EPBOT Readers discussion

Hi everyone, sorry again for the delay in posting. my computer was a disaster this week and I ended up working late just to get my work done. No extra time for posting!


This week i finished:
Aru Shah and the End of Time - this was part of Rick Riordan presents, I liked it a lot. My main issue with it is that it was almost TOO much like Rick Riordan. If I hadn't known it wasn't him, I would have assumed he just branched out into Hindu mythology. that's not to say that it wasn't more authentic, coming from her own culture, but just how the mythology interacted with the modern world felt very much like a Percy Jackson book. I'm hoping that as she continues the series, it grows its own voice a bit more.

The Future of Another Timeline - I bought this in Chicago at an indie bookstore we were in, and i saw it was up for a Goodreads choice award so figured it was a good time to read it. I liked it, although not as much as Autonomous. But it was a harder sell for me right off the bat because I don't love time travel in general. I thought they handled it well though, and I did end up liking it overall.

currently reading:

The City in the Middle of the Night - picked this up in a book deal earlier this year and never read it because it didn't fit a prompt I had open. Which is partially why i'm cutting down my challenges next year. It's also up for a goodreads choice award so trying to finish it up. Really like it so far. I loved her other book All the Birds in the Sky, so was excited for it.

QOTW:

How is everyone doing on their reading goals this year? Doesn't matter if they're official challenges or just general reading goals.

I managed to finish 3 of my 4 challenged 100%, the Reading Women one I think i'm just tapping out on. I dont' feel like reading either of the two bonus prompt authors right now and my hoopla hold expired on The Wreath and I just wasn't enjoying it very much. It's for sure a challenge I'm not repeating next year. I love reading women authors, in general, but that challenge's prompts were SO specific it was hard to find a woman author that fit the prompt that I had any interest in reading that was also available from the library in some form. I wasn't able to layer it into the other challenges as nicely as I expected and didn't really end up reading anything spectacular that I wouldn't have read already.

I'm almost done with my yearly goodreads challenge of 175 books. I have about 10 left, and a month and half to do it, not worried about making it.

Definitely taking it easier next year. I just want to read things I feel like reading again!

And so begins the descent into crazy season at our house, and unfortunately my reading time is what suffers. We're hosting Thanksgiving dinner for my in-laws on Thursday, then flying out for a long anticipated two weeks in Florida (so basically, as geographically far as we can get from said in-laws, while not technically leaving the country) the day after. So this week has largely been consumed with plotting both dinner and how to fill roughly 30 total hours of in-flight/airport reading time.

Finished The Toll up. I'd already been underwhelmed with the book in general, but the ending wound up being really disappointing as well- so props to the author for at least bring consistent? The ending worked very well in the context of the Scythe trilogy story itself, but was almost verbatim the conclusion of another well-known sci-fi book (title withheld to protect spoilers), which felt deflating after such a creatively imagined series leading up to it.

Currently working on The Princess Beard: The Tales of Pell, which is the third installment of the series that started with Kill the Farm Boy. After a long run of dense hard core high fantasy, it's very fun to be back to satire: skewing all the tropes, and everything named with absurd and terrible puns. Excellent palate cleanser so far, and very reminiscent of Pratchett as his best.

QOTW: My reading goal this year was strictly numeric. I did 100 last year, but dropped it down to 50 this year, knowing that I would be working on the Wheel of Time books, which are all long. I'm at 63 books right now for the year, so I'm officially past goal, but with a current average page count of just over 450 per book, which is the more telling stat for this year.

For next year, I'm still determining if I want to undertake another series, which will affect my goal numbers. Sword of Truth is one on my radar, which is another long series of long books, so we may hold at 50 again for next year's goal. I've never done a themed checklist before, and I may try that, if I can find one that I like; I ran across a Lord of the Rings themed one awhile back that I may look more closely at. Really my ultimate goal is just to keep reading fun, and not make it feel like quota-based work.

At last check-in, I was reading The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, which I finished quickly and absolutely loved - I am so glad it was suggested for this group, since I hadn't heard of it previously! I will reserve any further discussion of it for the posts in that thread, but if anyone seeing this hasn't read it, you really should.

