Around the Year in 52 Books discussion

(32.)

Alice Walker was on my short list of authors I wanted to include in this year's challenge, along with Richard Wright and Maya Angelou, all of which are authors that I discovered in English 101 way back in 2003 and had been meaning to read novels by.

Not unsurprisingly, since I had read essays from her previously, Alice Walker is an amazing writer. I could certainly see myself reading everything she has and will publish. I chose to start with The Color Purple since it is her most renowned work.

(24.)

Well, I just couldn't wait. I went ahead and read A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and now Winter seems that much farther off. I do wish that I had read these books in published order, though, with these novellas falling between the tomes. There was a lot of interplay between the stories a hundred years prior and those in the modern era. Plus the later books spoiled a few events from these. I'd recommend reading this before A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons at least.

Also, it's better than those two books, but I'm not sure were I'd place it standing amongst the earlier three. It's definitely faster paced and more to the point, with lots of action. This is the Song of Ice and Fire book for the more casual reader. The hero always triumphs over evil and every story has its conclusion.

(37.)

With only 8 challenges left for the year, I decided to pick one of the longer remaining books to read, assuming that it would last me until into August. But no dice. This book was way too good to savor and I burned through it.

Pretty close to being my favorite Stephen King book, Misery is a bit more than just a thriller as it analyzes the writing process and what it is to be a writer. I was expecting it to be scary, I was expecting it to be informative on the writing process.

(28.)

Reading I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings for week 27 sent me down a rather interesting path. I wanted to read more from this series, and here I am finishing the 6th book. The first slots to change in the plan, making room for Maya Angelou's books, were easy. They took out books that were tenuous, dreaded, and fulfilled undecided weeks. But this is the first one where I had to cut a book I really wanted to read.

I had initially pit Stephen King's On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, but I had yet to find a way to read it. I want to own that book, so that I can reference it with my own writing. I want to highlight and make notes in the margins. But I've yet to acquire a copy.

A Song Flung Up To Heaven was a great choice for this week and brought the story full circle from Caged Bird. It was a good call to read all 6 of these in just 4 months. I'm still not sure how quickly I want to try the 7th, as I hear it covers some of the same material as the main 6 books. Instead, i am think about moving on to Malcolm X's Autobiography (which would pair well with A Song Flung up). I read that way back in 7th grade, but it could be a good time for a revisit.

(43.)

Well, you finally did it, Neil. You finally got 5 stars out of me. The Graveyard Book was very well plotted, with everything interlinking with the main plot, while each of the 8 chapters had its own internal, short story length plot.

It even managed to have a solid ending.

I'm so happy anytime I see somebody love a Gaiman book ;)

(50.)

I am glad that I chose to bump The Trial to week 10 and then replace my week 50 topic with a second Kafka book, in Amerika, allowing me to read two Kafka books in a single year. Though, I am also glad that I didn't read this one first. The Missing Person, as it is alternately called, was Kafka's first novel written and was never completed in his lifetime. So, while his writing ability is apparent, it isn't his best work and certainly wouldn't be the place to start.

(38.) and (164.)

Double Update!

I had been looking forward to The Picture of Dorian Gray. I didn't know much about the story (other than what was spoiled by The League of Extraordinary Gentleman) but found it very interesting and Oscar Wilde is a very well regarded writer that is oft quoted.

And man was this quotable! There is something to highlight on almost every page, if not more than one. I had to start just picking the best lines. I will say that this actually worked to the detriment of the work, it gets to be a bit much at times -> too showy. Sometimes it felt like the story was progressing just to lead into the next devastating quip. But the story, regardless, is really great.

This is most certainly a tale told from the perspective of the villain, and it doesn't really have a hero character at all.

Meanwhile, I needed an audiobook to accompany me at work while doing some rather tedious seed cleaning, sterilization and sowing. None of the books left on my plan were available on short notice, so I grabbed The Running Man from my TBR list.

What a blast of a novel. It's very much an action piece with big twists and turns and a break neck pace. I finished it within a few hours of getting off work just because I had to know what was going to happen.

(40.)

Picking a book for the Novella from your favorite Genre topic was fairly easy. Given, most of the novellas on the lists were not SciFi, but I found an easy list to pick from in the Hugo awards. As soon as I saw one from Gene Wolfe, The Fifth Head of Cerberus it was decided.

