The three ‘W’s are what are you reading now, what have you recently finished reading, and what are you going to read next, and you can find this week’s post at the host’s blog here if you want to check out other posts.
What are you currently reading?
I’m partway through Sarah Rees Brennan’s In Other Lands. I haven’t enjoyed her work that much before, but this one is working quite well for me. I love the main character’s snark and how he uses it in self-defence, and also the commentaries on the genre (because of course).
What have you recently finished reading?
I haven’t actually been reading very much in the past week or so. Suddenly got all tired and had to focus on just getting work done! The last thing I read was Heroine Complex, by Sarah Kuhn; enjoyable in many ways, but I just didn’t want to stay with the main character given the running joke about her being dead inside.
What will you be reading next?
I don’t know yet! Per my “sell me a book” promise, my next fiction book will be David D. Levine’s Arabella of Mars, but I’m tempted to read Siddhartha Mukherjee’s The Emperor of All Maladies first. I’ve been doing a lot of transcription work involving stuff about cancer, and I feel like knowing more about it — from a less clinical point of view, perhaps, since this has all been about clinical trials and five year survival rates.
So pick a favourite book, or something you’d like to hear my thoughts on, and ‘sell’ me it by letting me know exactly why it’s interesting or exciting or toe-curlingly awesome. In return, I promise I will endeavour to read it within a month of this post, unless I get so many responses that it’s unfeasible (unlikely, given my usual commenting rate on here).
(Hint: if you think of something but you’re not sure if I own it, you could just use my blog’s search function. That also goes for checking whether I’ve already read it.)
Yes, this is a shameless way of trying to get myself excited about books I might’ve forgotten all about.
I’m reading Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are [Frans de Waal]?_ right now, and while it has some overlap with The Bonobo and the Atheist with regards to animal data and anecdotes, it’s got a whole bunch of new stuff and feels great.
Saga: Volume 6 [Brian K. Vaughan, Fiona Staples] I haven’t read yet, but I WILL READ WITH YOU because SAGA
The Ghost Brigades [John Scalzi] is a good read, fun Scalzi time, but I mostly recommend it because The Lost Colony is as good as Old Man’s War and I’ve got reviews here.
I’m currently re-reading God’s War [Kameron Hurley] and alkjdflkasjdf loving it more than the first time I read it. Bug-magic, queerness, a society that’s predominantly female and racism and war and it’s really, really good.
Zoo City [Lauren Beukes] was really, really good. An unfiltered take on a non-Western world with non-Western magic and unf.
redphoenix of Habitica:
I read Caraval [Stephanie Garber] recently. If you enjoyed the worldbuilding of the Night Circus [Erin Morgenstern], it’s in a very similar vein and I found the plot to be less predictable than Night Circus’s (but thoroughly enjoyed both!). Additional note for Caraval: the emotional driving force for that book is the character’s love for her sister. As someone with younger sister, I could definitely relate, and the plot doesn’t just treat the sister as a macguffin.
Arabella of Mars [David D. Levine] is a pitch perfect Victorian-era-girls-having-adventures romp (and we were on a panel with the author of that book at the Nebula conference last year)
I thoroughly enjoyed Jade City [Fonda Lee] (NB I read more than one Godfather book and also lots of martial arts; it was great to read something of both over-the-top genres so I’d be curious as to what you thought of it)
Ghost Talkers [Mary Robinette Kowal] made me cry and miss my husband, so you may also want to time that for proximity to Lisa. It _sucked_ not to be able to go find him for comfort snuggles.
Sparrow Hill Road [Seanan McGuire] is one of my desert island books!!!
If you dream of flying or paragliding, Updraft [Fran Wilde] is perfect (with some solid aerodynamics)
Lemoness of Habitica:
Seconding Ghost Talkers <3
Across the Wall [Garth Nix] is a collection so not all of them are equally good but there were a few in there that I thoroughly enjoyed!!
SIX OF CROWS [Leigh Bardugo]. PLEASE READ SIX OF CROWS. The pace is excellent, the characters are complex and compelling, and it really does feel like the most satisfying of heists in terms of the way information is withheld and revealed. I will say that Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom are really two halves of a whole, so I’d have them both on hand to read at once!!
Perhaps it’s no surprise, but after the epic barrage of books for Christmas, I didn’t get anything this week. So I just get to showcase the books I read!
