Outread Aubrey! Challenge discussion

What's on your to-be-read list this year? Any particular series you're hoping to conquer or research you're going to do?

I have a "want to read" shelf a mile long, plus literally dozens of books I got for free (or nearly so) at library book sales and on my Kindle, but I do have a few specific things I want to accomplish...

Lord of the Rings (I've read part of it, but I want to reread it all and finish it. Also The Hobbit!)
Chronicles of Narnia (I haven't read these books in ages, so I'd like to reread them all.)
The Hunger Games trilogy (If I can force myself through them... I love the movie, but the books aren't grabbing me as much.)

I also want to read more theology/nonfiction books. I will be reading some more books about colonial America, both fiction and nonfiction, no doubt, as I'll be researching for my next book. Maybe I'll also finally be able to delve into German history--one of my unpursued loves.

What's on your list?

Aubrey wrote: "What's on your to-be-read list this year? Any particular series you're hoping to conquer or research you're going to do?

I have a "want to read" shelf a mile long, plus literally dozens of books ..."

I don't have too many specific goals, other than that I do want to read some more 'substantial' books this year—looking back over my 2012 list I seem to have read a lot of shorter and lighter works. Here's just a sampling of what I've got on my TBR for the immediate future—a little of everything!

Nine Coaches Waiting by Mary Stewart
Day of Infamy by Walter Lord
Mrs. Mike by Benedict Freeman
No Life for a Lady by Agnes Morley Cleveland
The Canterville Ghost by Oscar Wilde
Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
The Little Regiment and Other Stories by Stephen Crane

I have a short-term writing goal for January, but after that I want to start working on a full-length historical novel...in which case I'll have a hefty research list to work on!

(Speaking of lists, have you read The List yet? I think you would really enjoy it!)

Some of those books sound delightful, Elisabeth! I might have to read some of those as well.

A full-length historical fiction novel! Needless to say, I am excited about this. :D What era will you be researching?

I haven't read it yet, but "The List" is already on my "want to read" shelf!

*likes Corey's impressive list* This topic was actually inspired by your list, Corey. :D

Cool. Maybe I should give it a top spot on my TBR list, then.

I also want to read more theology/nonfiction books. I will be reading some more books about colonial America, both fiction and nonfiction, no doubt, as I'll be researching for my next book. Maybe I'll also finally be able to delve into German history--one of my unpursued loves.

I think our non-fiction reading would agree quite well. If you haven't already read them, I highly (add a hundred more highlys) recommend The Writer's Guide to Everyday Life in Colonial America and The Writer's Guide to Everyday Life in the 1800s. They are fantastic reference books for writing about the time period.

Aubrey wrote: "A full-length historical fiction novel! Needless to say, I am excited about this. :D What era will you be researching?"

Well, I haven't completely settled on a project yet (I've got five ideas to pick from!), but if I choose the one I'm currently leaning towards, it'll be the Montana prairie around 1900.

A collection of H.P. Lovecraft's stories, China Mievelle's "Railsea" which is a dieselpunk/wierd fiction retelling of Moby-Dick, with trains and giant moles.
Then Peter's Angel, and a bunch of research stuff for Dream of a Shrouded Quest.

That is a time period I've never deeply explored, Elisabeth, so it will be interesting for me to watch your progress and (Lord willing) eventually read your book! Keep me updated? (Or at least update your Twitter. ;) )

YES KALEB IS READING MY BOOK! Heehee, very interesting list. Railsea sounds fascinating. I haven't read any dieselpunk, but I bet I would like it, as I'm fond of steampunk. Have you read any Lovecraft before?

Okay, thanks.
Language really doesn't bother me at all. This will be the first one of his I've read. Yes it does. There's just something about the ludicrousness of giant moles that make it irresistible.

Yes, I am.
It's different from steampunk, especially in attitude.

Yeah, I have. I read an annotated collection. (Not smart. I kept getting side-tracked.)

