2025 Reading Challenge discussion
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The Carousel Returns: Paul reads at least 250 books in 2019 probably
Book #42
Unbound: Adventures in Time and Space, edited by Jacob Black, Frank Holder, James K. Maddox, Anne-Laure Tuduri, and Niki Haringsma
600 pages
Read 28th January to 8th February 2019
Why I read it: Some Internet acquaintances worked on it, and it was for a very good cause.
Rating: **** - What I have to say doesn't matter all that much as I don't think you can purchase this anymore, but overall it's very good, and nicely varied. A thing it did that I liked was that it didn't only have stories about alternate Doctors that could never happen in the show and probably will never happen (but arguably should), but it also went back to eras in the main show and revitalised them, not offering redemptive readings so much as showcasing the potential that was always there. I'm very glad I read it; it feels fresh, and there are definitely writers here that deserve to go far.
Book #43
Fullmetal Alchemist: Volume 3, written and illustrated by Hiromu Arakawa
192 pages
Read 8th to 10th February 2019
Why I read it: Still reading Fullmetal Alchemist.
Rating: **** - I think Fullmetal Alchemist is back. Not sure since it's a while since I read this volume, but I feel confident in saying so.
It looks like you are enjoying a lot of graphic novels this year. Some of which I will have to look into. Love your list!Great job Paul!
Thank you Khadijah! Really though this is only the half of it, I've fallen very behind on updating the thread. Too much going on with college work and other hobbies and all that.It's funny, reading more comics wasn't a real concrete goal for the year, but some other goals managed to come together to make it so! I was partway through Fullmetal Alchemist for so long, but then I bought the rest of the volumes before Christmas finally and resolved to read them all this year. Comics are also very convenient for me to read at work during breaks and downtime thanks to Android apps, and I'd managed to build up a fair pile of them throughout the years. Plus I liked reading comics so much for the Hugos recently that I decided to subscribe to some for the first time and keep with some of my favourites! So yeah, it really all does add up in the end. :)
You are able to read so much while taking college classes?!?! I'm so impressed! I have time to read for pleasure with my classes.
They're all online classes, so I don't have to go to any actual lectures, though I still need to keep up on the material and do assignment and exams. But yeah, I read a lot on my commutes to work and back, and I've gotten pretty adept at reading while I do / should be doing... other things. That said I'm sure I read as much if not more than I do now when I was getting my original degree, though to be fair I had fewer responsibilities then - and also fewer hobbies :D Or at least, I wasn't as into those hobbies I had both then and now. Don't see myself giving up reading anytime soon though, even with everything else I have going on, and probably won't be cutting back (much) either! :D
Happen to have a spare half an hour or so, so I think I'll crank out another handful of bad takes. It's been too long.
Book #44
Love & Monsters by Niki Haringsma
180 pages
Read 10th February to 11th February 2019
Why I read it: The author is an Internet acquaintance of mine, so I knew he was writing this book for the Black Archive series, and so when she announced it was out I got on it as soon as I could, though I'd had my eye on it for quite a while.
Rating: **** - One of the reasons it took me so long to get to this comment is that I wanted to let the writer know what I thought of it first, and that took a very long time. With that partiality in mind, let me say that I think this might just be the best Black Archive I've ever read, and definitely one of my favourites. I like the way it considers every aspect of the episode, and gives sufficient space to most of them. It's very interesting in that it brings in analyses that I originally felt were a little far-fetched, but Haringsma clearly knows his stuff and argues her case in sublimely convincing fashion. It's like the best of Doctor Who in that regard, a fusion of elements you wouldn't think go together but manage to do. This is an infamously divisive episode, and even though I would've considered myself a fan of it already, this book still got me to see it in new ways. Recommended to all Doctor Who fans (at least new series fans) - Haringsma does a great job of building up the headier aspects of her criticism for the unfamiliar, better than a number of Black Archive authors I've read to be honest.
Book #45
"Circus Girl, The Hunter, and Mirror Boy", by JY Yang
32 pages
Read 11th February 2019
Why I read it: Another Tor.com short story.
Rating: **** - Strong and interesting stuff, as usual from Yang. Definitely worth checking out.
Book #46
"Karaluvian Fale", by Cat Rambo
31 pages
Read 12th February 2019
Why I read it: Another entry from the GigaNotoSaurus back catalogue.
Rating: *** - It's all right, but I don't remember it doing a whole lot for me.
Book #47
Muse of Nightmares, by Laini Taylor
528 pages
Read 7th February to 12th February 2019
Why I read it: I really liked Strange the Dreamer, and wanted to see if I could nominate this for the Lodestar for Best Young Adult Book.
