Ted > Recent Status Updates

Zounds, and egads! My library copy of the audiobook (using the Libby app) was spontaneously "returned" to the library, while I was only halfway through the book. I have to go back in the waiting line to check it out again.

My first foray into Fitz. Purchased this back after watching the "Benjamin Button" film. I had no idea he was such a versatile and varied writer. I'm thoroughly enjoying these stories. Have purchased 3 more Fitzes in this Macmillan Collector's Library edition.

This will show on my Currently Reading list for a while, as I'm only reading a story now and again as I can fit them between other books.

This will show on my Currently Reading list for a while, as I'm only reading a story now and again as I can fit them between other books.

This will show on my Currently Reading list for a while, as I'm only reading a story now and again as I can fit them between other books.

I am 40 minutes into the unabridged Audible book, which uses two different readers for the two characters, and I am getting frustrated and regretful of buying it. The two narrators sound very alike, not just in their voices, but in the way they read their parts, with identical cadences and intonations. I don't know who I am listening to, and I find myself having to backtrack constantly to figure it out.

Read this over 50 years ago, and it's stuck in my mind all these years. Have been searching for it for decades, but couldn't remember the title or author. Came across this title and downloaded it from Kindle Unlimited for $0.00 (what a deal). A quick text search of "Amiko Tanabe" (the only words I remembered from the book. My schoolboy crush. LOL) showed this to be just what I was looking for. Color me jazzed.

Robert McCammon: Mystery Walk just $1.99 through June. Get 'em while they last.

https://twitter.com/RobertMcCammon/st...

Just received my latest audio book - Joe Hill: Dark Carousel, 2-disc vinyl record album.

23 hours down; 20 to go.
For such a "talky" book, I can't stop listening to it. A fascinating glimpse into another world.

Up next, a 43 hour audiobook, which should take a while to complete, as most of my listening occurs during my 15 minute drives to work and back.

Aside from the <spoiler>transparent rip-off of "Carrie</spoiler>," at one point, things are still going well with the book.

Enjoying the hell out of this, but back to the crosswords, a recurring theme here; this is really getting under my skin: The authors bring up a hypothetical crossword puzzle word, germane to the current situation, e.g. "T.I.M.O.R.O.U.S. Eight across, another name for coward." Listen, eight across refers to the square the word starts in and the direction it goes. It does NOT refer to the number of letters in the word.

Amma, an avid NY Times crossword puzzle buff, threatens to CASTIGATE Ethan if he is late for school again, giving him the clue, "Confinement or pain exacted for wrong-doing'." She should know, the form of the word (verb), should maych that of the clue. So she should have said, "To confine or exact pain. . ."
Just sayin'.
😄

Yawwwwwwwwn.

1/4 of the way through the audiobook, and I'm just not feeling it. So far, it's just a big nothing burger. What's wrong with me?

Mailman delivered this today. My Do Not Disturb sign is now up.

Part of my aptly named 2018 Reading Challenge. I'm struggling to see this audiobook to its conclusion. Apparently, all that is required, to cure a woman of PTSD and flashbacks who was raped, tortured, and hung by a serial killer (from whom she miraculously escaped) and who gave up the resulting baby for adoption, are great pecs and muscles rippling beneath some asshole's shirt. A Kindle Firsts selection. TANSTAAFL

I'm forced to set the book down. Damn. Just as the good is getting even better.

All right, hold it. Just when I thought, here's a writer who is really displaying some pretty good chops, I come across this line:
"The ringing in her ears reached a crescendo."
Listen, I am no grammar nazi, but words have meanings. Some words have multiple meanings; others have one precise, unambiguous meaning.
Crescendo is the latter. And a crescendo is not something that is reached. Look it up.
Pet peeve. Sorry.

A sex scandal has placed doubt over the awarding of this year's Nobel Prize for Literature.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/03/europe...

6 out of 16 academy members have resigned, while 12 are required for a quorum. Are there any major literary prizes, anymore, which are free of controversy?

Moving on from a historic Norwegian epic to a Chinese epic fantasy. Looking forward to this new adventure.