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I'll do the same as last year: In for the challenge, minimum 40 books total, at least 10 Norwegians, at least 5 nonfiction books, at most 5 re-reads. Will accept wildcard suggestions right now.
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Dec 28, 2015 08:06
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My situation is similar to ToxicFrog's; have small children and a full-time job (actually my most reliable reading time is on the bus commute to and from work). Before, I could easily get through two or three average-sized books per week, and kept that up from middle school through university and the first several years post-graduation. Back then, 150 books in a year would be a modest goal for me, 200 would be possible. It was the kids that did it, really. They steal your time but also your ability to concentrate. When my wife was going into the hospital to give birth to #1, I correctly presumed there would be a lot of waiting time, so I brought a big book along (Toll the Hounds, #8 in the Malazan Books of the Fallen series). I had some leave and vacation time and was absent from work for... I believe it was six weeks. Was still reading the same drat book. And when the next in the series came out a year later I had to reread it because I couldn't remember a drat thing I'd read.
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Dec 29, 2015 21:48
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Started on book #1, which will be Lemmy's autobiography. Seemed like a natural choice.
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Jan 1, 2016 13:47
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Captain Vittles posted:I failed last year's challenge spectacularly for a variety of reasons that don't really matter. I've set a ludicrously low challenge for this year of 12 books, which means I'm obviously not doing the Booklord challenge. What, like you can't manage to find books that fit two or more points in the challenge? (Actually it would be kind of interesting to try to complete the challenge with as few books as possible.)
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Jan 2, 2016 09:33
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Dienes posted:Aw, I'm disappointed. I was going to give you I Don't: A Contrarian History of Marriage for your wildcard. I'm stealing it! Looks interesting.
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Jan 5, 2016 23:53
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Okay; update through January: 1. White Line Fever by Lemmy Kilmister. His autobiography, published in 2002; starting off the year with this seemed like a no-brainer choice given that he passed away just a few days before. Very readable, told in a chatty style with plenty of self-irony. Sex, drugs and rock'n'roll, especially drugs. All the drugs. 2. Slåttekar i himmelen by Edvard Hoem. (Title would translate as "Harvestman in Heaven".) Hoem has been a big important Norwegian author for the past 40 years or so and I've only read a little of his stuff before. Got this book for Christmas; and it turned out to be extremely my thing. It is a semi-biographical novel about the author's own great-grandfather and his extended family, taking place in the 1870s, 1880s and 1890s; it doesn't qualify as a biography or as non-fiction due to a paucity of known facts about these people but the author has taken pains to make the story conform to what facts are known -- births, deaths, marriages, emigration, etc. It is a very introspective and... I would say lyrical look into the lives of some relatively ordinary Norwegians a century before my birth; additionally, it takes place one or two fjords over from where I grew up (apart from the bits that follow people who emigrate to the Americas). Places I've been to repeatedly, local history up the wazoo, people that might just as easily have been my own great-grandparents, etc. Basically, this novel sings the song of my people, and it sings it beautifully. There are hardships and sorrows but it's also full of joy and love. 3. Half the World by Joe Abercrombie. #2 in a series of ostensibly young-adult fantasy (read #1 last year, will be reading #3 later). Abercrombie is already one of my favourite nerd-genre authors, I've read all his previous stuff, and the main indication that this is supposedly "young adult" is a bit less foul language, slightly less graphic violence (but still lots of blood), and younger protagonists. Enjoyed this quite a lot, it's basically the Viking Age all over again in far-future post-apocalyptic Europe (if you pay attention). 4. Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome. (Technically not quite done with this yet but will be this weekend). Picked it up because it was BOTM for January and also it's been on the long long list of books I've known about and wanted to read for a very long time, since there are references to it all over the place. A very smooth and easy read with a great deal of funny bits. Booklord challenge: 1) Vanilla Number - 4/40 2) Something written by a woman 3) Something Written by a nonwhite author 4) Something written in the 1800s - Three Men in a Boat 5) Something History Related (fictional or non-fiction your choice) - Slåttekar i himmelen 6) A book about or narrated by an animal 7) A collection of essays. 8) A work of Science Fiction 9) Something written by a musician - White Line Fever 10) Read a long book, something over 500 pages 11) Read something about or set in NYC 12) Read Airplane fiction (Patterson, ect) 13) Read Something YA - Half the World 14) Wildcard! 15) Something recently published (up to a year. The year will be the day you start this challenge) - Half the World 16) That one book you’ve wanted to read for a while now. - Three Men in a Boat 17) The First book in a series 18) A biography or autobiography - White Line Fever 19) Read something from the lost generation (Fitzgerald, Hemmingway, ect.) or from the Beat Genneration 20) Read a banned book 21) A Short Story collection 22) It’s a Mystery. Additional individual challenge: Norwegians: 1/10 Non-fiction: 1/5 Max re-reads: 0/5 Off to a decent start; I'm going to let myself count the same book for more than one points in the challenge if applicable (but also list multiple matches).
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Jan 29, 2016 16:33
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ltr posted:Barrayar will forever change the definition of shopping in my mind. That is such a good scene.
