Working through Game of Spies, didn't finish it in time for October.

UPDATE: Currently at page 57 on Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

I have finished Midnight Sun. Again definitely written better than the others in the saga, I still don't get the fascination with YA books and making main characters come across stalkerish.

Almost a whole chapter of this guy climbing up into her room and watching her sleep.... Not creepy. At. All.

LITFAM UPDATE: DEMOCRACY EDITION

The day of reckoning is upon us. I hope any Americans in the fam booked the day off to do some READING and maybe something else if you need a break from READING.

Solid total this month and one of our most active months of the year in the number of active readers. I hit my own lowball goal at last and @Haggard is getting to it any day now. With two months left there's still hope for most of these goals, we might end up with the most 100%'s so far.

Top Fam

1. @Asandir (10)
2. @Malachy and @Boss (6)
3. @Kiwi and @Jackho (4)

We are all top fam on this blessed day.

@Absurd-Ditties @Asandir @Atlas @Boss @CoolCatDaddio @Crink @Dean @DistractedDuck @FoAngel @Ganon-Dorf @Haggard @Joltopus @Kiwi @Little-Rena @Malachy @MercyfulDeath @Peaceblossom @Peregrinus @Phobotech @Quisty @RainyG @SevenSeize @SirKaotik @TheReviewTrickster

@TopazAzul @Welldoneshellfish @Yomuchan @ZJ

Yep. Just yesterday I finished Dune.

I know I read it some 20 years ago, but there was so much I didn't remember anymore that I seriously question myself if I maybe only read a condensed version?

Anyway, maybe I get "Dune Messiah" for Christmas in the same edition. Would be nice.

thank you for doing this every month, all these years ♥️🌹 we appreciate you

Can't remember if I really sat down to finish reading anything this year ?

And that's a depressing thought.

But I recently finished the sequel to The Shining, called Doctor Sleep.

And it was alright. I can fully recommend the first 200ish pages, but the full 500+ pages ends up being a bit cheesy and cliche', and loses its prime vision that could've taken a much more realistic and grittier route. So the full format of the book comes off as a sequel for the sake of having a sequel, with an impressively strong beginning that wavers on a feel-good, lots-of-coincidences narrative.

Bleh. I can respect the world-building, but not the execution.

Late reply but thank you, this is very nice to hear.

First post here. My goal has been to read the Saga of Pliocene Exile by Julian May this year and I have book 4 (The Adversary) to finish and I'll be done. It's kinda turned weird and I'm still not sure if I like it, but I can't bring myself to stop and I wanna know what happens. Be nice to read Time Bender by Michael Dorn and/or The Man Who Fell To Earth by Walter Tevis by the end of the year, but it's looking like I won't have time.

I ended up reading Firebird by Charles L Harness one afternoon, and most of my reading time has accidentally been spent reading from SCP articles or r/nosleep on reddit. Shame me lol. Also been mourning the loss of the used book store in town. Oldest business here and she decided it was time to retire.

Next year's goal is already decided. I saw the Witcher series on netflix and if it's that good in video, the books must be phenomenal. I'm trying to track down pre-netflix copies that don't advertise the series on the cover because aesthetics matter to me.

This months goal is to double down looking for the books with the cover art I want, and choke down the rest of the Adversary even if it kills me. If I don't know how this ends it will haunt me.

47: The Last Campaign by Martin L Shoemaker

kicked off November reading a new sequel to a book I read last year and enjoyed.

This time around I didn't feel the magic. The previous book if I remember correctly had a few different narrators or at least followed a few plot lines. This one was very linear following just the main character, one of the main ones from the previous book. For what's sold as a mystery story it just sort of followed along having things happen to the protagonist and she'd do very little mystery solving -just go from one event to the next. The audio book was also tricky for me because the character was supposed to be Brazilian and rather than find a narrator with a Brazilian accent they had a very normalized american english voice actor who made the character sound more like an android than a person - something I noticed was the character wouldn't use contractions which I imagine sounds totally normal with a Brazilian or Portuguese or heck even spanish/hispanic accent but sounds like Data from Star Trek when spoken plainly in an american accent.

Not sure what I want to read next. I've blown past 2 different goals and I would like to reach 50 but it's only early November and I have 3 to go to that. Maybe I'll listen to music a little more this week and see how I feel.

