You'll love this one...!! A book club & more discussion
Chit Chat About Books
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Best & Worst of 2017
Lol - it's interesting to see our diverse Best/Worst -- Lincoln in the Bardo made it on Sandra's Best List, but is on my Worst List. In another thread I slammed The Painted Veil a bit, and someone else - can't recall who - loved it!
I saw that, Lilisa. I laughed because it was you saying you didn't like it and the very next post said i was a great book. haha I think it was Margo that loved it.
Rusalka wrote: "Kristie wrote: "I'm curious what made that list."Me too!"
LOL, how can you be so curious when it comes to books somebody didn't like? Most of them were kindle freebies, which are more often that not plagued by non-existent editing - irks me to no end - and bad story lines, or classics that I'm reading only because they are available at our library as audio CDs (I can listen to them during my commute) and work for a challenge.
Some of the one star reads:
The Charred Lands: Apocalypse of Fire, The Dawn: The Bombs Fall, and Z-Minus I were all kindle freebies, used for one challenge or another
The Legend of the Blue Eyes and Midsummer's Eve were also kindle freebies and I needed them for the YLTO yearly challenge. What we do for the YLTO challenges *sigh*
Some of my one-star classics this year were Tender Is The Night and Far from the Madding Crowd. Classics and I just don't match.
I often don't enjoy the classics either, Camilla. I picked up The Legend of the Blue Eyes too. I have a bunch of GR friends that want to read it, but no reviews yet. I'm sorry to see it was one of your 1 star reads. If I ever get around to it, I'll be sure to have low expectations. However, I'm a much slower reader than you are, so I probably won't waste my time.
Kristie wrote: "Camilla - I still have to read Silence Fallen. It was a pre-order for me and I never got around to it!"Definitely try to get around to reading it, Kristie. It was very good. It's extremely rare that a series has such good books later on in the series. The whole Mercy Thompson series is a bit up-and-down IMHO, but all have been at least three-star reads for me.
Kristie wrote: "I picked up The Legend of the Blue Eyes too."Well, the average rating is 3.81, so many are enjoying it. If I could have given half stars, it would probably have earned 1.5, as I didn't actively hate it, just found it really stupid.
My average rating for 2017 is 3.6 which is high considering how few 5 stars I gave. I'm surprised at how many 1 stars you had Camilla. One stars for me tend to be books I didn't finish because they were rubbish.
Janice wrote: "One stars for me tend to be books I didn't finish because they were rubbish."I very rarely DNF, and if I do, I don't rate it at all and just delete the book from all of my GR shelves, as I don't have a DNF shelf.
I try to not read any books that I expect to be below 3 stars. It's not always successful, but a good strategy. I can only read about 60-65 books a year and I'd like them to be good ones.
Camilla wrote: "Midsummer's Eve were also kindle freebies and I needed them for the YLTO yearly challenge. What we do for the YLTO challenges *sigh*..."Well, Midsummer's Eve HAS a bunch of clouds in the cover...
Camilla wrote: "I very rarely DNF, and if I do, I don't rate it at all and just delete the book from all of my GR shelv..."Not all the books that I dnf are horrible. Sometimes, I'm not in the mood for them at the time, so I put them on my dnf. There have been a few that I've picked back up and enjoyed them the second time around. There have been a couple that I've give 5 stars to.
I do that too, Janice. I added an “on hold” shelf for those books that I may want to go back to.
Janice wrote: "Camilla wrote: "I very rarely DNF, and if I do, I don't rate it at all and just delete the book from all of my GR shelv..."Not all the books that I dnf are horrible. Sometimes, I'm not in the moo..."
Me too.sometimes you just won't be able to read it.
Kristie wrote: "I do that too, Janice. I added an “on hold” shelf for those books that I may want to go back to."Mine is called "frozen". And my DNF is called "given up".
Mine, I call Paused .But I did not create any shelf for DNFs either.Too many shelves feel like clutter to me.(my personal preference).
BESTReady Player One
The Buried Giant
Till We Have Faces
On Canaan's Side
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves
WORST
The Surgeon of Crowthorne: a tale of murder, madness & the love of words
Days Without End
Whiteout
Die for You
Fathers and Daughters probably the only book i have ever read which features bowling - i must be more careful how i alswer surveys!
