SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

BooksandLala posted a video* about going through her read books to see if she has read a book published in every year she has been alive. I was inspired to do the same (go through my books, not make a video about it), and I thought maybe others would, too.

I am not going to list my favorite book for every year like Lala did, because When Fox is a Thousand came out 30 years ago, and 1030 books would take 6 or 7 posts to list! :P I can however confirm that I have indeed read a book published every single year since I was born, and I was very surprised by that! I was sure there would be several years with no books, but not only were there books, I could find at least a good one every year, if not an all time favorite one.

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mc2v1...

(Bonus question: Have you read any books published after you died?)

edit:

To sort your GR read shelf in order by publication date, go to My Books -> Read -> Settings (top right) -> select date pub -> save -> click on date pub (and again to switch desc/asc)

To see if you've read something published in a particular year, but not added it to GR, look at Popular books by year. You can edit the URL to go back further than 100 years.

I have indeed read a book published in every year since my birth (way back in the second to last decade of the 1900s).

I'm not quite 1030, but sometimes I feel like it.

I took another look, to see how far back I can go, and 1935 is the first year that I haven't read a book from, if Goodreads data can be trusted, which I would take with a grain of salt. That's even more surprising to me, and I am for sure going to try and read something from 1935 now!

(And maybe the 14 other years I'm missing after 1899, too, maybe! Hello new reading project :D )

edit: I have lots of books without a pub date, and many of them are things I read from my grandmother's bookshelves, so it's entirely possible I have read books from those years, but GR doesn't know it.

I have (born in '62). Working backwards my first gap was in 1957. Of course, that is only my Goodread books. I have 100s of others read that I have not entered.

I went through the popular books from [year] pages on GR, and 1916 is actually the first year I haven't read anything from. I hadn't added any Tintin or Babar, and a lot of Agatha Christie I've also left off. So I've read something published every single year since my birth country was born :)

I was born in 1982, and for the 20th century, I'm missing:

1944, 1941, 1935, 1933, 1928, 1926-1924, 1921, 1919-1916, 1914, 1913, 1909, 1907, 1906, 1904, 1902-1900

I haven't gone through all the years yet, but I am for sure missing at least a couple. And I'm already making a plan to correct this!

(Also, I'm laughing about the grandma's bookshelf comment, because of course grandma-aged grandma would have books from decades before she was born XD)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/popula...

If anyone else wants to look at books by year.

edit: The dropdown only goes back 100 years, but you can go further back by editing the URL.

David wrote: "I have (born in '62). Working backwards my first gap was in 1957. Of course, that is only my Goodread books. I have 100s of others read that I have not entered."

I am backlogged with adding all of mine, too.

I am missing 2 - 1987 and 1988 (at least on GoodReads). I was sure I'd be missing more than that but thanks to King, Crichton, and (weirdly) Anita Blake, Necromancer, Vampire Hunter/Marshall extraordinaire, I seem to have most of the years covered.

I'm missing over 50 for the 20th century so I got a long ways to go before I can make that claim according to GoodReads - but there are a lot of my childhood favorites I've never logged here (Nancy Drew would probably cover a good chunk of those 50, Boxcar Children, Choose Your Own Adventure, etc.).

ETA: Thanks to Anna's nifty link, I can confirm I have read a book for every year I've been alive! I definitely read Hatchet for school for 1987, and for 1988 I've read both Guess How Much I Love You and Matilda. Cool - I'm in!

Thanks for the list, Anna! I was born in 1969, and this list didn't work for me for 2018 and 2022. So I googled books published in my usual genres for those two years. It turns out I have read at least one book for every year from 1969 onwards.

I was appalled at how much time has gone by since some of the dates, too. I can remember buying them from the book store like it was just last week 😂

I checked my GR read shelf first, ordered by pub date, and it was weird looking at my read books in that order! Not in the order I've read them, but something I might've read this year and next to it is a childhood fave :D Then I looked at the link I shared, to see if I've read something that I haven't added.

And then again to see if there's something I'd be willing to read :D And I now have a tentative plan, but I'm not committing to it! I have a list and I'll think about it :)

I’ve only logged about 5 or 6 years of reading in Goodreads, but that does include books from every year since 1956, my birth year.

The most recent years I am missing are 1875 and 1849. Perhaps I need to fill some gaps. Of the years since my birth I have read science fiction or fantasy for every one of them.

Thanks for the inspiration, Anna - this was fun!

I was surprised to find that within my Goodreads data alone I had read a book for every year of my life except 1981. When I looked up what had been published 1981, I immediately found a book I had read that just wasn't logged on Goodreads. For the entire 20th century, I am missing 12 years between 1900-1923. A lot of the older titles that I had read were either books for children or books I had to read in school. When I sorted my "read" list by date, I had to laugh at the oldest book - Hamlet from 1601.

