Four Shorts Read on the Plane Ride Home!

So now that I'm back home, I will fully admit - the reading spree I've been on lately has been while I was away on vacation.  The last 12 things I've read were all read while either in the airport or on a beach.  I even managed to read another four short pieces while I was travelling back home yesterday!  I wrote my thoughts down in a notebook after I finished each piece, so here is the edited versions of what I wrote.  :)

First I read "Legion" by Brandon Sanderson.  This was a super cool novella.  Stephen is a very special man.  He suffers from hallucinations of people, hallucinations which show up as he needs them.  Does he need the help of a historian?  Tobias is there for him.  Someone to help him defend himself?  There's J.C. the Navy SEAL.  Stephen has a mansion where each of these people have their own room because once they appear, they stay with him.

Stephen is approached by Monica, who works for a fancy research company. One of her employees, Razon, has stolen a camera that he created.  The camera supposedly takes pictures of the past.  So Stephen (and a few of his hallucinations) are recruited to track the camera down.  Their search takes them to Israel, where Stephen and company are convinced Razon has gone to either prove or disprove the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

One of the coolest parts was when Stephen flipped through a book on how to speak Hebrew and a hallucination appeared who could translate for him.  So depending on how exactly everything works, Stephen may have in reality flipped through the book and actually learned Hebrew!  He just has the hallucination taking over that part of his knowledge!  It was so cool! :)  (And if that's how things work, it means he's a ridiculously smart man!!!)

The other really cool part was when we find out why everyone keeps J.C. around. ;)

This was a super fun story that i really enjoyed reading!  Sanderson writes excellent novellas!  :)

Also, I'm super pumped to discover there's a second Legion story!!!!  :)

Next I read another Shotguns and Sorcery short story that I got from Matt Forbeck's first 12 for 12 called "Friends Like These."  This story involves some of the same characters that were in "Goblintown Justice" (notably Max and Kai the orc), along with a bunch of others.  This time, Max's halfling friend Moira has been accused of murdering an elf.  It's up to Max to prove her innocence once again.  This time he has to travel up the mountain to talk to the elves Moria had dealings with, so we get to see a few different parts of the city.  I enjoyed "Friends Like These" well enough, but I kind of think I liked "Goblintown Justice" a bit better.

After that I read "Jewels in the Night" by Kevin O. McLaughlin.  I've never read anything by McLaughlin before and don't really remember why I got this short story on my Kindle.  It's about a small crew of soldiers boarding a Chinese spacecraft.  The Chinese ship just nuked the American lunar colony and was returning to Earth.  The Chinese ship was created in secret because the Chinese weren't supposed to have such a vessel.  The marines were the colony's defense but were too far away to stop the Chinese vessel when it attacked.  So the marines did the only thing they could do - they waited in suits out in space and attempted to latch onto the vessel while it came by to assault it.  There were seven marines attempting this; only four make it onto the ship.  No one has ever attempted such a thing before, so the Chinese crew were completely unprepared for the marines' assault.  The marines succeed in their attack, taking out the crew and sending the vessel back to Earth to detonate its remaining warheads on China.  It's a terrible choice, but the captain hopes it will end the war.

As terrible as this story was (specifically with all the nukes killing billions of innocent people), I really enjoyed McLaughlin's writing.  I'll have to look into his other work (or more of this series) in the future!

Finally, I read "The Colonel" by Peter Watts.  I don't remember getting this one on my Kindle either.  I have to say, this one was intriguing but I really wasn't a fan of Watts' writing style.  "The Colonel" takes place in the future of our world where people can band their brains together to create hive minds.  The Colonel of the title is very, very against them and has been fighting them for a decade.  As the story progresses, it is revealed that his son was sent out into space and was never heard from again.  So when one of the local hive minds gives him an unexpected clue, he decides to risk everything to find out more.

