2025 Year in Review

This is a summary of the books that I read in 2025. Most have been recorded as blog entries. Some entries are not published yet.

There were more than last year, thanks to my Pandemic Book Club, Library Thing, and my Graphic Novel class.

There were 49 blog entries last year. One of those was the 2024 review, and two of them were for the same book because I listened to it on audio and then months later I read it with my book club. I read another book that I listened to, but in that case, I updated the previous post because it wasn't as long before. (I don't have a hard and fast rule about this.)

I don't remember any books that I DNF'ed last year. I didn't make any blog entries. It could be because I just didn't have time for too many books that I didn't have to read.

On the other hand, there were at least two books, one hardcover and one ebook, that had to go back to the library, and I had to wait for them to be available. One is Dungeon Crawler Carl, which I currently have until Friday and will likely not finish before then, and the other I won't mention until I decide to Unsuspend or Delete my hold. I'm "next" to read it whenever I unsuspend, but I have other obligations, and it was a little outside my usual fare.

I downloaded a couple of Christmas books, but the only one I listened to (didn't read any) was Krampus. I just didn't have time. Also, I think I'll stick to the paranormal Christmas books because the cozy ones are all murder mysteries and that's not how I want to "get into the spirit".

This year I broke the list up by categories instead of going by the calendar. They aren't likely to be in the order they were read. I'm not linking to individual blog entries. If anyone finds this page and is interested, check the calendar for 2025 until you find the entry you're looking for!

Audo Books

• Krampus: The Yule Lord (Brom) - paperback wasn't available
• A Natural History of Dragons (Brennan) - a book for walking; no plans to read it
• Cast the First Stone (Warren) - reread with the Book Club
• New Beginnings (Masters) - another book for walking; no plans to read more in the series

Graphic Novels

• Understanding Comics (McCloud) - nonfiction
• Skim (Tamaki / Tamaki)
• Waverider: A Graphic Novel (Amulet #9) (Kibuishi)
• The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam: An Illustrated Memoir (Fleming) - nonfiction
• Kiss Number 8 (Venable)
• Yes, I'm Hot in This (Fahmy)

Manga

• Spy Classroom 2nd Period: Daughter Dearest, Vol. 1 (Tomari / Takemachi)
• Eden: It's an Endless World! Volume 1 (Endo)
• My Hero Academia Volume 40
• My Hero Academia Volume 41 -- I didn't make a blog entry, apparently, but I only have the final book to go!

Books

• Cast the First Stone (Warren)
• Selene: The Time Traveling A.I. G.F. (Gottfred)
• An Artsy Girl's Guide to Football (Taylor-Hart)
• Slewfoot (Brom)
• Dream Sweet in a Minor Sea (De Beer)
• Children of the Fire Moon (Bigfoot)
• The Sorrow Road (Dunstan)
• Cold Sassy Tree (Burns)
• The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina (Córdova)
• The Bee Sting (Murray)
• The Bartender Between Worlds (Steuernagel)
• Write Something (Levenberg)
• The Dream Keeper and Other Poems (Hughes)
• In the Margins: They found their place by not fitting in (Shea)
• Trial by Moonlight (Hanford)
• Dork Diaries: Tales from a Not-so-popular Party Girl (Russell)
• Renegades (Burton)
• Everyone Knows Your Mother Is A Witch (Galchen)
• Beyond the Ocean Door (Sathi)
• The Silent Patient (Michaelides)
• Flume (Bigfoot)
• Fall Into Temptation (Score)
• Suburban Hell (Kilmer)
• I Know What UFO Did Last Summer (Garone)
• Starter Villain (Scalzi)
• The Fairy Godmother's Tale (Marks)
• A Peppermint Mocha to Die For (Valentine)
• Christmas, Pursued by a Bear (2020)
• Dork Diaries: Tales From a Not-So-Fabulous Life (Russell)
• The Full Moon Coffee Shop: A Novel (Mochizuki)
• Auto-Phobia (Spiegelman)
• Leo the Elf Saves Christmas (Doxon)

Finally, I noted one "random short story or novella", which was "Mud and Brass" by Andrew Knighton (2014), probably read around June.

There were no eSpec Books short stories because I've read all the smaller stuff I have from them. Barring obtaining more freebies as stretch goals in Kickstarter campaigns, I mostly have books of lengths that merit their own entries.

No Sue Grafton this year. I need to finish that series.

