75 Books...More or Less! discussion
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Stacie's 75 Books Challenge, 2016 ed.
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message 51:
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Stacie
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Oct 12, 2016 06:55AM
42.
Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization
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43.
Podkayne of Mars While I liked the philosophizing of the "let's think about how future societies might develop", which is classic Heinlein, I hated everything else about this. I am so sad that I have found a Heinlein story that I DO. NOT. LIKE.
44.
The Poets' Corner: The One-and-Only Poetry Book for the Whole Family This one, though, I really enjoyed! While I didn't necessarily like all of the poems chosen, I can highly recommend spending several hours listening to John Lithgow (and various "special guests"- Morgan Freeman reading Gwendolyn Brooks' "We Real Cool" is magic!) talk to you.
Mod
[book:Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization|64..."This looks really interesting and Felicia Day has endorsed it so I'm in!
Elyse wrote: "Stacie wrote: "42. [book:Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western ..."There's a reason we use the descriptor "Byzantine" to mean opulent but insanely convoluted, but this was really clear and easy to follow. And despite knowing how everything 'ends' it still feels tragic when you get to the inevitable fall. It's not exactly unbiased, because the author loves the subject, but it was well written, well researched and compelling. I would say "add it to the pile"! :D
45.
Frontlines: Requiem: The Graphic Novel The art is clean and appealing (you can practically hear and smell the world), the story is standard Sci-Fi "humanity fights for its very existence against a virtually unbeatable alien menace" fare, and I loved every minute of it. I want it to be a video game or tv series so much that it burns! This is pretty much my genre kryptonite :)
46.
Indian Fairy Tales These felt comfortably familiar, even though I'd never read any of these particular tales before. It reminded me very much of the Folk and Fairy Tales Childcraft book I commandeered when I was little.*rwyo
47.
A History of India The information is interesting, but the Professor's diction and pacing... it was like having my GPS program read to me for 18 hours. This would have been much better if it had been available in print instead of audio.
48.
Attack on Titan, Volume 01 So many people I know absolutely love this series... We're just going to have to agree to disagree ;)49.
X-O Manowar, Volume 1: By The Sword This was another "graphic novel" (it should properly be called a trade paperback, but I'm not invested in that particular can of worms, lol) that was recommended to me that just didn't work for me. 50.
Myth in Human History Dry in the beginning, and practically a stereotype of the 'pompous literary analysis', but if you can get past that there are some interesting bits and the lecturer isn't painful to listen to.51.
You Are (Not) Small Normally I don't have a reason to read toddler books so no one warned me not to do voices. I read this book- to a child I didn't even know!- probably about eight times in a row because he thought my voices were funny. The art was cute and the target audience apparently loved it, but I'm pretty sure I felt brain cells die off. If you are looking for books to read to tiny ones in your life, this is not one that you are going to want to have to read over and over.52.
Music as a Mirror of History Not my favorite title from Professor Greenberg, but still very good. There's something about his enthusiasm for his subject that just makes me smile.
53.
Yesterdays54.
Teahouse of the Almighty55.
Big Towns, Big Talk: PoemsGot on a little poetry kick- Patricia Smith is still one of my favorites. There were some really nice pieces in the Wilcox volume as well, though that one was more hit or miss for me than the Smith volumes.
Mod
Elyse wrote: "Hahahaha your review of You Are (Not) Small had me laughing out loud!" I pretty much live in perpetual worry that I'm going to run across him at another bus stop and be stuck reading that book again ;) Still, if a little guy scoots up next to you and hands you a book, you read it to him, lol!
Mod
Aww that's cute though! :)
57.
Hellboy: Seed of Destruction #158.
Hellboy: Seed of Destruction #259.
Hellboy: Seed of Destruction #360.
Hellboy: Seed of Destruction #4I love Mike Mignola, and John Byrne, and when you put them together I'm almost guaranteed to be a happy camper. I read these as individual issues, so that's how I'm counting them, but there's also a collected TPB volume that includes a couple of stories and some art not easily available elsewhere that I'd love to get my hands on :)
(...and I'm still missing some books. My challenge tracker is telling me I've forgotten to list 3 things here, but I'm feeling too lazy to go track them down right now.)
61.
Z-Minus I I needed a Z title for the ABC challenge and I like monster stories, but this... this the worst thing I've read this entire year!
