Because this folder needs a little more oomph and I've been desperately trying to work my way through a hefty backlog of books this year. At the behest of my significant other I signed up to Goodreads.com and their reading challenge where you set a goal for how many books you want to read in the year and try to nail it. I'm always on and off with reading because my hobbies are so scattershot but having a record online of how much progress I'm making towards my challenge is actually more motivating than I realised it would be; a bit foot in mouth actually because I originally thought it was a stupid idea.
Anyway, I'm currently reading Storm Front by Jim Butcher. A sort of half baked noir crime novel about a private investigator who also happens to be a wizard. Bought it on a whim ages ago because I wanted to try a new series and it had previously been recommended by a friend. Turns out it's actually pretty awful, full of incredibly cliché and vague references to fantasy tropes which makes it feel like the author couldn't really be arsed to create a convincing world. Plus it features a not at all likeable protagonist, which makes the fact that it's written in the first person even more jarring. Would not recommend.
And worth a mention even though I read it in the tail end of last year, but Fevre Dream by G.R.R Martin turned out to be a cracking little novel. I've always enjoyed his style of writing but wasn't sure how well it would translate to a novel outside of the Ice & Fire mythos.