2025 Reading Challenge discussion
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Paul's Spinning (Slightly Slower) Carousel - 180 books in 2017
Book #45
Smoke and Mirrors (Destiny of the Doctor #5) by Steve Lyons, starring Janet Fielding with Tim Beckmann
Finished 3rd April 2017
35p
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, familiar, adults, series, audio drama, short, audiobook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Clear the Shelves
Book #46
Trouble in Paradise (Destiny of the Doctor #6) by Nev Fountain, starring Nicola Bryant with Cameron Stewart
Finished 4th April 2017
39p
Why I read it: It was part of the Doctor Who and Torchwood Humble Audiobook Bundle.
Rating: 2/5
Categories: Science fiction/historical, male, white, UK, 2010s, April, new, adults, series, audio drama, short, audiobook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Clear the Shelves
Book #47
Shockwave (Destiny of the Doctor #7) by James Swallow, starring Sophie Aldred with Ian Brooker
Finished 5th April 2017
33p
Why I read it: It was part of the Doctor Who and Torchwood Humble Audiobook Bundle.
Rating: 4/5
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 #48
Enemy Aliens (Destiny of the Doctor #8) by Alan Barnes, starring India Fisher with Michael Moloney
Finished 6th April 2017
31p
Why I read it: It was part of the Doctor Who and Torchwood Humble Audiobook Bundle.
Rating: 3/5
Categories: Science fiction/historical, male, white, UK, 2010s, April, new, adults, series, audio drama, short, audiobook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Clear the Shelves
Book #49
Night of the Whisper (Destiny of the Doctor #9) by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright, starring Nicholas Briggs with John Schwab
Finished 7th April 2017
41p
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
Book #50
Death's Deal (Destiny of the Doctor #10) by Darren Jones, starring Catherine Tate with Duncan Wisbey
Finished 7th April 2017
35p
Why I read it: It was part of the Doctor Who and Torchwood Humble Audiobook Bundle.
Rating: 4/5
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
Book #51
The Time Machine (Destiny of the Doctor #11) by Matt Fitton, starring Jenna Coleman with Michael Cochrane and Nicholas Briggs
Finished 8th April 2017
36p
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, A to Z Location (Oxford)
Book #52
Blood of the Daleks, Part 1 (Big Finish Eighth Doctor Adventures, S1E1) by Steve Lyons
Finished 9th April 2017
33p
Why I read it: It was part of the Doctor Who and Torchwood Humble Audiobook Bundle.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Science fiction, male, white, UK, 2000s, April, familiar, adults, series, audio drama, short, audiobook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Clear the Shelves
Book #53
Blood of the Daleks, Part 2 (Big Finish Eighth Doctor Adventures, S1E2) by Steve Lyons
Finished 10th April 2017
37p
Why I read it: It was part of the Doctor Who and Torchwood Humble Audiobook Bundle.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Science fiction, male, white, UK, 2000s, April, familiar, adults, series, audio drama, short, audiobook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Clear the Shelves
Book #54
Horror of Glam Rock (Big Finish Eighth Doctor Adventures, S1E3) by Paul Magrs
Finished 11th April 2017
35p
Why I read it: It was part of the Doctor Who and Torchwood Humble Audiobook Bundle.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Science fiction, male, white, UK, 2000s, April, familiar, adults, series, audio drama, short, audiobook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Clear the Shelves
Book #55
Immortal Beloved (Big Finish Eighth Doctor Adventures, S1E4) by Jonathan Clements
Finished 12th 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/romance, male, white, UK, 2000s, April, new, adults, series, audio drama, short, audiobook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Clear the Shelves, Popsugar (book based on mythology)
Book #56
Phobos (Big Finish Eighth Doctor Adventures, S1E5) by Eddie Robson
Finished 13th April 2017
38p
Why I read it: It was part of the Doctor Who and Torchwood Humble Audiobook Bundle.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Science fiction, male, white, UK, 2000s, April, new, adults, series, audio drama, short, audiobook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Clear the Shelves
Book #57
The Master by Colm Tóibín
Finished 14th April 2017
360p
Why I read it: I didn't like it when I read it eons ago, but I saw it in a used book sale at work and decided I'd give it another chance for redemption.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Historical/general, male, white, Ireland/Spain, 2000s, April, familiar, adults, standalone, novel, medium, papery book I own, reread.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Clear the Shelves, Genre Bingo (Family Saga), Popsugar (Book you got from a used book sale), Randomiser, A to Z Location (Italy)
Book #58
No More Lies (Big Finish Eighth Doctor Adventures, S1E6) by Paul Sutton
Finished 14th April 2017
37p
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, 2000s, April, new, adults, series, audio drama, short, audiobook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Clear the Shelves
Book #59
Human Resources, Part 1 (Big Finish Eighth Doctor Adventures, S1E7) by Eddie Robson
Finished 14th April 2017
31p
Why I read it: It was *not* part of the Doctor Who and Torchwood Humble Audiobook Bundle, but I had enough fun with the first six episodes that I wasn't gonna miss the season finale!
