75 Books...More or Less! discussion

Turns out I'm pretty terrible at remembering to log my reading!

So far I've finished:

1. Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances (some of the stories are stronger than others, but I love Neil Gaiman so I was happy with this one)
2. The Things They Carried (this was amazingly powerful)
3. The Modern Scholar: Dickens and Twain: Capturing 19th Century Britain and America
4. Event (this was so bad that I wish I could burn the memory of the time I wasted on it out of my memory)
5. Customs of the World: Using Cultural Intelligence to Adapt, Wherever You Are
6. Altered Carbon (Cool world building and it really makes you think about what happens to society when death is no longer a universal constant)
7. Singers and Tales: Oral Tradition and the Roots of Literature (I love this professor and will listen to anything he does!)
8. Human Prehistory and the First Civilizations (it was really interesting once I got past Professor Fagan's weird speech patterns and pronunciations... It's one of those things I wish I'd had access to in print rather than audio)
9. Total Recall (I was happy to find a PKD book that I actually liked!)
10. The Inexplicable Universe: Unsolved Mysteries (Not particularly good. His Podcasts are MUCH better!)
11. The lost warriors of God: the true history of the Knights Templar
12. MirrorMask
13. Rock 'n' Roll and American Society, Part 1 (More aptly titled "Elvis and some other guys" but still interesting.)
14. Unearthing the Past: Paleontology and the History of Life (Easy to follow, a good introduction to the subject- I especially liked the "what the heck can you do with this degree?!" section- but a very abrupt ending. I actually checked to see if I'd had a corrupted download.)
15. Language A to Z (Fun and easy, if you are a total WordNerd like I am)
16. Cultural Literacy for Religion: Everything the Well-Educated Person Should Know
17. Books That Have Made History: Books That Can Change Your Life (this lecture series was terrible, If you like southern evangelical speech delivery styles you might be able to get through it, but I'd rather listen to 18 hours of 2yr olds throwing tantrums than sit through this again)
18. great american music - broadway musicals (Loved it!!!)
19. Farmer in the Sky (The ending was weak but other than that it was a great read)
20. Stationary Bike (I love Stephen King :) )
21. Writing and Civilization: From Ancient Worlds to Modernity
22. Behavioral Economics When Psychology and Economics Collide (parts were very interesting... and then it broke out the statistics. Shudder.)
23. How to Think: The Liberal Arts and Their Enduring Value (this was very much a 'preaching to the choir' kind of thing.)
24. The Fellowship of the Ring
25. The Two Towers
26. 1066: The Year That Changed Everything (This was great at keeping all the Harolds distinct [really, guys- did we really need that many Harolds competing for the throne?! Somebody start using nicknames! lol] and it kept my attention all the way through)
27. The Dark Portal (meh...)
28. The London Pride (Meh- not as good as his Stoneheart trilogy, by a long shot)
29. Clockwork Heart (Fun little bit of fluff. Good world building and nothing in the romance that was particularly cringeworthy)
30. Clockwork Lies: Iron Wind
31. Clockwork Secrets: Heavy Fire
32. Maya to Aztec: Ancient Mesoamerica Revealed (Fascinating and well produced. I still wouldn't have wanted to live in any of those societies, though...)
33. The Modern Scholar Moby Dick America's Epic (Gives insights into Melville and his most popular work... but I still don't like him!)
34. Great Masters: Mozart: His Life and Music (Interesting, but I just couldn't get Val Kilmer's Mozart out of my head and that was horribly distracting!)

Happily, most of these have ranged from good to very good :D

Haha that's okay, Stacie! You've read quite the array of books.

This year I'm trying to hit a wider variety of books (my usual M.O. could be termed more 'binge reading' where I focus on- ok, obsess over- a single (or very narrow range) genre or author until I exhaust the vein and then fall into a funk because I can't decide what to read next, lol!) The problem with that is that it does nothing to cut down my TBR pile- I'll read one thing from the pile and then have to track down and devour everything else in that series/style/author's works, which I generally do not already own. The idea was to get through the 'onesies' from my TBR pile. It is sort of working. Some of my reads this year are from my pile. Some :p

Stacie wrote: "This year I'm trying to hit a wider variety of books (my usual M.O. could be termed more 'binge reading' where I focus on- ok, obsess over- a single (or very narrow range) genre or author until I e..."

