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Sign me up for 75 books and yes to the booklord challenge.
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Dec 28, 2016 19:16
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 06:41 |
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January! 1. Sundiver. David Brin. Good ideas but the execution isn't at the same level. Some of the ideas were directly taken from the time it was written. 2. Siddhartha. Hermann Hesse. One of those books you have to read from time to time. It changes with you. 3. To Kill A Mockingbird. Harper Lee. How many novels can you name that doesn't have obnoxious children? This is one and with a great story too. 4. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. J.K. Rowling. Not much of a story with a whole bunch of teenage angst... the worst in the series until now. 5. The Hemingway Hoax. Joe Haldeman. Like reading the life of someone who didn't really want to be someone else. Good story, weak characters. 6. Dread. Clive Barker. Reading this short story was weird for me, because I've already seen the movie... I really thought Barker put more effort in the screenplay, but maybe it's just me. 1) Read some books. Set a number and go hog wild. 6/75 2) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 2/15 3) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 0/15 4) 5) Read at least one TBB BoTM and post in the monthly thread about it. 6) Read a book someone else in the thread recommends (a wildcard!) 7) Read something that was recently published (anything from after 1st January 2016). 8) 9) Read something in translation. 10) Read something from somewhere you want to travel. 11) Read something political. 12) Read something historical. 13) Read something biographical. 14) Read some poetry. 15) Read a play. 16) Read a collection of short stories. 17) Read something long (500+ pages). 18) Read something which was banned or censored. 19) Read a satire. 20) Read something about honour. 21) Read something about fear. 22) Read something about one (or more!) of the seven sins. 23) Read something that you love. 24) Read something from a non-human perspective.
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Feb 3, 2017 03:19
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February! 7. The Age of Innocence. Edith Warthon. Too much stuff and too little story... I may read this in a future day, because it's confusing. 8. The Female Man. Joanna Russ. Badly written and confusing, but with some very interesting themes. The story is kind of good if you know where to look. 9. Descartes' Error. Antonio Damasio. Too specialized with some nice real life examples, but that's it. The little seems a little presumptuous. 10. Jane Eyre. Charlotte Brontë. Some parts of the story were unbelievable, but it was a fun read. The protagonists are not the best people and I'm really glad I read this before watching the movies. 11. A Monster Calls. Patrick Ness. Plenty of sadness, but quite predictable. Even the few stories inside the main story. 1) Read some books. Set a number and go hog wild. 11/75 2) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 5/15 3) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 1/15 4) 5) Read at least one TBB BoTM and post in the monthly thread about it. 6) Read a book someone else in the thread recommends (a wildcard!) 7) Read something that was recently published (anything from after 1st January 2016). 8) 9) Read something in translation. 10) Read something from somewhere you want to travel. 11) 12) 13) 14) Read some poetry. 15) Read a play. 16) Read a collection of short stories. 17) Read something long (500+ pages). 18) Read something which was banned or censored. 19) Read a satire. 20) Read something about honour. 21) Read something about fear. 22) Read something about one (or more!) of the seven sins. 23) Read something that you love. 24) Read something from a non-human perspective.
