King Crusoe > Recent Status Updates

The next several days are gonna be pretty empty of "regular" book reading updates; started doing a project for Christopher Ruocchio (if you know, you know), and since that project can't be marked on Goodreads (at the moment), there obviously won't be status updates for it.

Just letting y'all know that I'm still reading (/editing), even if you don't see anything about it for a little while!

After altogether far too long, I have finally begun Exodus. Just as with many parts of the Bible, shocked by how quickly it goes from Moses's birth to him already having petitioned the Pharoah for the Israelite people. It's no wonder that these stories are dramatized and expanded so much and so frequently, because there's surprisingly little active content, yet it's still so rich. Really interesting experience.

290 pages and 14 hours later, I read from the start of the Last Battle chapter through to the end. "Only" 10 of those 14 hours were spent reading, but that is still like 3+ times as much as I tend to max out with in any given day.

What a bonkers book. What a bonkers ending.

So, uh, I didn't stop reading. I mean, I did a little. After 7 hours this morning/afternoon nonstop, I needed to eat and stuff. And then in the late afternoon I read another 2 hours. I highkey see myself spending the final 1.5-2 hours to finish tonight. Watching the March Madness championship game so we'll see how late it is after that XD

The Last Battle chapter has been read. But it’s not the end. It keeps going. 100 pages left and it just keeps going I don’t have time for this 😭😭😭

Somehow already up to *the* chapter - 37, The Last Battle. The verge of the end. What an utterly insane book so far. Somehow still 300 pages left. Yet only 300 pages left. FeelsWeirdMan

What else can I say besides there's so much to keep track of at this point D:

Can't believe how much is going on here. Really really enjoying everything. (Except for 1 reveal, which - while very cool - is not in any way intrinsically satisfying on account of Robert Jordan having pettily retconned shit.

This book is going so hard so far. Been basically non-stop. Lots of tension in multiple places: really exciting developments in a couple of those places; really concerning developments in a couple others; really interesting handling of Forsaken stuff that feels actually COOL rather than tedious; really excited to see Mat pop up and having an idea where that plot is going alongside others...so much. It's awesome.

Forgot to update either Monday's or yesterday's reading (whoops). So I'm a little over a fifth of the way through the book now and it is splendid. Having an absolute blast so far. VERY much looking forward to continuing and getting through the next fifth over the next few days!

...I was supposed to be done with this yesterday. Instead, I (once again) did not read on Friday or Saturday for whatever reason. But I did get through a few more sections during basketball ad-breaks today! Still 90 pages left, but that's okay. I should still finish by end of month. Theoretically.

Theoretically.

I have begun the final stretch as of this morning. Just the Prologue today, but maybe the best one of the whole series. Really tight, and actually justifies its multi-hour length (tbf it's only 2.5 hours at my speed, compared to *4 HOURS* for each CoT and KoD, which did NOT deserve that much prologue space, but I digress).

Already basically right in the thick of it. Can't wait to continue. Gonna be a wild ride!

I finished "Genesis" today, after around a month with it (including a handful of days away to read "1 Enoch" in the middle, as well as being (ashamedly) distracted by the first couple rounds of March Madness taking too much of my time last weekend.

Read my review for "Genesis" here.

Decent progress today. Gonna try to be done Saturday before I start the final Wheel of Time book!

Started Joseph’s story - being sold into slavery and the first few dream interpretation stuff. Good material. Joseph was always my favorite part of Genesis, and that still holds true now.

The implicit moral of trusting God through hardship is such a relevant one for me this year, so it might be I enjoy Joseph EVEN MORE as I continue on and finish Genesis through the week/end.

Have had troubles reading the last handful of mornings. Read up to this point all in one morning a couple days ago and forgot to update (oops).

Taking a little bit of a palette-cleanser break for the rest of the month before I start my bigger April books!

Solid enough so far. Perhaps a bit irreverent, but what else do you expect from a Percy Jackson narration?

(Also hard to believe I intended to read this *an entire year ago*. 2025, man....)

Though a bit less *bombastic* than TGS, there's been a ton of really satisfying political stuff going on here. As I've said several times already: huge fan of the back half of this book. Should only need 1 more day to finish!

Jacob's sons have now been born and he has returned to reconcile with Esau, yayyyyyy.

(Also the wrestling with God and name-change to Israel occur, which may also be notable XD)

Read another hundred pages today! Was only gonna be like 75, but then the next couple chapters seemed too close a follow-up to previous Perrin stuff to stop there. As I said in a recent update: everything past the halfway point has been REALLY good!

Also, fucking FINALLY Perrin is caught up to everything else. Certainly that could've been handled at least a *little* differently (I have multiple ideas for that lol)

The dynamics of the Isaac + Rebekah story and how that plays into the start of the Jacob vs. Esau story are really odd and interesting....

Everything after the halfway point has been REALLY good!

HUGE reading day today. Perrin’s plot in the timeline continues to be super fucked and I can’t help but feel like there were a couple other ways his pacing should’ve been handled for less whiplash, but alas.

Some really cool moments for Mat and the Borderlands too!

The next *several* chapters appear to return to a lot more Perrin stuff.

Part Three was genuinely phenomenal, man. Everything the book does well is there and it's incredible.

Part Four (the final chapter) borders on being a bit much in some respects, but ultimately I think the various aspects of the ending support the themes as dealt with in the climax so effectively that I can't form a genuine critique of it at all. That's my 3rd guaranteed Book of the Year contender of the year down.

Aight, I've spent the last few days updating a lot of my shelves and other stuff here on the platform (everything from my read shel(f/ves) should be basically good!); hopefully it wasn't bothersome! :D

Relatedly, I will probably be adding all my other books over coming weeks, but I tried to turn feed updates off to prevent the spam from flooding your feeds! I apologize if GR gave/gives you all that shit anyway! D:

It's crazy how easy the story of Lot (and his family) and Sodom and Gomorrah can be forgotten, despite how iconic some of those moments are. Lot's story in particular is really quite tragic, though he is hardly innocent or blameless in it.

Furthermore, got to see the birth of Isaac and the promise of nations coming thenceforth through him. It will be time for me to take on that story next week!

Part Two was honestly *really* good. When the book goes all in on the prose and description of the otherwise mundane is when things really shine. The very start of the book was evidence of this, and so was Part Two - which also benefited from certain concepts nearly forgotten from the start making a satisfying return.

So Book(TM). Will finish tomorrow!

Aight, I've been working on a (long overdue) big profile overhaul with all the books I own in some capacity, shelving them all by author plus some other objective criteria for better organization and reduced clutter in my "read" shelf.

I DID turn off all of my update feed settings, so if any of what I'm doing floods your feeds, I do not regret to say that it is entirely Goodreads' fault, but I apologize nonetheless!

Introduction of Abram and Sarai today, plus their becoming Abraham and Sarah with the Covenant formed with God. Though the material is somewhat little in the book here, there's lots to read into. I recall reading "We Who Wrestle With God" by Jordan Peterson and being very impressed by his analysis of this portion especially. I may have to re-read that portion just because it was so good...

Finished Part One this morning and still having a delightful time. Took a bit of a detour that - in technicality - kinda went nowhere, but the implicit character development with regard to Jean-Baptiste is to enjoyable to pass up - not to mention the perfumer apprentice arc just being surprisingly engaging in its detail and underbelly of motivations.

Certified So Book™️. (Been a while since I’ve said that lol)