In Which We Discuss a Readathon

I learned, last Friday, that a regular 24-hour readathon is a thing.  As far as I understand it, people just all agree to spend 24 hours reading as much as they can.

Unfortunately, as I say, I found out about this on Friday.  The Readathon was scheduled for Saturday, when I already had plans.  Plans which precluded reading.

I decided that I'd do my own mini-readathon, starting at 7pm on the Saturday - when I began a three-hour train journey - and ending at 7pm on Sunday.  During that time I read the following;

• Pages 226 to 300 of Jeremy Gibson's Introduction to Game Design, Prototyping and Development.  This was a great book.  I didn't read the other six hundred pages because they get into the knitty-gritty of programming a game with Unity, and I'm currently working with RPGMaker 2K3, so not something I need to study right now.  This was a library book; when I'm ready to code a game with Unity I'll buy my own copy and read the rest.
• Pages 693 to 897 of Nightmares and Dreamscapes.  I wrote a longer post on this here.  It was nice to finish it!
• The final four hours of The Chase.  This as an audiobook, and four hours represented about two thirds. 
• I also started listening to The Forgetting Time.  I'm not sure how far I got through it, because I stopped keeping track after a while.

That's a pretty paltry effort for me.  If I'd known about the event sooner I'd have cleared my schedule, like I did that week I read thirty books just to prove I could.  There's another event happening on the 22nd of October.  I've marked it on my calender so I can take part properly!  Of course, assuming I pass all my exams and get into my first choice of university, I'll probably be quite busy....but we'll see how things go.

In Which We Discuss Nightmares and Dreamscapes

Nightmares and Dreamscapes is a collection of twenty-four short stories, first published in September of 1993, though many of the individual stories were published earlier, at least one as early as 1971.  I first read it in 2010, and I was surprised to find I'd forgotten a number of excellent stories from this volume.

I remembered a few - Dolan's Cadillac, Chattery Teeth, Popsy, Dedication, and Sorry Right Number all stuck with me.  I did manage to totally forgot about Stephen King's take on Sherlock Holmes, and about The Moving Finger, which is spectacularly creepy.

In 1993 Stephen King was forty-six.  By this point he was over his severe addiction phase and in the process of managing it.  His eldest daughter was twenty-three while his youngest son, Owen, was sixteen.  The collection includes an essay on twelve-year-old Owen's experience with little league, something which isn't really a thing in Britain.  We play rounders.  I actually don't know the rules of baseball, which really affected my enjoyment of the essay.  I did enjoy reading about the coach, who pointed out that having been part of a team with kids from different walks of life, in a situation where all that matters is what you do, is something that stays with you.  That was lovely.

I also liked learning that, like Stephen King himself, Owen King was over six feet tall as a teenager.  I don't know many people, other than myself, who reach their full growth before their teens.  I'm only 5'6, but that was pretty big for a twelve-year-old.

I've now finished 36 books out of 93, which puts me 39% of the way through this project.  It's only taken me three years so far.

- 15/6/13

Carrie - 1974 -  June 15th 2013
'Salem's Lot - 1975 - June 30th 2013
The Shining - 1977 - July 28th 2013
Rage - 1977 - July 31st 2013
Night Shift - 1978 - August 28th 2013
The Stand - 1978 - March 20th 2014
The Long Walk - 1979 - March 23rd 2014
The Dead Zone - 1979 - June 2014
Firestarter - 1980 - August 16th 2014


- 15/6/13 to 17/8/14 - 9

Roadwork - 1981 - 23rd August 2014
Danse Macabre - 1981 - 7th September 2014
- BONUS: Small World (Tabitha King) - 10th September 2014
Cujo - 1981 - 20th September 2014
The Running Man - 1982- 22nd September 2014
The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger - 1982 - 30th September 2014
Creepshow - 1982 - 1st October 2014
Different Seasons - 1982  - 24th October 2014

- 17/8/14 to 25/10/14 - 8 (17)

Christine - 1983
Pet Sematary - 1983
Cycle of the Werewolf - 1983
The Talisman - 1984
Thinner - 1984 

- 25/10/14/14 to 14/07/2015 - 5 (22)

Skeleton Crew - 1985
It - 1986
The Eyes of the Dragon - 1987
The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three - 1987
Misery - 1987 

- 14/7/15 to 18/10/2015 - 5 (27)

The Tommyknockers - 1987
Nightmares in the Sky  - 1988
The Dark Half - 1989 

- 18/10/2015 to 22/12/2015 - 3 (30)

Four Past Midnight - 1990
The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands - 1991 
Needful Things - 1991
Gerald's Game - 1992
Dolores Claiborne - 1992
Nightmares and Dreamscapes - 1993

- 22/12/2015 to 24/4/2016 - 6 (36)
 
