2021 Read All the Books: Around the Shelf in Eight(y) Years

[CBRetriever]

Anna wrote: "Spreadsheeting is never a waste of time!"

Nope - I rely upon one for my yearly challenges and listing all my TBR books

[Christopher]

I think I'm going to amend my goal down to 15, that would get me to 150 books read total off the shelf which feels like a good target and gives me more leeway.

[Steve]

I did badly this year. Okay until lockdown and quarantine, then brain went kaput when it came to reading. Work from home got hectic, and as my main place I read was commuting, my space was all off. Realised how little I read at home in recent years. I wanted to read 12 group books (and 20 overall like I usually do each year, roughly) made a list of 12 for this year and did 3 bookshelf books, here are the 9 I didn't and will do in 2021 instead:

The Well of Ascension (Mistborn, #2) – Brandon Sanderson
Uprooted– Naomi Novik
Spinning Silver – Naomi Novik
A Closed and Common Orbit (Wayfarers, #2) – Becky Chambers
The Mere Wife - Maria Dahvana Headley
Too Like the Lightning – Ada Palmer
An Unkindness of Ghosts – Rivers Solomon
Pawn of Prophecy (Belgariad #1) – David Eddings (finally!)
Sea of Rust– C Robert Cargill

+ 3 (or more) others, Thinking from:

The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin
Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton
The Sword of Kaigen by M.L. Wang
The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe by Alex White

Good luck all and happy reading :)

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Steve, you're definitely not alone on that front! I really hope your 2021 goes better!

[Steve]

Allison wrote: "Steve, you're definitely not alone on that front! I really hope your 2021 goes better!"

Thanks! Hope your 2021 goes great too!

[Dj]

Here are the sixteen I have decided to go with so far, might have to change some or add some later.

1. Ancillary Mercy
2. Ninefox Gambit
3. A closed and common orbit
4. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell
5. The last unicorn
6. The Golem and the Jinni
7. The Island of Dr. Moreau
8. Zoo City
9. Shadow of the Torturer
10. wool
11. Hyperion
12. The Fifth Season
13. Fahrenheit 451
14. Furie of Calderon
15. The Dispossessed
16. The Man in the High Castle

[Jessica]

SFFBC Read All the Books 2021
January 1 - December 31, 2021
Read: 4/12

Planning
Own: Ready Player One, Redshirts, Sabriel, The Road, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Way of Kings
Other Top Hits: Doomsday Book, Zoo City, The Goblin Emperor, A Darker Shade of Magic, The Power, The Changeling, Spinning Silver, The Ten Thousand Doors of January, The Terror, Six Wakes, The Library at Mount Char

Read
1. The Obelisk Gate by NK Jemison (Mar 16/21)
2. The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa (Apr 6/21)
3. The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal (May 17/21)
4. The Changeling by Victor LaValle (Dec 17/21)

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

A good start indeed! That's a pretty solid list right there :D

[Pixiegirl105]

Well, before I could determine how many to read, I had to figured out how many I already had read. Lmao. Looked like I have 39 (actually more because there were a few that read so long ago, figured they were due for a reread and a proper finish date on my timeline) so I'll put myself down for 15 - 20.

Alas, I will never actually finish the list because there are a few I refuse to read.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Yeah, torn between admiration and consternation at the folks who read a few of these in particular!

[Pixiegirl105]

In going through the list, I was a bit surprised at how many repeat authors we have. And how many authors/series we don't have on the list. :)

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

IKR?! The mod polls we try really hard to use to promote new-to-the-shelf authors, but "only" having 1 book a month per genre from a list of 5-7 each month means we have lots of room for new favorites!

[Pixiegirl105]

Lol...I didn't realize we only had a 1/month new book. That explains the amount of books. It's sad though that there are so many repeat authors in the list because it took away room for new people. Sadly alot of the repeat authors are authors I don't necessarily like the way they write (looking at GRRM who I refuse to read the ASOFI books after reading short stories....and I have a rule...if the author can't tantalize me in 30 page stories? I'm not wasting 4 hours reading a 600 page book by them)

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

I get it! You should come back for nominations and/or campaign for new authors in the polls! We love finding new authors to love!

