Category: Books

Do you remember your favorite book from childhood?

~ Veselin ~ 9 Comments
Daily writing prompt
Do you remember your favorite book from childhood?
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Looking back, it has to be one of these 3:

  • Pippi Longstocking
  • The Three Musketeers
  • Winnetow

Pippi was one of the books that hooked me to reading, Winnetow introduced me to adventure books – pirates, Wild West, and such. The top choice, however, must be The Three Musketeers.

Athos, Porthos, Aramis, and D’Artagnan are unlikely friends, united by their shortage of money and willingness to duel. They are all extreme in some way and represent a few distilled qualities that complement one another. Their paths briefly cross, create beautiful moments of courage and bravery, and drift apart because of tragedies and traumas. It’s written in small chunks, chapters that have their own merit as short stories. This made it a good book for a 7 or 8-year-old with a limited attention span.

I’m not sure if I read The Three Musketeers more times than Pippi, Winnetow, or the other 4-5 books I would read each summer break but it aged well. The last time I got it in my hands and read a few chapters, they were captivating and great. It was less than a decade ago.

May in Books

~ Veselin ~ 7 Comments

I read 11 books last month, 9 recognized by Goodreads and 2 – not. Goodreads has clear issues with the Librarians not catching up with new books.

The tied first for the last month was between Thraxas at War by Martin Scott and All Systems Red by Martha Wells. Thraxas was a mature story with a good balance. The Murderbot #1 was fresh and new.

Honorable mention for Rebecca Yarros and Fourth Wing – it’s engaging and has dragons.

The worst book from last month was Rocannon’s World by Ursula Le Guin. She inspired me greatly in building my own system of values, for example about active listening. However, Rocannon focuses on describing a fantasy world with multiple coexisting aliens and spaceships. It wasn’t as cool as Stephanie Plum, page-turning like the Fourth Wing, or just great all-around like Thraxas and Murderbot.

I also completed 2 game books, one so absurd that it deserves a separate post.

Book Fair Part Two

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I visited the boor fair for a second time but the odds were not in my favour. Started raining after the first minutes and didn’t manage to find anything substantial. Got home with a tiny new book, about 50 pages of absurd comedy that took me half an hour to complete. Details about it in a few days.

What impressed me the most was the new edition of the Stormlight Archive. Pretty and shiny. Artline Studios go above and beyond lately.

Mind Storm by Andrew Greene

~ Veselin ~ 1 Comment

The prettiest cover from the first 6 books I purchased during the book fair is already on the “read” bookshelf. It’s the second book I read this year that doesn’t have a Goodreads entry. If any of my readers here is a Goodreads Librarian, please add it – I posted two requests on Goodreads for book additions.

From what I see, the gamebook writers in some countries that aren’t Bulgaria, seem to prefer publishing their works on Google Drive as a PDF and just let them be available to anyone for free. This one is published in English here.

The photo of the cover is from an angle on purpose – to see all the shiny letters. Then each page has decoration, and the illustrations are stunning. I’m not sure why and how that happened but this is a first edition and a translation at the same time.

The story is Gibson-style cyberpunk, with some references to Gibson and other gamebooks. The gameplay felt linear – you must go through most episodes for a successful read. I’d consider it easy. The writing is good, and the story is engaging.

4/5 for the book, 5+/5 for the editing/illustration/publishing. It’s a piece of art.

International Spring Book Fair Sofia – 2024

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I love the International Book Fair in Sofia. I have a system where I visit the fair multiple times before buying books to get the full experience.

This time I violated the system. Here’s my harvest from Day 1.

Rebecca Yaros, 2x Brandon Sanderson, and 3x game books. 5 out of these 6 books are likely to be 5/5s.

And here’s a photo from the book fair with no books:

The book fair will be open for 10 days until June 2nd.