![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Oct. 28th, 2024 05:30 pmAfter a rough night, with little sleep, and a sinus vertigo headache from hell - I decided to call in sick.
( the gritty details )
Spent the day in my sweats, lounging shirt, fluffy socks, and glasses doing basically nothing - but watching television. Didn't eat all that much either.
Binged all of S1 of The Lincoln Lawyer on Netflix. Also watched the soap, which is heating up in its soapy way. They are killing off a major soap opera character this week, lots of melodrama in store.
I've not seen much television of late - busy. But it was nice to veg and not think today. Just crash. And I'll have time to crash next week.
Scheduled Bone Density test for spine and hips for next Tuesday, around 11 AM, which I have off. Now I just need to schedule a hair appointment for next week, do the colonguard, and get the vaccines scheduled. COVID first, then in December, shingles. I also should probably do the pneumonia (now that they've opened it up for folks under 65). I'll check with my doctor first on that one.
Going up state to see my Brother and his wife on Friday, and will be returning on Sunday. With any luck the subway won't be too screwed up over the weekend. Then I have Monday - Wed off to get stuff done and pretty much crash.
***
On book front? I finished Riley Sager's "Home Before Dark" (I think he might be a British writer? Or it all took place in Massachutus? I don't know.) The book was okay? Not as well plotted as I expected. And it's a plot driven novel not really a character driven one. Most best-selling fiction is plot driven, particularly mysteries and thrillers. He skirts more towards psychological thriller/horror than actual horror. Or mystery. There's no romance at all (which was fine, I didn't really want one and it wasn't appropriate anyhow). ( vague spoilers )
I was a little disappointed by sloppiness of it. I'd have hand-waved it - if the writer was a first time novelist or indie published, but he's a best-selling writer, with a lot of novels to his name and along the same lines as folks like Dean Koontz. The plot should have been tight, and everything neatly tied up with no typos. I shouldn't be wondering about dropped bits here and there. Editors have gotten very sloppy in the 21st Century.
The book felt a bit rushed to me in places as well. I don't highly recommend it. There's other, better books, regarding this genre out there.
Also, it's not that memorable - I'm forgetting most of it already.
Flipped over to Withered Hill - which I talked about in another post. It's a little slow going at the moment, but creepy and engrossing. We'll see if I stick with it. I actually find the independently published books from Reddit more interesting than the best-selling fiction, in that they take more risks with narrative style, and the writing is weirdly tighter. Not necessarily cleaner.
And working my way through Fate's Edge on Audio Book. These Illona Andrews novels are long. I do enjoy the characters, they tend to be more character driven than plot-driven, which I prefer. Plot-driven novels have a tendency to be rather derivative of other novels - mainly because you can't really come up with a new plot. There aren't any. It's all been done. Multiple times. But you can come up with new ways that a given plot will affect characters or how they will react to it, and what they'll do. And the more developed the characters are - the more the reader cares. Plot driven tends to not develop the characters that well, and often sacrifices them to the plot, so that they become pawns to it. Also, plot driven tends to be more predictable and less memorable because of that. Characters should always come before plot. Withered Hill feels kind of plotty to me, so we'll see if I continue, while Fate's Edge is character driven and more engaging as result.
( the gritty details )
Spent the day in my sweats, lounging shirt, fluffy socks, and glasses doing basically nothing - but watching television. Didn't eat all that much either.
Binged all of S1 of The Lincoln Lawyer on Netflix. Also watched the soap, which is heating up in its soapy way. They are killing off a major soap opera character this week, lots of melodrama in store.
I've not seen much television of late - busy. But it was nice to veg and not think today. Just crash. And I'll have time to crash next week.
Scheduled Bone Density test for spine and hips for next Tuesday, around 11 AM, which I have off. Now I just need to schedule a hair appointment for next week, do the colonguard, and get the vaccines scheduled. COVID first, then in December, shingles. I also should probably do the pneumonia (now that they've opened it up for folks under 65). I'll check with my doctor first on that one.
Going up state to see my Brother and his wife on Friday, and will be returning on Sunday. With any luck the subway won't be too screwed up over the weekend. Then I have Monday - Wed off to get stuff done and pretty much crash.
***
On book front? I finished Riley Sager's "Home Before Dark" (I think he might be a British writer? Or it all took place in Massachutus? I don't know.) The book was okay? Not as well plotted as I expected. And it's a plot driven novel not really a character driven one. Most best-selling fiction is plot driven, particularly mysteries and thrillers. He skirts more towards psychological thriller/horror than actual horror. Or mystery. There's no romance at all (which was fine, I didn't really want one and it wasn't appropriate anyhow). ( vague spoilers )
I was a little disappointed by sloppiness of it. I'd have hand-waved it - if the writer was a first time novelist or indie published, but he's a best-selling writer, with a lot of novels to his name and along the same lines as folks like Dean Koontz. The plot should have been tight, and everything neatly tied up with no typos. I shouldn't be wondering about dropped bits here and there. Editors have gotten very sloppy in the 21st Century.
The book felt a bit rushed to me in places as well. I don't highly recommend it. There's other, better books, regarding this genre out there.
Also, it's not that memorable - I'm forgetting most of it already.
Flipped over to Withered Hill - which I talked about in another post. It's a little slow going at the moment, but creepy and engrossing. We'll see if I stick with it. I actually find the independently published books from Reddit more interesting than the best-selling fiction, in that they take more risks with narrative style, and the writing is weirdly tighter. Not necessarily cleaner.
And working my way through Fate's Edge on Audio Book. These Illona Andrews novels are long. I do enjoy the characters, they tend to be more character driven than plot-driven, which I prefer. Plot-driven novels have a tendency to be rather derivative of other novels - mainly because you can't really come up with a new plot. There aren't any. It's all been done. Multiple times. But you can come up with new ways that a given plot will affect characters or how they will react to it, and what they'll do. And the more developed the characters are - the more the reader cares. Plot driven tends to not develop the characters that well, and often sacrifices them to the plot, so that they become pawns to it. Also, plot driven tends to be more predictable and less memorable because of that. Characters should always come before plot. Withered Hill feels kind of plotty to me, so we'll see if I continue, while Fate's Edge is character driven and more engaging as result.