Reading Backlog

Want To Read

Books

Fantasy

• Age of Myth
• Gideon the Ninth
• Dracula
• He Who Fights With Monsters: A litRPG.

Science Fiction

• The Dark Forest
• Death’s End
• The Salmon of Doubt: Hitchhiking the Galaxy One Last Time
• The Diamond Age
• Blindsight
• Rendezvous with Rama
• The Man Who Sold The Moon

Business

• The Minimalist Entrepreneur
• 1-Page Marketing Plan
• Obviously Awesome
• Monetizing Innovation

Other

• The Game of Our Lives
• Just for Fun: The Story of an Accidental Revolutionary - By Linus Torvalds
• The RISC-V Reader: An Open Architecture Atlas
• Toxic Drift: Pesticides and Health in the Post-World War II South
• The Making of the Atomic Bomb

Comics/Manga

• Berserk (manga) - Author passed before finishing the series. Could end in a frustrating place story wise.
• Akame ga Kill!
• Lupin III
• The Devil Is A Part Timer

DC

• Batman White Knight
• Suicide Squad

Marvel

• Carnage USA
• Eternals

Webtoons

• Leviathan
• White Blood
• Solo Leveling

Read

Andrzej Sapkowski

The Witcher

The Last Wish

• Story: 👍
• Writing: 👍
• Characters: 👍👍

Sword of Destiny

• Story: 👍👍
• Writing: 👍
• Characters: 👍👍

Blood of Elves

• Story: 👍👍
• Writing: 👍👍
  • The translation uses less obtuse vocabulary than books 1, 2, and 4.
• Characters: 👌

Time of Contempt

• Story: 👍👍
• Writing: 👍
  • Can be wordy
• Characters: 👍👍

Brandon Sanderson

Mistborn

The Hero of Ages

• Initially, the last few chapters feel rushed. Once the prices fall into place, you realize everything was happening quickly for a reason. Which makes sense for the end of the world.
• The Lord Ruler placed the caches in locations that would be next to each other before the world was changed.

The Well of Ascension

• Zane is absolutely insane.
• Nice twist on the function of the Well at the end.
• Best described as a political thriller. Not much action until part 5. Not necessarily a bad thing, but don’t expect as much action as the first book.
• Will we ever see more of the world outside Luthadel?
• Still some of the best writing around. Every plot point has relevance, and often not how you’d expect.
• What happens when the prophecy is a lie?

The Final Empire

• Top notch magic system and characters.
• Writing style takes some inspiration from Dune. In fact it’s some of the best writing in Fantasy.
• Avoids the LOTR tropes that most Fantasy falls into.
• What happens when the hero doesn’t fulfill the prophecy?

Comics

DC Comics

Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow

• Artwork: 👍👍
  • Unique and colorful art style
• Story: 👌

Batman The Killing Joke

Basically a Joker origin story. Doesn’t have as much Batman as I expected. Quite enjoyable.

Superman Red Son

Better than the animation (not to say the animation is bad). I really like how they tied everything together in the end. How Lex ends up being Superman’s distant ancestor. It’s a more complete story than the animation.

Superman: Birthright

Batman: Last Knight on Earth

Marvel Comics

Venomverse

• Some of the dialog is pretty corny.
• Seeing other Marvel characters with a Symbiote is cool. More focus should’ve been given to how those character take advantage of their new abilities.
• Kinda ends on a cliffhanger?
• Good interaction between Carnage and Venom.

IDW

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin

• Artwork: 👍
• Story: 👍👍
  • The identity of The Last Ronin is revealed relatively early

Jim Butcher

Codex Alera

Furies of Calderon

• If book one of Dresden Files is a one on an intensity scale, and book 10 is a 10, Furies of Calderon is a 10. Jim Butcher doesn't waste any time ramping up the intensity.
• Elements being spirits that can be controlled is a cool concept.
• There's something going on with Katai's eye's changing color to match Tavi's.
• Tavi is a top tier protagonist.
• Gaius is hiding something.
• Ice Men are mentioned a few times. Wonder if/when they'll become part of the story.
• Alera != Alara (Shards of)
• Furies != Furries.

Academ’s Fury

• Not as much going on in this book as the first. Makes it feel slower, but it’s still interesting.
• More political happenings compared to the first.
• A book covering how furies decide to choose someone would be really interesting.
• Canim are obviously important to the series. Tavi’s interactions with the Canim ambassador are always interesting.

Cursor's Fury

Captain's Fury

Princeps' Fury

First Lord's Fury

• Plot: 👍
• Writing: 👍👍
• Characters: 👍👍

Other

The One

The premise of this book is interesting. Everyone has a biologically perfect match. The twist is that a hacker messed with the results to get back at the scientist that discovered the gene. So at the end, you're not really sure which couples were actually "meant to be." With that in mind, some of the individual stories were lame (Mandy, Jade), and others were more interesting (Christopher, Nick, Ellie). All of the stories had slow points that could've been handled better. The slow points issue was exacerbated by the annoyingly short chapters. In conclusion, it's a quicker read (audio book ~10hr, "I don't like audio books"), and has some interesting concepts. Could be worth your time.

The Soul of an Octopus

Contains some really interesting stories and information on octopuses. The two octopuses mating at the Seattle aquarium for example. Some information isn’t directly related to octopuses and feels out of place. Almost like the author had a word limit to reach.

The Power of Habit

• Content: 👍👍
  • Backed by science as much as is reasonable
  • Some examples are tied to Christianity, which may be hard for non-Christians to relate to
• Writing: 👍

This is esports (and How to Spell it)

A great look at the history of esports. Manages to touch on ever major game and genre over the last few decades. Worth reading if you have even a passing interest in esports.