Rating: **** - An odd and jagged and at points downright messy sequel and conclusion, but Taylor manages to make it more than work regardless. The worldbuilding gets broadened and expanded, the themes are still resonant, and even if some of the characters get sometimes left behind, they all have their time to shine by the end. A genuine achievement.
Book #48
Doctor Who: The Dark Flame, by Trevor Baxendale
1 hour, 56 minutes = 116 pages
Read 12th February to 15th February 2019
Why I listened to it: Still making my way through the first fifty Big Finish Doctor Who Main Range releases.
Rating: *** - The DARK Flame But yeah, there really isn't a whole lot to do this. Easily skippable.
Book #49
Fullmetal Alchemist Volume 4, written and illustrated by Hiromu Arakawa
200 pages
Read 15th February to 16th February 2019
Why I read it: Still reading Fullmetal Alchemist.
Rating: **** - It's Fullmetal Alchemist! I'm still liking it a lot!
Book #50
What Will People Say?, by Rehana Rossouw
320 pages
Read 13th February to 17th February 2019
Why I read it: I got it while enrolled in a book subscription service for a trial period which had been gifted to me by my mobile phone network.
Rating: *** - An interesting and well-written depiction of 1980s Cape Town eventually devolves into an overly grim tale of family tragedy. I don't know if I would recommend this or not - it goes to some dark and triggering places.
Book #51
The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, by Terry Pratchett
292 pages
Read 13th February to 17th February 2019
Why I read it: Returning to Discworld after a long self-imposed exile, now that I'd sent off my Hugo ballot.
Rating: *** - Probably not the best book to come back to Discworld with. Quite decent (I love its depiction of its rat society, that's something I've always been a fan off), but missing a little something. I don't want to say that it's because it's "for kids", but at least this time it didn't feel like Pratchett sufficiently brought his usual touch. Still though, it was nice to read.
Oh good, I'm back, but I'm still so far behind :/
Book #52
"Deriving Life", by Elizabeth Bear
39 pages
Read 18th February 2019
Why I read it: Another Tor.com short story.
Rating: *** - It was probably fine? But I don't remember a whole lot about it. Looking at it now it may have just been too heady for me.
Book #53
Monstress #20, written by Marjorie M. Liu and illustrated by Sana Takeda
29 pages
Read 22nd February 2019
Why I read it: It's Monstress.
Rating: **** - Definitely it felt like a return to form after #19 being very setup-heavy, but apart from that I'm not sure.
Book #54
Fullmetal Alchemist Volume 5, written and illustrated by Hiromu Arakawa
200 pages
Read 17th to 22nd February 2019
Why I read it: Still reading all of Fullmetal Alchemist.
Rating: **** - Some of the philosophy and narrative choices don't quite land as well as they did first, but all in all it's generally still very strong and compelling.
Book #55
Ship of Ghouls by R.L. Stine
144 pages
Read 22nd February 2019
Why I read it: Jenny Nicholson guested on her friend Bailey Meyers's YouTube ... recurring series? GooseDrunks, where she reads Goosebumps books while getting progressively more drunk, and I went "ooh".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhO5y...
Rating: *** - It's your standard Give Yourself Goosebumps book. Presumably.
Book #56
Red Girls: The Legend of the Akakuchibas, written by Kazuki Sakuraba and translated by Jocelyne Allen
300 pages
Read 18th to 22nd February 2019
Why I read it: It was in a Humble Bundle that looked very interesting.
Rating: **** - Red Girls is simultaneously a sweeping social history of 20th century Japan, and the multi-generational story of the women of one rich family. It tends to snap abruptly from one mode to another, and while it gets the balance right, it doesn't always blend the two together. That said, this is sharp, solidly paced, and vividly realised. Delightfully unexpected.
Book #57
Night Watch, by Terry Pratchett
362 pages
Read 18th to 24th February 2019
Why I read it: Still [citation needed] reading Discworld.
Rating: **** - I don't like it quite as much as most people do - Vimes is a little too imperious for me and its stakes are largely too opaque - but even if I may be overscoring it a bit, it's still strong. It is genuinely interesting to go back into Ankh-Morpork's past, have Vimes ... go back to his roots, see where he came from and what he never quite managed to leave behind I guess. And the scenes where the streets are in full blown revolutionary fervour and the way it wasn't allowed to last reach a genuine grandeur at times. May be one to read again, but to an extent I do get why it's held in such high reputation.