If I had to pick a favorite book of the year (leaving out the other categories), I'd probably pick Cast the First Stone (which ends on a cliffhanger/intro to book 2) or The Full Moon Coffee Shop, which was just a little different and ties itself up with a neat little bow.

Many of the others I could find fault with -- or are young adult books, which I won't label my best book of the year. Your mileage may vary.

2024 Year in Review

This is a summary of the books that I read in 2024. Most have been recorded as blog entries. Some entries are not published yet.

There were 28 books consisting of novels, collections and nonfiction listed in 27 entries. (One entry had "Two short novels".) Also, one book was audio only because the book never became available at any of three libraries. Additionally, I read my own book (but I didn't write it out), mostly because I was looking for typos, but also because I wanted to read it back after a while away from it. Looking back, I see that Signal Fires was actually a 2023 book that didn't get written up until 2024.

• The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year (Carter)
• The Crown of Zeus (Norris)
• The Mimicking of Known Successes (Older)
• What Kind of Mother (Chapman)
• The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies (Goodman)
• The Hidden Palace (Wecker)
• The Golem and the Jinni (Wecker)
• Remarkably Bright Creatures (Ven Pelt)
• The Adventures of Larry the Alien (McDonnell)
• Tequila Sheila and Other Tall Tales (Lucci)
• 52 Loaves (Alexanader)
• The Lexical Funk (Clausen)
• A House with Good Bones (Kingfisher)
• A Cry of Hounds (Ackley-McPhail, ed)
• In Defense of Witches (Chollet)
• Pinata: A Novel (Gout)
• DNF: The Saint of Bright Doors (Chandrasekera)
• The Skeleton in the Closet (Fox)
• Two Short Books: The Race & Big Bullet Monster Bomb
• Funny Shorts 5 (McDonnell)
• The Shadow Glass (Winning)
• Lessons in Chemistry (Garmus)
• Stake and Eggs (Childs)
• DNF: The Zoo of Intelligent Animals (Holdsworth)
• I'm Glad My Mom Died (McCurdy)
• Raising Caine (Gannon)

Of these, The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year, What Kind of Mother, The Golem and the Jinni, A House with Good Bones, In Defense of Witches, Pinata: A Nove, The Saint of Bright Doors, The Shadow Glass, and Lessons in Chemistry were Pandemic Book Club books. I'm Glad My Mom Died and 52 Loaves were alternate choices which weren't picked but which I read it anyway.

52 Loaves, In Defence of Witches, and I'm Glad My Mom Died were nonfiction of different sorts, which were meh, bad, and interesting, respectively.

There were several horror books, which is not my usual wheelhouse, and a few cozy mysteries (one paranormal), which is becoming my wheelhouse.

Two books were labeled DNF, The Zoo of Intelligent Animals and THe Saint of Bright Doors, but I got fall enough into them that I listed them.

Stake and Eggs was audio only. The book isn't available. After nearly a year, I started the next book.

It looks like if I want to continue with the Caineverse, I'll have to buy the next book. I do have a gift card to use if it hasn't expired.

No Sue Grafton books this year. I didn't realize.

In the "It's a Book, but It's Not a Book' category: I read the Book of Genesis. Yes, I came up with this idea a few years ago as something else to read in between books, and something that I can read in church with I'm early for Mass. (And, yes, I get there early because otherwise, someone will be in my spot.) I've started Exodus.

So with re-reading my own book (looking for typos, but reading), I read 30 books last year, literary, science fiction, fantasy, horror, religious, and nonfiction. Mostly novels but several collections.

The following magazines were mostly read in the pool. THere was a fourth book which I didn't finish. There's only one more story to be, plus the articles at the end. If there is one thing that I noticed, it's that they longer stories generally don't agree with me. I don't think I'll be selling any novellas to Clarkesworld any time soon. Then again, I haven't sold anything to Clarkesworld yet, but I think I could have a shot with shorter fiction.

• Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 171 (December 2020)
• Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 172 (January 2021)
• Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 173 (February 2021)

Those four are the only ones I have, but I do have other magazines to read, both in print and as ebooks. Plus, I made an entry to find old ebooks online.

