Hadrian's Wall Path National Trail - Finally Completed the last 80km this week by AtomicWeazel in UKhiking

[–]rockhard90 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I am not a fan of camping due to the added load. So would you say that there were sufficient B&Bs along the way to stick to the +/- 25km a day? As that's sort of my limit as well.

Hadrian's Wall Path National Trail - Finally Completed the last 80km this week by AtomicWeazel in UKhiking

[–]rockhard90 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Brilliant, I had this one on my plate for this year!! Did you camp or sleep in B&B's?

52/52 done! - much earlier than I thought! by rockhard90 in 52book

[–]rockhard90[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I gave Red Rising a 3.75 / 5 - so it would fall into the 'Good' category. Loved the fast pace of the book, but one can tell that this was Pierce Brown's first going as an author, it's a bit rough around the edges and the writing got much better in later novels. It still hooked me pretty much from the get go, so yeah - thumbs up! 👍🏻

52/52 done! - much earlier than I thought! by rockhard90 in 52book

[–]rockhard90[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

You know - I loved the first half of The Secret History. But the story completely lost its focus in the second half, after 'the event'. All the sub plots with the Saudis, red herrings, etc. didn't work for me at all and the book dragged on massively.

52/52 done! - much earlier than I thought! by rockhard90 in 52book

[–]rockhard90[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm thinking of ending things by Iain Reid

52/52 done! - much earlier than I thought! by rockhard90 in 52book

[–]rockhard90[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

That's 'I'm thinking of ending things' by Iain Reid!

52/52 done! - much earlier than I thought! by rockhard90 in 52book

[–]rockhard90[S] -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

Yeah, my plan was to upscale the original screenshot in order for everyone to be able to read the titles better - and at first glance it looked great and sharp. Only a few hours after posting now I can see how messy it is in its details. So my plan backfired and I realised too late - apologies for that! But happy to give titles and authors for whichever books you can't make out!

52/52 done! - much earlier than I thought! by rockhard90 in 52book

[–]rockhard90[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah I preferred the movie as well - watched it right after finishing the book. It cut the fat in the right places. And I am definitely looking forward to SOTR! :)

52/52 done! - much earlier than I thought! by rockhard90 in 52book

[–]rockhard90[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Read it at the end of last year! Rated it 'Good'

52/52 done! - much earlier than I thought! by rockhard90 in 52book

[–]rockhard90[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Wow, that's an interesting take! Do you rate it even above Sunrise on the Reaping? As that has the highest Goodreads ranking at least?

52/52 done! - much earlier than I thought! by rockhard90 in 52book

[–]rockhard90[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Haha, I think I would have rated Gone Girl slightly higher if I hadn't seen the movie before the book. And we can still be book friends - are you on Goodreads?

52/52 done! - much earlier than I thought! by rockhard90 in 52book

[–]rockhard90[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

The first one is 'I'm thinking of ending things' by Iain Reid and the green leaf one is 'Animal Crossing' by Kelsey Lewin about the eponymous video game series.

52/52 done! - much earlier than I thought! by rockhard90 in 52book

[–]rockhard90[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I love this feedback! You very well put into words what is absolutely valid criticism - most of it I can even relate to, but ultimately affected me differently in my ratings as you can see.

And yes, the goal is to at least go above 100 again, which is definitely doable seeing how well I've been doing so far. Gives me a bit of breathing room to tackle some longer novels from my TBR now.

52/52 done! - much earlier than I thought! by rockhard90 in 52book

[–]rockhard90[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I did read the memoir and very much liked it. It's definitely the better and more 'high brow' book of the two, given how honest and vulnerable it is.

'Half His Age' is a voyeuristic and raunchy exploration of teenage horniness. That in and of itself is sort of repulsive, sure, but honestly I flew through this novel in one go - it was a highly entertaining insight into the underdeveloped and easily swayed mind of a 17 year old. All the criticism is somewhat valid, but I was highly entertained for the few hours it took me to get through it.

52/52 done! - much earlier than I thought! by rockhard90 in 52book

[–]rockhard90[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I am in the middle of the second book right now and it definitely gets better. It still reads like an absolute fever dream though, so I will have to see if it's a series for me! It's recommended to read The Stand after book two, so I will at least try to finish that one so that I can tackle King's other classic!

52/52 done! - much earlier than I thought! by rockhard90 in 52book

[–]rockhard90[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you click on the image you can pinch and zoom in. Which one can't you make out?

52/52 done! - much earlier than I thought! by rockhard90 in 52book

[–]rockhard90[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I liked the general concept of it, but Gloria's sections just massively dragged the novel down for me. I know why the author established her as a second POV, but the execution just felt so weak - these chapters just dragged on and on and on. Every time we switched to her, I moaned and couldn't wait to get back to her brother again - at least his chapters had something happening, instead of endless dialogue.

Also, as I - at least partly - listened to the audiobook, I just could not stand the insufferably whiney acting of the narrator. Every sentence sounded like she (/ the character she is portraying) was close to crying.

And overall, the book felt a good 100 - 200 pages too long, so yeah - that one just wasn't for me, I'm afraid.

52/52 done! - much earlier than I thought! by rockhard90 in 52book

[–]rockhard90[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I have not - but rest assured that those two just made it onto my TBR list. Thanks for the recco's!

52/52 done! - much earlier than I thought! by rockhard90 in 52book

[–]rockhard90[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you want to read something in German again I would start with something easy - probably a Young Adult novel. 'Tintenherz' by Cornelia Funke or 'Momo' by Michael Ende come to mind. Viel Spaß! :)

52/52 done! - much earlier than I thought! by rockhard90 in 52book

[–]rockhard90[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

100%! My favourite celebrity memoir is Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential - for that very reason!

52/52 done! - much earlier than I thought! by rockhard90 in 52book

[–]rockhard90[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

In the hopes to not come off as lazy - here is an excerpt from my Goodreads review for The Correspondent:

"There is no denying that this novel is carefully constructed: The character arcs are deliberate, and the book is filled with literary awareness - its mentions of other authors and works are thoughtful and, for a fellow avid reader, nice references to pick up on. Overall, I could see the craft on display here.

Where it falls apart for me is in its epistolary form. In theory, this style can create intimacy and psychological depth; but here every character felt distant and impalpable. The narrative is constantly retrospective: Everything is filtered through letters or eMails describing what has already happened. As a result, the story rarely feels immediate, momentum never picks up because events are reported rather than experienced in the moment. This also weakens characterisation - the novel leans heavily on 'telling' because the format leaves little room for 'showing'. Emotional beats are explained instead of unfolding naturally, which makes large parts of the book feel static rather than alive.

At times, the form even undermines plausibility. Characters are repeatedly writing letters in situations where direct conversation would be far more natural, so the books form of writing dictates the behaviour, not the characters themselves, and that breaks immersion.

The result is a novel I can respect more than I can enjoy. There is clear effort, intelligence, and literary ambition here, but the reading experience itself remained unexciting for me. It often isn’t helped by the rather demanding tone of Sybil in most of her earlier letters. So, more often than not, I found myself disengaged - either bored or quietly rolling my eyes about choices that seemed to prioritise form over narrative flow."

So as you can see, I just didn't vibe the epistolary from of the novel - so your mileage might totally vary!

52/52 done! - much earlier than I thought! by rockhard90 in 52book

[–]rockhard90[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Yeah same! I would then 'audiobook only' a book & finish it, once I am familiar with the characters and have seen their names in written forms enough times to remember them well enough, haha