Beyond Reality discussion

My goal this year (again) was to read 52 books, averaging a book a week. I have never met that goal and this year was no different.

I DID read 36 books. On a 10-point scale, my average rating for those 36 books was 7.8.

The lowest score was 5: The Long Twilight by Keith Laumer, October the First Is Too Late by Fred Hoyle, and King Arthur by Frank T. Thompson.

The highest score was 10: The Quiet Game by Greg Iles, Night Watch by Terry Pratchett, and these books by Steven Erikson: Deadhouse Gates, Memories of Ice, The Bonehunters, Reaper's Gale, and Toll the Hounds.

My goal for 2016? 52 books!

Well I never attempt goals with books. I read what I read.

I read 27 books this year.
My favorite books this year
Station Eleven
The Peripheral

Most disappointing
Moving Pictures

Kathi wrote: "My goal this year (again) was to read 52 books, averaging a book a week. I have never met that goal and this year was no different.

I DID read 36 books. On a 10-point scale, my average rating for ..."

In your defence, those Malazan books were pretty huge. Averaging 800 to 1000. They were dense books on top of it all

Ken wrote: "Kathi wrote: "In your defence, those Malazan books were pretty huge. Averaging 800 to 1000. They were dense books on top of it all ..."

My 37 books averaged 550 pages--20,321 pages divided by 37 books. So yes, choosing LONG books (mostly Malazan) certainly impacted how many books I was able to finish.

This year I read 65 books, 2 novellas, and 50 comics. My goal was 50 books. I didn't set a goal for comics.

I gave 13 of those books five stars:
Squire and Lady Knight by Tamora Pierce
The Shadow Throne by Django Wexler
Deadhouse Gates, Memories of Ice, House of Chains, and The Bonehunters by Steven Erikson
Penric's Demon by Lois McMaster Bujold
Champion by Marie Lu
Blindsight by Peter Watts
Mars Evacuees by Sophia McDougall
Red Rising by Pierce Brown Dead Heat by Patricia Briggs

I gave one book a 1 star rating:
The Bear Went Over the Mountain by William Kotzwinkle

I gave three books 2 star ratings:
Mars Crossing by Geoffrey A. Landis
The Accidental Time Machine by Joe Haldeman
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

For comics, I really loved:
Saga, Volume 1 and Lumberjanes, Vol. 1: Beware the Kitten Holy

For 2016, I've upped my book goal to 60 books. Still no comics goal. :)

I read 40 books this year, which is low for me - normally I get to 70-75 new reads, but with a new baby at home I'll take it. Miracle I get any reading time at all!
I'll copy and paste what I posted for my friends on Facebook:

Favorites of 2015, in no particular order:
Last Song Before Night by Ilana C. Myer: Not just because she’s a friend, because it was such a lovely book!!
Kraken, by China Mieville: Giant squid terrorizes London. ‘nuff said.
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, by Mary Roach: Macabre, but absolutely fascinating!
The Likeness and Faithful Place, by Tana French: I am usually not much of a mystery reader, but I’ve really been enjoying French’s Dublin Murder Squad books (these are books two and three, book one made my list last year) - the detectives are fascinating characters. I’m in the middle of the next book, Broken Harbor, at the moment, and the only reason it didn’t make the list is that I’m not finished with it yet :)
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption, by Laura Hillenbrand: I didn’t see the movie that was made of this, but I heard it was well done; it was quite a compelling true story.
The Alloy of Law, by Brandon Sanderson: A heck of a fun romp through the world of his Mistborn trilogy, set several centuries later.
Deerskin, by Robin McKinley: Somehow I never managed to read this before. It’s heartbreaking and beautiful.
Station Eleven, by Emily St. John Mandel: One of the best post-apocalyptic novels I’ve ever read.
The Girl with All the Gifts, by M. R. Carey: An unexpectedly compelling and intelligent zombie story. I’m not really into zombie books, but this one is different.

Worst of 2015, in no particular order:

Go Set a Watchman, by Harper Lee: Yeah, I’m going there. I wasn’t as upset or offended by the book as it seems many other readers were, but I just found it totally boring. Grown-up Scout was not nearly as interesting as kid Scout, and nothing really happened in the book.
My Life with Stephen, by Jane Hawking: After loving the film Theory of Everything, I had to read the book it was based on. Oy, was it a slog. I didn’t finish it. I was interested in Jane and Stephen’s relationship, not the minutiae of their daily lives.
Pistols For Two, Georgette Heyer: A collection of her short fiction. I love her novels, but her strengths just don’t quite work in short story format.

I read 86/70 books so I'm pleased. They average 374 pages and 3.5 stars. The shortest was 8 pages, longest 1296, Malazan.

16 x5 stars, five were Malazan.
Other fives are: Golden Son, An Inheritance of Ashes, Death in the Clouds, Elizabeth Is Missing.

I read 112 books in 2015 averaging 407 pages and 4.2 stars (I'm a high rater it looks like). Here are my favourite reads from 2015:

Wow, I'm slow to this thread.

At first glance, I managed a dismal 26 last year. However, I did a few series rereads, and I don't track rereads, so I likely came closer to 40 in total.

Least favorite was The Magic of Recluce (sorry guys, I know its well loved here).

Nothing really stood out as the best. Echopraxia was the closest. It deserves another read for my final judgement however. I always end up having to read Peter Watts's book multiple times.

With all the rereads, ebooks, and audiobooks, I've no clue on page counts.

I don't believe it, but I read 101 books in 2015, the most ever. I think it's because I've added an hour to my reading time and now read till about 1 am. Or maybe I read a lot more thin books. I'm also only working about half time. Is that semi-retired?

Kernos wrote: "I don't believe it, but I read 101 books in 2015, the most ever. I think it's because I've added an hour to my reading time and now read till about 1 am. Or maybe I read a lot more thin books. I'm ..."

All of the above--more time, shorter books, less work = more reading. Good for you. I'm still struggling to get to that 50 book threshold.