Next, I moved on to one that I picked up at the Ohioana Book Festival last year, The Nightmare Affair. When I bought it, Mindee Arnett seemed to almost be apologizing for it compared to Onyx and Ivory - but while this one is definitely aimed at a younger audience, I think I enjoyed it just as much and I will definitely seek out the rest of the series.

I finished that one up just in time for last night's IRL book club #1 discussion of The Shining and Doctor Sleep - as I said previously, I loved The Shining but am still waiting for Doctor Sleep from the library. I requested the December book during the meeting through Libby, and it was in by the time everyone went home, so I started right away. I will admit that I was a bit skeptical about this one from the time it was suggested, but I've certainly foisted enough of my taste on the group that I can't complain too much about something that's not my jam being picked. But my dislike of One Day in December is so visceral that I'm speeding through it in the hope of putting it behind me as quickly as possible. I think it's just the way I'm wired - I understand, on an intellectual level, that there are many wonderful people who enjoy books, movies, TV shows, etc. with these "missed connections" and "star-crossed lovers" themes - but as someone with no filter and zero f***s to give about anyone's opinion of me, I cannot on any level understand or relate to the situations that are presented in these stories. The entire "plot" could be easily avoided by the characters acting like normal humans and acknowledging that they had seen one another before the first time they officially met rather than creating so much unnecessary drama, so plodding through page after page of self-created angst is, to me, the opposite of enjoyable. If this is how others have felt about the genres of books I enjoy, I am so sorry.

As for my reading goal - this one will complete my Goodreads goal of 100 - I don't do the themed challenges since I already get a fair amount of diversity through the three IRL and two online book clubs, which I think fill the same role of introducing me to books and authors that I would not otherwise have come across. The current book notwithstanding, I really do enjoy a wide variety, and I've gotten to know so many interesting people. I'll probably go with 100 as a nice round Goodreads goal number again for 2020, but it really depends on how many doorstop-sized books are selected in the clubs (I mostly stuck to my 2019 goal of avoiding anything over 600 pages after the parade of dictionary-length books in 2018), and how many comics/graphic novels I decide to include. Aside from wanting to finish book club books in time to participate in the discussions about them, I'm not terribly focused on goals and numbers - but now that I've done it a few years, it's fun to be able to look back and compare from year to year what I was reading.

Not too much reading this last week. We had a convention over the weekend, so between that and NaNo writing during my vacation week from work, I didn't read a whole lot.

I am still working through Rebel Girls, I like it well enough so far. It's set in the early 1990s in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and it sparks a lot of nostalgia for me, since I was about the same age as the main character at the time the book is set, a high school sophomore. The mentions of music and cultural stuff are really familiar.

QOTW: I didn't really do any official challenges, and I'm way over my annual reading goal, which started at 50 and increased to 100 when I shot past 50 less than halfway through the year.

I was curious about doing one of the challenges next year like Popsugar. My problem is I never seem to see them until after the new year starts, and then I'm not sure how to plan my reading for them without feeling too constrained. But I do like reading outside my comfort zone and trying new things.

Jennifer , next years pop sugar was just released today if you are interested :) https://www.popsugar.com/entertainmen...

That's convenient! Thanks, Sheri!

Not a ton new for me.

I'm still working my way through Milk!: A 10,000-Year Food Fracas. It is interesting. There are a lot of textual, ancient recipes for milk-based food that I wish were translated some for modern readers. Some are kind of interesting but I really have no idea how to do them (and I'm an accomplished cook/baker). Anyway, I'll keep plugging away at this one.

I'm still listening to The Collapsing Empire on audiobook, narrated by Wil Wheaton. I'm an hour or two into it. It is pretty good for me, but not as compelling as Scalzi's Lock In.

QOTW:
I didn't have a specific reading goal in terms of a number. My personal goal was to keep more accurate track of what I read on my GR account so that at the end of the year I could see what I really did read. I think I've done that. Hopefully I haven't missed recording any that I read.