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Feb 2, 2016 10:16
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High Warlord Zog posted:
The Bloody White Baron by James Palmer. It's about this guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roman_von_Ungern-Sternberg
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Feb 16, 2016 06:26
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February update. Previously: 1. White Line Fever by Lemmy Kilmister. 2. Slåttekar i himmelen by Edvard Hoem. 3. Half the World by Joe Abercrombie. 4. Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome. New: 5. I Don't: A Contrarian History of Marriage by Susan Squire. Stole this as my wildcard book (someone else didn't want it). It was entertaining enough, although the scope was a bit more limited and shallow than I'd expected (basically it looked at marriage in a European/Christian context and ended with the dawn of the early modern age). No big revelations or shocks for this reader, at least. I rated it as okay. 6. Anabasis by Xenophon. This was February's BOTM and I jumped on it although I'd read it before (that was many years ago in college). Read the Dakyns translation which was free on Kindle, the English was a bit old-fashioned and stodgy but not painfully so (have read much, much worse before and managed to enjoy that as well). Big drat classic eye-witness tale of desperate military adventure, has been ripped off a zillion times by mil-SF writers alone (never mind writers outside that subgenre). Especially hilarious how Xenophon keeps presenting himself as the smartest yet humblest guy and the voice of reason who always has the best ideas. 7.-9. The Apocalypse Triptych: The End is Nigh, The End is Now, The End has Come edited by John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howey. Picked up these because some goon mentioned them and blazed through all three concurrently. These are three short-story collections with stories mostly by the same authors where most of those stories are sequels to each other, and the division is roughly such that the first volume is about the run-up to and/or the early stages of some sort of apocalypse, the second is right in the middle of the poo poo and the third is about the aftermath/consequences. I made a little chart and read the stories by each author in sequence, as far as it was applicable. Like most such collections the quality and personal appeal (to me) of the stories varied quite a lot; mostly it was quite enjoyable and I found several new-to-me authors that I will be looking to read more from. 10. Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck. Randomly found a copy of (an old Norwegian translation of) this book at my parents' place, thought to myself "Isn't Steinbeck counted as a Lost Generation writer and isn't that one of the points in the Booklord challenge?; also, I've never actually read any Steinbeck," so I took it from the shelf and read it. Even though I quickly found out that it is in fact the sequel to a more famous book of his, it was funny as poo poo and had some downright beautiful prose (even in translation) plus memorably quirky characters. Not going to be my last Steinbeck, if I can help it. 11. Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen by Lois McMaster Bujold. So-far-last (and feeling pretty final) in the long-running Vorkosigan series (it's been 30 years since the first came out, 20-something years since I discovered them). A fairly tranquil plot about mature romance and personal life choices, but hell, Bujold could write a recipe book and I'd be all over it. This book just gave me the warm fuzzies all over and infused me with a deep and abiding love for all living things (which will probably last until the next time I hear a report of someone being an rear end in a top hat). Yeah, February was a pretty good month, in part because I had a whole week off with only the oldest of my three kids to watch, which left me with several hours of reading time per day. So am well ahead of the curve in most respects. There will be other months in 2016 with much less reading time. Booklord challenge: 1) Vanilla Number - 11/40 2) Something written by a woman- I Don't, Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen 3) Something Written by a nonwhite author 4) Something written in the 1800s - Three Men in a Boat 5) Something History Related (fictional or non-fiction your choice) - Slåttekar i himmelen, Anabasis 6) A book about or narrated by an animal 7) A collection of essays. 8) A work of Science Fiction - much of The Apocalypse Triptych, Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen 9) Something written by a musician - White Line Fever 10) Read a long book, something over 500 pages 11) Read something about or set in NYC 12) Read Airplane fiction (Patterson, ect) 13) Read Something YA - Half the World 14) Wildcard! - I Don't 15) Something recently published (up to a year. The year will be the day you start this challenge) - Half the World 16) That one book you’ve wanted to read for a while now. - Three Men in a Boat 17) The First book in a series 18) A biography or autobiography - White Line Fever 19) Read something from the lost generation (Fitzgerald, Hemmingway, ect.) or from the Beat Genneration - Sweet Thursday 20) Read a banned book 21) A Short Story collection - all volumes of The Apocalypse Triptych 22) It’s a Mystery. Additional individual challenge: Norwegians: 1/10 Non-fiction: 3/5 Max re-reads: 1/5 BONUS INDIVIDUAL CHALLENGE: What the hell, I've followed the BOTM for both January and February; I'm going to keep doing that for the rest of the year. (Escape clause: Will reserve the option to skip books I've already read.)
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Feb 29, 2016 12:48
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March update. Previously: 1. White Line Fever by Lemmy Kilmister. 2. Slåttekar i himmelen by Edvard Hoem. 3. Half the World by Joe Abercrombie. 4. Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome. 5. I Don't: A Contrarian History of Marriage by Susan Squire. 6. Anabasis by Xenophon. 7.-9. The Apocalypse Triptych: The End is Nigh, The End is Now, The End has Come edited by John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howey. 10. Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck. 11. Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen by Lois McMaster Bujold. New: 12. Red Rising by Pierce Brown. Supposedly YA and the first of a series, it's set in a dystopian future where human civilization is interplanetary and stratified into social classes which are colour-coded. The ruthless Golds rule everything, the Reds are basically slaves, in between are a bunch of other specialized classes. Plot follows a young man of the Red class who is infiltrated into the Gold ranks in order to try to gently caress everything up. Liked this a lot; I guess it's not really groundbreaking or anything but it moves along very nicely and the author's voice is... I guess "kinetic" is a good word. Will read the rest. 13. Demon Dentist by David Walliams. Okay, so it's a children's book and I read this aloud to my seven-year-old but I'm drat well counting it, it's over 400 pages. First encounter with this author (and in fact the first time we've succeeded at keeping the kid's attention for longer than a Horrid Henry book), it was funny as poo poo and both a bit spooky and sad (not to mention full of gross and disgusting imagery). The main character is an impoverished young boy living with his disabled (and slowly dying from lung disease) father, and suffering from horrible dental hygiene; the town's dentist is mysteriously killed and a new lady dentist takes over, and there's something not entirely right about her... I gather Walliams is sometimes compared to a modern-day Roald Dahl and I can see the point. March has been a much slower month for reading; started on Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose as that is the BOTM for March, but am very unlikely to complete it until a few days into April. Booklord challenge: 1) Vanilla Number - 13/40 2) Something written by a woman- I Don't, Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen 3) Something Written by a nonwhite author 4) Something written in the 1800s - Three Men in a Boat 5) Something History Related (fictional or non-fiction your choice) - Slåttekar i himmelen, Anabasis 6) A book about or narrated by an animal 7) A collection of essays. 8) A work of Science Fiction - much of The Apocalypse Triptych, Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, Red Rising 9) Something written by a musician - White Line Fever 10) Read a long book, something over 500 pages 11) Read something about or set in NYC 12) Read Airplane fiction (Patterson, ect) 13) Read Something YA - Half the World, Red Rising 14) Wildcard! - I Don't 15) Something recently published (up to a year. The year will be the day you start this challenge) - Half the World 16) That one book you’ve wanted to read for a while now. - Three Men in a Boat 17) The First book in a series - Red Rising 18) A biography or autobiography - White Line Fever 19) Read something from the lost generation (Fitzgerald, Hemmingway, ect.) or from the Beat Genneration - Sweet Thursday 20) Read a banned book 21) A Short Story collection - all volumes of The Apocalypse Triptych 22) It’s a Mystery. Additional individual challenge: Norwegians: 1/10 Non-fiction: 3/5 Max re-reads: 1/5 BONUS INDIVIDUAL CHALLENGE: What the hell, I've followed the BOTM for both January and February; I'm going to keep doing that for the rest of the year. (Escape clause: Will reserve the option to skip books I've already read.)
