2018 Reading Challenge

[Citanul]

Book #1 is The Return of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle.

Book #1 done. Intersperse with my usual science fiction and fantasy fare, I have been reading all the Sherlock Holmes stories, and this was the last one.

I've found them to be a bit of a mixed bag. I acknowledge Holmes as a brilliant literary creation, and some of the deductions are quite clever, but some stories have worked for me and others haven't. I think a lot of it could have to do with the writing style which doesn't always grab me, feeling a bit too report-like at times. I did really enjoy The Hound of the Baskervilles, and that was a full-length novel, so maybe the longer format had something to do with it.

So onto book #2, which is City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare.

 

[kittysbecute]

Book #1 done. Intersperse with my usual science fiction and fantasy fare, I have been reading all the Sherlock Holmes stories, and this was the last one.

I've found them to be a bit of a mixed bag. I acknowledge Holmes as a brilliant literary creation, and some of the deductions are quite clever, but some stories have worked for me and others haven't. I think a lot of it could have to do with the writing style which doesn't always grab me, feeling a bit too report-like at times. I did really enjoy The Hound of the Baskervilles, and that was a full-length novel, so maybe the longer format had something to do with it.

So onto book #2, which is City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare.

I've only read a few of his short stories but they definitely seemed interesting. I should read the Hound of the Baskervilles.

 

[LadyOfMystery]

Book #1 done. Intersperse with my usual science fiction and fantasy fare, I have been reading all the Sherlock Holmes stories, and this was the last one.

I've found them to be a bit of a mixed bag. I acknowledge Holmes as a brilliant literary creation, and some of the deductions are quite clever, but some stories have worked for me and others haven't. I think a lot of it could have to do with the writing style which doesn't always grab me, feeling a bit too report-like at times. I did really enjoy The Hound of the Baskervilles, and that was a full-length novel, so maybe the longer format had something to do with it.

So onto book #2, which is City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare.

Congrats on finishing book #1!

I've never really been interested in those stories before, I don't know... Even though they're mysteries and that would be right up my alley, I've just never had a pull to read them. And the hound of baskervilles has always kinda freaked me out so I didn't want to read that one.

I've never heard of City of Heavenly Fire. I'm looking it up on goodreads now!



I'm about halfway through all my books. I'm really enjoying all of them so far. I'm also looking forward to doing reviews on them with the blog I made. If anyone wants it they can PM me or let me know and I'll PM you. But yeah. The book "Fearless" by Eric Blehm is an excellent read about Adam Brown of SEAL Team 6. It's not just about this Navy SEAL. I realize it's about a whole lot more. It's about God, faith, addiction, temptation, struggles and ultimately sacrifice.

 

[TheGirlOnFire]

Ooooohhhhh that’s so exciting a blog

 

[Travelers.Soul]

I finished book #2 God is Able by Priscilla Shirer the other day and I have just started Book #3 Child of the Mist by Kathleen Morgan. I am trying to rotate the books as I read them, if I read a nonfiction then next is a fiction.

 

[TheGirlOnFire]

I finished book #2 God is Able by Priscilla Shirer the other day and I have just started Book #3 Child of the Mist by Kathleen Morgan. I am trying to rotate the books as I read them, if I read a nonfiction then next is a fiction.

How did you find god is able?

 

[Travelers.Soul]

How did you find god is able?

I really liked it. The basic gist of the book is God loves you, he is more than able, and it's not about us. I found it to be a very encouraging book.

 

[LadyOfMystery]

Okay I finished Fearless by Eric Blehm, it is a wonderful book! It's not just about Adam Brown the Navy SEAL and his sacrifice for his country, it's about his life, it's about God, salvation, faith, temptation, addiction, and a fierce love. It's a beautiful book and I really enjoyed the style of writing and how he (Eric Blehm) set up the book. Highly recommend it and will be covering it in my blog!

I also finished North & South! It is an awesome book and I really enjoyed it. I can't believe I haven't read it before, I hadn't even seen the miniseries based on it. I might not do a blog review on it though, we'll see. It was a huge book and I'm afraid I'd forget something, lol. Overall I really enjoyed it and I think I got a lot out of it due to it being an audiobook, there weren't many dull spots that I'd feel like I needed to skip over. The person reading kept me engrossed.

I'm still reading Colors by Victoria Finlay and My Life in France by Julia Child.

 

[Gracefullybroken]

I am planning on reading 100 books

 

[kittysbecute]

I’m ahead in my goal (1.5 books a month) so it makes me want to incrrase my goal, but I know that later this year life may get too busy to read as much for fun. So I’ll keep my goal as it is and hopefully surpass it.

 

[Toro]

Reading is challenging enough as is......

 

[Travelers.Soul]

Book #3 (Child of the Mist) is finished, I wrapped it last night. I am currently working on book #4 (What Are You Afraid Of?) and I would like to finish it up today but I think I also need a bit of a break for the rest of the day, we'll see.

 

[Citanul]

So onto book #2, which is City of Heavenly Fire by Cassandra Clare.

Book #2 done. I'm totally not the target audience for The Mortal Instruments, and I don't actually know why I started reading the series in the first place, but it's a decent enough light read.

Book #3 is Diamond Star by Catherine Asaro.

 

[Travelers.Soul]

Book #4 What Are You Afraid of? by David Jeremiah is finished! I'm not sure what my next book will be so I suppose it's time to consult the list!