Insomnia - 1994
Rose Madder - 1995
The Green Mile - 1996
Desperation - 1996

The Regulators - 1996
Six Stories - 1997
The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass - 1997
Dark Tower: Little Sisters of Eluria (Legend) - 1998
Bag of Bones - 1998

Storm of the Century - 1998
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon - 1999
The New Lieutenant's Rap - 1999
Hearts in Atlantis - 1999
Blood and Smoke - 1999

"Riding the Bullet" - 2000  
On Writing - 2000 
Secret Windows - 2000 
The Plant - 2000      
Dreamcatcher - 2001

Black House (with Peter Straub) -2001
Everything's Eventual - 2002
From a Buick 8 - 2002
The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla - 2003  
The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah - 2004

The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower - 2004
Faithful - 2004
- BONUS: 20th Century Ghosts (Joe Hill) - Jan 2005
- BONUS: Josie and Jack (Kelly Braffet)  - Feb 2005
- BONUS: We're All in This Together (Owen King) - 2005

The Colorado Kid - 2005
Cell - 2006
Lisey's Story - 2006
Blaze - 2007
Duma Key - 2008

Just After Sunset - 2008 
Stephen King Goes to the Movies - 2009
Ur - 2009     
Under the Dome - 2009
Blockade Billy - 2010

Full Dark, No Stars - 2010
Mile 81 - 2011    
11/22/63 - 2011
American Vampire (with Scott Snyder) - 2011
"Throttle" (with Joe Hill) - 2012

The Dark Tower: The Wind Through the Keyhole - 2012 
A Face in the Crowd (with Stewart O'Nan) - 2012
"In the Tall Grass"  (with Joe Hill) - 2012
"GUNS" - 2013
Ghost Brothers of Darkland County - 2013

Joyland - 2013
The Dark Man: An Illustrated Poem - 2013
Doctor Sleep - 2013
Mr. Mercedes - 2014      
Revival - November 2014

Finders Keepers - 2015
The Bazaar of Bad Dreams - 2015
End of Watch - 2016

After Insomnia I'll be reading Rose Madder, my favourite of Stephen King's work.  I have the audiobook, which is an amazing performance.  I also have The Green Mile as an audiobook and as a Kindle book, because I forgot about one of them when I bought the other.  I normally avoid doing that, but now that I have at least I can experiment with Amazon's whispersync feature.  Then another three I've not read before, after which I can finally get on with The Tower series.

In Which We Discuss Books I Read in my 27th Year, Week 36/52

Five books last week - 14th to 20th of April.  All but one were books I'd read before.

The Hunter is a book I first read as a teenager.  Last year, I picked up all three books in the series on Audible.  They're pretty short; 5-7 hours each.  The story focuses on Jenny, who is beloved by Julian, a Shadow Man.  Something of a Norse god/demon whose people inspired myths like those of alien abductions and dark elves.  I like the fact that - spoiler - although Jenny is tempted by Julian she acknowledges that his way of pursuing her isn't healthy, and rejects the idea of a relationship with him.  Considering it's a supernatural romance - that, fyi, predates Twilight by over a decade - it's a pretty healthy take on it.  I also like that it's about a group of friends rather than just one girl.

I've described The Rosie Project as 'Sheldon Cooper woos Zooey Deschanel', which is doing the book a bit of a disservice.  Don Tillman, the hero, is implied to be autistic and is definitely non-neurotypical, though he makes it work for him and has not actually been diagnosed.  He doesn't seem to have felt the need.  Don decides he needs companionship and begins his 'wife project', meting Rosie who he quickly decides is a totally unsuitable companion.  She's not a manic-pixie dreamgirl, beyond the fact that she does shake up Don's life and what he believed he wanted.  She's a normal girl who's somewhat accepting of Don, though not magically accepting.  It's a very sweet relationship and a fun book.  I enjoyed the audiobook, which is narrated in an Australian accent.  The book's written by an Australian and set in Australia, so that makes sense.

Going Postal was another one I listened to as an audiobook.  It's part of the Discworld series and is the first to star one of the new main characters, Moist Von Lipwig.  I quite like Moist, although I will always love Granny Weatherwax and Vimes more.

Light as a Feather is another book I first read as a teenager.  It's so nineties; about a woman who sets up a weight-loss support chat room which quickly blossoms into a small company.  There are boyfriend shenanigans and mean bosses, and investors who say she's too fat to promote her own company and hire a bitchy, thin woman to pretend to be Orla for TV appearances.  The good people get their dramatic victory and the bad people get their well-deserved comeuppance, and it's all very silly and fun.

The Language of Power is the first new book I finished this week.  It's the fourth of the Steerswoman series, which has been published very, very slowly since 1992.  The Language of Power was released in 2004, so I expect to be able to read the sequel any year now.  It's such a good series; I hope she does wrap it up soon.

In Which We Discuss Books I Read in my 27th Year, Week 35/52

Only three books last week - 7th to 13th April - and two of those were audiobooks.