I'd also like to give props to @jackho for hosting this thread every year. This has been a big motivator for me to pick up reading again. It's a really fun way to expand my horizons, even if I mostly just read pulpy sci fi.

Done reading these books:

96. House of Cards, Michael Dobbs, 480 pages

97. Im Kabinett des Todes (Everything's Eventual), Stephen King, 592 pages

98. Harry Potter und der Stein der Weisen (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone), J. K. Rowling, 335 pages

99. Cyberspace, William Gibson, 195 pages

100. Wovon ich rede, wenn ich vom Laufen rede (What I Talk About When I Talk About Running), Haruki Murakami, 160 pages

101. Logoland (Jennifer Government), Max Berry, 336 pages

House of Cards:

Book that the well known tv series is based on. Francis Urquhart is in the twilight of his political career but his ambitions know no bounds - with time ticking, he decides to use all the secrets and scandals of his party members to claim the position of the premier minister for himself by secretely unleashing them at the most damaging time points- no matter the cost.

Great book.

Everything's Eventual:

Contains 14 stories: »Autopsy Room Four«, »The Man in the Black Suit«, »All That You Love Will Be Carried Away«, »The Death of Jack Hamilton«, »In the Deathroom«, »The Little Sisters of Eluria«, »Everything’s Eventual«, »L.T.’s Theory of Pets«, »The Road Virus Heads North«, »Lunch at the Gotham Café«, »That Feeling You Can Only Say What It Is in French«, »1408«, »Riding the Bullet«, and »Lucky Quarter«.

Amazing book, from all the short story collections by King this one is by far my favorite. »The Little Sisters of Eluria« is a spoiler-free story playing in the Dark Tower universe and made me interested in atleast reading the first book(s) of that series.

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone:

Well known book, I guess. I read all of them many years ago as I was in the right age bracket to basically grow up with the series. Greaty enjoyed this re-read and will likely read more of the Harry Potter books (again) in the future.

Cyberspace:

Is a collection of ten short stories - "Johnny Mnemonic", "The Gernsback Continuum", "Fragments of a Hologram Rose", "The Belonging Kind", "Hinterlands", "Red Star", "Winter Orbit", "The Winter Market", "Dogfight" and "Burning Chrome".

Good book. The stories I enjoyed most are Burning Chrome and Winter Orbit. Would recommend checking atleast these two and also reading the Neuromancer trilogy if you haven't done so yet. I decided to read this in anticipation of Cyperpunk 2077, which is scheduled to release before the heat death of the universe.

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running:

In this book, Murakami talks about his passion, running, and how it influences him as a writer. He has partaken in and completed over 20 marathons in his life, including one super-marathon that is 100 kilometers long (I didn't even know that's a thing) in 11 hours.

Good book. Gave me some insight into how Murakami tackles his writing. The book does exist in english, I used the german cover because it is miles better (get it?, haha) than the english one.

Jennifer Government:

Plays in a near-ish future where governments have lost almost all power and companies have (almost) frei reign. People don't have a last name unless they have a job (for example you could be called Bob Nike). Hack Nike finds himself being forced by both John Nikes to work on the freshest marketing campaign: to boost sales of the newest shoes, ten random people who buy them are supposed bo be assassinated. Hack Nike doesn't do this himself- he outsources that job to the police who then outsources it further to the NRA.

14 people end up dead. Jennifer Government, who works for the government, wants to investigate. That is only possible if the relatives of the victims pay for that - as the government only acts to prevent crime but not to solve it. Luckily, the parents of one of the teenagers who died sell their house to pay for the investigation.

Okay book. Fairly close to Outer Worlds in its "capitalism bad" theme but it kinda doesn't evolve from that and just sort of ends. Many flat characters as well.

I'll probably read a bit less for the rest of the year - still want to play Robotic;Notes Elite (waiting for a Community patch) and Robotic;Notes Dash.

Like some of my rading pals, I also want to thank @Jackho for his amazing work on the Reading Challenge topics throughout the years. On top of that, you also lead me to find my favorite author (Murakami), so I thank you for that as well.

I have returned, and I am officially back on my bullshit once again.

7. Sasquatch by M. E. Knerr

My crippling addiction to awful animal attack horror novels usually doesn't cross over into the supernatural or mythical realm, but hell, Bigfoot's basically just a big angry monkey, that's close enough for me to take a punt on this.

