The 2012 Annual Reading Challenge - Discussion Thread! - Page 37

jbcohen · 07-07-2012, 09:36 AM

My TBR pile is big but fortunately mine is not as large as yours dreams. Most likely it will take me another three months to read through the to be read stack. Most of the problems that I am encountering with this to be read stack is that I am reading authors that I have never read before thus I do not know how the series are put together. As a consequence there will be a few requests for information on these forums as I attempt to get the series in the correct order. I have already gotten my Steve White and Timothy Zahn straightened out thanks to forum members. I look forward to working with forum members to get the book series in the correct order. At the moment I am working on Steve White and Larry Corriea, of which I like Steve White more than Larry Corriea. Steve White's books seem to include characters that I can relate to that seem to be much more active then the characters in some of the books that I have read over the years. If I want characters that do stuff in my literature I reach for the next Executioner, Super Bolan or Stony Man novels - the action in those books start on page one and don't stop until the last page, these books are to men what romance novels are to women and they are my favorites.

CRussel · 07-07-2012, 10:11 AM

My TBR is coming down, but WAY too slowly. And mostly because I'm tossing things off it that I realize I'm not likely to read any time soon. Worse, some of them I paid for.

I plan on strictly controlling the books I buy for the rest of the year. It won't do much to get my TBR below 100 books, but at least it will be moving in the right direction.

dreams · 07-07-2012, 03:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pdurrant

[snip]
Personally, I don't count freebies in my TBR list, unless they are books I might have bought even if they weren't free. (Yes, this means that I still have over 300 books I've bought and not read yet!)

This is one of the reasons I decided to make my first goal. I was afraid my purchased TBR pile would continue to grow and approach the size of yours.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jbcohen

[snip]At the moment I am working on Steve White and Larry Corriea, of which I like Steve White more than Larry Corriea. Steve White's books seem to include characters that I can relate to that seem to be much more active then the characters in some of the books that I have read over the years.

Steve White's books look interesting.... see this is why I have made my next goal. In the past, I would have bought one or two just because someone mentioned them, I looked at them, and they seemed interesting.

Quote:

If I want characters that do stuff in my literature I reach for the next Executioner, Super Bolan or Stony Man novels - the action in those books start on page one and don't stop until the last page, these books are to men what romance novels are to women and they are my favorites.

I read a few Mack Bolan novels when a friend loaned them to me.

I know my TBR pile is super large as a result of not being able to purchase anything for 6 months. I was grabbing anything that even remotely caught my attention just to starve off that panic of maybe not having anything to read. Which is crazy as I have 3, 6 foot by 6 foot, shelves full of pbooks that I have read and reread plus my son sends down the ones he has already read.

So, my next 6 month goal is to keep myself from again collecting purchased books that get put in the pile and not read right away.

I made my first 6 month goal just to force myself to read those pbooks that I had purchased but not read and to lower my original TBR ebook pile (I do count the freebies, as I see it as clutter on the backup drive and want to either read or delete them.) I have done some of what I originally intended, but found myself really enjoying some of those freebie offerings, so that just supported my habit of grabbing them.

jbcohen · 07-07-2012, 09:15 PM

Oh, if you don't consider a mack bolan book you are missing out on some truly great literature. The action starts on page one and does not let up until the very last page, they will definitely keep you on the edge of your seat.

dreams · 07-08-2012, 12:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dreams

[snip]
I read a few Mack Bolan novels when a friend loaned them to me.

[snip]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jbcohen

Oh, if you don't consider a mack bolan book you are missing out on some truly great literature. The action starts on page one and does not let up until the very last page, they will definitely keep you on the edge of your seat.

Sorry, I thought I was clear.

I did read a couple of Mack Bolan books. I was more interested in them than the romance ones my sister-in-law wanted to share.

rpmazur · 07-08-2012, 02:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jbcohen

My TBR pile is big but fortunately mine is not as large as yours dreams.

My digital library is something like 7-10GB and I haven't imported all of it into Calibre yet. I have roughly 300-500 books imported. Not all are TBR but I'd have to say that 80% of the books are ones I haven't read. Lol

orlok · 07-08-2012, 05:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jbcohen

Oh, if you don't consider a mack bolan book you are missing out on some truly great literature. The action starts on page one and does not let up until the very last page, they will definitely keep you on the edge of your seat.

