H G Wells was a very skilled author and those tend to be a joy to read no matter when they were active.

Right. And retro sf has also its own charm ;)

★★☆ The House of the Dead / Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Relatively easy reading considering the author. May be nice entry point into his heavier works. I'm somehow fascinated how the book (telling about tzarist prison) corresponds with written one hundred years later relations from soviet gulags.

★★★ Assassin's Apprentice / Robin Hobb

I didn't gave that book enough attention and I was reading it much too long, but it is definitely well-written fantasy and it was real pleasure to follow the story.

★★★ Biblia a człowiek współczesny / Anna Świderkówna
★☆☆ Kołem się toczy. Przez Kaukaz i Bliski Wschód / Karol Werner

List of all books finished in 2018.

"Ready Player One"

Great book, especially for someone my age, who actually had a Colecovision (yes, there is one mentioned in there) and someone who knows what the Kodan Armada is (yes, that's in there too).

I'm sure the movie is great, especially since it looks like they managed to snag some eggs I never thought would make it into the movie, but I don't feel like driving 100 miles to see it so I'll wait for TV.

It seems that I was a bit younger that the target audience of the book. A lot of titles mentioned there was known by me as a gaming history or not known at all ;)

However the whole story is quite interesting and well-written, so it was still nice reading.

And still I can't imagine how this kind of story may be turned into movie.

All Quiet on the Western Front. I'm reading the last few pages of The Shining right now.

I don't think I'm giving away any huge spoilers here, but I'll be curious if RUSH records have a sharp spike in sales in the next few weeks. I don't want to use the term "rebirth" because they are one of the greatest bands ever period and "rebirth" indicates they died which they never did, but this could lead to a whole new army of RUSH freaks and fans. Shit, they might actually start getting regular radio play for the first time in 45 years.

I had a Colecovision! One of my favorite systems, especially once you got the Atari 2600 adapter and effectively got two consoles in one :) Rush did kind of have a second wind a few years ago when they got their belated Hall of Fame induction and were hyping up Clockwork Angels, and their name kept popping up in odd places like when they did that cameo in that Paul Rudd movie. They were like the hip classic band for a bit. But It will be interesting to see how their catalog lasts now that they're retired.

Apprivoiser l'éveil - Pierre Turlur

In english, the title would be something like "Taming the awakening". It's a non-fiction book on Buddhism, about a very famous metaphor on a water buffalo and a kid.

Very worth reading since the author never tries to preach or convince you of anything, he merely explains things and it's up to you to decide what you think about it. It's very well written, in a very light but no shallow style. For the moment only in French, but I'm sure an English translation will come out eventually.

On a trivia note, the author, Pierre Turlur, is also a friend and a colleague of mine. He happens to be teaching french/french literature, while being a buddhist monk and a magician (card tricks). ^_^

So far in 2018: https://www.gog.com/forum/general/books_finished_in_2018/post9

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Riveting book of revenge, riches and emotions. An young sailor engaged to be married is framed by 3 jealous acquaintances. I quite enjoyed the interactions of mute paralytic Noirtier between his family members.

I had read an illustrated book version for younger audiences for many years before I read this proper novel. This illustrated book cut out a lot of stuff and edited for a different ending. I'm not a fan of editors changing books for younger people to be simpler and easier to read.

Books finished in 2018

Airframe - Michael Crichton

No need to introduce the author, everybody knows him. This one novel (fiction) is about a incident during a flight that caused several casualties and lots of injured people. It's also a portrait of the medias, not very different than one we could do these days.

Surprisingly, written in 1996, Airframe is still very modern. Of course, there's not the social medias dimension, which nowadays could be interesting in telling such kind of story, but the medias are severly criticized.

Once again, it's a very credible novel, written with a sharp style and that I couldn't let down before finishing.

So far in 2018: https://www.gog.com/forum/general/books_finished_in_2018/post9

Airframe - Michael Crichton

No need to introduce the author, everybody knows him. This one novel (fiction) is about a incident during a flight that caused several casualties and lots of injured people. It's also a portrait of the medias, not very different than one we could do these days.

Surprisingly, written in 1996, Airframe is still very modern. Of course, there's not the social medias dimension, which nowadays could be interesting in telling such kind of story, but the medias are severly criticized.

Once again, it's a very credible novel, written with a sharp style and that I couldn't let down before finishing.

So far in 2018: https://www.gog.com/forum/general/books_finished_in_2018/post9

Nvm :)

Hellraiser Omnibus written by Clive Barker
Sherlock Holmes and the Servants of Hell by Paul Kane
Hard Time by Shaun Atwood
Binti by Nnedi Okorafor
Pebble in the Sky by Isaac Asimov
Dr. Strange: Way of the Weird by Jason Aron (Author), Chris Bachalo (Illustrator)
Royal Blood by by Alejandro Jodorowsky and Dongzi Liu