Tag: blog

December in Books

~ Veselin ~ 5 Comments

I read 7 books this month, mostly from the Black Friday harvest 🙂

I feel like I had some excellent hits with 5 great books and only one truly bad, which I read anyway because it was Lee Child.

Best books

  1. We Are Legion by Dennis E. Taylor – an easy to read Martian style book. Loved it and it will be in the top 5 for the year.
  2. Infinity Gate by M. R. Carey – a Star Trek-like story with a million different species but no Kobolds. One of the main characters is a teenage rabbit with exceptionally long ears.
  3. Annie Bot by Sierra Greer – imagines what’s next with intelligent robots.

Worst books:

  1. In Too Deep by Lee Child – it’s time for Jack Reacher to retire. He’s turning into Steven Seagal.

Meeting Robert Blond at the Christmas Book Fair

~ Veselin ~ Leave a comment

Today was the last day of the International Book Fair in Sofia. My book harvest this year was primarily gamebooks because there was a shortage of books I wanted and didn’t already buy before it. The Black Friday promotions were too good.

The Gamebook association organized a signing with one of our local gamebook celebrities, Robert Blond, who published a new book and a short story. I had a chance to read both. I finished the short story before it was published and the book – before writing the post.

The 2024 edition of Agamor is also out, which holds 4 gamebooks. One of the books is an official spinoff of Blood Sword. It’s expected to be published in English as well.

We also got a translation of Simon Duhope’s Shadow Chaser, which was surprisingly sophisticated. Took me 3 days to discover the path to the end.

The Shadow Chaser is available in English. Agamor is of local significance as of today.

Another writer who visited the city this week was Rhianna Pratchett. Despite being subscribed for updates on the publisher’s Facebook page, Facebook let me see the event’s announcement after it was over. Missed that opportunity.

Rhianna Pratchett is the author of Crystal of Storms. Would’ve loved to attend her signing.

The Mountain

~ Veselin ~ 9 Comments

The mountain was unwelcoming today for a second time in a row. We did a brief walk on the horizontal path for about 1.5h. The wind tried to blow us away, and the snow was just enough to make our hats wet. Our new 5-euro sunglasses from Decathlon that cover the side of the eye protected us from the wind very well but it was still unusually cold. The type of weather that makes you want to get out of the mountain as quickly as possible.

The happiest moment of the trip was when we boarded bus 66 and the hike was over 🙂

We Are Legion By Dennis E. Taylor, Book Review

~ Veselin ~ 2 Comments

“We Are Legion” is an Expanse style space opera by Dennis E. Taylor. This was the first book by Dennis Taylor I read. Pleasantly surprised by how good it was.

Bob is turned into a space ship who can replicate and travel with speeds close to the speed of light. Humans cannot withstand this type of acceleration but Bob is a spaceship, not a human. This innovation is so radical and fundamentally different for Earth that hell breaks loose. Bob tries hard to recreate Star Trek for the good of humanity but the humanity isn’t necessarily ready.

I’ve not had such a wow moment with a science fiction novel since Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary. “We Are Legion” is without a doubt one of the best books I read in 2024.

5*/5

Here’s also a song that features “We Are Legion”. I find it appropriate to describe the book.

The first ten minutes

~ Veselin ~ 19 Comments

My 2024 fitness goal is to walk 10k steps per day on average. It’s a tough goal – 10k is 1h 40 min of walking per day, 3.6M steps annually, or 511 hours of walking. That’s a non-trivial amount of time and effort, especially on work days. Busy on Monday? Do 4k steps and you’re down 6k to make up on another day. Got Covid? That’s an easy 70k steps down, which need +1k/day over the next 70 days to catch up.

I tried a variety of tactics to keep the number above 10k. I did morning walks, replaced the city driving with walking, did 5h long weekend hikes. And when the winter season started, I got to under 10k anyway.

My new attempt is catching up with the treadmill in the evening. But it’s super difficult! I’m ready to give up any second during the first ten minutes of indoor walking. Not sure how to overcome that dread. I am so close to achieving the 10k annual average 🙂 Maybe 6-7 treadmill walks away. It’s either the treadmill or going out at 10pm in cold weather, with mud and darkness.

I’m open to ideas.

Borisova Gradina during the brightest part of the day.