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December. 79. Short Story Writing. Raymond Charles Barrett. Research. Meh, nothing I didn't know already. 80. Think of a Number. John Verdon. Not bad. I'm kind of disappointing that I found the killer before the big reveal, but i guess that was the point. 81. The Ghost Brigades. John Scalzi. A good read. The characters were really good, the story had some issues but it was ok. 82. Storm Front. Jim Butcher. Average. Fun book, kind of predictable. 83. The Case for God. Karen Armstrong. It's full of the history of religion and the change in the concept of god. She tries to find a middle way between the western definition of religion and atheism... but I don't think it works. 84. Double Star. Robert A. Heinlein. This was funner than I was expecting. 85. The Sailor on the Seas of Fate. Michael Moorcock. Not bad, I was expecting something else but it was ok. 86. InterWorld. Neil Gaiman. Pretty short but nice. 86/75, not bad at all.
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List for 2014! 1: The Pretender: Rebirth by Steve Long Mitchell/Craig W Van Sickle 2: The Unwelcome Warlock by Lawrence Watt-Evans 3: Known Devil - Justin Gustainis 4: One Foot in the Grave - Wm. Mark Simmons 5: Earth, Air, Fire, Custard - Tom Holt 6: In Your Dreams - Tom Holt 7: The Portable Door - Tom Holt 8: Once in a Blue Moon - Simon Green 9: Ex-Purgatory - Peter Clines 10: The Unhandsome Prince - John Moore 11: A Fate Worse Than Dragons - John Moore 12: Bad Prince Charlie - John Moore 13: Disenchanted - Robert Kroese 14: Monstrous Regiment - Terry Pratchett 15: Faded Steel Heat - Glen Cook 16: Who's Afraid of Beowulf? - Tom Holt 17: The Cleansing - Sam Kates 18: The Sheriff of Yrnameer - Micheal Rubens 19: The Eye of God - James Rollins 20: He Drank, and Saw the Spider - Alex Bledsoe 21: Wake of the Bloody Angel - Alex Bledsoe 22: Dark Jenny - Alex Bledsoe 23: Burn Me Deadly - Alex Bledsoe 24: Exoskeleton - Shane Stadler 25: The Sword Edged Blonde - Alex Bledsoe 26: Rook: Let's Avoid the Apocalypse, People. - Carolyn McCray 27: Fixer - Gene Doucette 28: Raising Steam - Terry Pratchett 29: Snuff - Terry Pratchett 30: Making Money - Terry Pratchett 31: The Tamarack Murders - Patrick McManus 32: The Huckleberry Murders - Patrick McManus 33: The Double Jack Murders - Patrick McManus 34: Avalanche - Patrick McManus 35: The Blight Way - Patrick McManus 36: Monstrous Regiment - Terry Pratchett 37: Unseen Academicals - terry Pratchett 38: Thud! - Terry Pratchett 39: Going Postal - Terry Pratchett 40: Dead Things - Stephen Blackmoore 41: Deep Storm - Lincoln Child 42: The Dirty Streets of Heaven - Tad Williams 43: The Rook - David O'Malley 44: Blood and Iron - Jon Sprunk 45: Origin - J.A. Konrath 46: The Memory of Death - Trent Jamieson 47: Vampire Council : Hunted - Patrick Kampman 48: Chance in Hell - Patrick Kampman 49: Texas Hold 'Em - Patrick Kampman 50: Witch's Kurse - Glenn Bullion 51: Monster Hunter Legion - Larry Correia 52: Monster Hunter Nemesis - Larry Correia 53: Broken Blade - Kelly McCullough 54: The Entropy Conflict - David Conyers 55: The Eye of Infinity - David Conyers 56: The Palace Job - Patrick Weekes 57: Skin Game - Jim Butcher 58: The Forever Man - Pierre Ouellette 59: Rivals - David Wellington 60: Cold Days - Jim Butcher 61: Men At Arms - Terry Pratchett 62: Reaper Man - Terry Pratchett 63: Eric - Terry Pratchett 64: Guards! Guards! - Terry Pratchett 65: Sourcery - Terry Pratchett 66: The Light Fantastic - Terry Pratchett 67: The Colour of Magic - Terry Pratchett 68: Ansible 15715 - Stant Litore 69: Pyramids - Terry Pratchett 70: Mort - Terry Pratchett 71: Hostile Territory - Tom Andry 72: Equal Rites - Terry Pratchett 73: Desperate Times - Tom Andry 74: No Hero - Tom Andry 75: Sinner - Greg Stolze 76: Talus and the Frozen King - Graham Edwards 77: The Amulet - William Meikle 78: The Chapel Perilous - Kevin Hearne 79: All Bad Things - Stephen Blackmoore 80: Code Zero - Jonathan Maberry 81: The Dame, The Doctor, and The Device - Chris Holm, etc. 82: Darker Things - Rob Cornell 83: Hot Lead, Cold Iron - Ari Marmell 84: Good Omens - Terry Pratchett/Neil Gaiman 85: The Spirit War - Rachel Aaron 86: Ghost Story - Jim Butcher 87: Changes - Jim Butcher 88: Turn Coat - Jim Butcher 89: Small Favor - Jim Butcher 90: White Knight - Jim Butcher 91: Shattered - Kevin Hearne 92: Proven Guilty - Jim Butcher 93: Dead Beat - Jim Butcher 94: Blood Rites - Jim Butcher 95: Death Masks - Jim Butcher 96: Seal Team 13 - Evan Currie 97: The