Deutschland

~ Veselin ~ 4 Comments

My parents keep bringing up the question, is it really all that terrible in the West? Watching news in Bulgaria, Germany is going to collapse into a black hole any minute now, and so is France. We get bombarded with bad news.

I’m not an expert as I don’t travel all that often but as an infrequent visitor, I see no signs of anything terrible in Germany. It’s dark and the weather is kind of unpleasant, but otherwise the place looks clean and in good working order.

Bulgaria still looks decades behind. Well, our weather is probably better, and our news are certainly worse.

Lake Ariana

~ Veselin ~ 2 Comments

November is the last tolerable month in Sofia before the spring. Plenty of color, a little bit of cold. The cats are still showing outside.

This artificial lake is next to one of the busiest intersections in the city, and also next to the co-working space where I go almost every day. I walked past it so many times that I was surprised to see how nice it looked, when I actually looked this way.

October in Books

~ Veselin ~ 3 Comments

For a second month in a row, I’m tempted to give up on the monthly reading summaries. I had full weeks with no reading whatsoever. No excuses for me – shelves are stocked with highly respected books. Nothing felt right. I couldn’t find time for it or when I found time, couldn’t keep my attention on the books long enough to gobble them like I’d normally do. I wouldn’t say I did anything particularly interesting in the time slots I’d normally use for reading.

Best book

  • What Happened That Night by Nicci French – 4/5 but nice 4, rather than bad 4. I chose to not use the new half-star ratings on Goodreads for consistency with my previous decades of using the service. It was one of the books that you identify as not great but it is so interesting that you want to keep reading. So overall, I think it was the best and I should keep reading the series.

Not the best book

  • Survivor’s Quest by Timothy Zahn – 3/5, a space opera with Jedi. Found it boring but objectively, the story wasn’t bad. Perhaps if it wasn’t with Jedi, it could’ve been an easy 4/5. Jedi masters are too powerful and don’t face real resistance by non-Sith opponents. There were no real reasons for Luke Skywalker to be in this book.
  • Bloody Rose by Nicholas Eames – 5/5, a very well made story but difficult to read. I think the target audience is folks who are into epic fantasy. This book got me deep into the reader’s block, so I think it was the worst for the month, despite the clear 5* review. A book can be generally good, but at the same time bad for me. I think Bloody Nose would’ve been a better name 🙂