Nate Philbrick > Recent Status Updates

Well, I'm reading again. I think I needed something like this to get back into a reading habit...a book that's slow, patient, and purposeful with its use of language and word selection. It may not be the most exciting (yet), but for the time being I'm more than happy to appreciate it for its method.

Oh, yeah. THAT'S why I usually skip this book. I'd forgotten all about it. I'll mention it in my review where I can mark it as a spoiler.

I'm not sure why this isn't already on my have-read shelves, since I re-read it at least once every couple of years and have definitely rated it before...

So this is...what, my fifth, sixth read-through of the series? I've lost count. I will never get tired of it. They're my literary security blanket.

I'll also never get tired of how committed the first book is to roasting Taran at every opportunity.

One of my favorite characters just did something that in my opinion is way OUT of character and it actually has me pretty upset. I imagine I'll talk about it more in my review unless I find out I've been bamboozled by a plot twist later on...

"He wondered if some day years from now, someone would discover his skeleton lying on the bed, surrounded by books. He wondered what book he might be reading when he finally breathed his last, and determined to grab a good one as soon as he sensed the end coming so that whoever discovered him would know he had good taste in literature."

Oskar gets it. Not the page I'm on, but the best line so far.

I'm having a second go at this book because the hardcover edition is gorgeous and because my sisters keep telling me the rest of the saga is better...but it's a struggle to get invested when the writing's so chaotic.

Finished "The Temple Builders" and "Irellia the Nightwalker." Now I'm on "Jennoevre the Glowing." I keep forgetting to post updates.

Finished Catam Chieftain. That was...not how I expected things to go. What an opener.

I still haven't gotten invested yet. I love this general type of MG and children's literature, but this book seems particularly infantile so far in terms of story and tone. It might not be for me in the end, but I'll give it a few more chapters.

I promise I'm reading this book. It's been sitting on my virtual shelves for months. I'm just going through one of those stretches during which I can't be bothered to find the time to read anything at all, no matter how much I'm enjoying it. I have too many hobbies and to-dos.

1. This book is good.
2. I'm a slow reader.
3. I may or may not have misplaced the book.
4. Send help.

"You mean you'll put down your rock and I'll put down my sword and we'll try to kill each other like civilized people, is that it?"

It was high time for me to read this absolute gem again.

May's newsletter goes out in a few days. Topics include Camp NaNoWriMo results, a tentative scheduling update on The Wasteling Crow, and some lessons I'm learning about myself as an author.

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I always forget to post here, but April's newsletter goes out in a few days! If you're interested, you can sign up here (https://bit.ly/2I2LYeU) or shoot me any questions about my books or writing for the Q&A chat.

Warning: high salt content.

Why do SO MANY reviews include something along the lines of "the story starts out kinda slow, but..."??

Hello! Stories have to build. Characters need time to gel. Of course the beginning will be slower than the middle/end! All these authors establish a solid, rich foundation and hone their sense of pacing, and readers out there dock stars for "slow starts"?

I'm assuming the race is going to start at some point in this book. So far I've predicted all of the big tension twists, and I'm not normally one to catch on to clues or surprises ahead of time. That being said, this IS still a pretty fun story.

No big surprises so far, but I'm enjoying this. I'm particularly keen on this underlying sense of upcoming danger, and I'm hoping for a big payoff in the second half.

My one qualm so far, a minor one, is nothing about Puck particularly sets her apart from your standard tough, ornery YA female protagonist. At least Sean's reserved-yet-calculated ways make him interesting, if not altogether endearing.

Forgot to update this one! I like Bryn. As much as I love this series' trademark whimsy, I'm hoping for some serious conflict and character challenges soon.

1/3 through. The book's from 2015, but it's got that 50's Tolkien feel, you know, where little to no emotion plays into the narrative style and long sections of uninterrupted dialog or backstory pop up in every chapter.

Lucky the book has such an intriguing premise and a strong connection between the two MCs; otherwise, I might not feel too inclined to continue.

You'd think Goodreads, a place for people to talk about books they're reading, would be the one place on the internet where people don't get into stupid arguments. Apparently not.

I've predicted the general ending to the story; if I'm right, it'll kick my butt.

I'm super curious about this one. I'd never heard of it or the author, but I spotted it tucked away in a bookshop yesterday and the premise looked really intriguing (plus, it was only 10e, so you know...). Kind of a blind read for me, which I don't normally do!

"Help me, someone! I'm dying from neglect up here!"

For me, well-crafted dialog is a cornerstone of any good read. I'm enjoying this one.

Heyo! Reviews/ratings on Goodreads are amazing, but Amazon often gets neglected. If you've rated Where the Woods Grow Wild here but not there, could you spare a moment? Even just a quick line or a copy/paste would be great. Thank you!

Heyo! Guess what? This month's newsletter will include the FIRST exclusive cover reveal for The Wasteling Crow (Summer 2019)! Sign up (https://bit.ly/2I2LYeU) before I send it out in a day or two!

Finished Kyle Shultz's story. His writing style was already quite polished in his debut work, but I definitely noticed a whole new level of attention to subtlety and craft (It'd been a while since I picked up his novels; I have no doubt all his recent publications are just as fine-tuned).

I've felt pretty burnt out today, so to unwind I grabbed this book off my younger sister's shelf. I've been meaning to give it a read for quite some time. So far it's right my my alley!

I'm setting this one aside for now. The first few chapters haven't grabbed my interest, which is a shame, because this was my first Brandes novel and she seems to have a good rep. I guess everything about the opening chapters felt pretty generic to me, especially the magic system. Maybe I'll pick it up again sometime.