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Rumpelteazer's 2012 Reading Challenge
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I've finished only one book in the last week.
by James Clavell.A very good book. Not as good as the first book in the Asian Saga, Shōgun, but still very good. It was a much quicker read, and although I really liked the story of Dirk Stuan I was a bit disappointed there wasn't much interaction with the Chinese or any focus on Chinese society. Where in Shogun the main character had to adapt to Japanese society, in Tai-Pan the Chinese characters had to adapt to Western society to be able to do business with them.
I've decided to strike through the Bridgerton series from my active reading list; it has been over a year since reading the first book so I really can't call it an active series anymore. I have two series which have only one more book left for me to read before being up to date. After finishing those I think I've met my goal of bringing back the number of active series I'm reading so I'm switching from starting one new series for every two I finish to being allowed to start a new series when I finish one.
Woohoo. I've contemplated reading Shogun, but I'm just not sure yet. So many other things on the potential piles.
Homeinmyshoes wrote: "Woohoo. I've contemplated reading Shogun, but I'm just not sure yet. So many other things on the potential piles."It's a very good book, beautifully written, it was a slow read for me but well worth it.
Bianca wrote: "I've finished only one book in the last week. by James Clavell.A very good book. Not as good as the first book in the Asian Saga, Shōgun, but still very good. It was a much qu..."
I've got so many active series open that I hesitate to think of them all...
by Colleen McCullough.Another good historic book. I haven't seen the movie (yet), so I can't comment on similarities or differences but this book was hard to put down.
by Lincoln Child.A entertaining and quick read (what I like to call a snack book). A good start to a new archeological/scientific/adventure series.
I'm currently reading The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet, which I'm also enjoying. I have slowed down, only reading 25% in 3 days. I don't think it's the book, but rather that it's the same type of book as Tai-Pan and The Thorn Birds and I'm tiring a bit of this type of book. Also, because the main character is Dutch and there are many references to Dutch culture I try to place them in my knowledge of my countries history (I don't know much of that time).
Finished in the past week:
by David Mitchell.
by Lilian Jackson Braun.and today I'll finish
by Ellis Peters.I'm now trying to decide which book to read next. Either The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett or Nights of Villjamur by Mark Charan Newton.
by Mark Charan Newton
by Laurie R. King
by Tess Gerritsen
by Lindsay Faye
I seem to have slowed down again. It isn't just because of my holiday, I find that since I got back I mostly read before I go to sleep at night and either read little or not at all during the day.
by Simon R. Green
by Tess Gerritsen
by Scott Nicholson
Simon R Green is always touch and go for me.
MrsJoseph wrote: "Simon R Green is always touch and go for me."I didn't like it. He tried too hard to be witty like, for instance, Jim Butcher but he couldn't pull it off, his jokes were too harsh/crude. It might have been me, that I don't like that type of humour. The romance didn't work either for me. As I said, I think he wanted to imitate other, popular, urban fantasy books and it just didn't work. I'm not even going to try the second book in the series, there are too many other, better, series to spend my time on.
Bianca wrote: "MrsJoseph wrote: "Simon R Green is always touch and go for me."I didn't like it. He tried too hard to be witty like, for instance, Jim Butcher but he couldn't pull it off, his jokes were too hars..."
You know, that's pretty much how I feel, too. I loved his first Secret Histories but nothing else.
by James Herbert
by Ellis Peters
by David Golemon
by Laurie R. King
by Kealan Patrick Burke
by E.J. Copperman
by John Connolly.Not much to show for two weeks, however, I've been rereading Justin Cronin's The Passage but took a break when my cold got to the "mushie brains" stage. I'm now reading And Only to Deceive by Tasha Alexander, I expect to finish it tomorrow and I can continue with The Passage.
by Tasha AlexanderAn okay read, more of a historical romance with a mystery in it than a historical mystery with some romance in it (as I expected from the description). It wasn't the type of story I was looking for and I won't be continuing this series.
by Justin Cronin.A reread. I had forgotten most of the story, like the first read it was hard to put down. However, the middle part is a bit slow and could have done with editing; a lot of characters, even those that aren't important are well rounded, if that was edited it would have sped up the story quite a bit.
