EPBOT Readers discussion

Hi all, sorry again for not getting a post up last week.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Our next book club book will be The Once and Future Witches, it won the poll by quite a few votes! I put up a pre reading thread in the book club folders.

This week I finished:

Detransition, Baby - part of Roxanne Gay's book club from february, took me a while to get my copy. I liked it overall, a bit of an intense read. Used it for Booknerds own voices, and Reading Women book by a trans author.

The Removed - The March Roxanne Gay book club pick. I liked it ok, but something didn't really come together with me. I guess I like m y books more plot focused, and it was more thematic focused on how to deal with memory and grief. Used for popsugar book about forgetting, book nerds book with multiple POV.

Streaming - book of nature poetry. It was ok, poetry isn't really my thing usually. I have trouble reading it and absorbing it, found my self attempting to read and re-read the same one over and over again. Read harder book of nature poetry, booknerds book of poetry.

Currently reading:

Interior Chinatown - just started it, don't really have an opinion yet.

1Q84 - still plugging away

QOTW:

What sort of formats do you like reading best?

For me I like digital books, due to ease of carrying them around, ease of borrowing and returning to library, and not needing to worry about light level because the screen can light to the point I need.

I still do like reading physical books, paperback is my next preferred. Lighter weight, cheaper, easier to carry around.

Hardcover next, I like print but hardcovers tend to be heavy and bulky. I find them harder to get in comfortable positions to read in bed, or to read in the bathtub with etc.

Audiobooks is probably last. I like them on occasion, but i tend to prefer them for either nonficiton, or books I've already read. It's hard for me to totally focus, so I do better if I don't have to keep track of plot, or it's a plot I already know so can follow with even if I zone out a bit. I HAVE done audio books for new fiction, but I always feel like i missed soemthing, doesn't stick in my brain as well.

No worries, Sheri - I don't know about everyone else, but I too am a disorganized mess these days. It's a wonder I find time to read :)

Two finishes last week for me. One was Lucky Man by Michael J. Fox -- I noticed the book nerds prompt #39 author who shares your name or initials a while ago and did an idle search to see if there were any other Michelle Foxes writing books - and duh! I hadn't realized he wrote a memoir. It turns out Marty McFly is an excellent writer! He writes about his childhood, his career, his marriage, his alcohol abuse, and his Parkinson's diagnosis, all in a very real and very honest way. I've read my share of celebrity memoirs that were poorly written and I was pleasantly surprised by this one. I probably would not have picked it up if it weren't for that prompt, and I'm glad I did!

Next I read a book that I'd taken out of the library for my fourth grader, Ground Zero by Alan Gratz. The author had come to his school to speak with the whole fourth grade, and my son came home absolutely captivated and asked me to get the book for him. He usually reads fantasy, a love which I share of course, but I was really glad to see him branching out. He read the book and loved it, so I had to read it too before returning it to the library. I thought it did a wonderful job of portraying 9-11 in an age-appropriate way without sugar coating it. Used for the prompt #37 book with a number in the title.

QOTW: I am equally happy with an ebook or a paperback. I don't love hardcovers - they are too big and heavy and expensive - but often end up reading them from the library. I like nonfiction on audio, but not fiction - like you, Sheri, I tend to zone out, which is no big deal when it's nonfiction, but is a pain when there's a plot to follow. I listen to podcasts more than audiobooks, but if I know I've got a long drive ahead of me I will grab a good audiobook.

I took last week off and did some hiking and stuff, so the only book I finished was Cinderella Liberator. This was recommended on social media by a high school acquaintance who is now in education. She specifically said "kids and adults" and "it's not what you're expecting." I don't know about kids, but there wasn't a lot there for this adult, and it was pretty much what I expected. I think T. Kingfisher's "The Dryad's Shoe" is a little bit more creative with the story at a similar length.

QOTW: I like physical books best, and don't really have a set preference between hardcover and paperback (the former are easer to leave open on a surface, but more annoying to carry). E-books are fine and preferred for some circumstances (like packing light for a trip). I just cannot audiobook; I tune right out, and then have to try to go back to when I was last paying attention, and then tune out again... (I have the same issue with podcasts.)

Last week I had just finished a book so this week I do not have a finish, but a start. I started the sequel of The Lost Art of Mixing from The School of Essential Ingredients. It is equally enjoyable, light and pleasant so far. This book goes more in depth of fewer characters, some from the previous book and some newly introduced.