Books read last week
Five stars: The Goblin Emperor (reread), Lumberjanes to the Max vol 1. Four stars: Fossils: The Key to the Past, The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club (reread). Three stars: The Unbelievable Gwenpool: Believe It.
Reviews posted this week:
–Prime Meridian, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. I feel like saying too much about this would be a disservice — not that it has an epic plot to be spoiled, but I don’t think I’d be able to convey the right things. 4/5 stars –Imagining Head-Smashed-In, by Jack W. Brink. About the buffalo jump called Head-Smashed-In, this goes into all the details of how people made the buffalo jumps work and why they needed them. It goes into a lot of detail I didn’t really find interesting at times, but it’s definitely a great window into a different way of life. 4/5 stars –The Statues that Walked, by Carl Lipo and Terry Hunt. Fascinating stuff about Rapa Nui, better known as Easter Island, and debunks the “ecocide” theory credibly. 4/5 stars –The Earth After Us, by Jan Salasiewicz. More geology-focused than I hoped (perhaps not surprising, given the author’s other book I’ve read) but it does have a good chapter at the end that was more what I was looking for. 3/5 stars –The Glass Town Game, by Catherynne M. Valente. This feels very like the Fairyland books, but if you’re a fan of both those and the Brontes, this might well be right up your alley. 4/5 stars –Winterwood, by Dorothy Eden. Not the most original or fascinating Gothic-romance-mystery I’ve ever read, but solid enough fun. 3/5 stars –Suspicious Minds, by Rob Brotherton. Not about conspiracy theories as such, but about why we believe in them. I found it interesting, though not always surprising. 4/5 stars
Other posts:
–2017 stats. What I read, when I read it, and other such fascinating stats from 2017’s reading year.
–Game of Books 2018.Did you join in my little game last year? Whether you did or not, you miiiight be interested in checking out this post which explains how I earn points by reading whatever I want, instead of a strict challenge.
So how’s everyone’s 2018 looking so far? Read anything good?
It’s time for another game. A game to keep me reading my backlog.
A game of books!
By some miraculous alchemy, I figure out how many points I want to aim for in a year, and then I can earn them in various ways through reading. It goes like this…
Points
Acquisition
Length
Joy Factor (calculated before reading)
Series
How long did it take to read?
0
Comic or novella
From the bookshop straight to my eyeballs
Not in a series
Less than a week
1
2018, borrowed, ARC, etc
250+
MUST READ NOW
First in a series
Less than two weeks
2
2017
400+
It can wait
Next in a series
Less than three weeks
3
2015-2016
500+
I'm not exactly pumped
Finishes a series
Less than a month
4
2013-2014
600+
Do I have to?
Less than two months
5
2011-2012
700+
WHY?
OMG NIKKI
So say I have a book I purchased back in 2013… let’s say I read A Shadow in Summer. Purchased in 2013, so that’s four points for acquisition. It’s 336 pages long according to Goodreads, so that’s one point for length. I’d rate it as “it can wait” — it’s something I intend to read, but I don’t feel a burning need — so that’s three points if I finally get round to it. It’s the first in a series, so that’s one point, and… let’s say I devour it overnight, so I get no points for “how long?” Altogether, that’s nine points toward my monthly goal of 120, chosen based on my progress last year.
To work this out for yourself, you might want to see how many points you’d get for an average easy read from your TBR pile, and then add them up and multiply by however many of those you’d read in a month. That was my original reasoning, and it worked quite well in encouraging me to read longer books which would reduce my overall number of books per month, but get the same amount of points.
I have a template spreadsheet all ready here, and you’re welcome to steal the formatting from my own (locked for editing) sheet if you want to add in more of the bells and whistles. Feel free to customise it however you want, for your own goals; I only ask that you have fun and credit me for the idea, with a link back here.
That is, Happy New Year to everyone, if you don’t speak Welsh. (It’s okay. Neither do I.)
I’m not sure how many people will be interested in this, but I saw Chuckles’ pie charts and decided I rather liked the idea — if nothing else, for the sake of self-reflection! I’ve tried not to be too excessive, though. Below you’ll find a line graph showing how many books I read per month, and then for comparison, how many points I earned in Game of Books for each month. Below that there’s a pie chart showing what genres I’ve been reading, and another showing the sources of the books I read. You can click to embiggen. I used this site to make my graphs.
