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

[Anna]

I need to read 7 more group books in December to stay on track. What track? The one I arbitrarily decided to aim for. The problem is that the ones I actually want to read are series starters, and I'm hoping to like the series, and that means I'll finish the series before starting something else. I could force my way through some of the 2021 BOTMs I've skipped, but do I want to do that? Should I just say f*ck it and not complete this challenge? I don't know if that's something I'm capable of doing, but I also don't relish the idea of hate reading SEVEN huge books in one month. Maybe if I hate read five, I can then read two of the books I look forward to? Five sounds much better than seven.

I'm just thinking aloud. Please don't try to help me, I'll probably bite.

Next year don't let me aim for 25!

[Saar The Book owl]

I've got the same problem, Anna, I think that I need to read 7 or 8. I panicked as I realised that the year is coming to an end and I have to many unfinished challenges.
I need clones so I can read in peace!

[Anna]

I hope you have the peaceful kind of December that let's you sit by a fire drinking a warm beverage of your choice and enjoy many, many books!

[Beth]

Anna wrote: "I need to read 7 more group books in December to stay on track. What track? The one I arbitrarily decided to aim for."

I decided on 7 and still have two to go, so I think percentage-wise I'm worse off than you are? :D

[Anna]

Beth, I think you're technically doing better than I am! I have three books that I've read prior to 2021 that aren't counted in the challenge tracker at the moment, but I won't change it until I know if I want to try for 25-3 (meaning adding 25 read this year), or if I need to lower it.

15 of 25 (60%)
At your current pace, you're 7 books (31%) behind schedule

[Bonnie]

I am on track. Two more to go!
Haven't updated for a long time. Here are the ones I've read since then, roughly ranked.

LOVED:
The Steerswoman
The Once and Future King
She Who Became the Sun

REALLY LIKED:
Parable of the Sower
Black Sun
Pump Six and Other Tales
A Master of Djinn

LIKED:
The Ocean at the End of the Lane
We Are Satellites
Everfair
Hench
Deeplight
The Sheep Look Up
Those Who Hunt the Night
The Quantum Magician
Velocity Weapon
Caliban's War
The Windup Girl
A Night in the Lonesome October
Neuromancer
The Time Machine

OKAY:
The Accidental Time Machine
Cage of Souls
The Last Wish
Artemis
Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency

DID NOT LIKE:
The Obelisk Gate
Neverwhere
Blackout/All Clear
The Calculating Stars

[Dj]

Anna wrote: "I need to read 7 more group books in December to stay on track. What track? The one I arbitrarily decided to aim for. The problem is that the ones I actually want to read are series starters, and I..."

drive on with your bad self

[Anna]

Hmm, I was aiming for 225 *read* books, but right this minute I have 125 *unread* group books, and that's also a nice number! Maybe I should shock myself and just... stop here? :o

Could I actually do this?!

(Probably not but I'm going to totally pretend the answer is yes.)

That means I'm done? I'M FREE!

(No one is buying this.)

[Saar The Book owl]

Anna wrote: "I hope you have the peaceful kind of December that let's you sit by a fire drinking a warm beverage of your choice and enjoy many, many books!"

Oh, how I wish for that :D

[Beth]

Edited message 405 to show current progress.

[Anna]

Amazing, congrats! :)

[Meredith]

Yay, congrats AMG!

[YouKneeK]

Congrats AMG!

[Gabi]

Congratulations, AMG! A perfect number to (perhaps?) end the year.

[DivaDiane]

Wow, AMG! Super job!

[DivaDiane]

I've read 23 books off our shelves so far this year. I'm in the middle of two more and I'm confident I can finish them before the end of the year. I may actually get to a 26th book!

So, of the books that were group read picks for 2021 (15/25):
The Steerswoman (eye - in progress)
A Master of Djinn (audio - in progress)

5 stars:
Piranesi (audio)
The Quantum Magician (audio)
The House in the Cerulean Sea (audio)
The City of Dreaming Books (audio in German)


4 stars:
We Are Satellites (audio)
Black Sun (audio)
Digital Divide (eye)
Deeplight (combo eye/audio)
The Best of All Possible Worlds (audio)
Fate of the Fallen (audio)

3 stars:
Cage of Souls (audio)
Everfair (audio - should've eye-read - probably more like 2 stars but I respect what the author was trying to do)

You'll notice a trend; almost all of the books we chose for 2021 were audio books. That's because I get a credit each month on Audible and I used it for our group reads quite often, especially when I couldn't get the book from a library. I also listened to several of them on Scribd.

The books off the backlist that I read were:

5 stars:
Ancillary Justice (audio - reread)
Ancillary Mercy (audio)
Parable of the Sower (audio)
The Day of the Triffids (audio)

4 stars:
Ancillary Sword (audio)
Lock In (audio)
A Memory Called Empire
Rendezvous with Rama
Children of Time (audio)
The Obelisk Gate
Annihilation (audio)
The Last Wish

I seem to be very happy with the books I've chosen to read from our shelves. I have no aspirations to read all the books from the shelves. With 24 new ones added each year, I'll never manage. But I still have quite a few backlist books that I own, and I'm happy if I make it to about half the number of books on the shelves.

[Anna]

Diane, your group reading year looks amazing! So many 5 and 4 stars!

[DivaDiane]

Yeah, I guess I know how to pick ‘em!

I’m also pretty sure I was easy to please this year. Even one of my 3 stars was more like 3.5 (Cage of Souls).

