2025 Reading Challenge discussion
ARCHIVE 2017
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Paul's Spinning (Slightly Slower) Carousel - 180 books in 2017
Book #1
The Reptile Room (A Series of Unfortunate Events, #2) by Daniel Handler as Lemony Snicket
Finished 1st January 2017
224p
Why I read it: The Netflix series is coming soon, so I figured I'd pull these out again, especially as Mark Oshiro is planning on reading them someday (maybe) and I never actually finished the twelfth one.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: General/mystery/thriller, male, white, USA, 1990s, January, familiar, children, series, novel, short, borrowed ebook, reread.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Popsugar (pseudonym), Colour Challenge (Green), Book Riot Read Harder (Book you've read before)
Yay, you saw the trailer of the Netflix series too! Can't wait to watch that one ^^
Ecem wrote: "Yay, you saw the trailer of the Netflix series too! Can't wait to watch that one ^^"Yes, I have! Or at least the first one, not sure I've seen the newest one yet. Heck, I'm fairly sure I've been following this since the news first came out. There've been some things I'm not too sure of yet, but I still want to watch it as close to day one as I can! ^^
Book #2
Ship of Magic (The Liveship Traders #1) by Robin Hobb
Finished 8th January 2017
897p
Why I read it: I'd liked Robin Hobb's Farseer Trilogy well enough, so when this came up in a Kindle sale I thought I'd throw it on the pile.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Fantasy, female, white, USA, 1990s, January, familiar, adult, series, novel, very long, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Genre Bingo (Epic/High Fantasy), Popsugar (Book involving travel), Randomiser, Colour Challenge (White), A to Z Location (Jamaillia), Book Riot Read Harder (fantasy novel)
Book #3
The Silver Branch (The Dolphin Ring Cycle #2, The Roman Britain Trilogy #2) by Rosemary Sutcliff
Finished 11th January 2017
276p
Why I read it: When I wanted to read The Eagle of the Ninth for some reason, I bought this, that, and The Lantern Bearers because they came together and it was cheaper than getting the one book on its own.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Historical, female, white, UK, 1950s, January, familiar, children, series, novel, medium, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Genre Bingo (Historical), Popsugar (disability), Randomiser, Colour Challenge (colour in the title), A to Z Location Challenge (Londinium)
Book #4
The Lantern Bearers (The Dolphin Ring Cycle #4, The Roman Britain Trilogy #3) by Rosemary Sutcliff
Finished 13th January 2017
324p
Why I read it: Finishing up my copy of The Eagle of the Ninth Chronicles.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Historical, female, white, UK, 1950s, January, familiar, children, series, novel, medium, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Colour Challenge (Red), A to Z Location Challenge (Venta Belgarum)
Book #5
Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley
Finished 15th January 2017
377p
Why I read it: One of my friends on Goodreads really liked it, and when it showed up in a Kindle sale I remembered that, thought it sounded interesting, and went ahead and got it. This was way before it was shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal and won the Amnesty CILIP Honour as well.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Historical/romance, female, white, USA, 2010s, January, new, young adult, standalone, novel, medium, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Randomiser, Genre Bingo (Historical Romance), Colour Challenge (Orange), A to Z Location (United States of America), Book Riot Read Harder (LGBTQ+ romance novel)
Book #6
Partials (Partials #1) by Dan Wells
Finished 20th January 2017
483p
Why I read it: It showed up on the Mark Reads suggestions churn, and it sounded interesting.
Rating: 3/5
Categories: Dystopia/sci-fi, male, white, USA, 2010s, January, new, young adult, series, novel, medium, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Randomiser, Genre Bingo (Dystopian), Colour Challenge (Purple), A to Z Location (New York), Book Riot Read Harder (all point-of-view characters are people of color), Popsugar (main character is a different ethnicity than me)
Book #7
Eastern Standard Tribe by Cory Doctorow
Finished 24th January 2017
236p
Why I read it: I thought it was a good idea to stick it to the man and download all of Cory Doctorow's books from his website some day.
Rating: 3/5
Categories: Spec fic, male, white, Canada/UK/USA, 2000s, January, familiar, adult, standalone, novel, short, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Randomiser, Genre Bingo (Sci-Fi), Colour Challenge (Black), A to Z Location (Boston), Popsugar (book by an author from a country you've never visited - Canada)
Book #8
American Gods Tenth Anniversary Edition (American Gods #1 I suppose) by Neil Gaiman, read by lots of people including Dennis Boutsikaris, Daniel Oreskes, Ron McLarty, Sarah Jones, and Neil Gaiman
Finished 26th January 2017
635p
Why I read it: The Starz series was coming up (April!), but it was American Gods being named the January group read that pushed me over the edge. I went for the Tenth Anniversary Full Cast audiobook because I'd heard great things about it and I'd only ever read the original edition before.
