Challenge: 50 Books discussion
Finish Line 2013! Yay!
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Joe's first 50 Book Challenge
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Hi Joseph, good luck this year! I'm interested in seeing what you read (sci-fi and fantasy are sweet!)
I really enjoyed Foundation, it was a great read and I regret not having read it sooner. I wrote a review if anyone's interested in my thoughts on the book.Up next is The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy My Brother has been bugging me to read it for years. Apparently, it is widely considered to be hillarious. We shall see ^^
Well The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was not the rolling on the floor laughing you ass off read that it was always made out to be by every one else. I had only one laugh out loud moment (more of a light chuckle really), and several moments that made me smile. Though that more of a personal issue. For one I really can't imagine a book that could sustain that level of comedy through out. The other issue being that The Hitchhiker's Guide has permeated geeky sci-fi culture to the point that all the biggest jokes had been ruined for me years ago. That said it was an enjoyably kooky light hearted adventure, in a universe based around unlikely coincidence. It was a fun easy read, and I would recommend it to any fan of sci-fi if only to be able to say that you've actually read it and thus has the proper context for all those old jokes. ^^
Coming up for number 3, we're switching it over to the Fantasy but were are still going to keep it light (actually after reading the first few chapters this book is not light hearted at all, in fact it seems a bit twisted so far). Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West
Joseph wrote: "... but were still going to keep it light (actually after reading the first few chapters this book is not light hearted at all..."LOL I made the same mistake after seeing the Broadway show version, thinking Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West would be a challenging but fun read-aloud for my Littlest (age 10) after she got bored of C.S. Lewis's Narnia series. Ummm NO. Wicked is NOT a good read-aloud for a ten year old. LOL I ended up reading ahead and editing aloud for her. And no, I did not find Wicked light hearted in any way!! I think we got about 100 pages in before we finally pulled the plug. In fairness, I will likely go back and read it at some point, we just got tired of skipping so much.
If you are after entertaining and light hearted, I did read The Color of Magic for a group read last year (sorry I can't post the link I just got my first Mac and I am somewhat lost -- the topic is under Group Read in October) that was very light hearted, with all kinds of sci-fi and fantasy elements in it. Since I don't consider myself a sci-fi reader (just started reading more of the genre last year), I was shocked at how many references to other sci-fi and fantasy books/movies I picked up on!
Good luck on your reading challenges!
Diane wrote: "Joseph wrote: "... but were still going to keep it light (actually after reading the first few chapters this book is not light hearted at all..."LOL I made the same mistake after seeing the Broad..."
Gland to hear I wasn't the only one taken off guard ^^
I'm adding Winter's Heart to my list in the #4 spot. At any given time I'm usually in the middle of 3 books. One for my typical daily reading pleasure. One that I'm reading each night to my kids, and an audio book I listen to during the more mind numbing parts of work (this is were Winter's Heart fall btw).
I started reading the Wheel of Time series again last year in anticipation of the just released finale to the series. I was over half way though the previous book The Path of Daggers at the start of this year so I didn't count it toward this challenge (same with the books I'm reading to my kids but I'll go into it when I start the next book in the series).
Anyways Winter's Heart was the last book I had read in the series. It started to loose me because I couldn't keep up with all the characters and their going ons with so much time between books, so this time I've been reading strait through the whole thing. At my current rate it'll probably be a few months until I'm all done with it. So expect to see the rest of the series posted up here as well.
As I said earlier, I was caught pretty off guard by Wicked. While unexpected it wasn’t an unwelcome surprise. I was thinking that I could get into this story, and I did for a while. However, the shock value of the numerous adult themes and 99% of Oz’s population being horrible people soon wore off. While we all know how the story would end, and I was interested in how the story would reach that point. It was interesting in the beginning, but towards the middle it tended to meander, feeling more like a series of random events. It starts to get interesting again very near the end when Dorothy arrives. But instead the story followed a side path out of the blue. Finally when she does confront Dorothy, the event is rather anti-climactic and left me feeling disappointed. It almost totally throws the original story out the window, implying that that is the legend of events the general populace of Oz tell each other.
Supposedly there is a theme of questioning the nature of evil, but I’m not really feeling it. The story makes it pretty clear who is a good guy and who is bad (even if nearly all of them are jerks). Apart from a couple of times when the characters themselves have short philosophical questions about the nature of evil, I don’t see it as a theme in the story.
Next on the list I'm adding The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, I've been hearing a lot of really good things about this series so I figure it's about time for me to check it out.
Also I am adding Lady Friday by Garth Nix. I've been reading the Keys to the Kingdom series too my kids for the past few months, and finished the previous book last night.
Mod
Name of the Wind and The Hitchhiker's Guide series were two that I kept hearing really good things about so that I got pumped for them, but when I did get around to reading, they left me feeling like I must have missed out on something in the reading. I thought that Kvothe was a little too smug for my tastes, but it is still worth reading.
I finished Winter's Heart last night, so now I's starting Knife of Dreams, its the first of the series that I haven't already read and the last written before Robert Jordan's death. Brandon Sanderson takes up the series after this book. I liked Sanderson's The Way of Kings, and if I like his work on the Wheel of time I'll have to check out his other books as well.
