SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion
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2020 Bookshelf Rereads
These upcoming rereads will be discussed in Virtual Book Club on May 17th! If you only have time for one, make it 3BP, as that's the primary discussion book. Or just chat in the threads below at any time :)May 15th:
American Gods >> First impressions | Final thoughts
The Three-Body Problem >> First impressions | Final thoughts
Top 6 will become our rereads for July-SeptemberVOTE HERE until May 25th
Live results in spreadsheet / GR links to all books here
21 The Bear and the Nightingale (322p)
21 The Fifth Season (468p)
21 Neverwhere (370p)
21 A Wizard of Earthsea (183p)
20 City of Bones (488p)
20 The Color of Magic (228p)
19 Dawn (248p)
19 Fahrenheit 451 (238p)
18 Alif the Unseen (433p)
17 Oryx and Crake (400p)
16 The Word for World is Forest (160p)
15 Anansi Boys (384p)
15 Neuromancer (271p)
15 The Ocean at the End of the Lane (178p)
15 Station Eleven (336p)
14 Among Others (304p)
14 Cloud Atlas (509p)
14 Doomsday Book (578p)
14 Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (1006p)
14 The Night Circus (400p)
14 The Princess Bride (398p)
14 The Underground Railroad (306p)
13 Brave New World (268p)
13 Frankenstein (273p)
13 The Girl with All the Gifts (460p)
13 Leviathan Wakes (561p)
13 The Martian (369p)
No no no! The Color of Magic canNOT win out over either Dawn or Fahrenheit 451. I would reread those 2 a thousand times over one reread of the Color of Magic. Please! Someone vote for Dawn or F451 or invite for CoM quick!! (No offense to lovers of Discworld - I mistakenly read Color of Magic first when trying out Discworld and didn’t love it, so I abandoned the whole series. Come to find out fans of Discworld all say that CoM is not the best or even a very good place to start even if (or because?) it’s the first one)
@Diane, I'm just wondering: if you've already read all 3 books why does it bother which one is in the top 6?
I have already read all three books, but if I’m going to reread one of them, Color of Magic wouldn’t be it. I guess I was just encouraging anyone who hasn’t read any of them to choose one of the other 2 over CoM.
I would heartily recommend not starting Discworld with Color of Magic. It's a delightful series, and particularly good for right now if you can hang on his very British brand of humor, but Color of Magic is a first novel and it shows. The rest are much more clever.
Actually-Factually, The Colour of Magic is not his first novel. He wrote the original The Carpet People (1971), The Dark Side of the Sun (1976), and a proto-Discworld tale Strata (1981) before that.Y'all are very spoiled. My then-girlfriend in 1989 only had The Colour of Magic, and The Light Fantastic (well, and Strata, but that one just supports Allison's point), and I don't think the series has yet topped Rincewind, the OG of Discworld.
Except maybe for Cohen the Barbarian. He slays me.
Well YES not his first novel but the first of this series which gained a distinct tone not entirely present (IMO) in the first two books =P
harumph and bother!
I am Nightwatch and Witches, all the way.
harumph and bother!
I am Nightwatch and Witches, all the way.
I've read all the top 6 except Neverwhere which is good because it adds only one book to my immediate TBR, but sad because I own a bunch of the books further down the list and those are on my someday TBR.
For the record, I read ALL the Discworld books, in proper publication order, starting with The Color of Magic. :p I agree it wasn’t the best book, but I thought it was a good introduction to the world and to the style of humor I was in for. It probably helped that I’d already heard so many people say that various later books were better, so that helped temper my expectations. I liked going in publication order because I could see the world building evolve and the in-jokes develop naturally as the author created them.Of the 27 books on the above list, I’ve read 22 of them. I guess I’m making progress on my quest to read the group shelf. ;)
YouKneeK wrote: "For the record, I read ALL the Discworld books, in proper publication order, starting with The Color of Magic. :p I agree it wasn’t the best book, but I thought it was a good introduction to the wo..."I'm a publication order reader myself and have been meaning to read The Color of Magic for years. I am also going in with the knowledge that the rest of the series tend to be better, so hoping to adjust my expectations accordingly. I hope it stays in the top 6, but then I want Dawn to be in the top 6 too. I didn't care for Neverwhere, but I think I'm in the minority on that one.
