2025-08-28 -- More books in August
==================================

This really comes as a surprise to me. Apparently, it takes me about one
minute  to read one page in a "standard" book. It means that reading for
just one hour a day gets me to 420 pages a week -- which is more or less
one book. Uh, okay. This is going to get expensive if  I  want  to  keep
this up.

It's really hard for me to believe. As I said before, reading (non-tech)
books  has  always  been  a very, very slow process for me. But it looks
like something has changed ... I enjoy it  a  lot  now,  it's  relaxing,
cozy, entertaining. And often times, I can't stop.

After  "The  Family  Across  the Street", I got three more books (two of
which are already finished by now).

The first one was "Annabelle" by Lina Bengtsdotter. I  like  the  Nordic
Noir genre in general and this one mostly fits into that category -- ex-
cept  that  it's  set in summer, which makes it a bit unusual. It took a
while until the story got my attention, there was a  long-ish,  slow-ish
introduction  and things didn't really take off somehow. But eventually,
it turned into a nice and exciting story. The ending was not what I  ex-
pected  at  all,  at first I thought it to be unimaginative and "meh" --
but it's actually much darker and more sad (sadder?) than what I thought
was going to happen. A nice read overall.

There are two more books by Lina Bengtsdotter featuring  the  same  main
character. I might get those soon.

Next  up  was "My Darling Daughter" by JP Delaney. This one was surpris-
ingly fast-paced right from the start. Not much of an introduction,  you
jump  right  in.  I needed a moment to get used to the storytelling, be-
cause the perspective jumps all the time.  "I" and "me" is  a  different
person  in  almost  every  chapter.  But it works quite well.  About one
third through, I almost wondered where this is going, you  already  know
so  much,  what  other twists is he going to put into this story? But it
just keeps going like that, one surprise  after  the  other.   The  last
third  of  the  book clearly leaves the "Thriller" territory, though. It
now turns into a story about legal battle,  family  drama,  and  focuses
more  on  sex  (which  find  very boring). It's still an enjoyable story
overall (which is why I finished this in three days), but that last part
is not *quite* what I was looking for.

The last one is "Ostfriesennebel" by Klaus-Peter Wolf. Unlike  the  oth-
ers,  this is a German author, no idea if there's a translation. I think
I'll have to stretch this one out artificially. Slow things down a bit.