And, of course, I'm still listening to Babylon's Ashes. I am not quite halfway through yet. And I guess this is a good segue into the QOTW.

I don't have an e-reader so I do physical books, mostly from the library so often hard cover. I don't have a preference for hard cover or paperback. I do if I have to carry it. I am fairly recent to listening to audiobooks but I have been really enjoying them. I only listen when walking outside alone so that makes it easier to focus on the story and remember/follow the plot. (Or on long flights in the Before Times). Funnily enough I have never read a hard cover book by any of the authors I've listened to on audiobook. John Scalzi, The Expanse series by James S.A. Corey, Brandon Sanderson, and a bunch of random books/authors.

I finished reading The 7 1/2 deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle, it was very thimey-wimey and left you to fill in the blanks of how actually it did end, in a good way.

I'm now reading This Is The Fire from Don Lemon of CNN

QotW: Physical books, hardback and paperback..... as long as they're physical, I can hold them in my hands, turn the pages, and even smell them XD

Just some manga finishes for me this week: Blue Flag, Vol. 1, Blue Flag, Vol. 2, and Blue Flag, Vol. 3.

Otherwise, I'm still reading As the Shadow Rises, which I'm liking well enough so far.

QOTW: My preferred order now would probably be digital > paperback/small hardback > audio > hardcover.

I used to be all about the physical books, but in the last few years, I've become a digital book convert. It's just so convenient to bring all my books with me without having to lug around anything other than my phone or Kindle device. Plus I can read at my desk during downtime without having to look away from my screen or take off my glasses. And with the lock downs, it's been so much easier for me to borrow digital books from the library.

My partner prefers audio, which I mostly enjoy if it's a story I've read before so I don't have to concentrate on every little detail. I just feel like I pick up more nuance when actively reading rather than listening.

Been in a bit of a reading slump, so not much to report at the moment.

Eventually picked up The Secret, Book & Scone Society as a light cosy mystery after lots of vague casting about trying to find something I wanted to read. It was fine, pretty much as expected, though it might have been nice if the writing was a bit more subtle in its exposition and character development, but it served its function as a low effort distraction. That probably makes it sound worse than it was. I did like the use of books as a means of healing, and the idea that if you can just give someone the right stories in the right order you can show them how to manage any of life's big problems. I mean, maybe not entirely true, but I do believe that stories are incredibly important as a tool for teaching us about being human and understanding other humans. And they can definitely offer a huge amount of comfort and encouragement as we muddle through things.

Still reading Girl, Woman, Other on my lunch breaks. Keeping it at work is slowing me down, but I am really enjoying it. It's an interesting format, but very well done.

QOTW: I almost exclusively read ebooks these days. I love an actual, physical book as a thing - the feel of the paper, the raised ink, the smell - but the convenience of ebooks wins out for day to day reading. I still get the occasional hard copy of a book that is special to me in some way, and will read physical books that I'm gifted or loaned, but I love the ease of borrowing ebooks and having them with me at all times, being able to read in bed without disturbing my partner with a light, and not having the struggle of having to store or let go of physical books. I sometimes do audiobooks but, like others, do find them harder to fully focus on and absorb. I used to find them impossible, but started training myself up on podcasts and can now happily listen so long as I'm doing something mindless. I do find that I have to be doing something though (usually walking or dishes) otherwise my mind wanders or I get a bit bored/restless.

Since our last check in, I read a poetry book (Why I Wake Early) for the book nerds challenge. It was fine, and I liked some of them, but not going to be a new habit. I also read Urban Allies: Ten Brand-New Collaborative Stories, which was a collection of short stories each written by two authors who took their well-established characters and stuck them together. I was only familiar with two of the authors previously, but it was fun to see how they meshed different powers/supernatural characteristics together in one story. I read the third Raine Benares and continue to enjoy this series. Also finished up The Angel of the Crows, which is by the author of the Goblin Emperor that I loved. It's very different but I liked it. The author's note said it started out as a Sherlock Holmes wingfic (fan fiction where characters are angels). So good for that new vocabulary word alone.
For book types, my preferred order is hardcover, paperback, digital, audio. I like the feel of a book, and hardcover is easier to read before going to sleep (plus usually bigger print.) However, I have learned to appreciate the joy of having digital books on my phone for reading emergencies. I rarely do audio books, I think because I'm not a fan of earbuds, and I read pretty fast so I can usually read faster than I listen.