EPBOT Readers discussion

Hi everyone!

I've been picking up a lot of long books lately, it feels like. So only 2 books finished this week.

Leviathan Wakes - Was reading this last week, finished it up over the weekend. It was good, now I want to re-watch season 1 of the show to remember how it all went.

A Gathering of Shadows - This was also good. Book 2 of the series, it ramped things up much more. Ended on a cliffhanger so now i'm impatiently waiting for it to be ready from the library.

Currently I'm reading The Fifth Season I just started it so I don't really have an opinion yet. But I've read one of her other books and it was pretty good, she does really rich world building. So I think it'll be good once it gets going.

How's everyone else doing?

Hello, All!

I managed to finish a few things this week. Last week I read Saga, Vol. 1 and said I'd check off the prompt for book with a picture when I'd finished Vols. 2-7. I was able to check out everything from the library except Vol. 6, so I read up to the end of Vol. 5 and should get 6 this weekend to finish up the rest. These are fast, interesting, and entertaining graphic novels (well, comics, really) and they have made for a nice change of pace in this reading challenge. If you don't mind some graphic novels on the more "graphic" end that deal with some interesting social themes and characters in a highly imaginative and creatively illustrated way, these could be a great read.

For my prompt with an unreliable narrator, I read Fight Club. Wow, did I ever dislike this book. If it wasn't for the fact that it was a fairly short, fast read, I wouldn't have made it past the first chapter. I saw the movie years ago when it first came out, and all I really remembered from it was that it had a fight club and the big reveal at the end. The book is filled with terrible people doing absolutely horrible things, which is not the head space I want to be in right now. I also didn't enjoy the narrative style--I think if I hadn't know the big reveal and so could understand why the writer was making the narrative choices he did as I was reading, I would have found the book even more unpleasant. So, yeah, this book was a classic case of, "I see what you're doing here, I recognize that this is good writing, but I can't stand the story line and characters, and so I heartily dislike this book." I can understand why it was acclaimed, but it was just not for me.

I had another book on my list to read after Fight Club, but I felt like I needed a unicorn chaser after it, so I read Hotel Du Lac as my book set in a hotel prompt. I looooovveeed this book! I think a lot of people might find it boring, but it was just the type of quiet, beautifully written, insightful character study without a lot of action going on that I needed right now. It was a Booker Prize winner in 1984 and is about a somewhat mousy woman who writes romance novels who has been banished from society by her friends after she creates a scandal to basically "think about what she's done" in an isolated, nearly empty hotel for a month near the end of the season. During this time, she realizes Many Things about herself and the general roles that women are slotted into in society and where she does (or in her case, does not) fit within them, including whether or not she wants to go back and try to fit. I don't think this book is for everyone because of the pacing and lack of action, but it's quickly become one of my favourite books.

Sheri, I've heard lots of good things about The Fifth Season and I put in on my TBR list. How is it going so far?

Hi Stephanie!

I kind of feel you on fight club. Chuck Palanuck is difficult. I like Diary better if you really want to give him another try, but that one was a real head-messer of a book.

I'm liking Fifth Season so far, although it's kind of a weird writing style. When it follows a particular character, the narration slips into second person, which is a strange choice. But it does make her passages stand out, so maybe she's the one the reader is supposed to identify with, hence the "you do this, you do that". It's an interesting take on having magic/psychic type powers. In most fantasy, that'd be something that makes people special, admired, etc. In this world, it makes them hated, feared. When kids go off to magic school, it's usually seen as a way to nurture and enhance kids with abilities. Here, it's a way to control them into being useful tools, and enable them to be 'taken care of' if they are uncontrollable. Gives it a much different feel.

Ooh, I loved the Fifth Season and the second book too.

Sheri, I will have to take your word for it on Diary--I don't think I can handle another nihilistic-type work anytime soon or possibly again! I only have two books left to read for the challenge, one of which I can't get my hands on until Monday, and the other is about poverty in the Caribbean--I'm still not sure that I'm ready to start it after Fight Club. Still, only two books left!