Early on I thought I was onto a real winner here. The standard of the writing in these sorts of things in never particularly high, but in Sasquatch it's actually pretty solid. The opening sequence of a trapper being stalked though the woods by an unseen presence (spoilers: it's a big angry monkey) is great, and things remain strong for the first few chapters. Above average prose, a few exciting action scenes, a decent enough cast of characters, what could go wrong?

Unfortunately, it's at this point the book just sort of stops. Bigfoot is sidelined in favour of exploring the psychology of our protagonist, a throwback cowboy with no place in the modern world. It's not terrible, it's just very on the nose stuff, hammering us over the head with the parallels between him and the Bigfoot. It also spends time setting up something of a knock-off Jaws trio, with an out-of-towner police chief, a biologist and our anti-social woodsman hero, but the book somehow feels like it spends far too much time on setting these guys up while simultaneously feeling like all it's given us is cardboard cutouts, because there's no depth to any of them. On top of that the three aren't even all in the same place at the same time until literally the last couple of pages. If you're going to knockoff Jaws, at least steal the best part and play up the dynamics between them.

Big "when are they gonna get to the fireworks factory" vibes, basically. You've got workman like prose, which is better than can be said for most of the genre, so scenes out in the woods absolutely shine, but they're too few and far between for the book to be satisfying as a whole.

Cover is an absolute all timer, though.

Want a spot on the roster? Only one full month left but there'll be a new thread next year. Can confirm the Witcher books are good, though I haven't seen the netflix series to compare.

Lol I feel you. I read mostly digital but when getting a physical copy I can be fairly picky on what edition I get.

I find I'm either at 0 or 100 with reading, if I get out of the loop I can go months without picking something up again. Also motivation tends to follow the action rather than vice versa, I don't feel like reading until I am.

Sounds like a banger but I don't think I can keep up with this depth of subtext.

Thanks also for the kind words @Asandir and @Malachy. I wouldn't be doing it if ya'll didn't keep showing up.

Honestly I think I'll get a fresh start with next years thread. I'm busy as hell and it will be a nice reward to start fresh and clean if I make it through the year sane.

27) Natural Relief For Anxiety and Stress by Kinrys and Gold

Took way too long for me to get through a 100 and something page ebook. As the title suggests, the book talks about anxiety and stress along with their causes and potential fixes. Interesting read if you're curious about fixes that are within reach and won't break the bank.

28) Read random online articles on marketing, MP3 player reviews, Google Music going bye-bye, Reddit posts, creativity hacks, re-read and edited past blog posts, read about time block scheduling and read a few snippets on the SCP phenom.

Update: Completed Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and now at page 21 on Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Done reading these books:

102. Harry Potter und die Kammer des Schreckens (Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets), J. K. Rowling, 352 pages

103. Zerbrochene Sterne (Broken stars), Ken Liu (Publisher), 672 pages

Harry Potter & the Chamber of Secrets:

Second book of the series. Not much else to say for spoiler reasons. One thing that surprised me (that goes for the first one too) is how much happens in these books. I think that's due to me mostly reading books that take their sweet time setting up an atmosphere. I also feel like every character is more likeable compared to the movies (though I haven't seen the last three).

I think I remembered wanting to re-read these thanks to @GotDamnitWegra

Broken stars:

Sixteen stories by chinese science fiction authors: »Goodnight, Melancholy« by Xia Jia, »Moonlight« by Cixin Liu, »Broken Stars« by Tang Fei, »Submarines« and »Salinger and the Koreans« by Han Song, »Under a Dangling Sky« by Cheng Jingbo, »What Has Passed Shall in Kinder Light Appear« by Baoshu, »The New Year Train« by Hao Jingfang, »The Robot Who Liked to Tell Tall Tales« by Fei Dao, »The Snow of Jinyang« by Zhang Ran, »The Restaurant at the End of the Universe: Laba Porridge« by Anna Wu, »The First Emperor’s Games« by Ma Boyong, »Reflection« by Gu Shi, »Brainbox« by Regina Kanyu Wang, »Coming of the Light« and »A History of Future Illnesses« by Qiufan Chen.

Great collection - also contains three essays talking about how science fiction evolved in China and the impact that the Trisolaris trilogy by Cixin Liu had.

Finished A Generation of Sociopaths: How the Baby Boomers Betrayed America by Bruce Cannon Gibney.