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Science fiction, male, white, UK, 2000s, April, new, adults, series, audio drama, short, audiobook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Popsugar (book recommended by an author you love)
Book #60
Human Resources, Part 2 (Big Finish Eighth Doctor Adventures, S1E8) by Eddie Robson
Finished 14th April 2017
31p * 63/60 = 33p
Why I read it: It was *not* part of the Doctor Who and Torchwood Humble Audiobook Bundle, but I had enough fun with the first six episodes that I wasn't gonna miss the season finale!
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Science fiction, male, white, UK, 2000s, April, new, adults, series, audio drama, short, audiobook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages
Book #61
Stormbreaker (Alex Rider, #1) by Anthony Horowitz
Finished 15th April 2017
236p
Why I read it: I had a sudden outbreak of nostalgia.
Rating: 3/5
Categories: Mystery/thriller, male, white, UK, 2000s, April, familiar, children, series, novel, short, physical book I own, reread.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Popsugar (espionage thriller)
Book #62
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #2)
Finished 17th April 2017
255p
Why I read it: I felt like reading it again.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Sci-fi/humour/satire, male, white, UK, 1980s, April, familiar, adults, series, novel, medium, ebook I own, reread.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages
Book #63
The Austere Academy (A Series of Unfortunate Events, #5) by Daniel Handler as Lemony Snicket
Finished 18th April 2017
248p
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, April, familiar, children, series, novel, short, ebook I borrowed, reread.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages
Book #64
Doctor Who: The Churchill Years by Phil Mulryne, Alan Barnes, Justin Richards, and Ken Bentley
Finished 20th April 2017
154p
Why I read it: It was in the Doctor Who and Torchwood Humble Audiobook Bundle.
Rating: 3/5
Categories: Sci-fi/historical, male, white, UK, 2010s, April, 25% familiar/75% new, adult, series, audio drama, short, audio drama I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages
Book #65
I, Davros: Innocence (I, Davros #1) by Gary Hopkins
Finished 21st April 2017
40p
Why I read it: It was in the Doctor Who and Torchwood Humble Audiobook Bundle.
Rating: 3/5
Categories: Sci-fi, male, white, UK, 2000s, April, new, adults, series, audio drama, short, audio drama I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages
Book #66
I, Davros: Purity (I, Davros #2) by James Parsons and Andrew Stirling-Brown
Finished 22nd April 2017
37p
Why I read it: It was in the Doctor Who and Torchwood Humble Audiobook Bundle.