Thief of Time is one I first read as a teenager.  It's a Discworld novel which explains any lack of continuity in the main series in a way which is rather genius.  The auditors show up again, along with Susan.  Very enjoyable.

The Cuckoo's Calling is the first in JK Rowling's Cormoran Strike series.  I like to imagine that Harry Potter's life as an auror is something like this.  The fact that JK Rowling wrote a hard-boiled detective novel makes this fanfic, where Dudley grew up to be a gay social worker and Hermione is a wizard social worker, while Harry is a grizzled old cop, more legitimate.

Pretty Little Mistakes is a choose your own adventure book.  It has a branching plotline, so each branch is rather short, maybe seven entries at most.  I like the way that 'good' choices don't always work out, and you're not always punished for bad choices - that's what life is like.  Sometimes you're gay, which is another nice choice.

In Which We Discuss Sleep Tight

I listened to this as an audiobook, so one issue became apparent immediately.  Two main characters are sisters, performing similar jobs.  The author does not often refer to them by their first names during scenes, or at least, not throughout.  The reader does not differentiate between them vocally.  So I end up listening to a few scenes with only the faintest idea of who was talking.  I actually listened to the first three hours, got hopelessly confused, and then started it again from the beginning so I could understand what was happening.

Once I got over that issue I quite enjoyed the book, as you can tell from my rating.  It focuses on a murder investigation, with some callbacks to an earlier event in the character's lives.  I did wonder if this book was a sequel to one which described the events of that book, but it doesn't appear to be - they really are just internal callbacks.

The murderer is an unusual one.  He reminded me a little of The Collector, although we spend much less time in this killer's head.  Nor is the book as memorable as The Collector; I finished it two weeks ago and I would now struggle to summarise the denouement.   This does mean I'll get to read it and enjoy the mystery again - possibly following it slightly better - so that's not altogether a downside.

I do quite enjoy mystery and crime stories, as you might be able to tell from my shelves.  This one didn't disappoint me; the mystery was quite intriguing and overall it was enjoyable journey of discovery.

I received an Audible code for this book from the author, hence why I stuck with it and made a point of writing a review of it.  I was not disappointed to have read it, and nor did I feel like I had to force myself to complete it.

In Which We Discuss Books I Read in my 27th Year, Week 34/52

Six books last week; that's 31st March to the 6th of April.  Four I'd read before; only two were new to me.

Caradoc's Quest was one of those.  It's part of the Six World's Saga, one of which I read and enjoyed in my early teens.  It's set in a future where humanity has gone to stars, populating six planets which circle two twinned stars.  All religion has been lost - no religion but Christianity appears to have ever existed - and the heros are general trying to bring Christanity back.  I'm an atheist, but I attended a Catholic school, and I'll tell you this for nothing; the Bible is pretty epic.  If you ignore any real life implications and just read it as a story it's a long, winding saga about one family and the shenanigans they get up to.  If the book was the one ring, this thing would be fun than Tolkien.  The Qu'ran and the Torah are the same; they're very broadly the same story, literally the same family.  The Torah disagrees on the point of Jesus, and the Qu'ran splits off on the point of whether it was Isaac or Ishmael that Abraham/Ibrahim tried to sacrifice before god called 'psych!'.  If you've read The Handmaid's Tale then allow me to point out that this is the story used to justify the handmaid's; Sarah, Abraham's wife believed she was too older to bear children, so she encouraged Abraham to have a child with a concubine.  Later, she was actually able to have a son.  The latter was Isaac, the former Ishmael.  So it does seem odd that the society of The Handmaid's Tale is based on Christianity, when this particular story would better suit their needs in the Islamic interpretation.  Though, on second thought, it's not that odd; they were using whatever they could to justify what they wanted to do, rather than letting conclusions come from information.  Reminds me of an argument I had with an ex-housemate; he insisted that being gay was wrong because "it's in the Bible"; when I asked him about adultery and shellfish he claimed those examples were irrelevant because "people don't care about those".  Totally incapable of recognising his own circular logic there.

American Gods is a book I first read a few years ago; it's set in a world where Gods work based on belief and many travellers brought their gods to America with them.  The old Gods are going to war with the new Gods, and there's a whole boatload of symbolism, as well as some lampshade-hanging on how similar many of the stories are.

Clare in the Community - season 6 and 7 this week - is a radio show, with the titular Clare voiced by Sally Phillips.  She's lovely.  I particularly like her work in Smack the Pony.

Neil Patrick Harris' Choose Your Own Autobiography is another book I've read before.  It have the audiobook, which loses something in the translation; I'm tempted to borrow the physical book from the library, especially after reading this lovely review by Emily Short.

Finally, Sleep Tight is the other book which was new to me; it's an audiobook I was given by the author, so I do need to write a specific post for it!