SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion
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Reading Goals!
I track all kinds of things, and I love seeing the trends, but I don't really have many goals. I've tried to come up with some, but they're just random numbers, so it's hard to try to reach them. I'm mostly just interested in seeing how monthly/yearly stats change, if there's something I maybe want to pay more attention to.Some of the things I track are format, source, language (original and read in), length, genre, author/character diversity/gender, author country/heritage, etc.
Looking at my stats now the most interesting (to me) facts are that I've read 21 translated books this year already, that's way more than last year. And not counting graphic novels, it's about even between audio vs. ebooks/print. I know it's stupid, but I'm always trying to keep the audio at less than 50%. I may have to get over that, since my eyes don't let me read as much as I want to.
I guess I'm not enough of a stats nerd, because I'm only excited about yearly stats. I do look at the amount I've read each month (pages), it's interesting to see if I can find a reason if there's a spike, but other than that I only look at the yearly totals. The interesting monthly fact from this year is that audio pages vs. read pages varies a lot per month, but total pages stays about the same. I always feel like I can speed through a book so much faster on audio, because I don't need to stop if I do something else, but I guess it balances out in the end.
For the first time in 26 years, I’m not actively tracking anything or chasing a goal. It’s kind of a weird feeling, honestly. I spent so long going after my annual alphabet challenge that it was just my default reading mode. Achieving it last year was kind of a surprise.I put down 117 books for this year’s GR reading challenge just to have a nebulous goal and I think I’m at 58. So that will be an easy get.
Mod
Of those, 16 were fantasy, 10 are sci fi, and 7 have been out of genre. 15 have been SFFBC reads.
23 were by women/femme authors, 10 by men/masc authors, putting me at 45% books by women read as captured on Goodreads. I'm ~40 books from having them be equal, if I don't read more books by men beforehand, which seems unlikely.
10 were by authors of color. A little lower than I was hoping for, I'll have to read more consciously in the back half. 6 had LGBTQIA+ MCs, which means I'm on track to have that more included than last year.
Favorite book so far: Probably The Hate U Give and The Dispossessed
DNFs: Winter Tide, Shadow Man
I am currently behind on all possible goals in existence. LOL My GR goal is 100 books. I'm currently at 41, but should be at 48. Though my husband will be out of town and I have a week staycation planned that CONVENIENTLY overlaps that, so hopefully I will do some catching up. :D
I'm in a bunch of other challenges, and for the most part I'm doing.. OK.
- SFFBC Owned - No particular "goal" here, but I'm down 33 owned books, from 931 to 898.
- SFFBC TBR Cleanup - I'm 55% done. Read 11 of 20.
- FOF Bingo - In my Flights of Fantasy group, we're doing a Bingo challenge, and I'm dragging in this one. Read 10/25, but I've got 2 Currently Reading.
- HF Summer Challenge - This is only June thru August for my Historical Fiction group, but my SUPER unrealistic goal is to read 50 books. LOL I've read 5, with 3 on Currently Reading.
Mod
That must be kind of freeing, Trike!
I just knocked out my reading challenge goal of 100 last week. Now I just need to focus on finishing all of the challenges I started. I’m doing pretty good on all except for the bingo challenge in this group which I’ve fallen way behind on.My biggest goal left is to finish 30 series this year so far I have done 16. This one may get a bit tricky with all the challenges.
My favorite series of the year so far have been the Phedre and Imriel trilogies by Jacqueline Carey. I was hesitant to start this series because of the erotica connotation atttached to it but I really loved all of the books so far.
Least favorites so far have been the Time Quintet by Madeleine L’Engle and the Alcatraz series by Brandon Sanderson. I’m a bit old for either series but they were both just awful for different reasons.
Not really a goal but by the end of today I should be have 40k pages read and my previous high was 62k so should blow by that.
I have read 42 of my 69 books goal so far. I set it rather low this year so that I didn't have to stress about it.I've finished 11 of 20 of my 2018-TBR-challenge, and am reading 1 more.
