Decemeber Reading Thread: How Are You Finishing Off The Year

[RedEyedGhost]

I finished Side Jobs by Jim Butcher today. I'm not a big short story guy (reading them that is - I do enjoy listening to them) so I've been slowly working through this as my "plane book" and it has worked perfectly for that. Some of the stories were excellent, but a lot of them were middling.

I'm also about 70% through The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey. It's a bit uneven, but it's also very enjoyable. The imagery has been fantastic! And now I really want to go to Alaska.

[Tehol]

Finishing off the year with Mass Effect: Revelation. I'm ashamed of myself... kind of.

why? you were not happy with the ending of mass effect 3 so needed a closure? :)

any hoo...finished dark eden by chris beckett, i loved it.

[dornish prince]

Bastard bastard bastard bastard!!! :P

I read Retribution Falls by Chris Wooding, just started his 2nd Ketty Jay book, Black Lung Captain. Good series so far.

i read both of those this year also. BLC is on my top three list in the other thread. These books are super enjoyable romps and the crew, despite similarities to firefly, kick a lot of ass. i would have read iron jackal this year also but like the farseer trilogy and the takeshi kovacs novels; i just don't want them to be over.

granted we'll get one more tale of the ketty jay. :( :crying: :bawl:

[Stubby]

Up next is The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold.

Good book, that. :thumbsup:

[King Tyrion I]

I am on a big Theodor Fontane kick right now. Really wonderful stuff, but it does help to know about the milieus of his settings (mainly northern what-was-then-Germany), and it's incredibly subtle. I'd recommend Effi Briest as the starting point, in part because you can get the Penguin Classics new translation easily, and translation quality matters a lot here. (I'm being lazy and reading first in English and then in German.)

That's interesting.

Do you know how many German pupils - I had to read it, too - are forced to read that?

Well, I liked it - but I guess having to read a book for school and reading a book for leisure are two different pairs of shoes.

I liked it because it's a wonderful portrait of pre-war Germany - WW I.

I guess I'll finish "The Last For Things" by Paul Hoffman today.

[mashiara]

I finished off the year with Of Blood and Honey by Stina Leicht. A very good read, dark and moody, urban fantasy set in a really troubled period with more emphasis on the historical events than the supernatural. A good way to end the year. GoodReads tells me I read 60 books this year, more than I thought I'd have time for. Let's see what will happen next year, now that I'm back at work and the Spawn are walking/climbing/destroying everything.

[Swift]

why? you were not happy with the ending of mass effect 3 so needed a closure? :)

any hoo...finished dark eden by chris beckett, i loved it.

Ha ha, Mass Effect 3 got me back into Mass Effect in general. Since I never read any of the books, I figured I'd pick up the first and give it a go.

Just finished Mass Effect: Revelations, too. Pretty generic science fiction, and the author didn't do a great job of detailing the universe. I felt the book would have been much worse if I hadn't played any of the video games beforehand.

[Garett Hornwood]

Finished Knife of Dreams by pushing yesterday and today to get the last 230+ pages read. Which means from February 1 to December 31, I read all 12 books Robert Jordan solely wrote for The Wheel of Time. I never imagined that I could accomplish that.

For the year:

28 books read (1 partial at the beginning of the year, 27 complete)

14,978 pages (41 per day)

[Swift]

Finished Knife of Dreams by pushing yesterday and today to get the last 230+ pages read. Which means from February 1 to December 31, I read all 12 books Robert Jordan solely wrote for The Wheel of Time. I never imagined that I could accomplish that.

For the year:

28 books read (1 partial at the beginning of the year, 27 complete)

14,978 pages (41 per day)

Was this your first time reading The Wheel of Time? Was it worth it? I have Eye of the World sitting on my bookshelf, but I haven't gotten around to reading it yet.

[Garett Hornwood]

Was this your first time reading The Wheel of Time? Was it worth it? I have Eye of the World sitting on my bookshelf, but I haven't gotten around to reading it yet.

Yes, this is my first read through of The Wheel of Time. It was definitely worth it. The first four books have been the best, books 5-7 are good but not up to the first four, book 8-10 taken together are okay BUT I thought Winter's Heart (#9) was the best of the trio while three-quarters into Crossroads of Twilight I got frustrated before it picked up, with Knife of Dreams #11 the series went back to the quality of Books 5-7. I read the prequel, New Spring, in-between books 5 & 6 based on recommendations I got and it was good advice based on what happens at the end of The Fires of Heaven (#5), the book itself was good AND on level with books 5-7 & 11.

I hope that helps, but if anything at least read Eye of the World. Especially if you're a fan of fantasy.

[The Winged Wolf Bran Stark]

Ugh, 2 short of my goal of 50 books for the year. In the middle of Fellowship of the Ring and just started The Road.

[Davos55]

Finished up Dark Places by Gillian Flynn for the last book of the year! It was a really great read..not quite as engaging as Gone Girl in my opinion, but still was excellent! I really love her work..only one book of hers to go now! Hopefully there will be many more.