SciFi and Fantasy Book Club Challenge 2015

[Christine]

Kim wrote: "Back once again. The new challenge is up so you can start joining it. You can find the information for the challenge and how to join in here - https://www.goodreads.com/challenges/......"

How do I link my Sci Fi & Fantasy bookshelf to the challange?

[Michael]

Go to the group home page and your challenge should be at the top. Select "update my entry" and then you should be able to type the name of your bookshelf and then Save it. Make sure you spell it the same as the actual bookshelf, with any special characters or whatever.

[M.L.]

I finished, 12/12. The last was Ancillary Sword. For the first time, the little progress line did not ask if I want to increase! I guess it gave up. :)

[Michael]

Flash Beagle wrote: "I finished, 12/12. The last was Ancillary Sword. For the first time, the little progress line did not ask if I want to increase! I guess it gave up. :)"

lol. Congratulations! That was my 12th one, too.

[M.L.]

Michael wrote: "Flash Beagle wrote: "I finished, 12/12. The last was Ancillary Sword. For the first time, the little progress line did not ask if I want to increase! I guess it gave up. :)"

lol. Congratulations! That was my 12th one, too."

Thanks! And congrats on #12!

[Ilona]

Finished Flowers for Algernon (interesting book even if I am not convinced that being cleverness equals being mean), Rendezvous with Rama, Homeland (really disappointing), and the Martian (I wasn't much convinced by the book, except all the technical stuff, it seems more a story for a movie (big moments but lack of subtlety) than for a book.)

Also finished in the night garden (mixed opinion, there were some nice moments but I didn't care most of the time, I still intend to read the second book, since I liked better the second half of the book).

So 14/15.

I will up to 20. So with the 4 books I have already read before they joined the list, my number of not-read books on the list won't increase this year.

[Sarah]

I've finished 36. I have 9 scheduled for the rest of the year plus any books from upcoming polls. I won't make the 61 needed to get me over the 100 mark but I'll be very close.

[Julia]

So far I've read six, from the list, although I've also reread Dawn, I think, well I could certainly, she's one of my favorite authors.

1. Station Eleven loved it!
2. The Golem and the Jinni loved rereading it.
3. The Sword-Edged Blonde meh
4. The Martian loved it!
5. Alif the Unseen loved it!
6. Deathless gave up on it-- not for me this week.

I've read 130 or so books this year, so far.

[Maarit]

Well, it's only September and I already finished my already once (or twice?) upped challenge by reading 15 books (my original challenge number was a lot smaller). I think I won't bother raising the number up any more, but there's still three more books in my currently-reading shelf, that fit into this challenge, so I think my ultimate number at the years end will be closer to 20 books read.

The books I've read so far in order of finishing:
Magian väri (The Colour of Magic) by Terry Pratchett (***)
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman (**)
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams (***)
Hyviä enteitä: Noita Agnes Nutterin hienot ja oikeat ennustukset (Good Omens) by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman (****)
Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson (****)
The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury (**)
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin (****)
The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin (***)
Lapsuuden loppu (Childhood's End) by Arthur C. Clarke (***)
Kissan kehto (Cat's Cradle) by Kurt Vonnegut (****)
Mort by Terry Pratchett (****)
Unohdetut jumalat (American Gods) by Neil Gaiman (**)
Kuu on julma (Moon is a Harsh Mistress) by Robert A. Heinlein (***)
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss (****)
Neurovelho (Neuromancer) by William Gibson (***)

So, out of the 15 books I've read for this challenge nine are fantasy books and six are scifi books. This number is suprisingly balanced, because I thought I would lean towards fantasy more than I actually did.

As for author statistics, I've only read two books written by single female author, Ursula K. Le Guin. The rest 13 books are written by men, with Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett taking the lead with 3 books read from each (I count Good Omens for both of them, so don't get confused). From other male authors I read one book from each.

I will update this list every now and then after I finish more books to see which number I end up till the year's over.

[Michael]

Congratulations, Maarit! (Again?) I like that you are analyzing your reading genres/authors, very insightful!

[M.L.]

Congrats, Maarit!

