Fantasy Buddy Reads discussion

This is a Buddy Read for The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly starting on June 10, 2024.


Happy Reading!

Thank you!

BR for the second book is on March 10th, and can be found [here]

Currently on sale on Chirp!
https://www.chirpbooks.com/audiobooks...

Folks thinking of rescheduling? I can go either way. March is just as busy as Feb for me, but can go further.

What about June/July for these two?

Any change is fine with me… overbooking in June/July is tomorrow’s problem ;)

Kicking the can down the road feels good.

LOL Sounds good! Keep the 10th?

Should I put in the comment to the adjust thread, or let someone else draw our Mods' ire? Or since Iain was a suggester, is it already taken care of?

I can edit thread titles and spreadsheet stuff, but I can't just go around editing other people's comments... so anything that involves Yanique changing something in comment 1 needs to go through the usual process... if it's just a typo of the series name/number, that's usually only in the thread title and I can take care of it solo...

The 10th is good.

All right, I'll go poke the hornet's nest...

Nest poked, date edit request made for both threads.

Started...

I'm enjoying the story and the style, but I'm feeling a bit muddy-headed and stressed by real life at the moment, and I might need some people to make a list of every book reference in the book... because there's ALOT...

The first one, I think, (view spoiler)[was the Gunslinger poem that inspired Dark Tower, maybe?... that's what I immediately thought of anyway... (hide spoiler)]

Now it's doing a bunch of fairytales...

20%: Very Narnian... bit of Wayward Children ((view spoiler)[unhappy home life... (hide spoiler)])

I was going to join in but is it scheduled for now or June?

Oof... way to go Iain...

I think I'm the one that adjusted this BR, too... I never moved it in my spreadsheet... and I've just been mindlessly following the reading order I decided on a few days ago... especially as life kicked me in the face a bit, the past 48hrs...

If I wasn't already 50% through, I'd stop and move on...

50%: (view spoiler)[this is feeling like a cross between Narnia & something like Sisters Grimm or Thursday Next, with the fairytale characters living in a bookish realm...

I expected the theme of grief to be stronger, but I'm so distracted by the fairytale elements, and the dead mom calling to her son David just seems like a MacGuffin to keep the story chugging along...

The stepmother felt like a woman just trying her best... especially in the backdrop of WW1/2... even when she slapped David, I never stopped empathizing... (hide spoiler)]

The more I think about this, the more I'm like FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUck...

If I'm on a true leave of absence now, I'll probably be able to catch up on my heavy BR schedule, but this is 10hrs/3-4hrs I could have totally saved right now...

This is the alternating BR schedule I setup for myself a day or 2 ago, to alternate easy books and "more challenging" books...

Sword of Kaigen - done
Everwild - done
Stalking Darkness - done
Book of Lost Things - doing now
Dune Messiah - next
Dead Reign - easy Marla Mason
Stones of Light - then smooth sailing,
Tainted Cup - because it's a bunch
Trials of Empire - of new releases
Spirit War - and re-reads
Burned - I'm looking forward to,
Stranger - basically...

And this is just the BRs I'm behind on, and the ones scheduled through tomorrow...

(I made that list alot harder to read than I needed to)...

EDIT: should probably jumble the last 5 to do re-reads between the new releases...

Timelord Iain wrote: "The more I think about this, the more I'm like FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUck...

If I'm on a true leave of absence now, I'll probably be able to catch up on my heavy BR schedule, but this is 10hrs/3-4hrs I cou..."

That sucks you started it so early when you are behind!

Yea... the whole discussion started because me and others are so behind... and this was on my shortlist for maybe skipping... but the blurb sounded so good... then it was rescheduled... but I think I already checked out the audiobook from Hoopla... and left it on my spreadsheet... and kinda started shuffling rows in my spreadsheet to 100% decide a reading order and just power through as much as possible... and here we are... around 66%... stopped to eat/watch TV, then it's back to the grind...

99%: I really liked it...

Oh man!! I’m sorry you started early.

But it’s so good, right? I’ve read it a few times.

Bloody Hell, Iain, you're the one who wanted us to move it in the first place! LOL

Nirkatze wrote: "Bloody Hell, Iain, you're the one who wanted us to move it in the first place! LOL"

I was confused tbh lol

I just opened the thread using URL bar history, didn't check the thread title for date changes...

I even went and poked the sleeping dragon for you to get it changed!!

Are other folks going to join Iain, or wait for June? I can go either way. I really don't want to poke the dragon again though.

Personally waiting would be easier for me, if it is bumped back to February I'll be at the tail end of the 2 weeks for sure.

Let's keep with June then. Iain'll just have to come visit us. ^_^

Agreed on keeping it in June.

Yep... my fault for bungling it up...

Started! Not forgetting this one! Through Chapter 2 and my heart goes out to David... (view spoiler)[Child logic, "if I do this, mom will be okay..." and then blaming himself... poor kid... (hide spoiler)]

Through Chapter 16... the book has taken some very dark turns... reminds me somewhat of Pan's Labyrinth, and a mix of Narnia and original flavor Brothers Grimm...

Finished! Enjoyed the dark fairy tale/portal fantasy... parts of it also reminded me of Labyrinth, and not just the riddle... it's a good trope. Just opened @Iain's spoiler tags--(view spoiler)[LOL I lost all empathy for the stepmother when she slapped David, but then, I've never been a parent, so I have more empathy from the child side. (hide spoiler)]

Ooo I’m looking forward to this one. I own it so I’m going through all my library expirations first and then I’ll be here for this.

Felina wrote: "Ooo I’m looking forward to this one. I own it so I’m going through all my library expirations first and then I’ll be here for this."

It was a fun one!

FINALLY, you guys took forever to get here...

LOL Not everyone is fast enough to just ignore rescheduling plans...

HA HA

You guys went the long way... I Timelord'd

😂😂😂

The fastest way between two points is a tesseract...

I forgot there was a Dark Tower reference in this book. Well… not Kings Dark Tower but the poem that inspired DT for King.

Oh wow. Just finished. I love this book. I forgot almost everything about it just that I knew I loved it. It’s such a beautiful story and encapsulates grief in a beautiful way. I think the only other book that handles grief better is The Fisherman.

The writing is poetry. I’ve tried to read other John Connolly books but they don’t have the same vibe. He has a long cop drama series that’s pretty dark. I guess this book is dark. It deals with the darkest parts of a person. Selfishness and betrayal. Greed and lust. But also showcases the best parts of humanity. Like loyalty and friendship. Compassion and acceptance and, of course, love.

Interesting... I'll have to keep that idea in mind--dealing with grief, that is--when we read The Fisherman...

I really liked how dark this was, even with children at its center... darkness doesn't exclude children...

Unfortunately, a large swath of darkness is directed at children. That reality is what keeps me up at night as a parent.

Grief as the theme of The Fisherman is obvious. It’s not subtle at all.

Yeah... I guess I feel like there aren't a lot of stories out there that acknowledge that darkness, and help children navigate it...