I'm currently reading The Idiot by Dostoevsky. It's a lot more readable than I was expecting, though keeping track of all the character's names is tricky at times (especially when they have multiple nicknames and alternate between referring to their first and middle names, and surname). I'm about a third of the way through; it feels like I'm yet to get to the 'meat' of the story. So far it has involved a naïve Prince getting to know various people in Russia, and invariably getting muddled up in their affairs. I'm fascinated to see where things go though!
Interesting concept for a card game! I like the parodies of different games, but the cards themselves look a bit dull. Just a logo on a white background for the most part.
There is a readalong feature in Storygraph. You start it from a book's page, and then can add posts that become available once readers reach certain points in the story. I guess you could get some suggestions for book club books in this community and then create a poll to see what people would like to read.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts :) I'll give it a go and see what I think. I've never not enjoyed any of Tchaikovsky's books, so I'm sure it'll still be a good read - I suppose the first book in this series set a very high bar though!
I don't find a lot of the things in the video that relevant to be honest. Not many people speaking online in games? Sure, but I never spoke with randoms to begin with. Discord seems to work fine on the PS5 from my experience. Do either of those things really affect the decision to buy a console? Games taking a while to download - you have the same thing on Steam.
I could definitely see that developers being shackled to the previous generation is an issue. Having to develop/optimise for 11 year old hardware must limit creativity.
Being a patient gamer, I think a lot of the issues people have with lack of current gen games isn't so much of an issue for me. There are a ton of previous gen games that I never got round to playing, and the PS5 experience in playing them is superior. And there are a ton of current gen games I've now got my eye on - GTA 6, Spiderman 2, GoW Ragnarok, Dragons Dogma 2, Baldur's Gate, FF7 Rebirth, Death Stranding 2, Astrobot, Monster Hunter Wilds, Resident Evil 4 remake and MGS3 remake.
I agree that PC is the best option in a lot of cases. For me, I like sitting back on a sofa with a controller. The Steam Deck is really great for this but it's not powerful enough to play a lot of modern games at full res. The PS5 is filling that niche for me.
What did you think of the Children of Time series? I loved the first one, and enjoyed the second though it didn't capture me as much. Is the third one worth reading (no spoilers)?
I see you liked Piranesi - that was a really fun and interesting read. I've got The Way of Kings to read. I've heard great things about it (seems to be a huge book though)!
Similar to some of the other commenters, I'm a native English speaker and (especially now that I have an ereader) I'm often looking up words. Previously when reading physical books, I'd just go off the context and assume I vaguely knew what the word meant, because looking it up on my phone would be quite time-consuming. However now that I have the built-in dictionary on my ereader, I'm constantly using it. Does it slow me down a bit? Yes, but I think it's worth it. I see words popping up regularly that I was unsure about before but now I can define.
Ostentatious is a great word for example!
You said you were worried about not remembering them - Is there any way you can save the words you've looked up? Kobo has a cool thing where you can add these to 'My Words' and you then have a list of all the words you've saved, with the definitions to look back on. If you'd like you can then go through them to revise and hopefully they'll stick in your memory.
By the way, I would have assumed that English was your first language! You write extremely well.
Ghost of Tsushima - Took a while to click, but now I'm really enjoying it. Pulling off some of the sword moves perfectly feels so satisfying. And it's gorgeous to look at.
And also Dave the Diver. Very charming game and it keeps adding more and more layers to the gameplay. The gameplay loop is really fun so far.
Weird, it shows as a png for me 🤔