Rating: 3/5
Categories: Sci-fi, male, white, UK, 2000s, April, new, adults, series, audio drama, short, audio drama I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages
Book #67
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
Finished 23rd April 2017
224p
Why I read it: I'd heard it was some sort of classic, and then it turned up in a Kindle sale.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: General/coming of age, male, white, USA, 1990s, April, new, young adults, standalone, novel, short, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Popsugar (book of letters), Clear Your Shelves, Randomiser, Top Ten Favourites
Book #68
I, Davros: Corruption (I, Davros #3) by Lance Parkin
Finished 23rd April 2017
34p
Why I read it: It was in the Doctor Who and Torchwood Humble Audiobook Bundle.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Sci-fi, male, white, UK, 2000s, April, new, adults, series, audio drama, short, audio drama I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages
Book #69
Mutual Funds for Dummies by Eric Tyson
Finished 25th April 2017
432p
Why I read it: I got half-assigned/half-recommended it as work as people thought it might help.
Rating: 3/5
Categories: Nonfiction/advice, male, white, USA, 2010s, April, new, adults, standalone, nonfiction, medium, ebook I borrowed.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages
Book #70
I, Davros: Guilt (I, Davros #4) by Scott Alan Woodard
Finished 25th April 2017
76p
Why I read it: It was in the Doctor Who and Torchwood Humble Audiobook Bundle.
Rating: 3/5
Categories: Sci-fi, male, white, UK, 2000s, April, new, adults, series, audio drama, short, audio drama I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages
Book #71
Torchwood: The Conspiracy (Big Finish Torchwood S1E1) by David Llewellyn
Finished 26th April 2017
38p
Why I read it: It was in the Doctor Who and Torchwood Humble Audiobook Bundle.
Rating: 3/5
Categories: Sci-fi, male, white, UK, 2010s, April, new, adults, series, audio drama, short, audio drama I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages
Book #72
Torchwood: Fall to Earth (Big Finish Torchwood S1E2) by James Goss
Finished 28th April 2017
34p
Why I read it: It was in the Doctor Who and Torchwood Humble Audiobook Bundle.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Sci-fi, male, white, UK, 2010s, April, new, adults, series, audio drama, short, audio drama I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages
Book #73
Torchwood: Forgotten Lives (Big Finish Torchwood S1E3) by Emma Reeves
Finished 28th April 2017
35p
Why I read it: It was in the Doctor Who and Torchwood Humble Audiobook Bundle.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Sci-fi, female, white, UK, 2010s, April, new, adults, series, audio drama, short, audio drama I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages
Book #74
Warning: Contains Language, Stories and Poems from Angels & Visitations by Neil Gaiman
Finished 28th April 2017
66p
Why I read it: It was in the Neil Gaiman Humble Book Bundle.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Fantasy/horror, male, white, UK, 1990s, April, familiar, adults, standalone, audiobook, short, audiobook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages
Book #75
Terms of Enlistment (Frontlines #1) by Marko Kloos
Finished 30th April 2017
347p
Why I read it: I first heard about Kloos when he pulled the next book in this series Lines of Departure out of the running for the Hugo Award for Best Novel when it turned out the Puppies helped him in, and when the whole series turned up in a Kindle sale I decided I'd buy the first one and see what it was like.
Rating: 3/5
Categories: Sci-fi, male, white, Germany/USA, 2010s, April, new, adults, series, novel, medium, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Clear Your Shelves, Randomiser
April SummaryReading Challenges
Yearly
Overall Reading Challenge: 75/91 (82.4%)
Let's Turn Pages: 15,561/36,500 (42.6%)
Genre Bingo: 19/24 (79 1/6 %)
Popsugar: 32/52 (61.5%)
Book Riot: 10/13 (76.923%)
Dewey Decimal Challenge: 3/10 (30%)
Languages: 2/5 (40%)
Randomiser: 16/20 ->>> 19/30 (63 1/3 %)
Colour Challenge: 14/15 (93 1/3 %)
Top Ten Favourites: 7/13 (53.846%)
A to Z Location: 23/26 (88.46%)
Quarterly
Clear the Shelves – 32/30 (106 2/3 %)
Monthly
N/A
April's Stars
★★★★★ 0 books
★★★★ 20 books
★★★ 15 books
★★ 1 book
★ 0 books
Reasonable Highlights and Relative Lowlights
+ Destiny of the Doctor – I don’t know how much I’d really call it a highlight, but it was nice to listen to (most of) these, get introduced to Big Finish and a lot of the classic Doctors properly, and most people involved did a pretty good job! Can’t help but think paying full price would’ve been a rip off though...
