2025 Reading Challenge discussion

In 2018 I put in a goal of 25, hoping to finish a book every two weeks, then surprised myself by clocking over 80. Granted, there were a bunch of graphic novels, children's and YA books that inflated the numbers, but I was also able to complete a novel per week. I seem to be reading even faster now so I went with 90 for this year's challenge. UPDATE (March 26): I am reading so much, I increased my goal to 120 !!!!

As you may see from my list, much of it falls short of proper literary achievement. Even the full length novels tend to fall on the pulpy side, I mean, Forgotten Realms novels, really? Well, my love of reading surged when I simply accepted that I like what I like and went for it. I have some more high-falutin' stuff in my to-be-read pile, will get to it later.

Read so far in 2019:
January
1. Avatar: The Last Airbender: North and South by Gene Yang. I have also introduced the TV series to my children and we all love it.
2. Saga, Vol. 1 by Brian K. Vaughn, as are they all.
3. Saga, Vol. 3
4. Saga, Vol. 4
5. Saga, Vol. 5.
6. Saga, Vol. 6
7. Saga, Vol. 7
8. Saga, Vol. 8.
9. The Castle of Llyr by Lloyd Alexander, book 3/5 of The Chronicles of Prydain.
10. Danny the Champion of the World by Roald Dahl.
xx. Laurie by Uncle Steve (I am not counting this one, merely an online short story).
11. The Druid Queen, the first "grown up" book on this list, kind of. Book 3/3 of the Druidhome trilogy.
12. A Redwall Winter's Tale by Brian Jacques.
13. Saga, Vol. 2 (just a little out of order, due to availability from my local library).
14. Saga, Vol. 9.
15. She: A History of Adventure by H. Rider Haggard. Classic!
16. A Living Nightmare (Cirque du Freak bk. 1) by Darren Shan. A big ol' 'Nope!'
17. Crypt of the Shadowking by Mark Anthony.
18. Fight Club 2 by Chuck Palaniuk. AVOID AT ALL COSTS. My wife gave me this for Xmas a couple of years ago, I love the movie and book, but this GN sequel was just totally WTF. In fact, that was the sum total of my review.
19. Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cramor.
20. Taran Wanderer by Lloyd Alexander. The Prydain Chronicles book 4/5.
Total pages January: 4322 (to be fair, 11 books were graphic novels)

February
21. The Fallen Fortress by R.A. Salvatore. Book 4/5 of The Cleric Quintet.
22. Prince of Lies by James Lowder. First sequel to the Avatar Trilogy, so book 4 of 3?
23. The High King by Lloyd Alexander, book 5/5 of The Prydain Chronicles. I'm not crying, you're crying, shut up! 5 STARS!
24. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman. I have permanent issues with Neil Gaiman for some reason.
25. The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman. A decent start to a fun-looking series; great concept.
26. The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald. Gettin' my childrens' classics on.
27. The Umbrella Academy, Vol. 1: The Apocalypse Suite by Gerard Way. Just in time for the Netflix adaptation.
28. Starless Night by R.A. Salvatore.
29. The Forbidden Library by Django Wexler.
30. A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again: Essays and Arguments by David Foster Wallace.
Total pages February: 3093 (includes 217 pp of unfinished Conan book)

