What are you reading in January 2013?

[Candiss]

How are you ringing in your new reading year? Let us know what you're reading in January.

[Candiss]

I'm in hold queue at the library for this group's SF book-of-the-month, as well as for a few other books, but I do have a stack here I want to get to ASAP. In January, I'll be working through:



(I doubt I'll finish the nonfiction this month, but I want to nibble away at them.)

And my awaited library holds, which I'll probably/hopefully get to sometime this month:



Additionally (and I hold no illusions of finishing it this month, or even this quarter,) I will be (finally) starting Samuel Delany's . If I must read only a page or three per day, so be it. This is my Big Project/Reading Resolution for the year.

[Shel, Moderator]

I'm reading Les Misérables for the second time, inspired by seeing the movie. The first time I read it, years ago, I read the abridged version, and it was TOO abridged - parts of the plot were left out. Even though they were not super important parts, it still bugged me, so this time I'm slogging through the complete version and just skimming the long digressions into French history.

[Nyssa]

My list for January: & reread .
If I have time I will add & .

[Christine]

On NYE I finished Odd Apocalypse (for some reason, GR doesn't show this book) and have moved on to The Octagonal Raven.

[Kathi, Moderator & Book Lover]

Starting January by continuing some series reads from 2012: Torch of Freedom, then a World of Time book and a Vlad Taltos book.

[Nick]

I got a sudden opportunity to read LAST month's BOTM , so I'll probably go back to that thread for a couple of comments.

[Joanne]

Just finished reading spy glass, the last of the glass series by Maria V. Snyder. Loved all of her books so far and still a couple more to go but going to have a break and read Life of Pi next (before I watch the film) :)

[Random]

I'm currently working my way through A Scanner Darkly.

I've also started the audiobook version of Coraline. I've read it a few times before, but I was in need of an audiobook.

After these, I'm hoping to get to Transformation and The Quantum Thief. I know they're for next month, but at the rate I've been reading, I wanted to make sure I had time to finish at least one of them before February ends. :D
(I never did really manage to get to The Black Prism and I feel guilty about that. Its been on my to-read shelf since its initial publication. I also suspect I may have liked it better than Lord Valentine's Castle.)

[Ken]

I finished up the first Jack Reacher book, Killing Floor. Not really impressed.

Restarted The Children of the Sky
after I lost it over Christmas.

[Kevin]

[Jenny]

I'm reading Wool Omnibus and I have been sucked in!

[Shel, Moderator]

Isn't it awesome? :)

[Jenny]

Yes!

[Sandra]

Me, too!

[Pickle]

currently reading To Green Angel Tower, Part 2 with a view to read:

A Scanner Darkly, Paper Grail and The Shining

[Tom]

Hello Group, I'm new here and this is my first post. With the new year, I always like to start with the old and then ring in the new. So I'm going to reread Ursula K. LeGuin's The Left Hand of Darkness and then I'll (finally!) get going on Mieville's Railsea. I'm eager to get started.

[Nyssa]

Nyssa wrote: "My list for January: & reread ...


I finally finished A Scanner Darkly earlier today, so will be stating Among Others next.

[Tom]

Have you ever read Pratchett's Equal Rites? I sometimes wonder if it was early inspiration for the Harry Potter books.

[Nyssa]

I havn't. I've only read The Color of Magic & The Light Fantastic.

[Tom]

Both of those are good reads. So ... does Pratchett write fantasy? Science fiction?

[Nyssa]

I see him more as Fantasy (and Humor) than I do SciFi, but he does incorporate SciFi into his stories - parallel dimensions, time travel, etc.

[Tom]

That's what I like about Pratchett. His writing doesn't fall neatly into any category. You could just as easily call some of his works allegorical satire. Take Hogfather. I think Equal Rites was published about ten years before Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. The main character eventually goes to a wizards' school (the Unseen University) where the students wear long robes and take classes in Potions, Spells, and such things. Only it's a Pratchett-style school, meaning everything is a bit more askew than in Rowling's Hogwarts.

[Nyssa]

My goal is to read as many of the Discworld books as I can, in order. I know he has arcs, and sub-story arcs..there's even a poster out there showing which books belong to which subset (like the Witches vs Rincewind vs Death), but I'd like to read them all as they're listed here instead of by sub-series.

It just so happens that Equal Rites would be next since it is book #3. :)

[Tom]

Feminist fantasy. I'd love to hear what you think of it.

[Kathi, Moderator & Book Lover]

Nyssa wrote: "My goal is to read as many of the Discworld books as I can, in order. I know he has arcs, and sub-story arcs..there's even a poster out there showing which books belong to which subset (like the Witches vs Rincewind vs Death), but I'd like to read them all as they're listed here instead of by sub-series."

That is exactly what I've been doing over the years. I was persuaded to finally try the Discworld books by member of another online book group some years ago. I am up to The Last Continent, so I have quite a few left to go, although I did read Going Postal out of order when it was a group read for a different group.

I think of the Discworld books as fantasy... and it's a world I love to revisit!

[Tom]

There are a lot of prolific authors but Pratchett falls into that rare class of prolific authors who write well. I've never read his Discworld books in order. Nyssa and Kathi, now you're making me want to go back and do them properly.

[Nyssa]

I blame my self diagnosed, series related, OCD. I have to read in series in order.

[Tom]

I blame George Lucas for me not having that compulsion. What was he doing starting Star Wars with Episode 4?

[Nyssa]

LOL

[Stefan, Group Founder + Moderator (Retired)]

Nyssa wrote: "That is exactly what I've been doing over the years."

Best way to go. I've been reading Pratchett since Equal Rites came out. Back in Belgium, I had a friend bringing me the newest books from the UK once in a while, so I have all the old UK editions with the fun Josh Kirby covers until I moved to the US and got the... well, the cover art wasn't as good. Publication order is almost always the best way to go - that's what the people who've been reading a series since the beginning did, because it was the only option. Yes, there are sub-series and arc's and whatever you want to call them, but if you just read them the way they were published, you'll have a blast.

[Helen]

I've not read a Pratchet for so long, I have mine away when I moved (the Kirby covers) regret it now. One of those can't see me reading these again moments.

[Ken]

I finally finished The Children of the Sky. Not as good as I was hoping. Rather disappointed with it.

Since I cant get my hands on Michelle West's latest Battle with have to settle for
A Memory of Light