Stacie's Year of Reading, 2014 ed.

[Stacie]

Last year turned out to be… not a great year for reading. And I have absolutely no idea why :( This year, though, starts out fresh with brand new books in it- and likely some old favorites as well- so let's see where it takes us!

[Karol]

Great to see you here, Stacie! Happy New Year - hoping you have many enjoyable reading adventures in 2014.

[Elyse, Moderator]

Welcome back, Stacie! You're going to have a better reading year this year! ;)

[Stacie]

Thanks :) I thought about not joining in this year- for about 30 seconds- but I'd miss this group, lol!

[Stacie]

1. The Great Courses: The Vikings The first book finished in 2014 was actually started last November… but I say it counts anyway ;) This is an audiobook lecture series, a longish one (18 hrs), and it was really well done. The lecturer did a particularly good job of keeping different individuals with the same names separate and clearly defined (and when you have multiple Eriks, Harolds, Olafs and Svens that's pretty impressive).

[Stacie]

2. World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War I'd been putting off reading this for years. I can't even remember why I was putting it off. Whatever the reason, I'm glad I finally got around to picking this up- it was really enjoyable!

[Stacie]

3. Archeologists of Shadows Volume #1

4. Archeologists of Shadows Volume #2

Very surreal and the visuals are fantastic, reminiscent of H.R. Giger.

[Dawn Michelle]

World War Z is on my TBR list. I may have to bump it up. :-)

[Dawn Michelle]

World War Z is on my TBR list. I may have to bump it up. :-)

[Dawn Michelle]

HA! I just realized I own this on my Kindle!!! WHOOOO-HOOOO!!!! For sure bumping it up!!!

[Stacie]

Definitely give it a try :)

[Elyse, Moderator]

I didn't like the World War Z movie too much. Hopefully the book is better, which is usually always is. :)

[Stacie]

I can't imagine that the movie had much in common with the book (granted, I haven't actually seen it) beyond the title and subject matter. The book pieces the story of World War Z together through interviews with survivors, so you have all these different snippets- like snapshots- that work together to give you a feeling for the whole picture.... A technique that I think would be almost impossible to successfully render in film. I'd say give the book a try :)

[Stacie]

5. Children of Fire An interesting world with classic character tropes but lacking in structure and character development. The writing style is very much "just keep writing until the publisher says you absolutely have to turn it in and then stop." It feels like he tried to do too much with this story, cram in too many ideas instead of focusing on a few clear ones… the overall effect was that it wound up being a tiring read.

[Stacie]

6. Fairy Tales Every Child Should Know Some old favorites, and some 'new' :) Plus, this knocks out a book a book that I've had in my 'to read' pile for years. Seriously… I downloaded it when the Kindle reading app for iPhones first became available!

[Dawn Michelle]

That was my first read of this year...I had added to my Goodreads TBR pile in 2008!!! WHAT?? It was good to read it and be done with it. I have WAY too many that were added that long ago and then never read! :-)

[Stacie]

7. Masterpieces of the Imaginative Mind: Literature's Most Imaginative Works

[Stacie]

This is not my blog (it's from Rebecca Joines Schinsky at Bookriot) but I'm saving it here because it said something I needed to hear... and when I start feeling like I'm not reading 'enough', getting 'behind' or doing it 'wrong', hopefully I'll come across this again and remind myself that there are no 'shoulds' in reading ;)


http://bookriot.com/2014/01/27/throw-...

[JanB]

Stacie wrote: "This is not my blog (it's from Rebecca Joines Schinsky at Bookriot) but I'm saving it here because it said something I needed to hear... and when I start feeling like I'm not reading 'enough', gett..."

Stacie, thanks for the link. Interesting site. I don't necessarily agree with everything she says but she makes some very good points. But I do love GR and all the recommendations I get here and from other sources.
And now I need to go hit the delete button on most of the books on my Amazon wish list, lol

[Elyse, Moderator]

I love my TBR list. It may be extensive but it's a challenge I so look forward to. I'm constantly re-arranging my TBR list, adding, and recently, subtracting! Which is big for me. lol. At times I get a little overwhelmed but of course, no one is forcing me to read everything on it and as long as I keep that in mind, it's fine! I won't mention how many books are on it...let's just say it may be 4 digits long... ;) Which don't include the free e-books I pick daily from my BookBubs and FreeBookSifter e-mails and the NetGalley e-books I sign up for.

[Stacie]

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy Goodreads, seeing all my books, tracking my stats and seeing what other people are reading… but there is something chore-like about a to-read list (at least for me). So, I just created a new list for myself :D It's my WTR (want to read) list versus my TBR (to be read) list. It may seem silly, but that tiny change makes my list feel less like a job that I'm going to be judged on and more like a treat to look forward to. And, if one day I decide that something on that list doesn't belong there anymore, I can take it off and not feel the slightest bit guilty. It's not a promise I didn't keep, or something I failed to accomplish… it's just something I don't want to do anymore :) Then that list becomes a whole bunch of 'options' instead of 'obligations'. It feels good :)

[Charleen]

I'm glad you decided to come back, Stacie! Hopefully re-thinking how you look at your list will help make this year better than last.

[Andrea, Moderator]

I totally get what Stacie is saying about letting you TBRvpile make reading a chore. I think it was one of the reasons that led to my great slump of 2013/2014!

[Stacie]

8. Macbeth Sometimes I forget how very much I love Shakespeare. Now, if I could just find a performance where the scenes with the witches aren't painful to listen to...

9. Food: A Cultural Culinary History I loved this! It's kind of amazing- there is so much I didn't know about time periods I thought I knew quite a bit about ;) I like the way it was all tied into historical perspectives so you could use food to trace the lines of cultural connections. I'll warn you, though... I kept wanting to try most of the food he was talking about! (so far this is my favorite new 'read' this year)

[Stacie]

10. A Short History of the World Meh... it's ok, but there are better survey of history books available.

[Kat]

Stacie wrote: "This is not my blog (it's from Rebecca Joines Schinsky at Bookriot) but I'm saving it here because it said something I needed to hear... and when I start feeling like I'm not reading 'enough', gett..."

Interesting! I feel like stress surrounding TBR's is the opposite for others, though.. I have a crowded schedule, so I feel guilty if I read because I have so many other things to do. Turning reading into a to-do bullet point makes me feel better about allotting time to something pleasurable. It's all about perspective, I guess..

[Stacie]

11. Myths and Mysteries in Archaeology I enjoyed this one, though it got off to a really slow start! I will say that if someone is dearly attached to the "Aliens did it" explanation of everything, they are likely to be irritated by it ;)

[Stacie]

12. Lost Worlds of South America So many things I didn't know! These Great Courses and Modern Scholar audiobooks remind me of being a kid and getting lost in reading encyclopedias... learning for the joy of learning, instead of just for a grade.

[Stacie]

13. Birds of Prey, Vol. 1: Trouble in Mind

[Stacie]

14. Birds of Prey: Vol. 2: Your Kiss Might Kill

15. Birds of Prey, Vol. 3: A Clash of Daggers

16. Hinterkind Vol. 1: The Waking World


I've been in a Graphic Novel kind of mood lately, been devouring them... now I have to wait forever for the next ones to come out :/ I'm especially interested to see where Hinterkind goes... the art is more rough and sketchy than I usually care for, but the story has a good hold on me. Post apocalyptic fantasy :)