Stephen King Fans discussion

How was your year (bookwise)

So 2012 is coming to an end (yeah I know it's only november, and no apocalypse puns here), and I was thinking about my the 2012 reading challenge.
How did 2012 turn out to be for you guys? Did you exceed your goals? Or perhaps you set the bar a tad too high this year?

For myself I can say that it's been a great year literary. I set out with the very much conservative hope of reading 35 books over the course of the year, last year I read 38 books, and so I though that 35 was realistic... but so far I've already far exceeded this. At the moment I'm at 54 books (a staggering 154 % according to goodreads), and a handful more will be added before the year is over I'm sure.

In number of pages the statistics is clear too. My bookcount of 54 books totals 25110 pages or 465 pages per book.
The genre I've been reading the most is by far fantasy, with more than half of my total books being in this genre. It's followed by Horror>Sci-Fi>Biographies....

As I can see on my rating statistics, this year have offered quite a few books I loved too. I've awarded no fewer than 22 books with the maximum of 5 stars (I still think the rating system on Goodreads could be more nuanced though), and 16 books have gotten 4 stars from me.

I would like to mention a few of the books on my list too. My reread of The Wheel of Time: Boxed Set has been very entertaining, although I'm not quite done with it yet (I still have 1½ months to read the rest).
Also I've at long last begun reading The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher ... And I absolutely love it!
This year has also introduced me to Brandon Sanderson ... and I've loved everything I've read of his.
I've been trying to read some of the Science Fiction classics I've missed over the years, and that they've all proven to be worth the hype (It's Roadside Picnic , Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? , Ender's Game and Flowers for Algernon which has all been more than just enjoyable)
2012 did offer some dissappointments for me, mainly 1Q84 , The Night Circus , The Passage and World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War )

So what am I blabbering on about? I would just like to share my thoughts on the books I've read this year, and maybe be inspired by what you've read and what you think about this year's literary offerings.

The Best Book I Read This Year: The Way of Kings

Suprise of the year: Boy's Life

Dissappointment of the year: 1Q84

I used to read a lot when i was younger but this year is the first time in years that I've read like this. I read mostly Stephen King. The dark tower series being my favorite. Followed by Firestarter and the talisman although i loved all of his books i read. The hunger games was a good surprise also. And i cant forget Jurassic park and lost world either.

Well, you've got me beat! I said I would read 40. Read 43 - 16,600 pages. Still reading, but so are you, so I seriously doubt I can catch up to you! I found myself getting bogged down in some heavier reading, but I don't think I would change that (i.e. switch to only quick and enjoyable reads.) Some books I abandoned (Embassytown, Annie Dunn.) Some I really did not like (The Marriage Plot.) Some I dearly loved. Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption, The Submission. I thought A Visit from the Goon Squad was overrated.

I have to admit that I did not enjoy The Gunslinger as much as I wanted to. It just didn't seem up to King's usual level of intrigue. I think that is explained by his admission at the end of the book that he had written it in fits and starts over the course of several years. I do intend to continue on with the series. But I do have to say that the conversation the Gunslinger has with the Man in Black about infinity and God touched me on a level that many books never reach. I'm still telling others about it. And likely will for years to come.

Mummi, that's a great year, I'd say!

Brandon Sanderson is one of my favorites, and I agree that The Way of Kings is an amazing book. I've read through the entire Dresden series this year as well (I'm currently on Ghost Story and will soon be reading Cold Days, which just came out) and it only gets better. :D

I originally set my goal to read 160 books, but I set the bar too high and didn't make it by quite a lot. I've lowered it a few times, and I think I MAY hit 125. Maybe. I'm at 117 right now.

Last year I read 145, so I thought increasing by 15 wouldn't be too difficult, but this year was a struggle for me with real-life things and a move from our small and overpacked apartment to a house. A really time consuming process, let me tell you.

Plus I committed to avoiding re-reads this year, and that's been difficult too. It felt a lot like work a lot of the time. Blah.

Next year I'm just going to read what I want!

This is the year I DISCOVERED Steven King!
What rock have I been hiding under all these years?!?
I would say this has been a great year for me, reading wise.

