2018 Reading: By Royal Command

Another piece of trash to pass the time until I can started the 2019 Reading Challenge.

Ugh. Just ugh.

2018 Reading: The House with the Clock in its Walls

Jenny and I watched the movie last night and I was surprised that it was better than I was thinking. Jack Black can either make a movie better or he can completely ruin a project. I think it's only when he's actively trying to be someone else that it just doesn't work for him. This character was basically Jack Black, but in the 50's so it fit him perfectly. That being said, I was almost hesitant to read the book because I liked the movie so much. But I figured I'd give it a shot.

2018 Reading: The Ultimate Risk

I wanted something quick and empty to fill up some time until I can officially start the 2019 Reading Challenge, so I picked up the first cheesy looking romance novel I could find at the library.

Finished it about and hour and a half later.

2018 Reading: Less Than Zero

#36 A book set in the decade you were born

Oh Brett, I love how your books leave no happiness whatsoever at the end of them. It's all just drugs, angst, and 80's music. Love it. (Plus, I saw this movie a while ago and you cannot go wrong with Robert Downey, Jr. being forced to "entertain" male clients for his drug dealer James Spader and Andrew McCarthy full-on Winnie-the-Poohs it in his apartment.)

Dear God, the amount of cocaine in the first few pages alone would keep me buzzing for the rest of my life.

There seems to always be a foreboding sense of ennui in Ellis's characters. Describing these fabulous places, food, restaurants, towering expensive buildings, cars, and clothes, but then ignoring them. Material things only represent an outside that must be maintained for society's sake while the inside is dark and hollow, desperately using things like drugs and sex to find meaning when really there is none. It's clear to see these characters have been put into this world, but find no comfort in it nor do they work to maintain it so their entire existence comes off as meaningless.

"Where are we going?" I asked

"I don't know," he said. "Just driving."

"But this road doesn't go anywhere, " I told him.

"That doesn't matter."

"What does?" I asked, after a little while.

"Just that we're on it, dude," he said.

(pg. 195)

That conversation stuck with me for some reason.

Side note: I think the title refers to the amount of fucks given by the main character.

2018 Reading: The Road

#32 A book from a celebrity book club

You have to understand that post-apocalyptic stuff is really not my bag. The Last One and Maze Runner are the exceptions to this rule. When I picked up this book, I had no idea what it was about. I began to read the first few pages in the library and even though it wasn't something I was super-psyched about, I liked the writing style so I decided to keep going. It was also brought to my attention (thanks to NEXT year's reading challenge list) that this book is considered something called "cli-fi" which is, like, climate change fiction... I don't know.

Part of me was bothered with the fact that nothing was explained. We, as reader's, don't know what happened to the world to bring about this type of dystopia so we have no context as to what happened to the people of the story before the narrative starts. Another part of me thinks that was a brilliant idea because it forces you to focus on the "here-and-now" of the action, even if it is at the end.

I recently learned that there was a movie made of this book and I'm torn on whether I want to watch it or not. On the one hand, it could be fun. On the other, since there is not a lot of action in the story, I'm afraid of what they will have done to the book in order to make it appealing in movie form. If they add too much, it takes away from the original text the same way it does when they leave things out.

2018 Reading: Unicorn Theater

Adorable.

2018 Reading: Jack (Not Jackie)

This book was adorable and very important. I like that they went with f2m because that is less well known and more difficult to accept for some people.

2018 Reading: Labyrinth: Coronation Vol. 1

I love that this is giving backstory to Jareth and how he came to be the Goblin King. I found it funny in the right places, just like the movie, but also sad and moving when you get to hear about how he got there and his family. I can't wait to read the next one.