I finished The Name of the Wind a couple nights ago, I really enjoyed it, but I don’t know if I would go so far as to say that it was one the top greatest fantasy books of all time. I will say that Patrick Rothfuss is one of the best new fantasy authors I’ve read in a long time. I thought it was a bit ballsy to have you narrating character to describe himself as a master tale-spinner. Implying by proxy that the author himself is a master tale spinner, especially considering it was his debut novel. However Rothfuss delivers pretty well, so I can’t really fault him for it
First a minor edit to my list. I got Wheel of Time Titles mixed up, I was reading Crossroads of Twilight not Knife of Dreams. Now my thoughts:This was the first book in whole series that I just didn't care for at all. There had been ones that dragged, or didn't feel like the story advanced as far as it should have given the number of pages, but previously I had always been left with a generally positive impression at the end of the book. This one was another matter. Next to nothing happens the entire length of the book. It is a essentially a coverage of what was going on with every other character during the climax of the previous book. This books end with a pretty big event, but it is really just a rather brief cliff hanger leaving me with the same feel of nothing worthwhile being accomplished as I get when I wake up Monday morning and wonder how I managed to do nothing done all weekend.
Finnally, I am adding 4 new books to my list. I want to get in on both of the group read this month so that's A Game of Thrones and The Maze Runner. And because I complete spaced on the group reads until today I've already started Knife of Dreams and Hyperion. Whew, I've got to get reading
Well it has been awhile since I’ve updated this list. I’ve still been reading but haven’t managed to get around to updating my list or writing out my thoughts. So let go ahead and get right down to it. A Game of Thrones was really good. This is in spite all the important bits having already been spoiled for me by the HBO series. It was a fair amount grittier than the series and I was a bit surprised that many character are much younger than in the TV series. Long story short, I loved the series, and I loved the book just as much.
The Maze Runner This was also a pretty good book. Very myserious and had me guessing the whole time at what was going on. However, the lack of information was also rather frustrating, with people who had information refusing to share it simply because they couldn’t be bothered. Over all, though it was a fun mysterious adventure, and I’ll be reading the rest of the series in the future.
Hyperion I hate to say I was a bit disappointed because all the great things I had hear about this book being the greatest space opera every written. It is one of those stories that are made up of other smaller stories tied together with a common thread intersperced through an over all story. While the individual stories were could be pretty interesting at times, I couldn’t bring myself to care much at all about the main story. Also some of the elements were just too fantastic for me, such as the fastest starships being grown from trees. It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t great either.
Knife of Dreams Finally! Finally, we wrap up a number of side stories that, while entertaining to read, were mostly there to pad out the series. The wrapping up of all these side stories left me with a feeling of accomplishment that the previous book lacked entirely. While I really love this series, I can’t help but feel that Robert Jordan was talked into padding this series out much longer than it needed to be. While I do think that his original pitch of a trilogy turned out to be a bit conservative I still think the entire series could have been completed in around half as many books. This is particularly apparent in this book with how concisely he wrapped up these side stories that had already spanned multiple books. I think the reason things were so suddenly tied up was Jordan’s immanent death. He was desperately trying to finish the series before he died. However as we know he did not succeed and this was the last book completed by Robert Jordan. After this, Jordan’s wife and editor selected Brandon Sanderson to finish the series using Jordan’s notes, outlines, and completed scenes and chapters.
Superior Saturday is much like the rest of the books in the series. It is pretty good for a kid’s series, which is good because I am reading it to my kids, but it really never wows me. But the Kids are enjoying it so we will be finishing the series.
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As for the next books on my list I’m of course continuing the Wheel of time series with The Gathering Storm. Which I am actually almost done with because it is so amazing that I have forgone my traditional third book in order to get through it faster, listening to the audio book at work and reading a hard copy at home. I suspect I will continue this practice for the rest of the series.
And continuing the series trend I am reading Lord Sunday to the kids. I may try to pick up my pace with it because I’m eager to finish this series and move on to something else.
The Gathering Storm: Awesome book, finally completes the character arc of the main character in a very satisfying way. In the first couple chapters the change in writing styles (due to Robert Jordan’s Death) felt a little awkward. For me it was a subtle but noticeable difference. However, soon I stopped noticing it at all and really got into the story.Towers of Midnight: Not quite as awesome as the previous book, a lot of preparation for the last battle, and Rand the Messiah figure is just not as interesting as Rand the tortured soul.
A Memory of Light: An amazing conclusion to an amazing series. Constant Epic battles, with reality itself hanging in the balance. However the very end, the ultimate fate of Rand, threw me for a loop and felt like it came out of nowhere
(view spoiler)
Live Free or Die: Despite the goofy name that always makes me thing of the last Die hard movie, this was a really good book. It was occasionally a bit heavy on the hard sci-fi but it didn’t bother me too much. There was one thing that left a bad taste in my mouth, Johansen’s Syndrome. I disease designed to kill all non-blondes on the planet and genetically modify them into horny baby pumping machines. I’m not sure if the author has a thing for or against blondes. I’m hoping that later in the series that this actually turns out to have some important purpose for the story, but cause otherwise this was a great book.
Old Man's War Another really great book, this time a little light and fantastical on the sci-fi explanations. It kind of reminded me of a cross between Starship Troopers (the book not the movie) and Avatar (the movie not the cartoon series). IT doesn’t really have the most satisfying ending, and looking at the other books in the series it doesn’t look like it will be a continuing story, just other stories in the same universe. But still great story.
Challenge: 50 Books
Books mentioned in this topic
The Gathering Storm (other topics)Towers of Midnight (other topics)
Live Free or Die (other topics)
A Memory of Light (other topics)
Old Man's War (other topics)
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I first encountered mention of the 50 book challenge a few months back. Having learned of it toward the end of 2012 it was a bit late to join in the fun. I'm primarily a fan of Sci-Fi and Fantasy so expect to see a lot of those titles.
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