Josh > Recent Status Updates

Paused while I catch up on some unseen movies.

Through "Currency" and taking another break to continue the pacing myself effort. Though eager to get this wrapped too. Illuminates some of what was going on in "Solomon's Gold" which is good.

Gonna pace myself this time around; last time I rushed through it and didn't give it enough attention. Finished Solomon's Gold (Book 6) and breaking for a bit. I'm a little worried I didn't understand much about why a lot of the last 100 pages or so were happening, and I have like 600 additional pages to go. Am I supposed to understand Jack and Isaac's internal motivations at this point or is that a surprise?

Goodness, this book is brilliant. I have to gear up to write a proper review this time and restrain from another bout of uninformative gushing. Resolved: "cosmi" (pl. of cosmos), though not a dictionary word, is a Neal Stephenson word so OK that I used it in 2009.

I consider this my favorite book and have somehow not re-read it in 7.5 years. Let's roll.

This is absolutely fantastic. But it's terrifying and I can only handle one public health crisis + government screw-up story at a time so have to pause on it for a bit.

The audiobook checkout period is only a fraction of what's necessary to finish a book this long, and I could just renew each time it expires, but instead I've been taking 1-2 week breaks between loans. Gonna make it to the end on the next pass though (which will be the fourth!).

I don't have a bookshelf for "A water bottle in my bag leaked so this is on hold while it's drying out" but if I did, that's where this would go.

So far the experiment is a success. My commute's relentless demand for time is forcing me to continue to make progress, even if my attention slips sometimes and I have to supplement with a little Cliff's Notes.

Trying this out as an audiobook and it's long as hell so we'll see how this goes.

An all-time first sentence: "The moon blew up without warning and for no apparent reason."

Moving this to the Currently Reading shelf, where I imagine it will sit for the next two years or so.

Halfway done. Not sure about this one. It's been a long time since I read a horror book. Are they all like this? GR reviewers are raving about the writing, I think it's very uneven. They say it's creepy and engaging, I'm feeling it reads more like Hill is just trying to throw terrible disturbing stuff at me rather than tell a story. Idea: read a Stephen King book next to get some control data.

I've started to become exhausted by this book, and have found it worthwhile to sift through some positive reviews and get re-oriented. But if anyone reads this book and *doesn't* question their sanity halfway through they're probably missing something.

Into Part 3 and approaching the halfway point. 95% confident I will finish the book, which is one thing. Whether I end up liking it or not, another.

Part 2 is shaping up like I hoped: it seems to have a plot.