It seems that I have been away for much longer than I intended. Shortly after my last posting in May 2024, two more people in my family passed away.
I do not think that I have finished reading a fiction book from start to finish during the past two years. Trying to commit to something of substantial length seems too difficult. Instead, I have been reading serial chapters of stories posted on web-based platforms or apps. Most limit access to how many episodes can be read in a sitting, so I have completed some longer works- but only because of the constraint introduced by this feature.
Some of the content was okay. Some of it was terrible. Some of it also felt like AI generated slop. When most of the offerings for these reading apps presented similar storylines, it was not difficult to feel that I was reading the same story, although details like the names of characters and locations were different. Also, whether the story lasted 10, 30 or 200 episodes, there was so much repetition with the cycling/recycling plotlines that it felt like the stories could have been shortened by many, many chapters. It was enough for me to want to ask an AI bot to write a story using a similar plot to confirm my suspicions.
I am not ready to tackle a larger work or fiction or non-fiction. I did buy a couple of regencies, but haven't read through enough to write reviews for them. I still also have my NetGalley list to get through.
Hopefully I will be motivated enough in 2026 to read something more than what increasingly seems to be brain rot.
