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

[Dj]

John wrote: "This is my first year entering the challenge. I set a goal of 25 not knowing if that was realistic or not. I'm ahead of goal so far. Question for this group: What's your favorite book so far this y..."

So for this challenge I am going to have to say: A Closed and Common Orbit

[HeyT]

I think my favorite from this year's challenge shelf would be Remnant Population

[Bonnie]

The Golem and the Jinni

That was my favorite so far this year: I liked the writing, the pathos of the story, and turn-of-the-century New York City come to life.
Nimona was fun too.

[CBRetriever]

I just finished The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal for the 7th book out of 10 I pledged. This makes 124 books from the shelf I've read

[Emmett]

Just an update that I have been absolutely killing this challenge and am currently at an impressive score of 0/8.

Allison, you told me that I wasn't underachieving, but setting good boundaries. I would argue at this point that my boundaries are bulletproof, ironclad forcefields of underachievement. 🏰

[Ines, Resident Vampire]

Emmett wrote: "Just an update that I have been absolutely killing this challenge and am currently at an impressive score of 0/8.

Allison, you told me that I wasn't underachieving, but setting good boundaries. I ..."

Emmett, I am right there with you with an impressive 1 books! :D Good thing I didn't set a goal. So I think your boundaries are great.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

Look at yall putting your happiness in your book lives ahead of optional stressors!

[Aga]

."If I had to pick one of the four for this group, it would be 'All Systems Red' by Martha Wells."

Same here. Murderbot Diaries series was a delicious read!
I was impressed by "The Broken Earth" by Jemisin and pleasantly surprised by "We Are Legion (We Are Bob)". I will continue reading Bobiverse for sure.

I was recently deeply moved by "The Ocean at the End of The Lane".

But...

Murderbot won my heart, and there is nothing to do about it ☺️

[Dj]

Aga wrote: "."If I had to pick one of the four for this group, it would be 'All Systems Red' by Martha Wells."

Same here. Murderbot Diaries series was a delicious read!
I was impressed by "The Broken Earth" b..."

I still feel that We Are Legion has one of the best opening lines I have ever come across.

[Richard]

Wow! Less than a month since my last post and another three from the club bookshelf knocked off mount TBR.

11 Read



On Deck

Still too many to mention.

Currently Reading

Having a break from the bookshelf as I’m only one book off my official challenge of 12, which would take me to a total of 200 club books read, but still being on my lockdown diet can’t afford all the chocolatey goodies that that must entail.
Being inspired by Anthony and his reviews of the Chanur books by C.J. Cherryh I’m going to give The Pride of Chanur a go.

[Meredith]

Since my last update, I've read:
Artemis
Deeplight
Assassin's Apprentice

which puts me at 10 read for the year, +1 retro read, so I'm at 142 read total.

[Meredith]

AMG wrote: "I made pretty good progress this month. I finished:

The Vanished Birds
The Left Hand of Darkness
Oryx and Crake
Station Eleven
[book:The H..."

Wow, that's impressive! You've read a lot of good books.

[Meredith]

AMG wrote: "Meredith wrote: "AMG wrote: "I made pretty good progress this month. I finished:

"

I hear that. It took me two months to read Assassin's Apprentice.

[Liane]

I really thought I posted here to join this challenge, but I may have misinterpreted where to post (not unusual for me) and only updated my personal challenge thread.

Anyway, I decided to go for 25 and since 2021 has started out with nearly as much anxiety as last year but far less work (or news) to absorb my time, I am at 24 already. I may up my challenge, but I am probably spending too much time reading already (blasphemy). What will be, will be. Sff is just getting me where I want to be this year.

And in the total category, apparently I am at 106 - sometime in the last month I crossed that threshold. I feel kind of disappointed to have missed the milestone, though that has happened in my cars’ odometers more than once. My son’s hs grad party is next weekend. I will definitely eat some brownies then!

