Reading challenge 2014: I've read 99 books but GRRM ain't one

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > Reading challenge 2014: I've read 99 books but GRRM ain't one

Sulphagnist: Oct 10, 2006; WARNING! INTRUDERS DETECTED

I'm going to go for 52 again, but with some extra criteria to broaden my reading:

- Ten books must be written in Finnish
- Ten books must be something other than SF, fantasy or non-fiction
- Four books must be by authors outside of Europe or North America

# ¿ Jan 2, 2014 11:31

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# ¿ May 15, 2024 03:10

Sulphagnist: Oct 10, 2006; WARNING! INTRUDERS DETECTED

I've forgotten to post this year so far so this is all of January, February and March together.

code:

1. Warbreaker					Sanderson, Brandon
2. Generation Kill				Wright, Evan
3. Fictions					Borges, Jorge Luis
4. Burning Chrome				Gibson, William
5. 1776						McCullough, David
6. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay	Chabon, Michael
7. Elinkautinen 				Sipil�, Jarkko
8. Snow Crash					Stephenson, Neal
9. Koljatti					Tervo, Jari
10. The Quantum Thief				Rajaniemi, Hannu

Expanding into Finnish authors this year!

Elinkautinen is a three novel omnibus edition of detective novels that I decided to lump in together because it was a speedy read and as precedent I counted the two parts of The Way of Kings as two books since they were literally two books.

Tervo is a popular Finnish author of satire and historical novels and I'm focusing on his historical trilogy next.

Sulphagnist fucked around with this message at 22:26 on Mar 30, 2014

# ¿ Mar 30, 2014 22:23

Sulphagnist: Oct 10, 2006; WARNING! INTRUDERS DETECTED

Updating for April and May (goal is still 52):

code:

1. Warbreaker					Sanderson, Brandon
2. Generation Kill				Wright, Evan
3. Fictions					Borges, Jorge Luis
4. Burning Chrome				Gibson, William
5. 1776						McCullough, David
6. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay	Chabon, Michael
7. Elinkautinen 				Sipil�, Jarkko
8. Snow Crash					Stephenson, Neal
9. Koljatti					Tervo, Jari
10. The Quantum Thief				Rajaniemi, Hannu
11. Ghost Wars					Coll, Steve
12. Myyr�					Tervo, Jari
13. One Hundred Years of Solitude		Marquez, Gabriel Garcia
14. Ohrana					Tervo, Jari
15. Farnham's Freehold				Heinlein, Robert A.
16. Imperium					Harris, Robert
17. The Curse of Chalion			Bujold, Lois McMaster
18. The Dervish House				McDonald, Ian
19. Troikka					Tervo, Jari

I didn't quite make it to 20 for May, I'm in the middle of Peter V. Brett's The Painted Man (aka The Warded Man) but I'm only 25% of the way in and I won't have time to finish it before Sunday!

Other books I'm working on (I have a tendency to have 2-3 in progress simultaneously, especially with longer non-fiction books):

- A history of the Finnish Security Intelligence Service (Suojelupoliisi)
- Rick Perlstein's Nixonland

And in the pipeline:

- Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett
- Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson, a murder weapon disguised as a book

I'm a little behind pace but I've got almost two months of vacation coming up.

# ¿ May 30, 2014 15:09

Sulphagnist: Oct 10, 2006; WARNING! INTRUDERS DETECTED

I have trouble concentrating on audiobooks instead of a book in front of me, it would absolutely be more of a challenge for me to listen to audiobooks instead of reading!

# ¿ Jun 1, 2014 16:08

Sulphagnist: Oct 10, 2006; WARNING! INTRUDERS DETECTED

CestMoi posted:

Been in Italy for a week, but got a lot of reading in by the pool so I'm actually now a little ahead of schedule with;

2) The Man WHo was Thursday, A Nightmare by G. K. Chesterton - Really good, lots about it to think about like why they were all wearing those weird clothese at the end? Seemed kind of mystical/religious probably.

