What else are you reading in February 2010?

[Random]

Lol, I'm half way through my 6th. I hear Awakening is due out mid March. I am so doomed. :)

[Kelly]

You and me both. :)

[Jon]

I finished Flesh and Spirit (my review) yesterday. It was extremely hard not to continue right on to Breath and Bone, which I have in my possession. But I wanted to read a couple of library books first that are due in next week: Arms-Commander and The Red Wolf Conspiracy. I'm already one-fifth to one-quarter of the way through Arms-Commander ... I love Recluce! :)

[Anomander]

Stuff read so far this month:

Wings of Wrath (The Magister Trilogy, #2) by C.S. Friedman

Rest are Warhammer 40K/Warhammer fantasy novels, all suitably Grimdark .
Salamanders by Nick Kyme
Blood Pact (Gaunt's Ghosts, #12) by Dan Abnett
Blood for the Blood God by C.L. Werner

[Kathi, Moderator & Book Lover]

Jim wrote: "I hope to get into more of her recent work. She's a wonderful writer."

Based on all the positive comments here, I picked up a few Elizabeth Bear books at Half Price Books last week.

[Stefan, Group Founder + Moderator (Retired)]

I finished Toll the Hounds by Steven Erikson, which was okay but probably my least favorite of all Malazan books so far. (And at almost 1300 pages, it took some effort...)

Next up, Shades of Grey: The Road to High Saffron by Jasper Fforde. There are a half dozen books I should be reading first, but this one just came in at the library, and I'm not taking it back without having read it.

[Christine]

OK, I finished City of Ashes and have started The Hunger Games. I didn't enjoy City of Ashes as much as I did City of Bones, but will most certainly read City of Glass soon

[William]

Stefan wrote: "I finished Toll the Hounds by Steven Erikson, which was okay but probably my least favorite of all Malazan books so far. (And at almost 1300 pages, it took some effort...)
"

That seems to be a fairly common reaction. I'm not sure I'd say it was quite the weakest in the series, but it is certainly far from the best.

I've just finished Daniel Abraham's A Betrayal in Winter, which I thought was a good read with some interesting characterisation and world-building. I've just started reading the third book in the series, An Autumn War.

[Stefan, Group Founder + Moderator (Retired)]

William wrote: That seems to be a fairly common reaction. I'm not sure I'd say it was quite the weakest in the series, but it is certainly far from the best.

I mainly found it confusing. There's a huge amount of set-up leading up to the big confrontation, but I'm not sure I understood completely what actually happened at the end. Very confusing.

I finished Shades of Grey: The Road to High Saffron by Jasper Fforde, thought it was good but not as great as his Thursday Next books. Just started a new book last night, Servant of the Underworld by Aliette de Bodard, which seems to be a cross-genre with historical fiction (set in the Aztec empire), fantasy and mystery all thrown in the mix. Entertaining, so far.

[Kelly]

I gave it away for the time being (after skimming through the remainder of the book so see where the plot was going) and picked up Mirror Dance. It may simply be that my fantasy binge is at an end for now. :)

[Kathi, Moderator & Book Lover]

I'm reading out of genre because they are borrowed books and I need to pass them on... The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown and now Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton. Memory by Lois McMaster Bujold will be next. Then I REALLY need to read the First Reads book I won months ago and haven't gotten to...

[Bookbrow]

I too am reading out of the genre (a bit) as I picked up :Soccernomics: Why England Loses, Why Germany and Brazil Win, and Why the U.S., Japan, Australia, Turkey--and Even Iraq--Are Destined to Become the Kings of the World's Most Popular Sport|6617185] by Simon Kuper so far is eye opening. I am also really enjoying This Alien Shore by C.S Friedman excellent space opera stuff.

[Jon]

I finished Arms-Commander (my review) yesterday evening and started reading Nyphron Rising this morning, which I might finish today thanks to another snow storm rolling through Kansas.

[Kelly]

Bookbrow wrote: "I am also really enjoying This Alien Shore by C.S Friedman excellent space opera stuff."

My favourite C.S. Friedman book right there.

[Ron]

I started Walter Jon Williams' This Is Not a Game today and I'm really liking it. It reminds me of Stross' "Halting State" but even more it reminds me of Bruce Sterling, like "Zeitgeist" or "Heavy Weather", that period. Good fun stuff, all near-present-day, no FTL ships or rogue AIs, very much in the spirit of "mundane" SF, still all about how technology affects us and its impact on us while being highly entertaining.