Where would you recommend starting with his books? He seems to have a number of series.

Nyssa · 07-08-2012, 08:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nyssa

I'm hopefully coming to the end of an unplanned "reading drought" myself. The last few weeks have been very busy and won't be slowing down any time soon. So a book that should have taken me 4 days maximum has now taken almost 3 weeks (minus the 3 or 4 days it took me to read two novellets also in the series).

I also lowered my challenge, removing the 20 "Bonus" reads requirement. With that, I've now stripped my challenge to the bare minimum, yet I'm still a book or 2 behind for the 65 series books in my main challenge.

At this point, I realize that I probably should have stayed with my first instinct which was 50 books & 150,000 pages.

I have finally finished both Changer of Worlds (Worlds of Honor #3) & Ashes of Victory (Honor Harrington #9).

Bringing my current total of books read for the year to 32 out of 65.

HomeInMyShoes · 07-09-2012, 11:06 AM

Pages read in July so far: 196.

Summer doldrums. Still reading book number 42 right now. Hopefully I'll break out of the slump and get going again. Thankfully I only have 8.6 books to get to my pledged 50 books on GoodReads.

jbcohen · 07-09-2012, 05:16 PM

I liked Ashes of victory however I have never really liked short stories much, they seem to be way to short of character development and they need to cut the story short to get under the number of pages. I really prefer full length books rather than the short stories as in the book Changer of Worlds.

I am hoping to get through book number two in the starfire series which I have been working on for quite some time.

DrNefario · 07-09-2012, 05:40 PM

The Honorverse shorts aren't really all that short. I found them mostly pretty good, except for a bit too much boring treecat stuff. (I haven't read In Fire Forged yet.)

I haven't read an Honor Harrington book since the beginning of the year. Service of the Sword was the first book I read this year. I'd like to get back to my next one (War of Honor) before long, but I've committed to read quite a lot of other stuff first. Plus I'm reading Hornblower right now, and I don't like to read things that are too similar too close together.

Nyssa · 07-09-2012, 05:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jbcohen

I liked Ashes of victory however I have never really liked short stories much, they seem to be way to short of character development and they need to cut the story short to get under the number of pages. I really prefer full length books rather than the short stories as in the book Changer of Worlds.

I understand what you mean, but I have enjoyed reading the novelettes in chronological order. They actually add a little depth, understanding, or background to some of the characters and situations. For instance, the story "Night Fall" tells you exactly what happens between chapters 33 & 34 of Ashes of Victory. There's also "From the Highlands", which is apparently a direct prequel to one of the sub-series novels - Crown of Slaves (Honorverse: Torch #1).

That being said, I don't know that I would have enjoyed most of the stories, from any of the anthologies if I had read them all back to back instead of interweaving them with the series in their correct places.

sun surfer · 07-10-2012, 02:09 PM

Whew, I finally updated my challenge list post after half a year!

It feels good. I added everything I've read and though the challenge is still exactly the same as it was, I simplified the goal wording. Here's the link to my list.

dreams · 07-10-2012, 11:36 PM

Nice job.

I like the stars, as it makes it easy to see what you thought were great reads.

I still need to get caught up on mine. I start out great but always get lazy as the year moves on.

CRussel · 07-12-2012, 12:18 PM

I'm managing to keep my list mostly up to date, but NOT managing to do anything special with it. Reviews are going into the general "What Are We Reading" thread. Maybe next year I'll try something a bit more involved with my list.

The good news on my challenge is that I'm definitely making inroads into the TBR. Some of that is simply cleanup and recognizing that I'm just not going to read some books I have. The rest is actually reading more than I'm buying. Just.