Rating: 5/5
Categories: Fantasy, male, white, UK/USA, 2000s, January, familiar, adult, standalone/series, novel, long, audiobook I own, reread.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Genre Bingo (Urban fantasy), A to Z Location (Kansas), Popsugar (audiobook), Book Riot Read Harder (character of colour goes on a spiritual journey)
Book #9
The Trial by Franz Kafka (translated from the German by David Wylie)
Finished 27th January 2017
132p
Why I read it: I went to Prague last summer and I was in a Kafkaey mood (not Kafkaesque) that I went and bought both this and Metamorphosis for my Kindle.
Rating: 3/5
Categories: Classic/literary, male, white, Czech Republic/Germany, 1920s, January, familiar, adult, standalone, novel, short, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Genre Bingo (Classics), Randomiser, Popsugar (Book I bought on a trip), Around the World in Languages (German), Book Riot Read Harder (published between 1900 and 1950), Colour Challenge (more than five colours), Top Ten Favourites
Book #10
The Last Continent (Discworld #22) by Terry Pratchett
Finished 27th January 2017
404p
Why I read it: Mark Oshiro was reading it.
Rating: 3/5
Categories: Fantasy/humour (parody), male, white, UK, 1990s, January, familiar, adult, series, novel, medium, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Popsugar (Book with an eccentric character), Colour Challenge (yellow), A to Z Location (XXXX/Fourecks/EcksEcksEcksEcks)
Book #11
A Wizard Alone (Young Wizards #6) by Diane Duane
Finished 28th January 2017
204p
Why I read it: Mark Oshiro was reading it.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Fantasy, female, white, USA/Ireland, 2000s, January, familiar, children, series, novel, short, audiobook I read online, reread.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Popsugar (Book about a difficult topic), Colour Challenge (Light Blue)
Book #12
Monarch of the Glen (technically American Gods #1.5) by Neil Gaiman
Finished 28th January 2017
128p
Why I read it: I was in an American Godsy mood.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: General/fantasy, male, white, UK/USA, 2000s, January, familiar, adult, series, novella, short, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, A to Z Location (Scotland)
Book #13
Black Dog (theoretically American Gods #2.5) by Neil Gaiman
Finished 29th January 2017
96p
Why I read it: Still in an American Godsy mood. I'm not sure when I'm gonna stop being in an American Godsy mood tbh.
Rating: 3/5
Categories: General/fantasy, male, white, UK/USA, 2010s, January, familiar, adult, series, novella, short, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, A to Z Location (England), Popsugar (book involving a mythical creature), Colour Challenge (Pink)
January SummaryReading Challenges
Yearly
Overall Reading Challenge: 13/91 (14.3%)
Let's Turn Pages: 4,416/36,500 (12.1%)
Genre Bingo: 7/17 (41.2%)
Popsugar: 10/18 (55 5/9 %)
Book Riot: 6/13 (46.15%)
Dewey Decimal Challenge: 0/10 (0%)
Languages: 1/5 (20%)
Randomiser: 6/10 (60%)
Colour Challenge: 7/7 -> 11/15 (73 1/3 %)
Top Ten Favourites: 1/13 (7.7%)
A to Z Location: 10/26 (38.46%)
Quarterly
N/A
Monthly
N/A
January's Stars
★★★★★ 1 book
★★★★ 7 books
★★★ 5 books
★★ 0 books
★ 0 books
Reasonable Highlights and Relative Lowlights
In the order they were read...
+ The Reptile Room – A lot better than The Bad Beginning, has all the strengths and only some (or maybe all and it just didn't matter this time) of the weaknesses, and it went to a place I didn't remember it going to halfway through that made it strangely lovely for some reason!
+ On that note, Netflix's A Series of Unfortunate Events is very good indeed. Not quite great, though that could just be because I fell on the wrong side of the odd tone balance it tries to keep up all season and doesn't always succeed at a bit too often, but I had a really good time anyway. If you haven't yet (and why haven't you???) it's well worth your time. Don't look away (look awayyyy)!
+ Ship of Magic – A good bit better than I remember the Farseer trilogy being (though it's been a while), full of complicated, frustrating, endearing characters and wisdom, stuff I don't feel like I see enough of in fantasy, and admittedly just a bit too much stuff in general and portentous hints of ~mystery~ going on (this book has a serious case of what I like to call Netflix syndrome for reasons I promise make sense)
+ The Lantern Bearers – I liked The Silver Branch, but tbh it's pretty much just well-executed standard children's lit. This though was something else altogether. It's no wonder it won the Carnegie really. (If you want you can read this before/without the first two books and not really miss anything, they're fairly well set up that way.)
+ Lies We Tell Ourselves – You wouldn't think lesbian YA set during desegregation would work, but it really does. Makes me want to read other books like this or dealing with integration too, I'm aware that I shouldn't let this just be a single story.
