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SciFi and Fantasy Book Club Challenge 2015
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Edwin
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Nov 16, 2015 06:58PM
Ha! Just finished Elantris, completing my challenge goal of 24 for the year. It's all gravy from here on out.
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Congrats, Edwin.Elantris will complete my challenge as well. I started it before my library holds on The Stand and The Neverending Story came through.
I am finishing up TNS, and then will get back to Elantris.
I believe Warbreaker will complete mine. I still have WWZ, The Snow Queen, and The Summer Tree to do this year but I'm not upping my challenge. I'll end up 9 books shy of completing 100 shelf books total. It's disappointing that I didn't make that goal.
Congratulations, Edwin!My challenge was 12 again, and I'm at 13, although it looks like The Goblin Emperor will put it at 14 for the year.
Last year I read 18 so I am definitely slowing down. However, my percentage of bookshelf read is still going up, since I started with a low percentage:
2013: ,25 = 25 out of 151 = 17%
2014: +18 = 43 out of 175 = 25%
2015: +14 = 57 out of 199 = 29%
Pretty exciting, actually!
Congratulations, Valerie and Sarah!Sarah, I like big round numbers, too, so that does seem disappointing. If it helps, in an alternate universe where we all have 9 fingers you have already completed your goal of 100, base 9!
Hi, dork central here, I think 91 in base 9 is really 111, so even better Sarah! Yes I am a nerd, no I don't care that everyone knows.I am 35 of 24 for the year with 2 left (Goblin Emperor and Dragon's Path) Wtih those two that will put me at 160/199 for the whole bookshelf.
Yes! I broke 100 ;) Great job on reading almost all the books Hank. That's impressive. Another year or two and you'll be all the way caught up.
Michael, glad to see I am not the only one with the nerdtastic tracking on my progress through the group's bookshelf.2012^: 11 past = 11 of 127 = 8.66%
2013: 8 read + 2 past = 21 of 151 = 13.91%
2014: 29 read + 3 past = 53 of 175 = 30.29%
2015*: 20 read + 2 in progress + 6 past reads = 89 of 199 = 44.72%
^ = Prior to joining group in Sept 2013
* = So far this year, may still change
I was also hoping to hit 100 of the group's books this year, but it is looking like I will fall short.
Sarah wrote: "Yes! I broke 100 ;) Great job on reading almost all the books Hank. That's impressive. Another year or two and you'll be all the way caught up."Congratulations, Sarah! So you're halfway through :) Actually, 91 books read from any list during one year sounds amazing.
160/199 is pretty close to reading them all, I agree that's impressive!
I read 84, 19 of them in 2015 and plan on reading 4-5 more till the end of the year. And 6 more I read in previous years, but the group chose them this year but they don't count for this year's challenge.
Valerie wrote: "Michael, glad to see I am not the only one with the nerdtastic tracking on my progress through the group's bookshelf.2012^: 11 past = 11 of 127 = 8.66%
2013: 8 read + 2 past = 21 of 151 = 13.91%..."
Lol. Great progress! And now I realize 100 books is the same as the magic 50%, at least for the end of this year. Doubly disappointing.
(And I'm not clear, but wouldn't 50% (50/100) still be 50% (50/100) in base 9, just different units??? Guess it depends on whether the alternate world still considers 100 as a placeholder for "everything"...)
Michael wrote: "(And I'm not clear, but wouldn't 50% (50/100) still be 50% (50/100) in base 9, just different units??? Guess it depends on whether the alternate world still considers 100 as a placeholder for "everything"...)"
Not quite , 100 in base 9 is 1x9^2 = 81
50 in base 9 is 5x9^1 = 45
50% is relative. Our base 10 society agreed that 100% means everything. The aliens living on Europa could just as easily decided base 12 and 144% means everything.
I'm intending to read 12 of the books from the list. If I read more, yay!1. Alif the Unseen
2. The Martian
3. Deathless
4. The Sword-Edged Blonde
5. Station Eleven
6. The Golem and the Jinni
7. World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War
8. The Martian Chronicles
9. The Girl with All the Gifts
10. Oryx and Crake
Julia wrote: "I'm intending to read 12 of the books from the list. If I read more, yay!1. Alif the Unseen
2. The Martian
3. Deathless
4. The Sword-Edged Blonde
5. Station Eleven
6. The Golem and the Jinni
7. W..."
I think you really want to post this here...
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
That is where the 2016 vote tallying is taking place.
Teanka, I'm actually only doing about 48 this year. It's still a lot but it's not 91 :) I just really needed to do 57 so I could get to 100. It really helped my total that the books winning were often ones I read :)
I have read 66 for this year plus three for the upcoming month and have a total of 119 (+2) read overall. And I am reading The Rook right now so if I finish that and December's reads, it will be 70 for the year/122 total. Whoop! 100 base 10 = 121 base 9. 100 base 9 = 81 base 10 (like Hank said). I love playing with base conversions, especially hex.
