MobileRead Book Challenges discussion
2017 Individual Challenges
>
Rumpelteazer's 2017 Challenge
Bianca wrote: "Marked in Flesh by Anne BishopThis series gets better with each book. Only one more to go and I'm all up to date.
My house and dog sitting is almost over. They should return on Tu..."
that's great!
I'm caught up on NOTHING, lol.
IDK. It's been a terrible reading year for me. I've gotten some great reads in but my quantity is LOW.
Bianca wrote: "The Haunted Forest Tour by James A. Moore & Jeff Strand.An okay, quick and dirty creature horror story.
Up next is Drood by Dan Simmons, a historical horror. Can't s..."
No sister to drag you out and about, lol?
Nope, I've decided that since I've invited and paid more or all of the last couple of vacations it's her turn. I'm also going to Newcastle in probably October on my own. I prefer going by boat, she hates boats, which is fine by me.
:-)That sounds good!
Drood by Dan SimmonsA good book. Although I have to agree with others that it's clear that Dan Simmons has done is research, which is always a good thing, but he also wants to show it off. Although very interesting it doesn't make for a nice, quick read.
In just over a month I've read 5 books of 494 pages or longer (officially I categorize a 500 page or longer book as long, but 494 is close enough). So I need to take a break. I also need to a break of horror, ghost and paranormal books. Usually I know what book I want to read next, not this time.
Be Buried in the Rain by Barbara Michaels.So I lied, I did pick a book with a paranormal element. But it wasn't its main topic. I love Michaels' book, they are great to read when you need a break.
Now it's time to go back to my series, my randomizer app directed me to read the next Lincoln Rhyme book, so that what I'll do.
The Burning Wire by Jeffery Deaver.A good book and a surprising quick read, which Deaver usually isn't for me.
Now onwards with the latest Others book. Which I should be able to finish this month. That would mean another month of just over average reading, which is pretty good.
For next year I've decided to keep doing what I'm doing now; no real challenges, read whatever I feel like and use the randomizer app to choose which series to read next. Because for me the app helps me get going with the longer series on my list that I tend to neglect.
Bianca wrote: "Be Buried in the Rain by Barbara Michaels.So I lied, I did pick a book with a paranormal element. But it wasn't its main topic. I love Michaels' book, they are great to read when you..."
Randomizer app?? Sounds interesting!
Bianca wrote: "Drood by Dan SimmonsA good book. Although I have to agree with others that it's clear that Dan Simmons has done is research, which is always a good thing, but he also wants to show ..."
Hmmm, it looked good at first but now...I don't think I want to read it. But I have great respect for your fortitude!
DoodlePanda wrote: "Randomizer app?? Sounds interesting! "I'm using the Ultimate Randomizer app for Android. I first wanted to use a digital dice to help choose which series to read next, but since I had seven ongoing series at that moment that would be hard. But in this app you can add your own list and let it randomly choose one of those. I reserve the right to let it choose again if I'm really not in the mood for a series (haven't happened yet) or when I've very recently read a book by the author it chooses (which has happened). And if I feel in the mood for a certain series I won't use the app.
I use it for my series but you can use it for many reading choices; which category to read for your challenge, for stand alone book, genres, etc.
MrsJoseph wrote: "Hmmm, it looked good at first but now...I don't think I want to read it. But I have great respect for your fortitude! "As I said a lot of the extra information was interesting, but the further I got in the book the more annoyed I was with the slowing down of the story. A lot could have been cut without a problem and it would have made for a much more face paced and exciting read. Luckily, I knew beforehand that this was the case, I might have given up otherwise.
I just discovered that one of the local cinemas has a midnight showing of the new version of Stephen King's It on the day of release! I first thought that I could work the afternoon on Friday, but premiers are on Thursday and I have to work on Thursday morning (we have consulting hour). I think I'm still going to to, only the real fans will go to a midnight showing on a weeknight, that's too much fun to pass on.
