Books Read 2024

[YellowKing]

I had a goal of 60 books in 2023 but wound up reading about 45, short of last year's record of 52. Setting a goal of 60 again this year and I think I'll make it. Have been having a blast with the new Kindle.

2024 Goodreads Reading Challenge Progress: 19/60

In Progress:
The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York - Robert A. Caro
The Pallbearers Club - Paul Tremblay
The Exorcist Legacy: 50 Years of Fear - Nat Segaloff
The Searchers - Alan Le May
The Spine of the World - R.A. Salvatore
Mort - Terry Pratchett

Read:
Dragons of Winter Night - Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman
Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light - Patrick McGilligan
Star Trek: Strangers from the Sky - Margaret Wander Bonanno
Necroscope II: Vamphyr! - Brian Lumley
Maniac: The Bath School Disaster and the Birth of the Modern Mass Murderer - Harold Schechter
The Color of Magic - Terry Pratchett
Fellstones - Ramsey Campbell
The Hammer of Darkness - L.E. Modesett, Jr
The Witch of Lime Street: Seance, Seduction, & Houdini in the Spirit World - David Jaher
Terry Pratchett - The Light Fantastic
Knights Magi - Terry Mancour
Passage of Dawn - R.A. Salvatore
The Dancing Plague - Jeremy Bates
Ghostbusters - The Original Movie Novelizations Omnibus - Richard Mueller
The Dancing Plague 2 - Jeremy Bates
Equal Rites - Terry Pratchett
The Silent Blade - R. A. Salvatore
Magic is Dead: My Journey into the World's Most Secret Society of Magicians - Ian Frisch
Quantum Shadows - L. E. Modesitt, Jr.

[Isgrimnur]

1. Andrea Vernon and the Superhero-Industrial Complex
2. Andrea Vernon and The Big Axe Acquisition

[Zarathud]

Finished
2022-2024 Wheel of Time - 14 books

[Jolor]

Finished
Lilith - Nikki Marmery
George Orwell 1984 The Graphic Novel - Fido Nesti
The Fragile Threads of Power - V.E. Schwab
Starter Villain - John Scalzi
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom - Cory Doctorow
The Wolf and the Woodsman - Ava Reid (reread)
A Curse of Krakens- Kevin Hearne
Ring Shout - P. Djeli Clark

The Flight of the Whisper King - Bradley P. Beaulieu
A Wasteland of My God's Own Making - Bradley P. Beaulieu
The Doors at the Dusk and Dawn - Bradley P. Beaulieu
The Mysteries - Bill Watterson & John Kascht
In the Village where Brightwine Flows - Bradley P. Beaulieu
The Tattered Prince and the Demon Veiled - Bradley P. Beaulieu
The Last Days of Old Sharakhai - Bradley P. Beaulieu
Wayward - Chuck Wendig

The Bezzle - Cory Doctorow
The River of Silver - S. A. Chakraborty
For the First Time, Again - Sylvain Neuvel (reread)
The Lost Cause - Cory Doctorow
Starling House - Alix E. Harrow
Moon of the Crusted Snow - Waubgeshig Rice
The Narrow Road Between Desires - Patrick Rothfuss

Reading
Fake History (101 things that never happened) - Jo Teeuwisse
Moon of the Turning Leaves - Waubgeshig Rice

TBR
Nona the Ninth - Tamsyn Muir
The Man You Trust - Bill Harris
Psych and Eros - Luna McNamara
The Hexologists - Josiah Bancroft
Ink Blood Sister Scribe - Emma Torzs
The Fionavar Tapestry - Guy Gavriel Kay
The Daughters of Izdihar - Hadeer Elsabai
The Library of the Unwritten - A. J. Hackwith
Of Sand and Malice Made - - Bradley P. Beaulieu
The Book of Gothel (Memoir of a Witch) - Mary McMyne

[disarm]

2023 was my best year of reading in a long time...33 books/stories completed, although some of those were short stories that were very quick reads. Let's see where 2024 goes!

