The 2013 Annual Reading Challenge – List Thread!

[xendula]

My goal for this year is 80 novels, though I am almost a quarter way there already, so I suspect I won't be able to keep my quickly growing list here.

My Goodreads list - my preferred genres are dystopian, fantasy, urban fantasy, scifi.
(I only use goodreads to keep track of my TBR pile)

I'll also try to read a few classics this year.

Other numbers for 2013
Books read: 55
Books bought: 25 -> of those read: 1
Books abandoned mid-way: 3 (life's too short)
Books really, really hated: 4
Books re-read because they were so good: 2
Dead tree books bought: 2 to donate to my library, because I found them cheaper and they are a hot item at the moment
Dead tree books read: 0
eReaders bought: 1

Best books so far: Mystic City, Defiance

[Soldim]

Late to the game, but who cares. My initial goal was to read 75 books during 2013. With 19 books read during January (partially due to exceptional circumstances), I guess I might need to adjust the goal upwards.

January

1. The Chimps of Fauna Sanctuary: A True Story of Resilience and Recovery by Andrew Westoll
[INDENT]Interesting read, though much more focused on the history of the individual chimps and the legislation preventing research on chimps than on primatology. 7/10 [/INDENT]
2. Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed

I enjoyed it -- though could have lived without all the personal issues and more focus on the trail. 8/10

3. Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

Funny, but nothing exceptional. 6/10

4. Taking Sudoku Seriously: The Math Behind the World's Most Popular Pencil Puzzle by Jason Rosenhouse, Laura Taalman

Very interesting, a good balance between the focus on sudokus and mathematics in general. 8/10

5. My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell

Great read, nice understated British humor, amazing small portaits of live on Corfu. 8/10

6. Birds, Beasts, and Relatives by Gerald Durrell

A sequel to the previous book, surprisingly no decrease in quality. 8/10

7. Garden of the Gods by Gerald Durrell

Last book of the Corfu trilogy, still very strong. 8/10

8. Whatever You Do, Don't Run: True Tales of a Botswana Safari Guide by Peter Allison

Amusing, sometimes there might be slight exaggeration by the author. 7/10

9. Odd Thomas: An Odd Thomas Novel by Dean Koontz

Light, easy read. Normally I am not a great fan of the paranormal genre, but Koontz at least makes it effortless. 7/10

10. The Wild Rover: A Blistering Journey Along Britain's Footpaths by Mike Parker

Hmmm. I actually thought it was #3 on this list when I started reading. Both have 'Wild' in the title and some stuff about hiking on the cover text. The writing is not very fluent, the chapters only moderately interesting. 5/10

11. Forever Odd: An Odd Thomas Novel by Dean Koontz

Another light read. 7/10

12. How to Walk a Puma: And Other Things I Learned While Stumbling through South America by Peter Allison

Amusing, but nothing amazing 6/10.

13. Brother Odd by Dean Koontz

Again, and easy Odd novel. I feel it is quite skillful how Koontz makes the main character evolve -- it keeps these books attractive. 7/10

14. Don't Look Behind You!: A Safari Guide's Encounters with Ravenous Lions, Stampeding Elephants, and Lovesick Rhinos by Peter Allison

In my opinion the better of the three books of Allison I read the last weeks. 8/10

15. Odd Hours by Dean Koontz

I guess one can have too much of the same -- little novelty in this one. 6/10

16. The Day the World Discovered the Sun: An Extraordinary Story of Scientific Adventure and the Race to Track the Transit of Venus by Mark Anderson

A very interesting and entertaining read, where Anderson follows various natural philosophers who study the Venus transit in 1761 & 1769. It nicely mixes scientific discovery and adventure and in addition describes scientific progress during the 1760s. So far the best book I've read in 2013. 9/10

17. Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic by Tom Holland

Very well written, as I had expected from the reviews and acclaim. Holland manages a rather objective narrative of events where it is easy to choose favorite parties and is able to clearly indicate cause and consequences of this hectic period of the Roman Republic. 8/10

18. Handbook of Epictetus by Epictetus

Though provoking. Which might have been the goal. 8/10

19. Quantum Gods: Creation, Chaos, and the Search for Cosmic Consciousness by Victor J. Stenger

Not what I had expected it to be. A lot of ranting against different theists, a bit of quantum mechanics. Overall not very coherent. 6/10

February

20. Legion of Thunder by Stan Nicholls

Second book in a fantasy series of three, written from the perspective of an Orc band. The first book was pretty cool, and for sure from a novel perspective. In this one there's nothing new or surprising. I am not even sure whether or not I will start the third book. 5/10

21. Ruhlman's Twenty: The Ideas and Techniques that Will Make You a Better Cook by Michael Ruhlman

I liked this one a lot. Basically featuring twenty concepts, ingredients and techniques for cooking, illustrated with different recipes. It is a very nice overview of some of the basic concepts underlying good food and great fun in the kitchen. 9/10