3) The Man who Was Thursday, A Nightmare by G. K. Chesterton - Not bad, seems a little implausible that the 6 people who would be most recruitable and simultaneously the most firebrandy would be so easy to find and trick into going undercover. There's only so far I can suspend my disbelief and the worst parts of this book bsaically broke it. When it was good, it was very good though, you can see why it's so highly regarded.

Am I missing something? You read the same book three times over?

# ¿ Jun 12, 2014 10:30

Sulphagnist: Oct 10, 2006; WARNING! INTRUDERS DETECTED

Updating for June, July and August:

code:

1. Warbreaker					Sanderson, Brandon
2. Generation Kill				Wright, Evan
3. Fictions					Borges, Jorge Luis
4. Burning Chrome				Gibson, William
5. 1776						McCullough, David
6. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay	Chabon, Michael
7. Elinkautinen 				Sipil�, Jarkko
8. Snow Crash					Stephenson, Neal
9. Koljatti					Tervo, Jari
10. The Quantum Thief				Rajaniemi, Hannu
11. Ghost Wars					Coll, Steve
12. Myyr�					Tervo, Jari
13. One Hundred Years of Solitude		Marquez, Gabriel Garcia
14. Ohrana					Tervo, Jari
15. Farnham's Freehold				Heinlein, Robert A.
16. Imperium					Harris, Robert
17. The Curse of Chalion			Bujold, Lois McMaster
18. The Dervish House				McDonald, Ian
19. Troikka					Tervo, Jari
20. 6/12					Remes, Ilkka
21. The Painted Man				Brett, Peter V.
22. Pop Culture as Political Theory		Dale, T., Foy, J.
23. Lustrum					Harris, Robert
24. Monstrous Regiment				Pratchett, Terry
25. Operaatio: Harmageddon			Eronen, Antti
26. Pahan Perim�				Remes, Ilkka
27. The Desert Spear				Brett, Peter V.
28. The Fractal Prince				Rajaniemi, Hannu

To read more books written in Finnish, I dusted off a few Ilkka Remes novels I'd received as gifts but never even opened.

Remes writes competent airport thrillers and is immensely popular in Finland because he's the best and only game there is in the Finnish language, non-translated market. Compared to authors like Clancy or Crichton he's pretty down to earth, but he has a particular tendency to cast Russians (either criminals or government operators) as the antagonists in his novels.

I've read his earlier works that are excellent but his quality started to taper off and nowadays he seems to be tilting more and more towards tinfoil hat nuttery. I think some of his work might have been translated into English; if you can find his very first novel, called P��kallokehr��j� in Finnish, it's actually an alternate history about a Finnish Soviet Republic in the 1980s, a very rare beast indeed.

# ¿ Jul 31, 2014 21:27

Sulphagnist: Oct 10, 2006; WARNING! INTRUDERS DETECTED

code:

1. Warbreaker					Sanderson, Brandon
2. Generation Kill				Wright, Evan
3. Fictions					Borges, Jorge Luis
4. Burning Chrome				Gibson, William
5. 1776						McCullough, David
6. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay	Chabon, Michael
7. Elinkautinen 				Sipil�, Jarkko
8. Snow Crash					Stephenson, Neal
9. Koljatti					Tervo, Jari
10. The Quantum Thief				Rajaniemi, Hannu
11. Ghost Wars					Coll, Steve
12. Myyr�					Tervo, Jari
13. One Hundred Years of Solitude		Marquez, Gabriel Garcia
14. Ohrana					Tervo, Jari
15. Farnham's Freehold				Heinlein, Robert A.
16. Imperium					Harris, Robert
17. The Curse of Chalion			Bujold, Lois McMaster
18. The Dervish House				McDonald, Ian
19. Troikka					Tervo, Jari
20. 6/12					Remes, Ilkka
21. The Painted Man				Brett, Peter V.
22. Pop Culture as Political Theory		Dale, T., Foy, J.
23. Lustrum					Harris, Robert
24. Monstrous Regiment				Pratchett, Terry
25. Operaatio: Harmageddon			Eronen, Antti
26. Pahan Perim�				Remes, Ilkka
27. The Desert Spear				Brett, Peter V.
28. The Fractal Prince				Rajaniemi, Hannu
29. Twenty-One Stories				Greene, Graham
30. Nixonland					Perlstein, Rick
31. Transition					Banks, Iain 
32. Escape from Camp 14				Harden, Blaine
33. Ebola-Helsinki				Soininvaara, Taavi
34. Pushing Ice					Reynolds, Alastair

