MobileRead Book Challenges discussion

Goals

* Keep track of what I read
* Keep the number of active series down
* Read at least 4 books of 700+ pages
* Have fun

Statistics

Books read: 113
Pages read: 40447
Average length: 358

700+ page books: 4
Books abandoned: 3

New authors: 48
New series: 19

Ongoing Series

* Outlander (2/10)
* Guido Brunetti (11/23)
* Odd Thomas (5/11)
* Lincoln Rhyme (5/11)
* The Body Farm (7/10)
* Shetland (1/4)
* The Morganville Vampires (4/27)
* World's Scariest Places (2/3)

Finished, Up-To-Date, Back Burner, Abandoned

* Anna Kronberg (finished)
* Witching Savannah (finished)
* Wayward Pines (finished)
* The Cold Calling (finished)

* Cold Creek (abandoned)
* Katie Maguire (abandoned)

* The Checquy Files (up-to-date)
* Sebastian St. Cyr (up-to-date)
* The Order of the Sanguines (up-to-date/finished?)
* Ruth Galloway (up to date)
* Nell West & Michael Flint (up to date)
* Legends of Muirwood (up-to-date/finished)
* Vera Stanhope (up-to-date)
* Mary Russell (up-to-date)
* The Great Library (up-to-date)
* Pendergast (up-to-date)
* The Maze Runner (up to date)
* Dream World (up to date)
* The Eight (up to date/finished)

Page count per month (2014):

January: 3301 (3696)
February: 2425 (1691)
March: 3948 (5461)
April: 3991 (2586)
May: 4046 (3638)
June: 2930 (3638)
July: 3496 (3912)
August: 3124 (4420)
September: 3642 (3869)
October: 3310 (3523)
November: 3262 (4322)
December: 2972 (3225)

August Challenge:

read at least 5 horror/ghost/haunted somethings novels.

1. House of Small Shadows - Adam Nevill
2. Ghost Hunters - Neil Spring
3. Long Lankin - Lindsey Barraclough
4. Follow You Home - Mark Edwards
5. Ancient Enemy - Mark Lukens

FIRST!

Changed the 600+ page challenge to 700+ pages. Looking at my reading lists from the last couple of years I read a lot of book longer than 600 pages but book of 700 pages or more are rare.

I've also added a list to keep track of how many pages I read each month. It will be of the book I've finished in a month. So it could be that I'll start a doorstopper mid February, but finish it on March 1, all the pages will count towards March. In between brackets are the number of pages read for that month in 2013.

Those are page counts from 2013!?! Those are some insane numbers. My best page count year was around 25,000. I'll probably get to around 20,000 pages this year.

Homeinmyshoes wrote: "Those are page counts from 2013!?! Those are some insane numbers. My best page count year was around 25,000. I'll probably get to around 20,000 pages this year."

O_O

Homeinmyshoes wrote: "Those are page counts from 2013!?! Those are some insane numbers. My best page count year was around 25,000. I'll probably get to around 20,000 pages this year."

It helps that my commute consists of walking down a flight of stairs and when it's quiet in the store and all the chores are done I can also read between customers.

I've always read a lot. I can remember the first half year at uni in the UK (I studied half the year in Amsterdam and half a year in the UK) I read almost 40 books in 4 months plus the books and (english lit and education) for my courses. Most Dutch classmates drank away their monthly scholarship, I bought books, dvds and went to the cinema in Birmingham once a week.

Last year I read 44958 pages and in 2012 37426, this year I expect to end up somewhere in between.

Considering whether or not to set a page count goal. For the GR challenge I'll probably set it to 100 books to read, but since I've got some longer books lingering on my TBR list I might aim for over 35,000 pages read.

Pages are just as useless as books for counting in my mind. I just finished a 410 page book that was in such tiny print that it was probably a 650 page book. They are all inaccurate.

My motto: Read books you're interested in and keep track of them. :)

Homeinmyshoes wrote: "My motto: Read books you're interested in and keep track of them. :) "

I like that!

Updated the last things of the statistics posts, so now the fun can start!

I want to wish everyone a great 2015!

Since I'm doing so well on my ongoing series challenge (keep them to a reasonable number) I've decided that in January I want to try several series I've had my eyes on for a while.

* Abbes of Meaux by Cassandra Clare
* Lincoln Rhyme by Jeffery Deaver
and one other I've yet to decide.

Homeinmyshoes: Pages are just as useless as books for counting in my mind. I just finished a 410 page book that was in such tiny print that it was probably a 650 page book. They are all inaccurate.