I've done 18 of 25 of the Bingo challenge, but since that only runs through July, I might not get all 25 in, but I'll have covered most of the board.
Of the 42 books I've read, 21 have been adult, 13 YA and 7 MG.
28 have been marked fantasy, of some variety, 2 horror, 4 whodunits and 5 romance.
My average rating is 2.85 - rounding up would make it 3, which is pretty nominal, for me.
My favorite, so far, this year was Jane Steele.
I was surprised by Captain James Hook and the Curse of Peter Pan and Year One: A Quincy Harker, Demon Hunter Collection.
My least favorite this year was Kinslayer, and found that trilogy disappointing, overall.
I started the year with a bunch of specific goals, but lost track of keeping track.... My primary goal is clearing my shelves of dusty DTBs and that is going *great* because we're moving cross-country and I don't want to haul extra books! Sorry, don't have any specific favorites or anything to mention.
I've hit my 100 book goal and gone past it. I also finished my super complicated BINGO with one group (56 books). Other major reading activities still in play:
-BINGO with Flights of Fantasy
-Buried Alive with this group
-Raksura Series buddy read with FoF
-A Natural History of Dragons buddy read with FoF
Allison wrote: "*By "I" I totally mean Lowell shared and I stole his idea. ."They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, so thanks! I'll repost what I wrote on myself here, and imitate a thing you did too!
I'm a little intimidated by Bill's knocking out 100 books in the front half of the year, but also super impressed!
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My annual challenge goal was 35 books. I'm currently crushing that, at 32 books completed for the year.
My 2018 TBR Challenge number was 12 books. I have completed 9, and DNF'd 2.
Thus Far in 2018, I have read:
1 Creative Nonfiction
2 Graphic Novesl
2 Novellas
3 Story Anthologies
24 Novels.
Of those books,
2 were books I had previously read
13 were Audiobooks (or I switched between audio and textual versions using amazon's whispersync).
3 were longer than 1000 pages
25 were written by men
7 were written by women
2 were written by non caucasian authors (one asian, one person of color).
Page count: 13224.
Clearly, I have some diversity issues in my choices. However, I do have some options for diverse authors in the back half of the year that have now gained priority. I do console myself with the fact that I read Kloos' entire "Frontlines" series in about 2 weeks, and that heavily weighs my gender balance.
DNF: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Too Like the Lightning
Surprise hit: Marko Kloos
Favorite thus far: the novellas are tied! The Flowers of Vashnoi and All Systems Red
I am 17/20 for the TBR cleanup, 33 owned books read and 38/60 for the general goodreads challenge. On track and liking most of the books.
I did some quick analysis...41 Books
41 Reviewed
DNF - 1 (Necroscope. Blech.)
Currently Reading - 3
Print: 7
Ebook: 16
Audiobook - 18
Novels - 24
GN- 1
Collection - 1
Series Books- 14
Non-fiction - 15
SF - 3
Fantasy - 8
HF - 3
True Crime - 3 (counting The Feud, about the Hatfields and McCoys)
Mystery/Thriller - 11
Women - 9
Men - 32 (I think that this is due a lot to the fact that I'm reading through some series books by men.)