Bianca wrote: "I just discovered that one of the local cinemas has a midnight showing of the new version of Stephen King's It on the day of release! I first thought that I could work the afternoon on Friday, but ..."Ooh. That sounds fun! I'll never read /watch it, lol - too chicken - but I'm glad you're going to a midnight show! I used to love those!!
I've read the book and watched the original. The new one looks really terrifying though!!
Etched in Bone by Anne Bishop.Great story, now it'll be a long wait for the next book.
It's almost the end of the month, so it's time to take stock. Hopefully I can squeeze in one more book. If I manage to finish my current book before the end of the day tomorrow I will be one month ahead of schedule of reading 100 books. I'm still ahead of average, last year my reading slump started in August and last until the end of the year, so far this year February was a slow month, but that's normal for me. Hopefully I can keep up my reading. For September I've got a couple of books planned that I've been really looking forward to, though I might save one or two for my vacation in October.
Whispering Corridors by Ambrose Ibsen.Okay shortish horror story.
Since I've finished the Others series I'm allowed to pick a new series. I've decided to give the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache by Louise Penny a try.
Still Life by Louise Penny.A good book, the first in the Chief Inspector Armand Gamache series. I did have two problems with it.
1. If in a house most of the walls have been either painted and wallpapered over in the past week, you should be able to smell that when entering the house.
2. Either the pieces of garden hose one character thought were snakes in the dark were either very short (who would have/save short garden hoses) or she thinks snakes are very long.
Foxglove Summer by Ben AaronovitchA good book, not as good as the previous one, but still a good read. For this series I only have one novel and one short story to read before I'm up to date. It seems that I always finish series in waves, I wish it was a bit more spread out.
Goliath by Shawn Corridan & Gary Waid.An okay read. Especially in the first half of the book the descriptions about the ships were too technically detailed. Luckily the second half was better. It's obviously set up as the first in a series, if more books are released I won't continue with the series.
Hmm, what to read when I'm going to my UK trip next month. The new Department Q book is released next week, I might see if I have enough willpower to save that for the trip. I've also been thinking of rereading the Lisbeth Salander books. But, of course, I also need to select a horror story; I always read at least one horror when I'm on vacation (yes, I know, weird tradition).
The Seagull by Ann Cleeves.A great book, it seems that Vera has mellowed a bit, though she is still as eccentric as ever.
Currently reading Children of the Night, which is quite a good read. Except that I just come across this description about the main female character: "Her skin was gashed from knee to just above the ankle. Kate used a cotton handkerchief and a Tampax from her duffel bag as an improvised field dressing." Yes, the author is a man, how big does he think a tampon is?! Even with the applicator that is so popular in the US it isn't as long as a lower leg!
Children of the Night by Dan Simmons.I'll probably remember this book as the Tampon Book. That said it was a good read. It did suffer from over explanation, just like Simmons' Drood I read last month. No I don't need to know all the technical medical research details. I skim read over those sections just to make sure I didn't miss anything important and the second half of the book was a lot less detailed and a lot more action. The third, and so far, last book in the series is about an author and former professor. I'm expecting a lot of details about publishing and life on campus, though I find that a lot more interesting and recognizable than AIDS research.
But first a stand alone book; I've read three series books back to back, so I'll reward myself with a nice stand alone horror. After that I will either go for Sleeping Beauties by Stephen and Owen King or I'll let my randomizer app decide which series to go for next.
Island of the Forbidden by Hunter Shea.A fun and uncomplicated horror.
I'm now in the mood for something different, so I've decided on a historical mystery, in my favourite set up of being divided into two time periods. Hopefully it doesn't have too much romance.
After that I'm going back to my series. There are three on my list that I've almost finished. I do have a long list of possible new series to try out, but at the moment nothing jumps out at me. So for now I'm not going to actively look for new series to start.
The Legacy by Katherine Webb.Okay. The story is set in three time periods and I feel more could have been done with each, but especially the oldest period, that of the great grandmother. Especially this part of the story got bogged down halfway through.