This has been a rather hefty year of reading for me, not all of it for pleasure. I feel like I got interrupted a lot by having to read various fiction for different classes.
According to my GR bookshelves, the final count of children's books I read for ONE CLASS was 92. I think I threw in at least 4 more children's books because they were written by Neil Gaiman and I was trying to figure out which to read aloud for a podcast assignment.
I also read 5 YA books for a YA Materials class I planned to take over the summer and dropped due to being burnt out. My favorite of these was either The Book Thief, which is just a great story or Zombies Vs. Unicorns, which I actually listened to on audiobook. I recommend audiobooking this collection of funny and entertaining stories that are either about zombies or unicorns. The inros between the stories are done by the editors and are campy silliness.
For the Reader's Advisory Class I'm finishing up now, I had to read a mystery, a horror novel (well, speculative fiction, I chose the horror novel), an urban fiction novel and a romance novel. I actually really enjoyed 3 out of 4 of these novels. The mystery , Bury Your Dead, was interesting enough to hold my attention and had characters that make me want to read Penny's other books. I also enjoyed the romance suspense novel, One Scream Away, but I found the serial killer character more captivating than the romance. I read Ghost Road Blues because it had been on my TBR for a while and I love Maberry. I'm really glad others wanted to read it with me and discuss it, made homework more fun. The only book I didn't like was the urban fiction novel, A Hustler's Wife: A Nikki Turner Original. I found the main character too superficial and the book was filled with grammar and spelling mistakes.
The rest of my books were either textbooks (this reminds me, I should add the rest of my textbooks) or fiction books that I read for my own enjoyment. I think my favorites this year were Ready Player One and Come Closer. I would reread both of these books for very different reasons. Come Closer is probably the best possession story I've ever read. Maybe I'll feel differently after I get to the Exorcist. :)
I still find it funny that I changed my goal twice this year because of class and now I probably won't make it to 150 books. I thought all those children's books provided me a big enough buffer to reread The Stand yet again, but now I doubt it. Hoping to finish that and Dead Man's Song before the end of the year. I didn't really start 21st Century Dead yet (just read the intro) so that might be my first book of the new year.
I have one more semester of classes (two classes and a practicum) to complete before I graduate so the beginning of this year will be very busy. Maybe I'll catch up when I'm unemployed...

Laima wrote: "This is the year I DISCOVERED Steven King!
What rock have I been hiding under all these years?!?
I would say this has been a great year for me, reading wise."

I wish I could read all of Stephen King's books for the first time again.

which were your favorites, Becky?

Laima wrote: "which were your favorites, Becky?"

The Shining, definitely.
The Stand
The Talisman and Black House
The Dark Tower series
11/22/63
Duma Key
Lisey's Story
The Green Mile
Dreamcatcher
Insomnia

Lots.

Oh, I have plans for next year's reading list!

A friend and I are planning to re-read all of Stephen King's books in (generally) publication order.

It's going to be GLORIOUS. :D

This year was a good one for me, I finished several books I had been always been meaning to read but had been neglecting for whatever reason. Amongst the King novels I read for the first time were Carrie, Salem's Lot, 11/22/63, The Shining (a re-read). Other novels I finished this year were in no particular order:
Terry Brooks (author)
The Measure of Magic
The Elfstones of Shannara
The Wishsong of Shannara

Suzanne Collins(author)
The Hunger Games
Catching Fire
Mockingjay

Ed Falco (author)
The Family Corleone

James Patterson (author)
Big Bad Wolf

Clive Barker (author)
Hellbound Heart

J.K. Rowling (author)
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Currently Reading The Passage by Justin Cronin

I know a lot of these books I put off because of the popularity. I'm odd like that, lol but all in all I am very glad I read them, now I can have an intelligent conversation about the books.

Antonio wrote: "This year was a good one for me, I finished several books I had been always been meaning to read but had been neglecting for whatever reason. Amongst the King novels I read for the first time were..."

Nice list Antonio! Was the Hunger Games trilogy any good?

I didn't realise what a productive year I'd had until I went back and had a look at everything I'd read. Here is my list in no particular order...

Peter Beagle – The Last Unicorn
Michael Ende – Momo
Bret Easton Ellis – American Psycho
Charlaine Harris – Deadlocked
EL James – Fifty Shades trilogy
Stephen Chbosky – The Perks of Being a Wallflower
Charlotte Bronte – Jane Eyre
Emily Bronte – Wuthering Heights
Christopher Paolini - Eragon


Stephen King:
Carrie
IT
Rage
The Dark Tower Series 1-7
The Stand
‘Salem’s Lot
Night Shift
Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption
People, Places and Things


My favourites by far were The Dark Tower books (Wizard & Glass my fave out of the 7).

Out of the non-King books, I'd have to say Jane Eyre and The Perks of Being a Wallflower were my favourites. I was actually surprised how much I loved Wallflower.

My biggest disappointment was Deadlocked - the other books in the series were SO much better!

I also have to say that I felt a whole lot dumber after reading the Fifty Shades trilogy (however, I still managed to read all three in about 4 days!!)