I can keep a tally of users and total books they've read, just drop in here and say what you read and what you thought about it, should be a fun discussion I think. Oh, and I guess let me know how many systems you own or something. Maybe you'll win a prize! Probably not. Read books because it's the Chad thing to do on a website about trading videogames.
On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers - I listened to this audiobook with my wife (via Libby). It was narrated by Bronson Pinchot who was quite good with all the character voices. It's a wild, enjoyable pirate/voodoo adventure book. Apparently it was adapted into one of the Pirates of the Caribbean sequels, but it seemed quite different to me.
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers - an award-winning cozy solarpunk sci-fi novella about a tea monk and a robot. It basically doesn't have a plot but is more character driven and is especially not about dystopia but a future earth (I think) where things worked out more or less and people (and robots) are good to each other. I liked it.
yeah I'm halfway through my next. I would have finished it had I had time in 2023! I didn't add any new systems but I would love to hit 20 books this year.
I finished Number Go Up: Inside Crypto's Rise and Staggering Fall by Zeke Faux. A fascinating ride through the crypto timeline over the past couple of years. Definitely helped to simultaneously serve as a crash course on how the whole system operates. It always seemed like an elaborate scam that was destined to crash once the initial rush had ended to me. I had no idea of the insane scale on which everything happened. While I understand there are still useful applications for crypto-currency some of the more elaborate jumps that were taken are truly staggering.
hobbes21 puts one on the board, officially the first of the new year.
It's really a shame that people still think random coin #385572 is gonna make it to the moon. The vast majority of these coins have no basis in life or any real application. It's pretty easy to spot the scams nowadays; by the time you hear you can get rich quick, you're probably too late.
A lot of it is dumb luck unless you got some sort of inside track. I have had my crypto invested ever since I was "too late" and am considering cashing it out because it's finally back up to where I would break even, lol.
I wanna get in on tracking my reads here. I started a goodreads account to track my reads too, so I wanna keep myself doubly accountable. I’ve been chewing through books lately. I’ll count up my consoles and share thoughts on the books I’ve finished up since the start of the year and post those later today when I put the kiddos down for naps.
Alrighty. Totted up consoles, and I've gone with "families" of consoles rather than counting variants (ie. 2DS/3DS will be together, as will GBA/SP). I suppose I'll list those out first - NES mini, SNES mini, N64, Gamecube, Wii, Wii U, Switch/Lite, Gameboy, GBC, GBA, DS/Lite, 2DS/3DS, Mario and Zelda Game&Watch Handhelds, Xbox Series S, PS5, PSP GO, Turbo-grafx 16 Mini, Commodore 64 mini, Anbernic 35xx. Unless I did my counting wrong (highly likely) that should bring me to 20!
I've managed to work through 8 books this year already and will likely close out a 9th today. Been cruising through some smaller books that I've never actually read and always wanted to, so several of these have been really fast reads. I'm sure I'll slow waaaaaay down as the year progresses because I'm wanting to get into some hefty books this year as well. (Looking at you, The Way of Kings.) I asked for family member's favorite books for Christmas this year, so I'm also branching out to some stuff I typically wouldn't pick up.
Here we go, in order of reading:
1. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Douglas Adams) (a re-read) - I re-read Hitchhiker's every couple of years because it's an absolute delight and hilarious to boot. This year, I listened to the audiobook narrated by Stephen Fry and it will forever be the way I hear it in my head as I read it in the coming years. Only read the first book this go around, as I'd borrowed it on Libby to listen to as I was driving back home at the beginning of the year following holiday travels.
2. A Time to Kill (John Grisham) - A gift from my sister-in-law. She and my brother are both lawyers. This is a book that I typically wouldn't read, and yet, it was really engaging and I absolutely blasted through it once I'd opened it up. Grisham's writing of Brigance does create this flawed but lovable character that you kind of admire despite yourself. The opening chapter is the exact reason that I steer clear of this genre usually, but I can't argue its efficacy in embedding an immediate visceral hatred for the antagonists as the narrative begins unfolding.
3. The Batman Who Laughs (Scott Snyder) - First time dipping my toes into any of the Dark Multiverse business. I thought it was an interesting take on Batman and Joker. I don't really go wild for much that could be described as "bleak", but I did think this was great. Also ironic considering another read coming up shortly. Maybe I do like bleak stories, I just don't want to haha. The art was great. Will revisit several times just to pour over the panels too.
4. The Last Ronin (Eastman, Laird, and Waltz) - Another bleak one that I actually enjoyed too... I love the flashback chapters in the visual vernacular of the original Turtles. I wouldn't say the story was groundbreaking, but growing up with the Turtles, I still really did enjoy this one.