Re: favorite for the year, “The Doomsday Book”, which I recently finished, is my fav so far this year from the sffbc shelf. (And “Anxious People” by Fredrik Bachman may be my non-sff fav so far.)

[Juulna]

Ehhhhh! I completed my challenge as of May 2021. :D 13/12 books technically.

Link can be found here: https://www.goodreads.com/user_challe...

I'm going to keep going and aim for the suggested 25 over the year. Some nice books on that list!

If this is supposed to go somewhere else, could someone kindly point it out to me?

And oh cool. am I the first completion? :O AWESOME

[DivaDiane]

Goodreads told me today that I was 5 books ahead of schedule to finish the challenge (I've read 11 from our shelves!), so I upped my goal from 15 to 20 and now it tells me I'm 3 ahead! :shrug:

Since I last updated I've added:

The Obelisk Gate (and will be starting on the Stone Sky soon, reading it to my husband since he's caught up now)
Everfair
Deeplight
Parable of the Sower

This year so far, my favorite is probably Parable of the Sower, but it's a really hard choice!

[DivaDiane]

Also, I plan to read
More Than Human,
The Day of the Triffids,
To Say Nothing of the Dog
and any other reread or group read that interests me enough.

[Gabi]

I have read 13 books so far, even though the challenge counter insists on only 11 (I've tried refreshing and giving stars to read books I hadn't given stars so far - but still only 11 are counted)

Cage of Souls ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
More Than Human ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Mistborn: The Final Empire ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Well of Ascension ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Deeplight ⭐⭐⭐⭐
We Are Legion (We Are Bob) ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Touch ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Book of Koli ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Master and Margarita ⭐⭐⭐
The Sword-Edged Blonde ⭐⭐⭐
Fate of the Fallen ⭐⭐

and those two are DNF's, but I rated them for the list (even though it obviously makes no difference)

Hench ⭐⭐
The Summer Tree ⭐⭐

[Anna]

Gabi I looked at Hench on your shelf. You have it twice, once with a 2020 read date and once without a read date. The challenge only counts books with a 2021 read date. Koli also has a 2020 read date on your grouplist-2021 shelf. I don’t know if that’s the shelf you’re using for this challenge, but if yes, then that’s probably why!

[Gabi]

Anna, of course! *face palm*! I shelved everything that was voted for this year and forgot that I read some of them last year. Thanks a lot!

[Leticia]

Good overview of books Gabi, of these I'm planning to read Touch. And you can add a reread on the review too.

[Anna]

😊

[Dj]

Gabi wrote: "I have read 13 books so far, even though the challenge counter insists on only 11 (I've tried refreshing and giving stars to read books I hadn't given stars so far - but still only 11 are counted)
..."

Looks like some good books on that list.

[Lowell]

I very much enjoyed Three Parts Dead, and look forward to reading more of the craft sequence. I understand it’s not all direct sequels or even in chronological order to its internal timeline, so I’m not in much of a rush. Sometimes... ok most of the time... a stand alone story is a lot easier on the reading habits.

I took a quick run through Piranesi, which is not on the group shelf, but which I do heartily recommend reading.

I suppose I must choose a new shelf book to read. Perhaps last month’s Hench will do the trick. It seems light enough from a cursory outside view.

Currently Reading


On Deck


Finished!


DNF

[Gabi]

Thanks to Graphic Audio production I'm now on 19/24 planned group shelf reads

additional to msg 331 I've read

Those Who Hunt the Night ⭐⭐
Opening Atlantis ⭐⭐
Charmed Life ⭐⭐⭐
Shadow's Son ⭐⭐
Boneshaker ⭐⭐
The Magic of Recluce ⭐⭐⭐
The Crown Conspiracy ⭐⭐⭐

and the only ⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Man in the High Castle (I'm just more the metaphysical, psychological weird, surrealistic, wtf-strange SF type than the epic fantasy type ^^')



dnf

Red Sister (not the book's fault, but magical school tries me too hard to keep going)

[Dj]

So this review is very short, more to avoid spoilers than because I didn't like the book. Wool Omnibus

A book that delivered a nicely paced look at a different post-apocalyptic world. A thoroughly fascinating look at a world that might have been.