+ Big Finish Eighth Doctor Adventures Series 1 – Now this is what I’m talking about! Paul McGann is really quite good, Sheridan Smith is great, I liked hearing people I know from other things just like Doctor Who on the TV does every so often, and the episodes have a nice mix of intelligent thinky stuff and uncomplicated, well-executed running around. The obvious standout is Human Resources Part 1 and 2, which were just as great as I was hoping (good thing too because I had to pay extra for them!), but there was really only one dud episode out of eight, and I was happy enough with these that I’m absolutely down to download Series 2 some day! ...Some day. I was thinking they might make a nice chaser to lead up to when the regular series start airing.
+ The Master – Delighted that I took another chance on this book. It’s very posh and sometimes I didn’t really have enough historical context to figure out what people were talking about or begin to work out what I thought about it or its relevance, but somewhere in here still is a clear portrait of a repressed man finding meaning where he can (it might be more accurate to say that he repressed himself), sifting through his memories and never entirely sure how to define himself. I think. I don’t know that I’ll ever read it again, but I’m glad that I read it again.
+ The Perks of Being a Wallflower – Please see here: https://www.goodreads.com/read_status... :)
+ Torchwood: Fall to Earth – How do you do an interesting Torchwood audio? If you’re James Goss, the answer is apparently “Make it a two-hander written as a phone call and bring back one of the more underused cast members to do it!” And as it turns out, it’s a brilliant answer, even if it tails off slightly as he’s giving it near the end and then manages to pick it up again. Now I’ve never seen Torchwood, and the other two around this aren’t quite as good as this one, but overall they did enough to make me seriously considering picking BFT back up at some point! Not right now though, can’t quite justify the expense just yet. Fall to Earth is the real standout though.
- Stormbreaker – I won’t say that I’m too old (not least because I’m reading Point Blanc now and I like that one more), but I will say that I don’t think this is my kind of book anymore. It’s definitely pacey and well-written, if a little too in love with specific details and a little *too* pacey sometimes, but there just isn’t enough characterisation in this for me, and pretty much all of the jokes fell flat. I still like some of the things it’s trying to do and does though, and I’m looking forward to finally re-evaluating the rest of them and reading the new one so I can finally move on.
- Mutual Funds for Dummies – Please see here: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... :)
- Terms of Enlistment – Not bad, not great. Probably brilliant if you like that sort of thing, but tbh one of the main things I want to say is that you can keep your taste coz I’m perfectly happy with my own! Paradoxically I warmed up to it slightly by the end but I’d also stopped caring, and I didn’t really mind how aimless it was, but the author was a tad too focussed on his military technology and not enough on his characters. OK, fair enough, there were some pretty fun moments, and it did make me laugh, but it’s not so much that I didn’t like the main character (he was all right I guess), it’s that I found him weirdly inexplicable. He didn’t strike me as having been fitted together properly. So while I can say that even if I was expecting the end twist in a way I definitely didn’t expect how that twist would play out, I don’t think I’ll be continuing on with this any time soon. Or ever.
Yeah, this month was a pretty weird one for me. I’m hoping next month will be better, but it probably won’t be because I clearly still need to do even more ruddy walking. Except that only slightly cut into my reading time this month. Hmmm. In any case it’ll be nice to make a slight return to “proper” books this month instead of having endless amounts of audio dramas to listen to. ;) :)
Next Month's Plan
Get even more walking done, though I don’t know if I’ll get to take any of my audiobooks with me, or if I’ll even want to
Reread The Ersatz Elevator
Listen to H2G2: The Secondary Phase
Reread Point Blanc
Get more Fifth Elephant in me, and maybe even finish it
Read some more Wizards at War
Read more Randomiser books
Read The Secret History of Twin Peaks because it's only been 25 years!