March
31. NOS4A2 by Joe Hill. Hooray for offspring!
32. The Mad Apprentice by Django Wexler.
33. Books of Blood: Volume One by Clive Barker. Chilling and original stories by a master.
34. Revival by Uncle Steve. 5 STARS!
35. Stardust by Neil Gaiman, read for the March group read. Check out the discussion thread!
36. The Encyclopedia of Early Earth by author/artist Isabel Greenberg. My review is here.
37. Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff. Excellent blend of Lovecraft lore and Jim Crow racism. Very educational re: the latter.
xx. Evil Librarian by Michelle Knudsen. NOPE! DNF after 3 pages. Way too pre-teen crushy nonsense for this guy.
38. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. Classic, short horror novel.
39. Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell. 5 STARS!
40. Avatar: The Last Airbender: Imbalance, Part One by Faith Erin Hicks. I will count this one but not the next two volumes; properly they should count as one book all together.
41. The Vampire's Assistant by Darren Shan. I am abandoning this series now.
42. Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt.
43. The Palace of Glass by Django Wexler. Book 3/4 in The Forbidden Library series.
44. Paper Girls, Vol. 1 by Brian K. Vaughan.
45. Elantris by Brandon Sanderson. My first real adult Sanderson book; I will play catch up on his oeuvre during the rest of the year.
46. Les Misérables by Victor Hugo. OMG after 4 years I finished it! I will count 25% of its 1463 pages, since I was at 75% at the start of 2019, and will simply add these towards my March total because why not.
xx. Ocean Meets Sky by the Fan Brothers. Picture book, did not count. Great, sweet story and lovely art though.
47. Pool of Twilight by James Ward and Anne Brown. 1-star.
Total pages March: 5515 (includes another 69 pages of unfinished Conan book)

April
48. A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe by Alex White. Urban fantasy in space, new trilogy.
49. Paper Girls, Vol. 2 by Brian K. Vaughan.
50. Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson. ...and down the Brandon Sanderson rabbit hole I go.
51. Paper Girls, Vol. 3. Wow, great graphic novel series, highly recommended especially if you were born in the mid-70's.
52. The Fall of the Readers by Django Wexler. Concludes the Forbidden Library series. I would happily see my children read this.
53. The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys by Gerard Way and others. Graphic novel. Terrible, non-sensical writing but good artwork.
54. Vicious by V.E. Schwab (aka Victoria Schwab). This is written as her first 'adult' book but it still has a strong YA vibe.
55. Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin. Classic horror that fuelled the satanic panic of the 70's/80's. Hard to separate from my experience of the film while reading.
56. This Scepter'd Isle by Mercedes Lackey and Roberta Gellis. BOOORRRRRIIIINNNNGGGG.
57. The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath by H.P. Lovecraft. Novella/short novel, read in H.P. Lovecraft: The Complete Fiction. I read this in preparation for...
58. The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe by Kij Johnson. Novella based on Lovecraft's story/realm.
59. Soldiers of Ice by David Cook.
60. The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian. This is the first time I have read the original Robert Howard stories and it... was... glorious! I started this in February, read the final 62 pages this month.
61. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. You may have read it in school; written by a then-16-year old. It shows but it is also surprisingly good given that fact.
62. The Outsider by Uncle Steve.
63. The Umbrella Academy, Vol. 2: Dallas by Gerard Way. On to the Netflix show!
Total pages April: 4911

May
64. Paper Girls, Vol. 4. Buddy read with this group.
65. Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik. This was very well-written, but the whole fairy tale retelling is not my thing.
66. ワンパンマン 2 Wanpanman 2 (One-Punch Man, Vol. 2) BY ONE. Manga.
67. Paperback Crush: The Totally Radical History of '80s and '90s Teen Fiction by Gabrielle Moss. Does not approach the sheer awesomeness of Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of '70s and '80s Horror Fiction by Grady Hendrix.
68. The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson.
69. Runaways, Vol. 1: Pride and Joy by Brian K. Vaughan. He had already broken out with Y: The Last Man, this is weaker Marvel super-hero fare but an original story at least.
70. Stardust by Neil Gaiman. Re-read after the March group read and before writing up a review, to give it a fair chance to overcome my initial strong reservations about this book.
71. Runaways, Vol. 2: Teenage Wasteland by Brian K. Vaughan. Not his best writing. This came after Y: The Last Man, even.
72. Runaways, Vol. 3: The Good Die Young. People's faces look weird; artwork seems rushed, or that's just the artist's style that can't capture facial expressions well.
73. Red Sister by Mark Lawrence, part 1 of a fantasy trilogy. I have never read (or heard of) this author before, but it has great ratings and deservedly so.
74. A Bad Deal for the Whole Galaxy by Alex White. Book 2 of 3 in space opera with magic trilogy.
Total pages May: 3448 but this only includes 5 actual novels. Slow reading month overall.