Stephen King books - 6
Stephen King RELATED - 2 (one analysis of his Dark Tower series, one DT Graphic Novel adaptation)
Over 500 pages - 8
Under 200 pages - 2
I'm at 88 read purchased prior to 2018 and 4 read purchased in 2018. OF those several were multibook compilationsThe Jeeves Omnibus Vol. 3: The Mating Season / Ring for Jeeves / Very Good, Jeeves = 3 books
Outlander 8-Book Bundle except it was the prior 7 book bundle = 7 books
The Jeeves Omnibus Vol. 1 = 3 books
so I'm also over 100, but i have no total in mind to reach. In 2017 I read 123, but i didn't join until well into the year
What I can easily track down are the following:This group's TBR clean up challenge: 11 read/15 targeted
This group's shelf challenge: 5/6
SFF Reading Challenge: 60/72
SFF Female authors: 20/20 (completed)
SFF Explorer (new authors I haven't read before): 20/12 (completed)
SFF Stand alone books: 14/20
SFF Completist (finishing series): 5/6
SFF Short works: 15/12 (completed)
Fantasy (not including short stories, novelettes and graphic novels) : 26/40
SF (not including short stories, novelettes and graphic novels) : 16/25
Overall reading goal (including non SFF, graphic novels, and short works: 81/100
Mod
I'm doing great with my yearly challenge (40/50), this club's Read All the Books challenge (9/15, currently reading #10), and my resolve to read more books outside of SFF genre. I'm a bit behind in the TBR challenge (8/20, currently reading #9) but not so much that I cannot get back on track.
I'm totally going to fail in my goals to finish/get up to date with 7 series (I've only completed 2 so far) and to limit new series started (currently at 7/10) XD
My average rating for 2018 is currently 3.5 (a bit lower than my overall 3.65)
Newest book: Artemis and Into the Drowning Deep published in November 2017
Oldest book: Rebecca published in 1938
Best book: maybe The Silmarillion
Worst book: this one is hard, I've had a few duds this year... let's go with Inferno (it managed to shatter my suspension of disbelief in the very first page of the prologue and from there it went downhill)
YA books: 7
MG & children's: 5
Adult: 28
Fantasy: 19
Sci-Fi: 8
Other genres: 13 (pretty much all historical or mystery/thriller)
600+ pages: 2 (currently reading door-stopper #3)
Allison wrote: "Wow, y'all are on a tear! I'm liking seeing what you're all tracking, too, it's giving me ideas for other things I could watch! LOL @ Becky for Stephen King & related as categories!"It's a thing. I have a problem. :P
Here are the stats I’ve tracked thus far:Total Read: 58
Genre:
SF: 25
Fantasy: 9
Graphic Novel: 6
Historical Fiction: 5
Horror: 4
Lit Fic: 2
YA: 2
Memoir: 2
Non-Fic: 2
Thriller: 1
Gender:
Female: 25
Male: 35
Queer: 1
Author from:
US: 34
UK: 11
Canada: 5
Singapore: 1
China: 2
Ethiopia: 1
Sweden: 1
Egypt: 1
Authors of Color: 10
LGBTQ books: 14
Translated works: 3
New to me authors: 42
Page count is 20,000+
I still want to improve in the diversity department, although these numbers are already better than what I read last year so I won’t complain. My average rating is 3.77.
Sarah wrote: "Page count is 20,000+"I had been thinking about that one, but I can't think of a way to find out without going to each book manually and finding out the good reads page count.
It gets more complicated because I do the whole audible/kindle whispersync thing. Any tips?
Hey Lowell- if you open GoodReads on a computer, go to “My Books” and on the left hand side there is a button for “Reading Stats”. Click that and then change books to Pages with the bubble on the top.I actually wish there were a way to set a reading goal by pages. Book number is sort of irrelevant. (I suppose page number could be irrelevant too if you think about book size, font size, etc. but it feels less irrelevant then book count).
Currently I'm at 31/50 read for my yearly challenge.Sadly only 14 of those counted for the Owned Books Challenge.
I'm at 8/15 for the Read All the Books challenge which goodreads helpfully tells me I am one book ahead of pace for.
In the other group I'm in I hit 11/15 Scifi read and 10/15 Fantasy read.
I honestly thought I'd have read more of the owned books I had but I found the Buddy Read thread and it all went downhill from there.
Mod
Mwahahahaha!
I actually think this is Silvana's fault, but I take giddy joy in esploding everyone's plans by buddy read.
I was thinking of you when I mentioned the thread tbh
HeyT wrote: "Currently I'm at 31/50 read for my yearly challenge.Sadly only 14 of those counted for the Owned Books Challenge."
Think that is a pretty good ratio unless you went out and bought the additional 17.