I like your idea so I went through my books:

4 books by female authors, Ann Leckie 2, Helene Wecker, Emily St. John Mandel - definitely need more female authors!! But that is good, almost 30%. Of course...would have to add a certain number of additional books by female authors to effect the overall % or it will go down!

3 fantasy, 12 SF (of 15), I thought there might be more SF so that is not too much of a surprise, but I did think there would be a few more fantasy.

I'm over the target, 15/12 so now at 125% :P, so will probably up it, but not immediately!

[[deleted user]]

There are so many books in this book club's shelf that I want to read, I just can't decide which to start with (other than Neverending Story of course).

[Louise]

Maarit and Flash Beagle, your analyses intrigued me, so I did the same and was surprised. I thought I would have a bias towards female written fantasy, but it actually couldn't be more balanced!

Books read:
....sci fan
M 3 3
F 3 3

I read 2 Le Guin and 2 Scalzi, so for Authors:
....sci fan
M 2 3
F 2 3

Now I'm wondering whether to try and maintain this balance, or just go with the flow and see what happens....

[Sarah]

Both of mine are heavily weighted towards men:

Sci-Fi
M 17 F 5

Fantasy
M 10 F 4

I wonder how it would fall if I looked at all I've read rather than only from this shelf?

[Hank]

Sarah wrote: "Both of mine are heavily weighted towards men:
"

Mine seem to be pretty even with the surprise being how much more fantasy I have read. I usually lean more sci-fi but that is probably due to me having already read most of the sci-fi.

Sci-Fi
M 5 F 4

Fantasy
M 9 F 8

[Sarah]

I hate that I don't notice these things when I pick up a book.

[Kim]

Sarah wrote: "I wonder how it would fall if I looked at all I've read rather than only from this shelf?"

I do track that and it's really lopsided for me. Without splitting sci-fi and fantasy (and everything else) and its 1008 Male, 133 Female. I don't look at whether a book is by a male or female until I've read it. When I'm not on my phone I can dive into those stats further.

[Sarah]

I think I need to create some shelves to track that. I never pay attention to the author.

[Valerie]

So, I really don't pay much attention when choosing what to read. I think a good story is a good story, no matter who the author.

For this group challenge, here are my numbers:
Total: 19 books
Scifi: 13 books, (8) M / (5) F
Fantasy: 6 books, (3) M / (3) F

I was kind of shocked. Traditionally, I am more of a sword girl than laser. But, my author gender is not too far from equal.

Overall for the year, beyond this group...
Total: 150 books
Scifi: 41 books, (22) M / (19) F
Fantasy: 70 books, (20) M / (50) F

I think the stats here are skewed because I read a lot of UF, which has a lot of female authors. Not saying that they are GOOD UF reads...let's face it, there is a lot of crap in the genre.

[M.L.]

I may start tracking it too. Louise and Hank have inspired me to even the stats out!

My books seem to be genre-influenced. Five crime books this year, 5 total: 3 female, 2 male, and it looks the same for other genre.

But since I've been reading mostly SF, that is off. SF in the past was mostly male and their substantial backlog dominates gender-wise.

I haven't noticed either, when I pick up a book, but I will now! :P

[Sandi]

I have neglected to update my list in the last two months.
42. Ancillary Sword (***)
43. Guards! Guards! (*****) earlier this year
44. Altered Carbon (***)
45. Promise of Blood (****)
46. The Blade Itself (****)
47. Those Who Hunt the Night (***)
48. Watchmen(***)
49. Ready Player One(****)
50. Annihilation (****)
51. The Graveyard Book(****)
52. Armada (***)
53. The Sandman, Vol. 1: Preludes and Nocturnes(*****)
54. The Neverending Story (*****)
55. The Ocean at the End of the Lane (*****)
56. Cat's Cradle (*****)
57. 1Q84 (***)
58. Station Eleven (****)
Onward to 60 - and victory

Last year, my male/female stats were almost even, this year - not so much, mostly because most of our books' authors are disproportionately male and that's okay, as long as the book is worth reading. Usually I read a lot of nonfiction along with mystery and suspense but that has not been the case this year.