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Mar 3, 2017 01:47
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March! 12. El Tiempo Entre Costuras. María Dueñas. Fun, but kind of disjointed. Sometimes I felt like I was reading different books. 13. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. J.K. Rowling. A good book, but it's crammed with characters that don't really need to be there and just clutter the story. Nice ending to the series, better that the book before this one. 14. The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God. Carl Sagan. This book is a collection of lectures that Sagan gave, they are a perfect introduction to the mind of a brilliant man. 15. The Exorcist. William Blatty. The descriptions were good and the story was great, even if a little slow. Some characters were kind of lacking and I'm glad the movie streamlined the story a little bit. 16. Rocannon's World. Ursula K. Le Guin. Kind of a mix between sci-fi and fantasy, it starts the fantastic series of the Hainish Cycle. The story is a little slow, but the characters are quite good. 17. Hidden Figures. Margot Lee Shetterly. The story is pretty good and the main characters (?) are quite inspiring, but the flow of the book made it really hard to follow. 1) Read some books. Set a number and go hog wild. 17/75 2) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 9/15 3) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 3/15 4) 5) Read at least one TBB BoTM and post in the monthly thread about it. 6) Read a book someone else in the thread recommends (a wildcard!) 7) Read something that was recently published (anything from after 1st January 2016). 8) 9) 10) Read something from somewhere you want to travel. 11) 12) 13) 14) Read some poetry. 15) Read a play. 16) Read a collection of short stories. 17) 18) Read something which was banned or censored. 19) Read a satire. 20) Read something about honour. 21) Read something about fear. 22) Read something about one (or more!) of the seven sins. 23) 24) Read something from a non-human perspective.
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Apr 2, 2017 17:53
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April! 18. Tudor Women: Queens & Commoners. Allison Plowden. A very quick read, just the concise history of the women associated to the Tudor dynasty. Not a novel and sometimes it kind of lose the thread of time. 19. The Fires of Heaven. Robert Jordan. The story is finally moving in the Wheel of Time. Even if there are points where it drags and drags. 20. Lavinia. Ursula K. LeGuin. The book is pretty good, even if the author stretches the story in a very noticeable way. Still, the writing is great and the characters are decent, specially the protagonists. 21. Roadside Picnic. Arkady Strugatsky. I liked this a lot, it was fast paced but nicely done. Kind of confusing in some parts, but that much. The characters and the setting were great. 22. Kindred. Octavia E. Butler. Slavery is not always relatable in a story, specially from the perspective of a non-american. I'm glad to see that in this book even if I didn't know much of the history behind it. 1) Read some books. Set a number and go hog wild. 22/75 2) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 12/15 3) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 5/15 4) 5) Read at least one TBB BoTM and post in the monthly thread about it. 6) Read a book someone else in the thread recommends (a wildcard!) 7) Read something that was recently published (anything from after 1st January 2016). 8) 9) 10) Read something from somewhere you want to travel. 11) 12) 13) 14) Read some poetry. 15) Read a play. 16) Read a collection of short stories. 17) 18) 19) Read a satire. 20) Read something about honour. 21) Read something about fear. 22) Read something about one (or more!) of the seven sins. 23) 24) Read something from a non-human perspective.
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May 1, 2017 16:32
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May! 23. The Ice Princess. Camilla Läckberg. The mystery gets lost in the middle of explanations for everything except the clues. The characters were flat and the story was just boring, only a few sparks of humor saved it. 24. Diamond Dogs, Turqouise Days. Alastair Reynolds. A couple of short stories in the Revelation Space universe, the first is great, the second good. 25. Death Masks. Jim Butcher. A fun read. The characters were, as usual, the strong point of the book. This series keeps getting better. 26. Agent to the Stars. John Scalzi. Kind of decent story, but why do every character needs to be an annoying smartass? Even the alien! 