log(book)
There are currently 161 reviews missing.
The last time I was up to date with reviews was 2022-01-31. Since then, 251/412 books (60.9%) have been reviewed. We'll get there … eventually.

Welcome to log(book)!

This is where I valiantly try to keep track of The data gets synced to Goodreads, but this site is the primary source. If you're really interested in what I'm reading, you can subscribe to the feed. Thanks for the content go to our civilisation and the preceding ones, to the people involved in the publishing industry – authors, editors, layouters, translators, printers, illustrators, agents, publicists, marketers, book sellers, antiquarians –, to my family for hooking me early and understanding that all a child needs to be happy are eighteen hours of uninterrupted reading per day, and to my friends for their consistently good-or-interesting recommendations and their patience with what they call my "reading habit".

Here are a few of the books I’ve read recently:

Cover of Infinity Gate.

Infinity Gate

by M. R. Carey · published 2023 · read 2024-11-13
★★☆☆☆
I thought this was going to be a three- or even four-star book, but alas, the let-down. Promising in the beginning: I love a good alternate-worlds story that puts some thought into how the whole thing can shake out socially and economically, and this book seemed to do just that. Plus, the identity of the narrator was cool and promising, and the narrator’s bias was clever and snarky. Well, that all went down the drains after the first quarter or so, when suddenly space-opera-MilSF-blah. Why are we reading out super-soldier specs? Y a w n. I could’ve lived with the added POV characters (and actually, the school girl x AI couple was endearing and decently written), but man, going all-in on adventures in space and technobabble was not a good call. And then, in the very end, it turned out that a) the author clearly thinks we are stupid, because there is something that is signalled so clearly it might as well be spelled out, and it’s treated as a twist. Maybe Graydon Saunders has broken me, because he would’ve considered that part almost too clear and in need of less obvious hinting (and leave it at that, forever), but that felt lame as the outcome of the final showdown. And then the book ends on a non-ending/cliffhanger, while formally revealing the identity of the narrator – which has been clear from the beginning, so either this is another faux-twist or the writing is just off. Definitely not enough to get me to read the next part, as you can just tell how it’s going to go from here. Man, this one had potential – the initial AI rights setup plus the parallel similar-but-not worlds with different species were cool. But sure, throw it away to get in a couple more stats about your Iron Man suits. Kinda sad, that.
Cover of Bread and Wine.

Bread and Wine

by Samuel R. Delany · published 1999 · read 2024-11-11
★★★★☆
Chip meets Dennis, who lives on the street. It’s everything. It’s romantic, it’s hot, it’s matter-of-fact. It only gets better by knowing they are still together. I’m not usually one for graphic novels (graphic novellas?), but this one … yup, nope, made me cry. And also will make me read Hölderlin, wtf.
Cover of Here & There.

Here & There

by Joshua V. Scher · published 2015 · read 2024-11-10
★★☆☆☆
This book is an odd one – I liked the premise, and while there is one easily-guessable/telegraphed “twist”, it’s not the actual twist that you get slapped with on the last ten pages, so that part is all good. However. The main plot exists in two layers of framing plots: The investigator’s report on what happened, and her son reading the report after she disappeared. I generally like nested structures that play with multiple levels of footnotes and commentary, so it’s not a problem in itself, but: The son is such a whiny asshole it seriously detracted from my reading experience. One or zero framing layers would’ve been so much more preferable. I guess you can’t make the twist work without frame, but just the investigative report would’ve worked so much better imo, because after a while, it’s hard to be sure if the whiny bullshit dudebro attitude the actual protagonist shows is author bias or characterisation (and to some degree it’s got to be on the author, tbh).
Cover placeholder for swallow some of their history.

swallow some of their history

by basketofnovas · published 2024 · read 2024-11-03
★★★★☆
basketofnovas is writing amazing stuff again. It’s still in her very cool spin on the Potter universe, only this time it opens up an alternate universe, where Hermione is thrown back in time (and into an alternate universe) and ends up sharing a dorm with Bellatrix Black. It’s, as always, way cool and well-written.
Cover placeholder for Taking Control.

Taking Control

by fake a smile · published 2008 · read 2024-11-03
★★☆☆☆
Yawn. Classic way overpowered fanfic protagonist who is super special and nearly everybody else is stupid or evil, but He Prevails And Also Finds True Love. Even while needing a power fantasy, it feels kinda cheap.