50 books in 52 weeks February update: Childhood's End by Arthur C. Clarke Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn Dark Places by Gillian Flynn The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen Ready Player One by Ernest Cline 10/50
Just finished two books: Happiness by Design by Paul Dolan, good book about how you can improve your own happiness through various techniques and how to optimise your attention. Fooled by Randomness by Nassim Taleb, fantastic read.
Has anyone read Catch 22? I'm about 80 pages in and its already feeling like a chore, I was wondering if it gets better and worth finishing.
Devil in the White City - Erik Larson The Sorrow of War - Bao Ninh The Five People You Meet in Heaven - Mitch Albom She Weeps Each Time You're Born - Quan Barry The Road - Cormac McCarthy Perfume Dreams - Andrew Lam Read list from March. Got about 20% through Catch 22 before giving up.
Just finished Death Be Not Proud. First time in 20+ years. Tear jerker. And John Gunther seems like a mega douche. Reading collected Kull stories from Robert E. Howard now.
50 books in 2017 April and May update: Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightime - Mark Haddon Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell The Best We Could Do - Thi Bui The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman Dragonfish - Vu Tran - The Gangster We Are All Looking For - Thi Diem Thuy Le Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson Storm of Steel - Ernst Junger 22/50
That's a hell of a book. Those people may as well be a different species than us with what they had to go through in that war. I honestly don't know if today's human beings would be able to face the same sort of stuff, in the same way as Dan Carlin has made the point he's not sure people today would be able to engage in hand to hand warfare like the Persian/Greek wars, not sure we have the same makeup to be able to cut people down by hand one by one. It's horrific stuff, and a firsthand account like that is amazing. As for me Passport to Magonia - Jacques Vallee Messengers of Deception - Jacques Vallee The Crypto Terrestrials - Mac Tonnies Transformation (the breakthrough) - Whitley Strieber The Last Day of a Condemned Man - Victor Hugo
I agree, it was one of the most enjoyable reads as of late. It gave us a first hand point of view from the side you hardly learn about. I believe it was actually from you that I first saw it mentioned.
It's been awhile since my last post in this topic and I have read a lot of better and worse books in the meantime, but I wanted to share a recommendation on 3 items. 1. Vampire Empire by Jay Kristoff - probably my favorite book read in 2023. Unfortunately, the first in the series, but a sequel is already planned for February. 2. Pierce Brown's Red Rising series - I reached for sci-fi for the first time in many years, and after listening/reading this position I will certainly dive deeper into the genre again. For the first time in my life I jumped between reading the same book on my Kindle and listening to its audio version while walking the dog / exercising. While reading the last (so far) part I literally could not tear myself away from it. Unfortunately, also in this case I am waiting for the last part, which is not due until next year . 3. GraphicAudio - I don't know if this publishing house is popular in your countries, I came across them for the first time this year and fell in love. I've always preferred reading books to the audio version and decided to go with this option only because of the long time I spend walking my dog. The books published by GraphicAudio are simply fantastic. I have listened to more than a dozen items so far and basically each one was incomparably better than the alternative productions. I'll say more, I get more pleasure listening to their audiobooks than reading a book the traditional way. I definitely recommend them to anyone who likes audiobooks or traditional books but doesn't have time to read.
