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Thanks for starting this thread again! I reached my goal of 60 books in 2013 but am taking it a bit easier this year, so my goal will be a cliched 52 books. Here's my Goodreads profile, feel free to add me. January - 10/52 1. More Than This, by Patrick Ness. 4/5. 2. Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Book Store, by Robin Sloan. 3/5 3. Butcher's Crossing, by John Williams. 4.5/5 4. Anthropology of an American Girl, by Hillary Thayer Hamann. 2/5 5. Look at the Birdie, by Kurt Vonnegut. 4/5 6 - 10. Sweet Tooth vols 2-6, by Jeff Lemire. 4.5/5 February - 17/52 11. The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt. 4/5 12. Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte. 4/5 13. Rose Under Fire, by Elizabeth Wein. 3/5 14. Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline. 4/5 15. Pines, by Blake Crouch. 3/5 16. A Special Providence, by Richard Yates. 3.5/5 17. Winter's Bone, by Daniel Woodrell. 4/5 March - 22/52 18. De Donkere Kamer van Damocles, by Willem Frederik Hermans. 4/5 19. Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, by Philip K Dick. 4/5 20. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley. 4/5 21. The Little Friend, by Donna Tartt. 3.5/5 22. Shovel Ready, by Adam Sternbergh. 3/5 April - 30/52 23. A Country Doctor's Notebook, by Mikhail Bulgakov. 4/5 24. I Hate to See That Evening Sun Go Down, by William Gay. 4/5 25. Wool, by Hugh Howey. 3.5/5 26. The Man in the High Castle, by Philip K Dick. 3/5 27-29. The Walking Dead, Vols 18-20, by Robert Kirkman. 5/5 30. Blindness, by Jose Saramago. 4.5/5 May - 35/52 31. We Need to Talk About Kevin, by Lionel Shriver. 4.5/5 32. Shades of Grey, by Jasper Fforde. 3/5 33. The Complete Horowitz Horror, by Anthony Horowitz. 4/5 34. Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell. 5/5 35. How to Archer. 3/5 June - 43/52 36. A Monster Calls, by Patrick Ness. 4/5 37. Twilight Zone, anthology edited by Carol Serling. 3/5 38. Fables: Legends in Exile, by Bill Willingham. 4/5 39. The Chrysalids, by John Wyndham. 3/5 40. Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse, edited by John Joseph Adams. 4/5. 41. Young Hearts Crying, by Richard Yates. 4/5 42. Fables: Animal Farm, by Bill Willingham. 4/5 43. Suite Francaise, by Irene Nemirovsky. 4/5 July - 48/52 44. 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. 45. The Postman, by David Brin. 3/5 46. Ubik, by Philip K Dick. 4/5 47. The Underwater Welder, by Jeff Lemire. 5/5 48. Horns, by Joe Hill. 3/5 August - 55/52 49. Wild Fell, by Michael Rowe. 3/5 50. Schrodinger's Telephone, by Marion Stein. 3/5 51. The Walking Dead Vol 21, by Robert Kirkman. 4/5 52. The Anatomy of Motive, by John Douglas. 4/5 53 and 54. Y: The Last Man volumes 1 and 2, by Brian K Vaughan and Pia Guerra. 4/5 55. The Giver, by Lois Lowry. 3/5  Reached my original goal in August, and have raised it to 70 books. September - 67/70 56 - 60. Y: The Last Man volumes 3 - 7, by Brian K Vaughan and Pia Guerra. 4/5 61. Shift, by Hugh Howey. 3/5 62. Annihilation, by Jeff VanderMeer. 4/5 63 - 65. Y: The Last Man volumes 8 - 10, by Brian K Vaughan and Pia Guerra. 4/5 66. Kingdom Come, by JG Ballard. 3/5 67. Authority, by Jeff VanderMeer. 3/5 October and November - 75/70 68. The Strain, by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan. 3/5 69. Acceptance, by Jeff VanderMeer. 3/5 70. Smoke and Mirrors, by Neil Gaiman. 3/5 71. Rat Queens, vol 1, by Kurtis J Wiebe. 5/5 72. The Farm, by Tom Rob Smith. 3/5 73. Yes Please, by Amy Poehler. 4/5 74. The Walking Dead, vol 22, by Robert Kirkman. 5/5 75. The Devil in the White City, by Erik Larson. 4/5 December - 78/70 76. Feed, by MT Anderson. 4/5 77. Het Behouden Huis, by WF Hermans. 4/5 78. You're All Just Jealous of My Jetpack, by Tom Gauld. 4/5 elbow fucked around with this message at 08:13 on Dec 29, 2014 |
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Jan 2, 2014 02:40
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I think it'll be difficult with that particular book, but you could always see whether there is a different edition with fewer pages (preferably one that leaves out any notes etc) and switch to that one. You could also use goodreads to keep track of how much you've read every day, and then enter that in excel and adjust the number of pages for the last part you've read of a particular book to leave out the notes.