OOPS, RAN OUT OF CHARACTERS! JUNE BOOKS AND BEYOND IN MESSAGES BELOW. So THAT's why people often pre-populate messages for each month at the start of the year...

Catherine wrote: ""Defensibly grown-up books", I love this, brought quite a smile to my face, thanks! Happy reading and good luck achieving your ambitious 90-book goal!"

Thanks! (NB: refers to my reading statistics which have been moved to a later message)

You are doing great maybe i should try not sleeping. Do you have a book you would recommend?

Blagica wrote: "You are doing great maybe i should try not sleeping. Do you have a book you would recommend?"
I really didn't sleep the night I read We Sold Our Souls by Grady Hendrix. I was awake because of a work thing that required my periodic attention but left me time to read, and I devoured this book with insomniac madness, although I sometimes wonder if my sleepless state colored my love of the book. His prior novel, My Best Friend's Exorcism, is also excellent and will have broader appeal, if the former heavy metal/monster/quest material isn't your thing.

I took the plunge. Since I hit 45 of my original goal of 90 before three months were out, I increased my goal to 120! Yes, logically I should have bumped this to 180 but this would assume that I would include the same proportion of graphic novels, that I would not have things like summer vacation, family plans, etc to break my streak, and that I would stick to similar-length books for the rest of the year. Keeping it at 120 means that I can relax my pace if I have to (I don't want to!) and more importantly, that I can engage with some longer and higher quality reads as desired.

Scroll up to the original post to see the full list read to date!

Guys! I finished Les Misérables!

Great progress Marc! Congrats on finishing Les Misérables! That book is huge. I want to read it, but it's definitely a little intimidating xD

Well, I hit 60 (as always, scroll up, all books updated in the original post). So I am half-way to my upped goal of 120, and we are not done with the first third of the year... this is going to be too easy.

Loving it!

I dunno, fending off depression? Right now it's my strongly preferred escape from the drudgery of daily life. It's my best 'me' time once the kids go to bed. Also, there is just so much good reading to catch up on! I have like 26 years' worth of Forgotten Realms books that help me get my Dungeons & Dragons fix, and so much great fantasy out there. I am trying to raise ardent readers and feel like a reading life is the best kind of life.

Thanks for the offer of support; in truth depression is not a problem for me like it was ten to twenty years ago; when I start feeling a little down these days, I quickly remember that it generally means simply that I am tired, or that I had a couple of alcoholic drinks the day before. I do feel like if I stop reading now, I don't know what on earth I would do with myself. Giving up on Pokemon GO really freed up some reading time too; a much more fulfilling activity, to be sure,, and I pay much better attention to the moment when out and about.

Thanks for the recommendation of Brent Weeks. I was never sure about that Way of Shadows/Night Angel series; the too-cool-for-school black-cowled assassin covers left me doubtful. I will give him a try now! I am really starting to branch out in my reading. For a long time I was extremely wary of starting any new adult fantasy series, since once I start something I feel compelled to finish, even if it is just so-so; this is why I still read most every Cherie Priest release although I have not truly enjoyed them in forever.

I am currently very excited that my library just acquired (at my prompting) the Joe Abercrombie books that were missing from their collection.

