Post Office seems like it will be a fun read. I've always been a fan of these stream of consciousness novels where the person is slightly deranged. I'll add Bukowski's other books to the reading list.
Finished Post Office. A solid read but nothing too amazing. I've read better, similar books by others. 7/10. Next up, book three of The Expanse series, Abaddon's Gate.
It wasn't easy to get a copy of the book. My local Waterstones didn't have a copy of the book so I reserved a copy from another Waterstones in another town. Soon after reserving it, they sent me an email saying they couldn't locate their copy so they ordered me one. That meant I had to wait another week until I got the book. Anyway, I've read three chapters so far and it's not an easy read due to the subject matter. Still, it's good to read because sex and porn is a serious issue.
Interested in what you think of Feast. It's commonly considered the point that the books start to get bad and honestly I agree.
19th Sept Born a Crime / (Start: 29th Aug 2023, 19th Sept 2023) COMPLETED! I stopped reading for a week or so in between cos my routine just got so busy but no excuses! Back on track and ready to start a new book inshallah
I will also like to join this challenge So i am currently reading two books 1) book A ( personality development) 2) book B ( spiritual book) So book B started yesterday And i have been reading book A for a month and it is 70% complete. So will check in gradually
The author massively changed his plan for the series after A Storm of Swords. The original idea was to skip ahead five years, instead he (incredibly foolishly) decided to actually show those events and that's what Feast and all the books after it are. But because the author seems to have given up on actually finishing the series, we're never gonna see what everything in Feast and Dance are actually building up to. Not to mention if the ending is even slightly like the ending of the show, it's going to be terrible.
I have a bit more hope that GRR will write something better, because I just don't think it could get any worse then what Season 8 had to offer. Though as you as say, that will probably never happen because GRR is too lazy to finish ASOIAF
I'm glad you said it, cause he really is just lazy. ASOIF isn't really any more complicated than other long-running fantasy series and yet other authors managed to finish theirs in less time. Steven Erikson finished the entirety of Malazan Book of the Fallen in a decade, and that's ten books all 700+ pages each, many 1000+, and he wrote other books alongside them. Robert Jordan nearly finished Wheel of Time and died of cancer, but then it still got finished by Brandon Sanderson, who pumps out books at an insane rate in his own varied series. There are other examples I could give but you get the point. Problem with GRR is he wrote himself into a corner. But he only did this because his writing process is incredibly amateurish and he didn't plan his entire story out ahead of time, like any reasonable professional would do. There's an interview between him and Steven King where GRR asks King how he managed to write so quickly and Steven answers something along the lines of "I just sit down and write." And that's what it boils down to. He's a writer who's allergic to actually writing. And he's let down millions of fans because of it.
It doesn't help matters when he does write something nobody wants. Or heck he would just write for completely different projects. I can get that George could have just wanted to take break or had burnout. If that was the case I would feel a bit sorry for George. But unfortunately he kinda of got himself into this by promising that TWOW was just right around the corner. It is just really sad that we might never see those two books. At least with Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time, he had told someone about what he wanted for the series. Unfortunately like you said, George has no clue what the ending is going to be. There isn't go to be any Brandon Sanderson or Kouji Mori to guide the series to the conclusion that the original author intending. Even if the end was terrible, at least we would know and not left in perpetual mystery. Also apologies Miss Petals. We are just having a little therapy session.
The ending is probably going to be very similar to the show, but the leadup to it will be so different that it probably won't be as stupid as it is in the show. My biggest potential issue is the time travel, which was shown in the show but will probably happen in the books too. Bran being able to project his mind but not his body through time is something GRR copied from Xmen, which he's a huge fan of. Some of the theories, like Bran being the reason the Mad King goes insane (by being a voice in his head making him paranoid) in order to 4D chess his way to being king in the present is dumb as hell but sadly plausible. Daenerys is absolutely going to go insane and burn King's Landing, the book always set her up to be the true mad one between her and her brother, as Viserys was never mad, he was drunk in the scene where he is killed.
Finished reading "Obstacle is the Way". I took many days to finish this book because of hectic schedule. Now I will start reading "Crucial Conversations".
Read: Proverbs 2 Revelations 5-6 My Hero Academia 29-30 A Feast for Crows 44-70 Japan 1941 by Eri Hotta Chapter 1 (a book about what caused Japan to go to war against America and various policies that were made by Japan during World War 2)
I don't think I've posted on this thread before, but thought I'd chime in. I've almost completely stopped watching tv (with the exception of the occasional mini-series or sports event). I have utterly abandoned news and politics which has done good things for my overall mood. Anyway this has left me more time to read, and I do have a big stack to start working through so that's good. Currently I'm reading the "Collected Fictions" of Jorge Luis Borges. I have read several of his short stories so far and I wish I had encountered this author earlier in life. I am really intrigued by his style of writing.
I recommend reading his Labyrinths. It is the only book that I have read of Borges and that was a really good book.
More than halfway through Abaddon's Gate. I'm enjoying it for the most part, but I still have yet to read a book in this series that even threatens to go beyond a 7/10 read. The consistency is impressive I suppose but I really do get the feeling the author is holding back on purpose to make the books more appealing to a wider audience. Personally I prefer when sci-fi and fantasy is batshit insane and/or complex, which I guess is why I like Malazan so much.
I didn't read much last week but today I read the chapter on porn in The Case Against the Sexual Revolution. It wasn't an easy read because of the subject matter. I found it challenging and motivating at the same time. I've also returned to reading Deep Work by Cal Newport. My new course at university officially started on Saturday. I actually started it two weeks before the official start date. I thought it'd be a good idea to pick it up again since I need to focus on my studies now.
Finished Abaddon's Gate. 7/10. I liked it but it felt like the written equivalent of blue-balls, I really thought this was the book that the alien stuff I knew was coming would take center stage and that didn't happen. That's the next book, apparently. Next up, the long-awaited The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy, one of two final books he wrote before he died earlier this year.
