EPBOT Readers discussion

Hi everyone,

Hope everyone's doing alright this week. It's been a bit of a rough one for me with general frustration with the news/general world. But i'm at least getting vaccinated tomorrow, so yay!

Book club:

Prereading thread is up, my digital hold is taking so long! But I saw my library has it on the shelf, so I just got notice it's ready for pick up. I'll try to grab it at some point tomorrow or sunday!

This week I finished:

Immortal Angel - just wanted a bit of fluff. This was fine, not really amazing. Quick read and all that. But I feel like she's getting either really lazy or bored with her own series. She keeps breaking her own lore, which is annoying for me. It's one of the reasons I only pick them up either from the library, or if I find them for a dollar or two online.

The Snow Queen - had a migraine monday, needed something familiar to read. It at least works for Book Nerds re-read of a favorite book.

Divergent Mind: Thriving in a World That Wasn't Designed for You - This was a good read for me, it really made me feel seen! I have long felt that I had ADHD, but when my parents tried to have me diagnosed as a child, were told that since I got good grades and I wasn't a problem, I was fine. I guess the fact that I always had mountains of homework due to being unable to concentrate enough to finish it during class didn't matter. Reading this I also wonder if I have some other sensory differences, several things in the SPD chapters really resonated for me. I also appreciated the language emphasized that we should be moving away from terms like "dysfunction" and "disorder" and acting like being sensitive is a disability. There were many examples of ways that increased sensitivity can really help in life. Used this for Popsugar book with less than 1000 GR reviews, Read Harder book that demystifies a common mental illness (obviously she'd disagree with the assessment but considering that ADHD and Autism are both diagnoses that a psychologist may give, I am counting it for the prompt) , ATY nonfiction book that isn't a biography or memoir, Book Nerds book by a woman in a male dominated genre (stretching a bit, not sure nonfiction really is a genre. but the majority of psychology is dominated by men , and Autism and ADHD are generally missed in women so most research focuses on boys and men. So she's a woman writing in a male dominated field).

Currently reading:

Dawn - Just started this, but really liking it so far. Going to be my afrofuturism book. Good excuse to read more Octavia Butler!

1Q84- still plugging away

QOTW:

Inspired by a random train of thought today: Have you noticed your reading habits change as you got older?

When I was younger I tended to focus in on particular authors and just tear through everything they wrote. Then when I caught up to their current work, I would look for a new author to devour. Not saying I NEVER branched out, but I did tend to focus on particular authors at a time. I think it was my way of trying to narrow focus amongst the overwhelming number of books.

Now I actively try to diversify my reading, which I find great! But it does mean that even with authors I LOVE, i'll have whole swaths of books that take me a while to get to, because I don't just deep dive into a back catalogue anymore. I adore Seanan McGuire, but I still haven't caught up to October Daye, I've only read one Incryptid novel, and I think I still have her Parasite series as Mira Grant, plus i'm sure there's some odds and ends I've missed. I think part of the change is having the kindle and the digital library catalogue. I can browse books in the comfort of my home, rather than being surrounded and overwhelmed. Not saying I don't love book stores! But I do tend to get overstimulated easily. So I'm less likely to go deep into genres I don't normally read to find stuff.

This week's been an OK one. Work's been slow, but the weather here has suddenly turned nice. It hit the 70s here today, and for the first time this year we're able to open all the windows.

Last week, I finished Spoiler Alert, which was my Popsugar book that discusses body positivity. I liked it a lot, but I took off one star because it actually had a little too much sex in it. I know this sounds like an odd complaint about a romance, and normally I don't mind the racy bits happening a few times each book. I felt like they were happening a little too often or taking over the scenes for too long, and distracting from the rest of the story. Still, I'll read the sequel because I really liked the characters, and overall I did really enjoy this one.

I just started The Once and Future Witches this week. Thanks to the Book Club for motivating me to start this one sooner rather than later. It's long, so I'm only about a third of the way through, but I'm enjoying it a lot so far. I wasn't sure where else to slot it into my challenge, so I'm using it for my TBR book chosen at random.

QOTW: My reading habits have definitely changed a lot.

For a little while, I would read anything I could get my hands on, including some stuff that was way beyond my age level (my grandma's Harlequin romances).

I started reading fantasy with Mercedes Lackey. My best friend at the time handed me Last Herald-Mage in grade 7 or 8 (so around 12-13 years old) and I was off to the races, and thankfully, she's so prolific, she kept me busy!