(CONTINUED FROM ORIGINAL POST - RAN UP AGAINST CHARACTER LIMIT)

June
75. Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Vol. 1: The Crucible by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa who also wrote the terrific Afterlife with Archie, Vol. 1: Escape from Riverdale. A very, very dark version of Sabrina the Teenage Witch.
76. Paper Girls, Vol. 5 by Brian Vaughn. Penultimate volume in this series; wonderful! This character-focused time-travel saga is really coming all together.
77. From a Buick 8 by Uncle Steve. Does not have a great rating spread, but I thought it was decent and tight. It's a small-scale story.
78. The Walking Dead, Vol. 31: The Rotten Core
79. Vengeful by V.E. Schwab. I liked this much better than its prequel.
80. Runaways, Vol. 4: True Believers by Brian Vaughn. Improving on the prior volumes, but still not much point to the series.
xx. Avatar: The Last Airbender: Imbalance, Part Two by Faith Erin Hicks. Not counting, as only 1/3 of a proper graphic novel and I counted part 1 already. Part 3 coming out this fall. One of the best volumes in the Avatar graphic novel series to date.
81. Stephen King's N. by Marc Guggenheim. Chilling graphic novel re-telling of a short story from Uncle Steve.
82. Runaways, Vol. 5: Escape to New York. Why am I still reading this mediocre series?
83. Runaways, Vol. 6: Parental Guidance. Just to get to the end, with the final volume written by Joss Whedon.
84. Witchmark by C.L. Polk. Charming, new fantasy voice.
85. Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb. My first Hobb book, and I like!
86. Runaways, Vol. 7: Live Fast. The series finally got good, 7 volumes in with only 1 more to go.
87. Runaways, Vol. 8: Dead End Kids by Joss Whedon. And... this series was a waste of my time.
88. Strange Practice by Vivian Shaw.
89. Hilda and the Troll by Luke Pearson. Charming and inventive all-ages? children's? graphic novel series; there is a lot going on in the further volumes, pretty substantial for a children's book.
90. Hilda and the Midnight Giant- it gets a little dark with the home invasion and eviction aspect.
91. Hilda and the Bird Parade
92. The Book of Phoenix by Nnedi Okorafor. My wife loved this and thought I should read it. It was good, fine but I am not blown away or anything.
93. Hilda and the Black Hound
94. 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami. In the original Japanese this was published as 3 separate books. I'm just sayin', for my book count. This is only the second full-length novel (or the second through fourth, just sayin') I have read of his, but he may be one of my favorite authors.
Total pages June: 4627

July
95. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. The second space opera trilogy for me this year (decade, really). What a pleasant book!
96. The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
97. Royal Assassin by Robin Hobb. What a great fantasy series, can't wait to read the third part next month!
98. Hilda and the Stone Forest by Luke Pearson. Dude, a cliffhanger? I can't wait for the next book to be released!
99. The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins. Not mind-bendy like I was led to think by some reviews, but a great read, fun and original, and outstanding for a first-time author.
100. The Iron Giant by Ted Hughes. Skip the book, watch the movie.
101. A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers.
102. The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. I was unfortunately unimpressed.
103. Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie. So brutal, entrancing and frequently darkly hilarious.
104. The Flash: Hocus Pocus by Barry Lyga. Pointless TV-show tie-in children's book.
105. Crown of Fire by Ed Greenwood. Barely finished with 30 minutes left to go in the month.
Total pages July: 3963

August
106. Assassin's Quest by Robin Hobb, to close out the trilogy!
107. The Sea of Monsters - I was expecting to drop the series, but this sequel is improved over the original. A little bit.
108. The Toll by Cherie Priest. Yes, I am still reading her books although I most often find them just OK. This one is better than many.
109. Record of a Spaceborn Few to complete the Wayfarers trilogy (of shared universe but not sequential plot). So lovely! Great buddy read pick.
110. The Walking Dead, Vol. 32: Rest In Peace by Robert Kirkman. Holy crap the series is over! Thank goodness, I thought it was going to run on forever.
111. Elfsong by Elaine Cunningham. Have gotten back into my Forgotten Realms novel habit after a minor hiatus.
112. Mouse Guard: Baldwin the Brave and Other Tales by David Peterson. Very short Mouse Guard stories, mostly from Free Comic Book Day collections.
113. The Chaos Curse by R. A. Salvatore. Finishes the Cleric Quintet.
xx. Mouse Guard, Labyrinth and Other Stories - Free Comic Book Day collection; not counting due to brevity.
xx. Mouse Guard, Labyrinth and Other Stories - another short collection, not counting.
114. The Library Book by Susan Orlean.
115. Parasite Eve by Hideaki Sena. My second Japanese book this year (translated). Horror/sci-fi, inspiration for the now-classic video game on the original Playstation.
116. The Titan's Curse by Rick Riordan. On book 3 I am warming up to the series.
117. The Masked City by Genevieve Cogman. Book two in the Invisible Library series. Not bad!
118. Lumberjanes volume 1: Beware the Kitten Holy by Noelle Stevenson. Girl-power camp adventure with monsters.