5. No Country for Old Men (Cormac McCarthy) - A gift from my brother. Another bleak one, but I'll whole-hog say that I loved this one. I watched the movie years ago when it came out and it really blew me away how closely the Coen brothers kept to the book. I think they did an incredible job with the movie and I'll re-read this one before the years out, if I hit my goal. An engaging narrative of the classic theme of good versus evil and the reconciliation of past, present, and future.
6. The Magician's Nephew (CS Lewis) - My mom tried to read the Chronicle's of Narnia books to us when we were little, but I don't think she ever actually made it beyond the Magician's Nephew. I I grabbed the old box set off the bookshelf in the basement when I was home for the holidays and I'll be reading through them this year. Obviously, loaded with Biblical imagery and themes (which isn't everyone's cup of tea), but I'm really enjoying them as quick little pickups that are fantastical and light-hearted in between some of these heavier themed books. I'll likely finish off The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe this evening.
7. How Do You Live? (Genzaburo Yoshino) - Grabbed this one after reading that Miyazaki's Boy and the Heron was inspired by this book. (Still haven't been able to watch the film, but hot dang, I really love this book.) I love slice-of-life stuff and this is that in spades. A short read that follows the events of a young Japanese school boy and his three friends, interspersed with writings from his uncle's notebook that are responses to conversations that they've had. A high recommend from me on this one.
8. The Pearl (John Steinbeck) - Good Lord. Talk about bleak again. Wanting to read through "classics" this year that I've overlooked and passed by and I read this one over the weekend. The story of a poor man finding inexplicable and unobtainable wealth and the fallout of what his discovery has upon his family. Brilliant writing. Truly heartbreaking.
And that's where we're at so far. I'm sure there's grammatical issues galore within the above, but I promise to take posts a book-at-a-time from here onward.
9. The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe (CS Lewis) - You know, I'm not quite sure where it's come from, but the ending of this one actually made me quite sad as I finished it. Something about the time discrepancy between Narnia and the real world and to have complete lives lived in one place, only for the Pevensies to wind up back where they were at the beginning - I don't know. It's kind of bummed be out for some reason. This is where my familiarity with this series ends though - gonna go ahead and start The Horse and His Boy while I've got a few minutes left on my lunch break.
> Oh yeah, I forgot to roll this over. Bogo of course OP AF.
>
> Same rules as before! 2023 stunk, maybe 2024 can convince me we should switch to
> games.
😅 It wasn't so bad. I read a couple of books in 2023 which, for me, is a victory. I used to read a ton. Now, not so much. Feels like the wind was taken out of my reading sails. Though, if we ever get Doors of Stone by Patrick Rothfuss, I'm hoisting up those reading sails immediately. Instant pre-order. (Book 3 in the Kingkiller Chronicles. Name of the Wind; Wise Man's Fear; Doors of Stone)
How to Defeat a Demon King in Ten Easy Steps by Andrew Rowe -
Not great. I feel like if someone at Nintendo read this, they'd be hiring some lawyers. It's very, very similar to Ocarina of Time/Zelda to a fault. Not an homage at all like it's described in the acknowledgments. Luckily this was short and free since I did a month of Kindle Unlimited.
> Did you like it? I see it's 200 pages. I like shorter books and I see it has a
> lot of excellent ratings.
Oh, yes was pretty good. It was free with my free Kindle Unlimited month which is partially why I did that. I basically wanted to read some shorter things before going back to the next Sun Eater which is around 500 pages.
Finished Book 4, A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah Maas. Onto book 5 (which is much longer, book 4 was only about 6 hours worth of audio compared to most that have been 12-30hrs.)
>> Finished Book 4, A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah Maas. Onto book 5 (which
>> is much longer, book 4 was only about 6 hours worth of audio compared to most
> that
>> have been 12-30hrs.)
>>
> How is that series?
Really good. It's compared a lot to Twilight in some aspects but does have a lot more violence, fantasy monsters and top notch sexy scenes (though not a ton of them.) There have been some big reveals that were hinted at in the beginning and have you go "oh man, that was planned for 3-4 books."
Anyway, Maas has built a fantasy world and there's 2 other series I'll move onto after this because the world is linked so that's exciting.
I read quite a bit of Anne Lamott during grad school and am circling back to some I missed now. These were two short ones, but they're both going to stick with me for a while, just like her other books on healing, spirituality, and writing. (Bird by Bird is incredible). Might not be for everyone, but I love Lamott's writing in the same way that I love to dip into Mary Oliver's poetry. It's incredibly human and honest, often laced with humor and insightful observations and patience. Anne was on an episode of Midnight Gospel and her voice is also incredibly calming and charming and I always read her work in her voice now.