Twenty-One Stories - I should read Greene's novels, especially the "entertainments" might be my thing.

Nixonland - The story of how Richard Nixon took full advantage of a nation divided by the civil rights struggle. Best summed up in its final paragraph: Nixonland has never really gone away. It still exists. :smith:

Transition - Published without the M even though it's science fiction, a lot of reviewers have brought up a similarity to End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov. I thought it was decent but nothing stellar (by his standards). A story about the Concern, an interdimensional organization that manipulates events in other universes.

Escape from Camp 14 - Interesting to have a look into life in North Korea's work camps, but no other merits.

Ebola-Helsinki - Crappy attempt at an airport thriller. Second book I've read by Soininvaara and the last.

Pushing Ice - It's standard Reynolds, event and idea driven hard SF, you read it and you're engaged but you're not left with much to chew on afterwards. A crew of ice miners are dispatched to investigate a mysterious object in Rama style.

# ¿ Aug 30, 2014 10:53

Sulphagnist: Oct 10, 2006; WARNING! INTRUDERS DETECTED

code:

Warbreaker				Sanderson, Brandon
Generation Kill					Wright, Evan
Fictions					Borges, Jorge Luis
Burning Chrome					Gibson, William
1776						McCullough, David
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay	Chabon, Michael
Elinkautinen (Takam�ki 1-3)			Sipil�, Jarkko
Snow Crash					Stephenson, Neal
Koljatti					Tervo, Jari
The Quantum Thief				Rajaniemi, Hannu
Ghost Wars					Coll, Steve
Myyr�						Tervo, Jari
Sadan vuoden yksin�isyys			Marquez, Gabriel Garcia
Ohrana						Tervo, Jari
Farnham's Freehold				Heinlein, Robert A.
Imperium					Harris, Robert
The Curse of Chalion				Bujold, Lois McMaster
Dervish House					McDonald, Ian
Troikka						Tervo, Jari
6 / 12						Remes, Ilkka
The Painted Man					Brett, Peter V.
Pop Culture as Political Theory			J. Foy, T. Dale (Edited by)
Lustrum						Harris, Robert
Monstrous Regiment				Pratchett, Terry
Operaatio: Harmagedon				Eronen, Antti
Pahan perim�					Remes, Ilkka
The Desert Spear				Brett, Peter V.
The Fractal Prince				Rajaniemi, Hannu
Twenty-One Stories				Greene, Graham
Nixonland					Perlstein, Rick
Transition					Banks, Iain 
Escape from Camp 14				Harden, Blaine
Ebola-Helsinki					Soininvaara, Taavi
Pushing Ice					Reynolds, Alastair
Links						Farah, Nuruddin
The Good War					Terkel, Studs
The Ministry of Special Cases			Englander, Nathan
The Skinner					Asher, Neal
Storm Front					Butcher, Jim
Grave Peril					Butcher, Jim
The Causal Angel				Rajaniemi, Hannu
Summer Knight					Butcher, Jim
Death Masks					Butcher, Jim
Master of the Senate				Caro, Robert
Grand Theft Childhood				Kutner & Olson

I probably won't bother with another update until the end of the year. I'm up to 45 now; I was bedstricken for a week and blew through four Dresden Files books and The Causal Angel in that week, which let me focus on Master of the Senate for much of the rest of the month and knock that one off the list (I've been slowly reading it for months). It was worth every hour spent, though. Grand Theft Childhood was filler and kind of dated because videogame violence doesn't seem to be the thing it was only a few years ago, despite the increase in notorious mass shootings.

