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I missed this thread for a few days... My spring semester is going to be pretty heavy, and I didn't come anywhere close to my goal last year, so I am going to shoot for 50 this year. Hopefully I don't fall into another period where I just can't seem to finish anything. I probably have 2 or 3 dozen books that I started last year and didn't finish. My Goodreads Profile
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Jan 4, 2015 03:31
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| # ¿ May 17, 2024 17:54 |
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I have slightly different reviews on my Goodreads. Some are longer or shorter or say different things depending on my mood when I wrote them. Thoughts for this month: I'm doing quite well so far. While all the books I have read so far have been under 500 pages, I feel like I'm actually getting some reading done. I was worried about my ability to get back to reading while traveling to/from school, but so far I haven't had a problem. I haven't really been tackling many of the Booklord Challenges, but I plan on hitting most of them before the year is up. I expect, if things continue as they have, to up my total books closer to what I had it last year, but I am going to wait a couple of months to see how I am doing. Also, it seems that I write a lot more words about books that I didn't like compared to books I did. 1-3, 5-7, 11. Phoenix, Athyra, Orca, Dragon, Issola, Dzur, Iorich (Vlad Taltos #5-10, 12) by Steven Brust - I started reading these late last year, and I find that they are easy to read, and quite interesting. He does a great job at changing the styles and genres as time goes on so that every book doesn't feel the same, yet every book feels like it belongs. All of these except Dragon are moving time forward and giving us hints as to what is coming. Dragon actually goes back quite a bit and takes place the second farthest back in time. I am steadily catchng up with where the series is written up to, and should be there soon... 4. Firefight (The Reckoners #2) by Brandon Sanderson - I am liking Brandon's Reckoners trilogy. I don't think that Firefight is as well written as Steelherat, but I enjoyed it quite a bit more. He didn't have to spend as much time introducing everything and could really start going immediately. The end makes me really want to read the next one! 8. Jhegaala (Vlad Taltos #11) by Steven Brust - I am seperating this one from the others because I have something I actually want to say about it. This book is really not that good. It pretty much consists of Vlad leaving the inn he is staying in, complaining about the smell (the town has a paper factory), finding 1(!) person to talk to, complaining about the smell (paper factory again), then heading back to his inn. And then this repeats... For about 60% of the book. The only change later is that he switches inns for a little bit. The only thing that saves this book in the slightest is the ending. It actually ends up being pretty decent. I really hope that this book ends up being the low-point of the series. I am almost caught up to where it is written! 9. The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower #1) by Stephen King - Do you know those video games that people call walking simulators? Where you are in a place with a lot of things to see and click on to get some type of exposition? Where people call you an idiot because "You don't get it. Only us smart people will get this. Too bad for you." and then spout philosophy for a while? That is what this book felt like. The Gunslinger walks from one place to another and interacts with a few items on the way, all of which just exposit to us. There are 2 sections where the titular "Gunslinger" actually gets to sling his guns. This book was kind of a disappointment. The very end was kind of interesting, and I may try another book, but I'm not going to promise anything. 10. The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials #1) by Philip Pullman - This was a very good book. I felt that there was a good plot, the characters were developed well, and that things were well paced. I definitely plan on reading the rest of this series. 11/50 Booklord Challenges Finished: 15. Something published this year or the past three months - Firefight Brandon Sanderson I can't decide whether The Gunslinger counts as something unreal. Any help? Plans for next month: Words of Radiance - I got this the day it came out and I really need to get working on it. Catch up on the Vlad Taltos series - I'm only 2 books behind the series, then I'll have to wait like everybody else. I don't have any other major plans right now, I mainly just read where my interest takes me. Maybe I should try The Black Company.