Do more with the Clear the Shelves challenge, even if I’ll probably never get anywhere near the other hazy subgoal I set
Start reading Hedge Funds for Dummies
Finish reading Lateral Thinking
Keep reading Event Horizon 2017
Read Everything, Everything because I don’t have The Sun Is Also a Star
Maybe read Every Heart a Doorway now that I have it
Keep watching American Gods because YEEEEAAAAHHHH
Keep whittling my shelves down bit by bit
Start bringing some of my old books up to Dublin in the hope the charity book sale comes back to work again this year, etc.?
Book #76
Point Blanc (Alex Rider, #2) by Anthony Horowitz
Finished 1st May 2017
282p
Why I read it: I had a sudden outbreak of nostalgia.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Mystery/thriller, male, white, UK, 2000s, May, familiar, children, series, novel, medium, physical book I own, reread.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages
Book #77
Speaking in Tongues by Neil Gaiman
Finished 1st May 2017
74p
Why I read it: It was in the Neil Gaiman Humble Book Bundle.
Rating: 3/5
Categories: Fantasy/horror, male, white, UK, 2000s, May, familiar, adult, standalone, audio thing, short, audio thing I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Clear Your Shelves
Book #78
Lateral Thinking by Edward de Bono
Finished 5th May 2017
260p
Why I read it: One of my colleagues lent it to me because he thought it would change my world.
Rating: 3/5
Categories: Advice/self-help, male, white, Malta/UK/USA, 1970s, May, new, adult, standalone, nonfiction, medium, physical book I borrowed.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Dewey Decimal (100-199), Popsugar (Bestseller from genre you don't normally read)
Book #79
Every Heart a Doorway (Wayward Children, #1) by Seanan McGuire
Finished 5th May 2017
176p
Why I read it: A good few of my friends had been talking about it when it came out, and then it was named as a finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Novella, and then Tor gave it out free to celebrate the publication of Down Among the Sticks and Bones and I figured I'd see what it was about.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Fantasy, female, white, USA, 2010s, May, familiar, adult, series, novella, short, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages
Book #80
Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon
Finished 8th May 2017
320p
Why I read it: One of my Goodreads friends liked it a lot and so when it showed up in a Kindle sale I figured I'd see what it was all about.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Romance/general/coming of age, female, POC, Jamaica/USA, 2010s, May, new, young adult, standalone, novel, medium, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Clear Your Shelves, Popsugar (book becoming a film in 2017)
Book #81
The Secret History of Twin Peaks by Mark Frost
Finished 12th May 2017
352p
Why I read it: That show I like is going to come back (in style? Who knows, in some sense Twin Peaks has now *become* a style), and I didn't even realise how excited I was for it. And I don't even drink coffee, never mind damn fine coffee! (Or Georgia Coffee, come to that...)
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Alternate history/sci-fi/fantasy, male, white, USA, 2010s, May, new, adult, standalone, novel, medium, ebook I borrowed.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, A to Z Location (Yakima)
Book #82
The Ersatz Elevator (A Series of Unfortunate Events #6) by Daniel Handler as Lemony Snicket
Finished 12th May 2017
284p
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, male, white, USA, 2000s, May, familiar, children, series, novel, medium, ebook I borrowed, reread.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages
Book #83
Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah
Finished 12th May 2017
304p
Why I read it: I don't even watch The Daily Show, but I'd heard about this through Goodreads I think? and it sounded interesting. Then when the audiobook was offered free to all I thought I'd get right on that.
Rating: 5/5
Categories: Memoir, male, POC, South Africa/USA, 2010s, May, new, adult, standalone, nonfiction, medium, audiobook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Genre Bingo (Memoir), Dewey Decimal (700-799), Popsugar (bestseller from 2016), Book Riot (book by an immigrant)
Book #84
The Fifth Elephant (Discworld #24, City Watch #5) by Terry Pratchett
Finished 13th May 2017
469p
Why I read it: Mark Oshiro was reading it.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Fantasy, male, white, UK, 1990s, May, familiar, adult, series, novel, medium, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Clear Your Shelves
Book #85
Anita and Me by Meera Syal
Finished 18th May 2017
337p
Why I read it: I think it was in one of those lists I paid attention to for like six months some time back and it sounded interesting, so when it came up in a Kindle sale during that time I decided I'd go for it.