I assume this was some sort of prelude to a novel or something because that was where the story ended.  I was sad that there was no real resolution to anything as a result.  As intriguing as the world was, I highly doubt I'll read any more because I really wasn't very interested in it.

So that's the end of my vacation reading spree.  I managed to clean up a whole bunch of things on my Kindle, plus I read Witch World in the middle of everything, too!  And now we're at the end of 2016.  I don't have separate blog posts for everything (and I didn't bother writing a post here for a few books), but according to Goodreads I've read 73 things this year!  A good chunk of those things were either shorts (thanks to the last few weeks) or graphic novels (only 25 were actual books, be they short story collections, novels, or nonfiction).  I had hoped to make it through 20 of the anthologies/short story collections that I own this year, but that didn't happen (I think I read 4, and one of those was an accident; I've also got two others on the go but am not going to be finishing them any time soon).  But I just checked out this 2016 Reading Challenge which I printed off last December; it looks like I almost completed it!  Check it out! 

:)

List Update - June 11th

Wow, it's been awhile since I've done one of these. But it seemed appropriate since it's half way through the year. Plus I updated the List last night, both the physical one and the Goodreads shelf. You see, I've picked up a number of new books lately, so I wanted to make sure those were all on there. So I sat down and updated everything, cross checking to make sure both physical and digital Lists were the same. It was a time consuming process, but in the end the List had 151 books.

...and then I found even MORE books I need to read!

By the time I was done last night, the List officially has 164 fiction books I need to read! That's far more than I was anticipating!

Also, back in January, I decided I was going to try to read 50 books off the List this year. The goal doesn't care about other books I read (like library books and stuff), as long as I finish 50 from my personal stash, so to speak. When I made that goal, my intention was to get the List under 100 books. With the new count, that is unlikely (especially if I only manage the 50).

So anyway, six months in, I have read exactly SEVEN books from the List. I am way behind and really need to get cracking if I want to get anywhere near my goal. Actually, this appears to be shaping up to be a bad reading year: to date, I have read only a grand total of FIFTEEN books this year (both List and other books).

So at this point, I need to both step up my game in the reading department AND stop buying books for awhile. Hopefully then I can finally bring the List down to a more manageable (and less overwhelming) number.

I may have to send all my current library books back too...or at least stop grabbing new library books!

Happy 2014!

Happy New Year everyone! 

2013 was my worst reading year since starting this blog.  I thought 2010 was bad, with only 51 posts/books, but 2013 was my all-time worst with only 40 books!  Unfortunately, 2013 was the year where I started reading quite a bit of books that I didn't finish for one reason or another. 

So here's to the New Year, where I'm going to strive to read (and finish!) at least 50 books!

Cleaning Out Some Books

So last night I decided that it's really time to start clearing out some of the books that I'm probably not going to read.  I went through and looked for things that I've lost interest in over the years but kept around.  Right now I've taken fifteen books off the List (I'll update Goodreads when I have a chance).  I'm also reading a couple of Library graphic novels then I'm sending the rest of my library books back; I figure I can read them at a later date if I still want to.  I'll probably take another look over the List in a few days and get rid of anything I may have missed on this pass.

During the next few weeks, I'm going to try to read some of the YA books I've had on the List for awhile to clear those off, too.  I was planning on doing that over the summer but just never got to it.  So hopefully I'll be able to get the List down to a more manageable number of books!

List Update

This really isn't much of an update. I got rid of a couple of books I hung onto but don't think I'm going to reread ever. To that end, I also discovered that I had two copies of Legends 2. I thought I'd gotten rid of the first one a long time ago, so I rebought it to read a story. Apparently the first copy was on my shelf the entire time. I'm keeping the first copy. I was also thinking of getting rid of the Mammoth Book of New Comic Fantasy, but I'm pretty sure there's a Neil Gaiman story I want to read first. I think I'll do that tomorrow and get rid of that book, too.