Not even close, I'm sure...

Yeah, I'm missing this year, '21, '86, '84, and '83 (my birth year). Not too bad.

I have Color of Magic, so I can read that for '83

I guess I could get Legend by Gemmell for '84 ... Strike that! I've read More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.

I'll probably get to Nerilka's Story at some point, or I could read Howl's Moving Castle.

'21 and '23 will take care of themselves, eventually.

Kaia wrote: "When I sorted my "read" list by date, I had to laugh at the oldest book - Hamlet from 1601."

My oldest is Dante's Inferno from 1304. Second oldest is A Midsummer Night's Dream from 1596. Guess I need to read something from the 1400s!

I was born in 1965. Part of this question was easy for me. I have read the Hugo winners from 1955, They'd Rather Be Right by Mark Clifton to 1994, Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson. I’ve also read the Nebula winners from 1965, Dune by Frank Herbert to 1993, Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson. So, I had to check every year from 1995 to 2023. I have read at least one novel from 1995, The Lost World by Michael Crichton to 2023, Tress of the Emerald Sea by Brandon Sanderson. This was a very interesting question and I liked tracking down all the novels I have read since I’ve been born.

This was so much fun, what a great question! I thought "impossible, but I'll check", and started digging. Drumroll. The only year I am missing is the current one :) (that will soon be remedied). Wow.

Thanks for putting this up, Anna. It was fun going through the shelf.
I have indeed read a book from every year I was alive, and with the exception of 1984, 1978, 1976, 1975, 1973, 1972 and 1970 there was always at least one 5 star read for me each year. (the 70ies are not so fair to judge since I've read mostly 1-5 books from each year, so no great representation)
The vast majority of books I've read were published 2017 onwards - that's when I joined Goodreads and got all the recs from the groups.
My oldest book is Apology by Plato from 399 bc.

I’m fairly sure I’ve read a book published every year since I was born (1969), but I’d like to be sure and see how much of the 20th century I’ve got covered. BUT I can’t for the life of me figure out how to sort my shelf by pub date. Date added - yes. Date read - yes. Pub date - ??? Help?

(It might be something that’s only possible on the browser version on a computer. I’ve been using the browser version on my phone.)

DivaDiane wrote: "I’m fairly sure I’ve read a book published every year since I was born (1969), but I’d like to be sure and see how much of the 20th century I’ve got covered. BUT I can’t for the life of me figure o..."

export it to a spreadsheet and then you can sort it by date

I've managed to find a SF&F book for every year I've lived (1951-2023 so far). Having trouble going back before 1947 though with SF&F,

a good source I've used is wikipedia:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Categor...

where you can go to the ends of the years at the top and go backwards and forwards

Diane, do you have pub date added on the Read shelf? If not, you can add it from Settings at the top of the listing and then you can use it to sort.

I didn't know that, Anna! I just modified my own settings, and added the page count while I was in there.

I don't remember what the default settings are, but I know I edit them all the time!

These settings are shelf specific (All and Read are shared), so you can have different sets on different shelves.

edit: I added this and the popular by year to the starting post.

(So far no time travellers or ghosts, or at least they've not communicated with us.)

I was born in 1979. The most recent year not on my "read" list was 1929. The only other years after 1900 that were missing were 1912, 1905, and 1902. I may have read books from those years, but they weren't logged in Goodreads, and I don't remember reading any of the most popular books published then. I do own books from at least 2 of those years, so these omissions will likely be remedied in the future.

My oldest book on my "read" list was The Iliad, and I had 7 others from the BCE period. Four years of Enriched/AP English in high school gave me an assist there.

I have read at least one book published every year I’ve been alive - there are three years (1983, 1984, 1991) where I’ve only read a single book, but most years I’ve read at least 5-10 books.

the oldest book on my official goodreads list is Gulliver's Travels: Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. by Jonathan Swift from 1726. although I have read a bunch of classics (including the Iliad) the further back you go the harder it is to fix a “publication” date.

I think my oldest is Beowulf. Second oldest is Tirant Lo Blanc and then a bunch of Jane Austen :)

I just looked through my read books, and indeed I have!
The Odyssey is the oldest book on my shelf.

The oldest publication dates on my Goodreads Read shelf, i.e. books I’ve read since about 2017, are The Gospel of Saint Mark (70) and The Saga of the Volsungs (1275). Neither of these is an actual “publication date”. “The Gospel of Saint Mark” is actually a mid-twentieth century commentary by Dennis Nineham. The earliest actual publication dates are several from the 17 th century.

