The 2016 Annual Reading Challenge Discussion Thread

[HomeInMyShoes]

I have not read Donald Jack. I don't read much Great War stuff, but I'm always willing to try stuff especially if it fits into my challenges. Putting it on the list. We'll see where I end up when it comes to humor and Canada. Using the United States for humor seems like taking the easy way out.

So I'd get Humor/Canada and Mystery/Australia. Not bad. Better than the Humor/United States and Mystery/Canada tandem. Anything that reduces the amount i read from the US/UK is good for reading diversity.

[Dngrsone]

Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes

Thanks Dngrsone. I'm looking for almost anything. I have two challenges this year genre/formats and countries. So anything not in the following genres and countries would work as I've already covered them:

historical fiction; biography/memoir; dystopia; zombies
Ireland, Sweden, Israel, United States, Iran

Otherwise I am open to almost any recommendation. Something covering a non-visited country (author origin) and non-read genre.

Belgian Space Opera?
Gambian Steampunk? (does that even exist?)
Polish Science Fiction? (actually Stanislaw Lem is a potential)
Russian Chick-Lit?
South Korean Non-Fiction?

I know I'm going to read more than one book from United Kingdom and the United States because genre fiction is going to force that and it needs to be in English or translated to because I am not a multi-lingual person.

Try The Leopard's Daughter by Lee Killough. The author is American but the setting is Africa.

Oleg Gordievsky is a former KGB double agent. I have read his autobiography, Next Stop Execution which is a good book, but not fast.

Heart Collector is a French crime novel by Jacques Vandroux. Again, not quick, but it would definitely give you that country.

Thomas Olde Heuvelt is a Dutch author whose short The Ink Readers of Doi Saket is a good short read.

[HomeInMyShoes]

Thomas Olde Heuvelt. Hmmm...perhaps horror from the Netherlands and they have a book at my library. Thanks for the suggestions.

I am trying for authors from countries instead of set in a country. Makes some countries probably impossible to actually read.

[Fbone]

Originally Posted by HomeInMyShoes

Thomas Olde Heuvelt. Hmmm...perhaps horror from the Netherlands and they have a book at my library. Thanks for the suggestions.

I am trying for authors from countries instead of set in a country. Makes some countries probably impossible to actually read.

If you can find it, there is The Pigeon by Patrick Suskind. German allegory/humor translated into English. Setting is Paris. The fact that Suskind is a recluse and his whereabouts unknown adds to his allure.

[HomeInMyShoes]

^Interesting. Although it only shows up on Goodreads as literature/classics or general fiction really. My library does have it and Perfume which I might be able to slot into mystery/crime sort of thing.

[Fbone]

Perfume is not for children or the faint of heart. The Pigeon is a short novella and can be completed in one or two sittings.

I mentioned it in case it may satisfy a foreign-language challenge.

[HomeInMyShoes]

It would satisfy my country portion of my Bingo challenge and I need to read horror as well as mystery/crime or thriller for my genre challenge so it might fit into those as well.

I'm well past being a child, although my horror days are well behind me.

[Dngrsone]

I'm ahead... I have 17 reads for the month, which would push me over 200 for the year if I keep this same pace.

[bfisher]

In January, I did not do much with my main challenge, which was to reduce my TBR. On the other hand, I did read several excellent non-TBR books.

[HomeInMyShoes]

A very respectable January for me.

7 books
2,154 pages
7 authors (7 new)
7 countries (2 new)
3 paper books
4 electronic books
0 dollars spent

For my subchallenges:;
7 / 25 countries
6 / 25 genres

A great start. February will probably be less successful as I seem to have a lot of things going on at this point, but we'll see. If I get through 3 or four books I'll be pretty happy.

[issybird]

January was a mixed bag for me, with more bad than good. Ultimately, quality needs to trump quantity.

The good is that I'm well ahead of my benchmark rate and that I've managed, if barely, to cover my sub-challenges.

The quite bad is that my average rating on Goodreads is an abysmal 2.76 stars. This is disastrous. It's going to be a long time before I can dig myself out of this hole and get my average up to a respectable level.

[HomeInMyShoes]

^My average is running at 3 on the nose. 2 4s, 3 3s and two 2s. I might just be getting harder with my ratings. Overall the quality is reasonable, although nothing in the upper echelon of reads, even for the 4s. None as good as the five or six best reads I had last year.

[Hampshire Nanny]

I finished up January with 15 books, 4998 pages. Well on the pace to make 168 books and 50,000 pages for the year.

For my sub goals, I read 4 books borrowed from Kindle Unimited, with a purchase value of $11.96, and I read one Newbery Award winner

1. Witches in Flight by Debora Geary, KU
2. Between a Clutch and a Hard Place by Gayle Trent, KU
3. The Banished of Muirwood by Jeff Wheeler
4. Without Fail by Lee Child
5. Warrior by Nick Webb, KU
6. Persuader by Lee Child
7. When Good Bras Go Bad by Gayle Trent, KU
8. Naero's Run by Mason Elliott
9. The Sin Eater's Daughter by Melinda Salisbury
10. Peter and the Sword of Mercy by Dave Barry & Ridley Pearson
11. Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor
12. The Crossover by Kwame Alexander, Newbery
13. Cinder by Marissa Meyer
14. The Girl Who Never Was by Skyler Dorset
15. The Scam by Janet Evanovich & Lee Goldberg

Best books: The Banished of Muirwood, The Sin Eater's Daughter, and Cinder.

[Rumpelteazer]

Looking at the statistics I'm doing very well. I've read more than average for January, 12 books/3906 pages. I've read 6 books for my challenge, whilst the minimum is 4.

However, I do feel that I'm having a reading slump; I currently find it very hard to get into a book. It takes me ages to get to the half way point. However, once I get about half way I finish the book very fast, which still made me read at least 2 books a week. I also had a lot of time to read during my week long vacation, though not as much as I had hoped.

[Dngrsone]

Last year, I had a month-long slump because I had read The Silmarillion followed by LoTR and couldn't bear to read anything after that, How can you reasonably follow literature of that quality?