@futzle found my brother's birthday present! Thanks!
User Profile
Mostly reading sci-fi, fantasy, and comics/graphic novels, but occasionally some other stuff too. Only posting books I've read/reading since joining in 2023 (maybe one day I'll go through my bookshelf and change this).
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2024 Reading Goal
85% complete! Barbarius has read 17 of 20 books.
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Barbarius replied to Deborah Pickett's status
Barbarius started reading Poirot Investigates by Agatha Christie
Poirot Investigates by Agatha Christie
First there was the mystery of the film star and the diamond… then came the ‘suicide’ that was murder… the …
Barbarius finished reading The Murder on the Links (Hercule Poirot #2) by Agatha Christie
The Murder on the Links (Hercule Poirot #2) by Agatha Christie
Belgian detective Hercule Poirot is summoned to France after receiving a distressing letter with a urgent cry for help. Upon …
Apparently: ""The Murder on the Links," the abbreviation "M." is used as an honorific for Monsieur, a French title of respect for men, similar to Mr. in English. It is a common practice in French-speaking regions to use "M." before a man's name as a sign of respect. More info in the Literary significance and reception section of the The Murder on the Links Wikipedia article. In "The Murder on the Links," the abbreviation "M." is used as an honorific for Monsieur, a French title of respect for men, similar to Mr. in English. It is a common practice in French-speaking regions to use "M." before a man's name as a sign of respect."
But "Monsieur" is still used in other parts... Oh well.
Barbarius commented on The Murder on the Links (Hercule Poirot #2) by Agatha Christie
Barbarius started reading The Murder on the Links (Hercule Poirot #2) by Agatha Christie
The Murder on the Links (Hercule Poirot #2) by Agatha Christie
Belgian detective Hercule Poirot is summoned to France after receiving a distressing letter with a urgent cry for help. Upon …
Barbarius reviewed The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie
Nice to meet you, Mr Poirot.
3 stars
This was my first Agatha Christie ever, and the only comparison I have to make is to the Sherlock Holmes stories. I enjoyed it. I think I was getting used to Doyle's writing by the end of the Holmes stories, because I could pick up on a lot of the clues by then, but with this I didn't clue on to much at all. I wonder if that will change as I read more of Christie's work? What I will say, though, is that Hastings is a bit whiny and petulant compared to Watson...
Barbarius wants to read Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton
Pandora's Star by Peter F. Hamilton
Critics have compared the engrossing space operas of Peter F. Hamilton to the classic sagas of such sf giants as …
Barbarius finished reading The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie
The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie
The Mysterious Affair at Styles is a detective novel by British writer Agatha Christie. It was written in the middle …
Barbarius started reading The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie
The Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie
The Mysterious Affair at Styles is a detective novel by British writer Agatha Christie. It was written in the middle …
Barbarius finished reading Looking Glass War by John le Carré
The worst book I've ever read.
1 star
This is, without exception, the single worst book I've ever read in my entire life. And now that I've seen there's a movie adaptation coming I feel like I need to scream my thoughts into the digital void.
This book gets hailed as one of the masterpieces; one of the greatest novels ever, but in actuality it's terrible, and it's terrible from the start. I stuck with this awful story right through to the end, because I thought, "If SO MANY people rave about this book, there must be a reason, right?" Wrong. And I felt ripped off that I DID commit to it's ending, when the ending is really only the ultimate climax of its awfulness and depravity. The best I can imagine as to why people like it is that perhaps this might be a lot of people's first experience at magic realism, and maybe THAT'S why they …
This is, without exception, the single worst book I've ever read in my entire life. And now that I've seen there's a movie adaptation coming I feel like I need to scream my thoughts into the digital void.
This book gets hailed as one of the masterpieces; one of the greatest novels ever, but in actuality it's terrible, and it's terrible from the start. I stuck with this awful story right through to the end, because I thought, "If SO MANY people rave about this book, there must be a reason, right?" Wrong. And I felt ripped off that I DID commit to it's ending, when the ending is really only the ultimate climax of its awfulness and depravity. The best I can imagine as to why people like it is that perhaps this might be a lot of people's first experience at magic realism, and maybe THAT'S why they like it? But it's not even good magic realism. The entire story is depressing with zero redemption; it's full of death, rape, incest, suicide, and infanticide (which is particularly awful). It is also bleedingly obvious that it was written by a man, as evidenced by all these macho men borderline ****ing their way through the story (and not always consensually) and all the women fawning over any of the aforementioned men whenever they're near them.
This book, as I've said, has zero redemptive features. At all. Let me be clear, it's not that this book didn't live up to the hype I had built up for it; it didn't live up to any measure of "good". It smashed through the floor of my lowest respect, and then kept plummeting right up until the last page. I hated this book so much and thought that it was so bad that once I finished it I didn't donate it or pass it on; I threw it in the bin.
This book is truly awful, and I fail to see how anyone can LIKE it, let alone love it enough to recommend.
Barbarius started reading Magnum contact sheets by Kristen Lubben
I've wanted this book for so long. It's utterly fascinating to see what other shots came before and after some of the most iconic and famous photographs of the last eighty years, and to hear some of the backstories that go along with them.
Barbarius wants to read Hyperion by Dan Simmons
Hyperion by Dan Simmons
Hyperion is a 1989 science fiction novel by American author Dan Simmons. The first book of his Hyperion Cantos, it …