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Feb 1, 2015 05:19
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quote:1. Phoenix (Vlad Taltos #5) Steven Brust I have slightly different reviews on my Goodreads. Some are longer or shorter or say different things depending on my mood when I wrote them. This month started well, then became a bit slow around the middle. I was able to turn that around though and get a decent number of books read, so I'm happy. Having a long round trip on busses gives me a lot of time to spend reading, and I'm glad that I'm not having trouble like I had last year. I still haven't really read a long book, but I have started reading The Warded Man, so maybe that will change if I finish it. 20 of 50 completed. I'm almost definitely going to raise my total next month. I only put it that low because of how few books I read last year. 12. Unto the Breach (Paladin of Shadows #4) by John Ringo - I don't remember how or where, but somebody linked to Cyrano's Let's Read of the first book of this series, and that made me want to continue where I had left off last year. And this one really wasn't that bad... after you got past the first 15-20%. I'll probably end up reading more John Ringo, because bad military fiction can really be enjoyable/a trainwreck worth watching. 13. Scourge of the Betrayer (Bloodsounder's Arc #1) by Jeff Salyards - I didn't find this book to be awfully good. The viewpoint character whined, the main character did bloody things, and people that we don't really care about died. Why can't epic fantasy books have happy endings anymore? 14, 15. Tiassa and Hawk (Vlad Taltos #13, 14) by Steven Brust - And I am now caught up to the series. I now have to wait with everybody else for new books in this series to come out. I really liked these books, though I'm not finding Tiassa overly memorable. Things happen, Loiosh makes funny remarks, gets told to shut up, everything's right with the world. 16-20. The Phoenix Guard, Five Hundred Years After, and The Viscount of Adrilankha: The Paths of the Dead, The Lord of Castle Black, and Sethra Lavode (The Khaavren Romances 1-3.3) by Steven Brust - The Khaavren Romances. 3 books, or 5, that are so good. Written in the style of The D'artagnan Romances, they follow some characters that appear in the Vlad Taltos series from 1000 years before Vlad Taltos to about 250 years before. It gives you some really good background on things that had only been hinted at throughout those books. You should definitely read these books though. I almost ended up stopping a little into the Phoenix Guard, and that would have been a bad choice. Now, I need to read something that is not by Steven Brust, I think. I still need to read Words of Radiance, but I may save that for spring break.
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Feb 28, 2015 17:35
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quote:1. Phoenix (Vlad Taltos #5) Steven Brust Currently read 25 of 80 (since I upped my goal at the end of last month.) I generally have slightly different reviews on my Goodreads if you want to read them. I really didn't read much this month. I got 3 books done fairly quickly, then I ended up only half finishing a few books and slowly catching up on Pact. Now that it's Spring Break, I'm probably not going to read much, since I do most of my reading on the bus to/from school. 21. The Warded Man (Demon Cycle #1) Peter V Brett - A book that I've been meaning to get to for a while. It was extremely good, but I felt that there were just a few things that ended up letting it down. I am definitely going to continue reading this series!... (hopefully, you never know) 22. Thornbear (Champions of the Dawning Dragons #1) by Michael G Manning - This was a really enjoyable book. I was a little confused when it only introduced the characters, but didn't really give much in the way of telling who they are, but I learned a little later that this is a series that takes place after the Mageborn series. This was still quite good, even with not knowing all the background. (When you finish two books in one day, Goodreads doesn't necessarily put them down in the order you finish them. I was confused for a few minutes.) 23. The Blacksmith's Son (Mageborn #1) Michael G Manning - Since I was so confused about Thornbear, I decide to start reading the main series that it's connected to. This book was quick for me to finish, and I enjoyed it. There are some things that make absolutely no sense. Why they are talking about the Riemann zeta function in a medieval European setting? Whatever. It was a good book. The main character seems a little OP. I think I will probably finish this series in the next couple of weeks. 24. Luck in the Shadows (Nightrunner #1) Lynn Flewelling - A book that I've had on the backburner for a little while. I really like the world, characters, and plot of this book. It was really interesting. I'll probably eventually get to the next book, if I don't forget to do so. 25. The Stranger Albert Cadmus - I didn't like it. I'm glad that it was really short, because if that went on too much longer, I would have just quit reading it. It wasn't that interesting, pretty much nothing happened, and I didn't like the style. I really only read this for the absurdist challenge, and now I probably won't ever read it again. X. Signs of Life in the U.S.A Sonia Maasik, Jack Solomon - A collection of essays on semiotics that I am having to read from for an English Writing class this semester. I'm not counting it in my numbering since I didn't finish it, and I don't particularly want to remember it. I'm just using it for the challenge. 2. Read a female author - Luck in the Shadows Lynn Flewelling 6. An essay - Signs of Life Sonia Maasik, Jack Solomon 9. Something absurdist - The Stranger Albert Cadmus 15. Something published this year or the past three months - Firefight Brandon Sanderson I'm planning on reading Cloud Atlas for my Post-modern early next month. I'm probably going to say this every month, but I need to also read Words of Radiance. While I'm posting, does anybody want to give me a wildcard?