Natalie, I hope I’ll get to read what you think about it in the group read thread if it wins! I won't be re-reading anything, but I plan to quietly observe the goings-on of the threads for books I've read before. :)Although I’m not voting for anything I won’t actually read myself, I’m rather hoping for The Color of Magic to make the cut. I always feel like it's one of the more entertaining ones to read people's various thoughts about it.
Top 6 will become our rereads for July-SeptemberVOTE HERE until May 25th
Live results in spreadsheet / GR links to all books here
23 City of Bones (488p)
23 The Fifth Season (468p)
22 The Color of Magic (228p)
22 Neverwhere (370p)
21 The Bear and the Nightingale (322p)
21 A Wizard of Earthsea (183p)
20 Dawn (248p)
20 Fahrenheit 451 (238p)
18 Alif the Unseen (433p)
17 Oryx and Crake (400p)
16 Anansi Boys (384p)
16 Cloud Atlas (509p)
16 The Word for World is Forest (160p)
15 Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (1006p)
15 Neuromancer (271p)
15 The Ocean at the End of the Lane (178p)
15 Station Eleven (336p)
14 Among Others (304p)
14 Brave New World (268p)
14 Doomsday Book (578p)
14 Frankenstein (273p)
14 The Night Circus (400p)
14 The Princess Bride (398p)
14 The Underground Railroad (306p)
13 The Girl with All the Gifts (460p)
13 Leviathan Wakes (561p)
13 The Martian (369p)
--
Rereads starting on May 15th:
American Gods >> First impressions | Final thoughts
The Three-Body Problem >> First impressions | Final thoughts
Oh, please some more love for "City of Bones". This would be the only one I'd be interested in reading out of the top list.
There were immediately a couple of new voters, so I updated the list! City of Bones is at the top :D
I already voted for City of Bones since the start and now adding a vote to Dawn since apparently I own it.
I would really like to see Alif, the Unseen make it back into the top 6. I just bought it because it was on sale (not sure if it is anymore) and it was an early front runner.
I picked up a copy of Alif the Unseen because it was on the group shelf years ago, so I'd love to read that one too.
Top 6 will become our rereads for July-SeptemberVOTE HERE until May 25th
Live results in spreadsheet / GR links to all books here
25 The Fifth Season (468p)
24 The Color of Magic (228p)
23 City of Bones (488p)
22 Alif the Unseen (433p)
22 The Bear and the Nightingale (322p)
22 Neverwhere (370p)
21 Dawn (248p)
21 A Wizard of Earthsea (183p)
19 Fahrenheit 451 (238p)
18 Oryx and Crake (400p)
17 Cloud Atlas (509p)
17 The Word for World is Forest (160p)
16 Anansi Boys (384p)
16 Frankenstein (273p)
16 Neuromancer (271p)
16 Station Eleven (336p)
15 Among Others (304p)
15 Doomsday Book (578p)
15 Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (1006p)
15 The Ocean at the End of the Lane (178p)
--
Rereads starting on May 15th:
American Gods >> First impressions | Final thoughts
The Three-Body Problem >> First impressions | Final thoughts
As much as I love both of them I’ve already read the books, so am not interested in re-reading! At least not now :)
Last quarter I think we had 4 UKL books in the top 6 early on, so they are always popular. I do hope we get Dawn in another time or maybe this time, but at the expense of something besides Alif the Unseen!
We have 2 ULG books in this current 3 month list anyway. Probably a good thing she’s dropped out. I have The Left Hand of Darkness sitting beside my chair from last month and I haven’t started it yet. And I brought The Golem and the Djinni from the beach and it’s there too. Ohhhh I’m so far behind at the moment. I have a few of the top 6 sitting here in nice non virtual physical form that I’ve been meaning to get to. I have Colour of Magic, The Fifth Season, Bear and the Nightingale, and Neverwhere out of the top 6 as well as Dawn and The Wizard of Earthsea. I have the others on my iPad. They’re all on my TBR. Except Alif. I’d never heard of it before it was used for the club banner thing.
Anything could change and change quickly. We do have over 26000 members. Maybe more of them will vote. Come on people. Vote.
Do we read these in order? That is to say, if current standings stick, will we read Fifth Season in July? I'm thinking about it being so popular, and wondering if I need to get on a hold waiting list....
We discuss the best reading order in the BR thread after these are finalized. So if you were to say you'd like to wait until at least August for Fifth Season, we'd try to accommodate that.
And by we, of course, I always mean Anna when it's logistics related.
