Hobb, Jordan, LeGuin and Erikson in one month... you are either a madman or you are living the dreamlife, lol. Enjoy the freedom now that uni is on break! 🤩
Loved hearing your thoughts on To Kill a Mockingbird! You brought up several excellent points about the critiques of that book. Hooray for House of Chains! WITNESS!
I highly recommend Boy's Life and Swan Song to you, both by Robert McCammon. Boy's Life is a murder mystery set in 1960s Alabama seen through the eyes of a young boy. But it is much, much more than that and beautifully explores the magic and innocence of childhood, and the loss of that innocence. Swan Song is a massive post-apocalyptic epic about a cast of characters surviving in the desolate wasteland of America after a nuclear war. You'll wish it was a thousand pages longer than the already thousand pages that it is. Both masterpieces. You gotta read them. Two of the best reading experiences you can ever have, and McCammon's prose is absolutely sublime. I haven't read To Kill a Mockingbird yet either but it's on my priority list for the second half of the year. Everything you said about it was very interesting and I'm even more excited to read it now. I'm planning to start Malazan this year as well and I'm kinda nervous just because of the hype and everything I've heard about it. But I think I'm finally ready to take that plunge now.
I got my dad Swan Song for Christmas despite me not having read it lol because it seems right up his alley! I do plan on getting to it at some point! Yeah I was daunted and nervous of Malazan but once I started reading it I zoned out what everyone else had said and just let it wash over me!
Fantastic wrapup man ! Your Wheel of Time journey has got me thinking about picking up book 4 next month to see how I find it. Im loving this Rainwild readalong and looking forward to seeing where City/Blood of the Dragons goes. So glad you really liked To Kill A Mockingbird, we did it in school and of course I never read it haha but then a few weeks after graduating I picked it up and binged it in a day. I was shocked how easy to read it was.
cracking reading month. You're on a rollll, Ben. Interesting to hear your thoughts on TKA Mockingbird. I happened to find a copy a few weeks ago in a little free library so I am going to re-read it for the first time since GCSEs! Have a great June.
So wonderful you've gotten through more of Earthsea, my book club absolutely loved Arha/Tenar's character arc in Tombs. I also feel like a dummy because I never compared Frankenstein and A Wizard of Earthsea, it's so obvious now! 😅 Curious if you've ever heard of/read Tamora Pierce's Tortall books. I'm on her fifth series now and it's reinvigorated my love of her fantasy world and characters. It's helped that she's hopped over to writing first person and the plot in the Beka Cooper trilogy is a sort of mystery medieval cop/detective vibe. And there's also adorable magical animals who help fight crime. Anywho, you've inspired me to pick up my book pace, thanks for that!
Midnight tides is a banger among the malazan books imo (I've only read 7) so looking forward to your thoughts. Would love to see a dedicated review (with spoiler chat!) given it's the halfway point of the series. Love you work mate
A midpoint check in is definitely on the cards! Glad to hear you'd be interested in that! Thank you for the kind words as well! Can't wait to hear your thoughts on the conclusion of the series
TKAM is excellent and your critique on the education system is so true. I don't know if things have changed since I was in school but i would hope that there is an increasing variety of views and authors represented within education but maybe this is wishful thinking. Though it is not only the teaching of English literature in schools that I think would benefit from broadening but other subjects as well, history being a prime example of the lack of exploration of a variety of viewpoints and experiences.
Oh man. I devoured Sherlock Holmes back in highschool. I read the entire collection over one summer. Then I delved into Agatha Christie after that. Both have similar flaws but I still recommend both for anyone wantjng a good murder mystery as long as they can read it recognizing the time and place they were written in (racist, sexist, and imperial Britain). Rereading them today, I'm definitely more aware of those issues, but I can still enjoy the stories for what they are.
When you're studying feminist theory for your philosophy exam on Monday and you need a break so you decide to watch a BookTube video. Except, they read A Room of One's Own, so you still can't escape it 🥲
Hobb, Jordan, LeGuin and Erikson in one month... you are either a madman or you are living the dreamlife, lol.
Enjoy the freedom now that uni is on break! 🤩
hahaha it could well be both lol. Thank you, Esmay!
That looks like a great reading month
Thank you! it really was! Hope you had a good month too!
Earthsea! I recently bought the book at a book sale. Really excited to get into the series
I hope you enjoy them when you get to them! They've been really solid for me so far!
