Dust by Hugh Howey

January 23, 2026 ~ Veselin ~ Leave a comment

This book is a bit heavier than the first two, and it still gets five stars. I’m thankful that Hugh Howey focused on building an impressive ending rather than building a profitable cliffhanger for the next 15 sequels. The copy I purchased from Artline was also on the heavier side, with a scary size.

Juliette is a bad mayor. She’s more interested in digging a big tunnel than in the needs of the masses. And the masses have all kinds of needs, including some pretty nasty ones, that will make you want to puke. Will she manage to dig the hole, and how far will it go? Will she kill everyone in the process or just some?

I had to read it as an ebook, because with a paper copy there was just no way. Some books are only readable if you can keep them in your pocket. Overall, it is a nice finish to a nice series, I loved it, although I loved the first part the most.

5*/5 for this part, and 5*/5 for the series. I can now safely watch the TV show.

First Book Harvest For 2026

January 21, 2026 ~ Veselin ~ 2 Comments

My love of books requires frequent supplies, and those supplies have a strong love for promotions. A recent buy two, get four deal happened, and here we are. I’m set with paper books for at least another month (not that I’m saying which month. Some of my previous harvests are still unfinished).

Brandon Sanderson – Yumi and the Nightmare Painter. I’ve fallen out of love with Sanderson but I still find his shorter books readable
Martin Ivanov – Former People. That one is not for me.
Chris Whitaker – All the Colors of the Dark. It’s what made me start the order. This book has a very high score on Goodreads.
Orhan Pamuk – A Strangeness in My Mind. It would be my first Orhan Pamuk.
Dune: House Atreides (Prelude to Dune). It’s been awhile since I read anything about Dune. Curious to see if I’ll find it interesting.

Goodreads Reading Challenge 2026

January 16, 2026 ~ Veselin ~ 4 Comments

I set my annual reading goal to be 71 books. I picked 71 because it is a prime number and is also right below 72, which is 6 books per month. 6 is a good number of books to read per month. It won’t stress me out and will let me finish some of the thicker books on my shelves. I have plenty.

Goodreads, despite being less buggy with the Reading Challenge this year, doesn’t have a good estimation for how ahead of schedule I am. Their two screens argue that I’m either 2 or 3 books ahead. The mobile app also thinks it’s 3.

15.96 days have passed, and 15.96/(365/71) = 3.1. That’s the number of books I should have read by now. Since I’ve read five, I’m 1.9 books ahead. And 1.9 books is not quite two or three books. It’s not that bad, compared to last year, when it announced I’m 70 books behind schedule on day 1.

A good reminder about the old truth that are only 2 hard problems in programming – naming things, cache invalidation, and off-by-one errors.

Dungeon Crawler Carl

January 12, 2026January 12, 2026 ~ Veselin ~ 7 Comments

My expectations for this book weren’t very high. I bought it because it has a hole in the cover and I’d never seen a book with such a cover before. However, it pleasantly surprised me, turning out to be a fresh and optimistic page-turner. It was great, a clear 5*, and gets the honors to be the first review for the year on my blog.

The world is destroyed and turned into a giant maze, where the last living humans are forced to play a video game. It’s like Diablo but with living humans. That could’ve been an apocalypse of epic proportions, but despite the billions of dead, the game can be won. Carl is the right person for it – he has experience. The problems? He’s with his cat who suddenly started talking, has no shoes or pants, and and elderly lady keeps showing up with no intention to level up in the game. And of course, the game is full of exceptionally difficult mobs who want to complain about their existence.

I got a signed copy from the publisher, although there was no book signing, so I didn’t get to meet the author. Kudos to Pro Book for the cover, not sure who came up with the idea but it works very well.

A great find. Looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

2025 in Books

January 1, 2026January 1, 2026 ~ Veselin ~ 15 Comments

Okay! The moment I’ve been waiting for, the 2025 awards for best books on Veselin.blog 😀 These are not written in 2025, only read this year, but who cares?

Best Thriller

Frieda McFadden’s The Housemaid – first exposure to Frieda McFadden was a shock to me. Being stuck with Lee Child-like characters for so long created space for this pleasant surprise. Looking forward to seeing the movie.

Best Apocalypse & Sci-Fi

Wool by Hugh Howey – Juliette will figure out how the Silo works.

Best Non-Fiction

Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams – a personal account of the earlier days of Facebook. Inspired me to post twice.

Best Fantasy and Best Author

The Fifth Season by N. K. Jemisin and The Obelisk Gate by N. K. Jemisin. The thrid part is not translated yet but the first two were both best books I read in the months I finished them. Nora Jemisin was the best author I encountered this year with four five-star books out of four. It was a close call with Nicci French but they had some disappointing books.

Best Series

Freida Klein by Nicci French – 8 consistently strong books about the criminal psychologist Freida Klein.

Best Sci-Fi and Best Book

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir – I described it as deeply touching. A book that stays with you, although not unique in any way.

Overall, I finished 91 books, according to Goodreads (a few more because not all books are on Goodreads). It was a good year for reading.