The 2016 Annual Reading Challenge Discussion Thread - Page 31

Dngrsone · 12-31-2016, 12:44 PM

Made my goal, just in time...

DrNefario · 12-31-2016, 02:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by orlok

Impressive. Did you read a short story a day on top of the 115 books in your reading list?

No. I'd say about a third of them are collections, anthologies or novellas that I read as part of the story-a-day challenge. It was always in parallel to whatever novel I was reading, but I did count them in the list when I finished the books they were in.

The last work on my list, for instance, is a novella I read yesterday (The Brick Moon by Edward Everett Hale, said to be the first known tale of a man-made satellite, from 1869) and a novelette I read today (Another Brick in the Moon, a new sequel by Adam Roberts), while at the same time I am in the middle of the novel Helliconia Summer by Brian Aldiss, which I started a few days ago.

Fbone · 12-31-2016, 05:44 PM

I finished 2016 having read 30 books. This is a few more than last year.

elaysee · 12-31-2016, 07:07 PM

I met most of my goals handily. The glaring exception was "6 fewer physical TBRs," which will remain undented unless I get cracking in the next few hours. I even have a tetralogy I want to read, but it's never right in front of me when I finish a book.

Tarana · 12-31-2016, 10:43 PM

Ok, I end the year 6 books behind, but I'm ok with that. I had 2 months where I read virtually nothing, so it's to be expected.

So for my final 2016 reads, I was surprised how much I liked Pilgrimage to Hell by James Axler. I listened to the Graphic Audio version of this. I look forward to the next one. I also listened to a freebee from Audible by Jodi Taylor called The Little Donkey. Hilarious. I've never read any of her other books, so now I'm inclined to do so since I love books with humor. Obviously part of a series, but still funny.

CWatkinsNash · 12-31-2016, 10:51 PM

I had set a minimum goal of 25 books (I've fallen so far in recent years

) but made it all the way to 37. Not a huge number but still more than last year's 30, so I'm hoping that I've started reversing the trend of reading fewer books each year.

I did a "something for everyone" challenge and it was more to see how many of the categories I could hit rather than trying to do them all. I think I managed about 2/3 of them, so I'm happy with that.

I also tracked titles against the alphabet, and there was a tie between A and H. I rolled a virtual die (1-3 A, 4-6 H) and H won, which will be an important factor in next year's (um, tomorrow's) Weird Challenge.

I think the biggest thing for me in 2016 was that I discovered a love for old-school private detective stories. And boy, oh boy, did Open Road do their free book bonanza at the right time, because their backlist is an absolute goldmine in the genre. Between that and some of Robert Randisi's backlist, I've got enough to satisfy me there for a long time.

I spent very little on books this year. I've been making good use of my libraries (Nashville and a non-resident card at Brooklyn), and I got a year of Kindle Unlimited with my Fire HD 8 Reader's Edition back at the beginning of the year. A lot of the Randisi titles are in KU so though it expires near the end of January, I think I will renew it for however long it takes me to exhaust those. I'll just need to be disciplined so that I don't end up spending more on the subscription than I would just buying the books. He has at least one more series I want to get through, but I should have that wrapped up by the end of February.

So, with an hour and ten minutes left in 2016 (currently at my Mom's in Florida, so I'm on EST right now), there we have it! My first 2017 read will be New Orleans Noir, from the Akashic Noir series. I read Las Vegas Noir recently, and I think I'll be reading more of these in the coming year.

Sorry for the long post. Guess I'm making up for being absent for much of the year.

Edited to add: Did you know if you type "roll a die" into Google search... it will do just that!?

WT Sharpe · 01-01-2017, 07:02 AM

I met my yearly goal of one book and went on to read an additional 101 books. Here's what I read in 2016:

Spoiler:

pdurrant · 01-01-2017, 08:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pdurrant

I've only added 30 books or so to my TBR pile this year.

Make that 47. My goal for next year is to reduce my TBR by at least 47.

