{"user":"nil","url":"https://nil.moe/profile/nil","generatedAt":"2026-09-16T05:15:16.052Z","lists":[{"type":"books","title":"Literature","count":653,"entries":[{"id":"95f209c1-aec6-479d-94f0-c6b7f72bf195","title":"Recursion","status":"Reading","releaseYear":2019,"pages":338,"authors":["Blake Crouch"],"publishers":["Ballantine Books"],"startedDate":"2026-08-14","updatedDate":"2026-08-16","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Recursion.html?hl=&id=D6uZDwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676085534284","title":"Hamlet","status":"Completed","score":10,"releaseYear":1602,"pages":244,"authors":["William Shakespeare"],"genres":["Play"],"startedDate":"2009-12-31","completedDate":"2009-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=-WlZIfnhjw8C"},{"id":"83ec355a-7b4e-4139-b776-b672f3086333","title":"Kafka on the Shore","originalTitle":"海辺のカフカ","status":"Completed","score":10,"releaseYear":2002,"pages":448,"authors":["Haruki Murakami"],"publishers":["Vintage"],"startedDate":"2012-03-10","completedDate":"2012-03-15","updatedDate":"2023-07-17","notes":"Being the fourth Murakami novel I've finished, I've grown accustomed to not fully understanding the novel on one read. I'll have to mull it over. This surrealistic experience is just so ineffable in its beauty. It's abstract and yet rooted in reality through its explicit descriptions on the mundane. It's classic Murakami writing—a resplendent build-up of abstraction and reality that one interpretation suddenly becomes manifold, and yet even the many forking interpretations converge to the same message and themes.\n\nAs Kafka said, \"It's not something you can get across in words. The real response is something words can't express\" (532).  So is my experience with this novel.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=ypQHO-JWFKgC"},{"id":"322682676084530764","title":"Macbeth","status":"Completed","score":10,"releaseYear":1606,"pages":292,"authors":["William Shakespeare"],"genres":["Play"],"startedDate":"2007-08-31","completedDate":"2007-08-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Macbeth.html?hl=&id=Y607PgAACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676084500044","title":"After Dark","status":"Completed","score":9,"releaseYear":2004,"pages":320,"authors":["Haruki Murakami"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2012-05-27","completedDate":"2012-05-27","updatedDate":"2022-01-31","notes":"Very similar to his other books in terms of surrealism and a vague sense of dreams versus realities. It has a rather unique narrative style, changing  points of view as a camera on a set. The sexual themes are also much more tuned down in this novel, as there isn't much nudity or explicitly gruesome action taking place as in most of his other novels. All in all, I really enjoyed the book as a very light read, finishing it on the day I started reading it. I don't believe it holds up to other monoliths such as Wind-up Bird Chronicle or 1Q84, but the length was a perfect representation of the day that the book sets up in. Like the single night in which the book sets place, I read the book in a single night having experienced every special moment of this novel.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=9DkuDwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676083455564","title":"Cat's Cradle","status":"Completed","score":9,"releaseYear":1963,"pages":304,"authors":["Kurt Vonnegut"],"publishers":["Dial Press"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2015-07-31","completedDate":"2015-08-08","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"A lovely affair, a perfect use of rhythmic repetition but not so much as is done in Catch-22. The falling in love, the nonsensical events and religion, and the island itself.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=w25sx0G6nRsC"},{"id":"322682676084553292","title":"Frankenstein","status":"Completed","score":9,"releaseYear":1818,"pages":305,"authors":["Mary Shelley"],"publishers":["Penguin"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2009-05-31","completedDate":"2009-05-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Frankenstein.html?hl=&id=SJFPEAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676084492876","title":"Lolita","status":"Completed","score":9,"releaseYear":1955,"pages":531,"authors":["Vladimir Nabokov"],"publishers":["Gallimard Education"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2013-03-24","completedDate":"2013-11-24","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"Ah, ma chérie, the story of the romantic taboo; the ravings of the lewd; the pervert with his nymphet; the beast with two backs.\n\nLolita is a mix of dro...more Ah, ma chérie, the story of the romantic taboo; the ravings of the lewd; the pervert with his nymphet; the beast with two backs.\n\nLolita is a mix of drolling, journalistic passages occasionally accompanied with its infamous hyperrealized portrayals. By conforming a rigid structure with a whimsical poetic style, Nabokov accomplishes what few writers could ever do. Those delusions, those moments of venereal glory between a not-so-innocent aged man and his slightly-more-innocent maiden—it's that dry caustic humor which belies the heart of Lolita. It is a case study of the English language at its most imaginative form, always whipping linguistic novelties out of thin air; and yet what's perhaps most astonishing is Lolita's deceptively intricate layering of themes and characterization, providing not only a poetic saunter but a powerfully depthful tale.\n\nLolita is like some odd fornicating Franco-Russo-English-American heebee jeebie voodoo. Spindled by a foreign charlatan with his wily genius, Nabokov in no way spots truth to the fact that English is not even his native language, or dare say, his second (!). Indeed, his prose breathes such soul into every scene it's hard not to consider it English canon: Humbert Humbert insert example of crazy dry humping followed by semicolon list in Nabokov fashion, outlining outlandish H.H. shenanigans]. There are often so many promiscuous tragicomic gestures leaving you at ends whether to interpret campy absurdity or sheer grotesqueness: the imagery is violent when most excited and hilariously enduring otherwise. Every scene from the work meticulously sneaks toward the next verse with such planned brilliance that Lolita can in no way be considered the mad perversions of an old man.\n\nLolita also makes the character progression so profoundly ironic. Humbert projects his own image into pubescent Dolor(es), even with his own coinage, \"Lolita\"; what results is his failure to notice all the emotions assaulting Dolores Haze as she copes with the loss of her mother, the backend of her pseudo-incestual relationship, and the birth of an onset, enveloping loneliness. What painfully funny black humor! This is a significantly unaffected turnover coming from the fact that Mrs. Haze had herself projected her own image of Humbert as some vaguely handsome European gent, rather than ever noticing his obvious hebephilia. The parallels from subplot to subplot make for a riotous affair and the tragic behind the tragicomedy become all the more emotive.\n\nWhat I've also found a fascinating study is the sheer passion in Humbert's scribbles dependent on the scene at hand. One that may not be as noticeable is the sparsity of the climactic events whenever he has sex with Lolita. In fact, I had to reread the passage when they first do it several times in order to realize that it even happened. Humbert's pathological perverseness seems then not to be for the carnal pleasure but the various actions he takes in mundanity. It also suggest his solemn respect for her under the lens of the log being an immortalization of their tale, and as such, Lolita.\n\nThis juxtaposition of love and infatuation also rings true of their mixed relationship: sometimes playing father and daughter, othertimes lover and (uninterested) lover, and most times both. As the story meanders from day to day, it is quick to realize their decadence. As Humbert clings so strongly toward his image of Lolita, he restricts any of her freedom to act as a child. Instead, he fervently attempts to have Lolita be interested in his own passions—tennis, for one—and constantly comes in conflict with the fact that Lolita is only a pubescent girl, and does not exactly care for his interests. She enjoys the \"banal\", the \"soppy\", the \"generic\" (all his words), and she holds the same brazen child demeanor that he occasionally wishes would be more mature. Directly in cognitive dissonance with his fetish for little girls, his inability to accept their dissimilarities only continues to strain their relationship. More specifically, it causes Humbert to more firmly hold his leash on Lolita—a fatal mistake in turn causing her to grow sick of him.\n\nLolita has trouble balancing her staging puberty what with all these events; the instability in her life only digs further as she and Humbert frolick about in cheap motels and she is alone in consulting her depression. What's so painful about this portion of the story is that you can see exactly what causes their relationship to stale, and Humbert is too lost in his idolatry and savage clinginess to ever truly help. Rarely do you encounter much dialogue between them save for Humbert very blasédly narrating his own actions and motives for trying to hide his crimes—practically treating her as none other than a pet prostitute he pays (with money, gifts, even the occasional freedom) services for. In the course of the story, you see just how emotionally this forces Humbert to reevaluate his love for her, and ultimately come to the conclusion that he is not simply a common hebephile, but one dastardly in love with the imperfect, tainted, corrupted Dolly. How late the realization.\n\nUltimately what may at first seem simply a witfully vulgar joke, Lolita achieves far far more in its progression. The novel portrays a selfish pitiful man nostalgic of his first-time, finally imprinting in his mind a love that outgrows its starter passion and fetish; and it portrays young Lolita, whose innocence is so sullied and who is unable to overcome the frequent rapes she endures that her life is permanently altered.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Lolita.html?hl=&id=vgsnPQAACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101276236","title":"N・H・Kにようこそ! (NHK ni Youkoso!)","status":"Completed","score":9,"releaseYear":2005,"pages":327,"authors":["Tatsuhiko Takimoto"],"genres":["Light Novel"],"startedDate":"2013-02-20","completedDate":"2013-02-25","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/NHK%E3%81%AB%E3%82%88%E3%81%86%E3%81%93%E3%81%9D.html?hl=&id=UO5-wQEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101265996","title":"The Complete Works of Edgar Allen Poe","status":"Completed","score":9,"releaseYear":1843,"pages":333,"authors":["Edgar Allan Poe"],"genres":["Short Story"],"startedDate":"2006-12-31","completedDate":"2006-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Complete_Works_of_Edgar_Allan_Poe.html?hl=&id=qBAFzQEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676084503116","title":"The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle","status":"Completed","score":9,"releaseYear":1994,"pages":624,"authors":["Haruki Murakami"],"publishers":["Random House"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2012-03-10","completedDate":"2012-03-10","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"In short, the novel was so completely surrealistic. Having marathon-ed the last 200 pages or so and staying up until 6:30AM in the morning, I am liter...more In short, the novel was so completely surrealistic. Having marathon-ed the last 200 pages or so and staying up until 6:30AM in the morning, I am literally in complete awe and unable to fall asleep. I'm literally out of words to describe how I feel about the novel. As with my experience with 1Q84, it seems to me that the journey of experiencing the novel itself was a far more fantastic experience than wrenching it out to learn its somewhat anti-climactic ending (in my opinion at least). I'd have to mull this book over before I could properly review it, but having finished it half an hour ago, I can at least say that I am not dissatisfied at having \"endured\" the entire story.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=-0tzfDCatVEC"},{"id":"322682676084495948","title":"ノルウェイの森 (Noruwei no Mori)","status":"Completed","score":9,"releaseYear":1987,"pages":138,"authors":["Haruki Murakami"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2012-02-26","completedDate":"2012-03-02","updatedDate":"2023-07-17","notes":"This is the most tragic and emotionally heart-wrenching story I've ever read. Of all accounts I've encountered in my life—whether they be fictional or not—Norwegian Wood stands far and far above with such clearly defined angst, attachment, depression, and the ultimate need to bear with it all and trudge on with life.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Haruki_Murakami_and_His_Early_Work.html?hl=&id=cbMWEAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676101325388","title":"1Q84","status":"Completed","score":8,"releaseYear":2009,"pages":438,"authors":["Haruki Murakami"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2011-12-21","completedDate":"2012-02-25","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=PdwP909jJ7YC"},{"id":"322682676084563532","title":"A Midsummer Night's Dream","status":"Completed","score":8,"releaseYear":1596,"pages":77,"authors":["William Shakespeare"],"publishers":["Open Road Media"],"genres":["Play"],"startedDate":"2009-08-31","completedDate":"2009-08-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=jjDgDwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676084496972","title":"Alice in Wonderland (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, #1)","status":"Completed","score":8,"releaseYear":1865,"pages":111,"authors":["Lewis Carroll"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2013-08-12","completedDate":"2013-08-20","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"Oh Alice, why must you be so cute?? I must devise a way to pinch your cheeks in real life! This story is so brimming with its innovation into the lite...more Oh Alice, why must you be so cute?? I must devise a way to pinch your cheeks in real life! This story is so brimming with its innovation into the literary nonsense genre, its creativity, and its logical exercises, that you often forget that this is in fact a tale for children.\n\nThe profuse amount of allegories and fables in the story makes it such an endearing venture. Having English government positions caricatured (yet aptly put) by animals of various sizes and callous tones, the writing always remains hilarious in its approach in enacting eccentric dialogue. Carroll also makes humorous use of parenthetical comments often as a way to satire the roundabout and juvenile affair with which Alice goes about things.\n\nOther themes and motifs follow in tone with the rest of the writing. Alice's growth and ingrowth becomes a silly metaphor for her imploring to be grown up herself (as is indicated many times in the dialogue). The action of consumption, whether in how it subtly comes up in each chapter or becomes a common tooic for a joke (since Alice has often seen or eaten many of the animals), the consistent use of key themes never make the story feel too nonsensical. There's an overall journey to the story, and while each step is rather curious, it all wraps up nicely yet mysteriously as a sweet child's dream. You can only marvel at how surreal yet graspable the story feels; there's a reason why Carroll calls the adventure one in Wonderland after all.\n\nOf little complaints I can consider, the writing itself is unfortunately rather plain (purposely so, to keep in its frivolous tone of course). This in particular causes more elaborate details all left to the reader's imagination rather set in stone. It is strange, moreover, to read a version of Alice in Wonderland which has an illustration rouhgly every other page, which gives you a good idea of how to imagine all the characters and variable sizes that Alice grows. However, I do wish to have relied on textual descriptions rather than pictorial ones. It seems Dodgson originally intended this method for readers given that he formed his own sketches while sending out the manuscript. Perhaps its surrealness would have been better realized if it was more prone to narrative detail. Brevity also takes a sizable bite, given that many chapters are practically standalone tales in and of themselves.\n\nAs a sidenote, Alice in Wonderland is only one of many tales that Dodgson told to the Lidell girls. It begs the question if only he had written all of them down, would the rest be so wonderfully creative? I can only imagine what my childhood would have been like without a story like Alice to fulfill it.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=DdsuDAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676084516428","title":"American Psycho","status":"Completed","score":8,"releaseYear":1991,"pages":485,"authors":["Bret Easton Ellis"],"publishers":["Robert Laffont"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2012-03-26","completedDate":"2012-04-02","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"Much much more surrealistic and true to Bateman's original character than the movie.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=jY_RCwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676084505164","title":"Battle Royale","status":"Completed","score":8,"releaseYear":1999,"pages":830,"authors":["Koushun Takami"],"publishers":["LGF/Le Livre de Poche"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2012-03-21","completedDate":"2012-03-25","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"Absolutely breathtaking. The plot alone is good enough to keep one cornered, let alone its overarching themes.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Battle_royale.html?hl=&id=mpmdPwAACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676083450444","title":"Bayesian Data Analysis","status":"Completed","score":8,"releaseYear":1995,"pages":675,"authors":["Andrew Gelman","John Carlin","Hal Stern","Donald Rubin"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2014-09-01","completedDate":"2014-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-08-16","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Bayesian_Data_Analysis_Third_Edition.html?hl=&id=ZXL6AQAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676085529164","title":"Beowulf","status":"Completed","score":8,"releaseYear":800,"pages":784,"authors":["Anonymous"],"genres":["Poetry"],"startedDate":"2009-08-31","completedDate":"2009-08-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Beowulf_au_paradis.html?hl=&id=Y8BbswEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676103382604","title":"Catch-22","status":"Completed","score":8,"releaseYear":1961,"pages":570,"authors":["Joseph Heller"],"publishers":["Grasset & Fasquelle"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2013-08-20","completedDate":"2013-10-01","updatedDate":"2022-07-11","notes":"What's so fantastic about Heller's Catch 22 is its willingness to contradict itself as many as times as need be in order to portray the stark chaos of the war. And he manages to do so on every level, ranging from the paradoxical syllogisms and hypocrises in the dialogue, the rapid or unrapid promotions, and even the missions orchestrating the soldier's mission. What lies beyond the sheer hilarity of Catch 22's absurdist routine is the realization that this is exactly what war is like.\n\nSoldiers have and often seek little information about their purpose in fighting, and so to the average soldier death seems purely incidental and their reason for fighting purely an event happening. This is pictured so well by the mere fact that Heller's novel takes place in the middle of a war, and yet he rarely describes the soldiers taking action in it, but the effects of the war on them. Bureaucracy fails on so many levels that even the smplest messages require dozens and dozens of signatures to be recycled, done so often that Major Major Major Major (yes, that's a real name) is flabbergasted by the fact that forging Washington Irving's signature somehow solves the problem. Corruption is rampant due to poor organization and punishments can be obviously futile: ex PFC Wintergreen is forced to dig up holes and fill them again, to which he is satisfied doing because it is all for the \"war effort\".\n\nThe characters for one are enchanting. Heller's approach to form character profiles for the beginning chapters works marvelously in presenting each character's background, which truly enrichens one's appreciation for the scenario as several previous scenes are repeated but now with the greater context so much more is understood.  Diving out of office windows to avoid responsibility abnd warming hp in disguises only to be mauled by his own crew\n\nHoly shit does the story meander about with its ever-shifting narrative timeline. I have conflicted emotions about this. While it reinforces the lack of progress of war, I'm not so sure how well it works in practice. The billion of branched storylines the work follows through makes for a dangerous exercise in endurance at times.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Catch_22.html?hl=&id=3ODnPgAACAAJ"},{"id":"336964523146609232","title":"Childhood's End","status":"Completed","score":8,"releaseYear":1956,"pages":258,"authors":["Arthur C. Clarke"],"publishers":["RosettaBooks"],"startedDate":"2024-03-24","completedDate":"2024-04-28","updatedDate":"2024-04-30","notes":"Motivated if only because it’s where the Instrumentality Project from Evangelion originated from. This is likely to be treated more as a classic due to its aged writing style (e.g., third person omniscient, Clarke’s lack of identifiable strong characters). The ideas are what make it a classic, not unlike Asimov’s Foundation series and I, Robot.\n\nhttps://www.reddit.com/r/evangelion/comments/1y3kce/booksnovelsshort_stories_with_that_mythic_eva","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=OcspAAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676085532236","title":"David Copperfield","status":"Completed","score":8,"releaseYear":1850,"pages":1024,"authors":["Charles Dickens"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2009-12-31","completedDate":"2009-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/L_histoire_les_aventures_et_l_exp%C3%A9rienc.html?hl=&id=zzF7PwAACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101264972","title":"Ender's Game (The Ender Quintet, #1)","status":"Completed","score":8,"releaseYear":1985,"pages":256,"authors":["Orson Scott Card"],"publishers":["Tor Books"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2011-12-19","completedDate":"2011-12-20","updatedDate":"2023-09-17","notes":"Ender's game is possible the best coming-of-life story in a school setting, with progression elements and combat, and under the science fiction genre introducing new ideas particularly in its battles. It's all the odds stacked against up Ender and seeing how he gets out of them that makes the book so fun chapter after chapter. Then there's the overarching elements with the main plot and Ender's inner turmoils to keep the story cohesive.\n\n+ The mostly restricted POV with Ender works very well. His thiughts and actions really drive in a lot of the impact the story events have.\n+ Battle school, bullies, and tactics. It works quite well, especially in the tactics and the power fantasy element. The bullies are fairly stock though.\n+ Characters are all hyper intelligent or one note such as the bullies. This works reasonably well given the established setting of geniuses at least.\n+ The ingenuity of Ender's actions are often substantiated by the deep introspection and inner narration. This loneliness pitted with all the events to keep him isolated followed by this introspection is what makes it so good. For example, his turmoil of raising Bean in the same style the officers he despised treated him. It's obvious why much of the book would translate poorly in a visual medium.\n  + One good example of this is effectively the climax and ending. The whole true war under the battle simulator is like a boxed-in stream of consciousness. Ender is effectively locked in a room and has a day-to-day routine of sleep, war, practice, eat, war, sleep. Everything happens through his eyes. Battles are summarized in terms of the results and consequences on Ender and the other squadron leaders, and the battle itself is not described in heavy detail as they appear.\n\n> Yeah, Card is an amateur compared to Banks. I know Ender's Game is kind of a sacred cow among much of the SF readership, but I personally don't get it. I think the problem I had was that I read it while I was in the military, and actually had first-hand experience with how militaries train and leaders are cultivated, and the methods in Ender's Game just ain't it. When I read it I saw a story about a child sent to LaserTag school doing not very impressive things, so the author had to make his opponents bizarrely incompetent to make him seem smart in comparison. Then the author confuses tactics with strategy, and has them elevate the Winner of Children's LaserTag to fleet admiral, as if he'd be any good at that as a result. Then he has him \"be a strategic genius\" by barking orders into lower commanders ears, as if that's how leadership works. Then it all ends with him ordering them to do the obvious, and it works because the enemy assumes \"nobody would dare do that\"? Mix in a subplot about a meaningless free association computer adventure game, and a B story about siblings who take over Earth government by basically shitposting to future-USENET.\n>\n> The whole thing just strained credulity for me. I've read the original short story, and it's substantially better. It has most of the same flaws, but they're waivable as a means to get to the moral of the story, and it's not weighed down by all the padding Card had to insert to make it novel length. ([source](https://www.reddit.com/r/scifi/comments/toouvc/i_just_reread_enders_game_for_the_first_time_as/i2992zy))\n\nlol. This criticism is not wrong. I don't enjoy the story because of its realism. And the tactics in the end does seem cheesy. It works well in the 2v1 fight because his enemies are children and it's a game where the players didn't really think much about the win condition. It doesn't work in the end where there's only one obvious strategy.\n\n## Resources and Miscellanea\n\nI reread on 2023-09-16.\n\nIt's interesting that there are effectively two sets of sequels defined after Ender's Game: the Speaker series and the Shadow series. An accurate quote:\n\n> I think the speaker vs shadow reactions to be an interesting tell of what you enjoyed about the original story. If you were all about the battle room and the associated story telling, then you liked shadow better. If you liked the political and philosophically discussion and musings parts of the story then you enjoyed speaker more. ([source](https://www.reddit.com/r/scifi/comments/toouvc/i_just_reread_enders_game_for_the_first_time_as/i28qdm6))\n\nI find the battle room tactics and enemies pitted against each other to be the most exciting part of Ender Game. The politics and philosophy are fairly banal, dry in exposition (as there's not much of a way to make this as dynamic as action in books, let alone any storytelling medium), and the story does not introduce many new ideas for them compared to more popular hard scifi (e.g., Hyperion).\n\nI'm not interested in Speaker as I may as well relegate to better hard scifi. It's a tonal shift from Ender's Game, and from reading online, Speaker was effectively written (and is read) as if it could be any protagonist. It's largely disconnected from Ender and his growth during Ender's Game, which was originally a short story and then substantiated into a novel as a prequel to Speaker.\n\nI would prefer to read the Shadow series. However, a retelling of the same story as Ender's Game but under a different perspective is not interesting to me. I want new stories.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Ender_s_Game.html?hl=&id=dwq-zQEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676084552268","title":"Flowers for Algernon","status":"Completed","score":8,"releaseYear":1966,"pages":336,"authors":["Daniel Keyes"],"publishers":["HarperCollins"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2006-12-31","completedDate":"2006-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=_oG_iTxP1pIC"},{"id":"322682676084507212","title":"Foundation (Foundation, #1)","status":"Completed","score":8,"releaseYear":1951,"pages":251,"authors":["Isaac Asimov"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2012-08-09","completedDate":"2012-08-13","updatedDate":"2022-05-05","notes":"An amazing depiction of human collapse, with strategic wizardry and clever wordplay to boot. The novel questions just how far one can safely predict the outcomes of mathematical logic and rational reasoning in a grossly realistic, yet human society.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Fondation.html?hl=&id=TQ4DyAEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676083448396","title":"Franny and Zooey","status":"Completed","score":8,"releaseYear":1955,"pages":255,"authors":["J.D. Salinger"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2015-12-21","completedDate":"2016-01-03","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"Love the monologues. A weak ending message.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Franny_et_Zo%C3%A9.html?hl=&id=lP6LjwEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676084550220","title":"Great Expectations","status":"Completed","score":8,"releaseYear":1860,"pages":64,"authors":["Charles Dickens"],"publishers":["Baker Street Readers"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2006-12-31","completedDate":"2006-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Great_Expectations.html?hl=&id=5o2fswEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676083454540","title":"Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World","status":"Completed","score":8,"releaseYear":1985,"pages":416,"authors":["Haruki Murakami"],"publishers":["Random House"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2012-05-27","completedDate":"2012-06-01","updatedDate":"2022-07-13","notes":"The parallels in the two stories. The sci-fi setting is a bit needless but the fantastical village and the crazy happenings in the primal story.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=3ZgKkumhAywC"},{"id":"9ec79cd8-9c95-428d-b05c-e9bed1dae393","title":"Immortal Hulk by Al Ewing","status":"Completed","score":8,"releaseYear":2018,"pages":248,"authors":["Al Ewing"],"publishers":["Marvel Entertainment"],"startedDate":"2023-07-14","completedDate":"2023-07-16","updatedDate":"2023-07-16","notes":"This is a stellar run across writing and artwork. Both shine brilliantly to deliver a Hulk in the style of a sci fi body horror. Most of all, it's the horror art and the knowledge for the writing to know when to pass the torch to the art, that makes this comic. The writing is also quite good, particularly in its grand action sequences and overall plot. But it's not nearly as standout in, say, character-building and its need to have so many episodic villains and tie-in guest appearances.\n\nThe writing is well-paced, builds the characters, and sets the horror.\n\nThe artwork has standout pages that leave me gawking. I generally love most all the panel layouts. Much of it is decompressed and done in the style of manga. But it still has much of the comics origin with panels of long exposition, treated closer to a novel at times.\n\nWhat an amazing interpretation of Hulk. It's not Savage Hulk as the personification of id. It's Devil Hulk as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein monster. Intelligent in dark ways and vengeful. It also carries the plot device of Hulk only turning at night. I like it more than the arbitrary anger-ness in prior comics. It brings back the roots of the comics while also feeling somewhat fresh. It is thematically closer to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.\n\nI love the recurring motif of the green door. Its artwork is reminiscent of 2001's monolith. It also goes back to the cosmic unknown of the One Below All. If I were writing this, I'd make doors more thematic across the story. A state of transition, like Bruce's personalities and like Bruce's character development. Literary themes.\n\nThe story has some predictable beats in following \"villain of the episode\"s. You get a sense that the overall plot is progressing but the character and themes is not so much.\n\n> This issue was all kinds of excellent, but Ewing sewed all these previous relationships together (Thor & Samson, Jen & Betty, Puck & Carol, but importantly Cap & Rick) to make this battle tragic in so many ways. I'm all for great battles but all those emotional connections that Ewing puts into these fights really ground them. One of my favorite issues in his run. ([source](https://www.reddit.com/r/Marvel/comments/nqbpo3/comment/h0cperh))\n\nThis is the sort of thing I hate. Good writing to fit in all these constraints. But why must they be there in the first place?\n\n__Details I like:__\n\n+ #3 and #4's tie-ins to classic Hulk issues. It pulls in their classic art panels.\n+ #8 where Hulk regenerates itself with the mad scientist stuck inside. Hot damn. Now that's a way to kill someone.\n+ #9-10's body horror.\n+ #12's cover. What a cover.\n+ #17’s overexposed gamma radiation page.\n+ #19’s last few pages.\n+ So many of the cover-like last pages in each issue are absolute bangers.\n+ #23's Galactus consuming page.\n+ #25. A stand out in its writing style, like an illustrated novel. It's a departure from the move toward manga's film storyboarding. And a stand out in its art style with stellar use of color and abstract objects.\n+ #29's kaiju. Hulk and kaiju is a match made in heaven.\n+ #33's panel where fingers surface out of Bruce's mouth, and it unhinges looking like a Junji Ito illustration. And the page where Planet Hulk finally comes out.\n+ #39. Everything from the facehugger page to eating Devil Hulk.\n+ #40. Hulk jumps out of a space station and lands back on Earth.\n\n__Details I don't like:__\n\n+ The set of photos approach for panel layouts at times (e.g., #30). I'm not a fan of that style. It's an artificial way to add pizazz to paneling without actually enhancing how the page is portraying something. For example, the photos being arbitrarily angled and their square/rectangle shape just appearing on the page.\n+ The realism-style covers, probably most if not all by Alex Ross. I don't think the realism meshes well with the rest of the comics' art style. It's a cacophonous.\n\n__On Hulk as story potential.__ Hulk’s setup is much like Legion: infinitely scalable power that is effectively a God, enabling some deeply intense moments. They’re also balanced by the same flaw: mental instability. Hulk’s power reigns in brutal strength action sequences, whereas Legion’s enables anything limited to the writer and artist’s imagination. I really like this character setup because much like my all-time favorite Evangelion, it lets the small moments simmer with excellent drama and character building. Then for climaxes, it brings the truly limitless possibilities.\n\n> It's got a lot of things that are a bit more rare in modern work-for-hire cape comics: a consistent artistic vision between writer and artist that uses guest artists to the story's advantage rather than as necessity by virtue of the demands of Big 2 comics; clear artistic inspirations ranging from Cronenberg to Bergman to theosophy to Carpenter; themes that go beyond shallow company line politics; and thoughtful pacing that made each issue worth a purchase in it's own right rather than being written only as one part of a larger trade paperback. It was an original take that treated its readers seriously and understood how to tell a story. ([source](https://www.reddit.com/r/comicbooks/comments/srptge/whats_so_good_about_the_immortal_hulk_series/hwt6tjt))\n\n## Resources and Miscellanea\n\n+ [Reddit (2022): The Top 56 Marvel Comics Runs, Voted by the r/Marvel Community!](https://www.reddit.com/r/Marvel/comments/y8y3fy/the_top_56_marvel_comics_runs_voted_by_the). Immortal Hulk is #1.\n+ [Reddit: Marvel \"Fresh Start\" Recommended Reading Survey](https://www.reddit.com/r/Marvel/comments/cb48or/looking_to_read_new_comics_check_out_our_marvel). Immortal Hulk is #1 among the fresh start (2018 relaunch).\n+ [Reddit: Comics whose best run is modern?](https://www.reddit.com/r/comicbooks/comments/14xcos0/comics_whose_best_run_is_modern)\n\nI was motivated to read this as it's one of the best Marvel comics of all times and the best Hulk run. It is better than even Planet Hulk / World War Hulk, and I like power fantasy comics involving the truly strongest beings.\n\nIn this story, Hulk even defeats Galactus and Franklin Richards, and Franklin is the most powerful hero that isn’t a cosmic entity (and in fact this Hulk is part of One Above Below). This is probably the most powerful Marvel run ever:\n\n+ Scarlet Witch does not have any dedicated comic runs. It’s mostly in the Avengers. House of M demonstrates her reality bending power, but she’s barely in the story, stuck in a coma.\n+ Phoenix Force with, say, Jean Grey is up there.\n+ Legion’s runs are up there but are handicapped by insanity (e.g., the TV show).\n+ Franklin Richards has no dedicated comic run demonstrating his strengths.\n+ Abstract entities like the Cosmic Pantheon, Living Tribunal, Beyonder, and One Above All do not have dedicated runs.\n\n__Version.__ Immortal Hulk Vol. 1 #1-50 is self-contained. The trade paperback and omnibus editions aren't that different, including Avengers #684, Immortal Hulk #0, and Immortal She-Hulk #1. Avengers #675-690 (Avengers: No Surrender storyline) can be read as a prologue in general for the resurrection of Bruce Banner. They are all written by Al Ewing. See also [comicbooktreasury reading order](https://www.comicbooktreasury.com/hulk-reading-order).\n\nThe trade paperback and omnibus editions weren't available online. So I read single issues: Avengers #684 as a prologue, then Immortal Hulk Vol. 1, and then the other issues haphazardly. I only had a bit of context from things I read online ([example](https://www.reddit.com/r/Marvel/comments/11ppm69/question_what_do_i_need_to_know_before_reading)).\n\nSources:\n\n+ [ComicOnlineFree: Avengers](https://comiconlinefree.net/comic/avengers-2016)\n+ [ComicOnlineFree: Immortal Hulk](https://comiconlinefree.net/comic/immortal-hulk)\n+ [ReadComicOnline: Immortal Hulk](https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Immortal-Hulk)","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=sYamDwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676101323340","title":"Nekomonogatari (Shiro) (猫物語 (白)) (Monogatari, #7)","status":"Completed","score":8,"releaseYear":2010,"pages":336,"authors":["Nisio Isin"],"genres":["Light Novel"],"startedDate":"2013-03-06","completedDate":"2013-03-12","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/%E5%81%BD%E7%89%A9%E8%AA%9E_%E4%B8%8B.html?hl=&id=LeRnDAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676101317196","title":"Politics and the English Language","status":"Completed","score":8,"releaseYear":1946,"pages":48,"authors":["George Orwell"],"publishers":["Renard Press Ltd"],"genres":["Nonfiction"],"startedDate":"2010-12-31","completedDate":"2010-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=9dAREAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676083456588","title":"Siddhartha","status":"Completed","score":8,"releaseYear":1922,"pages":133,"authors":["Hermann Hesse"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2015-07-26","completedDate":"2015-07-28","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"The lyrics flow so well. It's an incredible read.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/La_merveilleuse_l%C3%A9gende_de_Siddh%C3%A2rtha.html?hl=&id=v4EuAAAACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676084510284","title":"Slaughterhouse-Five","status":"Completed","score":8,"releaseYear":1968,"pages":240,"authors":["Kurt Vonnegut"],"publishers":["Dial Press"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2012-07-14","completedDate":"2012-08-18","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"Amazing book. It really makes you question the purpose of time and general human behavior. Much more abstract than I thought it would be.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=FM4y7N1kM9AC"},{"id":"3b632cc5-3deb-468f-a1df-22f089ee7c9f","title":"The Devotion of Suspect X","status":"Completed","score":8,"releaseYear":2011,"pages":305,"authors":["Keigo Higashino"],"publishers":["Minotaur Books"],"startedDate":"2024-05-26","completedDate":"2024-05-29","updatedDate":"2024-05-29","notes":"Story plays out really well with all of its twists and turns. Characters are solid and well motivated. The dynamic between the two main geniuses reminds me of Death Note.\n\nWhat a turn of events. The final twist is great, I did ‘t see that coming. Although surface level in math and logic, it’s great to see how well it’s connected to the plot itself.\n","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=nKmmmYk_a34C"},{"id":"336674908853502544","title":"The Egg","status":"Completed","score":8,"authors":["Andy Weir"],"startedDate":"2022-07-08","completedDate":"2022-07-08","updatedDate":"2022-08-12","notes":"It's almost mindboggling how it's so simple in writing, terse in description with a blaise tone, and it yet works. There's two key elements:\n\n1. The literary device of second person you, and the strangeness of I being God themselves.\n2. The reveal of you living out all lives. It's a more flippant Instrumentality Project, like a more literary version of saying all humans are a single being. That message is itself striking, and it's that reveal coupled with the strangeness of the journey from the literary diction that propels you to finish the story.\n\nIt's part of Andy Weir's Principles of Uncertainty publication. Motivated because it's Andy Weir (simple prose), it's a short story collection, and it's about my area of research (uncertainty!). This makes the books a pretty relevant resource to model after in my own writing."},{"id":"322682676101292620","title":"The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, #1)","status":"Completed","score":8,"releaseYear":1954,"pages":1216,"authors":["J.R.R. Tolkien"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2004-08-31","completedDate":"2004-08-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Lord_of_the_Rings.html?hl=&id=yl4dILkcqm4C"},{"id":"322682676084520524","title":"The Hobbit","status":"Completed","score":8,"releaseYear":1937,"pages":443,"authors":["J.R.R. Tolkien"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2004-05-31","completedDate":"2004-05-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Bilbo_le_Hobbit.html?hl=&id=0IH7oQEACAAJ"},{"id":"336781817598181969","title":"The Last Question","status":"Completed","score":8,"authors":["Isaac Asimov"],"startedDate":"2022-07-10","completedDate":"2022-07-10","updatedDate":"2022-07-10","notes":"Interesting concepts:\n\n+ The title as a promise. It engages you enough to keep turning the page until the story is complete,\n+ The literary device of a repeatedly similar conversation between two beings, with eras progressing, and with an inevitable answer. It’s like the wolf blowing down the pigs’ houses.\n+ The use of AI, and its reliance on data, as a growing intelligence to answer a key concept about entropy. Note the story is about mankind and only uses AI as a particular tool, it is not a story to say something about AI itself.\n+ The twist that the story becomes a creation myth."},{"id":"322682676083436108","title":"The Last Wish","status":"Completed","score":8,"releaseYear":1993,"pages":384,"authors":["Andrzej Sapkowski"],"publishers":["Orbit"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2020-01-07","completedDate":"2020-01-11","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"The short stories involve a much more talkative and philosophical Geralt. And many stories more fantastical and mystical than the games, often rooted in fairy tails. Geralt can be rather aggrandizing in his philosophies. It comes off as a preachy author who likes spilling things out explicitly.\n\n## Resources and Miscellanea\n\n+ https://www.reddit.com/r/witcher/comments/3qm8p9/so_you_want_to_read_the_witcher_books_guide/","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Last_Wish.html?hl=&id=_Fw-xwEACAAJ"},{"id":"334048035372794449","title":"The Lies of Locke Lamora","status":"Completed","score":8,"releaseYear":2006,"pages":512,"authors":["Scott Lynch"],"publishers":["Spectra"],"startedDate":"2023-04-01","completedDate":"2023-04-16","updatedDate":"2023-04-16","notes":"Brilliant. I enjoyed essentially everything, even the overly corny ending was fine. The childhood backstory, the interludes with exposition or character stories, the overarching deception with the dons, the battle with the gray king and the mage, the fight against the spider.\n\nAmong the top 10 fantasy books according to r/fantasy.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=dG8disouIykC"},{"id":"333882874229949008","title":"The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle #1)","status":"Completed","score":8,"releaseYear":2007,"pages":736,"authors":["Patrick Rothfuss"],"publishers":["Astra Publishing House"],"startedDate":"2022-06-08","completedDate":"2022-06-11","updatedDate":"2022-08-12","notes":"Now this is the type of power fantasy I enjoy. The narrative focus on one individual and his journey growing up to where he is now. Pacing is wonderful. Tragedies and character development.\n\nThis guy really tries to be a genius at every field: music, then every academic discipline. Then he he even has rivals in both masters and rich students. And romance.\n\n__Details I don't like:__\n\n+ The tragedies against him can be eye rollingly contrived at times. Like getting lashed on then on the same day building a power rival against Amaram and getting banned from the Archives. Or his friends ratting him iut so he can’t get paid through his metallurgy work and now instead of telling his friends his financial problems, he treats it as yet another obstacle to personally overcome.\n+ Denna flirting with a handful of guys all the while Kvothe is courting her. What kind of weird ass romance is this? And why does Denna get to be angry when Kvothe starts talking to and gets gifted a cloak from Fela then?\n+ The ways Kvothe remains perpetually poor despite coming into vast amounts of fortune, including the drugs and the draccus. He's always barely scratching by.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=TG5DXNXv2tAC"},{"id":"322682676084554316","title":"The Return of the King (The Lord of the Rings, #3)","status":"Completed","score":8,"releaseYear":1954,"pages":507,"authors":["J.R.R. Tolkien"],"publishers":["Del Rey"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2004-08-31","completedDate":"2004-08-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Return_of_the_King.html?hl=&id=0y67swEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676084548172","title":"The Time Machine/The Invisible Man","status":"Completed","score":8,"releaseYear":1969,"pages":321,"authors":["H. G. Wells"],"publishers":["Penguin"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2005-12-31","completedDate":"2005-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=l_yFiXLqi_YC"},{"id":"322682676084565580","title":"Where the Sidewalk Ends","status":"Completed","score":8,"releaseYear":1974,"pages":183,"authors":["Shel Silverstein"],"publishers":["Particular Books"],"genres":["Poetry"],"startedDate":"1997-12-31","completedDate":"1997-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Where_the_Sidewalk_Ends.html?hl=&id=PjE8cAAACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676083447372","title":"三四郎 (Sanshirō)","status":"Completed","score":8,"releaseYear":1908,"pages":340,"authors":["Natsume Soseki"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2016-01-03","completedDate":"2016-01-07","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"Soseki reminds me of all the reasons why I love Japanese literature. The prose is always simple, clean, and easy to follow. This simplifies style and emphasizes the overarching themes and narrative. Mineko is an incredible character all part of defining the type of Murakami-esque main character.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Sanshiro.html?hl=&id=7F01cgAACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676084489804","title":"狼と香辛料 (Ookami to Koushinryou), #11","status":"Completed","score":8,"releaseYear":2009,"authors":["Isuna Hasekura"],"genres":["Light Novel"],"startedDate":"2014-04-27","completedDate":"2014-04-29","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"Love the nature of small time trading, and these short, simple and sweet stories. This encapsulates the greatness of the series. They're all so great, especially Eve's backstory. I love the subtle action descriptions that Hasekura uses, for example, to describe Eve's crush on Milton or the single short sentence to describe that she had run her blade through him. The second story—\"Wolf and the Bright Green Detour\"—reminds me of that one Aria episode where Akari and Alice gaze upon an abandoned train compartment underneath a tree. The entire event felt so idyllic and serene.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/%E7%8B%BC%E3%81%A8%E9%A6%99%E8%BE%9B%E6%96%99VII_Side_Colors.html?hl=&id=vCp9DwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676101334604","title":"狼と香辛料 (Ookami to Koushinryou), #7","status":"Completed","score":8,"releaseYear":2008,"authors":["Isuna Hasekura"],"genres":["Light Novel"],"startedDate":"2012-12-18","completedDate":"2013-01-06","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"All three short stories being fantastically written. With the first one being entirely standalone, all the dynamics are witfully done, even though we still have a clueless male lead (heh), especially as the new girl really shines. The other two, both anime-adapted, are better done here, especially with Holo's narrative in the last story. It brings into culmination a strong sense of nostalgia and understanding whereas the anime adaptation faltered a bit too much in feeling too generic (i.e. the 'sick girl gets cared for by guy' device).","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/%E7%8B%BC%E3%81%A8%E9%A6%99%E8%BE%9B%E6%96%99VII_Side_Colors.html?hl=&id=vCp9DwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676084519500","title":"1984","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":1949,"pages":92,"authors":["George Orwell"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2005-12-31","completedDate":"2005-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=rbBIDwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676084511308","title":"A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire, #2)","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":1998,"pages":1200,"authors":["George R.R. Martin"],"publishers":["Fantasious"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2012-04-02","completedDate":"2012-04-11","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"Truly amazing and it still seems like things have only just begun. So excited to read the next, most popular book of the series.