Total pages August: 4146

September

119. Grey Sister by Mark Lawrence. I stayed up real late to finish the last third of this terrific book.
120. This is it, my goal-reaching book; it was going to be 1100 pages of Uncle Steve's It but I took a break from that, so my official completed #120 is (drum roll please).... Holy Sister by Mark Lawrence, completing the Book of the Ancestors trilogy. Woot!
121. Lumberjanes vol. 2: Friendship to the Max. Super!
122. It. Eleven. Hundred. Pages.
123. Hilda and the Mountain King by Luke Pearson. Concluded a cliffhanger after three years.
124. Lumberjanes vol. 3: A Terrible Plan by Noelle Stevenson. Still great writing and excellent appeal to good people of all ages and genders. I didn't care for the art change, though.
125. The Institute by Uncle Steve, his very latest.
126. Lumberjanes vol. 4: Out of Time. Best volume yet!
127. To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers. Lovely, so lovely, such a human sci fi story.
128. The Umbrella Academy, Vol. 3: Hotel Oblivion - the writing of this comic book series is no better after a 10-year hiatus.
129. The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman. Is this chick-lit, and if it definitely is, is it okay that I liked it?
130. Ban This Book by Alan Gratz. That makes two fantastic children's books about book bans for me this year.
131. Carrie by Uncle Steve, his first published novel (1974) and way better of a telekinesis story than his latest.

Total pages September: 4059

October

xx. Avatar: The Last Airbender: Imbalance, Part Three by Faith Erin Hicks - finishes the latest post-TV series graphic novel story.
132. Lord Foul's Bane by Stephen R. Donaldson - supposedly brought fantasy into the adult world in the 1970's but I can't get over how awful the main character is, including his rape of a teenager. Aside from that, it's very dull.
133. Lumberjanes vol. 5:Band Together. I don't care for the change in art.
134. Siege of Darkness by R.A. Salvatore.
135. Dracula by Bram Stoker - DNF at 20%
136. The Adventures of Superhero Girl by Faith Erin Hicks. Collection of a webcomic; good stuff!
137. Paper Girls, Vol. 6 by Brian Vaughan. Recently released, final volume of this crazy fun 80's-centric time travel friendship adventure.
138. Full Throttle by Cousin Joe. Interesting short story collection. My favorite is the least horror-ish, Late Returns, about a time-traveling bookmobile.
139. Lumberjanes vol. 6: Sink or Swim. Yeah, I think the quality has dropped off since volume 4. It still has the same charm but has lost some of the wonder.
140. The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett. Starting a Great Discworld Re-read!
141. Warrior of the Altaii by Robert Jordan, he of Wheel of Time fame. This was written 40 years ago, accepted for publication but was just never put out until now.