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Mar 30, 2016 10:22
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April update. Previously: 1. White Line Fever by Lemmy Kilmister. 2. Slåttekar i himmelen by Edvard Hoem. 3. Half the World by Joe Abercrombie. 4. Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome. 5. I Don't: A Contrarian History of Marriage by Susan Squire. 6. Anabasis by Xenophon. 7.-9. The Apocalypse Triptych: The End is Nigh, The End is Now, The End has Come edited by John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howey. 10. Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck. 11. Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen by Lois McMaster Bujold. 12. Red Rising by Pierce Brown. 13. Demon Dentist by David Walliams. New: 14. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. Read this at least a couple of times before but the last time was quite a few years ago already so no harm in a reread. This has stood as my "if I had to choose one favourite book..." for like twenty years and still does; I could gush and gush but won't bother. It's basically perfect. Took me forever to complete though since these several weeks have been hosed as far as private reading time goes. 15. Half a War by Joe Abercrombie. #3 and last in its trilogy; putatively YA (although with Abercrombie that doesn't mean much), post-apocalyptic (more clearly so than in books #1 and #2) fantasy. Good poo poo, saw a couple of the plot twists coming but not all of them. 16. Plain Tales from the Hills by Rudyard Kipling. A collection of short stories written early in the man's career, lots of little amusing slice-of-life bits from colonial India where the British empire is mainly seen as a Good Thing but not universally a competent thing. Quite readable although reading it all in a row was a bit much. 17. Doktor Proktors Prompepulver by Jo Nesbø. Title translates as "Dr. Proctor's Fart Powder"; a children's/young adult book by a big-name Norwegian author who is otherwise mostly known for very gritty crime drama (part of the Scandinavian Noir thing). Read this aloud to my seven-year-old and am bloody well counting it as it's over 200 pages and it's a pretty funny read for an adult as well. The plot involves a benign mad scientist who invents a powder that makes people fart hard enough to potentially send them into orbit. It's much less vulgar than that makes it sound, although it does also involve man-eating sewer anacondas and stuff. Am currently halfway through Acceptance by Jeff VanderMeer, obviously not going to finish it before the end of the month (which in my time zone happened while I was typing up this post). Booklord challenge: 1) Vanilla Number - 17/40 2) Something written by a woman- I Don't, Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen 3) Something Written by a nonwhite author 4) Something written in the 1800s - Three Men in a Boat, Plain Tales from the Hills 5) Something History Related (fictional or non-fiction your choice) - Slåttekar i himmelen, Anabasis, The Name of the Rose 6) A book about or narrated by an animal 7) A collection of essays. 8) A work of Science Fiction - much of The Apocalypse Triptych, Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, Red Rising, Half a War 9) Something written by a musician - White Line Fever 10) Read a long book, something over 500 pages - The Name of the Rose 11) Read something about or set in NYC 12) Read Airplane fiction (Patterson, ect) 13) Read Something YA - Half the World, Red Rising, Half a War 14) Wildcard! - I Don't 15) Something recently published (up to a year. The year will be the day you start this challenge) - Half the World, Half a War 16) That one book you’ve wanted to read for a while now. - Three Men in a Boat 17) The First book in a series - Red Rising 18) A biography or autobiography - White Line Fever 19) Read something from the lost generation (Fitzgerald, Hemmingway, ect.) or from the Beat Genneration - Sweet Thursday 20) Read a banned book 21) A Short Story collection - all volumes of The Apocalypse Triptych 22) It’s a Mystery.- The Name of the Rose Additional individual challenge: Norwegians: 2/10 Non-fiction: 3/5 Max re-reads: 2/5 BONUS INDIVIDUAL CHALLENGE: What the hell, I've followed the BOTM for both January and February; I'm going to keep doing that for the rest of the year. (Escape clause: Will reserve the option to skip books I've already read.) Still 4 for 4 on this although it took me a good chunk of April to finish the BOTM for March.
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Apr 30, 2016 23:04
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May update. Previously: 1. White Line Fever by Lemmy Kilmister. 2. Slåttekar i himmelen by Edvard Hoem. 3. Half the World by Joe Abercrombie. 4. Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome. 5. I Don't: A Contrarian History of Marriage by Susan Squire. 6. Anabasis by Xenophon. 7.-9. The Apocalypse Triptych: The End is Nigh, The End is Now, The End has Come edited by John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howey. 10. Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck. 11. Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen by Lois McMaster Bujold. 12. Red Rising by Pierce Brown. 13. Demon Dentist by David Walliams. 14. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. 16. Plain Tales from the Hills by Rudyard Kipling. 17. Doktor Proktors Prompepulver by Jo Nesbø. New; it's been a pretty good month for reading, again: 18. Acceptance by Jeff VanderMeer. This was some weird poo poo. Liked it. 19. The Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Yukio Mishima. BOTM for May and a hell of a good one, one of the most interesting depictions of mental illness I've ever read. A fictionalized telling of a historical incident (well, recent/current events when it was written in the mid-50s) where an important Buddhist temple was burned down by one of its own monks. 20. Før jeg brenner ned by Gaute Heivoll. (Translates as "Before I burn down" -- the actual English translation is simply titled "Before I Burn"). Accidentally did a paired reading of thematically similar novels here; Heivoll is a swiftly rising star in contemporary Norwegian literature and this 2010 novel was his big breakthrough. Like the Mishima, it's about a historical case of arson; in this case, a pyromaniac who went on an arson spree in the rural southern Norwegian area where Heivoll himself grew up, right around the time in the late 1970s when Heivoll was a baby (in fact Heivoll's own baptism coincided with the arson spree). Unlike the Mishima, it's not told from the perpetrator's viewpoint but from the author's, as it's about half and half the story of the arsonist's journey from promising young man to hated criminal, and the author's own journey decades later from promising young man to... successful author. And also the story of how the author himself pieces together the story of the arsonist. Beautiful book, in parts elegiac, asks more questions than it answers. 21. Billionaire Boy by David Walliams. Read this aloud to my 7-year-old. Pretty funny story about how money can't buy happiness. Fair amount of absurd kids' humour. 22. Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Large-scale SF about humans trying to survive the death of the Earth by escaping to a planet terraformed by the previous human civilization... where in the meantime an unintended consequence of the terraforming project has given birth to a distinctly non-human civilization. It's giant loving spiders, baby! Liked this quite a lot. Booklord challenge: 1) Vanilla Number - 22/40 2) Something written by a woman- I Don't, Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen 3) Something Written by a nonwhite author - Temple of the Golden Pavilion 4) Something written in the 1800s - Three Men in a Boat, Plain Tales from the Hills 5) Something History Related (fictional or non-fiction your choice) - Slåttekar i himmelen, Anabasis, The Name of the Rose 6) A book about or narrated by an animal 7) A collection of essays. 8) A work of Science Fiction - much of The Apocalypse Triptych, Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, Red Rising, Half a War, Acceptance, Children of Time 9) Something written by a musician - White Line Fever 10) Read a long book, something over 500 pages - The Name of the Rose 11) Read something about or set in NYC 12) Read Airplane fiction (Patterson, ect) 13) Read Something YA - Half the World, Red Rising, Half a War 14) Wildcard! - I Don't 15) Something recently published (up to a year. The year will be the day you start this challenge) - Half the World, Half a War, Children of Time 16) That one book you’ve wanted to read for a while now. - Three Men in a Boat 17) The First book in a series - Red Rising 18) A biography or autobiography - White Line Fever, Før jeg brenner ned 19) Read something from the lost generation (Fitzgerald, Hemmingway, ect.) or from the Beat Genneration - Sweet Thursday 20) Read a banned book 21) A Short Story collection - all volumes of The Apocalypse Triptych 22) It’s a Mystery.- The Name of the Rose Additional individual challenge: Norwegians: 3/10 Non-fiction: 3/5 Max re-reads: 2/5 BONUS INDIVIDUAL CHALLENGE: What the hell, I've followed the BOTM for both January and February; I'm going to keep doing that for the rest of the year. (Escape clause: Will reserve the option to skip books I've already read.) 5 for 5 on this.