In Progress


The Making of the Atomic Bomb - Richard Rhodes (1200 pages... going to take a while)


Completed


Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell (1/17)
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep - Phillip K Dick (1/23)
Unbroken - Lauren Hillenbrand (2/6)
Nameless (Season 1) - Dean Koontz (2/14)
Upgrade - Blake Crouch (2/24)
Dark Matter - Blake Crouch (3/3)
Neuromancer - William Gibson (3/25)
All Systems Red: The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells (4/1)
Artificial Condition: The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells (4/4)
Rogue Protocol: The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells (4/9)

[Hipolito]

Finished

1. Dune by Frank Herbert (5/8)
2. A Song for Arbonne by Guy Gavriel Kay (6/8)
3. Mass Effect: Homeworlds (4/8)
4. Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (6/8)
5. The Green Bone Saga, Book 1: Jade City by Fonda Lee (6/8)
6. The Green Bone Saga, Book 2: Jade War by Fonda Lee (4/8)

Rating system:
6 to 8 = Order of the Stick
4 to 5 = Looking For Group
0 to 3 = Erfworld


Reading

1. A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.
2. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
3. Jade Legacy by Fonda Lee
4. The Color of Magic by Terry Prachett

TARDIS: 2019 (5) | 2020 (19) | 2021 (33) | 2022 (24) | 2023 (22)

[hitbyambulance]

currently reading

Leo Tolstoy - War and Peace
Lord Dunsany - The Food of Death: Fifty-One Tales
Thomas à Kempis(?) - The Imitation of Christ
Robert W. Chambers - The King in Yellow

limping along in

James Joyce - Finnegan's Wake

[ImLawBoy]

2023 was a big reading year for me with 23 books completed. Sure, 7 of them were kids' or YA books, but they count! I could have had more, but I ended the year with a couple of hefty books that I couldn't quite get over the finish line for 2023. Still, they should provide a running start for 2024.

Books Finished
Gormenghast - Mervyn Peake (paper)
King: A Life - Jonathan Eig (Kindle)
Ninth House - Leigh Bardugo (paper)
Small Favor - Jim Butcher (Kindle)
Hand of Oberon - Roger Zelazny (Kindle)
30 Days of Night - Vol. 1 - Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith (Kindle)

Currently Reading
Against the Day - Thomas Pynchon (paper)
Two Spies in Caracas - Moises Naim (Kindle)

2023 - 23 books read

[Holman]

 In 
 

[El Guapo]

Reading

Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South by Elizabeth Varon.
The Three Body Problem (audio book) by Cixin Liu.

Completed

A Game of Thrones: The Graphic Novel: Volume One by Daniel Abraham (Adapter), George R. R. Martin (Author), Tommy Patterson (Illustrator)

A Game of Thrones: The Graphic Novel: Volume Two by Daniel Abraham (Adapter), George R. R. Martin (Author), Tommy Patterson (Illustrator)

Slayers: A Buffyverse Story by Christopher Golden et al

A Game of Thrones: The Graphic Novel: Volume Three by Daniel Abraham (Adapter), George R. R. Martin (Author), Tommy Patterson (Illustrator)

The Narrow Road Between Desires by Patrick Rothfuss

A Game of Thrones: The Graphic Novel: Volume Four by Daniel Abraham (Adapter), George R. R. Martin (Author), Tommy Patterson (Illustrator)

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood (audio book)

People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present by Dara Horn

[El Guapo]

A Game of Thrones: The Graphic Novel: Volume One by Daniel Abraham (Adapter), George R. R. Martin (Author), Tommy Patterson (Illustrator)

First book of 2024! It's the graphic novel-ilization of the Game of Thrones book (part 1 of four). I've been tempted to read through the Game of Thrones books, but never really cared enough to invest the time, especially since I know the bulk of the plot from the TV show (and have read some book to TV show comparisons to spoil a decent amount of the differences in the book plot). But then I thought hey, graphic novels are quicker to read! So here I am.

Enjoying it so far. This has mirrored the TV show very closely at this point in the plot (other than Catelyn Stark being more of a jerk to Jon Snow), but still a great story, and the art is tremendous as well.

[Isgrimnur]

Catelyn Stark is ALL the jerk to Jon Snow.

[Brian]

I just started My Effin Life by Geddy Lee. (AKA: Gershon Eliezer Weinrib - AKA: Gary Lee Weinrib - AKA: Gary Lorne Weinrib)

He and I just happen to share a birthday, July 29.

