The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco

I really wanted to like this book, it had me hooked from the intro and the first part of Day 1, but there is just so much padding and random deep conversations about stuff that just doesnt interest me. According to my kindle I was only 17% of the way through, perhaps if I had a paper copy I could skim and skip ahead a lot easier, but I don't like doing that on kindle

Stolen from a goodreads review, top one I think, but this sums up how I feel

Just when you thought it was getting interesting, just when the plot is getting meatier and it grabs your attention, here comes a dissertation or a long drawn description of doors, churches, parchments, beasts, characters that are totally irrelevant to the plot, and backstories that do nothing to shed light on the events. You must often wait a chapter or two to get back to the mystery that drove you to read this thing in the first place. Do yourself a favor and quit after he has solved his first "mystery"

Baptism of Fire, by Andrzej Sapkowski

Not very far in, just finished chapter 1, but enjoying. I've read the 4 books before this (including the two short stories) and have enjoyed them all, with the last book not being one of my favs due to too much focus on Ciri, but still it was enjoyable.

I finished The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco Friday morning and Elevation, by Stephen King last night.

The Name of the Rose took me about two months to slog through. The murder mystery bits were quite invigorating but sometimes the theological debate lagged. This is coming from a Religious Studies major. I think it might have been poor translation; I might have enjoyed the book more in its original Italian.

Elevation was short and sweet. I finished in about an hour and a half. Much like Stephen King’s Lisey’s Story (my personal favorite!), Elevation is a commentary on interpersonal relationships with fantasy/horror elements thrown in. I highly recommend it to anyone who’s interested in King’s writing.

I just began People Who Eat Darkness, by Richard Lloyd Parry. Not to mention a huge stack of Stephen King novels I’ve taken out of the library.

Finished: The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco

I finished The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco. Pretty good read but very dry as well.

I have started The Road, by Cormac McCarthy. His prose is like nothing else in literature.

Started The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories by HP Lovecraft. This is my first exposure to Lovecraft - really loving it so far. I've only read the first few stories (Dagon, Arthur Jermyn, Statement of Randolph Carter, Celephais, Picture in the House etc.) but all have been compelling. Lovecraft's prose is hypnotic and is ability to create and atmosphere of unease and...wrongness, is incredible. Can't wait to get to the classics (Innsmouth, the title story, Herbert West etc)

Also finished The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. I appreciated the sheer amount of historical research and minutiae, and Eco's writing is great. But as a narrative, it left me cold as I had to slog my way through the book way too often. The pacing was just glacially slow and Eco goes off into too many digressions on things I didn't care about. I did like how it explored the nature of knowledge and facts, and the setting of the abbey was fairly immersive. 6/10 for me.

The Blind Assassin, by Margaret Atwood

Tried to read this, but just didnt like it. I also did not really know what it was about and had an expectation of its about some sort of Assassin and the opening lines had me hooked, thinking I wonder how the assassin pulled this off....then I read and realized it was nothing like that.

It was well written, but other than that it didn't interest me, I might re-visit it down the road with the right mind set

The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco

Not very far into it, just into chapter 1/day 1 and Im enjoying it, if you like Sherlock Holmes you'll probably enjoy this as Im getting that feel and vibe

Just finished Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie which was a fun read.

Started The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco which I've been looking forward to for a while.

Finished:

Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, by Haruki Murakami
My first Murakami book and I loved it. Such a fun idea and so well executed in terms of prose and narrative structure. As to the story, it’s gonna me take at least one re-read before I figure out what any of it really means.

Recursion, by Blake Crouch
I strongly disliked this; my first and likely last Crouch novel. An interesting concept that I felt was ultimately wasted on shoddy writing via drab prose and trite characters. I’m probably just snobby. Other people seem to dig this one but man, I wish I was in a timeline where this book had never crossed my radar.

Reading:

The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco
Only a bit into the second day but having a blast so far getting steeped in medieval monk life and reading the theological jousting. I’m looking forward to the meta-fiction aspects I’ve heard about (assuming I haven’t missed anything major already).

The Conspiracy Against the Human Race, by Thomas Ligotti
Wish me luck not losing my will to live after I finish this.

I finished Words of Radiance, by Brandon Sanderson it was very good but I preferred way of kings slightly more.

I started The Name of the Rose, by Umberto Eco

Royal Assassin - Book 2 of the Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb. I'm almost done and it's been really, really great. Big improvement over the first one, which I really enjoyed as well. This one has higher stakes, better character development, more detailed world-building, better everything. I am planning on reading the entire Realm of the Elderlings series eventually.

I will be starting on The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco within the next day or two.