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May 31, 2016 18:22
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McCarthy is such a ray of sunshine; I made the mistake of reading The Road right around the time my first son was born and I guess that's probably the best book I'm never going to reread as long as I live. Edit: me spel gud Groke fucked around with this message at 23:57 on Jun 6, 2016 |
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Jun 6, 2016 18:17
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June update. Previously: 1. White Line Fever by Lemmy Kilmister. 2. Slåttekar i himmelen by Edvard Hoem. 3. Half the World by Joe Abercrombie. 4. Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome. 5. I Don't: A Contrarian History of Marriage by Susan Squire. 6. Anabasis by Xenophon. 7.-9. The Apocalypse Triptych: The End is Nigh, The End is Now, The End has Come edited by John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howey. 10. Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck. 11. Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen by Lois McMaster Bujold. 12. Red Rising by Pierce Brown. 13. Demon Dentist by David Walliams. 14. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. 16. Plain Tales from the Hills by Rudyard Kipling. 17. Doktor Proktors Prompepulver by Jo Nesbø. 18. Acceptance by Jeff VanderMeer. 19. The Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Yukio Mishima. 20. Før jeg brenner ned by Gaute Heivoll. 21. Billionaire Boy by David Walliams. 22. Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. New: 23. The Quiet Game by Greg Iles. First in a series of thrillers starring a former prosecutor-turned-author who moves back to his Mississippi hometown and begins digging into a thirty-year-old murder case heavily connected with the southern US race thing. Very fine example of its genre, will be reading more from this guy. 24. The Vegetarian by Han Kang. BOTM for June, a short but bitter treatment of (among other things) the role of women in modern Korean society. Interesting and worthwhile although far from a comfort read. 25. Maurtuemordene by Hans Olav Lahlum. #6 in this Norwegian near-history crime series (he's up to 1972 now). Again a pretty good read (I think I'd probably think the main protagonist/narrator was a bit of an unlikeable dick if I knew him in person, but this does not diminish my enjoyment of reading about him). 26. Luna: New Moon by Ian McDonald. This was pretty great as well, anarchocapitalist moon colony dystopia with more backstabbing than Game of Thrones in fewer pages. I'd read the man's debut novel way back in the day (Desolation Road) and loved it a bunch but somehow never read anything else by him until now. A mistake to be rectified. Booklord challenge: 1) Vanilla Number - 26/40 2) Something written by a woman- I Don't, Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, The Vegetarian 3) Something Written by a nonwhite author - Temple of the Golden Pavilion, The Vegetarian 4) Something written in the 1800s - Three Men in a Boat, Plain Tales from the Hills 5) Something History Related (fictional or non-fiction your choice) - Slåttekar i himmelen, Anabasis, The Name of the Rose 6) A book about or narrated by an animal 7) A collection of essays. 8) A work of Science Fiction - much of The Apocalypse Triptych, Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, Red Rising, Half a War, Acceptance, Children of Time, Luna: New Moon 9) Something written by a musician - White Line Fever 10) Read a long book, something over 500 pages - The Name of the Rose, The Quiet Game 11) Read something about or set in NYC 12) Read Airplane fiction (Patterson, ect) 13) Read Something YA - Half the World, Red Rising, Half a War 14) Wildcard! - I Don't 15) Something recently published (up to a year. The year will be the day you start this challenge) - Half the World, Half a War, Children of Time, Luna: New Moon 16) That one book you’ve wanted to read for a while now. - Three Men in a Boat 17) The First book in a series - Red Rising, The Quiet Game, Luna: New Moon 18) A biography or autobiography - White Line Fever, Før jeg brenner ned 19) Read something from the lost generation (Fitzgerald, Hemmingway, ect.) or from the Beat Genneration - Sweet Thursday 20) Read a banned book 21) A Short Story collection - all volumes of The Apocalypse Triptych 22) It’s a Mystery.- The Name of the Rose, The Quiet Game, Maurtuemordene Additional individual challenge: Norwegians: 4/10 Non-fiction: 3/5 Max re-reads: 2/5 BONUS INDIVIDUAL CHALLENGE: What the hell, I've followed the BOTM for both January and February; I'm going to keep doing that for the rest of the year. (Escape clause: Will reserve the option to skip books I've already read.) 6 for 6 on this.
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Jul 1, 2016 07:57
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ulvir posted:you're in norway right, where did you get a hold of this book? through amazon? Yep. Also hi, fellow Scream forum user. I have a Kindle bought from Amazon.com and buy stuff from the Kindle store in US dollars. This book was readily available there.
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Jul 2, 2016 17:26
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ulvir posted:also sup. I only lurk the lit thread cause almost everyone there hold absolutely terrible political opinions though Whole place is increasingly kinda dead anyway.
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Jul 5, 2016 16:42
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Not posting a July update because on vacation with only an iPad and no real keyboard, so it's too much of a PITA to type a post longer than a couple of sentences (especially since the drat browser app keeps crashing). Good month for reading though, am up to 32 books out of my year-goal of 40, so that was arguably a bit pessimistic.
