Reading talk (and challenges!) in 2022

[Defining]

Guys, I am failing my NO READING AFTER BEDTIME rule.

 

[Mad Hatter]

6 hours ago, Scaly Freak said:

The book is magnificent. Jules Verne is such an underrated adventure author! 

Seconded!

 

4 hours ago, Defining said:

Guys, I am failing my NO READING AFTER BEDTIME rule.

I fail to see the problem. You know this is the READING thread right? 😛 

[Gemma]

On 1/30/2022 at 12:38 PM, Alanna said:

 

I have not actually read that particular book of his, but it's on my to read list after a few recommendations! That's great that it works for your challenge, too - I'm trying to think if I've read any books that would fit that category. 

 

The ones that immediately leapt to mind for me were Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore and Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, both of which were great but I wanted to go with something I hadn't already read. 

 

 

11 hours ago, Defining said:

Guys, I am failing my NO READING AFTER BEDTIME rule.

 

 

Story of my life. 

 

 

I just started The Annotated Arabian Nights: Tales from 1001 Nights for an online book club - it is a giant monstrosity of a book that is going to help build my wrist and grip strength while I read, but Yasmin Seale's translations are stunning and the illustrations are droolworthy.

 

Reading challenge-wise, for the category "a queer retelling of a classic of the canon, fairytale, folklore, or myth" I'm about a quarter of the way through Margaret Owens' Little Thieves and it is lovely. It is a dark retelling of The Goose Girl in an alt medieval German setting with an amoral protagonist, what's not to love? 

The verse that opens chapter 1 was fabulous in it's own right, but also hilariously made me think of Frank Zappa's Goblin Girl, the earworm I didn't know I needed 

 

To the gremlin girls,

I would like to tell you something inspiring, 

but the truth is, 

when life closes a door for us, 

it doesn't always open a window.

 

The good news is:

That's what bricks are for. 

 

 

[Waanie]

On 2/9/2022 at 5:03 AM, Defining said:

Guys, I am failing my NO READING AFTER BEDTIME rule.

 

As I'm currently reading on an ereader, it seems to be "Oh look! Another book" 🙃

 

At the moment, I'm considering if I should count novellasas books or not; e.g. the "The Undercity Chronicles of Babylonia Jones, P.I."-series by A.M. Griffin had 5 short, but enjoyable reads. I'm currently reading the "Cloak Games"-series by Jonathan Moeller with a rate of 1-2 books per day (they're not amazing books, but it is enjoyable escapism). If I count all of those, I've already achieved my goal for this year... If not, I'm about halfway as well. Goal-setting is hard .

[Scaly Freak]

50 minutes ago, Waanie said:

At the moment, I'm considering if I should count novellasas books or not; e.g. the "The Undercity Chronicles of Babylonia Jones, P.I."-series by A.M. Griffin had 5 short, but enjoyable reads. I'm currently reading the "Cloak Games"-series by Jonathan Moeller with a rate of 1-2 books per day (they're not amazing books, but it is enjoyable escapism). If I count all of those, I've already achieved my goal for this year... If not, I'm about halfway as well. Goal-setting is hard .

 

Goals can and should change as our circumstances do. I personally count everything as reading, regardless of how long or short it is. If you meet your yearly goal in the first months of the year, all that means is that you're now free to set a new goal.

 

Do what works for you  

[athousandwords]

Just found this thread! I have a 50 books in 2022 goal that roughly translates to "start a new book every week." I give myself permission to give up on any book that that doesn't grip me after the first night of reading, though. Life's too short.

 

I love the idea of the Book Riot Read Harder challenge - I'll have to incorporate that into my list as the year goes on! At the moment, I've got about 4-5 books coming soon in my holds list at the library, plus a few books I've bought sitting in my TBR pile... so I've got my hands full for the next month or so!

 

So far this year I've read:

Malibu Rising

The Simple Path to Wealth

The Other Black Girl

Sing, Unburied, Sing

Kindred

and I just started Gold Diggers.

[Gemma]

My library just emailed me with the happy news that Sabriel is waiting for me.

 

 

[Artemis Prime]

Just finished Destiny of the Republic, the story of James Garfield's assassination. That is some of the most brutal, heart wrenching reading I've done in a long time. Definitely going to need a very light and fluffy palate cleanser after that.

[Scaly Freak]

On 1/28/2022 at 9:56 PM, Scaly Freak said:

 

5/50  

 

7/50! Progress!  

[athousandwords]

On 2/16/2022 at 8:40 PM, Gemma said:

My library just emailed me with the happy news that Sabriel is waiting for me.

 

SUCH a good book! I love that whole series!

[MezzotheLefty]

Just Recently finished Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane on audio book. It wasn't as scary as Coraline (its a really high bar, that graphic novel gave adult me nightmares) and I really enjoyed it!

 

Spoiler

Pieces of it have stuck with me even a few days after finishing. I need to sit down and mull over it properly but overall a fantastic listen.

 

I think it's the mythology adjacent aspects that really drew me in. I loved the tidbits around the Hemstock women and their history. Never explicitly spelled out but nerds can glean pieces of what they describe. 

 

Next up, The Eye of the World from the Wheel of Time series. I have 14 days to listen to 30 hours... 

[Scaly Freak]

7 minutes ago, MezzotheLefty said:

Just finished Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane on audio book. It wasn't as scary as Coraline (its a really high bar, that graphic novel gave adult me nightmares) and I really enjoyed it!

 

Ooo...! I have Coraline! Now I finally know what to read for the horror category in my challenge! Thank you.  