Haha yeah, I hear you! Books are just too beautiful to not own (and read!) as many as you can. Lol.

35. The Martian Wow! This was a fantastic read. It was (mostly) believable and captivating- I had to drag myself away from the pages and at times literally could not wait to get back to it (apologies to everyone who looked up mid-conversation and found me peeking at my book). This is, in fact, the only story I've utilized Amazon's Whispersync function for because I was completely enthralled and any interruption was intolerable. I laughed out loud, teared up, and grinned like a loon- all in public. Why only four only out of five stars, then? I don't believe I'll ever re-read it. I think it would not recapture the tension and uncertainty that is so essential to this story working. But, man, I've totally got a book hangover :)

Stacie wrote: "35. The Martian Wow! This was a fantastic read. It was (mostly) believable and captivating- I had to drag myself away from the pages and at times literally could not wait to get ba..."

I enjoyed this one as well! A lot of science jargon but really good! But you're right, not something I'll read again.

I really enjoyed this one too. I'm sure I'll re-read it... it won't be the same experience, but I loved Mark's voice so I think it will still be a good read the second time around. Any plans to see the movie?

Charleen wrote: " Any plans to see the movie?"

Not really. The trailers look pretty good and very true to the story- though even in the trailers I can see a few things that were 'adjusted'- but for the same reason I don't think I'll reread the book, I don't think I'll make any particular effort to see the movie. More like, "if I'm with friends and that's the movie that gets picked, I'll go."

36. Roots of Human Behavior Interesting, but doesn't really live up to the title- there's not that much space given over to relating things to human behavior. It's more an intro to Physical Anthropology, and a very basic one at that. Not bad, but not really what I was hoping for.

37. Ready Player One This was so much fun! However, if you aren't an '80s child or a huge video game/geek culture fan I'm pretty sure you won't like it at all. I'm both of those things so, for me, it was a hoot :)

38. Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore The best thing I can say about this is that at least it's finally off of my TBR pile.

Stacie wrote: "38. Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore The best thing I can say about this is that at least it's finally off of my TBR pile."

*gasp* Oh no, you didn't like it?! I loved this book to pieces! lol.

Elyse wrote: "*gasp* Oh no, you didn't like it?! I loved this book to pieces! lol." Yeah, I know a lot of people who loved it- it came very highly recommended. That's why I kept reading, I thought "Any minute now I'll see what the big deal is. Any minute now..." 'Fraid not, lol!

Stacie wrote: "Elyse wrote: "*gasp* Oh no, you didn't like it?! I loved this book to pieces! lol." Yeah, I know a lot of people who loved it- it came very highly recommended. That's why I kept reading, I thou..."

lol. Everyone's got different tastes! I felt that way about The Night Circus. Everyone loved it, I couldn't care less about it.

39. The Return of the King I reread these fairly regularly- they are one of my comfort reads.

40. The War of the Worlds

41. Biological Anthropology: An Evolutionary Perspective

42. From The Deep

43. Macbeth: Shakespeare Appreciated Liked this version a lot, and there's something very satisfying about Macbeth's descent into madness and eventual defeat.

44. Just One Damned Thing After Another Tons of fun and I laughed out loud multiple times :D

45. A Symphony of Echoes

46. A Second Chance The narrator is terrific and funny bits are still laugh-out-loud funny, but the series is starting to show signs of the strain of having to top each ridiculous, madcap adventure. The highs must be higher, the lows must be lower, the coincidences must be more unlikely... and since she started out at full throttle, I'm not sure the author really has anywhere to go. This was fun enough, though, that I'll pick up the next title in the series (this is the current half-way mark).

47. Henry V: Shakespeare Appreciated Hmmm... I just found a something by Shakespeare that I don't absolutely love. Well, I suppose it had to happen sometime.

48. Coraline I love this book- so wonderfully creepy!

Stacie wrote: "48. Coraline I love this book- so wonderfully creepy!"

