Wednesday Reading Meme
Little update. Things have been a big struggle in so many ways that I won't get into. But to focus on the computer stuff only: the internet connection thing is better than it was. I'll have a couple of days of stability but then for example last Friday I had a day where the connection dropped literally a dozen times. I am still feeling much better about that aspect. Then I started getting weird warnings, one about memory and one about "overrun of a stack-based buffer". Finally did a deep virus scan (which I didn't even know existed on my virus scanner before now.) It took 8 hours to run and found a bunch of malware and such. So, maybe things will look up now that I've got those quarantined? Time will tell.
Onward to the reading week.
What I Just Finished Reading: Since last week I read three books. Seems like I should have been able to read more than that, but I also borrowed the first two seasons of Call The Midwife and have been watching those. Damn show makes me cry on the regular. The books I read were: The Second Sleep by Robert Harris, Pageboy by Elliot Page, and How to Win at The Challenge and Life by Sydney Bucksbaum. It wasn't a very successful reading week. Reviews below.
What I'm Reading Right Now: I've just started Soulstar, the final book in the Kingston trilogy. This one focuses on Robin, a minor character from the previous books and one I'm not particularly interested in. I want to find out what happens so I'll finish it, but I'm really not compelled to pick it up.
What I'm Planning to Read Next: I have two other books out from the library, As You Wish by Cary Elwes and This Perfect Life by Ira Levin. Those are up next.
92. The Second Sleep by Robert Harris
One thousand years after the apocalypse, humanity has regressed to a similarity to the middle ages. Science, possession of items of the past, and even research into history is heresy and punishable by imprisonment or death. Into this backdrop a priest arrives to perform the funeral rites for the parish priest, who some suspect may have been murdered, perhaps due to his fascination with the past.
This is a slow moving book, both in terms of themes, characterization and prose. It appears that it’s going to be murder mystery, but honestly the story goes nowhere. The reader is supposed to accept things that just come out of left field as sensible (ie. Rose’s silence, the sudden relationship between Fairfax and Sarah) and the ending is abrupt, jarring and completely unsatisfying. This was a big disappointment.
Dates Read: August 02 to 05, 2023
Page Count: 327
2 out of 5 stars
Lost Challenges Pyramid of Books - Task 16 - read 16 books from your favourite genre (12/16)
CCC Aah Walkers - Prompt 46 - MC has to leave home (40/52)
93. Pageboy by Elliot Page
I was interested to read more about Elliot’s journey. On the plus side, the chapters toward the end were eye-opening to me. As a cis woman, I felt that I understood gender dysphoria in an intellectual sense. Elliot’s description was visceral and powerful and gave me so much more insight. However, overall the book is uneven. The non-linear timeline isn’t tied together by any theme that I could see. There are many stories that feel like… I don’t know how to describe it. Elliot writes of childhood abuse, homophobia, assault, his eating disorder, but they read just as “stories”. Is it that there is no emotion, no looking back introspection? I don’t know. I feel like I now know some “stories” but I don’t know Elliot himself any better at all. And the writing itself struggles hard to sound intellectual and comes off sounding pretentious. Ultimately I gave it three stars simply for being so strong in the end chapters.
Date Read: August 06, 2023
Page Count: 288
3 out of 5 stars
Lost Challenge Pyramid of Books - Task 07 - read 7 books written by a man (02/07)
CCC Aah Walkers - Prompt 16 - character shows growth (41/52)
94. How To Win at The Challenge and Life: A Champion’s Guide to Eliminating Obstacles, Winning Friends, and Making That Money by Sydney Bucksbaum
I am an avid fan of The Challenge, especially its latest iterations of the last 10 or so seasons. I love the competitiveness, the wild challenges, the amazing contestants. I was super excited to get this book. I was hoping for a lot of behind the scenes stories, some hot goss, and maybe what the book promised in its title, a bit of a self-help guide to finding success. Instead, it’s a pretty generic series of 4 or 5 page short interviews with a variety of Challenge champs. In fact, for CT’s chapter he clearly didn’t want to participate and the author had to use snippets of past interviews and things he’s said on the show. And yes, the champs gave their reasons why they thought they won (some examples: be aware of your surroundings,support your partners, don’t be afraid to fail) but there’s no attempt by the author to tie these rather cliched soundbites together into any kind of self-help lesson.