[Dj]

A Fire Upon the Deep

At times I found myself wondering if I would ever finish this book and if I would want to. It is well worth the effort to get to the end though. A very different sort of Sci-Fi book and one that I would not have normally been of the mind to pick up. Glad the Book Group I am in recommended it. Would have enjoyed a little more clarity, and a little less knot tying in the Epilogue but it was a thought-provoking read.


So with this book finished I have read 21 from the Group Book Shelf. I might be able to squeeze in one more before the end of the year but that would still leave me two or three short of the break-even point. I do not feel really bad about that since I only put up that I would finish twelve so I overachieved for my first attempt. LOL.

[Beth]

I've completed my goal of 7 books for this challenge!

Goal: 7
Read: 7



3 Stars: Last Wish
4 Stars: everything else. I must be getting soft in my old age.

I might be able to finish one more before the end of the year. We'll see!

[DivaDiane]

I have since finished both Steerswoman and A Master of Djinn bringing my total to 25. I doubt I’ll manage to finish another at this point. Too many other books I want to read!

[Dj]

Beth wrote: "I've completed my goal of 7 books for this challenge!

Goal: 7
Read: 7

[bookcover:The Best of All Possible Worlds..."

Congratulations.

[Dj]

DivaDiane wrote: "I have since finished both Steerswoman and A Master of Djinn bringing my total to 25. I doubt I’ll manage to finish another at this point. Too many other books I want to read!"

Awesome Sauce

[Chris]

My goal was 18, and I managed to read 19 (including my one dnf). My rating average was lower than usual. My total for the group shelf is now 197, so I should reach 200 next year.

⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Tombs of Atuan, The Book of Koli, Annihilation, Remnant Population

⭐⭐⭐
Deeplight, The House in the Cerulean Sea, Parable of the Sower, Blindsight, Black Sun, The Dragonbone Chair, To Sleep in a Sea of Stars

⭐⭐
The Collapsing Empire, Soulless, Hench, More Than Human, I Robot, The Quantum Magician, A Master of Djinn

⭐
The City of Dreaming Books (dnf)

[Dj]

Chris wrote: "My goal was 18, and I managed to read 19 (including my one dnf). My rating average was lower than usual. My total for the group shelf is now 197, so I should reach 200 next year.

⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Tombs of..."

Some good books on the list. I just started the library of unfinished books. I hope it reads better for me than it did for you. But who knows.

[Dj]

It seems I was able to slip one more book off the shelf before the end of the year.
The Suicide Collectors

A book that leaves with you as many questions as when it opened up. The questions are different, and the road to getting to the new set of questions is well worth the journey. It does take an interesting view on the term Suicide Survivor. The author takes the point of view that this isn't someone that tried to kill themselves and failed. Instead, it is the people that are left behind. All in all, it was a very interesting read.

[Anna]

On May 16th I complained about being so far behind in this challenge, and Allison replied:

Allison wrote: "Yes, just set aside 2 days at the end of the year, and you'll be fine =P"

It took me longer than two days, but I managed to read 10 extra group books in December and complete my goal of 25. Since I'd already read three of the 2021 books before 2021, that means I added 28 books to my total this year, and have managed to stay ahead of the beast. I congratulate myself, and this is the perfect Xmas present.

(No, I don't want to talk about the books. Leave me alone. Happy holidays! :D)

[Gabi]

Congratulations, Anna! A chore well done and now I wish a relaxing holiday mood to you!

[Dj]

Anna wrote: "On May 16th I complained about being so far behind in this challenge, and Allison replied:

Allison wrote: "Yes, just set aside 2 days at the end of the year, and you'll be fine =P"

It took me lon..."


OUTSTANDING

[Maarit]

The year 2021 ends in around 30 minutes in here, so time to wrap this thing up. I ended up finishing 14 books in total this year, which is way more than I anticipated (my original goal was six books). Three of the books I read in Finnish and rest in English.

I gave three books 4 stars and those were:
Octavia E. Butler: Parable of the Sower
Jo Walton: Among Others
T.J. Klune: Talo taivaansinisellä merellä (The House in the Cerulean Sea)

Five stars is a very rare thing for me to give, so four is good. Most of the books got 3 stars and only two got 2 stars. There were no one star or DNF books this time.

3 stars
Hiroshi Sakurazaka: All You Need Is Kill
Richard Matheson: Olen legenda (I am Legend)
Waubgeshig Rice: Moon of the Crusted Snow
Ben H. Winters: The Last Policeman
Daniel José Older: Shadowshaper
Kira Jane Buxton: Hollow Kingdom
Naomi Kritzer: Catfishing on CatNet
Genevieve Cogman: The Invisible Library
Yōko Ogawa: Muistipoliisi (The Memory Police)

2 stars
Karen Lord: The Best of all Possible Worlds
Nalo Hopkinson: Brown Girl in the Ring

Overall, a balanced list with some surprising books and some I've meant to read for a while. Also, I think I've surpassed the 100 book limit to clubhouse, but I must count it some other time. Next year I'll start with goal of six books once again and see what will happen :)

[Anna]

Maarit, comparing with the mod account says you've read 107 (31.20%), so congrats on over 100! ^_^

[Juulna]

Hit 27 this year!

https://www.goodreads.com/review/list...

[Dj]

Kind of late but here is my review for: Ninefox Gambit

The last book for me to finish in 2021 and one of the best ones I read all year. While it starts out a tad confusing and a little disorienting it draws you in. The reason for the initial confusion is that the world-building has no groundwork. You are tossed into this new and complex world with the assumption that you understand it just as the characters would. This takes some getting used to, but once you are in a frame of reference where things are more understandable the book becomes such a layered and complex story that it brings you along for the ride. I have to say I am going to have to look into the next book.

[Anna]

🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊🦊!