Finished:

Things That Go Bump in the Night, edited by Jane Yolen and Martin H. Greenberg



I honestly can't see kids really enjoying this book; while there were a few interesting stories, many were just straight-up fantasy. I found it to be a bore overall.

Up next:

Library of Curious and Unusual Facts: Mysteries of the Human Body by the editors of Time-Life Books



I think that I bought this book one day when I was desperate to bring home SOMETHING, and this caught my eye. I'll give it a whirl.

That's a fun series of books. My ex collected all of them.

Snow Crash - Neal Stephenson. I finally read it. This is the book where the internet is a visualization of everybody walking around and going into buildings. It coined the word "avatar" for the internet version of people.

Reality is a libertarian paradise. The government is gone. The CIA was privatized, streets are owned by corporations, the Mafia has moved into the vacuum and is a major power, and the police are for-profit organizations. There are no laws, and the weak are trampled by the more powerful. The hero sleeps on a shipping pallet in a U-Stor-It unit.

The book is a favorite of tech-bros. Mark Zuckerberg named his company Meta because of this book. I think it's because the man who got in first with the infrastructure of the internet became so rich that his yacht is a nuclear powered aircraft carrier, and then he tried to take over the world. That sounds like the dreams of Zuckerberg, Sam Bankman-Fried and Elon Musk.

The book is a lot of creative fun and deserves all the praise that it got. I laughed a lot in the first half, before things get serious.

I just finished Project Hail Mary. I'm trying to decide what I should start next. I was thinking The Talisman or King Sorrow, but I don't know if I want to start a 800-900 page book right now.

I’m posting in book talk?! What is happening?

This broad at work lent me Dungeon Crawler Carl. I’m actually enjoying it so far. I know I’m late to the party on this since I just learned there are like eight books in the series now.

I hadn't heard of the series until a few months ago. I bought the kindle version of the first book for $0.99. I might start it next.

Your 20 bucks is coming via PayPal!

Welcome to the court!


I've read the first 2 books. I'm still skeptical of LitRPG, but it works in this context (where the characters are playing a game for the amusement of aliens).

This sub-forum is a hot-bed of activity now.
We have around 15 people posting now. Might be time for a server upgrade to handle the massive traffic.

Finished:

Yumi and the Nightmare Painter by Brandon Sanderson. Despite his penchant for long series, I enjoy his standalone works much more. In 400 pages, Sanderson can create a new original world, (mostly) new characters, and tell a complete story (with interesting twists and turns). This had a feel of a classic anime ... very intentional with the Japanese names and illustrations.

I keep putting off Wind and Truth, despite having invested the time in all the other Stormlight Archive books. My enjoyment of the series seemed to decline with each book, and they started feeling like work to get through. It doesn't help that Sanderson started trying to tie everything in his "Cosmere" together, and I just don't have the encyclopedic knowledge or perfect memory of older books to get it. And this last book in the series is the longest yet (over 1300 pages ).

Thanks to the conversation here, I'm reading the 3rd Dungeon Crawler Book next.