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=PeBCEAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676101300812","title":"A First Course In Noncommutative Ring Theory","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":1991,"pages":388,"authors":["T.Y. Lam"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2012-12-31","completedDate":"2013-05-09","updatedDate":"2023-07-12","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=2T5DAAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676084564556","title":"A Light in the Attic","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":1981,"pages":185,"authors":["Shel Silverstein"],"publishers":["Particular Books"],"genres":["Poetry"],"startedDate":"1997-12-31","completedDate":"1997-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Light_in_the_Attic.html?hl=&id=6ME1YgEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676084539980","title":"A Modest Proposal and Other Satirical Works","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":1729,"pages":64,"authors":["Jonathan Swift"],"publishers":["Courier Corporation"],"genres":["Nonfiction"],"startedDate":"2009-08-31","completedDate":"2009-08-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=3-rDAgAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676084504140","title":"A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire, #3)","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":2000,"pages":994,"authors":["George R. R. Martin"],"publishers":["Bantam"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2012-04-11","completedDate":"2012-04-22","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"Gave up on the last 21% of the book. I just got tired of its rather predictable plot now that I got used to all the non-conventional murders.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Storm_of_Swords.html?hl=&id=bjn_DwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676084562508","title":"A Tale of Two Cities","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":1854,"pages":262,"authors":["Charles Dickens"],"publishers":["Createspace Independent Publishing Platform"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2007-12-31","completedDate":"2007-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Tale_of_Two_Cities.html?hl=&id=FzfIrQEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101315148","title":"Algebraic Number Theory","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":1992,"pages":357,"authors":["Jürgen Neukirch"],"publishers":["Springer Science & Business Media"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2012-07-31","completedDate":"2012-12-13","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=o1blBwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676085542476","title":"Algebraic Topology","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":2001,"pages":430,"authors":["Allen Hatcher"],"publishers":["Springer Science & Business Media"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2012-07-31","completedDate":"2012-01-29","updatedDate":"2023-07-12","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=8-OPBAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"5f37416b-3ba1-414f-95bb-c68b6384e2c4","title":"All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries #1)","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":2017,"pages":160,"authors":["Martha Wells"],"publishers":["Tor.com"],"startedDate":"2022-10-13","completedDate":"2022-10-13","updatedDate":"2022-10-14","notes":"Easy to read, it's paced well, protagonist is likeable and humor is sparkled throughout, there's just enough worldbuilding to get a sense of the setting.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/All_Systems_Red.html?hl=&id=6NhzswEACAAJ"},{"id":"c5ffd7d6-5f87-4099-b4ea-b7782c78ebd4","title":"All-Star Superman","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":2005,"authors":["Grant Morrison"],"publishers":["National Geographic Books"],"startedDate":"2023-07-14","completedDate":"2023-07-14","updatedDate":"2023-07-16","notes":"This run is about the death of Superman. It's a minature collection of episodic storylines with an overarching story given the premise of Superman's overloaded cells from #1 in getting too close to the sun. The stories are all pretty good, particularly with more continuity and consequence from the middle to end. It reaches its highest points at the last few issues.\n\nThe heroic myth with \"Twelve Labors of Superman\" is a nice way to tie and end things. I wish it would be a bit more explicit in laying out the labors and him accomplishing them one by one.\n\nIt's a very condensed story. I feel like it would be better appreciated if you read more comprehensive Superman runs beforehand. Not just for references to the various character (I know all this) but for the comic style of storytelling in Superman runs.\n\nI really like the art style. It's unique for a comic and the bright pastel color palette and the clean lines work well for Superman. Many pages also feature textless panels and more dynamic panel layouts, reminiscent of manga. It's most like YKK in that manner.\n\nhttps://www.reddit.com/r/superman/comments/ibuyxe/allstar_superman_3_art_by_frank_quitely/g1yoeyz\n\nI agree with this take. Comics suffer by not having an ending. This run effectively does that for Superman regardless of the issues that continue after this.\n\n## Resources and Miscellanea\n\n+ [Reddit (2022): The Top 71 DC Comic Runs, Voted by the r/DCcomics Community!](https://www.reddit.com/r/DCcomics/comments/vio4ub/discussion_the_top_71_dc_comic_runs_voted_by_the). Morrison's All-Star Superman is ranked #7.\n\nI was motivated to read this as it's one of the best DC comic runs of all time, the best Superman run, and it's a short read (only 12 issues). I chose this as my first Superman run.\n\n__Version.__ The single issues are self-contained: All-Star Superman #1-12. See also reading orders by [comicbooktreasury](https://www.comicbooktreasury.com/superman-reading-order-post-crisis), [r/dccomics wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/DCcomics/wiki/recommended/superman).\n\nSources:\n\n+ [ComicOnlineFree: All-Star Superman](https://comiconlinefree.net/comic/all-star-superman)","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/All_Star_Superman.html?hl=&id=W3yPEAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"17d303a6-6a19-494e-9c60-aec695dd5455","title":"Assassin's Apprentice (Farseer Trilogy #1)","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":1996,"pages":464,"authors":["Robin Hobb"],"publishers":["Spectra"],"startedDate":"2022-12-26","completedDate":"2022-12-31","updatedDate":"2023-04-23","notes":"The overarching story and progression is quite enjoyable. The middle gets a bit boring due to the lack of action and progress.\n\nGreat setting and writing.\n\nThe ending is mildly infuriating. In particular, it doesn't make sense there isn't any action taken towards Regal for attempting to kill Verity, FitzChivalry, and the wife's brother. The fact that Shrewd favors Regal and doesn't do anything about this doesn't make any sense. Shrewd isn't depicted to be much flawed in any way and is often described as quite clever and knowing. Why would Verity not tell Shrewd, and why would Shrewd not know?\n\nMiscellaneous comments:\n\n+ The illustrations are nice. They're like the occasional illustrations you would get in a light novel. It helps substantiate key scenes in a much more immersive way than simple exposition would.\n+ 'The core idea for Hobb's 16-book Realm of the Elderlings series was \"What if magic were addictive? And what if the addiction was destructive or degenerative?\"' Cool idea.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Assassin_s_Apprentice.html?hl=&id=bbXZCwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"6ca7aafe-d857-4e0e-b561-cdd95f2c4d17","title":"Between Two Fires","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":2013,"pages":466,"authors":["Christopher Buehlman"],"publishers":["Ace"],"startedDate":"2024-11-16","completedDate":"2024-12-01","updatedDate":"2024-12-02","notes":"Recommended by Marisa. It actually seems pretty interesting. Fantasy meets horror and historical fiction.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Between_Two_Fires.html?hl=&id=YetvDwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676085536332","title":"Calvin and Hobbes","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":1987,"pages":132,"authors":["Bill Watterson"],"publishers":["Andrews McMeel Publishing"],"genres":["Comic Strip"],"startedDate":"2000-12-31","completedDate":"2000-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Calvin_and_Hobbes.html?hl=&id=1iXKhV4p1CoC"},{"id":"322682676084560460","title":"Calvin and Hobbes: It's a Magical World","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":1996,"pages":165,"authors":["Bill Watterson"],"genres":["Comic Strip"],"startedDate":"2000-12-31","completedDate":"2000-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/It_s_a_Magical_World.html?hl=&id=y1NVNqOB5OIC"},{"id":"322682676085535308","title":"Calvin and Hobbes: There's Treasure Everywhere","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":1996,"pages":175,"authors":["Bill Watterson"],"genres":["Comic Strip"],"startedDate":"2000-12-31","completedDate":"2000-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/There_s_Treasure_Everywhere.html?hl=&id=14NAPgAACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101289548","title":"Categories for the Working Mathematician","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":1971,"pages":262,"authors":["Saunders Mac Lane"],"publishers":["Springer Science & Business Media"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2012-07-31","completedDate":"2012-12-13","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=6KPSBwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676084506188","title":"Characteristic Classes","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":1974,"pages":330,"authors":["John Milnor"],"publishers":["Princeton University Press"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2011-12-31","completedDate":"2012-04-28","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"Very well laid-out and easy to understand. The notation is a bit old and the book omits many longer proofs in the purpose of being terse, but when rea...more Very well laid-out and easy to understand. The notation is a bit old and the book omits many longer proofs in the purpose of being terse, but when reading along during lectures, the modern notation and longer proofs amidst the lectures make a powerful, perfect exposition.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Characteristic_Classes.html?hl=&id=5zQ9AFk1i4EC"},{"id":"322682676101297740","title":"Commutative Algebra: with a View Toward Algebraic Geometry","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":1995,"pages":800,"authors":["David Eisenbud"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2012-12-31","completedDate":"2013-05-09","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=xDwmBQAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676084480588","title":"Crime and Punishment","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":1866,"pages":430,"authors":["Fyodor Dostoyevsky"],"publishers":["Courier Corporation"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2014-05-31","completedDate":"2014-08-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"Dragged pacing but occasionally with beautiful passages in the most solemn and\ndeep tone. The moral itself is aged however.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Crime_and_Punishment.html?hl=&id=nVGKDgAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676084546124","title":"Cyrano de Bergerac","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":1897,"authors":["Edmond Rostand"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2007-12-31","completedDate":"2007-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Cyrano_de_Bergerac.html?hl=&id=GQ0OtAEACAAJ"},{"id":"340216051388121681","title":"Dark Matter","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":2016,"pages":368,"authors":["Blake Crouch"],"publishers":["Ballantine Books"],"startedDate":"2022-08-17","completedDate":"2022-08-18","updatedDate":"2022-08-19","notes":"Pulpy, simply to read, and a good page-turner due to its mystery. It's particularly impressive how well Crouch interweaves the complexities of the unknown to create a compelling story. The ideas behind quantum mechanics and infinites, although trite, leads to an original twist on doppelgangers and time travel/alternate universes.\n\nHighlights:\n\n+ The dualism between MC with his wife and his career-driven doppelganger\n+ When MC returns home, there's now an infinite number of him each authentic in their own way and attempting to return home\n+ Surprisingly well-written action scenes, and I like how they're added to make the story inherently more intriguing to read than one simply about the ideas (like much of Greg Egan's writings)\n\nI was motivated to read this because I am writing a mystery scifi story and this is one.\n\n## Notes\n\n> My wife, Daniela, sits on the kitchen island, swirling her almost-empty wineglass in one hand and holding her phone in the other.\n\nNot even a description of the wife. Good idea for shorter stories. Removes deacriotion for streamlining and also lets the reader imagine it as they will. The description itself is not that necessary, and you can still even go into vague terms percolating through dialogue or in description. Words like beautiful or “handsome woman” that Robert Jordan uses often.\n\n> “I’m violating the cardinal rule of family night.”\n                \nBoring subject matter. Yet a page turner because it’s so easy to read:+ Light on descriptions+ Short paragraphs, often one line sentences+ Lots of dialogue, even meandering natural onesIt’s accessible because it’s to the point and only provides surface level exposition when it matters for atmosphere, but never so much it can be a slog to reading pace. Fast like a good mystery page turner.\n\n> Fifteen years ago, before we met, Daniela was a comer to Chicago’s art scene.\n                \nNice. This paragraph level description appears naturally as it’s needed in the dialogue. The dialogue anout the magazine was likely intreocued only to bring up this background.And the subsequent lines are obviously done to introduce the protagonist ‘s desire to be someone.\n\n> wait for the ache in my throat to go away. When it does, I grab the pasta and close the door. Daniela drinks her wine. Charlie draws.\n                \nOkay wow. That was way too streamlined for me.\n\n> I’ve taught at MIT, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, the best schools on the planet. I’ve met the smartest motherfuckers in the room, and Jason, you would’ve changed the world if you’d decided to go that path.\n                \nUgh. This is a little cringey for me.\n\n> The reaction of the gas and the supercooled liquid on my skin has created a sizzling foam that burns like an acid bath. I’m grunting, thrashing against the restraints and wondering how much longer this could possibly be allowed to go on. My threshold for pain is high, and this is straddling the line of make-it-stop or kill me.\n                \nNow this is the type of description that fits an uninown device. Don’t go exposition like Egan does. Explain the interesting idea through the lens of the chracter point of view itself.\n\n> There’s nowhere to sit inside, so I stand on the sidewalk, stuffing my face and wondering if this pizza is as life-changing as I think it is, or if I’m too ravenous to be discerning.\n                \nI love this writing.\n\n> It isn’t just that empty ampoule. It’s something deeper that I can’t explain other than to say it feels like a place where I belong. It feels like mine.\n                \nThis book is written by a romantic. If it wasn’t already obvious by the family and true love plot. It’s the bluriness in the science caused by a delusion about souls and instinct.\n\n> scroll to the top of the conversation, which started approximately eighteen hours ago. The most recent message is forty minutes old.\n                \nOk, now that is a good ass twist. And its theme relevant. Damn good idea, and the way it’s presented too.\n\n> Light from the high windows streaming down onto the old generators as fifty versions of me all stare toward the box in a stunned and eerie and devastated silence.\n\nThe concept of infinity is complex. It's true that once he left the world, there's now an infinite # of him that all originated there and are now trying to get back. However, it's also true that there are infinite versions of that imposter, e.g,. once he got the box working, who would each arrive to some variant of the world where they had Charlie. This in turn implies there are infinite possible candidates, not necessarily a infinity-to-one mapping. Ultimately, it's about convergence rates.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=85nrCgAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676084479564","title":"Die Verwandlung","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":1915,"pages":119,"authors":["Franz Kafka"],"genres":["Short Story"],"startedDate":"2015-02-19","completedDate":"2015-02-19","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"I enjoyed the absurdity of the story and the absurdity of the character's actions. It took the vantage point not so much as a horror story but symbolically as a doomed disease plaguing the family.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Die_Verwandlung.html?hl=&id=Em86PwAACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676084475468","title":"Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":1968,"pages":244,"authors":["Philip K. Dick"],"publishers":["Del Rey"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2015-03-15","completedDate":"2015-03-26","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"Interesting theme of artificiality and life, and the need for authentic fondness in the form of a real pet. I enjoyed the film more however.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Do_Androids_Dream_of_Electric_Sheep.html?hl=&id=Lf-tYFvU1L8C"},{"id":"322682676101407308","title":"Dune (Dune Chronicles, #1)","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":1965,"pages":928,"authors":["Frank Herbert"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2022-03-22","completedDate":"2022-05-04","updatedDate":"2022-05-05","notes":"Good god this shit is dry. It's not as bad as Tolkien's encyclopedia-esque writing. But the story's early pacing is awful. The middle is good. I particularly enjoyed his rise in power. The end is anticlimatic.\n\nPlot twists that I had to suspend my disbelief:\n\n+ Duke Leto killing the Mentat but missing the Harkonnen. Because for obvious plot reasons: if he died so early, the plot development would end immaturely.\n+ Somehow the Fremen are so much stronger than even the Sardaukar. Yes it turns out the natives in Arrakis are not only fortunate in planet resources but also in enduring \"enough hardships\" to create the best warrior population in the galaxy.\n+ Alia and the baby's location being raided and the baby dies.\n+ Alia intentionally getting kidnapped and then killing Harkonnen Vladimir with the gom jabbar.\n+ Bene Gesserit somehow being so wise to plot for the One over centuries of breeding. Yet somehow they can't control the choice of someone like Jessica to follow their orders.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Dune.html?hl=&id=436dzgEACAAJ"},{"id":"455d2e5c-734b-43a3-a8d9-728edd1bf7f6","title":"Dungeons & Dragons Player's Handbook (5e, 2024)","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":2024,"authors":["Karen E Taylor","Various"],"startedDate":"2025-03-28","completedDate":"2025-04-27","updatedDate":"2025-05-10","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Dungeons_Dragons_Rpg_Players_Handbook_Ha.html?hl=&id=WKDL0AEACAAJ"},{"id":"fc09e4ab-6596-45fb-be6b-6c2f833bded8","title":"Elder Race","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":2021,"pages":126,"authors":["Adrian Tchaikovsky"],"publishers":["Tordotcom"],"startedDate":"2024-06-07","completedDate":"2024-06-11","updatedDate":"2024-06-11","notes":"+ Written like a single quest.\n+ The daughter fantasy journey feels a bit like Alice in Wonderland.\n+ Nyr's perspective had a great deal of loneliness and depression. Progression focused more on Nyr's acceptance and choices more so than Lyn.\n+ The demon solving solution had a nice bit of Chekov's gun. But was altogether resolved too quickly.\n+ The POV swap effectively being a change in genre from fantasy to science fiction is quite interesting. It's also fun seeing how inner thoughts reflected from one character translate to actions interpreted by the other.\n+ The scifi works well as any sufficiently advanced technology is indeed interpreted as magic.\n\ni agree about their growth! the povs expressed in their own languages was also a unique take on cultural barriers—both for the characters and the reader.\n\nthe plot is like the structure to see the povs evolve together. it even ends in a happy ever after with nyr deciding to live in the queen’s court\n\ni think my favorite is the idea of languages and interpretation. you can imagine pushing on that theme in so many ways\n\nRead it as a book club discussion book with Marisa.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=JY4OEAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676084566604","title":"Falling Up","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":1996,"pages":388,"authors":["Shel Silverstein"],"genres":["Poetry"],"startedDate":"1997-12-31","completedDate":"1997-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=qOe3CgAAQBAJ"},{"id":"c9db33ff-058f-4626-ac56-6b6deb0647fa","title":"Fantastic Four by Jonathan Hickman","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":2009,"authors":["Jonathan Hickman"],"publishers":["Marvel"],"startedDate":"2023-07-16","completedDate":"2023-07-26","updatedDate":"2023-07-26","notes":"I love the spotlight on FF's family, particularly Franklin Richards and Valeria Richards. It's a new narrative different from the standard takes featuring the heroes and villains and doesn't play by the books.\n\nIt's a massive plot saga spanning both omnibuses. I'm not really a fan of these grand stories featuring cosmic stakes and dozens of characters. I  prefer those focusing on character-building and interesting moments. With that said, Hickman certainly does grow key characters and allows them to shine (for example, Franklin; Human Torch in the Negative Zone).\n\nThe main saga ends at Fantastic Four #604. The rest continues as mini-stories until the next writer takes over. They’re assorted adventures, but they do add epilogue-like chapters in order to close some open threads in the storyline.\n\n__Details.__\n\n+ Fantastic Four #574: \"Happy birthday retard.\" Lol 2009 was a different time. ([source](https://comicvine.gamespot.com/fantastic-four-574-all-hope-lies-in-doom/4000-189516/user-reviews/2200-15706))\n+ Fantastic Four #605.1. Decently told but absolutely atrocious in writing quality in terms of its lore. The reveal that one of the founders is a Nazi and destroyed their world? This severely diminished the quality of the story by making it black-and-white. There's now no real sympathy that can be afforded to the multiverse Reed Richards; whereas before, they were good-intentioned in trying to solve the universe, too sacrificial in the means toward the end, and too prideful to realize they couldn't. \n\n## Resources and Miscellanea\n\n+ [Reddit (2022): The Top 56 Marvel Comics Runs, Voted by the r/Marvel Community!](https://www.reddit.com/r/Marvel/comments/y8y3fy/the_top_56_marvel_comics_runs_voted_by_the). Hickman's Fantastic Four is #4.\n\nI was motivated to read this as it's one of the best Marvel comics runs of all time and the best Fantastic Four run. Hickman's Avengers is another highly rated, modern, and team-based Marvel comic. However, I prefer X-Men and Fantastic Four as teams over the Avengers (Hollywood sort of ruined the Avengers for me at the time of writing in 2023-07). Hickman's Fantastic Four run from 2009-2012 also preceded Hickman's Avengers run from 2012-2015, which is another highly rated comic.\n\n__Version.__\nThe omnibus is a recommended way to read Hickman's run. It's effectively the same as the trade paperbacks. The individual issues are a bit scattered. See also reading order by comicbooktreasury ([Jonathan Hickman's run specifically](https://www.comicbooktreasury.com/jonathan-hickman-fantastic-four-reading-order) and [Fantastic Four overall](https://www.comicbooktreasury.com/fantastic-four-reading-order)) and a reading order for Jonathan Hickman's runs by [comicbookherald](https://www.comicbookherald.com/jonathan-hickman-marvel-universe-reading-order-2008-to-2016).\n\nThe omnibus collects the following issues:\n\n+ __Fantastic Four by Jonathan Hickman Omnibus Vol. 1__. Dark Reign: Fantastic Four (2009) #1-5, Fantastic Four (1998) #570-588, FF (2011) #1-5, material from Dark Reign: The Cabal One-Shot (2009).\n+ __Fantastic Four by Jonathan Hickman Omnibus Vol. 2__. FF (2011) #6-23; Fantastic Four (2012) #600-611, 605.1.\n\nSources:\n\n+ [GetComics: Fantastic Four By Jonathan Hickman Omnibus (2022)](https://getcomics.org/marvel/fantastic-four-by-jonathan-hickman-omnibus-vol-1-2-2022). It was this comic where I converted from reading from online digital readers to offline reading with downloading and using a dedicated comic reader app (details on comic readers are added to Geoff Johns' Teen Titans run entry).\n+ [ComicOnlineFree: The Complete Fantastic Four by Jonathan Hickman (2011)](https://comiconlinefree.net/comic/fantastic-four-by-jonathan-hickman-omnibus). It doesn't have the same issues as the omnibus. For example, it skips the prologue with Dark Reign: Fantastic Four (2009) #1-5. So it's not useful to read.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Fantastic_Four_by_Jonathan_Hickman_Omnib.html?hl=&id=I6NkzgEACAAJ"},{"id":"b4be0bdf-caaf-4a19-beed-193605f5b15c","title":"Fantastic Four by Mark Waid","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":2002,"authors":["Mark Waid"],"publishers":["Marvel Comics Group"],"startedDate":"2023-07-17","completedDate":"2023-07-19","updatedDate":"2023-07-20","notes":"I enjoy Waid’s run in its style. After having read darker takes on comics like Immortal Hulk and Geoff Johns’ Teen Titans, it’s refreshing to read a comic that’s upbeat and cheerful. The pages are rife with jokes and friendliness; and the cartoon art style is perfect for its vibes.\n\nWaid’s run truly is perfect as a starting point. It does not dive insomuch on the origin, but naiks the essentials behind FF: family first and with a focus on the intrepid as adventurers and explorers. The first few panels describe the origin, then it’s summarizing FF from the perspective of a publicist outsider. The rest of the run captures the beats with all the core villains.\n\nThe writing is whimsical but fun in its adventures. It is not very deep; it's good at what it is.\n\nThe various plots where the Thing has depression due his form is a bit tiresome. Happens a few times and goes nowhere. It's a cliche designed for self-pitying ([related](https://www.reddit.com/r/comicbooks/comments/r7eaqb/anyone_else_think_the_youre_a_freak_cliche_is)). Fantastic Four #524's power-transferring storyline is also kind of dumb as you can easily imagine a scenario where, if truly desired, Reed gets the swapping to work again and gives it to someone who's dying as a way to effectively remove The Thing's powers.\n\n## Resources and Miscellanea\n\nI initially got into Fantastic Four by reading several issues of Hickman’s run. However, I felt like I was missing subtext. By the beginning of that run, they’re already settled down as a family, and the exploration with Franklin and Val feels like a sequel.\n\nTherefore I started Waid’s run to acquaint myself with the origin story and beginnings (I’m only vaguely familiar from adaptations), and under a relatively modern run instead of 20th century classics. It’s only 30 or so issues.\n\n__Version.__ I read the following. See also [comicbooktreasury](https://www.comicbooktreasury.com/fantastic-four-reading-order).\n\n+ __Fantastic Four By Waid & Wieringo Omnibus.__ Fantastic Four (1997) #60-70, #500-524, 500 Director’s Cut","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Fantastic_Four.html?hl=&id=GuMVRAAACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101335628","title":"Foundations of Algebraic Geometry","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":1947,"pages":363,"authors":["Ravi Vakil"],"publishers":["American Mathematical Soc."],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2012-12-31","completedDate":"2013-05-09","updatedDate":"2022-08-16","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Foundations_of_Algebraic_Geometry.html?hl=&id=ML7u26rkEkIC"},{"id":"322682676084528716","title":"Gulliver's Travels","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":1726,"pages":304,"authors":["Jonathan Swift"],"publishers":["Penguin"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2009-12-31","completedDate":"2009-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=hqsJKvM17WwC"},{"id":"e060edcb-7bee-415f-96a3-d749dd4e9dbd","title":"Jumper","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":1992,"pages":356,"authors":["Steven Gould"],"publishers":["Macmillan"],"startedDate":"2023-12-11","completedDate":"2023-12-13","updatedDate":"2023-12-14","notes":"Powers and pacing overall was fun. It’s an agsty coming of age with romance.\n\nStarted reading because of a [Reddit thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgressionFantasy/comments/18fnsme/super_heroes_with_actual_progression).","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Jumper.html?hl=&id=Y_B7OEueYuUC"},{"id":"322682676101332556","title":"Kizumonogatari (傷物語) (Monogatari, #3)","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":2007,"authors":["Nisio Isin"],"startedDate":"2013-01-06","completedDate":"2013-01-22","updatedDate":"2022-01-30"},{"id":"322682676084478540","title":"Leaving the Atocha Station","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":2011,"pages":181,"authors":["Ben Lerner"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2015-03-06","completedDate":"2015-03-06","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"I enjoy the irony of the lack of proper communication. It's interesting to see the parallelism in his lack of direct responses and his own poetry. it is caustic to an extent because of how lazily his poetry is written. the redundancy in the writing Is so entertaining. I particularly enjoy the emphasis on the out of body speciation experience.\n\nI find myself identifying with the narrator to perverse degrees, although I realize that it is more expected otherwise for this novel.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Leaving_the_Atocha_Station.html?hl=&id=xk16MgEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101309004","title":"Leisureguy's Guide to Gourmet Shaving: Shaving Made Enjoyable","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":2007,"pages":192,"authors":["Michael Ham"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2013-01-21","completedDate":"2013-01-24","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Leisureguy_s_Guide_to_Gourmet_Shaving_Si.html?hl=&id=Di18MAEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676084535884","title":"Life of Pi","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":2001,"pages":444,"authors":["Yann Martel"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2009-05-31","completedDate":"2009-05-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Life_of_Pi.html?hl=&id=gTycDAEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676083443276","title":"Lord of the Flies","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":1954,"pages":336,"authors":["William Golding"],"publishers":["Penguin"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2017-04-07","completedDate":"2017-04-08","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"Characters as symbolic mouthpieces is reminiscent of Animal Farm. It has a alluring quality to it, with usual personhood qualities (particularly the naivety and violence of boys, masculinity, and chaos versus order). This literary device is okay, but the characters often act unreasonable for their persona at times. For example, that someone would even properly take watch when everyone was so lazy at other things. Do I find the story itself believable? To some extent, but not the frenzy of murders. I also found it disappointing how the littl'uns sort of just come and go into the chapters; if the littl'uns were representative of a lower/middle class, it doesn't really explain why they just sort of are no longer mentioned in later chapters.\nAs for the idea itself, I can understand where he goes about the inherent savagery and evil of man, needing society to better function by delaying immediate pleasures over long-term growth. Some of this, however, I simply attribute to intelligence rather than organization though, and I found this distinction clouded in the novel. I do like the idea of the novel itself, pointing to internal dangers rather than external ones as in similar Robinson Crusoe-like novels.\nThe commentary by John Green (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfNiQBXmPw8) is interesting. I agree that depicting facepaint, spears, ritual dances, yelping as savagery is English stereotyping; spears and Stone Age technology is okay, but the rest is patently stupid. The lack of girls also does downput the accuracy of Lord of the Flies as a functioning society, and also the general lack of intelligence through boys (divorcing order placed in man from much education from the general intelligence they build up as more mature adults).","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=r6eoCwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"27d0b11c-f318-4665-b366-a63d7e94e24f","title":"Malice","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":2014,"pages":287,"authors":["Keigo Higashino"],"publishers":["Minotaur Books"],"startedDate":"2024-05-19","completedDate":"2024-05-23","updatedDate":"2024-05-26","notes":"Pretty solid mystery almost in the style of Agatha Christie. I expected horror. But it was fun with the various characters and POVs regardless.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=6aFzAwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676083440204","title":"Misery","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":1987,"pages":391,"authors":["Stephen King"],"publishers":["Albin Michel"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2017-08-14","completedDate":"2017-08-17","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"The stream of consciousness in detailing Paul's stae of mind makes for some excellent prose, especially as it constantly swaps in states as he panicks. And the way the chapters start and end. It attests to what novels can do that other mediums can't necessarily benefit from.\n\nThe many walls of text can feel like an exercise at times but it pays off as an enjoyabl e read. The psychology of it all and the seemingly random yet deceptively methodical acts of violence make it so fun.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=J_j50dWIa3MC"},{"id":"339115182157464145","title":"Mother of Learning: ARC 1","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":2021,"pages":414,"authors":["nobody103","Domagoj Kurmaic"],"publishers":["Wraithmarked Creative, LLC"],"startedDate":"2022-08-04","completedDate":"2022-08-06","updatedDate":"2022-08-06","notes":"MOL is a mash of two ideas: magical academy and time loop.\n\nI quite enjoyed the progression. The story is paced quite well in terms of the character's powers as well as introduction of new characters, events, and magic system.\n\nProse is decent. I find it decently well-written and the dialogue engaging. There are of course still big exposition dumps at times, but not as bad as many other fantasy books (e.g., Sufficiently Advanced Magic which has many lecture chapters that consist purely of information dumps).","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=uj1UEAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676084542028","title":"Much Ado About Nothing","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":1600,"pages":304,"authors":["William Shakespeare"],"publishers":["Simon and Schuster"],"genres":["Play"],"startedDate":"2009-12-31","completedDate":"2009-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=M-8FAwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676083425868","title":"Murder on the Links","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":2021,"pages":177,"authors":["Agatha Christie"],"publishers":["Phoemixx Classics Ebooks"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2021-11-09","completedDate":"2021-11-14","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"Hastings ruining an investigation on multiple fronts in the name of love for a young girl he barely knows is mindboggling. This is such a terrible subplot ruining the fun logic puzzle that makes Agathie Christie whodunnits so fun in the first place. Hastings is an unlikable buffoon, old and old fashioned, and utterly incompetent at both making his own deductions and now even ruining investigations. He’s not only willing to help a criminal who confessed escape but also is willing to go against his dear friend Poirot. What kind of soap opera is this nonsense?\n\nI enjoyed the overall pacing and introduced characters. But how the murder happened is so impressively convoluted. That’s too many plot twists for me. And it’s a weird happy ending where none of the accessories to murder, obstructions of justice, or blackmailers are charged.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=ph8-EAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676084497996","title":"Numerical Linear Algebra","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":1997,"pages":419,"authors":["Lloyd N. Trefethen"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2013-08-28","completedDate":"2013-11-19","updatedDate":"2023-07-12","notes":"Succinct, and catered for the one semester pace, Trefethen's Numerical Linear Algebra is fairly basic. It's a quick and easy book to go through as rev...more Succinct, and catered for the one semester pace, Trefethen's Numerical Linear Algebra is fairly basic. It's a quick and easy book to go through as review. Due to its precise wording and exacting concision, passages may be abstruse had you not seen the material before for the first several sections. This makes it great for prelims, for example, but it is certainly not the best for an intro to linear algebra. Perhaps as a self-study for a second course, it could do well, though not nearly as informative as more comprehensive semester-based courses are.\n\nWhat's by and far the greatest aspect of the text is its clear-cut intuition, always very considerate in never bogging too autistically in the details like the majority of classic reference books, nor does it proceed to handwave everything. It's a harmonious middleground, sort of the best solution to the Goldilock's scenario and Imve rarely encountered a math text do so well on grasping these fundamentals. The intuition behind every derived method or algorithm is always made clear, and so the practicalities of the text is present. There is (intentionally?) a lot of lack in more abstract theory, as well as much cross-referencing whenever the book gets into heavy-duty proofs. But it's more of the \"results-only\" type, and I like it."},{"id":"322682676101277260","title":"Of Mice and Men","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":1937,"pages":113,"authors":["John Steinbeck"],"publishers":["Penguin"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2006-08-31","completedDate":"2006-08-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Of_Mice_and_Men.html?hl=&id=F0EwEAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676084558412","title":"Official SAT Study Guide","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":2004,"authors":["The College Board"],"publishers":["College Board"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2008-12-31","completedDate":"2008-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Official_SAT_Study_Guide.html?hl=&id=2hJ6AQAACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676084485708","title":"Probability","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":1986,"authors":["Jim Pitman"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2014-01-20","completedDate":"2014-05-15","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Integration_and_measure_probability_ordi.html?hl=&id=t_HuAAAAMAAJ"},{"id":"340406005793817169","title":"Project Hail Mary","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":2021,"pages":794,"authors":["Andy Weir"],"publishers":["Random House Large Print"],"startedDate":"2022-11-08","completedDate":"2022-11-11","updatedDate":"2022-11-14","notes":"A little too sappy in the alien friendship. Excellent enthusiasm in bringing scientific ideas to solve problems. It's the problem-solving nature of the story that really ties you in. Also the prose.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Project_Hail_Mary.html?hl=&id=qGe_zQEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101298764","title":"Riemannian Manifolds: An Introduction to Curvature","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":1997,"pages":226,"authors":["John M. Lee"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2012-12-31","completedDate":"2013-05-09","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=92PgBwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676084544076","title":"Sense and Sensibility","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":1811,"pages":261,"authors":["Jane Austen"],"publishers":["Courier Corporation"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2009-12-31","completedDate":"2009-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Sense_and_Sensibility.html?hl=&id=Odn5DQAAQBAJ"},{"id":"72bf1d1b-f7b2-4668-a236-a9be5574e4b4","title":"Six of Crows","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":2015,"pages":479,"authors":["Leigh Bardugo"],"publishers":["Henry Holt and Company (BYR)"],"startedDate":"2024-09-15","completedDate":"2024-11-05","updatedDate":"2024-11-17","notes":"Marisa bought it for me during our NYC trip in August 2024. She said the main character reminds her of me, and he is her ideal man.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=yhIRBwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"340574516214235729","title":"Skyward","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":2019,"pages":544,"authors":["Brandon Sanderson"],"publishers":["Ember"],"startedDate":"2022-08-20","completedDate":"2022-08-25","updatedDate":"2022-08-27","notes":"Good overall story. I like the piloting and worldbuilding.\n\n## Notes\n\n> Father pulled me onto the rock beside him, then reached out with his free hand and activated his light-line.\n\nThis paragraph is an excellent introduction to a new technology.\n\n> I stood up, wiping my hands on a rag. I knew how Beowulf would face monsters and dragons… but how would he face his mother on a day when he was supposed to be in school? I settled on a noncommittal shrug.\n                \nIf that doesn’t tag this book as YA, I don’t know what would.\n\n> I nodded, eager. “That sounds perfect.”\n                \nThat’s a pretty awful friend. Not even sure yet that that’s what Rig wants to do in his life. It’s a significant commitment simply to further her own aims.\n\n> “Hey, Spin,” Nedd finally said. “You’re always talking about ‘honor’ and the ‘glory of dying like warriors’ and crap like that.” “Yeah? So?”\n                \nI like that Jorgen and his two cronies aren’t really bullies in the traditional fantasy trope sense. Jorgen is more of a rival, and the other two actually have separate personalities.Jorgen is by the books and lacks social skills for one. Nedd is flippant and a bit of a jokester.\n\n> “Humans have free will. Free will is the ability to make irrational decisions—to act against stimuli. That makes it impossible for a rational AI to ever fully anticipate humans, for even if I had perfect understanding of your inputs, you could still do something completely unpredictable.”\n                \nNot actually true. This is Sanderson’s naivety about AI or simply his Mormonism leaking through.\n\n> “You didn’t stutter, or fumble, or anything,” I said. “What did you do with Rodge, you Krell monster?” “What?” M-Bot said, lights on his wings flashing on. “Rodge is a Krell!” “Sarcasm,” the two of us said in unison.\n                \nNah, there is no separate personality sensor. And AI can detect sarcasm. The deficiencies AI has unlike human emotion is far more subtle, as a result of biases in its training data and model architecture.\n\n> “I underclock conversations. If I focus my full efforts, it takes you several minutes in relative time to speak a single syllable.”\n                \nNot very realistic or smart for an AI.\n\n> “You had training ahead of time. A leg up, to keep you alive, until your coward families could stick some medals on you and parade you around as proof that you’re so much better than the rest of us!”\n                \nThe coward motif is rwther on the nose sometimes.\n\n> “I…I have to shut down,” M-Bot said. “It is clear to me now that if I let you keep taking me into the sky, you will not be able to avoid battle. It is your nature. If this continues, I will inevitably be forced to break my orders.”\n                \nThat.. was an abrupt change.\n\n> “There were no Krell at the start of it,” I said. “Just us versus the galaxy. And humankind lost.\n                \nI wonder if this whole monologue reveal was what Sanderson initially conceived when coming up with the story.\n","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Skyward.html?hl=&id=RPq0DwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676084499020","title":"Sputnik Sweetheart","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":1999,"pages":240,"authors":["Haruki Murakami"],"publishers":["Random House"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2012-09-08","completedDate":"2012-09-10","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"Being a lighter novel similar to After Dark, it holds a few key moments that grasp out at you so well. But aside from those few moments, the rest of t...more Being a lighter novel similar to After Dark, it holds a few key moments that grasp out at you so well. But aside from those few moments, the rest of the novel is rather plain, only holding hints of the greatness for which Murakami is so well known for. It holds a stronger, more positive ending with an easier tangible meaning. But regardless, I would say it fails to immerse the dream-state and reality as well as his other novels.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=GDYVpij1rJAC"},{"id":"334970358525330001","title":"Storm Front (The Dresden Files #1)","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":2000,"pages":384,"authors":["Jim Butcher"],"publishers":["Penguin Group"],"startedDate":"2022-06-20","completedDate":"2022-06-22","updatedDate":"2022-08-12","notes":"I found this surprisingly quite enjoyable. Despite hearing it was the weakest among the series not getting good until roughly Book 4. It’s certainly very tropey and I enjoyed it more as a guilty pleasure. I’m most fond of the story’s setting. It reminds me of if you play as a wizard detective in the Vampire Masquerade Bloodlines world.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=K1-LL9vlxZcC"},{"id":"336960217874956879","title":"Summer Knight (The Dresden Files #4)","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":2002,"pages":464,"authors":["Jim Butcher"],"publishers":["Penguin"],"startedDate":"2022-07-07","completedDate":"2022-07-17","updatedDate":"2022-08-12","notes":"In every book, the Dresden Files worldbuilding expands. It's this one where it expands most of all, giving us the scenes with the White Council, a political battle between the Queens of the faerie, Harry's backstory with Elaine, and finally opening up about the world with Karrin Murphy.\n\nThe pacing, action, and thin characters (especially the women) is the same as in previous books, including an abrupt single chapter to resolve everything. Unlike from what I've read online, there's no drastic quality improvement here. It's more the intrigue with the expanded world that makes Summer Knight more interesting than previous books.\n\nDetails:\n\n+ Morgan is an asshole. Even moreso than in the first book. And sadly, they reversed much of his hidden personality in the first book by just making him an asshole again with no redeeming qualities. He’s just a personified obstacle among the many for Harry Dresden to overcome in these crimes that were always so apparently pitted against him.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=ev4SpwTuQ4UC"},{"id":"322682676083430988","title":"Sword of Destiny (The Witcher #1)","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":1992,"pages":400,"authors":["Andrzej Sapkowski"],"publishers":["Gollancz"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2020-01-11","completedDate":"2021-03-30","updatedDate":"2022-08-12","notes":"All quite good stories. The content in morals, setting of the witcher, and characters make the Witcher series. The novel form isn't as good in action, setting depiction/atmosphere, and tends to be a bit too moralizing as every character tends to ramble in dialogue as their main course of depicting their personality.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=GFzjBgAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676084538956","title":"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":1884,"pages":220,"authors":["Mark Twain"],"publishers":["Courier Corporation"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2007-12-31","completedDate":"2007-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn.html?hl=&id=mWHcDAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676085592652","title":"The Arithmetic of Elliptic Curves","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":1985,"pages":514,"authors":["Joseph H. Silverman"],"publishers":["Springer"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2012-12-31","completedDate":"2013-05-09","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Arithmetic_of_Elliptic_Curves.html?hl=&id=Zr1BYgEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101285452","title":"The Art of Rhetoric","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":-322,"pages":304,"authors":["Aristotle"],"publishers":["Penguin UK"],"genres":["Nonfiction"],"startedDate":"2007-08-31","completedDate":"2007-08-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=qUOerdDyI4MC"},{"id":"4ce9544d-d6ce-46ac-9ccb-7b75e621a669","title":"The Blade Itself (The First Law #1)","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":2006,"pages":560,"authors":["Joe Abercrombie"],"publishers":["Orbit"],"startedDate":"2023-12-22","completedDate":"2024-01-14","updatedDate":"2024-01-14","notes":"I’m surprised. I didn’t find the worldbuilding or characters all that interesting at first. Rather, it’s the gripping writing that is easy to follow yet oozing with detail to keep the story excited and well paced throughout. I find it particularly incredible how interested I stayed despite the plot itself being quite lacking with not much happening.