Sandi wrote: "100 base 10 = 121 base 9. 100 base 9 = 81 base 10 (like Hank said). I love playing with base conversions, especially hex. "Definitely Hex! I am about to turn 30....in Hex. I will milk that for all it's worth.
Hank wrote: "Julia wrote: "I'm intending to read 12 of the books from the list. If I read more, yay!"
Hank, this post threw me at first, too, because of the phrase "intending to read". But I believe Julia is talking about books she is reading in 2015, since she just wrote a review for Oryx and Crake. I'm going to translate and say "intending to read" applies to the two remaining books that will get her to 12.
Correct me if I am wrong, Julia!
Hank wrote: "Sandi wrote: "100 base 10 = 121 base 9. 100 base 9 = 81 base 10 (like Hank said). I love playing with base conversions, especially hex. "Definitely Hex! I am about to turn 30....in Hex. I will mi..."
Ooh, I like that - I can have my 30 Hex party next year!
Yes Michael, it is my intention to have read or reread 12 books from the SF/F list by 12/31/15. And the list is the ones I have gotten around to, so far in 2015. Thanks for seeing what I meant to write instead of what I wrote.Sorry I wasn't clear, Hank.
Sarah there are rational people? Who knew. Lol
Julia wrote: "Yes Michael, it is my intention to have read or reread 12 books from the SF/F list by 12/31/15. And the list is the ones I have gotten around to, so far in 2015. Thanks for seeing what I meant to w..."No worries Julia! That is why we have the all knowing Michael.
Looking over my books read for the past 3 years, I noticed something interesting. The 2014/2015 challenges seem to have increased my sci-fi/fantasy reading:2013: 58%
2014: 69%
2015: 70%
And all this planning and huge to-read lists and focusing just on the books that are most important has improved my percentage of 5 star books read:
2013: 28%
2014: 33%
2015: 36%
Or I could just be getting lazier at ratings. Fun to think about though. And a lot of SFF publishers are probably happy about this!
That's very cool :) I've read quite a few amazing books off of this shelf so I can see that happening.
Looking at Michael's stats, I started thinking about my own. I joined this club late in 2014 so the challenge only affected my 2015 reading, but I thought I'd take a look anyways. It would seem that the challenge has indeed increased my scifi/fan reading. Fantasy is very rare so I don't make the distinction in my numbers. This year because of the challenge I read more scifi than usual (for 2015 I'm counting 3 books that I haven't yet finished sooo unofficial). 2013: 44%
2014: 35%
2015: 47%
As for my 5 star reads, they are holding pretty consistently around 26%, though most of my 5 star ratings aren't scifi books. I read between 12-15 scifi books a year and only one or two are rated 5 star. The 2015 challenge has been fun and I have gotten ahold of some truly interesting and thoughtful books that I wouldn't have bothered with had there not been a reading challenge (and the awesome book coordinating group for past group reads).
Interesting, Sarah and Monica you raise good points, which is - are my ratings improving because of the SFF books or the other books, or in general? My results:Proportion of 5 star ratings
Overall:
2013: 28%
2014: 33%
2015: 36%
SFF:
2013: 23%
2014: 29%
2015: 42%
Other:
2013: 35%
2014: 40%
2015: 20%
So, it is definitely the SFF books that have been improving this year, whereas it was books in all genres that was improving last year. It's likely these statistics are too small to mean anything, and I was inappropriately trying to draw a conclusion. My long-term goal is to decrease the 2 and 3 star books I read, so it has been on my mind as I plan, but I am not clear if I am making any progress in general. Both SFF and non-SFF include a combination of known trusted authors and completely new authors this year, so it doesn't seem to have anything to do with any experimenting I've done. I just seem to have been having better luck with SFF this year than with everything else!
Monica wrote: "(and the awesome book coordinating group for past group reads)"Thanks, we try!
Ding! Ding! Ding! I finished my 2015 Challenge of 30 SF/F Club books!From here on out, it is all extra credit!
Total: 30/30
Scifi: 18 books, (12) M / (6) F
Fantasy: 12 books, (9) M / (3) F
1. Watchmen
2. The Killing Moon
3. The Rook
4. To Say Nothing of the Dog
5. Tigana
6. Altered Carbon
7. City of Stairs
8. The Martian Chronicles
9. Fahrenheit 451
10. The Warrior's Apprentice
11. Station Eleven
12. The Dispossessed
13. The Forever War
14. American Gods
15. The Sparrow
16. The Martian
17. The Long Earth
18. I Am Legend
19. The Snow Queen
20. Dawn
21. The Summer Tree
22. Stranger in a Strange Land
23. The City & the City
24. The Girl with All the Gifts
25. A Wizard of Earthsea
26. The Eye of the World
27. Red Rising
28. The Stand
29. The Neverending Story
30. Elantris
Finished my 20th reading, so I have reached my goal. Moreover I had already read 7 of the 2015 books that were picked.I have now read 85/199 books.