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Jul 30, 2016 20:15
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Didn't post a July update on account of being on vacation with only an iPad to type on (but it's been a pretty good summer for reading), so this is a two-month update through August: Previously: 1. White Line Fever by Lemmy Kilmister. 2. Slåttekar i himmelen by Edvard Hoem. 3. Half the World by Joe Abercrombie. 4. Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome. 5. I Don't: A Contrarian History of Marriage by Susan Squire. 6. Anabasis by Xenophon. 7.-9. The Apocalypse Triptych: The End is Nigh, The End is Now, The End has Come edited by John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howey. 10. Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck. 11. Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen by Lois McMaster Bujold. 12. Red Rising by Pierce Brown. 13. Demon Dentist by David Walliams. 14. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. 16. Plain Tales from the Hills by Rudyard Kipling. 17. Doktor Proktors Prompepulver by Jo Nesbø. 18. Acceptance by Jeff VanderMeer. 19. The Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Yukio Mishima. 20. Før jeg brenner ned by Gaute Heivoll. 21. Billionaire Boy by David Walliams. 22. Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. 23. The Quiet Game by Greg Iles. 24. The Vegetarian by Han Kang. 25. Maurtuemordene by Hans Olav Lahlum. 26. Luna: New Moon by Ian McDonald. New: 27. Destroyermen: Blood in the Water by Taylor Anderson. #n+1 in an increasingly long alternate-Earth mil-sf series. Still enjoyable although it's arguably (like the multi-front war it depicts) turning into something of a slog. 28. Gangsta Granny by David Walliams. Read this aloud to #1 son, again. Heartwarming little tale about appreciating and loving one's older family members, and stealing the Crown Jewels. 29. The Nightmare Stacks by Charles Stross. Latest entry in the Laundry series, where geeks and spooks try to fend off Cthulhu. Lots of poo poo hitting the fan in this one, status quo upset, liked it. 30. The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. Very nice character-centered space-opera travelogue. Overall very positive and sweet, liked it a lot. 31. Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees. BOTM for July. Somewhat obscure fantasy classic from 1929, from before all the genre clichés existed. Mundaneity vs. the fantastic; acceptance vs. denial. Beautiful prose. Great book. 32. Ratburger by David Walliams. Again, read aloud to #1 son. Pre-teen girl with alcoholic depressed unemployed dad and horrible evil chav stepmother fights murderous pest control/fast-food chef guy to save her pet rat. Grotesque and funny, and pretty heartwarming -- like all the other David Walliams books we've read. 33. Sønnen ("The Son") by Jon Nesbø. Nesbø is Norway's #1 best-selling author by some ridiculous margin -- he's got a double career going both as a writer of gritty crime thrillers for adults, and very funny children's books (see #17 above), several of which have been made into films, etc. (Dude is also a singer and musician and was in one of the more successful Norwegian groups in the 1990s.) This falls in the former category, and unlike most of his books it's a standalone (most of them are part of a long series starring a more or less alcoholic cop/ex-cop/re-cop). It's set in modern-day Norway and shows a gritty, violent picture of the criminal underworld and corrupted justice system which stops just short of parody. The action is pretty riveting (dude knows his craft) and the characters are cool and the plot is just a tiiiiiiny bit contrived. A good read. 34. Svein og rotta i syden by Marit Nicolaysen. Another children's book, read aloud to #1 son... this one is from a Norwegian series about a boy and his pet rat who have various semi-plausible adventures in a mostly realistic setting. In this one, the boy goes on a charter holiday with his family and smuggles the rat onto the plane, various hijinks ensue. Amusing but pretty lightweight fare compared to the Walliams books. 35. Døden ved vann ("Death by water") by Torkil Damhaug. Another Norwegian crime-thriller author, new to me although he's been doing it for a while and has a number of books out. Found this lying around in our vacation house. My first thought on picking this up was curiosity as to whether the title actually was a reference to The Waste Land, and this was confirmed about 20 pages in... very good stuff. Psychological twisty crime intrigue. In the 1990s, a boy is on the charter holiday from hell with his family (alcohol, emotional abuse, etc.) and is driven close to suicide but is talked out of it by a weird man who may have ulterior motives. A decade or so later, a completely unrelated young Norwegian woman is living a semi-debauched life in Amsterdam but then her sister disappears mysteriously. Transgressions and consequences. Author is originally a psychiatrist and draws on his professional and academic knowledge quite a bit. 36. Ildmannen ("The Man of Fire" would be a good translation) by Torkil Damhaug. Another decade-spanning psycho-crime-thriller. Damhaug is pretty good at keeping the reader guessing and showing just enough of various characters' internal workings to make the plot extra-interesting. In this one, a Norwegian high school student is having some complicated problems in that he's 1) involved with a girl from an immigrant community that frowns on outsiders getting involved with their girls, 2) also becoming involved with some kind of rather dubious anti-immigrant group, and 3) possibly suspected of a string of arsons. Then, some completely unexpected poo poo happens and that's about all I'm going to say about that. Bonus points for being mostly set around the area where I live so a bunch of familiar places show up (the author either lives or has lived around here as well). Some of the cops and other supporting characters are the same as in the previous book but these guys aren't really significant enough to make this a "series" as such. 37. Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov. BOTM for August. Ha, this ruled, Nabokov must have made a lot of people very confused when he published this in 1962. It's a modern epic poem about the life and sorrows of a fictional poet, written just before said poet's untimely death, and edited and published with lengthy commentary by his fictional neighbor and "best friend". Who uses most of the footnotes and commentary to talk about himself and/or making up a load of poo poo about a non-existent country and the daring escape of its monarch from revolutionary forces. There are levels and wheels within wheels. Classic. Currently about half-way through The Big Book of Science Fiction and also randomly reading Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay one essay at a time inbetween other things. Booklord challenge: 1) Vanilla Number - 37/40 2) Something written by a woman- I Don't, Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, The Vegetarian, The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, Lud-in-the-Mist, Svein og rotta i syden 3) Something Written by a nonwhite author - Temple of the Golden Pavilion, The Vegetarian 4) Something written in the 1800s - Three Men in a Boat, Plain Tales from the Hills 5) Something History Related (fictional or non-fiction your choice) - Slåttekar i himmelen, Anabasis, The Name of the Rose 6) A book about or narrated by an animal 7) A collection of essays. 8) A work of Science Fiction - much of The Apocalypse Triptych, Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, Red Rising, Half a War, Acceptance, Children of Time, Luna: New Moon, others 9) Something written by a musician - White Line Fever 10) Read a long book, something over 500 pages - The Name of the Rose, The Quiet Game 11) Read something about or set in NYC 12) Read Airplane fiction (Patterson, ect) - Sønnen definitely qualifies for this 13) Read Something YA - Half the World, Red Rising, Half a War 14) Wildcard! - I Don't 15) Something recently published (up to a year. The year will be the day you start this challenge) - Half the World, Half a War, Children of Time, Luna: New Moon 16) That one book you’ve wanted to read for a while now. - Three Men in a Boat 17) The First book in a series - Red Rising, The Quiet Game, Luna: New Moon 18) A biography or autobiography - White Line Fever, Før jeg brenner ned 19) Read something from the lost generation (Fitzgerald, Hemmingway, ect.) or from the Beat Generation - Sweet Thursday 20) Read a banned book 21) A Short Story collection - all volumes of The Apocalypse Triptych 22) It’s a Mystery.- The Name of the Rose, The Quiet Game, Maurtuemordene, Sønnen, Døden ved vann, Ildmannen Additional individual challenge: Norwegians: 8/10 Non-fiction: 3/5 Max re-reads: 2/5 BONUS INDIVIDUAL CHALLENGE: What the hell, I've followed the BOTM for both January and February; I'm going to keep doing that for the rest of the year. (Escape clause: Will reserve the option to skip books I've already read.) 8 for 8 on this. So far, looks like I'm going to overshoot the 40-book goal by quite a bit; only have left four of the booklord challenges... this is all going rather swimmingly. Groke fucked around with this message at 11:29 on Aug 30, 2016 |