[Michael]

Okay, I'll throw in my stats so far, though I've only read 12 (but that was my goal, so yay!):

Group Challenge = 12

Sci-Fi: 6(M) / 4(F), (0 AOC)

Fantasy: 0(M) / 2(F), (1 AOC)


Group + Personal SF&F Reading = 24

Sci-Fi: 7(M) / 9(F), (.1 AOC)

Speculative: 2(M) / 3(F), (4 AOC)

Fantasy: 0(M) / 3(F), (2 AOC)


(M) = Male, (F) = Female, (AOC) = Author of Color. I seek out more authors of color and white female authors outside of the group selections to counter our bookshelf's male and white female bias. I read The Golem and the Jinni this year and Helene Wecker is Jewish, but besides her I think the books I read from our bookshelf were all by "white" authors. I put ".1" for Sci-Fi authors of color from my personal list because I read Lightspeed's Women Destroy collection which featured some authors of color.

I'm not so clear on other marginalized categories, like LGBTQ authors, etc, although Joanna Russ was featured in Lightspeed. It may be that nearly all my author choices are straight, abled, etc. so far...

Notice I had to add a "Speculative" category because I can't figure out where to place books that combine sci-fi and fantasy elements (for example Vampire Hunter D, The Hues, and Who Fears Death). Our club bookshelves enforce a sometimes not-so-clear division; those categories can have some blurry borders...

[Valerie]

Well, GoodReads is telling me that I am (1) book behind on my challenge to reach 30 SFF Club reads this year. That is ok, I think I will catch up. Here is where I stand:

Total: 21/30
Scifi: 14 books, (8) M / (6) F
Fantasy: 7 books, (4) 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

[Sandi]

Whoop! I finished! The Stand(****)/(***** original) and The Girl with All the Gifts (*****) round out my 60. Because I am on a roll, I am still going to try to get another 10 of the bookclub books done like Dawn but after that, no guarantees. This has been an excellent year's worth of reading.

[Mathew]

Any reading challenge for me right now would be challenging, considering I just published a book, am final editing another for publication in November, and have to write sequels.

But...

I want to read more! Grr. Tempting.

- Mathew Babaoye

[Sarah]

Frankenstein put me at 40. I have 1Q84, Old Man's War, and The Word for World is Forest this month. I'll finish off the year very close to the 100 books off the shelf total, especially if the books voted in continue to be ones I've read, but I think I'll be a few shy of the 100 mark.

[Julia]

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

[Alex]

I've read 178 of my 150 book challenge in the general category. Over 100 of them were science fiction or fantasy. I've reached my goal and I'm still going.

FYI, I am disabled so I have a lot of free time and a good library.

[Amanda]

I just read this thread, and I wish I had read it sooner! The vast majority of the books on it are ones I've either already read, or want to read. I've read a good number of books this year, meeting my reading challenge goals, but often not the same ones at the same time as others, so I couldn't talk about them with anyone.

Are there plans to do another challenge list in 2016?

[Valerie]

Looking ahead to next year, the following are group books that I picked up during via book deals, but I haven't made it to them yet. They are high on my read list for next year. Some were on this year's list, but I did not yet have them when we read them:

Dune
Rendezvous with Rama
The Crystal Shard
Red Mars
Wizard's First Rule
The Speed of Dark
The Blade Itself
Midnight Riot
Prince of Thorns
Warbreaker
Promise of Blood
The Dragon's Path

[Chris]

Goal: 12
Read to date: 11 (8 sf, 3 fantasy; 5 m, 6 f)

Storm Front
The Girl with All the Gifts
Ready Player One
Ancillary Justice
Ancillary Sword
The City & the City
The Speed of Dark
Blackout
The Goblin Emperor *
Redshirts *
Station Eleven *

Plan to read: 1

Frankenstein

All works are in audiobook format (even though the links above don't reflect it). I have a huge Audible backlog that I am whittling down.

* Edited to reflect that I read the Club's December picks earlier this year, as well as recently finished books.

