Do you have a reading theme for the year?

[Noor]

Michelle wrote: "Oh, that stinks! Maybe you could re-read something that you really liked in order to get out of the slump."

I might just have to try that, Michelle! There is a book I loved that's been re-released recently so I might actually do this!

[Bryan]

Since I've finally made a dent in the series I've started, I'll add a reading theme for next year: classics I'm ashamed I still haven't read. These include Solaris, 1984 (I do remember reading it, but I don't believe I've actually finished it), The time machine (I've read most of Wells' other most famous books), and I'm sure many more will come up. The lord of the rings would fit that theme too (like 1984, I know I've read part of the first book, then did not finish) but I'm not really sure I'll have time to tackle it.

[Andrea]

I haven't read anything of Wells yet. I'll be for sure reading either War of the Worlds or The Time Machine, not sure which I'll pick yet, maybe both

[Najaf]

humorous crime/noir.

[Andrea]

So while I couldn't find a comprehensive list of all Asimov's Robot stories, I was able to get the list of from each of the collections...annoyingly I have Robot Visions, which only has 3 stories that are not in The Complete Robot (which means I spent more than 1$ per story, even in a used copy). On the other hand, I'm missing Robot Dreams that only had a couple stories overlapped. Oh well, I have a whole year to track down Dreams in a used bookstore and a library if I run out of time :)

[Shane]

I have never done a themed year of reading, but in 2022 I definitely have to get caught up on my TBR, which consists of a lot of crime fiction, dark fantasy, and horror.

What I get for Christmas will determine my first reads. After that, I still have to go through the books from last Christmas! Whoops.

[Lynn]

Andrea wrote: "Went through the SF series I've started, but didn't own the next book and compared with what my library had available. Ended up adding another 16 to my potential list of 172 for a virtual pile of 1..."

I have finished Solaris! And glad that I read it ... but there were some long passages of the main character's own reading research into the planet that were a bit much for me!
Am currently reading Dune.

[Andrea]

Lynn wrote: "but there were some long passages of the main character's own reading research into the planet that were a bit much for me"

There is some of that in Dune as well :)

[Lynn]

Andrea wrote: "Lynn wrote: "but there were some long passages of the main character's own reading research into the planet that were a bit much for me"

There is some of that in Dune as well :)"

Well I'll brace myself for more of the same :) !!!

[Carril]

My reading theme is to just read what I like, what interests me and makes me feel good. I’ve gotten old so not much more time to read. If I find a book boring (it’s always the characters) I stop. I’ve read too many disappointing books to the end in my life. Waste of time.
Rereading favourite stories is very satisfying. It’s like having a day out with lifetime friends. I’ll be rereading Discworld, Valdemar, Foreigner, the Liaden Universe, Vorkosigan, and a number of vampire and paranormal books as well.
Of course new books by old loved authors are gold. And new books by new authors are wonderful as well.
I haunt the library, look in second hand shops, buy ebooks just like all of you.
And I read other genres and general fiction as well. Lots to reread !

[Andrea]

I've got a pile of SF books on my floor that will keep me busy till end of the year, so I started thinking about what I wanted to do next year. I contemplated doing a "Finish series I had started" again, but then I looked around what at what I had a lot of hardcovers of and decided Shannara was a big gap in my Fantasy experience and I had most of the books (missing about 5). Also, the series is finished which makes it a good time to jump into it.

As for the rest of my reading, Shannara has elves in it, and from that I decided to include all the Celtic/Norse creatures - faeries, dwarves, giants, orcs, goblins, you get the idea, all the things that looks human but aren't, the "non-human humanoids". I could sneak in a few Star Trek books if I wanted to based on that (most Star Trek aliens are humans with a bump on their nose), allows for a little bit of SF there.

I haven't decided yet if I'll include "non-humans that used to be human", like vampires, werewolves and such. And I'm contemplating "human-hybrids" like centaurs and mermaids.

But before I decide if I need to expand my coverage, I'll yank out all my fae/elf books and see how many I've got. After all Shannara alone will take up a good chunk of the year, at least 2 a month...about what Dune was like and Pern before that.