My average rating is 3.64 and i have 40 books in my dnf folder. I only dnf's if i really hate them.
I think I have either been really lucky with my reading this year, or give 5 stars too easily. Of the 141 books I have read so far this year, I have given 41 of them 5 stars. It is pretty tough to write down only five, but I picked these as I scrolled through my listing.The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de ZoetCircling the Sun
Old Man's War
For We Are Many
The Lies of Locke Lamora
Me: Stories of My Life
2 star reads - I had 8
I, Claudius - sorry for those that loved it - I just couldn't
The Good Neighbor - no he wasn't!
Is It Just Me?: Or is it nuts out there? - meh...
1 star read - I had only 1
Mr. Fox - might have been me, but I could never make sense of it.
1 DNF
The Teleportation Accident - the 150 pages I read were all an accicent!
I forgot about my abandoned books! I have 10 in total and 3 of those I abandoned this year. I guess I'm slowly learning ;-)
I forgot my abandoned books too! I abandoned 6 this year and have 22 in total on my shelf. I used to never abandon a book once I started it, but I have since decided that life is too short and there are too many other books out there to warrant forcing myself through something I am not enjoying.
How/where can I find out my average rating for the books I've read this year? I cannot seem to come up with it. I guess I could add up all of the 3 stars and 4 stars and do the math, but ugh!
Cherie wrote: "How/where can I find out my average rating for the books I've read this year? I cannot seem to come up with it. I guess I could add up all of the 3 stars and 4 stars and do the math, but ugh!"
Have you got a "My Year in Books 2017" widget on your profile page, Cherie? If you click on that, it shows you all your stats for the year, including your average rating.
Mine is 3.5. I also had to search for a while but found it in the overview of 2017 goodreads put on my main page a few days ago. Don't think you can find it in the app though.
My average rating for the year is 3.8. The longest book I read was 880 pages and the shortest was 192 pages. My average page count is 427 pages.
I like that year wrap up. It is very neat.
Cherie wrote: "....1 DNF The Teleportation Accident - the 150 pages I read were all an accident! ..."
This comment is hilarious.
I have felt guilty about our February Buddy Read and my abandonment of it. I set it aside during a Toppler and never returned. I have deliberately not returned to the thread because of my shame of leaving both you and Janice.
I am actually planning on reading it this month, for the 2017 Survey Says challenge. Then I was going to find the Buddy Read thread, make my comments and apologize for bailing.
Now I see that you both bailed as well!☻☻☻
(What did you read for "accident" instead?)
Sandra wrote: "I like that year wrap up. It is very neat."Me too. I'm glad they made it easier to find this year too. I was trawling around for ages last year trying to find my stats! Lol.
Almeta wrote: "(What did you read for "accident" instead?) ..."I found Its Head Came Off by Accident: A Memoir. It was a pretty interesting account.
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Lisa wrote: "Have you got a "My Year in Books 2017" widget on your profile page, Cherie? If you click on that, it shows you all your stats for the year, including your average rating..."
Thank you, Lisa. I knew it had to be somewhere, but I did not think to look there.
My average rating is 3.9. My longest book was 780 pages.
Best readsOld Man's War
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet. Grew on me slowly but I was completely engrossed by the end. How do you research so thoroughly and create such an intricate authentic world with such utterly believable characters? A masterpiece!
NOS4R2 .. Audiobook. Brilliantly narrated by Kate Mulgrew, which really made this for me.
Something Wicked This Way Comes loved the carnival atmosphere, the creepiness and the pace.
A Monster Calls . poignant book, great discussion too
And the worst...
A Very Unusual Wife wins hands down as the worst book of the year. I read it for a toppler (what else?) and I still cringe at the thought of it. A toe curling Barbara Cartland special...
The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoyevsky dnf . just didnt get the Russian social nicities. No buddies showed up to the buddfy read : / NOT YLTO I hasten to add.