Oh, yes it is!

Wow, I've heard so many things about Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore that I was dying to read it. I'll have to see what I think once I get it. I'm on the wait list at the library.

To me, it just felt like it was trying too hard to be quirky and clever and mysterious and, instead of hitting any of those marks, it came across as being flat and painfully forced. So many people love it, though. I don't understand it but I'm happy for them, lol! I think "library" is the way to go with this one.

Thanks for your thoughts Stacie, I will skip buying it and see if I can get it from the library - maybe audio would be good.

I thought the audiobook of Mr. Penumbra was great. Ari Fliakos is a great narrator.

Good to know!

49. Supergods: What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human This should have been right up my alley but, ugh! There's some interesting information, if you can sift through the self-agrandizement and pointless verbosity and it just goes on forever. Seriously, though, I don't even want to read any more of his comics now. Ugh.

50. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone I was just cleaning my bookshelves, I swear! And then, somehow, this book opened up in my hands... and then I finished it. Again. ;)

51. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Because these books are like potato chips- you can't stop at just one!

52. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

53. Myths, Lies and Half-Truths of Language Usage

Stacie wrote: "51. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Because these books are like potato chips- you can't stop at just one!"

Totally agree!! ;) I need to reread these soon. Along with Hunger Games.

I stopped reading Harry Potter about 1/2 way through, I was waiting for the next book to come out and before I knew it I was 5-6 books behind. Now I think I need to start from the beginning again.

You should absolutely read them! You could likely find a fair number of book buddies in this group to read them along with you, if you wanted ;)

54. Four Past Midnight: The Sun Dog Like many King stories this one isn't scary... until, suddenly, it is!

Oh, good idea!

55. The Art of Reading This was disappointing. There was a lot of this that was just BS filler, something I (embarrassingly) remember from my days of hastily written term papers. As far as production values go, the lecturer kept slipping into "murmur mode" which I found off-putting instead of intimate. I won't be picking up anything else by him.

56. The Bible as the Root of Western Literature: Stories, Poems and Parables (The Modern Scholar) 14 Lectures

57. Never Die Alone This was recommended (and given) to me by a co-worker so I was kind of obligated to read it. It was ok (meaning not a horrendous specimen of the writing craft) but pretty forgettable, at least for me. I never really believed in, or cared about, any of the characters or events. Still, it was a nice gesture, to be thought of when someone wanted to share something they enjoyed.

58. Necronomicon I've had this for a while but finally got around to finishing. The production values and narrations are great and I enjoyed most of the stories. (Caveat: Lovecraft was a raging racist and elitist who focused on rampant fears of anything that was contrary to the status quo, and who never used one word where three would do. His stories can be a bit of an acquired taste... but he's also a founding voice in horror and weird literature)

Stacie wrote: "58. Necronomicon I've had this for a while but finally got around to finishing. The production values and narrations are great and I enjoyed most of..."

Love Lovecraft's stories. He's the original horror master!

59. And Still I Rise Her works always floor me!

60. A Brief History of Holiday Music This focuses on concert works, which I expected since that's Greenberg's area of expertise, but I still wish it had covered carols as well (also, wish it had been longer so that it could have been more in depth)

61. Fry's English Delight: Series 1 I really enjoyed the bit on puns... the portion on metaphors, less so.

62. Winnie-The-Pooh: Volume 1 I'd forgotten how much Christopher Robin reminds me of my nephew at that age! It's been years... decades... since I've read these. I'd forgotten how much I loved them :)

63. Fahrenheit 451 You ever run across something that you can tell is well-crafted, has some beautiful writing, carries important ideas and themes... and you still don't like it? This is mine. My sister is going to absolutely disown me- this is her favorite book EVER! ;)

Stacie wrote: "63. Fahrenheit 451 You ever run across something that you can tell is well-crafted, has some beautiful writing, carries important ideas and themes..."

I must admit, this is my favorite book EVER too. ;)

64. A Christmas Carol Lianne's talking about reading this prompted me to load up my copy. I do love Jim Dale as a narrator :)

65. King Arthur: History and Legend