+ American Gods Tenth Anniversary Edition – Near unambiguously a genuine modern classic, and pretty much the book I read the first time all over again. Part of that's the great cast for the audiobook, part of that was a conscious effort to go ahead and relove it, part of it's the changing times I think, and part of it's just that something clicked this time. It's flawed, sure, and some things about it I can't quite put my finger on them, but in a way that just makes it even more interesting (and not just because Neil Gaiman said that outright in the opening). I'd go as far to say that it's still a book we need right now, and I still so can't wait for the Starz series. That cast! [The novellas aren't strictly necessary, but they're nice enough. I wonder if they'd be better if you bumped into them in Fragile Things and Trigger Warning instead of reading them as discrete entities though.]
+ A Wizard Alone – I can't believe I didn't realise what this book was the first time I read it. I'm such a fool. I feel like taking it slower got me to realise that what I thought was just stuff leading up to the point actually *was* the point, to the extent I don't really know what I think of what I used to think the point was now. Nevertheless, and almost needless to say, it's shot right up there with the best of the series for me now, and after all these years it's still as vital as it ever was. Even more so even, thanks to the NME (which you really should read, don't accept any substitutes).
- Partials – Disappointing, but at the same time it's oddly compelling. I like that it's a lot more sciency than the YA dystopias I usually read, as well as its conscious aim for diversity (which gets a little *too* conscious sometimes for me tbh, though I realise that's being really unfair), but it just hits too many of the regular YA dystopia beats for my liking, plus I want to shake the characters sometimes because of how stupid they are and how aggressively chipper they can get. Some of it's welcome and warranted, and some of it's just off really.
- Eastern Standard Tribe – Don't want to knock a book I got for free that's still pretty nice to read, but the awkward kinda obfuscating structure that can't even stay consistent and the overwhelming sense I get that Cory Doctorow's an idea man and not much else... it ruined the vibe for me a bit. It doesn't help in hindsight that the sole female character is just strange and Doctorow can't even seem to commit to his ideas or the central question he explicitly set up at the start of the book.
- The Trial – I think I just needed to retrain my brain to remember how Kafkaesquism actually works first, and it really is pretty good (and surprisingly funny) sometimes even if it's unfinished (which I barely noticed tbh, though I still did notice it), but it never really lived up to its strong opening chapters for me, and – while I obviously don't expect my book characters to have like the same morals as me or anything – Josef K.'s inveterate womanising just kept taking me out of the whole thing. A shame really.
- The Last Continent – Hazily mediocre as Rincewind goes (I like him more than some and less than others), but at the very least this has to go down as one of the more baffling Discworld books I've ever seen, and not in a good way either.
Next Month's Plan
No real plans, but...
- Go read The Wide Window again
- Go read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy again
- Read more Randomiser books
Book #14
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Book #1) by Douglas Adams
Finished 2nd February 2017
204p
Why I read it: It got picked for the February Group Read, so I decided to grab my towel and Electronic Thumb and lurch out into the stars again.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Humour/science fiction, male, white, UK/USA, 1970s, February, familiar, adult, series, novel, short, ebook I own, reread.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, A to Z Location (Magrathea!), Popsugar (book you've read before that never fails to make you smile), Genre Bingo (Humour)
Book #15
Child 44 (Leo Demidov #1) by Tom Rob Smith
Finished 3th February 2017
484p
Why I read it: I'm fairly sure I heard good things about it from someone, so when it came up in a Kindle sale I went ahead and got it.
Rating: 3/5
Categories: Historical/mystery/thriller/crime/dystopia, male, white, UK, 2000s, February, new, adult, series, novel, medium, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, A to Z Location (Rostov-on-Don), Popsugar (first book in a series you haven't read), Genre Bingo (Mystery/Thriller), Book Riot Read Harder (debut novel), Randomiser, Top Ten Favourites
Book #16
Knots and Crosses (Inspector Rebus #1) by Ian Rankin
Finished 5th February 2017
241p
Why I read it: I always liked these books growing up (for a given value of growing up) so when some of them showed up in a few Kindle sales I figured I'd go for it.
Rating: 3/5
Categories: Crime/mystery/thriller, male, white, UK, 1980s, February, familiar, adult, series, novel, short, ebook I own, reread.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, A to Z Location (Fife), Genre Bingo (Crime), Colour Challenge (metallic)
Book #17
Gods and Tulips by Neil Gaiman
Finished 5th February 2017
42p
Why I read it: It was in the Neil Gaiman Humble Book Bundle.
Rating: 3/5
Categories: Essays, male, white, UK/USA, 1990s, February, familiar, adult, standalone, nonfiction, short, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, A to Z Location (Holland), Colour Challenge (Dark Blue), Popsugar (book with pictures), TBR Randomiser
Book #18
The Wide Window (A Series of Unfortunate Events, #3) by Daniel Handler as Lemony Snicket
Finished 7th February 2017
232p
Why I read it: The Netflix series was coming soon, so I figured I'd pull these out again, especially as Mark Oshiro is planning on reading them someday (maybe) and I never actually finished the twelfth one.