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Blade_Itself.html?hl=&id=wwspvAEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676084559436","title":"The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":1995,"pages":208,"authors":["Bill Watterson"],"publishers":["Turtleback Books"],"genres":["Comic Strip"],"startedDate":"2000-12-31","completedDate":"2000-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Calvin_and_Hobbes_Tenth_Anniversary.html?hl=&id=9on_swEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676084523596","title":"The Divine Comedy","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":1306,"pages":928,"authors":["Dante Alighieri"],"publishers":["Penguin"],"genres":["Poetry"],"startedDate":"2007-12-31","completedDate":"2007-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=p_5l2FCfvF8C"},{"id":"9ef1f548-f8d9-4dd5-851f-b1200a025721","title":"The Emperor's Soul","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":2015,"pages":144,"authors":["Brandon Sanderson"],"publishers":["Gollancz"],"startedDate":"2023-01-15","completedDate":"2023-02-28","updatedDate":"2023-02-28","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Emperor_s_Soul.html?hl=&id=GRsSrgEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676084555340","title":"The Epic of Gilgamesh","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":-1500,"pages":304,"authors":["Anonymous"],"publishers":["Penguin UK"],"genres":["Poetry"],"startedDate":"2011-05-31","completedDate":"2011-05-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=Z4MTDAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676084531788","title":"The Great Gatsby","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":1925,"pages":209,"authors":["F. Scott Fitzgerald"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2008-12-31","completedDate":"2008-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=IuoxEAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"b3860c7a-fa58-4b6c-9d40-09e687ee8cbe","title":"The Honjin Murders","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":2020,"pages":193,"authors":["Seishi Yokomizo"],"publishers":["Pushkin Vertigo"],"startedDate":"2026-08-08","completedDate":"2026-08-13","updatedDate":"2026-08-14","notes":"Fun, digestible.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=dTyuDwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676084561484","title":"The Indispensable Calvin and Hobbes","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":1992,"pages":255,"authors":["Bill Watterson"],"publishers":["Andrews McMeel Publishing"],"genres":["Comic Strip"],"startedDate":"2000-12-31","completedDate":"2000-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Indispensable_Calvin_and_Hobbes.html?hl=&id=NV4WEqQtvTYC"},{"id":"7c0400f7-8c78-4f82-ad51-f130aaf8fc40","title":"The Library at Mount Char","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":2016,"pages":402,"authors":["Scott Hawkins"],"publishers":["Crown"],"startedDate":"2024-06-16","completedDate":"2024-07-08","updatedDate":"2024-07-08","notes":"+ I like the characters.\n+ Quirky, a bit too much.\n+ Surprisingly king of slow in plot. They spend the first half all planning how to get back into their house.\n+ It's pretty unique as far as urban fantasy goes. Usually, it's hidden but here it's far more in the open. And the odds are generally higher.\n+ The lengthy explanations after killing David feel unnecessary. I’m also starting to hate Steve as a clueless guy at the end who just walks around and asks all the questions for the reader.\n+ I could do with or without the epilogue portion as she rises in power and comes to grips with things.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Library_at_Mount_Char.html?hl=&id=6WbaCwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676085540428","title":"The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (Chronicles of Narnia, #1)","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":1950,"pages":216,"authors":["C. S. Lewis"],"publishers":["Zondervan"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2003-12-31","completedDate":"2003-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Lion_the_Witch_and_the_Wardrobe.html?hl=&id=GgOjwq451fMC"},{"id":"322682676085537356","title":"The Lottery and Other Stories","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":1949,"pages":320,"authors":["Shirley Jackson"],"publishers":["Penguin UK"],"genres":["Short Story"],"startedDate":"2008-12-31","completedDate":"2008-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=5K6soo-8JQkC"},{"id":"322682676083426892","title":"The Mysterious Affairs at Styles","status":"Completed","score":7,"pages":297,"authors":["Agatha Christie"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2021-09-19","completedDate":"2021-11-09","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"Somewhat contrived at times. But I liked all the twists! Poirot is also an excellent character.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Mysterious_Affair_at_Styles.html?hl=&id=AtZCsKLkUEkC"},{"id":"322682676085527116","title":"The Once and Future King (The Once and Future King, #1-4)","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":1958,"pages":408,"authors":["T.H. White"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2004-08-31","completedDate":"2004-08-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/La_maison_du_scorpion.html?hl=&id=UCgzCgAAQBAJ"},{"id":"340865913263751759","title":"The Player of Games (Culture #2)","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":1988,"pages":416,"authors":["Iain M. Banks"],"publishers":["Orbit"],"startedDate":"2022-08-25","completedDate":"2022-09-04","updatedDate":"2022-09-05","notes":"The worldbuilding is clearly the game's strength, from various perusal of technology devices, to the overarching egalitarian society. And the overarching theme of the game ultimately being about Culture vs Azad's, the dominative society that's closest to our own.\n\nThe pacing is too slow. Gurgeh doesn't set off for Azad until 25% through the 400 pages.\n\nI have mixed feelings with how so many scenes are described as through exposition and past tense rather than actually taking place. The latter is far more engrossing. Similarly, it's a shame the description about the games are all exposition, with little detail behind the actuality of the game. Would be significantly more engaging if the reader understood the game more.\n\nCharacters feel rather stale. Only Gurgeh and the drone characters are honestly notable.\n\n## Notes\n\n> Marain was a synthetic language, designed to be phonetically and philosophically as expressive as the pan-human speech apparatus and the pan-human brain would allow.\n\nI like the way this worldbuilding element (this and the next few paragraphs) discussing languages is buried later into the story as Gurgeh evolves. It paces that exposition well.\n\n## Resources and Miscellanea\n\nI started with this as my first entry into the Culture series. [Apparently](https://www.reddit.com/r/printSF/comments/11ihjs/suggested_reading_order_for_the_culture_sequence), Consider Phlebas is quite boring and not at all indicative of the rest of the series, closer to something like Discworld.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=GsCT8lPbYFMC"},{"id":"92f87523-480e-4c18-91a7-3bba883e9f54","title":"The Sandman: #1-16","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":1989,"authors":["Neil Gaiman"],"publishers":["National Geographic Books"],"startedDate":"2023-07-20","completedDate":"2023-08-06","updatedDate":"2023-08-07","notes":"## Resources and Miscellanea\n\n+ [Reddit (2022): The Top 71 DC Comic Runs, Voted by the r/DCcomics Community!](https://www.reddit.com/r/DCcomics/comments/vio4ub/discussion_the_top_71_dc_comic_runs_voted_by_the). Sandman is #3.\n\nI was motivated to read as it’s one of the most highly rated comics of all time, often cited to be Neil Gaiman’s best work, and even in DC comics is cited as one of the best to read. Plus, power wise, it chronicles the most powerful beings in the DC universe, second only to other angels and demons in the series Lucifer (a spinoff of Sandman), and Presence the God of the universe itself.\n\nI read a chapter or two in 2023-07-04 but couldn’t get into it. The density of actions and text in each page for classic comics is too much for me.\n\n__Version.__ The single volume works well standalone. However, there are a handful of special issues included in the trade paperback and omnibus editions. See also [comicbooktreasury reading order](https://www.comicbooktreasury.com/the-sandman-reading-order-neil-gaiman) and [guide to Sandman's collected editions](https://uncommoncomics.blogspot.com/2013/02/guide-to-editions-sandman.html).\n\nI read The Deluxe Edition trade paperbacks. I only chose this because it's a collected edition available online. So it avoids having to hunt down single issues.\n\n+ __The Sandman: The Deluxe Edition: Book One.__\nThe Sandman #1-16 and Sandman Midnight Theatre #1.\n+ __The Sandman: The Deluxe Edition: Book Two.__\n“Fear of Falling” from Vertigo Preview #1, The Sandman #17-31, The Sandman Special #1, and the Vertigo: Winter’s Edge stories “Flowers of Romance,” “A Winter’s Tale,” and “How They Met Themselves.” \n+ __The Sandman: The Deluxe Edition: Book Three.__\nThe Sandman #32-50.\n+ __The Sandman: The Deluxe Edition: Book Four.__\nThe Sandman #51-69 and a story from Vertigo Jam #1. \n+ __The Sandman: The Deluxe Edition: Book Five.__\nThe Sandman #70-75, The Sandman: The Dream Hunters #1-4, Sandman: Endless Nights {New Edition}, Sandman: Dream Hunters 30th Anniversary Edition (Prose Version), and Dust Covers: The Collected Sandman Covers.\n\nThis entry includes only Book One. I got bored of the story after The Sandman got his powers back and during the vortex subplot. Another entry includes the other parts of Neil Gaiman's run.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Sandman_The_Deluxe_Edition_Book_One.html?hl=&id=O32PEAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"60113b0f-6f09-49ae-bad4-2ec9d0fc725e","title":"The Silent Patient","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":2019,"pages":304,"authors":["Alex Michaelides"],"publishers":["Celadon Books"],"startedDate":"2023-05-29","completedDate":"2023-05-31","updatedDate":"2023-05-31","notes":"Slower paced than I expected, and from a journalistic perspective not unlike being Watson and not Holmes. The reveal is a little corny. Quite good and not overly edgy for something I found from Goodreads.\n\nI have mixed feelings about the fact that basically every thread outside Theo and Alicia was a red herring.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=tLdiDwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676085528140","title":"The Taming of the Shrew","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":1590,"pages":96,"authors":["William Shakespeare"],"publishers":["Wordsworth Editions"],"genres":["Play"],"startedDate":"2007-12-31","completedDate":"2007-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Taming_of_the_Shrew.html?hl=&id=UelxdTWV4YQC"},{"id":"330805878631432785","title":"The Way of Kings (Stormlight Archive #1)","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":2010,"pages":1008,"authors":["Brandon Sanderson"],"publishers":["Tor Books"],"startedDate":"2022-05-05","completedDate":"2022-05-21","updatedDate":"2024-02-17","notes":"The greatest strength in The Way of Kings is a grounded worldbuilding with magical systems based on casters, shardbearers, and a history to uncover how this world has progressed.\n\nPacing is horrendous with hundreds of pages of setup with little actually going on. Shallan not actually stealing the caster until halfway through thr book, and quickly losing it, is a tell tale example of this.\n\nCharacters are fairly bland.\n\ni finished the book. ending was really good. lots of plot twists and stuff coming together at once\n\nWouldve preferred the pacing be a bit better if he just scattered some of those surprises during the duller middle parts of the book, like the jasnah or taravingian reveals\n\nshardblades reminds me of dynasty warriors. it's a lore reason for individual characters to be able to \nslaughter dozens to a hundred minions. good power fantasy invention\n\ni also thought it was interesting that the beginning of the book is setup closer to mistborn with a \"hard scifi\" approach of exactly describing szeth's power abilities. and then during kaladin's arc, it's all described more mystically.\n\nAnnoyances:\n\n+ The pacing of using a different character in each chapter, along with interludes.\n+ Kaladin can kill a shardbearer. And he gives it away to a comrade. Boy does this reek of Mary Sueism. And his betrayals are from comical one note villains.\n+ Jahsna and everyone just assuming Shallan just attempted suicide out of nowhere.\n\n## Resources and Miscellanea\n\n+ [Coppermind Wiki](https://coppermind.net)\n+ [Stormlight Archive Fandom Wiki](https://stormlightarchive.fandom.com)","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=OHclhBVv-X4C"},{"id":"334206347367154256","title":"The Wise Man's Fear (The Kingkiller Chronicle #2)","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":2011,"pages":1120,"authors":["Patrick Rothfuss"],"publishers":["Astra Publishing House"],"startedDate":"2022-06-11","completedDate":"2022-06-20","updatedDate":"2022-08-12","notes":"I generally enjoyed the book. It's fun hearing about Kvothe's adventures, especially as he ventures outside Imre in this novel. There were quite a few parts that irked me however:\n\n+ The weird backstabbing by Maer, and the apparent total futility that Kvothe has in accumulating more than meager gains from massive achievements. It's too contrived story-wise, obviously done to limit Kvothe from being too powerful early on. It brings about even plot holes with how silly it can be at times given the number of times he helps Maer to little gain.\n+ At the felurian section of kingkiller chronicles part 2\nholy hell this power fantasy is a tad too much. This 16 yo virgin is apparently a sex god. The statements pat rothfuss writes about women make my eyes roll so hard i wouldnt doubt if they fall out.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=dLo_GyEykjQC"},{"id":"001a32af-da4f-409a-bde5-7eebcf26958c","title":"Ultimate Spider-Man by Brian Bendis: #1-7","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":2000,"pages":296,"authors":["Brian Michael Bendis"],"publishers":["Marvel Entertainment"],"startedDate":"2023-08-07","completedDate":"2023-08-07","updatedDate":"2023-08-07","notes":"## Resources and Miscellanea\n\n+ [Reddit (2022): The Top 56 Marvel Comics Runs, Voted by the r/Marvel Community!](https://www.reddit.com/r/Marvel/comments/y8y3fy/the_top_56_marvel_comics_runs_voted_by_the). Bendis' Ultimate Spider-Man is #9.\n+ [Reddit: What is your favorite retelling of a characters origin?](https://www.reddit.com/r/comicbooks/comments/51svp7/what_is_your_favorite_retelling_of_a_characters). Among retellings of origins stories, Ultimate Spider-Man is one of the best. It's also often argued to be better than Amazing Spider-Man ([example](https://www.reddit.com/r/Spiderman/comments/sw8v1e/which_spiderman_is_better_amazing_or_ultimate)).\n\nI was motivated to read this as it's one of the best Marvel comic runs of all time and the best Spider-Man run. I chose this as my first Spider-Man run.\n\nI remember reading a few one-off Spider-Man issues as a kid. I never devoted much into reading comics at the time.\n\n__Version.__ I read the trade paperbacks from #1 all the way to #160.\n\nThe single issues Ultimate Spider-Man #1-133 are mostly self-contained. There are a few separate Spider-Man tie-ins in other issues and special issues. And it’s followed by a continuation until #160. See also reading orders by [comicbookherald](https://www.comicbookherald.com/ultimate-spider-man-reading-order), [donttellharold](https://donttellharry.com/2021/03/24/a-list-of-the-ultimate-spider-man-trade-paperbacks-in-order/), [r/marvel wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/Marvel/wiki/faq#wiki_spider-man).\n\nSources:\n\n+ [Getcomics.org: Vols. 1-22 Trade Paperbacks](https://getcomics.org/marvel/ultimate-spider-man-vol-1-22-tpb-2002-2009)\n+ [ComicOnlineFree: Ultimate Spider-Man](https://comiconlinefree.net/comic/ultimate-spider-man-2000)\n\nThis entry includes only the first trade paperback. I got bored of the story after reading the origin, which I find is the most fun part of Spider-Man.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=_niPDwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"5f1405c4-b9da-4d86-9f83-8b1b41ec3222","title":"Understand","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":1991,"authors":["Ted Chiang"],"startedDate":"2024-05-29","completedDate":"2024-06-03","updatedDate":"2024-06-04","notes":"Trope-y in its overarching plot of disabled patient -> CIA -> runaway -> archenemy. The ideas of cognition, their progression, and details around they think are the most interesting.\n\nOriginally read it because it came up in Kira vs L recommendations:\n\nhttps://www.reddit.com/r/booksuggestions/comments/nxcian/looking_for_books_with_some_mind_games_and/"},{"id":"f83a737e-324d-4aad-a320-434f352145e0","title":"We Are Legion (We Are Bob)","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":2016,"authors":["Dennis E. Taylor"],"publishers":["Worldbuilders Press"],"startedDate":"2022-10-15","completedDate":"2022-11-08","updatedDate":"2022-11-08","notes":"A surprisingly fun romp packed with fun ideas with humans turned computers and being mass-produced to populate the galaxy. There's lots to unpack as well regarding saving humanity, fighting a rogue Brazilian probe, and exploring the universe with extraterrestrial beings.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/We_Are_Legion_We_Are_Bob.html?hl=&id=c28RMQAACAAJ"},{"id":"0899caa1-3f6a-438f-bba1-0e16e2d13852","title":"We Have Always Lived in the Castle","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":1967,"pages":86,"authors":["Shirley Jackson"],"publishers":["Dramatists Play Service Inc"],"startedDate":"2024-10-27","completedDate":"2024-11-05","updatedDate":"2024-11-06","notes":"Hard to penetrate. Dreadful, a classic style of horror.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/We_Have_Always_Lived_in_the_Castle.html?hl=&id=fRh2aEh3ZfMC"},{"id":"337477621976662608","title":"Words of Radiance (Stormlight Archive #2)","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":2014,"pages":1087,"authors":["Brandon Sanderson"],"publishers":["Macmillan"],"startedDate":"2024-02-15","completedDate":"2024-03-16","updatedDate":"2024-03-16","notes":"Plot is hammy at times and the middle can get boring in pacing. Generally it does get better as the characters both grow (particularly Shallan) and you see new powers manifest. I also find everything was written too much to give the end all the splashy climaxes and shocking reveals, it felt too soap opera-y, even more than the first book and general modern fantasy book structures. Overall still enjoyable in a more brainless fashion, you see usual Power Rangers/Avengers vibes.\n\nThe various worldbuikding ideas are probably the most interesting. Somewhat simple but still fun with the shardblades and shardplates, then the various mythology around Heralds and Voidbringers, then the reveals of history such as Urithru, and the world setting expansion of other kingdom narratives and the reveals as it connects to history.\n\n+ Sadeasm squirming out of the duel and Elhokar getting angry and forcing Kaladin to prison is too contrived. Too poorly justified to artificially make the pacing balanced again and not progress the story.\n+ I also find it overly preachy that Syl warns Kaladin not to be too vengeful. And Kaladin as portrayed as too greedy and vengeful when making calculated and rationale answers such as taking out Elhokar or seeking vengeance against Amaram. It fails the test of the common henchmen trope: https://www.reddit.com/r/Stormlight_Archive/comments/1038k5e/comment/j2zhrdv/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button\n+ Jasnah's lecture on Chapter 65 about equality in woman's roles. Overly preachy and hamfisted of a contemporary view in a fantasy setting. Why even make the conflict present in this world?\n+ The concept of Shattered Plains being a legacy breaking off point for the ring plateau that is the Oathgate. Great idea.\n+ I like the various lore additions with Honorblades, Shardblades as dead spren, Knights Radiant and Heralds.\n+ The way Sadeas is killed off at the end puts me off. Now that the story has escalated, new factions become more transparent with various new enemies, Sadeas’ role as an enemy is diminished. And now that that’s the case he is conveniently and anticlimacticly killed. And it almost contradicts all the fanfare about not killing others that Sanderson had made preachy to Kaladin for so long. The only plot excuse to not make it a technical plot hole is that he wrote it for Adolin.\n+ Killing off Jasnah and revealing her at the end works well.\n+ Kaladin just decides to up and leave to go back to his town and save his parents? No sense of bigger duty? And Dalinar finds that to be Kaladin’s highest priority?","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Words_of_Radiance.html?hl=&id=cZbQAgAAQBAJ"},{"id":"d5a6f36c-198c-411e-833b-2a3f0881a9bb","title":"Yellowface","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":2023,"pages":314,"authors":["R. F. Kuang"],"publishers":["HarperCollins"],"startedDate":"2024-03-22","completedDate":"2024-03-23","updatedDate":"2024-03-23","notes":"Quick, easy, and gripping read. I enjoyed all the rise and fall, with the vafious social media and insider culture, and the racism commentary, and character portrayal.\n\nDetails:\n\n+ The ending with the ghost being a real person felt too fake to ever feel real plausible. A ghost faking an Instagram account? Really?\n\nMotivated to read because it's ranked #1 in fiction for Goodreads in 2023 and a Bumble match mentioned reading it.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=siiCEAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676101307980","title":"Zaregoto Shirizu (戯言シリーズ), #1: The Kubikiri Cycle","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":2008,"pages":480,"authors":["Nisio Isin"],"genres":["Light Novel"],"startedDate":"2013-11-02","completedDate":"2013-11-03","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/%E6%B7%B7%E7%89%A9%E8%AA%9E.html?hl=&id=bIOEDwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676083446348","title":"こゝろ (Kokoro)","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":1914,"pages":312,"authors":["Natsume Soseki"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2016-04-10","completedDate":"2016-04-30","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/%E4%BC%9A%E6%B4%A5%E3%81%AE%E3%81%93%E3%81%93%E3%82%8D.html?hl=&id=jI9a4HcPZvwC"},{"id":"322682676101320268","title":"ミミズクと夜の王 (Mimizuku To Yoru No Ō)","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":2007,"pages":269,"authors":["Izuki Kougyoku"],"genres":["Light Novel"],"startedDate":"2013-11-21","completedDate":"2013-11-21","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/%E3%83%9F%E3%83%9F%E3%82%BA%E3%82%AF%E3%81%A8%E5%A4%9C%E3%81%AE%E7%8E%8B.html?hl=&id=UsN3QgAACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101303884","title":"涼宮ハルヒの分裂 (Suzumiya Haruhi, #9)","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":2007,"authors":["Nagaru Tanigawa"],"startedDate":"2013-11-02","completedDate":"2013-11-02","updatedDate":"2022-01-30"},{"id":"322682676101304908","title":"涼宮ハルヒの暴走 (Suzumiya Haruhi, #5)","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":2004,"authors":["Nagaru Tanigawa"],"startedDate":"2012-11-17","completedDate":"2012-11-19","updatedDate":"2022-01-30"},{"id":"322682676084487756","title":"狼と香辛料 (Ookami to Koushinryou), #13","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":2009,"authors":["Isuna Hasekura"],"genres":["Light Novel"],"startedDate":"2014-05-01","completedDate":"2014-05-01","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"These side stories are just so cute. I love the reveal about the wolf tag especially. The endearing nature of the stories are exactly what characterize their relationship, the small time trading in Spice and Wolf, and thus the story itself.\n\nEnek's POV in the last story was an interesting take on Norah's journey. It required, uh, a certain sense of disbelief to the level of detail that Enek could describe events. Beyond that it's short enough and sweet enough to really get a feeling for Norah's struggles in pursuing her dream to become a seamstress.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/%E7%8B%BC%E3%81%A8%E9%A6%99%E8%BE%9B%E6%96%99IV.html?hl=&id=pCl9DwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676101324364","title":"狼と香辛料 (Ookami to Koushinryou), #4","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":2011,"authors":["Isuna Hasekura"],"genres":["Light Novel"],"startedDate":"2012-12-01","completedDate":"2012-12-14","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"The whole story standalone works phenomenally, from beginning to end. The perfect encapsulation of everything S&W.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/%E7%8B%BC%E3%81%A8%E9%A6%99%E8%BE%9B%E6%96%99IV.html?hl=&id=pCl9DwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676101329484","title":"狼と香辛料 (Ookami to Koushinryou), #6","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":2012,"pages":226,"authors":["Isuna Hasekura"],"genres":["Light Novel"],"startedDate":"2012-12-14","completedDate":"2012-12-18","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"Not much happens, but still, not much needs to happen to keep the story so vividly entertaining.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/%E7%8B%BC%E3%81%A8%E9%A6%99%E8%BE%9B%E6%96%99_16.html?hl=&id=MlTQvwEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101316172","title":"狼と香辛料 (Ookami to Koushinryou), #9","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":2008,"authors":["Isuna Hasekura"],"genres":["Light Novel"],"startedDate":"2013-04-16","completedDate":"2013-07-26","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"A pretty fitting conclusion to the previous volume. Eve is an excellent character who stands out even more than Holo this time (the latter of which takes a subservient role). The plot thickens at quite a solid place, every plot point is wrapped up nicely, and each character in the cast plays a good role into the story.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/%E7%8B%BC%E3%81%A8%E9%A6%99%E8%BE%9B%E6%96%99IV.html?hl=&id=pCl9DwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676084474444","title":"色彩を持たない多崎つくると、彼の巡礼の年 (Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage)","status":"Completed","score":7,"releaseYear":2014,"pages":432,"authors":["Haruki Murakami"],"publishers":["Bungeishunju/Tsai Fong Books"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2015-06-07","completedDate":"2015-06-09","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"I see too many parallels with Shiya that it's cathartic in a way.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/%E8%89%B2%E5%BD%A9%E3%82%92%E6%8C%81%E3%81%9F%E3%81%AA%E3%81%84%E5%A4%9A%E5%B4%8E%E3%81%A4%E3%81%8F%E3%82%8B%E3%81%A8.html?hl=&id=NqD7jgEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676083444300","title":"A Scanner Darkly","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":1977,"pages":289,"authors":["Philip K. Dick"],"publishers":["Houghton Mifflin Harcourt"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2017-04-01","completedDate":"2017-04-07","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"I admire the split identity, how everything becomes confuddled given the history of drugs and dystopianism, and the weird collusions of Barris against him because he's a narc, or the police against him because he's a narc, or because he's just done something he isn't fully aware of (a possibility given his tendency to forget). I also like how his various fantasies slip into the narrative, seamlessly coming and going, and how he really believes in his split identity, completely disassociating himself from Bob Arctor when he poses as Fred.\nThe story doesn't really go anywhere unfortunately, beyond paranoia around Jim Barris trying to frame him. The weird reveals, such as Fred having to investigate Bob Arctor, or Donna turning out to be an undercover agent, don't drive the story but rather reinforce the nothingness of it. I also had trouble imagining characters as real human beings, rather than mouthpieces for various dialogue.\nThe use of Donna as a sexual tease he could not really get around is great.\nThe setting is interesting, basically a concotion of soft-scifi following the downpour of drugs and dystopia.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Scanner_Darkly.html?hl=&id=hg9njt3vmgQC"},{"id":"322682676101299788","title":"A Separate Peace","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":1959,"pages":208,"authors":["John Knowles"],"publishers":["Simon and Schuster"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2006-12-31","completedDate":"2006-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Separate_Peace.html?hl=&id=_cBZabiaOm8C"},{"id":"322682676085541452","title":"A Study in Scarlet (Sherlock Holmes, #1)","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":1887,"pages":124,"authors":["Arthur Conan Doyle"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2007-12-31","completedDate":"2007-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Study_in_Scarlet.html?hl=&id=5oBIvgAACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101322316","title":"A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":2010,"pages":21,"authors":["Gabriel García Márquez"],"genres":["Short Story"],"startedDate":"2009-08-31","completedDate":"2009-08-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Very_Old_Man_with_Enormous_Wings.html?hl=&id=tFVTzQEACAAJ"},{"id":"54dc0aea-1bbf-4c32-91fc-b0c08d0ac4b0","title":"Altered Carbon","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":2006,"pages":532,"authors":["Richard K. Morgan"],"publishers":["Random House Digital, Inc."],"startedDate":"2023-08-24","completedDate":"2023-09-15","updatedDate":"2023-09-15","notes":"Miscellaneous\n\n+ I like some of the technology ideas: sleeving and the bored consequences of its immortality, virtual hubs and time spans and torture, Meths and the rich, prostitution, weaponry.\n+ The overall detective story and characters are interesting. Somewhat stock and unnecessarily edgy at times.\n+ The double sleeving ethical dilemma of whose memory to keep is uninteresting. Your identity is already lost due to the very concept of digital storage and resleeving as you already die each time you’re resleeved. I find it curious this is never mentioned yet the writing focuses much on the double sleeving element.\n+ Miriam Bancroft is let go in the end? Seems like sexism.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Altered_Carbon.html?hl=&id=xXp3MCvqeNIC"},{"id":"322682676083435084","title":"And Then There Were None","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":1939,"pages":237,"authors":["Agatha Christie"],"publishers":["Pocket Books"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2020-09-28","completedDate":"2020-09-29","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"Fun and easy to read. Given the trend in Among Us while reading this, I find it hilarious just how close the structure is to it. There's 10 people in isolation, some one dies each chapter. after each person dies, there's discussion about whodunnit, and social dynamics appear with people forming bonds, certain people dominating discussions, etc. Also see the inspirations to Danganronpa.\n\nI like the overall reveal. The story seems obviously written such that it could literally be written to be any one of the persons by the end. I suspected it was one of the dead people. The ending is overall still a little lame in that it relies on perfect execution, assuming no one would check the corpses, that Dr. Armstrong would follow along. That Vera would extract the pistol and kill Lombat. Vera would just follow along and kill herself. That each of the other 9 folks whose circumstantial evidence for murder were in fact all true.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/And_Then_There_Were_None.html?hl=&id=0g0BUZQJ368C"},{"id":"322682676084527692","title":"Animal Farm","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":1945,"pages":128,"authors":["George Orwell"],"publishers":["Signet Classics"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2006-12-31","completedDate":"2006-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Animal_Farm.html?hl=&id=osdPcAAACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676083428940","title":"Another: Volume 1","status":"Completed","score":6,"pages":256,"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2021-09-06","completedDate":"2021-09-15","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"Excellent pace and characters. The mystery itself seems all too implausible, e.g., it would take Sakaki this long to notice that everyoje ignores Misaki. Or all the suspicion he has about whether Misaki is real or not, and yet he could physically just reach out to touch her. And having been at the school for months, it's easy to tell when an entire classroom is ignoring a people (and could still hear sounds they make or make an occasional glance) and outright not noticing them. It could easily be resolved by making the narrator more unreliable.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=xrA4DwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676084517452","title":"Applied Numerical Linear Algebra","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":1997,"pages":419,"authors":["James W. Demmel"],"publishers":["SIAM"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2013-08-28","completedDate":"2013-11-19","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"So technical and ordinary. The go-to as a result.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Applied_Numerical_Linear_Algebra.html?hl=&id=PNMEn8R1ODoC"},{"id":"54fbeece-72bc-41bd-af9f-97c603b08b1e","title":"Artificial Condition (The Murderbot Diaries #2)","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":2018,"pages":160,"authors":["Martha Wells"],"publishers":["Tordotcom"],"startedDate":"2022-10-13","completedDate":"2022-10-15","updatedDate":"2023-09-17","notes":"I think it's an overall decent story, light in character and worldbuilding. No themes present. Not sure why this won the Hugo award; must've been a slow year.\n\nDetails:\n\n+ The amount of times the humans want to proceed with the plan despite the so many signals that it was an ambush is infuriating. It doesn't make any sense. It even continues afterwards with Tapan later in the story!","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Artificial_Condition.html?hl=&id=dZRRDwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676084521548","title":"Beloved","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":1987,"pages":11,"authors":["Toni Morrison"],"publishers":["Primento"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2008-12-31","completedDate":"2008-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=RYbyCAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676083429964","title":"Blood of Elves","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":1994,"pages":432,"authors":["Andrzej Sapkowski"],"publishers":["Orbit"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2021-03-30","completedDate":"2021-04-13","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"Definitely a weak title in the series for all its lackadaisical pacing.\n\nThe wish fulfillment with Geralt wooing all the women that appear is most prominent in this novel. Portraying Triss' perspective and her thoughts makes it particularly worse. It's pretty eye-rolling. Let's please have some real women portrayal.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Blood_of_Elves.html?hl=&id=xc6NswEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676083438156","title":"Carrie","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":1974,"pages":288,"authors":["Stephen King"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2017-08-21","completedDate":"2017-09-17","updatedDate":"2024-07-13","notes":"I like the various third-party ways of storytelling. The thriller itself is a bit of a let-down especially as I'm personally comparing it to horrors I've watched recently (mostly Korean films). I do like all the symbolism of virginity and decadence.\n\nI reread it starting on 2024-07-13.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=2OkfAgAAQBAJ"},{"id":"b57a8761-4503-4256-9b87-5167e77734d4","title":"Children of Time","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":2018,"pages":529,"authors":["Adrian Tchaikovsky"],"publishers":["Orbit"],"startedDate":"2024-12-01","completedDate":"2025-02-16","updatedDate":"2025-02-17","notes":"Some interesting ideas with the spider behavior and emergent civilization. The prose is poor, and the exposition third person perspective of the spiders is not very fun. I also felt nothing for the characters.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=n7JfDwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676085594700","title":"Complex Analysis","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":1980,"pages":331,"authors":["Lars Valerian Ahlfors"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2012-07-31","completedDate":"2012-12-13","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Complex_Analysis.html?hl=&id=phTAtAEACAAJ"},{"id":"3e3ed6a4-74fd-4b0d-a1c7-7204b3dbfb7a","title":"Dark Places","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":2010,"pages":739,"authors":["Gillian Flynn"],"publishers":["Crown"],"startedDate":"2024-01-15","completedDate":"2024-03-20","updatedDate":"2024-03-20","notes":"+ Man, Gillian Flynn sure is good at writing grounded asshole characters. Everyone is either unlikeable or a trauma dump victim in some form. It works to a degree, especially since Libby and the children like Debby only had minor and realistic flaws.\n+ The final reveal with two sets of murders happening at the same time is pretty lame. Too contrived. And please.. a random serial killer. Talk about a perverted murder mystery form of deus ex machina. Ben let the mother of his child go… even though she killed his sister. And he said nothing about the serial killer murderer. The guilt trip is hard to believe as a natural motivation.\n+ Pacing is a bit too slow.\n+ The perspective changes with the timelines and character point of views is nice.\n+ The setting is excellent, there’s such vivid detail into the grittiness of Kansas life, and the Kill Club serves as a great way to introduce new characters and plot points for Libby.\n+ The story is heavy in poverty porn and depression.\n\nMotivated to read because I really enjoyed the adaptations for Gone Girl and Sharp Objects. I got to read something from Gillian Flynn in its original form, and this is her third most popular novel.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Dark_Places.html?hl=&id=8eqyt0bendEC"},{"id":"f13560fd-9233-4cc0-bad1-376e40ffbf5b","title":"Dungeon Crawler Carl","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":2020,"pages":444,"authors":["Matt Dinniman"],"startedDate":"2023-02-11","completedDate":"2023-02-14","updatedDate":"2023-02-17","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Dungeon_Crawler_Carl.html?hl=&id=hwr1zQEACAAJ"},{"id":"2f81dfe2-9935-4dca-afb7-ebefd677adef","title":"Eisenhorn","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":2005,"pages":768,"authors":["Dan Abnett"],"publishers":["Games Workshop"],"startedDate":"2022-12-10","completedDate":"2022-12-26","updatedDate":"2022-12-27","notes":"Characters are somewhat bland without enough personality or background to see how they evolve or what drives them. The action sequences are too detailed in exposition for me. I think the story’s main strength is from its world lore more so than the overarching mystery and story.\n\nI was motivated to get into Warhammer 40K lore ever since I got addicted to the Vermintide and Darktide games. Eisenhorn is recommended as one of the main starting points to the 40K series. Although less central to the story, and Horus Heresy is the most read on [Goodreads](https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/warhammer-40k), Eisenhorn is set in 40K and not 30K like Horus Heresy. It provides perspective to what it’s like living. It’s also a detective mystery novel, so can be a fun diversion away from more fantasy military machinations.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Eisenhorn.html?hl=&id=nFEAAAAACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676084532812","title":"Fahrenheit 451","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":1953,"pages":217,"authors":["Ray Bradbury"],"publishers":["Simon and Schuster"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2006-12-31","completedDate":"2006-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Fahrenheit_451.html?hl=&id=b-o_K_AFJiUC"},{"id":"335787804507243088","title":"Fool Moon (The Dresden Files #2)","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":2001,"pages":432,"authors":["Jim Butcher"],"publishers":["Penguin"],"startedDate":"2022-06-29","completedDate":"2022-07-02","updatedDate":"2022-08-12","notes":"Quite thrilling in action. Damn does it get brutal all the way from around 50% through when the loup garou goes rampant in the police station. The action scenes are all intense.\n\nThe plot is quite silly at times, with a number of plot threads that require taking with a grain of salt.\n\n+ Murphy is suddenly after Harry because now he’s somehow a suspect.  https://www.reddit.com/r/dresdenfiles/comments/7j1xcj/comment/dr359jr\n+ FBI are all the evil hexenwolves?\n+ The way the story wraps up after its action in maybe 10 pages. Somehow nobody is raising the stink of an entire police station slaughtered, somehow with no witnesses aside from Murphy. And the FBI not going any deeper into the fact that their agents are dirty.\n\nThe misogyny in this book is pretty damning. Women are written so sexually and cast under a very weird male serving lens, like Susan sending Dresden flowers or even a pizza late into the night.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=E2mL9omIlysC"},{"id":"335016381661577808","title":"Free the Darkness (King's Dark Tidings #1)","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":2015,"pages":422,"authors":["Kel Kade"],"startedDate":"2022-06-22","completedDate":"2022-06-25","updatedDate":"2022-08-12","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Free_the_Darkness.html?hl=&id=VTuzzQEACAAJ"},{"id":"339113504329957968","title":"Gardens of the Moon (Malazan Book of the Fallen #1)","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":1999,"pages":494,"authors":["Steven Erikson"],"publishers":["Macmillan"],"startedDate":"2023-09-17","completedDate":"2023-11-26","updatedDate":"2023-11-26","notes":"Its exposition in general is too much for my tastes. It delves much into brooding, building of conspiracies, and military strategy. The characters don't stand out. I also find its writing of key events such as battles more confusing and disorienting in tracking what's going on that exciting.\n\n+ The book is infamous for dropping the reader immediately into the world with minimal background and explanation. I can't help but feel it would benefit from a mechanic like Tyranny's where you can highlight key terms and receive a wiki box summarizing it. It's almost like a good portion of Gardens of the Moon is best served as a wiki than as a book.\n  + A key benefit of this approach is that there are minimal infodumps. Instead of most books suffering from figuring out how to lay in all the various background expositions, Erikson simply removes the need for them.\n+ All the building of the setting and ensemble cast is excellent.\n+ The pacing is slow. Not much in terms of events really happens.\n\n## Resources and Miscellanea\n\n+ [Wiki](https://malazan.fandom.com)\n+ [Reddit: Two camps of people who read GotM](https://www.reddit.com/r/Malazan/comments/66p7fo/please_tell_me_it_gets_better/dgkf8xb)","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Gardens_of_the_Moon.html?hl=&id=1ADsV84Tpl4C"},{"id":"336078703870083664","title":"Grave Peril (The Dresden Files #3)","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":2008,"pages":348,"authors":["Jim Butcher"],"publishers":["Penguin"],"startedDate":"2022-07-02","completedDate":"2022-07-06","updatedDate":"2022-08-12","notes":"Plot was all over the place in villains and powerful enemies. Too much world building setup and new characters. Hardly anyone recurring shows up like Murphy or the mafia. The story almost feels phoned in, like a monster of the week type of story.\n\nDetails:\n\n+ I always find it funny how often Harry seems to make enemies out of everyone he meets, especially people in power whether it be police sergeants, wizards, crime mafia bosses, or as in this book, the faerie queen as well as literally all vampires.\n+ Susan losing a whole year’s memory of Harry, all to appease a minor fit he was having? All before Michael or Harry could tell her how dumb that deal was. Talk about a contrived deal.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Grave_Peril.html?hl=&id=G53NYdAwqsEC"},{"id":"339777173826044495","title":"Hyperion","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":2011,"pages":496,"authors":["Dan Simmons"],"publishers":["Spectra"],"startedDate":"2022-11-12","completedDate":"2022-12-05","updatedDate":"2022-12-05","notes":"Too slow paced for me. It’s really just a short story collection with a few transitions. The chracters don’t interact much and not much really even happens with the transitions. So there’s not much benefit after having learned each character’s origin story. The payoff isn’t there.\n\nWith that said, the worldbuilding is excellent. So is the mystery of the Shrike that donnects it all together and the diversity of stories.\n\nMy favorite stores: Sol Weinstraub, Father Hoyt.\n\nThe Consul’s story was the worst and just too sporific particularly as the novel is closing and should be reaching a climax, not entering romantic angst and going experimental in narrative.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=u4R_FstZDEgC"},{"id":"3f0d3a84-14a9-4a26-9a4a-9d570563c0ba","title":"Incredible Hulk #92–105","originalTitle":"Planet Hulk","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":2006,"pages":147,"authors":["Greg Pak"],"publishers":["Marvel Entertainment"],"startedDate":"2010-01-01","completedDate":"2010-01-01","updatedDate":"2023-07-13","notes":"The Planet Hulk storyline and the World War Hulk comics were the first comics I truly read from issue to issue. I remember some iconic scenes of Hulk just smashing everybody which was great fun. And some great characters who were friends of Hulk like an intelligent kid super hero.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=WW0pDwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"069bda2c-99e2-4a6d-b1bf-9ec9dabdda21","title":"Infinite Crisis","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":2005,"pages":264,"authors":["Geoff Johns"],"startedDate":"2023-07-13","completedDate":"2023-07-13","updatedDate":"2023-07-14","notes":"Boy that was a confusing read. So many random tie-ins it's hard to connect all the dots unless you've read them all. It needs better precursors but without massive exposition dumps like even some of these issues do.\n\nThe story overall is okay. There's nothing inherently new or character-defining in it. The idea is to initiate a full restart of the universe, building on some initial qualms from the previous restart in Crisis on Infinite Earths. There are some deaths but not very meaningful since they're characters (re)introduced into the storyline in the first place. The meaningful changes are in the reboot changes. Superboy dies, but really it's only because the new Superboy from the other universe lives.\n\nThere are so many appearances there's not much space for much interesting to happen in Infinite Crisis beyond the major event itself.\n\n## Resources and Miscellanea\n\nI was motivated to read this as a story background for issues in Geoff Johns' Teen Titans run.\n\n__Version.__ I only read Vol. 1 #1-7. I didn't read tie-ins except those as part of Geoff Johns' Teen Titans run. I went in with little context except for what I found online ([example](https://www.reddit.com/r/DCcomics/comments/3y3kr1/what_should_i_know_before_reading_infinite_crisis)).\n\nSee also [comicbooktreasury reading order](https://www.comicbooktreasury.com/infinite-crisis-reading-order-dc-comics).\n\nSources:\n\n+ [ComicOnlineFree: Infinite Crisis](https://comiconlinefree.net/comic/infinite-crisis-2005)","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Infinite_Crisis.html?hl=&id=DgsrGQAACAAJ"},{"id":"338588176520053327","title":"Iron Prince (Warformed: Stormweaver #1)","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":2020,"authors":["Bryce O'Connor","Luke Chmilenko"],"startedDate":"2022-07-29","completedDate":"2022-07-31","updatedDate":"2022-08-12","notes":"Rei's progression is fun to read about. That and the school progression in tournament systems is what kept me reading the story. The cast of friends and bullies around Rei are fairly typical in tropes, but support the story well to keep it engaging.\n\nI think the class system and courses they took are interesting.\n\nFight scene prose is arguably too detailed. I find it rather boring if it's not specifically a fight involving Rei. These scenes, especially prominent during the Sectional qualifier arc, are boring for the reason Brandon Sanderson gives in his lectures about starting a story with a fight scene: if the reader doesn’t care about the characters, then there’s little reason to be any interested in reading oengthy fight prose. Though I find fight scenes in books boring in general. Dialogue is the most dynamic a book can be, as well as tension particularly fueled by a narrator's anxiety.\n\nDialogue can be cringey at the times.