club The Great Reading Thread of 2024

[Scaly Freak]

Welcome to the first ever Reading Club here at Nerd Fitness! Don't let the name fool you, this is exactly the same kind of thread it has always been: Nerds who like to read can come here to talk about what they like to read, and that is it. There's nothing more special to it than that.

 

That said, there is a small number of rules that we respectfully ask everyone to adhere to as they post in this thread. The first and most important one is Rule Zero: Anyone who wants to join, can join at any time during the year. There is no enrollment end date, and no reading minimums or prerequisites of any kind.

 

The rest of the rules are as straight forward as Rule Zero is:

 

1. Any reading counts as reading. This means we are not required to read books. Any reading material is acceptable reading material, including but not limited to graphic novels, blogs, poetry, philosophical treatises, newspaper articles, periodicals, sheet music, and anything else anyone can think of. All reading counts as reading.
2. Audio books count as reading. If this rule isn't self-explanatory to you, please see Rule #1.  (And if that doesn't make sense either that's fine - audiobooks still count as reading.)
3. Everyone reads at their own pace and level. Reading goals are personal, and while we freely give and take inspiration from each other, we don't compare our goals to each other. This isn't a competition.
4. Everyone reads for their own reasons, and every reason for reading is valid. Again, take inspiration from others, but don't compare yourself to anyone. There are as many reasons for reading as there are readers, and just as many reading goals, and that is exactly the way it should be.
5. Enjoy the reading challenges and have fun with them! This is the most important rule, that no one should ever feel pressured to compromise on. If keeping up with your reading challenge causes more stress than it relieves, do what you need to do to restore that balance to where the reading challenge is a haven again.

 

And that is it. Please tag fellow readers as you come across them in your travels across the greater Nerd Fitness forum community, and feel free to enjoy and share the free reading resources below (contributed by posters in Reading Threads from previous years).  

 

 

Reading Challenges:

 

• https://bookriot.com/read-harder-2024/ - Book Riot’s 2024 Read Harder Challenge, made up of 24 tasks (an average of two per month) that invite readers to explore formats, genres, and perspectives that might go beyond their reading comfort zones. 

 

Reading Resources:

 

• https://www.goodreads.com/ - A community site for reading. Track your reading, create wish lists, read and post reviews, and connect with other readers. Some of the regulars in this thread are active there as well. 
• Open Library - Exactly what it sounds like: A non-profit, open source, digital public library, whose ultimate goal is to make all the published works of humankind available to everyone in the world.
• https://thepalaceproject.org/  - Unfortunately appears to be US-only. If anyone is able to make it work in other countries, please let us know! Anyway, this app uses your zip code to give you a list of all books that have been banned where you live, and lets you borrow them and read them in the app. 

 

Online Bookstores:

 

• https://www.thriftbooks.com/ - An online thrift store for books, new and used.
• https://bookshop.org/ - Online bookstore that works with independent local bookstores all over the world. A portion of the proceeds go to support a local bookstore of your choice.
• https://www.booksandcranniesva.com/ - An independent bookstore. Based in Virginia, US, but ships to anywhere.
• https://www.betterworldbooks.com/ - Seller of used and discounted books. For every book sold, they will donate a book to a literacy initiative/nonprofit in need.

 

 

[Sepherina]

Joining.  I love reading as a child (I would read anything I could get my hands on).  But after spending several years not doing it I picked up the habit last year to help me not use the phone at bedtime.  Now my local library knows me by name!  So here to enjoy all the BOOKS!

[Scaly Freak]

Welcome! Always happy to meet another library enthusiast.  

[fitnessgurl]

*waves hello*

[MaeradCase]

Excited to hang out here, especially after @sarakingdom got so many of us to read Rivers of London all at the same time last year. 😂

[Scaly Freak]

Unless I remember wrong, the Great Campaign to provide All The Rewards is still ongoing, isn't it...?

[Artemis Prime]

14 hours ago, fitnessgurl said:

*waves hello*

[Artemis Prime]

I ended up setting a GoodReads challenge goal this year, but only because it makes looking up my books by year in GoodReads so easy. I'm not going to stress about whether I actually hit the goal or not, and might adjust it through the year if I start making it a thing.

 

I was really light on nonfiction last year, so my goal this year is to read one NF book a month. My first one is Arbiter of Worlds, which is a book on running RPGs that I got for Christmas. It's very short and I'm already halfway through, so once that's done, I'll go ahead and get a jump on my next book, which is going to be Kathleen Flinn's The Sharper Your Knife the Less You Cry. Her The Kitchen Counter Cooking School really changed how I cook, so I have big hopes for this one.