On the plus side, thank you to Darrell for actually spilling the beans on some fun sneaky shenanigans from your season, and to Landon for being every bit the awesome person everyone online says you are.
Dates Read: August 07 to 08, 2023
Page Count: 249
3 out of 5 stars
Lost Challenges Pyramid of Books - Task 19 - read 19 books that have an outdoor cover (05/19)
.
Onward to the reading week.
What I Just Finished Reading: Since last week I read three books. Seems like I should have been able to read more than that, but I also borrowed the first two seasons of Call The Midwife and have been watching those. Damn show makes me cry on the regular. The books I read were: The Second Sleep by Robert Harris, Pageboy by Elliot Page, and How to Win at The Challenge and Life by Sydney Bucksbaum. It wasn't a very successful reading week. Reviews below.
What I'm Reading Right Now: I've just started Soulstar, the final book in the Kingston trilogy. This one focuses on Robin, a minor character from the previous books and one I'm not particularly interested in. I want to find out what happens so I'll finish it, but I'm really not compelled to pick it up.
What I'm Planning to Read Next: I have two other books out from the library, As You Wish by Cary Elwes and This Perfect Life by Ira Levin. Those are up next.
92. The Second Sleep by Robert Harris
One thousand years after the apocalypse, humanity has regressed to a similarity to the middle ages. Science, possession of items of the past, and even research into history is heresy and punishable by imprisonment or death. Into this backdrop a priest arrives to perform the funeral rites for the parish priest, who some suspect may have been murdered, perhaps due to his fascination with the past.
This is a slow moving book, both in terms of themes, characterization and prose. It appears that it’s going to be murder mystery, but honestly the story goes nowhere. The reader is supposed to accept things that just come out of left field as sensible (ie. Rose’s silence, the sudden relationship between Fairfax and Sarah) and the ending is abrupt, jarring and completely unsatisfying. This was a big disappointment.
Dates Read: August 02 to 05, 2023
Page Count: 327
2 out of 5 stars
Lost Challenges Pyramid of Books - Task 16 - read 16 books from your favourite genre (12/16)
CCC Aah Walkers - Prompt 46 - MC has to leave home (40/52)
93. Pageboy by Elliot Page
I was interested to read more about Elliot’s journey. On the plus side, the chapters toward the end were eye-opening to me. As a cis woman, I felt that I understood gender dysphoria in an intellectual sense. Elliot’s description was visceral and powerful and gave me so much more insight. However, overall the book is uneven. The non-linear timeline isn’t tied together by any theme that I could see. There are many stories that feel like… I don’t know how to describe it. Elliot writes of childhood abuse, homophobia, assault, his eating disorder, but they read just as “stories”. Is it that there is no emotion, no looking back introspection? I don’t know. I feel like I now know some “stories” but I don’t know Elliot himself any better at all. And the writing itself struggles hard to sound intellectual and comes off sounding pretentious. Ultimately I gave it three stars simply for being so strong in the end chapters.
Date Read: August 06, 2023
Page Count: 288
3 out of 5 stars
Lost Challenge Pyramid of Books - Task 07 - read 7 books written by a man (02/07)
CCC Aah Walkers - Prompt 16 - character shows growth (41/52)
94. How To Win at The Challenge and Life: A Champion’s Guide to Eliminating Obstacles, Winning Friends, and Making That Money by Sydney Bucksbaum
I am an avid fan of The Challenge, especially its latest iterations of the last 10 or so seasons. I love the competitiveness, the wild challenges, the amazing contestants. I was super excited to get this book. I was hoping for a lot of behind the scenes stories, some hot goss, and maybe what the book promised in its title, a bit of a self-help guide to finding success. Instead, it’s a pretty generic series of 4 or 5 page short interviews with a variety of Challenge champs. In fact, for CT’s chapter he clearly didn’t want to participate and the author had to use snippets of past interviews and things he’s said on the show. And yes, the champs gave their reasons why they thought they won (some examples: be aware of your surroundings,support your partners, don’t be afraid to fail) but there’s no attempt by the author to tie these rather cliched soundbites together into any kind of self-help lesson.
On the plus side, thank you to Darrell for actually spilling the beans on some fun sneaky shenanigans from your season, and to Landon for being every bit the awesome person everyone online says you are.
Dates Read: August 07 to 08, 2023
Page Count: 249
3 out of 5 stars
Lost Challenges Pyramid of Books - Task 19 - read 19 books that have an outdoor cover (05/19)
.