I used to do that too, inhale everything I could find by an author, then find someone new until they had a new release. I turned into primarily a sci-fi/fantasy reader who disdained other genres. I was also limited to what I could get from the book store/library since eBooks weren't a thing yet. I used to spend hours in bookstores or the library, reading cover blurbs and skimming first chapters.

I didn't really diversify my reading until I joined some friends' book club on LiveJournal, where we read a different genre each round. That really got me reading and enjoying more genres again: romance, mystery, thriller, historical, etc. and even the occasional non-fiction.

I would still say I primarily read sci-fi and fantasy, but I also pick up a much wider assortment of other things as the mood strikes.

Two finishes for me this week. I read Broken by Jenny Lawson. She did a virtual author event at my local bookstore with Neil Gaiman that I attended and enjoyed. It was fun to hear how they met and became friends. The bookstore (Literati) reported that they shipped over 1100 books for the event to all 50 states-the most they've done for a virtual event. The book was a mix of hilarity and poignancy, which is normal for her.
I also reread Day Shift by Charlaine Harris. I just love how she mixes supernatural elements into every day life. Got the whole Midnight Texas trilogy in hardback from Thriftbooks for $16. Realizing this week's reads illustrate my range of book-buying. I try to only buy things I know I will reread from favorite authors, and I really enjoy finding a deal. But I know my authors don't get paid from used book sales, and if I like the author events from my local store I need to buy from them to keep them running. (I did buy the new Gunnie Rose by Charlaine Harris from Literati partly because of slight guilt at my deal on her other series.)
My reading tastes have definitely evolved. I remember struggling to find something to read after I first got out of college. I tried reading popular fiction and just didn't like it; I learned I don't like characters discussing their feelings all the time, and didn't like books without a strong plot. My mom had got me hooked on Elizabeth Peters in high school, but I had run out of those. I was volunteering at the library and discovered a reference book called "What should I read next?". Starting with Elizabeth Peters, I found dozens of other female mystery writers that I really enjoyed; many of them were founding members of Sisters in Crime. Since they were all actively writing, that pretty much gave me enough to read for the next 20 years. I branched out into fantasy with Harry Potter, and other stuff I read with my kids (Rick Riordan, and my first steampunk.) Read more fantasy and steampunk through recommendations off of Jen Yates' book recommendations list, and joining FoE and asking for science fiction recommendations got me started on that genre. I have read more realistic and popular fiction the past three years since I joined IRL book club; I find I still generally like genre fiction better, and have a better success rate with FoE suggestions than my book club.

It was a rough work week, so yay weekend!

I only finished one book, The Killing of Polly Carter. This is the second Death in Paradise book, and I wanted something fluffy to read last weekend in case vaccination was stressful. (It was in fact very quick and I only read like three pages while I was there.) I didn't think this one was quite as good as the first one, especially in how the murder was done, but it was fun to spend time with the characters again.

I decided to read Vingt mille lieues sous les mers in the original French, and I am now questioning my life choices. I read it for Battle of the Books somewhere in 6th to 8th grade, and I remember "cleverly" quipping that if they asked, "In which book does a character see a blue-spotted red-finned something-fish?" we would know. I might not've been as funny as I thought I was, but I certainly wasn't wrong. His lists of fish are literally pages long, and it is so annoying! They're not fancifully invented, so they're not interesting in that way, but they're also not scientifically interesting, both because this is fiction and he doesn't actually know that these species are found in these areas, and because it was written in the 19th century so a lot of the stuff he did "know" is wrong. I know the author has to demonstrate why the protagonist is excited to get this opportunity, but wow it could have been done with 75% less text.

QOTW: I don't know if my habits have changed so much as my levels of time and autonomy. When you're a kid, you read the books someone buys you, or the library books they take you to get; in school, some percentage of your reading is assigned. Also a lot of your time is allotted for you. Now I have a salary and a car, and I can decide what to do with my time. For a while I did have an issue with "I have started this series and now I must finish it," but I've gotten over that.

I had a whole bunch of library loans come in at once this week so that's what'll be on my list! I had just one finish - The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty, which I really enjoyed and just took the second book of the trilogy out of the library. It's a fantasy with a Middle Eastern setting, and it made me itch to travel to that part of the world! I used it for the character with a nickname prompt -- one of the major characters is a djinn named Daravayahoush, but they call him Dara for most of the book.

I'm now about halfway through A Guide to the Birds of East Africa, thanks to Rebecca's rec last week! :). I guess I'll use it for the "recommended by someone else doing this challenge" prompt!