Rating: 3/5
Categories: Historical/general/coming of age, female, POC, UK, 1990s, May, new, adult, standalone, novel, medium, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Clear Your Shelves, Genre Bingo (Coming of age), Popsugar (Book by a person of colour), Randomiser
Book #86
Annihilation (The Southern Reach Trilogy #1) by Jeff VanderMeer
Finished 21st May 2017
209p
Why I read it: Not sure to be honest. Maybe it just got talked up as being a big deal (definitely didn't know it had won a Nebula) so when I saw it in a Kindle sale I thought I'd go for it.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Speculative fiction/horror/fantasy, male, white, USA, 2010s, May, new, adult, series, novel, short, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Clear Your Shelves, Randomiser
Book #87
The Road Home by Rose Tremain
Finished 29th May 2017
436p
Why I read it: I think it was in a list at the back of one of my secondary school textbooks. Either that or it won the Women's Prize or both.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: General, female, white, UK, 2000s, May, new, adult, standalone, novel, medium, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Clear Your Shelves, Randomiser, Popsugar (book about an immigrant or refugee)
Book #88
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (read by Joe Morton)
Finished 31st May 2017
581p
Why I read it: I'd heard it was very good, and when Audible announced it was giving everyone a copy of the audiobook for free I decided I'd go for it.
Rating: 3/5
Categories: Historical/satire/coming of age, male, POC, USA, 1950s, May, new, adult, standalone, novel, long, audiobook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages, Book Riot (classic by an author of colour)
May SummaryReading Challenges
Yearly
Overall Reading Challenge: 88/120 (73 1/3 %)
Let's Turn Pages: 19,645/36,500 (53.8%)
Genre Bingo: 21/24 (87.5%)
Popsugar: 37/52 (71.15%)
Book Riot: 12/13 (92.3%)
Dewey Decimal Challenge: 5/10 (50%)
Languages: 2/5 (40%)
Randomiser: 22/30 (73 1/3 %)
Colour Challenge: 14/15 (93 1/3 %)
Top Ten Favourites: 7/13 (53.85 %)
A to Z Location: 24/26 (92.3 %)
Quarterly
Clear the Shelves – 38/30 (126 2/3 %)
Monthly
N/A
May’s Stars
★★★★★ 1 books
★★★★ 8 books
★★★ 4 books
★★ 0 books
★ 0 books
Reasonable Highlights and Relative Lowlights
+ Every Heart a Doorway – Messy and a little abrupt (though it kinda all makes sense when you look back at it, and I didn’t mind the midway genre shift as much as a lot of people), but very nicely strange and intriguing and allegorical, and I’m glad I read it.
+ Everything, Everything – Yeah OK sure it’s pretty instalove and probably isn’t that much different from all the other YA books you can talk about, but I think it was a good bit better than I was expecting! Something about it felt true and almost lived-in, and I digged the short chapters and the use of different types of media.
+ The Secret History of Twin Peaks – A fun and bizarre romp through Mark Frost’s obsessions and some old Twin Peaks backstory that might or might not ever come up again. It leans a little too heavily on the “Ah Jaysus it’s aliens, aliens everywhere” angle for my liking, but it was nice to hear some real-life and Twin Peaks things I’d remembered experiencing once again, as well as some stuff I’d never ever come across. Part of me reckons I should’ve maybe looked up what happened in the show first though, but I’m honestly glad that it didn’t really prepare me for the new series that much at all. Then again I’m not sure anything could’ve prepared me for the new series.
+ The Ersatz Elevator – Some of the old tropes are finally getting tired now, and everyone seems to have lost some of their common sense overnight, but this is still a very good book (though not as good as the best books), jam packed with references, mindbending twists, and creeping terror. Definitely one of the ones that’s surprised me, and I mean that in a good way!
