Joan > Recent Status Updates

I'm done. Another to go back to the charity shop.

I'm somewhere in the first half of this book. It's a mixture of candy-floss interspersed with the occasional 'ah' moment and the only reason I'm reading it was because it was in the charity bookshop, the font is large enough for me to read it in bed and it isn't a massive brick of a book unlike the last two non-fics I read .
After 'First Man' and 'Silk and Cyanide' it's a hell of a let-down, to be honest

This is far more interesting than I expected. I knew it would be 'heavy' on the details of his training and work in NASA (pre Apollo 11) but it's also very 'in-depth' on the sheer amount of physical work and learning and so on that accompanied his time there. Its a moving account, and paints a picture of an intensely hardworking man who kept his emotions hidden, even from close friends. I'm loving this .

cont'd.....£3.58 (Hardback) 650+ pages, as heavy as a brick, many of the pages 'foxed' despite it being sold as 'very good', but dammit it takes me back to my childhood. And so far it hasn't disappointed.

I don't want to read a sanitised 'perfect' account of Armstrong's life, but I do want to have some idea of what the real man was like. And I think this book will do just that.

I'm in a retrospective mood, looking back at times in my life that seemed so huge and so incredible when they happened. I've always admired Neil Armstrong, mostly because he came across as so darned 'ordinary' after Apollo 11. It wasn't until a few weeks ago that I found out someone had written his biography so I sent off for it.

Congratulations Goodreads.

You've made it almost impossible to read a 'book page'. How is it possible to take something so simple and turn it into a morass of incomprehensibility?

How many effing clicks do I need to use to find one simple piece of data now???

How BIG can you make the effing font????

Your incompetence is truly staggering.

Zero stars.

I discovered today that this book was most likely owned by someone (name inside) who was a Vice Admiral in the Royal Navy. I just wish he had signed it.
This has been one of the loveliest books I have read in a long time.

Theres a rather sad story behind my copy of this book. I'll wait until Ive finished reading to tell it though! So far I'm onto the fourth chapter and although its very interesting, the writing is distinctly 'iffy' in place. Methinks Oliver is trying to be smart and sadly it doesnt work.

So the new Beta page is coming whether we like it or not. Sorry Goodreads, if the real thing is anything like the cock-up currently touted as the new Beta page, then I'm probably done with Goodreads. It's unworkable, childish, and, quite frankly I could chew a pencil and spit a better one.

Congratulations. (not)

Does anyone else get put off reading a book (that has rave reviews) because it has a title that makes no sense? The one I'm looking at right now seems to be lacking a word at the end of the title and it drives me mad every time I see it come up in my lists.

Or maybe I'm just fussy? No one has mentioned this in their reviews!

Getting more and more irate with the blandness of this writing. Theres one moment which creeped me out when Banks looks at the body of a young woman on the mortuary table and thinks how beautiful she was. There was something deeply voyeuristic about it and very wrong.

Bought in a charity shop - Hardback copy, looks like it hasn't been read. My first (I think) DCI Banks novel)
And I can see why it was discarded. Pages and pages of pointless waffle about clothes and art work and music - oh GOD the MUSIC!!
And then the author has to put his tuppence-worth in with the political comments! This is the 25th book in the series. Are they all so 'padded out'? (he hasn't started on food yet)

This has a very laboured feel to the writing. Too many info dumps and I am rather bored by now.

Damn you Goodreads - if you go ahead with this crappy, unreadable, unusable 'beta' version, I'm out of here. Not that many people will miss me, but your beta is shite. Proper proper shite. Why the need to change something that works fine as it is??

A little confused. Can you actually see a horses penis when it is flaccid? I thought they were contained in the sheath unless erect?

Theres a LOT of italics in this book which makes it an uncomfortable read. Pages and pages of the darned stuff. The problem with italics is that they are hard to 'take in' when there is so much and I end up skimming through the pages with the result being I end up totally confused.
Might dnf at this point.

Um. This is just getting silly. Someone comes and gathers up all the 'wishes' whenever the weather turns (ie it rains etc) and catalogues them to keep them safe!!!??

She still uses an old-fashioned toothbrush? Not an electric one?? Really?

I'm a little confused here. This book was published in 2022. There is nothing (so far as I can tell) to place the story at an earlier time - say, 2008 etc) yet when Sophie (aged 17) is looking for a book to read, the daughter of the bookshop asks if she has read Twilight.
Come on. that was written in 2005! ANY fierce reader would ask about a more recent up-to-date book! it just didn't ring true.

Am I the only person who loathes the new 'beta' page? Its ponderous, clunky, badly designed and exhausting to use! All those clicks needed to get anywhere!!

i know this is romantic comedy, but my word, I can't cope any longer with the sheer number of adjectives littering the pages. Long, long sentences that go on and on and on and on about more or less the same thing. I like my writing sparse and clean and pure. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with the writing here, but its like candy floss - all froth and no substance when you get down to the nitty-gritty.

After a really great start this is now dragging. I am bored. There is no suspense or tension and I utterly loathe small town America with people who can’t mind their own business. Skimming now

well, this is turning out to be a lot more interesting and informative than I had hoped and puts the lie to all those tv crime series with the DCI running round doing all the work!

Easy to read as well - and by that I mean the font is clear, the formatting excellent and the writing style flows.

This year I will immediately stop reading:
*any book in which the words 'eclectic' or 'discombobulated' appear (both words have their place, but to me they are 'slap-in-the-face words that rarely sit well in fiction)
*any book in which an older woman is mocked for being a cougar while younger women in the same book are cheered for capturing a hunky bloke for a one-night stand. You can't have it both ways, authors!

‘Erm’ again ! 20 times in the book!

Ffs! Stop saying ‘Erm.’ It’s bloody annoying!

Um. I am tempted to stop reading right now. Yes, it’s not cheating , but it doesn’t really fit the genre?? And there’s a LOT of cliched dialogue

Chapter 17 and I’m not really sure I want to read on right now.

The tense changes from past to present Willy billy. Sentences don’t make sense. ‘Reign’ should be ‘rein’ . Desperate need of an editor!!

Stopped reading when the female bites into a ‘cookie’ . In Regency England no less. Do some researc