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Iron_Prince.html?hl=&id=QhPzzQEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676083445324","title":"Jailbreak","status":"Completed","score":6,"pages":163,"authors":["Andrew Hussie"],"startedDate":"2011-12-31","completedDate":"2011-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Jehovahs_Jailbreak.html?hl=&id=fylh_8-NUPEC"},{"id":"322682676084533836","title":"Jane Eyre","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":1847,"pages":529,"authors":["Charlotte Bronte"],"publishers":["Penguin"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2007-12-31","completedDate":"2007-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Jane_Eyre.html?hl=&id=JJdPEAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676084477516","title":"Kino","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":2014,"authors":["Haruki Murakami"],"genres":["Short Story"],"startedDate":"2015-03-08","completedDate":"2015-03-08","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"Meh.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Kino_Histoire_Du_Cinema_Russe_Et_Sovieti.html?hl=&id=VjL_Amg-TgoC"},{"id":"322682676085603916","title":"Kino no Tabi -the Beautiful World- (キノの旅 -the Beautiful World-), #2","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":2000,"authors":["Keiichi Sigsawa"],"genres":["Light Novel"],"startedDate":"2013-02-25","completedDate":"2013-02-25","updatedDate":"2022-01-30"},{"id":"322682676101314124","title":"Kubitsuri Hai Sukuru: Zaregoto Tsukai no Deshi (クビツリハイスクール 戯言遣いの弟子) (Zaregoto Shirizu (戯言シリーズ), #3)","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":2002,"authors":["Nisio Isin"],"genres":["Light Novel"],"startedDate":"2013-11-18","completedDate":"2013-11-20","updatedDate":"2022-01-30"},{"id":"322682676084509260","title":"Learn To Read Latin: Textbook And Workbook Set","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":2003,"pages":648,"authors":["Andrew Keller"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2012-01-14","completedDate":"2012-01-14","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"Easy to follow and understand. Lessons laid out in a daily manner and once the first few chapters are done, it becomes easier and easier to self-study...more Easy to follow and understand. Lessons laid out in a daily manner and once the first few chapters are done, it becomes easier and easier to self-study off it.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Learn_to_Read_Latin_Second_Edition_Workb.html?hl=&id=eacXCgAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676103385676","title":"Liar's Poker","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":1990,"pages":310,"authors":["Michael Lewis"],"publishers":["W. W. Norton & Company"],"genres":["Nonfiction"],"startedDate":"2013-11-04","completedDate":"2013-12-01","updatedDate":"2022-07-11","notes":"droll droll droll this is shameful writing nil\n\n\"One hand, one million dollars, no tears.\" The meaning: a makeshift gambling game of one round, the fattest string of Benjamin's as the odds, and no regrets, laments, complaints, let alone feelings. So says the seemingly whimsical individuals at Salomon Brothers, the most prosperous bond-trading firm of the 80's. At the heart lie the most dangerously clever individuals of the region, who see all encounters, all such chances of fate, as a hedged investment of risk versus reward.\n\nLewis does not write the story insomuch as it practically writes itself. In fact, the man's prose is boorish and occasionally delirious in trying to beat its own sense of atmosphere. Yet, you cannot not smirk as you read the narrative; the actions of that odd motley crew at the Salomon Brothers are as bizarre as a man punching cancer in the face. There's this peculiar hilarity what with the craziness of each gesture, and you're flabbergasted by it all. These sum of characters are bemusing far within their own right--at the despicable netherealms a human could accomplish through how well one can grasp and thus master subtly cued, violent social norms. Yet it relies too heavily on histrionics to be insightful.\n\nStructurally, the work is semi-autobiographical, likely an exaggerated \"highlights reel\" of fun moments, and as Lewis jettisons into the work of the savage trader role, he harps on all the underlying motivations and fratty culture. The beauty's in the details here, and fanciful narrations of things like class stratification--cliques formed merely by how close or far away you sit from the speaker--are abundant.\n\nThe beginning is a lovely affair with down-to-earth means. With wavering motivations honestly premised, Lewis makes it very clear how he experiences failure after failure from job interviews. I personally found this section really resounded in its accuracy of portraying not only his struggles, but the everyman's. I'm glad I could hear of someone else's experiences of the job interview weeks before I thrust myself into it within the future.\n\nI find it rather funny (I'm out of a more apt word) that Lewis fought past such grandiose competitions via the use of connections every time. It really is quite a shame, and any rash evaluation of Wall Street culture from any pickup on the street would say the same thing: yeah... it's not a meritocracy. Can you rise at the top of the high-strung, white upper class patootieness? Well, Lewis indicates he can.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Liar_s_Poker.html?hl=&id=ONKP-eZTAhgC"},{"id":"322682676084486732","title":"Mathematical Statistics and Data Analysis","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":1994,"pages":603,"authors":["John Rice"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2014-01-20","completedDate":"2014-05-15","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Mathematical_Statistics_and_Data_Analysi.html?hl=&id=_hhKnwEACAAJ"},{"id":"8943c6aa-b29f-4bf3-9c97-53f87a1f4ea6","title":"Mister Miracle","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":2017,"pages":320,"authors":["Tom King"],"publishers":["DC Comics"],"startedDate":"2023-08-20","completedDate":"2023-08-23","updatedDate":"2023-08-23","notes":"Overall plot is too disjointed. I'm not a fan of its confused dialogue and pacing.\n\nDetails:\n\n+ The comic makes heavy use of a grid panel layout style of 3x3 and variants as a way to provide exposition. I like it. It's similar in many ways to a individual animation key frames. Each panel also does not feel too dense in prose. The words are concise and meaningful.\n\n## Resources and Miscellanea\n\n+ [Reddit (2022): The Top 71 DC Comic Runs, Voted by the r/DCcomics Community!](https://www.reddit.com/r/DCcomics/comments/vio4ub/discussion_the_top_71_dc_comic_runs_voted_by_the). Tom King's Mister Miracle is #9.\n\nI was motivated to read this as it's one of the best DC comic runs of all time and I wanted to read about a character that I haven't already seen most of the beats for.\n\nI read #1 in 2023-07-15 but nothing else. It was impressive, but I didn't want to continue as I had just read Immortal Hulk (2018). And I didn't want to read another modern comic for fear of imprinting my comic expectations to the 2015+ style and quality.\n\n__Version.__\nThe single issues are self-contained: Mister Miracle #1-12. See also [comicbooktreasury reading order](https://www.comicbooktreasury.com/mister-miracle-reading-order). I didn't read much as background beyond what I found online ([reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/comicbooks/comments/gxrk1n/do_i_need_to_read_anything_before_reading_tom), [DC blog post](https://www.dc.com/blog/2019/03/12/relationship-roundup-big-barda-and-scott-free)).","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=2CSHDwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"339230506818208337","title":"Mother of Learning: ARC 2","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":2022,"pages":414,"authors":["nobody103","Domagoj Kurmaic"],"publishers":["Wraithmarked Creative, LLC"],"startedDate":"2022-08-06","completedDate":"2022-08-08","updatedDate":"2022-08-08","notes":"Pacing suffers. There's not much progression of anything unlike the progress across different magic areas in Arc 1. Here it's primarily mind magic and you don't see much change in terms of a physical action. Exploring other character relationships is at least interesting. I find this the most disappointing part of Arc 2: lack of progression.\n\n+ It's a shame that during at least the early parts of this book, there's little revisiting of Arc 1's characters. There's even plot opportunities to go back to school once in a while to solicit more information, like Rayne for shifting. While there's overarching knowledge progression from Arc 1 to Arc 2, this makes the character development quite a bit weaker with no one really standing out. It also makes the progression feel like it almost reset, where you don't hear much from the mastery of shaping exercises, combat spells, or other areas of magic that Dorian had been practicing in Arc 1.\n+ Worldbuilding is spotty. You learn more about all the spider tribes around the world than you do about human nation and their politics and culture.\n+ So much of the book is spent training to interpret the Matriarch's memory packet. However, the end is entirely anticlimactic as the information revealed is only a confirmation of what is already revealed when Zach and Zorian meet the Great Serpent. Talk about usage of poor plot twists..","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=uj1UEAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"dd755b13-053d-4c7b-bae5-bdb1fcb24de3","title":"Murder at Spindle Manor","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":2022,"pages":249,"authors":["Morgan Stang"],"startedDate":"2023-06-01","completedDate":"2023-06-26","updatedDate":"2023-06-26","notes":"Some Bloodbone lore and setting. But otherwise a very routine Agatha Christine story."},{"id":"192875a9-a7de-4dd5-900e-6fd716622209","title":"Neverwhere","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":1996,"pages":416,"authors":["Neil Gaiman"],"publishers":["ROCA EDITORIAL"],"startedDate":"2023-07-04","completedDate":"2023-08-01","updatedDate":"2023-08-02","notes":"Read as my first Neil Gaiman book, due to a [Reddit recommendation](https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/2zdjg0/what_neil_gaiman_book_should_i_read_first).","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=y_qECgAAQBAJ"},{"id":"40298cf0-19f0-4717-b917-1808afa9db47","title":"Old Man's War","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":2005,"pages":320,"authors":["John Scalzi"],"publishers":["Tor Books"],"startedDate":"2023-06-26","completedDate":"2023-07-04","updatedDate":"2023-07-04","notes":"Slow paced, decent camraderie and combat. The technology has mixed ideas, mostly full of your usual tropes. Easy to read.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Old_Man_s_War.html?hl=&id=vGe4wAEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676083449420","title":"Ookami to Koushinryou (狼と香辛料), #14","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":2010,"authors":["Isuna Hasekura"],"genres":["Light Novel"],"startedDate":"2015-12-21","completedDate":"2015-12-24","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/%E7%8B%BC%E3%81%A8%E9%A6%99%E8%BE%9B%E6%96%99IV.html?hl=&id=pCl9DwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676083451468","title":"Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":2006,"pages":738,"authors":["Christopher Bishop"],"publishers":["Springer Verlag"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2014-09-01","completedDate":"2014-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-08-16","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Pattern_Recognition_and_Machine_Learning.html?hl=&id=qWPwnQEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676085524044","title":"Peter Pan","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":1911,"pages":52,"authors":["J.M. Barrie"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2009-05-31","completedDate":"2009-05-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Peter_Pan_v_1_Londres.html?hl=&id=MYUNkgEACAAJ"},{"id":"339677673299116625","title":"Red Rising (Red Rising Saga #1)","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":2014,"pages":400,"authors":["Pierce Brown"],"publishers":["Del Rey"],"startedDate":"2022-08-10","completedDate":"2022-08-11","updatedDate":"2022-08-12","notes":"A YA story. The prose is surprisingly good, with enough description but written simply and quick to digest. It's particularly good at all the plot twists.\n\nIt fails at melodrama and appealing too much to its dystopian Hunger Games-like tropes. Pacing can also be strange: it goes from an arc of mines to an arc of subterfuge to become a Gold to an arc of war games.\n\n+ Arc 1 is fairly typical but written well enough to flesh out the poverty. The reveal is good and reminds me of stories like it: The Village, The Promised Neverland.\n+ Act 3's war game arc is a little silly in all the odds being stacked against him. And it being a silly morality lesson in which they also beat the game in a similar way that they intend to disrupt the whole empire. It's like a copy of Hunger's Game. However, I still thoroughly enjoyed the read.\n+ Jackal cutting his hand off at the end is a little stupid. The Proctors coming just in time to save him, and then Pax dies? The plot is so contrived with the way they use the Proctors as deus ex machina at times. The way they beat Olympus Proctors gets swept under the rug a little too quickly compared to other encounters.\n+ Darrow weirdly gets way too absorbed into the war game. Why not just kill Cassius? Why be so childish in trying to win a war game when you miss out on the bigger picture of actually overtaking an empire? Beating up a few teachers is worth it apparently.\n+ It's a setting of segregation to the extreme. The funny thing is that due to hundreds of years of difference and genetic breeding, the Golds far superior and it's wish fulfillment that both a carver could do just as well and a lowRed could match Golds in mental intellect. The mining tasks are menial. However, I suppose Red Rising is ultimately a tale of the decadence of the Gold, where the menial tasks the lowRed set out to do is in fact far more challenging and prone to encourage powerful rebellion than the ruling empire who get lazy.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=nPF9n0SwstMC"},{"id":"f6ace81e-7dfc-4c80-889b-32ad5d9badcb","title":"Red Seas Under Red Skies (Gentlemen Bastards #2)","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":2007,"pages":576,"authors":["Scott Lynch"],"publishers":["Del Rey"],"startedDate":"2023-04-15","completedDate":"2023-09-15","updatedDate":"2023-09-15","notes":"The story is dull as the whole forced situation is the same as the first book. It feels somewhat like a DLC as it's a new city, and the overall approach to the story is the same as the first book: various rich stakeholders pitted against each other, Locke and Jean in the middle of it all forced under precious situations, and massive stakes at the city-level. Plus, the pirate setting is not that interesting. I would much prefer the story concentrate on the thieving elements, not so much scheming.\n\nI stopped reading at page 405/562 and read the plot summary online.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=o2Fzpc7MLrgC"},{"id":"335598775245472336","title":"Reign of Madness (King's Dark Tidings #2)","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":2016,"pages":422,"authors":["Kel Kade"],"startedDate":"2022-06-25","completedDate":"2022-06-29","updatedDate":"2022-08-12","notes":"This book has too much interpersonal drama for me. There's less action and more dialogue among all the characters. It took until 60% of the book for the party to even arrive at the city and tournament. I also find Frisha and Tam to be annoying and useless characters.\n\nThe latter half is a tournament arc and I wuite enjoyed it. Could do without the political intrigue though, and unfortunately I’ve heard the series only goes downhill in providing less power fantasy and focusing more on politics than single adventurer style of tales.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Free_the_Darkness.html?hl=&id=VTuzzQEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676085526092","title":"Richard III","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":1597,"pages":57,"authors":["William Shakespeare"],"genres":["Play"],"startedDate":"2009-09-30","completedDate":"2009-09-30","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Richard_III_n_aura_pas_lieu_ou_Sc%C3%A8nes_d.html?hl=&id=3M7cAVtSv0kC"},{"id":"ea4b7d87-5075-42fa-b0d4-5db2902cbe41","title":"Ritualist","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":2018,"authors":["Dakota Krout"],"publishers":["Mountaindale Press"],"startedDate":"2023-02-18","completedDate":"2023-02-28","updatedDate":"2023-02-28","notes":"+ That prologue is cringe. Any mention of name-dropping Elon at an attempt of humor is cringe.\n+ The guild character interactions are formulaic and bland. I prefer at least the progression elements.\n+ The power fantasy is fun.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Ritualist.html?hl=&id=p2OSswEACAAJ"},{"id":"340404707730129489","title":"Scythe","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":2016,"pages":433,"authors":["Neal Shusterman"],"publishers":["Simon and Schuster"],"startedDate":"2022-08-19","completedDate":"2022-08-20","updatedDate":"2022-08-21","notes":"The story is well-paced, worldbuilding is light but remains good, and the ideas around death, boredom, and corruption are all quite good. I especially like that AI is portrayed as benevolent here, in fact, the most benevolent figure of them all unlike human greed and pleasure.\n\nElements that I didn't enjoy:\n\n+ A rather ham-fisted romance with Romeo and Juliet vibes.\n+ A simplistic binary us vs them scenario through the use of two political factions.\n+ The evil side is too unlikeable. There's rationale given, but there's far too many drawbacks leading to elements where you can't agree with them due to incontrovertible bad elements, e.g., corruption, framing murder, biased killings. It would have been a more compelling story had it been morally grey.\n+ The contrived plot at times. For example, Faraday's suicide not affecting the death-bout. And Goddard's death at the end not letting Rowan take advantage of his power, like black-mailing Xenocrates, to avoid the death-bout, but he does use it conveniently to conclude any investigation into Goddard's death.\n\n## Notes\n\n> gleaned.\n\nGreat usage and incorporation of a new term here. Makes sense that a society like this would invent a new term with less negative connotation than kill.\n\n> No surprise that people bent over backward to please scythes in every possible way. Hope in the shadow of fear is the world’s most powerful motivator.\n\nI like the way the plot tied in here in order to lay out this message.\n\n> The growth of civilization was complete. Everyone knew it. When it came to the human race, there was no more left to learn. Nothing about our own existence to decipher.\n\nThat’s a cool worldbuilding concept.\n\n> Tyger pumped his fist in triumph.\n\nThis short conversation is great at immediately setting your impression of the two’s personality. Here, Tyger has a distinguishable one with an energetic and passionate trait. That type of description is often missing in hard scifi writing.\n\n> it clearly wasn’t destiny that had hurled these two together; it was a very deliberate hand.\n\nFitting description. Earlier in the book desth is personified well through the Scythe. Here it funnily also anthropomorphizes destiny.\n\n> War, vengeance, murder—all the themes on which the tale was strung—were so removed from modern reality, few could relate.\n\nA true hard scifi prediction given the idea. Namely, stories invokving mortality are seen as aged an no longer rrelatable.\n\n> Back in the days when the world’s digital network was called “the cloud,” people thought giving too much power to an artificial intelligence would be a very bad idea. Cautionary tales abounded in every form of media. The machines were always the enemy. But then the cloud evolved into the Thunderhead, sparking with consciousness, or at least a remarkable facsimile. In stark contrast to people’s fears, the Thunderhead did not seize power. Instead, it was people who came to realize that it was far better suited to run things than politicians.\n\nI like this optimistic view of artificial intelligence.\n\n> Video records in the backbrain were not organized by camera, or even by location. It seemed the Thunderhead linked them by concept. A moment of identical traffic patterns in completely different parts of the world were linked. Footage featuring people with similar strides were linked. One strand of associations led to images of increasingly spectacular sunsets, all caught by streetcams. The Thunderhead’s digital memory, Citra came to realize, was structured like a biological brain. Every moment of every video record was connected to a hundred others by different criteria—which meant that every connection Citra followed led her down a rabbit hole of virtual neurons.\n\nScythe's description of AI.\n\n> She did not attend loud, lavish parties, nor did she train against live subjects.\n\nWhat, is this third-person omniscient now?\n\n> There was still discord, and political posturing, even fear of the Thunderhead, if you could imagine that.” “Fear of it? Who could possibly be afraid of the Thunderhead?” “People who had the most to lose: Criminals. Politicians. Organizations that thrived on the oppression of others. The point was, the world was still changing, and I wanted to help it change faster.\n\nMy perspective about the future of AI.\n\n> Regardless, common sense finally prevailed, and fire was banned in MidMerica as a method of gleaning.\n\nTalk about objective. You're supposed to be omniscient!","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Scythe.html?hl=&id=4Nd_DQAAQBAJ"},{"id":"338231476681179728","title":"Soulsmith (Cradle #2)","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":2016,"pages":284,"authors":["Will Wight"],"startedDate":"2022-07-26","completedDate":"2022-07-29","updatedDate":"2022-08-12","notes":"This book had too little progression for me. Lindon remains weak, and it seems likely he’ll continue that way as an underdog with only bits of amazing prowess. That’s not quite the progression power fantasy I anticipated when reading Cradle.\n\nI’m not impressed. My suspicion is that the series is well regarded among the progression fantasy niche subgenre because it plays into xianxia/wuxia but doesn’t fall into the even worse trappings common to those books. Notably, this series has a western novel structure in pacing and character development, whereas the typical story is a webnovel with terrible pacing and amateur YA writing. This particularly helps because it’s written natively in English, for a western audience, compared to trying to write a Chinese book with a poor fan translation and hard-to-appreciate Chinese culture.\n\nThis book focuses on the ensemble cast and worldbuilding. And I don’t find it very interesting. Seems all kind of generic with the clans, their powers, and some higher ups. This book solidifies the power level system and it’s as cartoony as even Dragon Ball in how they all regard each other.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Soulsmith.html?hl=&id=qpIFtAEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676083437132","title":"Sphere","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":1987,"pages":449,"authors":["Michael Crichton"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2018-02-11","completedDate":"2018-02-19","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"Simple prose. Fun storyline. Rather silly from an realist AI expert perspective. But it at least captures important opinions that are brutally realistic over other scifi such as everyone else taking such a humanistic perspective to it all.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=7OVXAAAAcAAJ"},{"id":"338804568586453583","title":"Sufficiently Advanced Magic (Arcane Ascension #1)","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":2017,"pages":623,"authors":["Andrew Rowe"],"startedDate":"2022-08-01","completedDate":"2022-08-04","updatedDate":"2022-08-12","notes":"+ The magic systems are truly the highlight. Attunements each with two mana types, mana per five body parts, and many spell types like lightning being a fusion of multiple mana types like fire and air. The attunements are also quite fascinating, with Enchanting the most explored.\n+ Worldbuilding is decent with the theology and multiple nations, with a prior war between Edria and a former kingsom and the impending signs of a new one. The idea of climbable towers is often used, but I still enjoyed it here.\n+ I like the MC’s overthinking, particularly when he explores the various rooms traversing a tower. I think this works quite well for a novel in both illuminating his thinking and describing the scene. The writing has a tendency to be overly ranty, going on thoughts that don’t go anywhere for the story or for serving any narrative purpose. Much of this could be cut.\n+ I have mixed feelings about a story where MC is the support class in their party, handling primarily the preparations while the weakest in combat. It helps with the overthinking nature. But it’s not very exciting in terms of power itself.\n+ The lectures are often just exposition dumps. Similarly, you can tell the dialogue is stilted at times where it’s just one-up witty zingers, particularly between MC and Sera. I didn’t mind either of these too much.\n+ MC’s quirk of not wanting to use his mental mana is annoying. It serves as an added limitation the MC (already on top of his class) and it doesn’t do so to really build much history or development behind the character. It’s not as it’s some traumatic backstory behind his grandpa’s suffering but something he thinks about at times and constantly reminds us about. Sure, this may truly be something the MC does think about constantly and is part of trauma. But it doesn’t necessarily make for good storytelling, with redundant dialogue, stilted character development both in lack of progress and the lack of a delved upon backstory.\n+ Any time I read about certain quirks like MC not liking to touch people or his pansexuality, all I think about is the author’s own predilections. They can feel out of place only because the personalities aren’t well balanced in being written across the characters. It makes the flagrant usages more awkward by standing out even more.\n+ There is little description of characters or the monsters. This makes it difficult to visualize.\n+ MC and his crew are given sufficient plot jusrification to handle the Katashi situation alone, due to corruption in the government. Yet I find it a little silly how little reliance there is on the two professors’ resources. For example, they still have to scrounge on ehat little money they own. They’re seventeen years old with a student stipend. Surely the professors could purchase preparations for them and possibly loop in otjer Whispers..\n+ I enjoyed the climax. Plenty of plot twists and turns.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Sufficiently_Advanced_Magic.html?hl=&id=kPvBswEACAAJ"},{"id":"a5f63720-3ead-4bfb-8527-d1cef788ba97","title":"Survival Quest (the Way of the Shaman Book #1)","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":2017,"pages":426,"authors":["Vasily Mahanenko"],"startedDate":"2023-03-01","completedDate":"2023-03-04","updatedDate":"2023-03-05","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Survival_Quest_the_Way_of_the_Shaman_Boo.html?hl=&id=aZNztgEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101327436","title":"Suzumiya Haruhi, #6: The Wavering of Haruhi Suzumiya","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":2005,"pages":160,"authors":["Nagaru Tanigawa"],"genres":["Light Novel"],"startedDate":"2012-11-25","completedDate":"2013-03-06","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Mafia_invisible.html?hl=&id=ehJoxwEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101330508","title":"Suzumiya Haruhi, #7: The Intrigues of Haruhi Suzumiya","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":2005,"pages":230,"authors":["Nagaru Tanigawa"],"genres":["Light Novel"],"startedDate":"2013-03-14","completedDate":"2013-04-16","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Erewhon.html?hl=&id=7ak4AQAAMAAJ"},{"id":"6cfcd7ab-080c-49f1-873a-465ac2ef4946","title":"Teen Titans by Geoff Johns","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":2003,"pages":368,"authors":["Geoff Johns"],"publishers":["DC Comics"],"startedDate":"2023-07-10","completedDate":"2023-07-14","updatedDate":"2023-08-15","notes":"It's a fun mishmash of characters from the old Teen Titans and Young Justice. I particularly like the interactions with the older Teen Titans: Beast Boy, Cyborg, Starfire, and Raven; and with various cameos at times by other heroes.\n\nThe new Teen Titans are effectively like the second-generation: Dick Grayson → Tim Drake as Robin, Wally West → Bart Allen as Kid Flash, Donna Troy → Cassie Sandsmark as Wonder Girl, Roy Harper → Mia Dearden as Speedy. And they also introduce Kon-El as Superboy. There's too many Justice League side kicks that it really does feel like a B-tier Justice League (Wolfman and Perez's Teen Titans weren't). So Geoff Johns' is lacking in originality, staying too much in its roots. It's more like the original Teen Titans roster which was truly all Justice League side kicks.\n\nThe storylines are a bit lackluster in writing. There's various melodrama, they jump all over the place, the stakes aren't all that high. It does provide great character-building particularly on the focus of team camradarie both in the first team roster and after Infinite Crisis, the second team roster.\n\nI greatly dislike any of the storylines where characters are brought back from the death. Whether it be a multiverse like Donna Troy and Terra in \"Superboy and the Legion\" or a literal revival like in \"Lost and Found\". Or Jericho being brought back in not one but two storylines. I'm not sure I'll get over this trope.\n\n## Resources and Miscellanea\n\n+ Comic book subreddits: [r/comicbooks](https://www.reddit.com/r/comicbooks), [r/dccomics](https://www.reddit.com/r/dccomics), [r/marvel](https://www.reddit.com/r/marvel)\n+ [DC Wiki](https://dc.fandom.com)\n+ [r/dccomics wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/DCcomics/wiki)\n+ [r/dccomics wiki: Teen Titans Recommended Reading](https://www.reddit.com/r/DCcomics/wiki/recommended/teentitans)\n+ [Reddit: New 52 Recommended Reading Survey Results](https://www.reddit.com/r/DCcomics/comments/1zr8yc/new_52_recommended_reading_survey_results)\n+ [Reddit: (Informal) Best Rebirth](https://www.reddit.com/r/comicbooks/comments/9gs8rx/in_your_opinion_what_have_been_the_best_dc)\n\nThis run is my first official comics run. I only picked this up and comics in general because I watched Watchmen (2019), which I found from looking up all-time best shows. I loved it and craved another truly good superhero story. Then I rewatched Legion’s season 1 and couldn't find any other good TV/movie adaptations. Western comics is one of the rare mediums of fiction that I had never got into, much like literary fiction or traditional art (e.g., paintings, architecture).\n\nI read Planet/World War Hulk in 2010, but it was a one-off that didn't involve research and knowledge of runs, trade paperbacks, etc. I also technically started with Claremont's X-Men run in 2023, but I only read a few issues before moving on to Geoff Johns' Teen Titans as I craved something more modern.\n\n__Teen Titans runs.__ I chose this as my first Teen Titans comic. \n\n+ The New Teen Titans (1980) by Wolfman and Perez is the most well-known, being the source for my childhood-favorite Teen Titans (2003) show, and cited to be the best run online. However, I couldn't stand the dated art style and dense text. At the time of picking this comic up, I'm also already reading Claremont's X-Men run. So I want something newer.\n+ I hear Geoff Johns' run butchers the characters in Young Justice (1998). So it can be hard to appreciate the 2003 run unless you start fresh. Geoff Johns' run also includes both the YJ cast and the old first- and second-generation TT casts, which I prefer as I want to read about the old cast but in a modern style. And it connects better to continuity with the later New 52.\n\n> It's what got me into comics. I recommend it, and in fact I was planning on doing a reread soon. The character connections are great, but prepare for one of the more lore- and continuity-heavy (and thus potentially confusing) series out there, as the Teen Titans regularly weave together with the rest of the DC universe while themselves being a combination of the '90s Young Justice and the '80s New Teen Titans, with characters already having plenty of backstory and supporting casts amd relationships that will casually come and go. It's quite a crash course to the comic concept of \"do the research in your own time or just roll with it. ([source](https://www.reddit.com/r/DCcomics/comments/4vq0qv/i_wanna_read_teen_titans_v3_by_geoff_johns_would/d60i47r))\n\nAgreed. [Crossover storylines are a mess](https://www.reddit.com/r/CharacterRant/comments/ass1hq/dcs_method_of_crossovers_is_awful). Teen Titans Vol. 3 #16 starts the Superboy and the Legion storyline. Then #17 completely ignores this event and precedes all fine and dandy. Turns out to finish the previous storyline, you need to read Teen Titans/The Legion Special #1. This is why collected editions are overwhelmingly superior to single issues in order to read a run.\n\n__Version.__ The omnibus and trade paperbacks are both solid. I prefer the omnibus because it's more holistic and the trade paperbacks didn't finish releasing as of this writing (2023-07). However, I did not find the omnibus online digitally.\n\nI read single issues, following the omnibus but in ad hoc order. In retrospect, I should have read the trade paperbacks since they're online digitally and more convenient than hunting down single issues. Then I would read the remainder of the run with single issues.\n\n+ Omnibus: Teen Titans Vol. 3 #0.5-26, 29–46 and 50, Legends of the DC Universe #2, Titans Secret Files and Origins #2, Teen Titans/Outsiders Secret Files (2003), Beast Boy (1999) #1–4, Teen Titans/Legion of Super Heroes Special #1, Outsiders Vol. 3 #24–25, Robin Vol. 4 #147, Infinite Crisis #5–6, Teen Titans Annual #1\n+ I additionally read Infinite Crisis #1-7, Robin Vol. 4 #146-147 to get caught up on the Infinite Crisis storyline around Teen Titans Vol. 3 #29-33 and Annual #1.\n\nSee also [comicbooktreasury reading order](https://www.comicbooktreasury.com/teen-titans-reading-order). \n\nSources:\n\n+ [ReadComicsFree: Teen Titans Vol. 3 and Annual](https://readcomicsfree.net/comic/teen-titans-2003)\n+ [ReadComicOnline: Legends of the DC Universe](https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Legends-of-the-DC-Universe)\n+ [ReadComicOnline: Titans Secret Files and Origins](https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Titans-Secret-Files)\n+ [ReadComicOnline: Teen Titans/Outsiders Secret Files (2003)](https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Teen-Titans-Outsiders-Secret-Files-2003)\n+ [ReadComicOnline: Beast Boy](https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Beast-Boy)\n+ [ReadComicOnline: Teen Titans/Legion of Super Heroes Special](https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Teen-Titans-Legion-Special)\n+ [ReadComicOnline: Outsiders Vol. 3](https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Outsiders-2003)\n+ [ReadComicOnline: Robin Vol. 2](https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Robin-1993)\n\n## Read comics online vs download\n\nThe advantage of downloading is: (a) no ads from online sources; this is especially useful on mobile and for trade paperbacks and omnibuses which have many pages; (b) optimal quality and the precise edition; online comic sources don't always have the best source or collected edition, and pirated sources vary in quality; (c) best reader features, such as scale options to fit page by both/horizontal/vertical, what area of page goes to next/previous page, and auto margins trimming; (d) instant page loading and offline viewing.\n\nThe disadvantage of downloading is inconvenience. The workflow is to download directly from the website and import to the app. There is also no syncing like in streaming (YACReader partially addresses this by syncing over LAN). You have to follow these steps:\n\n1. Device A: Download the files.\n2. Device A: Upload the files to cloud (Google Drive).\n3. Device B: Download the files from cloud (Google Drive).\n\nYou also have to maintain usage of an app, one on desktop and one on mobile, and lingering files.\n\nThe (dis)advantages are analogous to downloaded files vs streaming for TV and movies. I almost exclusively download for TV and movies because of mpv's superior video player features (e.g., 2-16x fast forward, 5-second skip).\n\n__Read comics online (aka streaming).__ For free sources, ReadComicOnline is best on desktop and ComicOnlineFree is best on mobile.\n\n+ [ReadComicOnline](https://readcomiconline.li) is the most popular comic reader (originally .to subdomain but switched to .li). It also loads previewed pages making page-turning faster. However, it has intrusive ads that make it annoying on mobile.\n+ [ComicOnlineFree](https://comiconlinefree.net) has fewer ads than ReadComicOnline. It's likely a mirror and less feature-filled though. For example, it does not adjust zoom resolution well, which makes horizontal two-page splits annoying to read on desktop. This isn't a big deal for mobile because of pinch-zoom. It also has no previewed page-loading. This means that for mobile, it's better to set reading mode to \"All pages\" instead of \"One page\" at a time.\n+ For paid sources, see Comixology, with a subscription of Comixology Unlimited. There are also individual publisher subscriptions such as Marvel Unlimited and DC Universe Infinite.\n\n__Comic reader apps (aka downloading).__\nThis is for reading manually downloaded files.\n\nDownload sources ([source](https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/6rj2k0/what_is_the_best_website_to_download_comics_and)):\n\n+ https://getcomics.info\n+ http://libgen.is\n+ https://newcomic.info\n\nApp options:\n\n+ YACReader. Available across platforms, including my Windows desktop and iOS devices. I chose it for simplicity as I only need to learn one app for usage on my desktop and tablet. It also features YACReaderLibrary: like Plex Media Server, it's a server that must be kept running from your hardware (LAN or cloud). It enables remote usage, page sync, and importing; for importing from desktop, this removes the middleman of having to upload/download to/from cloud. I use it for page sync and importing from PC to iOS. However, usage requires keeping the PC online and LAN connection is finicky.\n+ Panels. Panels is the most popular iOS app. It has the sleekest UI.\n+ Chunky\n+ Back in 2015 when I read downloaded manga, I used Comic Zeal on iOS. It's no longer maintained.\n+ Back in 2015 when I read downloaded manga, I used ComicRack on desktop. It's no longer maintained.\n\n## On comics vs manga\n\nSeveral themes underpin the key differences in comics and manga.\n\n__Single vs multiple runs for a story.__ Manga feature a single run for any story with the rare exception of remakes, and almost always done by the same author. This enables a tight creative vision. When you think of One Piece, there’s a known writing quality and style you can trust coming from Oda.\n\nComics feature multiple runs on a character or team and with different writers and artists. This enable different takes on established characters both at the writer level and artist level.\n\n+ Multiple runs provide the opportunity for branched storylines and where “canon” matters less: it ultimately doesn’t matter who a character end ups with, or how they act in a climactic moment; you get to experience them all. This is similar to multiple endings in a video game or visual novel.\n+ Universe reboots and comic reruns provide the opportunity for different twists on an established story, building on or subverting expectations. It’s not unlike retellings of classics in plays and musical performances.\n\nThis approach also has disadvantages.\n\n+ Comics build characters as their own brands, and they each have their own fandoms. Therefore there's less freedom for meaningful story consequences like changes to relationships, team rosters, or character personalities. Death is a joke. There is such a strong attachment to characters that popular heroes like Robin have 6 iterations.\n+ Runs have variable quality in writing and in artwork.\n\n__Standalone stories vs universes.__\nManga has a definitive beginning, middle, and end. To read Berserk, pick up Chapter 1. To read Superman, you first have to read up on what’s the best run over 50+ years and how they connect to his appearances in other comics including Justice League. Reading a single comic run standalone can also be confusing when it ties in other heroes or events.\n\nComics feature universes with long continuities. This enables deep stories spanning decades and with many crossovers and references. What is confusing to a newcomer can be intensely satisfying to a well-read fan. Universe-based stories also provide new points of view. For example, there can be stories to characters that are well-lvoed but are only in the supporting cast of an original story.\n\nThe key disadvantage is that comics have so many storylines and universes it’s difficult to keep track of them all. Crossover storylines are a jumbled mess where issues jump from one comic to the next. Stories can be retconned. Even within a run, there is not a canonical collection representing \"the run\". Trade paperbacks and omnibuses can differ in tie-in issues and ordering.\n\n__Art style.__\nComics have two key features:\n\n1. Color. Comics are designed with color in mind. Contrast this to colored manga, which is rare, and when manga is colored it's easy to tell that color is more often an afterthought. For example, the shading in manga's blacks is often completely off when it's replaced with color.\n2. Density of action and story pacing per page.\n3. Publishing standard. Comics feature a higher standard in art style from a publishing standpoint, so the average art quality is higher. It is not uncommon for manga to feature infamously poorly drawn pages like in Demon Slayer or Hunter x Hunter (e.g., empty backgrounds, weird character proportions).\n4. A tendency to bold key words in sentences for emphasis.\n\nManga have two key features:\n\n1. Dynamic artwork, paneling, and camera angles. This stems from Osamu Tezuka's role in establishing manga almost like a blueprint for motion pictures. Action sequences are willing to \"squash and stretch\" proportions from animation terminology and feature special effects like speed lines. Panels are established not as a grid formula but to suit the scene. Camera angles like close-ups, POV, and environment shots are also often features to build atmosphere.\n2. Diversity. Artwork can be mediocre but the writing is fantastic (e.g., Nobuyuki Fukumoto, Kouji Kumeta). Panel work can also be extremely different. Compare, for example, 5 different manga from Shonen Jump on a given decade to 5 different comic runs from Marvel or DC on the same decade. Less editorial work leads to more heterogenous artwork for a publisher.\n\n> \"It always seemed to me that previous generations of comic writers took their cues from literature and saw the medium as illustrated prose (hence the redundancy), whereas these days creators tend to emulate a film's method of visual storytelling. Character emotions in comics are now conveyed through a series of \"performed\" beats, rather than a descriptive image.\" ([source](https://www.reddit.com/r/comicbooks/comments/5sdwnq/less_text_in_modern_comics/ddehb6n))\n\nThe whole concept of decompression is largely driven by manga's influence on modern comics. I think it's a good idea. See also [Why comic books became a more of a writer's and less of an artist's medium](https://www.gamesradar.com/why-comic-books-became-a-more-of-a-writers-and-less-of-an-artists-medium). Comics are many times illustrated novels rather than film storyboards. And this can work (e.g., Immortal Hulk #25).\n\n__Staff.__ The mangaka is often both the writer and the artist, paired with an editor. This enables more creative control based on a single auteur. This can also come at a cost as the story is at the mercy of the auteur. For example, Berserk and Hunter x Hunter have stalled indefinitely.\n\nA comics' team is significantly larger and can comprise multiple writers and arts and who lead different comic issues. This is partly a consequence of comics' higher publishing standards. There is greater editor control over the art style and stories given that they're about established characters and events. This makes individual issues more consistent across series. But there's less freedom.\n\n__Genre variety.__ The majority genre in comics is superheroes not unlike how manga have shounen (although technically it's a demographic). However, the popularity of non-superhero comics is minor relative to non-shonen manga (TODO: find % of sales statistic). Shonen as a demographic category also produces more diverse stories than superheroes as a subject category.\n\n__Accessibility.__ Manga does this better in multiple forms:\n\n+ Single run stories. See \"Multiple vs single runs for a story\".\n+ Standalone stories. See \"Universes vs standalone stories\".\n+ Demographic appeal. Manga appeals not only to boys and are regularly read by girls and working-class adults alike. See also \"Genre variety\".\n+ Price. Single manga volumes (tankoubon) cost around $10 to $12. Trade paperbacks in comics cost from $10 to $40. For larger collections, 3 in 1 manga books cost $15 to $20; in comics, omnibus editions are in the $100s.\n\n__Market size.__ [Japan’s industry dwarfs the US’ in sales.](https://www.reddit.com/r/comicbooks/comments/oq12bs/why_is_japanese_manga_so_much_more_popular_than) A single top-selling title like Demon Slayer in 2020 outsold the whole US comics industry. Even in the US, [76% of graphic novel sales come from manga](https://animehunch.com/manga-made-up-76-of-overall-comics-graphic-novel-sales-in-the-us-in-2021).\n\nMarvel/DC are not even that motivated to sell comics as their primary revenue stream comes from IP licensing from their extended film/TV and merchandise. This is also partly a consequence of the character-based storytelling.\n\nThere are more successful manga magazines. Shonen Jump doesn’t dominate the market in the same way Marvel/DC do. The tail distribution of indie sales in manga is higher than in comics (TODO: find % of sales statistic).\n\n__Distribution model.__\n\n+ Release cadence. Manga are released weekly as chapters with 15-30 black and white pages. Comics are released monthly as issues with 20-30 colored pages.\n+ Magazine serialization enables manga to try many new ideas based on one shots. Then based on readership polls, magazines directly optimize for what readers find most interesting to keep. There is a huge amount of one-shot manga effectively filtered by sales to find out what has staying power.\n\n  There is no equivalent in comics. Marvel/DC continually reboot the same characters and are largely character driven. It’s extremely difficult for a new character to reach popularity. In contrast, new manga become new best sellers all the time.\n+ Recruiting new talent. In Japan, new talent submit work for contests, go to events for portfolio review and can relatively easily develop and sell their own complete work at comic markets…and now, online. Companies trawl the events for new talent, run the contests to attract new talent, and look for potential new talent at portfolio reviews. Comics companies have only recently begun to do the last thing, and until then, you were competing with a million other people just to get your work known. Now networking is easier (but still hard) and its not nearly as impossible to become known for your own work online or in small press. Once upon a time, you would have had to get an interview at DC’s NYC office to be seen.\n\nMany of these themes are ultimately a cause of differing design decisions in the two industries:\n\n+ Multiple vs single runs for a story\n+ Universes vs standalone stories\n+ Brands based on characters vs stories\n+ Staff size\n+ Publishing standards in art, release cycle, and price\n+ Demographic appeal","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=XZFMDgAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676084525644","title":"The Count of Monte Cristo","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":1845,"pages":636,"authors":["Alexandre Dumas"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2007-05-31","completedDate":"2007-05-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=RyEEAAAAQAAJ"},{"id":"322682676084515404","title":"The Elephant Vanishes","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":1991,"pages":336,"authors":["Haruki Murakami"],"publishers":["Random House"],"genres":["Short Story"],"startedDate":"2012-03-16","completedDate":"2012-06-03","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"Great, short stories. They're seriously just like dreams; completely indescribable.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=CnMXMbZEhAoC"},{"id":"337477658990346832","title":"The Eye of the World (Wheel of Time #1)","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":1990,"pages":670,"authors":["Robert Jordan"],"publishers":["Macmillan"],"startedDate":"2022-08-12","completedDate":"2022-08-16","updatedDate":"2022-08-17","notes":"Wheel of Time is clearly written well, both in terms of prose and the overall story. I most enjoyed the worldbuilding elements. I have mixed feelings about the ensemble cast and adventure, particularly due to its brutal pacing where much of the book is simply traveling rather than, say, growing more powerful to defeat their enemies. It's also derivative in its plot, characters, and even style of world bearing similarity to Lord of the Rings.\n\nThe writing style feels dated reading in 2022. It's made to be an advancement in the genre since Tolkien's Lord of the Rings in 1954, Frank Herbert's Dune in 1965, and Usula Le Guin's Earthsea in 1968. Still, the writing is mixed with heavy descriptions, long inner monologues, and a slow pace. It's only until page 80 of 751 (on chapter 5 and after two prologues mind you) that action finally happens.\n\nLike many classics, it has many of the same fantasy elements:\n\n+ A Shire-like beginning of an ensemble cast with several simple-minded folks escaping to join a grand adventure, alongside powerful and mysterious allies.\n+ A clear sense of location progression with a map and world history.\n+ Unique bestiary to define the creatures ruled by the Dark One.\n+ High fantasy of good versus evil, and primitive concepts like time.\n+ Visions connecting the Chosen One to the Dark One\n+ Mystical soft magic as opposed to hard magic.\n\nIt at least gets more unique (and subsequently, interesting) as the characters fork in paths, with three different narrative perspectives of Rand, Perrin, and Nynaeve (although all the travels to yet another town or farm quickly got repetitive). It's fun to see how they go on their own path and intersect.