2025 & 2026 Reading Challenge discussion
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Randy's Ridiculously Realistic Goal - 52 in 2022
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#53 in 2022: I finished the third book in the Chronicles of Narnia series
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
and I started the third book in the Dragonriders of Pern series (first in the Harper Hall trilogy)
Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey
#54 in 2022: I finished the Australian classic
Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
and I started reading perhaps the most revered war novel ever
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
#55 in 2022: I finished the first book in the urban fantasy Rivers of London series
Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
and I started reading something creepy for October
The Woman in Black by Susan Hill
#56 in 2022: I finished the short gothic suspense novel
The Woman in Black by Susan Hill
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
and I started reading
A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash
#57 in 2022:I finished the greatest war novel ever
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
Rating: 5 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
and I started reading
The Death of Sweet Mister by Daniel Woodrell
#58 in 2022:I finished the third book (and best so far) in the LAPD Det. Harry Bosch series
The Concrete Blonde by Michael Connelly
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
and I started reading this collection of two stories that inspired the classic films
The Third Man / The Fallen Idol by Graham Greene
#59 in 2022: I finished the children's classic (which I rescued from my daughter's give-away box after she cleaned out her room to go to college)
Matilda by Roald Dahl
Rating: 3 stars (add 1-2 stars if you're under the age of 13)
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
and I started another children's classic (the other book I rescued)
The Worst Class Trip Ever by Dave Barry
#60 in 2022I finished the first "Bachman" book
Rage by Stephen King writing as Richard Bachman
Rating: 3 stars (more like 3.5)
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
and I started reading
Intensity by Dean Koontz
#61 in 2022: I finished the country-noir
The Death of Sweet Mister by Daniel Woodrell
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
and I started what already promises to be an all-time fave
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
#62 in 2022:I finished the first book in the Harper Hall trilogy, which is the third book in the larger Dragonriders of Pern series (publication order)
Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
and I started reading a collection of stories and material related to the Amber series
The Road to Amber by Roger Zelazny
#63 in 2022:I finished the first book in the Sci-Fi-archeology Academy series, which turned out to be a slog at times
The Engines of God by Jack McDevitt
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
and I started reading a Sci-Fi locked room murder mystery (and I'm pretty sure the butler didn't do it)
Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty
#64 in 2022: I finished
The Third Man / The Fallen Idol by Graham Greene
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
and I started
Mildred Pierce by James M. Cain
#65 in 2022:I finished
A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
and I started
Travels with Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck
#66 in 2022: I finished Steinbeck's travelogue
Travels with Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
and I started reading
To Die in California by Newton Thornburg
#67 in 2022: I finished Ken Liu's debut short story collection
The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
and I started reading the Science-Fiction anthology
The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One, 1929-1964 edited by Robert Silverberg
#68 in 2022: I finished the Science-Fiction locked, um, airlock murder mystery
Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
and I started reading
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
#69 in 2022: I finished the Depression-Era drama
Mildred Pierce by James M. Cain
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
and I started reading one of the first collections of Sherlock Holmes "pastiches," this one with some stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle's son
The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes by Adrian Conan Doyle and John Dickson Carr
#70 in 2022I finished a book that my daughter is giving away
The Worst Class Trip Ever by Dave Barry
Rating: 2 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
and I started reading
Veronika Decides to Die by Paulo Coelho
And that's a wrap! 2022 is just about over and I don't think I will finish any more books this year, so it's time for the 2022 in Review posts. I read 70 books this year which is quite a bit more than my goal of 52. I prefer to focus on quality rather than quantity, and I feel like I had some very good reads this year, although not as many 5 star reads as I hoped for.
In the next few posts I will sum up my reads for each of the following categories:
- General Fiction/Classics
- Non-Fiction
- Mystery/Crime/Thrillers
- Fantasy
- Science Fiction
- Horror
- Short Stories
If you want to check in on my 2023 thread, feel free to check in at the link below to see a preview of what I expect to be reading in 2023. See you next year!
2023 thread: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
GENERAL FICTION/CLASSICS in 2022:As has been the case in the last few years, General Fiction/Classics has increased its share of my overall reads and many of my top-rated books have come from this category. Looking back, I'm very pleased with the number of classics I was able to finish this year as well as some very good contemporary novels also.
Remember: my ratings are based on personal enjoyment, not literary merit.