Nightmare Dimension - David Conyers 98: Summer Knight - Jim butcher 99: Deeper - Jeff Long 100: Goddamn Freaky Monsters - Rick Gualtieri 101: Sunset Strip - Rick Gualtieri 102: Property of a Lady Faire - Simon Greene 103: Public Enemy Zero - Andrew Mayne 104: The Gift - Dave Donovan 105: Basketful of Crap - Steven Campbell 106: Critical Failures - Robert Bevan 107: Critical Failures 2 - Robert Bevan 108: d6 - Robert Bevan 109: 2d6 - Robert Bevan 110: Unrelenting Terror - P.S. Power 111: Nightfall - Stephen Leather 112: Midnight - Stephen Leather 113: Nightmare - Stephen Leather 114: Riddle in Stone - Robert Evert 115: The Omega Project - Steve Alten 116: Redemption Song - Craig Schafer 117: The Long Way Down - Craig Schafer 118: Kumquat - Jeff Strand 119: A Snake in the Grass - K.A. Stewart 120: Spirit's End - Rachel Aaron 121: I Am Legend - Richard Matheson 122: Gorgon - Greig Beck 123: Mercury Revolts - Robert Kroese 124: Clovenhoof - Heide Goody/Iain Grant 125: The Forever Man - Pierre Ouellette 126: Robot vs Slime Monsters - A. Lee Martinez 126.5: Twittering from the Circus of the Dead - Joe Hill 127: The Universe Builders: Bernie and the Putty 128: The Reckoning - Jeff Long 129: Super - Ernie Lindsey 130: Broken Souls - Stephen Blackmoore 131: Hard Luck Hank: Screw The Galaxy - Steven Campbell 132: Hard Luck Hank: The Early Years - Steven Campbell 133: Hard Luck Hank: Delovoa - Steven Campbell 134: The (sort of) Dark Mage - Nelson Chereta 135: After The Rabbit - Nelson Chereta 136: New Avengers: Breakout Prose Novel - Alisa Kwitney 137: The Dark Lord's Handbook - Paul Dale 138: Questing Sucks! - Levin Weinberg 139: Game Night - Jonny Nexus 140: NPCs - Drew Hayes 141: The Sorcerer's Widow - Lawrence Watt-Evans 142: Critical Failures 3 - Robert Revan 143: The Blinding Knife - Brent Weeks 144: Gun Monkeys - Victor Gischler 145: The Automatic Detective - A Lee. Martinez 146: The Infinity Agenda - David Conyers 147: The Elder Codex - David Conyers 148: Chasing the Moon - A Lee Martinez 149: Too Many Curses - A Lee Martinez 150: Immortal and the Madman - Gene Doucette 151: Immortal At Sea - Gene Doucette 152: Hard Boiled Immortal - Gene Doucette 153: In the Company of Ogres - A Lee Martinez 154: The Living End - Craig Schaefer 155: The Misenchanted Sword - Lawrence Watt-Evans 156: Spider Man 3 - Peter David 157: No Hero - Jonathan Wood 158: The Grendel Affair - Lisa Shearin 159: Bloodlight : The Apocalypse of Robert Goldner - Harambee K. Grey-sun 160: We Are All Completely Fine - Darryl Gregory 161: Circles in the snow - Patrick F. Mcmanus 162: Hellenic Immortal - Gene Doucette 163: Interesting Times - Matthew Storm 164: The Goblin Emperor - Katherine Addison 165: Voices From Beyond - Simon Green 167: Origins of a D-List Supervillain - Jim Bernheimer 168: Confessions of a D-list Supervillain - Jim Bernheimer 169: Hidden - Benedict Jacka 170: Chosen - Benedict Jacka 171: The Getaway God - Richard Kadrey 172: Kill City Blues - Richard Kadrey 173: The Skin Game - William Miekle 174: Even - Andrew Grant 174.5: Naga Please - Robert Bevan 175: Jhereg - Steven Brust 176: Wolf Hunt - Jeff Strand 177: Wolf Hunt 2 - Jeff Strand (EARC) 178: Half a Prayer - Rick Gualtieri (EARC) 179: Goddamn Freaky Monsters - Rick Gualtieri 180: The Brothers Cabal - Jonathan Howard 181: The Sirens - William Meikle 182: Impact - Adam Baker 183: The Unwelcome Warlock - Lawrence Watt-Evans 184: Holes in the ground - J.A. Konrath 185: Gil's All Fright Diner - A. Lee Martinez 186: The VonDish Ambassador - Lawrence Watt-Evans 187: With a Single Spell - Lawrence Watt-Evans 188: Space Captain Smith - Toby Frost 189: Yuletide Immortal - Gene Doucette 190: Immortal at the Edge of the World - Gene Doucette 191: The Blasted Lands - James A. Moore 192: Seven Forges - James A. Moore 193: Reign of Evil - Weston Osche 194: Winter's Reach - Craig Schaefer 194.5: The Kabul Incident - Mat Nastos 195: Severance Package - Duane Swierczynski 196: The 6th Extinction - James Rollins 197: Yesterday's Hero - Jonathan Wood 198: The Curse Merchant - J.P. Sloan 199: All You Need Is Kill - Hirosi Sakurazaka 200: The Prophecy Con - Patrick Weekes 201: Extinction Game - Gary Gibson 202: Die and Stay Dead - Nicholas Kaufmann 203: Dying is My Business - Nicholas Kaufmann 204: Dead Clown BBQ - Jeff Strand 205: Daring - Elliot James 206: Charming - Elliot James 207 : Charmed I'm Sure - Elliot James 207.5: Surreal Estate - Elliot James 208: Dog-gone - Elliot James 208.5: Don't Go Chasing Waterfalls - Elliot James 209: Charmed I'm