Well, reading wise, 2024 didn’t start off much different than most of 2023. Only finished 2 books in January.
1. Vandal: Stories of Damage was a 3 story anthology by Kaaron Warren, Aaron Dries & JS Breukelaar. The stories by Warren & Breukelaar were enjoyable reads, but the highlight of the collection was the Dries story. A young couple working for a peace corp type agency are in Samoa teaching English to the natives. They’re in a troubled relationship; she knows it’s over, he still has hope. In a last ditch effort to save the relationship, he proposes a hike to the top of a local volcano. Prior to the hike, several locals warn them not to procrastinate at the top of the volcano. As they are descending the volcano, a tsunami hits Samoa and they are forced back up to the top, where they come across an unusual village. Then the story gets weird. As far as I can recollect, this is the first thing I’ve read by Dries, and he will be an author I keep an eye out for in the future.
3.5, 5, 3.5 = 4 / 5
2. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, about a man with low IQ who undergoes a procedure that rapidly increases his intelligence to super genius levels. However, his emotional levels never develop as fast or as far as his intelligence levels. So while a genius, he doesn’t know how to maintain the simplest personal relationships. I could just never really get into the story. It’s a character driven story told completely from the point of view of Charlie, the main character. Unfortunately, I just never found Charlie to be that interesting. The ending was good and provoked some sympathy for Charlie and some other characters, but by that time it was just too late to interest me.
2.5 / 5
B
1. Vandal: Stories of Damage was a 3 story anthology by Kaaron Warren, Aaron Dries & JS Breukelaar. The stories by Warren & Breukelaar were enjoyable reads, but the highlight of the collection was the Dries story. A young couple working for a peace corp type agency are in Samoa teaching English to the natives. They’re in a troubled relationship; she knows it’s over, he still has hope. In a last ditch effort to save the relationship, he proposes a hike to the top of a local volcano. Prior to the hike, several locals warn them not to procrastinate at the top of the volcano. As they are descending the volcano, a tsunami hits Samoa and they are forced back up to the top, where they come across an unusual village. Then the story gets weird. As far as I can recollect, this is the first thing I’ve read by Dries, and he will be an author I keep an eye out for in the future.
3.5, 5, 3.5 = 4 / 5
2. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, about a man with low IQ who undergoes a procedure that rapidly increases his intelligence to super genius levels. However, his emotional levels never develop as fast or as far as his intelligence levels. So while a genius, he doesn’t know how to maintain the simplest personal relationships. I could just never really get into the story. It’s a character driven story told completely from the point of view of Charlie, the main character. Unfortunately, I just never found Charlie to be that interesting. The ending was good and provoked some sympathy for Charlie and some other characters, but by that time it was just too late to interest me.
2.5 / 5
B
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