Arden Powell > Recent Status Updates

String theory hasn't really gone anywhere since this was published in 2002, huh? That's too bad. I like being baffled by string theory.

This is almost 25 years out of date now but I have the paperback laying around, so I might as well gently acquaint myself with some quantum physics.

I don't feel like I'm retaining any information beyond my most recent 30 pages but it's definitely getting easier/more enjoyable to read as I go along. What am I getting out of this experience? Unsure. But I'm determined to finish it within the week.

I always forget how outer space inspires immediate existential dread as soon as I start reading about it. But in a fun way!

Before I Go by Norris Black was the first story in this collection so far to make me at all nervous after turning off the light after reading it in bed at night. I'm a scaredy cat, so maybe that's just me, but hey.

Tick Talk by Cherie Dimaline. As someone who was living in the GTA a few hours south of this particular setting when this came book out, and who has a deep pervading fear of lyme disease, I have to say, I viscerally hated this one (complimentary) (good story) (read it indoors in wintertime, maybe).

I'm trying to read this slowly so I have time to properly savour each story. I'm only three in but I absolutely loved Navajos Don't Wear Elk Teeth by Conley Lyons. Brief, but nervewracking tension. And queer!

I don't think I'm enjoying this but it's a stockholm scenario at this point and I'm unwilling to give up. And it's only volume 1, god help me.

Came across at a copy by chance at a used bookstore! I love Rowland's writing, so I started it without even reading the back cover. Literally all I know going in is it's a fantasy. Enjoying the voice immensely so far.

This is a sort of viscerally unpleasant reading experience so I think the book is achieving its goal. I can't say I'm enjoying it but it's very good, and like following a missing persons case on a true crime forum, I can't close the tab and look away.

I finished The Twisted Ones this morning and jumped straight into this one in the afternoon. I enjoyed The Twisted Ones a lot but I think I'm liking this one better so far? I went into both with minimal knowledge and they're both pretty similar in broad strokes. It's all good, I'm vibing, I'm here for the ride into all the weirdly malevolent unsettling otherworlds.

I am not crying about a dumb hound lost in a wood full of monsters and I am NOT too spooked to go for a walk in my own woods. If I didn't have anything else to do with my day I'd finish this in one sitting.

Broke into my T Kingfisher stash to get me out of this reading slump and HEY it's CREEPY. I am reassured that Bongo lives, which is necessary knowledge for me to continue, as I am much too delicate to read a horror novel in which anything bad happens to the dog. Especially when it's a good-natured dumb-as-rocks senior rescue hound dog, as my dog is ALSO a good-natured dumb-as-rocks senior rescue hound dog.

"A few months ago he told himself that his choices—that any queer person’s choices—were either to hide or brazen it out, and that’s still true. But there’s another possibility: pushing back against the injustices that force people to make impossible choices."

Rowan started with such strong Howl vibes that I have no choice but to love him and forgive him of any wrongdoings that may or may not come to light.

NO SPOILERS. Progress update after chapter 28 because jfc I've never been so stressed, I couldn't stop reading until I had an answer.

I was so excited to start this, and then The Stress (tm) caught me and put everything on hold. Slowly dragging myself back into a reading routine. It's not the book's fault, but the timing is making it hard to read about wartime political/economic conflicts right now. For some reason. Might need a break between Books 2 and 3 to read something more frivolous. Still really good, though!

Almost at the halfway point now. Enjoying the quests, trudging through the larger battles. Not sure what exactly I'm getting out of this, but I'm reading it in paperback in bed at night, and I think it's putting me to sleep faster than not reading it, and that's good enough reason to continue. Maybe I'll be finished by the end of 2025.

Halfway through and enjoying this immensely. Picked it up at a library sale last summer after seeing the trailer for the upcoming miniseries, and I regret nothing so far.

I'm following the newsletter to read along one entry at a time, and just binged the first ten or eleven at once. Charmed, delighted, intrigued! Also, Victor's notes on his forbidden nun book are hilariously on point, based on certain sexy ("sexy" lol) historical novels I've read.

Opening with the most painful 20+ pages of exposition I've ever read, cool cool, good start.

Marking this as DNF and moving on. I'm bouncing off it so hard and I don't know if it's me or the book, and honestly, I don't have the energy to slog on and find out which.

My brain tells me to DNF. My pride tells me to suffer through.