Just read and finished Saga #58 by Brian K. Vaughn. The single issues are soooo short, sigh! Full review will follow, probably tomorrow, after the readathon has finished…
We’ve reached hour 8, and another of our scheduled hour-long reading sprints. 8 hours is a full workday, so if you have not yet finished and healthy food, perhaps grab a healthy snack and some water or other non-sugary beverage to enjoy while you read for this next hour. Stand up, stretch, take some nice, deep breaths, and then grab your book for our Hour 8 reading sprint.
What fine part of the world are you reading from today? — the South of Germany, close to Stuttgart.
Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to? — I started with Unfortunate Stars, my current Netgalley. I am also really looking forward to The Queen of the Damned by Anne Rice (re-read).
Which snack are you most looking forward to? — I am not much of a snack person. I just had a sandwich with a garlic/herb spread and some peppers.
Tell us a little something about yourself! — no time, must read!
If you participated in the last readathon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? — more reading, less social media! Bye-bye! Oh, yes, I am also timing my social media time, apart from the various forms of reading…
What better way to get started with our 2022 Spring Readathon than with a reading sprint? If you have never done a reading sprint before, it is super easy- pick up your book (or turn on your audiobook), tune out all distractions, and just read/listen for the duration of the sprint. Can’t make it a whole hour? Try to hold your focus for as long as you can. Reading sprints are great exercise for your brain, and a great way to make progress reading a book you’ve had languishing unfinished for a while. Traditionally we do an hour long reading sprint every 4 hours, plus our initial one in hour 1, so if you missed this sprint, try again during hours 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, and 24.
So, on your marks …. Get set …. Read!
Opening Survey!
What fine part of the world are you reading from today?
…starts in about 2.5 hours. So far I have no plans for this weekend. I did my grocery shopping yesterday. I am as organized as I can be. It‘s always a possibility that friends pop up spontaneously and we end up going for a walk or something similar, but otherwise, let‘s see how this goes…
Hinter den drei Kiefern: Ein Fall für Gamache, paper, Gamache #13. This one is a backup and one of my StoryGraph picks for May. It‘s unlikely that I will pick it up during the readathon.
Eyes of the Void, Shards of Earth #2 (Final Architecture), audible, buddy read planned for May. Jumping the gun a little! Tchaikovsky has become one of my favourite authors, although I have also read some of his works that I did not like.
So far I am bumming around the apartment in my loungewear. I‘ll see if I go for a walk later with an audiobook. The weather is not great…
Foodwise I have paranuts and cashews as snacks, two bananas and an orange. Then there is some stuffed peppers, babaganough and some garlicy cheese stuff from my favourite Turkish grocery shop around the corner. I baked some weird glutenfree bread baking mix last night. Looks weird, as mentioned. No idea yet, if it tastes good.
Then there are some ramen and soba instant noodles. And for the contact grill I got a salmon steak and there is some halloumi. Plus some mixed leaf salad, some asparagus, a small radicchio, bell peppers, cucumber, some bulgur salad…
I can‘t say how it compares to the original, as I haven‘t read the book. I had no issues following the timeline. Great concept. The story itself didn‘t really do an awful lot for me. I might have to digest it some more and then reread it or actually pick up the book.
So, reviewing the comic…. This is autobiographical, so does that mean that Kurt Vonnegut was unstuck in time? How would that have presented itself in his life? Presumably he came unstuck due to his experiences during WWII?
The comics within comics where a fun idea.
The ending did not satisfy me. It just sort of fizzled out.
Renegades of Pern, published in 1989, starts a decade before the events of Dragonflight and covers the time up to Dragondrums fairly quickly. We get glimpses of Piemur, but the main storyline is otherwise just touched upon briefly here and there and shown through different POVs. Knowing the first two trilogies will give context, I recommend reading those first anyhow, although the first trilogy has a seriously dated tone and attitude.
I really liked Jayge‘s storyline, even though…
He had found her! He loved her! He would help her. The Weyrs and the Holds be damned. Hold and Weyr could not provide her with safety. He could and would!
Page 288
The dreaded instalove makes an appearance…
Apparently Jayge himself will also keep makingappearances in:
The first half of the book has a rather episodic feel to it, with different POVs in every chapter. I figured that I was reading one of these in-between books one doesn‘t really need.
However, by the middle of the book many of those strands came together. It got pretty interesting and added new things to the overarching story of the world of Pern. We cover not just new, but also important ground. I really enjoyed myself, especially when we started to spend serious time on the Southern Continent, which is always fun.
Not to be skipped when making your way through the Dragonriders of Pern!
Pern Re-read I started a re-read of the series in 2020/2021 and plan to read all the available main novels that I have not read yet. I am deleting, as I progress through the series, mostly in publication order. I am not too fussed about the order for the rereads, so I will diverge where it seems practical…
Publication Order — main novels / next * 1991 – All The Weyrs of Pern * 1994 – The Dolphins of Pern * 1998 – The Masterharper of Pern * 2001 – The Skies of Pern * 2003 – Dragon’s Kin * 2005 – Dragonsblood * 2006 – Dragon’s Fire * 2007 – Dragon Harper * 2008 – Dragonheart * 2010 – Dragongirl * 2011 – Dragon’s Time * 2012 – Sky Dragons
I am not sure anymore why I got this book, but I suspect that I saw some of the illustrations somewhere and liked them. I do not plan to write imaginative fiction any time soon. But this has the potential to improve understanding for what I read and it would probably be a great resource for those who do want to improve their writing.