[Jeff V]

Read
First Lord's Fury by Jim Butcher
The Late Show by Michael Connelly
Dark Sacred Light by Michael Connelly
Brass Verdict by Michael Connelly
The Night Fire by Michel Connelly
Last Words by Michael Koryta
The Exchange by John Grisham
The Finisher by David Baldacci
The Keeper by David Baldacci
The Daughter of No Worlds by Carissa Broadbent

Fairy Tale by Stephen King
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
The Magic of Recluce by L.E. Modesitt Jr.
Shogun - the Life and Times of Tokugawa Ieyasu by A.L. Sadler
Commodore - The Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by Edward Renehan

Reading
Bonds of Brass by Emily Skrutskie

[El Guapo]

2023 was a big reading year for me with 23 books completed. Sure, 7 of them were kids' or YA books, but they count! I could have had more, but I ended the year with a couple of hefty books that I couldn't quite get over the finish line for 2023. Still, they should provide a running start for 2024.

It's funny, I definitely count and measure myself by books per month / year. But at the same time, I'm trying to curtail that instinct a bit because: (1) it doesn't totally make sense as a metric, since as you say a 20 page young adult book counts the same as Moby Dick or Paradise Lost; (2) it feels like I'm missing the point, since at times I find myself picking books partially based upon how much time it'll take to get through them (and finish / win!) when the point should be to, you know, enjoy reading and also edify myself.

That said, I'm psyched reading Game of Thrones as four graphic novel volumes, because that means that I get four reading points instead of just one!

[Jolor]

I just started My Effin Life by Geddy Lee. (AKA: Gershon Eliezer Weinrib - AKA: Gary Lee Weinrib - AKA: Gary Lorne Weinrib)

He and I just happen to share a birthday, July 29.

I borrowed his Big Book of Bass from the library and listened to his recent interview on CBC's Q with Tom Power. He's a very comfortable story teller.

[hitbyambulance]

It's funny, I definitely count and measure myself by books per month / year. But at the same time, I'm trying to curtail that instinct a bit because: (1) it doesn't totally make sense as a metric, since as you say a 20 page young adult book counts the same as Moby Dick or Paradise Lost; (2) it feels like I'm missing the point, since at times I find myself picking books partially based upon how much time it'll take to get through them (and finish / win!) when the point should be to, you know, enjoy reading and also edify myself.

i specifically missed my goodreads 'read 52 books in 2023' goal because i'm still reading War and Peace, which ensured that i was not going to hit 'arbitrary quantity of books completed'. i feel truly self-actualized in the amount of reading i do; there's no need to set quantity goals.

[ImLawBoy]

Finished Gormenghast by Melvyn Peake. This is book two of the Gormenghast Trilogy (I wrote about the first book, Titus Groan here).

It picks up a few years after the first book ends and follows Lord Titus as he grows from a boy to young man. He's been the 77th Earl of Gormenghast since his infancy, and he's chafing at the obligations that are thrust upon him. Meanwhile the scheming Steerpike is continuing to amass power and influence. In the first book there was some initial sympathy for him, but that's completely lost now.

I liked this more than the first book. There are still a number of detours and excessively dense prose that makes the book a slog at times, but I really enjoyed Titus's journey. The last 50 pages or so are quite epic and exciting. I'm going to take a break before I pick up the next book, but I'm looking forward to it.

[Rumpy]

i feel truly self-actualized in the amount of reading i do; there's no need to set quantity goals.

Same here. I used to do the Goodreads yearly goals until I realized I wasn't having as much fun reading. I know I read lots of books, but at the same time, I don't need an official count to tell me or pressure me. The count was making me feel pressured into reading faster.

[Scuzz]

I could read more if I stuck to mystery or other non-fiction stuff. But every year I read a few things that take awhile to get into.

[Rumpy]

Yeah, that's definitely part of it. Reading different things and of different lengths are not things taken into account by the goals. I'd sometimes be in the middle of a long book and it would tell me I'm behind. Like hell I am. But it's just a 1000 page book, right?

[Isgrimnur]

Andrea Vernon and the Superhero-Industrial Complex

[coopasonic]

Forget the Alamo

OK, that's my non-fiction reading for this decade. Back to Fantasy/Sci-Fi.

[Zarathud]

It took 2 years, but I have finally finished the Wheel of Time.

[Jaymann]

It took 2 years, but I have finally finished the Wheel of Time.

So what is your final verdict?