Book #58
Doctor Who and the Pirates, by Jacqueline Rayner
2 hours, 6 minutes = 126 pages
Listened to 21st to 25th February 2019
Why I listened to it: Continuing to listen to the first fifty Big Finish Main Range releases.
Rating: **** - A lot more questioning and emotionally resonant than I was expecting, and all the better for it.
Book #59
Witchmark, by C.L. Polk
318 pages
Read 23rd to 26th February 2019
Why I read it: It got a pile of hype all year but it passed me by, so this was me catching up to it.
Rating: **** - Falls a little short of the advance praise, and I'm not sure how much I want to read the next one - the ending is kind of a jumble and the central romance is... fine? - but I did honestly like this a lot. Polk is really good at keeping things moving and interesting, and adding wrinkle after complication into the mix. Plus the world it's set in is pretty fascinating. So like, in the end it was pretty low on my fantasy Nebula ballot, but I'd still recommend you check it out.
Book #60
Doctor Who: Creatures of Beauty, by Nicholas Briggs
1 hour, 49 minutes = 109 pages
Listened to 26th February to 1st March 2019
Why I listened to it: Continuing to listen to the first fifty Big Finish Main Range releases.
Rating: *** - More nebulous than I tend to go for, but easily the most interesting thing Nicholas Briggs has ever done.
Book #61
A Wizard of Earthsea, by Ursula K. Le Guin
320 pages
Read 27th February to 1st March 2019
Why I read it: I'm not sure if it was before or after Le Guin passed, but as soon as I knew I could I preordered The Books of Earthsea, as I realised it would be a significant publishing event of 2018, and I'd been meaning to read (more) Le Guin for a long time.
Rating: **** - Basically about as good as promised. Still not quite like anything else that came out since, and has aged like fine wine. What I think stands out to me all these months later is how quiet and still and interior it is, how I'm fairly sure I knew the resolution from ages beforehand, but when I got to it it still felt fresh and resonant. A genuine modern classic.
Book #62
Strange Horizons 2019 January, edited by Kate Dollarhyde
170 pages
Read January to February 2019
Why I read it: Reading for the Hugos last year finally convinced me to start reading Strange Horizons regularly, and I liked it so much I thought I'd keep going into this year.
Rating: **** - It's Strange Horizons, it's brilliant.
Book #63
Strange Horizons 2019 February, edited by Jane Crowley
223 pages
Read February to March 2019
Why I read it: Still reading Strange Horizons.
Rating: **** - It's Strange Horizons, it's brilliant.
Book #64
Doctor Who: Short Trips and Side Steps, edited by Stephen Cole
342 pages
Read 24th February to 1st March 2019
Why I read it: Still trying to read more Doctor Who books.
Rating: *** - Probably grand, but nothing that stands out all that much.
Book #65
"The Song", by Erinn L. Kemper
29 pages
Read 2nd March 2019
Why I read it: Another tor.com short story.
Rating: *** - Does some interesting stuff without ever really quite coming together.
Book #66
Fortunately, the Milk, written by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Chris Riddell
160 pages
Read 3rd March 2019
Why I read it: It was Neil Gaiman and it was on sale.
Rating: *** - A perfectly delightful, if sometimes peculiar, bit of frippery, that I would probably have liked more if I were either a child or had been reading it to a child. That said, I liked it.
Book #67
Fullmetal Alchemist Volume 6, written and illustrated by Hiromu Arakawa
200 pages
Read 1st to 3rd March 2019
Why I read it: Still reading all of Fullmetal Alchemist.
Rating: **** - Another strong volume.
Book #68
Backgammon for Dummies, by Chris Bray
280 pages
Read 3rd to 5th March 2019
Why I read it: It was in a Humble Bundle.
Rating: **** - Possibly more than I could ever need to know about backgammon, which is a good thing. Well-explained, concise yet comprehensive, and strangely deeply fascinating. Would probably get more out of it if I had any intention of picking up the game, but it managed to convince me of its virtues nonetheless.
Book #69
Uncanny Magazine Issue 27: March/April 2019, edited by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas
148 pages
Read 3rd to 5th March 2019
Why I read it: It's Uncanny!
Rating: **** - As good as Uncanny generally tends to be.
Book #70
Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor, Vol. 2: The Weeping Angels of Mons, by Robbie Morrison, Daniel Indro (Illustrator), Tommy Lee Edwards (Illustrator), Hi-Fi (Illustrator)
128 pages
Read 5th to 7th March 2019
Why I read it: It came with a Doctor Who Comics Humble Bundle.
Rating: *** - Mostly just a big pile of fun that also gestures at some very interesting themes, but doesn't do a whole pile with them. Which is fine, I was just hoping for something more.