[athousandwords]

44 minutes ago, MezzotheLefty said:

Recently finished Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane on audio book.

 

Oooh I haven't read that since it first came out, I owe it a reread!

[Scaly Freak]

Testing out my library's home delivery service for the first time. They sent me an email that the two books I've been waiting for have been checked out on my behalf by the home delivery service, which I like. Then at the end of the message they told me that by borrowing these books instead of buying them I have saved $36, for a total of nearly $100 so far this year.

 

I don't know where those numbers come from, but the concept is pretty cool.  

 

Also, only a few dollars below $100 at the end of the first two months? I am slacking most embarrassingly, and clearly need to borrow more books!

[Jupiter]

18 hours ago, Scaly Freak said:

Testing out my library's home delivery service for the first time.

 

Ooh, a library home delivery service. That's quite handy. Wish we had one of those.  

[Scaly Freak]

2 hours ago, Jupiter said:

 

Ooh, a library home delivery service. That's quite handy. Wish we had one of those.  

 

They started it during the very first COVID lockdown, in the spring of 2020. A lot of the elderly library patrons, and there's a lot of them to begin with, relied on public transit or rideshare services to get to the library, and they were understandably reluctant to travel in that fashion and risk exposure (many of them still are). The home delivery service became so popular it has remained available, to all our benefit.  

[Gemma]

I love my libraries and use them as much as possible - the local one doesn't do home delivery, though, just curbside pickup. I still wind up spending more $$ than I mean to on books, because whenever I get one that I think the Hubs would like I just order it. He runs through books slower than I do, and he won't read a Kindle/Nook version or listen to audiobooks, so he needs a physical copy he can keep for a month or more. 

 

He would LOVE Sabriel, which means I will probably end up buying the whole Old Kingdom series. Sigh. 

 

At least my teeny weeny town has an excellent used bookshop, so the ones I won't read again I can at least dispose of sanely. And get credit. To buy more. Sigh again. I need more shelves. 

 

Used bookstore find of the month - The King Raven Trilogy.  I haven't started it yet, because ... Arabian Nights and Sabriel ... but I can't wait to dig into this. I love Robin Hood variants almost as much as I love Arthurian legend, and Lawhead's Pendragon Cycle was so wonderful that I named #2 son (Kian) after a character in Taliesin .  

[Gemma]

Road trip listening plan for next week (I'll be on the road for 11-12 hours, round trip): 

 

I'm close to finishing Sabriel - and I love it. So for the trip, I've checked out audiobooks of Lirael, The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, and I'll Be the One, which is a Goodreads forum recommendation for my reading challenge task "Read a book in any genre by a POC that's about joy and not trauma."  I'm also probably going to use The Book Woman for the challenge task "Read a 'Best __ Writing of the Year' book for a topic and year of your choice" - it was a 2019 Forbes Best Historical Novel. 

[Artemis Prime]

Sis and I took a little trip to the next county over the weekend to activate our library cards in their system. Mostly got it for their e-books since I don't intend to do much driving back and forth to pick up books, but I've been doing most of my reading on my tablet lately, and I'm feeling itchy for a real book in my hands. Starting a new job in two weeks that is 0.5 miles from my library, so sounds like an excellent opportunity for me to get a bit of walking done on my lunch break and do some shelf-surfing.

 

So far this year I've been pretty consistent at having one fiction and one non-fiction book going at a time. I just finished reading The Written World which is about the history of literature and The Bookman's Tale whose protagonist is an antiquarian bookseller. They made for excellent companion reads. I don't put too much thought into planning out my reading, so it's nice when things line up like this.

 

I've been making good progress on my goal of reading books that have been on my list for years, but somehow my TBR is longer than ever. You lot are not blameless in this...

[Shello]

I finished Magic Lessons from the Practical Magic series.  I really liked it.  The series can be read in order of publishing or chronological.  Since Magic Lessons was a late publish but the first in chronological order I guess that answers the debate for me.  I've started The Rules of Magic Already.  I've completely given up on my non-fiction.  

[Scaly Freak]

On 3/2/2022 at 11:11 AM, Artemis Prime said:

I've been making good progress on my goal of reading books that have been on my list for years, but somehow my TBR is longer than ever. You lot are not blameless in this...

 

You're welcome. 👼🏻

 

[Gemma]

I've just finished The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek. It was fabulous. Pretty frank depiction of the narrowmindedness of 1930's U.S., and a few scenes that were pretty hard to listen to (TWs behind spoiler) but really well researched information about both the Packhorse Librarian Project and the Blue People of Kentucky. 

 

Spoiler

One scene of sexual violence, two of attempted sexual violence, a whole lot of blatantly, exuberantly racist characters, and one suicide - not depicted, just the discovery of the body. 

 

 

Now I've started Lirael and am so far loving it. 

[Gemma]

Oooh, I just figured out a book that will cover two-for-one of my challenge goals - Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. That will take care of 14) a book whose movie adaptation you've seen but that you haven't read  AND 16) a book recommended by a friend with different reading tastes. My oldest son has been on a Philip K. Dick binge lately  

[Scaly Freak]

Just stared reading Naked in Death, by J.D. Robb. Assuming I finish it (too early to say yet), it will become number 11 out of 50 on my challenge list.

[Alanna]

On 3/20/2022 at 8:09 PM, Gemma said:

Now I've started Lirael and am so far loving it. 

 

A heads up, in case it changes what you need to reserve from the library: Lirael's story is basically one arc that is split between two books (Lirael and Abhorsen). The main arc needs both books, and Abhorsen picks up where Lirael leaves off. I'm glad you are enjoying them!