Total pages October: 2402

November

142. All Your Worth: The Ultimate Lifetime Money Plan by Elizabeth Warren. Yes, that Elizabeth Warren. this was written before she ever ran for office but you can see her devotion to the financial well-being of average full on display.
143. The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson. HOLY SHAMOLY!
144. Lumberjanes Vol. 7: A Bird's-Eye View. Adorable, and recaptures the magic that was missing from the last couple of volumes.
145. The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie.
146. The Ogre's Pact by Troy Denning. A not-so-good Forgotten Realms book.
147. Kill Creek by Scott Thomas.
148. Realms of Infamy by various authors. The second Forgotten Realms anthology, and better than the first due to a broader range of authors included.
149. The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan. With this, I need read no more of Riordan's good but over-marketed books.
150. Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson. Fun, action-oriented superpower dystopian novel.
151. Rise of the Blade by Charles Moffatt. The author denies that it's fan fiction, but it's fan fiction. Laughably bad writing .
152. Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel. Very accessible, easy-reading sci-fi novel about finding a giant robot buried deep underground.
153. The Light Fantastic by Terry Pratchett - book 2 in the Discworld series. I am savouring these books.
154. Lumberjanes Vol. 8: Stone Cold
155. Gwendy's Magic Feather by Richard Chizmar.
156. Lumberjanes Vol. 9: On a Roll. Getting tired of the same old stuff.

Total pages November: 4805

December

157. Gideon the Ninth by Tamsin Muir. Interesting...? I will continue the trilogy as it is published, at least.
158. 'Salem's Lot by Uncle Steve. My first time reading his second-ever book. It was OK but he still had some work to do to achieve greatness.
xxx. Pieces Of My Love - author-provided e-book that I had to DNF because he forgot to use readable English.
xxx. Mitosis - short story in between parts 1 and 2 of The Reckoners; doesn't add any value to the series.
159. Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett. Discworld books are so good! My opinion is only enhanced by re-reading after 30 years.
160. The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang. Great Eastern fantasy bildungsroman that then goes quite dark.
161. The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher. Interesting that she also writes childrens' books (under the name Ursula Vernon) such as Dragonbreath, which I have read with my daughter.
162. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut. 2019 marks the 50th anniversary of this book's publication.
163. Elminster: The Making of a Mage by Ed Greenwood. Why do I keep finishing my years with these books?
IN PROGRESS: Dark Gods by T.E.D. Klein. Long out-of-print Lovecraftian horror classic. Four novellas.

READING STATS: had to move these from the original post, who knew there were character limits?

Some made up stats (as they all are, right?) for 2019 (last updated 11/30/19):
Picture books: 7
Graphic novels + Manga: 54
Short novels/novellas: 8
Full-length books: 91
Of novellas and full-length books,
--> Children's books: 3
--> Middle Grade: 13
--> Teen-level/YA: 3
--> Technically grown-up books: 83
--> Defensibly grown-up books: 72
Did-not-finish: 2

Non-fiction: 5
Classics: 12
Fantasy:
--> Forgotten Realms novels: 13
Literary Fantasy:
Urban Fantasy:
Science Fiction:
Space Opera:
General fiction:

Standalone fiction books:
Series books:
--> First book in a series:
--> Middle book in a series:
--> Final book in a series:
-------> Series begun:
-------> Series finished:
-------> Series read in entirety in 2019:
-------> Series still ongoing:
-------> Series abandoned:

5-star books:
4-star books:
3-star books:
2-star books:
1-star books:

Monthly page totals (Text only + Graphic format = Total)
January: 2368 (text) + 1954 (graphic) = 4322
February: 2692 (text) + 184 (graphic) = 2876
March: 5051(text) + 448 (graphic) = 5499
April: 4463 (text) + 608 (graphic) = 5071
May: 2689 (text) + 759 (graphic) = 3448
June: 3095 (text) + 1532 (graphic) = 4627
July: 3795 (text) + 168 (graphic) = 3963
August: 3602 (text) + 544 (graphic) = 4146
September: 3493 (text) + 566 (graphic) = 4059
October: 1842 (text) + 560 (graphic) = 2402
November: 4469 (text) + 336 (graphic) = 4805
December:

Monthly Best/Worst:

January
BEST: She: A History of Adventure - Classic, surprisingly engrossing adventure tale.
WORST: A Living Nightmare - book 1 of Cirque du Freak, just awful.