The one downside of this idea is that a lot of my collection is incomplete, for example I only have part of Bedlam's Bard, Newford, The Iron Elves, Iron Fey, Dragonlance, Merry Gentry, among others. Well, might be time to start them, and if I like them buy the rest or just use the library :)

[Tony]

I don't usually have a reading theme for the year, but I have noticed that I have a lot of Arthurian books in my collection - Malory, the Bernard Cornwell trilogy, Stephen Lawhead's series, Richard Monaco's series - as well as a number of standalones. I have also been thinking about reading all of the Shannara books. I'm not likely to do both as that would have me reading fantasy the whole year, which is pretty unlikely.

[Robin]

Does the fact that I am almost exclusively reading back editions of The Magazine Of Fantasy and Science Fiction count as an (accidental ) theme? LOL☺☺☺☺☺☺

[Michelle]

I don't specifically pick themes, but I am a mood-binge reader. This seems to be a year that I've read a lot of military science fiction, plus re-reads of other genres, particularly Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series dealing with the Napoleonic Wars.

A while back it was a Roman Legion binge. Then there was the portal fantasy binge. Then the seafaring tales. Then steampunk. There's no telling with me what I'll be reading next year!

[Andrea]

I've started thinking about a theme for next year and I'm probably gonna go without one *gasp* Its been quite a few years I haven't had something clearly defined even if it was just "finish series I already started".

I picked out one 20-30 long book series that will be my core, but its SF and I did that last year. Then I looked around and found some standalones (so "complete series" doesn't apply) and some that didn't have a clear easily defined element (unicorns, dragons, gods, faeries, etc).

So I figured, my theme would be to read books that don't really fit in a theme :) Plus anything else I feel like, including squeezing in some mystery or historical novels, not just SF/F. Things I would never get around to if I keep doing the theme thing.

On the other hand, as I started digging around my shelves to pick some of them out, I found I had some interesting ideas to suggest for next year's BINGO. I'll get the suggest thread for that started in a week or two.

[Audrey]

I created TBR shelves for the next two years, just to prioritize books I really want to get to. I've been making myself read an owned book for every library book lately. This year I have a read a lot of disability-themed books and cadaver-themed books but that has been a coincidence.

[Robin]

Hmm, Audrey, disability themed I get... Cadaver themed? That's a thing? Are there many cadaver themed books? Does this genre have a name? Like "corpse punk"?☺

[Audrey]

Robin wrote: "Hmm, Audrey, disability themed I get... Cadaver themed? That's a thing? Are there many cadaver themed books? Does this genre have a name? Like "corpse punk"?☺"

They were nonfiction. I don't do splatter-punk.

[Robin]

Aaaah I see. I want to do a gag about reading a 'body of work' but I can't quite... Oh, I just did.☺☺

[Andrea]

Audrey wrote: "I've been making myself read an owned book for every library book lately."

I need to do more of this....I didn't get through anywhere near as many of my own books as I thought I would. Have to leave one series unfinished, several unstarted. But every time I'm in the library I'm like "oh, this looks interesting" and I hate leaving without borrowing at least something!

At least most of what I borrowed this year were graphic novels and kids books, so fast reads, but there were a LOT of them...

Hmmm splatter-punk? New slot in our BINGO card? But yeah, I'm little leery of too much gore myself.

[Georgann]

corpse punk!! Hahahaha! yeah, no splatterpunk for me either. I don't like slasher movies, either. So I'm pretty careful about even what horror I'll read. It doesn't really take too much to be over the top for me. I don't ever do themes, b/c my reading challenges and just whatever keeps my TBR full and overtopping. I am adding a new challenge this year "A-Z" Some will fill in from our BINGO challenge and a couple other challenges I do, but some will be ones I've been wanting to read and just haven't yet.

[NekroRider]

I won't have a theme this year, but am planning to continue trying to hit more sff (especially sci-fi) classics that I've put in the "someday/later" pile over the years.

[Andrea]

Decisions, decisions. The past few years I've picked one giant epic series and then picked a theme off of that. I did Pern so read mainly dragon books. Shannara got me reading elves & fairies & orcs and things. Dune (and I mean ALL of Dune) had me reading science fiction for a year. This year's Kris Longknife was science fiction again so I didn't really do a theme, it was more a catch up on series I had started and then books that wouldn't otherwise ever fit a theme.