31-10 by Stephen Volk (book cannot be found on GoodReads). A short story and the sequel to BBCs 1992 Ghostwatch tv program.
by Lindsay Faye.An okay story, better than most Sherlock Holmes stories not written by ACD.
by Kealan Patrick Burke.Second in the Timmy Quinn series, set in Ireland. Again, an okay story, I think more could have been done with it.
Bianca wrote: "31-10 by Stephen Volk (book cannot be found on GoodReads). A short story and the sequel to BBCs 1992 Ghostwatch tv program.
?
Lol, it took me a bit to figure out you were replying to Lindsay Faye's book and not the Ghostwatch sequel.Yes, Laurie R. King's Sherlock Holmes stories are better. Which is probably because in her stories Holmes is older whilst in most other stories it is set around the same time as ACD's stories. It's probably easier to write about Holmes at a different age because it's believable that he might act differently than you would expect because he's older or younger.
lol! I don't know what happened to the rest of my comment...There was a full sentence there.
Cabal by Michael Dibdin.An easier read than the first two books in the series. Enjoyable story with a nice twist at the end.
The Racketeer by John Grisham.
My first Grisham book, I always thought his books would be very slow reads, but I was wrong. A good story with a twist, although I should have picked up the clues.
I've also decided to stop with the Cotton Malone series, the books were all the same set-up (Cotton is reluctantly pulled into some sort of conspiracy which includes 3 parties, Cotton not being sure which side to choose and a beautiful woman). I'm going to continue with the Charlie Parker series.
Dark Hollow by John Connolly.Much better than the first book in the Charlie Parker series. An entertaining and quick read.
"Misery Hall" by L. Chambers-Wright (not on GoodReads).
A bit of a disappointment, not that the story wasn't good but I was expecting a longer short story. The story itself was 15 pages long and the other 35 pages was a sample for one of her books. I'm glad the story is free (Smashwords) but if it said on the blurb on Smashwords that it was so short compared to the sample I wouldn't have downloaded it.
The Killing Kind by John Connolly.The Blackhouse by Peter May.
The White Road by John Connolly.
Cold Days by Jim Butcher.
Bianca wrote: "The Killing Kind by John Connolly.The Blackhouse by Peter May.
The White Road by John Connolly.
Cold Days by Jim Butcher."
Everyone I know has read Cold Days...but me.
Loosheesh wrote: "MrsJoseph wrote: "Everyone I know has read Cold Days...but me."I haven't read it :P"
Yaaaay! I'm not alone!
MrsJoseph wrote:"Everyone I know has read Cold Days...but me."
It was very good. I always dread to start a new release in a series I love; I'm afraid it will disappoint me. Strangely, I don't have that when reading books in a series I'm still getting up to date with (e.g. John Connolly's Charlie Parker series or Ellis Peters' Brother Cadfael).
Think of it as an opportunity to clear out series from the to read pile. Frankly a dud to stop one from reading a series is a good thing. Thank you GRRM.
Loosheesh wrote: "Bianca wrote: "I always dread to start a new release in a series I love; I'm afraid it will disappoint me."I'm like that. I always dread the latest release will be the one to turn me off the seri..."
Me, too. I'm always nervous that it won't live up to expectations. :-(
Homeinmyshoes wrote: "Think of it as an opportunity to clear out series from the to read pile. Frankly a dud to stop one from reading a series is a good thing. Thank you GRRM.":-D
I couldn't get past book 1...
Loosheesh wrote: "MrsJoseph wrote: "Yaaaay! I'm not alone!"Lol! Actually, I haven't read any of the books in that series. It's been at the back of my head to try it but with so much more immediate stuff I want to ..."
Harry's cool but...I feel the same way most of the time.
MrsJoseph wrote: I couldn't get past book 1..."You saved yourself many hours. I made the first three books.