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Jan 23, 2014 22:10
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Mr. Squishy posted:
Maybe they don't know about the What Did You Just Finish? thread! January: 1. More Than This, by Patrick Ness. Interesting premise, great story and characters. The only thing that really bothered me is that Ness relies on fractured sentences to build up suspense, which is really unnecessary. I noticed this in the 3rd book of the Chaos Walking trilogy, and it seems he has stuck with this. Nonetheless, 4/5. 2. Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Book Store, by Robin Sloan. I love how Sloan interweaved books, codes, secret societies, and technology, but ultimately it fell a little flat. It's a great quick read, but despite all his efforts to comment on 'old knowledge' versus new technology, it seems to me that he didn't actually have anything meaningful to say. 3/5 3. Butcher's Crossing, by John Williams. This is an amazing, realistic depiction of the West in the 1870s, and a visceral read. 4.5/5 4. Anthropology of an American Girl, by Hillary Thayer Hamann. I don't think I've ever encountered such a frustrating protagonist; she dumps her somewhat abusive boyfriend for an older man whom she's never even spoken to but has instantly fallen madly in love with, spends the next few months wallowing in teenage angst, spends a few months with him, and then settles for some rear end in a top hat rich guy who knows she's not in love with him, even though she hates rich people. I don't loving get this story. And yet it really hit some kind of nerve in me. Stay away from this book. 2/5 5. Look at the Birdie, by Kurt Vonnegut. Some of his uncollected short stories. They were great as usual, though a few fell flat for me. 4/5 6 - 10. Sweet Tooth vols 2-6, by Jeff Lemire. Fantastic story, great art (loved the different styles for different characters' storylines, too), and I think I cried reading every single volume. 4.5/5
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Jan 30, 2014 23:16
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Stravinsky posted:
While I don't list single issues of comics, I have listed volumes and graphic novels because to me they feel like distinct works. I think it's a bit weird to draw this arbitrary line between what does and doesn't count, it's different for everyone. Reading Watchmen feels more significant to me than the 12th installment in some mediocre SF series, but that's personal. I also think the people who list comics knew that they would be reading these and set their reading goals accordingly. Let's not be so judgmental of what everyone else is counting, it really doesn't matter.
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Feb 8, 2014 10:46
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Stravinsky posted:Watching a collected season of Breaking Bad felt way more worthwhile and significant than watching Star Wars episode 2. So should I still put Breaking Bad on my list of movies I watched? quote:Maybe I just don't understand the spirit of the challenge then. So would it be cool and acceptable that I put down on my list of fifty books I read this year the Monday morning newspaper from this week? I honestly think you don't. It's a challenge you set for yourself, not a contest. And yes, if part of your challenge is to read the newspaper more often then you should count it. It's a reading challenge, not a 'novel reading' challenge, nor a 'read poo poo Stravinsky approves of' challenge. If it makes you feel better than everyone else to have a list of only Proper Novels then by all means go ahead and read those, but I don't give a poo poo about what other people count towards their goal, I just enjoy reading. You should try that.