This puts my Bookshelf reading at 11 for the year out of a goal of 12.

[CBRetriever]

the first book in the Wool Omnibus was excellent - the others not quite as good

[Dj]

A book that didn't give me the warm fuzzies: Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom

Slow and disjointed steeped in Pariona this book was slow and left me unenthused. I will not be looking for any more books by this author.

This is number 12, from here on out it is just overacheving. LOL.

[Lowell]

Well, Hench was a hoot up until the end.

(view spoiler)[I got a little squeamish about just how deeply the author leaned in to the body horror. It went from "hey, this is a bit of fun to "oh, now we're in to Cronenburg territory." (hide spoiler)]

On the the next book....


Currently Reading


On Deck


Finished!


DNF

[Ellen]

The first eighty days of the year I read 11. Was doing well until The Lies of Locke Lamora. It was a literary brick wall and I struggled to finish it. Put me behind on all my Goodread challenges.
Have caught up now an have read 24 of my goal of 50 for the year.
Total read on bookshelf so far is 250.

[Anna]

I'm starting to seriously consider changing my goal in this challenge from 25 to 10 books. I just don't feel like reading anything at all, and the mere idea of forcing myself to read some of the backlist group books makes me cry. Why the F should I torture myself?! I still have some backlist books I actually want to read, I've been saving them as a sort of reward for when I get through some of the yucky ones. But what if I just don't read the ones I have zero interest in? Do I want to spend time pretending to read books I already know I'll rate 1 star? What's the point?! Or should I just pretend I've read them so that I can cross them off the list? Pretend to myself, I don't need to pretend to anyone else. I remember nothing about many of the other group books I've only read because I "have to", so why not simply open the book, glance at a couple of pages and mark it as read? The end result is the same, but much less suffering. Why do I hate myself? What is the meaning of life? How is the sound of forever? When did the chicken cross the road?

(I'll probably be back in a couple of months to tell you I've decided to eye-read all group books, new and old, in 2021.)

[DivaDiane]

Oh, Anna! This must be horrible. I am all for you just saying fuck it and crossing those no-interest books off the list and never thinking about them again. For me, I don’t have any hope of reading all the books from our backlist anytime soon or even later, I’m not even considering the ones I have no interest in. And don’t think you have to because you’re a mod! There’s a reason why certain books never get chosen for rereads! (Hoping none of those you don’t want to read have been chosen recently)

[Liane]

@Anna - are you getting paid to read these books? If not, it’s for your own enjoyment, right?

I have wondered whether to persist as I have slogged through a few of the group reads, but there are so many authors I haven’t read I am enjoying the process of reading new ones and then other sffbc member’s reviews. I like a good checklist to complete, but suspect that as I read more of sffbc’s back list, I will learn which authors don’t appeal and skip them.

[Anna]

I'm just very bad with leaving things unfinished :S

[CBRetriever]

me too but there is at least one I know I won't start: Doctor Who: The Coming of the Terraphiles. I'm still stalled at 7 of the 10 I pledged :(

[Anna]

Not gonna lie, I've always thought I'd read that one, too XD

[Gabi]

CBRetriever wrote: "me too but there is at least one I know I won't start: Doctor Who: The Coming of the Terraphiles. I'm still stalled at 7 of the 10 I pledged :("

LOL! Same here. From time to time I go through the shelf to check if something new has made it to storytel and each time I reach the Dr. Who one I skip over it (I've seldom watched Dr. Who, so this would mean nothing to me).

@Anna: I can feel your pain, being a completionist myself. But I'd say if it starts hurting physically to slog through a book it is definitely better to just cross it off for good.

