2014 Reading Self-Challenge

[Er Rn]

Oh dear. Well, I liked Fires of Heaven for similar reasons, but if you're looking for "quick pace" it might be time to drop WoT. Book 6 is a sweet buildup to an awesome, well executed climax. Books 7-9 are a slow buildup to a rushed, ultimately dissapointing climax. Book 10 is a complete mess. Books 11-14 have their moments, but the pacing is never as good as books 4 and 5.

:lol: Thanks for the warning. I've heard similar things before, and I was hesitant to start the series to begin with because anything 14 books long is intimidating to me. I will probably continue with it, taking breaks between books and reading other things. If I can't get through them all, I'll just give up and read the wiki.

[Inigima]

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green. Wasn't crazy about it. The ending was obvious from the beginning. Parts of the story were well done and realistic, particularly the girl at the cancer support group who had appendiceal cancer, seemingly a minor illness compared to what Hazel and some others were facing. Overall I felt like the author tried too hard to make the characters witty and quirky and to have a heartbreaking ending.

I'm glad it's not just me that was unimpressed by this book.

I don't know how I'm going to meet my goal this year :( I started a small Facebook book club to broaden my horizons, and it's been good but people have picked some pretty heavy stuff that's taken me a while to get through, plus other distractions. This month is my pick, though, and I'm about half through it already. Goodreads says I'm 2 books behind, that's not so much to make up, right? Right?

4. Kurt Vonnegut - Timequake - I enjoyed this quite a bit, but it's barely a novel. It's scraps of a novel Vonnegut started and didn't like, married to some disconnected musings. I find Vonnegut's thought processes fascinating and I'm glad I read it, but if you're after a tightly plotted novel or anything of the sort, this will not please you.

5. Kazuo Ishiguro - The Remains of the Day - Book club pick. Quietly heartbreaking novel about an aging English butler in the 1950s, on a literal journey as he engages in a personal journey about the meaning of his life. I didn't like this much when I first started, but after I got into it I liked it more.

As always, full reviews on my Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/5605419-rob Be careful with the Ishiguro, I've marked it but it contains heavy plot spoilers.

Hopefully this list will be longer at the end of this month. 30 seems far away just now.

[mandred torgridson]

Bearing in mind that my second daughter will be Born at the beginning of May 2014 a realistic target is to finish my pile which consists of 8 books. Including the one I am actually reading and 5 books already finished this would be 14.

I will round up to 15 books in 2014.

I am shaking my head in disbelief that some of you have Targets like 50, 60 or even 100 books in one year. How this can be achieved beside Job, Family, other Hobbies (I got a pile of games and TV Shows as well), friends etc. sounds impressive to me.

[Guinevere Seaworth]

I've read 20/75, so slighlty ahead of schedule. March was a much better month for me as I was less busy with work compared to February. So far I have striking out on fantasy books this year. I've read 6 so far and none of them were better than OK.

[Lany Freelove Cassandra]

13/50 right on track.

[Eponine]

I'm around 7 of 26 I think? Skipped over another Tad Williams to read Permutation City, so will have to double back.

[thistlepong]

41/50

Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C.S. Lewis by Michael Ward might be one of the best books I've read in a few years. If someone had told me, as I'm telling you, that a book about the architectonic underpinnings of the Narniad and considering the god stuff as well would be well written and moreover engaging I would have given you the lie. I doubt a single word Lewis wrote or read wasn't considered in the creation of this book. It ends up being a fantastic study of Lewis and a general introduction to medievval cosmology, European literature, and the contours of criticism. I'm gonna read a lot of other books 'cause I read this one. I love it when that happens.

It also pairs well with the new Cosmos. So weird.

[lojzelote]

Whoops, I've completely forgotten I joined this thread. A quick catching up is in order... Not really feeling like writing what the books were like, but I'd bet that nearly everyone on this board who cares just a bit for lit has read them already anyway. I always read all the cool books once everyone else finished them, without intending to. Blah.

1, GRRM: Dying of the Light

2, Kazuo Ishiguro: When We Where Orphans

(The author went too wild with the unreliable narrator technique in this one. In the second half of the story, I wasn't able to tell whether he's totally off his rocker and hallucinating, or the people around him are acting absolutely illogically and humoring his excesses for a reason I can't comprehend. Or something inbetween. Oh, and don't expect a detective story, although the annotation on the cover of my edition tries to sell it as one. I wouldn't reccomend this one to anybody, really. It's not terrible to read (if one doesn't mind Ishiguro's writing style), but I can't say the story would enrich me in any way; it just left me very confused. Ugh. Btw, I happened to love The Remains of the Day.)

3, Sharon Kay Penman: Time and Chance

(Re-reading... but the first time around I didn't pay much attention and tried to press forward for The Devil's Brood, so in many ways it was like reading it for the first time.)

4, Eowyn Ivey: The Snow Child

5, Markus Zusak: The Book Thief

6&7&8, Robin Hobb: The Farseer Trilogy; Assassin's Apprentice, Royal Assassin, Assassin's Quest

(I'm truly glad that I read it now and not back in the 90's because thinking this is the end of Fitz's story would have devastated me beyong all measure. If you didn't guess, I'm planning on returning to this universe very soon.)

