When I saw mention of the book on Lodestarwytch’s site a while back, I’ll have to admit that the title/subtitle combination caught my attention right off the bat.
I, myself, have realized for quite some time now (maybe since forever) that I don’t really fit in and that I am a bit of an outsider for as long as I can remember. I’ve always been a bit baffled by how people “fit in” to a group and I have often wondered if there was something a little wrong with my wiring because of the fact.
I know… As usual, I am late to the party. To be fair, however, when I originally read the first book in The Expanse series, I was hardly in the right mindset to continue on with the series. It had been a struggle to read any novels at the time. Proof of which is that I only had vague recollections of the plot involved. I was in full-distraction mode when it came to reading anything offline.
At the time I had planned to continue reading the next book, but I think I was put off by the wait times for a library copy or the cost, or both. I recently signed up for Kindle Unlimited and was both surprised and pleased to see the whole series of books were available to borrow.
As I said, my head was someplace else when I read the first book back in 2022, so I reread it to refresh my memory and I’m glad I did.
The Expanse series, both books and television series based on the books, have been very popular with readers and viewers across the globe. If the first book is any indication, there is a good reason for its popularity, as it tells a fairly “ripping yarn” that doesn’t slow down enough to avoid the occasional bouts of hypoxia. But in a good way.
We’re almost at the end of the observed numbered year, so I thought I’d do one of my little updates and clear off my plate on the matter.
I’ve slipped a bit on consumption since the last update and I think I’ve added a book or two to my completion rate, but I have been adding pages not reflected in the page-count on Goodreads due to unfinished books not appearing in my stats.
If you add the progress I’ve made in my current audiobook (yes, audiobooks count as reading), the two books I am currently reading and the books that I’ve abandoned — totaling approximately another 1000 pages in addition to that number in my official Goodreads stats — I have read approximately 9800 pages since I started tracking my reads in October. Completed books sits at 22, with a high likelihood of adding one or two more this week.
Well, golly. It appears that I got ahead of myself.
After putting down my phone and picking up a book or my ebook device in early September, I set for myself what I thought to be a modest reading goal to pull me away from doomscrolling and videogaming: twenty books to read in the last quarter of 2025. That’s roughly a book and a half a week. Nothing strenuous, but nothing to sneeze at. There are plenty of folks out there who might (might!) get in twenty books the entire year on a good year. I should know, I lapsed into being one of those kinds of readers until recently. Others might achieve that goal after a decade. Or more.