[Sarah]

Valerie and LadyCello, there will be a thread for coordinating things like we did last year. I'm not sure if there will be a challenge or not but reading together throughout the year was quite a bit of fun. I'm hoping to get the 2016 thread started on the 15th.

[Valerie]

Awesome, Sarah! Thanks for taking up the mantle.

I will just copy my post over at that time to make it easy for you.

If you need help along the way, I am happy to assist, since I also enjoy participating.

[Sarah]

Thanks Valerie! Edwin will be helping but I'll definitely holler if I need something :)

[Amanda]

Thanks Sarah! I'm still getting to know how the various lists and polls work, and I look forward to participating more. I'm reading along with Red Rising and enjoying seeing others first impressions.

[Edwin]

Sarah wrote: "I'm hoping to get the 2016 thread started on the 15th."

Yes, get your lists ready everyone. The 2016 fun starts soon.

[Kim]

Valerie wrote: "Looking ahead to next year, the following are group books that I picked up during via book deals, but I haven't made it to them yet. They are high on my read list for next year. Some were on this y..."

Just letting you know that The Crystal Shard is not a group read. We read Homeland.

[Valerie]

Kim wrote: "Just letting you know that The Crystal Shard is not a group read. We read Homeland. "

Well darn!

[Sabrina]

Since my last update I’ve finished my challenge (12 books) and even surpassed it a bit, as I’ve found so many good books on the shelf and just couldn’t stop reading. So I’ll definitely be up for it again in 2016!

These are my stats:
3 female, 14 male (but over all books I’ve read this year I’m evenly balanced)
5 SF, 12 fantasy (well, I’ve always loved fantasy a little more ;-)

and finally the books...
The Killing Moon (****)
The Summer Tree (****)
Dawn (****)
The Girl with All the Gifts (****)
Die unendliche Geschichte (****)
Hounded (***)
Mort (***)
American Gods (**)
Cloud Atlas (**)
Station Eleven(****)
Wachen! Wachen! (***)
Ready Player One (****)
City of Stairs (****)
The Stand (****)
Promise of Blood(****)
The Princess Bride (***)
Blood Song (****)

[Edwin]

Hey Kim, will we be doing another challenge for 2016 (hint, hint, nudge, nudge)?

[Sandi]

Yes PLEEEEEEEZZEE! It really helps my motivation to keep digging in and moving my little challenge counter onward and outward (or should it be rightward?).

And on a completely different note, is there any way to associate the ratings SF&F bookclub group members give the books within our list so we (I) can compare their popularity to that of the gen-pop? This group seems to have such a knowledgeable, passionate core of readers and I would love to see how our group rates the books we read. It kinda makes me want to begin coding my own program but I do not have the time.

[Kim]

Edwin wrote: "Hey Kim, will we be doing another challenge for 2016 (hint, hint, nudge, nudge)?"

Haha yes I believe we'll keep it going.

[Sarah]

Woo hoo!

[Edwin]

Kim wrote: "Haha yes I believe we'll keep it going."

Excellent! And thanks for your time and effort. This site wouldn't be as good as it is without all of your hard work. Pat yourself on the back and go buy yourself a drink. Our treat.

[Sarah]

For those who want to participate in reading some of the books off of our club's bookshelf: 2016 Group Bookshelf Reading Calendar Planning.

Edwin and I will both be organizing this and we hope this fact will make everything go very smoothly. That and Michael's extensive experience from the last two years.

[Sarah]

Is there a specific list of books to read from or does any science fiction or fantasy book count?

[Sarah]

It's from the group bookshelf. On the thread there's a link to the bookshelf that may help you.

[Sarah]

Who can add books to the shelve?

[Kim]

Sarah wrote: "Who can add books to the shelve?"

Only I can add books and I do so based on the results of the monthly nominations and polls.

[Sarah]

Yes, the goal is basically just to catch up on any of the group's past reads that we missed. For example, I didn't join this group until last year so I had read very few of the books. I've been doing a mad dash to read as many as possible. Other (more rational) people limit themselves to a set amount and just gradually make progress. It's really just an excuse to read the books together and have a bit of fun :)