[trystan830]

hi again!!!

i set myself a reading challenge every year, which is to read more books than the previous year. 2017 was the first year i did this on Trisphee, (i had a great time! thanks Moonshadow!) and i started hosting this in 2018. it's great fun ... so here we are again!

so, (snagging from previous threads), set a challenge for yourself: read 50 books, read only the books you have at home that you haven't read yet, read a specific genre, read only non-fiction books... whatever you choose.

Your first post should contain your challenge, and use a spoiler to indicate how you are progressing in meeting that challenge. i use a spoiler for my booklist. =)

Please feel free to chat about books, your day, anything!

[trystan830]

List of members who are joining our 2022 Reading Challenge

trystan830
Kaderin Triste
Monokai

(each name links to their challenge post)

[trystan830]

reserved... just 'cause it's good to have another post reserved. as soon as i don't reserve one, i'll need it for something.... right, Murphy? XD

(and as long as i keep reserving a post that i don't need, i won't need it. right?)

[trystan830]

my reading challenge: in 2021, i read 69 (!!) books - my goal is to read more than that!

~*2022 Book List*~
1. A Light in the Mist by Erin Hunter
2. To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers
3. Game On (Tempting Twenty-Eight) by Janet Evanovich
4. Chouette by Claire Oshetsky
5. Change Agent by Daniel Suarez
6. A High-End Finish by Kate Carlisle
7. The Sandman: Brief Lives by Neil Gaiman
8. This Old Homicide by Kate Carlisle
9. The Sandman: Worlds' End by Neil Gaiman
10. The Sandman: The Kindly Ones by Neil Gaiman
11. Crowned and Moldering by Kate Carlisle
12. The King of Koraha by Maria V Snyder
13. Deck the Hallways by Kate Carlisle
14. The Sandman: The Wake by Neil Gaiman
15. The Sandman: Endless Nights by Neil Gaiman
16. Eaves of Destruction by Kate Carlisle
17. The Sandman: Overture by Neil Gaiman
18. The Sandman: The Dream Hunters by Neil Gaiman
19. A Wrench in the Works by Kate Carlisle
20. Shot Through the Hearth by Kate Carlisle
21. Premeditated Mortar by Kate Carlisle
22. Daemon by Daniel Suarez
23. Freedom™ by Daniel Suarez
24. Eve of Destruction by Sherrilyn Kenyon
25. The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas
26. Have You Seen Luis Velez? by Catherine Ryan Hyde
27. The Paradise Snare by A.C. Crispin
28. The Hutt Gambit by A.C. Crispin
29. Warriors: River by Erin Hunter
30. Rebel Dawn by A.C. Crispin
31. Shadow Fallen by Sherrilyn Kenyon/McQueen
32. Trouble With the Cursed by Kim Harrison
33. Absence of Mallets by Kate Carlisle
34. Exile from Shadowclan by Erin Hunter
35. Amongst Our Weapons by Ben Aaronovitch
36. Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe
37. Dune: the Graphic Novel part 2: Muad'Dib by Herbert, Anderson, Allen, & Martin
38. Dragons of Deceit by Weis & Hickman
39. Soul Taken by Patricia Briggs
40. Onestar's Confession by Erin Hunter

for my information:

reread list:
*The Sandman <-- 13 of 13 complete
*the Han Solo Trilogy: The Paradise Snare | The Hutt Gambit | Rebel Dawn
*Illium; Olympos
*Harry Potter
*Sue Grafton's Alphabet Series A-Y

own and still need to read:
*The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

[Kaderin Triste]

My goal this year...is gonna be the same as last year: 12 books. But it's a loose goal as there's a good chance I'll be finishing 3 books this month. 2 that are roll-over from last year and 1, which is a graphic novel that caused a pretty big stir recently at another library in the state when it was demanded to be removed from shelves. So of course I need to read it! XD

Books Read:

1. Gender Queer: a Memoir - Maia Kobabe
240 Pages
Finished January 4
2. Oryx & Crake - Margaret Atwood
376 Pages
Finished January 10
3. Powers That Be - Anne Mccaffery & Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
311 Pages
Finished January 16
4. Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
5. Practical Magic - Alice Hoffman
6. A Deadly Education - Naomi Novik
7. Unbirthday - Elizabeth J. Braswell
8. The Happiest Man on Earth
9. The Last Graduate - Naomi Novik
10. Nothing But Blackened Teeth - Cassandra Khaw
11. Welcome to Night Vale
12. Serenity Vol. 1 Those Left Behind
13. Serenity Vol. 3 The Shepherd's Tale
14. Serenity Vol 4. Leaves on the Wind
15. Serenity: Better Days
16. Firefly: The Sting vol. 1
17. How High We Go in the Dark - Sequoia Nagamatsu
18. Acorna: The Unicorn Girl - Anne McCaffrey
19. Storm Front - Jim Butcher
20. Tithe - Holly Black
21. Way of the House Husband Vol. 1
22. Way of the House Husband Vol. 2
23. Way of the House Husband Vol. 3
24. Jujutsu Kaisen Vol. 1
25. The Girl From the Other Side Vol. 1
26. The Girl From the Other Side Vol. 2
27. The Girl From the Other Side Vol. 3
28. The Girl From the Other Side Vol. 4
29. The Girl From the Other Side Vol. 5
30. The Girl From the Other Side Vol. 7
31. The Girl From the Other Side Vol. 7
32. The Girl From the Other Side Vol. 8
33. Valient - Holly Black
34. Ironside - Holly Black

[trystan830]

what was the graphic novel??

Oryx & Crake
Good Omens

ooooh!!! Oryx & Crake was a good one! it's 1 of 3 in the MaddAddam series, btw. (#2 - the Year of the Flood; #3 - MaddAddam)
i read Good Omens some time ago, but it's not listed on my goodreads list!! but watched the series when it came out, which was good fun. i think i need to add it to my reread list!

[Kaderin Triste]

Ah, the GN is Gender Queer: a Memoir by Maia Kobabe

I literally brought it home tonight from work and just read the whole thing in one sitting.
If I recall correctly the one major part that people are protesting is a depiction of oral sex (which was actually pretty mild, tbh). But like...it really isn't anything worse than reading a sex scene from a harlequin romance novel. And I could understand the protest/arguments perhaps if this graphic novel were in the "young adult" section as, though many teens/young adults are probably mature enough to handle it, some of the more adult content of the memoir might not be deemed "appropriate" for that age range. But it's not in that section. It's in the adult section. Where you can also find such gems as: Fifty Shades of Gray (which I have never read but I remember how popular it was with...way too many females when it came out) and the Anita Blake series (which started off good but quickly devolved into essentially just written-word paranormal porn).

I found it to be a wonderful insight into Maia's journey of discovering their gender and sexuality. As someone with an nb sibling, it was interesting to hear an nb's perspective on their gender, whether or not it's not the same way my sibling views/feels about their own.

[trystan830]

ooh that sounds like an interesting graphic novel!

and oh yeah, i can totally relate to reading the Anita Blake series. i DO i like a little more plot with my porn, which is why i stopped reading the series quite a number of years ago.

and some of those conservative goofnuts just like to complain about anything that doesn't fit their own narrative.

and completely related, this was my Popular Information newsletter today - https://popular.info/p/the-war-on-library-books (if it wants you to sign up, there's a link on the page that says "let me read it first.")

[Kaderin Triste]

It really was a fantastic graphic novel and I'd highly recommend it.

Yeah....I could do without sex in my books entirely, but it's not always avoidable. So I put up with it if it's a series I otherwise enjoy. But the Anita Blake series...was a disappointment. It started off so good! Zombie raising, crime solving, etc...and devolved into a nearly plotless sex-filled mess. I put up with it for like...15 books in the futile hope that it would come back around to a better plot. I don't think I've read any of the books since shortly after graduating high school.

Ugh. Book banning is just the absolute worst. And just chock full of political hypocrites who really are just trying to push their own racist, sexist, and anti-lgbtq+ agendas.
Let libraries do their jobs and provide resources to the community. And let parents do their job and actually monitor what their kids are reading if they're that concerned. To an extent, my parents did that with our music. Any cds with a "mature" rating label on it had to be either listened to by the parents or they had to read the lyrics before allowing us to buy them. But that was between the ages of about 12-15. Beyond that they didn't care. And they never cared what we read.

[trystan830]

according to goodreads there are 28 books in the Anita Blake series. i read up to 24, which was published in 2015 (looks like i skipped 23 though). there's quite a number of "between the books" books as well - theres's also a book #22.5 and #22.75 story as well!

i understand why Hamilton changed her writing style - it was in a blog post several novels after she'd first introduced the ardeur. apparently her publisher (or editor - i don't remember which) said that nice girls don't write "that stuff" (aka porn) and to dial it back. no one wants to be told what to do, no matter what it is. so she went *shrug*, created the ardeur as a plot device to explain all the porn. and that's her prerogative...but if that's not what i want to read, then i won't read it *shrug*

i have, however, read Hamilton's Merry Gentry series. sure, there's sex scenes in there, but when you have a story about the fae, and that's how they do stuff, it's expected. but Anita? not so much in my mind.

as for book banning, the conservatives and concerned parents who support book banning want to keep everyone ignorant. knowledge is a powerful weapon, and when people learn things, they're empowered. and a lot of conservatives want to keep their people ignorant so that these conservatives can stay in power. i love my library, and i let my kids read whatever they wanted. my parents let me read whatever - my dad would also read my books i read for english, and with at least one of them, he thought was aimed much older than high school reading because he asked me if i understood what i read, but i had no clue! (still don't. also never reread it...) as for music, i didn't really start listening to rock music on the radio when i was in high school, so... yeah.

[trystan830]

between cozy mysteries and graphic novels, i'm reading book #9, and it's just the end of January! woot!

[trystan830]

just finished book #12 today. goodreads says I'm 4 books ahead of schedule for my 70 books this year. being ahead is a good thing. :D

[trystan830]

i finished all the Sandman books! Sandman 1-75, and a few others - Endless Nights, Overture, and the Dream Hunters. *woot*!!

[trystan830]

still reading along. i'm up to reading #21. these cozy mysteries are just like potato chips.
also goodreads says I'm 7 books ahead of schedule. :D

[Kaderin Triste]

I have not kept up with my list... xp
Kind of updated it though I know I need to add at least 1 more to the finished list.

Have been bad about tracking page counts and when I finished the books so I may drop those. Idk that adding them to my list did anything except clutter it slightly and/or made it look like I'd read more than I actually had.

[trystan830]

yeah, i just keep track of the books i read, and that's it. XD