It was Wells, the Time Machine.

*** The French Fascist Circle *** by Dominique Albertini & David Doucet

Today French lesson: "fachosphère" is a slang to point out a defined (or undefined) group of people related to the political far-right. As it's a wide subject, this book is limited to the progress of far-right ideas on the French internet and the people/websites behind.

An important thing to know beforehand is that the authors are regular journalists working at leftists outlets (Libération and Les Inrocks). In the English-speaking world, it would be like if The Guardian was writing a book about Breitbart or Infowars.

But actually, the book is quite interesting as instead of taking moral/political stances against its subject (except in the introduction and conclusion), it's all about facts and quotes from exclusive interviews with some big figures of the far-right where the authors tries to tell the history and intent of some famous websites and webstars like Fdesouche, SalonBeige, TV Libertés, Vincent Reynouard, etc. Some personalities didn't want to get interviewed so those chapters are a bit weaker although they're still interesting to read. Also the book is not very extensive as I feel that Meta TV and Méridien Zéro would have been good subjects as they're well established but I can understand that it would have been impossible to cover every web personalities (it would have make at least 5 volumes).

So, even if I still despise their respective newspapers, I must admit they've done some good work (it has also been approved by two far-right interviewees on twitter) so whatever your political side is, it's an informative book which takes a good screenshot of the French far-right on internet at this moment (I'm curious how it will evolve over the years). Recommended.

https://www.amazon.fr/Fachosphere-Albertini-Doucet-d/dp/208135490X/

Just finished "The Gunslinger : Dark Tower I" by Stephen King.

Some parts seemed like an acid trip gone awry. It got a bit better after a bit. I've heard the later books in the series are better and that King was suffering from having taken advice from a writer's retreat where they told him ambiguity is mother's milk. I guess he decided to shirk that advice later on.

Now, I'm working on "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer on the 1996 Everest expedition disaster.

I just finished both "The House Without a Key" and "The Chinese Parrot", both by Earl Derr Biggers. For those fans of classic cinema, these are the first two novels featuring Charlie Chan. My copy is a hardback compilation of all five of the original novels, published in the '80's. 1980's, to be specific.

It's always interesting reading a book that, when it talks about the eighties, is talking about the 1880's.

My goal is to climb Everest in 9 years, so I'm finding out worst-case-scenario. Not that I don't already know. Ive read extensively and have seen pretty much every movie and documentary on mountaineering and Everest and own the tv-movie made from that book of the same title and the new "remake" titled Everest from 2015.

An acquaintance of mine attempted climbing it this past year and failed, albeit he has this thing about not using bottled O2, which you can't do at that altitude.

But yes, I agree. It seems to be an outstandingly well-written book on an absolutely gripping story.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Once Lord Voldemort comes back this series gets much more interesting.

Reminds me of the excellent wizard duel between him and Dumbledore in the Ministry of Magic in the Half Blood Prince I think. That is awe-some. He sucks in like dark power and explodes and creates flame dragons and sh!t.

I enjoyed the expanded segments with him in, like the end when he gets regenerated is much more detailed than in the movie. I was very unhappy when it ended.

Another freebie, what I'm probably having to stick to for the coming months too...

<span class="bold">Quantum Tangle</span>

I'll say from the start that I'll disagree with myself later over this rating, as it should most probably be three stars. Can't bring myself to take away that fourth one at the moment though, mainly due to the concept of subspace energy entities pulled into real space and the way it was handled, and even more so the way the bond and the relationship between Seth and Khoe were handled. Some mental gymnastics may be required to grasp what that actually is and how it'd actually work, but makes perfect sense once you do. And bonus points for making it so that having one such entity tangle with a person with the right skills and contacts can reasonably be accepted as a plausible outcome of random chance.
The action and the setting may otherwise be considered rather typical for the genre, though the universe does hint at a reasonably promising complexity, which I hope is better explored in the other books that share it, as it'd be a pity if all would follow this one's pattern and focus almost exclusively on what's relevant to the matter at hand. Not that there's that much to really complain about when it comes to the action, but in itself, if you ignore these beings and the bond between Seth and Khoe, it definitely follows expected patterns and is also too rushed for my liking.

References to rating since I copied the quick review I posted on Goodreads too.

Just read the Fall of Beleriand in the Silmarillion....Fingolfin vs Morgoth:

http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/lotr/images/b/b0/Melkor3.pjpg.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20100106165045

Poor Fingolfin.

Free paper book or free e-book?

If it's some legal solution for e-books then maybe you can share the link here as it would probably interest some people.

Ebook. Still free. There are plenty free ones, especially first in series, some temporary, some permanent, trying to get people interested.

I didn't know prices could be set to zero on Amazon ;)

Way I hear it, it requires having the book available elsewhere for free, then requesting Amazon to price match, preferably having a number of people do it.

I finished Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett just last week. Enjoyable read, though the reveals in the final 10% of the novel were kind of meh.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Poor Harry had a tough year five. Badfurday said as though casually chatting over a cup of tea. Then a giant fireball erupted above them and Lord Voldemort appeared.