Interesting book. If you couldn't tell from its title, it's basically an exploration of the author's opinion that the Baby Boomer generation took America from the amazing place it was right after the second world war and twisted it into a stagnant country that has failing infrastructure, massive corruption, and will be in for a world of hurt when the bills start coming due in the 2030s and 2040s (conveniently when the Baby Boomers start dying off) since our national debt has skyrocketed over the last few decades.

Gibney clearly had a very negative view of the "sociopathic" Baby Boomers when he started writing this book, so you can fairly state that he's pretty biased in his writings, but he uses a lot of facts, figures, and graphs to make his case for the Baby Boomers acting in a selfish way that was a farcry from the responsible generations that came before them and will harm the generations that come after them. For the most part, I do agree with his assertions that things suck now more than they used to and that the blame can be laid at the feet of Baby Boomers since they've been running things since at least the early 1990s. Our country's infrastructure sucks, people like me are paying for entitlements like Social Security that I'll likely not get when I'm older, and the struggle to live in this country with our shit wages and massive amounts of debts is amazingly depressing for a nation that's supposed to be one of the best and most prosperous in the world.

I do appreciate that the book ends with proposed solutions to the problems such as slightly increasing taxes across all classes of people (with the argument being that a lot of folks are getting more out than they're putting in and that you can't just have the rich fund everything without them thinking they own it all) and using our funds to actually pay off certain debts (Like student loans) and invest in the future through things like better roads, bridges, and alternative fuels instead of just trying to get immediate bang for the buck and just hope for the best when it comes to an uncertain future.

Kind of a downer book and it can lead to resentment towards asshole old people, but it definitely gave me a lot of food for thought so I'm glad I was able to slog through some of its misery.

OK BOOMER.

Update: Currently at page 103 on Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

48: The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein

Nonfiction. Names and blames the US government for continued segregation for decades. Makes a compelling argument that they continued de jure segregation through programs like FHA and VA that had racist language and criteria well into the modern era.

What's up bookers? If anyone has updates for November try to get them in today or tomorrow. The final month is upon us.

@Absurd-Ditties @Asandir @Atlas @Boss @CoolCatDaddio @Crink @Dean @DistractedDuck @FoAngel @Ganon-Dorf @Haggard @Joltopus @Kiwi @Little-Rena @Malachy @MercyfulDeath @Peaceblossom @Peregrinus @Phobotech @Quisty @RainyG @SevenSeize @SantaSeven @SirKaotik @GotDamnitWegra @TheReviewTrickster @TopazAzul @Welldoneshellfish @SnakeElder @Yomuchan @ZJ

I am embarrassed to admit that I read 3 romance novels this month.

3.

I almost didn't even admit it, because they're garbage romance chick crap but I read em.

Update: Currently at page 162 on Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

I actually have two books complete this month:

Clive Cussler w Paul Kemprecos - Fire Ice

Clive Cussler and Graham Brown - Zero Hour

I continue to be a sucker for drug store quality books

My job still sucks ass at letting me read during my lunch breaks...

I did finish Two Tales and Eight Tomorrows by Harry Harrison.

Its a short story collection of science fiction tales. some are really good, like the first one ends with a priest getting...

actually nvm, I wont spoil it, its pretty funny tho conclusion to the first story

Only 2 for November but this is more books than I have ever read in a year by far. Already working on 49.

Oh damn my list doesn't fit in a post anymore! the links are too powerful! Full list with links if you're into it is on my userpage. I also repurposed an older blog post to post my 2019 reading list. I didn't have a complete 2018 list from when I started participating in these threads. These threads have really motivated me to keep reading and it's turned into a habit. Having a long commute with spotty mobile and FM radio service has had me leaning heavily on audio books.

January (4)

1: Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky

2: Welcome to the Occupied States of America (First Contact) by Peter Cawdron

3: The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

4: The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien

February (5)

5: The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien

6: The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien

7: The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien

8: Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein

9: Storm Front by Jim Butcher

March (5)

10: Fool Moon by Jim Butcher

11: Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

12: Ancillary Sword by Ann Leckie

13: Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie

14: Provenance by Ann Leckie

April (6)

15: Maelstrom by Peter Cawdron

16: The Man in the High Castle by Philip K Dick

17: The God Engines by John Scalzi

18: The Accidental President: Harry S. Truman and the Four Months That Changed the World by A.J. Baime

19: The Last Emperox by John Scalzi

20: The Forever War by Joe Haldeman

May (4)