For next year I had several ideas. Over the years I've been filling in various epic series through used book store finds. I had:
- Wheel of Time (1 missing)
- Deryni (1 missing)
- Sword of Truth (a few missing)
- Elric (not as long as the others but been wanting to get around to it)
- Malazan (my sister has most of it)

I thought about it for a while and when I hit October this year and realized I had to read a few Kris books if I wanted to finish that series this year, I realized the past few October's I've had to sacrifice spooky books to ensure I completed the epic series I had picked so I thought...what about something I'd normally reserve for October?

I had the Betsy the Vampire Queen series with only two books missing and that clinched it. I still have time to change my mind but if I don't, I'll be focusing on vampires, werewolves, ghosts and the like. Maybe some grim dark fantasy. Toss in a little Lovecraft and Poe.

Though I won't strictly keep to the theme since all dark stuff (even when they aren't scary) will make for a depressing year so I'll keep up with some other series I've started, and a few other random things here and there, maybe some non-SFF too. I've got a couple historical and mystery series sitting around waiting for a chance.

[Tony]

I also have a few series that I would like to read through:

- the Shannara series (but I doubt I would complete it in a year)
- William Forstchen's Lost Regiment series
- the Ranger's Apprentice series (I believe that is now complete)
- Malazan

I occasionally consider reading the Star Trek or Star Wars series in order, but there are far too many, and they keep writing more.

I have read both the Deyni and Elric series - for completeness you could read all the Eternal Champion books, not just Elric - but, even as a big Moorcock fan, I haven't read all of that series, just the major characters.

I gave up on Wheel of Time after 3 books, and Sword of Truth after the first book (although I did enjoy the TV adaptation).

[Andrea]

Shannara - I don't really recommend reading it all in a year in fact, it gets repetitive and that's more blatant if you read them all at once rather than taking a decade or two before covering the same ground. Reading everything up to an including the Jerle Shannara books are ok, but you may need a break after that.

Star Trek definitely waaaaayyy to many. However you could pick some of the subseries by Trek franchise - Discovery has about 8-10 books, Picard even fewer, and then there are various small subseries, like one about Titan, another about the Department of Temporal Investigations or Section 13.

I've been collecting ST books slowly but surely every month since Simon & Shuster puts a handful on sale for 0.99 though the last batch were 1.99, hope that's not the new price. I'm not collecting the classic trek ones and this month it was all Spock.

In case you want to save money and shelf space, here's where the deals are announced each month - https://www.simonandschuster.com/p/st...

I'm not even sure how to read them in order since there are so many crossovers, subseries, prequels and such. I guess publishing order would be the only way to handle that :) Even just figuring out the set of books out there is challenge, Goodreads is just as hard to navigate to figure out if you've got the entire "series". There was one site I came across that's supposed to list all books ever written, I don't have it handy though.

I started on Discovery since there are only a few books, they don't get mixed up with the other franchises...and I've managed to read 2 in about as many years. My poor e-reader is so neglected since I stopped commuting to work. I've been reading my latest ebook for over three months now...I really need to finish it!!!!

[Tony]

Andrea wrote: "Shannara - I don't really recommend reading it all in a year in fact, it gets repetitive and that's more blatant if you read them all at once rather than taking a decade or two before covering the ..."

I did read the original Shannara trilogy when it first came out, and I've read a couple of others.

Discovery is my least favourite Trek series, and I would be reading primarily the books based on TOS - I do have a lot of them, but I wouldn't have all of them.

As for order - this is the best resource I've found:

https://startrekreadingorder.com/read...

The creators of that site have put in a huge effort, and it covers books, comics, TV episodes, and movies, and tries to put them into one chronological order.

It originally started as a reading order for Marvel comics, but they have expanded and now have about a dozen different universes - although some of them are works-in-progress - their DC comics reading order currently only goes from the start in 1935 until midway through 1947, but DC, in particular, is a massive universe because of the length of time they have been publishing comics. Star Trek at least has a Stardate for a lot of books and episodes.