Ancient & Medieval Historical Fiction discussion

Adrian wrote: "You need to go on holiday. I get through 3 or 4 books a week on holiday - now, if I could just make that holiday permanent, I'd be very happy indeed."

Being on permanent doesn't seem to help :) I'm about 5 books behind on my 70 book goal :(

That looks like gloating, Happy...

Retired means no deadlines, less alarms and fewer “have to…”. IMHO

I'm about a year away, but planning for the deadlines to increase.

Adrian wrote: "That looks like gloating, Happy..."

just a wee bit :)

Laurel wrote: "I have a folder for books I've started and mean to get back to.... I'm afraid to look and see how many books are in it!"

{{{Doooo it}}} {{{have a look}}}
(um, trying to mind pressure you) I'd like to know. haha. So I know there are others out there with my same problems.

Michelle wrote: "I have one, too, known as my "to be continued" folder. Although I might have to steal "paused" ;) One of these days I'll take a look in there again."

I think 'paused' sounds more glass half full than 'to be continued'. :-D

I'm planning a challenge number increase too. I'm 6 books ahead and not slowing down. I seem to have come back into some reading form. So, I'm going to live on the edge and up my challenge number from 35, to a big fat 45.

You daredevil!!

Yep, watch me go!

Read on!!!

I've done it! Changed to 45!
I'm all nervous now.
What have I done.

Given yourself 7 weeks off?

Terri wrote: "Laurel wrote: "I have a folder for books I've started and mean to get back to.... I'm afraid to look and see how many books are in it!"

{{{Doooo it}}} {{{have a look}}}
(um, trying to mind pressu..."

Okay. LOL! 23 - I guess that isn't too bad....

23 on your abandoned/paused list isn't too bad at all! Let's just say, it could be worse. ;-]

Terri wrote: "23 on your abandoned/paused list isn't too bad at all! Let's just say, it could be worse. ;-]"

I either read straight through or sometimes I'll abandon book partway through, and I never pause.

Wait, wait! Should our To-be-Continued and DNF books be in the same shelf?! I'm shelving incorrectly, then!

And Terri, I did change the name of my To-be-Continued shelf to Paused-for-the-Moment :)

My books on pause are 5, while my DNF books are steadily increasing at 18. It seems as if I'm losing patience with nonsense more frequently and then throwing in the towel.

Do you never have a book that you like but really want to read something else. So you pause it and forget to come back to it? That's what a fair few of mine are.
I pause and put it back on the shelf because I am keen to read something I just bought (for example) and then I forget to come back to it.

Jane wrote: "Terri wrote: "23 on your abandoned/paused list isn't too bad at all! Let's just say, it could be worse. ;-]"

I either read straight through or sometimes I'll abandon book partway through, and I ne..."

I've paused if it's me and not the book. Or I began a book by an author known to me, and that I had been looking forward to, but it featured a pandemic. I am anti-pandemic right now, so it's officially paused.

hmmm... no, I think dnf and tbc should be a different folder.

Or .. you could have a single folder called 'Maybe, maybe not, maybe never ever'. lol.
In that folder have your tbc and dnf together, while still having the two seperate folders. But I think dnf and tbc are different.

Confused? Me too.

Mood is big with me. I can really want to read something, but my mood is just not right for it. So I pause.
The common denominator here, is that ... I often don't just pause. I pause and forget.

I agree that DNF and TBC should be 2 different folders. However, in my world, they are one and the same. If I cannot continue, it automatically becomes DNF. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I think it's easier than put all in currently reading, then any I have paused when I'm fed up of looking at them I just remove them from my bookcase or put them back into want to read.

Darran wrote: "I think it's easier than put all in currently reading, then any I have paused when I'm fed up of looking at them I just remove them from my bookcase or put them back into want to read."

sounds more reasonable.

I can't link since I'm on the app, but Sharpe's Rifles is only $1.99 in the US Kindle store right now.

Here ya go: Sharpe's Rifles by Bernard Cornwell

Brilliant book. I must've read it about eight times.

Allie wrote: "Here ya go: Sharpe's Rifles by Bernard Cornwell"

Thanks, Allie!

Adrian wrote: "Brilliant book. I must've read it about eight times."

Couldn't you say that just about anything Mr. Cornwell writes :)

BTY I agree - but I've only read it a couple of times

mecurial weather here in the mountain west - last Sunday it was 101 in SLC then on Monday the high was 62, Tuesday was even cooler - Today ir is supposed to hit 95. That is not even mentioning the floods in Yellowstone NP. I'm too far south to be affected, but still...

Scary weather patterns… we are 90 degrees today. Predicted to be 64 degrees tomorrow. 😳

I see Goodreads has gone and changed it up again. Bit weird to find the old features, and, on the reverse, new interface a bit weird. I'm not against the change.

I guess you get set in your ways and find another move towards an image heavy Goodreads, and move away from text focus, incredibly offputting. Suppose I'll get used to it.

