What are you reading these days? (Part ELEVEN (2015) ongoing thread for 2015 Showing 1,001-1,045 of 1,045

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Jim wrote: "... Bucks are usually accompanied by very audible farts - something the movies leave out. Horses fart a LOT. ..."

Jim, I found that out the first time I ever rode on a rented horse. :) It was embarrassing. I didn't realize it was a common occurance.

Glad to hear you are healing well.

[Jim]

Is anyone else going to do a review of their reading this year? GR has created a book just for this 2015 on Goodreads. I've added it to my currently-reading shelf & am starting to work on the review. Here's my review of 2014 on Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I think it's a fantastic idea, but then I also export my reading out to a spreadsheet & run a macro on it to show me all the stats on the media, genre, & other items of my reading for the year. Yes, it's rather anal & weird, but oddly satisfying. I guess a miser gets that sort of pleasure from running their fingers through their money.
:)

[Werner]

I did a review of "2014 on Goodreads" (here's the link, if anyone's interested: www.goodreads.com/review/show/1155934295 ), and intend to do one of "2015 on Goodreads" after the first of the year. While I don't do a spreadsheet of my reading like Jim does, I keep an annual list of books read, or started and not finished, and the star ratings if any. (I also do a tally sheet by genres of the number of books I've read to myself at home since joining Goodreads in February of 2008.)

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Jim and Werner, those are wonderful reading records!

[Jim]

It's wonderful reading, Joy. With about 230 books read this year, I'm still well above a 3 star average. Quite a few are freebies this year. I got them for an honest review. I find the free audio books generally better than the free ebooks. I think the process of creating them weeds out the worst.

Anyway, it's fun looking back at another great year of reading.

[Nina]

Jim wrote: "No, more like tame grass. It gets small purple flowers. Mine is the original kind, almost a weed as it can take over areas, but that means it chokes out other weeds. There are other varieties that ..."Thanks for the picture.

[Nina]

Jim wrote: "Is anyone else going to do a review of their reading this year? GR has created a book just for this 2015 on Goodreads. I've added it to my currently-reading shelf & am starting to w..."I read your short story(novella review. I think it was "Boys Don't Ride." Sounded like a good story.

[Nina]

And even giving them Star ratings. WoW. YOU and Werner have me outnumbered but keep up the good reading in the New Year. Aren't we lucky that we can read? I often bless my first grade teacher in my mind now that she gave me that gift.

[Werner]

Joy H. wrote: "Jim and Werner, those are wonderful reading records!"

Thanks, Joy! (And Nina, I'll try to keep up the good reading in 2016! Yes, reading is a wonderful blessing.)

[Jim]

I try to rate & review every book as soon as I'm done. A gal in another group said she goes back to rate them. My memory isn't that good, though. Often I'll forget points I want to put into my review even before I finish the book, so I'll update it as I go along. That's especially true with some of the nonfiction ones like Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. So much good information! Listening to it as an audio book without paper to go back to refer to makes it even tougher.

We are lucky we can read & especially in the quantity, quality, & media choices we now have. I remember trying to find books to fill out a series or trilogy for years. Sometimes I didn't even know all the books & could only discover them as I found others. That's gone with the advent of the Internet.

My father & grandfather were the ones that instilled the reading bug in me & Mom got me started reading before I was in school. I was reading way above my grade level all the way through. I read a lot I was too young to really understand (probably still do) but that never stopped me.

I'm really enjoying listening to some old classics as audio books. They mean so much more now & are still wonderful. I enjoyed 'Tom Sawyer', 'Huck Finn', 'Where the Red Fern Grows', & 'Romeo & Juliet' this year.

[Nina]

I used to love to listen to the James Herriot books on audio when travelling by car and several others i have forgotten the titles but such a pleasurable way to pass the time. Now there are so many to choose from it's a wonder.

[Nina]

Once when I was in Startford on Avon and we were to visit Shakespeare's home I opted to go to the town library instead and never regretted my choice. I sat for a while in the chidren's section and was enchanted.

[Jim]

All Creatures Great and Small
All Things Bright and Beautiful
All Things Wise and Wonderful
The Lord God Made Them All
plus a bunch of spin offs like James Herriot's Dog StoriesJames Herriot's Cat Stories & James Herriot's Yorkshire Revisited.

[Nina]

Jim, I read every one of them. Long before he became popular I saw him interviewed on TV and he was such a modest man I instantly liked him.

[Jim]

I read them all when they first came out, too. I've listened to some later on. Very good.

[Nina]

Jim rated his book for us and I am only going to add to the fact that I also enjoyed reading his list of the worst books and I am adding my one book to this worst book I've NOT read this year. I tried but the first few chapters were so detailed and boring I wondered where it was heading and then as I perused through it I realized I didn't like any of the characters or the story line and took it back to the library after one day. The title, "The Paying Guests, " by Sarah Waters and why was it up for awards is beyond me.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Nina wrote: "Jim rated his book for us and I am only going to add to the fact that I also enjoyed reading his list of the worst books and I am adding my one book to this worst book I've NOT read this year. ... The title, "The Paying Guests, " by Sarah Waters and why was it up for awards is beyond me."

Nina, it must have been especially bad because you usually don't give up on a book easily.
The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters

[Jim]

I try to give books a fair shake, but I don't feel any obligation to read them if I'm not enjoying them. I have to do enough of that sort of reading for work & there are so many books that I want to read. I never seem to dent my TBR pile. I even go through it ruthlessly a couple of times a year, but it still grows out of control. Too many books, too little time!