Rating: 3/5
Categories: General, male, white, USA, 2000s, January, familiar, children, series, novel, short, borrowed ebook, reread.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Popsugar (book you loved as a child), Colour Challenge (Brown)
Book #19
Hide and Seek (Inspector Rebus #2) by Ian Rankin
Finished 9th February 2017
228p
Why I read it: I always liked these books growing up (for a given value of growing up) so when some of them showed up in a few Kindle sales I figured I'd go for it.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Crime/mystery/thriller, male, white, UK, 1990s, February, familiar, adult, series, novel, short, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, TBR Randomiser
Book #20
Learn Python the Hard Way by Zed Shaw
Finished 12th February 2017
210p
Why I read it: I wanted to increase my programming knowledge so I wound up thinking this would be a good place to go.
Rating: 3/5
Categories: How-to, male, white, USA, 2010s, February, new, adult, standalone, nonfiction, short, book I read online.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Dewey Decimal challenge, Popsugar (book with career advice), Book Riot (nonfiction book about technology)
Book #21
Les Misérables by Victor Hugo (translated by Isabel Hapgood)
Finished 26th February 2017
826p
Why I read it: It's Les Mis! It was bound to happen eventually, I'd say.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Historical/classics/historical nonfiction, male, white, France, 19th century, February, new, adult, standalone, fiction/nonfiction, very long, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Randomiser, Popsugar (book mentioned in another book), A to Z Location (Paris), Around the World in Languages (French), Top Ten Favourites
Book #22
Neil Dreams by Neil Gaiman (illustrated by Rick Veitch)
Finished 26th February 2017
11p
Why I read it: It was in the Neil Gaiman Humble Book Bundle.
Rating: 3/5
Categories: Horror/fantasy, male, white, UK/USA, 1990s, February, familiar, adult, standalone, short, comic, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Randomiser
February SummaryReading Challenges
Yearly
Overall Reading Challenge: 22/91 (24.1%)
Let's Turn Pages: 6,894/36,500 (18.9%)
Genre Bingo: 10/17 (58.8%)
Popsugar: 16/18 (88 8/9 %)
Book Riot: 8/13 (61.54%)
Dewey Decimal Challenge: 1/10 (10%)
Languages: 2/5 (40%)
Randomiser: 11/20 (55%)
Colour Challenge: 14/15 (93 1/3 %)
Top Ten Favourites: 3/13 (23%
A to Z Location: 15/26 (57.7%)
Quarterly
N/A
Monthly
N/A
February Stars
★★★★★ 0 books
★★★★ 3 books
★★★ 6 books
★★ 0 books
★ 0 books
Reasonable Highlights and Relative Lowlights
In the order they were read...
+ The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy – More or less as brilliant as it used to be, and maybe even more meaningful and relevant than it's ever been. It took a while to get my head around what it was doing again and its structure, but once I did, I was off to the races. And while the world's changed since this book came out, and I've changed since I've read it, reading it again it turned out that some things really do stay the same after all. Now that doesn't explain all its power, but it does explain some of it. It's not just jokes and cleverness, I guess is what I'm trying to say.
+ Les Misérables – Fairly retrograde when it comes to women (though Eponine is secretly brilliant), very very long, occasionally disagreeable and confusing, and Marius is a creeper, but it's still very, very good. A genuine classic that still has so much to say over 150 years later. It's not just a book about Fantine and Jean Valjean, Cosette and Marius, Thenardier and Javert (though they're all in there too, and actually I could see when I was reading it how someone could turn it into a musical, it's overflowing with high drama and sentimentality and all of that good stuff), it's trying to be a book about Paris, France, dare I say the Western world and its entire spectrum of human experience? Maybe I do. And the thing is, y'see, it kinda more or less pulls it off. At least I think it does. If you can stick with it (and I don't blame you if you can't, the start is by far one of the weaker parts and definitely the most bloated of the book), it'll reward you immensely.
- Child 44 – Disappointing. It's actually quite good in capturing what at the very least feels like an accurate representation of what it might have been like to live in Soviet Russia, and it's decently pacey with a fair number of twists and turns, but while the characters are understandably aloof and distant their development is unconvincing (the villain also barely makes sense), Tom Rob Smith isn't as good a writer as he'd like to be, has a strange love of isolating important concepts and words in the middle of the page, breaking sentences up as he does so, is poorly served by his editor, and the ending is clichéd and abrupt. I don't mind that I read this, it held my interest, but I won't be reading any of the other ones, especially not when Leo is apparently Josef Bourne now. I'm not really sure either why it was longlisted for the Booker Prize, and that's not in a snooty oh now crime thriller shouldn't be longlisted for the Booker Prize way, but because I simply don't think it was good enough to deserve it.