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Feb 8, 2014 12:13
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I think you should only post in here if you've set a challenge for yourself. Kind of like in the 'What Are You Wearing Today' thread, where you can't critique someone's outfit unless you've posted one of your own. I also think we should all love each other 
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Feb 12, 2014 03:41
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elbow posted:January - 10/52 February - 17/52 11. The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt. I can't really say anything meaningful about this book. I really enjoyed it, though I found the chapters in Las Vegas absolutely excruciating, even more so than those in the hotel room in Amsterdam. I wish I could visit Hobie and his shop, they both sound magical. The last chapter, where he suddenly waxes lyrically for pages on end, felt disconnected from the rest of the book for me, and was really unnecessary. 4/5 12. Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte. I read this once when I was 17, and remember being swept up in the romance of it all. 11 years later and after having lived in Northern England for two years, I can only laugh at how romantic and naive I was then. It's still a great book, though. 4/5 13. Rose Under Fire, by Elizabeth Wein. This is the follow-up to Code Name Verity, so I had high hopes. Wein relied too much on the setting of the concentration camp for her emotional jabs and for the plot overall; I felt like this was a very lazily written novel. I also didn't care for the poetry at all - she's not a good poet. 3/5 14. Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline. A re-read for my book club; still love it. I can totally understand why some people hate this book, but it all works for me. 4/5 15. Pines, by Blake Crouch. Posted about this in the 'Just Finished' thread. 3/5 16. A Special Providence, by Richard Yates. This is my least favorite of Yates's novels, probably because I found it so difficult to understand the choices the two main characters made. Writing flawed characters is Yates's specialty, but I just couldn't relate to these two. On the other hand it was great to have him write about WWII; I wish he'd done more of it. 3.5/5 17. Winter's Bone, by Daniel Woodrell. This is a stark and striking look at life in the Ozarks. Woodrell is a fantastic writer, and I'm looking forward to reading more of his novels. 4/5
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Feb 27, 2014 23:16
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screenwritersblues posted:12) Goodbye to All That: Writers on Loving and Leaving New York Edited by Sarah Botton: I was very disappointed with this novel. I picked it up after all the praise that was give to it and was hoping it wasn't just female authors. However my fears where right. It was nothing but female authors. screenwritersblues posted:I guess that the editor didn't see any male authors that had the same experience that the female ones had.
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Feb 28, 2014 01:54
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screenwritersblues posted:I would normally not even bother defending myself, but come on. Don't get me wrong, it was a good collection, but it lacks diversity. It's good and all to hear what the other sex has to say about the topic, but I would have liked to hear what the male side had to say about the same experience. Most of the essays in the collection were somewhat interesting, but after a while it got kind of boring. It's almost like the editor was saying that male writers are more successful and don't have the same experience as female authors. And yet the lack of diversity in The Best Film You've Never Seen didn't stop you from saying something about that book. I totally get being disappointed with a book because it's not what you were expecting (i.e. all female writers instead of a mix), but a) that is a lovely critique of a book and doesn't actually say anything about the contents itself, and b) it is not the book's fault that you didn't look at the ToC. Also, male writers don't have the same experiences as female writers.
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Mar 2, 2014 21:57
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Lumius posted:2. A Country Doctor's Notebook by Mikhail Bulgakov : A collection of short stories of a country doctor (surprise) in rural Russia. Strong first few stories and ending two , middle stories tend to become muddled together a bit but they are still enjoyable. The Doctor deals with ignorant illiterate peasants but the frustration shows for him , but the book doesn't mock them but "humanizes" them well. I haven't yet read this (though it's on my bookshelf) so I don't know how the book compares, but there is an excellent TV adaptation of this with Jon Hamm and Daniel Radcliffe.