The rest were a mix of bought and the library. Now that it's summer the number of library books will increase a lot because if you read their books you get entered into a raffle.
Mod
heehee! Yesss, give in to the lure of delicious, delicious buddy reads.
At 13 books I'm exactly halfway through my 2018 GoodReads challenge of 26. I will definitely finish one more book before the end of June, which will put me slightly ahead.Stats so far:
3 non-fiction
- 2 history
- 1 essay collection
10 fiction
- 8 fantasy or UF
- 1 SF
- 1 mystery
2 books by men
11 by women.
1 book by a PoC. It's always something I feel could stand improvement, but it's rarely this bad! :(
3 audiobooks. I've just started with them, and am enjoying reading books in this format.
4 were buddy and/or group reads.
I've read 24 manga volumes and 2 novellas, which aren't counted toward my goals.
DNF: Winter Tide, Space Opera. I intend to come back and finish Winter Tide.
Favorite so far?: tough question. Either City of Bones (Wells) or Jade City.
Oooh! Stats!39 books read & in progress
I'm doing well on my challenges, past the halfway point in most.
genres
fantasy 15
scifi 14
mystery 6
history 3
other fiction 1
author stats
male 10
female 20
non-binary 2
white /authors of color
white 25
AoC 7
This is clearly where I need to focus on diversifying my reading. One good note is that 5 of my authors of color were new to me and 4 were due to group/buddy reads in this group. So yay! Thank you group!
authors new to me: 15
male 7
female 7
nb 1
most read author: 4 by Seanan McGuire /Mira Grant (10%)
new 21
used 12
re-reads 2
ebooks 2
audio 1
anthology 3
Favorite probably All Systems Red (Murderbot!), strong runners-up Planetfall and An Unkindness of Ghosts.
*post edited to correct authors of color number
This is my first full year on Goodreads. I didn’t know what a realistic goal was for me, so I arbitrarily selected 24. I’m currently at 88, though a few were comics or short novellas. The second half of the year will be busier for me in life, but I’m hoping to end with 104 actual novels.
Mod
Wow, Phillip, that's awesome!
I am currently on my ERT18 (Epic Road Trip 2018 - Cross Country in USA) and not posting much anywhere because I'm usually busy either driving, hiking (somewhere I probably shouldn't in flip flops) or looking for places with secured WiFi to do work cause I still have to do work. =D For the GR Reading Challenge, I put 200 as my starting goal. I figure I will hit that and get to 300. My 3rd goal will be 321 because that tickles my funny bone. Maybe I can be super proactive and get to 365. Nah. That may be pushing it.
Audiobooks have been amazing tool for keeping up with my reading. The only downside is that I like good narrators that fit the story. That doesn't always happen. Right now I am playing around with reading speeds to see if that will help me be engaged (cause listening to chipmunkish voices are funny) and ignore the bad voicing in order to pay attention to the actual story. Thus far, I successfully finished The Rook at 1.8x. British/European voices in chipmunk style was hilarious! That narrator is awful. Story is ok. I got my hands on the second one to see if the story evolve to meet the potential in book one.
Stats - What I could figure out easily.
GR Reading Challenge: Currently at 152/200 - Ahead by 56 Books According to the Challenge App
Rated:
5 Star = 11 Books (That's pretty high for me.)
4 Star = 16 Books
3 Star = 123 Books
2 Star = 4 Books
1 Star = 1 Book
I try to pick a hardback or paperback version of a book for the stats machine because the paging for ebooks is not consistent and the wordcounts are always off. I rather see how many books I read vs page counts because page counts aren't consistent. Though, book counts can be off when they count a short story, novella and comics as a book or a collection as just one book.
I committed to two challenges. The Book Bingo Part 1 and 2 at GG&G. The S&L Fantasy & Sci-Fi Reading Challenge. 100 to each genre. So far, I completed Book Bingo Part 1 and trucking on well for the S&L challenges.