The sign in screens are terrible.

I'm on desktop currently, and I am annoyed at having two pages I have to click sign in on before I can even sign in.

Terri wrote: "I'm on desktop currently, and I am annoyed at having two pages I have to click sign in on before I can even sign in."

Yes, those!

Well, I'm an old dog... and these seem like new tricks.

Terri wrote: "I'm on desktop currently, and I am annoyed at having two pages I have to click sign in on before I can even sign in."

I use my phone but I go online and use the desktop version, not the app. The sign in is SO stupid now!!!!

Sharpe's Assassin is only $2.99 today in the U.S. Kindle store. This is the one that was released last year.

Assassin was nowhere near his usual standard, but still has to be read by aficcionados.

Should that be fiction-ados?

Oh, I liked it, Adrian!

If anyone is interested, Bernard Cornwell's War Lord is only $2.99 in the U.S. kindle store.

Here's a thought that just popped into my noggin: would anyone object if I create a dedicated "Book Sale" thread that we could all refer to, rather than putting sales in this one?

Michelle wrote: "Here's a thought that just popped into my noggin: would anyone object if I create a dedicated "Book Sale" thread that we could all refer to, rather than putting sales in this one?"

Good idea! Sadly the US books are mostly not on sale here, but others will benefit from it. Thanks!

Michelle wrote: "Here's a thought that just popped into my noggin: would anyone object if I create a dedicated "Book Sale" thread that we could all refer to, rather than putting sales in this one?"

We do have a thread for that, but most people congregate here in Random Thoughts, so posting here became easier.

The thread in question: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

I didn't know that we already had one...shows you how much I know ;). Nevermind, in that case.

Michelle wrote: "I didn't know that we already had one...shows you how much I know ;). Nevermind, in that case."

Well, it was a logical thought.

Mrs Happy and I made our annual trek to the Shakespeare festival last week - with the grandkids this year, We took in three plays/musicals -

Shakespeare - All's Well that Ends Well
Musical - Sound of Music
Comedy - Clue

They were all excellent - All's well ... was set in Between Wars Europe and took a little getting used to

Sound of Music was very, very good, A couple of the understudies had to go on - THE virus seems to be making the rounds in the acting company

Clue is based on the board game and the movie, but not a direct copy. The writer of the movie also worked on the play. Something I've never seen before in this one, both the actress playing Mrs. Peacock and her understudy recently tested positive for the Virus, so the understudy's understudy read the role seated just off stage. I must have missed something in the announcements before the play, because I was a bit disconcerted when Mrs. Peacock was supposed to come on stage and NOBODY came on stage, but there was a voice saying her lines. What I found interesting is the blocking didn't change - the other actors left a space for the character all through out the play -even when chasing each other around the stage - even with the missing character, it was very funny. Definately in the top 3 or 4 comedies I've attended at the Festival. The Grandkids had a ball. The 14 yr old wanted to attend a "real" Shakespeare play. so he came with Mrs Happy and I to All's Well... FTR he says he enjoyed it and wants to attend with us next year. We'll see...

In other COVID news - the festival had to cancel their Friday Performance of Sweeny Todd because of the outbreak - again one of the main actors and her understudy were down, and they didn't have time to bring the next understudy up to speed.

Mrs Happy and I will be going back down in August to take in the rest of the schedule. Maybe by then the Outbreak will have run through the cast and nobody will be sick (Cross fingers). The other two Shakespeare are "The Tempest" and "King Lear".

One the way home we saw a couple of major wildfires - one around Fillmore and the other just north of Nephi on the I-15 corridor. It's going to be a hot dry summer and I don't really want to think about the wildfires.

So glad you had a good time… in spite of COVID interruptions!!
We are all worried about how outrageously hot & dry it is. Seacoast NH is already in moderate conditions.
Be safe!!

We finished our second trip down to Cedar City and the USF. Took in "The Tempest", "King Lear" and the Sondheim musical "Sweeny Todd"

Of the three, I think I liked their production of "The Tempest" the best. It was in the small theater (200 seats) and was very well acted.

The drive down got a bit harry. In the mountain passes between Fillmore and Beaver, it started raining so hard I couldn't see 30 feet! It was that way for about 10 - 15 miles over two 6000 ft + passes. The rain did let up coming off the passes, but picked right up when going up the next one. Cars were parked all over the shoulders of the Interstate with there flashers going. I, like a dummy. continued driving - though a a greatly reduced speed (something like 25 mph instead of the posted speed limit of 80)

King Lear was on the outside stage and was almost canceled - we had a down pour about an hour or so before it was supposed t start. The Green Show was canceled, buy the storm had passed on and the rain ended by the time the play was supposed to start, and the cast and crew soldiered on.

All in all a great time was had

That drive would've scared the heck out of me, Happy!

Jesus happy, you'd think you were driving in the Pacific Northwest with that kind of rain!!