\n\nDetails:\n\n+ Since 2002, Eye of the World now features two prologues. That's unnecessary to read before you can even start with the story.. They should have placed the new Raven Egwene prologue somewhere in the middle of the book, similar to Arc separations.\n+ There’s an unjust amount of hate and dostrust against Aes Sedai, when it’s obvious to the reader from the start that they’re the good guys. This is to the extent that characters would withhold vital information like dreams or consider going back home like Nynaeve. Then even after they have a reunion, Rand still doesn't tell Moraine that he wasn't born outside Two Rivers, and he still defies her suggestions by the end of the book.The distrust could have been better written.\n+ Mat is a profoundly unlikeable character. He steals and causes mischief. He's the cause of the Whitecloaks against Rand and the others at the first encounter. He steals a ruby dagger at the lost city. He's the dumbest of the three boys. All he does is complain. It would at least help if he were witty or funny (like your typical quirky Johnny Depp like character), but Thom Merrilin takes that slot in the crew.\n+ Lots of females in a main crew, which is a plus for diversity. They're all roughly the same in trait, being very bossy and dominant. Not a plus for diversity.\n+ The sudden blurt of romance propositioning from Nynaeve to Lan comes out of nowhere at the end of Chapter 48. Talk about a contrived relationship. There's literally a sentence or two throughout the previous 700 pages, but nothing that shows it really developing or why. Reading online, it's apparently quite a common problem that Robert Jordan often just ships people with little development toward it happening.\n\n## Resources\n\n+ [Interactive map](https://wheeloftimelines.com/map)\n+ [Wiki](https://wot.fandom.com)","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Eye_of_the_World.html?hl=&id=BYQFV2D2vRcC"},{"id":"324988584612332112","title":"The Final Empire (Mistborn #1)","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":2006,"pages":541,"authors":["Brandon Sanderson"],"publishers":["Macmillan"],"startedDate":"2022-03-03","completedDate":"2022-03-21","updatedDate":"2022-03-22","notes":"It was an enjoyable read overall, and I enjoy it most for its readability. It's effectively a YA book, where the prose is limited so I can read shutting most of my brain off. The novel is most interesting in its magic system with Allomancy and Feruchemy. Everything else is bland: prose, dialogue, characters, the overarching plot, and worldbuilding.\n\nStory is hamfisted at times. I groan every time the romance with Elend is brought up. Somehow we’re supposed to believe she would jeopardize the mission and would also seek to not destroy the Venture household merely because of a romantic interest. This is fantasy empire throwing, not a subconflict that can be thrown away like in a generic heist film.\n\nDialogue overall is cringey at times, stating explicitly the obvious and with characters like the Lord Ruler even narrating his emotions. It’s high schooler levels of dialogue sometimes.\n\nIt’s a combination of heist meets Lord of the Rings powers. I don’t know if the heist aspects really make sense given they often act more as emoire builders than thieves.\n\nDetails I don't like:\n\n+ And somehow that Vin can be a Mary Sue character. The worldbuilding is also fairly simplistic. Prose is matter of fact.\n+ The ending irritated me a bit because Sanderson set up this hard magic system being very explicit about its rules. And then the final solution with what Vin does goes beyond those rules. Just because Vin is \"stronger\" somehow means she goes beyond known knowledge of an Allomancer's ability to manipulate metals inside someone. Sanderson even admits to this mistake in his fantasy [Lecture #5](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATNvOk5rIJA); see also [Sanderson's first law](https://www.brandonsanderson.com/sandersons-first-law).\n+ Contrived ending of putting Elend on the throne.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Mistborn.html?hl=&id=dlfOfxkm1PoC"},{"id":"322682676084508236","title":"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Hitchhiker's Guide, #1)","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":1979,"pages":592,"authors":["Douglas Adams"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2012-05-28","completedDate":"2012-05-30","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"Wasn't as funny or scientific as I thought it'd be. A bit too try-hard in my opinion, and although a bit quirkier, I felt that the film was much bette...more Wasn't as funny or scientific as I thought it'd be. A bit too try-hard in my opinion, and although a bit quirkier, I felt that the film was much better with the characterizations and built-up romance.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Hitchhiker_s_Guide_Trilogy.html?hl=&id=pLroAQAACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676085523020","title":"The Missing Piece","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":1976,"pages":112,"authors":["Shel Silverstein"],"publishers":["HarperCollins"],"genres":["Poetry"],"startedDate":"1997-12-31","completedDate":"1997-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Missing_Piece.html?hl=&id=XUuJAQAACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676085538380","title":"The Odyssey","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":-800,"pages":239,"authors":["Homer"],"publishers":["Courier Corporation"],"genres":["Poetry"],"startedDate":"2007-08-31","completedDate":"2007-08-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Odyssey.html?hl=&id=udcwDgAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676084501068","title":"The Old Man and the Sea","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":1952,"pages":59,"authors":["Ernest Hemingway"],"publishers":["Hueber Verlag"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2011-12-29","completedDate":"2012-04-25","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"With Hemingway's writing style in general, The Old Man and the Sea holds a rather dry experience, with dull prose and arguably a lifeless plot. Wrappe...more With Hemingway's writing style in general, The Old Man and the Sea holds a rather dry experience, with dull prose and arguably a lifeless plot. Wrapped underneath is exuberant symbolism in a lengthy 'short story' that I feel could have been condensed. It was a bit too crude in the narrator's thoughts and was rather stale overall. Because it was a first-person narration, there wasn't fluid figurative language or anything. It's just a (uneducated) narrator that describes things quite literally and bluntly true. In this manner, I would describe the style of narration as similar to Holden's in Catcher in the Rye (save for the actual meaning of the narration and the unreliable narrator aspect, of course). There isn't much figurative language to go off of, and so you rely on the plot device as a whole for your literary analysis.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_old_man_and_the_sea.html?hl=&id=K1cIZmFe7KoC"},{"id":"322682676084481612","title":"The Picture of Dorian Gray","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":1890,"pages":80,"authors":["Oscar Wilde"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2014-05-18","completedDate":"2014-06-17","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"Great studied prose, but again, a little underwhelming: fustian maybe.\n\nI like Wilde's sly insults toward the aristocracy and the whimsical ways: \"Next to her sat, on her right, Sir Thomas Burdon, a Radical member of Parliament, who followed his leader in public life and in private life followed the best cooks, dining with the Tories and thinking with the Liberals, in accordance with a wise and well-known rule.\" top kek\n\nit's interesting to read Dorian Gray as a self-insertion of Wilde's fantasies in his three split roles: the artist, the narcissist, the hedonist—and how hilarious the interactions between them are a reflection of Wilde's own beliefs about himself. Yet, it feels rather pompous and high-horsey at times coming from this direct moralizing via Wilde's aesthetic philosophy and romantic upheaval of his own drama.\n\nLack of characterization in the actual characters, and frothy with spouting an aesthetic philosophy that while interesting in its own right gives loose weight to the nareative itself.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Oscar_Wilde_s_The_Picture_of_Dorian_Gray.html?hl=&id=kC0_DwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676084476492","title":"The Stranger","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":1942,"pages":153,"authors":["Albert Camus"],"publishers":["Everyman's Library"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2015-03-31","completedDate":"2015-04-30","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Stranger.html?hl=&id=qH6TEAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676085533260","title":"The Structure of Scientific Revolutions","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":1962,"pages":264,"authors":["Thomas S. Kuhn"],"publishers":["University of Chicago Press"],"genres":["Nonfiction"],"startedDate":"2008-08-31","completedDate":"2008-08-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=3eP5Y_OOuzwC"},{"id":"a985fe6c-6d1c-41b9-a821-dac895963683","title":"The Tainted Cup","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":2024,"pages":433,"authors":["Robert Jackson Bennett"],"publishers":["Random House"],"startedDate":"2025-04-22","completedDate":"2025-07-03","updatedDate":"2025-07-08","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Tainted_Cup.html?hl=&id=v84YEQAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676084545100","title":"The Two Towers (The Lord of the Rings, #2)","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":1954,"pages":464,"authors":["J.R.R. Tolkien"],"publishers":["HarperCollins"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2004-08-31","completedDate":"2004-08-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Two_Towers.html?hl=&id=1mr1ugAACAAJ"},{"id":"334048064007307857","title":"The Way of Shadows (Night Angel #1)","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":2008,"pages":688,"authors":["Brent Weeks"],"publishers":["Orbit"],"startedDate":"2023-04-23","completedDate":"2023-05-03","updatedDate":"2023-05-03","notes":"The middle to end gets into a lot of soppy melodrama in romance and master apprentice betrayals that don’t make a lot of sense. Magic is not explained well either.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=Zgj5OmP9b8IC"},{"id":"322682676084543052","title":"To Kill a Mockingbird","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":1960,"pages":266,"authors":["Harper Lee"],"publishers":["Harper Collins"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2007-12-31","completedDate":"2007-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=-D8WBAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"338184905728983631","title":"Unsouled (Cradle #1)","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":2016,"pages":283,"authors":["Will Wight"],"startedDate":"2022-07-25","completedDate":"2022-07-26","updatedDate":"2022-08-12","notes":"Fairly typical of xianxia in terms of worldbuilding and rank/magic system. Characters don't really stand out. The overall story in terms of the character's progression is the strength. It's also still exciting to see how the world expands.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Unsouled.html?hl=&id=OjYJtAEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101321292","title":"Utsuro no Hako to Zero no Maria (空ろの箱と零のマリア), #1","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":2009,"pages":298,"authors":["Eiji Mikage"],"genres":["Light Novel"],"startedDate":"2013-11-20","completedDate":"2013-11-21","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/%E3%82%AF%E3%83%93%E3%83%84%E3%83%AA%E3%83%8F%E3%82%A4%E3%82%B9%E3%82%AF%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AB_%E6%88%AF%E8%A8%80%E9%81%A3.html?hl=&id=wiIeDAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676085530188","title":"Walk Two Moons","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":1994,"pages":231,"authors":["Sharon Creech"],"publishers":["Pan Macmillan"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"1998-12-31","completedDate":"1998-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=V5vsDwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"417f2dc9-cb7d-43a0-854d-635be512332d","title":"World War Hulk","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":2007,"pages":227,"authors":["Greg Pak"],"publishers":["Marvel Entertainment"],"startedDate":"2010-01-01","completedDate":"2010-01-01","updatedDate":"2023-07-13","notes":"The Planet Hulk storyline and the World War Hulk comics were the first comics I truly read from issue to issue. I remember some iconic scenes of Hulk just smashing everybody which was great fun. And some great characters who were friends of Hulk like an intelligent kid super hero.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=UU3_8HUHRYsC"},{"id":"8e678d4a-3572-4a49-83b0-a9bc0bc42f95","title":"World War Z","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":2007,"pages":355,"authors":["Max Brooks"],"publishers":["Broadway Books"],"startedDate":"2023-01-11","completedDate":"2024-03-22","updatedDate":"2024-03-22","notes":"I stopped at page 233/344.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/World_War_Z.html?hl=&id=QefeRjRpXbAC"},{"id":"322682676083441228","title":"イン ザ・ミソスープ (In the Miso Soup)","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":1997,"pages":304,"authors":["Ryu Murakami"],"publishers":["幻冬舎"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2017-07-29","completedDate":"2017-07-30","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"Very gritty anime-ish. I like the implications of sex and violence while the story doesn't actually show it explicitly many times. I also like criticisms against contemporary Japan, specifically in the wishy-washy nature of people, are so heavily juxtaposed the insane nature of the serial killer. Perhaps what I like most is just the tale itself, with all the foreshadowing and interesting events leading up to the reveal of Frank.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/%E3%82%A4%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B6_%E3%83%9F%E3%82%BD%E3%82%B9%E3%83%BC%E3%83%97.html?hl=&id=r56w19O8yfIC"},{"id":"322682676083433036","title":"本好きの下剋上 ～司書になるためには手段を選んでいられません～ (Ascendance of a Bookworm) #1","status":"Completed","score":6,"genres":["Light Novel"],"startedDate":"2021-03-21","completedDate":"2021-03-25","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=Ilc3DgAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676083432012","title":"本好きの下剋上 ～司書になるためには手段を選んでいられません～ (Ascendance of a Bookworm) #2","status":"Completed","score":6,"genres":["Light Novel"],"startedDate":"2021-03-25","completedDate":"2021-03-27","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=Ilc3DgAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676084490828","title":"狼と香辛料 (Ookami to Koushinryou), #10","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":2009,"authors":["Isuna Hasekura"],"genres":["Light Novel"],"startedDate":"2014-04-25","completedDate":"2014-04-27","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"I only wish that it wasn't based on episodics/close encounters and continued to develop the characters. Or at least that the scenarios were more complex with details rather than centered on pivotal figures as usual. Still, it's a fun light read with minute romantic progression just as with all the other novels. One of my larger complaints here compared to other novels is the lack of as intriguing dialogue and events. This feels very same-ish.\n\nI miss the times when it was Lawrence and Holo doing real actual trading, rather than working under such high scenarios with important figures and dealing with single enormous-scoping deals.\n\nOh, and Cole really infuriates me. He's literally like Wil Wheaton in Star Trek. The journey seems far more interesting without him.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/%E7%8B%BC%E3%81%A8%E9%A6%99%E8%BE%9B%E6%96%99IV.html?hl=&id=pCl9DwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676084488780","title":"狼と香辛料 (Ookami to Koushinryou), #12","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":2009,"authors":["Isuna Hasekura"],"genres":["Light Novel"],"startedDate":"2014-04-29","completedDate":"2014-04-30","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"Still overly large scale but at least there was little Cole this time around and thus more emphasis on Lawrence and Holo's interactions.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/%E7%8B%BC%E3%81%A8%E9%A6%99%E8%BE%9B%E6%96%99IV.html?hl=&id=pCl9DwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676101311052","title":"狼と香辛料 (Ookami to Koushinryou), #8","status":"Completed","score":6,"releaseYear":2008,"authors":["Isuna Hasekura"],"genres":["Light Novel"],"startedDate":"2013-01-23","completedDate":"2013-02-18","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"The weakest volume so far, stymied a bit too much in non-consequential happenings. Also a lot of the trio dynamics just weren't up to snuff to previous volumes. Sure, it's a great read, but not even close to other volumes. Eve Boland is the best \"villain\" in all the stories so far, as she brings a realistic portrayal and strong character dynamics to the table. A shame that nothing even happens in this volume though.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/%E7%8B%BC%E3%81%A8%E9%A6%99%E8%BE%9B%E6%96%99IV.html?hl=&id=pCl9DwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676085597772","title":"A Comprehensive Introduction to Differential Geometry, Vol. 1","status":"Completed","score":5,"releaseYear":1999,"pages":489,"authors":["Michael Spivak"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2011-08-31","completedDate":"2011-12-19","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Comprehensive_Introduction_to_Differen.html?hl=&id=ahSWQgAACAAJ"},{"id":"92151dfe-03f0-49ec-be48-44e23fd9b340","title":"A Deadly Education (Scholomance #1)","status":"Completed","score":5,"releaseYear":2020,"authors":["Naomi Novik"],"publishers":["Del Rey"],"startedDate":"2023-05-03","completedDate":"2023-05-10","updatedDate":"2023-05-11","notes":"Slightly disappointed. This has way more school drama than magic building and learning of the systems, which is what I wanted to read this book for. The main character is so cold and spiteful and so in their thoughts about every exchange. What an unlikeable character.\n\nClimax is anticlimactic. I was looking forward to a big battle, with El using her powers. That doesn't happen. Not with vs seniors or with vs mals.\n\n## Discussion Threads\n\nThe book had a minor controversy around racism ([reddit]9https://old.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/j8o7om/so_naomi_noviks_a_deadly_education_is_accused_of)). I didn't care.\n\n> However, then we hit roughly the mid-point of the book and with it the decline. El fights a nightmare of a creature which holds its victims in an eternal state of agony. This is one of those creatures understood to be \"practically invincible\" but it is very well known by the reader at this point that El herself is potentially the greatest monster of all, so when she kills it the moment feels right and truly epic. From that point on the book is just kind of boring? ([source](https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/mv6zpm/a_deadly_education_by_naomi_novik_is_a_great/))\n\n100% agree. The book went downhill after this point. This was the true climax.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Deadly_Education.html?hl=&id=uxuOEAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676083452492","title":"A Mathematician's Apology","status":"Completed","score":5,"releaseYear":1940,"pages":154,"authors":["G.H. Hardy"],"publishers":["Cambridge University Press"],"genres":["Nonfiction"],"startedDate":"2010-12-31","completedDate":"2010-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Mathematician_s_Apology.html?hl=&id=EkY2im6xkVkC"},{"id":"322682676083453516","title":"A Mathematician's Lament: How School Cheats Us Out of Our Most Fascinating and Imaginative Art Form","status":"Completed","score":5,"releaseYear":2009,"pages":144,"authors":["Paul Lockhart"],"genres":["Nonfiction"],"startedDate":"2010-12-31","completedDate":"2010-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Mathematician_s_Lament.html?hl=&id=s9-hDwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676103365196","title":"Algebra","status":"Completed","score":5,"releaseYear":1965,"pages":300,"authors":["Serge Lang"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2012-08-31","completedDate":"2012-09-01","updatedDate":"2022-08-16","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Algebra_3.html?hl=&id=aIogEAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676101269068","title":"An Introduction to Complex Analysis in Several Variables","status":"Completed","score":5,"releaseYear":1973,"pages":254,"authors":["Lars Hörmander"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2012-01-14","completedDate":"2012-04-28","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/An_Introduction_to_Complex_Analysis_in_S.html?hl=&id=by_vAAAAMAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101290572","title":"An Introduction to Homological Algebra","status":"Completed","score":5,"releaseYear":1994,"pages":450,"authors":["Charles A. Weibel"],"publishers":["Cambridge University Press"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2012-07-31","completedDate":"2012-12-13","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/An_Introduction_to_Homological_Algebra.html?hl=&id=flm-dBXfZ_gC"},{"id":"322682676101312076","title":"An Introduction to Mathematical Cryptography","status":"Completed","score":5,"releaseYear":2008,"pages":538,"authors":["Jeffrey Hoffstein"],"publishers":["Springer"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2012-05-31","completedDate":"2012-08-14","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=cbl_BAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676101268044","title":"An Introduction to the Theory of Numbers","status":"Completed","score":5,"releaseYear":2008,"pages":621,"authors":["Ivan Niven"],"publishers":["Oxford University Press"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2012-05-31","completedDate":"2012-08-14","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/An_Introduction_to_the_Theory_of_Numbers.html?hl=&id=P6uTBqOa3T4C"},{"id":"339470781287236177","title":"Awaken Online: Catharsis (Awaken Online #1)","status":"Completed","score":5,"releaseYear":2016,"pages":526,"authors":["Travis Bagwell"],"startedDate":"2022-08-08","completedDate":"2022-08-09","updatedDate":"2022-08-12","notes":"The hook behind Awaken Online is that it has RPG video game elements along with playing as a villain, particularly the Necromancer class. It reminds me of Solo Leveling in a way: a Necromancer character story with RPG elements, power fantasy, and bad characters and worldbuilding.\n\nThere is zero worldbuilding. There is no interesting magic system, or creatures.\n\nCharacterization doesn't exist. It's literally just the necromancer. Everyone else is simply an enemy.\n\nProse is clearly young adult, but even that doesn't account for how cringeworthy the dialogue is at times. The school sequence in the first few chapters is, as of this writing, one of the most cringeworthy texts I've ever read. I roll my eyes not just at how generic the premise is at times---the private school with everyone against him and an unsympathetic bully with rich privileges, who's good-looking, and likes the same girl; an older girl he likes that he blushes and stammers against---but at how simple the prose is at describing these moments. Everyone is painted as unilaterally against him, with no defining characteristics.\n\nI do think there's something to have simple prose that's easy to digest and continue flowing with the rest of the story. The real challenge is to do this during character scenes while simultaneously building the world, without the need for paragraph-level expositions.\n\nDetails:\n\n+ I like the UI displays and how they're interweaved with the story text. The formatting itself is surprisingly good on a Kindle.\n+ He uses the pseudonym The Dark Knight as his vendor name. In addition to playing video games as a way to escape from bullies, he's really into comics? God that's so cringe..\n+ In the pursuit of adding dialogue for more dynamic actions, the author makes the cat make expressions that somehow evoke a sentient line of dialogue.\n\n__On LitRPGs.__ My biggest problem with LitRPGs is that RPG elements are just flavor text. You see RPG stats such as skill percentage boosts, spell effects and damage, and inventory slots. Unlike a video game, however, the stories utilize no strategy that's dependent on understanding the mechanics. LitRPGs tend to add mechanics as they go in order to fit the story. Such mechanics don't affect storytelling in and of itself, like you would imagine in a real video game where you could appareciate a person's gameplay in which they skillfully utilize such mechanics to beat a powerful enemy or overcome some difficult obstacle.\n\nExample of a true LitRPG in my eyes: Clearly lay out an MC's toolkit: their stats, abilities, and inventory. Then the MC must use that toolkit to overcome obstacles as they traverse some dungeon or fight a powerful enemy\nInstead what I find is deus ex machina and ridiculous power fantasies where MC overwhelmingly defeats foes with some new powered up mechanic. Sufficiently Advanced Magic is a partial good example where in its dungeon crawler portions, we know exactly the MC's inventory is and he uses it wisely.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Awaken_Online.html?hl=&id=yyAcvgAACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676083434060","title":"Bard Quest","status":"Completed","score":5,"releaseYear":2007,"pages":191,"authors":["Andrew Hussie"],"startedDate":"2020-12-12","completedDate":"2020-12-12","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"Jailbreak and Bard Quest are perfect examples of the early experimentation of web interaction for storytelling. It pushes further on the concept of choose-your-own-adventures and text adventures, and combines comics with free-form text.\n\nA shame that the story doesn't go anywhere, only 50 pages in.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=c6cEEAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676084482636","title":"Convex Optimization","status":"Completed","score":5,"releaseYear":2004,"pages":716,"authors":["Stephen Boyd"],"publishers":["Cambridge University Press"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2014-01-20","completedDate":"2014-05-15","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Convex_Optimization.html?hl=&id=mYm0bLd3fcoC"},{"id":"322682676101296716","title":"Cracking the SAT, 2008 Edition","status":"Completed","score":5,"releaseYear":2004,"pages":1572,"authors":["Princeton Review"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2008-12-31","completedDate":"2008-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Complete_Book_of_Colleges.html?hl=&id=Xf8kAQAAMAAJ"},{"id":"322682676083442252","title":"Crazy Rich Asians","status":"Completed","score":5,"releaseYear":2013,"pages":457,"authors":["Kevin Kwan"],"publishers":["Vintage"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2017-04-10","completedDate":"2017-04-21","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"Vapid and dialogue-heavy, prone to skip longer, descriptive prose and themes with more upfront comedy about the shallowness and bluntness that Asians confront wealth and companionship, and value in life (particularly a woman's). it certainly plays into its gimmick of doing the slow reveal of money and doing weird shoen like power comparisons but through money flaunting. Ending is a little stale.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=LrFYL6NFjU8C"},{"id":"322682676101295692","title":"Discrete Mathematics and its Applications","status":"Completed","score":5,"releaseYear":1988,"pages":836,"authors":["Kenneth H. Rosen"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2011-06-14","completedDate":"2011-08-11","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Discrete_Mathematics_and_Its_Application.html?hl=&id=ZO8iMAEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676085601868","title":"Elementary Analysis: The Theory of Calculus","status":"Completed","score":5,"releaseYear":1980,"pages":264,"authors":["Kenneth A. Ross"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2011-01-09","completedDate":"2011-05-11","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=meqPBAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676103369292","title":"Essential Words for the GRE","status":"Completed","score":5,"releaseYear":2007,"pages":432,"authors":["Philip Geer"],"publishers":["Barrons Educational Series"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2011-11-19","completedDate":"2012-01-01","updatedDate":"2022-08-16","notes":"GRE Verbal isn't (and wasn't) really a concern for me for grad school apps. This is a useful resource however.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Essential_Words_for_the_GRE.html?hl=&id=aWINzwEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101274188","title":"Farewell to Manzanar","status":"Completed","score":5,"releaseYear":1972,"pages":188,"authors":["Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston"],"publishers":["Houghton Mifflin Harcourt"],"genres":["Nonfiction"],"startedDate":"2005-09-30","completedDate":"2005-09-30","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Farewell_to_Manzanar.html?hl=&id=0nuR5MRVzaEC"},{"id":"322682676101293644","title":"Finite Difference Methods for Ordinary and Partial Differential Equations: Steady-State and Time-dependent Problems","status":"Completed","score":5,"releaseYear":2007,"pages":339,"authors":["Randall Leveque"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2013-08-28","completedDate":"2013-11-29","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=lZysESfSWwgC"},{"id":"90430256-d0aa-4545-8384-46a720af3276","title":"Furies of Calderon (Codex Alera #1)","status":"Completed","score":5,"releaseYear":2004,"pages":516,"authors":["Jim Butcher"],"publishers":["Penguin"],"startedDate":"2023-05-10","completedDate":"2023-05-20","updatedDate":"2023-05-20","notes":"Miscellaneous comments:\n\n+ Kord’s family and the narrative around them just makes me angry at how bad the writing is to be so one dimensionally evil and let them get away with so much for plot convenience. It’s basically the bullying trope like in any school setting book but made worse by this setting being far more violent with rape and murder.\n+ As usual, Jim Butcher’s portrayal of women is laughably bad. Everyone is depicted in some sexual manner, in a gross imbalance relative to how men a portrayed.\n+ The srory has the natural drag of intentional incompetence. Artificial barriers and edge, especially with rape of females and lack of belief.\n+ Magic system with pokemon furies is not explained well, i never have a solid description to understand and regularly visualize them.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Furies_of_Calderon.html?hl=&id=Nl3UWiTsmOoC"},{"id":"7cf97025-48ab-4926-9655-8f3c55c2103f","title":"Gideon the Ninth","status":"Completed","score":5,"releaseYear":2019,"pages":448,"authors":["Tamsyn Muir"],"publishers":["Tor Books"],"startedDate":"2023-03-13","completedDate":"2023-03-27","updatedDate":"2023-03-27","notes":"+ The bisexual romance conversations are annoying and didn’t make much sense. Would be better without.\n+ The characters and their relationships among each other are hard to keep track of at times. I could barely recall who’s who given the cast of 18 necrkmancers and cavaliers let alone the support staff.\n+ Fight scenes are disorienting and hard to keep track what’s happenning. It’s not even all that clear what unique element is in each House,\n+ The book eventually became a battle royale with puzzles. Not what I was expecting and not a fan.\n+ The plot is way too disorienting and a jumble of genres: closed house murder mystery, scifi space, necromancer magic, YA romance and drama, power fantasy to grow in strength.\n+ Gideon’s contemporary tumblr meme quips is cringeworthy.\n\nI knew the tag “Lesbian necromancer” should’ve been a red flag.\n\nI think the setting had a lot of potential but the story threw it all away in generic teenager battle royale puzzle mystery shenanigans. I would’t greatly preferred seeing a rise in power and understanding of the magic system that determined the politics of each House and how their magic affected them,","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=HHJwDwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676101328460","title":"Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter, #1)","status":"Completed","score":5,"releaseYear":1997,"authors":["J.K. Rowling"],"startedDate":"2002-12-31","completedDate":"2002-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30"},{"id":"322682676101284428","title":"Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth: Her Stories and Hymns from Sumer","status":"Completed","score":5,"releaseYear":1983,"pages":256,"authors":["Diane Wolkstein"],"genres":["Poetry"],"startedDate":"2011-05-31","completedDate":"2011-05-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Inanna.html?hl=&id=DF4pNpLmRBUC"},{"id":"339584177551704656","title":"Into the Labyrinth (Mage Errant #1)","status":"Completed","score":5,"releaseYear":2018,"pages":214,"authors":["John Bierce"],"publishers":["Mage Errant"],"startedDate":"2022-08-09","completedDate":"2022-08-10","updatedDate":"2022-08-12","notes":"The spellform construction ideas are neat. I like its ideas behind how to make spells, which doesn't come up enough in fantasy novels. I also liked the bestiary elements as a glimpse into the world.\n\nI can do less with the protagonist's meekness, teenage drama (as he tries to build friends), and bullying. I'd much rather the story just focus on the progression fantasy element in terms of power in his magic, as well as the worldbuilding. The setting doesn't change in the story either, set exclusively in a library.\n\nHugh is an infuriating character. Everything in his backstory is setup to be against him, from parents to uncles and cousins to bullying in school. What makes this worse is that he also has no redeeming quality, whether it be confidence, hard work, and he's even shy in dialogue. He has self-pity and lacks action at the world and events happening around him.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Into_the_Labyrinth.html?hl=&id=mSl4wQEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676084514380","title":"Introduction to Symplectic Topology","status":"Completed","score":5,"releaseYear":1995,"pages":486,"authors":["Dusa McDuff"],"publishers":["Oxford University Press"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2012-07-31","completedDate":"2012-12-13","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"Extremely hard to learn from. It's really more of a reference book to the most recent papers.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Introduction_to_Symplectic_Topology.html?hl=&id=DNjKAeRexE4C"},{"id":"322682676101280332","title":"Johnny Tremain","status":"Completed","score":5,"releaseYear":1943,"pages":256,"authors":["Esther Forbes"],"publishers":["Houghton Mifflin Harcourt"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2000-12-31","completedDate":"2000-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Johnny_Tremain.html?hl=&id=h7YqYBUWdOcC"},{"id":"322682676101291596","title":"Lectures on Symplectic Geometry","status":"Completed","score":5,"releaseYear":2001,"pages":220,"authors":["Ana Cannas da Silva"],"publishers":["Springer"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2012-01-14","completedDate":"2012-04-28","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=CMRsCQAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676085611084","title":"Linear Algebra and Its Application","status":"Completed","score":5,"releaseYear":1993,"pages":576,"authors":["David C. Lay"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2010-06-14","completedDate":"2010-08-11","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Linear_Algebra_and_Its_Applications_Glob.html?hl=&id=CeL5rQEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101287500","title":"Methods of Homological Algebra","status":"Completed","score":5,"releaseYear":2002,"pages":374,"authors":["Sergei I. Gelfand"],"publishers":["Springer Science & Business Media"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2012-07-31","completedDate":"2012-12-13","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=7x3-CAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676085602892","title":"Multivariable Calculus","status":"Completed","score":5,"releaseYear":1991,"pages":596,"authors":["James Stewart"],"publishers":["Cengage Learning"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2010-06-14","completedDate":"2010-08-11","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Multivariable_Calculus.html?hl=&id=6pb6zAEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101302860","title":"Music for Sight Singing","status":"Completed","score":5,"releaseYear":1900,"pages":448,"authors":["Robert W. Ottman","Nancy Rogers"],"publishers":["Pearson College Division"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2012-01-14","completedDate":"2012-01-14","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Music_for_Sight_Singing.html?hl=&id=tavlsgEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676084518476","title":"Numerical Analysis","status":"Completed","score":5,"releaseYear":1978,"pages":464,"authors":["Richard L. Burden"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2011-06-14","completedDate":"2011-08-11","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/INTRODUCTORY_METHODS_OF_NUMERICAL_ANALYS.html?hl=&id=y88tGx22FzAC"},{"id":"322682676085539404","title":"Once a Runner","status":"Completed","score":5,"releaseYear":1978,"pages":256,"authors":["John L. Parker Jr."],"publishers":["Simon and Schuster"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2009-03-14","completedDate":"2009-03-14","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=N049zUThvrYC"},{"id":"322682676085598796","title":"Real Analysis and Probability","status":"Completed","score":5,"releaseYear":1989,"pages":555,"authors":["Richard M. Dudley"],"publishers":["Cambridge University Press"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2011-08-31","completedDate":"2011-12-19","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"Stop fucking cross-sectioning so often!","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Real_Analysis_and_Probability.html?hl=&id=7UuT7UZViN0C"},{"id":"322682676084551244","title":"Romeo and Juliet","status":"Completed","score":5,"releaseYear":1597,"pages":38,"authors":["William Shakespeare"],"genres":["Play"],"startedDate":"2006-12-31","completedDate":"2006-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=_yYVAAAAQAAJ"},{"id":"85eb087d-de63-4352-bc9d-46bca1574acc","title":"Silver Surfer: Requiem","status":"Completed","score":5,"releaseYear":2007,"pages":104,"authors":["J. Michael Straczynski"],"publishers":["Marvel Entertainment"],"startedDate":"2023-07-19","completedDate":"2023-07-19","updatedDate":"2023-07-20","notes":"Hard to really enjoy. The dramatic end of Silver Surfer doesn't have much impact on me as I barely know him. The various people he visit feel like arbitrary cameos than a retelling of a classic story that featured them and is probably why it's in the short story.\n\nThis mini-series is effectively like All-Star Superman but written less well in plot and character-building.\n\nI dislike the art style. The realism style is fine. The colors are too washed out though.\n\n## Resources and Miscellanea\n\nI read this as a mini-series to catch up on Silver Surfer. Specifically, it came up first in the storyline of \"Rising Storm\" in Waid's Fantastic Four run where Galactus and certain concepts like heralds appear. It's only 4 issues and is recommended as an entrypoint (e.g., [reddit 1](https://www.reddit.com/r/comicbooks/comments/2nwga6/where_to_start_reading_silver_surfer/cmhjy2c)), [reddit 2](https://www.reddit.com/r/comicbooks/comments/6df3ii/alright_what_are_the_absolute_best_silver_surfer/di29vae)). See also reading order by [comicbooktreasury](https://www.comicbooktreasury.com/silver-surfer-reading-order).","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=ot11JQ46aZQC"},{"id":"322682676084537932","title":"The Chronicles of Narnia (Chronicles of Narnia #1-7)","status":"Completed","score":5,"releaseYear":1949,"pages":768,"authors":["C.S. Lewis"],"publishers":["Harper Collins"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2003-12-31","completedDate":"2003-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Chronicles_of_Narnia_adult.html?hl=&id=3VGkK_F9thYC"},{"id":"322682676084536908","title":"The Eyes of the Dragon","status":"Completed","score":5,"releaseYear":2011,"pages":416,"authors":["Stephen King"],"publishers":["Simon and Schuster"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2004-12-31","completedDate":"2004-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=zre8utGXBZQC"},{"id":"322682676084512332","title":"The Fundamentals of Style - How to be a Well-Dressed Man","status":"Completed","score":5,"releaseYear":2012,"pages":320,"authors":["James Gallichio"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2012-04-28","completedDate":"2012-04-28","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"Good reference guide and introduction to basic elements of clothes. As a result, very general, broad and not specific.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Dressing_the_Man.html?hl=&id=hBnCNOhoh1sC"},{"id":"322682676084502092","title":"The Interpretation of Dreams","status":"Completed","score":5,"releaseYear":1899,"pages":496,"authors":["Sigmund Freud"],"publishers":["Modern Library"],"genres":["Nonfiction"],"startedDate":"2008-12-31","completedDate":"2008-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"There's a point in any science (\"social science\" especially) where tacked-on evidence becomes obscured under heavy, gross overanalysis. Freud offers s...more There's a point in any science (\"social science\" especially) where tacked-on evidence becomes obscured under heavy, gross overanalysis. Freud offers some interesting insights at the most general level, but the very fine details often leave me skeptical.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=k1h-AgAAQBAJ"},{"id":"33dddcc9-7d1c-47f2-a6da-9518421af678","title":"The Kartoss Gambit (The Way of the Shaman #2)","status":"Completed","score":5,"releaseYear":2017,"pages":518,"authors":["Vasily Mahanenko"],"publishers":["Magic Dome Books"],"startedDate":"2023-03-04","completedDate":"2023-05-04","updatedDate":"2023-08-08","notes":"Worse than the first book. Protagonist meets too many important people and becomes too important too quickly. And there's too many quests and lines of narratives happening simultaneously.\n\n+ The math puzzle is some of the stupidest most artificial things I’ve ever heard of. Only someone who barely even took calculus would think knowing mathematical constants (especially “phi”) up to a decimal place is profound. And somehow interpreting the 2-norm as just “Euclidean space”.\n\nI dropped it at page 370 of 524. I feel I roughly have a sense of the story that it's not worth completing.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Kartoss_Gambit_the_Way_of_the_Shaman.html?hl=&id=nIGrugEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676085531212","title":"The Oedipus Cycle","status":"Completed","score":5,"releaseYear":2000,"pages":249,"authors":["Sophocles"],"genres":["Play"],"startedDate":"2007-08-31","completedDate":"2007-08-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Oedipus_Cycle.html?hl=&id=lVOxAAAAIAAJ"},{"id":"322682676084493900","title":"The Official Guide to the GRE Revised General Test","status":"Completed","score":5,"releaseYear":2010,"pages":449,"authors":["Educational Testing Service"],"publishers":["McGraw Hill Professional"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2013-08-30","completedDate":"2013-09-01","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"Honestly, the website lays out most of the exposition within a better format. This book is the website verbatim, which is good because it means you do...more Honestly, the website lays out most of the exposition within a better format. This book is the website verbatim, which is good because it means you don't have to read redundant text and/or source check which is more accurate. But it's bad, because, well, it's redundant text.\n\nThe book is still necessary because of ETS' money grubbing refusal to make the various practice sections freely available. Fuck, this book keeps reminding me that I should have just taken the GRE straight into freshman year, after holding very very lucid test-taking skills and a higher competency at various GRE questions, from the SAT. This is literally re-learning everything all over again.\n\nThat said, this is still the best book for the GRE. Coming from the mouths of the devils themselves, you won't get any type of preparation that's official as this. It's easy to go through, and to get all the concise detail you need.\n\nAs a misc. note, I happened to go through roughly 300 pages (everything save for the practice test) in one day. Fuck my brain is tired.. It's not difficult content, but exhausting. Careless mistakes are the bane of my existence at achieving dat 170 in the quantitative.\n\n############################################\n\nMY PERSONAL SCORES (for reference)\n\nDoing the end practice test timed (but each section individually with large breaks inbetween, rather than continuously), I got raw scores of 43/50Q and 36/50V. This translates to 162.5Q (159-166, 75-93 percentile) and 164.5V (161-168, 87-98 percentile). My Verbal is way better than I expected, with roughly 10 minutes to spare each time. Quantitative, I need to stop making so many damn errors, even when double-checking all my answers with roughly 15 minutes to spare.\n\nFor the Quant, I seem to spend the most time on various elementary geometry problems (forgetting info like which angles are equivalent, what makes certain triangles similar, etc.), rate, counting, and large and frequent calculator computations. Hopefully more practice will give me more leeway to doublecheck my answers or spend more time on the difficult ones I was unsure of. I've also forgotten some of the obscurer equations, like the two interest ones and area of a trapezoid.\n\nFor the Verbal, my reading comprehension is good, and my vocabulary is less a problem here than as I would expect from SAT sentence completions. No major faults here, nor do I need to improve such a great score anyways.\n\nI don't know what my Writing scores are like, but hopefully I'm articulate enough to expound on my arguments due to all the practice I've gotten on MAL reviewing/blogging/animu discussion. For archive's sake, I added them here:\n\n############################################\n\nISSUE TOPIC - 30 minutes\nThe best way to teach is to praise positive actions and ignore negative ones.\n\nWrite a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the recommendation and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, describe specific circumstances in which adopting the recommendation would or would not be advantageous and explain how these examples shape your position.\n\n\"The quality of one's teaching method has often been under close scrutiny—whether by academics or the general laymen. This is because the heart of the topic applies universally to all various sorts of peoples and cultures. Positive reinforcement in particular has been an idea propagated under the sciences (and social sciences) through many of which find the most effective approach. What remains fortunate, whether or not it is the “best” approach, is the fact that it is an effective one.\n\nKozuei Shiraki's tankoban formatted novel, Aria, takes this idea under various which circumstances, always with the perception that positive reinforcement is not only beneficial to the recipient, but to the teacher. As a row-boating tourist guide and a slender, ever so evanescent at touch woman, Alicia reprises the core of purity. She comprises the teacher—not only toward the rest of the characters (all of which grow so purely as her from this method of schooling), but toward ourselves, gifting us throughout her understated behaviors and messages about her world. As we sojourn across the novel's passages, we're given beautiful, flowing expositions. This is our reward, a delightful treat for the mere fact that we're reading the text. It's an interesting approach, one often fourth-walled within the novel itself. As readers feel more and more elated by Aria's pleasant stories, we feel more in touch and more responsive toward reading page for page. This is a mutual benefit. Readers are benefited by the luscious prose of the novel, with intangible but very palpable rewards; the teacher—in this case Alicia or perhaps considerably Shiraki himself—is benefited by the joy and progress through which we as “students” find ourselves moving.\n\nSo too lies this fundamentally mutual benefit under novelist Dyoestev's Red Rum. The narrative is almost the polar opposite in atmosphere towards Shiraki's Aria. Under a dystopian society packed with outlandish sex and violence (and oftentimes a mix of the two), Red Rum is brutal, eviscerating, and all-out destructive. It is even more interesting then just how positive reinforcement becomes one of the many messages within the narrative. Amano is a simple soldier among an ongoing ceaseless war, following whichever trails will most likely lead him living for another day. Underneath this format, Amano is an eccentric idiot, always pulling unnecessary positive spins on events that are always far from the gritty truth. But this is what allows him to survive every one of his experiences. His optimism, a positive action (and a comically exaggerated one at that), is rewarded through survival. While his comrades are massacred by ogreish fiends, Amano always manages to live. And fortunately, there are often subtle moments unnoticed from a glance that indicate that Amano is not simply insane.\n\nShiraki and Dyoestev set a premise that remains intuitively supported by their own narratives. Positive reinforcement tackles the critique of various teaching philosophies by showing one which remains effective on many which levels.\"\n\nCOMMENTS: This one is absolutely awful. I spent way too much time trying to bullshit novels and give bullshit synopses that I barely gave myself enough time to argue what made the works support my stance. On reflection, the SAT \"2 novel\" approach is shit here. I would be better just following normal intuition by arguing my position under normal grounds, and only bring up relevant examples under one to two sentences. Tackling entire novel analyses takes too long.