If you haven't done so already, come and join us in the 2017 challenge threads!

bfisher · 01-01-2017, 11:16 AM

I completely failed on my major goal for this year, which was to reduce my TBR; it grew higher. On the other hand, I'm unlikely to run out of books to read for quite a while.

My secondary goal was to read more of the selections for the book clubs. I didn't read all of the selections, but I did eventually get to most of them, and they were some of the best books I read this year. That worked out so well that my main goal for 2017 will be to participate every month if the book is available to me.

Overall, I'm not displeased with my reading this year. A number of the books I read this year challenged my existing views, and often changed my outlook; they enriched my life.

Catlady · 01-01-2017, 07:32 PM

Final total for 2016: 168 books.

sun surfer · 01-08-2017, 03:33 PM

Well, my 2016 challenge was an epic disaster.

Of my main goal of 60 books, I read 13.

Of my 'winter' sub-goal of five particular books, I read zero. I never even made sub-goals for the other seasons after. I still think it's a good set-up for a reading challenge though, as I like the quarterly challenge aspect and that each season represents a distinct period of time. I just happened to fail miserably the year I thought of using that.

Here's to hoping 2017 will be somewhat better, anyway!

01-01-2017, 07:02 AM	#457
WT Sharpe Bah, humbug! Posts: 39,073 Karma: 157049943 Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Chesapeake, VA, USA Device: Kindle Oasis, iPad Pro, & a Samsung Galaxy S9.	The 2016 Annual Reading Challenge Discussion Thread I met my yearly goal of one book and went on to read an additional 101 books. Here's what I read in 2016: Spoiler: JANUARY 1. The Historical Jesus in Context ed. by Amy-Jill Levine, Dale C. Allison, and John. Dominic Crossan 2. Billy Wolfe's Riding Spirit by Kevin A. Lyons (short story by cromag) 3. The Golden Compass: His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman (Whispersync narrated by author, full cast) 4. Breakfast with Buddha: A Novel by Roland Merullo (audiobook narrated by Sean Runnette) FEBRUARY 5. Our Furry Friends: The Science of Pets by the Editors of Scientific American 6. Brat Farrar by Josephine Tey 7. Liespotting: Proven Techniques to Detect Deception by Pamela Meyer (Audiobook narrated by: Karen Saltus) 8. Hiding in Plain Sight: The Secret Life of Raymond Burr by Michael Seth Starr 9. Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury (Audiobook narrated by: Christian Rummel) 10. The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus by Amy-Jill Levine 11. Pinocchio: The Story of a Puppet by Carlo Collodi MARCH 12. The Case of the Perjured Parrot by Erle Stanley Gardner 13. The Bonobo and the Atheist by Frans de Waal (Audiobook narrated by: Jonathan Davis) 14. The Night Life of the Gods by J. Thorne Smith (reread) 15. The Case of the Counterfeit Eye by Erle Stanley Gardner (reread) 16. The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (tr. A.S. Kline) (reread) 17. Four to Score by Janet Evanovich (Audiobook narrated by C.J. Critt) 18. The Case of the Sleepwalker’s Niece by Erle Stanley Gardner 19. Through a Window: My Thirty Years with the Chimpanzees of Gombe by Jane Goodall APRIL 20. Mycroft Holmes by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Anna Waterhouse (Audiobook narrated by Damian Lynch) 21. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (Audiobook narrated by Peter Batchelor) (reread) 22. Manual for Living by Epictetus (Audiobook narrated by Jim Roberts) 23. Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson 24. Skepticism 101: How to Think like a Scientist by Michael Shermer (Great Courses Audiobook narrated by Michael Shermer) 25. The Golden Sayings of Epictetus (Anonymous), Hastings Crossley translation 26. Black Hole by Charles Burns (368 page graphic novel) 27. The Case of the Stuttering Bishop by Erle Stanley Gardner MAY 28. How to Bake Pi by Eugenia Cheng (Audiobook narrated by Tavia Gilbert) 29. The Girl Who Wrote in Silk by Kelli Estes (Audiobook narrated by Emily Woo Zeller) 30. This Explains Everything: Deep, Beautiful, and Elegant Theories of How the World Works by John Brockman 31. Never Broken: Songs Are Only Half the Story by Jewel Kilcher (Audiobook narrated by Jewel) 32. Bound No More: A Jane Yellowrock Novella by Faith Hunter (Audiobook narrated by Khristine Hvam) 33. The Steerswoman (Steerswoman #1) by Rosemary Kirstein 34. Waterloo: The History of Four Days, Three Armies, and Three Battles by Bernard Cornwall (Audiobook narrated by Bruce Cornwell, Bernard Cornwell, and Dugald Bruce Lockhart) 35. Seedfolks by Paul Fleischman (Audiobook narrated by Full Cast) 36. The Enchiridion by Epictetus (Thomas Wentworth Higginson translation) 37. The Tempest (re-read, but first time as an app: The Tempest from Heuristic Shakespeare Limited) 38. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf 39. Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (audiobook read by Ruth Golding) 40. The Case of the Dangerous Dowager by Erle Stanley Gardner JUNE 41. Syndrome by Blake Leibel, Daniel Quantz, and R.J. Ryan; illustrated by David Marquez (graphic novel) 42. Neanderthal Man by Svante Pääbo (Audiobook narrated by Dennis Holland) 43. The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind by Michio Kaku 44. The Adventures of Tom Stranger, Interdimensional Insurance Agent by Larry Correia (Audiobook narrated by Adam Baldwin) 45. The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes, Vol. 1 (audiobook read by Librivox volunteers) Episode 10 missing - (c) concerns 46. The Mummy Case by Elizabeth Peters 47. The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man by James Weldon Johnson (audiobook narrated by Alan Bomar Jones) 48. What Angels Fear by C.S. Harris (Audiobook narrated by Davina Porter) 49. 2000 Years of Disbelief: Famous People with the Courage to Doubt by James A. Haught 50. The Consultant by Bentley Little (audiobook read by Ramiz Monsef) 51. George by Alex Gino 52. Keep Moving: And Other Tips and Truths about Aging by Dick Van Dyke with Todd Gold (audiobook read by Dick Van Dyke) JULY 53. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison 54. Something New (AKA Something Fresh) by P.G. Wodehouse 55. 1632 by Eric Flint (audiobook read by George Guidall) 56. Symphony for the City of the Dead: Dmitri Shostakovich and the Siege of Leningrad by M.T. Anderson (Audiobook read by the author) 57. The Moral Animal: Why We Are the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology by Robert Wright 58. The Case of the Lame Canary by Erle Stanley Gardner AUGUST 59. The Earth Moved by Amy Stewart (Audiobook read by Heather Henderson) 60. Stone Mattress: Nine Tales by Margaret Atwood 61. Lightless by C.A. Higgins (Audiobook read by Fiona Hardingham) 62. The Political Mind: A Cognitive Scientist's Guide to Your Brain and Its Politics by George Lakoff 63. Interference by Amélie Antoine (translated from the French by Maren Baudet-Lackner) 64. A Wodehouse Miscellany; Articles and Stories by P.G. Wodehouse (Audiobook read by Kevin McAsh) 65. The Adventures of Superman by George Lowther 66. Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein (Audiobook read by Christopher Hurt) SEPTEMBER 67. Max Carrados by Ernest Bramah 68. The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli (W.K. Marriott translation, audiobook read by Paul Adams) 69. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad 70. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (audiobook read by Bob Neufeld) 71. Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne (audiobook read by Tim Curry) 72. The Epic of Gilgamesh (Penguin Classics) by N.K. Sandars (translator) 73. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (audiobook read by Scarlett Johansson) 74. As a Man Thinketh by James Allen (audiobook read by Brian Johnson) 75. A Deadly Grind (Vintage Kitchen Mystery Series # 1) by Victoria Hamilton (audiobook read by Emily Woo Zeller) 76. Pretty Monsters by Kelly Link OCTOBER 77. The Epic of Gilgamesh (poetic translation by Leonidas Le Cenci Hamilton) with an Introduction by Epiphanius Wilson 78. Spanish Mystery Stories for Beginners: El Detective Pepe Sevilla by Alex Diez 79. The Loved One: An Anglo-American Tragedy by Evelyn Waugh 80. Elmer Gantry by Sinclair Lewis (Blackstone audiobook read by Anthony Heald) NOVEMBER 81. "The Human Crisis" by Albert Camus (Lecture performed by actor Viggo Mortensen) 82. Talking to Crazy: How to Deal with the Irrational and Impossible People in Your Life by Mark Goulston MD (audiobook read by L. J. Ganser) 83. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari 84. The Case of the Rolling Bones by Erle Stanley Gardner 85. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley 86. Spooky Action at a Distance: The Phenomenon That Reimagines Space and Time — and What It Means for Black Holes, the Big Bang, and Theories of Everything by George Musser (audiobook read by William Hughes) 87. Texts from Jane Eyre: And Other Conversations with Your Favorite Literary Characters by Mallory Ortberg (audiobook read by Zach Villa, Amy Landon) 88. Brave New World Revisited by Aldous Huxley DECEMBER 89. Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by Dan Ariely (audiobook read by Simon Jones) 90. The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux 91. The Only Street in Paris: Life on the Rue Des Martyrs by Elaine Sciolino (audiobook read by Elaine Sciolino) 92. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood 93. Bruiser by Neal Shusterman (audiobook read by Nick Podehl, Kate Rudd, Luke Daniels, Laura Hamilton) 94. The Case of the Haunted Husband by Erle Stanley Gardner 95. Churchill's Trial: Winston Churchill and the Salvation of Free Government by Larry P. Arnn 96. The Case of the Empty Tin by Erle Stanley Gardner 97. Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death, and Brain Surgery by Henry Marsh (audiobook read by Jim Barclay) 98. Damn! A Book of Calimny by H.L. Mencken (audiobook read by Wasichu) 99. Flying Too High by Kerry Greenwood (Phryne Fisher #2) 100. Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke (audiobook read by Peter Ganim, Robert J. Sawyer) 101. Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi (audiobook read by Wil Wheaton) 102. Superman: The Golden Age, Vol. 1 by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster

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12-31-2016, 12:44 PM	#451
Dngrsone Almost legible Posts: 1,457 Karma: 4611110 Join Date: Dec 2013 Location: In a high desert, CA Device: Galaxy Note 9, Galaxy Tab A (2017), Likebook P78	Made my goal, just in time...

12-31-2016, 05:44 PM	#453
Fbone Is that a sandwich? Posts: 8,189 Karma: 100500000 Join Date: Jun 2010 Device: Nook Glowlight Plus	I finished 2016 having read 30 books. This is a few more than last year.

12-31-2016, 07:07 PM	#454
elaysee Groupie Posts: 164 Karma: 1238046 Join Date: Jun 2012 Device: PocketBook, Kobo, Kindle, iPad	I met most of my goals handily. The glaring exception was "6 fewer physical TBRs," which will remain undented unless I get cracking in the next few hours. I even have a tetralogy I want to read, but it's never right in front of me when I finish a book.

12-31-2016, 10:43 PM	#455
Tarana Wizard Posts: 3,977 Karma: 38840460 Join Date: Sep 2012 Location: Minneapolis Device: PWSE, Voyage, K3, HDX, KBasic 7 & 8, Nook Glo3, Echos, Nanos	Ok, I end the year 6 books behind, but I'm ok with that. I had 2 months where I read virtually nothing, so it's to be expected. So for my final 2016 reads, I was surprised how much I liked Pilgrimage to Hell by James Axler. I listened to the Graphic Audio version of this. I look forward to the next one. I also listened to a freebee from Audible by Jodi Taylor called The Little Donkey. Hilarious. I've never read any of her other books, so now I'm inclined to do so since I love books with humor. Obviously part of a series, but still funny.