I realized last night that the three books I picked for my tripto the UK, Sleeping Beauties, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Scarred Woman, are all long reads and I'll have to prioritize which I want to read most.
The Lizard's Bite by David Hewson.Okay. Not as good as the previous book in the series. Somehow I didn't find it a satisfying story, but I can't put my finger on why I feel that way.
I've decided that I'll wait with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and when I finish my current book I'll start with the new Jussi Adler-Olsen. Saving the new Stephen & Owen King book and a shorter book for during my trip.
Currently reading The Medici Letters: The Secret Origins of the Renaissance. It's okay, there have been some weird sentence structures and a couple of typos. But he describes a woman's pregnant belly as "her developing paunch". That's just wrong. I want to give him a smack in the head like Gibbs from NCIS would do. (no points for guessing what series I've been binging on in the past week)
The Medici Letters: The Secret Origins of the Renaissance by Taylor Buck.A promising start, despite some weird use of words (see above) and sentence structures. The second half was a disappointment. It feels like Buck couldn't choose which adventure action cliché he wanted to use, so he used them all. Resulting in a confusing mess. The second story line was set in the 1400s and follows Lorenzo de'Medici. And it doesn't have much function besides giving some information that isn't that important and could have given in another way. More could have been done with this story line.
I've started my vacation reading with Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer (weird to spell his name that way, my aunt's family name is Van der Meer). I came across an article about the film (to be released next year). It sounded interesting so I bought the book. It's less than 200 pages, so a nice starter for me trip.
Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer.I finished it on Monday morning. The only other book I can compare it with is The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon, which I had to read at uni. Both are short, but slow to read. Both I'm not sure how I feel about them. I would say more interesting than good. Annihilation is the first in a trilogy, I'll probably continue, at some point, but I won't be putting the series on my active list. This first part is made into a movie (release next year?), and I could see it work very well on film, so I'll probably go and see it.
Now I'm working on Sleeping Beauties by Stephen & Owen King. I'm loving it so far. Normally I would say I would finish it either on Sunday or Monday. However, I just ordered a Nintendo Switch and two games; Mario Kart and the latest Zelda (my first Zelda!). If the console arrives tomorrow I'll probably won't read a lot during the weekend. If it doesn't arrive until Monday I'll have loads of reading time.
Sleeping Beauties by Stephen & Owen King.A great book. It took me almost a week to read, but today I read the last 45% because I just couldn't put it down.
Needless to say, my Switch didn't arrive yesterday. Hopefully tomorrow. After that I suspect I will have a bit of a reading slump.
I've decided that for my 2018 reading challenge I will focus on reviewing. I haven't written proper reviews in years, so my challenge will be to write at least 2 full reviews a month and publish them on my blog. I will keep reading whatever I like and will use my randomizer app to decide which series to read next (most of the time).
Full Wolf Moon by Lincoln Child.Okay, certainly not the best in the series. But another series finished.
A Winter Haunting by Dan Simmons.The last in a trilogy and definitely the weakest IMHO. The second book isn't really a sequel. One of the characters from the first book is one of the main characters, but you needn't have read the first book to understand the second. This third book is a sequel, but I wasn't too happy about it.
First of all the main character, another from the first book, goes back home and wants to write a book about what happened during the summer of 1960, it's 41 years later. He has a mid-life crisis that went sour and tried to commit suicide which failed. At first I liked the character well enough, but after a while not so much. Also this book leaves too many questions unanswered. Such as: was the evil thing in book 1 a vampire or something different (it is hinted at that it was a vampire, but a very different one than in the second book). In the first book the town was haunted because of the Evil Thing, the Evil Thing was, presumably killed at the end of book 1. Over 40 years later the town is still haunted, is that because the Evil Thing survived or because it's long presence in the town has somehow tainted it? And finally, at the start of the book Simmons takes a lot of time to describe the farm the main character has rented, there's nothing strange. For over 50 years the upstairs has been closed off to preserve fuel, when he finally goes upstairs there are only two rooms and a hall which strangely dead ends where a door to another room, over the kitchen, should be. He does nothing with this missing/hidden room. He set this up and didn't use it, or it was cut, but then they should have also cut the suggestion of another room. That annoyed me.
