EPBOT Readers discussion

Hello!
Next week I'm back traveling across the country to visit the grandbabies again. We're gone 3 weeks. I'll have my laptop with me and will try to post but if I miss, feel free to start the post too.

I finished a short story Speed Grieving on audiobook. I gave it 3 stars. It was fine, but not memorable.

I started a "reread" of Project Hail Mary. I put that in quotes because the first time I read the physical book. This time I'm listening to the audiobook. That feels different. I am enjoying it as much that way as I did visually reading it the first time. I only just started though.

By the end of the weekend I will finish, in some way or another, The Emperors of Chocolate: Inside the Secret World of Hershey and Mars. Neighborhood book club is the day after we return and this is a bulky hardcover physical book so it's not coming with me. It is a bit dry so I'm speed reading and somewhat skimming it enough to get the main ideas.

Since I'll be flying, I have pulled a bunch of the Amazon collection short stories onto my phone that I consume on long flights. I'll post their names as a group once I finish them.

QOTW:
How do you like to keep track of your finishes?

I primarily use GoodReads to keep track of everything nowadays. I created my account 12 years ago, but it took a few years for me to use it all the time for book tracking.

Since the Book Nerds challenge is on StoryGraph I joined that earlier this year. While I pulled over GR data for it, I only duplicate data over there when I add copleted books to the challenge prompts.

In the past I was tracking the challenge on my own copy of the spreadsheet. I found that was too much bother, at least to fill in all the information. Having to find page count and such was a lot of effort for audiobooks, etc. I'm liking StoryGraph for the challenge a lot more.

Happy Thursday!

Enjoy your trip, Susan! I hope you have a safe, fun trip.

Finished:
Girl, Serpent, Thorn by Melissa Bashardoust - 3.5 stars - for Popsugar's book with a snake on the cover or in the title. Fairy tale fantasy inspired by Persian legends and mythology. I really enjoyed this.

Comics & manga:
Magilumiere Magical Girls Inc., Vol. 8
Komi Can't Communicate, Vol. 34

Currently reading:
The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar - not currently for a prompt.

Upcoming/Planned:
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

The Apothecary Diaries (Light Novel): Volume 14 by Natsu Hyuuga

QOTW:
I track my reading on both Goodreads and Storygraph. For challenges, I use both Storygraph and my own spreadsheet. I like the spreadsheet for future planning because it's easier to make changes if I decide to swap things to different prompts.

Oh no, a boring book about chocolate? That's a bummer.

I Hope This Finds You Well - This was recommended on Ask a Manager a while back, and it's basically the perfect book for that site. It was fun in a sort of Doritos way, where it's super compelling if somewhat lacking in substance. Some of the story beats became obvious in advance, and it did the thing I don't like where there are vague references to The Thing That Happened that must be gradually revealed, but it was light and entertaining and a nice reminder that people can be simultaneously good and terrible and going through it in ways we don't always realize.

QOTW: I try to remember to mark books on Goodreads. I migrated everything here from LibraryThing a while back, and I know it's owned by Amazon, but I am kind of "no ethical consumption" about it at this point because I'm not sure I can switch again. If someone wants to convince me that StoryGraph is amazing and porting is seamless I'll think about it.