SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

Here's hoping that this year you're whisked away to bookish bliss by our beloved bookshelf!

Pledge some number of books you'd like to try to read from the group bookshelf. Remember, to stay ahead percentage-wise, you'll need at least 25 books, but any number is still a delight! Designate a shelf for your challenge, and make sure you tell us how it's going!

Now, up, up and away!

Sign up for the challenge here on January 1st.
Personal challenge threads here.
Other challenges in Current Events.

All I know for sure is that I will *not* promise to read 25!

(view spoiler)[29/25

14/24 Group Reads 2022
         
   

10/24 Group Reads 2022 (previously read)
         

15/?? Group Reads Earlier
         
    

(hide spoiler)]

Yay! I just decided that I am super happy with aiming for half of the bookshelf read. I think I pledged 15 books in 2021, 12 in 2020 and overshot those goals significantly each time. Nevertheless, I’m going to challenge myself to 15 again this year, with the intention of reading at least 12 group reads from 2022 and the rest and more from the back list. Virtual Book Club has been a great motivator for which book I actually choose and how fast I get it read.

Anna wrote: "All I know for sure is that I will *not* promise to read 25!"

Lol Anna.

I like to keep things modest. My yearly book reading rate fluctuates between two very small numbers (20-35), and I get discouraged when I feel I have little freedom to pursue whims and my own reading projects. So 7 it will be, again!

2021 turned out to be a year to quickly forget when it comes to reading. Due to personal circumstances I haven't read nearly as much as I intended. To ease myself back in in 2022, I'm thinking of a target of 12 for this challenge. One of the shelf every month seems like a solid goal. Someday I'll work towards catching up. :D

I hate when my challenges don't match so I'm once again pledging 15 to keep it samesies and then shooting for a personal goal of 36

I'll go for 15 this year

Furies of Calderon by Butcher, Jim
Magic of Recluce by Modesitt Jr., L.E.
Homeland by Salvatore, R.A.
Shadow of the Torturer by Wolfe, Gene
Ancillary Sword by Leckie, Ann
Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Chambers, Becky
Closed and Common Orbit by Chambers, Becky
Sabriel by Nix, Garth
Darker Shade of Magic by Schwab, V.E.
The Stars My Destination by Bester, Alfred
Ancillary Mercy by Leckie, Ann
The Bone Shard Daughter by Stewart, Andrea
Servant of the Underworld by Bodard, Aliette de = read this year
Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City (The Siege #1) by Parker, K.J.
The Book of Koli (The Rampart Trilogy 1) by Carey, M.R.

adding

A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark

I’m also planning to include Homeland in my challenge! And I intend on finally diving into the Dresden Files with Storm Front. The Bone Shard Daughter was one of my favorites in 2020, good choice. :-)

I'm going to set my goal for 20, which I feel confident that I'll achieve without over-committing myself. I'm too far from 200 to reach it next year.

CBRetriever wrote: "I'll go for 15 this year

Furies of Calderon by Butcher, Jim
Magic of Recluce by Modesitt Jr., L.E.
Homeland by Salvatore, R.A.
Shadow of the Torturer by Wolfe, Gene
Ancillary Sword by Leckie, Ann
..."

Some good choices there, hope you enjoy the ones that I have read as much as I did.

So far I am six short of the break-even point for this year. That might change, but I do like the structure that comes with a set of books that are go-to reads. I however discovered that making my own list of which ones I am going to read, didn't work out that much so I am just going to set the limit at 26 and go from there.
LOL

I'm way too whimsical a reader for a hard list to work (this is also unfortunately why I read so few of the BOTM selections during their months). I'm well away from the dregs, so it'll be fine!

Beth wrote: "I'm way too whimsical a reader for a hard list to work (this is also unfortunately why I read so few of the BOTM selections during their months). I'm well away from the dregs, so it'll be fine!"
Have to say that this describes my mode of "choosing" books too and why the hard lists do not work for me either. (I still enjoy getting ideas from others' lists).
You know that saying about a cat chooses its owner? Maybe not...
but this is literally how I feel about my stacks of books awaiting my attention while I bury my nose in something I found at the donation box down by the library!
Eventually, I read everything in my house though.
But this is an expensive habit these days!