Book #71
The Tombs of Atuan, by Ursula K. Le Guin
196 pages
Read 6th to 7th March 2019
Why I read it: Still reading the Books of Earthsea
Rating: *** - Rich and subtle and strong and interesting, but also not quite for me. I think this is mostly because I spent most of the book feeling like the story still wasn't finished beginning, and then when it ended I was just bemused.
Book #72
Die #4, written by Kieron Gillen and illustrated by Stephanie Hans
28 pages
Read 8th March 2019
Why I read it: Still reading Die.
Rating: **** - Another strong instalment as our heroes reach their destination and take stock.
Book #73
The Good Doctor, by Juno Dawson
240 pages
Read 6th to 10th March 2019
Why I read it: I wanted some of that sweet sweet 13th Doctor extended universe material, especially after Series 11 having made some... interesting decisions, and hearing how great this was.
Rating: **** - Quite simply one of the best New Series Adventures I've ever read (though to be fair I haven't read many, and haven't read any apart from this in ages), and sterling proof of the value of hiring tie-in writers from outside the usual wheelhouse. This is keenly about something in ways that these tie-in books haven't always been, strongly characterised, uses all its main characters well, gives them plenty to do, and strongly paced to boot. A real winner, and definitely recommended.
Book #74
Doctor Who: Project Twilight, by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright
1 hour, 30 minutes = 90 pages
Read 8th to 11th March 2019
Why I listened to it: I'd gotten to Project: Lazarus in listening to the first fifty Big Finish Main Range releases, and realised that I needed to remember what happened in Project: Twilight to understand it. And I didn't. So I put this back on for another week to work out what I was missing.
Rating: *** - Came together quite a bit better this time around, though still not one of my favourites. Quite neat all the same that said.
Book #75
Fallen, by Lia Mills
288 pages
Read 8th to 11th March 2019
Why I read it: It was in the lend a book scheme in the co-working site I work at, and it was a One Book One City book for Dublin a few years back.
Rating: *** - I would probably have appreciated this better if I'd had a better sense of what its structure would be. It's essentially a book of two parts, where the first part picks its way through the sign of the times in 1915, and the second half stretches out over essentially the entire day of Easter Sunday 1916 and doesn't leave much of anything out. Haven't entirely figured out whether it's simply not great or if it's a book that didn't really work for me. I also think I got grumpy at the characters a fair bit? That sounds about right. I dunno, it's pretty good, I'd say I might read it again to be sure about what I think but I don't not recommend it.
Book #76
"Hero-Mother", by Vylar Kaftan
12 pages
Read 11th March 2019
Why I read it: It was published in Giganotosaurus years back.
Rating: *** - Not bad, but fairly elongated, and too weirdly sexual than I'll willing to completely go for even now.
Book #77
The Wee Free Men, by Terry Pratchett
404 pages
Read 11th to 15th March 2019
Why I read it: Still attempting to read all of Discworld again.
Rating: **** - The book I wanted The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents to be, really. Fine characterisation, a great understanding and connection to its setting, effectively paced, and constantly evolving, and in the end what a Discworld book for children should be. The Wee Free Men makes the necessary concessions to structure required for children's literature, but waters down the substance hardly at all. Well worth checking out, even if you're an adult.
Book #78
Doctor Who: The Tenth Doctor, Vol. 3: The Fountains of Forever
136 pages
Read 11th to 15th March 2019
Why I read it: More Doctor Who Humble Bundle comics.
Rating: *** - A lot like the other Titan Tenth Doctor stuff really. Quite good, a whole pile of fun, I'm happy I read it, and it never threatens that much to resolve into something great. The art's been good though, that I can't deny. Though the shifting styles as artists come in and out is something I never completely got over. Mostly all it was was a shrug and a "huh, the art's different again", but it's something to bear in mind.
Book #79
Doctor Who: Project: Lazarus, by Cavan Scott and Mark Wright
1 hour, 51 minutes = 111 pages
Read 12th to 15th March 2019
Why I listened to it: Still making my way through the first fifty Big Finish Doctor Who Main Range releases.
Rating: *** - Has an interesting half and half structure, and well acted, but didn't really work. Seems to spend a lot of time dumping on the Sixth Doctor for reasons that I'm not convinced are down to his specific personality. Or perhaps it's that Big Finish's rehabilitation job worked even better on me than they might have anticipated, so when they try to dig into his flaws (again?) I end up stubbornly resisting it. Either way, it's solid without being overly spectacular.
Book #80
The Best of Joe R. Lansdale, by Joe R. Lansdale
375 pages
Read 12th to 18th March 2019
Why I read it: It was in a Humble Bundle and looked interesting.