[Zarathud]

Worth reading, but work in the middle.

in the middle, the storytelling got caught up in certain characters to help tell the stories of the main characters differently. Probably because Jordan got caught up in some lazy habits recycling character traits (especially Nynavae's hair-pulling, each boys' tangents about not knowing women, etc.). I respect how Brandon Sanderson worked to get past those issues. Some of the characters were compelling, while others didn't seem to make sense.

The last volume paid off several storylines that had went off track, but not always like I wanted. I could tell where The last book was much closer at times to the first few books. I could feel where Robert Jordan's original writing was coming through pretty clearly. I believe Jordan had written parts of the end, and a decent map of where things would go.

I wanted to better understand the changes in the Amazon Wheel of Time series. Now the edits make more sense, but it's a big job. They're going to add things as bridges while cutting huge sections that can be shown on screen more easily than it was written. Many pages can be cut or changed while still getting the tone. I'm now more forgiving of the changes to the sexual dualism in the yin/yang magic, as that distracts from the problem of Aes Sedai power dynamics.

The ending brought into clear focus how badly they missed with casting/directing Matt in Season One and how they've tried to fix it in Season Two. It didn't seem right, but it's now obvious what went wrong -- Matt is supposed to be an unreliable and reluctant hero with a bad reputation, not afraid or bad or corrupted.

I'm glad to be done, even though I'd like to have seen some changes or additional story for several minor characters. The wheel turns....

[Scuzz]

The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson

Larson returns to WW2 with this book about the first year of Winston Churchill being Prime Minister. The book tells the story of him and his family during that time, with a background of the war and the bombing of Britain by Germany. The story is told through various diaries and other writings from the time. We learn about his sometimes strange behavior and his ability to find people who can get a job done, i.e. Lord Beaverbrook. Through German sources we see the story behind Rudolf Hess and his flight to Scotland to "make peace".

I have to admit to being somewhat taken by Churchill. I have read his 6-part series leading to the start of world war 2 and have encountered him in many other books of the period. I just bought the third and final in Manchester's (Manchester died before the third was written but the book was finished by Paul Reid) and will read it sometime in the near future. Churchill is one of those figures in history who seem to have been destined for a certain time and place. He seems to have been made as a wartime leader, and even those who loved him at that role knew he wasn't the peacetime leader they wanted, as he was voted out of power shortly after the war.

I think I have come to like Larson's books about the world before (In the Garden of the Beasts) and at the start of WW2 more than his other period pieces. He seems to stay on subject better. I would recommend this book to anyone wanting to know about the Blitz and about Churchill himself.

[jztemple2]

Read

• The Last Ditch: Britain's Secret Resistance and the Nazi Invasion Plans by David Lampe
• Bismarck's First War: The Campaign of Schleswig and Jutland 1864 by Michael Embree
• Curtiss: The Hammondsport Era 1907-1915 by Louis S. Casey
• The Man Who Fell From the Sky by William Norris
• The China Clipper, Pan American Airways And Popular Culture by Larry Weirather

Reading
The Boxer Rebellion by Henry Keown-Boyd

[jztemple2]

The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson

I have read all of Larson's books but not this one, I think I'm just burned out on Churchill reading for a lifetime. If you are looking for something on Churchill that's a bit off the beaten path, so to speak, try No More Champagne: Churchill and His Money by David Lough. Churchill was rather careless with money, which was one of the reasons that drove him to write so many books. Another one is Gandhi & Churchill: The Epic Rivalry that Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age by Arthur Herman.

[Scuzz]

The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson

I have read all of Larson's books but not this one, I think I'm just burned out on Churchill reading for a lifetime. If you are looking for something on Churchill that's a bit off the beaten path, so to speak, try No More Champagne: Churchill and His Money by David Lough. Churchill was rather careless with money, which was one of the reasons that drove him to write so many books. Another one is Gandhi & Churchill: The Epic Rivalry that Destroyed an Empire and Forged Our Age by Arthur Herman.

Yea, Churchill starts the book getting a “loan” from a friend to pay off his debts. His son Randolph is even worse with money. His wife eventually leaves him over his spending,

[Octavious]

Trying to do more reading this year.

READING:
Mr Mercedes

[YellowKing]

Going to try to keep up with quick reviews of what I've read this year:

Dragons of Winter Night - Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman - First time re-reading this since high school, and it's odd to revisit something that I loved so much back then and try to figure out why I loved it with a brain that is 30+ years older. It was still entertaining, but compared to the multitude of more adult fantasy novels I've read over the years the writing is very YA and simplistic. I also struggled to understand why I loved these characters so much when they're so thinly drawn and the pace is so rapid. I found re-reading these sort of like going back to your childhood bedroom - it feels warm, safe, familiar, but you no longer have a real desire to linger there. 3 stars out of 5, but 1/2 a star is nostalgia.

