The Pope’s Excorcist which I thought was brilliantly daft but my partner just found a chore to sit through. Of anyone who made or watches the film, Russell Crowe definitely had the most fun.

Oh boy yes

I read the Silmarillion for the first time last year and it made me fall in love with Tolkien again after a few decades of neglecting his books. Written very differently from LOTR but I still highly recommend if you want more Tolkien and to appreciate the detail in his work.

That’s fair, I remember really struggling with the sailing sections, they didn’t hook me like the heist stuff. But then I think the other two books are just paced much better overall. I’m definitely in the minority with my RoT love though.

Making it so far into that series over one break is seriously impressive to my turtle reading skills

Coldfire is one of those series I’ve seen people recommend for years but hasn’t really ever crossed my radar properly. I do love Locke, though. How do you rank the series so far? I find I’m in the minority in that RoT is my fav book while RSURS my least.

It’s a heavy series, definitely. 2 and 3 are especially grim books tbf. In fact I hated 2 myself back when I read it the first time as a teen. It’s only when I went back in my 30s and tried again it became one of my favourite reads ever.

Not familiar with that one but I read the first few Bartimaeus books when I was younger and thought they were great.

Impressive you soldered on after hating 2 & 3 (2 is my overall fav and I loved 3). It’s an epic finale, hope you enjoy it! I said I was done with the series too, but The God Is Not Willing drew me back in and now I’m sizing up the ICE novels.