QOTW: I've definitely broadened my horizons. I always enjoyed SF/fantasy as a kid and read all the standards - Narnia, Wrinkle in Time, the Hobbit - but I REALLY fell in love with fantasy upon discovering Alanna: The First Adventure in middle school, and then a friend got me hooked on Mercedes Lackey and Anne McCaffrey, and I was off and running. I pretty much read exclusively SF/fantasy until my late 20s/early 30s, when I started branching out. It is still my favorite genre, but I also read a lot of nerdy nonfiction, historical fiction, a smidge of regency romance, and I've found a few mystery writers that I enjoy. I'll read contemporary fiction if I get a recommendation from a trustworthy source (hence A Guide to the Birds of East Africa!) but I find a lot of the popular fiction out there to be...not my thing.

Yay, I have achieved my life's purpose! Hope you don't hate it. ;)

So far I don’t! 🙂

i JUST finished reading Addie LaRue. i had no idea what to expect, but i'm not sure that was it. i'm off to read the discussion threads now!

monday after work, i'll be picking up The Place of No Stars from the library. so i'm going to get started with The Sands of Time from my Sidney Sheldon reread. :)

Just finished Now, Then, and Everywhen, which was alright. Not amazing, but I'd pick up books from the rest of the series if I came across them.

Not sure what I'll read next, I'll have to take a look at what's available from the library. Probably looking for something quite light again, as I'm knackered these days! Lots of social stuff going on lately (I'm in a covid safe place at the moment) which is lovely, but my introvert batteries are empty, and it's been cutting into my reading time as well.

QOTW: the type of books I read fluctuates over time, but I've always read a wide range of genres. I suspect other than format switching to digital, my reading habits haven't changed too much over the years.

Kathy, it's funny you should mention that Jenny Lawson event with Neil Gaiman - I watched her Barnes and Noble event with Felicia Day, and the one you watched must have been right before that, because they talked about it a lot - sounded like a good time! I got my copy of Broken in the mail the day of the event, but haven't had a chance to start it yet since I'm still reading The Once and Future Witches. I really can't recall the last time I read something with so much happening in every chapter - for those who haven't started yet, I find it helpful to read in smaller chunks, so I have time to absorb everything that happened, but your mileage may vary. I'm over halfway through, and I really don't know what's going to happen in the rest of the book!

QOTW: When I was a kid, I read all the time - sometimes multiple books in one day. Like many of you, I read everything, including stuff that probably wasn't age appropriate - but life isn't always age appropriate, so it wasn't really an issue. What was an issue was when I hit high school and was hit with a tidal wave of the least interesting books ever written, each of which was further picked apart in class for MONTHS. It completely killed any joy I had ever associated with reading, and I very rarely read anything that wasn't required for school or work for almost twenty years. Then I eventually got to a point of making a conscious decision to move on from being focused on a variety of negative things from the past, and reading gradually began to creep back in. I started out with mostly cozy mystery series, sort of like how you wouldn't hit up the buffet after you haven't eaten in too long, and built my way up to a wider variety. As I shifted to different groups of friends as part of the whole moving on thing, I was invited into multiple book clubs, which has been wonderful and has introduced me to books and authors I never would have discovered otherwise.

I have no finishes this week. My daughter asked for her copy of The Brothers K back when she comes to visit near the end of May (hurray for all fully vaccinated by then). So I've had it sitting there partially read for 7 months because I wasn't that into it. I'm buckling down to finish it before she comes. It is long and pretty dense. And if it wasn't for her saying how much she liked it, I would be a DNF. For me it is just okay so far.

Given that I have not made much progress on The Once and Future Witches. I have only 3 weeks left on my borrow from the library so I might have to drop and pick it back up again.

Getting there with Babylon's Ashes. I am now about 75-80% of the way through. Still enjoying it and curious to see where all the different POVs will end up converging.

QOTW: Definitely I have changed. As a kid/teen, I definitely thought that non-fiction was boring. As in I never would have read non-fiction for pleasure reading. That is what I mostly read now. I have loved this group and these checkins for introducing me to many books that I never would find out existed. I've sought out new authors from here.

I read one and a half books this weekend. One non-fiction on cinematherapy by Anne Feustel (not on Goodreads can get on Amazon - Our Favorite Movies - How Films effect our Mental Health). I am 55% through Song of Wings by Kris Faryn which is the second book in a great YA fantasy about sirens. I got a 4 day weekend so was reading, reading, reading and it made me so happy!