Sure - Elliot James 209.5 : Pushing Luck - Elliot James 210: Mythbreaker - Stephen Blackmoore 211: The Girl With All The Gifts - M.R. Carey 212: Unclean Spirits - Chuck Wendig 213: Strange Fates - Marlene Perez 214: The Blob - David Bischoff 215: Legion : Skin Deep - Brandon Sanderson 216: Prince of Suck - Steven Campbell 217: Gryphon Precinct - Keith R.A. Candido 218: End of Empires - Toby Frost 219: A Game of Battleships - Toby Frost 220: Goblin Precinct - Keith R. A. Candido 221: Unicorn Precinct - Keith R. A. Candido 222: Dragon Precinct - Keith R. A. Candido 223: Facial - Jeff Strand 224: Wrath of the Lemming Men - Toby Frost 225: Interstellar - Greg Keyes 226: God Emperor of Didcot - Toby Frost 227: Known Devil - Justin Gustainis All of the Elliot James books are either novels or short stories/novellas from the Charming series. It's an odd duck. Part of me likes it, but part of me kinda dislikes it since it didn't go quite in the route I had hoped for. The first book is ok, but suffers from "protagonist info dump" syndrome where instead of showing, there is a shitload of telling. Still, it's a decent read and I liked it enough to grab the rest of the series so far. I'll probably keep up with it, mainly because the monsters in it are not your usual fare. Only one that kinda sucked was Surreal Estate. Mythbreaker is book 2 of the Gods & Monsters series, and as my friend put it, it's probably the best book he's ever read about a gay, drug addicted alcoholic accountant. Unclean Spirits is the first book in the series. The entire idea is that all the gods and monsters of legend are real, and "our" god, (the big G, Yahweh, etc) is a usurper who basically took over all the heaven/hell dimensions they lived on and booted em down to earth with the rest of the worshippers. It's a unique idea, and the books are pretty good even if the endings just loving STOP. Serious blue balls on both of them. Girl with all the gifts was a very unique novel but I hesitate to say it was good. It's an incredibly slow burn, but when it finally pops, it is a great ride. Strange Fates was a decent book but it just felt weird. The whole idea is there's a 4th fate who was killed, Fortuna. She had a kid who's thread of life she hid. The other fates want to find him and kill him because of various reasons, but it just seems a bit odd to me that in the book he's FACING INCREDIBLE DANGER and then literally a page or two later he's talking about how he can't die. The complete lack of threat for him kinda kills any big feelings of "Oh poo poo the main character might die!" that you have, even when you KNOW he's not gonna die because if he did it'd be an incredibly short book. The Blob was the novelization of the 80s movie. Decent but the movie is way better at being both horrifying and also kinda gross. Still, if you want to read a book that contains the voice of a blob from outer space narrating how hungry it is, you could do worse. I thought it was a sequel to the movie, but nope, novelization. Legion was ok. Not spectacular but not bad either. I liked it better than the first book but then again the first one wasn't that great either. Prince of Suck is the latest/last? Hard Luck Hank book, and is pretty good. If you liked the first 2, then this one is worth grabbing. Facial is a short novel/novella by Jeff Strand, a man who's writing I like so much he got me to enjoy a romance novel. This, however, is not a romance novel. This book is hosed up. Just, weirdly hosed up. God damned hilarious though. Great dialogue and scenes. Grab it. The Precinct series is a CSI meets Fantasy police procedural that's actually pretty good. It's not really written as a hardcore WHODUNIT? but more of a "Let's take that idea and lob it into a fantasy world and see what happens!". They are all pretty awesome. Toby Frost's Captain Smith series was pretty good. It's incredibly british, but fun. Hell, there's a loving MLP reference in there and it's written well enough to not make me drop the book and go "gently caress it", so that's probably one of the best selling points I can give it. I read the novelization for Interstellar because I found it at wal mart for cheap, and I'm guessing it was the same as the movie, since I haven't seen it yet. It didn't really make me want to see the movie though. Interesting idea but I might wait for the blu ray, cause some of the scenes I thought HOLY poo poo THAT'S GONNA LOOK AMAZING but not amazing enough for me to spend 20$ on movie tickets. 5$ for a book? Eh, ok. Known Devil was book 3 of the Occult Crimes series and it's basically a UF police procedural that's actually pretty good. Kinda weird sometimes, but good. Best of the year has to be the Daniel Faust series, Jeff Strand's books, the Critical Failures series, and David Conyers stuff for H.P. Lovecraft related horrors. Also, gotta lob William Miekle in there as well cause goddamn that Midnight Eye Files series was good.