27. Lockstep. Karl Schroeder. The world-building was pretty good, the characters were lacking and the story was just ok. 28. The Spawn of Dagon. Henry Kuttner. A fun short story, not much else. It would fit pretty well in the Conan universe. 29. El Imperio Eres Tú. Javier Moro. It's hard to write about the whole life of one person in one book, specially if that person is Emperor Pedro I of Brazil. It's entertaining, dense and repetitive, just like reading Wikipedia. 1) Read some books. Set a number and go hog wild. 29/75 2) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by women. 13/15 3) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 6/15 4) 5) Read at least one TBB BoTM and post in the monthly thread about it. 6) Read a book someone else in the thread recommends (a wildcard!) 7) Read something that was recently published (anything from after 1st January 2016). 8) 9) 10) 11) 12) 13) 14) Read some poetry. 15) Read a play. 16) Read a collection of short stories. 17) 18) 19) Read a satire. 20) Read something about honour. 21) Read something about fear. 22) Read something about one (or more!) of the seven sins. 23) 24)
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Jun 2, 2017 01:36
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June! 30. American Gods. Neil Gaiman. There's something special about rereading books, you always find new things and this wasn't the exception. I liked it more than last time. 31. Cyteen: The Betrayal. C. J. Cherryh. First part of the Cyteen "trilogy". The story is interesting, but the writing is poor and kind of boring. 32. The Confusion. Neal Stephenson. Like in the first book, most of the historical stuff was really interesting but it was more like vignettes of events. The characters were much more interesting this time... it also just takes forever to finish. 33. Después del Invierno. Guadalupe Nettel. Completely insubstantial. Two protagonists telling us their story in a boring monologue without giving us any time to care about them. At least it was a quick read. 34. 1922. Stephen King. Good horror story, but quite simple for being so long. Disturbing at some points, but not that scary. 1) Read some books. Set a number and go hog wild. 34/75 2) 3) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 7/15 4) 5) Read at least one TBB BoTM and post in the monthly thread about it. 6) Read a book someone else in the thread recommends (a wildcard!) 7) 8) 9) 10) 11) 12) 13) 14) Read some poetry. 15) Read a play. 16) 17) 18) 19) Read a satire. 20) Read something about honour. 21) Read something about fear. 22) Read something about one (or more!) of the seven sins. 23) 24)
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Jul 4, 2017 01:37
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Groke posted:The original book has also been published as three separate paperbacks, long before there was a sequel.  Since I'm already here, may I please have a wildcard?
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Jul 5, 2017 15:18
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Radio! posted:Have you read Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun?
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Jul 5, 2017 18:24
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July! 35. The Graveyard Book. Neil Gaiman. Good little book. There's something about the little closed stories in the chapters making the whole book. 36. Salt: A World History. Mark Kurlansky. I had problems with the accuracy in this book. Also, it was kind of disjointed and jumped around in time and location a lot. Still, it was entertaining. 37. Cyteen: The Rebirth. C. J. Cherryh. Much better than the first part, the characters are more fleshed and the story is a lot more fun. 38. It. Stephen King. A nice entertaining read, but what a weird ending. The characters are quite good and the story too... well, some parts are lacking, but it's a good read. Heh, It. 39. Beggars in Spain. Nancy Kress. Good premise and story, at least the first part, then the book crumbles because the main characters are shallow and boring. 1) Read some books. Set a number and go hog wild. 39/75 2) 3) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 7/15 4) 5) 6) Read a book someone else in the thread recommends (a wildcard!). The Urth of the New Sun. Gene Wolfe. 7) 8) 9) 10) 11) 12) 13) 14) Read some poetry. 15) Read a play. 16) 17) 18) 19) Read a satire. 20) Read something about honour. 21) 22) Read something about one (or more!) of the seven sins. 23) 24)
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Aug 2, 2017 01:43
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Bandiet posted:P.S. I'm almost done with the challenge, but I need a wildcard. A WILDCARD!