This book certainly didn't disappoint. Wolfe's works are written like puzzles which you can possibly solve once all the evidence has been presented. This book was a collection of three interrelated novellas. The first blew me away from page one (5 star). The second, I respected what he was doing but failed to gain any real interest in (3 star). The final work was interesting as it took me a while to get into it, but once it was revealed what was actually going on, I was hooked (4 star).

Next up: the book we've all been dreading...

(44. and 150.)

Because I am so far ahead, I decided to go ahead and read a big book for Week 44, in Kushiel's Dart. Overall, I'd say it was mediocre. It had some great parts, some extremely slow parts (like most big books), and some rather uncomfortable sex scenes. While I look back at the big picture, the main plot, fairly fondly. I mean it had a plot (unlike Outlander) that was more than just things that happen which lead to more sex scenes (see: Outlander). But I found myself avoiding reading and/or just reading something else. That's not the sign of a good book.

I'm going with: well written, but not my thing.

Meanwhile, since I was reading other things, I ended up finishing Stephen King's Roadwork which was cool as it gave me all four books in the collection The Bachman Books (three from this year and one in 2015). Then I started working on more Conan stories to try and finish that collection.

The great news, though: one book left for my 52.

Oh you're finishing with Kindred, what a good choice! I really enjoyed it so I've another book by this author scheduled for next year :)

Being about halfway through now, I completely agree. It was never my intention to read this one last, though. It was just fortunate.

All year, I've been looking at how I'm going to acquire the books for my list. Those that were cheap on Amazon, I bought. those that had long wait lists at the Library, I put holds on and read when my number came up.

But Kindred was different because it was quite expensive as an ebook but had no holds at the library at all. So, I waited on it, knowing that I could read it at any time. And when I was ready, I checked it out.

Then I realized why it didn't have many holds - the ebook was of a really odd format and not compatible with my Kindle (this is the only time that I have encountered this). So, I had to go on the wait list at the library for a physical book. And that put me wait out here.

Still: seems to be well worth the wait.

(49.)

Did I save the best for last? Maybe.

Kindred is certainly a contender for the best book that I've read this year, I'll have to give it some thought.

I was surprised at how straight forward the writing was, I had expected it to be perhaps a bit high end leaning toward pretentious. I was also surprised with the absolute lack of pulling punches.

Glad I already have some more books by Octavia Butler in my next year's plan. But will I be able to wait?

Good :)
Which books will you read by her? I'll try the Earthseed series for my subgenre.

What a great question. :) It made me research her bibliography further.

I really want to dive into a series. That said, Parable of the Sower is the book that is currently on my 2017 list (for the Strong Female Character topic) but its only a two book series.

Gosh, congratulations on finishing the challenge! I hope you will stay active though. And I guess you will participate in the October book of the month read. The Halloween Tree is ahead in the poll.

I don't think I'll be slowing down anytime soon. Now, I'm just going to keep adding topics from the discard and see how many I get, total, by the end of the year.

So far, 2016 is already my 2nd most successful year (ever) in terms of page count. And it's still September.

I'll be reading The Halloween Tree this year even if it doesn't win and I also have Salem's Lot slotted for October (it was bumped from the list by the August BotM). I'm hoping to participate in all the remaining BotM reads since they have been a lot of fun.

(154.) and (9.)

I mentioned way back in post #15 that I was trying to work my way through The Complete Chronicles of Conan and at that time, I went ahead and listed the only Conan novel, The Hour of the Dragon as my pick for the week 2 topic.

Thankfully, I found a better pick for week two and was able to put off such a read. But inevitably I wanted to complete the larger omnibus, so I returned to old R. E. Howard. Now that I am done with the primary 2016 plan, I am working on Reject Topics just to see how many I could get by the end of the year. So, I returned to this for the 'A book by an author that you've read before but weren't so keen on' prompt.

After that, I turned my sights to an author I think quite highly of, with Ray Bradbury's The Halloween Tree. So far, this is my second favorite of the Bradbury books I've read (of 6). A quick read, I am quite excited to see what everyone else thinks, once October comes around.

Congratulations for finishing - amazing work! I just looked through your list, we chose a lot of the same books! I just finished Kindred myself and I loved it.

I am also a big Terry Pratchett fan, and love the Song of Ice and Fire series, too!

From your list, I read within the last year: Maus, The Color Purple, The BFG, Great Expectations. They were all great.

That's excellent, Marta, perhaps we'll have to line our plans up again next year.

Since we like a lot of the same books, I'm going to head over to your profile to see what else I need to read which I have not yet.

Cool :) I am reading lots of different genres - I was just looking through your list, too. You read a lot more sci-fi and fantasy than me but a lot of what we read is similar among them.