It seems that in the past month or so there has been only one book that I really liked, the latest Stephen King, otherwise most book were Meh to Okay. Need to do better with my selection.
Winter Moon by Dean Koontzand
The Ghost of Shapley Hall by Amy Cross
I haven't had much time to read this week, due to a combination of it being busy in the store and my mother's bad cold causing me to take over all the household chores. I decided to read a couple of short books I've had on my Kindle for ages. The Amy Cross book is the first. I'll probably not finish the one by Michael McBride today, hopefully tomorrow. A bit of a cheat, but it'll be good for my page count this month and it'll prevent me from getting behind on book count. I justify it by reasoning they are both horror stories and it's the time of year for those.
The Haunting of Craven Manor by Darcy Coates.It seems like I'm still in a Halloween mood, both with what I'm reading and what I'm watching.
The Kill Room by Jeffery Deaver.I accidentally skipped a short story preceding this tenth book, I will read it after my next book.
Meanwhile, I'm having a bit of a reading slump. I mostly blame the dark, grey and wet weather. On my afternoons off and on Sunday, when I do most of my reading, I have been napping a lot, like now the shitty weather has started it's time for hibernation. Also, I've discovered several podcasts (I just love My Favorite Murder) and I can't read and listen to a podcast at the same time.
Ghost Ship by James Rollinsand
A Textbook Case by Jeffery Deaver
Two short stories. But still, it does look nice on my list that I have finished three books in one day.
Now it's time for my 100th book of the year.
Totally understand the lousy weather. November is always a grey month in most of Canada.
It's been a pretty dismal month. Add to that a cold with throat infection and the busy season in the store and I have very little time and energy to read. Luckily we got an extra day off at Christmas (the store's normally closed on Sunday and Monday and Second Christmas Day/Boxing Day is on a Tuesday) which means some extra reading time.Today I put some effort into my current book. Tonight I'll be reading to, I'll probably won't finish it today, but I should be able to finish it tomorrow.
Congrats on 100. I'm close, so close to that number this year it would be a tragic December not to make it (even given my usual drop off in reading this time of year.)
The Cliffhouse Haunting by Tamara Thorne & Alistair CrossAnd that makes a 100. If I keep current pace it's turn out to be an average month on page count and a little under average for book count (though length of book is over average).
Up next is finishing the Peter Grant/Rivers of London series. After that I think I'm going to have some fun seeking a new series to add to my active list. I've finished a bunch of them lately.
It would be a shame not to get to 100, HIMS, though, OTOH I can't stand it to read things if I feel I HAVE to read them. I have done that too much at uni. And if you don't make it, for whatever reason, 99 is a great number too.
The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronovitchand
The Furthest Station by Ben Aaronovitch
And that's another series finished. All four series that are still ongoing are crime/detective series, so I want to look for another genre to add to the list. I'm first going to see if I like the Old Kingdom series by Garth Nix, a recommendation from a friend from uni.
Artemis by Andy Weir.A very good read. I'm almost annoyed with myself for not saving it for my vacation in January. But then in December I need fun and easy books.
MobileRead Book Challenges
Books mentioned in this topic
Suffer the Little Children (other topics)The Dreaming Void (other topics)
Artemis (other topics)
The Demon Crown (other topics)
Sabriel (other topics)
More...
An okay, quick and dirty creature horror story.
Up next is Drood by Dan Simmons, a historical horror. Can't say I have read many of those. After that I'm going back to my series using my randomizer app.
In other news, I'm planning a reading retreat for January. I think this time it'll be a cabin in a woodsy surrounding, with a fireplace. Also, I'm going on my own for a whole week. I'm already looking forward to it.