12-31-2016, 10:51 PM	#456
CWatkinsNash IOC Chief Archivist Posts: 3,950 Karma: 53868218 Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Fruitland Park, FL, USA Device: Meebook M7, Paperwhite 2021, Fire HD 8+, Fire HD 10+, Lenovo Tab P12	I had set a minimum goal of 25 books (I've fallen so far in recent years ) but made it all the way to 37. Not a huge number but still more than last year's 30, so I'm hoping that I've started reversing the trend of reading fewer books each year. I did a "something for everyone" challenge and it was more to see how many of the categories I could hit rather than trying to do them all. I think I managed about 2/3 of them, so I'm happy with that. I also tracked titles against the alphabet, and there was a tie between A and H. I rolled a virtual die (1-3 A, 4-6 H) and H won, which will be an important factor in next year's (um, tomorrow's) Weird Challenge. I think the biggest thing for me in 2016 was that I discovered a love for old-school private detective stories. And boy, oh boy, did Open Road do their free book bonanza at the right time, because their backlist is an absolute goldmine in the genre. Between that and some of Robert Randisi's backlist, I've got enough to satisfy me there for a long time. I spent very little on books this year. I've been making good use of my libraries (Nashville and a non-resident card at Brooklyn), and I got a year of Kindle Unlimited with my Fire HD 8 Reader's Edition back at the beginning of the year. A lot of the Randisi titles are in KU so though it expires near the end of January, I think I will renew it for however long it takes me to exhaust those. I'll just need to be disciplined so that I don't end up spending more on the subscription than I would just buying the books. He has at least one more series I want to get through, but I should have that wrapped up by the end of February. So, with an hour and ten minutes left in 2016 (currently at my Mom's in Florida, so I'm on EST right now), there we have it! My first 2017 read will be New Orleans Noir, from the Akashic Noir series. I read Las Vegas Noir recently, and I think I'll be reading more of these in the coming year. Sorry for the long post. Guess I'm making up for being absent for much of the year. Edited to add: Did you know if you type "roll a die" into Google search... it will do just that!?

01-01-2017, 11:16 AM	#459
bfisher Wizard Posts: 1,638 Karma: 28483498 Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: Ottawa Canada Device: Sony PRS-T3, Galaxy (Aldiko, Kobo app)	I completely failed on my major goal for this year, which was to reduce my TBR; it grew higher. On the other hand, I'm unlikely to run out of books to read for quite a while. My secondary goal was to read more of the selections for the book clubs. I didn't read all of the selections, but I did eventually get to most of them, and they were some of the best books I read this year. That worked out so well that my main goal for 2017 will be to participate every month if the book is available to me. Overall, I'm not displeased with my reading this year. A number of the books I read this year challenged my existing views, and often changed my outlook; they enriched my life.

01-01-2017, 07:32 PM	#460
Catlady Grand Sorcerer Posts: 7,345 Karma: 52398889 Join Date: Oct 2010 Device: Kindle Fire, Kindle Paperwhite, AGPTek Bluetooth Clip	Final total for 2016: 168 books.

01-08-2017, 03:33 PM	#461
sun surfer languorous autodidact ✦ Posts: 4,235 Karma: 44637926 Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: smiling with the rising sun Device: onyx boox poke 2 colour, kindle voyage	Well, my 2016 challenge was an epic disaster. Of my main goal of 60 books, I read 13. Of my 'winter' sub-goal of five particular books, I read zero. I never even made sub-goals for the other seasons after. I still think it's a good set-up for a reading challenge though, as I like the quarterly challenge aspect and that each season represents a distinct period of time. I just happened to fail miserably the year I thought of using that. Here's to hoping 2017 will be somewhat better, anyway!

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