It's May 2020: What fantasy book are you reading?

[Silvion Night]

Still reading The Last Wish (Witcher 1). I like it a lot, but I feel I'm in a bit of a reading slump, so its slow going. Most of my free time is consumed by a video game called Call of Duty Warzone. Haven't played games in a long, long while, and now with the lockdown (not being able to go out for football, go to a bar etc) I find it to be a great way to connect with my friends online.

How about you guys?

 

[Alucard]

I'm reading V for Vendetta which I'm taking slow and the last book of Daniel Faust series.
In the past week I've finished two games on PS4, which must be a personal record for me lol, because usually it takes me half a year to finish one.
Sony gave away 2 free games because people are in quarantine. For Germany it was Knack 2 and Journey. I would recommend both. I had a lot of fun.
The rest of the word got Nathan Drake collection (first 3 Uncharted games).
If you have a PS4, I recommend you download the ones available to you. Uncharted games are amazing.

 

[Derk of Derkholm]

Have just started Octavia Butler‘s „Patternmaster“ series.

 

[Jakyro]

I started Harry Potter and The Order Of The Phoenix more than a month ago and I'm still only halfway.
It's not that I don't like it ... but I'm just busy with other stuff. I've been watching a lot of Netflix with my wife and I'm doing lots of sport (running). Now that my achilles heel injury is better I'm doing again around 50 km / week on average. I still have work to do, spend time with my son, ... so my reading suffers from this

 

[rudyjuly2]

Still on Best Served Cold.

As for video games I have sunk in 100 hours on AC Odyssey. Very fun game. Only the second AC game I've ever completed (Black Flag).

 

[kenubrion]

I'm finally back reading fantasy after a hiatus with sci-fi and Louis L'Amour westerns. Academic Exercises and Sixteen Ways To Defend A Walled City both by K. J. Parker, who is fast becoming a favorite author and has many titles I have yet to read so that's very good. Also Path of a Novice: The Silvan Book 1 by R. K. Lander. So I'm going back and forth until one grabs my total attention at which point I will tell more about it. Happy May everyone.

 

[afa]

If you have a PS4, I recommend you download the ones available to you. Uncharted games are amazing.

Yup. I had already played and completed the first 3 Uncharted games years ago, but I still downloaded the freebie. Amazing fun.

I started Harry Potter and The Order Of The Phoenix more than a month ago and I'm still only halfway.
It's not that I don't like it ... but I'm just busy with other stuff. I've been watching a lot of Netflix with my wife and I'm doing lots of sport (running). Now that my achilles heel injury is better I'm doing again around 50 km / week on average. I still have work to do, spend time with my son, ... so my reading suffers from this

Come on, man. Who chooses family and health over reading Fantasy? Get a grip!

As for video games I have sunk in 100 hours on AC Odyssey. Very fun game. Only the second AC game I've ever completed (Black Flag).

I haven't played any of the series after Black Flag, but I'm thinking of getting Origins (set in Ancient Egypt, and basically serving as the origin story of the Assassin's Brotherhood). I thought the Ezio games (Assassin's Creed II, Brotherhood and Revelations) were the best ones, in terms of the story.

 

[ReguIa]

I'm doing again around 50 km / week on average

My condolences.

I've finished Shorefall so it's back to Witcher again, started on Blood of Elves just today.

 

[Silvion Night]

@Jakyro: I hear you my friend! I'm running 10km alternate days now with football / the gym not being an option anymore. I think I've got an inflamed tendon in my right foot though, as it starts hurting after some KMs. I've recently bought a rowing machine for at home and I'm now alternating that with my running. That, and working out in my home gym (which is small, but I recently bought some extra equipment).

