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I met my goal of 40 books last year, so I'm aiming for 45. I don't want to set specific sub goals but I do want to try putting some non-English and/or non-fantasy/sci-fi books in there.
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Jan 2, 2015 16:36
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January update! 1. Looking for Alaska by John Green: Started out kind of meh, but picked up as it progressed. Some of the characters seemed a bit one-dimensional. I didn't see the main plot event coming, though in retrospect it was kind of obvious. An enjoyable read, anyway. 2. Otherbound by Corinne Duyvis: I was excited about this one because the general premise seemed interesting (everytime the protagonist closes his eyes he sees through the eyes of a girl in another world). However, I was a little disappointed. The "other" world had some nice details, but ultimately felt underwhelming. I wish the author would have done more with it. 3. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott: I liked it… I think. Not a lot happened, and some parts were kind of slow and boring, but overall it was engaging enough. I appreciated the author not going for the obvious "solution" though in reference to Jo and who she ended up with. 4. The Girl With All The Gifts by M. R. Carey: I'll spoiler this just in case anyone wants to read it – it's more fun going into it with less info. So, zombies. I liked it a lot up until the middle bit where they're out in the open trying to survive. That part felt a lot less original, as it's more of a classic zombie thing. They smell you, they outrun you, you have to find shelter, deal with limited resources, etc. Felt familiar to a lot of other works. The ending, however, left me feeling weirdly uneasy, as it was not as clichéd as I had feared it would be. Overall, it was good! 5. The Maze Runner by James Dashner: This just wasn't great. The protagonist was bland as hell and didn't earn any of the ~special~ attributes that were just put on him for no reason whatsoever, the one girl who of course was both beautiful and magical had absolutely no function and virtually none of the plot made any logical sense. Despite all this I kept reading on though, so there's that. Goal: 5/45 Currently reading Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie. I actually don't know the story at all, and I've no idea who the murderer is. Seems good so far!
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Jan 29, 2015 18:35
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I've given it an embarrassing amount of thought and have decided to take on the booklord's challenge after all. So far: 1. The vanilla read a set number of books in a year. (5/45) 3. The non-white author 4. Philosophy 5. History 6. An essay 7. A collection of poetry 8. Something post-modern 9. Something absurdist 10. The Blind Owl 11. Something on either hate or love 12. Something dealing with space 13. Something dealing with the unreal 14. Wildcard (Some one else taking the challenge will tell you what to read) 15. Something published this year or the past three months 16. That one book that has been sitting on your desk waiting for a long time 17. A play 18. Biography 19. The color red 20. Something banned or censored 21. Short story(s) 22. A mystery Could someone wildcard me, please?
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Feb 3, 2015 10:16
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February update! 1. The vanilla read a set number of books in a year (12/45) 4. Philosophy 5. History 6. An essay 7. A collection of poetry 9. Something absurdist 11. Something on either hate or love 13. Something dealing with the unreal 15. Something published this year or the past three months 17. A play 18. Biography 19. The color red 20. Something banned or censored 21. Short story(s) oliven posted:Currently reading Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie. I actually don't know the story at all, and I've no idea who the murderer is. Seems good so far! 6. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie: My first time reading Agatha Christie (shameful, I know), and I have to say, it was really enjoyable! Might have to read more of her works. 7. The Martian by Andy Weir: I really liked this one. It's about a guy who is stranded on Mars after his crewmates are forced to abandon him during a dust storm. Unfortunately, everyone thinks he's dead and resources are limited. I know there's some criticism regarding the protagonist and the way he just sort of stumbles on to solutions to every possible problem he encounters, but at the same time, dude's an astronaut and has to adapt to things. If he couldn't solve problems, he shouldn't be there in the first place. Also it's probably worth mentioning that I don't know nearly enough science to tell whether or not any of the stuff that happens is scientifically accurate. But it was an enjoyable read for me, anyway. 8. The Blind Owl by Sadeq Hedayat: I'm having a hard time putting my feelings into words here. It was confusing, chaotic and captivating. I'll just leave it at that because I honestly don't know what else to say about it. 9. Anna på fredag by Helene Uri: My dad gave me this for Christmas a few years ago and I never got around to it until now (thanks, booklord challenge!). I'm not the target audience for it, but it was pretty good nonetheless. The book is meant to introduce basic linguistic theories in a story-driven manner: the protagonist meets some magic language girl who explains linguistic concepts to him while babysitting his sister. The theory is sound (mostly), the examples aren't terrible and while the story itself isn't amazing by any means, it still sort of works. I imagine I would have been really excited about it had I read it at age 13. 10. Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks: This was my wildcard (thanks, Mahlertov Cocktail!). The book explores the effect music has on the human mind, through anecdotes and (extremely brief) analyses. The anecdotes were fine, I guess, however we move so quickly from one story to the next that I never felt invested in any of them, and it gets repetative fast. In addition, Sacks makes a lot of sweeping statements based on his anecdotes that don't seem grounded in actual scientific studies ("a person wrote to me about his sister's husband's cousin, who was autistic and music helped him! Music cures cancer! Yay!"). I would probably care less about this if more of the anecdotes were actually interesting, but eh. 11. The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin: This book was really, really good. I struggled a bit with keeping track of the characters, but honestly that's my problem and not a fault of the book itself. The book is about an impending alien invasion of Earth, basically. A signal is broadcast into space in an attempt to establish contact with aliens, and an alien civilization on the brink of destruction picks it up and is now heading for Earth. This is the first book in a trilogy, the latter two books haven't been translated yet. Can't wait for the rest. 12. Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk: I remember the film as really good, but the book didn't really do it for me. I don't like Palahniuk's writing style. It's choppy and the repeated phrases and constant mentioning of names is distracting. A solid eh for me. Next up is... I'm not really sure! Either Catch-22 by Joseph Heller or The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. I haven't decided yet.
