Tim's 42 Books in 2021

[Tim]

My goal for this year is currently 42 books in 2021. Why 42? Because it's the answer to everything. :)

With that... let's begin.

January:

1. Train Man by Hitori Nakano - 3/5 stars
2. Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi - 3/5 star
3. Slender Man by Anonymous - 3/5 stars
4. The Queen's Gambit by Walter Tevis - 5/5 stars
5. Blood Standard by Laird Barron - 4/5 stars
6. Black Mountain by Laird Barron - 4/5 stars
7. Olivia by Dorothy Strachey - 3/5 stars
8. Your Turn to Suffer by Tim Waggoner - 4/5 stars

February:

9. The Night Boat by Robert R. McCammon - 2/5 stars
10. You Should Have Left by Daniel Kehlmann - 5/5 stars
11. What Big Teeth by Rose Szabo - 1/5 stars
12. Life for Sale by Yukio Mishima - 3/5 stars
13. The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher - 3/5 stars
14. Last Days by Brian Evenson 4/5 stars

March:

15. Later by Stephen King - 5/5 stars
16. Elizabeth by Ken Greenhall - 3/5 stars
17. If Cats Disappeared from the World by Genki Kawamura - 2/5 stars
18. Shadow of the Vulture by Regina L. Garza Mitchell - 2/5 stars

April:

19. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain - 4/5 stars
20. The Silence by Don DeLillo - 4/5 stars
21. Kiki's Delivery Service by Eiko Kadono - 4/5 stars
22. The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea by Yukio Mishima - 5/5 stars
23. Wolf Tracks by David Case - 3/5 stars

May

24. The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien - 4/5 stars
25. Rumble Fish by S.E. Hinton - 3/5 stars
26. My Heart Is a Chainsaw by Stephen Graham Jones - 4/5 stars
27. The Patient by Jasper DeWitt - 4/5 stars

June:

28. After the Quake by Haruki Murakami - 3/5 stars
29. Header by Edward Lee - 4/5 stars
30. The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman - 4/5 stars
31. The Woman in the Purple Skirt by Natsuko Imamura - 3/5 stars
32. There's No Such Thing as an Easy Job by Kikuko Tsumura - 3/5 stars
33. Star by Yukio Mishima - 5/5 stars
34. With Teeth by Brian Keene - 4/5 stars
35. She Who Rules the Dead by Maria Abrams - 4/5 stars

July:

36. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood by Quentin Tarantino - 4/5 stars
37. Human-Shaped Fiends by Chandler Morrison - 5/5 stars
38. Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca - 4/5 stars
39. The Shadows Between Us by Tricia Levenseller - 3/5 stars
40. A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers - 4/5 stars
41. A Guru Is Born by Takeshi Kitano - 1/5 stars

August:

42. Dracula by Bram Stoker - 5/5 stars
43. Hardboiled & Hard Luck by Banana Yoshimoto - 3/5 stars
44. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck - 4/5 stars
45. The Monk by Matthew Lewis - 4/5 stars
46. The Island of Doctor Moreau by H.G. Wells - 1/5 stars
47. The Elementals by Michael McDowell - 5/5 stars

September:

48: Zombie by Joyce Carol Oates - 1/5 stars
49. I'm Thinking of Ending Things by Iain Reid - 2/5 stars

Some statistics:

Translated books:

German - 1
Japanese - 12

Books by decade:

1790s - 1
1870s - 1
1890s - 2
1930s - 1
1940s - 1
1960s - 3
1970s - 2
1980s - 5
1990s - 5
2000s - 3
2010s - 10
2020s - 15

[Lisa]

Best of luck with your challenge, Tim!

[Tim]

Thank you very much Lisa!

[Trisha]

Heyy Tim, I am curious to know how 42 is the answer to everything. Also, your side-goals are really cool especially the one about reading the original Bachman books - I've read the Long Walk and now that I see Roadwork in your TBR, I'm adding it to mine too.

[Tim]

Trisha wrote: "Heyy Tim, I am curious to know how 42 is the answer to everything.."

In The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy a massive computer is built to find out the answer to life, the universe and everything. After years of thought it comes up with the answer “42.” When asked about this it states that the biggest problem was that no one actually knew what the question was. :)

I have mixed feelings on the Bachman books thus far. I wasn’t a fan of Thinner but thought the Running Man was incredible. I’ve heard Long Walk is the best of them.

[Trisha]

Shucks, I haven’t read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy yet, grrr! Thanks for clearing up the fog for me although I should have tried googling first than trouble you. 😬

I am a King’s fan (or so I call myself) but I only got around to The Long Walk last year. The other 3 Bachman books are still on my TBR. I did enjoy The Long Walk with it’s dystopian setting and King’s dark humour.

Btw, good luck with your reading challenge!

[Nerime]

Hello Tim!! Good luck on your journey this year ^^ very excited to see what books you read ♡

[Tim]

The month of January is pretty much over and the list has been updated to reflect the entire month. Not going to finish anything today, so the list will continue next month. :)

[Tim]

Big update all the way through the first book of September. The goal has been exceeded and I guess I should move it to at least 52 at this point.