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Mar 8, 2014 01:26
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elbow posted:February - 17/52 March - 22/52 18. De Donkere Kamer van Damocles, by Willem Frederik Hermans. I found parts of it really puzzling while I was reading it, but when I discovered (after I finished it) that it's a philosophical novel, everything sort of fell into place. Very clever. 4/5 19. Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, by Philip K Dick. PKD writes so well about our perception of reality, and this is no exception. That said, I think the story could have benefited from going into the history of the world a bit more; I thought that too many things were left unexplained. Enjoyable, though. 4/5 20. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley. I read this when I was young and apparently didn't remember anything beyond the first 50 pages. It's a fantastic part of the dystopian canon, though I found the jumping around between protagonists a bit jarring at times. 4/5 21. The Little Friend, by Donna Tartt. Went into this thinking it would be a Southern Gothic mystery, but it's more like a never-ending description of the town, the house, and the family members. For what is basically one long digression I did really enjoy it, I just wish it had had some suspense. 3.5/5 22. Shovel Ready, by Adam Sternbergh. Heard good things about this, but it fell a little flat for me. I think the background could have used a little more fleshing out (only New York seems to be in a post-apocalyptic, post-nuclear state, while the rest of the country is carrying on as usual), and the story could have been a bit longer. The writing is snappy and the story moves at a fast pace, and the characters were interesting enough. It's a light but fun and engaging read, so long as you don't expect too much from it. 3/5
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Apr 2, 2014 00:02
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Wittgen posted:7. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley. I thought it was interesting that the savage, the character closest to the reader in terms of outlook and values[...] I get where you're coming from, but I wonder whether he really is the character we are supposed to feel closest to. He grew up in a Native American reservation that had flecks of Christianity thrown in, and he seemed to get most of his ideas and values from Shakespeare - not exactly close to society in the 1930s. I'd argue that Mustapha Mond is closer to the reader, since his position in society (as well as his natural tendency towards curiosity and philosophy) has actually exposed him to the books and culture that the reader would have read/experienced. I thought he had a kind of detachment from it all, as well. We just discussed this in my book club two days ago, and Bernard and Lenina were pretty much universally hated.
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Apr 2, 2014 07:31
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Yeah, I agree with you there. Before they went to the reservation I thought it would be a positive counterpoint to the dystopian society, so I was surprised at how negatively it is depicted.
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Apr 2, 2014 10:12
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elbow posted:March - 22/52 April - 30/52 23. A Country Doctor's Notebook, by Mikhail Bulgakov. Very funny and, surprisingly, much easier to read than it is to watch the TV adaptation. 4/5 24. I Hate to See That Evening Sun Go Down, by William Gay. I really wanted to read some more Southern fiction after watching True Detective, and this appealed to me the most (though I still have a long True Detective-themed wishlist). It's a collection of short stories, not one of which was disappointing. 4/5 25. Wool, by Hugh Howey. I'm not sure if this lived up to its expectations for me. I really enjoyed it, as I tend to enjoy all long, world-building post-apocalyptic/dystopian novels (e.g. The Stand, The Passage), and I thought the characters were interesting and surprising. I disliked how the novellas were broken up, and wish more of the characters stayed around for long enough for me to care about them. 3.5/5 26. The Man in the High Castle, by Philip K Dick. I'm not ashamed to say that a lot of the philosophical and political stuff went right over my head when I was reading this. I was expecting a much more plot-driven novel, but it was enjoyable nonetheless. 3/5 27-29. The Walking Dead, Vols 18-20, by Robert Kirkman. I can't get enough of this series. 5/5 30. Blindness, by Jose Saramago. A re-read for my book club, I found it a lot harder to get through than I did the first time around. It's still an outstanding post-apocalyptic novel for me, probably because it pulls no punches and is, for the most part, confined to such a small space. 4.5/5 I will definitely increase my goal, but I'll wait until I hit 52 to decide by how much.