 

I'm also in the middle of Shadow of the Fox by Julie Kagawa, which is another Christmas gift. If anyone is looking for fantasy in a non-Western setting, this is based on Japanese culture. 

 

My brain doesn't process visuals well enough to really enjoy graphic novels, but I do want to give The Adventure Zone a go this year.

 

One of my other goals this year is to return to series that I started, liked, and then didn't get back to. These include:

Masie Dobbs

Thursday Murder Club

Rivers of London

Dresden Files

Discworld City Watch

Jade Dragon Mountain

[KeysMcGee]

I'm still doing the "One biography for every US president" reading thing, so on the off chance anyone else finds it useful, this is the list I've been picking from: https://bestpresidentialbios.com/curriculum/

 

Right now, I'm on Days of Fire which is about GW Bush and Cheney in the 2000's, and from there I'm going to move to James Madison.

[Artemis Prime]

3 minutes ago, KeysMcGee said:

I'm still doing the "One biography for every US president" reading thing, so on the off chance anyone else finds it useful, this is the list I've been picking from: https://bestpresidentialbios.com/curriculum/

Oooh - thanks for this! I would like to read more biographies myself, and my dad loves history, so this will be nice for finding books for him.

 

On that topic, my dad likes historical fiction, but he prefers it to be very light on the fiction and very heavy on the historical accuracy. If anyone has recommendations that fit that criteria, send them my way, please!

[The Most Loathed]

I have my first few books of the year queued up:

I read A Hero Born late last year and found that I loved it. If you want a book that reads like an old kung fu movie, it was designed to be that and I think it does and amazing job of striking the tone. I read the second book, A Bond Undone in December and started A Snake Lies Waiting. I plan to finish the series as my for-fun reading. I then have Richard Osman's The Bullet that Missed and his brand new one behind those.  Then it's back the the entire website's reading project, thanks to @sarakingdom, of trying to read the entire Rivers of London Series.

 

My wife and I are both reading The Power Broker along with Roman Mars and Elliot Kalan on 99% Invisible. It's a year long project, about 100 pages per month. I'll dip in and out of this book on pace with the podcast. 

 

My coworkers started a book club last year and they chose The House of Morgan as the new book to start this year. I honestly don't know how many of them will finish it but I'm going to go for it. I stopped by the bookstore yesterday to buy a copy because I realized I would never finish it from the library on time and there appears to be a queue so I couldn't get multiple check outs in a row. Once I'm done here, I have a book on France I want to get from the library. 

[sarakingdom]

16 hours ago, MaeradCase said:

Excited to hang out here, especially after @sarakingdom got so many of us to read Rivers of London all at the same time last year. 😂

 

I'm not sure it's a repeatable accomplishment!

 

16 hours ago, Scaly Freak said:

Unless I remember wrong, the Great Campaign to provide All The Rewards is still ongoing, isn't it...?

 

The problem is, I lost count.

 

2 hours ago, Artemis Prime said:

One of my other goals this year is to return to series that I started, liked, and then didn't get back to. These include:

Rivers of London

Discworld City Watch

 

 

1 hour ago, The Most Loathed said:

Then it's back the the entire website's reading project, thanks to @sarakingdom, of trying to read the entire Rivers of London Series.

 

[MaeradCase]

4 hours ago, Artemis Prime said:

Discworld City Watch

I'm considering rereading the early ones again, even as I'm reaching forward to read the last two. Keep me in the loop, because I'd love to share thoughts if you dive back into this series. 🥰

 

4 hours ago, KeysMcGee said:

I'm still doing the "One biography for every US president" reading thing, so on the off chance anyone else finds it useful, this is the list I've been picking from: https://bestpresidentialbios.com/curriculum/

 

Right now, I'm on Days of Fire which is about GW Bush and Cheney in the 2000's, and from there I'm going to move to James Madison.

I had forgotten about that! Is it going well? 😃

 

4 hours ago, Artemis Prime said:

On that topic, my dad likes historical fiction, but he prefers it to be very light on the fiction and very heavy on the historical accuracy. If anyone has recommendations that fit that criteria, send them my way, please!

Haha, the closest I've gotten would be Jurassic Park, which I thought was AWESOME, but probably nowhere near the intent of "historical" fiction. 😅

 

3 hours ago, The Most Loathed said:

Then it's back the the entire website's reading project, thanks to @sarakingdom, of trying to read the entire Rivers of London Series.

