2014 Reading Self-Challenge

[Guinevere Seaworth]

I'm at 8/75. I'm way ahead of schedule thanks to a bout of pinkeye and sinus cold that kept me home for 3 days from work. Half of the authors are female.

[Winter's Knight]

15/100

1. The Adrien English series (Fatal Shadows, A Dangerous Thing, The Hell You Say, Death of a Pirate King, The Fatal Tide): Josh Laytonn
   
2. Deadly series (Deadly Nightshade, Deadly Mystery): Vctor J. Banis
   
3. The Fault in Our Stars: John Green
   
4. Earth Logic: Laurie J. Marks
   
5. Princesses Behaving Badly:Linda Rodriguez McRobbie
   
6. Longbourn: Jo Baker
   
7. Come Unto These Yellow Sands: Josh Layton
   
8. Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee: Dee Brown
   
9. Lord John Grey (The Private Matter, The Hand of Devils): Diana Galbadon
   

I'm also ploughing through the complete Conan the Barbarian but it's proving to be rather heavy going.

[Sansa_Stark]

I'm going for 80.

I have 5 down so far.

Bad start. Was kind of really depressed for part of this month.

[Er Rn]

3.5/30

Finished:

Defending Jacob by William Landay

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

Your Voice in My Head by Emma Forrest

In Progress:

Eye Witness to History by John Carey

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

My Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/25963608

[The Crow's Third Eye]

I'd love to join in with this if nobdoy minds, and I will set up a Goodreads account when I am able.

I tend to read longer books and enjoy taking my time to appreciate the novel (Asoiaf excluded, that required immediate rereads) so I will keep my challenge rather conservative at 25. My current progress is 3/25 if we are allowed to count rereads and I'm 19% through the Tawny Man Trilogy (not a re-read) too. Things will slow down later in the year though when I get bogged down with work but I feel I can still manage my target :)

[Garett Hornwood]

I'm basically on track for my challenge this year, so far. 2/35

[WrathOfTinyKittens]

Off to a great start for this year - being single has its benefits :p

In January I read:

The Ruins by Scott Smith. Slow and had absolutely no payoff. Disappointing especially since the concept was damn good and the prose was good.

The Reapers Are the Angels by Alden Bell. Very interesting zombie book, not sure how I feel about it. It was a good read but I feel like I have only scratched the surface of its meaning.

Lord Loss by Darren Shan. Read this by accident on a creepypasta site. Decent YA fantasy/horror.

The Tattered Banner and The Huntsman's Amulet by Duncan Hamilton. Fast, entertaining reads but little more. Second book introduces various plot elements that add nothing to the story, but I give the benefit of the doubt that it set up something for book 3.

Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn. Flynn is a fantastic writer, but this wasn't nearly as good as Gone Girl. I feel like a lot of plot happened and none of the characters changed even a bit, plus it was (as is par for her books) horribly depressing.

Malice by John Gwynne. I remember this being highly anticipated, and it was actually pretty good until the last act of the book. Much deeper than the other fantasy I've read recently. The last act was just telegraphed, I would be reading and think "it's going to be so annoying when x happens", immediately followed by x happening. Made *extensive* use of a particular trope that I dislike. But still good!

Flashman in the Great Game and Flashman's Lady by George Macdonald Fraser. Continuing my reread of this wonderful series. Just as good as I remembered!

So overall that's 9/52 for the year and 1/9 by a woman.

Currently reading Flashman and the Dragon, which breaks publication order but I don't really like Flashman and the Redskins so I skipped it for now.

I am also searching for a serious SFF book, along the lines (thematically) of The Magicians or The Passage or something similar - basically a book that's deeper than a popcorn read - if anyone has a recommendation!

[Biter]

Biter, I'd really like to hear what you think of Auto da Fe, it was one of the most powerful reads for me.

I thought it was challenging, puzzling and pretty difficult to get through. Its characters are interesting, even though they are often quite disturbing and grotesque. I loved the interaction between Peter and his brother towards the end of the book.

[3CityApache]

I thought it was challenging, puzzling and pretty difficult to get through. Its characters are interesting, even though they are often quite disturbing and grotesque. I loved the interaction between Peter and his brother towards the end of the book.

Yeah, I agree it was challenging and difficult to get through, but at the same time, for me at least, it was addicting and absorbing like a swamp. And as the book was coming to end, I was kinda afraid of my own mental health. Powerful stuff.

[Lord of Oop North]

Had a good first month. I've read 7 books so far, and made it halfway through Post Captain.

Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe's Waterloo

Bernard Cornwell - Sharpe's Devil

Scott Lynch - The Republic of Thieves

Joe Abercrombie - Red Country

Patrick O'Brian - Master and Commander

Ekaterina Sedina - The Secret History of Moscow

Kim Newman - The Bloody Red Baron (also includes the novella, Anno Dracula 1923: Vampire Romance)

Patrick O'Brian - Post Captain (pending)

I was disappointed in Secret History ... it was good, just not as good as those who recommended it to me had made it out to be.

Overall, good month. 8 / 41.

Really enjoyed Newman's return to Anno Dracula. Also liked Republic of Thieves more than I feel most people did.

[Wizraban]

3/36

Not as much as I had hoped but at least I'm not trailing behind.

All three books were about Germanic history.

[Sansa_Stark]

Finished blood meridian 6/80. Halfway through Martian Chronicles though I won't finish it till later.

[KingGendry]

I'm on 3/20 so far, Catching Fire, Mockingjay and The Hedge Knight the ones finished for me. On track so far it seems!

Really enjoyed The Hedge Knight, despite it's short length it was good to be back in Westeros after about a year out.

Halfway through Lies of Locke Lamora now and enjoying this also.

[RedEyedGhost]

8/60 completed. 3 novels, 5 graphic novels.

[Inigima]

January update: Just the one book, which I started in December. Good book, but dense nonfiction.

1. Diane Ravitch - Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America's Public Schools - Good, combative attack on the so-called school reform movement. Writing-wise I have slightly mixed feelings.

As always, full reviews on my Goodreads.

[D_P]

I finished old man's war by scalzi and thought that it was quite a romp. It isn't the deepest book out there but, man, he can spin a yarn. I was thoroughly entertained. I give it a 7.75/10 paddles. the paddles thing is for a review site I'm starting but that's all i'll say because I don't want to jinx it actually happening; the blog I mean. so that makes 2 for me so far this year. :)

[Raja]

5/30 for me, the year has started quite well.

1) Attachments- Rainbow Rowell A fairly light read which I enjoyed quite a bit. I only heard of the author from Eleanor and Park, and even though that book is much more well known, I think I enjoyed attachments a lot more.

2) The Circle- David Eggers - It's not a very subtle book, and even though some of the tech seems quite far fetched, the book is probably my worst nightmare come to life.

3) The Amazing adventures of Kavalier and Clay- Michael Chabon- This was excellent, probably my favorite of the lot. The novel follows two Jewish boys in New York, before, during and after the war. The book is a gateway to the origin of comics, and even though I barely read any comics at all, it was very enjoyable. It's a fairly long read, but given the scope of the book, I don't think he could have made it shorter.

4+5) The Lord of the Rings The Two Towers & Return of the King- I'm glad I finally got around to reading the series, I got through all three of them surprisingly quick. It's hard not to compare the movies and the books, and I think Jackson did a very good job in bringing the books to film. I also think he made some right choices when it comes to portraying certain characters; Aragorn for example is fairly dull in the books, I much prefer Mortenson's portrayal in the movies.

[The Crow's Third Eye]

5/25 for me, probably 6/25 tonight when I finish Fool's Fate. Really enjoyed reading the trilogy so far, and dont feel lost despite not reading Liveships, which I might buy later in the year. I read the first Fitz and the Fool books a good number of years ago now, so it feels like I'm revisiting old friends and I could quite happily read the series all day! Its odd, even when nothing is happening I cant aeem to put them down!

When I'm finished those I eill read the three dunk and egg's as I have just been loaned them by a friend :)

[Isildur's Mane]

1/20 finished reading The Colour Of Magic by Terry Pratchet.

Is it just story books or does non fiction count too ( most of what I'm reading is non fiction at the moment)

I also finished reading Fortunately, the Milk by Neil Gaiman - does that count or not? It's a children's book

[Maithanet]

1/20 finished reading The Colour Of Magic by Terry Pratchet.

Is it just story books or does non fiction count too ( most of what I'm reading is non fiction at the moment)

I also finished reading Fortunately, the Milk by Neil Gaiman - does that count or not? It's a children's book

You can count anything you want, this is a self-challenge. I certainly count nonfiction books, I don't see why you wouldn't. As for children's books, it's up to you. I read a few YA books last year, but given that I also read some very long/dense books, I had no problem with counting them.

But I am not counting the books I read to my 1 year old nephews :cool4: .