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Aug 30, 2016 11:25
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Somehow forgot to post a September update so this is for both September and October. Previously: 1. White Line Fever by Lemmy Kilmister. 2. Slåttekar i himmelen by Edvard Hoem. 3. Half the World by Joe Abercrombie. 4. Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome. 5. I Don't: A Contrarian History of Marriage by Susan Squire. 6. Anabasis by Xenophon. 7.-9. The Apocalypse Triptych: The End is Nigh, The End is Now, The End has Come edited by John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howey. 10. Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck. 11. Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen by Lois McMaster Bujold. 12. Red Rising by Pierce Brown. 13. Demon Dentist by David Walliams. 14. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. 16. Plain Tales from the Hills by Rudyard Kipling. 17. Doktor Proktors Prompepulver by Jo Nesbø. 18. Acceptance by Jeff VanderMeer. 19. The Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Yukio Mishima. 20. Før jeg brenner ned by Gaute Heivoll. 21. Billionaire Boy by David Walliams. 22. Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. 23. The Quiet Game by Greg Iles. 24. The Vegetarian by Han Kang. 25. Maurtuemordene by Hans Olav Lahlum. 26. Luna: New Moon by Ian McDonald. 27. Destroyermen: Blood in the Water by Taylor Anderson. 28. Gangsta Granny by David Walliams. 29. The Nightmare Stacks by Charles Stross. 30. The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. 31. Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees. 32. Ratburger by David Walliams. 33. Sønnen ("The Son") by Jon Nesbø. 34. Svein og rotta i syden by Marit Nicolaysen. 35. Døden ved vann ("Death by water") by Torkil Damhaug. 36. Ildmannen ("The Man of Fire" would be a good translation) by Torkil Damhaug. 37. Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov. New: 38. Stoner by John Williams. A low-key portrayal of the life of an obscure American academic mostly across the first half of the 20th century. Beautiful, quiet book, originally published in 1965 and then sort of rediscovered in more recent years. 39. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse. BOTM for September. Arguably a case of "eastern religious philosophy for dumb westerners 101" from the 1920s, but drat, it was a pretty enjoyable read. 40. Thornghost by Tone Almhjell. YA fantasy by a "new" Norwegian author, this is actually her second book to be published. The author was in my circle of nerd friends in high school and we spent many hours playing D&D and Shadowrun and watching movies and stuff, so I cannot be impartial. I do think these are pretty great, though. Basically "portal fantasy" where the protagonists are kids from our world and the secondary world is inhabited by anthropomorphic reincarnations of dead pets (and, it turns out, other types of creatures). Far less fruity, and darker and more scary, than this makes it sound. (Interestingly, her books are published in both Norwegian and English versions simultaneously -- the only case I know of where the author either translates everything herself, or rather writes both versions in parallel so that there isn't really an original version.) 41. The Boy in the Dress by David Walliams. His first novel and a bit different in tone from the others we've read -- a tiny bit more serious and less comical. Main character is a pre-teen boy living with his divorced father and older brother, in a home where emotions are not allowed to be expressed (nor is it allowed to even mention their absent mother). Randomly, he discovers that enjoys dressing up in women's clothing. This is initially not accepted by those in authority but eventually they are made to see the light. Read this aloud to my 8-year-old and I'm sure a lot of it went over his head; but he did enjoy it and I guess it was a pretty good introduction to the existence of sexuality-based slurs and how they are not okay to use. 42. Right Ho, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse. BOTM for October and a smashing good read, what. Actually my first Wodehouse as far as I can remember. Lovely language, funny characters, ridiculous complications. 43. Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay. A collection of essays (mostly pretty short ones) by this Haitian-American academic/cultural type person with whom I was previously unfamiliar. I am now reasonably familiar with her opinions on a variety of subjects which range from the personal to the political and the portrayal of minorities in the media and whatnot. Seems like a pretty cool smart lady and most of the essays were interesting to read, a bit meandering though. If it seems like I've encountered a slowdown, it is because I am also in the process of reading Jerusalem by Alan Moore, which I started in the middle of September and I'm not yet done -- currently at the 71% mark (which is in the middle of THAT chapter). Am determined to finish. Also have some left of The Big Book of Science Fiction. Booklord challenge: 1) Vanilla Number - 43/40 2) Something written by a woman- I Don't, Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, The Vegetarian, The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, Lud-in-the-Mist, Svein og rotta i syden, Thornghost, Bad Feminist 3) Something Written by a nonwhite author - Temple of the Golden Pavilion, The Vegetarian, Bad Feminist 4) Something written in the 1800s - Three Men in a Boat, Plain Tales from the Hills 5) Something History Related (fictional or non-fiction your choice) - Slåttekar i himmelen, Anabasis, The Name of the Rose 6) A book about or narrated by an animal - Thornghost 7) A collection of essays. - Bad Feminist 8) A work of Science Fiction - much of The Apocalypse Triptych, Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, Red Rising, Half a War, Acceptance, Children of Time, Luna: New Moon, others 9) Something written by a musician - White Line Fever 10) Read a long book, something over 500 pages - The Name of the Rose, The Quiet Game 11) Read something about or set in NYC 12) Read Airplane fiction (Patterson, ect) - Sønnen definitely qualifies for this 13) Read Something YA - Half the World, Red Rising, Half a War, Thornghost 14) Wildcard! - I Don't 15) Something recently published (up to a year. The year will be the day you start this challenge) - Half the World, Half a War, Children of Time, Luna: New Moon 16) That one book you’ve wanted to read for a while now. - Three Men in a Boat 17) The First book in a series - Red Rising, The Quiet Game, Luna: New Moon 18) A biography or autobiography - White Line Fever, Før jeg brenner ned 19) Read something from the lost generation (Fitzgerald, Hemmingway, ect.) or from the Beat Generation - Sweet Thursday 20) Read a banned book 21) A Short Story collection - all volumes of The Apocalypse Triptych 22) It’s a Mystery.- The Name of the Rose, The Quiet Game, Maurtuemordene, Sønnen, Døden ved vann, Ildmannen Additional individual challenge: Norwegians: 8/10 Non-fiction: 4/5 Max re-reads: 2/5 BONUS INDIVIDUAL CHALLENGE: What the hell, I've followed the BOTM for both January and February; I'm going to keep doing that for the rest of the year. (Escape clause: Will reserve the option to skip books I've already read.) 10 for 10 on this. Two months left of the year, have passed the raw numerical target, only missing two booklord challenge points, two Norwegian books and one non-fiction book... looks good.
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Oct 31, 2016 13:35
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Corrode posted:The book of the month thing was something I already had in mind so glad to see other people think it's a good idea. I've been reading every BOTM this year as an individual challenge anyway, it's a good and cool idea. Not all of the BOTMs have been equally huge hits with me but it's made me read several interesting books I would probably never have thought to read otherwise.