Every edition has a different page count due to variation in text style, margins, etc. I just stick with the popular paperback size and leave it at that. Even audiobooks are tracked by paperback since they won't show up as pages. If you read primarily non-fiction, then you might want to stick with the hard cover editions.

Finished the first book of the year.

Forever Odd by Dean Koontz.
A great second book in the series. It took longer than normal to read because of a combination of a cold, a busy week in the store and discovering new crafting techniques which I just had to try out.

On my spreadsheet I'm also marking new authors and series (giving the cell a colour).

Good to hear a book two recommendation. It is on my short list for this year, although I'm really burning through my 2nd chance pile right now.

Burial Rites by Hannah Kent.
Not a book I would normally read. Set in the 1820s and 1830s in Iceland. Two woman and a man are convicted to death for murdering two men, one of which was the both the lover and the boss of the two women. Whilst waiting for her execution the oldest of the women, Agnes is sent to live with a district leader. At first the family is reluctant to have her, but she help out with the daily chores. When a priest starts to visit her to prepare her for death she starts telling her life story to him. As her story slowly unfolds you first want to know what made her kill her lover and boss, then you start to wonder if she was involved in the murder at all, even hoping she isn't. But life isn't as black and white as people think it is.

A great read.

^That does sound quite good.

Homeinmyshoes wrote: "^That does sound quite good."

^this


Spoil me, please

The Bone Collector by Jeffery Deaver.
I can vaguely remember seeing the film, but it obviously didn't make much of an impression. This book, however, did. I loved it, so another series added to my active list.

It's time to finish a couple of nearly finished/trilogy series to make some room for new series.

Bianca wrote: "The Bone Collector by Jeffery Deaver.
I can vaguely remember seeing the film, but it obviously didn't make much of an impression. This book, however, did. I loved it, so another series ..."

:)

I remember that movie

The Glass Room by Ann Cleeves.
Another good Vera Stanhope book. I just love the often bleak and isolated settings in this series. Just one more book to go before I'm up to date with this series. I must check out her other series as well.

The Source by JD Horn.
A good sequel to the first in the Witching Savannah Trilogy. Together with the main character Mercy the reader learns a lot more about magic (Mercy's magical abilities are returned to her at the end of the first book). Also some (but I don't think all) family secrets come out.

The Lion's Courtship by Annelie Wendeberg.
This is the prequel to the Anna Kronberg trilogy, written after the first three books. On MR I read good things about the series and Amazon had the omnibus on offer earlier this week, so I took the plunge. Yesterday I discovered this prequel and read it first. Without having read the other three books I think it would be better to read it not as a first in the series. I felt like I didn't know some things about the main character that might have been good to know.

The Devil's Grin by Annelie Wendeberg.
A good Sherlock Holmes story, where Holmes teams up with dr. Anton Kronberg. However, dr. Kronberg has a secret (which Holmes sees through within seconds). It did remind me a bit of Laurie R. King's Sherlock Holmes series.

I had planned on reading the trilogy in one go, since I got the omnibus. But after reading the prequel and the first of the trilogy I decided to take a one book break before continuing.

Ive got to get started reading. You're smoking me, lol!

Ive got to get started reading. You're smoking me, lol!

MrsJoseph wrote: "Ive got to get started reading. You're smoking me, lol!"

I've been on a short book binge since December. After 7 books this year the average length of a book is 308 pages. After I finish the Kronberg series it's time to read one of the 700+ page books, probably the second book in the Outlander series.

^Haha. My average length is 249 pages right now. If I take out Four Quartets for the bookclub then it's 274. I'm sure the average for the year will be around the usual 300 pages.

The Cold Calling by Will Kingdom (pseudonym of Phil Rickman).
A great book of the two part The Cold Calling series. As usual with his books it's about something that might be paranormal/magic/etc but it might also be a more mundane happening.

I went to see Gone with the Wind in cinema today and now I have the urge to dig out my copy of Rhett Butler's People (authorized sequel) to finally finish the book. I started years ago but never finished it, due to getting my first eReader at the same time. I might even get the book telling the story from Mammy's perspective, but I'll think I'll skip Scarlett.

The Fall by Annelie Wendeberg
Okay second book in the Kronberg series. Good pacing.

In just over three weeks time I'm going to London with my sister for a couple of days. It's been a while since I've been to London. For my London is synonymous with buying books. The last time I went I did have an ereader, my first, but I still bought a lot of books. Normally three weeks before leaving I would already have started making a list of books I want to buy. It's weird that I don't have to do that anymore and I'm now worrying which books to put on my Kindle (because 30+ books isn't enough for three days).