Graphic Novels and Magna

• My Hero Academia Volumes 36-39 - I'm reading fewer because I'm up to date and waiting on new translations to be published, picked up by the library and made available -- and then wait my turn.
• Fangirl: the Manga, Vol 1-4 - recommended by the BPL, I had to wait for the series to complete. Based on a book. It was a comic more than Manga.
• The Devil is a Part-Timer, Vol 17 - a random volume found outside the library, nothing to make me want to read more of it.
• Power Girl: Power Trip - some random comics and then a series with a new "Terra".
• Superman '78 - Batman '66, it was not. It was a bit dull and there wasn't much to set it about from regular Superman except the images. But they included Braniac, so there's that.
• Superman in the Fifties - I love reprints of the old stories, except for when I don't. Contradictory, I know. Those stories are a bit quanit and a product of their time, so it's not unusual that I can't read the entire thing in one sitting. Also, they choose specific stories, so it isn't a continuous narrative like modern grahic novels try to be (but often fail because they can't condnese them -- they can only drop entire issues from the run).
• Shazam - I read it but I didn't write it up, apparently. I don't even remember the title of it. When I first looked at it, I thought there was some gag going on because Billy and Savanna looked like (non-blue) Smurfs. Nope, it was just the artist's interpretation of the material. Billy was even younger and looked to be about three heads tall like Charlie Brown. Sivanna was similarly short, but they made a joke about that when he was standing behind a podium. Literally behind it. Short. Since Luthor was president at the time, the writers made Savanna the Attorney General, but he was still crooked. It was interesting. Sivanna was more interesting in Power Girl though. (A villain slept with Sivanna to get what she wanted. Sivanna double-crossed her saying that he already got what he wanted and no longer cared what she wanted. And then I think killed her or made a good attempt at killing her.)

Miscellaneous

• More Gaming Books - I've read some, not as many as in 2023, but there is no write-up.
• A Firkin of eSpec Books - this is not posted yet. I've been reading more Kickstarter freebies. However, since I was going by size, I'm up to actual novels now unless more short stories are awarded.
• Novellas - I listened to a random novella, and then read it. "Pleasing the Queen" by Selina Coffey, 2015 was read July 2024.
• Some of the Best From Tor.Com 2016 Edition -- I'm not sure that I read anything from this book this year. I think I just noticed the draft and "saved" it so it would move up the list. Honestly, I download 4 or 5 books from them a year and don't read too many of them. I read a bunch a couple years ago. Some were okay. I don't think Tor dot com leans toward my interests in their current configuartion. I wouldn't mind selling to them but I don't think that'll happen. I don't write what they publish, and you have to know somoene to even get in the door.

Analog and Other Old Magazines

None this year. I should get back to that. It was fun. The problem is the downloading and carving up of the books. The PDFs are too big to mail. If I open the PDF in a browser, it will keep reseting to the top, losing my place. That means taking sections of the text and making 4 or 5 parts to submit to kindle. It's a pain.

And that's about it: 30 books (including my own book and 1 audio only book), 9 volumes of manga and 4 graphic novels, nearly 4 issues of Clarkesworld, and a smattering of short stories, novellas and gaming books.

Here's looking to 2025!

Some Online Magazine to Read

This is a (non-exhaustive) list of online science-fiction and fantasy magazines that are free to read the current issue, and which may or may not have archives. Almost all are currently publishing. I may add to this list.

• Apex Magazine
• Beneath Ceaseless Skies
• Clarkesworld
• The Dark
• Interfictions Archive (ended in 2017)
• Lightspeed
• Podcastle (audio and written)
• Escape Pod (audio and written)
• Strange Horizons
• Uncanny
• Fireside Fiction

2023 Year in Review

This is a summary of the books that I read in 2023. A couple of blog entries have not been made yet.

The following books were Pandemic Book Club books

• Signal Fires - (This entry has not been written yet.
• Clown in a Cornfield (Cesare)
• Elder Race (Tchaikovsky)
• A Terrible Fall of Angels (Hamilton)
• Cult Classic (Crosley)
• Wrong Place, Wrong Time (McAllister)
• The Daughter of Doctor Moreau (Moreno-Garcia)
• The Atlas Six (Blake)
• Eggs in Purgatory (Childs)
• What Moves the Dead (Kingfisher)
• The Sea Beast Takes a Lover: Stories (Andreasen)

Of these, Wrong Place, Wrong Time, Eggs in Purgatory and A Terrible Fall of Angels were my favorites, but the latter was too much set-up with a lot going on. A couple were quite dreadful. The rest were interesting. Some of the other group members read more books by Blake or Kingfisher.

I've read three books in the Eggs series by Childs. I stopped after three because I couldn't get paper, ebook, or audio for book 4 from any of three libraries. I recently discovered that NYPL also uses SimplyE, which has rights to distribute some materials that Libby does not. So I started book 4.

