Rumpelteazer's 2013 challenge

[Bianca]

My only two real goals for 2013 are to keep the number of non-finished series to a reasonable number and to read a classic each month. Besides that I will keep track of what I've read, like I did last year.

[Bianca]

2013 summary:


Books read: 119
Pages read: 43,958
Words read: 12,909,063

[Bianca]

Active series:


* Charlie Parker (7/11)
* Georgia (combined Grant County/Will Trent/Georgia series)(8/14)
* Yesterday's Gone (18/24)
* Sigma Force (10/11)
* Harrison Investigation (3/8)
* Commissario Brunetti (4/22)
* Mortal Instruments (4/5)
* A Song of Ice and Fire (4/5)

[Bianca]

Finished/discontinued series:

* Aurelio Zen (continuing but not actively)
* A Song of Ice & Fire (not sure what I'm going to do with this series)
* Brother Cadfael (okay series but I read a book once in a while instead of having trouble pacing myself)
* Harrow
* The Cat Who (put on the back burner)
* Dr. John Dee Papers (up to date)
* The Order of the Sanguines (up to date)
* Mistborn (up to date)
* Merrily Watkins (up to date)
* King Raven (finished)

[Bianca]

Classics planned & read:


1. Middlemarch - George Eliot
2. Lark Rise to Candleford - Flora Jane Thompson
3. The Circular Staircase - Mary Roberts Rinehart
4. Uncle Tom's Cabin - Harriet Beecher Stowe
5. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
6. A Midsummer Night's Dream - Wiliam Shakespeare
7. A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess
8. A Tale of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
9. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
10. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
11. Beloved - Toni Morrison
12. The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

13. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
14. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcie Márquez
15. Breakfast at Tiffany's - Truman Capote

Read:
January:
1. The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien
February:
2. Cannery Row - John Steinbeck
March:
3. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
April:
4. Beloved - Toni Morrison
September:
5. Bungay Castle - Elizabeth Bonhote (did not finish)

[Bianca]

Non-Fiction read:

[Bianca]

Age challenge (2013/2014):

1980. Shadowland - Peter Straub
1981. The Mosquito Coast - Paul Theroux
1982. A Pale View of Hills - Kazuo Ishiguro
1983. Phantoms - Dean Koontz
1984. Empire of the Sun - J. G. Ballard
1985. Hounds of Morrigan - Pat O'Shea
1986. Howl's Moving Castle - Diana Wynn Jones
1987. Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency - Douglas Adams
1988. The Outlaws of Sherwood - Robin McKinley
1989. While My Pretty One Sleeps - Mary Higgins Clarke
1990. The Pelican Brief - John Grisham
1991. New York Dead - Stuart Wood
1992. The Club Dumas - Arturo Pérez-Reverte
1993. River God - Wilbur Smith
1994. Snow Falling on Cedards - David Guterson
1995. Naked in Death - J. D. Robb
1996. Alias Grace - Margret Atwood
1997. The Shadowy Horses - Susanna Kearsley
1998. Stardust - Neil Gaiman
1999. River's End - Nora Roberts
2000. Anil's Ghost - Michael Ondaantje
2001. The Infinite - Douglas Clegg
2002. Coraline - Neil Gaiman
2003. The Dante Club - Matthew Pearl
2004. The Ruins of Gorlan - John Flanagan
2005. The Book Thief - Mark Zusak
2006. Hood - Stephen R. Lawhead
2007. The Terror - Dan Simmons
2008. In the Woods - Tana French
2009. The Swan Thieves - Elizabeth Kostova
2010. A Visit From the Goon Squad - Jennifer Egan
2011. Death Comes to Pemberley - P. D. James
2012. Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn
2013. The Blood Gospel - James Rollins & Rebecca Cantrell

[MrsJoseph *grouchy*, Resident Book Pusher]

First!!

[HomeInMyShoes]

^About time. :)

If I get through my gigantic stack of required reads next year I may join in for The Grapes of Wrath.

[Bianca]

Homeinmyshoes wrote: "^About time. :)

If I get through my gigantic stack of required reads next year I may join in for The Grapes of Wrath."

The list is in no particular order, I'll pick one I'm in the right mood for each month, I've picked three extra in case I come across one I really don't want to finish.

Some are rereads, but those I've (partially) read in high school or in the first two years at uni and I now think I didn't appreciate those book as much as I've should and/or could at the time.

[Bianca]

Homeinmyshoes wrote: "^About time. :)

If I get through my gigantic stack of required reads next year I may join in for The Grapes of Wrath."

BTW I just couldn't do a required reading challenge, it would drive me nuts not to be able to pick up something on a whim, which I must do 50% of the time (or so it feels).

[HomeInMyShoes]

^My list for next year is definitely going to be a challenge. I can still substitute books as I see fit and reading interests change, but the requirements are pretty limiting so substitution of anything more than a few books is going to be difficult. I've hopefully got a good variety and great selections, but I'll have to wait and see how it actually goes.

