How Do You Expect To Close Out Your Reading Year? (10/11/20)

[Marc]

What's in store reading-wise for the last 3 months of 2020? Are there books you'll try to read before the year is over? Are you likely to read any more or less or differently as this year ends?

[LindaJ^]

I expect to make November mostly non-fiction and have a stack of books lined up to attack, which may be amended depending on the election. December will be whatever catches my fancy, which is typical.

[Robert]

I plan to read Gravity's Rainbow. Other than that it's tackling the TBR stack.

[Mark]

Well I really do hope I'll have the time to finish reading the books I've already started, so I'll also be able to tackle some of those already on my TBR list.

[Nidhi]

Same here. I have to finish many group reads.

[Hugh]

I will probably read the Goldsmiths Prize shortlist (if they get round to announcing it), but in general I am trying to reduce my spending on books a little so will probably do more rereading. I don't attach much significance to year end apart from trying to finish a book on New Year's Eve.

[Marcus]

This has been a strange reading year. I went back to university to do a masters in creative writing, so my volume of reading has dropped to be replaced by writing. Last year I read over 100 books, this year I’m not at 50 yet. I haven’t stopped buying books, so I have a big pile of reading waiting; Booker Prize, Women’s Prize, Wainwright Prize, etc. I have invested in many more natural history books than normal. Vesper Flights is just beautiful, for example.
We are upside down here in New Zealand - spring coming into summer. University ends this week and resumes in February after which the first draft of my own novel is due. So perhaps not the summer of reading I would like. This talk of summer reminds me that I haven’t read the fourth Ali Smith book either. My TBR is rather out of control.

[Bretnie]

I am going to try to read the third of the Three Body Problem trilogy, The Dark Forest. I don't really want to read it. But I really really want to read it.

I've been conflicted since finishing the second last year, but I hereby resolve to read it by the end of the year.

[Nadine in California]

Bretnie wrote: " I don't really want to read it. But I really really want to read it...."

Ha! I feel like a could take the full measure of a person by their reaction to that line ;)

[Whitney]

Bretnie wrote: "I am going to try to read the third of the Three Body Problem trilogy, The Dark Forest. I don't really want to read it. But I really really want to read it.

I've been conflicted s..."

If it helps, I thought the second was the weakest of the three. Def recommend the third.

[Marc]

I just finished the 2nd and am eager to read the 3rd. Still working my way through Proust--had aimed to finish all 6 volumes this year but it's looking more like 3 or 4. Two group reads planned and then a few reads to choose from the ridiculous amount of books I bought during the Pandemic...

My reading pace seems to have slowed and, for a change, I'm embracing it.

[Lark]

Mark wrote: "Well I really do hope I'll have the time to finish reading the books I've already started, so I'll also be able to tackle some of those already on my TBR list."

The same for me. I've been buying books at a faster than usual pace, in these wild times, and at the same time I've had less available space in my brain or will to read, in these wild times. I'm planning to power read my way through all of these wonderful books I have acquired over the past six months or so.

[Jenny]

I’m hoping to binge through the rest of Pat Barker or Richard Powers by the end of the year, but other books keep getting in the way. Going to try and not buy any more books until 2021 either. Had a new bookcase delivered today to accommodate all my pandemic purchases. (Is it weird that I’m equally ashamed and proud?)

[Abeselom]

This has been a year in which I experimented with literature from different countries while at the same time reading the classics. I have read non-fictions more than I have ever done before as well. But I would say this year is different from previous years because I have started to use Goodreads more seriously to good effect. It has helped me a great deal in organizing my reading, interact with other readers and read more books. I joined this group this year too. In the remaining months, I hope to reread Frankenstein for Halloween and to read at least 10 more diverse books from all around the world.

[Hugh]

Jenny wrote: "I’m hoping to binge through the rest of Pat Barker or Richard Powers by the end of the year, but other books keep getting in the way. Going to try and not buy any more books until 2021 either. Had ..."

I might yet finish Powers this year, if Waterstones ever manage to deliver my ordered copy of Prisoner's Dilemma, which is my last one left.

[Dorottya]

I don't really have any "must read" books, but I want to take part in Nonfiction November, so I am going to choose a TBR for that. As for my Goodreads challenge and my other personal challenge, I am pretty good (I am ahead of schedule for the Goodreads challenge... my personal challenge: 75% of the read books should come from my physical tbr... that is standing pretty well, too)-
.

[Jenny]

Hugh, if you get desperate, happy to mail you my copy with the caveat that whoever owned before me went a little crazy with the underlining and marginalia.

[Marc]

Lark, I don't think we're the only ones who binged a bit during the pandemic. On the up side, everywhere I look there's something exciting to read!

Any top picks for your nonfiction selection, Dorottya?

[Dorottya]

Sorry for the late reply, Marc.

I am going with the prompts...
The "buzz" is going to be something I think everyone and their mother read already before me:
Living History
(this had quite the buzz when it came out)

"movement":
Duende: A Journey Into the Heart of Flamenco
(I wanted to read it for last year, but I did not get around to it... and what would be better for the prompt movement than dance?)

"discovery":
The Cross in the Closet
(I am using discovery as in discovering truths, not as in a scientific discoery)

And the time one is going to be a coffee table book about a Hungarian theatre, and their most famous performances in a certain time period.

[Marc]

No need to apologize, Dorottya. Sounds like you've got a busy and interesting month of reading ahead. I'm not familiar with these titles, but my nonfiction reading tends to be very utilitarian (work-related or how-to type of books).

[Lily]

My f2f book club, which bifurcated a few years ago when several members moved/retired, has resurrected ourselves in ZOOM format, with participants from mid-America to Spain, Maine to Florida! My next "must" reading is set by them: The Lions of Fifth Avenue ] by Fiona Davis and Fannie Flagg 's The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion.

[Bretnie]

Friends, I accomplished my goal, I finished Death's End. And with some time to read some lighter books before the end of the year, heh! Both physically and less end-of-the-world. :)

I realized earlier I said the third book, but The Dark Forest, which was the second book. You'd think after spending so many hours with each book I'd be able to keep them straight!

[Marc]

Well done, Bretnie!
(I just passed the halfway mark in Death's End--epic thus far!)

I had hoped to finish Proust and finally read VanderMeer's City of Saints and Madmen (the latter has been on my shelf for longer than I can remember). Looks like I'll only hit the halfway mark with Proust and VanderMeer will get bumped to 2021.

[Bretnie]

Marc wrote: "Well done, Bretnie!
(I just passed the halfway mark in Death's End--epic thus far!)

I had hoped to finish Proust and finally read VanderMeer's City of Saints and Madmen (the latter h..."

We'll have to chat when you're done :)

[Lesley]

For several reasons there are some books I chip away at. At the end of the year, I try to have a good go at anything I’ve had on the go since the start of the year.
Apart from that, I don’t differentiate- it’s business as usual.
I also give my Want To Read a hard prune; otherwise I can’t see the wood for the trees.