Still reading The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell. It's still fine, I just haven't been reading more than 5-10 minutes a night.

Have you read Leech by Ennes? It's a bit different from Vermin but I really liked it. (Do check content warnings, though.)

Still very slowly working on The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell. I'm putting it in the "fine" category for now, but I'm only 25% of the way in.

I'm a little way into The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell. Not sure how I feel about it yet.

Finished Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris (dark academia mystery thriller): someone seeks revenge on a British boys' school; chapters alternate between the antagonist and the school's retirement-aged Latin teacher. I liked it enough to put the sequel on my TBR, but I stand by my previous comment that it could stand to be juuuuust a bit shorter.

The two that come to mind for me (outside of Conan the Barbarian, ofc), are The Beastmaster (1982) and Red Sonja (1985). Haven't seen them in forever, so I don't know how well they hold up.

I'm 80% of the way through Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris. I found a lot of time to read over the weekend, but now that I'm at the climax and dying to find out if my guess for the bad guy is right, I'm back to a little bit every night. My thoughts so far: it's evenly paced, but I do kinda think the first 60-70% could've been shortened a little.

Just started Gentlemen and Players by Joanne Harris, a mystery/thriller set at a British boy's school. It's got (presumably) antagonist chapters at the beginning, so I'm curious to see how far into the book those go.

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Finished The Pastel City by M. John Harrison (Dying Earth-style sci-fantasy): A retired warrior reunites with old compatriots to help thwart a usurper's army.

First bingo book done! This definitely has that vintage sword and sorcery vibe, and feels like much more of an epic adventure than you'd expect from its short page count. I liked it, but I might pick up something else from the author rather than read the sequels.

(I don't even speak English every day anymore, so I could be wrong).

You're not wrong. I think some of it is the difference between casual speech and formal writing (people are more likely to say "after being" but write "after having been", especially in published work)**, but some of it is also just poorly phrased. It makes enough sense to a native speaker to get what the problem is asking, though.

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** I think the first may be correct in some cases, but idk the rule.

Still reading The Pastel City by M. John Harrison. The writing style doesn't quite jive with me, but it's packing a lot of story in a short page count, manages to be evocative, and is well-paced. Liking it so far.

Probably paint pens like Poscas.