Alfred Hitchcock: A Life in Darkness and Light - Patrick McGilligan - Definitely the biggest book I read over the past year at 1000+ pages, this is considered one of the better Hitchcock biographies. It doesn't shy away from Hitch's faults (his occasional sexual overreaches, his weird obsession with Tippi Hedren), but neither does it dwell on or exaggerate them. I found it to be a pretty even-handed look at his life and work. 4 stars out of 5.

[Jaymann]

Finished:



I read the author's Children of Time, which is good, solid science fiction, but I couldn't really appreciate it because I hate spiders, even intelligent ones. Maybe especially intelligent ones. So I didn't continue with the series.

However, I enjoyed his writing and wanted to read a standalone title. Guns is a hefty book, weighing in at just over 650 pages. It starts off as a slow burn, and the first third of it reads almost like a period piece of the Antebellum South. It does contain a (somewhat minor) element of magic which pushes it into the fantasy realm.

Things pick up in Act 2 with a gritty depiction of flintlock era warfare that is brutal and, dare I say, grim and dark. Although I find it difficult to believe

Spoiler:

no one closely examined any captured enemy rifles.

The finale has a decent payoff, and though I guessed the ending, in hindsight it seems inevitable.

7/8 unread letters.

[jztemple2]

Read

• The Last Ditch: Britain's Secret Resistance and the Nazi Invasion Plans by David Lampe
• Bismarck's First War: The Campaign of Schleswig and Jutland 1864 by Michael Embree
• Curtiss: The Hammondsport Era 1907-1915 by Louis S. Casey
• The Man Who Fell From the Sky by William Norris
• The China Clipper, Pan American Airways And Popular Culture by Larry Weirather

Just Finished
The Boxer Rebellion by Henry Keown-Boyd

Reading
Lunar Outfitters: Making the Apollo Space Suit by Bill Ayrey

[Jaddison]

Trying to do more reading this year.

READING:
Mr Mercedes

not sure of listening is your thing but I listened to all three books in this series and the reader, Will Patton, was amazing. Will Patton has been an outstanding listen for every audio book he has narrated.

[Zarathud]

Finished Starter Villain by John Scalzi.

Easy read with a story that was more limited than I expected. Plenty of references to Chicago and trusts/estates. But it could have been much more, so I consider it an extended short story.

[YellowKing]

I've been on a Star Trek television binge recently, so when I saw a bunch of assorted Star Trek books on Kindle for $1, I grabbed a few. The first one up:

Star Trek: Strangers from the Sky - Margaret Wander Bonanno

This one's a bit of a classic in Star Trek literature, apparently. It's a bit confusing at first as it starts out as a book within a book, but eventually things start to come together and prove to be an interesting story involving Vulcan first contact and a significant amount of time travel. Even though I didn't totally grasp everything in the complex plot, I still enjoyed it quite a bit. 3 1/2 out of 5 Spock ears.

[El Guapo]

Slayers: A Buffyverse Story by Christopher Golden et al

This is arguably treading the line a bit between an audiobook and a podcast, but Audible sells it as an audiobook, so counting it. But it's a new Buffy universe story mostly set in an alternate universe where Cordelia is the sole slayer. Cordelia comes to "our" (Buffy's) universe to get the help of Spike (and others with him) to fight her universe's Drusilla. Tara is evil and semi-possessed and working with Drusilla to try to cast a spell to let vampires walk in the sun. This features the voices of a who's who of Buffy actors who are not too famous to be in this, most notably including James Marsters (Spike) and Anthony Head (Giles) along with Cordelia, Tara, Drusilla, and one or two other minor parts.

I enjoyed it. The fight scenes are a bit funny in an audiobook (almost a throwback to the Adam West Batman style of POW! KAPOW! etc.). The story's enjoyable and the characters are good. Thought it dragged a bit in the middle, but nice to be back in that universe. Worth checking out, if not essential.

[Isgrimnur]

8 hours is an acceptable length for fiction. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone comes in at 8h18m.

[Isgrimnur]

Andrea Vernon and The Big Axe Acquisition