17.43, Prague time zone
It's the fourth hour of the readathon, and I slept two hours out of these four. Well, it's Saturday, so I'm not even ashamed that much :) I've just finished Spectrum by Sergei Lukyanenko, and it totally blew my mind! I've forgotten how awesome it is, so yay for re-reading! Now I'm gonna finish off the comic books and then concentrate on Malory. That's if nobody calls me for drinks in the city :)
Hope everybody is enjoying it as much as I am!
21.34
It's Saturday evening, and I come to the office in hope of finding someone who can make me coffee there (I'm still scared of our coffee machine) and indeed meet my supervisor there (in case you are wondering, yes, it's completely normal to find people there at odd times, as our research group is awesome!) The coffee machine is broken, but we start discussing what papers we've read and some workshop plans, and then I leave after 2 hours with a couple of new papers to read... So much for reading non-stop today :) On the bright side, I've finished the 8th collection of Y: The Last Man comics, and it's so exciting! I hope to finish it in a couple of hours. See you then!
00.58
Just finished reading Y: The Last Man... The end is so sad and yet it's so cool... I'm really glad I was introduced to this comics!
Now on to some serious reading! Time to finally pick up the Malory chunkster! No more excuses!
11.55
Hi everybody! Guess what? I fell asleep after just like 10 pages of Le Morte D'Arthur, and didn't even set an alarm clock... :( Malory is just sooo sleepy! Okay, I have 2 more hours, and I'm determined to dedicate them to this chunkster!
October 18, 2014
Readathon Plans
In a couple of hours starts Dewey's readathon and I thought I would post my reading plans for the day (and night). And then we'll see if it goes according to these plans :)
1) Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory - I'm shamefully behind on this one, and I really don't want to lose it with the readalong. Because I'll never read it on my own.
2) Finish Y: The Last Man comics - only 2.5 collections left, and I can't wait to know how it'll end!
3) Spectrum by Sergei Lukyanenko - I started to re-read it while I was searching for a next month's book for my Sci-Fi book club. It's not translated into English, so it's obviously not the choice, but I couldn't resist diving into it again!
4) Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning by Christopher Bishop - I need this for my work, and it's very, very difficult. But if I hit some effective brain work time, I'll struggle through a section or two.
OK, here it is! Now I'm going to have breakfast with a friend and then I'll go straight to reading! Wish me luck!
October 9, 2014
The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey (Review)
Author: M.R. Carey
First published: 2014
Add it: Goodreads, Book Depository
Rating: ★★★★★
The only important thing you should know about The Girl with All the Gifts is that you must read it. Really, you will not be disappointed! The problem is, I don't want to tell you anything about the plot to convince you, so you'll just have to believe me :) You see, knowing anything about what's happening will spoil your experience of the first couple of chapters, in which it is masterfully and gradually revealed. So don't read the blurbs either!
But I'll say that the book surprised me greatly, in a good way. The ideas, the ending, the characters - all awesome! The POV is constantly changing, and this makes for a very dynamic writing. The Girl with All the Gifts makes you question some of basic human assumptions, and the finale will blow out your mind.
One of the inevitable drawbacks is that the book is very graphic, and sometimes it's just too much. Maybe it's my active imagination, but a couple of scenes were so disgusting I wanted to puke. But in this case it's a necessary evil, resulting from the matter of substance.
In my book:
Oh so good! Read it!
P.S. I am very pleased with the new course Coursera Fantasy and Sci Fi book club has taken (where everybody interested is welcome, BTW!). Before, we voted for the book to read each month, and it resulted in good, but somewhat predictable choices. We read books everybody had heard about, and there was no discovery of new titles. Now, however, a member is appointed (with his consent, of course :) ) each month to choose a book and lead a discussion. The Girl with All the Gifts was the first book chosen this way, and I'm so glad I was encouraged to read it! This month we are reading a wonderful comic book, and next month I'm leading the discussion, and I also plan something great which I hope everybody'll like :)