- The Wide Window – Only a relative lowlight, but I still think it fits here. In a sense one of the big problems is just that the Netflix show has spoiled me, but it was kind of a letdown going back to an Aunt Josephine who never changes at all and is just ridiculously fixated on grammar for some reason when you're coming from Alfre Woodard and a less restrained more metaplot-aware Daniel Handler, who've given her a more understandable backstory, a slightly less ridiculous fixation on grammar, a redemption arc, and a charming, spiky, somewhat unorthodox portrayal that doesn't quite fit in the box set out for it all (blame that on Luke Cage I suppose) but which kind of makes me like it all the more. But really though it's just that while the writing's as good as it always was (sort of, sometimes things feel like they're only there to set up bits of the plot later on and were wedged in after the fact), the formula's gotten stale and the lessons here aren't as well thought-out as they were in the first two. Plus no Haruki Murakami quotes or Patrick Warburton in a gloriously lurid orange jacket. Clearly these are the real failings. Actually no they're not, not while the henchperson of indeterminate gender's still in the shed while in the TV show they're trying to order food, swapping recipes, and dropping nuggets of philosophy all over the place. And we'll say no more about that. For now, at least.
Next Month's Plan
No real plans, but...
- Go read The Miserable Mill again
- Go listen to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Primary Phase
- Read more Randomiser books
- The Handmaid's Tale
- Hidden Figures
- Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Screenplay
- At least start It Can't Happen Here, if I don't get to finish it
- Get back to Carpe Jugulum and Wizard's Holiday, and hopefully get to finish them too!
Book #23
Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey (Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck)
Finished 3rd March 2017
573p
Why I read it: I'm pretty sure I must have been hearing a fair bit of buzz around it before I bought it, and probably jumped at it the first chance I got not really knowing what it was even about!
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Sci-fi/crime/mystery/thriller/horror, male, white, USA, 2010s, March, new, adult, series, novel, long, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Randomiser, Genre Bingo (Space Opera), Popsugar (multiple authors), A to Z Location (Ceres), Book Riot Read Harder (more than 5000 miles from my location)
Book #24
Knight Descendent: The First Entry in the Knight's Journal by Brian J Lang
Finished 4th March 2017
115p
Why I read it: The author posts on a forum I like to lurk on, and I found out through there that this was being offered up for free for nearly a week because the second part was coming out, and I thought "Why not?"
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Historical, male, white, USA, 2010s, March, new, adult, series, novella, short, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Genre Bingo (Adventure), Popsugar (book with a subtitle)
Book #25
The Miserable Mill (A Series of Unfortunate Events, #4) by Daniel Handler as Lemony Snicket
Finished 5th March 2017
216p
Why I read it: The Netflix series was coming soon, so I figured I'd pull these out again, especially as Mark Oshiro is planning on reading them someday (maybe) and I never actually finished the twelfth one.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: General/mystery/thriller, male, white, USA, 2000s, March, familiar, children, series, novel, short, ebook I borrowed, reread.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages
Book #26
Game Changer by Tim Bowler
Finished 5th March 2017
193p
Why I read it: I remembered Tim Bowler from years back, so when this showed up in a Kindle Daily Deal and it sounded interesting I decided to go for it.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: General/mystery/thriller, male, white, UK, 2010s, March, familiar, young adult, standalone, novel, short, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Genre Bingo (Suspense), Randomiser
Book #27
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Finished 8th March 2017
370p
Why I read it: It's a modern classic and was voted in for the Group Read, so of course I was going to read it.
