75 Books...More or Less! discussion

Charleen wrote: "Mid-year update!

I'm 7 books away from my goal. Also, I'd planned on "a roughly even split between new books, re-reads, and comics." That split currently stands at 17/7/19, though some of those co..."

You are doing amazing with 2 little ones!!!

Thanks, Elyse! I know I need to up my goal, just not sure by how much. Things are always changing, so it's so hard to guess what kind of time I'll have.

Dad Is Fat has been on my list for a while, and I picked the perfect time to read it. Since he has so many, there was a good amount of baby stuff in there, and reading it in the midst of dealing with one myself made for a fun diversion. I think if I'd read it while I was still pregnant, I would have had a lot more "what have I done?!" feelings.

Charleen wrote: "Thanks, Elyse! I know I need to up my goal, just not sure by how much. Things are always changing, so it's so hard to guess what kind of time I'll have.

Dad Is Fat has been on my list for a while,..."

Eh, just take it a book at a time. Once you achieve one goal, move up to another achievable one, etc. :)

44. Runaways, Vol. 2: Teenage Wasteland
45. Runaways, Vol. 3: The Good Die Young
Great series. I've read the initial 18-issue run several times now. Eventually I'll follow up with the characters' later adventures.

46. The 6th Extinction
Audio re-read.

47. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
Lots of fun. I'd been seeing recs for this forever, glad I finally read it.

48. The Bone Labyrinth
Another re-read. Finally ready to catch up on the last few in this series I missed.

49. The Inhumans
Comic re-read. Such a beautiful series.

Charleen wrote: "47. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
Lots of fun. I'd been seeing recs for this forever, glad I finally read it..."

I just picked this up for $1.99 on Kindle! Excited to read it!

Charleen wrote: "Mid-year update!

I'm 7 books away from my goal. Also, I'd planned on "a roughly even split between new books, re-reads, and comics." That split currently stands at 17/7/19, though some of those co..."

Charleen that is great!

50. House of M
51. State of Wonder
52. Wallis in Love: The Untold Life of the Duchess of Windsor, the Woman Who Changed the Monarchy
53. Mister Miracle
54. The Last Child
55. Civil War: A Marvel Comics Event
56. Born with Teeth

57. The Hush
58. Every Tool's a Hammer: Life Is What You Make It
59. Graceling

60. Christine
61. The Long Earth
62. Iron House

63. The Testaments
64. The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Vol. 11: Call Your Squirrelfriends
65. The Interstellar Age: Inside the Forty-Year Voyager Mission
66. The Seventh Plague
67. Fables, Vol. 5: The Mean Seasons

68. Into the Drowning Deep
This was really creepy, a great book to kick off October with.

69. Beloved
I kind of can't believe this was one of my high school reading books. I mean, I was in an honors class and lived in a fairly progressive area, but still. There's a whole lot of sex in here. And I'm totally of the "let kids read what they want to read" mindset, but just because I'm not against it doesn't mean I'm not still surprised.

70. The Handmaid's Tale
Had to re-read this after The Testaments. Listened to the audio this time, Claire Danes did a great job.

Charleen wrote: "68. Into the Drowning Deep
This was really creepy, a great book to kick off October with.

69. Beloved
I kind of can't believe this was one of my high school reading boo..."

I really need to read some Mira Grant! And the only Seanan I've read is the Wayward Children books. The Claire Danes narration of THT was so good!

Charleen wrote: "68. Into the Drowning Deep
This was really creepy, a great book to kick off October with..."


I really enjoyed this one.

71. The Institute
72. The Witches
73. Wonder Woman, Volume 9: The Enemy of Both Sides
74. Night Shift

One to go!

Charleen wrote: "71. The Institute
72. The Witches
73. Wonder Woman, Volume 9: The Enemy of Both Sides
74. Night Shift

One to go!"

Nice Charleen!

75. Feed
Re-read of one of my favorites.

76. Fed
77. Countdown
79. San Diego 2014: The Last Stand of the California Browncoats
80. All the Pretty Little Horses
These are all supplemental novellas and such. Some re-reads, one or two of them were new to me. Solid 3-stars all around.

78. The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of September 11, 2001
Damn. Just... I don't even know what to say about this. I had just started college and was naively unaware of all but the broadest strokes of 9/11. Even after all these years, it's unreal reading these detailed stories of ordinary people in an extraordinary situation.

81. Justice League of America, Vol. 2: Curse of the Kingbutcher
82. Justice League, Vol. 5: Legacy
Catching up on some DC comics. I don't know why I'm still reading JLA because those characters do nothing for me, but the Justice League book was a good one.