Homeinmyshoes wrote: "MrsJoseph wrote: I couldn't get past book 1..."You saved yourself many hours. I made the first three books."
I've read the first three books, too. It's been almost a year and I'm very hesitant to start number four because I heard four and five are boring.
I have culled my "current series" list this year, stopping series as Rama, Cotton Malone and Nic Costa, each for a different reason. Before this year I wouldn't have kept reading those series even though I wasn't enjoying them (enough).
Homeinmyshoes wrote: "Think of it as an opportunity to clear out series from the to read pile. Frankly a dud to stop one from reading a series is a good thing. Thank you GRRM."That's true.
This year's big disappointment in favourite series is Ash by James Herbert. Before, his books were fun ghost stories, Ash is about conspiracy theories, and ridiculous conspiracy theories at that. I was planning on reading more of Herbert's novels but Ash has turned me right off that plan.
I didn't really enjoy book three either. I think my reading tastes changed and doorstopper books, unless they were spectacular have lost most interest to me now. I'd rather experience three other authors than one gigantic one now.
Homeinmyshoes wrote: "I didn't really enjoy book three either. I think my reading tastes changed and doorstopper books, unless they were spectacular have lost most interest to me now. I'd rather experience three other a..."Eventhough it took me quite a while to read I did enjoy it. I just wasn't really in the mood for it when I started and I put it on hold.
At the moment I've noticed that I've tired a bit of books set in the 1800s. Also it being the bussiest time of the year I need easy reads, so I'm looking for those.
Homeinmyshoes wrote: "MrsJoseph wrote: I couldn't get past book 1..."You saved yourself many hours. I made the first three books."
Wow. *shudder*
Homeinmyshoes wrote: "I didn't really enjoy book three either. I think my reading tastes changed and doorstopper books, unless they were spectacular have lost most interest to me now. I'd rather experience three other a..."I'm a total wussy...and GRRM is all about controversial sex and gross violence. I couldn't do it. But I'm glad because from what I hear...it'll never be finish. He said the next one will take at least 3 years to write (not counting edits, etc).
MrsJoseph wrote: "Homeinmyshoes wrote: "I didn't really enjoy book three either. I think my reading tastes changed and doorstopper books, unless they were spectacular have lost most interest to me now. I'd rather ex..."FictFact.com has already put placeholders in for the next two GRRM book: The Winds of Winter, 1 January 2015 (756 days) and A Dream of Spring , 1 January 2020 (2582 days).
Bianca wrote: "FictFact.com has already put placeholders in for the next two GRRM book: The Winds of Winter, 1 January 2015 (756 days) and A Dream of Spring , 1 January 2020 (2582 days). "I've learned never to trust a GRRM release date, lol.
MrsJoseph wrote: "I've learned never to trust a GRRM release date, lol. "Me neither, but I had to LOL when I saw those release dates, especially the last one.
I might work my way through those two, thankfully the chapters aren't long and it's easy enough to read a couple between books.
The Yard by Alex Grecian.The Vampire Laird by Merabeth James.
Blindsighted by Karin Slaughter.
Monk's Hood by Ellis Peters.
Bianca wrote: "MrsJoseph wrote: "I've learned never to trust a GRRM release date, lol. "Me neither, but I had to LOL when I saw those release dates, especially the last one.
I might work my way through those t..."
My three year old would be old enough to start the series by the time the last one comes out.
The final books of the 2012:
by James Rollins & Rebecca Cantrell.A promising prequel to a new series. The first chapters of the first book of The Order of the Sanguines are included (released 8 January) and is very promising.
by Phil Rickman.The idea is very good but it's too long. The ending takes a third of the book to come to it's end. The ending is also disappointing, when some bad guys escape for various reasons and the "heroes" just shrug "nothing we can do about it" (and no, there isn't a sequel).
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Curfew (other topics)City of Screams (other topics)
The Black Angel (other topics)
The Yard (other topics)
Monk's Hood (other topics)
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I really like this series. The first books were in danger of becoming repetative but because of the character development and what is happening in their personal lives the Sebastian St. Cyr series become a very interesting series.