I listen to ambient or music when reading. There are several albums by Steve Buick, Music for Reading Horror/Science Fiction etc. that I find really work for me.

The main character dies near the beginning of the sequel, but it kinda sets it up. Gets a bit samey and repetitive after that, except the ending, which is insane.

I believe there is life in the universe other than our solar system. It’s just too big to think that’s not possible.

I just don’t believe aliens have visited our planet because I’m not deluded.

Audiobooks don’t keep my interest. I need to read a book to be able to visualise people and scenes. That’s just a me problem.

eBooks on the other hand are no different than reading hard-copy books, and sometimes even better (portability, low-light conditions, being able to adjust font size).

I have hundreds of paper books that I haven’t read, I’m working my way through them (in shifts, I also read ebooks), but I won’t buy an ebook if I already have a physical copy. Read what you have, save yourself some money. Don’t buy a reader until you need one, if you can’t afford it.

I did prefer Century Rain, but it was a while back and I need to read it again. Of all his novels, it’s certainly the outlier.

I’m a bit hesitant to go there. Years ago the facebook fan page was toxic, and I couldn’t help coming to the conclusion that way too many King fans are just dicks. You couldn’t say anything without an an obnoxious opinion being thrown at you. Maybe that’s just facebook though.

When I was young and couldn’t afford many books, I used the library a lot. It did mean I had to read the books inside the 14 day lending period, and with new books there was usually a waiting list which meant you could not extend the lending period if you hadn’t finished it. These days I buy books - and it means if I’m not in the mood to read it just yet, then it’s waiting on the shelf for when I am.

Well, perhaps the writing style is not for you, and you would not be entirely alone. But I can tell you for sure that the consensus is decidely against you here.

Well, what are your top five?

Advanced civilizations elsewhere wouldn’t even know we exist unless they’re less than 100 light years away. On galactic scales, that’s really close, yet so far away. It’ll take an age for us to be contacted.

Elsewhere in the universe, even just the next galaxy, won’t know we existed until long after we’re gone - unless we can can get off this rock, which seems unlikely.

That’s right. Not only is the light that arrives here from a star 1 million light years away 1 million years old, you should also realise that the star that light originated from is not even in the same place it appears from our perspective. It could be further away, or in a completely different part of the night sky, or both, or may no longer even exist.

Put simply, the sun is eight light minutes away. If it exploded, we wouldn’t know about it for eight minutes.

We might be the babies of the universe. Advanced civilizations could have arisen and fizzled out millions or even billions of years before we existed. There’s no current consensus on how long it takes intelligent life to evolve and advance technologically. We only have a sample of one.