[Pixiegirl105]

Lol...I'll have to actually read my emails for once! But I'll definitely start doing this because so many authors/books would fit in with the ones we have.

[Leticia]

I'll set my usual goal to 12 books because that is what has worked for me the last 2 years. Some I'm considering:

(view spoiler)[*******UNDER CONSIDERATION*******
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[Eva]

We have a lot of overlap, Leticia! If you'd like buddy-read some of them, let me know (esp. Sword of Kaigen, Collapsing Empire, Jade City (started but set it aside - one needs to be in the mood for a gangster tale), Ghost Brigades, White Cat, Locke Lamora, and Tigana. But some of the others interest me, as well. 😊

I've worked my way through the spreadsheet now and it turns out I've read 69 of the group shelf books overall. Only 31 more to a hundred, so if I read 15 this year and 16 in 2022, I'll be there. (Of course now I want to read 31 in 2021, but I'll try to stay realistic.

[Leticia]

Eva wrote: "We have a lot of overlap, Leticia! If you'd like buddy-read some of them, let me know (esp. Sword of Kaigen, Collapsing Empire, Jade City (started but set it aside - one needs to be in the mood for..."

Great, I'll let you know if I plan to read any of them and you can do the same. Now in December I'm trying to finish The Way of Kings and if I'm feeling brave enough I'll continue the series in January but probably I could add another book in the middle of my Cosmere readathon.

One I am considering to read in January too would be Warbreaker.

[Eva]

I've already read all of those Sanderson novels (Mistborn is the one I haven't read yet), so I'd suggest February for a BR, e.g. Ghost Brigades. I'll post about it in the BR recruitment thread then. :-)

[Leticia]

Eva wrote: "I've already read all of those Sanderson novels (Mistborn is the one I haven't read yet), so I'd suggest February for a BR, e.g. Ghost Brigades. I'll post about it in the BR recruitment thread then..."

The Ghost Brigades in February? It could be. I read the first Mistborn book but if you want to BR the second one, The Well of Ascension, we could do that in January too. I could read it instead of Warbreaker.

[Melani]

So my goal for 2020 was to read half the shelf, at the time 27 was the magic number to hit that. I am currently two short, though thanks to shenanigans (i read some of the selected books this year, in years prior) my goal is showing me four short. That's fine, I'm ok with that. I'm not going to get3/4s through the shelf in 2021, so I might just pledge 24, and any extra is a bonus.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Hey, well done! Being that close to a goal in this wretched year is great! And congrats on being technically halfway there!

[Steve]

Wow, after some Goodreads shelf sorting, I found I have 26 of this group's books I want to read, so have created my shelf now for 2021's challenge, may just set myself the challenge of those 26. 2 and a bit books a month on average, gonna try it!

My TBR of books from this group's shelf: https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

[Ellen]

Read 50 last year. Going for 50 again.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

You got it, Ellen! Tearin' through the shelves (but no books were harmed!)

[Juulna]

I’ll pledge 12 (at least, since this is basically all I read anyway haha) and give this a go!

(The sign up page isn’t working? Or whatever the link is that says ‘sign up here!’)

[Anna]

Juulna, it works for me, but GR is having capacity issues right now, so maybe you got caught in that mess?

[Juulna]

Anna, I found a workaround by a) just visiting the main page of the Group and b) using a browser rather than the app. It worked!

I’ve never actually done a challenge via a Group before, so this’ll be interesting! I love and am doing lots of reading challenges other than this one, though, and I even just put the finishing touches on and released my own.... fanfic reading challenge! ;D I’ll be having plenty of fun this year.

[Anna]

Oh right, the app is what it is, almost nothing works!

[DivaDiane]

So, Um, I seem to have finished my first book of the challenge. Lock In by John Scalzi. I readily admit that I listened to most of it “last year” and would’ve made more of an effort if I’d realized that there were only 15 minutes left of the actual book. It looked like there were 2+ left, but there is a novella in the same world tacked on the end, of which I was not aware. Never mind, I’m happy to be ahead of the game!