Rating: 5/5
Categories: Dystopia/speculative fiction, female, white, Canada, 1980s, March, new, adult, standalone, novel, medium, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Top Ten Favourites, Genre Bingo (Literary Fiction), Popsugar (Book with an unreliable narrator), A to Z Location (Gilead)
Book #28
Learn Ruby the Hard Way by Zed Shaw
Finished 12th March 2017
173p
Why I read it: I promised I would read it when I finished reading Learn Python the Hard Way, so I did.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Advice/how-to/technology, male, white, USA, 2010s, March, familiar, adult, nonfiction, standalone, short, ebook I read online.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages
Book #29
The Raven Boys (The Raven Cycle #1) by Maggie Stiefvater
Finished 12th March 2017
468p
Why I read it: I recognised it when it came up in a Kindle sale, but why? Was it in the Mark Reads recommendation pile? One of my Goodreads friends really liked it, but I don't know whether I knew about that at the time. Oh well.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Fantasy/romance/paranormal, female, white, USA, 2010s, March, new, young adult, series, novel, medium, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Genre Bingo (Paranormal Romance), Popsugar (Book that's been here way too long), A to Z Location (Washington D.C.), Top Ten Favourites
So I have just bought the following through the Doctor Who and Torchwood Humble Audiobook Bundle (which you can get on board with too! Still almost eight days to go :)):- Doctor Who: Hunters of Earth
- Doctor Who: Shadow of Death
- Doctor Who: Vengeance of the Stones
- Doctor Who: Babblesphere
- Doctor Who: Smoke and Mirrors
- Doctor Who: Trouble in Paradise
- Doctor Who: Shockwave
- Doctor Who: Enemy Aliens
- Doctor Who: Night of the Whisper
- Doctor Who: Death's Deal
- Doctor Who: The Time Machine
- Doctor Who: Blood of the Daleks, Part 1
- Doctor Who: Blood of the Daleks, Part 2
- Doctor Who: Horror of Glam Rock
- Doctor Who: Immortal Beloved
- Doctor Who: Phobos
- Doctor Who: No More Lies
- The Churchill Years
- Torchwood: The Conspiracy
- Torchwood: Fall to Earth
- Torchwood - 1.3 Forgotten Lives
EDIT: They added I, Davros, so that's awesome. :D
- I, Davros - Innocence
- I, Davros - Purity
- I, Davros - Corruption
- I, Davros - Guilt
I've made a new shelf for these (and anything similar I've bought already, so pretty much The Dispatcher, Speaking in Tongues, and Warning: Contains Language, Stories and Poems from Angels & Visitations), partly because I'm not sure as to what extent they're *books* - they don't really have page counts, though I may be able to jury rig some with Google when I come to it - but mostly because I, uh, want to have a slightly realistic chance of getting my to-read-own shelf down a goodly amount and I won't be able to do that if I put these there :$ ;)
On a more positive note, I'm looking forward to these! I've been more than vaguely aware of Big Finish for a while, but it's always been something... over there, so it's nice to get an easy opportunity to see what it's all about. To make things a bit more interesting/flatout weird, even if I like to think reading blogs has given a decent working knowledge of pretty much everything Doctor Who, this'll be my first real exposure to Torchwood outside of crossovers or any classic Doctor Who older than the TV Movie. So that should be fun. :3 (Little disappointed they didn't include Human Resources as I heard it's very good, but you can't have anything. Plus it's always on Spotify if ever I want to listen to it anyway.) Though who knows how much time I'll get now I have Doctor Who Legacy in my life? :p I'd forgotten about that game, didn't think it would still be around, though I can't say that I'm complaining! (It's not really part of the Bundle, there's just added content, though now I have a good excuse I might as well! Again. ;))
I also decided it'd be a good idea to re-add Twelve Doctors Twelve Stories. Maybe I'll get around to that sometime this year too. :)
(And sorry for dropping this on all of you. I realise it's not really necessary, but it felt like a big enough change to justify it. :))
Book #30
The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater
Finished 16th March 2017
421p
Why I read it: One of my Goodreads friends loved it, and when it happened to come up in a Kindle sale I couldn't resist it.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Fantasy, female, white, USA, 2010s, March, familiar, young adult, standalone, novel, medium, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Genre Bingo (YA Fantasy), Randomiser, A to Z Location (Thisby), Book Riot (book about sports - mythical deadly horse racing)
Book #31
The Holy Thief (Captain Alexei Dimitrevich Korolev #1) by William Ryan
Finished 19th March 2017
369p
Why I read it: It came up as having been shortlisted for the Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award, and it sounded pretty interesting.
Rating: 3/5
Categories: Mystery/thriller/historical, male, white, Ireland/UK, 2010s, March, new, adult, series, novel, medium, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Randomiser
Book #32
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Primary Phase (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Radio Series #1) by Douglas Adams with John Lloyd
Finished 20th March 2017
124p
Why I read it: I'd never actually listened to it, and I thought this year was the perfect opportunity to get around to it all.
Rating: 3/5
Categories: Sci-fi/humour, male, white, UK/USA, 1970s, March, familiar, adult, series, audio drama, short, audiobook I borrowed.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Popsugar (book set in two different time periods)
Book #33
Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterly
Finished 22nd March 2017
368p
Why I read it: I'd been hearing a lot of pretty neat things about the book and the film.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: History/biography/science, female, POC, USA/Mexico, 2010s, March, new, adult, standalone, nonfiction, medium, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Genre Bingo (Historical Nonfiction), Dewey Decimal (500-599), Popsugar (Book about an interesting woman)
Book #34
Carpe Jugulum (Discworld #23) by Terry Pratchett
Finished 22nd March 2017
432p
Why I read it: Mark Oshiro was reading it.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Fantasy/horror, male, white, UK, 1990s, March, familiar, adult, series, novel, medium, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, A to Z Location (Discworld)
Book #35
The Winner's Curse (The Winner's Trilogy #1) by Marie Rutkoski
Finished 24th March 2017
369p
Why I read it: One of my Goodreads friends liked it a lot, and it was on sale.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: General/fantasy, female, white, USA, 2010s, March, new, young adult, series, novel, medium, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Randomiser
Book #36
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay by J.K. Rowling
Finished 24th March 2017
304p
Why I read it: I liked the film and I'm kind of a trash, so when the screenplay got published between a fancy cover I found it hard to resist.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Historical fantasy, female, white, UK, 2010s, March, familiar, adult, series, screenplay, medium, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Dewey Decimal (800-899)
Book #37
Knight Ardent (Knight's Journal #2) by Brian J. Lang
Finished 26th March 2017
124p
Why I read it: It was free as well, so I thought "Why not?"