After reading Life As I Blow It, I've decided I'm going to read through some of my books before I read anything else, with the one exception being another graphic novel the same friend who lent me Star Wars Tales Volumes 3 and 5 lent me. This other graphic novel is a Batman story, so I'm excited about that. I'd also like to get his graphic novels back to him. :)

But yeah, I have 134 books currently on the List that need reading (although that number may go down because I may be removing a few like the aforementioned Mammoth Book of New Comic Fantasy). And I've also decided I'm going to read some of the books I have no intention of keeping once I've read them. These are books like The Help, Twenties Girl and The Lovely Bones. They're all things I'd really like to read, and once I do I can free up some shelf space for the things I really want to keep. Like my Terry Brooks.

I do have a few other library books out right now though. And I wanted to read two of them before writing an article for work. So I may have to wait until I read them before I keep my resolution to only read my books. So as of right now, I will not take any new library books out until I at least read some of my own!

I guess this ended up a longer update than I originally thought it would be!

A List Update

Today I decided that enough was enough: I'm cleaning up the List! At the last count I had over 170 novels to read, which realistically would take me over a year. Plus I want to read all of the newer ones I've bought, not the random books I bought on a whim (mostly from the Library).

So I went through my room (mostly my closet), getting rid of both the books I no longer want to read and the books that I read awhile ago and hung onto (but now don't want to reread). I don't know how many books I am getting rid of in total, but I am reducing the List by 46 books.

In case you're curious, here are the titles I am getting rid of:

The Jester

Preludes Volume 1 Darkness and Light

Preludes Volume 2 Kendermore

Preludes Volume 3 Brothers Majere

Heroes Volume 1 The Legend of Huma

Heroes Volume 2 Stormblade

Heroes Volume 3 Weasel's Luck

Demon Lord of Karanda

Queen of Sorcery

Magician's Gambit

Castle of Wizardry

Enchanter's Endgame

Changing Planes

The Cursed

One Hundred and One Ways

The Tower of Beowulf

The Spiral Dance

The SFWA European Hall of Fame

The Dark Beyond the Stars

Alien Chronicles: The Golden Ones

Emperor the Death of Kings

A Plague of Angels

The Death Gate Cycle Volume 1: Dragon Wing

The Shattered Chain

The Genesis Quest

The Tragedy of the Moon

The Left Hand of Darkness

Witch Hill

Restoree

Sleep With Evil

Crusade

London Fields

The Mists of Avalon

Lady of Avalon

The Way the Crow Flies

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell

The Doomsday Conspiracy

Mr. Murder

The Deep End

Jurassic Park

Are You Afraid of the Dark

Ford County

Year's Best Fantasy 5

Year's Best Fantasy 6

30th Anniversary DAW

Best New Fantasy

By getting rid of these books, the List is now down to 132 books. While this is still a lot, the number is now a lot more manageable. And now it's full of books I actually want to read.

Between you and me, there are still some books I could probably let go of. If push comes to shove then I will. But for now, I'll hang onto them in the hopes that I read them. I feel better already in getting rid of just this much clutter!

I'm planning on donating these books to the Canadian Diabetes Association Clothesline Program. Normally I would trade them at a used book store for more books. But I think I need to actually get through some of the stuff I have right now.

The List Update

Today I was trying to clean up my closet a bit and decided that I wanted to read something. I've had a stack of books that were more or less along the lines of romance that I've picked up pretty cheaply from the library used book sales. So I went through that and picked one that sounded pretty interesting.

The book I chose was Full of It by Wendy French. I got about 50 pages in when I realized that I really, really don't care. And so I did something that I don't normally do: I stopped reading. Normally I power through books whether I like them or not. But this time I decided not to. When I was at work the other day, a lady came in and told me that she doesn't keep reading; if a book doesn't catch her interest in the first 50 pages or so, she puts it down. While I doubt I'll do that for every book that I can't get into, I felt totally okay with putting this one down.

