EPBOT Readers discussion

Hello everyone,

Well for me, that's a wrap! My working day today is done and I am retired as of 10 minutes ago. It is bizarre because I work remotely so the ending is anti-climatic as I just left my home desk. After 38 years in my profession, I'm simply "done". I have not digested this yet even though I made the decision to retire back last fall.

The good news is that will free up time to read more. I anticipate a lot more long walks with audiobooks in my future as well as actually putting reading time on my personal calendar.

This week I had a bunch of finishes because I was close last week. I finished listening to Bookshops & Bonedust. I enjoyed this one as much as Legends and Latte. Light, fun, not stressful and just enjoyable.

I also finished Some Other Time. This one was 3 stars for me which means it was just okay. I happily read it and see how it ended but it is not going to be something I go back to or likely recommend. But that is what most of my books end up being.

I also finished a shorter novella The Fall Risk by FoE Abby Jimenez. I enjoyed this. It is a light romcom. Really all of the conflict in the entire book happens in a single paragraph. The entire novella is the character development. But it was a great, short bedtime read.

In perfect timing, just as I finished my audiobook, my hold through Libby for the audiobook version of Service Model became available. So I am listening to that with earnest. I only have a limited number of days. This is my first time using Libby and having a listening deadline. There is pressure to get it done. I'm listening at 1.2x so that should help (by 20% ha ha!)

I'm reading a previous Amazon First Read's selection of Not Quite by the Book on my Kindle. I really just started it so no opinions yet.

QOTW:
What books have you read where you love to dislike the main character?

I'm poorly answering my own question because my answer is based on a book-based TV show but I haven't read the book yet. It is Jackson Lamb in Slow Horses. My husband is reading it now after we have watched 3 seasons, and says that Gary Oldman portrays him perfectly as written in the book.

For a book I actually read, I highly disliked Ove in A Man Called Ove. I was only meh on that book overall because I was put-off by a detail in the beginning that turned me off so much.

Another one is Lessons in Chemistry. Elizabeth is not very likable at all and I had other "issues" with the unrealistic parts of the book. Another very popular, apparently well-loved book I didn't particularly like (similar to Ove).

Happy Thursday!

Congrats on retirement, Susan! I hope you enjoy your hard-earned rest. For me, things at work are too slow now. I always worry when it gets like this. But I'd rather that than too busy, so I'll take it.

One of my resolutions for this year was to start writing more in-depth books reviews, so I started doing that this month. It's been kind of fun to make myself stop and collect my thoughts about a book before just moving on to the next one.

Finished:
Welcome to the Hyunam-dong Bookshop by Hwang Bo-Reum - 4 stars - for Popsugar's book where an adult character changes careers. The career change technically happens before the start of the book, but the book is basically all about her new job (running a bookstore) including her struggles and the reasons why she changed jobs, so to me, it counts. See my full review here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Holy Terrors by Margaret Owen - 5 stars - for Popsugar's highly anticipated read of 2025. This doesn't come out officially until April, but I got an ARC and devoured it. At the risk of fangirling, I just love this series so much. See my full review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

The Apothecary Diaries: Volume 13 - 4 stars - not for a prompt. More Maomao! I didn't do a full review of this volume, but it mostly felt like filler, setting up the next story arc(s).

Comics & manga:
Daily Report About My Witch Senpai Vol. 4
Honey Lemon Soda, Vol. 4
She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat, Vol. 5
Skip・Beat!, Vol. 50
The Apothecary Diaries 13
Chihayafuru Vol. 42
Chihayafuru Vol. 43
Chihayafuru Vol. 44
Chihayafuru Vol. 45
Chihayafuru Vol. 46
Chihayafuru Vol. 47 (I've read as far as the library has. Now I have to wait for them to get the last 3 volumes!)

I am currently at 13/50 for Popsugar (11/40 and 2/10).

Currently reading:
It Goes Like This by Miel Moreland - for Popsugar's book where music plays an integral part of the storyline. I'm enjoying it so far. The main characters were best friends with a band in high school. Their band hit it big, then drama happened and the band (and the friendships) fell apart. More drama happens when the members all agree do one last reunion concert for charity, after a bad storm wrecks their hometown.

Upcoming/Planned:
The In-Between Bookstore by Edward Underhill - not sure yet if this will fit a prompt.

QOTW:
I can't honestly think of many - most of the books I've read where the main character is unlikable, there's something redeemable about him/her, somehow. The only one I can think of is one where the MC does something so bad that I DNFed the book because I couldn't stand to read about him anymore. (The book was Lord Foul's Bane).

Yay, Susan! I imagine it'll be weird for a bit, but I hope you're loving your retirement life soon.

We Are Definitely Human - Picture book in which three aliens humans crash their saucer car and the townsfolk help them fix it because that's "what kind humans do." That's it, that's the plot, but the illustrations are great. The page where the aliens are sleeping on the back of a couch, under a coffee table, and upside-down in a chair made me actually lol. It would be a good read-aloud because you could do three slightly different alien voices.

Portrait of a Thief - This is by a fellow Duke alum and is also my library's community read this year. Unfortunately, it contains too many words. Too many lyrical descriptions that are nearly identical to the previous lyrical descriptions of the same things. (I understand that it is fall. If you tell me about the light through the window one more time...) Too many constructions that describe a person or place as "all [noun] and [noun]": angles and cheekbones, fluorescent lights and faraway sounds, light and heady promise. (If this does not sound that bad, imagine more of them. No, more than that.) Too many specific Duke references that would be meaningless to most readers and merely pointless to the rest. (Oh, she leaned against the Allen Building, that makes all the difference!) I could go on (the author certainly did). Netflix is mentioned in the acknowledgements, and honestly it might be fine as a show because they could dispense with most of the words.

QOTW: I am not a love-to-hate person. I want to like the main character. I want to be able to root for them. They don't have to be perfect or anything, but if I just cannot stand them, I can't care much about the book.