62.
Varney the Vampire, or the Feast of Blood What to say about this? I did enjoy it, overall... even though the writing, setting, and plot is all over the place and you can tell that it's from the age where writers were paid by word count. This thing goes on forever! It should have annoyed me to the point I was ready to set the thing on fire but, instead, it felt like someone had taken decades of a comic book run, complete with all of it's writers' changes and ret-conned origins and assembled them into one giant volume, and I was getting to binge read the entire series.*rwyo
63.
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire64.
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix65.
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince66.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows I wonder if I'll ever reach the point where I don't ugly-sob through this...
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Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire64.
[book:Harry Potter and the Order of the..."Probably not! lol. Someday I want to listen to the audiobooks.
Elyse wrote: "64. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter, #5) by J.K. Rowling[book:Harry Potter and the Order of the..."Probably not! lol. Someday I want to listen to the audiobooks. "
I love them, too! Although the seventh book was a little distracting because the narrator (Jim Dale, in my preferred version) switches up the voices he uses for characters. And I cried so hard through the Shell Cottage scene that I didn't actually hear that bit... and I've listened to it more than once, LOL!
Mod
Probably not! lol. Someday I want to listen to the audiobo..."
It's always fun to be a sobbing mess when you're driving, which is where I listen mostly. lol. Only downfall of audiobooks on car rides!
68.
The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook: From Cauldron Cakes to Knickerbocker Glory--More Than 150 Magical Recipes for Wizards and Non-Wizards Alike This was a novelty gift from someone who knows of my 
Mod
[book:The Unofficial Harry P..."It IS a growing genre! Outlander has one, HP has one, LotR has one, etc. I bought the HP one for my niece and nephews for Christmas this year!
(Ha! I finally got around to tracking down the books I'd forgotten to log.)70.
Grim Tuesday71.
Drowned Wednesday72.
Sir ThursdayAnd since I'd read those, I figured I might as well finish the series ;)
73.
Lady Friday74.
Superior Saturday75.
Superior SaturdayI really enjoy this series, even though the last just doesn't gel for me.
Elyse wrote: "75! Congrats, Stacie!" Thanks! And I still have time to read an "N" book and finish up the ABC challenge, too. Maybe... there's a lot of cooking and baking going on right now ;)
Stacie wrote: "76. The Umbrella Mender"Yay! You beat your 75 book goal... and the year is not even over, yet!
Carol wrote: "Stacie wrote: "76. The Umbrella Mender"Yay! You beat your 75 book goal... and the year is not even over, yet!"
Thanks. There have been a few dry spots, but it's been a pretty good year for reading. Some old favorites, lots of new things, and a measurable (if small) dent in my TBR pile :)
77.
A Christmas Carol: A Signature Performance by Tim Curry I just listened to this last night and enjoyed it a lot. I've listened to the Jim Dale version many, many times and it was neat to see the differences. The Curry version feels more like he's reading a book to you- one he's read countless times and knows forward and backward, sure, but you can still feel the love for, and weight of, the printed and bound word. The Dale version feels like sitting at a favorite uncle's feet while he animatedly tells you a story, complete with expansive gestures and exaggerated voices.
78.
The Incal This is one of those things you read and wonder if it makes more sense to the chemically altered.
Mod
A Christmas Carol: A Signature Performance by Tim Curry I just listened to this last night and enjoye..."I love this version! Tim Curry, I mean c'mon. :)
80.
Night Shift Sometimes I forget, after reading King's bricks, just how much I love his short stories. They are like cookies: deceptively simple, perfectly proportioned bites of goodness. My favorite tale changes with each read-through; this time it was "Jerusalem's Lot".And that finishes off my ABC Challenge with, like, 30 hours left in the year. Plenty of time! ;)
Most of my reads this year were good and I got to read more than I did last year. I'm calling this year a win!
(and now, I'm going to move to the recliner with a mug of tea, and curl up with the dog and my new Christmas books. Call it getting a headstart on next year's list :D Happy New Year, everybody! I'll see y'all in January)
Mod
75 Books...More or Less!
Books mentioned in this topic
Night Shift (other topics)A Calendar of Tales (other topics)
A Christmas Carol (other topics)
The Incal, Vol. 1: The Black Incal (other topics)
A Christmas Carol (other topics)
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