[CBRetriever]

You might find some fodder for fulfilling your pledge in the Amazon monthly deals mentioned in post 2879 in this thread

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Maryam]

I've selected 8 out of Group's bookshelf for 2021

The City We Became
Gods of Jade and Shadow
The Way of Kings
The Poppy War
Six of Crows
Red Rising
Fuzzy Nation
Red Mars

[Dj]

So I finished a quick read to start the challenge and the new year.
Swords and Deviltry


For the most part, I find that this book much like the Conan series doesn't age all that well. The world-building it almost non-existent, character development is an afterthought to the plot of adventure and all in all in is a testosterone-fueled ride through a preD and D Adventure.

Wrong age and have read to many well developed and layered fantasy works for this one to rise up above a three star.

[Melanie, the neutral party]

Yeah, I DNFed that book for all those reasons.

[Dj]

Melanie wrote: "Yeah, I DNFed that book for all those reasons."

understandable.

At least the next one I am reading for this and the TBR challenge is much better in that regard

A Closed and Common Orbit

[Melanie, the neutral party]

Yes!! Thank book might make you feel things, but it won't be a disappointment.

[Dj]

Melanie wrote: "Yes!! Thank book might make you feel things, but it won't be a disappointment."

I enjoyed the first one and am enjoying this one so far. So I am looking forward to how it turns out. I like the split between the current and the past. It flows well.

[Mrs S E White]

I pledged 12 last year, then upped it, in the end I managed 43, thanks to lockdown I had the time. not sure I could match that again though

[Beth]

Our minds respond differently to lockdown. Mine was not accepting anything but trivial nonsense reading-wise for several months. It seems to be improving, but the New Year has not brought on a rush of enthusiastic ambition. I've made not a single resolution, and my reading goals are similarly modest.

With that in mind, I am setting a goal of 7 for this challenge.

Once again, I will be stealing Lowell's format. :D I'll repost this list when the thread reaches the next page (and I've actually done something for it), and edit this post in the meantime:

Goal: 7
Read: 0

Currently reading:


Finished:

On deck (subject to change!):

[Anna]

Beth wrote: "Our minds respond differently to lockdown. Mine was not accepting anything but trivial nonsense reading-wise for several months. It seems to be improving, but the New Year has not brought on a rush of enthusiastic ambition. I've made not a single resolution, and my reading goals are similarly modest."

Very much the same for me! But I'm starting 2021 strong, really enjoying the first two books on my reading list :) And they're both adult SFF, woohoo!

[Saar The Book owl]

Gonna give this one a second try this year. Not sure on which books I'll be reading yet:
1. The Gunslinger 01/01/'21
2. Neverwhere 02/01/'21
3. Soulless 03/11/21
4. The Fifth Season 06/30/21
5. Gardens of the Moon 07/11/21
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.

[Sarah]

I'm setting my goal at 25 again starting with Leviathan Wakes

[Steve]

Starting well, already about a third of the way through The Collapsing Empire.

Barely could read in 2020, so shut myself away from distractions and read for an hour or two :)

Great book so far too!

[Jemppu]

Anna wrote: "I was SHOCKED to find out that Around the World with Willy Fog was not a thing in the US! Surely I'm not the only European kid who watched reruns of this practically every year? ..."

Watched religiously. Also owned this 'copy animation' on VHS, which wore out in repeated use.

[Anna]

OK, so it's looking more and more like a Finnish thing :D

[Lowell]

ok, here we go. I'm going to get serious about denting that shelf this year. I have a bunch of shelf-books in the TBR pile that i've picked up on kindle sales through the last couple years but haven't read yet. Those are going to be my On Deck.

30. Yeah. Thirty.

*Looks at self in mirror*

**"Eye of the Tiger" starts playing**

Currently Reading


On Deck

Finished!


DNF

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

IT'S THE THRILL OF THE FIGHT, RISING UP TO THE CHALLENGE OF OUR RIVAL

[Bonnie]

So many times it happens too fast, you trade your passion for glory

Passing up reading bookshelf books for other, lesser activities

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Bonnie, you are a true friend.

[Bonnie]

I will now have that song in my head for days

2020 Year of the Pandemic fades out
2021 Intro: "Eye of the Tiger"