[MrsJoseph *grouchy*, Resident Book Pusher]

I'm pretty hopeless at challenges.

Next year my challenge should be: stay within BUDGET!!

[HomeInMyShoes]

MrsJoseph wrote: "I'm pretty hopeless at challenges.

Next year my challenge should be: stay within BUDGET!!"

But one has to wonder, if there would be complete transparency with respect to book transactions? :)

[MrsJoseph *grouchy*, Resident Book Pusher]

Homeinmyshoes wrote: "MrsJoseph wrote: "I'm pretty hopeless at challenges.

Next year my challenge should be: stay within BUDGET!!"
But one has to wonder, if there would be complete transparency with respect to book transactions? :)"




lol!



ummmmmmm....

.....


Yes.

*nods*

[Bianca]

Considering adding a non-fiction challenge because I've read so little non-fiction books this year. I still have to think how many I want to read, I think 6, and if I want to make a list or go with whatever I want to read at the time. It'll probably be most true-crime novels. I loved The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: A Shocking Murder and the Undoing of a Great Victorian Detective, I have to look into similar books.

[Bianca]

I just finished my first book:

by Karing Slaughter.
A good and quick read, although at times a bit graphic.

[Bianca]

Last night I finished
by Sean Platt and David Wright.
The first in a serialization series (every six episodes are bundled into a "season"). This first instalment shows promise, it reminds me a lot of Stephen King's The Stand. People wake up one morning to find that most/all other people in their surroundings have disappeared. In the first episode the main characters are introduced and we get some glimpses and speculation what has happened.

Now I have to decide what to read next (on my new Kindle!). I either want to read something for my classics challenge or a book from my stand alone list.

[MrsJoseph *grouchy*, Resident Book Pusher]

Congrats on the new kindle!

I haven't read anything for 2013 as yet...

[Bianca]

MrsJoseph wrote: "Congrats on the new kindle!

I haven't read anything for 2013 as yet..."

Taking a break can be good, too. I've been taking it easy too, mostly reading at night in bed and hardly during the day and evening.

[HomeInMyShoes]

Taking a break is good. I'm probably not going to read anywhere close to 83 books this year. I'm just hoping to keep to my challenge list. 44 is a respectable number for me. It would be the third-highest book total in any year of my life (except maybe when I was reading Hardy Boys and Burgess books in my childhood).

[Bianca]

So much for taking it easy.

by Kate Morton.
If you like Downton Abbey chances are you'll like this book because it almost seems that DA is (partially) based on this but with a mystery thrown in. Although some of the answers I guessed early on in the story the ending did come as a bit of a surprise. I will certainly read Kate Morton's other books because this first novel was very hard to put down.

[Bianca]

I've decided to take off the Aurelio Zen series of my "active series" list. I like the series but find I need to be in the mood to read them to be able to enjoy them. I'll be continuing the series but like with James Clavells Shogun series only when I'm in the right mood.

[HomeInMyShoes]

^Do you use anything to track your series? I've been using a spreadsheet for active ones and FictFact as well.

[Nyssa, Series Addict]

Man my TBR can not afford this place! :) I just added The House At Riverton to my wish list on Amazon. at $11 ts a bit spendy right now.

As to series, I also use FictFact, plus Wikipedia to find out whats next and Calibre to keep them in order.

[Bianca]

I use FictFact too, and in Calibre I have a series column. I have several series only read when I'm in the right mood for them. I like the Zen books but they're a bit slow, I like my mysteries faster paced.

I'm thinking of movies A Song of Ice & Fire also off the active list, since it's been almost a year since I've read book number 3.

[HomeInMyShoes]

I toasted Ice & Fire and I've toasted series in general. I read Young Wizard's, Discworld and Laundry Files / Halting State when I'm stuck for what to read next now.

They are definite filler in my reading world. Not that filler is all bad.

[Nyssa, Series Addict]

My husband has suggested Laundry Files, a few times, actually. I need to go and look up book one. I may have to take super early retirement (I'm not yet 40) just to have enough time to read everything I want to read...LOL

[HomeInMyShoes]

Haha. I really enjoyed the Atrocity Archives (Laundry #1) and Halthing State (Halting State #1). I suggest Atrocity first, although I think Halting State was overall better. Some people don't jive with the second person perspective in Halting State. Stross was a great find in authors I had never read before last year due to his ultra-geeky thriller kind of story.

[Nyssa, Series Addict]

I now have all 4 of the Laundry Files, plus one or two other of his works.

Hubby had #s 2 & 4 on his Kindle already, so he bought #s 1 & 3 and then "gifted" them all to me.

[HomeInMyShoes]

I thought Laundry had six, but now that I look, it seems that there's a 1, 2, 2.5, 3, 3.5 and 4 in the series. :)

So many things to read that I won't have time for this year.