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Apr 27, 2014 12:55
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elbow posted:April - 30/52 May - 35/52 31. We Need to Talk About Kevin, by Lionel Shriver. This took a little while to really grab me - I had even put it on hiatus for a few years - but once it got going, it had me rapt. I found it incredibly hard to read about all of the years of Kevin growing up, being The Worst Child, and Eva just sitting by, somewhat meekly, letting Franklin be willfully ignorant and not leaving. But that's a testament to how well this was written; the characters are unpleasant, you know how it's going to end, and yet you can't put it down. I'm glad that Shriver didn't come down on one side of the 'nature vs nurture' argument, and that question is handled incredibly well. The only major flaw for me was in the ending. There's a hint at redemption for Kevin, which felt like a huge cop-out to me. But that's a relatively small annoyance in light of a strong book. 4.5/5 32. Shades of Grey, by Jasper Fforde. The book has an interesting and very unusual premise, and Fforde definitely tries to make the most out of it - unfortunately that was also the novel's biggest flaw. Fforde spends so many pages on worldbuilding and character introductions that the plot doesn't really get started until about 250 pages in. At that point it does really take off though, and it's worth 33. The Complete Horowitz Horror, by Anthony Horowitz. I loved Horowitz's scary stories when I was a kid, and they mostly stand the test of time. He's a fantastic children's author. 4/5 34. Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell. Fantastic, every bit as good as everyone has made it out to be. I found the connections between the stories a bit far-fetched in the first half, but it's tied up nicely in the second half. 5/5 35. How to Archer. Eh, funny at times but a bit too much of the same stuff. I wish it had more about/from the other character. On the upside I managed to read the entire book with H Jon Benjamin's voice in my head, which made it 100x funnier. 3/5
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May 31, 2014 03:12
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Xik posted:Well, this is the reading challenge thread. Listening to audio isn't reading, they are completely different mediums. If the Game of Thrones TV show was 100% faithful to the books, would that count? If this is the reading challenge thread, then I can count newspapers and magazines as well, right? The silly thing about all these people fussing over what should and shouldn't be counted towards a reading challenge is that they're all wildly inconsistent. There are a few people, like you, who emphasize the reading part of the challenge, who say that audiobooks therefore do not count. Then there are people who emphasize the books part, and who think that even graphic novels can't be counted. I suggest that everyone who comes in here to complain about the forms in which others are reading go pick up a loving book. Every month it's the same loving derail in this thread, it really takes the enjoyment out of this.
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Jun 2, 2014 09:59
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elbow posted:May - 35/52 June - 43/52 36. A Monster Calls, by Patrick Ness. A very powerful novella about a boy whose mother has terminal cancer. Ness's books often suffer from cliffhanger-itis between chapters, but this book was solid. 4/5 37. Twilight Zone, anthology edited by Carol Serling. I picked this up because I wanted to read more stories like those from The Twilight Zone. Unfortunately less than half the stories were any good, and only a handful were knockouts. The rest of the book is filled with stories about vampires and a woman who seriously considered having sex with a haunted cane she bought off eBay. 3/5 38. Fables: Legends in Exile, by Bill Willingham. I'm a sucker for mythical/fairy tale creatures in a modern setting, and in that regard Fables has a lot to work with. Can't wait to read the rest in the series. 4/5 39. The Chrysalids, by John Wyndham. I don't know, this book was lacking something for me. The group of kids are a little too goody-two-shoes (I kept waiting for Michael to reveal his nature as a double agent, which never happens), and I wish the book had explored the Fringes and Badlands a lot more. 3/5 40. Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse, edited by John Joseph Adams. I had previously read another anthology by Adams, Brave New Worlds, and I found this one a lot stronger. There are a few real duds, but I only skipped two or three and genuinely enjoyed all the others. The biggest letdown by far was Cory Doctorow's "When sysadmins ruled the world," which contains the following passage: "The CBC's towering building was collapsing in slow motion. People ran every way, were crushed by falling masonry. Seen through the porthole, it was like watching a neat CGI trick downloaded from a file-sharing site." Apart from that story though it is a solid anthology. 4/5. 41. Young Hearts Crying, by Richard Yates. I've read all of Yates's other novels, and this was a fitting bookend. This line from the end of the book sums it up: "Hadn't the world taught him anything at all in fifty-three loving years?" 4/5 42. Fables: Animal Farm, by Bill Willingham. Enjoyed reading about the fables on the farm. 4/5 43. Suite Francaise, by Irene Nemirovsky. Suite Francaise consists of two of five planned books about life in France during WWII. The first book follows several families as they flee Paris during the German approach in June 1940. The second book looks at life in a small German-occupied town east of Paris. Both are very dark and littered with black humor and satire, which gets a bit tiring towards the end. Still, a very compelling look at occupied France. 4/5
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Jun 30, 2014 06:12
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elbow posted:June - 43/52 July - 48/52 44. 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. Yes, I actually read/skimmed all of it and kept a list of titles I want to check out. I don't know why I did it, it wasn't enjoyable at all, and it's not like I'm running out of books to read, either. 45. The Postman, by David Brin. This started out so well and had such a promising story, but the rampant sexism and explosion of testosterone in the last third of the book really ruined it for me. 3/5 46. Ubik, by Philip K Dick. What a complete mindfuck -- in the best sense. 4/5 47. The Underwater Welder, by Jeff Lemire. I love Jeff Lemire, I love graphic novels, I love things like The Twilight Zone. I love this book. 5/5 48. Horns, by Joe Hill. I really enjoyed the first half of the book, particularly the confessions people started making, but for some reason got incredibly bored after that. I wish Hill had made the antagonist a bit more complex. I know that's not easy to do with a psychopath but I think Hill went overboard here. 3/5
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Jul 30, 2014 01:22
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elbow posted:July - 48/52 August - 55/52 49. Wild Fell, by Michael Rowe. I had seen this recommended by a few people as a good take on the haunted house story, but I was disappointed by this. While the haunted house stuff was good, that was only a minimal part of the story, and I didn't feel it was tied in all that well with the first 2/3 of the book. 3/5 50. Schrodinger's Telephone, by Marion Stein. Saw a goon recommend this and thought it looked interesting (woman gets a phone call from her husband after he has died). It was an okay read, but it really focused a lot more on the psychological side than on the 'Schrodinger's telephone' side, and I wish it had been the other way around. 3/5 51. The Walking Dead Vol 21, by Robert Kirkman. I feel like I've been waiting for ever for this to come out - it did not disappoint. Negan is a great villain who kept surprising me. The only criticism I have is that the fighting scenes were sometimes really hard to make out. 4/5 52. The Anatomy of Motive, by John Douglas. This isn't a well-written book, and it's absolutely dripping with Douglas's view on the death penalty and what we should do with criminals, but boy does this hit my true crime sweet spot. 4/5 53 and 54. Y: The Last Man volumes 1 and 2, by Brian K Vaughan and Pia Guerra. This series has its issues (ironically in depicting women), but it's great nonetheless. I've already ordered volumes 3 through 5. 4/5 55. The Giver, by Lois Lowry. The movie is coming out soon, and this is a classic kids/YA dystopian novel, so I thought I'd give it a read. I found it pretty disappointing, mostly because the story felt rushed and unfinished. I also hated the way she uses exposition to tell the story. 3/5 Reached my original goal, and have raised it to 70 books.