White is for Witching. Read for a toppler. Didnt get what was going on most of the time, I suspect there were too many names and povs for me and I didnt care enough to concentrate.
Garden of Fiends: Tales of Addiction Horror. Short stories written by ex-addicts. Whilst I appreciate their battles, I just couldnt stomach it. Should have known better really.
Lost At Sea: The Jon Ronson Mysteries. Found Ron Jonson increasingly oppinionated and samey. I found myself pulling faces at the audiobook narration ( in public) so decided to give myself a break and find another book with a truck on the cover.
@ Annerlee - I agree about the Jacob de Zoet book! Brilliant!I listened to Kate M narrate NOS4A2 in 2016 and felt the same way.
I'm starting the audiobook of NOS4A2 in a couple of days! I can't wait!
Almeta wrote: "Now I see that you both bailed as well!☻☻☻(What did you read for "accident" instead?) ."
We both bailed. I didn't find a replacement. I didn't finish the 3rd part of the challenge.
My dnf for this year was contained 10 books but I include books that i want to read but couldn't get on audio - i think i will make a separate catagory for them.One of the books is my dnf was a graphic novel that i got from library and time ran out on. I am going to move that one to my favorites. Graphic novels are not for me though :(
The Complete Maus harrowing but brilliant. I recommend it to all of you.
That would be one of my top reads for the year Margo. Such a brilliant slant on it.
I think it was one of your recommendations paul. It was wonderful on so manny levels - father-son relationship, camp survivor ethos, detail in the illustration etc etc(view spoiler)
My Dodgy Kindle Has Decided To Capitalise Each Word I Type. Thank Gods I Am Getting A new One For Christmas!!
NOOOO!!! I love your Kindle!
Me too! It has made me laugh so many times. I will miss it :(
I'm having issues with my kindle fire. They've updated the software so when i type a word which has a spelling mistake, now the only option when i click on it is to delete it or add it to my dictionary. Before i could also select a word from a list of predicted words. So annoying.
Sarah wrote: "I'm having issues with my kindle fire. They've updated the software so when i type a word which has a spelling mistake, now the only option when i click on it is to delete it or add it to my dictio..."That actually sounds really frustrating. But could you treat it as a spelling test? Although I understand they are heinous.
Margo wrote: "I think it was one of your recommendations paul. It was wonderful on so manny levels - father-son relationship, camp survivor ethos, detail in the illustration etc etc[spoilers removed]
My Dodgy ..."
(view spoiler)
Sarah wrote: "I'm having issues with my kindle fire. They've updated the software so when i type a word which has a spelling mistake, now the only option when i click on it is to delete it or add it to my dictio..."That is pretty bad, I cant understand why they would remove something so useful!
ha ha - sorry guys it's going!! You'll all have to find some new form of entertainment for 2018 lol The "Voice View" reader has stopped working. What should happen is, when I tap on a section of text it reads it out to me, what is now happening is, when I tap on a section of text a completely random section of text gets read to me D'OH Mind you I'm not that confidant that the new one will be any less fun. As Sarah says, the latest software updates would drive you crazy. Predictive text has never worked for me on this model and Amazon "are aware of the problem and are working hard to resolve your issues" - yeah, right :(
Rusalka wrote: "RIP Margo's Kindle"It will actually have a pretty active after life - I'm giving it to hubby to stream video on ;-p
Maybe it will join us of it's own volition then. I wouldn't put it past it.
hmm, could happen! I'd better remember to delete my account details first lol
Margo wrote: "hmm, could happen! I'd better remember to delete my account details first lol"Yes otherwise you might be GRaped.
Your kindle has provided some amusement for sure, Margot. First we had Travis's sticky keypad, then your kindle. What will 2018 bring us?
Janice wrote: "Your kindle has provided some amusement for sure, Margot. First we had Travis's sticky keypad, then your kindle. What will 2018 bring us?"My spellArt!
You'll love this one...!! A book club & more
Books mentioned in this topic
Old Man's War (other topics)Burial Rites (other topics)
Hogfather (other topics)
Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea (other topics)
The Dogs of Riga (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Barbara Cartland (other topics)Fyodor Dostoevsky (other topics)
Me too!