[Anna]

Maybe one day I'll be in the mood to rage listen to a bunch of old dude books again, and do a 1 star marathon to get ten group books of the list XD

[Midiain]

Nothing can put me in a reading slump as completely as reading a string of books I don't like, especially if I feel like I have to read them for some reason. If you aren't enjoying what you're reading, you're going to burn out. Don't do it.

For this challenge I compared the group backlist to my tbr and I plan on reading those and probably only those. I don't see the necessity to read a bunch of books I have no interest in when I have way too many books I want to read already.

Also, the meaning of life is 42.

[Anna]

Haha, hmm, is that Life, the Universe and Everything trying to tell me I should change my goal from 25 to 42? Yes, that's what I'm getting from this! :P

[CBRetriever]

Caillen wrote: "Nothing can put me in a reading slump as completely as reading a string of books I don't like, especially if I feel like I have to read them for some reason. If you aren't enjoying what you're read..."

agreed

actually due to the selections for May and June I added two more, but as I read them in 2019 and earlier, I'm not going to count them

[Gabi]

Been there, done that! 24/24 are read for the challenge. Thank you, storytel!

[The Book Hermit]

John wrote: "This is my first year entering the challenge. I set a goal of 25 not knowing if that was realistic or not. I'm ahead of goal so far. Question for this group: What's your favorite book so far this y..."

Night Film

[Midiain]

Anna wrote: "Haha, hmm, is that Life, the Universe and Everything trying to tell me I should change my goal from 25 to 42? Yes, that's what I'm getting from this! :P"

Nooooooo! Absolutely not. lol

If you want to get really geeky about it, 42 is the decimal code for the asterisk in ASCII code. The asterisk is a placeholder for whatever might be added later. So, 42 means that it can be anything you want it to be.

[Anna]

Caillen, I like that :)

Congrats Gabi! I don't know how you do it :D

[Dj]

Anna wrote: "Maybe one day I'll be in the mood to rage listen to a bunch of old dude books again, and do a 1 star marathon to get ten group books of the list XD"


That sounds painful, if productive. In a strange sort of way.

[Dj]

Caillen wrote: "Nothing can put me in a reading slump as completely as reading a string of books I don't like, especially if I feel like I have to read them for some reason. If you aren't enjoying what you're read..."

But in the end, it is still So Long and Thanks for all the Fish.

[CBRetriever]

Anna wrote: "Maybe one day I'll be in the mood to rage listen to a bunch of old dude books again, and do a 1 star marathon to get ten group books of the list XD"

dunno - sometimes I've found that the books I've been the most resistant to reading have turned out to totally surprise me

I didn't want to read a book about an old woman (Remnant Population) but I loved it

[Anna]

RemPop! ❤️

I do still have unread group books I’m expecting to love/like, and ones I’m open to.

[Lost Planet Airman]

Anna wrote: "I'm just very bad with leaving things unfinished :S"

Oh, me too. On top of which, I now am aware of my ADD, meaning my completion-ism conflicts with my impulsiveness (or worse, they heterodyne together and keep me from the unfun of acting like a grown-up).

Happy to help YOU, however, whether you're reading them all (like I hope to), or just the fun ones. This year is a holding year, now... just plan to finish 25 by the end of the year, so I have lost no ground.

Gabi wrote: "CBRetriever wrote: "me too but there is at least one I know I won't start: Doctor Who: The Coming of the Terraphiles. I'm still stalled at 7 of the 10 I pledged :("

LOL! Same here. ..."

Doctor Who: The Coming of the Terraphiles

One of 5 club books that deservedly got only 2 stars from me, BUT I'm pretty sure all 5 of those were hate-rates: the author did something really annoying and non-sensical, so I dropped to a "meh" rating.

Here, I remember that I expected Dr. Who with some Moorcock amazeballs flair on the top, and got random planetary romance that any SF detective could have solved. (It really doesn't use the Dr. Who mythos or skills except for a few incidental pages.

[cue inspirational closing] If I can finish Doctor Who: The Coming of the Terraphiles, anyone can.