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Dec 31, 2014 19:48
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I met my goal! Just finished Drive by James Sallis, which was cool. I read it because I like the film, and I can definitely see the film's vibe in the book, though the movie made it even more stylized (for example, Driver is way more talkative in the book than I remember him being in the movie and the neon craziness is more emphasized, though that might just be due to the visual nature of film) and combined some plot elements. I liked the writing style, Driver is a cool protagonist (in the sense that he's interesting, not like admirable) and the supporting characters all feel full even when they're sketched out pretty thinly. So! 42/42 books this year, even if I padded it with a couple of novellas at the end. Here's my list (I've written a couple sentences about most of the books sporadically throughout the year, so I'll maybe just throw in a bit of commentary for a few of my favorites in this post): January: 1. Nothing Lasts Forever by Richard Thorpe 2. Hogfather by Terry Pratchett 3. Salem's Lot by Stephen King 4. A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah 5. Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson 6. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins 7. Me and You by Niccolò Ammaniti 8. Without Blood by Alessandro Baricco 9. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins 10. Red Country by Joe Abercrombie - this book is so much drat fun. Considering how Abercrombie has a deserved reputation of writing grimdark fantasy, his sense of humor is fantastic and it never feels overly depressing even when bleak poo poo is going down. Also, knife fight on top of a speeding carriage. 11. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway 12. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins 13. Touching the Void by Joe Simpson 14. And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini 15. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky 16. Columbine by Dave Cullen - this was AMAZING journalism; an incredibly thorough look at the shooting, the accompanying media circus, and the aftermath. 17. Redshirts by John Scalzi 18. City of Thieves by David Benioff - a reread, but even better the second time. 19. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks - wonderfully empathetic look at various cases of mentally ill patients. 20. The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks - hosed up and great. 21. The God Engines by John Scalzi 22. When the Women Come Out to Dance by Elmore Leonard - my first Leonard book. Almost all of the stories were great, and I also loved all of the Leonard novels I read after this story collection (well, Raylan was just pretty good, but the rest were amazing). 23. Pronto by Elmore Leonard 24. Riding the Rap by Elmore Leonard 25. We Can Remember It for You Wholesale by Philip K. Dick 26. Novecento by Alessandro Baricco 27. Raylan by Elmore Leonard 28. The Last Legion by Valerio Massimo Manfredi 29. Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn 30. Dark Force Rising by Timothy Zahn 31. The Last Command by Timothy Zahn 32. The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon - loved the tongue-in-cheek twisty conspiracy theory. 33. Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris 34. Half a King by Joe Abercrombie 35. Storm Front by Jim Butcher 36. Red Dragon by Thomas Harris 37. Fool Moon by Jim Butcher 38. The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker 39. Half Empty by David Rakoff 40. Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon 41. Sixth of the Dusk by Brandon Sanderson - speaking as a huge fan of his epic fantasy, Sanderson writes much tighter short-form fiction than he does epic fantasy. 42. Drive by James Sallis Woo! I think I'm gonna keep the same goal for 2015. Maybe bump it up to 45? I've gotten so busy I probably can't do 52 like I did for a couple years during undergrad but I think I could do a bit more than I did this year (even if I did cram a couple of novellas in right at the end. Shut up).