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07-07-2012, 09:36 AM	#541
jbcohen Wizard Posts: 3,025 Karma: 11196738 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Piper College Device: Samsung A21	My TBR pile is big but fortunately mine is not as large as yours dreams. Most likely it will take me another three months to read through the to be read stack. Most of the problems that I am encountering with this to be read stack is that I am reading authors that I have never read before thus I do not know how the series are put together. As a consequence there will be a few requests for information on these forums as I attempt to get the series in the correct order. I have already gotten my Steve White and Timothy Zahn straightened out thanks to forum members. I look forward to working with forum members to get the book series in the correct order. At the moment I am working on Steve White and Larry Corriea, of which I like Steve White more than Larry Corriea. Steve White's books seem to include characters that I can relate to that seem to be much more active then the characters in some of the books that I have read over the years. If I want characters that do stuff in my literature I reach for the next Executioner, Super Bolan or Stony Man novels - the action in those books start on page one and don't stop until the last page, these books are to men what romance novels are to women and they are my favorites.

07-07-2012, 10:11 AM	#542
CRussel (he/him/his) Posts: 12,159 Karma: 79742714 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Sunshine Coast, BC Device: Oasis (Gen3),Paperwhite (Gen10), Voyage, Paperwhite(orig), Fire HD 8	My TBR is coming down, but WAY too slowly. And mostly because I'm tossing things off it that I realize I'm not likely to read any time soon. Worse, some of them I paid for. I plan on strictly controlling the books I buy for the rest of the year. It won't do much to get my TBR below 100 books, but at least it will be moving in the right direction.

07-07-2012, 09:15 PM	#544
jbcohen Wizard Posts: 3,025 Karma: 11196738 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Piper College Device: Samsung A21	Oh, if you don't consider a mack bolan book you are missing out on some truly great literature. The action starts on page one and does not let up until the very last page, they will definitely keep you on the edge of your seat.

07-09-2012, 11:06 AM	#549
HomeInMyShoes Grand Sorcerer Posts: 19,226 Karma: 67780237 Join Date: Jul 2011 Device: none	Pages read in July so far: 196. Summer doldrums. Still reading book number 42 right now. Hopefully I'll break out of the slump and get going again. Thankfully I only have 8.6 books to get to my pledged 50 books on GoodReads.

07-09-2012, 05:16 PM	#550
jbcohen Wizard Posts: 3,025 Karma: 11196738 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Piper College Device: Samsung A21	I liked Ashes of victory however I have never really liked short stories much, they seem to be way to short of character development and they need to cut the story short to get under the number of pages. I really prefer full length books rather than the short stories as in the book Changer of Worlds. I am hoping to get through book number two in the starfire series which I have been working on for quite some time.

07-09-2012, 05:40 PM	#551
DrNefario Wizard Posts: 2,099 Karma: 11315768 Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: UK Device: Kindle, Kobo Touch, Nook SimpleTouch	The Honorverse shorts aren't really all that short. I found them mostly pretty good, except for a bit too much boring treecat stuff. (I haven't read In Fire Forged yet.) I haven't read an Honor Harrington book since the beginning of the year. Service of the Sword was the first book I read this year. I'd like to get back to my next one (War of Honor) before long, but I've committed to read quite a lot of other stuff first. Plus I'm reading Hornblower right now, and I don't like to read things that are too similar too close together.

07-10-2012, 02:09 PM	#553
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	Whew, I finally updated my challenge list post after half a year! It feels good. I added everything I've read and though the challenge is still exactly the same as it was, I simplified the goal wording. Here's the link to my list.

07-10-2012, 11:36 PM	#554
dreams It's about the umbrella Posts: 25,112 Karma: 56250158 Join Date: Jan 2009 Device: Sony 505\| K Fire \| KK 3G+Wi-Fi \| iPhone 3Gs \|Vista 32-bit Hm Prem w/FF	Nice job. I like the stars, as it makes it easy to see what you thought were great reads. I still need to get caught up on mine. I start out great but always get lazy as the year moves on.

07-12-2012, 12:18 PM	#555
CRussel (he/him/his) Posts: 12,159 Karma: 79742714 Join Date: Jul 2010 Location: Sunshine Coast, BC Device: Oasis (Gen3),Paperwhite (Gen10), Voyage, Paperwhite(orig), Fire HD 8	I'm managing to keep my list mostly up to date, but NOT managing to do anything special with it. Reviews are going into the general "What Are We Reading" thread. Maybe next year I'll try something a bit more involved with my list. The good news on my challenge is that I'm definitely making inroads into the TBR. Some of that is simply cleanup and recognizing that I'm just not going to read some books I have. The rest is actually reading more than I'm buying. Just.

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