Reading Challenge [2023]

This is how they tell me the world end : the cyberweapons arms race by Nicole Peroth, lead cybersecurity reporter for The New York Times. Overall it is a good book but very light on the technical level, don't expect to really understand hacking just from reading this, but it offer a good overview on the infosec industry these past few decades and the author insight on how things might go from here although it tend to be alarmist as you can tell by the title.

 

Finished The Shards. This was an amazing book, one of the author's best and the best new book I've read this year so far. It's a brilliant combination of all of Bret Easton Ellis' previous work: The youthful angst and nihilism of Less Than Zero. The romance/love triangle aspect of Rules of Attraction. The violence and horror of American Psycho. The paranoid thriller part of Glamorama. The meta narrative from Lunar Park. The mystery aspect of Imperial Bedrooms. I'm going to give it a 9/10, which puts it about on par with American Psycho for me, although I think American Psycho is slightly better. I would highly recommend The Shards to anyone who can tolerate the sexual and violent content.

Next up, Hunger by Knut Hamsun.

 

I posted this and then did not end up doing any of it it—quit reading completely instead for couple of months...
I love reading a book once I pick it up and am reading it, but it's hard for me to actually pick it up, cause I am way too addicted to the internet and that's where my brain goes first! Still haven't finished The Last Wish—ahaha!
I'm posting this here to reaffirm my commitment to get back into this habit of reading!

 

Just now hearing that The Shards is getting an HBO adaptation. Could be interesting. I expect people to be offended by the amount of violence and sexual content, well the content in general really. Maybe they'll tone is down massively like they did with the movie version of American Psycho.

 

Read

Revelations 12-13
Proverbs 6
A Tell Tall Heart
AFFC 118-215
The Battle of Alamein 1-91

Revelations 14-15
Proverbs 7
The Fall Of the House of Usher
AFFC 215-345
The Battle of Alamein 91-124

Revelations 16-17
Proverbs 8
The Dunwich Horror
AFFC 345-428
The Battle of Alamein 124-135

Revelations 18-19
Proverbs 9
At the Mountains of Madness
AFFC 428-532
The Battle of Alamein 135-148

 

1 hour reading every day is a LOT. And reading thing at night, although pleasant, is not easy. Reading requires focus and concentration, although it looks chill.

Commit to a small amount - 10 pages perhaps? - and perhaps try a different time of day. Put your phone in a different room (important!), find a nice comfortable spot with no distractions and commit to the ten pages. Once they are over, you will probably want to carry on (but it's fine if you don't!). Books require discipline to start but the good ones will make you want to carry on reading. It's subtler than phones/TV though.

 

Finished Hunger. A solid book, 7/10. I always find the stream of consciousness style to be effective, although I know some don't like it.

Next up, what is probably going to end up being one of the last books I read this year: The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. A 1000 page monster of a novel I've been anticipating for a long time, after reading some of the author's short stories a while back. Might have made more sense to go with Crime and Punishment first but oh well, let's do this.

 

Yes, it looks like it's supposed to be easy, but it's not. I think I underestimated how lazy a tired mind can be.

I like your idea on focusing on pages rather that reading time. I will try reading at the early part of the day, it seems like I can actually better focus also then.

Yea, I definitely notice it too; phones and PC does not require any discipline to start and pick up, but books do, but once you're into them it's easy to just keep going. I thought it was just me though, being hard to pick up a book sometimes (I wouldn't know, cause I don't know anyone IRL who reads for fun), like I was just lazy or something, cause I see people on here reading all the time and it seems easy for them. But maybe it's just how reading works sometimes? I don't know...

 

I think reading takes discipline depending on what you are reading. They inherently take more work than other forms of entertainment but are also a lot more rewarding. For example I expect The Brothers Karamazov to be a tough read but hopefully worth the effort.

 

It's been a while since I've posted here. I have been doing bits of reading but just couldn't bring myself to post anything here.

I've continued reading Deep Work and The Case Against the Sexual Revolution.

 

my last sci fi read was "fortuna" by kristyn merbeth its an amazing action sci fi ,whats amazing is the huge world she built, the universe is infinite an im sure she almost occupied it with her stories,plus the psychological apect of it, shes a young author but the qoutes she uses wow, its like a life time experince fit into a quote, it feels like your reading a novel from a author in their 50-60s because how you feel those words, i dont know man im just very geeked out over this series

 

"cobalt red: how the blood of the congo powers our lives" by Siddharth Kara, good book, give a clear overview of the mining industry in the congo and their relationship with foreign states, multinationals and big tech.

 

Read

Revelations 20-21
Proverbs 10
AFFC 532-684
ADWD 1-46
The Battle of Alamein 148-198

 

I’m definitely on board with this challenge. I love to read and always have but over the years P addiction and PMO has ruined my motivation and focus. I have read many books over the last ten years or so, primarily Star Wars novels and I have a large collection of dog books. What I want from this challenge is to up my reading game further. I would like to be able to read for longer durations and to sharpen my focus. I just started Leviathan Wakes by James SA Corey because it came highly recommended. I’m about 50 pages in currently and I hope to finish it within 2 weeks. After completing this I would like to read 1 dog book a week from my collection and if I can do that I will catch up on all of them in less than a year. I would like to focus more on those because while they are targeted for a younger audience, many of them are just damn good stories and quite wholesome at that. So many modern books for adults contain adult situations and are often graphically depicted, this I don’t need. So, off I go to get a chapter or two read before I have to get ready for work. I would be happy to offer any suggestions for good sci fi or Star Wars specifically, if anyone is interested. If you think you’d like to read a great story about a dog I have a lot of recommendations there as well, including some that are for an older audience. Don’t discount the younger reader stuff, I finished one not too long ago that left me in tears and is one of the best finishes to a book I’ve ever read. Thank you for creating this challenge, I believe it will be a great benefit to whoever chooses to engage in it.

 

Read

Revelations 22
Proverbs 11
ADWD 47-122
The Battle of Alamein 199-246

 

im more of a darth fan, do you have any star war recommendations that contain alot of darths an siths

 

Great challenge : )

I am on day 2 of reading this book

 

looks like a novel about behind the mind of a cult leader documentary story

 

Haha.

 

Here are my own recommendations in chronological order universe-wise:

Expaned Universe:
-If you don't mind comics the only ones i really recommend are Tales of the Jedi - the sith wars and redemption. For earlier issues you are better off reading just a summary.
-Revan by Drew Karpyshyn
-Path of destruction, Rule of two and dynasty of evil by Drew Karpyshyn

Canon universe:
-Darth plagueis by james lucano
-Darth Maul: Shadow hunter by Micheal reaves
-Star wars episode 3 : novelization by Matthew woodring
-Dark Lord : the rise of darth vader by james lucano

Expanded Universe:
-Star wars legacy of the force
-All books written by Troy dennings, so 3, 6 and 9.
-You can read those written by Aaron Allstone but they are weaker, just avoid anything written by karen travis as she prefer mandos to force users.