9, China Miéville: The Scar

(I should have read Perdido Street Station first, but I wasn't aware this was a part of a series until it was too late. This story left me really really weirded out, and I'm not sure if it was the author's intention or not or if I'm just lacking some important information on Bas-Lag due to skipping PSS or something. Re-mades, WTF. I don't see how that's useful to society, it's only disgustingly cruel.

The pace's a bit slow, too. But I enjoyed the book well enough, no doubt about that.)

So, that's it. 9/30 so far. At the moment I'm reading It by Stephen King and I expect it will take me a looooooong time to finish.

[Isildur's Mane]

I'm now on 6/20. Just finished reading 'The Hero Within: six Archetypes We Live By' by Carol S. Pearson, PHD

So now I have read:

Colour of Magic

Fortunately, the Milk

The Year of the Magna Carta

Wild Women

the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The Hero Within

ETA: just thought I will put in what I am currently reading/ about to read. just for the sake of it.

The Hero with A Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell

The Writer's Complete Fantasy Reference, Writer's Digest

Sexuality in Medieval Europe: Doing Unto Others, Ruth Mazo Karras

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert M. Pirsig

Dangerous Women, George R. R. Martin and Gardner Dozois

[Isildur's Mane]

Oh and I'm reading Eats, Shoots and Leaves, by Lynne Truss

[HexMachina]

Just finished Gospel of Loki, really enjoyed it. Decided to go ahead and get Tge Iron King, will start that later today

[deleted01]

28/60. Slowed down a bit recently, but as of May the 1st I am free as a bird from uni, and can tackle my to-read pile.

Currently reading Tipping the Velvet by Sarah Waters. S'okay - I like the Victorian era, but this music hall stuff is a bit tedious.

[Black Wolf Smith]

I am shaking my head in disbelief that some of you have Targets like 50, 60 or even 100 books in one year. How this can be achieved beside Job, Family, other Hobbies (I got a pile of games and TV Shows as well), friends etc. sounds impressive to me.

Well speaking only for myself, having a job were I don't do anything for 5+ hours a night helps, a lot.

Only 1 book last couple weeks, Harry Sidebottom's The Amber Road (Warrior of Rome 6) 18/60

[Night's_King]

9/25 - Chose a low goal this time, because college is a little stressful...

Check out my Goodreads^^

[deleted01]

End of April, and the total stands at 32/60. Not bad, and it means I'm finally making a dent in my to-read pile.

[mashiara]

28/60 for me.

[lojzelote]

Huh, I finished only one book this month (and it was, in fact, just today), It by Stephen King, but it was a monster of a book. I must say that when I'd first glimpsed the page count I had been tempted to pick up another book, but then I thought that I would be cheating the challenge, making it deliberately easier for me, so here I am. At least I won't feel guilty when if choose something short the next time I'm picking.

I enjoyed the book a great deal (otherwise I would quit reading it weeks ago, lol), but ironically enough, although I'm a great lover of horror, I could do without the horror elements here; the various forms of family drama were more than enough for me personally. Abusive and neglectful parents can be far more terrifying than a malevolent monster hiding under the kids' bed because... well, because dysfunctional families are a real thing. Anyway, I think that the horror would have worked better for me if there was more left to my imagination. Also, all those decapitated heads, torrents of blood and cataclysmic explosions felt a bit over-the-top sometimes; I don't know why King has to have them in so many of his stories.

Other than that, I liked the story very much; King must still vividly remember what being a child was like, or at least to me it felt like it; child protagnists all seemed true to me and none of them annoyed me. Also, I think he did a good job with dividing the story into smaller parts and with the skips between varying POVs... if not for that, the book might have gotten pretty sloggy.

The last thing, I've got to say that I was shocked that the author truly went there with tween kids. I had read that part of chapter before going to sleep and the next morning I though that I must have had some strange, disturbing dream... but nope, it was there, black on white. True, readers are warned beforehand about what happens, but I was convinced I must have misunderstood or that Beverly was misremembering. I'm still not sure how I feel about it.

10/30 books so far.

[Anatúrinbor]

Yeah, that pre-teen gangbang scene was pretty disturbing. But King makes up for it with the hilarious giant spider scene.

[Eponine]

I have 8 months to read 14 books. Not a problem.

I read all 4 books of Otherland despite only being self-required to read the first. I'd rather have just read little stories about how the characters of the first book navigated the mechanics of these imaginary worlds, which were really well drawn and inventive, usually odd versions of older childrens stories, than the actual drawn out plot.

Now reading Vance's Planet of Adventure, won't read past the first. It lacks the wonder of Dying Earth and the charm of Lyonesse.

Next up, The Prestige, one I've been looking forward to since I started the list.

[lojzelote]

Bingo, I was talking about that scene exactly. I still don't understand why it was neccessary for the story or even why it worked in-universe. Really, shoudn't what they have had gone through together before that point have been enough?

... which makes me conclude that the power of igloo brotherhood must exist and it is a male thing only. :D

I would spoiler tag it, though, The Great Ruiner (of surprising plot turns). :)