 

[Strider1002]

I’m going to challenge myself to read some of the dozens of books I’ve bought over the years and never read. Let’s say, ten, to start.

 

[Grandpa2390]

Has anyone ever done a reading challenge before? Whether it be from the popsugar website, or goodreads, or... well I've searched it on google and there's a lot of different "reading challenges" out there. But they usually start on the first day of the year and you make a goal of how many books you want to read for the year and then at the end of the year see how many you ended up reading.

I'm thinking of doing a reading challenge for 2018, and just making a goal number of books I'd like to read and just see what I can do. I'm going to keep track on GoodReads. So if anyone else would like to make a goal too and keep track in this thread, that could totes be doable and I think it would be fun to have multiple people involved. We could tell what we're reading currently.

If not, no worries. I might just post in here to keep track of my goal and tell what I'm reading, you can actually join in any time next year, you don't actually have to start on Jan 1st.

If you are not against audiobooks, I recommend audible. I listen to at least 2 books a month. or a book and a Great Course. I work outside so I keep a little speaker in my breast pocket and it plays audiobooks while I work all day. I can generally get through about 2+ hours of audiobook per 8 hour shift. Fiction and nonfiction. plus my 1 hour commute.

 

[kittysbecute]

If you are not against audiobooks, I recommend audible. I listen to at least 2 books a month. or a book and a Great Course. I work outside so I keep a little speaker in my breast pocket and it plays audiobooks while I work all day. I can generally get through about 2+ hours of audiobook per 8 hour shift. Fiction and nonfiction. plus my 1 hour commute.

I listened to a number of audiobooks recently. Those can be fun. I think I listened to some while I worked and commuted too. I’m not as much a fan of audio book dramas though, but they can be okay.

 

[Grandpa2390]

I listened to a number of audiobooks recently. Those can be fun. I think I listened to some while I worked and commuted too. I’m not as much a fan of audio book dramas though, but they can be okay.

I'm not a fan of dramatized audiobooks either. They tend to be abridged and so forth. But normal audiobooks where the narrator reads an unabridged copy and (in the case of fiction) does voices for the characters. Those are good. As long as the narrator is good at least. sometimes you get a bad narrator... but audible allows you to return books no questions asked.
One example that comes to mind is this book I thought would be interesting. It was an fantasy role playing genre book or whatever that was told from the perspective of a dungeon. I think the point of the story was to follow the life of the dungeon and how it grew into a dungeon. If you have played video games like Zelda and so forth, you know what I mean by dungeon.

But the voice the narrator gave to the main character (the dungeon stone thing that would grow into a dungeon) was really whiny and annoying. So I couldn't listen to it. Shame...
Also listening to the same narrator narrate another book after you've listened to a first one can be difficult. Stephen Fry narrated the Harry Potter Books and did a fantastic job. So when I wanted to listen to Sherlock Holmes, one of the characters had the same voice as Hagrid in Harry Potter, and it just... messed me up. I couldn't separate the voice from Hagrid and give it to this new character.
The voice was "typecast" or whatever. lol.

 

[kittysbecute]

I'm not a fan of dramatized audiobooks either. They tend to be abridged and so forth. But normal audiobooks where the narrator reads an unabridged copy and (in the case of fiction) does voices for the characters. Those are good. As long as the narrator is good at least. sometimes you get a bad narrator... but audible allows you to return books no questions asked.
One example that comes to mind is this book I thought would be interesting. It was an fantasy role playing genre book or whatever that was told from the perspective of a dungeon. I think the point of the story was to follow the life of the dungeon and how it grew into a dungeon. If you have played video games like Zelda and so forth, you know what I mean by dungeon.

But the voice the narrator gave to the main character (the dungeon stone thing that would grow into a dungeon) was really whiny and annoying. So I couldn't listen to it. Shame...
Also listening to the same narrator narrate another book after you've listened to a first one can be difficult. Stephen Fry narrated the Harry Potter Books and did a fantastic job. So when I wanted to listen to Sherlock Holmes, one of the characters had the same voice as Hagrid in Harry Potter, and it just... messed me up. I couldn't separate the voice from Hagrid and give it to this new character.
The voice was "typecast" or whatever. lol.

It's always the whiny variety of audiobook voice acting that I can't stand. That sounds interesting. I tried listening to a lord of the rings audiobook once, but the voice actor sounded too droning to me. So I will just have to reread it without listening to that audio version. I am curious how the Harry Potter books sound, I may have to check out that version you've listened to. (Plus they are on my list of books to reread this year. )
I had the trial of audible a year or so ago and I got some books in a series by an "Amazon writer", since she wasn't popular enough I didn't have access to the books from the local public libraries but I was able to listen to the audio versions.

 

[Grandpa2390]

It's always the whiny variety of audiobook voice acting that I can't stand. That sounds interesting. I tried listening to a lord of the rings audiobook once, but the voice actor sounded too droning to me. So I will just have to reread it without listening to that audio version. I am curious how the Harry Potter books sound, I may have to check out that version you've listened to. (Plus they are on my list of books to reread this year. )

I like it. The voices sound just like the movies. It was my first real audiobook and couldn't believe they were all the voices were by the same guy. You want to get the Stephen Fry version. Jim Dale reads the U.S.A. versions and he does really whiny annoying voices for the female characters. and his pauses between sentences and so forth are... off-putting.

I had the trial of audible a year or so ago and I got some books in a series by an "Amazon writer", since she wasn't popular enough I didn't have access to the books from the local public libraries but I was able to listen to the audio versions.