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Feb 28, 2015 10:24
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CestMoi posted:Please don't read FIght Club as your post modern book. Why not?
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Feb 28, 2015 17:35
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CestMoi posted:I realise that sometimes I call people stupid for reading bad books but this time I was genuinely saying that the guy should reconsider or at least not go away thinking FIght Club is representative of post modern ism I agree the book was bad, I even wrote as much in my post. Anyway, I know very little about literary genres, which is partly why I wanted to do the challenge in the first place. I saw the book mentioned a couple of places in reference to postmodern works and figured I'd give it a shot. I've removed it from my challenge list (unfortunately not from my general reading list, can't do much about that) and I'll find something else for the challenge.
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Mar 5, 2015 10:04
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March and April update! 1. The vanilla read a set number of books in a year (16/45) oliven posted:Next up is... I'm not really sure! Either Catch-22 by Joseph Heller or The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. I haven't decided yet. I did both. One was pleasant, one was not. 13. The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde: Pretty good! I've not read a lot of plays, and I think this is the first play I've read voluntarily (as in, not part of a class assignment). A fun, short read. 14. The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson: I appreciate Sanderson's efforts in continuing to develop the Mistborn universe. I really enjoyed the first Mistborn trilogy so it was nice to see it fast forwarded some three hundred years. Sanderson is really quite good at throwbacks to the previous books without being too obvious. I especially enjoyed how Spook's street slang is now considered some form of complicated "high" dialect reserved for scholars. 15. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller: I struggled to get through this to be quite honest. It's probably great or whatever but I did not enjoy it at all. It's making me question the whole idea of broadening my reading horizons. Jesus Christ. 16. The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett: I feel like this book is doing for me what Neil Gaiman's books are trying to do, but failing. Everything is magical and weird, but where Gaiman's books seem a little forced to me, The Colour of Magic just sort of works. It's quirky and a little disjointed, sure, but it's not necessarily for the sake of being weird, or if it is, I don't mind it as much. I get the sense that most of the plot points are more or less thought out, and even when the story shifts and gets really strange I don't find it annoying. Next up will probably be Unwind by Neal Shusterman.
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Apr 29, 2015 10:08
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thehomemaster posted:Goddamn, I don't see how anyone could not enjoy Catch-22. What exactly didn't you enjoy? I'm probably an uncivilized cretin, but I just could not get into it. Every single character was tedious, the circle arguments were ridiculous and I just cannot fathom that any of it would be remotely plausible at any point in any time. Maybe I'm missing the point and it's not supposed to be plausible. Maybe my sense of humour is terrible. Doc Daneeka being pronounced dead as he's loving standing right there is just... loving what, I don't know. Is it supposed to be funny? It just really wasn't my jam 
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Apr 29, 2015 13:29
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CestMoi posted:Even though I think you're a bit weird, please don't not expand your reading horizons because you didn't like this one book. That's fair. It was an exaggerated statement, not to be taken literally. I've already read a bunch of stuff I wouldn't normally pick up, so it's all good. Mahlertov Cocktail posted:Yeah if you don't think absurd illogical conclusions are funny then that book just might not be your speed. In retrospect it is possible I could have made a better choice, yeah.