The General Fiction/Classics books I read in 2022 were:
The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
Rating: 5 stars
Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand
Rating: 3 stars
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
Rating: 3 stars
Hurricane Season by Fernanda Melchor
Rating: 4 stars
The Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy
Rating: 4 stars
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
Rating: 3 stars
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
Rating: 4 stars
This Thing of Darkness by Harry Thompson
Rating: 4 stars
The Collector by John Fowles
Rating: 3 stars
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Rating: 4 stars
Fair Land, Fair Land by A.B. Guthrie Jr.
Rating: 4 stars
Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsay
Rating: 4 stars
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
Rating: 5 stars
My GENERAL FICTION/CLASSIC BOOK OF 2022 is:
The Razor's Edge by W. Somerset Maugham
Rating: 5 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
NON-FICTION IN 2022I read fewer Non-Fiction books this year than the last couple of years, probably because two of the books I am still working on (Asimov's Chronology of the World by Isaac Asimov and Battle Cry of Freedom by James M. McPherson) are big fat doorstops that I won't finish until 2023.
Overboard!: A True Blue-Water Odyssey of Disaster and Survival by Michael J. Tougias
Rating: 3 stars
With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa by Eugene B. Sledge
Rating: 4 stars
They Call Me Coach by John Wooden as told to Jack Tobin
Rating: 3 stars
Close to Shore: The Terrifying Shark Attacks of 1916 by Michael Capuzzo
Rating: 3 stars
Travels with Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck
Rating: 4 stars
My NON-FICTION BOOK OF 2022 IS:
With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa by Eugene B. Sledge
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
This one could have gone to Travels With Charley, until I read up on the book and learned that Steinbeck made a lot of it up. So the honor goes to the very much not-made-up WWII memoirs of Eugene "Sledgehammer" Sledge that were the basis for some of the episodes of the HBO series The Pacific.
MYSTERY/CRIME/SUSPENSE IN 2022My favorite genre! I read quite a few Mystery/Crime/Suspense books in 2022 and enjoyed most of them. For the most part I focused on continuing with series I have been reading and authors I am following, but I did find time to slip in some new series and authors, thanks to various group reads.
Here are my 2022 Mystery/Crime/Suspense reads:
Get Carter by Ted Lewis
Rating: 4 stars
The Bone Collector by Jeffery Deaver
Rating: 4 stars
Reliquary by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
Rating: 3 stars
The Drowning Pool by Ross Macdonald
Rating: 4 stars
I Married a Dead Man by Cornell Woolrich writing as William Irish
Rating: 4 stars
The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett
Rating: 3 starsThe Neon Rain
Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters
Rating: 2 stars
The Neon Rain by James Lee Burke
Rating: 3 stars
Vertigo by Boileau-Narcejac
Rating: 4 stars
Reversible Errors by Scott Turow
Rating: 3 stars
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
Rating: 4 stars
The Snow Was Dirty by Georges Simenon
Rating: 4 stars
Anatomy of a Murder by Robert Traver
Rating: 2 stars
Cool Hand Luke by Donn Pearce
Rating: 3 stars
Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell
Rating: 4 stars
Somebody Owes Me Money by Donald E. Westlake
Rating: 3 stars
My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier
Rating: 4 stars
The Concrete Blonde by Michael Connelly
Rating: 4 stars
The Death of Sweet Mister by Daniel Woodrell
Rating: 4 stars
A Land More Kind Than Home by Wiley Cash
Rating: 3 stars
Mildred Pierce by James M. Cain
Rating: 4 stars
Since there were no 5-star reads this year, after careful consideration, my 2022 MYSTERY/CRIME/SUSPENSE BOOK OF 2022 is:
Winter's Bone by Daniel Woodrell
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
FANTASY in 2022: The Fantasy genre was one of the first to captivate me as a youngster, and it continues to treat me well these days. Right now I am focused on trying to continue and finish off some series that I have been reading, although I do find time to add some new series or stand-alone reads through group reads.
My fantasy reads in 2022 included:
The Hod King by Josiah Bancroft
Rating: 4 stars
Delusion's Master by Tanith Lee
Rating: 3 stars
The Farthest Shore by Ursula K. Le Guin
Rating: 4 stars
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis
Rating: 3 stars
Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch
Rating: 3 stars
Dragonsong by Anne McCaffrey
Rating: 4 stars
My FANTASY READ of 2022 could have gone to The Farthest Shore or to Dragonsong, but instead it went to
The Hod King by Josiah Bancroft
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
SCIENCE FICTION IN 2022:The last few years in Science-Fiction my reading has been fairly bleak despite the fact that I used to find some great reads in the genre. Fortunately, things were a little better in 2022, and I even started a couple of new series in addition to continuing with series I was already reading.