[Bianca]

And number 4:

by James Rollins.
A nice adventure thriller. I will continue with this series and hope it doesn't turn out as the Cotton Malone series (basically the same story and set up each book).

Up next my first classic of this year, The Hobbit. It isn't on my list but after seeing the first film yesterday I want to refresh my memory. I can't remember much of the story, only that I didn't like it much which I suspect might have something to do with the style of writing.

[Bianca]

by J. R. R. Tolkien.
My first classic of this year, I went to the film earlier in the week and decided it was time for a reread. I've read this book in 2006 or 2007 but could hardly remember it, I only knew I didn't love it. I still liked it but not loved it, probably because of the way the story is told.

[Bianca]

Map of Bones: A Sigma Force Novel by James Rollins.
The Cat Who Blew the Whistle by Lilian Jackson Braun
Nightmare House by Douglas Clegg.

Yes, I'm still taking it easy this year, LOL. My reading frenzy probably has to do with not being able to read much during December and I'm trying to catch up, plus this week I'm on holiday and am basically snowed in at the holiday park I'm staying at (since I don't swim and it's too slippery for a nice walk there isn't much else to do than read and watch tv).

[MrsJoseph *grouchy*, Resident Book Pusher]

Bianca wrote: "Map of Bones: A Sigma Force Novel by James Rollins.
The Cat Who Blew the Whistle by Lilian Jackson Braun
Nightmare House by Douglas Clegg.

Yes, I'm still taking it easy this year, LOL. My reading ..."

Taking it easy, lol? You're going full steam ahead.

[Bianca]

And that makes 9 and 10:

The Harrowing by Alexandra Sokoloff
Mischief by Douglas Clegg

[Bianca]

The Bedlam Detective: A Novel by Stephen Gallagher.
Okay book, I was in the mood for a little bit more action so I didn't enjoy it as much as I could have. But it's a solid historical (1920s) mystery.

[Bianca]

The Unquiet by John Connolly
Shadowland by Peter Straub

[Bianca]

Black Order: A Sigma Force Novel by James Rollins.
A Faint Cold Fear by Karin Slaughter

[Bianca]

Indelible by Karin Slaughter.
Cannery Row by John Steinbeck.

[Bianca]

I'm considering adding a new challenge that some are already doing this year; for each year since I've been born read a book. I've already made a list of 34 books (and already read one of them), but I think I want to make it a goal for two years, because I want to continue with my series, too.

[HomeInMyShoes]

What did you think of Cannery Row?

I'm liking my year in the life challenge, although the 80s seems like a bit of a wasteland. I know I could have done better for some choices. I do like that I'm picking up a lot of classic titles (Deliverance; Crash; Post Office) that I probably never would have got to without this kind of challenge. :)

[MrsJoseph *grouchy*, Resident Book Pusher]

Bianca wrote: "I'm considering adding a new challenge that some are already doing this year; for each year since I've been born read a book. I've already made a list of 34 books (and already read one of them), bu..."

Yall are so ambitious! I'm happy I got one down, lol.

[Bianca]

Homeinmyshoes wrote: "What did you think of Cannery Row?"

I liked it, I might have loved it if I wasn't in a thriller mood.

I've pickef mainly books of authors I either always wanted to read or wanted to read more books by but never got around to it.

[HomeInMyShoes]

Hemingway is on that list for me. I need to read more Hemingway. And Canadian authors. I'm such a thorn in the CRTC's side. :)

[Bianca]

Time for an update:

Ringworld by Larry Niven.
The Flatey Enigma by Viktor Arnar Ingólfsson.
The Infinite by Douglas Clegg.
The Judas Strain: A Sigma Force Novel by James Rollins.
Death Comes to Pemberley by P.D. James.

and a DNF:
Hawksmoor by Peter Ackroyd. Normally I don't have any problem when authors use dialect or write as if it was originally written in the year it was set. But I just couldn't get into the story, not only was the language hard to understand nothing happened in the 20 or so pages I read besides a character thinking about his youth.

[Bianca]

Burial Ground by Michael McBride. A very good adventure thriller with some fantasy elements. Hard to put down because from the start it keeps you wondering what will happen next.

The Ruins of Gorlan by John Flanagan. Great YA fantasy. It's the start of the Ranger's Apprentice series (11 books, 12th released some time this year), in which the main characters are introduced and it is explained what a Ranger does. I had told myself that the next series I was going to start would be a short one, but I just have to continue with this one. My excuse: the first books aren't long and the read very fast.

[HomeInMyShoes]

^Added to the pile of want to read.

[Nyssa, Series Addict]

I added Burial Ground as well. My SIL gave the kids a copy of The Ruins of Gorlan, but I haven't read it as yet.

[Bianca]

I decided to take Brother Cadfael off my active series list so that I could put the Ranger's Apprentice on :-). I managed to read 60% of it in a couple of hours whilst half listening to the red carpet coverage for the Oscars.