Horror Aficionados discussion

Well, we are at the halfway mark of 2014. How are you doing on your reading goals for 2014?

What has been your best read of the year so far? Your worst?


As for me, I set my goal at 65 books for the year. Just like last year, I ended up reading several novelas at the beginning of the year and blew through that number. I have adjusted my goal accordingly to 130 books, which should leave plenty of room for several more novelas.

More tellingly, my page count for the year puts me at a pace to be 5000 pages ahead of last year. I can live with that pace.

One area that I'm not doing too well on is the list of 10 books that I wanted to get off of my TBR list in 2014. I've read only one of those. Have to work harder on that.


My best read of the year so far has been Boy's Life by Robert McCammon. Loved it!

My worst read of the year has been The Unwanted by M.J. Winn. The premise was good but the author just tried to do too much in the number of pages he gave himself.

I am doing the reading challenge this year (first time) so basing on that I set my goal of 35 books for the year and I believe I have read 17 so far. I probably could have set myself higher but I am almost glad I didn't since it seems to be taking me longer to get through a book just because other things get in the way (work, commitments, etc.)

I do think it's possible I will surpass my goal of 35. Right now I have 16 books sitting in my room waiting to be read, some from my TBR list.

Favorite book so far: Doctor Sleep

Worst book: The Strange Death of Mistress Coffin Boring is the only word I can use to describe it.

I've read 98/100 books for my goal. Last year my goal was also 100 and I did 130 so I'll likely end up passing 130 at this rate.

I've gotten 61 books off my TBR pile, as well as 6 new releases read. 2 of those 61 were physical books off my shelf, not library books.

A lot of those 61 were the series leading up to the 6 new releases as I fell behind on series in the past or started new series. There's 45 books left on my initial TBR list. I also have 11 more new releases to read this year which aren't out yet.

6/5 books on my horror challenge. Most of those were short 200ish page books so I do plan on adding in longer reads, possibly going to 10/5 books.

I cleared 17 books off my kindle after reading them. Meanwhile I've only added 15 books to my amazon account so I've cleared more than I've added (yay).

So far I'm about 3000 pages less than I read last year, but that's not hard to make up and pass last year's total.

I don't have a best read, and the worst read of a book I finished was most certainly A Shiver of Light by Laurell K. Hamilton. (I didn't get into a bunch of kindle books and just deleted them without noting titles as I've learned to be much more discerning about what I pick up for free.) I knew ASoL was going to be bad, I just enjoy seeing how much worse her novels get (how does she even still have a contract now?).

I've read 25 out of 50, my favorite being Field of Prey by John Sandford. It's mystery, not horror, but I loved it nonetheless.

I've read 65 of the 140 that is my goal.
I started two challenges this year. The first was a Toughest Reads challenge which I have failed miserably. (This was a challenge to read books that were voted the toughest reads due to their content.) I haven't read any of them and have given up on it for now.
My second challenge was to read 5 Classic Horror books and though I haven't read any yet, I do still plan to.

My favorite book this year so far has got to be: Animosity.

I can't think of any bad books I've read this year. But if I remember one, I will be back to post it!

I have read about half of the books I set for goal so it looks like I am on track.

best so far are City of Thieves by David Benioff and The Secret History by Donna Tartt.

Not worst but most dissappointing is Swamplandia! by Karen Russell.

best Horror so far: The Conqueror Worms byBrian Keene

I just joined GR in March and didn't set a reading goal for this year. I did sign up for the Horror's Best Books challenge, but I've only read 3 of those so far.

I'm only at 16 books since I've joined, but at almost 6,000 pages. I'm happy about that.

Best book: The Terror

Least favourite: The Day is Dark This was still a pretty good book.

I've read 50 of 104 books.
My page count is off, because some of the books I read were eARCS without page counts.

Best book to date: Animosity

Worst: The Montauk Monster

I'm 88 books into the 125 set myself for my first whole year on Goodreads. Will have to up it next year.

Best Book: Blackout.

Worst Book: The Walking Dead: The Fall of the Governor: Part One.

I started with a goal of reading 50 but already surpassed that. 70 out of 100 so far.

Best: The Summer I Died by Ryan C. Thomas

Worst: Shattered Dreams by Irene Spencer

Kaisersoze wrote: "Worst Book: The Walking Dead: The Fall of the Governor: Part One..."


Is that an Arnold Schwarzenegger biography?

I've surpassed my challenge by more than 10 books, but a number of them are short stories.

Best Book: We Have Always Lived in the Castle

Worst Book: Clive Barker's First Tales

I've read 29 out of 40 books this year (a good number for me because I started reading seriously again until march). I think my favorite books so far this year is The Return of the King and my least favorite is The Prince.

My goal is 100 books... I got 20 books done so far.

I might be able to make this goal.

What a great thread Ken, I saw it on my way to work and wanted it to marinate in my head for a bit before I replied... My goal is only 64 but I will raise it as I might read a few more novellas. I have 29 books read so far which isn't a lot but I'm pretty much my own competition, so I don't feel too much of rush, when the reading gets good it's easy to go down those wordy slopes, right now I'm enjoying reading, so no slumps for the moment, yippe... I'm also more interested in beating the page count than a book count. It keeps going down lol.

Best Book so far - Dune

Worst book so far ( cant see anything surpass this one) The House of Journalists

I must agree with Kasia, awesome thread, Ken!

I decided to set a goal of 40 this year, as I was going for quality, not quantity... That being said, I'm already at 43. I'm not upping it though, as now I can coast through the rest of the year with no worries. I can even pickup those door stoppers I stay away from when I still have to reach my goal.

Worst book this year, Abduction by Robin Cook, hopefully no more like that for this year.

Tie for best horror between House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski and American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis.

Also a tie for non horror between Someone Knows My Name by Lawrence Hill and The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson.

Overall, it has been a great year of reading so far!

My goal for the year was 150 which I decided to drop to 125 due to study commitments. So far I've read 51/125. I'm only about a 1000 pages down from last years challenge but I think page counts hadn't been included in some of the books I read last year so my deficit could be more.

My favourite book this year is a tie between Draculas & Angel Dust Apocalypse

The worst book is again a tie between Candy & Damnation 101

My goal was 100 and I'm at 74. Doing pretty well but I've read a lot of short fiction this year, trying to clear off some of the TBR shelf since they keep sitting there.

Best book I've read this year - Gone with the Wind

Not sure on the worst book yet.

Overall a great year so far with reading, been having fun with it.

my goal is 75 and I'm at 62. i get to listen to a lot of audiobooks and i count those.
my favorite so far:
this trilogy
my worst:

all i remember is that it's about a girl who finds out she's a changeling and she was so annoying.

Ken wrote: "Kaisersoze wrote: "Worst Book: The Walking Dead: The Fall of the Governor: Part One..."


Is that an Arnold Schwarzenegger biography?"

lol Sadly, that would have been a whole lot more entertaining than this dribble was.