So I will read the sequels of Dawn, the last book of the Liveship Traders (I really like better this trilogy than the first one, so I am glad this challenge incitated me to read Ship of Magic), and maybe the sequel to the Native Star and the rest of the Temeraire books.
For those of you who have finished your challenges and are stuck with nothing to do (ha!), feel free to join a side read of Cyteen by C.J. Cherryh that I have set up at this link: over here.It does not count toward the challenge because it isn't on our bookshelf (yet), but it's been nominated so many times some of us figured we should finally read it!
I don't think I will reach my goal, I'm at 8 now, soon finished with my 9th and I'm reading the Goblin Emperor in december. My goal was 12 books. I think the problem was that I chose many 1st in a series, and I'm a person who has to finish a series before moving on to the next book. Oh well! I'll try harder next year :)
Alice, I’m the same exact way when it comes to series. I don’t even try to do this challenge, despite the fact that there are many books on the group bookshelf that I want to read. If I like a book, I want to read its sequels right away to keep that mental and emotional momentum going, to stay immersed in whatever world has captured me, and to make sure I can easily remember all the details from earlier books that will allow me to fully appreciate all the references and payoffs in the later books.A few months ago I read The Blade Itself, a book on our bookshelf, then proceeded to read the other 5 books set in the same world. I just finished Perdido Street Station, another book on our bookshelf, and jumped straight into the next book in the series yesterday. I’ll never be able to make much of a dent in reading the group bookshelf at my pace, but I’ll still have fun reading what I can. :)
I just put aside my 11th book of the 12 I'm reading for the year. I count it because I tried to read it, but I liked it enough that I hope to come back to it later, in a different mood. It was The Killing Moon by N.K. Jemisin.
Alice and YouKneeK, I also can't stop in the middle of a series, but luckily there are also some nice standalones on the shelf. I like those especially, if I have a little time or in-between series.
I am behind too...I estimated wanting to read more of the botm, and I signed on for too many challenges! This is the only one I have left now though so hopefully I will catch up a little...I'm finishing up look to wind ward and starting the snow queen.
The Snow Queen makes 48 for me. I plan on doing The Summer Tree but I'm not sure if I'll finish it before the end of the year. I really wanted to have my total bookshelf reads up to 100 by year end but I would have had to do 57 :( Clearly I wasted my time doing something else. How foolish of me.
What Sarah - you mean there is something more important that reading science fiction and fantasy novels? I simply cannot understand your priorities! I am going to read The Snow Queen while I am at Disney World, which will bring me up to 70 for the year and 125 total from the bookshelf. And I am definitely looking forward to next year's side reads to knock out some more while I am still sufficiently obsessed.
It's the obsessing that really make you tear through books, isn't it? I use that all the time.70/125 is an excellent number, although I keep wanting to turn it into a blood pressure 125/70 instead.
The Snow Queen was really amazing! I bet you'll love it. It's incredibly imaginative.
Oh! I should probably mention that Disney World is for shopping and riding awesome rides rather than reading :) I would never suggest such a thing if it was anywhere else.
Just started The Goblin Emperor which will be my last challenge book for the year. I might try to squeeze in Snow Queen but Cyteen sounds good and I would love to get to that.
Cyteen actually does sound really good and I would love to join that one. I can't blame you there. On the other hand, Snow Queen was truly amazing.
Just started the Snow Queen. For me unfortunately it's in book form which means it will probably take me the rest of the month to read. Sarah, you have really encouraged me to go ahead. Feels like I'm in for a treat!!
I'm glad :) I think you'll have fun. It had excellent world building and it was like a fantasy story inside a very sci-fi book.
My dilemma is that I am in for the whole package:Cyteen
The Goblin Emperor
and The Snow Queen (also in book form)
All told about 1600 pages. Gotta go now........I have some reading to do.
Better lock yourself away in a closet. Just stock it with food and water and you'll be just fine :)
I didn't notice this list of books for 2015. Very many of them I have read before but I found done that I am definitely interested in reading in the future!When/where is the corresponding 2016 list being developed and released?
MadProfessah wrote: "I didn't notice this list of books for 2015. Very many of them I have read before but I found done that I am definitely interested in reading in the future!When/where is the corresponding 2016 li..."
It on this thread .
Cyteen is an amazing book, especially if you like scifi sociology, political machinations, and extremely well-done characters with major psych issues. It is fascinating and I would love to know more about realtime sociology to see how ours/hers would fit into the futuristic society established in Cherryh's universe.
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