A note on how I calculated genres: on the rare occasions when a book was hard to pin down, I marked it in multiple genres, but for the most part I assigned each book a single genre.
Other stats:
Total read: 311
Number of rereads: 21
Total page count: 56,886
Most-read genre per month:
January: Fantasy
February: Science
March: Science
April: Fantasy
May: Science
June: Science
July: Fantasy
August: History
September: Fantasy
October: Science
November: Fantasy
December: History
Number of ratings:
Five stars: 16
Four stars: 155
Three stars: 105
Two stars: 29
One star: 6
I was a bit surprised by some of this — clearly my comics consumption has been hit hard by the fact that I was boycotting Marvel while Steve Rogers was a Nazi. My non-fiction consumption has gone sharply up, but given I’m in my third year of a science degree, I’m not terribly surprised by the amount of science I’m reading. SF was a sizeable genre throughout the year, but never beat out non-fiction or fantasy for being the most read in a single month.
Perhaps most surprising to me was the fact that I’ve actually read quite a bit of horror this year. It’s not really my kind of genre at all!
This is probably the least amount I’ve read in terms of total number of books in many years, but I have tackled my backlog somewhat and kept much more on top of reading the books I bought than usual. Game of Books worked out well, prompting me to read books that had been hanging around for longer, but I can always do better next year. (And yes, Game of Books is returning; I’ll make the spreadsheet later today, but probably won’t post about it until tomorrow. Let me know if you need a link sooner!)
It’s been a rough year in some ways, but we’ve survived it and here we are. Here’s to 2018 — may it bring us all joy (and many books).
Good morning, all! I hope you had a good festive season, whatever you celebrate — or a nice week, if you don’t celebrate! I certainly did, and I’ve got a heck of a haul to share with you guys.
New fiction
I’ve been looking forward to some of these for quite a while, so I’m excited!
New non-fiction
Quite a stack, on all kinds of topics — but that’s me all over.
Comics
I’m interested to see what the new run of Captain Marvel is like! I did not like the direction they went with her for Civil War II etc, but this is a new volume one…
Books read this week:
Yeesh, I need to fit in some more fiction sometime soon!
The three ‘W’s are what are you reading now, what have you recently finished reading, and what are you going to read next, and you can find this week’s post at the host’s blog here if you want to check out other posts.
What are you currently reading?
I’m still halfway through Kushiel’s Dart, and I’m most of the way through Brian Fagan’s book on Cro-Magnon peoples. It’s interesting in itself, but a lot of the info isn’t new to me at all, and some of it is a little out of date. Also, it might not be the best choice while in the middle of some species of flu-like virus, though luckily that seems to be pretty much over now.
What have you recently finished reading?
Not much, regrettably. I just finished How the Zebra Got Its Stripes by Léo Grasset, though; it’s entertaining and sometimes informative, but pretty light and very short. And now I know more than I wanted to know about the sex lives of hyenas.
What will you be reading next?
I’m not sure, but I’m tempted to reread The Goblin Emperor to see out the year after my sister bet me that I’d read it at least twice this year and in fact, I proved that I haven’t even read it once in 2017. Oddly though, I’m not sure if I quite feel like it…
What are you reading? Get anything interesting for Christmas that you had to dive straight into?
It’s nearly Christmas! I’m so excited to give my family their presents, I might explode! I’ve done a better job of keeping secrets than I normally do, at least… How’s everyone doing? Are you celebrating Christmas or an equivalent holiday, or is it just an ordinary day/week/month for you? Whatever it is, I wish you safe, happy and warm.
Like our bunnies, safely at the bunny hotel without us. But since we’re apart, here’s a picture of the two of them cuddling, last week.
New books
Perhaps a slightly odd combination… but I’m looking forward to all three.
The three ‘W’s are what are you reading now, what have you recently finished reading, and what are you going to read next, and you can find this week’s post at the host’s blog here if you want to check out other posts.
What are you currently reading?
Actually, I’m not in the middle of anything at all, except Kushiel’s Dart, which I’ve been persistently not feeling like reading. Too much terrible stuff happens to Phèdre and Joscelin, and I’m just not in the mood for their world right now. Hopefully I’ll get it back soon…? I am 50% of the way through, so I don’t want to just stop, though of course it’s a reread so I know what happens.