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Nov 3, 2016 10:52
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November update, because I'm highly unlikely to finish another whole book in the two days that remain of this month: Previously: 1. White Line Fever by Lemmy Kilmister. 2. Slåttekar i himmelen by Edvard Hoem. 3. Half the World by Joe Abercrombie. 4. Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome. 5. I Don't: A Contrarian History of Marriage by Susan Squire. 6. Anabasis by Xenophon. 7.-9. The Apocalypse Triptych: The End is Nigh, The End is Now, The End has Come edited by John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howey. 10. Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck. 11. Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen by Lois McMaster Bujold. 12. Red Rising by Pierce Brown. 13. Demon Dentist by David Walliams. 14. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. 16. Plain Tales from the Hills by Rudyard Kipling. 17. Doktor Proktors Prompepulver by Jo Nesbø. 18. Acceptance by Jeff VanderMeer. 19. The Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Yukio Mishima. 20. Før jeg brenner ned by Gaute Heivoll. 21. Billionaire Boy by David Walliams. 22. Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. 23. The Quiet Game by Greg Iles. 24. The Vegetarian by Han Kang. 25. Maurtuemordene by Hans Olav Lahlum. 26. Luna: New Moon by Ian McDonald. 27. Destroyermen: Blood in the Water by Taylor Anderson. 28. Gangsta Granny by David Walliams. 29. The Nightmare Stacks by Charles Stross. 30. The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. 31. Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees. 32. Ratburger by David Walliams. 33. Sønnen ("The Son") by Jon Nesbø. 34. Svein og rotta i syden by Marit Nicolaysen. 35. Døden ved vann ("Death by water") by Torkil Damhaug. 36. Ildmannen ("The Man of Fire" would be a good translation) by Torkil Damhaug. 37. Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov. 38. Stoner by John Williams. 39. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse. 40. Thornghost by Tone Almhjell. 41. The Boy in the Dress by David Walliams. 42. Right Ho, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse. 43. Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay. New: 44. Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain. BOTM for November and a light, fun, good read it was. The author's stories from his life as a cook and chef in the dark underbelly of the American restaurant world. Plus some decent tips for those of us who like loving around in the kitchen. 45. Jerusalem by Alan Moore. Finally finished this motherfucker after two and a half months. It was long, mostly quite interesting and imaginative, long, complicated, Alan Moore at his best and worst, and it was long. Enjoyed most of it. It's mostly set within a few blocks of Northampton, at times ranging from the early middle ages to the heat death of the universe. It features the afterlife where time becomes a fourth spatial dimension, angles and devils, time-travelling ghosts, and a huge and varied cast. Everything links together. The one chapter written as a pastiche of Finnegans Wake (and starring James Joyce's mentally ill daughter Lucia) was a bit of a chore. The one chapter written as a Samuel Beckett play (and starring the ghosts of Samuel Beckett himself and Thomas Becket, among others) was hilarious and tragic. And so on. 46. Se meg, Medusa ("See Me, Medusa") by Torkil Damhaug. One of the first crime thrillers by this Norwegian author whom I discovered earlier this year. Shorter and less complicated than the others I've read, still, pretty intriguing. Main character is a successful doctor in his mid-40s, living the perfect family life... then, seemingly random people connected to him in different ways begin showing up dead, apparently mauled by a bear (where no bears should be)... 47. Sangen om den røde rubin ("The Song of the Red Ruby") by Agnar Mykle. 1957 Norwegian novel, a bildungsroman chronicling the misadventures of a young man nearly 20 years earlier (it's set in 1938-1939 with a brief coda set during and immediately after the war) as he goes through life in search of love but mostly ending up finding a lot of pussy. This book was a major scandal in our then rather puritanical society , and was not only banned and confiscated but criminal charges for pornography were brought against author and publisher; it took a year of high-profile court proceedings going all the way to the supreme court before the ban was rescinded and the charges dropped. By modern standards the racy bits aren't all that shocking (but one can see how they must have been thought so, 59 years ago -- lots of detailed descriptions of intimate bits of anatomy, frank discussion of various sexual practices, etc.) but what surprised me was both how beautiful the actual prose was, and how goddamn funny the book often turned out to be. Must be one of the most enjoyable books I've read all year. Still have some left of The Big Book of Science Fiction, may well finish during December (all along I've been reading a few short stories here and there between other books). Booklord challenge: 1) Vanilla Number - 47/40 2) Something written by a woman- I Don't, Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, The Vegetarian, The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, Lud-in-the-Mist, Svein og rotta i syden, Thornghost, Bad Feminist 3) Something Written by a nonwhite author - Temple of the Golden Pavilion, The Vegetarian, Bad Feminist 4) Something written in the 1800s - Three Men in a Boat, Plain Tales from the Hills 5) Something History Related (fictional or non-fiction your choice) - Slåttekar i himmelen, Anabasis, The Name of the Rose 6) A book about or narrated by an animal - Thornghost 7) A collection of essays. - Bad Feminist 8) A work of Science Fiction - much of The Apocalypse Triptych, Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, Red Rising, Half a War, Acceptance, Children of Time, Luna: New Moon, others 9) Something written by a musician - White Line Fever 10) Read a long book, something over 500 pages - The Name of the Rose, The Quiet Game, goddamn Jerusalem 11) Read something about or set in NYC - Kitchen Confidential 12) Read Airplane fiction (Patterson, ect) - Sønnen definitely qualifies for this 13) Read Something YA - Half the World, Red Rising, Half a War, Thornghost 14) Wildcard! - I Don't 15) Something recently published (up to a year. The year will be the day you start this challenge) - Half the World, Half a War, Children of Time, Luna: New Moon 16) That one book you’ve wanted to read for a while now. - Three Men in a Boat 17) The First book in a series - Red Rising, The Quiet Game, Luna: New Moon 18) A biography or autobiography - White Line Fever, Før jeg brenner ned, arguably Kitchen Confidential 19) Read something from the lost generation (Fitzgerald, Hemmingway, ect.) or from the Beat Generation - Sweet Thursday 20) Read a banned book - Sangen om den røde rubin 21) A Short Story collection - all volumes of The Apocalypse Triptych 22) It’s a Mystery.- The Name of the Rose, The Quiet Game, Maurtuemordene, Sønnen, Døden ved vann, Ildmannen, Se meg, Medusa Additional individual challenge: Norwegians: 10/10 Non-fiction: 5/5 Max re-reads: 2/5 BONUS INDIVIDUAL CHALLENGE: What the hell, I've followed the BOTM for both January and February; I'm going to keep doing that for the rest of the year. (Escape clause: Will reserve the option to skip books I've already read.) 11 for 11 on this. One month left, all goals met or exceeded (except for December's BOTM whatever that turns out to be). Ding, level up! Edit: And yes, in the blurb for Jerusalem it *should be* "angles and devils". Not "angels". Really.
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Nov 28, 2016 22:54
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If plays are a category again I'll probably read something by Henrik Ibsen since it's been a while and he was probably the greatest literary figure Norway has ever spawned. Plus he was funny as poo poo at times.