It is interesting to see what people track and try to do with their reading. I am currently reading what I want and tossing what doesn't vibe mode. For reviews, I committed to writing mini-reviews to jot down an idea of what the book was like or to note what stood out. Basically, I'm taking it easy on what I read and how I review. That way it doesn't feel like work.
My personal challenge that I'm working on and doing well is to read a story in print while listening to another story by audio. I don't have a ton of time to do this while I am on my ERT18 but it's fun to do when I can. I've figured out patterns that work for me and have gotten better at doing it so I can actually do one other thing while I do this dual format reading/listening.
Ok. I have to leave the cafe I'm at so I'm going to wrap up. Totally curious to see what kind of stats I have for the type of authors and tranlated books, etc there are in my read list.
Cool stuff!
I am doing some diversity challenges and currently in 12/16 categories. Still looking for a book for the 'Ginger main character' category. Also, from earlier this month, I started a target of finishing 15 physical books that are gathering dusts in my shelves. On my second book as of now.
Allison wrote: "HeyT wrote: "I honestly thought I'd have read more of the owned books I had but I found the Buddy Read thread and it all went downhill from there. "
Mwahahahaha!
I actually think this is Silvana'..."
What? Moi? I am totally and utterly innocent and claim no responsibility of people's growing TBR. That is YouKneek's and all the Kindle sales informants.
:D
But seriously, I am holding back some BR recruitment requests since my schedule is full October and I do have some solo reads to tackle. However, there's a possibility that I'll feel lonely and post urgent requests.
Silvana wrote: "I am doing some diversity challenges and currently in 12/16 categories. Still looking for a book for the 'Ginger main character' category. "I'm assuming you've already read The Name of the Wind?
Yes, unfortunately. So does Wise Man's Fear.
As per GR's stats I've read 13,310 pages across 34 books in 2018. Of 34 books there's 28 actually + 1prequel + 5 SCI-F magazines (short stories).
genres
fantasy - 22
mystery - 3
historical fiction - 2
sci-fi - 1
new authors: 4
male authors: 10
female authors: 18
Short stories authors are not included, it's difficult to get exact number but I believe that it's 50:50. I plan to finish WoT this year and to read more of Neil Gaiman's work so I think that ratio for books will also be 50:50 by the end of 2018.
best books: Tigana, The Dispossesed, The Graveyard Book, The Song of Achilles
best short stories: everything I've read this year from Ursula Vernon. She definitely became one of mine favorite authors.
average rating: 4
TBR challenge: 13/15
GR challenge: 28/50
Mod
- Any of the Alanna books by Tamora Pierce
-Nimona
-Stormlight Archive
-Hounded
-Dead Witch Walking
-Faerie Tale
-Daughter of the Forest
-Wolfskin
-The Virgin Blue
-The Once and Future King
-The Hero and the Crown
-Circle of Magic books, also by Tamora Pierce
-Anne books by L.M. Montgomery
-Didn't Ce'Nedra have red hair in the Belgariad by David Eddings?
That's all I can think of at the mo'
ETA Fascinating. They're all fantasy/ historical fiction.
Mod
Allison wrote: "Hey all! I* thought it'd be fun to do a midyear check in of how you're doing on your reading goals. Are you on track for your yearly read totals? Best/worst of the lot so far? Any new favorites? Wh..."Actually doing pretty well this year. I am finally ahead in my reading goals after having a slump due to eyesight issues. Now, with new glasses I am 3 books ahead.
My biggest disappointment was The Plague. My expectations about what I would be reading and what I actually read, were two different things.
Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel, was completely awesome. I had no expectations going in, but was pretty excited.
I also loved Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. What an awesome read.
Most of the books I put on my challenge are 500+ pages, with a few in the 400 pg range. So, I lowered my reading challenge from typical 70, down to 50 this year.
I have a bunch of sci-fi/fantasy on my lists and am enjoying them all.
What I have not read much of, are graphic novels. I usually read quite a few, but have not been book-shopping as much as usual. I have really tried to curb the amount of books I purchase, because I really have no more room to put another book-shelf.