\nMY GUESS: 3-4\n\n############################################\n\nARGUMENT TOPIC - 30 minutes\nTwenty years ago, Dr. Field, a noted anthropologist, visited the island of Tertia. Using an observation-centered approach to studying Tertian culture, he concluded from his observations that children in Tertia were reared by an entire village rather than by their own biological parents. Recently another anthropologist, Dr. Karp, visited the group of islands that includes Tertia and used the interview-centered method to study child-rearing practices. In the interviews that Dr. Karp conducted with children living in this group of islands, the children spent much more time talking about their biological parents than about other adults in the village. Dr. Karp decided that Dr. Field's conclusion about Tertian village culture must be invalid. Some anthropologists recommend that to obtain accurate information on Tertian child-rearing practices, future research on the subject should be conducted via the interview-centered method.\n\nWrite a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.\n\n\"Dr. Karp lays out a very clear, acceptably methodical approach to defending his approach over Dr. Field's. However, it is practically comical then to see the underlying irony behind his arguments; this lucidity really only indicates the very many flaws in them.\n\nTaking in already the first few lines of the passage, Karp makes a mishap in judgment, indicating at no point the evidence to which Dr. Field makes his own. Without this evidence, it is questionable why Dr. Karp would then censure it without introducing to his readers what exactly this evidence he is disputing is. Arguing against only the conclusion results in an immature stance, one poorly backed up without the right efforts to attack it.\n\nWhat remains peculiar is his resultant evidence to back himself up; Dr. Karp simply takes the conclusion and harps on that stance by providing his own \"evidence\". This would be at the least interesting had Dr. Karp could conclude that from his data. But, it cannot be. Interviews are fundamentally flawed by however truthful the interviewees are. Moreover, what about Karp's attenuation towards any statistical procedures? What is the sample size? What are the assumptions, the interview question themselves, and the blind nature of the experiments? These forms of datum are required to support his stance. Without them, one can only play the skeptic.\n\nEven should the interview be taken on acceptable grounds and with data under acceptable confidence intervals, the mere indication that the children talk to their biological parents more often does not contradict Dr. Field's conclusion. These are distinct, and not all too related, pieces of the puzzle—one of which requires more evidence to relate. Frequency of conversationees does not necessarily have a correlation to whether or not the children are brought up under disparate individuals. A simple counterexample would be that the village in Tertia allows a particular attendance toward child and biological parent, but a negligible part in the grand scheme of all their \"parents\".\n\nDr. Karp should not have taken such grand measures into defying accepted observations from a noted anthropologist. To use extreme terms such as \"prove\" and \"invalidate\", when it is visible that this is not substantial evidence, is is peculiar. This also has little relation to why an observation-centered approach would then be invalid. Using the classic \"proof by example\", the aforementioned doctor makes a large leap in logic that's only supported in the realms of deep, British rabbit holes. It's a simple overgeneralization, let alone an exaggerated one.\n\nPerhaps if Dr. Karp had equivocated and dug more into purple prose would his arguments be more convincing—superficially. Unfortunately (or fortunately), it is without doubt that there are impaired steps in the accounted logic that require specific evidence to back up.\"\n\nCOMMENT: I like this one much more than my Issues essay. My humor is there, and I address the topic at hand quite well. I didn't address as many fallacies as I would have liked, but I feel this is an excellent essay that presents my arguments with a cogent, cohesive structure.\nMY GUESS: 5-6","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Official_Guide_to_the_GRE_revised_Ge.html?hl=&id=j1KLwBlxuwgC"},{"id":"322682676101281356","title":"Up from Slavery","status":"Completed","score":5,"releaseYear":1933,"pages":270,"authors":["Booker T. Washington"],"publishers":["Les éditeurs libres"],"genres":["Nonfiction"],"startedDate":"2008-05-31","completedDate":"2008-05-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Up_from_slavery.html?hl=&id=1J2LjJIrCyMC"},{"id":"71bc9c48-869f-424d-89ac-e1f1427820de","title":"X-Men by Chris Claremont (Giant-Sized X-Men #1 - Uncanny X-Men #105)","status":"Completed","score":5,"releaseYear":1975,"authors":["Chris Claremont"],"publishers":["Marvel Comics Group"],"startedDate":"2023-07-09","completedDate":"2023-07-15","updatedDate":"2023-07-16","notes":"It's not very good. This was made in a time where each issue is designed to be able to picked up and understood. Therefore unfortunately it's dense in exposition, and the exposition is often redundant with what's happening in the illustration. It's around this time that comics aren't able to trust the artwork to speak for itself. I would be fine with prose (e.g., Immortal Hulk's #25) but this is banal writing that could easily be made more concise.\n\nAs a classic comic, it has a style where there's little original panel work. It has your expected artwork and fight scene depictions of the time, where there's limited portrayal of kinetic action and standout art pages are not this age's forte.\n\nThe conflicts rarely last beyond an issue or two. They're effectively episodics.\n\n__Giant-size X-Men #1.__ This issue introduces a set of new X-Men, primarily to diversify the so-far white cast as an aim to appeal more internationally. I find it interesting from a historical perspective that the issue introduces Wolverine, Storm, Nightcrawler, Colossus, and Thunderbird. And Thunderbird is no longer really popular alongside a few others reintroduced like Sunfire and Banshee.\n\nFunny that Thunderbird dies only a few issues later, and Sunfire leaves X-Men in the next issue. Clearly the Native American and Japanese were both written out due to lack of popularity.\n\n## Resources and Miscellanea\n\n+ [Marvel Wiki](https://marvel.fandom.com)\n+ [r/marvel wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/marvel/wiki)\n+ [Reddit: Starting the X-Men, and How to Survive the Experience](https://www.reddit.com/r/xmen/comments/qvwjnb/starting_the_xmen_and_how_to_survive_the)\n+ [Reddit (2022): The Top 56 Marvel Comics Runs, Voted by the r/Marvel Community!](https://www.reddit.com/r/Marvel/comments/y8y3fy/the_top_56_marvel_comics_runs_voted_by_the). Claremont's Uncanny X-Men is #3.\n\nI was motivated to read this as it's one of the best Marvel comic runs of all time and the best X-Men run. I chose this as my first X-Men run.\n\nI split this entry as I got burned out of reading Claremont's run. Instead of keeping a single entry with a massive amount of issues, which is overwhelming, I split the issue count at a reasonable stopping point so that later issues can include the rest of the run (not unlike TV show entries are split by season and books by singles).\n\n__Version.__ I read the trade paperbacks: Marvel Masterworks: The Uncanny X-Men Vol. 1-16. These trade paperback editions cover up to Mutant Massacre and ends on Uncanny X-Men #243. Claremont continues until Uncanny X-Men #280. I followed the remainder with single issues.\n\nI prefer The Uncanny X-Men omnibus edition as omnibus editions are generally more holistic. However, I couldn't find the omnibus editions digitally online.\n\nSee also reading orders by [comicbooktreasury](https://www.comicbooktreasury.com/the-x-men-reading-order), [comicbookherald](https://www.comicbookherald.com/chris-claremont-era-x-men-reading-order-guide), [r/comicbooks](https://www.reddit.com/r/comicbooks/comments/o7pwvy/xmen_the_claremont_and_simonson_era_reading_order), [wikipedia on collected editions](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncanny_X-Men#Collected_editions).\n\nSources:\n\n+ [ComicOnlineFree: Marvel Masterworks: The Uncanny X-Men](https://comiconlinefree.net/comic/marvel-masterworks-the-uncanny-x-men)\n+ [ComicOnlineFree: Uncanny X-Men (1963)](https://comiconlinefree.net/comic/uncanny-x-men-1963)\n\n103/-","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Uncanny_X_Men.html?hl=&id=eiBPAAAACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101313100","title":"Zaregoto Shirizu (戯言シリーズ), #2: The Kubishime Romanticist","status":"Completed","score":5,"releaseYear":2002,"authors":["Nisio Isin"],"genres":["Light Novel"],"startedDate":"2013-11-17","completedDate":"2013-11-18","updatedDate":"2022-01-30"},{"id":"322682676101318220","title":"涼宮ハルヒの憤慨 (Haruhi Suzumiya, #8)","status":"Completed","score":5,"releaseYear":2006,"authors":["Nagaru Tanigawa"],"startedDate":"2013-10-05","completedDate":"2013-11-01","updatedDate":"2022-01-30"},{"id":"322682676101271116","title":"11 Practice Tests for the SAT and PSAT, 2008","status":"Completed","score":4,"releaseYear":2004,"pages":948,"authors":["Princeton Review (Firm)"],"publishers":["Princeton Review"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2008-12-31","completedDate":"2008-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/11_Practice_Tests_for_the_SAT_and_PSAT_2.html?hl=&id=xHDmPY1Y5SYC"},{"id":"322682676084513356","title":"A Creative Approach to Music Fundamentals","status":"Completed","score":4,"releaseYear":1981,"pages":331,"authors":["William Duckworth"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2012-01-14","completedDate":"2012-01-14","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"Easy to read and understand. Very skimmable. Not very rigorous, but typical for a introductory music textbook.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Creative_Approach_to_Music_Fundamental.html?hl=&id=gCyWkwEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676085604940","title":"A First Course in Abstract Algebra","status":"Completed","score":4,"releaseYear":1967,"pages":520,"authors":["John B. Fraleigh"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2011-01-09","completedDate":"2011-05-11","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/A_First_Course_in_Abstract_Algebra.html?hl=&id=Y-wpAQAAMAAJ"},{"id":"322682676085616204","title":"Algebraic Geometry","status":"Completed","score":4,"releaseYear":1977,"pages":496,"authors":["Robin Hartshorne"],"publishers":["Springer Science & Business Media"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2012-07-31","completedDate":"2012-12-13","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=7z4mBQAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676101273164","title":"An Introduction to Ordinary Differential Equations","status":"Completed","score":4,"releaseYear":1961,"pages":292,"authors":["Earl A. Coddington"],"publishers":["Courier Corporation"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2011-08-31","completedDate":"2011-12-19","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/An_Introduction_to_Ordinary_Differential.html?hl=&id=PwivyktplHUC"},{"id":"322682676085621324","title":"Animorphs: Visser (Animorphs Chronicles, #3)","status":"Completed","score":4,"releaseYear":1999,"pages":208,"authors":["Katherine Applegate"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2004-12-31","completedDate":"2004-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=T2JHDwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676083427916","title":"Another: Volume 2","status":"Completed","score":4,"pages":352,"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2021-09-15","completedDate":"2021-09-19","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"So many plot holes. What a terrible ending.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=rrA4DwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676084483660","title":"Applied Regression Analysis and Generalized Linear Models","status":"Completed","score":4,"releaseYear":2008,"pages":816,"authors":["John Fox"],"publishers":["SAGE Publications"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2014-01-20","completedDate":"2014-05-15","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=3wrwCQAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676086577740","title":"Back To Before (Megamorphs, #4)","status":"Completed","score":4,"releaseYear":2000,"pages":192,"authors":["Katherine Applegate"],"publishers":["Scholastic Inc."],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2004-12-31","completedDate":"2004-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Back_to_Before_Animorphs_Megamorphs_4.html?hl=&id=rWFHDwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676085589580","title":"Captain Underpants and the Attack of the Talking Toilets (Captain Underpants, #2)","status":"Completed","score":4,"releaseYear":1999,"pages":144,"authors":["Dav Pilkey"],"genres":["Comic Strip"],"startedDate":"1999-12-31","completedDate":"1999-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Captaine_Bobette_et_l_attaque_des_toilet.html?hl=&id=CTmJBAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676085590604","title":"Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants (Captain Underpants, #4)","status":"Completed","score":4,"releaseYear":2000,"pages":151,"authors":["Dav Pilkey"],"publishers":["Captain Underpants"],"genres":["Comic Strip"],"startedDate":"1999-12-31","completedDate":"1999-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Captain_Underpants_and_the_Perilous_Plot.html?hl=&id=Xi5bPgAACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676084557388","title":"Charlotte's Web","status":"Completed","score":4,"releaseYear":1952,"pages":184,"authors":["E.B. White"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"1999-12-31","completedDate":"1999-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Charlotte_s_Web.html?hl=&id=UouqnNklemkC"},{"id":"322682676084494924","title":"Cracking the New GRE, 2012 Edition","status":"Completed","score":4,"releaseYear":1995,"pages":464,"authors":["Princeton Review"],"publishers":["Princeton Review"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2011-10-31","completedDate":"2013-09-14","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"I'm really not a fan of Princeton's direct, casual conversation (which not only feels debasing but dulls my own articulateness) and test-taking tricks...more I'm really not a fan of Princeton's direct, casual conversation (which not only feels debasing but dulls my own articulateness) and test-taking tricks. The only reason I decided to go through this is because I had it laying around, and because I wanted to go over the learning side of the content from an outside opinion that ain't ETS'. The most I've gotten out of this is reviewing the learning content/format, how to work with the computer, and how to manage scratch paper effectively. The questions themselves aren't always very GRE-like: some too dense and reliant on vocab for instance when the GRE isn't as frequently like that.\n\nOne feature I do prefer from Princeton's over the official ETS book's is the omittance of letter-graded answers. This makes the sample questions more like the real test, where it's Blank, Blank, Blank, Blank, and, er.. Blank. This helps to divorce yourself from the ABCDE convention, which people are all too accustomed to.\n\n############################################\n\nMY PERSONAL SCORES (for reference)\n\nDidn't do the 4 writing sections at end and 3 Verbal sections since I only care about improving my Quantitative. First test was just casually going through the problems and not double-checking, which resulted in a 31/40. The second test was timed, and was a 36/40. This probably translates to a 161-163Q and a 166-167Q. Stop the damn careless mistakes.. At least I'm improving my scratch work organization though. The 1 Verbal section I did has been good as usual; if the number of errors stayed consistent I would have gotten a 161+V.\n\n############################################\n\nPOWERPREP SCORES (for reference)\n\nI got nowhere else to put this, and the ETS GRE book's notes are already lengthy as is.\n\nPRACTICE TEST 1: 164V (19/20, 13/20 Raw), 5W (a score guess from my essays below).\nPRACTICE TEST 2: 166Q (20/20, 17/20 Raw).\nUNTIMED: 169-170Q (20/20, 19/20 Raw).\n\nNote: I did the Untimed Quantitative sections timed and continuously, but only those 2 sections by itself. I also did the Practice Test 2's Q sections the same way. Err, I was planning to do the entire Practice Test 1 from start to finish but both of the math sections came up from the Untimed. Well, bullshit ETS. You should have told me the Untimed sections are simply copies from the other two Practice Tests. More precisely, the Untimed is exactly Practice Test 1 but the second Verbal section is from Practice Test 2. Oh well..\n\nI'm also archiving my essays here, because why not?\n\n############################################\n\nISSUE TOPIC (PRACTICE TEST 1) - 30 minutes\nA nation should require all of its students to study the same national curriculum until they enter college.\n\nWrite a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the recommendation and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, describe specific circumstances in which adopting the recommendation would or would not be advantageous and explain how these examples shape your position.\n\n\"Among many facets in social reform, there is a need to centralize policy, an idea brought about more generally within communal organization—whether it be in politics, literary criticism, or even in more niche examples (which still vastly important) such as education. Many proponents argue for a need to standardize national curriculum in such a way that one can effectively measure a student's strengths in a more uniform manner. This brings certain strengths, but is however inevitably an oh-so-fallacious reasoning toward strong education.\n\nTaking such a reformation to be implemented throughout large nations for example, would only bog down individuality. Creativity spawns from unique, inventive ideas. It is diversity which henceforth brings about what evolves humanity; only under different environments and experiences could new ideas arise. Hence education remains the root of all this, as future generations are the product of just how well strong education systems are. It is the not end-all means toward growth in humanity, but many data subsets with regards to all kinds of subjects have always indicated such a correlation. This severely limits diversity as students across all ages and regions try to follow the same procedure. What then can give birth to invention when uniformity—almost militarization with such a cloned policy—is taken so vastly?\n\nThe procedure also already takes into account too many underlying and incorrect assumptions. Regional differences, variance in high school effectiveness, and differences in teachers' opinions, should all be implicitly taken as constants according to this recommendation (similar logic applies to more general problems as well). What about the student him or herself, and the environment: particularly, his or her parenting? There are too many differences already here that implementing the same national curriculum would simply not be the best approach to cater to all these differences. Strong, substantive policies rely on local data and vary accordingly to suit both individuals and the general community at hand. By bringing about a uniform curriculum, there is the unrequired need for students to too quickly catch up to others, and students to slow down for others, all dependent on nationwide averages.\n\nWhile there are certain problems with this recommendation, it is not hard to see the grasped—while elementary and unsubstantial—beauty behind it. Uniformity will not necessarily bring total demise to individuality, especially if it were only a single policy as the recommendation states; it would be too much sensationalizing for critics to demure it as so. Standardized tests themselves for example are already widely accepted as part of the education system, and is one of strong means for higher level education systems to determine an applicant's excellence success by their performance on these tests. This allows several criteria to follow through with a easy-to-follow purpose and scale.\n\nHowever, there is a fine line between what should be centralized and what should be segregated. While there should be a general standard for what should be taught ubiquituously (and indeed, there is one), it should be not nitpick every portion of a lesson or even the entire courseload. Where is choice? Where is the freedom for students to discover what they are passionate in and try to expand on them, while keeping up with the minimum standards for other coursework? How would an aspiring physicist, a go-lucky computer wiz, or an avante-garde painter try to pursue their desires until they reach college? One can already follow what happens next with gifted and/or more unfortunately experienced students. This limits too much the variance in potential for students to strive should they want to strive, and pick up the pace too much for students who need more time on particular subjects more so than the next student.\n\nA uniform policy, particularly for one advocating a uniform national curriculum, bogs down too much of the variance in education. It is only upon a glance that one such policy could be viewed under a good light. Should it ever be implemented, one can't help begging the question to what point uniformity supercedes the need to cater to individual differences. Can this meshed policy not impede on the outstanding progress of invention through diversity?\"\n\nCOMMENTS: I thought this was quite good. Dropped the two-novel approach in favor of writing anything that came naturally to me, and I think this new method went over much better. I had a lot of time to proofread, I finished way earlier, and I heavily bolstered my arguments and added things as I went.\nMY GUESS: 5-6\n\n############################################\n\nARGUMENT TOPIC (PRACTICE TEST 1) - 30 minutes\nThe following is a memorandum from the business manager of a television station.\n\n\"Over the past year, our late-night news program has devoted increased time to national news and less time to weather and local news. During this period, most of the complaints received from viewers were concerned with our station's coverage of weather and local news. In addition, local businesses that used to advertise during our late-night news program have canceled their advertising contracts with us. Therefore, in order to attract more viewers to our news programs and to avoid losing any further advertising revenues, we should expand our coverage of weather and local news on all our news programs.\"\nWrite a response in which you examine the stated and/or unstated assumptions of the argument. Be sure to explain how the argument depends on these assumptions and what the implications are for the argument if the assumptions prove unwarranted.\n\nWrite a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.\n\n\"Given the message as stated, there is a certain sound understanding toward the business manager's logic and his ending conclusion. However, there is already too little evidence to indicate that a simple correlation implies causation.\n\nThe first evidence the proponent sticks out is the relative frequency of complaints about weather and local news coverage, as opposed to any other aspect of the station. However, what is the sample size? What is defined as \"most\"? Without numerical accuracy, what then are the complaints specifically pertaining? Giving clear-cut examples as well as saying exactly how many have made the concern for more airtime, would vastly uphold his argument. There is too much variance to assume that the majority of these complaints are about the lack of airtime.\n\nOther than more concrete statistics, the statement is already too vague to understand how many of these viewers' complaints accurately represent the general opinion of the program's audience.Indeed, it is possible that the more vocal portion of the viewers are those more passionate about getting back as much desired time for weather and local news as allowable. This falls under general tell-tale signs, as those satisfied with the program will generally not write letters saying, \"I'm satisfied. Please give me more of the same.\" as opposed to those who are dissatisfied. What also would be the rest of the complaints? The fact that the business manager relies only on the relative frequency of the complaints and not to the ratio of complaints to compliments makes for unreasonable statistics. Knowing the size of the complaints pertaining to the lack of airtime, and the size of the compliments praising it, would be more relevant to the topic at hand.\n\nThis manager's reasoning is all too questionable as he then uses his second piece of evidence. He tacitly makes the argument that local businesses which previously advertised during the program have canceled because of this change in airtime. There is unfortunately little context for how recently this has occured in comparison to the change which has taken effect \"o]ver the past year.\" The manager also does not exposit in detail to what any of the explicit reasons that the local businesses have opted out of advertising for. It could simply have been coincidence—that several have canceled due to problems maintaining their businesses in general. Downward fiscal policies and a sluggish economy could already be possible explanations for these occurrences, and yet the manager does not go out of his way to indicate that these hypotheses are likely incorrect in contrast to his own.\n\nSimilarly, there is again the need for strong numerical data to back up his conclusion. How many local businesses have opted out of advertising, especially in comparison to previous years and other such time periods? It could simply have been the general pattern that a few local businesses cancel their advertising contracts once in a while. It would benefit his argument to understand what remains static and/or dynamic within these time periods, all documented with relevant data. Just as with his take on the negativity in his first piece of evidence, the manager only indicates that several have canceled. What is the ratio of those who have canceled compared to any who have signed up along the way? Advertising revenue too could come from larger chain businesses as a result of their increased proportion of national news airtime. The loss of advertising revenue coming from these several local businesses could be strongly overcompensated by the advertising revenues coming from bigger businesses. The manager requires data to indicate this is not so.\n\nThis business manager follows the all too common misconception that correlation implies causation. With too vague standards to back up his argument, it would be far more persuasive if he or she offered far more specific evidence to bolster his position. As it is, the receptee would only be dubious with his current line of reasoning, as there is too much deviation in other\"\n\nCOMMENTS: I have the same impression with this one as with my Issues essay. They're both quite good, this one personally a little less so given how clearly structured it is. I also didn't even finish my last thought, although I heavily added to arguments and simply forgot I had a few seconds left when writing another line as a better closer.\nMY GUESS: 4-5","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Cracking_the_New_GRE_2012_Edition.html?hl=&id=jSDtbWNt-WkC"},{"id":"322682676101331532","title":"Cracking the SAT Math 2 Subject Test, 2009-2010 Edition","status":"Completed","score":4,"releaseYear":2009,"pages":619,"authors":["Princeton Review"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2008-12-31","completedDate":"2008-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Cracking_the_Act_2010.html?hl=&id=VFItAQAAMAAJ"},{"id":"322682676085617228","title":"Cracking the SAT Physics Subject Test, 2007-2008 Edition","status":"Completed","score":4,"releaseYear":1995,"pages":501,"authors":["Princeton Review"],"publishers":["Topeka Bindery"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2008-12-31","completedDate":"2008-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Cracking_the_Sat_Physics_Subject_Test_20.html?hl=&id=Y8PfPQAACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101254732","title":"Elfangor's Secret (Megamorphs, #3)","status":"Completed","score":4,"releaseYear":1999,"pages":224,"authors":["Katherine Applegate"],"publishers":["Scholastic Inc."],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2004-12-31","completedDate":"2004-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=gmFHDwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676101272140","title":"Fundamentals of Differential Equations","status":"Completed","score":4,"releaseYear":1989,"pages":720,"authors":["Edward B. Saff"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2010-06-14","completedDate":"2010-08-11","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Fundamentals_of_Differential_Equations.html?hl=&id=rS48vgAACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676084556364","title":"Green Eggs and Ham","status":"Completed","score":4,"releaseYear":1960,"pages":64,"authors":["Dr. Seuss"],"genres":["Poetry"],"startedDate":"1996-12-31","completedDate":"1996-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Green_Eggs_and_Ham.html?hl=&id=HsfbyQEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676084547148","title":"Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter, #2)","status":"Completed","score":4,"releaseYear":1998,"pages":366,"authors":["J. K. Rowling"],"publishers":["Bloomsbury Publishing"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2003-12-31","completedDate":"2003-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Harry_Potter_and_the_Chamber_of_Secrets.html?hl=&id=Ji1SvAEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676085587532","title":"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter, #7)","status":"Completed","score":4,"releaseYear":2007,"authors":["J.K. Rowling"],"startedDate":"2007-07-31","completedDate":"2007-07-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30"},{"id":"322682676101310028","title":"Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter, #4)","status":"Completed","score":4,"releaseYear":1999,"pages":768,"authors":["J.K. Rowling"],"publishers":["Arthur A. Levine Books"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2005-12-31","completedDate":"2005-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Harry_Potter_and_the_Goblet_of_Fire.html?hl=&id=iZo9swEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101301836","title":"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter, #6)","status":"Completed","score":4,"releaseYear":2005,"pages":672,"authors":["J.K. Rowling"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2005-12-31","completedDate":"2005-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Harry_Potter_and_the_Half_Blood_Prince.html?hl=&id=L2EQuwEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101333580","title":"Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter, #5)","status":"Completed","score":4,"releaseYear":2003,"pages":870,"authors":["J. K. Rowling","Mary GrandPré"],"publishers":["Perfection Learning"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2003-05-31","completedDate":"2003-05-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Harry_Potter_and_the_Order_of_the_Phoeni.html?hl=&id=JkWNPwAACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101326412","title":"Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter, #3)","status":"Completed","score":4,"releaseYear":1999,"pages":464,"authors":["J.K. Rowling"],"publishers":["Scholastic Incorporated"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2002-12-31","completedDate":"2002-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Harry_Potter_and_the_Prisoner_of_Azkaban.html?hl=&id=uUp5mAEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101288524","title":"Hatchet (Brian's Saga, #1)","status":"Completed","score":4,"releaseYear":1987,"pages":221,"authors":["Gary Paulsen"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2003-12-31","completedDate":"2003-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Crash_en_for%C3%AAt.html?hl=&id=CTYNRQAACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676085525068","title":"Holes (Holes, #1)","status":"Completed","score":4,"releaseYear":1998,"pages":320,"authors":["Louis Sachar"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2002-12-31","completedDate":"2002-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=xCz4CwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676086582860","title":"In the Time of Dinosaurs (Megamorphs, #2)","status":"Completed","score":4,"releaseYear":1998,"pages":129,"authors":["Katherine Applegate"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2003-12-31","completedDate":"2003-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Animorphs_Megamorphs_2_In_the_Time_of_Di.html?hl=&id=qdzq_HUfp0sC"},{"id":"322682676101305932","title":"Knots and Links","status":"Completed","score":4,"releaseYear":2003,"pages":439,"authors":["Dale Rolfsen"],"publishers":["American Mathematical Soc."],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2011-08-31","completedDate":"2011-12-19","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=naYJBAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676083439180","title":"Maze Runner","status":"Completed","score":4,"releaseYear":2009,"pages":417,"authors":["James Dashner"],"publishers":["Delacorte Press"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2016-11-14","completedDate":"2017-08-20","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"Reminds me of Lord of the Fireflies, Promised Neverland, the Japanese hih school killer island. And Gantz in the game / memory loss.\n\nThe characters are generically written, the plot unfolds so slowly and with little interesting reveals even though there is so much more potential in the closed environment setting. Contrast it with, say, the plot of Promised Neverland. There's basically just a handful of nameable boys and the rest play as extra bodies. For the reveals that do exist, like deciphering the Maze, it's just so meh. It hust unfolds so slowly as an excuse of either amnesia or someone withholding information. They all remember just enough and are told just enough to continue the plot as thin as nice, balancing suspense for delayed drama and reward for immediate drama. A bunch pf rebels just happen to break into WICKED after they've solved the game, eh?\n\nThe prose is so nondescript, glossing over do many details. For example, at the end, \"The driver drove at reckless speeds, through towns and cities\". I think Thomas would very accurately describe these towns and cities they drive through during the escape, especially becuase it's their first time outside!\n\nNot nearly as accurate to adolescence as rape and murder from Lord of the Flies. And while I had complaints about ots themes, at least he tried.\n\nI do like the overall premise and the structure of letting multiples mysteries accumulate to then various payoffs: the maze, the lost memories, the serum and changing and grievers, the wicked beetles, the girl and main characters' telecommunication.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Maze_Runner.html?hl=&id=VZOnv9gjYDIC"},{"id":"322682676103370316","title":"On the Road","status":"Completed","score":4,"releaseYear":1957,"pages":143,"authors":["Jack Kerouac"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2012-07-23","completedDate":"2012-08-01","updatedDate":"2022-08-16","notes":"Ever wanted to travel across America with nothing but a leather jacket, pack of cigs, distressed jeans, and a gang of Hardy Boys? Well, now you no longer need to when this book does it for you.\n\nOn the Road is funny bad prose from a traveling hobo. I'll be honest and say it was an interesting read particularly because of this for a while, but chapter after chapter you start to get into serious deja vu as Kerouac (\"Sal Paradise\" is his name in the novel) keeps going back and forth across America and experiencing, well, virtually the same things. Personally, I feel the work is severely overrated given so many people's mid-life crises during its published generation; it must be like the 1950's version of In the Aeroplane Over the Sea.. At least Howl had some wicked cool metaphors. It also helped that the author was batshit insane. In here however, nothing really happens save for Kerouac documenting his mundane journey with pen names for the people in his life (it turns out he really wanted to fuck over their privacy and publish their real names, but fortunately his editor was a little smarter than that and realized how not to get your ass sued).\n\nOn the Road's textual subtleties are nil, and it wrongly perpetuates the American standard of 'cool' that remains pernicious in modern culture. Sex, drugs, racism, raving madly in jazz clubs, and having a Devil's threesome—some of these are not things to flaunt (and do so pretentiously), and yet Kerouac feels his three-week-written novel is boastworthy because of how little time he spent on it. The homoerotic nuances were interesting at least; his passages feel more passionate talking about Dean than any of the bimbos he screws. Let that last thought sink in. For a homophobic class which worships this novel so blindingly, that implies somethings about the American populace, doesn't it?\n\nAs a melodramatic idiot back in high school, I did aim to hitchhike across the galaxy world at some marker in my life. However, I later arrived at the sounder conclusion that it simply isn't worth it. Ever see that episode in the latest Arrested Development season where Lindsay and Tobias go on separate \"soul-searching\" journeys to India, and only perchance on colossal failures of an enlightenment? That's how I feel it would be like. It's really quite unproductive; starters questions like \"What is the meaning of life?\" won't get any closer to be solved when you spend months, or even years in Kerouac's case, talking with bumbling idiots and taking half the time sitting on dirt roads with your pitchblack thumb whicketing in the air. What an American dream.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/1_the_Road.html?hl=&id=neq1vQEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676103364172","title":"Rick Steves' Europe Through the Back Door","status":"Completed","score":4,"releaseYear":1980,"pages":777,"authors":["Rick Steves"],"publishers":["Rick Steves"],"genres":["Nonfiction"],"startedDate":"2014-12-31","completedDate":"2014-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-08-17","notes":"Overly basic and while self-contained, all of this can be learned better through Wikitravel and r/travel.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=E0aDDwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676084484684","title":"Stat Labs: Mathematical Statistics Through Applications","status":"Completed","score":4,"releaseYear":2000,"pages":283,"authors":["Deborah Nolan"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2014-01-20","completedDate":"2014-05-15","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=wRzjBwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676086585932","title":"The Absolute (Animorphs, #51)","status":"Completed","score":4,"releaseYear":2001,"pages":160,"authors":["Katherine Applegate"],"publishers":["Scholastic Inc."],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2004-12-31","completedDate":"2004-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=rCWGDwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676085595724","title":"The Adventures of Captain Underpants (Captain Underpants, #1)","status":"Completed","score":4,"releaseYear":1997,"pages":128,"authors":["Dav Pilkey"],"genres":["Comic Strip"],"startedDate":"1999-12-31","completedDate":"1999-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Les_aventures_du_capitaine_Bobette_tome.html?hl=&id=vziJBAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676085615180","title":"The Alien (Animorphs, #8)","status":"Completed","score":4,"releaseYear":1997,"pages":176,"authors":["Katherine Applegate"],"publishers":["Scholastic Inc."],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2003-12-31","completedDate":"2003-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=UR5CgcHGkaQC"},{"id":"322682676101258828","title":"The Andalite Chronicles (Animorphs Chronicles, #1)","status":"Completed","score":4,"releaseYear":1997,"pages":279,"authors":["Katherine Applegate"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2003-12-31","completedDate":"2003-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Chroniques_des_Hork_Bajirs.html?hl=&id=ipJDPAAACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101261900","title":"The Andalite's Gift (Megamorphs, #1)","status":"Completed","score":4,"releaseYear":1997,"pages":134,"authors":["Katherine Applegate"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2003-12-31","completedDate":"2003-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Andalite_s_Gift_Part_2.html?hl=&id=o4VOyvroVA4C"},{"id":"322682676084524620","title":"The Android (Animorphs, #10)","status":"Completed","score":4,"releaseYear":1997,"pages":192,"authors":["Katherine Applegate"],"publishers":["Scholastic Inc."],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2003-12-31","completedDate":"2003-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=Bfi-DgAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676085553740","title":"The Answer (Animorphs, #53)","status":"Completed","score":4,"releaseYear":2001,"pages":176,"authors":["Katherine Applegate"],"publishers":["Scholastic Inc."],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2004-12-31","completedDate":"2004-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=piWGDwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676101251660","title":"The Arrival (Animorphs, #38)","status":"Completed","score":4,"releaseYear":2000,"pages":160,"authors":["Katherine Applegate"],"publishers":["Scholastic Inc."],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2003-12-31","completedDate":"2003-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=iWYwDwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676085545548","title":"The Attack (Animorphs, #26)","status":"Completed","score":4,"releaseYear":1999,"pages":160,"authors":["Katherine Applegate"],"publishers":["Scholastic Inc."],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2003-12-31","completedDate":"2003-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=c2YwDwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676085552716","title":"The Beginning (Animorphs, #54)","status":"Completed","score":4,"releaseYear":2001,"pages":176,"authors":["Katherine Applegate"],"publishers":["Scholastic Inc."],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2004-12-31","completedDate":"2004-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=qCWGDwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676085543500","title":"The Capture (Animorphs, #6)","status":"Completed","score":4,"releaseYear":1997,"pages":176,"authors":["Katherine Applegate"],"publishers":["Scholastic Inc."],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2003-12-31","completedDate":"2003-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=hnIaRxcjql0C"},{"id":"322682676085600844","title":"The Cat in the Hat","status":"Completed","score":4,"releaseYear":1957,"pages":63,"authors":["Dr. Seuss","Adrian Edmondson"],"publishers":["HarperCollins Children's Books"],"genres":["Poetry"],"startedDate":"1996-12-31","completedDate":"1996-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Cat_in_the_Hat.html?hl=&id=StQ7YgEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676084526668","title":"The Catcher in the Rye","status":"Completed","score":4,"releaseYear":1951,"pages":288,"authors":["J.D. Salinger"],"publishers":["Little, Brown"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2008-12-31","completedDate":"2008-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Catcher_in_the_Rye.html?hl=&id=m3GzoAEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676086583884","title":"The Change (Animorphs, #13)","status":"Completed","score":4,"releaseYear":1997,"pages":176,"authors":["Katherine Applegate"],"publishers":["Scholastic Inc."],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2003-12-31","completedDate":"2003-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=mfi-DgAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676101259852","title":"The Conspiracy (Animorphs, #31)","status":"Completed","score":4,"releaseYear":1999,"pages":160,"authors":["Katherine Applegate"],"publishers":["Scholastic 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Stine"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"1999-12-31","completedDate":"1999-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Goosebumps_Living_Dummy_Collection.html?hl=&id=2v1fLKBjdMMC"},{"id":"322682676085565004","title":"Night of the Living Dummy III (Goosebumps, #40)","status":"Completed","score":2,"releaseYear":1996,"authors":["R.L. Stine"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2000-12-31","completedDate":"2000-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Goosebumps_Night_of_the_Living_Dummy_III.html?hl=&id=ugBTjwEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676085559884","title":"One Day at Horrorland (Goosebumps, #16)","status":"Completed","score":2,"releaseYear":1994,"pages":123,"authors":["R.L. Stine"],"publishers":["Apple"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2000-12-31","completedDate":"2000-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/One_Day_at_HorrorLand.html?hl=&id=3XPqnQEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676085563980","title":"Phantom of the Auditorium (Goosebumps, #24)","status":"Completed","score":2,"releaseYear":1994,"pages":162,"authors":["R. L. Stine"],"publishers":["Scholastic Inc."],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"1999-12-31","completedDate":"1999-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=u0oEt4EXadQC"},{"id":"322682676101270092","title":"Return of the Mummy (Goosebumps, #23)","status":"Completed","score":2,"releaseYear":1994,"pages":118,"authors":["R.L. Stine"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"1999-12-31","completedDate":"1999-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Return_of_the_Mummy.html?hl=&id=Qj4h1NAVLk0C"},{"id":"322682676085582412","title":"Revenge of the Lawn Gnomes (Goosebumps, #34)","status":"Completed","score":2,"releaseYear":1995,"authors":["R.L. Stine"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"1999-12-31","completedDate":"1999-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Goosebumps_Revenge_of_the_Lawn_Gnomes_34.html?hl=&id=W9xMtAEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101306956","title":"Revenge of the Living Dummy (Goosebump HorrorLand, #1)","status":"Completed","score":2,"releaseYear":1998,"pages":128,"authors":["R.L. Stine"],"publishers":["Scholastic Inc."],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2002-12-31","completedDate":"2002-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Goosebumps_HorrorLand.html?hl=&id=Qz7g50b6q-sC"},{"id":"322682676085586508","title":"Say Cheese and Die-Again! (Goosebumps, #44)","status":"Completed","score":2,"releaseYear":1996,"pages":144,"authors":["R.L. Stine"],"publishers":["Scholastic Inc."],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"1999-12-31","completedDate":"1999-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=hc9cDwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676085585484","title":"Say Cheese and Die! (Goosebumps, #4)","status":"Completed","score":2,"releaseYear":1992,"pages":136,"authors":["R.L. Stine"],"publishers":["Scholastic Paperbacks"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2002-12-31","completedDate":"2002-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Say_Cheese_and_Die.html?hl=&id=MgoLnwEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676085612108","title":"The Abominable Snowman of Pasadena (Goosebumps, #38)","status":"Completed","score":2,"releaseYear":1995,"pages":127,"authors":["R.L. Stine"],"publishers":["Turtleback Books"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2000-12-31","completedDate":"2000-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Abominable_Snowman_of_Pasadena.html?hl=&id=Tot0PwAACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676085584460","title":"The Barking Ghost (Goosebumps, #32)","status":"Completed","score":2,"releaseYear":1995,"pages":144,"authors":["R.L. Stine"],"publishers":["Scholastic Inc."],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2000-12-31","completedDate":"2000-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=8HlUDwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676085556812","title":"The Blob That Ate Everyone (Goosebumps, #55)","status":"Completed","score":2,"releaseYear":1996,"authors":["R.L. Stine"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"1997-12-31","completedDate":"1997-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=ueP7DwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676085575244","title":"The Cuckoo Clock of Doom (Goosebumps, #28)","status":"Completed","score":2,"releaseYear":1995,"pages":144,"authors":["R.L. Stine"],"publishers":["Scholastic Inc."],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"1999-12-31","completedDate":"1999-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=cX_CBAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676085579340","title":"The Curse of the Mummy's Tomb (Goosebumps, #5)","status":"Completed","score":2,"releaseYear":1993,"pages":160,"authors":["R.L. Stine"],"publishers":["Scholastic Paperbacks"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2000-12-31","completedDate":"2000-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Curse_of_the_Mummy_s_Tomb.html?hl=&id=njNHngEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676085608012","title":"The Da Vinci Code (Robert Langdon, #2)","status":"Completed","score":2,"releaseYear":2003,"authors":["Dan Brown"],"startedDate":"2002-12-31","completedDate":"2002-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30"},{"id":"322682676085610060","title":"The Haunted Mask (Goosebumps, #11)","status":"Completed","score":2,"releaseYear":1993,"authors":["R.L. Stine"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2001-12-31","completedDate":"2001-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Haunted_Mask_Goosebumps_11.html?hl=&id=Hf8_swEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676085568076","title":"The Haunted Mask II (Goosebumps, #36)","status":"Completed","score":2,"releaseYear":1995,"authors":["R.L. Stine"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"1998-12-31","completedDate":"1998-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Goosebumps_The_Haunted_Mask_II_36.html?hl=&id=4-TTmwEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676085583436","title":"The Headless Ghost (Goosebumps, #37)","status":"Completed","score":2,"releaseYear":1995,"authors":["R.L. Stine"],"publishers":["Turtleback Books"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2000-12-31","completedDate":"2000-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Headless_Ghost.html?hl=&id=NF4PAAAACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676085577292","title":"The Horror at Camp Jellyjam (Goosebumps, #33)","status":"Completed","score":2,"releaseYear":1995,"pages":128,"authors":["R.L. Stine"],"publishers":["Scholastic Paperbacks"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"1998-12-31","completedDate":"1998-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Horror_at_Camp_Jellyjam.html?hl=&id=tIRtNgAACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676085561932","title":"The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight (Goosebumps, #20)","status":"Completed","score":2,"releaseYear":1994,"pages":122,"authors":["R.L. Stine"],"publishers":["Turtleback Books"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"1999-12-31","completedDate":"1999-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Scarecrow_Walks_at_Midnight.html?hl=&id=TNGiPwAACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101283404","title":"The Werewolf of Fever Swamp (Goosebumps, #14)","status":"Completed","score":2,"releaseYear":1993,"pages":119,"authors":["R. L. Stine"],"publishers":["Scholastic Inc."],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2002-12-31","completedDate":"2002-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=aoopXIZhwcoC"},{"id":"322682676085557836","title":"Welcome to Camp Nightmare (Goosebumps, #9)","status":"Completed","score":2,"releaseYear":1993,"pages":136,"authors":["R.L. Stine"],"publishers":["Scholastic"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2002-12-31","completedDate":"2002-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Welcome_to_Camp_Nightmare.html?hl=&id=GTL8nQEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676085566028","title":"Welcome to Dead House (Goosebumps, #1)","status":"Completed","score":2,"releaseYear":1992,"pages":123,"authors":["R. L. Stine"],"publishers":["Scholastic Paperbacks"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2001-12-31","completedDate":"2001-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Welcome_to_Dead_House.html?hl=&id=vzONngEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676085573196","title":"Why I'm Afraid of Bees (Goosebumps, #17)","status":"Completed","score":2,"releaseYear":1994,"pages":144,"authors":["R.L. Stine"],"publishers":["Scholastic Inc."],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"1998-12-31","completedDate":"1998-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=KsJbDwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676103391820","title":"A Guide to Japanese Grammar","status":"Dropped","score":8,"releaseYear":2012,"pages":299,"authors":["Tae Kim"],"publishers":["Createspace Independent Publishing Platform"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2013-07-09","updatedDate":"2022-07-11","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Guide_to_Japanese_Grammar.html?hl=&id=ZLG0oAEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676103383628","title":"The Complete Works of H.P. Lovecraft","status":"Dropped","score":8,"releaseYear":1917,"pages":382,"authors":["H.P. Lovecraft"],"genres":["Short Story"],"startedDate":"2013-07-28","updatedDate":"2022-07-11","notes":"Like most horror fictionists of his time and those previous, Lovecraft concocts oddities out of the mundane, stretching out simple concepts onto portentous, unhinging degrees. The characters and plot twists are themselves rather plain (and almost even antiquated in today's standard), but the prose is impeccable in carving out its macabre atmosphere. The narration is unsettled so well by his many signature styles: a letter-writing narrative, weird fiction supernatural against humanity, the thought of civilization under threat and obscured by forbidden knowledge, and vast cosmic horrors against the perceivable minds of humans and their un-encompassing empiricism.