Also @ the others:

Are you able to work remotely, or are you still going in for work, ? I'm working remotely, while my wife is still going in (works in the financial sector, which is considered an essential job). Schools are closed, so during work I'm homeschooling the kids. Lots of colleagues are complaining, but to be honest; I'm having an absolute blast. Spending so much time with the kids is amazing and for me working from home is so much better than working on site at the office. More efficient at tasks, because I'm not constantly bombarded with social talk from colleagues, no commute, being more flexible in terms of working hours (I can now spread it over a larger part of the day, which means I can go running before lunch, or have a stroll with the kids around 3ish), way less stress. I honestly don't see myself going back to clocking in at the office 5 days a week in the future.

Sounds a bit weird what with the terrible situation going on in the world, but I really see the silver lining. Like Jakyro mentioned though, what with working from home (no commute, which was my main reading opportunity), spending quality time with wife and kids, sports and gaming, there's almost no time for reading. But... I have good faith that I will finish The Witcher 1 this evening.

Fingers crossed!

 

[Cyphon]

I ordered and received A Shadow in Summer and plan on finally giving The Long Price Quartet a shot. It is a series I have always kind of browsed right past so going in with moderately low expectations and hoping for a surprise. I need to dig deep and find some more authors to give a chance to because I am at a point where I have basically read every author that has intrigued me to this point and re-read a decent majority of their stuff. So there is basically nothing to read and the world as I know it is over. I kid but yeah, definitely need to dig a bit deeper to find more books to try.

As for the real life conversation I work at a state hospital as a utility plant supervisor so I am essential. I don't say that for sypathy because I am around no patients and my job is easy so it is no bother to me. My wife is in nursing school and working part time as a floor receptionist at a hospital so she is about 75% on the front lines so we do have to be somewhat careful with how she comes home. As for the quarantine this was basically a dream scenario for me. I am not much for leaving my house anyway so I was sort of born to this if you will. My wife studies and I read or play some Call of Duty with friends and nobody can ask me to go out lol. The one major issue is there is no softball for me and I am a 4 night a week player so I am really missing that.

 

[rudyjuly2]

I'm working 100% from home. I was already working 3/5 days at home so it's not a huge change for me. Wife is a receptionist at doctor's office and still goes in 4 hours a day as they handle calls and try to deal with patients 100% over the phone.

Our schools have started e-learning in Ontario. My son is in high school and doesn't get much work although he doesn't give full effort lol. He does like 1.5 hours a day. My daughter works hard, is in grade 7, and does 3-4 hours of work per day.

I do miss being able to go to the park or baseball diamonds. I miss getting together with my family as my one brother and parents are all still in town with me and we don't get together for family dinners at the moment. We text or call and we have dropped food off once a week (treats or things) and say hi from a distance. My parents are both around 70 and higher risk so we are taking it pretty seriously. My mom misses all the grandkids. We did do a Zoom call a couple weeks ago (with some extra family members too).

 

[Khartun]

I'm also 100% at home right now. I'm a Database Administrator at a local community college so it is no problem for me to work here. I have COPD so I have to be extra careful. My wife is a nurse but she took FMLA until the worst of it passes because she doesn't want to bring it home to me. Being at home all the time I thought I'd be reading a lot but I haven't read anything. I've been playing games and watching TV instead.

 

[afa]

Good idea with the real-life convo, @Silvion Night.

I'm an Auditor, and have been working from home (WFH) for approaching 2 months now (started in mid-March). My wife, unfortunately, was furloughed less than a month into her new job when the lockdown/restrictions kicked in.

I find WFH to be hit-or-miss. Sure, it's nice to be at home and be able to still be around my wife even though I'm working. Also, it's nice to not have to go through the commute; I can wake up a little later, and also "get back" sooner. It's definitely more relaxed. But I think it's too relaxed. I feel I'm not nearly as productive while WFH as when I'm at the office. I'm actually kind of worried that I'll find it hard to get back to 'normal' working conditions whenever things open up.

 

[ReguIa]

I'm currently in my third year studying Mechanical Engineering and as you might guess it's not exactly something that works well only learning about from behind a computer screen. This last semester we were supposed to have a lot of practical assignments and naturally it's also the hardest part of the year with 3 really heavy courses at the same time, applied thermodynamics, industrial management and electrical engineering.

