<–The State of the Reader: 2/12/20 The State of the Reader: 3/11/20–>
A biweekly post updated every other Wednesday detailing my current reading projects and what new titles I’ve added to my to-read list. Title links go to Goodreads, and if you have an account there feel free to friend me! I’d love to see what you’re reading and/or planning to read.
Books Purchased
Books Finished: 3
Title: The First Girl Child
Author: Amy Harmon
Date Added: September 17, 2019
Date Started: January 17, 2020
Media: eBook/Kindle
The ending was a little bit confusing/cluttered, but the overall experience was excellent.
Title: The Story of Kao Yu
Author: Peter S. Beagle
Date Added: January 25, 2020
Date Started: February 18, 2020
Date Finished: February 29, 3030
Media: eBook/Kindle
Peter Beagle loves his unicorns lol, though it’s more of a device in this story as opposed to a main character. This was a quick, lovely read about the human heart in conflict with itself. Faulkner would be proud.
Title: The Last Conversation
Series Title: Forward Collection
Author: Paul Tremblay
Date Added: September 28, 2019
Date Started: February 20, 2020
Date Finished: February 21, 2020
Media: eBook/Kindle
It was interesting how my feelings for characters changed. I understood motivations, but I suspected what was going on from the get go, and I was not happy about what one of them was doing.
Currently Reading
Title: Pestilence
Series Title: The Four Horsemen
Author: Laura Thalassa
Date Added: January 26, 2018
Date Started: February 24, 2020
Media: eBook/Kindle
Progress: 35%
Holy fuck, this book is amazing. I wish I’d started reading it a long time ago. The main character Sara Burns is a firefighter (haha yeah, I know) after the apocalypse when the Four Horsemen of said cataclysm have decimated the planet. Humanity thought the worst of it was over, but NOPE. Pestilence returns to infect everyone he comes near with a plague until the last humans are dead, and when Sara gets on his really bad side, she’s forced to come along for the ride to watch him perform his appointed task. She both loathes and is intrigued by him, probably because he’s angelically hot, even though he’s killing people and mostly making her suffer. He also is surprisingly kind at times, and it’s just fucking with her head. Did I mention that Sara is a snarky bad ass? Because this bitch has the BEST lines of any MC I’ve ever read. I literally howl laughing at some of the shit she says to him, but this is not a story for the faint of heart. At parts, I’m absolutely heartbroken and I want her to bash Pestilence upside the head (not that it would do any good), but I also have a sneaking suspicion that a lot of his “Humans are trash” talk is just an elaborate mask put up to combat something he can’t control. I literally read like seven chapters of this at a time. I’m obsessed.
Title: Dracula
Author: Bram Stoker
Date Added: May 16, 2015
Date Started: February 13, 2020
Media: eBook/Kindle
Progress: 8%
This is really engaging, which is not something I can say about all the classics. I’m actually drawn into this tale even though I obviously know the basics…kinda? Like of course I know Dracula is a vampire, but I’m surprisingly ignorant about the original story. I’ve never seen the movie based on this book (though I plan to watch it after I finish reading), so in a way this is a new experience for me.
Title: Archangel’s Kiss
Series Title: Guild Hunter
Author: Nalini Singh
Date Added: December 27, 2018
Date Started: January 15, 2020
Media: Physical
Progress: 29%
If you cut off an angel’s wings they’ll just grow back…fascinating. I wonder if that would happen if you cauterized the stumps and now I’m really disturbed. WHY DO I THINK THINGS LIKE THIS???
Title: Man and His Symbols
Author: C. G. Jung et al
Date Added: August 4, 2017
Date Started: January 7, 2020
Media: Paperback
Progress: 17%
“Deeds were never invented, they were done; thoughts are a relatively late discover of man.” Putting aside Jung’s use of the word “primitive” when he refers to Africans (HEAVY FUCKING SIGH), the idea that we do things by rote and only reflect on them later is apt and fits with the theme of what I noted above (this is literally lifted from my notes on the book). We can be moved to deeds by unconscious factors; it’s only later that we reflect upon them. It’s like being startled. When it happens, you’re not thinking about it; you just act/react. Only later can you consciously break down why you behaved in such a way, and since the startle response instinctive, I think this is a good example.
I just grabbed yet another book from the library, so I might be reading five soon. I need to figure out how I’m going to fit it into the rotation. Sleeping TSN is sleepy. I’m off this Friday to get the mammogram I kinda skipped out on two weeks ago (oops). It’s something I shouldn’t sleep on though for genetic reasons. Being an adult was the worst decision I ever made.
<–The State of the Reader: 2/12/20 The State of the Reader: 3/11/20–>
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Dracula is one of the few classics I’ve really enjoyed. (Netflix has a mini-series right now about it. It sticks incredibly well to the book and then goes off course on it’s own story.)
I added Pestilence per your recommendation. I don’t know when I’ll get to it but it does sound interesting. (Mostly because of your description of the MC lol.)
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I think I saw that! I believe I put it into my list, but I want to read it first. Yeah, some classics are REALLY dry and hard to get through, but Dracula is actually engaging.
Omfg the main character of that story is such a smart mouth bad ass. The shit she thinks and says is exactly what you’d expect someone from 2020 to say, and I have to stop myself from laughing hysterically while I’m at work.
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Being an adult is the worst decision I ever made as well… I want to take it back! 😉
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