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Apr 29, 2015 14:52
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Oops, I haven't posted since April. Also I'm way behind schedule. Oh well here goes: 1. The vanilla read a set number of books in a year (25/45) oliven posted:Next up will probably be Unwind by Neal Shusterman. 17. Unwind by Neal Shusterman: This one was alright, even though it's based on an absolutely ridiculous premise. In a not-so-distant future, the abortion debate resulted in a civil war and the outcome is that abortions are illegal, but between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, parents can have their child "unwound," whereby all of the child's organs are transplanted into different donors. For some reason, kids that are marked for unwinding is not ok with this and the book focuses on three kids who run away from this and try to survive. The best/worst part of the book was experiencing the actual unwinding process through an unwind's point of view. Though not obviously gross or whatever (no blood, nothing graphic) it made me extremely uncomfortable. I doubt I'll read the rest of the series but it was still a fairly enjoyable read. 18. Ubik by Philip K. Dick: I love this kind of old-timey sci-fi where the distant future is 1992 and absolutely outdated concepts (like payphones or whatever) are super advanced and people cannot live without them. Ubik explores existential concepts of life and death and everything inbetween. And psychic powers on the moon. I liked it. 19. The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson: Sanderson is so good at constructing these vivid worlds it almost makes me mad. In this one, people draw stuff with chalk, it comes to life, they fight, etc. Simple idea really, but well done nonetheless. 20. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North: This one started out a bit all over the place, but got a lot better eventually. It's about a guy who, when he dies, is returned to his child self with all his memories from previous lives intact. There are more people like this throughout the world, and some aim to change the natural course of history and basically end the world. An enjoyable read. 21. Perfect State by Brandon Sanderson: Short story that explores a sort of love story between two people who are both the most important person in their respective worlds. Short, but good. 22. Sphere by Michael Crichton: I didn't even realise this is from 1987. It doesn't read as "old" (or I don't know enough about equipment needed to survive on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean to spot the difference). It started out really good, and then quickly spiraled into "stuff happens because plot needs to move forward". It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. 23. You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) by Felicia Day: I've been a fan of Felicia Day's work since The Guild, so this was a fun read. I especially enjoyed the bits about putting the show together, and also the bits about her WoW addiction (not that I've been in a similar situation or anything). Pretty good overall! 24. Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King: Eh, this was alright. Vera is in love with her best friend Charlie, who acts like a dick towards her before dying in an accident. She knows all his secrets, including some details about his death, and struggles throughout on whether or not she should reveal his secrets and clear his name. The premise wasn't bad, I just didn't like some of the more "supernatural" aspects of it (which I guess is insane based on all the other poo poo I read, but whatever). 25. Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson: I don't even know what the gently caress happened here. This is the fourth Sanderson book I've read this year, and I've generally liked all his other stuff so far. This one, however, was just… Ugh. The main character was annoying, the twists predictable and the only female character with any sort of personality was literally just there to be erratic and moody for no reason, but don't worry about that because she's super hot and the main character still wants to sleep with her. What a mess. Currently reading Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger.
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Aug 25, 2015 13:14
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September! I've managed to get more or less back on schedule, so that's good. A few shorter reads this month, which makes the list look more impressive than it is  1. The vanilla read a set number of books in a year (37/45) oliven posted:Currently reading Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger. 26. Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger: Insufferable. 27. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell: Surprisingly not as messy as I thought it would be, considering that it's about a girl who writes a lot of fanfiction. Some parts were less convincing (the fictional excerpts from the in-universe author that was supposedly super famous for writing really well weren't great, for example), but overall I thought the main story was charming. 28. The Five Stages of Fascism by Robert O. Paxton: Turns out I knew very little about fascism, so this was an interesting read. 29. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley: Another classic I never got around to reading until now. I thought the universe was interesting and (sort of) well-constructed, however none of the characters really drew me in. Ultimately, I felt the idea was solid and the execution was so-so. 30. Samlede dikt by André Bjerke: Collection of poetry (literal title) by Norwegian poet André Bjerke. I remember reading his poems when I was a child, and they're still really good. 31. George by Alex Gino: George desperately wants to play the role of Charlotte in the class play version of Charlotte's Web. However, she's not even allowed to try out for the role because everyone thinks she's a boy. This story was short and sweet and not nearly as sad as I feared it would be. 32. We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: A great introduction to feminism. It's basic, sure, but it's well written and on point throughout. 33. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein: A story about two women (a spy and a pilot) during World War II. I don't normally care much for historical war stories or whatever but this was actually really good. The pace was slightly odd in places, but overall I enjoyed it a lot. 34. The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon: This didn't grab me at all. 35. Fear and Trembling by Søren Kierkegaard: Interesting discussion about the Binding of Isaac. Is Abraham sacrificing his son, or murdering him? One is ethical (ish), the other is not. 36. Asking For It by Louise O'Neill: This book was hard to get through. Not because it's not good (it is), but because of the subject matter. Emma is a narcissistic "mean girl" who gets sexually assaulted at a party by multiple people. She was drugged out and can't remember anything, but there's photos and videos and most people seem to think she has herself to blame. The book deals mostly with the aftermath and how she handles it all, not going into details of the actual assault, but it's still brutal as all hell. 37. The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness: I wish I knew the book ended in a cliffhanger before reading it, but oh well. It has a lot of cheap tricks like revealing some massive plot point to the protagonist, but not the reader, so it's all about his reaction to this terrible thing that we don't get to know about until the end of the book. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good enough to make me want to keep reading the series. Currently reading The Red Notebook by Antoine Laurain, which will wrap up the booklord challenge for me.
