This weekend I read House of Salt and Sorrows by Erin A. Craig, which is a YA fantasy/fairy tale retelling, for my bookclub’s pick this month. Not my usual genre, but it was enjoyable for what it was trying to do. The world it’s set in was interesting, and I enjoyed a lot of the characters. The climax and the third act was a bit shaky compared to the rest of the book, though.
Started reading I Have Some Questions For You by Rebecca Makkai. It’s got this device that the author is using where the narrator is speaking to another person (not the reader), who I think will show up later in the story. Not sure if I like it or not so far.
Re-reading On the Road by Kerouac (Beats) as I just introduced it to my son, while bouncing between it and The Exploits and Opinions of Doctor Faustrol by Alfred Jarry, which is surrealism from the 19th century and is the origin of the concept of pataphysics.
Links included as there are free .pdf copies on them over at the @13thFloor.
I just finished The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera a couple days ago. I think it’ll take me a bit before I have a fully formed opinion of it. I can say that the writing is excellent. Most of the characters are unlikeable, but all have redeeming qualities. Right now I don’t feel like it was a satisfying read, but I can already tell it’s going to stick with me for a while.
I’m currently reading “Die Festung” by Lothar-Günther Buchheim. He’s also the author who wrote “Das Boot”, the book that has been bastardised by Sky.
It’s an autobiography starting mid 1944 until the end of the war telling his experiences as a war correspondent of the navy for example how he got trapped in Brest after D-Day and escaped on an overcrowded submarine.
Although he doesn’t seem like the most pleasant person to be around his writing style is really captivating and I really enjoy reading his stuff.
I highly recommend it although I think it’s only available in German.
Currently halfway through How to Stop Time by Matt Haig. After Midnight Library I wanted to give his earlier books a try and they have not disappointed. I’d recommend it to anyone that enjoyed Midnight Library. Still reads like his style but different enough that it doesn’t feel like all his books are just a copy paste of each other.
If you’re going through depression or a hard time in life, I recommend reading Midnight Library first. Otherwise, How to Stop Time is an enjoyable read.
I've been out of town for the last 4 days, so I didn't get much reading in. I did finish reading All These Worlds by Dennis Taylor however. I've also read about 50% through the 4th and final book in the series Heaven's River. This one is quite a bit different as it focuses more on the personality of the main character and forces some self-reflection on 'him' and his clones.
I was also able to finish listening to:
[Audio] The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams, narrated by Martin Freeman. It ended so abruptly, and didn't really seem to have an overall plot, it just sort of meandered until the auther was like 'Alright, I'mma head out'... I'm not sure I liked this one, honestly. There was a lot of abruptly stopping the story progression to examine some random topic in detail.
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