And by we, of course, I always mean Anna when it's logistics related.
I always try to schedule the winner for the first month, unless there are reasons not to. So I'll probably try to fit Fifth Season in July, if it's the overall winner with the most votes, not tied. And like Allison said, anyone can chime in when I post the proposed schedule, and we'll try to make it work for as many people as possible.
Yes, there are two Hainish novels in the current re-read slot, so why not move to the Earthsea series in summer. I'm finishing The Left Hand of Darkness and it really deserves its praises. On the other hand, I've re-read Neverwhere last November, and will be looking forward to the discussion.
Interesting. Fifth Season is avl now in one of my libraries, and another library has a waiting list of 16 weeks. I put a hold in on the latter. ;)
Top 6 will become our rereads for July-SeptemberVOTE HERE until May 25th
Live results in spreadsheet / GR links to all books here
25 The Fifth Season (468p)
24 The Color of Magic (228p)
23 City of Bones (488p)
22 Alif the Unseen (433p)
22 The Bear and the Nightingale (322p)
22 Neverwhere (370p)
22 A Wizard of Earthsea (183p)
21 Dawn (248p)
20 Fahrenheit 451 (238p)
20 Oryx and Crake (400p)
18 Frankenstein (273p)
17 Cloud Atlas (509p)
17 The Word for World is Forest (160p)
16 Anansi Boys (384p)
16 Brave New World (268p)
16 Neuromancer (271p)
16 Station Eleven (336p)
16 The Underground Railroad (306p)
15 Among Others (304p)
15 The Caves of Steel (206p)
15 Doomsday Book (578p)
15 Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (1006p)
15 The Ocean at the End of the Lane (178p)
Top 6 will become our rereads for July-SeptemberVOTE HERE until May 25th
Live results in spreadsheet / GR links to all books here
26 The Fifth Season (468p)
24 Alif the Unseen (433p)
24 City of Bones (488p)
24 The Color of Magic (228p)
24 A Wizard of Earthsea (183p)
23 The Bear and the Nightingale (322p)
23 Neverwhere (370p)
22 Dawn (248p)
21 Oryx and Crake (400p)
19 Fahrenheit 451 (238p)
18 Frankenstein (273p)
Voting is closed!These are the winners, come talk about the schedule in the BR thread
26 The Fifth Season (468p)
25 Alif the Unseen (433p)
25 The Bear and the Nightingale (322p)
25 City of Bones (488p)
25 The Color of Magic (228p)
25 Neverwhere (370p)
This is the reread schedule for July-September:July 15th:
The Fifth Season >> First impressions | Final thoughts
The Bear and the Nightingale >> First impressions | Final thoughts
August 15th:
The Color of Magic >> First impressions | Final thoughts
City of Bones >> First impressions | Final thoughts
September 15th:
Neverwhere >> First impressions | Final thoughts
Alif the Unseen >> First impressions | Final thoughts
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VOTE HERE until May 25th
Live results in spreadsheet / GR links to all books here
21 The Bear and the Nightingale (322p)
20 City of Bones (488p)
19 A Wizard of Earthsea (183p)
18 Alif the Unseen (433p)
18 Dawn (248p)
18 The Fifth Season (468p)
17 The Color of Magic (228p)
17 Neverwhere (370p)
16 Fahrenheit 451 (238p)
15 Oryx and Crake (400p)
14 Among Others (304p)
14 Anansi Boys (384p)
14 The Ocean at the End of the Lane (178p)
14 Station Eleven (336p)
13 Cloud Atlas (509p)
13 Doomsday Book (578p)
13 Neuromancer (271p)
13 The Princess Bride (398p)
13 The Underground Railroad (306p)
13 The Word for World is Forest (160p)
12 Brave New World (268p)
12 Frankenstein (273p)
12 The Girl with All the Gifts (460p)
12 Guards! Guards! (376p)
12 His Majesty's Dragon (353p)
12 Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (1006p)
12 Leviathan Wakes (561p)
12 The Martian (369p)
12 A Natural History of Dragons (334p)
12 The Night Circus (400p)
11 Ancillary Mercy (330p)
11 The Caves of Steel (206p)
11 Foreigner (428p)
11 Good Omens (430p)
11 Hyperion (483p)
11 Redshirts (320p)
11 Rivers of London (Midnight Riot) (310p)
11 Seveneves (881p)
11 Watership Down (478p)