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Aug 27, 2014 03:53
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elbow posted:August - 55/52 September - 67/70 56 - 60. Y: The Last Man volumes 3 - 7, by Brian K Vaughan and Pia Guerra. 4/5 61. Shift, by Hugh Howey. Someone in my book club recommended this because it gives more backstory to Wool, but I mostly found it sluggish and boring. 3/5 62. Annihilation, by Jeff VanderMeer. People seem to either love this or hate it, mostly based on the language. I loved it, plowed through it, and can't wait for the other two books in the trilogy to arrive in my mailbox. It's been a while since I read a book that creeped me out this much. 4/5 63 - 65. Y: The Last Man volumes 8 - 10, by Brian K Vaughan and Pia Guerra. Wish they had wrapped up the series a bit better, the ending was dissatisfying on a lot of levels. Still a fantastic read. 4/5 66. Kingdom Come, by JG Ballard. I read Crash before and hated it, but wanted to give Ballard another go, and this seemed like a great place to do it. I was wrong. Ballard is just too much extreme essay and not enough plot for me. 3/5 67. Authority, by Jeff VanderMeer. I didn't enjoy this as much as Annihilation simply because of the setting, and found it hard to follow along when the protagonist starts losing his mind. It kept me interested enough to read the final book in the trilogy, though, and had some genuinely creepy moments despite its relatively mundane setting. 3/5
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Oct 1, 2014 01:26
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elbow posted:September - 67/70 October and November - 75/70 68. The Strain, by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan. The first half of this story was entertaining enough to ignore the cliches and lazy writing, but I found the second half less interesting. Hope the TV show does better. 3/5 69. Acceptance, by Jeff VanderMeer. Contrary to popular opinion, I thought this was the least enjoyable in the trilogy, despite the return of Area X as a setting. I did enjoy reading Saul and Gloria's stories, but on the whole it was a bit too dense, vague and philosophical for my liking. 3/5 70. Smoke and Mirrors, by Neil Gaiman. I love Gaiman's novels and think he's a fantastic writer, but this collection was just a bit too much of his schtick for me. There were a few real gems in there though, including Snow, Glass, Apples. 3/5 71. Rat Queens, vol 1, by Kurtis J Wiebe. I've only recently started getting into comics and I fell head over heels for this one. 5/5 72. The Farm, by Tom Rob Smith. A pretty good suspense novel, though I knew too much about it and the author before I started reading it. 3/5 73. Yes Please, by Amy Poehler. Really enjoyable and funny - it's great to read something so positive. 4/5 74. The Walking Dead, vol 22, by Robert Kirkman. Good to see the story move forward in time a bit, I think the new developments and setting will give us some good new stories. 5/5 75. The Devil in the White City, by Erik Larson. It wasn't as earth-shattering as everyone made it out to be, but I was amazed that a book about architecture/landscaping/etc. could entertain me so much. I honestly figured I'd be skipping most of the Burnham chapters in favor of Holmes, but I was disappointed when the World's Fair thread ended. 4/5
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Dec 1, 2014 12:03