(145), (22), and (180)

I decided to revisit some authors that were new to me this year but quite good. So, I went in for a 2nd P.G. Wodehouse book. I chose Something Fresh as it is from the next most famous series of his and it is book 1 of that series. Surprisingly, these series are not as separate as I had thought, but like the Discworld books, appear to cross over. There was a Wooster making a cameo here. This one wasn't as good as the other but it did have a quite complex plot with lots of well developed characters. Also this book satisfied 1915 for me.

Then I moved on to The Jungle Book, which I read for the 'became a Disney movie' reject prompt (and 1894). I wanted to read this mainly because I found out that The Graveyard Book was heavily inspired by it. While I like a few of the stories in Jungle Book a lot, others did little or nothing to me. Graveyard book was far more consistent (and had a single overarching plot). Its a good study in how a writer can take what was good from one book and build out from there to make a superior work.

Finally, I ordered in Go the Fuck to Sleep from the library. This book has interested me since I heard about it and my daughter's love of Where's My Cow? convinced me that she would appreciate a subversive children's book. but this was... disappointing. The first few pages are quite funny, with the unconventional use of the F bomb in a picture book but then it just turns dark. I read it to myself and did not enjoy. Eleanor still wanted to read it and so I reworded a few uncomfortable passages, but it did nothing for her either. The only redeeming bit was the art. The discard challenge prompt that I counted this one for was 'a children's book with an animal on the cover.'

But on the plus side I bought Where's My Cow and Eleanor was so excited when it arrived. She said, "really? we don't have to give it back? it's all ours! Yeah!!" and then there was a bit of high fiving.

(70.)

I read The Golem and the Jinni as the book of the month for The Sword and Lazer, and found a discard topic here to count it for.

It took surprisingly long and wasn't nearly as good as my expectations had put it. The writing itself was quite strong (word usage, sentence construction, etc.) but the plotting a was a little forced in places and it was quite obvious where the author had manipulated it. The story engaged well at the beginning and then fell off into tedium for quite a while before slowly building to a decent conclusion.

I guess, overall, I think that Hellene is a very skilled writer who has a first book and I expect her to achieve greatness, inevitably. But this is that first book.

(153).

October was not a very productive month for me in terms of reading. Other things got priority, for a change. 'Salem's Lot was bumped from the initial 52 in favor of The Graveyard book (the August book of the month), so I figured it would work well for Halloween.

It certainly did. I recognize it as a well written book, though I was never that engaged, until the end. It was a bit of a retelling of Dracula (hitting all the same plot points) but done much more realistically, though occurring in a modern setting likely helped.

(56.), (32.), (186.), and (160.)

Throughout November, in addition to looking for more topics to fill from the Discard Challenge, I also targeted books from years that I had not read a book from previously (I'm keeping an Excel spreadsheet to track years). The first of these was Martian Time-Slip, which was also the most recent year: 1964, which I used for the 'A book set on another planet', in this case Mars, topic.

Next came The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare from 1908, which I read for the 'The smallest book on your TBR list' topic. This one was quite a disappointment. While I have a lot of respect for allegories and such deeper meaning works, this one just tosses out the narrative entirely at about 80%.

The Inimitable Jeeves covered 1923 for me and the 'A book that was turned into a TV series' topic. This is the third book I've read this year by P.G. Wodehouse and the 4th book this year from the 1920's, a decade which I had not read any books from going into 2016.

Finally, rounding out November, was Player Piano, which was not a from a year I needed. Instead, I read this one just because I felt like I could do with some Vonnegut. This is certainly the weakest of Vonnegut's works that I have read, but it was also his first ever published work, so not too surprising. I used this for the 'A bestseller published the year a family member was born' topic. 1952 was the year my father was born. Interesting to think that my grandmother could have been reading it while rocking him to sleep. Though I'm not sure if she was a fan of Kurt Vonnegut.

(25.), (45.), and (57.)

I cannot update the original post, it seems, because I have met the character limit!

For the discard topic: 'A book with a plant (tree, flower, etc) on the cover' and also for the Battleship Team Goal of a Spring Cover, I read another P.G. Wodehouse in Very Good, Jeeves!. This one was top notch and was nearly as good as the last Jeeves book I read. It just missed out on the 5th star.