I'm going to go for 25 so the number left to read doesn't go up. My focus will be on the BOTMs.
So far for total books read this year I'm at 90 . 74 are from the SciFi bookshelf. Frankly I'm tired of reading them. Not to mention a lot of the 40 I have left to read are some I'm not looking forward to (Doctor Who: The Coming of the Terraphiles, the other 2 Nantucket series books).
So in 2022 I'm going to read more just because I want to books. I'm also going to dnf books I'm not liking instead of suffering through them just because they are SciFi bookshelf books.

Ellen wrote: "I'm also going to dnf books I'm not liking instead of suffering through them just because they are SciFi bookshelf books."

One day I will also learn this magical skill! And yes, reading what you want to read is a better plan than reading from any list you feel like you have to complete :)

Let's hope I can stick to it. I feel so guilt stricken when I don't finish a book.

Anna wrote: "Ellen wrote: "I'm also going to dnf books I'm not liking instead of suffering through them just because they are SciFi bookshelf books."

One day I will also learn this magical skill! And yes, read..."

With the amount of books I want to read, I should probably DNF more often. So far I've only done it twice in my life, Christine by King and American Gods by Gaiman. And especially American Gods I think about regularly to try again. But life is too short to read books you don't enjoy or so my wife keeps telling me. I usually just keep reading, thinking it will improve at some point.

I am astonished at how many books I read from our bookshelf this year! 23 so far!

I'm going to pledge 12, but I will probably raise the bar at some point. That's how many current group reads I would like to read, but I also have this extensive list of books on the backlist that I already have on my various (dead-tree, audible, ebook) shelves: (i've put it behind spoiler tags to save space)

(view spoiler)[
The Prey of Gods (scribd audio) (started)
We Are Bob - We Are Legion (audio)
Gideon the Ninth (started)
The Traitor Baru Cormorant (started)
The Ten Thousand Doors of January* (started)
To Sleep in a Sea of Stars
Sandman No. 1
Blindsight
The Memory Police
Hollow Kingdom
Sea of Rust
Six of Crows (audio)
More Than Human
The Outside
Slaughterhouse-Five
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
A Closed and Common Orbit
The Island of Dr. Moreau (audio)
The Name of the Wind (audio)
The Ocean at the End of the Lane
To Say Nothing of the Dog* (audio)
Ninefox Gambit
The Anubis Gates
The City and the City
The collapsing Empire
The Once and Future King sort of?
Catfishing on CatNet (TBR)
The Calculating Stars
Elantris
Rosewater
Grimm’s Fairy Tales
Neverwhere
The Two Pearls of Wisdom (Eon: Dragoneye Reborn)
Blindsight
The Dragonbone Chair (audio)
The Book of Koli
Station Eleven

Available Elsewhere
Recursion (library)
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August (Library)
The Alphabet of Thorn (Internet Archive) (hide spoiler)]

Alex wrote: "So far I've only done it twice in my life, Christine by King and American Gods by Gaiman. And especially American Gods I think about regularly to try again."
"
I dnf American God's and went back and finished it a couple of years later. Still didn't like it much.

I think I’m gonna stick with 25 again this year. I way over read in 2021 and I’m going to try to be more disciplined in 2022. We’ll see how that goes.

AMG wrote: "As far as DNFing books, I generally get to 50%, then read the ending, skim through any parts between 50% and the ending that I feel any curiosity about, and then count it as read for the bookshelf...."

I started allowing myself to DNF books after a while working on the Boxall 1001 Books list. Some of those books are just gross-not many, but the bad ones are awful. I don't have as much difficulty with SciFi/Fantasy, usually, but I went to audiobook format eventually for Hyperion(Simmons) to get through it while crocheting. I have Endymion on my shelf still, too, but it was really dusty last time I looked at it.
The audiobook of American Gods is excellent, btw, if anyone is looking for alternate ways to approach that book. I really enjoy American Gods, print and audiobook, but it may be easier to finish in audio if you are less into it.

