Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

Hello everyone,

I hope everyone is doing well. It has been chilly in New England and yet another rainy weekend is here. But next week should be warmer and spring (and all its allergens for me) are out in full force.

I finished another Kindle short story The Answer Is No. I think I just don't gel with Fredrik Backman's style. I did not particularly like this short story of his. And I didn't much care for A Man Called Ove when I read it a couple years ago. I found both kind of irritating. I gave it two stars. I only read it because it was free on the Kindle.

I'm on a non-fiction run at the moment. On the kindle I'm listening to Give Her Credit: The Untold Account of a Women's Bank That Empowered a Generation. It is interesting so far and although I lived through it as a child, the 1970s were a time of big change. We actually have come pretty far. The interesting content is dampened a bit by the prose meandering. More editing would have helped, IMO. But it is pretty short.

I'm listening to These Trees Tell a Story: The Art of Reading Landscapes. I'm finding the content very fascinating and engaging. I'm listening while walking outside in nature which adds to the experience. I don't think I'll be able to actually learn how to read landscapes from the book (at least not so far). I got this Audible book for free. The narrator is in a space-related FB group with my husband and offered a free code to anyone in the group for any audiobook he narrated. This one is apparently one of his absolute favorites.

QOTW:
What is the longest book you've ever read?

The longest in recent memory was the 2nd Athena Club book European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman. That was over 700 pages. I listened to the audiobook and it was over 24 hours. I honestly think that book is what started me on the path of listening at more than normal 1x speed. It was a slog.

Other longer books are all of the ones in The Expanse series. They're about 600 pages, or 18 hours of listening and there are 9 of them. I *did* actually listen to them all at 1x speed though and enjoyed them a lot.

I did not have a great week for both work-related and *gestures widely* reasons. Hopefully I can use the weekend to destress and catch up on some sleep. I'll go back and post on the previous thread as well.

Birding with Benefits - Someone wrote a birding-related romance novel, so I had to check that out. It's fake-dating, not exactly grumpy/sunshine but maybe deliberate/impulsive, and no big "just talk" misunderstandings (just people working through their own baggage). There's more sex than there is birding, but what's included seemed accurate, and I appreciated the birder character's emphasis on observation/appreciation over listing.

QOTW: I wish Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ would let you sort by page count! It might be Les Miserables, which I read in translation in high school and which should really be much shorter (the edition I had moved some of his long digressions to an appendix). The only other long one I can think of is Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.

Another slow work week, but this time, with me on antibiotics. Fun times! I'm glad it's slow so I can take time off when I need to rest.

Finished:
Holy Terrors by Margaret Owen - I finished my reread of the final published version. I love this series so much.

Currently reading:
To Steal from Thieves by M.K. Lobb - not currently for a prompt. I'll be honest... this one's not really grabbing me. Maybe it's because I'm reading it right after a book I loved and was so excited to read, but this feels rather generic and slow so far. And the "romance" between the leads is being telegraphed very obviously in a way that feels off to me.

Upcoming/Planned:
When the Moon Hits Your Eye by John Scalzi - not currently for a prompt.

Direct Descendant by Tanya Huff - not currently for a prompt.

Last Chance to Save the World by Beth Revis - not currently for a prompt.

QOTW:
You can sort by page count! If you go to My Books > Settings, turn on the checkbox for "num pages" it will show that as a column in your view. Then you can sort like any other column.

Not counting omnibus editions, it looks like my longest book ever was The Stand, followed by The Way of Kings and The Wise Man's Fear, all at/around 1000 pages.

Ooh, I read The Stand too. So that moves the needle for me. I don't have that in GR since I read it long before GR existed.

Oh wow, look at me not even realizing "settings" existed! That does confirm that Les Mis takes the cake, followed (omitting collections as noted) by The Cider House Rules, which I did not realize was that long.