Next, I did a reread for the discard topic: 'Reread one of your favorite books'. Way back in the 6th grade, Robert Asprin's Myth Adventures series was my absolute favorite, and I was interested in rereading them as an adult to see if they held up -> I do own the first nine after all. I reread the first book, Another Fine Myth and it was just as good as I remembered. Perhaps one's tastes do not always change. As a bonus, I understood more of the jokes at 35.

The third book in this update is A Princess of Mars, which I read for the discard topic: 'A book that doesn't take place on earth'. This very early and very influential Sci-Fi adventure book was one that I had not heard of until it was made into the film John Carter a couple years back.

It was pretty bad. Exceptionally racist and relying on a whole lot of plot convenience. Oddly, though, I do feel the desire to read the sequel. That's got to say something in the book's favor. Dumb: sure, offensive: definitely, but very fast paced and exciting.

Well, time to close out my 2016 thread. I ended up spending all of December reading many short books just to see how many I could get, and I finished the last one right at the wire (an hour before midnight), waiting until 2017 to begin a new book. I don't think I've begun a new year with a new book since 2012.

119. A book about science – Prelude to Space

I started this book as 'a short story collection', not sure why I thought that, it is certainly a full book. This is the first book that Arthur C. Clarke wrote (1949) though not the first published.

The book was a surprisingly good read. It shouldn't be that much of a surprise that Clarke can write and utilizes accurate science. And yet still, 1949 - a book about landing on the moon. Clarke did the research, interviewing actual scientists about how they thought it would be done, and while he got a few things wrong, he got a surprising number of things right - 20 years early.

151. A book by an author who is from a country different than your own – Uncle Fred in the Springtime

I read this one because it already had as thread in ATW and is by P.G. Wodehouse. Uncle Fred is now one of my favorite characters in the Wodehouse-verse and I hope to read about him again. Never before had I seen someone so adept at turning adversity into opportunity.

88. A book that takes place during a holiday – A Christmas Carol

This was one of the books I had mapped out early for 2016, but I knew I wanted it to be a December book and somehow doubted that I would be able to make the 52 weeks stretch out for 12 months. So instead, I chose Great Expectations for my 'Book by an Author you Really Should Have Read by Now'. Then this became the second book that I read by Charles Dickens.

There must have been at least one version of A Christmas Carol that I have seen which was very close to the book, as I could all but quote it in parts (my favorite is the Patrick Stewart version) and yet this book was still an emotional and fun ride.

51. A book you bought or will buy from an independent bookstore or from a charity shop – Myth Conceptions

I read this book for two reasons. The first is due to an error in the Goodreads programming (or possibly an error in how I use it). When you read a book, it lists that book as read for that year. But then it does not get listed in a later year when you reread it. So those later years get their total knocked down by one. I reread Another Fine Myth early in December, but it does not show up since I read it in 1993. So, I also read its sequel, Myth Conceptions so that I could count the omnibus edition of these two, Another Fine Myth / Myth Conceptions, toward 2016.

I am again surprised with how much my opinion stays the same, even though I read these books originally when I was 11. The first book is very strong, but the second just drags. It feels like the author was writing this as an assignment and pushing himself to get through it and this carries on to the reader. By my recollection, this series does not kick back into gear until the author changes up the formula mid book 4.

Still, these are very quick reads.

90. A book set during World War II – Mother Night

One of the best books I read this year. I wasn't too impressed with Kurt Vonnegut's first book, Player Piano, so had low expectations going into this one. But sometime between then and this, his third book, Vonnegut figured his voice on.

This is his first foray into World War II, and foreshadows many of the themes seen in his most famous work, Slaughterhouse-Five.

28. A book with a woman and a man on the cover – Thank You, Jeeves and 61. A book set in the country of your ancestors – Right Ho, Jeeves

What can I say, I wanted to read some more P.G. Wodehouse. These weren't really read back to back, as I started The Gods of Mars between them, but it took me longer to push through that book.

I had been working my way up to Right Ho, Jeeves, which I had read was the favorite of the books of Stephen Fry. But I still like The Inimitable Jeeves the best.

126. An Adventure book – The Gods of Mars

The very last book of 2016 and boy was this a push for me. I was only 50% into it going into the 31st, even though I had started it weeks before. But I did it!

This is no different from the first in terms of quality. It has a lot of fun action and a whole lot of dumb plot convenience to set that up. Like the first, the ending is a cliffhanger, and I have read that the whole arc carries into the third book of the series. But I'm not sure how much I care. 2017 means time for something new.

Tip for re-reads: if you select 2 different editions, you can have 2 different reviews and dates for the same book :)

^Awesome, will be trying that out!