What Are You Reading 2025 - Electric Bookaloo
#76
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From: Formerly known as L. Ron zyzzle - On a cloud of Judgement
#77
Re: What Are You Reading 2025 - The Three Musketeers
Read:

Reading the novel's introduction last, as recommended lest any spoilers, confirmed my thoughts on the characterizations and various plots in what was originally a serialized novel but overall Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers was an enjoyable read. The archetypal characters of Athos, Porthos, Aramis, and D'Artagnan have inspired numerous adaptations of swashbuckling adventure... even though their company is named for firearms.
All for one and one for all!

Reading the novel's introduction last, as recommended lest any spoilers, confirmed my thoughts on the characterizations and various plots in what was originally a serialized novel but overall Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers was an enjoyable read. The archetypal characters of Athos, Porthos, Aramis, and D'Artagnan have inspired numerous adaptations of swashbuckling adventure... even though their company is named for firearms.
All for one and one for all!
#78
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From: Formerly known as L. Ron zyzzle - On a cloud of Judgement
Re: What Are You Reading 2025 - The Three Musketeers
Read:

Reading the novel's introduction last, as recommended lest any spoilers, confirmed my thoughts on the characterizations and various plots in what was originally a serialized novel but overall Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers was an enjoyable read. The archetypal characters of Athos, Porthos, Aramis, and D'Artagnan have inspired numerous adaptations of swashbuckling adventure... even though their company is named for firearms.
All for one and one for all!

Reading the novel's introduction last, as recommended lest any spoilers, confirmed my thoughts on the characterizations and various plots in what was originally a serialized novel but overall Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers was an enjoyable read. The archetypal characters of Athos, Porthos, Aramis, and D'Artagnan have inspired numerous adaptations of swashbuckling adventure... even though their company is named for firearms.
All for one and one for all!
#79
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Re: What Are You Reading 2025 - Electric Bookaloo

#80
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Re: What Are You Reading 2025 - Electric Bookaloo
Just finished: James by Percival Everett

I enjoyed this quite a bit. It’s been a long time since I’ve read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn but from what I remember, the plot lines up pretty well with James’ version of the story.

I enjoyed this quite a bit. It’s been a long time since I’ve read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn but from what I remember, the plot lines up pretty well with James’ version of the story.
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Kurt D (03-05-25)
#81
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Re: What Are You Reading 2025 - Electric Bookaloo

#82
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Re: What Are You Reading 2025 - Electric Bookaloo
I liked it overall. A posession story from the perspective of the person being posessed was really interesting.
My main complaint is that it is just too short. I appreciate it that it keeps things moving and makes for an easy read, but I would have preferred a little more buildup and tension. The length and the pace at which it moves, just sucks out any of the potential for making it scary.
My main complaint is that it is just too short. I appreciate it that it keeps things moving and makes for an easy read, but I would have preferred a little more buildup and tension. The length and the pace at which it moves, just sucks out any of the potential for making it scary.
#83
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From: Formerly known as L. Ron zyzzle - On a cloud of Judgement
Re: What Are You Reading 2025 - Electric Bookaloo
I liked it overall. A posession story from the perspective of the person being posessed was really interesting.
My main complaint is that it is just too short. I appreciate it that it keeps things moving and makes for an easy read, but I would have preferred a little more buildup and tension. The length and the pace at which it moves, just sucks out any of the potential for making it scary.
My main complaint is that it is just too short. I appreciate it that it keeps things moving and makes for an easy read, but I would have preferred a little more buildup and tension. The length and the pace at which it moves, just sucks out any of the potential for making it scary.
#85
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Re: What Are You Reading 2025 - Electric Bookaloo
Wicked, by Gregory Maguire.
I saw the movie and wasn't impressed. I read somewhere that the stage musical watered down the book, and the movie watered down the musical. So I went to the source and was rewarded with a very good book.


It's getting so that I can't find 600 pixel images of book covers anymore.
I saw the movie and wasn't impressed. I read somewhere that the stage musical watered down the book, and the movie watered down the musical. So I went to the source and was rewarded with a very good book.


It's getting so that I can't find 600 pixel images of book covers anymore.
Last edited by Nick Danger; 03-12-25 at 11:12 AM.
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Bronkster (03-12-25)
#86
DVD Talk Hero
Re: What Are You Reading 2025 - Electric Bookaloo
Wicked, by Gregory Maguire.
I saw the movie and wasn't impressed. I read somewhere that the stage musical watered down the book, and the movie watered down the musical. So I went to the source and was rewarded with a very good book.

It's getting so that I can't find 600 pixel images of book covers anymore.
I saw the movie and wasn't impressed. I read somewhere that the stage musical watered down the book, and the movie watered down the musical. So I went to the source and was rewarded with a very good book.

It's getting so that I can't find 600 pixel images of book covers anymore.
#87
DVD Talk Hero
Re: What Are You Reading 2025 - Electric Bookaloo
Just finished: Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut

I feel like I’m not smart enough to understand this book. Like, I got the gist, but man, does this book go to to places I wasn’t expecting, and I’m not entirely sure why. I get Vonnegut was using this book as a means of coping with what he went through but it felt like he was on a lot of drugs while writing this thing. So it goes.

