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I've never done this before, so I have no idea how many books I can read in a year. Let's say I'm in for.... 40. Shouldn't be too hard since I'm planning on reading a lot of Discworld this year, and that's a good 30 easy reads I have left right there. I won't read all 30, but that's a lot of easy reads to pad out my total so 40 should be doable. My speed at reading isn't really what holds me back from finishing a ton of books a year, it's usually my indecisive nature at picking what the heck I'm going to read next. I'm really bad at that, I can never decide easily. The hours I've spent, wasted, staring at my bookshelf trying to decide what to read when I have so much cool stuff... it's sad. Luckily, I have the Discworld series to fall back on this year when I get into that situation. I can always just read a Discworld when I'm indecisive. However, to make it more interesting I will set some sub goals. Say, 8 Non-fiction books, 4 non-sci fi/fantasy fiction, and 4 books by women. I know that sounds pathetic as hell, but in my defense I don't really own a ton of books by women so 4 will be a realistic goal there. It's 4 more books by woman than I probably would have read otherwise, and that's the whole point, right? I know my sub challenges aren't that much, but this is mostly about just sheer number of books I can get myself to read. If I can read a book a week for the year, any book, I'll be happy. The extra goals are just icing on the cake. So yeah: 40 Books Meager sub goals: 8 Non-Fiction 4 Non sci-fi/fantasy fiction 4 Books by women Good luck you guys, I hope 2015 is a great year of reading, learning, and entertainment for you all. Damo fucked around with this message at 13:07 on Jan 18, 2015 |
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Jan 2, 2015 06:09
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First update... 1. The Spy Who Came in From the Cold - John le Carre - This was a pretty cool books. Some of the intricate plotting and spy lingo went a bit over my head, but I got enough of it overall to be pretty engaged with it throughout. A pretty sad book overall but thrilling, in a way. I dunno if I'm going to read more of him though, his writing did a weird thing to my brain where I'd have sleepless nights after I read the book, like the words were replaying in my head washing over me, distracting and overwhelming my mind. It's really hard to describe, but his writing got into my subconscious in a weird way that made me lose sleep. Crazy, I know. 2. The Gunlinger - Stephen King - A re-read. I finally read through the Dark Tower prequel comics from Marvel and immediately started going through the Dark Tower series because I couldn't get enough Roland, and caught the bug again. To be honest I probably could have skipped the first book because the comic that covers it was pretty comprehensive, and the book isn't exactly the best DT book. Not bad, but nothing like the ones to come. 3. The Drawing of the Three - Stephen King - Another re-read due to jonesing for some DT. I always waver between this and The Waste Lands as my favorite DT book and this read through further cemented my love for it. The whole scene with Roland in Jack Mort's body is loving gold. Some of my favorite Roland-isms are in this novel. Who doesn't laugh at Roland taking out the cop that shot at him in a crowded pharmacy narrowing missing bystanders, then taking the time to lean over his unconscious body to tell him that "You’re a dangerous fool who should be sent west. You have forgotten the face of your father." There are so many great culture clash moments like that between Roland and our world it's charming and funny as hell. 4. Maphead by Ken Jennings - A really pleasant a neat read about maps, and the people who are obsessed with anything having to do with them, from just looking at them, to collecting them, to memorizing geography, to travelling, geocaching, road/highway nuts and more. I've always been a bit of a map geek, and it was interesting learning about how many obsessive subcultures there are among map geeks, and also seeing how the time inordinate time I spent during my youth staring at maps was not only shared, but dwarfed by some of the people in this book. You also learn plenty of interesting facts to keep you entertained throughout. Highly recommended if you are in anyway into maps or geography. 5. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Corpes - Mary Roach - A pretty interesting and enlightening read about how cadavers help shape our knowledge of ourselves and what a large part they play in research and medical training worldwide, with some interesting detours into the science and philosophy of disposing of corpses. As well as a chapter dedicated to the historical precedents of cadavers for medicinal uses (hint: there are a shitload more than you would think). I don't really think this authors sense of humor is all that funny, she tries to make you laugh a lot but only succeeded like once with me , however it isn't annoying or anything, just not funny. Still though the book was pretty informative and reads like a series of magazine articles or something, which makes sense considering it's her first book after a career of writing for magazines. I'm reading her book Packing for Mars right now, and it's pretty cool so far even though I know nearly everything about the freakin space programs of the world already. So, 5/40 2/8 Non fiction 1/4 Books by Women 1/4 Non sci-fi fantasy fiction A good start to the year as far a sheer numbers go, and if this continues I probably will eventually up my total to 52 or 60 or something, and maybe upping at least my non-fiction sub goal since I think I'm gonna be reading a lot of that this year, however for now we'll keep going with my current goals. It's early after all, and I do plan on reading Malazan sometime this year so that might bring my pace to a crawl anyway. Damo fucked around with this message at 13:38 on Jan 18, 2015 |
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Jan 18, 2015 13:26
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I don't think it's bad or anything, I said it's not the best. It's certainly not anywhere near the worst. It's mainly that my reread was really spoiled because I read the comic that summed it up again quite nicely. That's the biggest reason I could have skipped it this time around. Reading the novel felt like I had just read it a day ago cause of the comics. It's a great book in its own right, but I like book 2 and 3 better. They are just more fun and that's most of what I like about The Dark Tower. The gunslinger is probably my third or fourth favorite. The thing that kind of brings it down for me is its loneliness. Roland doesn't have many people To play off of and its so goddamn serious it's kind of a bummer. I mean it fits his character and where he's coming from as a person and the situation he's in, it just lacks the stuff that made me really like the series, which is the stuff that book two really ramps up. Damo fucked around with this message at 21:09 on Jan 18, 2015 |
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Jan 18, 2015 21:01
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Previously on poo poo I've read: 1. The Spy Who Came in From the Cold - John le Carre 2. The Gunslinger - Stephen King 3. The Drawing of the Three - Stephen King 4. Maphead by Ken Jennings 5. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Corpes - Mary Roach Update 2, second half of January. 6. Packing For Mars - Mary Roach I've read a poo poo load of books about space so I was skeptical as to how much I would get out of this. Luckily for the most part the stuff she focused on steers clear of the really obvious stuff that has been written about space travel, and as a result it was an interesting look at the logistical problem of sending bags of sentient meat into space for long periods of time. Not anywhere near the best book about space travel I've ever read, but not a bad one either. I don't regret reading it. 7. Skunk Works - Ben Rich & Leo Janus This book was awesome. The old Skunk Works is a bit of local pride for me, since I grew up in Burbank and drove by it a billion times as a kid. This book is a fantastic look at one of the most interesting and uniquely operated industrial outfits in military history. It's also a pretty timely read at the moment, considering the F-35 debacle it's interesting to read about a time when Lockheed wasn't total poo poo. I'm not gonna lie I nearly cried at a few parts of this book, mainly the description of the end of Kelly Johnson's life, and the author's own epitaph. I'm a dork. 8. Gardens of the Moon - Steven Erikson A fantastic fantasy book and I'm excited for the rest of the series. It wasn't as confusing for me as people warned, and it's just the type of poo poo I've been looking for in a fantasy series for a long time. It takes a lot of brain power to read, though. I'm trying to work up the courage to dive into Book 2 right now. 9. Reaper Man - Terry Pratchett This was a really weird Discworld, not my favorite so far but not bad either. The Death part of the story was poignant and quite nearly brought me to tears out of nowhere in the last 20 pages or so. It's a bit of an unfocused mess though thanks to the other plot lines in the book. 9/40 4/8 Non fiction 2/4 Books by Women 1/4 Non sci-fi fantasy fiction 9 freaking books in one month. I wasn't expecting that. I may have been a little too conservative in my estimate because I've never really counted how many books I've read in a year before. I'm very likely going to need to nearly double my goal (and some subgoals) in a few months if I keep up this pace. I did I a lot of quick non-fiction books this month which sped things up, however. Plus, reading Malazan though should slow me down pretty quick as well. We'll see how many I can crank out in February. Damo fucked around with this message at 00:16 on Jan 30, 2015 |
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Jan 30, 2015 00:09
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