Interesting, American Gods is the only Gaiman I haven't listened to! I skipped the audio because he doesn't read it himself (because of his accent not being American enough), and I can't imagine consuming a Gaiman story any other way than read aloud by him. So I eye-read it, and it's my least favorite Gaiman :D (That's a lie, Norse Mythology is definitely worse, but he reads it so I'd listen to it as bedtime audio if nothing else was available.) I have eye-read other Gaiman books before I knew what I was missing, but have since then reread them all on audio. I never even considered listening to American Gods, but maybe I should try the sample!

(This should probably be in Best/Worst Audiobooks/Narrators, but I'm too lazy to copy paste this there :P)

I'm going to go for the 25. I love a good challenge!

Ellen wrote: "I'm going to go for 25 so the number left to read doesn't go up. My focus will be on the BOTMs.
So far for total books read this year I'm at 90 . 74 are from the SciFi bookshelf. Frankly I'm tired..."

Nantuckets might be available to you on audio (they were to me on hoopla in Maryland), which might make them easier. Still long , but easier.

Lost Planet Airman wrote: "Nantuckets might be available to you on audio (they were to me on hoopla in Maryland), which might make them easier. Still long , but easier. ."

I read the first book as an audible. I plan to eye read book 2 when I get around to it. I have read some of the reviews on the next two books and I'm just not excited about them.

AMG wrote: "I'm thinking I'll go for 25, just to stay ahead of the number added to the shelf. Hahaha."

Same! Thanks to the Pandemic (...?) I managed to hit that and then double it (two more to go).

@Ellen and @DivaDiane, way to go! Keep it up!

Here's what I am looking at:

Kindred (reading)
Wild Seed (same author)
The Underground Railroad
The Native Star
The Sword of Kaigen
Swords and Deviltry (same author as Gather Darkness)
To Sleep in a Sea of Stars (December)
The Dragonbone Chair (June)
The City of Dreaming Books (August)
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sleep (2008)

January :
Ten Thousand Doors of January
Reap the Wild Wind (BofM SF)
Sunshine (BotM F)
The Song of Achilles (Re-read)
Arcadia ( J and E)

February:
Across the Nightingale Floor (Re-read)

March:
The Blade Itself (Re-read)
Red Country (same author)

What's "J and E"?

As mentioned upthread, I'm a whimsical reader, but do have a few ideas for some of the BOTM selections I might read next year.

I've long had a vague intention of reading the BOTMs in order of when they were voted in, skipping the ones I've read semi-recently or have no intention of reading, but "new and shiny" somehow manages to derail that every time. Fully anticipating that to happen again :D here are the first few anyhow:

Slaughterhouse-Five
Snow Crash (read in the '90s, interested in rereading)
Childhood's End (feeling meh about this one tbh, so might skip to...)
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom)

Good intentions: I really meant to finish these either during their own BOTM or as group rereads, but somehow it didn't happen.

Kushiel's Dart OR Perdido Street Station
Sword of Kaigen
She Who Became the Sun
Master of Djinn
Quantum Magician

Copying Bonnie these are my planned January reads:

Sunshine
Song of Achilles
Strange Beasts of China (reading with SFFBC folks but not a BOTM)

February: an open slate!

March: The Blade Itself

Copying my list from last year as I didn't read any of them! Another bad reading year, silly pandemic! Will probably put myself down for 10 when it goes live.

Also adding a couple of recent additions to the group bookshelf!

Good luck in 2022 all!

