Currently rereading The Exiled Queen, the second in Cinda Williams Chima’s Seven Realms series (one of my favorites). I read the first just before Christmas, then took a detour to read one of my Christmas presents - Symphony of the Sojourn by Rowan Alexandria Bennett, which I positively adored. It’s been a really good few weeks of reading, and I’m looking forward to continuing the Seven Realms, and then the follow up series - The Shattered Realms - after that.

My reading goal for the year is to actually track the books I read, so I can look back at the end of the year and actually remember what I read. I’ve downloaded the StoryGraph app to that end, now I just have to remember to use it…

If you wanted to allow customization but without user accounts, you could just store all that data in a cookie on the user’s machine. Just make sure you put clear warnings about how the data is stored and what will be gone if they delete the cookie

This is anything but simple. The LEGO build was very complex (and entertaining), and leaves almost no room for electronics. The person that is doing this had to make an entirely custom circuit board that fits just behind the inserted game, and working buttons will only come with custom printed bricks.

That being said, I’m still really pumped to see this become real. The build has easily become one of my absolute favorites, and being able to actually play it will just make it that much cooler.

I’m in the middle of the Creator 3-in-1 dragon. All I have left to finish on the main model is the wings. Naturally, after that I’ll disassemble the whole thing and start on the sea serpent model

If that’s the case, then I would suggest looking at City, Friends or Creator sets, or doing what @GandalftheBlack@feddit.org suggests.

I would actually recommend starting with something from the Classic theme - there’re a lot of really great sets that are essentially a bunch of varied pieces with some great build ideas. Much more cost effective than pick-a-brick (which is generally much better when you’re looking for specific pieces for a planned build).

https://www.lego.com/en-us/themes/classic

You’re only as old as you feel!

I finished up Terry Pratchett’s Equal Rights the other day, and have moved on to Mort. As much as I enjoyed Equal Rights,I think Mort takes the title of my favorite so far. Lots to read yet, though, so we’ll see if it gets displaced

If you want something simple, you could try Peril in Pinebrook. It was designed to be used in schools to teach kids to play. It uses a much simplified set of rules and pre-generated characters. I’m going to be using it with my family in a few weeks

I believe it’s a weapon type thing from Ninjago

I have finally committed. I’ve started Sir Terry Pratchett’s Disc World, starting with the Color of Magic, and I intend to proceed by publication order. We’ll see how long this one takes to finish. 😛

🤣

So, these cars don’t really do much for me - I’m not a big racing fan - but for those who do enjoy them, what do you think of the sheer quantity of stickers? It’s the only way we’ll get representation of the ad placement on the real cars, but is that a desirable thing to have? Personally, I would prefer a cleaner look, but again, I’m not really the target audience here.

Very true, but you wouldn’t get the realistic level of ad placement in these cars without stickers. Or a truly outrageous price point 😛

I’m confused - to which parts in the new set are you referring? Looking at the parts list from the instructions booklet, the only “set specific parts” I’m seeing are those with printing. And I thought we all agreed that more printing is better than more stickers.

https://www.lego.com/en-us/service/building-instructions/77242

Nook Glowlight 3, which I’ve had since release in 2017

I had such high hopes for Barnes and Noble’s e-readers - they were super well positioned to dominate the market, but instead decided to make half-assed tablets. It was soul crushing

I just finished Rick Riordan’s Daughter of the Deep - it was really enjoyable. While I doubt the twist is super hard to predict if you try, it really caught me off guard.

I’m about to start the second book in Cinda Williams Chima’s Runestone Saga, Bane of Asgard. I really loved the first one, and am quite excited to dig into the next.

Daughter of the Deep by Rick Riordan. I’ve read most of Riordan’s other books (really need to catch up on the last few Percy Jackson related books), and I’m always head over heels for the way he takes existing myth and recasts it into a fun story that still plumbs the depths of the source material. This one is essentially “unknown to the wider world, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was based on actual events; what is the fall out of that today?” I’ve never read 20,000 Leagues, but I might have to do so after I finish this.

Yeah, me too. To make things worse, I had it spilled for me by accident. I went 5 years without spoilers, but as I was starting the book I decided to look at what was happening with next books, and someone in the comments of the thread I found was grumbling and just dropped that fact. I was quite distraught.

I just finished Battle Ground by Jim Butcher - the latest of the Dresden Files. It was my first read of it, and wow was it a doozy. I really enjoyed it, but it’s probably going to take me a few days to really digest it all.

I’m thinking my next book will be Children of Ragnarok, by Cinda Williams Chima. It’s the first in a new series from an author I’ve been reading for quite a while. I really enjoyed her previous YA fantasy series - the Heir Chronicles, the Seven Realms and the Shattered Realms - and I’m pretty excited to get into yet another one.