Several of these books, I listened to as well as read, which helped get through some of them. Also, they were good to listen to as I was walking.

The following books were Pandemic Book Club alternatives, meaning that they didn't win the vote, but I reserved them from the library before I knew what the winning book would be. They looked interesting, so I read them as well.

• The Library of the Unwritten (Hackwith)
• Witches of New York (McKay)

I enjoyed both of these as well as the book of the month. It was a good month (or two).

These books were Audio Only. I listened to them while I was out for walks. I would like to read them at some point.

• Gods of Manhattan -- audiobook (Mebus)
• U is for Undertow (Grafton)
• A Dead Djinn in Cairo (Clark)

Obviously, I will read the Sue Grafton book at some point. The other I will nominate for the book club the next time it's my turn. The Djinn novella is a reread. I searched for audiobooks and it popped up. There are, I believe, 4 novellas, of which I have read 2. Hopefully, I can listen to all four of them.

The following books were my own picks. Some were free downloads. Some were library books. Some were from Kickstarter campaigns.

• Yeti Left Home (Rosenburg)
• Pumpkin Blend (Layne)
• The Fox's Fire (McPhail)
• Bedeviled Eggs (Childs)
• Harald's Adventure Wares (Redd)
• Steampunk Leap Year / Steampunk New Year (Lucci)
• Hobbies for Androids (Fenn)
• Trial By Fire (Gannon)
• Eggs Benedict Arnold (Childs)
• Cibola Burn (Corey)
• Cupcakes, Trinkets, and Other Deadly Magic (Doidge)
• T is for Trespass (Grafton)
• Fire With Fire (Gannon)
• The Bookshop and the Barbarian (Stang)
• ePulp Sampler, Vol 1

Oddly, almost all of those are series books. Two are Chuck Gannon (and I'm just finishing the third book). One is James S. A. Corey, which surprises me because I thought there were two of those. One Grafton mystery and two Childs cozy mysteries (Cackleberry club).

Magna

• My Hero Academia Volumes 32-25 - up to date
• My Hero Academia: Vigilantes Volumes 1-15 - the complete series (the first 13 books were read in 2022, but nothing was recorded in the blog. Libby has details.)
• My Hero Academia: Team-Up Missions Volumes 1-2 - this is what I'd like to see more of in the series, side missions outside of the big picture story line.
• One Piece Volumes 39-40 - I've been away from this for years and couldn't find where I left off, mostly because so of it was unfamiliar, but I remember Water 7.

Miscellaneous

• More Gaming Books - mostly a bunch of stuff written by Phil Reed. I need to document this stuff so it can inspire my writing.
• A Firkin of eSpec Books - this is not posted yet. I've been reading more Kickstarter freebies.
• Some of the Best From Tor.Com 2016 Edition -- not finished yet, basically I'd forgotten about it from earlier this year, but I do have a draft file of what I have read so far.

Analog and Other Old Magazines

• ANALOG PLUS 50: Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact March 1973 (not much read)
• ANALOG PLUS 50: Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact February 1973
• ANALOG PLUS 50: Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact January 1973

My three-year experiment ran out of steam. It couldn't survive my book club and my delving into the Expanse and the Caine-verse.

And that's about it: 27 books (plus my own book), 9 or 10 volumes of manga, 2 1/2 old Analogs, 3 audiobooks (only) and a smattering of short stories and gaming books.

Here's looking to 2024!

2022: Year in Review

It was an interesting year for reading. It started one way and morphed into something else. I read a lot of short stories early on, and moved on to more novels. And there were things from the past that came back, some of which weren't listed in the blog last year, but will get a mention here.

Novels, Novellas, and Short Story Collections/Anthologies

Of the 25 books listed below, all but 1 was read to completion. And one was utter garbage. A few were anthologies and a couple were novellas in book form. I think every single one of them was an e-book, except for The Dream Peddler which was partly read in paperback and mostly listened to as an audiobook. Surprisingly, only 8 of them are Book club selections, and one was the runner up for a book from the previous year. I don't know why it's only 8. The Expanse series mucked up my schedule a little bit.