My sister and I are reading The Lord of the Rings together. Basically this is how it works: When I'm doing the dishes, she reads it to me. When she's sewing, I read it to her. Does that count?
Hopefully I can find my Chronicles of Narnia book amidst all the unpacked boxes we have and read that. I want to read Great Expectations again (great book!) and A Tale of Two Cities. The Screwtape Letters is one of my favorites and I need to read that again. Also I want to read some of Elizabeth Gaskell's novels, as well as Freckles (funny name, I know; it's a prequel to the excellent 'Girl of the Limberlost'). I need to read... oh, bother, I have such a long list of books. The Kindle is a lifesaver for someone like me with little money :D All sorts of free books on there!

Oh, and I want to read the Auralia Thread series again so I can formulate why exactly I don't like those books.

I agree about the Kindle! That's the main reason I got mine--less expensive versions of books--and I have quite a backlog of material on there to read myself...

Anywho, great selections! (And I'd love to hear your opinion on the Auralia Thread series, as all my other friends rave about it.) And yes, reading aloud or with someone counts, as long as you finish the entire book.

Well, in the next week before school starts, I have a couple dozen comic books to read - Spike, Buffy, Angel, Superman, Batman, X-Men, the Ultimates, and some random ones not in a series (a comic version of the Odyssey and a couple of comics by Doug TenNapel).

I also have a bunch of YA fic I'd like to read... I don't know the titles, I just looked for pretty covers. XD

After that, I have a lot of books on my shelf I havent' read yet. Terry Pratchett, Terry Brooks, Arthur Clarke, a bunch of others I can't remember. Plus I've got a pirate book from last Christmas...

And I do want to read Railsea. I had it out from the library but never got around to reading it before it had to go back last semester. It's definitely on my list.

Oh yes and as I have money I need to buy the rest of the books in the Auralia Thread series because I really, really like it. (Yup, I'm one of the Leah's friends who raves about it) My sister has the whole set and I don't now. =P

You've got your work cut out for you, Mel! As you read the YA fic in particular, let me know what you like and don't like. :D

Yeah, I do... but that's okay. :D I still have a week off from school.

I try to write reviews for Goodreads when I can. If you ever want to browse through and ask me to write a review for something I only star-rated, that's okay too. I usually remember what the book was about unless it was really forgettable.

Sounds good to me! I may take you up on that. :D

I don't even know anymore. Immanuel Velikovsky is definitely on there somewhere. Probably whatever Jenni has on her shelf for me. I don't really have all that much in the way of spectacular to-read lists, just piles of books with my name on them. :)

Speaking of nonfiction/theology, I can recommend a list a mile long. You've still got that Stephen Hawking book too, right?

Good enough for me, Katie. ;)

I'd love more recommendations! Yes, the Hawking book is one on my shelf which begs to be read this year.

I have all sorts of new books on my Kindle that I would like to read. Some of them I am hoping are good, but am not exactly sure.

Identity by Ted Dekker
The Warrior by Joyce Swann
Bone Dry by Ben Rehder
Supervillain of the Day by Katie Lynn Daniels
The New Deputy in Town by B.J. Daniels
Sherlock Holmes mysteries
The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux
Red Rain sequel by Aubrey Hansen and David Hartung (after it is published)
Peter's Ally by Aubrey Hansen (after it is published)
Never by J. Grace Pennington (re-read)
Peter's Angel by Aubrey Hansen (re-read)

I'm sure the list will get longer, but that's my list so far. ;)

*can't help but laugh over the end of Faith's list* You are awesome, my dear. ;)

That's a nice variety!

I'm with, Faith. I'm currently re-reading Peter's Angel (out loud to my family this time) and eagerly awaiting Peter's Ally. And I'll probably be re-reading Never (again, out loud to my family) after we finish Peter's Angel. ;)

I'm honored! I hope your family enjoys it. :D

Aubrey wrote: "I'm honored! I hope your family enjoys it. :D"
:) We just finished chapter one and so far they like it. We were laughing because it took us two car rides to get out of the prologue!

Aubrey wrote: "*can't help but laugh over the end of Faith's list* You are awesome, my dear. ;)

That's a nice variety!"