Yes. 2023 is still in progress, but I will read a book from this year quite soon, as one of my library holds came in that was published in March.

Most recent other year with no book read per Goodreads? 1948

Looking at the link, I have read Cry, the Beloved Country from that year in high school, so I will venture further back in time.

1943 is the first year that I can't find anything for. Perhaps I've read a Batman or Superman story from that era, but I do not know for sure.

Brandon wrote: "Yes. 2023 is still in progress, but I will read a book from this year quite soon, as one of my library holds came in that was published in March.

Most recent other year with no book read per Goodr..."

have you read The Little Prince?

CBRetriever wrote:
have you read The Little Prince?


I may have had to listen to it being read in elementary school. The adaptation that was on Netflix was okay, but I have no real interest in reading the story now.

If my library had the 22nd Hardy Boys book when I was growing up, then I probably read that for a 1943 release.

The first 20 years of the 1900's have gaps galore for me, so I'm sure that one of them is a legitimate gap.

Thanks for posting this fun game/challenge, Anna!

I wonder just how many of us began our reading careers with Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys...I know that I was a ND junkie.

Wizard of Oz books might fill a few gaps too and they fall under SF&F to a certain degree

I actually added Oz to my list, but I'll try to avoid it if I can, not sure why, I haven't been inspired to read it before, so why start now :D I also added all the L.M. Montgomery I haven't read yet, I don't care if it's SFF or not. It's also apparently time for me to finally read some Beatrix Potter!

And, if I can find it, I might finally have to read Xingu, which has haunted my A-Z challenges for years XD Maybe I should save it in case I do A-Z again in the future, two birds and all that.

Sweet Valley Twins were my intro to reading. (Don't judge me I was in 5th grade)

Is that related to Sweet Valley High? I've been trying to decide what series a book was from that I read from the school library and lost before finishing it. I don't remember anything whatsoever about it, except that (it had twins and) it was on top of my stack of books/folders when I left homeroom, but no longer there when I got to the cafeteria, and I had to pay a fine :( The only library fine I've ever had to pay!

Anna wrote: "I actually added Oz to my list, but I'll try to avoid it if I can, not sure why, I haven't been inspired to read it before, so why start now :D I also added all the L.M. Montgomery I ..."

The Delphi version of the complete works of L. Frank Baum (if it still exists) has a lot of the old illustrations. I enjoyed reading them back in 2012

Thanks, Anna! That worked!!

I have indeed read at least one book for each year of my life. In most cases many more than one.

The first half of the last century is bit more hit or Miss. I’m missing 2 years in the forties, 2 in the twenties and 9 between and including 1919 and 1902. The weird thing is, the years I have read something it’s always more than just one book!!

I'm pretty sure I have

Anna wrote: "Is that related to Sweet Valley High? I've been trying to decide what series a book was from that I read from the school library and lost before finishing it. I don't remember anything whatsoever a..."

Yes, but their junior high school selves.

Melanie wrote: "Sweet Valley Twins were my intro to reading. (Don't judge me I was in 5th grade)"

I was about that age when I read some of the Sweet Valley books as well. I don't remember any of the regular series books, or even any spinoffs I might have read, but Sweet Valley Saga was a favorite. I even bought a copy as an adult because the nostalgia is real, but I'm afraid to revisit it in case it doesn't live up to my memories.

I prefer(ed) Trixie Belden to Nancy Drew when I was a pre-teen. I mean, I read at least the first Nancy Drew but I read almost all of the Trixie Belden series. They, the Oz books, Narnia and several other series account for a lot of early to mid-20th century books.

Oh and my oldest book is Scivias by Hildegard von Bingen, which GR claims was written in 900, but she wasn’t even born until 1098, so it’s more likely 1138 or later that she write it.

1903, '14, '15, are the only ones I'd like to consider filling in. I'm host of the Newbery club in the Children's Books group here on GR, so I've read books every year since they've been awarded, for sure. Not saying they're all good books, but then they aren't often the only ones I read then, either.

What's frustrating is how many works still need GR librarian attention. That is to say, how many have "unknown" as Date Pub. I am a GR librarian; I need to pay more attention.

Ok, I did read Herland: A Lost Feminist Utopian Novel, which is actually speculative fiction.

And Pygmalion for 1914, which some readers think has fairy tale (fantasy) vibes. (I just thought it excellent.)

And 1903 is covered by The Call of the Wild, which I think a lot of people needing that year have read or have meant to. I'll take it, but I also discovered Betty Zane by Zane Grey which looks wonderfully different than other stuff I read.

Cheryl wrote: " I also discovered Betty Zane by Zane Grey which looks wonderfully different than other stuff I read.."

it's quite interesting