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Aug 31, 2017 21:56
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August! 40. Cyteen: The Vindication. C. J. Cherryh. The story starts good but then turns into a mess with a bunch unexplained things and supposedly smart characters doing dumb stuff. Just mediocre. 41. La sustancia del mal. Luca D'Andrea. Nice story but it wastes a lot of time in superfluos stuff. The main character is not someone I'd like to follow and his investigations felt really serendipitous. The setting was pretty nice, tough it was too much. 42. Lord of Chaos. Robert Jordan. Some nice action and the story is progressing, awesome! Quite a long read, but it holds the reader just fine. 43. Brothers in Arms. Louis McMaster Bujold. The books of the space saga of Vorkosigan are almost always quick, entertaining and fun. This was not the exception. 44. Half a King. Joe Abercrombie. A good fantasy coming of age story? Yes, it is. Quite a surprise since this author is not know for this kind of stories. 45. Broken Angels. Richard K. Morgan. The author tried to scale the odds from a cyberpunk detective story to a more space opera kind of story and almost succeeded, but it wasn't good enough. The story is kind of predictable and the characters beside Kovacs are cliches. 46. Blood Rites. Jim Butcher. Another fun read in the Dresden Files series. And now he has a vampire brother and a dog! Some parts of the story were really implausible, but I'm not going to ask much about that in this series. 1) Read some books. Set a number and go hog wild. 46/75 2) 3) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 8/15 4) 5) 6) Read a book someone else in the thread recommends (a wildcard!). The Urth of the New Sun. Gene Wolfe. 7) 8) 9) 10) 11) 12) 13) 14) Read some poetry. 15) Read a play. 16) 17) 18) 19) Read a satire. 20) Read something about honour. 21) 22) Read something about one (or more!) of the seven sins. 23) 24)
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Sep 2, 2017 17:18
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September! 47. Harry Potter and the Magician's Stone. J.K. Rowling. A fun short reread. Even after rereading this for a few times, it's still the same. I suppose it's the fact that I first read it as an adult that makes it that way. 48. Timelike Infinity. Stephen Baxter. The concept was interesting. The time travel and interaction between future races was good, with a lot of hard sci-fi aspect into it. But the story was too simple and the protagonists weren't relatable. 49. Under Heaven. Guy Gavriel Kay. Part historical fiction, part fantasy, this author has his own niche and he does it very well. This was no exception, even with the slow beginning. 50. Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium. Carl Sagan. Sagan's last book is a beautiful reminder of the cold uncaring universe that surrounds us and the little blue planet that is our only home inside that universe. 51. The Three Body Problem. Cixin Liu. A hard science fiction story that reads almost like a technical book sometimes. The other times are filled with a nice story and some weird characters from mediocre to good, but not of that diminish how awesome the book is. 52. On Writing, A Memoir of the Craft. Stephen King. Some nice advice for writing from one of the masters. King has some good stories to tell, but I can't stop thinking about all the stuff he didn't write about... 53. The Drowning Girl. Caitlin R. Kiernan. There might be a good story lost in the ramblings of this pretentious piece of art. I didn't find it. Maybe it could have worked better for me as a short novelette, but that isn't going to give me my wasted time back. 1) Read some books. Set a number and go hog wild. 53/75 2) 3) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 9/15 4) 5) 6) Read a book someone else in the thread recommends (a wildcard!). The Urth of the New Sun. Gene Wolfe. 7) 8) 9) 10) 11) 12) 13) 14) Read some poetry. 15) Read a play. 16) 17) 18) 19) Read a satire. 20) Read something about honour. 21) 22) Read something about one (or more!) of the seven sins. 23) 24)
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Oct 4, 2017 15:28
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October! 54. A Crown of Swords. Robert Jordan. There was something weird about the characters in this book, are they growing more stubborn every chapter? Anyway, a good serviceable continuation of the Wheel of Time story. 55. Permutation City. Greg Egan. Enjoyable hard science fiction with some confusing concepts, nice characters and a few billion years of story. 56. Julius Caesar. William Shakespeare. The tragedy of Julius Caesar in a short play. More famous than the real history. 57. A Confederacy of Dunces. John Kennedy Toole. A weird man in a weird world among weird people in a weird and good story. A masterpiece of satire and irony. 58. Bloodchild and Other Stories. Octavia E. Butler. It's amazing to find a collection of short stories where every story is good or great. This is one. 59. The Quantum Thief. Hannu Rajaniemi. A confusingly good story in a post-singularity universe of information gods and people who just want to be left alone. And a thief. 