I'm glad I could make you laugh. I want to read them again anyway. ^_^

Thanks, Aubrey! I like variety. ;)

Yeah, it's kind of a... shall we say... generous prologue. ;) There wasn't much way around it, though! :P But I'll spare you that writerly rant. :D

My "would-like-to-read" and my "to-be-read" lists have little overlap at the moment, I'm afraid. A subset of the former (developed from the "want-to-read"s among the recommendations I got from WeRead, my first book-social-network, then painstakingly imported into LibraryThing, but not to here yet) can be seen here on LibraryThing; the latter is mostly "the books on the too-full shelves in my room." :)

I've added the Chronicles of Prydain to the list, and the Dark Is Rising Sequence. (I'm stalking both series for adoption right now.)

The list you linked to on LibraryThing is now blank, Jon...

(What do you mean "stalking for adoption," Kaleb? Trying to find copies to buy?)

Aubrey wrote: "The list you linked to on LibraryThing is now blank, Jon...
Hmm. Odd.

In any case, I've now imported that list to Goodreads (which would have been trivial had Goodreads not decided to, despite my explicit instructions to put them on the "to-read" shelf, put all 1014 of them on the "read" shelf); thus, here.

(I'm stalking used bookstores for them so I can adopt them from foster care.)

1014?! Well, that puts my TBR list to shame...

(*grins at Kaleb*)

My TBR list is anything that I have picked up for free on Amazon ... which is a very long list, since I pick up three to twenty every day. Neither of your books are on my TBR list, but that's only because they both have taken up residence on my read shelf.

*smiles at Kendra*

Oh, don't get me started on free books from Amazon! I finally stopped looking at the list because I know I'll never get through what I've already got downloaded!

Aubrey wrote: "*smiles at Kendra*

Oh, don't get me started on free books from Amazon! I finally stopped looking at the list because I know I'll never get through what I've already got downloaded!"

Well, my mom does a daily listing of free books each day on her blog, so I'm kinda obliged to check it and pick up anything that looks interesting.

What's your mom's blog, again? Despite what I said, I'm curious about her list. :)

kiddoswithkindles.blogspot.com

Mostly kid books and stuff she knows that my sister or I would be interested in. Sometimes she'll review a set of kid's books, and she says she'd be interested if any of my author friends would like to guest post about their books as long as they're mostly kid-friendly.

Corey wrote: "The Prydain Chronicles is a masterpiece of fantasy writing. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did."

Enjoyed it too. :D

Thanks, Kendra! I might contact her, as Red Rain can often pass as middle grade...

Corey wrote: "The Prydain Chronicles is a masterpiece of fantasy writing. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did."


I think The High King was the first fantasy novel I ever read, except maybe the Droon series.

Aubrey wrote: "1014?! Well, that puts my TBR list to shame..."
Over the course of a couple of years, one of the things I did to pass time every once in a while was to go through all WeRead's recommendations for me (it offered at most a batch of 25 at a time), marking each as "Read," "Want to Read," or "Won't Read" (or skipping it, if it didn't fit any of those); these batches apparently added up :). Actually, the list on WeRead was originally several times that count, since it didn't seem to care if I'd already rated four other editions of a book; I cleaned out all the duplicates when I transferred the list to LibraryThing.

Not by way of suggestion or anything, but Goodreads offers recommendations also... ;)

So I've seen. But its algorithm seems to be inferior to WeRead's in every respect except being aware of books I've already read in different editions. And I have a lot less time to spare nowadays.

I have way too many books on my list to type them out... A few authors are John Piper, Charles Dickens, C. S. Lewis, Chautona Havig, Jules Verne, and Ray Bradbury... And I have a lot of others on that list too... Way too many. I'll never finish. :p

I'm hoping to conquer the Kingdom series along with
Casing Jupiter by Rachel Coker
Avenir Eclectia by Grace Bridges
to Birmingham Castle by Alicia A. Willis
Lots of books by Amy Carmichael and Janet Benge.
Along with about 90 more books. :)

You mean the Kingdom series by Chuck Black, Mikayla? I've read one book of that, several years ago. I probably actually still have the essay I wrote in response to it, somewhere around here...

Aubrey wrote: "You mean the Kingdom series by Chuck Black, Mikayla? I've read one book of that, several years ago. I probably actually still have the essay I wrote in response to it, somewhere around here..."

Yes. I read the first one a while back but never got around to the other ones.

Let me know what you think of them! I wasn't too enthralled by the one I read, admittedly...

I'll make sure I write up a full review when I read them!