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Dec 31, 2014 19:52
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My poetry reading goal was met even though I really didn't keep up a list of what I read here. Going to try to expand upon it some more next year though! Highlights were The Conference of the Birds probably followed by me rediscovering e e cummings.Hieronymous Alloy posted:So how should I chastise all those who have failed their challenge this past year? Give me their address and I will beat them up. AreYouStillThere posted:Real life got in the way and I haven't been around this thread much. I think someone else should make the thread for next year. I did finish my edited goal of 52. I lowered it after Worm took me like 3 months, but I highly recommend it if you have the time. I will be booklord next year.
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Dec 31, 2014 21:31
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Stravinsky posted:I will be booklord next year. In that case, I'm really glad I don't read comic books.
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Dec 31, 2014 23:24
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Come Read, My Lord.
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Dec 31, 2014 23:37
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Mahlertov Cocktail posted:
I actually thought he was kind of a prick, asking distraught families if they thought their loved one 'still had a soul' and deliberately provoking/upsetting clients just because, since he was sure they wouldn't remember it.
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Dec 31, 2014 23:56
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I didn't think it came across that way at all. He wasn't trying to upset patients, he was trying to find out what they could or couldn't do/remember. You kind of have to do that. As for the soul thing, I thought that was kinda dumb just because it's such a non-question, but IIRC he asked the local pastor, not a family member. I could be wrong, though. What I found best about it was that he treated patients as entire people, not just as a walking pathology.
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Jan 1, 2015 00:26
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I could probably finish The Paths of the Dead before midnight, but I'm not going to, so calling it for 2014. Final score: 92/64. Not taking the bus to work cut out a lot of reading time, but meant I could spend more time at home; having a kid meant I was a lot busier, but actually increased my reading time in some ways because I can plausibly read while holding a baby in one arm, while I can't do many other things that I might otherwise have done instead of reading. 90. Cowboy Feng's Space Bar & Grille by Steven Brust Not nearly as good as I remembered it. I like unreliable narrators but it wasn't used to nearly as great effect as it could have been. His Draegara books are much better. 91. The Phoenix Guards by Steven Brust 92. Five Hundred Years After by Steven Brust The first two books of The Khaavren Romances, a five-book prequel trilogy to his Vlad Taltos series heavily inspired by (and to some extent parodying) Dumas's d'Artagnan Romances, including an excessively verbose and circuitous literary style. The frame story -- a historian turning some of his notes on a planned N-volume treatise on events leading up to and immediately following* Adron's Disaster into a series of pop-history novels -- lets the narrator digress in ways that would be out of place in the Vlad books but works brilliantly here. I remembered liking them, what I hadn't remembered was how funny they are. * i.e. no more than 500 years before or after it, more or less
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Jan 1, 2015 02:17
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5/5 books, these books were rad Jim Butcher - Dead Beat (Dresden Files #7) Phillip Reeve - Infernal Devices Phillip Reeve - A Darkling Plain George Orwell - Animal Farm Vonnegut - Breakfast of Champions John Green - Looking for alaska Brian Mclellan - The Crimson Campaign 4/5 books, I enjoyed these a lot Joey Comeau - Overqualified Phillip Reeve - Fever Crumb Bukowski - Post Office Bukowski - Hot Water Music James Dashner - The Maze Runner Brandon Sanderson - The Alloy of Law Karl Pilkington - The Moaning Of Life Randall Munroe - What If: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions John Marsden - The other side of dawn Ian Fleming - Moonraker 3/5 books, enjoyable enough to finish Phillip Reeve - A Web of Air Ian Fleming - Live and let die John Allyn - The 47 Ronin Story John Buchan - The 39 Steps Karl Kruszelnicki - Game of Knowns John Marsden - Burning For Revenge John Marsden - The Night is for hunting 1/5 what the gently caress was that piece of poo poo Wayne Gladstone - Notes from the internet apocolypse 25 books, 1 for every two weeks in the year-ish. I'm happy with that considering university. Notable Graphic Novels I read that I would happily push on everyone! Scott Pilgrim Series Transmetropolitan Series Saga books 1, 2 and 3 Wonder Woman (new 52) (soooooo good) Sweet Tooth The Manhattan Projects Walking Dead Compendium 1 & 2 Chew Seconds by Brian Lee O'Malley The Sandman: The Dream Hunters Justice League (new 52)
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Jan 1, 2015 02:41
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AreYouStillThere posted:Real life got in the way and I haven't been around this thread much. I think someone else should make the thread for next year. I did finish my edited goal of 52. I lowered it after Worm took me like 3 months, but I highly recommend it if you have the time. I'll take care of that, if you don't mind closing this one down later on.