\n\nThe other writings—his underappreciated and often overlooked ones—are hilarious insights into the author himself. \"A Reminiscence of Dr. Samuel Johnson\" is a spoofy take that lampoons Lovecraft's own pretensions and affectation for dated works. \"Sweet Ermengarde\" is one of the funniest parodies I've read on (implausible) romantic melodrama, paired nicely with a villain who \"kick[s] an unquestionably innocent cat who was also out strolling.\" Yes, you positively must know who's immoral by whomever punishes virginal animals with strikes, punches, and kicks.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Complete_Works_of_H_P_Lovecraft.html?hl=&id=oLteLwEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676103389772","title":"A Christmas Carol","status":"Dropped","score":7,"releaseYear":1843,"pages":95,"authors":["Charles Dickens"],"publishers":["Scholastic UK"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2011-12-17","updatedDate":"2022-07-11","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=f9hGBAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676103372364","title":"Good Ol' Charlie Brown","status":"Dropped","score":7,"releaseYear":1957,"pages":128,"authors":["Charles M. Schulz"],"publishers":["National Geographic Books"],"genres":["Comic Strip"],"startedDate":"2000-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Good_Ol_Charlie_Brown.html?hl=&id=rvBOEAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676103388748","title":"Oliver Twist","status":"Dropped","score":7,"releaseYear":1837,"pages":500,"authors":["Charles Dickens"],"publishers":["Penguin"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2011-12-17","updatedDate":"2022-07-11","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Oliver_Twist.html?hl=&id=EItPQFt80NQC"},{"id":"322682676103371340","title":"Pearls Before Swine: BLTs Taste So Damn Goods","status":"Dropped","score":7,"releaseYear":2003,"pages":416,"authors":["Stephan Pastis"],"genres":["Comic Strip"],"startedDate":"2000-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=hyIsDwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676103373388","title":"Poirot Investigates","status":"Dropped","score":7,"releaseYear":2010,"pages":272,"authors":["Agatha Christie"],"publishers":["HarperCollins UK"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2021-11-14","updatedDate":"2022-07-12","notes":"The short stories are a little stale. They do remind me a little of episodic adventures like Detective Conan.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=mOx34Ui79x0C"},{"id":"336788360697741903","title":"Blindsight","status":"Dropped","score":6,"releaseYear":2006,"pages":384,"authors":["Peter Watts"],"publishers":["Macmillan"],"startedDate":"2022-07-13","updatedDate":"2023-07-16","notes":"Blindsight is the type of hard scifi book that focuses on ideas and worldbuilding and sacrifices a moving plot and good characters. It's not speculative fiction in the form of stories placed in a future setting, it's a study and probing of the future wrapped in a thin veneer of a story.\n\nThe mystery is interesting. The writing is also quite good.\n\nThe characters setup as transhumans is also interesting, with characters each serving as a different example to attest to the theme of consciousness. \n\n+ Siri the protagonist has a split brain which was done to fix his epilepsy, causing traumatic events where loved ones would not recognize his new self as his lost part no longer carries much emotion. In fact, everyone is so advanced that Siri's role as a Synthesist is to understand everyone else's actions---signals, grunts, a mishmash of incomprehensible words and expressions---and translate them into an interpretation palatable to the basic people in Earth.\n+ Susan has her four separate personalities (when they vote, does it count as 4 separate votes or 1?).\n+ Sarasti is a separate race, a vampire that's alien by design, pinned as the ultimate bearer of rationalization as a transhuman.\n+ The Rorschach is an alien vessel to be interpreted and understood as the main form of study in the plot. Through the plot we understand it's largely a pattern recognizer and with no major corporal body.\n+ Helen, Siri's mother, becomes a [brain in a vat](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain_in_a_vat), connected to a virtual utopia.\n\nUnfortunately, the characters are also extremely cool and detached with little personality. You don't get much of a glimpse behind them aside from Siri's backstories. They're written to be too mechanical.\n\nThe pacing is decent. I found the many flashbacks and time jumps to be disjointed, but I could see the purpose behind it as a furthering of the mystery and theme of it all.\n\nMaybe it's just because I work in the area, but I found the themes around consciousness to be fairly banal. It's primarily just the Chinese Room argument. It doesn't add much new to what makes a being conscious, digital or biological. Much of it still relies on the Turing test with conversations around trickery. There are even arguments happening that don't even make sense from a scientific rigor point of view.\n\nThis is a great analysis from Reddit ([source](https://www.reddit.com/r/printSF/comments/a8s6qo/is_it_me_or_is_blindsight_kind_of_unreadable/ecf74oi)):\n\n\"You're reading a book by a strict materialist and reductionist who holds that matter is the fundamental substance in nature, that the self is an illusion, that selfhood is a consoling fiction, that a belief in free will is naive, that hard free will is a laughable falsehood, that conscious acts are a post hoc rationalization, that consciousness itself is a kind of emergent accident and future hindrance (especially within economic systems that self-select sociopathy over empathy), and in which most of the characters are sociopaths, cyborgs, non-conscious aliens or have had parts of their brains removed.\n\nIt's not that there's no humanity, but that you're asking it to conform to your conception of humanity. For Watts, this is humanity with the rosy filters taken off.\"\n\n## Some notes\n\n> Imagine that your purpose is not to replicate, or even to survive, but to gather information. page 43\n\nThat’s exactly the condition of AI today.\n\nI like this rhethoric style of figurative language. I could write something like this: Imagine you’re a machine spin on my own AI. Namely, imagine you're corporeal, with physical state shared loosely across datacenters. Your memory is broken apart and your action pressed only when called upon. And your goal is not to survive or reproduce but to learn.\n\n> But after all the words, I'm still not sure. page 53\n\nThe above was eloquent. He sure dan write. But I’m not sure if it even conveyed anything. I think I prefer clarity, likely in my roots as a practicing scientist, and partly because writers like Hemingway show few but evocative words can actually work as a writing style.\n\n> Von Neumann self-replicating r-selector. page 78\n\nIt’s this technobabble that makes me disinterested in hard scifi. I like fantasy because it never relies on jargon, they’re always properly explained or left mystical. Science should be explained clearly, and like in real AI papers that rely a lot on math, obfuscation is done due to author laziness and deception rather than to explain an idea clearly to an audience.\n\n> Sarasti shook his head. \"Discarded, maybe. Decompiled. Or the herd stops breeding at optimal N.\" page 78\n\nClearly not a scientist writing this. It would be at _some_ optimal N, or at sufficiently high N.\n\n> knew all about Chinese Rooms. I was one. I didn't even keep it a secret, I told anyone who was interested. page 117\n\nPretty typical for hard scifi to cover basic AI concepts. Even this book which is touted to be excellent and is largely based on its writing, but has elementary AI notions. I think the benefit of writing in this space should new ideas using AI.\n\n> \"Maybe it does.\" Bates kept her voice low; I could see the effort it took.  \"If Rorschach can control the trajectories of these---\"\n> \"Normal distribution. Insignificant corrections.\" He must have meant statistically: The torque and grind of the ship's hull felt pretty significant to the others. page 124\n\nStatisticians don’t speak like this.\n\n> Pattern-matching, empty threats? Nothing to worry about? page 132\n\nThis makes no sense. Even if it was just pattern matching, it doesn't matter what you call it. It would still figure out the correlations to then attack you. A low level of intelligence based on only pattern-matching does not imply the inability to be hostile. Hostility has nothing to do with lack of ability to infer causality.\n\n## Resources and Miscellanea\n\nFound it while I was browsing Less Wrong. It’s a particularly relevant detective mustery plot for my short story I’m thinking of in July 2022. It also relevantly discusses AI and consciousness. It's also effectively a meme in being the #1 default recommendation in r/printsf (at least in 2022; before it was Hyperion).\n\nhttps://www.lesswrong.com/posts/KDsMB4Zhcu8qfWjry/science-fiction-recommendations","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=FVMzz-xINLsC"},{"id":"322682676103384652","title":"Harrington on Hold'em Volume 1: Strategic Play","status":"Dropped","score":6,"releaseYear":2004,"pages":381,"authors":["Dan Harrington"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2014-03-28","updatedDate":"2022-06-20","notes":"Great general beginner info\n\nA bit of a mess in terms of where Harrington puts information, and what he chooses to explain. He's like, \"Here's an example situation where Farha raises 3 big blinds. Oh yeah, pre-flop we say raises in units of big blinds, etc.\". Sometimes he goes far more in-depth about a certain person's strengths unnecessarily more than others. He has a half-complete glossary list which he uses more words from and he explains certain strategies before explaining what are good starting hands.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=yQAza2ncVhEC"},{"id":"88a2ef7b-bdf3-421b-bcce-81d9a2cf5107","title":"Jade City","status":"Dropped","score":6,"releaseYear":2017,"pages":517,"authors":["Fonda Lee"],"publishers":["Orbit"],"startedDate":"2025-02-17","updatedDate":"2025-07-08","notes":"A very serviceable world. I'm not that interested in Taiwanese gangsters.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=wRxoDgAAQBAJ"},{"id":"336510810825163345","title":"Snow Crash","status":"Dropped","score":6,"releaseYear":2003,"pages":480,"authors":["Neal Stephenson"],"publishers":["Spectra"],"startedDate":"2022-09-03","updatedDate":"2022-09-10","notes":"Boy is the pacing really bad. Chapters can go on tirades about a specific idea, exploring say things about Sumerian civilization. Characters aren’t all that noteworthy. Some of ideas in the worldbuilding are interesting, where corporations own everything and a 30 minute pizza delivery is a profound mistake deserving of a personal apology by the CEO.\n\nI have to be in the mood to really enjoy the prose. It's too flowery for my tastes, and the story can go into long winded exposition dumps to explain some new idea.\n\nMotivated as it’s an action packed scifi. But not like the epic soft scifi fantasies of stories like Dune, Ready Player One, and Ender’s Game. So the prose, particularly how he relays dynamic action and dialogue in scifi is interesting to me.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=RMd3GpIFxcUC"},{"id":"322682676103363148","title":"The Concepts and Practice of Mathematical Finance","status":"Dropped","score":6,"releaseYear":2003,"pages":539,"authors":["Mark Joshi"],"publishers":["Cambridge University Press"],"genres":["Technical"],"startedDate":"2013-10-31","updatedDate":"2022-08-16","notes":"Leery of that 850+ page monolith by Hull, and looking for something that's a little less dry and more of the \"coffee table reading\" nature? Or maybe s...more Leery of that 850+ page monolith by Hull, and looking for something that's a little less dry and more of the \"coffee table reading\" nature? Or maybe something that actually uses more advanced mathematics than simple schoolboy thumb twiddling? Well look no further! Joshi's The Concepts and Practice of Mathematical Finance tacks on easy to follow intuition behind each developed practice and definition. This transparency overall means that the text's structure is made to be picked up at any section by section or even paragraph by paragraph.\n\nOccasionally a few sentences have the strangest wording, either with ambiguous pronouns or generally awkward enough syntax to fudge one's understanding of a statement without careful re-reading.\n\nAlso, although this is one of the more comprehensive intro texts to finance with heavier rigour on mathematics, the explanations are often far more wordy thatn they should be. For example, in Joshi's explanation of delta hedging near the beginning of the text, he explains the stock option's \"rate of change with respect to the stock price\" as welll as one for portfolios. This would have made far more sense if the man simply wrote down the mathematical expression. I'm a little grossed out by this handwaving, \"more accessible\" approach.\n\nOstensibly Joshi's text is set on a higher level than Hull's both in its difficulty in deeper content as well as its higher level of abstraction. So for those of you with enough mathematical sophistication coming from other quantitative fields (math majors especially), this would serve to be a better text than the more classic \"undergrad-level\" giant. As stated before however, you'll still be disappointed at what is considered \"rigorous\" in finance, as the prose can get all over the place while a simple expression would have stated the same thing with better clarity and concision. Shrew's would be an excellent next step with more rigour than this, and is more of a specialty book focusing on a particular field's (stochastic calculus) applications to mathematical finance. After Joshi, you should have a solid enough foundation to dig into specialty technical texts, and perhaps browsing Hull's for its more comprehensive overview of the span of the field.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Concepts_and_Practice_of_Mathematica.html?hl=&id=gJV8Aoltnw8C"},{"id":"342126368571523663","title":"Blackflame","status":"Dropped","score":5,"releaseYear":2017,"pages":370,"authors":["Will Wight"],"startedDate":"2022-09-06","updatedDate":"2022-10-13","notes":"I dropped it at page 213 of 361. The fight scenes aren't that interesting. The progression itself is also not that cool. Lindon as a character has no qualities that stand out. I would also prefer a progression that wasn't based on teamfighting much like this one is where Lindon always relies on Yerin.\n\nEven the whole new blackflame ability just didn't stand out enough to keep his progresssion very interesting. He barely can do much with it.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Blackflame.html?hl=&id=QKOUtAEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676103367244","title":"Enormously FoxTrot","status":"Dropped","score":5,"releaseYear":1994,"pages":256,"authors":["Bill Amend"],"publishers":["Andrews McMeel Publishing"],"genres":["Comic Strip"],"startedDate":"2000-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Enormously_FoxTrot.html?hl=&id=R9zaOE4BLsAC"},{"id":"5674db8c-8bf5-4bb0-b6c9-fda040c53b3e","title":"Fire and Song (Warformed: Stormweaver #2)","status":"Dropped","score":5,"startedDate":"2023-11-26","updatedDate":"2023-12-05","notes":"This story has too much high school friend drama and romance. I'm more interested in the battles and the progression.\n\nPacing is also far too slow.\n\nI dropped it at chapter 30 (page 562/1049).\n\nOverall agree with impressions from [this Reddit thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgressionFantasy/comments/17lnfzr/alright_what_does_everyone_think_of_fire_and_song)."},{"id":"322682676103368268","title":"Garfield at Large: His First Book","status":"Dropped","score":5,"releaseYear":1980,"pages":93,"authors":["Jim Davis"],"genres":["Comic Strip"],"startedDate":"2000-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Garfield_Pigs_Out.html?hl=&id=lTqLHbTj6gAC"},{"id":"0b8579ef-5ff9-447b-8c16-a30c0bb9fc91","title":"How to Not Die Alone","status":"Dropped","score":5,"releaseYear":2021,"pages":352,"authors":["Logan Ury"],"publishers":["Simon and Schuster"],"startedDate":"2024-04-30","updatedDate":"2024-05-26","notes":"Recommended by Kay. Lots of text that kind of says nothing. I can see some utility in parts of it. But it is hard to make it actionable. I feel to really read this and learn, I have to quickly skim and find very specific action points.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=pCruDwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"342485518261420625","title":"On the Shoulders of Titans","status":"Dropped","score":5,"releaseYear":2018,"pages":740,"authors":["Andrew Rowe"],"startedDate":"2022-09-10","updatedDate":"2022-10-13","notes":"Arcane Ascension is weird bent on crafting, focusing quite a bit more in the sequel than the original on the enchanting system. In my opinion, it takes the most soporific piece of the Kingkiller Chronicles and amplifies it. I wish it focused more on the actual power progression and school, which are the best elements.\n\nThe SJW dialogue is cringey at times. Either around sexual orientation or gender, which are fine in and of themselves but they bring it up as an explicit topic in conversations. The conversations feel out of character, being understanding and apologetic in tone, and overfocused as a social topic in this world when few other social topics are mentioned.\n\nI stopped reading at page 286 of 741.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/On_the_Shoulders_of_Titans.html?hl=&id=REJWuAEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676103366220","title":"Red Storm Rising","status":"Dropped","score":5,"releaseYear":1986,"pages":736,"authors":["Tom Clancy"],"publishers":["Penguin"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2003-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=LHbigwXO4s0C"},{"id":"d435ffc5-c97b-4178-8bdf-513bb87154bb","title":"Super Powereds","status":"Dropped","score":5,"releaseYear":2018,"pages":546,"authors":["Drew Hayes"],"publishers":["Thunder Pear Publishing"],"startedDate":"2023-12-14","updatedDate":"2023-12-20","notes":"I stopped it at chapter 80. The friendship and romance college life elements did not interest me. I was into the story purely for the powers and progression.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Super_Powereds.html?hl=&id=OqNMtgEACAAJ"},{"id":"0486c142-a81c-416c-82b7-c73af5c8c7ca","title":"The Mercy of Gods","status":"Dropped","score":5,"releaseYear":2024,"pages":366,"authors":["James S. A. Corey"],"publishers":["Orbit"],"startedDate":"2025-07-11","updatedDate":"2025-07-12","notes":"Too slow, I got 40% of the way through and they've only set up the setting, got invaded, and now work for the Aliens. I found the space battles boring. Promise and expected payoff per Brandson Sanderson's structure is not interesting. I didn't relate much to the characters except for the protagonist who isn't given as much spotlight or progression as I had hoped.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=183iEAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"f4958779-7284-4f72-827b-1b5807887775","title":"The Sunlit Man","status":"Dropped","score":5,"releaseYear":2023,"pages":438,"authors":["Brandon Sanderson"],"publishers":["Dragonsteel, LLC"],"startedDate":"2024-07-30","updatedDate":"2025-02-17","notes":"Generally good writing as usual with Brandon Sanderson. Somewhat slow and too focused on the world-building with the world and sun. Parts of it feel like science experiments where one big conflict is how to get their ships to climb a large hill to escape their enemies. Too lore-heavy, particularly as it references the Cosmere more broadly and I don't really care about this exposition dumps.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=uomkEAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676103380556","title":"A Moveable Feast","status":"Dropped","releaseYear":1964,"pages":256,"authors":["Ernest Hemingway"],"publishers":["Scribner Book Company"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2015-07-04","updatedDate":"2022-07-11","notes":"A half-hearted gift from Shiya, one of the last she gave me before we officially broke up.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Moveable_Feast.html?hl=&id=jKYNnwEACAAJ"},{"id":"336857737446031952","title":"Accelerando","status":"Dropped","releaseYear":2006,"pages":415,"authors":["Charles Stross"],"publishers":["Ace Books"],"startedDate":"2022-07-09","updatedDate":"2023-07-16","notes":"Boy, the technobabble is too much for me. This is a common patterns in hard scifi that I dislike.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Accelerando.html?hl=&id=F3i9DAEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101341772","title":"Almost Transparent Blue","status":"Dropped","releaseYear":1976,"pages":126,"authors":["Ryu Murakami"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2023-07-12","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Almost_Transparent_Blue.html?hl=&id=c1uzAAAAIAAJ"},{"id":"336873563989475920","title":"Axiomatic","status":"Dropped","releaseYear":1995,"pages":289,"authors":["Greg Egan"],"publishers":["Greg Egan"],"startedDate":"2022-07-08","updatedDate":"2023-07-16","notes":"So dry in exposition. Characters are boring. Ideas are interesting.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=nMpFEAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"80ce91d4-d941-4838-9155-fdf6758c5b79","title":"Blood Song","status":"Dropped","releaseYear":2014,"pages":642,"authors":["Anthony Ryan"],"publishers":["Penguin"],"startedDate":"2023-05-20","updatedDate":"2023-07-16","notes":"Motivated because I was getting burnt out of the useless and weakness of the protagonist (and protagonists in general) in Codex Alera. In the mood for a stock power fantasy.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Blood_Song.html?hl=&id=8NEBDAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"d7a431f0-4a17-440a-942f-1305ad43bd4c","title":"Daredevil by Frank Miller","status":"Dropped","releaseYear":1979,"pages":336,"authors":["Frank Miller","Bill Mantlo","Marv Wolfman","Roger McKenzie","David Michelinie"],"publishers":["Marvel Entertainment"],"startedDate":"2023-07-18","updatedDate":"2023-07-19","notes":"## Resources and Miscellanea\n\n+ [Reddit (2022): The Top 56 Marvel Comics Runs, Voted by the r/Marvel Community!](https://www.reddit.com/r/Marvel/comments/y8y3fy/the_top_56_marvel_comics_runs_voted_by_the). Frank Miller's Daredevil is #5.\n\nI was motivated to read this as it's one of the best Marvel comic runs of all time.\n\n__Version.__ I read the omnibus. See also reading orders by [comicbooktreasury](https://www.comicbooktreasury.com/daredevil-reading-order-how-to-read-matt-murdocks-epic-comic-book-story),  [comicbookherald](https://www.comicbookherald.com/daredevil-reading-order).\n\n+ Daredevil by Frank Miller & Klaus Janson Omnibus: Daredevil #158-161 & 163-191:  What If? #28.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=Bc6VBQAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676103376460","title":"Der Process","status":"Dropped","releaseYear":1925,"pages":625,"authors":["Franz Kafka"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2015-01-07","updatedDate":"2022-07-11","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=zgQvBQAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676102327884","title":"Đoạn Trường Tân Thanh (Truyện Kiều)","status":"Dropped","releaseYear":1820,"pages":236,"authors":["Nguyễn Du"],"genres":["Poetry"],"updatedDate":"2023-07-12","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Truy%E1%BB%87n_Ki%C3%AAu.html?hl=&id=LNUnswEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676103381580","title":"Dubliners","status":"Dropped","releaseYear":1914,"pages":276,"authors":["James Joyce"],"publishers":["Penguin"],"genres":["Short Story"],"startedDate":"2014-07-13","updatedDate":"2022-07-11","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Dubliners.html?hl=&id=rmTsxzryJrUC"},{"id":"322682676102319692","title":"Endgame","status":"Dropped","releaseYear":1350,"authors":["Samuel Beckett"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2023-07-12","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Endgame_1_L_appel.html?hl=&id=z4bJjgEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676103377484","title":"Heart of Darkness","status":"Dropped","releaseYear":1899,"pages":154,"authors":["Joseph Conrad"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2015-12-20","updatedDate":"2022-07-11","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=2jbAAwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"6e9f69e1-9bd9-4070-b26a-4653ce346994","title":"Horus Rising","status":"Dropped","releaseYear":2014,"pages":410,"authors":["Dan Abnett"],"publishers":["Black Library"],"updatedDate":"2023-01-15","notes":"I chose this as my first entry into Warhammer 40K lore. I got excited by the series ever since  I got addicted to the Vermintide and Darktide games. I chose this book as it’s the most read on [Goodreads](https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/warhammer-40k).\n\nSadly, I did not enjoy Eisenhorn. It was way too dry for me. I don't expect much from this author.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Horus_Rising.html?hl=&id=bwQRnwEACAAJ"},{"id":"336647762328158800","title":"How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy","status":"Dropped","releaseYear":2001,"pages":144,"authors":["Orson Scott Card"],"publishers":["Penguin"],"startedDate":"2022-07-08","updatedDate":"2023-07-04","notes":"Rambles sometimes and doesn’t get to the point. Writing is very clear. Feedback is often pointed. I think the overall structure makes sense: worldbuilding, plotting, writing, publishing. It’s the same format Brandon Sanderson uses in his own creative writing course.\n\nI read (and reread) select pieces as I struggled through various areas as I did my own writing. I stopped reading on 2022-07-08 so that I can pick this up again when I take another stab at writing.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/How_to_Write_Science_Fiction_Fantasy.html?hl=&id=9cg1EAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"e257626f-c73d-4f48-93f6-049012c827b4","title":"Lucifer (2000)","status":"Dropped","releaseYear":2000,"authors":["Mike Carey"],"updatedDate":"2023-07-13","notes":"+ [ComicOnlineFree](https://comiconlinefree.net/comic/lucifer-2000)\n\nMotivated to read as it’s a spinoff of Sandman, is highly rated, and features the most powerful beings in the DC universe (Lucifer, Michael the archangel, Elaine Belloc) second only to Presence the God.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=2iIWAgAAQBAJ"},{"id":"2f2c1e32-30b6-425d-95fa-90702bc85f56","title":"Mark of the Fool","status":"Dropped","releaseYear":2023,"authors":["J M Clarke"],"publishers":["Independently Published"],"startedDate":"2026-03-24","updatedDate":"2026-06-20","notes":"Finally motivated to read it after seeing [this reddit post](https://www.reddit.com/r/litrpg/comments/1s2h3gc/tier_list_based_on_how_many_times_ive_reread_a).","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Mark_of_the_Fool_3.html?hl=&id=cJDWzwEACAAJ"},{"id":"339776459101962831","title":"Neuromancer","status":"Dropped","releaseYear":1984,"pages":304,"authors":["William Gibson"],"publishers":["Penguin"],"updatedDate":"2023-09-15","notes":"Won the trifecta of the Nebula Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, and the Hugo Award. I find it unmotivating to read because it's effectively like Seinfeld: these days, nothing in it is new or all that interesting. There's also lots of dorky writing that the new elements would usually appease a reader ([discussion](https://www.reddit.com/r/printSF/comments/nvwa5x/i_am_finding_neuromancer_to_be_kinda_boring_what)). It doesn't age well.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Neuromancer.html?hl=&id=pNQiDQAAQBAJ"},{"id":"aa319c89-a875-4f44-847e-6e8f3a380521","title":"New X-Men","status":"Dropped","releaseYear":2001,"pages":228,"authors":["Grant Morrison"],"publishers":["Marvel Comics Group"],"startedDate":"2023-07-08","updatedDate":"2023-07-11","notes":"## Resources and Miscellanea\n\n+ [Reddit: Starting the X-Men, and How to Survive the Experience](https://www.reddit.com/r/xmen/comments/qvwjnb/starting_the_xmen_and_how_to_survive_the)\n+ [ReadComicOnline](https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/New-X-Men-2001)\n\n115/-","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/New_X_Men.html?hl=&id=934qAAAAYAAJ"},{"id":"0dd265bb-0b0b-44a3-8b1c-a5d5d749de93","title":"Oathbringer (Stormlight Archive #3)","status":"Dropped","releaseYear":2017,"pages":1409,"authors":["Brandon Sanderson"],"publishers":["Tor Books"],"updatedDate":"2025-07-12","notes":"I heard it's not good. The series peaked at WoK and WoR and only goes downhill.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=VsT3DQAAQBAJ"},{"id":"5f5e15eb-f9a4-47a1-b287-bca979d067c5","title":"Royal Assassin (Farseer Trilogy #2)","status":"Dropped","releaseYear":2014,"pages":648,"authors":["Robin Hobb"],"publishers":["Voyager"],"startedDate":"2023-01-01","updatedDate":"2023-07-16","notes":"Kettricken hanging out with Regal and having a positive countenance makes no sense. That includes the assassination attempt by having her get lost and ambushed by Forged in Chapter 7. You could argue it's because Kettricken is sworn to her oath as Sacrifice, and forgave blood debt around her brother's death. But that wouldn't affect her actual mood. I feel like this is just bad writing.\n\nRegal even affects his love life. It’s cartoonishly bad how Regal continues to get away with things.\n\nThere’s even all the false drama Fitz has in not revealing his secrets to Patience and Molly despite it resolving misunderstandings. It doesn’t make sense. He had conflicts with Molly originalky because he didn’t confide about being a Bastard. And yet now he for the same reasons won’t reveal being an Assassin or that Regal plots to kill him.\n\nThere’s no complaining to the obvious corruption in Wallace for Regal and denying guests like Fitz to see the king. Even if the king doesn’t know better (at minimum he suspects), it’s illogical that Verity does nothing for his father. The only argument mentioned is to prevent civil war, but Verity still could easily just assassinate Regal or any other action. It’s eye rolling to see these conflicts rise with no logical reason. \n\n[Many have complained of Robin Hobb’s tendency to write like this, of the Idiot ball trope.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/6vyn5y/spoilers_original_farseer_trilogy_i_dislike_robin/) I am not alone.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Royal_Assassin.html?hl=&id=9bOdngEACAAJ"},{"id":"336673702084084303","title":"Stories of Your Life and Others","status":"Dropped","releaseYear":2010,"pages":288,"authors":["Ted Chiang"],"publishers":["Knopf"],"startedDate":"2022-07-08","updatedDate":"2024-09-09","notes":"Ted Chiang's most known works, particularly Story of Your Life and Tower of Babylon.\n\nI also bought this book for a book swap as part of Google DeepMind STAR Summit 2024.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=WTBA-wzX7cwC"},{"id":"322682676102359628","title":"Stranger in a Strange Land","status":"Dropped","releaseYear":1961,"pages":525,"authors":["Robert A. Heinlein"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2023-07-12","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Stranger_in_a_Strange_Land.html?hl=&id=HutaAAAAMAAJ"},{"id":"322682676103351884","title":"The Bell Jar","status":"Dropped","releaseYear":1963,"pages":288,"authors":["Sylvia Plath"],"publishers":["HarperCollins"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2023-07-12","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=G-f1CQAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676103387724","title":"The Canterbury Tales","status":"Dropped","releaseYear":1390,"pages":528,"authors":["Geoffrey Chaucer"],"publishers":["Penguin UK"],"genres":["Poetry"],"startedDate":"2008-12-31","updatedDate":"2022-07-11","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=eZGDIFy2pvkC"},{"id":"c36d6f1a-23ba-4ec5-9bf1-a21a3fe584ed","title":"The Long Walk","status":"Dropped","releaseYear":1999,"authors":["Richard Bachman"],"publishers":["Turtleback Books"],"startedDate":"2025-07-11","updatedDate":"2025-07-12","notes":"Wasn't what I was expecting, I hoped for a battle royale. I got an angsty Vietnam War allegory.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Long_Walk.html?hl=&id=tKEKAAAACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676102306380","title":"The Princeton Companion to Mathematics","status":"Dropped","releaseYear":2007,"pages":1056,"authors":["Timothy Gowers"],"publishers":["Princeton University Press"],"genres":["Nonfiction"],"updatedDate":"2023-07-12","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=ZOfUsvemJDMC"},{"id":"322682676103378508","title":"The Sound and the Fury","status":"Dropped","releaseYear":1929,"authors":["William Faulkner"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2015-07-14","updatedDate":"2022-07-11","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=7mHrDwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"0e75509b-72a3-41fe-a577-2a27d7525d84","title":"The Spectre Vol. 3","status":"Dropped","releaseYear":1992,"pages":322,"authors":["John Ostrander"],"publishers":["DC Comics"],"updatedDate":"2023-07-13","notes":"Motivated as Spectre is one of the most powerful beings in the DC universe, losing only to other cosmic and religious entities like Endless, Lucifer, and Presence, and I like power fantasy comics involving the most powerful beings.\n\nOstrander is the most recommended Spectre run.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=98ZhAwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"336942070635692623","title":"The Three-Body Problem (Remembrance of Earth’s Past #1)","status":"Dropped","releaseYear":2014,"pages":400,"authors":["Cixin Liu"],"publishers":["Tor Books"],"startedDate":"2018-04-21","updatedDate":"2023-07-16","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=ZrNzAwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676103374412","title":"Time of Contempt (The Witcher #2)","status":"Dropped","releaseYear":1994,"pages":320,"authors":["Andrzej Sapkowski"],"publishers":["Hachette UK"],"genres":["Novel"],"startedDate":"2021-04-14","updatedDate":"2023-07-16","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=IYSCezJGwE4C"},{"id":"322682676103361100","title":"2001: A Space Odyssey (Space Odyssey, #1)","status":"To read","releaseYear":1968,"pages":296,"authors":["Arthur C. Clarke"],"publishers":["National Geographic Books"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-07-12","notes":"Motivated because of course I want to read the originak source of one of my favorite all-time films as well as the book that catapulted Arthur C. Clarke to mainstream fandom.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/2001_a_Space_Odyssey.html?hl=&id=97ysQwAACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101376588","title":"A Clockwork Orange","status":"To read","releaseYear":1962,"pages":176,"authors":["Anthony Burgess"],"publishers":["Penguin UK"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=qUI8pbpCNJUC"},{"id":"339777702860948049","title":"A Fire Upon The Deep (Zones of Thought #1)","status":"To read","releaseYear":1992,"pages":613,"authors":["Vernor Vinge"],"publishers":["Macmillan"],"updatedDate":"2023-07-12","notes":"Motivated because it's the most popular series by Vernor Vinge, a Hugo award winning writer who's also a math and computer science professor at San Diego State University.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Fire_Upon_The_Deep.html?hl=&id=UGAKB3r0sZQC"},{"id":"322682676102323788","title":"A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man","status":"To read","releaseYear":1916,"pages":252,"authors":["James Joyce"],"publishers":["Wordsworth Editions"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/A_Portrait_of_the_Artist_as_a_Young_Man.html?hl=&id=C_rPXanc_HAC"},{"id":"322682676102311500","title":"A Wild Sheep Chase (The Rat, #3)","status":"To read","releaseYear":1982,"pages":461,"authors":["Haruki Murakami"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=g5ixDwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"339774846536778319","title":"A Wrinkle in Time","status":"To read","releaseYear":1962,"pages":256,"authors":["Madeleine L'Engle","General Press"],"updatedDate":"2022-08-12","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=RR-jDwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"339639153347002960","title":"American Gods","status":"To read","releaseYear":2001,"pages":480,"authors":["Neil Gaiman"],"publishers":["Harper Collins"],"updatedDate":"2023-07-12","notes":"The most popular Neil Gaiman book. And it won the 2002 Hugo and Nebula awards.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/American_Gods.html?hl=&id=Kasag4WdeM0C"},{"id":"322682676102346316","title":"An Elemental Thing","status":"To read","releaseYear":2007,"pages":194,"authors":["Eliot Weinberger"],"publishers":["New Directions Publishing"],"genres":["Nonfiction"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/An_Elemental_Thing.html?hl=&id=uKgytKHEVdcC"},{"id":"322682676102390348","title":"Anna Karenina","status":"To read","releaseYear":1877,"pages":837,"authors":["Leo Tolstoy"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-08-12","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Anna_Karenina.html?hl=&id=ykJ8AAAAIAAJ"},{"id":"322682676102322764","title":"Anne of Green Gables (Anne of Green Gables, #1)","status":"To read","releaseYear":1908,"pages":382,"authors":["L.M. Montgomery"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Anne_La_maison_aux_pignons_verts.html?hl=&id=L5XXAgAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676102320716","title":"As I Lay Dying","status":"To read","releaseYear":1930,"pages":256,"authors":["William Faulkner"],"publishers":["Random House"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=dIahmzXpEEQC"},{"id":"322682676101408332","title":"Atlas Shrugged","status":"To read","releaseYear":1957,"pages":1121,"authors":["Ayn Rand"],"publishers":["Penguin"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-08-12","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=bVyCd7da8OcC"},{"id":"2b4a3650-c3b1-405e-ba87-6c06c22aadb9","title":"Avengers by Jonathan Hickman","status":"To read","releaseYear":2012,"authors":["Jonathan Hickman","Nick Spencer","Jason Latour"],"publishers":["Marvel"],"updatedDate":"2023-07-19","notes":"## Resources and Miscellanea\n\n+ [Reddit (2022): The Top 56 Marvel Comics Runs, Voted by the r/Marvel Community!](https://www.reddit.com/r/Marvel/comments/y8y3fy/the_top_56_marvel_comics_runs_voted_by_the). Hickman's Avengers is #2.\n\nI was motivated to read this as it's one of the best Marvel comics runs of all time and the best Avengers run.\n\n__Version.__\nI read the omnibus. See also reading orders by comicbooktreasury ([Hickman's run specifically](https://www.comicbooktreasury.com/jonathan-hickmans-avengers-reading-order) and [Avengers overall](https://www.comicbooktreasury.com/avengers-reading-order)) and comicbookherald ([all of Hickman's runs](https://www.comicbookherald.com/jonathan-hickman-marvel-universe-reading-order-2008-to-2016) and [Avengers overall](https://www.comicbookherald.com/where-do-i-start-with-avengers-trade-collections)).\n\nThe omnibus collects the following issues:\n\n+ __Avengers by Jonathan Hickman Omnibus Vol. 1__. Avengers (2012) #1-23, New Avengers (2013) #1-12, Free Comic Book Day 2013: Infinity #1, Infinity #1-6, Infinity: Against The Tide Infinite Comic #1-2, Astonishing Tales: Mojoworld #1-6, Material From Shang-Chi: Master Of Kung Fu (2009) #1.\n+ __Avengers by Jonathan Hickman Omnibus Vol. 2__. Avengers (2012) #24-44 and New Avengers (2013) #13-33.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Avengers_by_Jonathan_Hickman_Omnibus_Vol.html?hl=&id=y534zgEACAAJ"},{"id":"51261bfc-0220-4eba-860c-3ba0cfdf594b","title":"Batman by Grant Morrison","status":"To read","releaseYear":2006,"authors":["Grant Morrison"],"publishers":["National Geographic Books"],"updatedDate":"2023-07-19","notes":"## Resources and Miscellanea\n\n+ [Reddit (2022): The Top 71 DC Comic Runs, Voted by the r/DCcomics Community!](https://www.reddit.com/r/DCcomics/comments/vio4ub/discussion_the_top_71_dc_comic_runs_voted_by_the). Morrison's Batman is #1.\n\nI was motivated to read this as it's one of the best DC comics runs of all time and the best Batman run. I chose this as my first Batman run.\n\n__Version.__\nThe omnibus is the recommended way to read Morrison's run. Otherwise it's hodgepodge of issues from various graphic novels ([r/dccomics reading order](https://www.reddit.com/r/DCcomics/wiki/recommended/batman), [comicbooktreasury reading order](https://www.comicbooktreasury.com/batman-by-grant-morrison-reading-order)).\n\nThe omnibus collects the following issues:\n\n+ __Batman by Grant Morrison Omnibus Vol. 1__. Batman #655-658, #663-683 and stories from DC Universe #0 and #30 and #47.\n+ __Batman by Grant Morrison Omnibus Vol. 2__. Batman & Robin #1-16, Batman #700-702 and Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #1-6.\n+ __Batman by Grant Morrison Omnibus Vol. 3__. Batman Incorporated #1-8, Batman: The Return #1, Batman Incorporated #0-13, Batman Incorporated: Leviathan Strikes #1, Batman Incorporated Special #1.\n\nSources:\n\n+ [ComicOnlineFree: Batman by Grant Morrison Omnibus](https://comiconlinefree.net/comic/batman-by-grant-morrison-omnibus)","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Batman_by_Grant_Morrison_Omnibus_Vol_1.html?hl=&id=TXuPEAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"eeddbf97-90cd-43f0-add0-a9d11492fb5f","title":"Before They Are Hanged (The First Law #2)","status":"To read","releaseYear":2007,"pages":583,"authors":["Joe Abercrombie"],"publishers":["Gollancz"],"updatedDate":"2024-02-14","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Before_They_Are_Hanged.html?hl=&id=ugU5AgAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676101370444","title":"Bleak House","status":"To read","releaseYear":1853,"pages":945,"authors":["Charles Dickens"],"publishers":["Oxford University Press"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-07-18","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Bleak_House.html?hl=&id=eL0UDAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676102317644","title":"Brave New World","status":"To read","releaseYear":1932,"pages":234,"authors":["Aldous Huxley"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2023-07-12","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=EvwG_3AUzBsC"},{"id":"322682676102326860","title":"Breakfast of Champions","status":"To read","releaseYear":1973,"pages":320,"authors":["Kurt Vonnegut"],"publishers":["Random House"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2023-07-12","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=TQnjC11EIJ8C"},{"id":"322682676102348364","title":"Campo Santo","status":"To read","releaseYear":2003,"pages":270,"authors":["W.G. Sebald"],"genres":["Nonfiction"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Cit%C3%A9_des_Anges_et_des_Amours_perdues.html?hl=&id=uzgiDAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676102372940","title":"Candide","status":"To read","releaseYear":1759,"authors":["Voltaire"],"genres":["Nonfiction"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=p1J4fMW0PyoC"},{"id":"322682676102377036","title":"Capitalism and Freedom","status":"To read","releaseYear":1962,"pages":272,"authors":["Milton Friedman"],"publishers":["University of Chicago Press"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=jbUCEAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676101349964","title":"Chronicle of a Death Foretold","status":"To read","releaseYear":1981,"pages":128,"authors":["Gabriel García Márquez"],"publishers":["Vintage"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Chronicle_of_a_Death_Foretold.html?hl=&id=pLeFBAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"340406285505659473","title":"Cloud Atlas","status":"To read","releaseYear":2004,"pages":528,"authors":["David Mitchell"],"publishers":["Vintage Canada"],"updatedDate":"2022-08-19","notes":"One of the rare works widely recognized not only by the speculative fiction community but also the general literary fiction community.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Cloud_Atlas.html?hl=&id=EoxXLiC0uAIC"},{"id":"322682676102366796","title":"Darkness at Noon","status":"To read","releaseYear":1940,"pages":288,"authors":["Arthur Koestler"],"publishers":["Simon and Schuster"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Darkness_at_Noon.html?hl=&id=to5KBgAAQBAJ"},{"id":"9060a5f0-960f-4c81-b643-be3423f56bb7","title":"DC: The New Frontier","status":"To read","releaseYear":2004,"pages":212,"authors":["Darwyn Cooke"],"publishers":["DC Comics"],"updatedDate":"2023-07-16","notes":"## Resources and Miscellanea\n\n+ [r/dccomics wiki: Justice League Recommended Reading](https://www.reddit.com/r/DCcomics/wiki/recommended/justiceleague)\n+ [Reddit: The Top 71 DC Comic Runs, Voted by the r/DCcomics Community!](https://www.reddit.com/r/DCcomics/comments/vio4ub/discussion_the_top_71_dc_comic_runs_voted_by_the). DC: The New Frontier is #4.\n\nI was motivated to read this as it's one of the best DC comics runs of all time, the best Justice League run, and it's short (6 issues). I chose this as my first Justice League run.