Rating: 3/5
Categories: Historical, male, white, USA, 2010s, March, familiar, adult, series, novella, short, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Popsugar (Book published in 2017)
Book #38
It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis
Finished 26th March 2017
384p
Why I read it: Recent events propelled this back into the international consciousness, for fair or foul, plus Harold reading it on Person of Interest that one time got me interested. ;)
Rating: 4/5
Categories: General/satire/speculative fiction, male, white, USA, 1930s, March, new, adult, standalone, novel, medium, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages
Book #39
Wizard's Holiday (Young Wizards #7) by Diane Duane
Finished 31st March 2017
263p
Why I read it: Mark Oshiro was reading it.
Rating: 3/5
Categories: Science fiction, female, white, USA/Ireland, 2000s, March, familiar, children, series, novel, medium, audiobook I read online, reread.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Popsugar (Book written by someone you admire), A to Z Location (Alaalu)
March SummaryReading Challenges
Yearly
Overall Reading Challenge: 39/91 (42 6/7 %) (or 3/7)
Let's Turn Pages: 12,162/36,500 (33.32%)
Genre Bingo: 17/24 (70.8333%)
Popsugar: 24/52 (46.154%)
Book Riot: 10/13 (76.923%)
Dewey Decimal Challenge: 3/10 (30%)
Languages: 2/5 (40%)
Randomiser: 16/20 (80%)
Colour Challenge: 14/15 (93 1/3 %)
Top Ten Favourites: 5/13 (38.46%)
A to Z Location: 21/26 (80.77%)
Quarterly
N/A
Monthly
N/A
March's Stars
★★★★★ 1 books
★★★★ 11 books
★★★ 5 books
★★ 0 books
★ 0 books
Reasonable Highlights and Lowlights
+ Leviathan Wakes – This lovely if slightly rambling and awkwardly paced at times mix of Fireflyesque space opera and detective thriller with a few drops of space body horror. Abraham and Franck have put genuine care and thought put into its setting (and to a slightly lesser extent, its characters), and realise reasonably if unsettlingly that all our social problems aren't gonna go away just because we'll be in the future now. They'll just have changed slightly.
+ The Miserable Mill - Much better than The Wide Window! Tweaks the formula slightly, goes to some dark as heck places and doesn't wreck things by messily jumping from tone to tone (or at least not as much), even with the new odd things it brings in to the mix, and is full of all the wit and wisdom you've come to expect from these books. Or at least I have. I much prefer the Phil in the TV show though. Something about his optimism there seemed less absurd to me.
+ The Handmaid's Tale – What do I even say about this book? Hasn't it all already been said? Anyway though, it's a genuine modern classic even if the end is a bit abrupt. But that's life, isn't it? Sometimes at least. A very observational novel this, not really focussing on plot or character that much at all. But that's OK, it means Atwood has more time and space to work on absolutely deconstructing the world and the English language and popular technology and then rebuild it in front of you to make connections that you never thought of before but near-instantly make near-perfect sense. And then there's the connections you *did* see before, the way this book again and again seems to work as an antiprophecy of the future, all by showing things that have been done before and things that will be done and said again, things that *have* been done and said again. History is a cycle, Atwood *got* it, whatever it is, and The Handmaid's Tale still gets it. A worthy successor to the 1984s and Brave New Worlds of old, and it's not too hard to believe that all dystopias that've come after it are just living in its shadow. Especially when it's doing things that no other dystopias ever seem to have done. Though I could be wrong.
+ The Scorpio Races – I like The Raven Boys a lot too, but tbh this is probably the better book. The romance is less prominent, its ending isn't quite as messy, and seeing as it's a standalone it doesn't have this nagging feeling that it's mostly just setup for something more. Both books are very good though, full of solid to beautiful writing, insightful (if occasionally aggravating and bewildering) character work, and this glorious sense of atmosphere and place and of fantasy being made real and discovery. Very much recommended.
+ Hidden Figures – I reckon the film could be a good bit better in certain aspects (and not just coz it's got Taraji P Henson, Janelle Monae, and Mahershala Ali in it ;D), it does a bit too much telling and not enough showing, has fairly erratic pacing, and makes one heck of a logical leap a few times. But at the same time while I'd hesitate to call it inspirational, it's empowering and sweeping, and punchy, and seems extensively researched, and Shetterly does a pretty to very good job of linking the “smaller” story of Langley to the wider history of the Civil Rights Movement and the Red Scare without being so crass as to oversimplify. It helps that my background is mathematics, physics, and computer science of course, to an extent I could've done with even more technical talk!