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Jan 1, 2015 04:14
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I smashed my goal of 100 and hit 210 this year, including a couple I finished today, though I did not keep up with this thread. That's my most ever for a year, so I'm pretty proud of myself, even if I am including audiobooks (but only unabridged; I do have some standards). Turns out moving to a new area where you have no friends or family really frees up some extra time in your schedule. I'll spare everyone the hassle of posting my entire list and just post my Goodreads page if you're really interested. I think next year I'll aim for an even hundred. I doubt I'll get anywhere near this year's amount.
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Jan 1, 2015 05:30
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Stravinsky posted:I will be booklord next year. screenwritersblues posted:I'll take care of that, if you don't mind closing this one down later on. Hmmmmmmm if you come at the king you best not miss
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Jan 1, 2015 05:53
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Stravinsky posted:Hmmmmmmm if you come at the king you best not miss Naw. Go ahead and make the thread. I didn't realize you offered to make it first.
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Jan 1, 2015 16:58
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Groke posted:Almost two weeks left of the year and I just started on #50, which is to be Haiene ("The Sharks") by Jens Bjørneboe. It's only a couple of hundred pages and a more traditional narrative than #46-48 above so should easily be done in time. I've read it before but that was when I was in high school ~25 years ago; on the surface it's a story of a perilous sea voyage around the last turn of the century, but it goes a lot deeper (haha) and the whole thing is basically a metaphor for humanity's uncertain fate. Finished that a few days ago despite the whole family being sick over the holidays, so I hit my goal of 50 exactly. This book owned in high school and it owns now. Pretty much one of the great classics of 20th century Norwegian literature.
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Jan 1, 2015 18:16
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I only made it through 9/26, but I am still reasonably happy because that's 9 more than I read last year that weren't for school. I also got bogged down in some 1500+ page books. This year is the year!
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Jan 1, 2015 19:54
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Just barely completed my reading goal this year (30 books, can't be related to work or school). 28. Livia, Empress of Rome by Matthew Dennison Biography of the first empress of Rome. The sections that go into to detail about how Livia's image was built up to reflect on the virtues of "old" Rome and, specifically, as a contrast to Cleopatra and other women who'd made a negative impact on Roman history were the most interesting to me since many of Livia's contemporaries didn't leave a record of her. Plus it's an interesting contrast to all of the Roman historical writers who basically call her a murderous shrew. 29. K2: Life and Death on the World's Most Dangerous Mountain by Ed Viesturs All this really does is cement that I never, ever want to climb 8000 meter plus mountains. It's really interesting reading about the mountaineering disasters on K2 written by someone who's actually climbed it and other Himalayan mountains because it lacks some of the condemnation that other accounts have but it definitely has a bit of "why would you do that"? mixed with disappointment that mountaineering has become splintered and individual rather than team efforts. Still it's morbidly fascinating to read all about people dying on giant mountains due to their own hubris. 30. The Gossamer Years by Michitsuna's Mother and translated by Edward Seidensticker Depressed ancient Japanese noble woman writing a diary to basically call her husband an rear end in a top hat and be super depressed.
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Jan 2, 2015 02:28
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I finished my challenge, but I can't be bothered to go through and write up the ending list. Here is the list of everything I read, on GR. I had a lucky year, most of what I read was good or great.