I'm glad you liked it, but my 2015 on Goodreads is not complete yet. It won't be until after the first of the year when I can get the full stats on my reading this year. I probably won't change my mind much on the books I've listed in the review so far.

I know it's been a stellar year for reading. While I only have about 20 - 5 star books, I have almost 100 - 4 star ones & about 70 - 3 star ones. Only about 50 below that & half of those still got the 2 star or OK rating. That means I finished them, but won't reread them. Only 20 or so got 1 star & I didn't rate a handful because they just didn't interest me, but they weren't bad. That's fantastic given the range of genres & number of books.

[Jim]

If you want to see how much I loved reading this year & do it yourself, go here:
https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_i...
It's my year in books done by GR. It automatically goes through all your books, gives stats & covers. It's a lot of fun.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Jim wrote: "If you want to see how much I loved reading this year & do it yourself, go here:
https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_i...
It's my year in books done by GR. It automatically goes thr..."

Wow! That's quite a display!

[Jim]

Isn't it neat the way GR did it, Joy? Almost like looking at the books on a shelf. Pretty!
:)

How about yours? Want to share it?

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Nah! LOL

[Nina]

I wouldn't come close but I did enjoy many books last year and some not so much. My favorites that I would give five stars were, "The LIght You Cannot See,"Circlying the Sun," "The Little Bookstore in Paris," "The Red Notebook," and I still remember especially liking "Elizabeth Street," from the year before,

[Jim]

It's not a contest, unless you want to have one with yourself. I'm enjoying reading others lists for the year & have gotten some great new books to read next year. I know I don't really need any more, but it's still fun.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

OK. Here 's my "MY YEAR IN BOOKS":
https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_i...

[Nina]

Interesting list, Joy. I have read only a couple on it but it appears to me that you prefer non=fiction)bio's) to fiction. Am I right?

[Jim]

Wow! A 4 star average, Joy. Great year of reading for you!

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Nina wrote: "Interesting list, Joy. I have read only a couple on it but it appears to me that you prefer non=fiction)bio's) to fiction. Am I right?"

Yes, Nina, I do enjoy non-fiction bio's but first I must really be interested in the person.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Jim wrote: "Wow! A 4 star average, Joy. Great year of reading for you!"

Jim, I hadn't noticed my 4 star average. I guess that's why I finished those books. Otherwise I would have quit. :) Many of them were audio-books.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

PS-I enjoyed most of them, but a few of them turned me off.

[Werner]

My Goodreads friend Andrew Seddon is unfailingly generous in passing on free copies of his books, or collections in which he has work included, to me, and I deeply appreciate it. The latest example of this bounty is the new speculative fiction anthology Misunderstood, from WolfSinger Publications. His story "Night of the Skaggit" (which also appears in his story cycle The Deathcats of Asa'ican and Other Tales of a Space Vet) is included. I started on this one over the weekend, and I'm enjoying it so far.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Thanks, Werner. Enjoy!

[Werner]

Will do, Joy! :-)

[Jim]

The most expensive books sold on AbeBooks this year. It's interesting!!!
http://www.abebooks.com/rare-books/mo...

[Werner]

Joy H. wrote: "OK. Here 's my "MY YEAR IN BOOKS":
https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_i..."

I checked it out, Joy, and it's interesting! It's sort of like looking over someone's bookcase(s) in their home; we may not want to read the same books, but it's fascinating to see what reading other people enjoy --and it may give us ideas for the future. (In any case, it helps us to know others better.)

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Jim wrote: "The most expensive books sold on AbeBooks this year. It's interesting!!! http://www.abebooks.com/rare-books/mo... "

Incredible prices!

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Werner wrote: "Joy H. wrote: "OK. Here 's my "MY YEAR IN BOOKS": https://www.goodreads.com/user/year_i..."

I checked it out, Joy, and it's interesting! It's sort of like looking over someone's bookcase(s) in their home..."

So true, Werner.

[Nina]

I don't have an official list for Goodreads but here is my list of the books I read for my book club this year. I did read others that I liked as well or sometimes better and I'll add them later.

"To Rise Again at a Decent Hour," Joshua Ferris
"All the Light you Cannot See," Anthony Doerr
"Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry," Rachel Joyce
"Invention of Wings," Sue Monk Kidd
"Boys in the Boat," Daniel James Brown
"Paying Guests," Sarah Waters
""Vanessa and her Sister," Priyn Parmar
"Some Luck," Jane Smiley

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Thanks for the list, Nina.

[Werner]

Nina, using some directions that were supplied in the Goodreads Feedback group, I was able to construct the link to where your "2015 on Goodreads" would be posted (www.goodreads.com/user/year_in_books/... ); but you're correct that there are no books listed there. I'm guessing that when you finish reading a book, you don't enter the date that you finished? If you don't, the Goodreads program has no way of assigning the book to a particular year. That would explain why it leaves your list blank.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Werner wrote: "... I'm guessing that when you finish reading a book, you don't enter the date that you finished? If you don't, the Goodreads program has no way of assigning the book to a particular year. That would explain why it leaves your list blank. "

Werner, thanks for that insight.

[Werner]

No problem, Joy!

[Nina]

Thanks Werner for your advice. i haven't added any books lately but now if I do list them I will be certain to add the date I finish them.

[Werner]

Sounds good, Nina! (We'll look forward to seeing your "2016 on Goodreads" a year from now.)

[Joy H., Group Founder]

It's the end of the year and I've started a new thread as a continuation of this thread. See it at:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...