The Journey by Annelie Wendeberg.
Okay.

Yesterday I finally started reading Horrorstör and I'm loving it! It a very fast read, so I'll probably finish it either tonight or tomorrow. I've just arrived at the part where things start to get scary.

^That book is creeping up my to read list. I just need to get through three more challenge books.

Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix
I loved it, it's a shame the book is so short and reads fast.
Last night we went to a big store and it was very quiet (probably due to the bad weather prediction). And I kinda freaked myself out when I went to the toilets, which was in a very basic part of the building (concrete floors, fluorescent tubes, etc) and had to think of the happenings in the Orsk store.

The Coffin Dancer by Jeffery Deaver.
Very good.

Next task: finish the series which have only one book unread to make some space for new series.

The Void by J.D. Horn
An okay ending to the series. It could have been good but then ending felt rushed and could have been worked out better.

Harbour Street by Ann Cleeves
Latest book in the Vera Stanhope series. Loved it.

Now it's time to take a break from series and for something scary I think. I'm also starting to think about what I want to read during my trip to London and which books I need to put on my Kindle in case of reading emergency.

Finished this week:
Last Days by Adam Nevill.
A good horror story. It didn't really scare me but I really liked the characters, who were flawed but still likeable.

I'm currently reading Sycamore Row by John Grisham. It's the sequel to A Time to Kill but it'll also work as a stand alone book. It's the right book for my mood at the moment.

This week I only finished Sycamore Row by John Grisham. Which was the right book for my mood. A great read, officially a sequel to A Time to Kill but if you haven't read it or have read it but a long time ago it doesn't really matter.

After that I started reading Nine Coaches Waiting by Mary Stewart. From the reviews I understand it's a classic. But it just didn't fit with my mood and yesterday I set it aside for Shattered Secrets by Karin Harper, which is a nice and easy read.

I finally am reading a bit!


I might even catch up. :-D

Bianca wrote: "Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix
I loved it, it's a shame the book is so short and reads fast.
Last night we went to a big store and it was very quiet (probably due to the bad weather pr..."

lol

I freak myself out all the time, lol. I can't read horror.

MrsJoseph wrote: lol

I freak myself out all the time, lol. I can't read horror.

I normally don't. But the store described in the book was so familiar (having worked for Ikea). Then I went to this big store, though not a furniture store, at night and it was exceptionally quiet and the toilet area was just too much like described in the book.

Bianca wrote: "MrsJoseph wrote: lol

I freak myself out all the time, lol. I can't read horror.

I normally don't. But the store described in the book was so familiar (having worked for Ikea). Then I went to thi..."

:-D

Last night I decided not to continue with Nine Coaches Waiting. Even after a week and reading over half of the book I couldn't get into it. Too slow, with too little happening and too many references to other books. Last night I realized that I didn't care if the little boy lived or died and not caring about any of the character, so I gave up. I will count the pages I've read towards my total pages read so it won't be a complete waste.

Bianca wrote: "Last night I decided not to continue with Nine Coaches Waiting. Even after a week and reading over half of the book I couldn't get into it. Too slow, with too little happening and too ..."

I've tried to read that, too. Couldn't get into it very far - not even far enough to call it a DNF.

The Pines by Robert Dunbar
Meh. It could have been a good book, a lot of the book was in dialogue and often it wasn't clear who was speaking and also it was, at times, difficult to tell when there was a change in scene and completely different people were talking to each other than you thought they were. Also the ending was predictable.

I'm thinking of adding an additional challenge after cleaning out my Kindle just now.

I have to tendency to keep loading books on my Kindle that take my fancy. Ending up with dozens of books I have to go through whenever I'm trying to find something to read. Every couple of months I get fed up with this and delete most of them.

I'm thinking of limiting the number of books I'm allowed to keep on my Kindle. This restriction will be for stand alone books and the first books of series I want to try out. I will exclude books in active series.

Hopefully this will make me more selective in what books I will put on my Kindle (and which I buy, even if they are ridiculously cheap) and make selecting what to read next a lot easier. I was thinking of 15 books. That way I can ensure I will have enough diversity to choose from (otherwise I can always cheat).

Mean Spirit by Will Kingdom (pseudonym of Phil Rickman).

Loved it.
I love how Rickman uses characters is various books and across various series. I hope Cindy or Grayle will also pop up in the Merrily Watkins series.