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elbow posted:October and November - 75/70 December was a total bust, and I doubt I'll finish anything before Thursday because we're doing some DIY projects at home that are taking far too long. December - 78/70 76. Feed, by MT Anderson. Got this through my post-apocalyptic/dystopian book club's secret Santa, an it was a great gift. It's a dystopian book set in the near future, when 73% of the US population has what's basically a computer in their brains, allowing them to constantly be connected to everyone and everything. This computer shows you a feed of ads and news curated for you, 24/7. It doesn't sound like a groundbreaking novel, until you realize that it was published in 2002 and is eerily close to how we live now. 4/5 77. Het Behouden Huis, by WF Hermans. A great look at how people behave in war time. 4/5 78. You're All Just Jealous of My Jetpack, by Tom Gauld. A handful of his comics just had me shrugging, but a lot of them had me laughing out loud. I love how he combines science, religion, literature, sci-fi and history. 4/5 Final list for the year: 1. More Than This, by Patrick Ness. 4/5. 2. Mr Penumbra's 24-Hour Book Store, by Robin Sloan. 3/5 3. Butcher's Crossing, by John Williams. 4.5/5 4. Anthropology of an American Girl, by Hillary Thayer Hamann. 2/5 5. Look at the Birdie, by Kurt Vonnegut. 4/5 6 - 10. Sweet Tooth vols 2-6, by Jeff Lemire. 4.5/5 11. The Goldfinch, by Donna Tartt. 4/5 12. Wuthering Heights, by Emily Bronte. 4/5 13. Rose Under Fire, by Elizabeth Wein. 3/5 14. Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline. 4/5 15. Pines, by Blake Crouch. 3/5 16. A Special Providence, by Richard Yates. 3.5/5 17. Winter's Bone, by Daniel Woodrell. 4/5 18. De Donkere Kamer van Damocles, by Willem Frederik Hermans. 4/5 19. Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, by Philip K Dick. 4/5 20. Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley. 4/5 21. The Little Friend, by Donna Tartt. 3.5/5 22. Shovel Ready, by Adam Sternbergh. 3/5 23. A Country Doctor's Notebook, by Mikhail Bulgakov. 4/5 24. I Hate to See That Evening Sun Go Down, by William Gay. 4/5 25. Wool, by Hugh Howey. 3.5/5 26. The Man in the High Castle, by Philip K Dick. 3/5 27-29. The Walking Dead, Vols 18-20, by Robert Kirkman. 5/5 30. Blindness, by Jose Saramago. 4.5/5 31. We Need to Talk About Kevin, by Lionel Shriver. 4.5/5 32. Shades of Grey, by Jasper Fforde. 3/5 33. The Complete Horowitz Horror, by Anthony Horowitz. 4/5 34. Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell. 5/5 35. How to Archer. 3/5 36. A Monster Calls, by Patrick Ness. 4/5 37. Twilight Zone, anthology edited by Carol Serling. 3/5 38. Fables: Legends in Exile, by Bill Willingham. 4/5 39. The Chrysalids, by John Wyndham. 3/5 40. Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse, edited by John Joseph Adams. 4/5. 41. Young Hearts Crying, by Richard Yates. 4/5 42. Fables: Animal Farm, by Bill Willingham. 4/5 43. Suite Francaise, by Irene Nemirovsky. 4/5 44. 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die. 45. The Postman, by David Brin. 3/5 46. Ubik, by Philip K Dick. 4/5 47. The Underwater Welder, by Jeff Lemire. 5/5 48. Horns, by Joe Hill. 3/5 49. Wild Fell, by Michael Rowe. 3/5 50. Schrodinger's Telephone, by Marion Stein. 3/5 51. The Walking Dead Vol 21, by Robert Kirkman. 4/5 52. The Anatomy of Motive, by John Douglas. 4/5 53 and 54. Y: The Last Man volumes 1 and 2, by Brian K Vaughan and Pia Guerra. 4/5 55. The Giver, by Lois Lowry. 3/5 56 - 60. Y: The Last Man volumes 3 - 7, by Brian K Vaughan and Pia Guerra. 4/5 61. Shift, by Hugh Howey. 3/5 62. Annihilation, by Jeff VanderMeer. 4/5 63 - 65. Y: The Last Man volumes 8 - 10, by Brian K Vaughan and Pia Guerra. 4/5 66. Kingdom Come, by JG Ballard. 3/5 67. Authority, by Jeff VanderMeer. 3/5 68. The Strain, by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan. 3/5 69. Acceptance, by Jeff VanderMeer. 3/5 70. Smoke and Mirrors, by Neil Gaiman. 3/5 71. Rat Queens, vol 1, by Kurtis J Wiebe. 5/5 72. The Farm, by Tom Rob Smith. 3/5 73. Yes Please, by Amy Poehler. 4/5 74. The Walking Dead, vol 22, by Robert Kirkman. 5/5 75. The Devil in the White City, by Erik Larson. 4/5 76. Feed, by MT Anderson. 4/5 77. Het Behouden Huis, by WF Hermans. 4/5 78. You're All Just Jealous of My Jetpack, by Tom Gauld. 4/5
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Dec 29, 2014 08:13
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