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

Let's see, I recently finished The Last Apprentice: Wrath of the Bloodeye and The Legend of Drizzt Omnibus, Vol. 2, and am now reading Blood and Iron by Elizabeth Bear.

[Stefan, Group Founder + Moderator (Retired)]

I finished Servant of the Underworld by Aliette de Bodard on Sunday, and thought it was pretty good for a debut novel.

Right now I'm about 250 pages into The Last Stormlord by Glenda Larke. It's a very enjoyable read, despite being a bit predictable.

[Kerry]

I finished This Alien Shore and Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer. I've now moved on to Blackout by Connie Willis and Prophecy: Child of Earth by Elizabeth Haydon. I'm not very far into either yet, but I'm enjoying them both.

[Stefan, Group Founder + Moderator (Retired)]

I finished The Last Stormlord by Glenda Larke last night and really enjoyed it. I'm working on the review for FanLit now, but already wanted to throw in a recommendation for anyone looking for a solid, well-told high fantasy.

Next up, I'm very excited about reading The Master of Whitestorm by Janny Wurts for a book discussion in another group here on GoodReads.

It's hard to believe I've already read 17 novels since January 1st. Writing deadlines do help with motivation...

[Kathi, Moderator & Book Lover]

Stefan wrote: "It's hard to believe I've already read 17 novels since January 1st."

I've only read 4 (and I'm halfway through the fifth), which may be a new all time low for me. :-(

[Kelly]

I have also only read four, an all time low for me (I usually read over 100 books a year).

[Bookbrow]

Kathi wrote: "Stefan wrote: "It's hard to believe I've already read 17 novels since January 1st."

I've only read 4 (and I'm halfway through the fifth), which may be a new all time low for me. :-("

I too wonder about the glacial rate of my book reading next to some of the others here (17 books since Jan- gasp!) But it is not a race (well maybe a race with oneself trying to better the amounts read last year) life does get in the way and I find that some books bog you down and others you fly through. The real problem is that I am discovering books that I want to read on this forum vs. time to read them. Sigh.

[Shanshad]

Bookbrow wrote: "Kathi wrote: "Stefan wrote: "It's hard to believe I've already read 17 novels since January 1st."

I've only read 4 (and I'm halfway through the fifth), which may be a new all time low for me. :-(..."

I've read around 20 books over 300 pages, maybe 10 shorter books and 25-30 picture books this year so far. But between being a children's librarian and having 40 minutes on the subway each day and night for reading, that kinda goes with the territory!

[Ken]

Finished Anathem by Stephenson and its by far the best book I have read in years. I literally could not put it down.

Started in on City of Night: A Novel of The House War

This year I have read 2 or three books. To be fair They were pretty big books

[Sandi]

I can't believe I've read 18 books this year. I think I'm really cheating on the count though because 6 of them have been audiobooks and 2 of them were books I was almost done with at the end of 2009.

[Kelly]

Audio books count... you still have to spend the time and I find audio books take longer than paper books because I tend to read a LOT faster than they do.

[Sandi]

Sisimka wrote: "Audio books count... you still have to spend the time and I find audio books take longer than paper books because I tend to read a LOT faster than they do."

On the other hand, I listen to audiobooks while doing other, brainless tasks, like vacuuming and cleaning toilets. I can't multitask while reading a dead-tree book. If I hadn't listened to the audiobooks, I would have "read" 6 fewer books. Audio is also a completely different experience for me than reading because the story is filtered by the narrator's interpretation. Warbreaker was the perfect example of that. The narrator chose to give certain characters "voices" that I probably would not have given them and it affected the way I interpreted the characters. I realized it was happening about halfway through and had to really work hard to separate what was being said vs. how it was being read.

I do give audiobooks a lot of credit for helping me make time for stories that I might not have time for otherwise.

[Kelly]

Sandi wrote: "I do give audiobooks a lot of credit for helping me make time for stories that I might not have time for otherwise...."

Same here.

[Laurel]

I'm at 17 so far. I've never managed a 100 book year, but perhaps all the stars will align and I'll finally make it!

[Marty]

I thought this year I would use goodreads to keep track and see how fast I am reading these days. so far this year I have 14 read. but I am sure that different times of the year will be at a different pace for me. in a few weeks I will be on spring break and will read faster....

