Goodreads Reading Challenge/General Bookery

[=BK=]

And it's on. I've started reading Daniel Bryan's book.

Edited January 4, 2017 by Kirkland

[=BK=]

Man, I've compared books with a few of you guys and the only common book that comes up is World War Z. Granted I don't have every book I've ever read logged but the biggest pile of UFO,monster,WWII and dinosaur books ever doesn't look like it'd bring up any more. Maybe if I logged the first four Harry Potter books there'd be a couple more.

[Skummy]

I've gone for 50. I've done 75-100 in the past, but that's when I was working jobs that meant I had plenty of downtime and would read for most of the day at work, or when I was unemployed and would spend most of my days reading in coffee shops. Now I don't have nearly as much time to read, but tend to get an hour or so in the evening, and try and find a bit of time at the weekends. My target's definitely optimistic for this year, though, but I'll give it a go. 

[apsham]

I can only really force myself to read when I'm in bed at night - sometimes last year I just wouldn't bother but I'm going to try and knock out at least a chapter every evening now.

[Jimmy]

Yeah, I'm in for this. I think I'll have my first book of the year, Sense of an Ending, which was bought for me by Liam, finished within a day or two as it's so easy to read and relatively short. I'd love to go for fifty - but I just know I'll end up falling short, I'll optimistically try for 35 and take it from there if I do complete it. 

[GhostMachine]

I already mentioned before that I'm reading Fall of Night by Jonathan Maberry, and that its the sequel to Dead of Night. If you're into zombies, then I cannot recommend these books enough. There's an explanation of what caused the zombie outbreak in the first place (no toxic waste or aliens nonsense), the books have a fairly accurate portrayal of how the federal government would probably react to a zombie outbreak, and what's even more horrifying is that the zombies' human minds are intact but trapped inside the zombies' bodies but have absolutely no control, like they're passengers. 

I don't often buy physical books any more. I usually get them from the library, borrow them, or buy e-books. When I do buy books, its usually from a used bookstore. I plan on buying the books in this series (there's one more that ties into one or two other series by Maberry, but I believe its a novella or short story), and it won't be from a used bookstore....unless I happen to be passing by and go in on a whim.

 

[Rich]

As I said to Liam this morning, I aimed to do 18, this has now been updated to 24 as I have read 2 books in 4 days, obviously not being at work as much this week helps at the minute, but I am going to try and se my commute time at work more effectively so I read books rather than internet garbage.

[apsham]

First book down! I blasted through Stardust quicker than I thought that I might - turns out I left off last night in the right place and ended up in the perfect place to blast through the climax and need to finish the story. I'll decide on something new tonight while will be a littler easier since I've rearranged by bookcase.

[Liam]

6 hours ago, apsham said:

First book down! I blasted through Stardust quicker than I thought that I might - turns out I left off last night in the right place and ended up in the perfect place to blast through the climax and need to finish the story. I'll decide on something new tonight while will be a littler easier since I've rearranged by bookcase.

Thoughts? I wasn't a huge fan of it to be honest. At times, I feel like I like the idea of Neil Gaiman more than I like his actual output.

[apsham]

I was always put off initially by the idea of Gaiman - I think I associated him too much with the work of Tim Burton (just by proxy - due to similar themes and visuals) who I despise as a creator. But that was an old idea of mine and one that I wanted to get away from so first I read Neverwhere and really liked it so I picked up Stardust and honestly I think I liked it quite a bit as well.

Maybe it's due to me having a hard time getting into fiction previously - a lot of the concepts that I like come at a really high comprehension level and are associated with the idea of reading something more than once to 'really get it'. Gaiman's books are like watching a movie in my head and I really like that - I instantly comprehend everything and it just feels so natural. His is a writing style that concepts with me a lot because of how witty it is... I was always scared that it would come off as really trying to be something that he had read or seen before in the way of being forced but I never really got that vibe the whole time.

He states in the foreword to Neverwhere that he's looking to write books and create stories that give adults the same feelings they had reading fantasy as a child and I think that it works on that level for me.

[GhostMachine]

Help a dumbass out: How do you update the challenge on Goodreads? I want to go from 10 to 20.

 

[stokeriño]

4 minutes ago, GhostMachine said:

Help a dumbass out: How do you update the challenge on Goodreads? I want to go from 10 to 20.