So that gave me the courage to get rid of several books that I'm really not interested in. Most of them were romance, which I'm not overly thrilled to read. Yes I like Linda Howard books, but most of the stuff here sounded vaguely interesting when I bought it several years ago. And a few were books that I had started reading and just couldn't be bothered to finish (I put them down thinking I'd pick them up again one day. But no, I don't really want to).

So here's what I have decided to get rid of without reading:
Star Wars Rogue Planet by Greg Bear
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
Full of It by Wendy French
4 Blondes by Candace Bushnell
The Spy Who Loved Me by Julie Kenner
Dates From Hell by Kim Harrison, Lynsay Sands, Kelley Armstrong, and Lori Handeland
A Fiend in Need by Maureen Child
Bet Me by Jennifer Crusie
Crazy For You by Jennifer Crusie (I can't remember if I read this or not)

I also decided to get rid of a few books that I have read and hung onto. I think I intended to read them again in the future someday, but looking at them now I'm not really interested in them.

It's not a lot, but this will help clean things up so the List has books that I actually intend to read on it. All of these books will either be traded in for credit at my local used book store or be donated back to the library (I think the library used book sale was looking for romance).

This brings the List officially down to 156 books (although I know there are a few books in my closet that aren't included on it. I'll have to fix that one day).

The List 2011 Update

Last year was my worst reading year since starting this blog in 2008. Back then I made 59 posts so read almost that many books in half a year. In 2010 the number was only 51 for the entire year, which made me incredibly sad (and most of them were school books. Although I didn't seem to have much luck with the non school books I read over the summer). Couple that with the List exploding to 160 books (and I don't know how many nonfiction books I have right now) and I am really sad. But on the positive side, as I mentioned in the post on The Roaring Girl, I have only one term left of my MA, so that means I am almost finished reading school books for a long time (I don't want to say forever because I don't know if this really is the end of school for me forever)! I am a bit worried that this number will get way bigger now that I have the Kindle, but I'll deal with that when it comes. I am considering going through the List though and getting rid of things I probably won't enjoy (like some of the romance novels I've picked up from the library book sales). I don't like doing that though because sometimes books surprise you when you read them. So that's how things stand right now. I might try to utilize the anthologies I have stocked up for when I really need a break from school reading (which is what all the anthologies were for - I stocked up on them when I thought I was going into Psychology, not English). Well, hopefully I'll be able to start knocking the List back down soon!

List Update

As I mentioned in my review of The Hob's Bargain, I just got back from a trip to Toronto. Of course, while there I went book shopping. While most of the books I bought were graphic novels, I did buy a few novels and whatnot (while it is not a List Book, I managed to find a copy of Story by Robert McKee which I am very happy about!) Most of the graphic novels are Batman stories (many of which were recommended to me by someone I met in the Labyrinth, the store where I bought most of the graphic novels I bought), but I got a few random other ones as well (one of which was Marvel Fairy Tales, a graphic novel I have been looking for for quite some time!) The only other book which will not be added to the List is Batman: Vampire. I decided I wanted a copy of it for myself, so I picked it up at the Labyrinth.

Unfortunately, my Toronto trip brings the total number of books on The List up to an even 140. On the plus side, that's only one more since my last update (I managed to read about 8 books since then), but now I have a LOT of reading to do!

List Update

It's been quite a long time since I last wrote a List update, but after taking a look at the actualy physical List, I thought it was time. I just got back from Duluth, where I bought a few books. Two of those books were part of a trilogy, so when I got home I of course ran out to buy the third one here. But before this book spree, I've also bought a few novels here and there, which has brought the books on the List up to 139! Yes, I currently have 139 books to read in my room right now! I think I'm going to have to avoid bookstores for awhile, at least until I get through some of these books! Luckily I am about two thirds through one, and really excited to get started on that trilogy I mentioned.

The Chapters Sale

I wandered into Chapters the other day, and found out that they had extended their annual Buy 3 Books and Get 1 Free sale until Sunday. And me being me, I had to go and take advantage of it, even though I definitely do not need any more books! I phoned a friend up, and we planned to make an evening of it, hanging out and choosing books. But when we got there, we had about 20 minutes to choose our books because the store was closing! (Chapters used to be open until 10pm on Friday nights, but they're now open until only 9pm). Needless to say, I was able to choose my four books pretty quickly. I bought Dust by Elizabeth Bear, Raven's Shadow and Raven's Strike by Patricia Briggs, and Fallen by Tim Lebbon. I'm kind of excited about the Lebbon book, as I've never read anything by him before. My friend loved Dust, and really recommended it to me, so hopefully it will be good. And the two Briggs novels sound really good; I'm hoping to fly through them like I did the Mercy Thompson novels.

Of course, this brings the List back up to 125 novels. I am definitely still buying them faster than I'm reading them! But I'm in the middle of a really good book, so hopefully I'll be able to breeze through a bunch, bringing the List down to 100 before summer's end!

List Update

Now that I am home from Toronto, I thought that this would be a good time to do a List update! I bought a wack of graphic novels while I was away, which brings the List total up to 125 books! While I know that some of them will be quick reads, I really have to get going! My goal is to have the List down below 100 books (I am hoping to have it down to about 70, but we'll see how that goes!)

List Update

I thought that now would be a great time to do another List Update. It is now crunch time with school, so I haven't really had time to read things that I want to. So there are currently 112 books on the list, with two more on their way, and I am definitely thinking about picking up another. This means that I am looking at 114-115 books within the next week or two. These last three have a bit of a story behind them, so I figured I would share.

I have had an ebay account for quite awhile now. I signed up sometime last year, but then didn't have time to sign up for Paypal. Without Paypal, I didn't bother ordering anything off ebay, so I was reasonably safe. And then last Wednesday, I was over at a friend's house, and decided randomly to sign up for Paypal. You see, I was randomly surfing ebay, and found a book that I wanted. I wandered over to Paypal's website, and discovered that I can sign up and immediately start shopping on ebay. And so I did. Sarah Zettel's Under Camelot's Banner is on its way! (Of course, while searching around a bit, I found out that there is a fourth book to this series, Camelot's Blood, so that might be added to the list as well in the near future...)

The other two books that I mentioned are sort of connected in that it is Amazon.com's fault that I have bought/am planning to buy them. I was wasting time last night, and found that Amazon.com had recommendations for me (I must have signed up with them sometime in the past, but I do not remember why). So I looked to see what they were trying to sell me, and discovered that I could manipulate their recommendations, based off of rating what I own and what I've read. So I spent a lot of time last night doing so.

While I was wandering through the many recommendations, I noticed one author come up a few times: Patricia Briggs. It was a weird coincidence, as I had just found someone's blog and they had talked about books by Patricia Briggs. So of course, now I'm curious, and I'm planning on checking the book out over the next few days (there's a copy in Chapters right now, so if I have a chance over the next few days I'll stop and see what it's all about).

Finally, there was another recommendation for a David Farland book that I had never heard of before. It sounded interesting, so I did a quick search on ebay, and found a rather cheap copy. Worlds of the Golden Queen is on its way!

There was a fourth book that I was interested in buying, Warrior by Marie Brennan. But it turns out that I own it already; it was originally published under a different title, Doppelganger (I originally thought it was the third book in the series, but it looks like there will only be the two).

So that is the news right now. Luckily school is almost over, so I should be able to tackle some of these books soon!

List Update

I thought that now was a good time to write another List update. Lately I haven't read a whole lot off of the List, focussing mainly on school books. But I have been buying more books lately. Over the last few weeks, I have been to Chapters three times. As a result, the List now has 105 books on it!