+ Carpe Jugulum – What even is there to say? It's Terry Pratchett, it's Discworld, it's the witches of Lancre! Six and 23 books in and he still manages to make it work, and he does that thing again where he takes all these threads that you wouldn't think go together at all, and somehow merges them into some sort of grand unifying statement. He doesn't just stick to ripping the piss out of vampires and vampire tropes (though he does that too, in spades), he reimagines them (I wouldn't be surprised if he even *de* imagines them) into something strange and compelling and near enough even terrifying. Definitely unsettling anyway. I'm not as big on this as a lot of people are, but it's still very good.
- The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Primary Phase – I know, I know! Hear (;)) me out though: I feel like part of it is overfamiliarity, because I'd already read the book again just last month, and while there are definite differences, we're not a million miles away from what eventually went into it. As well as that, there's a real Revised and Expanded sense coming from the book in hindsight, as if – sacrilegious as it is to say - the radio series was just a first draft, even if it was really nice to hear all the voices again and hear the ones I hadn't and listen to the soundscapes (it was occasionally really hard to tell Ford and Zaphod apart tbh). Like you'd think having to come up with new material and adapt to a different medium might throw Adams off, and while some of the radio-only stuff is pretty nice, for the most part what was added is really good and really builds on the whole thing, opens it out. As well as that, this was meant to be listened to in weekly installments, and it really shows – it's stuffed to the gills with recaps and feels aimless and awkward and abrupt quite a bit of the time. It really does work better in one frenzied sitdown session as a book I think. Marvin is even better as a radio character though, even if that could just be because I was really waiting for *something* I could just unambiguously like about this.
Next Month's Plan
- Listen to as many Doctor Who audio dramas as I can while doing all the walking
- Reread The Austere Academy
- Reread The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
- Reread Stormbreaker
- Get more Fifth Elephant in me
- Read some Wizards at War
- Read more Randomiser books
- Join the Clear the Shelves challenge
- Finish reading Mutual Funds for Dummies and start reading Hedge Funds for Dummies
- Start reading Event Horizon 2017
etc.?
Book #40
Hunters of Earth (Destiny of the Doctor #1) by Nigel Robinson, starring Carole Ann Ford with Tam Williams
Finished 1st April 2017
36p
Why I read it: It was part of the Doctor Who and Torchwood Humble Audiobook Bundle.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Science fiction/historical, male, white, UK, 2010s, April, new, adults, series, audio drama, short, audiobook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Popsugar (book from a nonhuman perspective), Clear the Shelves
Book #41
Shadow of Death (Destiny of the Doctor #2) by Simon Guerrier, starring Frazer Hines with Evie Dawnay
Finished 1st April 2017
29p
Why I read it: It was part of the Doctor Who and Torchwood Humble Audiobook Bundle.
Rating: 3/5
Categories: Science fiction, male, white, UK, 2010s, April, familiar, adults, series, audio drama, short, audiobook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Clear the Shelves
Book #42
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
Finished 2nd April 2017
117p
Why I read it: It's allegedly a classic.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Horror/classic, male, white, USA/UK, 19th century, April, new, adults, standalone, novella, short, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Genre Bingo (Horror), Popsugar (story within a story), Clear the Shelves
Book #43
Vengeance of the Stones (Destiny of the Doctor #3) by Andrew Smith, starring Richard Franklin with Trevor Littledale
Finished 2nd April 2017
35p
Why I read it: It was part of the Doctor Who and Torchwood Humble Audiobook Bundle.
Rating: 3/5
Categories: Science fiction, male, white, UK, 2010s, April, new, adults, series, audio drama, short, audiobook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Clear the Shelves
2025 Reading Challenge
Books mentioned in this topic
Ninefox Gambit (other topics)Lifeboats: A Tale of the Young Wizards (other topics)
Conservation of Shadows (other topics)
Engraved on the Eye (other topics)
Moonlight (other topics)
More...
Sounds kind of arbitrary I know, but it's actually not! 365/4 = 91.25 after all. And even if that's a book every four days and maybe not actually feasible, I feel like I can do it. And the way autumn and winter's going I wouldn't be surprised if I end up easily outstripping it.
(Plus turn around 17 and add it to 20 and you get 91. It's like numerology or something. \0/ ;))
Aside from challenges (and wanting to reread A Series of Unfortunate Events) I'm not going to make any plans this year, best-laid or not. They gang agley last time, they'll gang agley again. I'm not complaining though, sometimes it's fun to go off the track. (Even if I only end up on a slightly different track :p) I wouldn't expect any more reviews as well, unfortunately, though do always feel free to drop in and talk books with me, or just yell at me if you think I've gotten something wrong. Which will definitely happen, I'm fairly sure of it. ;) :)
EDIT: Increased to 120! We'll see where I go from here. :D :)
EDIT: 150!