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Dec 9, 2016 16:17
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Final update, because it's less than 14 hours left of the year and I have to watch the kids for most of that time so am exceedingly unlikely to finish the book I'm currently reading before 2017 begins. Previously: 1. White Line Fever by Lemmy Kilmister. 2. Slåttekar i himmelen by Edvard Hoem. 3. Half the World by Joe Abercrombie. 4. Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome. 5. I Don't: A Contrarian History of Marriage by Susan Squire. 6. Anabasis by Xenophon. 7.-9. The Apocalypse Triptych: The End is Nigh, The End is Now, The End has Come edited by John Joseph Adams and Hugh Howey. 10. Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck. 11. Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen by Lois McMaster Bujold. 12. Red Rising by Pierce Brown. 13. Demon Dentist by David Walliams. 14. The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. 16. Plain Tales from the Hills by Rudyard Kipling. 17. Doktor Proktors Prompepulver by Jo Nesbø. 18. Acceptance by Jeff VanderMeer. 19. The Temple of the Golden Pavilion by Yukio Mishima. 20. Før jeg brenner ned by Gaute Heivoll. 21. Billionaire Boy by David Walliams. 22. Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky. 23. The Quiet Game by Greg Iles. 24. The Vegetarian by Han Kang. 25. Maurtuemordene by Hans Olav Lahlum. 26. Luna: New Moon by Ian McDonald. 27. Destroyermen: Blood in the Water by Taylor Anderson. 28. Gangsta Granny by David Walliams. 29. The Nightmare Stacks by Charles Stross. 30. The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. 31. Lud-in-the-Mist by Hope Mirrlees. 32. Ratburger by David Walliams. 33. Sønnen ("The Son") by Jon Nesbø. 34. Svein og rotta i syden by Marit Nicolaysen. 35. Døden ved vann ("Death by water") by Torkil Damhaug. 36. Ildmannen ("The Man of Fire" would be a good translation) by Torkil Damhaug. 37. Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov. 38. Stoner by John Williams. 39. Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse. 40. Thornghost by Tone Almhjell. 41. The Boy in the Dress by David Walliams. 42. Right Ho, Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse. 43. Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay. 44. Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain. 45. Jerusalem by Alan Moore. 46. Se meg, Medusa ("See Me, Medusa") by Torkil Damhaug. 47. Sangen om den røde rubin ("The Song of the Red Ruby") by Agnar Mykle. New: 48. It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis. BOTM for December. 1935 novel about a Fascist takeover of the USA, set in the then-immediate future. Loved this, it was concise and funny despite also being grim as gently caress. 49. Doktor Proktors tidsbadekar by Jo Nesbø. Norwegian children's book (target age maybe 8-12, it's several hundred pages of mostly text). Read it aloud to the 8-year-old. #2 in an ongoing series about a moderately insane inventor and his two primary-school sidekicks. This one involves time travel across a lot of mostly French history, in an attempt to fix the inventor's tragic failed romantic past. Funny but a bit forced, relies a bit much on poking mostly good-natured fun at French clichés (the main villain is even named "Claude Cliché"). 50. Babylon's Ashes by "James S.A. Corey". #6 in the Expanse series, felt very much like "#5, part 2" and was a cracking good read. Ties most plot threads up pretty neatly although we all know there are more sequels coming. 51. The Big Book of Science Fiction edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer. Have read this in bits and pieces since it came out this summer, just finished a few days ago. A huge anthology of what must be more than a hundred SF short stories (and a few excerpts from novels) from across the whole of the 20th century. Sorted chronologically; the editors selected a lot of stories from outside the common or garden-variety English-language market, many of which were originally translated for this collection. A good number of Latin American stories, etc. Plus of course a number of more familiar names. They've tried to represent many different stages and directions in the evolution of the genre and while I can't say every story was exactly entertaining as such, nearly all were at least interesting. Bonus points for also including a story from the recently-departed Norwegian writer Jon Bing (who was basically patron saint of SF literature in Norway, wrote a ton of stuff from the 1960s onwards; his 1970s novels about a slower-than-light "library ship" travelling the galaxy gathering and disseminating knowledge have a big part of the blame for hooking me on SF in the first place). Highly recommended. Currently reading Revenger by Alastair Reynolds but that'll have to go on the 2017 list. Booklord challenge: 1) Vanilla Number - 51/40 2) Something written by a woman- I Don't, Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, The Vegetarian, The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, Lud-in-the-Mist, Svein og rotta i syden, Thornghost, Bad Feminist 3) Something Written by a nonwhite author - Temple of the Golden Pavilion, The Vegetarian, Bad Feminist 4) Something written in the 1800s - Three Men in a Boat, Plain Tales from the Hills 5) Something History Related (fictional or non-fiction your choice) - Slåttekar i himmelen, Anabasis, The Name of the Rose 6) A book about or narrated by an animal - Thornghost 7) A collection of essays. - Bad Feminist 8) A work of Science Fiction - much of The Apocalypse Triptych, Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, Red Rising, Half a War, Acceptance, Children of Time, Luna: New Moon, others 9) Something written by a musician - White Line Fever 10) Read a long book, something over 500 pages - The Name of the Rose, The Quiet Game, goddamn Jerusalem, The Big Book of Science Fiction 11) Read something about or set in NYC - Kitchen Confidential 12) Read Airplane fiction (Patterson, ect) - Sønnen definitely qualifies for this 13) Read Something YA - Half the World, Red Rising, Half a War, Thornghost 14) Wildcard! - I Don't 15) Something recently published (up to a year. The year will be the day you start this challenge) - Half the World, Half a War, Children of Time, Luna: New Moon, Babylon's Ashes, The Big Book of Science Fiction 16) That one book you’ve wanted to read for a while now. - Three Men in a Boat 17) The First book in a series - Red Rising, The Quiet Game, Luna: New Moon 18) A biography or autobiography - White Line Fever, Før jeg brenner ned, arguably Kitchen Confidential 19) Read something from the lost generation (Fitzgerald, Hemmingway, ect.) or from the Beat Generation - Sweet Thursday, It Can't Happen Here 20) Read a banned book - Sangen om den røde rubin 21) A Short Story collection - all volumes of The Apocalypse Triptych, The Big Book of Science Fiction 22) It’s a Mystery.- The Name of the Rose, The Quiet Game, Maurtuemordene, Sønnen, Døden ved vann, Ildmannen, Se meg, Medusa Additional individual challenge: Norwegians: 11/10 Non-fiction: 5/5 Max re-reads: 2/5 BONUS INDIVIDUAL CHALLENGE: What the hell, I've followed the BOTM for both January and February; I'm going to keep doing that for the rest of the year. (Escape clause: Will reserve the option to skip books I've already read.) 12 for 12 on this. All done. Ready for next year (have joined the 2017 challenge with pretty much the same parameters).
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Dec 31, 2016 10:28
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