Go here https://www.goodreads.com/challenges/5493-2017-reading-challenge

To the right of the bit that says "You have read X out of Y books" there will be the word 'Edit' in very small text. Click on that and you can change your target.

[Liam]

3 hours ago, apsham said:

I was always put off initially by the idea of Gaiman - I think I associated him too much with the work of Tim Burton (just by proxy - due to similar themes and visuals) who I despise as a creator. But that was an old idea of mine and one that I wanted to get away from so first I read Neverwhere and really liked it so I picked up Stardust and honestly I think I liked it quite a bit as well.

Maybe it's due to me having a hard time getting into fiction previously - a lot of the concepts that I like come at a really high comprehension level and are associated with the idea of reading something more than once to 'really get it'. Gaiman's books are like watching a movie in my head and I really like that - I instantly comprehend everything and it just feels so natural. His is a writing style that concepts with me a lot because of how witty it is... I was always scared that it would come off as really trying to be something that he had read or seen before in the way of being forced but I never really got that vibe the whole time.

He states in the foreword to Neverwhere that he's looking to write books and create stories that give adults the same feelings they had reading fantasy as a child and I think that it works on that level for me.

Cool. To be fair, I loved American Gods.

[apsham]

That's the one that I wanted to start when I wanted to get into Gaiman - but at the same time I was having a problem with longer books and decided to go with shorter ones and work my way up to that point. I'll be getting to that ASAP to get ready for the series.

[Jimmy]

First book down! 

I'd held an interest in The Sense of an Ending since my friend worked on the film adaptation which was directed by Ritesh Batra (The Lunchbox), and had simply put it off because I didn't own the book, which was rectified this Christmas thanks to Liam. I actually had no idea about the plot until I'd read the blurb - which is ambiguous at best - which allowed me to approach it without any real preconceptions. It's a short, breezy read and approaches memory in such a fascinating and realistic way, the narrator might feel detached from my personal experiences, but I felt drawn to the way he approaches specific moments and found myself relating to his emotional episodes. It's impressive how the book feels so specific to one person - yet so obviously universal. I realise I'm saying very little with a lot of words, but I don't really want to discuss the plot, more that I breezed through the book and felt a strange ever-present and ever-shifting emotional connection with it throughout. Thanks Liam! 

Edited January 5, 2017 by Jimmy

[GhostMachine]

1 hour ago, stokeriño said:

Go here https://www.goodreads.com/challenges/5493-2017-reading-challenge

To the right of the bit that says "You have read X out of Y books" there will be the word 'Edit' in very small text. Click on that and you can change your target.

Thanks. For some reason I didn't see `Edit' there when I looked at that page before.

Updated it from 10 to 20. Should have my first book done by Monday, hopefully. I'm over halfway through, but haven't had much time to read the past few days, and probably won't tomorrow, either.

[apsham]

I've decided that my second book is going to be Tarkin by James Luceno which follows the career of the eventual Grand Moff Tarkin starting at five years after the Empire rises to power. It was the first Star Wars novel I purchased when I got back into reading and I'm glad to finally get around to it now. For as little screen time as he had, Tarkin was always an excellent bad guy in my mind.

[Liam]

7 hours ago, Jimmy said:

First book down! 

I'd held an interest in The Sense of an Ending since my friend worked on the film adaptation which was directed by Ritesh Batra (The Lunchbox), and had simply put it off because I didn't own the book, which was rectified this Christmas thanks to Liam. I actually had no idea about the plot until I'd read the blurb - which is ambiguous at best - which allowed me to approach it without any real preconceptions. It's a short, breezy read and approaches memory in such a fascinating and realistic way, the narrator might feel detached from my personal experiences, but I felt drawn to the way he approaches specific moments and found myself relating to his emotional episodes. It's impressive how the book feels so specific to one person - yet so obviously universal. I realise I'm saying very little with a lot of words, but I don't really want to discuss the plot, more that I breezed through the book and felt a strange ever-present and ever-shifting emotional connection with it throughout. Thanks Liam! 

One of my favourite books of all time. Barnes is also now probably my favourite author. Everything feels so effortless. 

[Rich]

I just finished my third book of the year, Ready Player One, great book, sci-fi & futuristic with a healthy sense of 80's nostalgia, loved it.

[Liam]

46 minutes ago, Rich said:

I just finished my third book of the year, Ready Player One, great book, sci-fi & futuristic with a healthy sense of 80's nostalgia, loved it.

Just don't read Armada and you will be fine.