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Sep 28, 2015 13:31
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October update. I'm done with the booklord challenge, and almost done with my personal goal as well. It's been a good year for reading  1. The vanilla read a set number of books in a year (41/45) oliven posted:Currently reading The Red Notebook by Antoine Laurain, which will wrap up the booklord challenge for me. 38. The Red Notebook by Antoine Laurain: Oh, the age old romantic tale of a man stalking a woman based on items he found in her purse that was stolen. This would be pretty bad if it weren't for the fact that the woman is a stalker, too. In the end it turned out kind of charming, which was surprising as I was expecting the worst halfway through. 39. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien: Never got around to reading this until now, and after having read it I'm pretty impressed they managed to turn this into three full-length feature films. 40. The Mistake I Made by Paula Daly: A single mother in financial trouble is about to get evicted from her home unless she can conjure up a lot of money quickly. A guy offers her money for sex and it's a downward spiral from there. I very nearly didn't finish this one because I was so uncomfortable with one of the scenes early on, but I powered through and in the end I'm glad I did because the book was pretty good overall. 41. Shadows of Self by Brandon Sanderson: The latest addition to the Mistborn series. The first half was kind of underwhelming, but the story picked up after that and managed to throw in a pretty good, albeit somewhat predictable twist in the end. Currently reading Press Start to Play by Daniel H. Wilson and John Joseph Adams.
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Nov 2, 2015 09:40
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Mahlertov Cocktail posted:Impressed in a negative way, right?
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Nov 2, 2015 10:25
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November update! 1. The vanilla read a set number of books in a year (44/45) oliven posted:Currently reading Press Start to Play by Daniel H. Wilson and John Joseph Adams. 42. Press Start to Play by Daniel H. Wilson and John Joseph Adams: A collection of 26 video game related short stories by various authors. The majority of the stories had a sort of virtual reality "what is real, what isn't" theme and eventually it got pretty stale. A couple of the stories were downright bad but there were a few gems as well. 43. Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn: I'm having a bit of a hard time making my mind up about this one. It's supposed to be a fantasy novel set in feudal Japan, but pretty much all the Japanese elements are terribly inaccurate (and sometimes insulting). There was a romance subplot that was straight up dumb. But ignoring those two things, I kind of really liked it? 44. The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith: J.K. Rowling's first crime novel. I've seen some criticism regarding Rowling's language being unnatural or whatever, but I didn't really mind it. An enjoyable read for me. Currently reading All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill.
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Nov 30, 2015 09:03
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Final update of the year.oliven posted:Currently reading All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill. 45. All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill: A lot of the time I get terribly confused by stories about time travel. Sometimes it's just because the subject is mind-bending, other times the story just isn't done very well. This one was done pretty well I think, and was easy-ish to follow. I enjoyed it! I completed my own challenge and the booklord challenge  Here's my entire list:1. Looking for Alaska by John Green 2. Otherbound by Corinne Duyvi 3. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott 4. The Girl With All The Gifts by M. R. Carey 5. The Maze Runner by James Dashner 6. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie 7. The Martian by Andy Weir 8. The Blind Owl by Sadeq Hedayat 9. Anna på fredag by Helene Uri 10. Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks 11. The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin 12. Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk 13. The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde 14. The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson 15. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller 16. The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett 17. Unwind by Neal Shusterman 18. Ubik by Philip K. Dick 19. The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson 20. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North 21. Perfect State by Brandon Sanderson 22. Sphere by Michael Crichton 23. You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) by Felicia Day 24. Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King 25. Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson 26. Etiquette & Espionage by Gail Carriger 27. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell 28. The Five Stages of Fascism by Robert O. Paxton 29. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley 30. Samlede dikt by André Bjerke 31. George by Alex Gino 32. We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 33. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein 34. The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon 35. Fear and Trembling by Søren Kierkegaard 36. Asking For It by Louise O'Neill 37. The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness 38. The Red Notebook by Antoine Laurain 39. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien 40. The Mistake I Made by Paula Daly 41. Shadows of Self by Brandon Sanderson 42. Press Start to Play by Daniel H. Wilson and John Joseph Adams 43. Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn 44. The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith 45. All Our Yesterdays by Cristin Terrill
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Dec 29, 2015 13:08
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