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Jan 2, 2015 04:41
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As usual, I failed my challenge ending up with 20/24. For the record, here they are: 1. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson 2. Excession by Iain M. Banks 3. Look To Windward by Iain M. Banks 4. World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks 5. Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson 6. Out of Sight by Elmore Leonard 7. A Storm of Wings by M. John Harrison 8. The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies? by Jared Diamond 9. Sundiver by David Brin 10. The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson 11. In Conquest Born by C.S. Friedman 12. Neuromancer by William Gibson 13. Count Zero by William Gibson 14. Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian 15. Post Captain by Patrick O'Brian 16. H.M.S. Surprise by Patrick O'Brian 17. Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand 18. Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury 19. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury 20. Girl on the Net: My Not-So-Shameful Sex Secrets by Girl on the Net Lot of rereads this year; looking at that list, I think Something Wicked This Way Comes was the highlight, Neal Stephenson hasn't aged well, and I have no idea what the fuss about World War Z was.
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Jan 2, 2015 16:16
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Spadoink posted:47. The Orenda - Joseph Boyden I finished my 60, though I had to count a book I wasn't originally going to include (The Call of the Wild) because I was too slow on my final book uptake. Final books of the year 55. The Call of the Wild - Jack London 56. Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing - Tomson Highway 57. Bonfire of the Vanities - Tom Wolfe 58. The Dharma Bums - Jack Kerouac 59. The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat - Oliver Sacks 60. Yes Please - Amy Poehler Dry Lips was probably the best of the bunch, poignant and captivating in a deeper way than the Rez Sisters. The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat is a fascinating collection of clinical tales about various brain issues and how they present, very quick reading. Yes Please was no Bossypants, in the land of SNL-lady memoirs, and I took issue with Amy's insistence that we all have something inside us that tells us we are too old looking, too fat, too skinny, too tall, etc. Guh. On to 2015.
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Jan 2, 2015 17:19
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I don't know if I completed my list. I kept reading sporadically, but to be honest, I got busy and forgot to keep track of what I read. Ah well. Got caught up on some classics that most people read during high school, so there's that.
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Jan 2, 2015 19:09
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So I poo poo the bed at the end here, falling short of all of my goals. After averaging slightly more than 6 books a month through October I only read 3 total across November and December. My last book was A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James which is a rad book and a good note to go out on. I'm not going to post a full list of everything, just some stats and highlights below: Final Overall: 65/70 Nonfiction: 16/20 Lifetime Reading List: 5/10 New Female Authors: 9/12 Non-Europe/USA/Japan authors: 4/5 Gravity's Rainbow: Nope Favorite Books of the Year The Planets by Dava Sobel - I love how this book blends multiple forms of nonfiction (the physical characteristics of each planet, the history of their discovery, the mythology surrounding their names) with whimsy and even the author's own feelings and personal story Life and Death are Wearing Me Out by Mo Yan - Mo Yan's stuff is knee slapping hilarious while being tragic at the same time, sometimes even in the same sentence The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights by John Steinbeck - I was never super into King Arthur stuff outside of Once and Future King but Steinbeck's retelling of the legend really managed to capture the magic of the stories. I really wish more was written and it didn't end right at the point of Lancelot's fall The Nonexistent Knight by Italo Calvino - I read this shortly after Steinbeck which was great timing because it parodies all of the chivalry of those types of stories and is genuinely funny The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov - I read this and got a little extra help from a friend's Russian gf which was cool because I didn't quite understand stuff like people willing to kill over an apartment or the foreign currency bit. Highly recommend this method The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy - A fantastic book, likely my favorite of the year. The book is written in such a way that the climax radiates outward from the center of the narrative, going into the future to show how strongly it impacted the entire world of these characters while setting the context for it in their past. One Summer: America, 1927 by Bill Bryson - I realized I should probably include this as a favorite since I couldn't shut up about it at the time, telling all of my friends and family the little factoids and junk. A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James - A great final book of the year; a fictionalized version of actual (super crazy) events, which even speculates on the reasoning behind and the implication of said events. I am pretty fresh off this book so I don't think I could even do it justice to talk about it, but it made me want to do a lot of research into Jamaican politics and sociology in the 70s which is certainly something I wasn't interested in before.