February
BEST: The High King - finale to The Prydain Chronicles, it left me in tears. So archetypal and noble.
WORST: The Umbrella Academy, Vol. 1: The Apocalypse Suite - a promising graphic novel that falls completely apart at the end.

March
BEST: Tie between Books of Blood: Volume One and Eleanor & Park - very different books, to say the least.
WORST: The Vampire's Assistant - book 2 of Cirque du Freak. I gave the series another shot and it failed.

April
BEST: The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian - the original, primal Conan stories from his creator.
WORST: This Scepter'd Isle - OMG, is Mercedes Lackey always this boring?

May
BEST: Red Sister - a rugged and original fantasy, with sci-fi elements. Not perfect, but memorable.
WORST: Stardust - beloved by many but not by me; incredibly problematic, please see my review for details.

June
BEST: Assassin's Apprentice - my first Robin Hobb book, I am grateful for the buddy read that led me to try it!
WORST: Strange Practice - meh, supernatural urban fantasy, not my thing.

July
BEST: Best Served Cold - very brutal and a heavy fantasy read, but wow.
WORST: The Iron Giant - love the movie, but the original story is shockingly bad and dull.

August
BEST: Record of a Spaceborn Few - closes out a refreshing and upbeat trilogy that accomplishes the best aims of science fiction.
WORST: Elfsong - surprisingly poor novel from an author that is generally seen as one of the best in the Forgotten Realms line.

September
BEST: Stephen King's It - not technically the best book, but the one that holds the largest place in my life.
WORST: The Umbrella Academy, Vol. 3: Hotel Oblivion - after a 10 year hiatus, I regret that the marketing push of the Netflix series allowed Gerard Way to resume publishing this title. The art is terrific; the writing is empty.

October
BEST: The Colour of Magic - so good going back to the start after >30 years wth this series.
WORST: Lord Foul's Bane - easy choice, this was just so wretched.

November
BEST: The Hero of Ages - redeemed any minor misgivings about the rest of the trilogy and re-defined the entire affair.
WORST: Rise of the Blade - self-published amateur fantasy work that is made worse by the author's false implication that it was going to be published in the Forgotten Realms: The Harpers series. Goodreads refuses to take it off the series list, because they are taking the author's word for it despite all evidence and have not bothered to read 2 paragraphs to see just how awful it is.

December
BEST:
WORST:


READ ALL OF MY REVIEWS HERE.

Thanks for your time, true believer!

Hoping you are having a good year with books and in life. Doing great!

Catherine wrote: "What's been your favourite book so far?"

Tough one! Probably Robin Hobb's Assassin's Apprentice. Fortunately I have been tracking my favorite from each month which made a shorter list to have to choose from. I have a buddy read suggestion from this group to thank for steering me to Hobb's books.

Did it! Completed 120 real books! And almost two thirds of them didn't have pictures!

Of course, my official GR reading challenge says I'm at 125 because of a few book that didn't count here, in my estimation, and I bumped my GR reading challenge goal to 150 to keep it interesting (not interesting because I will still reach that number easily, but at least I get a "you did it!" in my history multiple times this year, yay!).

Anyway, books are go!

Only 3 months left in the year and so much still to read! My bedside tbr pile is huge, probably more than I will get through in October, then I have another 6 titles in my "must read in 2019" list, a couple of buddy reads, stuff coming through the pipe from the library... I think I can still do it, but I need a more coherent or relaxed strategy for 2020.

“Reading one book is like eating one potato chip.” Happy reading! doing great!

Blagica wrote: "“Reading one book is like eating one potato chip.” Happy reading! doing great!"

This supportive sentiment is just for me, right? Not for anyone else?

Gah, will I finish all of my December planned reading on time?? I will be gone for a week too with little reading time anticipated then.

Must... meet... arbitrary goals!