22. The Quantum Universe: Everything That Can Happen Happens by Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw

This book hovers on the far edge of popular science, with the already not so light subject of quantum mechanics described and discussed thoroughly, with more than a flavor of mathematics. Someway past the middle the authors suddenly delve into the principles behind transistors -- which I always had understood quite well without being too versed in quantum mechanics. The last chapter deal with the Higgs boson, the reason I bought the book, though the explanation was not into the depth I hoped (or I am less smart than thought ). 8/10

23. The Evolution of Useful Things: How Everyday Artifacts-From Forks and Pins to Paper Clips and Zippers-Came to be as They are. by Henry Petroski

I was only moderately impressed with this book. I had expected it to be more focussed on the engineering issues, but it had a lot of design, which I only appreciated so-so. 7/10

24. The Egg and I by Betty MacDonald

Entertaining read, I liked the bitter humor and the seemingly accurate descriptions of life in the untamed Pacific North West in the 1920s. 8/10

March

25. Jerusalem: A Cookbook by Yotam Ottolenghi

A 'real' cooking book with recipes. I like it, but his other book (which will appear later on my list ) seems much better. 7/10

26. I Love Macarons by Hisako Ogita.

A definitive disappointment. Conversions of quantities are a mess and a lot of the advice is just not useful or even completely wrong. 4/10

27. Les Petits Macarons by Anne E. McBride and Kathryn Gordon.

Much better than the Ogita book, I used a couple of the recipes and they turned out well. 7/10

28. Detroit: An American Autopsy by Charlie LeDuff

Recommended to my by a friend, I wouldn't have gotten it otherwise. Raw and harsh, but very gripping. I'd strongly recommend it to anyone interested in contemporary events. 8/10

[faithbw]

My goal for 2013 is to read 35 books. I set a goal of 40 last year which I didn't accomplish. I hope to read some more classic lit and nonfiction this year. I read a lot of "chick" lit.

Below is the list of books I have read so far. Here's a link to the list on on Goodreads. If you hover over the cover images, you can see how I rated each book.

January
The Chocolate Kiss By Laura Florand

February
Grace Grows by Shelle Sumners
Arranged by Catherine McKenzie
Purification of the Heart: Signs, Symptoms and Cures of the Spiritual Diseases of the Heart (currently reading) by Hamza Yusuf

[lushgreenapple]

My goal is to read 50 books this year. I have a PRS T1 which I am selling to buy a Paperwhite. I am praying fervently that I get a defect free device. I enjoy reading satire, classics, bit of chicklit.

Read

1. Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
A truly heart breaking story that lifts your spirit. 5/5

2. Where'd you go Bernadette by Marie Semple
A tongue in cheek satire on Seattle nose in air types. Lots of LOL moments. 5/5

3. The Fault In Our Stars by John Green
This book is wonderful, the best I have read this year. The words in this book will stay with me forever. 5/5


Currently reading

1. The Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth

[Rev. Bob]

Joining the thread a bit late, but...

I've set two goals for the year, and am close to finishing the first while keeping pace with the second.

Goal 1a: Read and review at least 12 books that have been on my TBR stack for at least a year. The challenge allowed three alternates, for a total of 15 on the list.

Goal 1b: Read the "shadow list" of 14 more books that are sequels to the above list. (I don't have a handy Goodreads link for these.)

Goal 2: Read at least 150 books in calendar year 2013. The number's a little inflated due to graphic novels and short story "books" being in my stack, but the average page count shouldn't suffer much. Basically, if it's one EPUB or one set of covers, it's one book because Goodreads counts it that way. I don't have a formal list for this goal, because I prefer to read what I happen to be in the mood for at the time. However, my total to-read stack is right here; once I buy a book, it goes on that list.

Progress so far: 10/15, 7/14, and 24/150. That still puts me a book or two "down" for the year to date, but I'll make it up.

I'm also trying to limit my purchase of new dead-tree books, as ebooks are really handy. Amazon's kindly decided to "help" by canceling their long-running 4-for-3 MMPB deal. I'm also trying not to buy into new series, primarily for those physical-space reasons, but I've been relaxing that in the ebook realm when I find good deals. After all, ebooks don't take up space, and migrating dead-tree to electrons actually helps with the space problem. Also, if something goes horribly wrong and I can't afford to buy anything for a while, I'm set through about 2016...

