alexiscartwheel | Entries tagged with reading

This was working really well last year, and then I just... stopped. Once I stopped, it was hard to get going again. Inertia, I guess.

After some slumpy months, I really got going again in June and July. This was in part due to replacing my normal diet of hockey podcasts with audiobooks. I tend to have "oops I stopped paying attention for a minute there" problems with audio, which is why hockey yelling is usually better than complex narratives, but I've had some successes. Yay!

Because I'm posting this on August 6, I've technically already finished a book this month, one of the aforementioned audiobooks, Sorcery of Thorns by Margeret Rogerson.

The rest of the August TBR:

Girlfriend on Mars by Deborah Willis - already started this one

White Cat, Black Dog by Kelly Link - ditto

Something Close to Magic by Emma Mills

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros - specifically for while I visit Heather

I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Tteokbokki by Baek Sehee

I can probably squeeze in at least one more since I've got a week of vacation, and read books is half of what I do at Heather's, but I'll leave my options open for now.

Tags:

reading

Aided by a couple long weekends off, one in Tennessee and one at home, I got lots of reading done in August. In addition to everything listed in my TBR post, I read:

Mao vol 3 by Rumiko Takahashi - her latest series has a lot of similar elements to Inu-yasha
Chaos Choreography by Seanan McGuire - lighter than some of her other series, but still murdery and weird

For September I'm planning:

Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson - just part 3 for book club
Book Lovers by Emily Henry
Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li
Be the Serpent by Seanan McGuire - another "if my hold comes in"
The Bridge Kingdom by Danielle L. Jensen

I might go for another completed trilogy with Locklands, or I may save that for October. September promises to be a stressful one for work, so I may end up burying my head in k-dramas instead.

Tags:

reading

July was another success! I read all the books I listed on my TBR, and since I had extra time, I used the opportunity to read a couple popular authors outside my normal wheelhouse.

Those were:

The Night She Disappeared by Lisa Jewell - Psychological thrillers are consistently popular at the library, and I'd heard good things about Lisa Jewell's work. Not my normal thing, but it was an engaging, quick read. I'd pick up another from her.
It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover - The TikTok darling author that we literally can't buy another of (because paper shortage in publishing). Lots of trigger warnings on this one. Although I respect what the author was doing, it just wasn't my thing.

I also started Shorefall by Robert Jackson Bennett, the middle book of the Founders Trilogy. The final book is coming out really soon, so I'm trying to catch up.

Also on my August TBR:

Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto - because Heather told me to
Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism by Amanda Montell - adding some fun looking nonfiction
Husband Material by Alexis Hall - if my hold arrives on time
Oaths of Legacy by Emily Skrutskie - becuase it's the summer of continuing series

And finally, already finished in August, the first volume of the manga series I Want to Be a Wall, which I read yesterday evening after work because the book was already overdue. Oops!

Tags:

reading

There has been a whole-ass (ongoing) pandemic since I posted here. Tumblr banned porn and everyone was supposedly going to come back here, and then Elon Musk said he's buying Twitter and everyone was hie thee to Tumblr, and all the cool kids (literally) are on TikTok so here I am on the non-T site.

Hello!

A lot of stuff has happened in the three years since I last posted, in my life and in the world, and I am here to talk about NONE OF THAT. Instead I am here to TRY A THING. That thing is making a TBR list for the month, in the perhaps vain hope that instead of checking out 50 different books and carrying them back and forth to my house and never reading them, I instead pick a few things that I'm most interested in right now and actually READ them.

Revolutionary idea, I know.

For Book Club™

Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson - Part 2

Everything Else:

Jade War by Fonda Lee - I read Jade City in April and I have a chance to finish the series before I forget everything that happened
Kingdom of Characters: The Language Revolution that Made China Modern by Jing Tsu
Himawari House by Harmony Becker
The Perfect Crimes of Marian Hayes by Cat Sebastian - assuming my hold comes in!

And that is more than enough for me to struggle to finish.

Tags:

reading

This year I'm trying something different, and instead of posting my full reading list at the end of the year, I'm going to try to add to it as I go along. (Normally the in progress list is a Word doc sitting on my desktop.) Hopefully this will prompt me to write at least brief reviews somewhat more often. Volume wise, I hope to at least mostly keep pace with last year. I'm already woefully behind schedule because of The Diviners, but I refuse to give up in January. I'm also going to try splitting the list into fiction, non-fiction, and graphic novels in the hope that I'll actually read some non-fiction.

( Read more... )

Crossposts: http://alexiscartwheel.livejournal.com/149001.html

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Okay, I'm a little bit late to the game with this, but here it is, finally, the list of every book I read in 2012. There were A LOT of Marvel comics, and even with that I'm not totally caught up.

( THE LIIIIST )

The other trend of the year is apparently I didn't post any book reviews here. I do have a trio of short reviews on my other blog, plus a few on Goodreads.

Crossposts: http://alexiscartwheel.livejournal.com/148919.html

Tags:

books,
reading

Repeating from last year, because books are always relevant!

1. What's the best book you read this year?
It's a two way tie between The Fault in Our Stars by John Green and Code Name, Verity by Elizabeth Wein. Both are amazing, heartbreaking books about love... but one takes place in contemporary Indianapolis and the other in Vichy France. READ THEM. (The author's are not paying me to pressure you, I swear.)