Rating: *** - Lansdale has got a lot of genuinely interesting ideas and does know how to tell a story, but there was also a lot of tawdriness and edginess in here that wasn't really my bag. If this is truly the best of Joe R. Lansdale, I'm not sure I want to see more of it.
Book #81(A)
"A Witch’s Guide to Escape: A Practical Compendium of Portal Fantasies", by Alix E. Harrow
15 pages
Read sometime this year
Why I read it: It's a finalist for this year's Hugo Award for Best Short Story.
Rating: **** - The ending spoils it for me slightly, as it seems to come down a little too uncritically in favour of escapism for my liking. That said, I've never been in the situation of either the escapee or the witch here, and Harrow does a fantastic job of offering a paean to fantastical escapism and the work that librarians do, without having it ever collapse into something simplistic. Delighted to put it second on my ballot.
Book #82(A)
"The Thing About Ghost Stories", by Naomi Kritzer
22 pages
Reread sometime this year
Why I read it: It's a finalist for this year's Hugo Award for Best Novelette.
Rating: **** - An odd and compelling story, not quite like anything else on the ballot, or even really like anything else that came out last year, but that's not a bad thing. Somewhat light on incident, it's more of a rumination on ghost stories, why we tell them, how they function, and I guess the way they offer clarity on our lives. It's going in third on my ballot, partly out of pique, but I do think it's that bit stronger than the story I put fourth, and also because the stories in first and second are just that strong.
Book #83(A)
"The Tale of the Three Beautiful Raptor Sisters, and the Prince Who Was Made of Meat", by Brooke Bolander
21 pages
Reread sometime this year
Why I read it: It's a finalist for this year's Hugo Award for Best Short Story.
Rating: **** - A lot better than I'd remembered! I'd been expecting something solid enough but deeply throwaway, and it turned out to be not only delightful but also pitted with drops of wisdom along the way. Although to be honest I'm not sure Bolander can write something that isn't pitted with drops of wisdom along the way. It only comes in fourth on my ballot though, and is easily the weakest story she put out last year. I also can't help but think its being here is largely due to people who understandably saw Best and thought Most Enjoyable. Like yeah, this is enjoyable, but there's not a lot to it. And that's fine, and I won't be too disappointed if it ultimately wins (emphasis on too), but for me it doesn't quite make the grade.
Book #84(A)
"When We Were Starless", by Simone Heller
Let's say 20 pages
Read sometime this year
Why I read it: It's a finalist for this year's Hugo Award for Best Novelette.
Rating: *** - The one novelette this year that didn't quite work for me, but still damn fine, and I won't be too mad if it ends up winning. The quality of this category has been incredibly high this year. My take on it is that it was a bit more fundamentally weird than I was expecting, this sort of tale of furries exploring abandoned planets or something, and the core of it seemed too rooted in straightforward hope for me to be completely happy with it. That said, it's got strong pacing, good characters, and enough unusual details to add up to good stuff all around. Very much the least best story on the ballot as opposed to the worst.
Book #85(A)
"STET", by Sarah Gailey
8 pages
Read sometime this year
Why I read it: It's a finalist for this year's Hugo Award for Best Short Story.
Rating: *** - Nicely unusual in its formatting and structure, though the footnotes never worked successfully in the mobile version. I've been meaning to read it again on a desktop computer but just never got around to it. Anyways, this is somehow simultaneously a deeply insistent cold punch that raises bold and troubling questions, and this awkward unfocussed howl of rage. It's safe to say that it left me a little off-centre, to the extent that I was thinking that surely academic writing doesn't work that way. In any case, it goes in third on my ballot, as while I don't like it as much as my top two stories, it is leaps and bounds ahead of the other four in terms of what it's aiming for and what it provoked out of me. I really need to read it again.
2025 Reading Challenge
Books mentioned in this topic
Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 23 (other topics)Touchstone (other topics)
Pokémon Adventures, Vol. 1 (other topics)
Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 22 (other topics)
Doctor Who: Energy of the Daleks (other topics)
More...
Book #41
Doctor Who: Nekromanteia, by Austen Atkinson
1 hour, 49 minutes = 109 pages
Listened to 5th to 8th February 2019
Why I listened to it: Continuing to listen to the first fifty Big Finish Main Range releases.
Rating: ** - As legendary as I had heard it was. It's got craptacular sound mixing, an overly grimdark view of things, and structure appears to have gone completely out to lunch. I almost want to listen to it again on headphones to bathe in its... interesting choices, but it's really not worth it. Don't bother.