What have you recently finished reading?
I’ve just finished Priam’s Gold, by Caroline Moorehead. It’s about Heinrich Schliemann, the man who excavated at Troy to prove that Homer’s epics were referring to real historical events. It’s partly a biography of Schliemann, but it does also trace his whole archaeological career and the later movements of the treasure he found. That means there’s a couple of chapters on WWII and the way both sides looted art.
Other than that, I just read Winterwood, by Dorothy Eden. It’s a Gothic-ish mystery/romance, sort of in the vein of Mary Stewart’s work, and it actually gave me a couple of surprises…
What will you read next?
I don’t know. I honestly feel like some very familiar rereads — Carry On, by Rainbow Rowell, maybe, or The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Cat Valente. Maybe even some Mary Stewart, though I’ve been spacing out those rereads a bit. It is the time of year to snuggle down and be cosy around here, after all…
I don’t know many bloggers who don’t want to grow their blogs, and I think we’ve all heard pretty much the same advice. Post regularly (but not too much), review new books (but don’t make it all ARCs that other people can’t get yet), review the stuff your readers are interested in (but don’t get too specialised), take part in memes and tags (but not too many)… It can get to be an obligation. I don’t know about anyone else, but I find myself picking my next book because “oh, it’s been a while since I reviewed a fantasy novel” or “everyone must be bored of non-fiction reviews, I should pick something else”.
And you know, the advice isn’t bad if you just want to grow your audience, maybe sell some books through affiliate links (not one so far from mine!), be a popular blogger with a ton of followers, get all the ARCs…
But I found myself looking at the books I’m hoping to get for Christmas and briefly thinking I’d like to reread the rest of the series… and then thinking, hm, no, I reread that earlier this year, nobody wants to see me review that again.
Wait, what? Who am I reading for? Why have I suddenly turned my hobby into a job? Why do I have to periodically keep having this realisation?
I don’t follow other people’s blogs because I necessarily want to read the books they do, or want them to review particular things. I follow other people’s blogs to share the joy of reading, and I don’t have to share their taste closely for that. And it’s valuable to me to know if someone whose taste I know has read a book five times in a year, because hey, that means it’s exceptional in some way! And while I don’t read much of certain genres or authors, if I see a blogger tearing through all the books by a certain author, first of all, I’m glad for them, and second, maybe it’s worth a try as a gateway into the genre. Enthusiasm is a real recommendation.
So here’s my endeavour for the year ahead: read the books I want to, not the books I think I should. Reread when I like. Don’t worry about varying my reviews or writing some deathless original prose about a book I’ve read five times now. I’m just going to share what I’ve enjoyed, and why I’ve enjoyed it, and if that’s neither useful or interesting to people, that’s fine. It turns out I’m not here for the audience, for the affiliate link sales, for the ARCs. I’m here to share how much I love reading.
(Not that that means things will necessarily change. I like doing Stacking the Shelves, commenting on other people’s posts, reading and reviewing books of all genres. I just might not worry too much at all about whether I’m posting too many non-fic reviews in a row or whether it’s excessive to read The Goblin Emperor again.)
Hence: Project More Joy. And to share a bit of joy around, here is Breakfast Bun hiding under a cabbage leaf.
“Sssh, I’m a secret!”
Here’s hoping you’re all along for the wild, book-enjoying ride with me.
I’m partway through Sarah Rees Brennan’s In Other Lands. I haven’t enjoyed her work that much before, but this one is working quite well for me. I love the main character’s snark and how he uses it in self-defence, and also the commentaries on the genre (because of course).
I haven’t actually been reading very much in the past week or so. Suddenly got all tired and had to focus on just getting work done! The last thing I read was Heroine Complex, by Sarah Kuhn; enjoyable in many ways, but I just didn’t want to stay with the main character given the running joke about her being dead inside.
I don’t know yet! Per my “sell me a book” promise, my next fiction book will be David D. Levine’s Arabella of Mars, but I’m tempted to read Siddhartha Mukherjee’s The Emperor of All Maladies first. I’ve been doing a lot of transcription work involving stuff about cancer, and I feel like knowing more about it — from a less clinical point of view, perhaps, since this has all been about clinical trials and five year survival rates.