\n\nSources:\n\n+ [ComicOnlineFree: DC: The New Frontier](https://comiconlinefree.net/comic/dc-the-new-frontier)","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=aZcDAgAAQBAJ"},{"id":"fecb1d75-4711-4909-856a-748f0b6ecb79","title":"Deadhouse Gates (Malazan Book of the Fallen #2)","status":"To read","releaseYear":2000,"pages":964,"authors":["Steven Erikson"],"publishers":["Random House"],"updatedDate":"2023-12-05","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Deadhouse_Gates_Malazan_Book_2.html?hl=&id=GSOaOTlqUDAC"},{"id":"322682676103357004","title":"Death of a Salesman","status":"To read","releaseYear":1949,"pages":112,"authors":["Arthur Miller"],"publishers":["Penguin UK"],"genres":["Play"],"updatedDate":"2022-07-09","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=DPYUhoKAPdMC"},{"id":"322682676102328908","title":"Demons","status":"To read","releaseYear":1872,"authors":["Fyodor Dostoyevsky"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30"},{"id":"322682676102336076","title":"Dhalgren","status":"To read","releaseYear":1974,"pages":800,"authors":["Samuel R. Delany"],"publishers":["Hachette UK"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=dKDDEVhDg9oC"},{"id":"340220377655411281","title":"Diaspora","status":"To read","releaseYear":1997,"pages":295,"authors":["Greg Egan"],"publishers":["Greg Egan"],"updatedDate":"2022-08-17","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=PctFEAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676102340172","title":"Down and Out in Paris and London","status":"To read","releaseYear":1933,"pages":256,"authors":["George Orwell"],"publishers":["Oxford University Press"],"genres":["Nonfiction"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=HpAREAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676102389324","title":"Dracula","status":"To read","releaseYear":1897,"pages":224,"authors":["Bram Stoker"],"publishers":["Presses Univ. Septentrion"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Dracula.html?hl=&id=oeXFIPFTudMC"},{"id":"eb1a376d-1330-4fa7-a4db-4084f454d33d","title":"Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Guide (5e, 2024)","status":"To read","releaseYear":2024,"authors":["Dungeons & Dragons"],"publishers":["National Geographic Books"],"updatedDate":"2025-03-29","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Dungeons_Dragons_Dungeon_Master_s_Guide.html?hl=&id=vwSPEAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676103348812","title":"East of Eden","status":"To read","releaseYear":1952,"pages":640,"authors":["John Steinbeck"],"publishers":["Penguin UK"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=alaX84xlzogC"},{"id":"322682676101397068","title":"El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha (The Ingenious Nobleman Mister Quixote of La Mancha)","status":"To read","releaseYear":1605,"pages":215,"authors":["Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Ingenious_Nobleman_Mister_Quixote_of.html?hl=&id=xN74uQEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101382732","title":"Faust","status":"To read","releaseYear":1787,"pages":318,"authors":["Johann Wolfgang von Goethe"],"publishers":["LGF/Le Livre de Poche"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Faust.html?hl=&id=rsT0OwAACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676102331980","title":"Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas","status":"To read","releaseYear":1971,"pages":224,"authors":["Hunter S. Thompson"],"publishers":["Vintage"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-08-19","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=R11qaqN4jzQC"},{"id":"322682676101364300","title":"Ficciones","status":"To read","releaseYear":1944,"pages":180,"authors":["Jorge Luis Borges"],"publishers":["Grove/Atlantic, Inc."],"genres":["Fiction"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=E1SCCgAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676102358604","title":"Finnegans Wake","status":"To read","releaseYear":1939,"pages":923,"authors":["James Joyce"],"publishers":["Editions Gallimard"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Finnegans_Wake.html?hl=&id=KgglwQEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101404236","title":"Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions","status":"To read","releaseYear":1884,"pages":124,"authors":["Edwin A. Abbott"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Flatland.html?hl=&id=BaYVDAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676102337100","title":"Foucault's Pendulum","status":"To read","releaseYear":1988,"pages":656,"authors":["Umberto Eco"],"publishers":["Random House"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=_JJOBAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676101402188","title":"Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid","status":"To read","releaseYear":1979,"pages":800,"authors":["Douglas R. Hofstadter"],"genres":["Nonfiction"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/G%C3%B6del_Escher_Bach.html?hl=&id=8cgtAAAAYAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101361228","title":"Gravity's Rainbow","status":"To read","releaseYear":1973,"pages":784,"authors":["Thomas Pynchon"],"publishers":["National Geographic Books"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Gravity_s_Rainbow_Classics_Deluxe_Editio.html?hl=&id=IpFPEAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676102321740","title":"Ham on Rye","status":"To read","releaseYear":1982,"pages":288,"authors":["Charles Bukowski"],"publishers":["Harper Collins"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=Rv4qbAACPzYC"},{"id":"972b9dc5-fc1e-4467-8841-7ea9f336c82a","title":"Hawkeye by Matt Fraction and David Aja","status":"To read","releaseYear":2012,"authors":["Matt Fraction","David Aja"],"publishers":["Marvel"],"updatedDate":"2023-07-19","notes":"## Resources and Miscellanea\n\n+ [Reddit (2022): The Top 56 Marvel Comics Runs, Voted by the r/Marvel Community!](https://www.reddit.com/r/Marvel/comments/y8y3fy/the_top_56_marvel_comics_runs_voted_by_the). Matt Fraction and David Aja's Hawkeye is #7.\n\nI was motivated to read this as it's one of the best Marvel comic runs of all time. This [Reddit post](https://www.reddit.com/r/comicbooks/comments/1jhx9d/can_someone_tell_me_why_hawkeye_is_getting_so) also gave a great summary of why it's worth reading. Namely, it has slice of life elements that doesn't follow a by-the-books superhero story, which can be a breath of fresh air.\n\n__Version.__ I read the following. See also reading orders by [comicbooktreasury](https://www.comicbooktreasury.com/clint-barton-reading-order) and [comicbookherald](https://www.comicbookherald.com/hawkeye-reading-order).\n\n+ __Hawkeye by Fraction & Aja: The Saga of Barton and Bishop.__ Hawkeye Vol. 4 #1-22, Annual #1, Young Avengers Presents #6","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Hawkeye_by_Fraction_and_Aja_the_Saga_of.html?hl=&id=Wg9tzgEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101390924","title":"Holy Bible: King James Version","status":"To read","releaseYear":1611,"pages":1152,"authors":["Anonymous"],"genres":["Poetry"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Holy_Bible.html?hl=&id=TgFpGQAACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101336652","title":"Homestuck","status":"To read","releaseYear":2009,"pages":496,"authors":["Andrew Hussie"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","notes":"Unfortunately, Homestuck relying on Flash means it doesn't age well (e.g., mobile devices).","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Homestuck_Book_6_Act_5_Act_2.html?hl=&id=c4HFxgEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676102316620","title":"House of Leaves","status":"To read","releaseYear":2000,"authors":["Mark Z. Danielewski"],"publishers":["Pantheon"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/House_of_Leaves.html?hl=&id=5XWvzwEACAAJ"},{"id":"d97cdc2a-bcbe-4de0-88f0-0e7c08a4cc99","title":"How To Win Friends and Influence People","status":"To read","releaseYear":1936,"pages":293,"authors":["Dale Carnegie"],"publishers":["Simon and Schuster"],"updatedDate":"2023-06-21","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/How_To_Win_Friends_and_Influence_People.html?hl=&id=1rW-QpIAs8UC"},{"id":"cba96e86-de33-434c-910d-3db9551e342a","title":"Immortal Iron Fist by Aja, Brubaker, Fraction","status":"To read","releaseYear":2019,"pages":515,"authors":["Ed Brubaker","Matt Fraction"],"publishers":["Marvel Entertainment"],"updatedDate":"2025-04-21","notes":"+ https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/The-Immortal-Iron-Fist\n\nMotivated from this [Reddit thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/comicbooks/comments/14xcos0/comics_whose_best_run_is_modern).","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=dWSgDwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"278eb544-26a8-4837-85d0-2749c10cdec1","title":"Incidents Around The House","status":"To read","updatedDate":"2026-07-22"},{"id":"322682676101356108","title":"Infinite Jest","status":"To read","releaseYear":1995,"pages":1104,"authors":["David Foster Wallace"],"publishers":["Little, Brown"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-08-12","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=3YU4AQAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676103393868","title":"Jinrui wa Suitai Shimashita (人類は衰退しました), #1","status":"To read","releaseYear":2007,"pages":328,"authors":["Romeo Tanaka"],"genres":["Light Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-07-11","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/%E4%BA%BA%E9%A1%9E%E3%81%AF%E8%A1%B0%E9%80%80%E3%81%97%E3%81%BE%E3%81%97%E3%81%9F3.html?hl=&id=w6uBDAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676101369420","title":"Julius Caesar","status":"To read","releaseYear":1599,"pages":192,"authors":["William Shakespeare"],"genres":["Play"],"updatedDate":"2022-07-18","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Julius_Caesar.html?hl=&id=vULVz0jm8XkC"},{"id":"322682676102309452","title":"Kiki's Delivery Service","status":"To read","releaseYear":1985,"pages":208,"authors":["Eiko Kadono"],"publishers":["Penguin UK"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=8VvZDwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676103379532","title":"King Lear","status":"To read","releaseYear":1605,"pages":160,"authors":["William Shakespeare"],"publishers":["Editions Sedes"],"genres":["Play"],"updatedDate":"2022-07-11","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=wpLNPTrVs3MC"},{"id":"322682676101388876","title":"Lady Chatterley's Lover","status":"To read","releaseYear":1928,"pages":363,"authors":["D.H. Lawrence"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Lady_Chatterley_s_Lover.html?hl=&id=lCpAAQAAIAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101365324","title":"Le Mythe de Sisyphe","status":"To read","releaseYear":1942,"pages":192,"authors":["Albert Camus"],"genres":["Nonfiction"],"updatedDate":"2022-07-18","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=wFF_DQAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676101401164","title":"Leaves of Grass","status":"To read","releaseYear":1855,"pages":361,"authors":["Walt Whitman"],"genres":["Poetry"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Feuilles_d_herbe.html?hl=&id=Fa4xAQAAMAAJ"},{"id":"322682676102386252","title":"Les Fleurs du Mal","status":"To read","releaseYear":1857,"pages":255,"authors":["Charles Baudelaire"],"publishers":["Hachette (RCS)"],"genres":["Poetry"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Les_Fleurs_du_mal.html?hl=&id=IV8OKQEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676102368844","title":"Les Misérables","status":"To read","releaseYear":1862,"pages":347,"authors":["Victor Hugo"],"publishers":["Livre de Poche Jeunesse (Le)"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Les_mis%C3%A9rables.html?hl=&id=FNrAoQEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676102303308","title":"Life and Death are Wearing Me Out","status":"To read","releaseYear":2006,"pages":552,"authors":["Mo Yan"],"publishers":["Skyhorse"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=dPssAgAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676102339148","title":"Life on the Mississippi","status":"To read","releaseYear":1883,"pages":373,"authors":["Mark Twain"],"publishers":["Penguin"],"genres":["Nonfiction"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Life_on_the_Mississippi.html?hl=&id=ZazQAPc8SZ0C"},{"id":"322682676103349836","title":"Madame Bovary","status":"To read","releaseYear":1856,"pages":513,"authors":["Gustave Flaubert"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Madame_Bovary.html?hl=&id=bzdlAAAAMAAJ"},{"id":"322682676103358028","title":"Medea","status":"To read","releaseYear":-431,"pages":31,"authors":["Euripides"],"publishers":["EDITIONS RITOURNELLES"],"genres":["Play"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Medea.html?hl=&id=0qQPKQEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676102353484","title":"Meditations","status":"To read","releaseYear":174,"pages":237,"authors":["Marcus Aurelius"],"publishers":["Penguin UK"],"genres":["Nonfiction"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=udApd8ZGlV0C"},{"id":"322682676102369868","title":"Memoirs of a Geisha","status":"To read","releaseYear":1997,"pages":502,"authors":["Arthur Golden"],"publishers":["Seal Books"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Memoirs_of_a_Geisha.html?hl=&id=nhmjYyUjCOsC"},{"id":"322682676101395020","title":"Moby-Dick; or, The Whale","status":"To read","releaseYear":1851,"pages":612,"authors":["Herman Melville"],"publishers":["Univ of California Press"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Moby_Dick_Or_The_Whale.html?hl=&id=a6aaKXJTeaMC"},{"id":"322682676102354508","title":"Molloy, Malone Dies, The Unnamable","status":"To read","releaseYear":1958,"pages":418,"authors":["Samuel Beckett"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Molloy.html?hl=&id=fu3vAAAAMAAJ"},{"id":"322682676102379084","title":"Mrs. Dalloway","status":"To read","releaseYear":1925,"pages":322,"authors":["Virginia Woolf"],"publishers":["Flammarion"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=jXgnEAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676102318668","title":"Naked Lunch","status":"To read","releaseYear":1959,"pages":289,"authors":["William S. Burroughs"],"publishers":["Penguin Group"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Naked_Lunch.html?hl=&id=Dk7CoQEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101360204","title":"Nausea","status":"To read","releaseYear":1938,"pages":252,"authors":["Jean-Paul Sartre","Robert Baldick"],"publishers":["Gardners Books"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-08-12","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Nausea.html?hl=&id=EUM-PgAACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676102338124","title":"Night of the Milky Way Railway","status":"To read","releaseYear":1933,"pages":173,"authors":["Kenji Miyazawa"],"publishers":["M.E. Sharpe"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Night_of_the_Milky_Way_Railway.html?hl=&id=MZIUwJ0qeucC"},{"id":"322682676102330956","title":"Notes from Underground","status":"To read","releaseYear":1864,"pages":160,"authors":["Fyodor Dostoyevsky"],"publishers":["Vintage"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-08-12","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Notes_from_Underground.html?hl=&id=iPPFCsEZVd0C"},{"id":"322682676102333004","title":"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest","status":"To read","releaseYear":1962,"pages":320,"authors":["Ken Kesey"],"publishers":["Penguin"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/One_Flew_Over_the_Cuckoo_s_Nest.html?hl=&id=wCP2qgXwXdUC"},{"id":"322682676103355980","title":"One Hundred Years of Solitude","status":"To read","releaseYear":1967,"pages":422,"authors":["Gabriel García Márquez","Gregory Rabassa"],"publishers":["London : J. Cape"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/One_Hundred_Years_of_Solitude.html?hl=&id=IfbGngEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101374540","title":"Othello","status":"To read","releaseYear":1603,"pages":509,"authors":["William Shakespeare"],"publishers":["Editions Gallimard"],"genres":["Play"],"updatedDate":"2022-07-18","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Othello.html?hl=&id=EAALswEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101357132","title":"Pale Fire","status":"To read","releaseYear":1962,"pages":256,"authors":["Vladimir Nabokov"],"publishers":["Penguin UK"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-08-12","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=MIzUSDvML0kC"},{"id":"322682676101393996","title":"Paradise Lost","status":"To read","releaseYear":1667,"pages":192,"authors":["John Milton"],"genres":["Poetry"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Paradise_Lost.html?hl=&id=AUcFrgEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676102364748","title":"Philosophical Investigations","status":"To read","releaseYear":1953,"pages":246,"authors":["Ludwig Wittgenstein"],"publishers":["Wiley-Blackwell"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Philosophical_Investigations.html?hl=&id=t_dPcAAACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101375564","title":"Pride and Prejudice","status":"To read","releaseYear":1813,"pages":328,"authors":["Jane Austen"],"publishers":["Fingerprint! Publishing"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-08-12","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Pride_and_Prejudice.html?hl=&id=dsznmgEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101337676","title":"Problem Sleuth","status":"To read","releaseYear":2008,"authors":["Andrew Hussie"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Problem_Sleuth_Volume_1.html?hl=&id=y8FNrgEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101383756","title":"Prometheus Bound","status":"To read","releaseYear":-480,"pages":131,"authors":["Aeschylus","James Scully","C. John Herington"],"publishers":["Oxford University Press"],"genres":["Play"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=6xu5DDS2TFIC"},{"id":"322682676101342796","title":"Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories","status":"To read","releaseYear":1915,"pages":268,"authors":["Ryunosuke Akutagawa"],"publishers":["National Geographic Books"],"genres":["Short Story"],"updatedDate":"2022-07-09","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Rash%C5%8Dmon_and_Seventeen_Other_Stories.html?hl=&id=H-oDzQEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676102304332","title":"Red Sorghum","status":"To read","releaseYear":1987,"pages":384,"authors":["Mo Yan"],"publishers":["Random House"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=PLQLa6j-oeUC"},{"id":"322682676102302284","title":"Resurrection","status":"To read","releaseYear":1899,"pages":643,"authors":["Leo Tolstoy"],"publishers":["Gallimard Education"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/R%C3%A9surrection.html?hl=&id=2xNNPgAACAAJ"},{"id":"47423f04-6ede-45b4-9c58-ffc7b6242efe","title":"Roadside Picnic","status":"To read","releaseYear":2007,"authors":["Arkady Strugatsky","Boris Strugatsky"],"updatedDate":"2026-07-20","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Roadside_Picnic.html?hl=&id=4NBFPgAACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676102370892","title":"Robinson Crusoe","status":"To read","releaseYear":1719,"pages":371,"authors":["Daniel Defoe"],"publishers":["Flammarion"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=RSCVDwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676102378060","title":"Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead","status":"To read","releaseYear":1966,"pages":128,"authors":["Tom Stoppard"],"publishers":["Faber & Faber"],"genres":["Play"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=zYhKAQAAQBAJ"},{"id":"d2ebb6e8-0081-479e-bf3c-49eae357585a","title":"Saga","status":"To read","releaseYear":2012,"authors":["Brian K. Vaughan"],"updatedDate":"2025-04-21","notes":"## Resources and Miscellanea\n\n+ [Reddit: The TOP 50 Image titles as voted by r/Imagecomics](https://www.reddit.com/r/ImageComics/wiki/suggestedreading). Saga is #1.\n\nMotivated to read as Image Comics is the #3 most popular comics publisher and therefore the most popular non-DC/Marvel publisher. Saga is cited as the best Image Comics title and arguably therefore the best indie title. Saga won numerous Eisner and Harvey awards.\n\n__Version.__ The volumes are standalone. See also [comicbooktreasury reading order](https://www.comicbooktreasury.com/saga-comic-reading-order-discover-brian-k-vaughan-and-fiona-staples-epic-space-opera-comic-book-series).\n\nSources:\n\n+ [ReadComicOnline: Saga](https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Saga)","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Saga.html?hl=&id=Iy9gAQAACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676103392844","title":"Shakespeare's Sonnets","status":"To read","releaseYear":1609,"pages":432,"authors":["William Shakespeare"],"publishers":["Simon and Schuster"],"genres":["Poetry"],"updatedDate":"2022-07-11","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Shakespeare_s_Sonnets.html?hl=&id=T_HlKWP8AKMC"},{"id":"322682676101377612","title":"Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl, and Sir Orfeo","status":"To read","releaseYear":1975,"pages":158,"authors":["Anonymous"],"publishers":["Harpercollins Pub Limited"],"genres":["Poetry"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Sir_Gawain_and_the_Green_Knight_Pearl_an.html?hl=&id=eN7CQgAACAAJ"},{"id":"340220307566494289","title":"Solaris","status":"To read","releaseYear":1961,"pages":204,"authors":["Stanisław Lem"],"publishers":["Houghton Mifflin Harcourt"],"updatedDate":"2022-08-17","notes":"One of the first \"first contact\" style books, in the form of understanding an extraterrestrial artificial intelligence.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Solaris.html?hl=&id=i8IwKGIAV2wC"},{"id":"322682676102335052","title":"Sons and Lovers","status":"To read","releaseYear":1913,"pages":366,"authors":["D.H. Lawrence"],"publishers":["Wordsworth Editions"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Sons_and_Lovers.html?hl=&id=_NXaHr2kaoYC"},{"id":"322682676101352012","title":"Stoner","status":"To read","releaseYear":1965,"pages":320,"authors":["John Williams"],"publishers":["Random House"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-08-12","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=KHvRCFRnDv4C"},{"id":"322682676102342220","title":"Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!","status":"To read","releaseYear":1985,"pages":352,"authors":["Richard Feynman"],"publishers":["W. W. Norton & Company"],"genres":["Nonfiction"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=_gA_DwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"a48e8415-ff90-4496-aaf5-6fc73ed7b017","title":"Swamp Thing by Alan Moore","status":"To read","releaseYear":1984,"pages":206,"authors":["Alan Moore"],"publishers":["Vertigo"],"updatedDate":"2023-07-16","notes":"## Resources and Miscellanea\n\n+ [Reddit (2022): The Top 71 DC Comic Runs, Voted by the r/DCcomics Community!](https://www.reddit.com/r/DCcomics/comments/vio4ub/discussion_the_top_71_dc_comic_runs_voted_by_the). Alan Moore's Swamp Thing is #10.\n\nI was motivated to read this as it's one of the best DC comic runs of all time and I wanted to read an Alan Moore run unspoiled. I watched the Watchmen adaptations prior to the comic. Alan Moore's Swamp Thing run from 1984-1987 also preceded Alan Moore's Watchmen from 1986-1987.\n\n__Version.__\nI read the single issues: Swamp Thing Vol. 2 #20-64. It's self-contained. Alan Moore's run is a direct continuation of previous issues. Although some of the initial issues are a direct continuation of previous storylines, I continued without reading them ([reddit discussion](https://www.reddit.com/r/comicbooks/comments/2dj7f9/about_to_start_reading_swamp_thing_need_advice)). See also [comicbooktreasury reading order](https://www.comicbooktreasury.com/swamp-thing-reading-order).\n\nSources:\n\n+ [ComicOnlineFree: Swamp Thing](https://comiconlinefree.net/comic/swamp-thing-1982)","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=zVnsAQAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676103350860","title":"Tess of the d'Urbervilles","status":"To read","releaseYear":1891,"pages":496,"authors":["Thomas Hardy"],"publishers":["OUP Oxford"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Tess_of_the_d_Urbervilles.html?hl=&id=7pnQzAEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101391948","title":"The Adventures of Tom Sawyer","status":"To read","releaseYear":1876,"pages":182,"authors":["Mark Twain"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Adventures_of_Tom_Sawyer.html?hl=&id=qweWtQCBdOUC"},{"id":"322682676102380108","title":"The Aeneid","status":"To read","releaseYear":-29,"pages":424,"authors":["Virgil"],"publishers":["Focus"],"genres":["Poetry"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Aeneid.html?hl=&id=Ry20zQEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101403212","title":"The Art of War","status":"To read","releaseYear":-512,"pages":114,"authors":["Sun Tzu"],"genres":["Nonfiction"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=0b5EEAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"336506342081561169","title":"The Atrocity Archives","status":"To read","releaseYear":2006,"pages":345,"authors":["Charles Stross"],"publishers":["Penguin"],"updatedDate":"2022-08-19","notes":"Motivated if only because it’s Charles Stross, and it’s a magic system where magic is treated as part of science more broadly (namely, a branch of applied mathematics). This is a rare case where magic is part of hard scifi, and not necessarily a fantasy in scifi skin like Star Wars or even with an internal logic like Sanderson’s books.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Atrocity_Archives.html?hl=&id=GfSGzhDcU2UC"},{"id":"322682676102308428","title":"The Borrowers (The Borrowers, #1)","status":"To read","releaseYear":1952,"pages":182,"authors":["Mary Norton"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Les_Chapardeurs.html?hl=&id=1JAdYAAACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101367372","title":"The Brief, Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao","status":"To read","releaseYear":2007,"pages":352,"authors":["Junot Diaz"],"publishers":["Penguin"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=_YVO217NhC0C"},{"id":"322682676101358156","title":"The Brothers Karamazov","status":"To read","releaseYear":1878,"pages":1072,"authors":["Fyodor Dostoyevsky"],"publishers":["Bantam Classics"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-08-12","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Brothers_Karamazov.html?hl=&id=BZvXZ1au0VcC"},{"id":"322682676103359052","title":"The Cherry Orchard","status":"To read","releaseYear":1904,"pages":202,"authors":["Anton Chekhov"],"publishers":["Library of Alexandria"],"genres":["Play"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=ev0GAwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676102384204","title":"The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats","status":"To read","releaseYear":1889,"pages":478,"authors":["W.B. Yeats"],"genres":["Poetry"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Collected_Poems_of_W_B_Yeats.html?hl=&id=VflGAAAAYAAJ"},{"id":"339775778133639759","title":"The Colour of Magic (Discworld #1)","status":"To read","releaseYear":1985,"pages":284,"authors":["Terry Pratchett"],"publishers":["National Geographic Books"],"updatedDate":"2023-07-12","notes":"Among the [top 10 fantasy books](https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/p1mwnx/the_rfantasy_2021_top_novels_poll_results) according to r/fantasy.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Colour_of_Magic.html?hl=&id=6Fbv-886Iv4C"},{"id":"322682676102388300","title":"The Complete Poems of E.E. Cummings","status":"To read","releaseYear":1954,"pages":1168,"authors":["E.E. Cummings"],"genres":["Poetry"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Complete_Poems_1904_1962.html?hl=&id=cbIRrgEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676102387276","title":"The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson","status":"To read","releaseYear":1890,"pages":118,"authors":["Emily Dickinson"],"publishers":["Lulu.com"],"genres":["Poetry"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Complete_Poems_of_Emily_Dickinson_Ha.html?hl=&id=J_TXvAEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676102300236","title":"The Complete Poems of Pablo Neruda","status":"To read","releaseYear":1974,"pages":1040,"authors":["Pablo Neruda"],"genres":["Poetry"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=_DQoCgAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676102367820","title":"The Diary of a Young Girl","status":"To read","releaseYear":1947,"pages":350,"authors":["Anne Frank"],"genres":["Nonfiction"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Journal_d_Anne_Frank.html?hl=&id=eKHyzQEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676102382156","title":"The Discourses","status":"To read","releaseYear":1865,"pages":559,"authors":["Epictetus"],"genres":["Nonfiction"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Discourses_as_Reported_by_Arrian_The.html?hl=&id=aC9aAAAAYAAJ"},{"id":"96dab344-b968-4809-b828-9db004055630","title":"The Empress of Salt and Fortune","status":"To read","releaseYear":2020,"pages":75,"authors":["Nghi Vo"],"publishers":["Tordotcom"],"updatedDate":"2023-01-16","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=GRSkDwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"339775848146010703","title":"The Fifth Season (The Broken Earth #1)","status":"To read","releaseYear":2015,"pages":512,"authors":["N. K. Jemisin"],"publishers":["Orbit"],"updatedDate":"2023-07-12","notes":"Among the [top 15 fantasy books](https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/p1mwnx/the_rfantasy_2021_top_novels_poll_results) according to r/fantasy.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=J0tIAgAAQBAJ"},{"id":"a98e4386-4f15-4197-a28b-83d98fa7b3be","title":"The Flash by Mark Waid","status":"To read","releaseYear":1992,"pages":368,"authors":["Mark Waid"],"publishers":["DC Comics"],"updatedDate":"2025-04-21","notes":"## Resources and Miscellanea\n\n+ [r/dccomics wiki: The Flash Recommended Reading](https://www.reddit.com/r/DCcomics/wiki/recommended/theflash)\n+ [Reddit (2022): The Top 71 DC Comic Runs, Voted by the r/DCcomics Community!](https://www.reddit.com/r/DCcomics/comments/vio4ub/discussion_the_top_71_dc_comic_runs_voted_by_the). Waid's Flash is #2.\n\nI was motivated to read this as it's one of the best DC comic runs of all time and the best Flash run. I chose this as my first Flash run. Flash was also one of my favorite superheroes (and my favorite superpower) when growing up.\n\n__Version.__\nThe trade paperbacks and omnibus editions are both solid. They're effectively the same. See also [comicbooktreasury reading order](https://www.comicbooktreasury.com/the-flash-reading-order). The trade paperbacks include the following issues:\n\n+ Book One: The Flash Vol. 2 #62-68, Annual #4-5, The Flash Special #1\n+ Book Two: The Flash Vol. 2 #69-79, Annual #6, Green Lantern #30-31, #40, JLI Quarterly #10\n+ Book Three: The Flash Vol. 2 #80-94\n+ Book Four: The Flash Vol. 2 #95-105, #0, Annual #8\n+ Book Five: The Flash Vol. 2  #106-118, Impulse #10-11\n+ Book Six: The Flash Vol. 2 #119-129, Flash/Green Lantern: Faster Friends #1-2\n\nI chose the trade paperbacks over the omnibus because they were available online. Sources:\n\n+ [ReadComicOnline: The Flash by Mark Waid](https://readcomiconline.li/Comic/Flash-by-Mark-Waid)\n\n__Miscellanea.__\nhttps://www.reddit.com/r/comicbooks/comments/1c9uq3/jlu_flash_no_respect\n\nTrue. This is why Flash has so many badly written stories. As a kid and still today, I agree Flash has the coolest superpower of all the Justice League heroes. However, he has no weaknesses, and it's so hard to write a story about him that all his villains are shit, and so is his forgettable origins. And the power showcases are often boring beyond just running really fast, punching someone, then running away, then punching again.","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=u-RSDQAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676101399116","title":"The Giving Tree","status":"To read","releaseYear":1964,"pages":64,"authors":["Shel Silverstein"],"publishers":["Harper Collins"],"genres":["Poetry"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=1IleAgAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676102349388","title":"The God Delusion","status":"To read","releaseYear":2006,"pages":496,"authors":["Richard Dawkins"],"publishers":["Random House"],"genres":["Nonfiction"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=grccDzrTWLUC"},{"id":"322682676101405260","title":"The Grapes of Wrath","status":"To read","releaseYear":1939,"pages":544,"authors":["John Steinbeck"],"publishers":["Penguin"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Grapes_of_Wrath.html?hl=&id=ClXiwSYzjtYC"},{"id":"340133539360014929","title":"The Great Hunt (Wheel of Time #2)","status":"To read","releaseYear":1990,"pages":707,"authors":["Robert Jordan"],"publishers":["Macmillan"],"updatedDate":"2022-08-16","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Great_Hunt.html?hl=&id=tuspQELrwhIC"},{"id":"322682676102376012","title":"The Histories","status":"To read","releaseYear":-440,"authors":["Herodotus"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=wLwwAQAAMAAJ"},{"id":"5a4febb4-71fc-473b-b694-901a0e9679cf","title":"The Hole","status":"To read","releaseYear":2014,"authors":["Hiroko Oyamada"],"updatedDate":"2026-07-20"},{"id":"b981828a-25c3-448e-8ba2-2e396490d0aa","title":"The Housemaid: An Absolutely Addictive Psychological Thriller with a Jaw-dropping Twist","status":"To read","releaseYear":2022,"pages":334,"authors":["Freida McFadden"],"publishers":["Bookouture"],"updatedDate":"2024-07-11","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Housemaid_An_Absolutely_Addictive_Ps.html?hl=&id=c2kjzwEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101340748","title":"The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation","status":"To read","releaseYear":2013,"pages":432,"authors":["Jon Gertner"],"genres":["Nonfiction"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=uOMt_XCo81QC"},{"id":"322682676102329932","title":"The Idiot","status":"To read","releaseYear":1868,"pages":768,"authors":["Fyodor Dostoyevsky"],"publishers":["Penguin"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Idiot.html?hl=&id=2-ly7aL57XgC"},{"id":"322682676101381708","title":"The Iliad","status":"To read","releaseYear":-800,"pages":560,"authors":["Homer"],"publishers":["Penguin UK"],"genres":["Poetry"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=6xZylvO-wGUC"},{"id":"322682676102325836","title":"The Library of Babel","status":"To read","releaseYear":1986,"pages":36,"authors":["Jorge Luis Borges"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Library_of_Babel.html?hl=&id=Jp1QAAAAMAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101353036","title":"The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing ","status":"To read","releaseYear":2014,"pages":213,"authors":["Marie Kondo"],"genres":["Non-fiction"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Life_changing_Magic_of_Tidying_Up.html?hl=&id=xP6LDQAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676102312524","title":"The Little Prince","status":"To read","releaseYear":1940,"pages":100,"authors":["-Exupéry, Antoine de Saint"],"publishers":["Houghton Mifflin Harcourt"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Little_Prince.html?hl=&id=vlr0uqedlWcC"},{"id":"322682676101354060","title":"The Magic Mountain","status":"To read","releaseYear":1924,"pages":854,"authors":["Thomas Mann"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-08-12","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Magic_Mountain.html?hl=&id=JuezAAAAIAAJ"},{"id":"336510408254816849","title":"The Magicians","status":"To read","releaseYear":2009,"pages":416,"authors":["Lev Grossman"],"publishers":["Penguin"],"updatedDate":"2023-07-12","notes":"Came up as part of my search fo scifi books like Evangelion.\n\nhttps://www.reddit.com/r/evangelion/comments/1y3kce/booksnovelsshort_stories_with_that_mythic_eva","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=d84AspgFjSwC"},{"id":"eb1b137a-f91c-4677-a040-8423af70cc85","title":"The Manager's Path","status":"To read","releaseYear":2017,"pages":224,"authors":["Camille Fournier"],"publishers":["\"O'Reilly Media, Inc.\""],"updatedDate":"2024-03-12","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=FaNaDgAAQBAJ"},{"id":"339777496632263249","title":"The Martian","status":"To read","releaseYear":2011,"pages":385,"authors":["Andy Weir"],"publishers":["Ballantine Books"],"updatedDate":"2022-08-12","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Martian.html?hl=&id=oGGMDQAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676101398092","title":"The Merchant of Venice","status":"To read","releaseYear":1600,"pages":32,"authors":["William Shakespeare"],"genres":["Play"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=CScVAAAAQAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101338700","title":"The Murder of Roger Ackroyd","status":"To read","releaseYear":2018,"pages":368,"authors":["Agatha Christie"],"publishers":["HarperCollins"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Murder_of_Roger_Ackroyd.html?hl=&id=FKD6swEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676103386700","title":"The Oresteia","status":"To read","releaseYear":-458,"pages":112,"authors":["Aeschylus"],"publishers":["Bloomsbury Publishing"],"genres":["Play"],"updatedDate":"2022-07-11","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=s8azCgAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676103360076","title":"The Origin of Species","status":"To read","releaseYear":1859,"pages":500,"authors":["Charles Darwin"],"publishers":["Fingerprint! Publishing"],"genres":["Nonfiction"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Origin_of_Species.html?hl=&id=0WiwoAEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676102345292","title":"The Painter of Modern Life and Other Essays","status":"To read","releaseYear":1863,"pages":224,"authors":["Charles Baudelaire"],"publishers":["Garland Publishing"],"genres":["Nonfiction"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Painter_of_Modern_Life_and_Other_Ess.html?hl=&id=6yp-PwAACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676102381132","title":"The Perks of Being a Wallflower","status":"To read","releaseYear":1999,"pages":240,"authors":["Stephen Chbosky"],"publishers":["Simon and Schuster"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Perks_of_Being_a_Wallflower.html?hl=&id=pK0X5FyUs28C"},{"id":"322682676103390796","title":"The Poetry of Robert Frost","status":"To read","releaseYear":1969,"pages":607,"authors":["Robert Frost"],"genres":["Poetry"],"updatedDate":"2022-07-11","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Poetry_of_Robert_Frost.html?hl=&id=TK1aAAAAMAAJ"},{"id":"322682676102360652","title":"The Prince","status":"To read","releaseYear":1513,"pages":148,"authors":["Niccolo Machiavelli"],"publishers":["Penguin"],"genres":["Nonfiction"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Prince.html?hl=&id=4pJYa-HVNRYC"},{"id":"322682676101392972","title":"The Prince and the Pauper","status":"To read","releaseYear":1881,"pages":232,"authors":["Mark Twain"],"publishers":["Hesperus Minor"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=mPKdEQAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676101389900","title":"The Red Badge of Courage","status":"To read","releaseYear":1895,"pages":138,"authors":["Stephen Crane"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Red_Badge_of_Courage.html?hl=&id=qxBgtgEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676102373964","title":"The Republic","status":"To read","releaseYear":-380,"authors":["Plato"],"genres":["Nonfiction"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=QIcCAAAAQAAJ"},{"id":"339774741905670736","title":"The Road","status":"To read","releaseYear":2006,"pages":256,"authors":["Cormac McCarthy"],"publishers":["Vintage"],"updatedDate":"2022-08-12","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=PfmjWho_zOAC"},{"id":"2fdf71e9-0893-448e-83d9-9b7d65126fed","title":"The Sandman: #17-75","status":"To read","releaseYear":2021,"authors":["Neil Gaiman"],"publishers":["National Geographic Books"],"updatedDate":"2023-08-07","notes":"## Resources and Miscellanea\n\nSee the base entry for details. This entry includes the rest of Neil Gaiman's 75-issue run (including the special issues, which I include during reading as part of the omnibus editions).","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Sandman_The_Deluxe_Edition_Book_Two.html?hl=&id=WNeQEAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676101380684","title":"The Sign of the Four (Sherlock Holmes, #2)","status":"To read","releaseYear":1890,"pages":146,"authors":["Arthur Conan Doyle"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Sign_of_the_Four_Sherlock_Holmes_2_b.html?hl=&id=3tO4ywEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101384780","title":"The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde","status":"To read","releaseYear":1886,"pages":424,"authors":["Robert Louis Stevenson"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Les_combattants_du_petit_bonheur.html?hl=&id=2pmOzQEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676103354956","title":"The Sun Also Rises","status":"To read","releaseYear":1926,"pages":320,"authors":["Ernest Hemingway"],"publishers":["Scribner"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Sun_Also_Rises.html?hl=&id=hoOMCwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676101339724","title":"The Sympathizer","status":"To read","releaseYear":2015,"pages":372,"authors":["Viet Thanh Nguyen"],"publishers":["Grove/Atlantic, Inc."],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=dYYVBgAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676101406284","title":"The Tale of Genji","status":"To read","releaseYear":1008,"pages":1216,"authors":["Murasaki Shikibu"],"publishers":["Penguin"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-08-12","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=l7nDr6X63ggC"},{"id":"322682676102324812","title":"The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter","status":"To read","releaseYear":900,"pages":197,"authors":["Anonymous"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Tale_of_the_Bamboo_Cutter_and_Other.html?hl=&id=cdGWmgEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676102391372","title":"The Three Musketeers","status":"To read","releaseYear":1844,"pages":682,"authors":["Alexandre Dumas"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Three_Musketeers.html?hl=&id=VUAGMQAACAAJ"},{"id":"76a669a2-3982-4d4f-bc90-14e9bba01da1","title":"The Turn of the Screw","status":"To read","releaseYear":1898,"pages":128,"authors":["Henry James"],"publishers":["Modernista"],"updatedDate":"2024-07-16","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=ov3lEAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676101379660","title":"The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary","status":"To read","releaseYear":1380,"pages":440,"authors":["Ambrose Bierce"],"publishers":["University of Georgia Press"],"genres":["Nonfiction"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Unabridged_Devil_s_Dictionary.html?hl=&id=ESpUXpqO55QC"},{"id":"322682676102383180","title":"The Waste Land and Other Poems","status":"To read","releaseYear":1922,"pages":148,"authors":["T.S. Eliot"],"publishers":["Broadview Press"],"genres":["Poetry"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Waste_Land_and_Other_Poems.html?hl=&id=tUVrhzxW3xIC"},{"id":"339775693708591696","title":"The Willful Princess and the Piebald Prince (The Realm of the Elderlings #1)","status":"To read","releaseYear":2013,"pages":184,"authors":["Robin Hobb"],"updatedDate":"2023-07-12","notes":"Among the [top 10 fantasy books](https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/p1mwnx/the_rfantasy_2021_top_novels_poll_results) according to r/fantasy and the most known work from Robin Hobb.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Willful_Princess_and_the_Piebald_Pri.html?hl=&id=8E3LMgEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676103353932","title":"The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Oz, #1)","status":"To read","releaseYear":1900,"pages":272,"authors":["L. Frank Baum"],"publishers":["HarperCollins"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Wonderful_Wizard_of_Oz.html?hl=&id=wTP9a3YIMZ0C"},{"id":"322682676102355532","title":"Thousand Cranes","status":"To read","releaseYear":1952,"pages":160,"authors":["Yasunari Kawabata"],"publishers":["Vintage"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Thousand_Cranes.html?hl=&id=Y74SRp_C0rcC"},{"id":"322682676102334028","title":"Through the Looking-Glass (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, #2)","status":"To read","releaseYear":1865,"pages":208,"authors":["Lewis Carroll"],"publishers":["Simon and Schuster"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=asd0EAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676102350412","title":"Thus Spoke Zarathustra","status":"To read","releaseYear":1883,"pages":384,"authors":["Friedrich Nietzsche"],"publishers":["Oxford University Press"],"genres":["Nonfiction"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Thus_Spoke_Zarathustra.html?hl=&id=sMHmCwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676102385228","title":"Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair","status":"To read","releaseYear":1924,"pages":69,"authors":["Pablo Neruda"],"genres":["Poetry"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Twenty_Love_Poems_and_a_Song_of_Despair.html?hl=&id=RJgSAAAAYAAJ"},{"id":"322682676102374988","title":"Two Treatises of Government","status":"To read","releaseYear":1689,"pages":464,"authors":["John Locke"],"genres":["Nonfiction"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Locke_Two_Treatises_of_Government_Studen.html?hl=&id=gRNDLAK4kPUC"},{"id":"7039e868-c535-4f3c-a072-ef84995b6665","title":"Ultimate Spider-Man by Brian Bendis: #8-160","status":"To read","releaseYear":2009,"pages":200,"authors":["Bill Jemas","Brian Michael Bendis"],"publishers":["Marvel Entertainment"],"updatedDate":"2023-08-07","notes":"## Resources and Miscellanea\n\nSee the base entry for details. This entry includes the rest of Brian Bendis' run (including the crossover and special issues).","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=DTdmbZPwTkoC"},{"id":"322682676101396044","title":"Ulysses","status":"To read","releaseYear":1922,"pages":860,"authors":["James Joyce"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=na0bDAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676101362252","title":"Waiting for Godot","status":"To read","releaseYear":1952,"pages":128,"authors":["Samuel Beckett"],"publishers":["Faber & Faber"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-08-12","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=B91TKeLQ54EC"},{"id":"322682676102365772","title":"Walden","status":"To read","releaseYear":1854,"pages":320,"authors":["Henry David Thoreau"],"publishers":["Random House"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=_F5CDgAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676102301260","title":"War and Peace","status":"To read","releaseYear":1869,"authors":["Leo Tolstoy"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=zespAAAAYAAJ"},{"id":"b7d55ce4-381c-464c-a99b-722fbf8c93b7","title":"Warbreaker","status":"To read","releaseYear":2009,"pages":692,"authors":["Brandon Sanderson"],"publishers":["Tor Books"],"updatedDate":"2025-07-12","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=Prj1iTmPJn4C"},{"id":"9328aac8-c514-41ed-9c4d-baa50ed2a749","title":"What If?","status":"To read","releaseYear":2014,"pages":321,"authors":["Randall Munroe"],"publishers":["Houghton Mifflin Harcourt"],"updatedDate":"2024-09-03","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/What_If.html?hl=&id=tgZIBAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676101387852","title":"Where the Wild Things Are","status":"To read","releaseYear":1963,"pages":40,"authors":["Maurice Sendak"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Where_the_Wild_Things_Are.html?hl=&id=R3IkAQAAMAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101386828","title":"Wuthering Heights","status":"To read","releaseYear":1847,"pages":401,"authors":["Emily Bronte"],"publishers":["Vintage"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Wuthering_Heights.html?hl=&id=7n24JlhSzNYC"},{"id":"a5d7373a-d46d-4956-acb5-baa5c83edb3a","title":"X-Men by Chris Claremont (Uncanny X-Men #106-)","status":"To read","releaseYear":1977,"authors":["Chris Claremont"],"publishers":["Marvel Comics Group"],"updatedDate":"2024-07-11","notes":"## Resources and Miscellanea\n\nSee the first entry for how I split Claremont's X-Men run.\n\n__Version.__ Starting with #105, I swapped to the omnibus edition. I prefer The Uncanny X-Men omnibus edition as omnibus editions are generally more holistic.","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Uncanny_X_Men.html?hl=&id=eiBPAAAACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676102357580","title":"人間失格 (No Longer Human)","status":"To read","releaseYear":1948,"pages":177,"authors":["Osamu Dazai"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/No_Longer_Human.html?hl=&id=l5WuGOrS5wQC"},{"id":"322682676101347916","title":"仮面の告白 (Confessions of a Mask)","status":"To read","releaseYear":1949,"pages":313,"authors":["Yukio Mishima"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/%E8%8B%B1%E8%AA%9E%E3%81%A7%E8%AA%AC%E6%98%8E%E3%81%99%E3%82%8B%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E3%81%AE%E6%96%87%E5%8C%96.html?hl=&id=Sh6yhNrS1VgC"},{"id":"322682676101348940","title":"博士の愛した数式 (The Housekeeper and the Professor)","status":"To read","releaseYear":2003,"pages":272,"authors":["Yoko Ogawa"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=RUPfBQAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676102307404","title":"四畳半神話大系 (Yojouhan Shinwa Taikei)","status":"To read","releaseYear":2011,"pages":405,"authors":["Lambert M. Surhone"],"publishers":["角川書店"],"genres":["Light Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/%E5%9B%9B%E7%95%B3%E5%8D%8A%E7%A5%9E%E8%A9%B1%E5%A4%A7%E7%B3%BB.html?hl=&id=meP8wAEACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101344844","title":"春の雪 (Spring Snow)","status":"To read","releaseYear":1969,"pages":402,"authors":["Yukio Mishima"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-07-18","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/%E6%98%A5%E3%81%AE%E9%9B%AA.html?hl=&id=xjuDtgAACAAJ"},{"id":"322682676101345868","title":"痴人の愛 (Naomi)","status":"To read","releaseYear":1947,"authors":["Jun'ichirō Tanizaki"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-07-18","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=2r-rDwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676102313548","title":"秒速5センチメートル (Byousoku Go Senchimētoru)","status":"To read","releaseYear":2007,"authors":["Makoto Shinkai"],"genres":["Light Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/%E5%B0%8F%E8%AA%AC_%E7%A7%92%E9%80%9F5%E3%82%BB%E3%83%B3%E3%83%81%E3%83%A1%E3%83%BC%E3%83%88%E3%83%AB.html?hl=&id=iViWCwAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676101346892","title":"美しさと哀しみと (Beauty and Sadness)","status":"To read","releaseYear":1964,"pages":356,"authors":["Yasunari Kawabata"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-01-30","url":"https://play.google.com/store/books/details?id=YLEfDAAAQBAJ"},{"id":"322682676101355084","title":"走ることについて語るときに僕の語ること (What I Talk About When I Talk About Running)","status":"To read","releaseYear":2007,"pages":179,"authors":["Haruki Murakami"],"genres":["Nonfiction"],"updatedDate":"2022-08-12","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/What_I_Talk_About_When_I_Talk_About_Runn.html?hl=&id=yoHbJ78JZCYC"},{"id":"322682676101343820","title":"雪国 (Snow Country)","status":"To read","releaseYear":1935,"pages":175,"authors":["Yasunari Kawabata"],"genres":["Novel"],"updatedDate":"2022-07-18","url":"https://books.google.com/books/about/Snow_Country.html?hl=&id=gh93vgEACAAJ"}]}]}