+ Born a Crime – one of the best books I’ve read (or listened to) all year. Trevor Noah has this incredible way of shifting from side-splitting humour to eking out cold hard truths and back again without ever really missing a beat. The audiobook makes it even better, it gives you this sense that he’s properly sifting through his life and figuring out how best he’s going to tell the storys. I don’t even watch The Daily Show, so I don’t think I can reallys say how he’s getting on, but if this book is any indication, it’s in good hands. Absolutely vital.
+ The Road Home – A complicated and not always pretty look at the experiences of one Eastern European immigrant in London, but one well worth the, ahem, journey. Doesn’t really have a lot of good things to say about the English or women, which is awkward, and it isn’t afraid to make its protagonist deeply unsympathetic, but it does find them some redemption eventually. In a way I guess you could argue that it’s about immigrants helping each other out and trying to find a meaning for their lives. There were some rocky moments, but as a whole it really worked for me.
- Speaking in Tongues – Neil Gaiman’s voice is as lovely as ever, the main problem here is just that he picked the wrong stories.
- Anita and Me – Meera Syal has a definite way with words and the book’s pretty decent, but once I got to the end I had this awkward feeling that she was going for the same overall effect as To Kill a Mockingbird and just couldn’t pull it off. It veers off in a pretty strange direction, things happen way too fast, and when you add that to the fact that I never really found either Anita or Me all that believable (everyone else was actually fine though, which is weird) it pulled the rating pretty heavily towards a three.
- Invisible Man – A book I appreciate more than I like. Joe Morton delivers an absolute powerhouse performance, but while it’s probably not a bad thing that for the most part the book just rolls on by and the dialogue and narration are all very natural-sounding, something about it just felt languid and drawn-out, and I don’t want to say cynical but sometimes weirdly obvious and anticlimactic and disappointing. Which might have been the point, but it still didn’t quite work for me. Plus the main character really didn’t like women that much, which was awkward. I wouldn’t mind coming back to this at some point, but I think it’s the kind of book I might prefer reading at my own pace.
Next Month's Plan
- Read more Randomiser books if I can
- Read Life, the Universe, and Everything, and actually get to the Secondary Phase this month
- Read The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants
- Read Never Say Die
- Maybe read The Great Gatsby again
- Read The Vile Village again
- Finally finish Hedge Funds for Dummies and Event Horizon
- Do more with the Clear the Shelves challenge, even if I’ll probably never get anywhere near the other hazy subgoal I set
- Hopefully get to finish Wizards at War
- Read more of The Truth
- Finally get to listen to more of my audiobooks
Book #89
Never Say Die (Alex Rider #11) by Anthony Horowitz
Finished 2nd June 2017
384p
Why I read it: Anthony Horowitz wrote another Alex Rider book for some reason, and I just couldn't bring myself to look away.
Rating: 4/5
Categories: Mystery/thriller, male, white, UK, 2010s, June, familiar, teenagers, series, novel, medium, ebook I own.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages
Book #90
Hedge Funds for Dummies by Ann C. Logue
Finished 4th June 2017
360p
Why I read it: I was assigned it at work to help approve my awareness of funds.
Rating: 3/5
Categories: Nonfiction/advice, female, white, USA, 2000s, June, new, adult, standalone, nonfiction, medium, ebook I borrowed.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages
Book #91
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants (Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants #1) by Ann Brashares
Finished 5th June 2017
294p
Why I read it: It was named the Group Read for June, and I'd remembered hearing about it years ago so I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.
Rating: 3/5
Categories: General/coming of age, female, white, USA, 2000s, June, new, young adult, series, novel, medium, ebook I borrowed.
Challenges: Let's Turn Pages
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)
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Book #44
Babblesphere (Destiny of the Doctor #4) by Jonathan Morris, starring Lalla Ward with Roger Parrott
Finished 2nd April 2017
37p
Why I read it: It was part of the Doctor Who and Torchwood Humble Audiobook Bundle.
Rating: 4/5
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