened to notice the bookmark in it that I remembered never having actually finished it. Robert Service was born in…
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Foodies Read 2016
I know this blog has turned into a series of book lists lately, but I promise this is the last one for a while. I saw this challenge last year a little too late, but I think it’ll be a fun one to join. I love food literature and haven’t really been reading enough of it, so this will help clear some of those books off the shelf. I’m doing the ‘Pastry Chef’ level, which is 4 – 8 books. The choices have to prominently feature food in some way, but aren’t bound by genre or format. It’s not a requirement to list any books before beginning, but it’s my…
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R.I.P. David Bowie
Two years ago David Bowie shared his top 100 favourite reads on Facebook. Seemed like an apt time to revisit this once I heard the awful news. I’ve read shockingly few of these, seven to be exact, so I’ll have to revisit this now and then for inspiration. I haven’t even heard of half of these. Interviews With Francis Bacon by David Sylvester Billy Liar by Keith Waterhouse Room At The Top by John Braine On Having No Head by Douglass Harding Kafka Was The Rage by Anatole Broyard A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess City Of Night by John Rechy The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao by Junot…
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Back to the Classics Challenge 2016
I’ll be giving the Back to the Classics challenge another go. The idea is the same as last year, to read a novel from each of the 12 challenges within the year. In this case, a classic is anything published over fifty years ago. I’d like to read all twelve, but even an incomplete list will garner entries for the year-end draw: Complete six categories, and you get one entry in the drawing Complete nine categories, and you get two entries in the drawing Complete all twelve categories, and you get three entries in the drawing Here are the categories and my initial tentative picks. These can be changed throughout…
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Daemon
Daemon by Daniel Suarez Published: 2006 Narrated by: Jeff Gurner Series: Daemon #1 Length: 15:57 (632 pages) I’ve been getting more and more into science fiction these last few years, and I had a craving for a technological thriller of the computer security variety. I usually have a backlog in my head for every genre, taken from book blogs or interviews or just natural progressions from what I recently read, but I couldn’t think of what to pick up for this. Daemon seemed to be at the top of many random Reddit recommendation threads, though, so I decided to grab the audio book. A billionaire computer game designer passes away,…
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2015 TBR Pile Challenge Wrap-Up
Hey, I succeeded on this one! I knew I’d read at least twelve books from my to-read pile, but I’m happy to have specifically read twelve books from this list. I love making lists of books, but I often have trouble following those lists, as I tend to add books I feel I’ve been ignoring, which may or may not be the books I feel like picking up when I’m browsing the shelf. The list also must consist of books you’ve had on the shelf for at least a year, which makes you dig around the shelves a bit more. I completed 12 out of the 14 books: A House…
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Stephen Fry in America
Stephen Fry in America by Stephen Fry Published: 2008 Length: 316 pages I love travelogues, and I love Stephen Fry, but I wasn’t in love with this book. I started off quite bored, and eventually did grow to enjoy it, but I think I went in with incorrect expectations. This is an account of Stephen Fry’s trip around America to visit all 50 states, during which he also filmed a six-part television series for the BBC under the same name. I haven’t seen the series, and I can’t say I’m itching to go find it after reading this. He starts his trip in New England, heads down to the south,…
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2015 in Review
Wave goodbye to 2015 and prepare yourself to screw up the date on forms for a little while. This was a pretty good year for me, actually. There was a stint of four years or so there where it felt like every year was worse than the next, but we’ve leveled out and I’m in a pretty decent place right now. Everyone I know is relatively healthy, I’m living with a girl I love, we’ve had a dog for over half a year and haven’t killed it yet. There’s certainly a lot of room for improvement, but I’m optimistic for 2016. The Weblog I had big plans for this weblog…
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December in Review
Books Acquired: Fool’s Assassin by Robin Hobb Homeland by Cory Doctorow Books Read: Daemon by Daniel Suarez Stephen Fry in America by Stephen Fry The Best of Robert Service by Robert W. Service Red Rising by Pierce Brown The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka Happy New Year! I was supposed to be away visiting family for just one week over Christmas, but our plane couldn’t land the day I was supposed to leave, so I was stuck there for an extra four days. I just landed last night and am very happy to be home. Despite the trouble leaving, I had a fun holiday this year. One of the better ones…