• Miracle of Deck 34 and Other Yuletide Tales (Olsen/Ashby)
• The Witch of the North Pole (Snow)
• Beyond the Waterfall Door (Cooper)
• Steampunk!
• My Best Friend's Exorcism (Hendrix)
• John Dies at the End (Paragin)
• The Dream Peddler
• Abaddon's Gate (Corey)
• Caliban's Way (Corey)
• Leviathan Wakes (Corey)
• The Graveyard Book (Gaiman)
• The School for Good Mothers (Chan)
• The Deep (Solomon)
• The Easy Life in Kamusari (Miura)
• The Guest List (Foley)
• Envy of Angels
• Me & the Monkey
• The Book of Koli (Carey)
• An Ignorant Witch (Graham)
• Armored Saint (Cole)
• Southern Spirits (Fox)
• Reincarnation Blues (Poore)
• Super City Cops #1: Avenging Amethyst (DeCandido)
• Foe (Reid)
• Greegs and Ladders (Mitchell and Mendlow)

Middle Grade and Children's books

These three came from mailing lists or from Amazon's World Book Day:

• Puzzled (Nichols)
• Jerry the Squirrel, Volume 1 (Robinson)
• The Caiman (Manrique/Paris)

Old Magazine

I really wanted to keep the magazine thing going.That is, I liked the idea of reading 50-year-old sci-fi magazines. I even thought I could expand it by alternately Galaxy and If. It was too much. What finally did it in, besides the fact that I was never going to be principled enough to convert this into a column for Tor or someone else, were the Expanse books, which took a lot of time, and that silly counter in Kindle showing that I've read for nearly 500 days in a row. The problem is that the counter doesn't seem to count PDF files as reading books, so any day I read Analog, I had to read something else, too. I never actually finished July's issue, and I didn't go back and read the serials for this year. Maybe I'll try again in 2023, but I'm not pendiling them in just yet.

I thought I actually read one issue of "IF", but if I had, I didn't make an entry in the blog for it.

• ANALOG PLUS 50: Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact July 1972
• ANALOG PLUS 50: Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact June 1972
• ANALOG PLUS 50: Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact May 1972
• ANALOG PLUS 50: Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact April 1972
• ANALOG PLUS 50: Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact March 1972
• ANALOG PLUS 50: Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact February 1972
• ANALOG PLUS 50: Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact January 1972
• Galaxy PLUS 50: Galaxy Magazine, January-February 1972

Other Short Stories

In January, I tried collecting all the stories that were published by Daily Science Fiction and Flash Fiction Magazine, using the links that they email me daily or weekly (respectively). I think I even managed to make an ebook out of DSF. Two problems with this were that it was time-consuming to collect them all in book form, and I tried to coment on each individual story, which wasn't practical. I have since tried to get published in Flash Fiction, but reading one month of their stories, I could tell that I wasn't writing what they were looking for. (And I wasn't writing specifically for them because if I didn't sell the story, what would I do with it?).

Daily Science Fiction will soon cease publication. They stopped accepting manuscripts a while ago. I may go back through my email to read the old stories. All of them are on the website, but they aren't categorized in a way that makes it easy to access them. This is likely by design.

The stories from The Arcanist are the winners, runners-up and also-rans of themed contest for the past five or six years. So about 40 stories total.

Finally, there was a second collection of stories from eSpec Books' Kickstarter campaigns. As I've read them from shortest to longest, most of the short stories are done with and I'm at the short novel level. That's not to say more short stories won't pop up as new campaigns come along.

• "The Arcanist" story collections (multiple)
• A Bushel and a Peck of eSpec Stories
• Daily Science Fiction, February 2022
• Flash Fiction Magazine, January 2022
• Daily Science Fiction, January 2022

Manga

There were two entries covering My Hero Academia Volumes 22 Through 31 and Volume 32 became available at the end of the year. It got very dark.

Not listed on the blog was One-Piece, which took me some time to find the last book that I read. I remembered some things but not others. I finally got to the shipbuilders at Water Seven, which seemed familar but I couldn't remember the ending. I read two volumes of One Piece, after skimming the three before them.

Non-fiction

Fewer than usual, I think. I carried Eating to Extinction back in forth on the subway in hardcover for a month before giving up on it. Then I borrowed the ebook from the library. Interesting reading, probably my favorite book of the year.

The rest include a very old humor book, writing tips, selling tips, a cookbook (with "Geometry" and "Pasta" in the title), random legends, and information on whiskey.

• Eating to Extinction
• The Geometry of Pasta (Hilderbrand, Kenedy, Vandy)
• The Literary Handyman: More Tips from the Handyman (Ackley-McPhail)
• Famous Legends From Portugal (Abrantes)
• At Wit's End (Bombeck)
• Exactly How I Promote and Sell Books (Dee)
• Whiskey (Diller)

Gaming Books

There were a few gaming books, but not enough to merit a blog entry yet. Most of those were from Philip J. Reed. There were a couple others, which will go in a different post when it gets to enough pages.