That Divergent Minds book sounds interesting! I'll have to check it out. I wish I'd finished something this week but no. BUT.... my AMAZING book news this weekend was that the local library finally opened for browsing again, after more than a year of only being able to drop off and pick up holds (and that at very limited times). Yay! Of course we went and got a ton of books.

My reading habits have changed some since I was younger and probably narrowed more out of necessity. As a kid I had *way* more time to read (and almost nothing assigned) so I read pretty much everything I could get my hands on: I had my favorite series at various times but also just browsed everything available at the library or from my parents' or relatives' collections which were extensive. But in college I discovered assigned reading can be a lot more boring lol: I finally understood why some people didn't 'like' to read if that was all they had to go on. For the first time I started falling asleep reading (okay: so massive sleep deprivation was also a factor...). I also went through a period when I was younger where I liked sort of grim, fatalistic 'downer' books, but those don't appeal to me anymore; in recent years I gravitate towards books that give me more positive feelings and are more about entertainment and storytelling. As an adult I don't get nearly enough reading time and although I read a little almost every night it takes me much longer to progress.

Sirka, happy browsing! My library had been hope for “30 minute or less” sessions and it’s been nice!

Where did you go to school? I know in mine, they started assigned reading in elementary school and it just ramped up through middle school and high school! Luckily my mom was such a reader I still managed to keep a love of reading, mostly by having books I liked to read going along side the boring school ones.

Lucky you, Sirkka! For me, it wasn't just that the books themselves were boring - like Sheri, I'd been reading not-terribly-thrilling selections in school from the get-go - but it was the "analysis" - everything had to have some kind of symbolism. Including one situation when I was a senior in high school where they showed us a video of an interview with the author in which she said that a character our teacher had been going on about the symbolism of all year was based upon someone she knew in real life, and was not a symbol of anything - and the teacher said she (the lady who wrote the book) was wrong. So that's the part you're lucky to have missed!

Hah that's funny, surprisingly I have actually heard of more than one occasion when the teacher claimed to have a better idea what the author was saying than they did! I guess you have to accept that people will have their own personal interpretation of any kind of art. I did encounter a little of this with literature in college :) it was over the top some times. The worst case I think was actually in a history class where the teacher for history got a little carried away in an analysis of the wizard of oz. But as most of the things she focused on were only in the movie adaptation and not in the original book, I couldn't really find the analysis believable regarding the story itself. I have to say I generally prefer to enjoy a story without taking it apart too much this way, if I can avoid it!

I've always been a huge reader, but yeah, the analysis just sucked the joy out of it for me. I used to separate in my head boring books for school from pleasure reading - I clearly remember the first time I actually enjoyed a book I had to read for English class in high school and how surprised I was that I liked it (it was A Separate Peace).

Shel, that's funny. A Separate Peace was one of those ones that I HATED and made me so angry I had to read it haha.

Sheri wrote: "Shel, that's funny. A Separate Peace was one of those ones that I HATED and made me so angry I had to read it haha."

Ha! The one I really hated was The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter - don't tell me you loved it? :)

(although I've wondered if I'd appreciate it if I tried again as an adult...8th grade was a loooooong time ago)

I don't really remember much about my school reading. The one I remember I truly despised was Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values.

The funny thing is that the only school reading I remember (from high school) is from Social Studies class. One year reading Animal Farm and another reading The Jungle. I really don't recall assigned reading in English class, other than whatever Shakespeare play was for that grade.

I will say Heart of Darkness wins for worst I had to read. It’s the only assigned reading I didn’t finish, even though it was short. I skimmed it just enough to do the classwork/projects. I re read it a couple years ago for a “read or reread assigned reading you either didn’t finish or hated”. Guess what? Still isn’t good! Haha

I neither loved nor hated A Separate Peace, but it was something of a turning point for me. I was always the kid who took the assigned book home and immediately read the whole thing straight through. When I got to the, uh, Climactic Event, I was absolutely shocked, but then somehow it percolated through my brain that I wasn't, actually, and if I'd slowed down a bit I could've seen it coming. So, all that "foreshadowing" nonsense they were always going on about was actually a thing! Maybe sometimes it is symbolism, too! (But definitely not all the times.)

Also did not like The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, also might've been to young for it, still unlikely to give it a second chance.

I remember asking my college literature professor if authors ever confirmed all the stuff people were analyzing in their works. Couldn't we just be making stuff up that the authors didn't intend? They replied that if they were a great author, they would include all these complex themes in their works subconsciously, if not on purpose. I'm not sure I'm buying this.