My Science-Fiction reads in 2022 included:
The Last Colony by John Scalzi
Rating: 3 stars
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams
Rating: 2 stars
I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
Rating: 3 stars
Martians, Go Home by Fredric Brown
Rating: 3 stars
Wasp by Eric Frank Russell
Rating: 2 stars
City by Clifford D. Simak
Rating: 3 stars
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick
Rating: 4 stars
The Engines of God by Jack McDevitt
Rating: 3 stars
Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty
Rating: 3 stars
My SCIENCE-FICTION READ OF 2022 is:
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
HORROR IN 2022: After an uptick in Horror reading the last couple years, this year was only so-so, although some of the best Horror reads I finished will actually be found in the Short Stories entry below.
Horror reads in 2022 include:
Gone South by Robert McCammon
Rating: 3 stars
The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker
Rating: 4 stars
The Tale of the Body Thief by Anne Rice
Rating: 3 stars
Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre by Max Brooks
Rating: 3 stars
Rage by Stephen King writing as Richard Bachman
Rating: 3 stars
My HORROR READ OF 2022 is:
The Hellbound Heart by Clive Barker
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
SHORT STORIES IN 2022:I enjoy short stories and this category usually treats me well. 2022 was no exception and I was able to finish some quality collections and anthologies.
Short Story Collections and Anthologies I finished in 2022 include:
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories by Robert Louis Stevenson
Rating: 3 stars
The Great God Pan and Other Horror Stories by Arthur Machen
Rating: 4 stars
Songs of the Dying Earth: Stories in Honour of Jack Vance edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois
Rating: 4 stars
I Hate to See That Evening Sun Go Down: Collected Stories by William Gay
Rating: 4 stars
Wittgenstein's Lolita and The Iceman by William Gay
Rating: 3 stars
Green Tea and Other Weird Stories by J. Sheridan Le Fanu
Rating: 4 stars
The Third Man / The Fallen Idol by Graham Greene
Rating: 4 stars
The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu
Rating: 4 stars
After careful consideration, my SHORT STORY COLLECTION/ANTHOLOGY READ OF 2022 is a tie between:
The Great God Pan and Other Horror Stories by Arthur Machen
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Songs of the Dying Earth: Stories in Honour of Jack Vance edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois
Rating: 4 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
2022 HALL OF SHAME:The books we hate. These are the books I either bailed out of (only one this year) or struggled to get through.
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe by Douglas Adams
Rating: 2 stars
Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters
Rating: 2 stars
Wasp by Eric Frank Russell
Rating: 2 stars
Anatomy of a Murder by Robert Traver
Rating: 2 stars
Into the Water by Paula Hawkins
Rating: 1 star
The Worst Class Trip Ever by Dave Barry
Rating: 2 stars
As you might expect, my WORST READ OF 2022 is:
Into the Water by Paula Hawkins
Rating: 1 star
NEW AUTHORS IN 2022:These are the new-to-me authors I read for the first time in 2022:
The ones I really enjoyed and/or am looking forward to reading more of their work:
Ted Lewis
W. Somerset Maugham
Robert Louis Stevenson
Ernest Hemingway
Fernanda Melchor
Isaac Asimov
James Lee Burke
Leo Tolstoy
Boileau-Narcejac
Arthur Machen
Fredric Brown
James Joyce
Eugene B. Sledge
Edith Wharton
Harry Thompson
Clifford D. Simak
J. Sheridan Le Fanu
Daniel Woodrell
John Fowles
Donald E. Westlake
Colson Whitehead
Joan Lindsay
Ben Aaronovitch
Erich Maria Remarque
Jack McDevitt
Ken Liu
The others:
Edmond Rostand
Elizabeth Peters
Eric Frank Russell
Robert Traver
Donn Pearce
Michael Capuzzo
Susan Hill
Mur Lafferty
2025 & 2026 Reading Challenge
Books mentioned in this topic
Into the Water (other topics)Wasp (other topics)
Anatomy of a Murder (other topics)
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (other topics)
Crocodile on the Sandbank (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Joan Lindsay (other topics)Erich Maria Remarque (other topics)
Ken Liu (other topics)
Ben Aaronovitch (other topics)
Mur Lafferty (other topics)
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I finished reading the latest by the author of World War Z
Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre by Max Brooks
Rating: 3 stars
Review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
and I started reading
Rage by Stephen King writing as Richard Bachman
which has fallen out of print at King's request because it deals with the subject of school shootings