Luckily, I now have about a week where I am free to read whatever I want. So I am definitely going to tackle a List book or two (as well as a library book most likely). Also, my Chapters gift certificate from Christmas has been used up, so hopefully that will help to keep me out of the bookstore as well. I'm not entirely sure what I am planning on reading next, but I do have a lot to choose from!

Oh, I wanted to mention with this update the addition of Interludes. Interludes are books that other people lend me to read. This would include things like Twilight, which my cousin lent to me. I wanted a way to distinguish non-List books that were not from the library or a school book, and I felt that the term Interlude was fitting. So far, there has only been one entry marked as an Interlude (Heart of Hush), but I'm sure there will be more to follow!

List Update

And with the conclusion of The Timewaster Letters, the List is now down to 103 books! I know, my last update said I was down to 102 books, and I was hoping to get below 100 during the holidays. But of course, Christmas was included during those holidays, and I got a few new books and a few Chapters giftcards. So inevitably the List was doomed to rise. And with school starting again today, I will have even less time to read List books. I will try to read a few during the year (most likely I'll be able to get the graphic novels out of the way), but most likely the List will stay around 100 books until school is finished in the spring.

Another List Update

I know I just did a List update a few weeks ago. But I think I'm due for another one. You see, I haven't read a whole lot off of the List (or in general) since that update. But I've been in the bookstores a little too much lately.

Since that update on the 18th, I have read two List books. And having finished "If I Were an Evil Overlord" today, the List is now down to 102 books. Yes, I managed to add three books onto the List since that update (well, now I am only up one book, but I had to read two to get down to 102). Adding to this problem, I also received the two reading lists for my classes next term, and picked up a few school books I hope to read over Christmas. Counting those school books I currently have, I have 105 books to read in my room right now. This does not include the couple of books that I have from the library (which I may return and get at a later date when I have more time).

So what are my plans for the next few weeks, once my exam is finished? Hopefully reading! I started another anthology today, and there are a few graphic novels I can't wait to read after my exam (last one Monday!). If I'm lucky, I'll also get through one or two list books before starting one of my school books. Whatever happens, I'm in for a busy December!!!!

The List Update

Wow, I haven't done an update on The List since September! But I thought, having come home from Toronto with a number of new books, an update would be a good idea.

While in Toronto, I ended up coming home with a grand total of 9 new books, 5 of which are graphic novels. One of them is Knightfall part 1 (because it is awesome!) so I am only adding 8 books to The List. I'm really excited to read a couple of them, like the Mabinogion (which is a collection of Welsh folklore) and Watchmen (the graphic novel).

When I got home, I rewrote The List, removing the scratched off entries and adding in the new stuff. This was also an opportunity to reorganize it, so anthologies are together, followed by older books (such as the Mabinogion), graphic novels, and then everything else. Graphic novels are sort of a new edition to The List; prior to this version, there's only been the odd one every second List or so. This version of The List has 6!

So, along with a few other books that I have picked up over the last few months, The List is back up to 101 books. That means that since reading The Gypsy Morph, I've added 12 books onto The List. It hasn't helped that I've been reading mainly school books and library books - The Gypsy Morph was actually the last book that I read off of The List! I better get cracking!

The List Update

And with the conclusion of The Gypsy Morph, that brings the List total down to 89 books!!!! I've really read a lot of books over the summer, and even with the library books that I have read, I've managed to make a bit of a dent in the List so I am happy! :) I won't be able to read as many List books over the next few months due to school, but I may be able to knock off an anthology or two.

Upcoming Break from List Books

While working today, I had four books recommended to me. Being library books, I am thinking that I may take a break from my list books in order to read them. As this site is about reviewing the books that I read, all four of them will be reviewed here as well. I have not quite decided when I wil read them; I may wait until I am down to 90 books left on the List, or else I may read them one at a time between books on the List. We'll see.

The List Update!

Well, having finished Lamb, I am pleased to say that the List is officially down to 95 books! I have successfully brought the List down from July 6th. Yay!