All of our practicals have been replaced with theoretical assignments that takes at least twice as many hours as what we would have spent in the lab, so not only do we need to put in more hours that way, but a lot of the material still hasn't been altered well enough to fit home studies that it's so much harder understanding the different subjects.

I've heard a lot of universities around the world have implemented a pass/fail grade system during this time but it's not something my school is doing. So with less material to learn from, barely any help from professors/assistants and many more assignments to do, we're still going to be graded the same way. I fully expect to use the summer to catch up in all my studies.

At first I also thought it would be great not having to commute 2 hours every day, you know since I could use that time to do something else. But that time doesn't come close to making up for the extra work. I also really miss it because it was a much needed break between the studying I did at school and what I did when I came home.

I still get some reading done though, atm a third of the way through Sword of Destiny, so yay!

 

[stenney]

I ordered and received A Shadow in Summer and plan on finally giving The Long Price Quartet a shot. It is a series I have always kind of browsed right past so going in with moderately low expectations and hoping for a surprise. I need to dig deep and find some more authors to give a chance to because I am at a point where I have basically read every author that has intrigued me to this point and re-read a decent majority of their stuff. So there is basically nothing to read and the world as I know it is over. I kid but yeah, definitely need to dig a bit deeper to find more books to try.

As for the real life conversation I work at a state hospital as a utility plant supervisor so I am essential. I don't say that for sypathy because I am around no patients and my job is easy so it is no bother to me. My wife is in nursing school and working part time as a floor receptionist at a hospital so she is about 75% on the front lines so we do have to be somewhat careful with how she comes home. As for the quarantine this was basically a dream scenario for me. I am not much for leaving my house anyway so I was sort of born to this if you will. My wife studies and I read or play some Call of Duty with friends and nobody can ask me to go out lol. The one major issue is there is no softball for me and I am a 4 night a week player so I am really missing that.

I loved LPQ! very different, and definitely a slow burn, but after all 4 it certainly pays off. very cool and original magic system, and great characters. i also loved Abraham's Dagger and the Coin series.

 

[Jakyro]

I've been working remotely since the start, while my wife is a doctor and needs to go to the practice/hospital each day to see her patients (but less than usual). I already had the possibility to work from home two days a week before, but I practically never used it. As I always need to leave the house to bring our son to daycare (or pick him up) I automatically went to the office from there. Another important reason why I never used it before is that I can build overtime from the office and not when working from home. As the office is only 3 kilometers from where I live it almost makes no difference in my travel time

I don't have any problem however ... my son can still go to daycare because my wife works in an essential job as do I (financial sector, insurances). Days he's not going are difficult sometimes as he's only 2yr 3 months, but most of the time I can do my job without any problem. And the time I have during lunch time when he's not around, I'm using to go out and run for an hour.

 

[kenubrion]

I'm a retired pharmacist. I am doing what I was doing anyway which is staying home doing lots of yard work, reading and loving up my golden retriever. The golf course is just re-opened but I'm going to wait for the vaccine before I start interacting with others again. My wife works at a medical devices company part-time to have something to do.

 

[Khartun]

I'm a retired pharmacist. I am doing what I was doing anyway which is staying home doing lots of yard work, reading and loving up my golden retriever. The golf course is just re-opened but I'm going to wait for the vaccine before I start interacting with others again. My wife works at a medical devices company part-time to have something to do.

I would love to go play a round of golf!

 

[TomTB]

So not really relevant, but I'm going through Bill Bryson's back catalogue at the moment. Hope you're all keeping well and safe!

 

[Peat]

Read The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner yesterday. Still sorting my feelings out about it, but my feeling is it seems to have one strength - very readable - but isn't really above average in any other category.


Also... I'm working from home at the moment and as someone with an hour long commute, I really don't want to go back into the office. Once or twice a week for when face to face speeds things up sure, but this is a huge improvement to my quality of life.