“This all-new definitive guide to writing imaginative fiction takes a completely novel approach and fully exploits the visual nature of fantasy through original drawings, maps, renderings, and exercises to create a spectacularly beautiful and inspiring object.“
Proper police procedural, puns and pop culture references, stellar audiobook narration by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith.
The Sons of Weyland make another appearance. The mystery plot is decent, but left me pretty lukewarm. It developed in a great direction towards the end. The history excursion was very informative, entertaining and quite heartbreaking.
Great action scenes. I also love the architectural excursions.
Peter‘s homelife is the most entertaining part, with Beverly heavily pregnant and foxes running amok around his home and extended family. Love the foxes and the diggy thing. And I wish Peter‘s mum had a catering service. All we need then would be a teleporter. Bonus points for mentions of Star Trek.
I am looking forward to what Peter is going to set in motion regarding the procedures for weird bollocks, training, collaborations with other agencies and countries… Come to think of it, the team work and development of all the additional characters besides Nightingale and Peter is one of the nicest elements. Seawoll is really growing on me.
“I saw nothing suspicious—which is unusual. A copper can usually find something suspicious if they look hard enough.”
I just had a look at all the novellas and short stories that I haven‘t read—which is most of them—and I picked up a copy of this:
Tales from the Folly (Kindle Edition) — short story collection, including: The Home Crowd Advantage The Domestic The Cockpit The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Granny King of The Rats A Rare Book of Cunning Device — I listened to this as an Audible freebie A Dedicated Follower of Fashion Favourite Uncle Vanessa Sommer’s Other Christmas List Three Rivers, Two Husbands and a Baby Moments One-Three
Next Saturday will be another Dewey‘s Readathon. I signed up for it in March, although I don‘t usually last the full 24 hours. I‘ll see how much reading time I can get in. If the weather is nice, I‘d rather meet some friends and enjoy the sunshine. The Dewey‘s WordPress blog has been pretty quite so far, so I decided to re-join the GR group to have a look at what‘s happening ahead of the readathon.
Starting time is 8am Eastern Time, which is 14:00 CET for me. I suppose I could go for a long walk or hike with an audiobook, if the weather is nice…
I will definitely pick from my TBR pile of already owned books. I might use a random number generator to let fate do the picking for me.
I have an ongoing challenge to read and re-read all of the Dragonriders of Pern books, so I will probably read one of those. And the Wayfarers series by Becky Chambers is something I want to catch up with as well.
Yep, here it is again, on the 30th of April. Another Dewey‘s. I participate in these very sporadically. I don‘t usually get a lot of reading done. Once I am really tired, that‘s just it. I do like the mini challenges though. I signed up anyway…
Fantasy with a heavy hint of the Wild West and a family struggling and fighting the good fight. Maybe. They might also be traitors to a cause. I was missing backstory and world building, I couldn‘t really make much sense of the story. It was verbose, but explained little. Consequently it did not really engage me and lacked suspense.
Good artwork. Some of the visuals made me think of Star Wars. Or the more outlandish parts of the Marvel universe. Meobius?
What I liked: Fantastic beasts, dragonlike creatures and flying squid.
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.
This week‘s topic / April 19: Bookish Merchandise I’d Love to Own
I am not into bookish merchandize at all. Bah humbug! There was a time when I owned a ton of bookmarks, but I gave most of them away, as I largely read ebooks these days. I have all the coffee mugs I need and plenty of socks and cosy blankets for my comfy sofa. So, what could make my reading experience better?
Quick brainstorm… a nicer bookshelf, a lazy chair, a better reading light for that chair, more comfortable in-ear headphones, a new living room carpet in bright colours, a watertight kindle could come in handy… and, yes, ok, that bookmark with the rubberband I used to have was really useful.
I know what bookshelf I want. Or rather the maker—it‘s an Austrian company called Team 7. They custom make sustainable, natural wood furniture. Very pretty, very expensive.
If I wasn‘t so lazy, I would be visiting furniture stores and search for more affordable alternatives. Something upmarket in solid wood though.
Ok, so, reading chair… I was toying with the idea of an electrical lazy chair, but I don‘t want any cables lying around. So that idea is shelved for now. My doc recommended an old-fashioned, straight backed grandfather armchair—better for my back and that slipped disc. With a footstool? This is definitely something that requires a lot of test sitting. I was at IKEA with a friend recently and let me tell you, those chairs are not necessarily as comfy as they look.
How about a colourful option?
Yes, yes, I need to get off my lazy butt and start visiting furniture stores…. All right, now about that reading lamp. I have quite a nice one in a retro look, but I don‘t think it would fit that armchair. I think I am ready for something new. Maybe something more utilitarian? The first one is what I currently have:
Carpet… well, will have to wait until I have decided on the chair. I was aiming for something very colourful, which I would need to rethink, if I go for an armchair with a flower print! What is the connection between reading and a carpet, you ask? Nice atmosphere!
My current in-ear headphones still do their job, but the sound could be better. I am contemplating those thingies from Bose…. and, yes, the new kindle…
Cathy's Reading Bonanza 