I'm seriously considering doing the advanced challenge, but with the school term starting up again (I`ll be teaching a course on top of my regular job) and some other work commitments this fall, I don't know if I should as it's not likely that I'll get through it all. I think I might just pick away at it and see what happens. I`ve definitely added a lot of books to my TBR list through becoming a member of GoodReads and joining this group, and I`ve rediscovered my love of reading books that aren`t just brain candy at the end of a long day (not that there`s anything wrong with that, I just wanted to expand my horizons again). So, I probably have enough on my TBR list to easily fill out the advanced challenge, but it`s just a matter of whether I want to push myself to keep up the volume of reading or just put it on the back burner until things slow down a bit.

Stephanie, you could always go through your TBR pile and see if you can fill the advanced prompts within it. If the answer is yes, might as well since they were in your list anyhow. If not, them you could come back later when things settle down :)

Yes, that sounds like a reasonable approach. Also, I think we'll end up with some overlap on that list, Sheri, I put quite a few books from your advanced challenge on my TBR while you were discussing them in here! :-)

Besides, I know that if I get at least half way through the list, the completionist in me will just push to get it all done! That said, I've put a lot of books on my list that won't fit, and I'm kind of feeling like I just want to randomly read again, so who knows where this will go after next week!

I know the feeling! I pushed through the challenge as fast as I could specifically so I could go back to reading whatever. I'm still poking at read harder, but my efforts at googling a local micro press failed me. I don't want to buy a random book and I am not sure if my library has any. Might have to go over and actually TALK to someone there and find out. (My library had self check out, usually in in and out with zero interaction). So I'm not really stressing about the challenge when I know I might be skipping a prompt anyhow.

Sheri, I love N K Jemisin's books. I did like fifth season and she seems to be heading in an interesting direction in the next one. The second person is definitely a little odd but I think it ends up making sense in context. Although The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms is still my favourite by her.
I just finished Magic Kingdom for Sale, Sold which I enjoyed enough to read the next one although again I wasn't the biggest fan of the writing style.
I'm currently reading Enchanter by Sara Douglas. It's very much an epic fantasy of the time when it was written so there are certain aspects that grate a little but the plot so far makes up for those.

Catherine, the first thousand kingdom book is the other one I read by her, it was pretty good. I like her writing but it's pretty intense. Need to space them out a bit, for me.

Okay, so I took a look at my TBR list and what I have around the house, and I'm able to fill 10 of the 12 prompts for the advanced list, so it looks like I'm in....

I know what you mean about not having to talk to anyone at the library, Sheri. I'm slightly extroverted by nature, so for me it's more a matter of just getting in and out efficiently. I love that I can check out ebooks from home and save myself an extra 1/2 hour (more time for reading!).

P.S. Sheri, you might be interested to know that I'm having difficultly typing this because of an intensely purring Mjølnir sprawled across my lap/laptop :-)

Haha, hi Mjolnir! I had a sprawling mox taking up the entirety of my legs this morning :D it was pretty great.

Also I love my digital library, my regular library is a pain to get to. Hate having to make a trip, unless i absolutely can't get a book digitally!

Slow couple weeks of reading for me. I finished Fahrenheit 451. I liked the ending, though this novel is one that seems a little too plausible for me. I'm still plugging away at Frankenstein. Not much progress there.

A couple days ago I picked up The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe as a book with a lion, a witch, or a wardrobe. I didn't read this series growing up, but I would have liked it. Not sure why it's taken me this long. I guess better late than never?

I've also started listening to the Stephanie Plum novels by Janet Evanovich during my commute to work. It took me a while to tolerate the narrator, but it's the perfect amount of fluff for my drive.

Hi Sara, I liked Fahrenheit 451, but i know about what you mean, it feeling too plausible. Felt the same way about handmaiden's tale.

Hope you like the Narnia books! I loved them growing up.

Hello Sara,

It's definitely better late than never with the Narnia books. The first in the series is one of my favourite--I rarely walk by a lamp post in someone's yard without thinking about it. I hope you enjoy them!