My subgoal of reading at least 10 non-nerd books has been fulfilled; I'm one short on four books from authors who are not from the Anglo-Eurosphere (Borges, Marquez and Farah), two short on Finnish authors writing in Finnish (meaning Rajaniemi or translations do not count). If I miss any of these I'll add the missing books to the challenge total; it might happen because I inadvertently wound up with a big pile of good old SF I really want to get to ASAP.

Sulphagnist fucked around with this message at 17:58 on Nov 3, 2014

# ¿ Nov 3, 2014 17:56

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# ¿ May 15, 2024 03:10

Sulphagnist: Oct 10, 2006; WARNING! INTRUDERS DETECTED

Done:

code:

Warbreaker 					Sanderson, Brandon
Generation Kill					Wright, Evan
Fictions					Borges, Jorge Luis
Burning Chrome					Gibson, William
1776						McCullough, David
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay	Chabon, Michael
Elinkautinen (Takam�ki 1-3)			Sipil�, Jarkko
Snow Crash					Stephenson, Neal
Koljatti					Tervo, Jari
The Quantum Thief				Rajaniemi, Hannu
Ghost Wars					Coll, Steve
Myyr�						Tervo, Jari
Sadan vuoden yksin�isyys			Marquez, Gabriel Garcia
Ohrana						Tervo, Jari
Farnham's Freehold				Heinlein, Robert A.
Imperium					Harris, Robert
The Curse of Chalion				Bujold, Lois McMaster
Dervish House					McDonald, Ian
Troikka						Tervo, Jari
6 / 12						Remes, Ilkka
The Painted Man					Brett, Peter V.
Pop Culture as Political Theory			J. Foy, T. Dale (Edited by)
Lustrum						Harris, Robert
Monstrous Regiment				Pratchett, Terry
Operaatio: Harmagedon				Eronen, Antti
Pahan perim�					Remes, Ilkka
The Desert Spear				Brett, Peter V.
The Fractal Prince				Rajaniemi, Hannu
Twenty-One Stories				Greene, Graham
Nixonland					Perlstein, Rick
Transition					Banks, Iain 
Escape from Camp 14				Harden, Blaine
Ebola-Helsinki					Soininvaara, Taavi
Pushing Ice					Reynolds, Alastair
Links						Farah, Nuruddin
The Good War					Terkel, Studs
The Ministry of Special Cases			Englander, Nathan
The Skinner					Asher, Neal
Storm Front					Butcher, Jim
Grave Peril					Butcher, Jim
The Causal Angel				Rajaniemi, Hannu
Summer Knight					Butcher, Jim
Death Masks					Butcher, Jim
Master of the Senate				Caro, Robert
Grand Theft Childhood				Kutner & Olson
Declare						Powers, Tim
Blood Rites					Butcher, Jim
Jumalan pikkusormi				Isom�ki, Risto
The Prefect					Reynolds, Alastair
The God Engines					Scalzi, John
Sarasvatin hiekkaa				Isom�ki, Risto
Legion and The Emperor's Soul			Sanderson, Brandon
Ancillary Sword					Leckie, Ann
All You Need is Kill				Sakurazaka, Hiroshi

54/52.

4/4 by authors from outside Europe and North America, 10/10 written originally in Finnish.

I read some amazing non-fiction this year, like 1776, Master of the Senate and Nixonland. The Finnish stuff was, unfortunately, pretty terrible.

My favourite in fiction was Declare with Rajaniemi's Jean le Flambeur trilogy coming in second.

# ¿ Dec 30, 2014 00:30

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > The Book Barn > Reading challenge 2014: I've read 99 books but GRRM ain't one