21: Forever Free by Joe Haldeman

22: Homeland by R.A. Salvatore

23: Exile by R.A. Salvatore

24: Sojourn by R.A. Salvatore

June (4)

25: Neuromancer by William Gibson

26: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins

27: The Crystal Shard by R.A. Salvatore

28: Streams of Silver by R.A. Salvatore

July (4)

29: The Halfling's Gem by R.A. Salvatore

30: The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

31: The Sandman Audible by Neil Gaiman

32: Axiom's End by Lindsay Ellis

August (5)

33: Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

34: Pretties by Scott Westerfeld

35: Specials by Scott Westerfeld

36: Extras by Scott Westerfeld

37: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown

September (3)

38: Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

39: The Lost World by Michael Crichton

40: Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh

October (6)

41: The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton

42: The End of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking) by Katie Mack

43: The Dispatcher by John Scalzi

44: Murder by Other Means by John Scalzi

45: METAtropolis by John Scalzi, Jay Lake, Tobias S. Buckell, Elizabeth Bear & Karl Schroeder

46: The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

November (2)

47: The Last Campaign by Martin L Shoemaker

48: The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein

november

27. Urawaza by Lisa Katayama

28. Back to the Future II First Draft 

hopefully can read 2 quick ones this month and hit 30. that would be pretty good progress from hitting only just above 20 since 2017, even though I've been reading some kids books, I've been reading more complicated shit too.

Also first draft of Back to the Future II was fucking weird. they go back to 1967 or something and doc brown dresses merty up as a hippie and then he gets locked up and his mom bails him out and all kinds of weird stuff that never made it to th actual 2nd and 3rd installments happens.

I'm feeling like I was able to jump into more complicated material and read faster after I had been reading more kids books. either that or it is a coincidence. It is worth trying again

I found more of those Reverse Design books.

This time, it was Reverse Design - Diablo 2 and Reverse Design - Final Fantasy 6 - also by Patrick Holleman. As an amateur game dev, these notes on the design and gameplay of iconic games like Diablo 2 and FF6 give a lot of insight when I pursue a long-held dream from my earliest days on obscure internet forums, tinkering with RPGMaker 2000. There's a lot to learn from these books that take apart the concepts and design schematics of such excellent games.

Also, I was recommended to read The Book of Five Rings for Executives by Donald Krause and finished it as well. It's a commentary on segments taken from Miyamoto Musashi's Book of Five Rings, and gives (in my opinion) pretty good advice on self confidence and keeping a good mental state in the face of the brutal world of corporate hell, and real life in general.

Finally, during a small visit to a family-owned coffee shop last weekend, I had the chance to read Think Like a Champion, by Donald J Trump, current president of the United States at the time of writing. While he may be a controversial figure, the small wisdoms held in this book were thought-provoking, and discusses events regarding of how things were in America at the time of writing; 2009 seems so far away now. A word of warning, though; the book sometimes feels like it's a written record of an old man recalling one story after another - those without the mental fortitude to withstand that may not be able to withstand this book.

That coffee shop was nice. I'm gonna donate some of my books to the little library they have there.

LITFAM UPDATE: IN THE ENDGAME NOW EDITION

Bit of a dip in the total but that's alright, gotta wind down a bit right before the big finale right? Try not to get chilled and/or nogged too hard to smash them goals in the oncoming season, it might take a Christmas miracle for some of you to hit the number at this point but that's no reason to slow down, you can't beat the gift of KNOWLEDGE no matter the quantity.

Last month @Haggard slapped his goal right across the text and @Yomuchan slipped in for a 100% gang double whammy. @Peregrinus is up next to do us proud or face The Consequences.

@Asandir is currently responsible for 23% of all reading done in this thread.

Top Fam

1. @Asandir (8)
2. @SantaSeven and @Yomuchan (3)

All mistakes are just surprise gifts.

@Absurd-Ditties @Asandir @Atlas @Boss @CoolCatDaddio @Crink @Dean @DistractedDuck @FoAngel @Ganon-Dorf @Haggard @Joltopus @Kiwi @Little-Rena @Malachy @MercyfulDeath @Peaceblossom @Peregrinus @Phobotech @Quisty @RainyG @SevenSeize @SantaSeven @SirKaotik @GotDamnitWegra @TheReviewTrickster @TopazAzul @Welldoneshellfish @SnakeElder @Yomuchan @ZJ