😂😂😂

 

2 hours ago, sarakingdom said:

I'm not sure it's a repeatable accomplishment

I'm willing to bribe you with weird kitchenware to get everyone to read City Watch together. 😆

[sarakingdom]

47 minutes ago, MaeradCase said:

I'm willing to bribe you with weird kitchenware to get everyone to read City Watch together. 😆

 

[Artemis Prime]

54 minutes ago, MaeradCase said:

I'm willing to bribe you with weird kitchenware to get everyone to read City Watch together. 😆

Oh! I would totally use a cake plate shaped like 4 elephants balancing a disc standing on a turtle's back.

[MaeradCase]

5 hours ago, sarakingdom said:

 

Look, I'm not saying I already have eccentric pieces already in mind, but I am saying I'd go searching for them. 😂

 

5 hours ago, Artemis Prime said:

Oh! I would totally use a cake plate shaped like 4 elephants balancing a disc standing on a turtle's back.

🥰🥰🥰

[Scaly Freak]

5 hours ago, Artemis Prime said:

Oh! I would totally use a cake plate shaped like 4 elephants balancing a disc standing on a turtle's back.

 

Sold. Where do we start, and will it be shipped to me or do I need to pick it up somewhere?

[MaeradCase]

5 minutes ago, Scaly Freak said:

 

Sold. Where do we start, and will it be shipped to me or do I need to pick it up somewhere?

I found someone's one of a kind project blog...

 

[fitnessgurl]

I'm currently reading:

Bible

The Chaos Machine by Max Fisher

& for some mind-candy (AKA fiction): The Royal Ranger by John Flanagan

[MaeradCase]

1 hour ago, fitnessgurl said:

The Royal Ranger by John Flanagan

Ooh! I keep considering reading those again. 😄

[fitnessgurl]

16 hours ago, MaeradCase said:

Ooh! I keep considering reading those again. 😄

Do it! The series is so good!

[Sovalis]

Hi All! Happy New Year! 

 

I'm going to try to read 24 books this year. My first is "Babel" by RF Kuang. 

 

I'd re-read some Pratchett for that plate! 😁

[sarakingdom]

On 1/2/2024 at 1:09 AM, MaeradCase said:

Excited to hang out here, especially after @sarakingdom got so many of us to read Rivers of London all at the same time last year. 😂

 

So, uh... it looks like I just got a new recruit by accident today. 😳

 

(Probably I'm nearing the glass trifle dish. I must be, surely.)

 

20 hours ago, MaeradCase said:

Look, I'm not saying I already have eccentric pieces already in mind, but I am saying I'd go searching for them. 😂

 

I think we'd probably have to start with an egg whisk for Annoia. One that's really good at blocking drawers.

[Heidi]

I have no explicit reading goal. 

I am in two graduate programs, so I read a lot every day, but it's more for "work," and I get kind of mentally exhausted by the massive amounts of reading that I do (and the writing that goes with it) and then also there is that full time job that isn't what I would call intellectual, but it definitely has a cognitive load.

 

All that said, I'm working my way back to enjoying reading, and having a much more pleasurable pace in all my investigations.

Over the holiday break, I read All Systems Red, the first in the Murderbot series, and I really enjoyed it. Bonus for being engaging and only 150 pages long; I read it over a leisurely day.

 

I might read the second of that series, or I might start Farenheit 451. I had a brain injury in 2019, and have forgotten most of the details of what I read before the injury, just the sense of the book reamins. 

And it seems like a powerfully good time to revisit Bradbury, who feels like an old friend, even if I can't remember what he wrote.  

[MaeradCase]

2 hours ago, sarakingdom said:

I think we'd probably have to start with an egg whisk for Annoia. One that's really good at blocking drawers.

And a spatula, blessed be her drawers. 😆😂🤣

 

1 hour ago, Heidi said:

All that said, I'm working my way back to enjoying reading, and having a much more pleasurable pace in all my investigations.

Over the holiday break, I read All Systems Red, the first in the Murderbot series, and I really enjoyed it. Bonus for being engaging and only 150 pages long; I read it over a leisurely day.

That sounds super cool!

 

1 hour ago, Heidi said:

I might read the second of that series, or I might start Farenheit 451. I had a brain injury in 2019, and have forgotten most of the details of what I read before the injury, just the sense of the book reamins. 

And it seems like a powerfully good time to revisit Bradbury, who feels like an old friend, even if I can't remember what he wrote.  

I have sampled three of his books. I really appreciated Fahrenheit 451, wasn't quite into October Country, and really loved The Martian Chronicles (so much that I contemplated writing prompts from his brilliant stories). In fact, I liked Aasimov's short stories' progressions in I, Robot in very much the same way. 🧐😍🥰