March Book...uh...Progress?

I've been trying to use the time that I am doing menial tasks and my mind is unoccupied to listen to audiobooks. I got into the habit of listening to YouTube videos instead, and while that can be informative and educational, it usually isn't. It's usually drivel that wastes away the hours of my life and makes me stupider for the effort.

So, from January 1st to February 28th of this year, I listened to fifteen books, getting seven in January and taking it up a notch to eight in February despite it being the shortest month. So, how did March go? Well, let's say I kicked it down a notch...or six. Here's what I managed in March:

1. Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings
2. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

That's right. I only managed two books in the entire month. Pretty weak if you ask me. The real problem was that the books didn't really appeal to me nearly as much as the ones I read in January and February. Particularly the Witcher books by Andrzej Sapkowski. I absolutely loved those books, and swallowed them whole like a...well, like me with a cheesecake or a pizza.

Pawn of Prophecy was recommended to me by my nephew, and it wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great like the Sapkowski books were. Maybe as I get further into the series I'll appreciate them more. Right now, the books have a terrible problem of blueballing the reader over and over. The main character is the chosen one of prophecy, and he is being guided along by ageless sorcerers who know all the answers to his questions but mostly refuse to answer. "I'll tell you when you are older and ready to know the answers" they say over and over and over and over and over and over and over. Maybe in the next book, the kid will be old enough that we can allow the reader to know what the hell is going on.

Also, the guy who reads the David Eddings books gets on my nerves. He's like those Hispanic TV anchors who speak in perfect English,  but when a person with a Hispanic name comes up in the news they drop into perfectly accented Spanish forcing you to look up from your phone because you are wondering if they somehow switched out one anchor for another while you weren't looking. All the names in Pawn of Prophecy were pronounced with a strong accent that sounds legit until you realize that it's all made up words anyway, so pronouncing them with your regular American accent is just as valid as this stupid thing he's doing with the rolled Rs. 

It was never more pronounced than in the prologue, which was so dense with character names and place names that I could barely stand to listen to it. It was also written in a way as to sound scriptural or old-worldy mythical, so it was even more difficult to understand. I really wish that fantasy authors would ditch the trope of the prologue, because prologues suck. Work the info into the regular text. I'd prefer someone saying, "As you know, Bob, half of Kal Torak's body was obliterated when he touched the Orb of Aldur," than having to sit through a huge prologue where I am told the whole legend in its entirety.

I'm going to continue on with the David Eddings series nonetheless, because it wasn't too bad, and my nephew bought all five of the books with his credits on Audible, so I think I owe it to him.

The other book, Brave New World...well, the less said about that the better. Suffice it to say that I hated that book. If there was a physical copy of it that I could destroy, I would have pulled a Rish Outfield and thrown it with all my might against the wall. It's a classic, though, so I soldiered through. At least I can say that I finished it. It has some interesting ideas about what a dystopia can be, and how wrong we might possibly take our society. Sadly, some people thought it was a guidebook and not a warning, so we've put as many of the possible horrors into practice that our modern science can, and we're on the verge of incorporating many more soon. The execution of the story, however, left a lot to be desired.

Because I didn't appreciate either of the books that I read this month very much, I slipped back into my old habits of wasting time on YouTube videos and other less worthy garbage. Hopefully I can change my ways back now that I've made it through those two books and can move on to others. I hope to be back with a better report for April.

Here's where I stand at the 1/4 mark of the year:

1. Memory’s Legion by James S.A. Corey 
2. A Spell for Chameleon by Piers Anthony 
3. The Source of Magic by Piers Anthony 
4. Castle Roogna by Piers Anthony 
5. The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski 
6. The Sword of Destiny Andrzej Sapkowski 
7. The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett 
8. Blood of Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski 
9. The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett 
10. The Time of Contempt by Andrzej Sapkowski 
11. Baptism of Fire by Andrzej Sapkowski 
12. The Tower of the Swallows by Andrzej Sapkowski 
13. The Lady of the Lake by Andrzej Sapkowski 
14. Season of Storms by Andrzej Sapkowski 
15. Centaur Isle by Piers Anthony
16. Pawn of Prophecy by David Eddings
17. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

Looking at that list, I should be able to read around 68 books on the year, however, not if I have a bunch of months like I did this past month. If I stopped having months like I did this past month, I could read many more. If I got eight books a month for the whole year, that would be 96. So, I guess we'll see where I manage to take this.