EPBOT Readers discussion

Hi everyone! Getting down to the end of the year here, I can't believe it! Winter has definitely arrived here in Michigan. So much snow yesterday.

I haven't had as much reading time lately due to endlessly working on Christmas cards. But mine are almost done, just need to write on them and send them out!

So I'm alllmoooost finished with Rhapsody: Child of Blood (By almost I mean i'm down to 100 pages, but when you're over 600 pages that counts).

I'm dubious if I can finish the rest of the series (or at least the re-read parts) before the end of the year considering they're all over 700 pages. But I might be able to knock at least a couple out.

I'm kind of annoyed goodreads always posts the year in books so early! I still have two more weeks of reading, I can knock out at least a couple more ;)

How's everyone's reading going?

I just finished reading Blue-Eyed Devil as a second fluffy romance novel after the group of non-fiction I read. I have one more to go, The Secret History of the Pink Carnation before diving back into some non-fiction.

I also just got Uncommon Type: Some Stories that I had ordered quite a while ago. I have no idea how I came to order it - was it someone here who recommended it? After enjoying the Alan Alda book we'll see if Tom Hanks is good as an author.

I'm late the game again this week! Super busy as at work and I was laid up with a cold yesterday. I have gotten through a few things, though. I finished Eliza and Her Monsters and I really, really, liked it. It was definitely more YA then I usually go for, but I loved how it was based around the development of a web comic and how the author used it to describe how terrible it can sometimes be growing up as an anxious teen. This is definitely on my "would recommend to a friend" list.

I'm a little over halfway through The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender, which came highly recommended on a Goodreads thread somewhere. It's okay...It's firmly in the genre of magical realism--one of my favourite genres, but I'm getting the feeling the the author just doesn't really know what to do with all of the fantastical elements she's generating. It's kind of like that gun rule (I forget what it's called)--don't put a gun in a scene unless someone is going to use it. I'm also kind of amazed that this book was located in the teen annex of my library, because there is a lot of adult content in it, particularly sex. Personally, I'm not bothered by this, but I could see where a lot of parents wouldn't be expecting this kind of content in a book labelled for teens.

I was part of a walking challenge last week, so I also managed to make my way through a bunch of audio stuff while walking back and forth to work, including Armada, narrated by Will Wheaton. This is the same author as Ready Player One, and it's very similar in tone, except it's Sci-Fi oriented rather than video games. It was okay--mostly interesting because it was fun to hear WW narrate stuff about Star Wars and Star Trek!

I also listened to Lyra's Oxford and Once Upon a Time in the North, two short stories from the His Dark Materials universe that were narrated by the author and had a full cast, including music and some sound effects. They were wonderful! It was like listening to a full-blown radio production.

Finally, I've just started How to Be a Pirate as an audio book. I don't particularly love the stories, but I love David Tennant, and he's a fantastic narrator. I like my audio content to be fairly light, so this fits the bill quite nicely and keeps me constantly smiling.

So, for those of you who listen to books, what types of books do you go for? Are there genres you read that you wouldn't listen to or vice versa?

I don't know that I'm going to make my 80 book reading goal this year. I have 12 to go. I'm going to listen to the audio of Samantha Bee's book for the next few days while I'm driving around town.

I just finished book 2 in the PC Peter Grant series, Moon Over Soho. I am really enjoying this series. It reminds me a little bit of Harry Dresden. One of the blurbs described it as Harry Potter grown up, and I guess I could see that too.

I'm going to read The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror next. I had been going back and forth between Christopher Moore's Pine Cove series and the PC Peter Grant series. I have a hard time reading a series straight through sometimes. If it has too much of a formula in a series it starts to bother me, so I usually break them up.

So between the I Know I Am, But What Are You?, The Stupidest Angel, and the third Peter Grant, that will get me to 71/80. I know what I'm doing with my Christmas Vacation :) A book a day!

Jessica, Good luck on hitting the goal!

You can do it, Jessica!

Stephanie, I had to report that I took out Eliza and Her Monsters from our library. My youngest (19) picked it up from the library and she read it through twice (!) in two days. Then my middle (22) came home for Christmas and she read it in a single day too. They LOVED it. I haven't started it yet.

Susan--I'm so glad it was such a hit at your house!!!