[shanghaichica]

1) Midnight awakening- Lara Adrian
2) Star Trek the next generation: Silent weapons- Cold Equations #2-David Mack
3) Little Gypsy-Roxy Freeman
4) Star trek the next generation: The Body Electric- Cold equations #3- David Mack
5) The colour purple- Alice Walker
6) Bloodline - Mark Billingham

Comics:

1) Star Trek: Countdown to darkness #1
2)Star Trek: Countdown to darkness #2
3) Star Trek: Countdown to darkness #3
4) Star Trek: Countdown to darkness #4
5)Buffy the vampire slayer season 8 #1
6) Buffy the vampire slayer season 8 #2
7) Buffy the vampire slayer season 8 #3
8) Buffy the vampire slayer season 8 #4
9) Buffy the vampire slayer season 8 #5
10) Buffy the vampire slayer season 8 #6
11) Buffy the vampire slayer season 8 #7
12 Buffy the vampire slayer season 8 #8
13) Buffy the vampire slayer season 8 #9
14) Buffy the vampire slayer season 8 #10
15) Buffy the vampire slayer season 8 # 11
16)Buffy the vampire slayer season 8 #12
17) Buffy the vampire slayer season 8 #13
18) Buffy the vampire slayer season 8 #14
19) Star Trek Ongoing #1
20) Star Trek Ongoing #2

[Stephjk]

Joining very late!
My goal is to read 52 books this year and keep a list of them. So far I've managed:

Daddy's Little Killer by L. S. Sygnet
The Fast Diet by Michael Mosley and Mimi Spencer
Fifty Shades of Gray by E. L. James
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
Alex Cross, Run by James Patterson
The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler
Long Time Coming by Edie Claire


And four paperbacks, that I've forgotten the titles of, before I bought my Kobo!

[oGorgeous]

GoodReads doesn't handle their reading challenge as well as I'd like it to, so I've signed up in order to participate in this reading challenge. I'm a much slower reader than many of you, by the looks of things, but nonetheless, my goals are:

• Read 25 books.
• Read 150 comic book issues.

BOOKS:

1. The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy by Douglas Adams

2. Storm Front by Jim Butcher

3. The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien

4. Fool Moon by Jim Butcher

5. The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht

6. Jack Of Diamonds by Bryce Courtenay

7. The Fault In Our Stars by John Green

8. A Game Of Thrones by George R.R. Martin [re-read]

9. Fight Club by Chuck Palahnuik - currently reading

COMICS:

1. The Walking Dead, issue #1 by Robert Kirkman

2. The Walking Dead, issue #2 by Robert Kirkman

3. The Walking Dead, issue #3 by Robert Kirkman

4. The Walking Dead, issue #4 by Robert Kirkman

[Katsunami]

This year, I've decided to set a goal. I don't like to use "Books per year", as my books range from 250 page fantasy stuff up to tomes like Lord of the Rings, Shogun, or IT. Therefore I've decided to use "Pages per year", like the following.

- The average p-book paperback in my book case has 2400 characters per page.
- I've used "Count Pages" in Calibre, and set it to 2400 characters/page.
- Then I've added all pages of all books I've read so far (6.641)
- Then I've divided this by the number of days since the beginning of 2013 (132)

The result is 50.31 pages per day. This is quite correct: when setting Count Pages to 2400 characters/page, I read about 25 pages an hour, and I read mostly in public transport, which is around 2 hours per day for me. I also read +/- 2 hours per day in the weekend.

Therefore, I have set a goal of 365 x 50 = 18.250 pages for 2013.

At the beginning of this year, I already set the goal to re-read all of my paper books as an e-book. (In time, not all in 2013.) That's why there will be quite a lot of "I thought every reader would have read that stuff years ago"-books in the list, alongside some new ones

Series:
The Shannara Trilogy [0] - Brooks, Terry - First King of Shannara - 461 pages
The Shannara Trilogy [1] - Brooks, Terry - The Sword of Shannara - 578 pages
The Elenium [1] - Eddings, David - The Diamond Throne - 357 pages
The Elenium [2] - Eddings, David - The Ruby Knight - 340 pages
The Elenium [3] - Eddings, David - The Sapphire Rose - 480 pages
The Tamuli [1] - Eddings, David - Domes of Fire - 445 pages
The Tamuli [2] - Eddings, David - The Shining Ones - 453 pages
The Tamuli [3] - Eddings, David - The Hidden City - 453 pages
Lord of the Rings [1] - Tolkien, J.R.R. - The Fellowship of the Ring - 477 pages
Lord of the Rings [2] - Tolkien, J.R.R. - The Two Towers - 377 pages
Lord of the Rings [3] - Tolkien, J.R.R. - The Return of the King 602 pages

Separate books:
A Christmas Carol - Dickens, Charles - 84 pages
IT - King, Stephen - 1.128 pages
Black Beauty - Sewell, Anna - 163 pages
The Hobbit - Tolkien, J.R.R. - 243 pages

Total Read: 6.641 of 18.250 pages.
Total books: 15

Currently Reading:
Shogun - Clavell, James - 1.124 pages. (current: page 180)