I feel like I’m not smart enough to understand this book. Like, I got the gist, but man, does this book go to to places I wasn’t expecting, and I’m not entirely sure why. I get Vonnegut was using this book as a means of coping with what he went through but it felt like he was on a lot of drugs while writing this thing. So it goes.
#88
DVD Talk Hall of Fame
Re: What Are You Reading 2025 - Electric Bookaloo

It's been several decades since I read this. Still creepy and scary... and will freak you the fuck out.
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Kurt D (03-15-25)
#89
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Re: What Are You Reading 2025 - Electric Bookaloo

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Kurt D (03-16-25)
#92
Re: What Are You Reading 2025 - Electric Bookaloo
Just finished MR Carey's "Pandominion" duology (Infinity Gate and Echo of Worlds):


Since The Girl with all the Gifts I've enjoyed everything Carey's written. I respect that he didn't just stick to endless books spun off of that, and has written things with very different settings (zombies, ghosts, psychological thriller, hard sci-fi, YA post-apocalyptic ... and the upcoming Once was Willem sounds like a dark fairy tale). These books were his take on hard sci-fi. As much as the multiverse idea seems played out, this does a spin where the different universes are like different planets (with alliances, wars, and travel between them). And it never brought up the idea of different versions of the same people, as so many of these stories seem to do. It was cute how the cast of characters was filled with intelligent animals (from earths where evolution went a different way) ... rabbits, cats, bears, etc. At times it got tangled up in technobabble and the ending was too deus ex machina for my taste. But overall enjoyable.
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Jason Bovberg (03-19-25)
#93
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Re: What Are You Reading 2025 - Electric Bookaloo

#95
DVD Talk Hero
Re: What Are You Reading 2025 - Electric Bookaloo
Ariel Anderssen - Playing to Lose: How A Jehovah's Witness Became a Submissive BDSM Model. I bought this book because I saw her do a speech on the topic on YouTube.
First, the part I liked. The book describes how being raised in a cult warped her sense of self worth. She describes believing that everyone out there who isn't a JW is a potential murderer. She was an anti-porn activist as a teenager, because she felt an attraction to sex and believed that it was wrong. Being attracted to submission made her feel especially wrong.
In her twenties she worked as a model, discovered the existence of BDSM, and learned that the pro photographers involved in it were happy and sane. She spent the next twenty years working as a BDSM model.
Today, she is open about her sexuality. She believes that if she had seen healthy submissive women as role models as a teenager, she wouldn't have been a self-hating, suicidal, emotional mess.
The parts I didn't like as much were the details of her life. I was less interested in the chapters about her abusive first boyfriend. She tells us about drama school, her courtship and marriage, and her friends. She gives a chapter to each of her favorite BDSM photographers, and a chapter on how she adapted to not being able to travel for work as a model during Covid.
Content warning: she does describe some hard BDSM scenes.
First, the part I liked. The book describes how being raised in a cult warped her sense of self worth. She describes believing that everyone out there who isn't a JW is a potential murderer. She was an anti-porn activist as a teenager, because she felt an attraction to sex and believed that it was wrong. Being attracted to submission made her feel especially wrong.
In her twenties she worked as a model, discovered the existence of BDSM, and learned that the pro photographers involved in it were happy and sane. She spent the next twenty years working as a BDSM model.
Today, she is open about her sexuality. She believes that if she had seen healthy submissive women as role models as a teenager, she wouldn't have been a self-hating, suicidal, emotional mess.
The parts I didn't like as much were the details of her life. I was less interested in the chapters about her abusive first boyfriend. She tells us about drama school, her courtship and marriage, and her friends. She gives a chapter to each of her favorite BDSM photographers, and a chapter on how she adapted to not being able to travel for work as a model during Covid.
Content warning: she does describe some hard BDSM scenes.
She was aggressive and had enough money to lawyer-up, and got part of her UK earnings before they suddenly closed up shop. But she got nothing from the US sales. That means she didn't see a penny from the copy I bought from Amazon.com.
She concluded that no one ever failed to pay her in twenty-one years in the porn industry, but she was cheated as soon as she tried a "mainstream, respectable" company.
According to an article in The Guardian, none of the crowdfunding money has been paid back to people who pre-purchased books.
Last edited by Nick Danger; 03-20-25 at 09:24 AM.
#96
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Re: What Are You Reading 2025 - Electric Bookaloo
I’m on page 751 of Brandon Sanderson’s Rhythm of War.
Getting closer!
Getting closer!
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Kurt D (03-22-25)
#97
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Re: What Are You Reading 2025 - Electric Bookaloo

#98
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From: Formerly known as L. Ron zyzzle - On a cloud of Judgement
Re: What Are You Reading 2025 - Electric Bookaloo
Almost halfway through Les Mis!