2. Any other reading highlights?
This year I read ALL the comics. 61 trades/graphic novels, mostly Marvel, but also a few other things like Fun Home and Morning Glories.

3. What's the most challenging book you read this year?
I almost didn't read The Mockingbirds when I read that the plot centered on date rape, but I'm so glad I did. The main character struggles with her experiences, but with the unwavering support of her friends stands up against her rapist. It is the anti-slut-shaming, anti-victim-blaming message that so many people—teen girls and otherwise—need to hear.

4. What's the worst book you read this year?
Tuesdays with Morrie was pretty dreadful. I read a review that compared it to a 200 page greeting card, which pretty much summed it up for me. I was also really uncomfortable with the way the author talks about disability in the book.

5. Which authors featured most prominently for you in 2012?
Brian Bendis, because this was the year that I started comics, which included A LOT of Avengers and New Avengers. I still haven't read Disassembled, but I've read most of his run.

6. Were you part of a reading challenge? Did you meet it?
Nothing formal, but I challenged myself to finish 100 books this year (twice my goal from the year before) and I actually exceeded it!

7. Are you signed up for any in 2013?
Again, nothing formal. But I'll probably aim for 100+ again.

8. What books are you hoping to get for Christmas (or buy next, if you don’t do the holiday gifting season thing)?
Christmas has already passed, of course, and I got several new books including the first trade of Saga, The Cooks Illustrated Cookbook, and The World of Downton Abbey. All wonderful for very different reasons!

9. Which books are you most looking forward to reading in 2013?
Um, what is being published next year anyway?

lunamystic is way better at keeping track of these things than I am. Seanan McGuire's got two new ones coming out next year: Midnight Blue Light Special and Chimes at Midnight, and I always enjoy her stuff.

I know what comics are coming, though! There I'm most looking forward to three new books: Young Avengers, Fearless Defenders, and Pretty Deadly.

10. Any final book thoughts?
I did much better at not reading books that bored me this year! It is, in fact, to give up on them. Unless they were for book club, in which case I suffered on.

Also, this is not a book, but The Lizzie Bennet Diaries is the most fun novel adaptation happening right now!

Tags:

books,
reading

The fannish-inclined among you should go read

seanan_mcguire's new post I know a little girl and her name is Mary Mac: The Misuse of Mary Sue. (And then you should go read her books too... can't remember if I've said on here, but I recently read One Salt Sea, which is one of the best of the Toby Daye books thus far.) I definitely think it's worth examining that the term "Mary Sue" is usually thrown at female characters--often by female fans!--as an easy way to dismiss them.

Also, from her essay...

We've all met her. She's the violet-eyed, crimson-haired, secret daughter of Amadala and Obi Wan, sent to be raised on the hidden planet where the last Jedi ran to escape the war, and she has just emerged back into the universe with her spinning light saber batons to save her half-brother Luke from falling to the Dark Side.

I would probably read that! And I bet

d4ni would too! It's that shared love of Star Wars and bad fanfic.

Tags:

fandom,
reading

Okay, I think that the number of books I'm reading at the same time is getting a little out of hand. Granted, one is an audio book I listen to when I have time at work (which it turns out doesn't happen often since I've been doing lots of training lately), one is actually for work, and another I'm (re)reading for a very silly blog.

I've been making a valiant effort at Zombies vs. Unicorns even though I am very bad at finishing short story collections, but my copy of One Salt Sea finally came in at the public library, and my life needs more Toby, so I had to start it too.

But I suppose there are worse vices than wanting to read EVERYTHING all at once.

Tags:

books,
reading

I can finally crawl out from that rock I've been living under! What have I been up to the last week?

Writing final exams. By the end of the semester, I felt like I was just writing non-stop, and I had so much to do that I pretty much ceased to care about quality, as long as all my assignments and exams got done. And they did. I suspect some were rather crap, but whatever.

Eating all the free food I could find. Up until this Saturday, I hadn't been grocery shopping for two weeks. The end of the semester is a great time for free barbecues, pizza parties, and the like! And at work, we went to a fancy luncheon hosted by the university president's wife.

Watching TV! It's so nice to have free time again. I'm most of the way through How I Met Your Mother season 3, I'm catching up with Fringe and keeping up with Ashes to Ashes. I'm feeling kind of "need more sci-fi" since BSG ended, so I think Stargate gets bumped up to the Netflix queue, because I feel like I should watch the movie first. Or maybe I should go with Babylon 5? Or some Trek?

Apartment hunting. I'm going to go see an apartment and meet a potential roommate on Thursday evening. Hopefully it will go well, because new housing headaches seem to develop all the time.

Reading. The last book I finished was rather meh. The idea was promising, but the characters were "OMG QUIRKY" without enough depth to feel real. I'm not sure what I want to start next. Any awesome book suggestions from the f-list?

Current Mood: relieved

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Princess Sparklefists

Entries tagged with reading

Why did I stop posting TBRs?

August bonus books and September TBR

July bonus books and August TBR

tap tap is this thing on? etc.

What I'm Reading: 2013 Edition

Ye Olde Liste of Bookes 2012

The Year in Reading: 2012 Edition

And now, Mary Sue

Books!

I made it!

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August 2023

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