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Mar 31, 2015 21:17
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quote:1. Phoenix (Vlad Taltos #5) Steven Brust 29 of 80 completed. I have slightly different reviews on my Goodreads. Some are longer or shorter or say different things depending on my mood when I wrote them. Challenges Completed 14. Wildcard - Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut 26. Mother Night Kurt Vonnegut - This was my wildcard book. It was... interesting. I liked it, and I'm glad that I read it, but I don't know that I would ever read it again. There were quite a few points where it was really funny. It also wasn't easy to locate. There was only a single copy in the entire local library region. 27-29. The Black Company, Shadows Linger, The White Rose (The Black Company 1-3) Glen Cook - I originally started trying to read The Black Company a year or two, and got stalled fairly early in.This time, I didn't slow down once I started, and it was amazing. I liked all three of the books of the north, and I plan on moving onto some of the later books soon. April was a really slow month for me. I spent the first part of the month just sitting around on the bus listening to music because I couldn't find any books that grabbed my attention immediately. Then I started about 5 books and got halfway through them and stalled. May is the end of my semester, so I'll either read a lot of books while procrastinating, or read very few because I don't feel like reading. Hopefully I keep up with my reading though.
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May 2, 2015 18:40
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| # ¿ May 17, 2024 17:54 |
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quote:1. Phoenix (Vlad Taltos #5) Steven Brust I have slightly different reviews on my Goodreads. Some are longer or shorter or say different things depending on my mood when I wrote them. 32 of 80 books complete. 30. Words of Radiance (The Stormlight Archive #2) by Brandon Sanderson - I got this bookt the week it came out and started reading it immediately. Then, I put it down 16 chapters in and didn't touch it until now, so that I could finally finish this wonderful book. It was really good, and I'm glad that I was finally able to get through it. It's sad that I'll have to wait until at least next fall or even later for the next one to come out, but it will be worth it. 31. Prince of Thorns (The Broken Empire #1) by Mark Lawrence - A book that I'd started and stopped a couple of times before I finally finished it. It had its moments of being good and bad, but in general it was really kind of bland. It's some type of Fantasy - Post-apocalyptic setting and it just feels like it could have been much more than what it ended up being. I also can't take the characters seriously when they all follow the 13 year old main character out of fear when they're all grown men who've been killing others for years. I don't know if I'll get around to the later books in this series. 32. Stalking Darkness (Nightrunner #2) by Lynn Flewelling - I like the plot in these books. I also like the characters in general. I like how they tend to grow. The first book was great. This book is also really good, though it ends on a pretty down note. Even with that, I'm probably not going to read any more books in this series. I started reading the next book, and pretty much all the 2 main characters think about at the beginning is how much and where they've had sex during this last year. I don't give a gently caress about how much sex you've been having and where. It doesn't matter what type of relationship it is, you don't have to keep talking about it the entire time. Also, there is a bit to much predestination, though I don't mind that too much when it's well written. 1. The vanilla read a set number of books in a year. 32 of 50 2. Read a female author - Luck in the Shadows Lynn Flewelling 3. The non-white author 4. Philosophy 5. History 6. An essay - Signs of Life Sonia Maasik, Jack Solomon 7. A collection of poetry 8. Something post-modern - Will probably be Cloud Atlas 9. Something absurdist - The Stranger Albert Cadmus 10. The Blind Owl 11. Something on either hate or love 12. Something dealing with space 13. Something dealing with the unreal 14. Wildcard - Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut 15. Something published this year or the past three months - Firefight Brandon Sanderson 16. That one book that has been sitting on your desk waiting for a long time - Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson 17. A play 18. Biography 19. The color red 20. Something banned or censored 21. Short story(s) 22. A mystery I ended up going a couple/few months without reading anything, so now I am a bit behind. I'm sure I'll catch up and be able to reach my challenge goal, but I find it easier to read when it causes me to procrastinate my school work. With school starting up again late next month, we'll see what happens. I'm also in the middle of far too many books, and I don't know if I want to go finish those ones or start new ones.
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Aug 1, 2015 05:12
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