83. Feedback
Feed retold from a different perspective. Unnecessary but still fun.

84. The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Vol. 1: Squirrel Power
85. The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Vol. 2: Squirrel You Know It's True
The final issue of this comic came out this past week, and now I'm going back and re-reading the entire run.

So now that I've hit my third goal of the year, I think I'm not going to make another one. This has been kind of a crazy couple weeks, not sure I'll keep up that pace, although I do have another eleven books of Squirrel Girl that I plan to blitz through, so... with six weeks left in the year, it's just not worth it trying to judge a challenging yet attainable number to reach for. Instead, I'm just going to read. (Crazy, right?)

Charleen wrote: "83. Feedback
Feed retold from a different perspective. Unnecessary but still fun.."

I don't know WHY this became a thing for awhile. Was it because of Twilight in Edward's POV? So unnecessary.

Whyyy did you tell me there are only 6 weeks left of the year?! Oh gosh! lol.

86. The Demon Crown
Better than some of the recent books in the series, but still just a solid 3-star.

87. The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Vol. 3: Squirrel, You Really Got Me Now
88. The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Vol. 4: I Kissed a Squirrel and I Liked It
89. The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Beats Up the Marvel Universe
90. The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Vol. 5: Like I'm the Only Squirrel in the World

91. Deadline
I enjoyed this a lot more on a re-read. After LOVING Feed, I originally felt a little let down by both Deadline and Blackout, but they're a lot better than I originally gave them credit for. Expectations are everything.

92. The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Vol. 6: Who Run The World? Squirrels
93. The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Vol. 7: I've Been Waiting for a Squirrel Like You
94. The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Vol. 8: My Best Friend's Squirrel
95. The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Vol. 9: Squirrels Fall Like Dominoes

96. How to Forget: A Daughter's Memoir
Both of Kate Mulgrew's memoirs were great, especially as audiobooks (she narrates them herself).

97. The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Vol. 10: Life is Too Short, Squirrel
98. The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Vol. 11: Call Your Squirrelfriend
99. The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, Vol. 12: To All The Squirrels I've Loved Before
Man, what a great experience re-reading the entire run of Unbeatable Squirrel Girl over just a couple weeks. Such a great comic.

100. Blackout
Basically, see what I wrote about Deadline.

101. Coming to You Live
This, on the other hand, was a bit of a dud. Not in a "this didn't go in the direction I wanted/expected it to and therefore I'm disappointed" way, but more in a "didn't have anything to say and doesn't really justify its existence" way.

One month left...

102. Full Throttle
I liked most of the stories in here. Interestingly the two that were written with his dad were probably my least favorites.

103. Howl's Moving Castle
I liked this, but I think if I'd read it at a different time in my life I could have loved it.

104. Strange Planet
It's a collection of the web comics, with a few new ones. Fun, but nothing special.

105. Me Before You
I really liked this one, I don't know why it took me so long to read it.

Charleen wrote: "105. Me Before You
I really liked this one, I don't know why it took me so long to read it...."

Such a good series! I loved the movie too, Emilia Clarke IS Lou!

106. Superman, Volume 5: Hopes and Fears
107. Superman: Action Comics - The Oz Effect
108. The Day It Finally Happens: Alien Contact, Dinosaur Parks, Immortal Humans—and Other Possible Phenomena

Final update:

109. Hiddensee: A Tale of the Once and Future Nutcracker
Good, not great. Not nearly as much about the Nutcracker as I expected (even knowing that Maguire rarely does the expected).

110. A Christmas Carol
A lovely re-read.

111. The Bird King
Great book. G. Willow Wilson completely pulls me into these worlds that aren't at all familiar to me.

112. Paper Girls, Vol. 1
Great comic. I've read this first volume several times. I meant to get a few more volumes down before the year ended, but it just didn't happen. Guess that means I'll start the year with a bit of a boost as I refresh my memory on this VERY weird series before getting the final volumes from the library.

And that's it! Happy new year!

Well done! Happy New Year, may it be full of all the things we love :)

Charleen wrote: "112. Paper Girls, Vol. 1
Great comic. I've read this first volume several times. I meant to get a few more volumes down before the year ended, but it just didn't happen. Guess that means I'll start the year with a bit of a boost as I refresh my memory on this VERY weird series before getting the final volumes from the library..."

Great job, Charleen! Paper Girls IS a very weird series! lol. I will need to re-read Vol 1 before continuing on.