{"id":3602,"date":"2017-01-01T22:52:02","date_gmt":"2017-01-01T13:52:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peterdaley.net\/home\/?p=3602"},"modified":"2018-07-14T18:58:57","modified_gmt":"2018-07-14T09:58:57","slug":"2017-reading-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peterdaley.net\/home\/2017-reading-1\/","title":{"rendered":"2017 Reading Diary Part 1!"},"content":{"rendered":"

JANUARY TO APRIL<\/span><\/h4>\n

The year 2017 came into existence while I was reading for the second time\u00a0Wolves of the Calla<\/b><\/em>,\u00a0the fifth book of Stephen King\u2019s The Dark Tower<\/em><\/strong><\/a> saga. I decided to revisit The Gunslinger<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, the first in the series, to refamiliarize myself with the story ahead of the upcoming quasi-sequel\u00a0film<\/a><\/strong>.\u00a0<\/strong>That odd phrase “quasi-sequel” makes sense of you’ve read all the books.\u00a0The first book led me to the second, and now here I am on January 1 nearing the end of\u00a0book five with 25% of it remaining. I finished it at around 12:30 am on the morning of January 3.<\/p>\n

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I wasn’t my intention, but after browsing my Kindle in the minutes after completing the above, I went right on to Song of Susannah<\/a>,\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>the next book in the The Dark Tower<\/em> series. January 7 Update:<\/strong> At the 39% mark. That’s slower progress than I anticipated as I’ve been reading\u00a0less these past few days due to band practice, preparations for next week’s classes, and work on my cult site. January 11 Update:<\/strong> At the 77% mark. My reading sessions these past few days have been limited to my short commute to and from work. I finished it the evening of Friday January 13. Not a bad date to finish reading a Stephen King.<\/p>\n

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I then returned to the the lonely and action-packed world of Jack Reacher with The Hard Way<\/strong><\/em><\/a>, the tenth Jack Reacher novel. I’m\u00a0half way through some 36 hours after starting it, and I’m enjoying it as much if not more than the previous books in the series. Which reminds me, I skipped book 9 One Shot<\/strong><\/em><\/a> essentially because the first Jack Reacher movie is based on it and after rereading two\u00a0Dark Tower<\/em>\u00a0novels,<\/em> I felt like diving into a story completely new to me. I finished it in my nice warm bed the cold evening of January 16. I never want to run out of Jack Reacher books to read.<\/p>\n

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Every Falling Star: The True Story of How I Survived and Escaped North Korea<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>by Sungju Lee\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>has been on my list of books to read since before its publication. I was fortunate enough to be in attendance when Sungju won<\/strong><\/a> the first Teach North Korean Refugees<\/strong><\/a> speech contest on February 28, 2015. Although I’ve heard many speeches since, I still remember parts of his speech, in particular an anecdote about adjusting to life in South Korea. That’s a good a sign as any that he is an intelligent and passionate speaker worthy of a wide audience. The good folks at the\u00a0the BBC are in agreement.<\/strong><\/a> I completed it on the evening of Sunday, January 22 with tears in my eyes. Those same eyes also shed a couple of tears the night before at a talk given by the author I was lucky enough to attend.<\/p>\n

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