The Well of Ascension (Mistborn, #2) – Brandon Sanderson
Uprooted– Naomi Novik
Spinning Silver – Naomi Novik
A Closed and Common Orbit (Wayfarers, #2) – Becky Chambers
The Mere Wife - Maria Dahvana Headley
Too Like the Lightning – Ada Palmer
An Unkindness of Ghosts – Rivers Solomon
Pawn of Prophecy (Belgariad #1) – David Eddings (finally!)
Sea of Rust– C Robert Cargill
The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin
Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton
The Sword of Kaigen by M.L. Wang
The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
A Big Ship at the Edge of the Universe by Alex White
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
To Sleep in a Sea of Stars by Christopher Paolini
Velocity Weapon (The Protectorate #1) by Megan E. O'Keefe
The Dragonbone Chair (Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn #1)
by Tad Williams

I'm at 142 so I'm hoping to read 8 off the shelf at least to get to 150.

Anna wrote: "All I know for sure is that I will *not* promise to read 25!"

Guess who signed up for 25! I hate myself already XD

I said I'd put myself down for 10, went with 12.

If I go pass that I'll just extend my challenge number, ha.

Trying 20 in the full-on all books general Goodreads challenge.

I'm doing my usual sign up for 15 to match previous years but really have a self goal of 36.

I've unfortunately hit a massive reading slog with the groupshelf books. So I guess this year I will opt out from my goal of getting through the shelf. I'll be only joining group (re-)reads should I perchance own the book or can get it via storytel.

Gabi, I feel the same :/ But I'm hoping I (and everyone else!) will love all the new 2022 additions to the shelf! ^_^

I'll do my usual challenge of 12 books and hope I manage some of the group reads and re-reads better this year.

I will try 10 for now.

1. Piranesi 1/7/2022
2. Sunshine by Robin McKinley 2/26/2022
3. The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie 5/7/2022
4. The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker 5/18/2022
5. War for the Oaks (local library, paperback) 5/20/2022

to read: possibilities
Wild Seed (OverDrive)
The Echo Wife (OverDrive)
The Grace of Kings (OverDrive)
The Master and Margarita (OverDrive)
The Raven and the Reindeer (hoopla digital)
Ninefox Gambit (OverDrive)
The Changeling (OverDrive)
Blackfish City (OverDrive)
Nine Princes in Amber (hoopla digital)

Going for 30.

Going for 25.

Going for 25. Being really optimistic :)

1. De laatste wens 02/06/22
2. A Natural History of Dragons 06/24/22

Anna wrote: "Guess who signed up for 25! I hate myself already XD"

Anna you said to not let you do this!! Change it to 15 then brag when you surpass it!!!!

No, I trust voters will make good decisions in 2022 and I only need to read one backlist book! ^_^

...Oh my. I apologize in advance Anna for what you've just tempted fate to do to you. December 2022 me says preemptively that she tried.

Haha, yes, but it's January 2nd so I'm contractually obligated to have a positive outlook :P

Still trying to maintain 90% read so will shoot for 20

Hank wrote: "Still trying to maintain 90% read so will shoot for 20"

Ah, those rarefied heights! 🤓🤔

I'm going for 50 books this year. Last year I focused heavily on murder mystery series, so maybe this year I can focus more on sci-fi/fantasy. I'll be getting a lot of the bookshelf books from the library, so I am a bit limited by what they have available, but the Pueblo library's collection is not too bad and the librarians are always asking me what additional Sci-fi books the collection needs, so they may order a few books for me, if needed.

On book 1 of this challenge for 2022 for me, Piranesi by Susanna Clarke!

Jamie wrote: "I'm going for 50 books this year. Last year I focused heavily on murder mystery series, so maybe this year I can focus more on sci-fi/fantasy. I'll be getting a lot of the bookshelf books from the ..."

Wow 50, thats amazing! I hope you reach your goal. I am going for 20 this year. Almost done with #1 now

I have joined this challenge only in November 2021 with 6 SF&F books already read and having started The Wheel of Time series a couple of months earlier. Thus, the total of 8 books was already hard enough to reach since it meant more than 1500 pages in less than 2 months. In 2022 I plan to continue and finish the series (10 volumes left for this year) but since they are almost all very thick books, I think 15 books total will be a tough challenge.