Loved hearing your thoughts on To Kill a Mockingbird! You brought up several excellent points about the critiques of that book. Hooray for House of Chains! WITNESS!
Hopefully it won't take me too long to get to Midnight Tides lol
I highly recommend Boy's Life and Swan Song to you, both by Robert McCammon.
Boy's Life is a murder mystery set in 1960s Alabama seen through the eyes of a young boy. But it is much, much more than that and beautifully explores the magic and innocence of childhood, and the loss of that innocence.
Swan Song is a massive post-apocalyptic epic about a cast of characters surviving in the desolate wasteland of America after a nuclear war. You'll wish it was a thousand pages longer than the already thousand pages that it is. Both masterpieces. You gotta read them. Two of the best reading experiences you can ever have, and McCammon's prose is absolutely sublime.
I haven't read To Kill a Mockingbird yet either but it's on my priority list for the second half of the year. Everything you said about it was very interesting and I'm even more excited to read it now.
I'm planning to start Malazan this year as well and I'm kinda nervous just because of the hype and everything I've heard about it. But I think I'm finally ready to take that plunge now.
I got my dad Swan Song for Christmas despite me not having read it lol because it seems right up his alley! I do plan on getting to it at some point!
Yeah I was daunted and nervous of Malazan but once I started reading it I zoned out what everyone else had said and just let it wash over me!
Hype is the biggest killer!
Fantastic wrapup man ! Your Wheel of Time journey has got me thinking about picking up book 4 next month to see how I find it. Im loving this Rainwild readalong and looking forward to seeing where City/Blood of the Dragons goes. So glad you really liked To Kill A Mockingbird, we did it in school and of course I never read it haha but then a few weeks after graduating I picked it up and binged it in a day. I was shocked how easy to read it was.
Yeah it really is so readable! And yeah, reading Hobb together has been so great!
cracking reading month. You're on a rollll, Ben.
Interesting to hear your thoughts on TKA Mockingbird. I happened to find a copy a few weeks ago in a little free library so I am going to re-read it for the first time since GCSEs!
Have a great June.
I look forward to your thoughts on TKAM!
So wonderful you've gotten through more of Earthsea, my book club absolutely loved Arha/Tenar's character arc in Tombs. I also feel like a dummy because I never compared Frankenstein and A Wizard of Earthsea, it's so obvious now! 😅
Curious if you've ever heard of/read Tamora Pierce's Tortall books. I'm on her fifth series now and it's reinvigorated my love of her fantasy world and characters. It's helped that she's hopped over to writing first person and the plot in the Beka Cooper trilogy is a sort of mystery medieval cop/detective vibe. And there's also adorable magical animals who help fight crime. Anywho, you've inspired me to pick up my book pace, thanks for that!
Ouuuu I haven't heard of Tamora Pierce but I'll look those books up now! Thanks for watching!
Midnight tides is a banger among the malazan books imo (I've only read 7) so looking forward to your thoughts. Would love to see a dedicated review (with spoiler chat!) given it's the halfway point of the series. Love you work mate
A midpoint check in is definitely on the cards! Glad to hear you'd be interested in that! Thank you for the kind words as well! Can't wait to hear your thoughts on the conclusion of the series
TKAM is excellent and your critique on the education system is so true. I don't know if things have changed since I was in school but i would hope that there is an increasing variety of views and authors represented within education but maybe this is wishful thinking. Though it is not only the teaching of English literature in schools that I think would benefit from broadening but other subjects as well, history being a prime example of the lack of exploration of a variety of viewpoints and experiences.
I completely agree, hopefully we'll continue to grow and expand our viewpoints! Thank you for watching
Oh man. I devoured Sherlock Holmes back in highschool. I read the entire collection over one summer. Then I delved into Agatha Christie after that. Both have similar flaws but I still recommend both for anyone wantjng a good murder mystery as long as they can read it recognizing the time and place they were written in (racist, sexist, and imperial Britain). Rereading them today, I'm definitely more aware of those issues, but I can still enjoy the stories for what they are.
Absolutely and I will be reading A Murder is Announced by Christie for my uni course as well alongside Sherlock Holmes! Double dose lol
By Sherlock Holmes 😂
Famously so!
When you're studying feminist theory for your philosophy exam on Monday and you need a break so you decide to watch a BookTube video. Except, they read A Room of One's Own, so you still can't escape it 🥲
Ohhhh no! It truly does sneak up on you!