1) Read some books. Set a number and go hog wild. 59/75 2) 3) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 11/15 4) 5) 6) Read a book someone else in the thread recommends (a wildcard!). The Urth of the New Sun. Gene Wolfe. 7) 8) 9) 10) 11) 12) 13) 14) Read some poetry. 15) 16) 17) 18) 19) 20) Read something about honour. 21) 22) Read something about one (or more!) of the seven sins. 23) [s]Read something that you love. The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God. Carl Sagan. 24) [s]Read something from a non-human perspective. Agent to the Stars with a gelatinous alien Talas fucked around with this message at 02:32 on Nov 3, 2017 |
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Nov 3, 2017 02:29
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November! 60. La saga de la V voladora. Ricardo Guzmán Wolffer. The "V" is for "verija", and that means "dick", "The saga of the flying dick". It was like reading the novelization of a bad 70s Mexican movie with robots, mutants, androids and flying human parts that shoot beams and lasers. So bad it became good at some point. 61. Demonia. Bernardo Esquinca. An interesting anthology of horror stories, but still suffers from some bad stories and weird extra notes. 62. And Then There Where None. Agatha Christie. A pretty good mystery book, with interesting characters and better story. Too bad about the recourse of hiding information when everything else is open. 63. The Path of Daggers. Robert Jordan. Not a lot of things going on, even the battles were a little boring or shadowed. Lots of forebodings and stuff not there. 64. Babel-17. Samuel R. Delaney. Some quite nice concepts about language in a futuristic setting, but not much of a story. Characters were also interesting. 65. The Battle for God: A History of Fundamentalism. Karen Armstrong. An awesome resource for information about the history the extreme views in religions. Kind of amazing that a lot of this movements are quite modern. 1) Read some books. Set a number and go hog wild. 65/75 2) 3) Of the books you read this year, make sure at least 20% of them are written by someone non-white. 14/15 4) 5) 6) Read a book someone else in the thread recommends (a wildcard!). The Urth of the New Sun. Gene Wolfe. 7) 8) 9) 10) 11) 12) 13) 14) Read some poetry. 15) 16) 17) 18) 19) 20) 21) 22) Read something about one (or more!) of the seven sins. 23) [s]Read something that you love. The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God. Carl Sagan. 24) [s]Read something from a non-human perspective. Agent to the Stars with a gelatinous alien
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Dec 1, 2017 20:56
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 06:41 |
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December! 66. The Urth of the New Sun. Gene Wolfe There's so much I didn't understand of the book, but that doesn't mean I can't recognize it as something special. 67. Fundamentals of Enterprise Risk Management. John J. Hampton. Research and more research. Risk is an important part of management, this explains it well but it's kind of boring to read. 68. Winter's Heart. Robert Jordan. A little boring with a lot of characters. The story seems like in a slump, but the ending is pretty good. 69. Poemas Selectos. Rubén Darío. I still have problems reading poetry, but I can't deny the quality of this. I won't say it moved me, but it was close. 70. The Count of Monte Cristo. Alexandre Dumas. An amazing piece of literature, maybe a little too long, but still great. 71. Battle Royale. Koushun Takami. Kind of confusing, but entertaining. The detailed backgrounds of every character are like dead flags for them. 72. Cantar del Mío Cid. Anonymous. Hard to read in the original Spanish, still a very nice description of the times when it was written. 73-75. One Punch Man vols. 1-3. ONE. A very funny story with a lot of action, the premise could have gone old really fast, but it's holding. 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6) Read a book someone else in the thread recommends (a wildcard!). The Urth of the New Sun. Gene Wolfe. 7) 8) 9) 10) 11) 12) 13) 14) 15) 16) 17) 18) [s]Read something which was banned or censored. Roadside Picnic. Arkady Strugatsky. 19) [s]Read a satire. A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole 20) [s]Read something about honour. 21) [s]Read something about fear. It. Stephen King. 22) [s]Read something about one (or more!) of the seven sins.[s] 23) [s]Read something that you love. The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God. Carl Sagan. 24) [s]Read something from a non-human perspective. Agent to the Stars with a gelatinous alien All done, even if reading comics at the end felt like cheating. I got them for Christmas so...
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Dec 31, 2017 19:41
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