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Jan 5, 2015 19:41
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19. Diana Wynne Jones - Archer's Goon - I don't really read YA much these days, too old for it, but this was a beloved book from my childhood that was out of print for years, and when it came back into print I bought and re-read it to celebrate. RIP Diana Wynne Jones, the greatest YA author. 20. Harper Lee - To Kill A Mockingbird - This ruled, I'm sorry I put it off so long. 21. Nick Harkaway - Tigerman - probably time to accept that his first book was a fluke and stop buying his new ones. More words on my Goodreads here. Final tally for 2014: 21/30. Bummed I didn't finish it this year; Lie Down In Darkness took me four months to push through and it really took a toll. I set the same goal for next year in that thread, plus took Stravinsky's challenge, and my goal overall is to read more (as in quantity) serious works.
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Jan 5, 2015 20:04
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I met my goal, I haven't had time to do a final report though. I will edit this later today, hopefully, and see what total I came up with! Okay, here we are: 100. Silkworm by Robert Galbraith J.K. Rowling's second mystery novel, and one that shows that her tricks at sleight-of-hand are increasing. 101/102. The Ship from Atlantic/The Stolen Sun: Ace Double, about what you would expect. 103. Spring Snow by Yukio Mishima: one of Japan's most important 20th century novelist writes a period piece showing intrigue amongst the ruling classes at the turn of the century. 104. Colorless Tsukuru Takahi and His Years of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami: If you like Murakami, you will like this, if you don't, you won't. This book has similar elements to most of his books, and I enjoyed it, but it might not be for everyone. 105. China's Second Continent by Howard French: a look at Chinese involvement with Africa, formal and informal. Full of interesting information, but I do feel the author might have had some biases against the Chinese. 106. One Soldier's Story by Bob Dole: Bob Dole's recounting of his World War II service, injury, and recovery. Inspiring and interesting. 107. The March of Folly by Barbara Tuchman: a history of leaders who made bad decisions. Told with a lot of detail, but not much analysis. 108. A Quest for Symbillis by John Shea: a Jack Vance dying earth novel, only not written by Jack Vance. The author manages to get the style down. 109. Edwin Hubble by Dale Christianson: Although Hubble was a great astronomer, his personal life wasn't really juicy enough to keep this biography moving. 110. The Last Cop Out by Mickey Spillane: even as pulp, this wasn't really that interesting 111. How to Mellify a Corpse by Vicki Leon: chatty and funny look at ancient civilizations, provided me with some information I didn't know, and was a nice refresher course. 112. Lone Wolf & Cub 2100 Volume 3: Pattern Storm: Retelling of "Lone Wolf & Cub" as cyberpunk. Works about as well as I expected it to. 113. Phaedre by Jean Racine: I put off reading this one for a long time, because it seemed *so* French, and classics can often be hard to follow. However, I found it very interesting. 114. Destroy All Monsters Volume 3: Indie comic TPB, couldn't really make too much sense of the story besides there was aliens and stuff. 115. Please Don't Kill the Freshman by Zoe Trope: Basically a collection of Livejournal entries by a teenager who is *gasp* bisexual that was edgy as gently caress when it came out in 2004. Today, it sounds like a teenager proclaiming to the world that she is gay. Over and over. And also vaguely dissatisfied that her suburban classmates don't understand Tori Amos. So I kind of left the year on a low note. WElllll...I exceeded my goal, and read a good mixture of stuff, but I have to admit I didn't really get into reading this year. There was no book that was really exciting and changed my life. Maybe next year! glowing-fish fucked around with this message at 06:07 on Jan 10, 2015 |
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Jan 5, 2015 20:21
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Completed my goal of 52! Dialing it down to 35 for the next year because I will have less time. Total books read: 55 Non-fiction/Fiction: 17/38 Literature/Genre: 16/22 Best book, non-fiction: The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright Best book, fiction: The War of the End of the World by Mario Vargas Llosa Honorable mention, non-fiction: The Shah of Shahs by Ryszard Kapuscinski Honorable mentions, fiction: Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco, Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa, Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov, Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami Worst book, non-fiction: ZeroZeroZero by Roberto Saviano Worst book, fiction: Neptune's Brood by Charles Stross
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Jan 5, 2015 21:23
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guppy posted:19. Diana Wynne Jones - Archer's Goon - I don't really read YA much these days, too old for it, but this was a beloved book from my childhood that was out of print for years, and when it came back into print I bought and re-read it to celebrate. RIP Diana Wynne Jones, the greatest YA author. I've never read this, but I remember really enjoying the TV adaptation. No idea if it's actually good or I was just too young to realise it was bad though.
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Jan 6, 2015 03:11
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