[Shel, Moderator]

I'm up to 11 this year so far. Generally I read 70-75 per year, not including re-reads, and I re-read a LOT so if you count those it's probably close to 100 :)

I'm in the middle of The Unicorn Hunt at the moment. Dunnett's a slow read, so it may be a while (which for me means another week or so!).

[Janny]

Shel wrote: "I'm up to 11 this year so far. Generally I read 70-75 per year, not including re-reads, and I re-read a LOT so if you count those it's probably close to 100 :)

I'm in the middle of [book:The Unic..."

Shel - amazing to find someone here who enjoys one of my favorite authors! The subtlety of the plots, and the quality of the detail and the research that went into her titles is astounding.

[Shel, Moderator]

She's amazing, isn't she? I read her Lymond chronicles a few years ago and was blown away, now I've been working my way through the Niccolo books. I usually space them out but was so stunned by the ending of Scales of Gold that I HAD to go right on to the next book :) I'll probably be back to SF afterwards!

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

Bookbrow wrote: " too wonder about the glacial rate of my book reading next to some of the others here (17 books since Jan- gasp!) But it is not a race (well maybe a race with oneself trying to better the amounts read last year) life does get in the way and I find that some books bog you down and others you fly through. The real problem is that I am discovering books that I want to read on this forum vs. time to read them. Sigh."

As a side note, I think it's kind of hysterical how competitive-sounding this thread has gotten with your "it's not a race" mingled into the book tallying posts. I've gotten a bit of a chuckle out of it.

Anyway, I also read quite slowly, in comparison, which is kind of funny 'cause this one guy I see on the train seems to think I read uncommonly fast. But, as you say, life gets in the way, and I also find that a book I'm not enjoying as much takes much longer to read, much to my chagrin.

I have the same problem, though, in that ever since I've joined goodreads I find myself adding more and more (and more) books to my tbr shelf, and I wonder how I will find time to read them all, since I read roughly one book a week and I already have over a years worth of books on my shelf, and I just keep adding more!

On the other hand, I suppose this is preferable to the time before I joined goodreads when I was desperately waiting for 'next in series' to be released because I had nothing new to read and didn't know what was good to pick up. The horror of it all! *grins*

[Kathi, Moderator & Book Lover]

I usually read about a book a week, but my library (no, not the public one, the library in my house) has hundreds of books I have yet to read. I never have to wait around to find something to read next.

As some of you know, I rarely will start reading a series until all the books (as far as we know) are in print, but I do buy them and just keep them on the shelves.

I've always been jealous (in a weird way) of those of you who read on your commute, or listen to audio books while driving or doing something else. My commute was never more than 15 minutes and I was always driving with someone else, so we made conversation. Now I'm not working--more time to read, more time that seems to be eaten up by other things. I used to listen to audio books while on the treadmill or Nordic Track, but now I listen to public radio during that time.

It's not a competition, but it is interesting for me to compare my reading styles & habits with others. And since joining a book group online, I started keeping track of my books and setting a goal of 50 books a year (about 1 a week), and I think that's been good for me.

[Sandra]

Sandi wrote: "Sisimka wrote: "Audio books count... you still have to spend the time and I find audio books take longer than paper books because I tend to read a LOT faster than they do."

On the other hand, I li..."

Boy, are you ever right about being able to read more by listening to audiobooks. I LOVE them, although I also enjoy just reading. I found Goodreads in late Dec. of last year and since, have upped my reading immensely. I have found so many books I want to read it's kind of silly! So far this year I've read 32 books and I'm almost embarassed to post that as it's a testament to my life. On the other hand, I'm over retirement age, so what better way to spend my time than reading? It's been my favorite occupation since I was in the first grade and my mother bought me Whitefoot The Woodmouse. I gobbled it up and went on from there.

[Kathi, Moderator & Book Lover]

Sandra wrote: "On the other hand, I'm over retirement age, so what better way to spend my time than reading? It's been my favorite occupation since I was in the first grade ."

I can identify with that... and I love being in the (virtual) company of so many people who feel the same way.

I finished Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton last night and posted my review here: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/64...

Now I've started the February Miles book--yay!

[Jeffrey]

I have read about 20 books so far but I have also read part of 4 other old favs. Of those 20 some of them are re-reads. I try to read 2-3 books a week, but sometimes it isnt there. Its funny how many books I read long ago, are now being read by the various groups I am in, while I am struggling through other newer books.