Thanks alot, guys! Great list Allison, I think I have at least three already in my wishlist. Who's in Stormlight archive has red hair?
Alondra wrote: "I also loved Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. What an awesome read. "I love Neverwhere. Still one of my favorite Gaiman's.
As a side note, I'm reading a book right now where Neil Gaiman is a character and has mentioned Neverwhere, and the TV mini-series vs the book. In this book he claims the differences are because he gained the Sight after the show but before the book, so the book's more authentic. It's very weird.
Mod
Shallan! And the Horneater cook, Rock ^^
Soo wrote: "I am currently on my ERT18 (Epic Road Trip 2018 - Cross Country in USA) and not posting much anywhere because I'm usually busy either driving, hiking (somewhere I probably shouldn't in flip flops) ..."OK... Your road trip sounds FANTASTIC. I would love to do something like that. :D
Regarding audiobooks, I feel your pain about off narration. It really can ruin the whole thing. Do you use Audible? I've found that their app is pretty good for changing speed without going super chipmunky... but of course the service can be pricey, unless you know how to catch deals on sale. When I acquired the majority of my 9billion audiobooks, I was on the highest level yearly plan, which meant that each audio was about $9.56, and then if you can get good sales, you can really stock up. LOL But the 1 book/month plan at $14.95 each is not worth it to me.
9 billion audiobooks! Good thing Audible's app has a 40000x setting.
Sarah wrote: "I actually wish there were a way to set a reading goal by pages. Book number is sort of irrelevant. (I suppose page number could be irrelevant too if you think about book size, font size, etc. but it feels less irrelevant then book count)"Word count would work nicely, except for graphic novels. In any case, thanks for telling me how to find that statistic! I actually rather like it, even if it is low compared to some of the voracious readers in this thread!
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As a side note, I've already read more books this year than I did the entirety of last year. Since I joined up last year, goodreads has helped me hit my goal of "read more books!"
Beth wrote: "9 billion audiobooks! Good thing Audible's app has a 40000x setting."May be a SLIGHT exaggeration. O_O
Mod
May be a SLIGHT exaggeration. O_O"
You've heard of the library at Alexandria, but have you heard of the library at Rebeccaria? ;-)
I'm at 51 books and 22,726 pages. My Goodreads challenge is 100, so I'm right on track. My Read all the books challenge was 20, but I hit 17 last night so I doubled it to 40.I've read 40 Fantasy and 11 Sci Fi, but a lot of the Fantasy books have Sci Fi elements. Superhero books are hard to classify, because they may have lots of Sci Fi elements like going into space and fighting aliens, but they also have people with inexplicable powers, so I include them in Fantasy. 2 of the Fantasy books were also Horror. 18 were re-reads, which is actually pretty low for me, and I can credit this group for a lot of great new reads.
For authors, I've got 22 by females and 29 by Males as far as I know. I don't always research the authors I read, and some of them are indie authors without much info available, so I don't really have a lot of data beyond a few. I only know for sure of 2 authors of color and 3 LGBTQ authors I've read so far this year. I have another Fonda Lee book on hold from the library, and I've been wanting to read multiple books by N.K. Jemisin for a while now, so I should be able to get a bit more diversity in the second half of the year.
This is the first full year on Goodreads where I'm actually tracking everything. I wasn't sure how many books I should go with in the challenge, but my dad and I boasted to each other that we probably read 100 books a year, so I figured I'd start there. I was behind for a while, but I've done lots of reading in the last two months.
SciFi and Fantasy Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
Clockwork Boys (other topics)Record of a Spaceborn Few (other topics)
All Systems Red (other topics)
Revenant Gun (other topics)
Artificial Condition (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Lois McMaster Bujold (other topics)Nnedi Okorafor (other topics)
Martha Wells (other topics)
Seanan McGuire (other topics)
Fonda Lee (other topics)
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*By "I" I totally mean Lowell shared and I stole his idea.