Not meaning to brag, but as it happens, I’m well ahead of my pace from last year. Don’t really know why; I don’t have the sense that I’m reading any more than usual.
Are there any Allen Steele fans out there? With the passing of Jack Vance, Steele and Jack McDevitt have become n my favorite SF writers.
I just finished Coyote, the first in a trilogy, and I was very impressed by it. Steele has created a planet (well, a moon, actually) and given it a credible geography, plus flora and some rather nasty fauna. It is the refuge for about a hundred refugees from a fascist USA, and they must face challenges not intended by the planners of the starship voyage. Also, they stole the starship, and cannot expect much help from earth, even if they wanted it. Excellent planet-building and believeable characters.
Just because I’m eager to participate in this whole discussion about reading pace … Is there anyone else out there who wants to read less books this year than they did last year? I think last year I read at something like a pace of about a book a week, and I feel like that’s kind of an indication of how much time I spend in my own head rather than actually interacting in the world. So I wouldn’t mind seeing some sort of indication that I got out of the house and did stuff more this year.
(Though I completely messed with the results. I unearthed all my old letters from high school and college, as well as my journals going back to freshman year of high school, and I’ve been alternating between reading books and reading through this other stuff. So if my end result is fewer books read this year, it doesn’t necessarily mean that I got out of the house more.)
I did some poking around Goodreads, and realized that two books I abandoned are included in my “read” count. Which isn’t quite fair/right. So I’ve actually only read 17 books so far this year, and have just under two months to finish 3 more if I want to hit my goal!
Also, apparently if I do manage to finish 20 books in 2016 it will be a banner year for me:
[ul]
[li]2015: I read 16 books[/li][li]2014: I read 19 books[/li][li]2013: I read 17 books[/li][li]2012: I read 7 books (
!)[/li][/ul]
I think the reason for my 3-weeks-per-book average is that I do most of my reading in bed before I fall asleep, and usually only get through a chapter or two each night. And if I’ve worked a long day or am particularly tired, I might not read at all on a given night.
I had to start getting up an hour early on weekdays. Then I drive to work and sit outside in my car reading (this morning with a flashlight)! I thought it would be awful but it really helps me get dressed faster in the morning. 
That’s either dedication or insanity… 
Thanks! I do try… though maybe I’m a little weird for most of the readers here. 
Wind of my soul I didn’t like the end of that one, but I have enjoyed the rest of the series…
Nope movie just ends too… which is why I went to the book. Wow, it’s been over 30 years since I read it!
I always figured she just poisoned the creep too
My book count was low through the summer but I’m reading again with the autumn. My number on Goodreads is a bit skewed since at least 5 of the 42 books are short stories.
And I finished Timeless by Gail Carriger today. I really think this is my favorite book in the series. Very good and very sweet in equal measures.
I read Steele’s Clarke County, Space and The Tranquility Alternative awhile back, and liked them both, but not so much that I felt I had to read all of his other stuff. May I suggest Joe Haldeman (All My Sins Remembered), John Scalzi (Old Man’s War) and George R.R. Martin (Tuf Voyaging)? All excellent.
Not I. I wish I had more time to read, not less. Being in three book clubs will do that to you!
The *Hamilton *hoopla has put me in the mood for early American history, and now I’m reading Stephen Budiansky’s book about the War of 1812: Perilous Fight, America’s Intrepid War with Britain on the High Seas, 1812-1815. So far it’s really good, although since I’m a big fan of Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin series, it’s odd to be reading about the Royal Navy as the enemy. (I previously enjoyed Budiansky’s book about WWII codebreaking.)
I’m on book two of Daniel Abraham’s fantasy series called The Dagger and the Coin. I’d never heard of Abraham until he co-wrote the new sci-fi series The Expanse, and I thought I’d try some of his other work. I like this one pretty well: a medieval setting, a character-driven story, and very little magic, which is just how I like my fantasy. “The Coin” part of the title refers to the fact that one of the main characters is a banker, and Abraham has tried very hard to make a banking scheme into a riveting plotline, with mixed success.
I’m in the middle of a collection of short stories by Sholem Aleichem: Tevye the Dairyman and the Railroad Stories, all written between 1894-1911. I picked this up for the first set of stories, which are the basis of the musical Fiddler on the Roof. The garrulous, philosophical Tevye is similar to the character in the musical: “It’s like it says in the bible, I not only have no money, I also lack health, wealth and happiness.” I think I’m enjoying the Railroad Stories even more, though.
My reading stats have been trending down the last few years, but I’m still reading a lot. I’m trying to read more nonfiction, which typically goes slower.
Ian Toll’s Six Frigates, about the early U.S. Navy, is also quite good.
I have recently finished:
Broken Promise by Linwood Barclay. I have enjoyed everything I’ve read by him.
Journey to Munich by Jacqueline Winspear. More enjoyable than the last one, and it looks like Maisie is going to open her office again, I hope.
A Wilder Rose by Susan Wittig Albert. Found on Amazon Prime reading. A fictionalized story of Rose Wilder, the daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder, and how the Little House books were written. Interesting.
All Clear and Blackout by Connie Willis. Turned into a slog. I enjoyed both The Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog, in spite of the obvious plot problems, but these were tooooo long.
Currently reading:
Friction by Sandra Brown
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo. Hoping for some inspiration. : )
And listening to:
Even Money One of the new Dick Francis books written by Felix Francis. This one about a bookmaker on the horse track.
I’ve added 76 books to Goodreads this year: 2 were books I abandoned, 28 were audio books, and so I guess I’ve read 46?
I read quite a bit of his work back in the early 80s. It’s an intriguing and colorful look into a world very different than this one. I enjoyed his style a lot.
I enjoyed that one a lot!
Enjoying it so far.
Glad to hear it!
Finished the audiobook of Homer & Langley by E.L. Doctorow, loosely based on the story of the reclusive, hoarding Collyer brothers. Witty, well-written, beautifully evocative of bygone Manhattan, and ultimately quite sad.
Margaret Atwood’s “Hag-Seed”. It has a wry, outlandish quality to it that I wouldn’t associate with Atwood.
Oh good! Then I’ll give the series another shot for sure, because Aaronovitch definitely demonstrated at the beginning of that book that he knows how to write well.
Started this morning on Shrill: Notes from a loud woman by Lindy West. I’m not sure what moved me to pick this one up because I don’t know who Lindy is, but I’m glad I did. It’s very funny.
I feel it took him a couple books to find his “feet”. I’m eagerly awaiting the new one, I miss Peter’s snarky comments.
That one’s sitting on my counter intimidating me. Pretty thick looking paperback!
About 3/4 of the way through “The Fall of the House of Cabal”. So far, so good. Apparently references some of the short stories in the canon, so I may have to get out the Kindle and track those down. The writing style is still over-arch, but not as bad as the previous book.