Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller would fit the hard mode here, for those interested.

Won’t fit the hard mode, but Charles Sheffield’s Tomorrow and Tomorrow was an interesting read. The first third wasn’t really my thing, but after that the book goes way far into the future.

This seems really fun, thanks for organizing this! I don’t know if I read fast enough to fill in more than a few squares, but should be a fun challenge all the same.

I’m still slowly making my way through the second Gears of War book. They aren’t exactly the pinnacle of literature, but I’m finding them better written than I was expecting. Karen Travis does a good job at fleshing out characters the games kind of sideline.

After I finish this one (whenever that will be) I’ll likely try and start Hyperion again. For some reason I just haven’t stuck with it

In my city, it looks like the showings for the first film are at 3:30/4 pm on a Friday. I wish they had been able to get a later start time for at least the Friday movie…

I would suggest looking at other Kbin instances outside of kbin.social. or look to mbin, which is a fork that in told is more stable. I also haven’t made the jump from Kbin, but have been having similar issues with usability with it for awhile.

Earthican.

I’m curious, where’s “over here” for you? I’m not super involved in politics here in the US, but I don’t think surrogacy is really talked about much here? There’s the people who vehemently oppose it (from my experience that’s mostly the religious right), but almost any interaction I’ve had discussing it just lists it as an option people can consider.

I should mention that I’m Bi and don’t have a kid, so I mostly hear about it from the context of same sex couples.

That’s not-

Wait a minute. Ha, you almost had me, you sly dog.

I’m surprised no one has said the obvious yet: Morbius

Your first clue that you were old is that you were still listening to FM radio.

John Jacob Astor IV (July 13, 1864 – April 15, 1912) was an American business magnate, real estate developer, investor, writer, lieutenant colonel in the Spanish–American War, and a prominent member of the Astor family.

Probably explains why the description of the book sounds like American power fantasy. Interesting to hear of sci-fi from so long ago though.

Some might put adds in front or at the end of videos. I’m sure the “viewer counts” also help them negotiate rates for adds on the page itself.

He’s talking about Zaheer and the Red Lotus. They were extremely well intentioned, but set about their goals with violence.

I’ll never stop complaining that in the second movie Dooku tells Obi-Wan that the Separatists are the good guys and that there’s a sith influencing the Senate. Which would have been a cool reveal for the audience, that we’re rooting for the bad guys.

But then Dooku is also a sith anyway. What a wasted opportunity.

I’d say more Tuca and Bertie, they way they’re drawn looks really similar to the show’s style

I’d say they’re my favorite as well! They’re definitely the ones I tend to go to first when I get the urge to re-read any of the Discworld books.

Good choice in username by the way!

I’d like to recommend Old Man’s War, which is the first book in a sci-fi series. I read the first 3 books in the series basically back to back within 2 months and really enjoyed them. I’m in a similar spot as you and I’m getting back into reading after not reading much for the past few years and these got me back into the habit.

Not sci-fi, but anything in the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett is also a good (and usually easy) read.

I’m reading The Golden Compass for the first time. I’m enjoying it, but I’ve been going through it slower than other books, and I’m not sure why. After I finish it I might go back and re-read a Terry Pratchett book.

If you have an android, you could look into installing revanced on your phone so you can listen to YouTube with it without ads instead of on your work computer. That’s what I do.