Summary

So there were about 50 blog entries dedicated to reading. They include 25 books (plus 1 more), 7 (or 8?) magazines, 5 bundles of flash fiction or short stories, about 14 volumes of manga, and 6 (plus 1) nonfiction books. Not a bad year.

2021 Year in Review

My 2021 End-of-the-Year Review

Calendar year 2021 has finally left us, and during that time I left 66 entries on my blog, which is basically record for me. In 2009, I had 86 posts, but many of those were reprinting old reviews I'd written in a tiny notebook that I kept for the same reason. That's not to say that I didn't have any "old posts" this past year, but I didn't have as many.

So what could be found in those 66 entries? A lot of different stuff, different genres, and various lengths. I tried not to stuff a bunch of 100-200 page books in at the end of the year.

Fiction

First, of those, only 23 were novels, long or short. Three were Christmas stories, which may be short for "novels" but longer than the other Christmas material I read. Ten of these books were from joining a book club. (Shame on me, it should've been 11, I skipped one month, and I wasn't part of the group at the beginning of the year.)

A quick rundown:

Book Club: The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry (Zevin), Beartown (Backman), Ninth House (Bardugo), The Only Good Indians (Jones), The Bear and the Cardinal (Arden), Anger is a Gift (Oshiro), The Oracle Year (Soule), Bellewether (Kearsley), Scythe ( Shusterman), The Anomaly (Ruger).

Christmas books: Jake and the Gingerbread Wars (Foley), Claus for Concern (Lester), The Ghost of Christmas Past (Fox), and A Very Beechwood Christmas (Garrett). The last one was finished in January after Christmas 2020.

Anthologies: Aesop's Fables (Aesop/Jones), and The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Doyle).

And the rest: Tooth and Claw (Walton), Circle (Miller), Vampire Addiction: The Vampires of Athens (Pohler), The Outposter (Dickson), Kings of the Wyld (Eames), Troll Hunter: Witch for Hire (Mason), and The Crime Beat (Fuller), which was really a novella.

Of those, one was a library recommendation, one a scifi con recommendation, one was an Analog serial that I found in book form, two were free in emails, one was a free Tor.com ebook, and one was a free download I found when I was searching for books with trolls.

Abandoned was They Were the Best of Gnomes ... (Wills). I couldn't get into it.

Nonfiction

There were six books in this category. One historical, one biographical, one inspirational, two informative, and one about TV.

The Man From the Other Side (Orlev), Don't Burn This Book (Rubin), I Heard God Laugh (Kelly), The Literary Handyman: Tips on Writing From Someone Who's Been There (Ackley-McPhail), Doctor Who: 365 Days of Memorable Moments and Impossible Things (Richards), Principles of Zen Philosophy.

Full disclosure: Danielle Ackley-McPhail is an editor whom I've worked with on three book titles.

Poetry

One was a short poetry book I was asked to review. (It wasn’t great.) and one was a collection of short stories that I got on World Book Day book from amazon == I tried to get through it but couldn’t. It was more the writing than the subject matter.

Learning to Breathe (Stephens), Amora: Stories (Borges)

Additionally, I discovered by accident that a former student of mine had published a collection of poetry (which I haven't acquired yet) and then I found out that she released a second collection for the holidays. That title is in the Christmas section.

ANALOG

In 2021, I acted upon an idea that I had the year before, and started reading issues of Analog dated 50 years earlier. This is from before I had my subscription. As such, I read 12 issues.

Shorter Christomas works, stories and poetry

The titles I read were: A Country Christmas by Azmat Hussein (ridiculously bad); Hectic Holidays by Heaven Santiago (poetry); Merry Christmas 2021: A Short Story Novel by Stephen Leacock (not good, didn’t suck); Sneaky's Christmas Mystery by Debbie De Louise (not good, 32 pages, bailed after 3 pages), The Chrsitmas Eve Landing by John O'Boyle (a picture book, I read it anyway), Frosty Blend by Kennedy Layne (book 15 of 23, not good), Old Christmas by Washington Irving, Christmas Elf by Arnie Lightning.

For a total of 7 titles plus 1 abandoned.

Random Short Novels, Short Stories & Gaming Books

Random Game/Gaming Books - 1 title, but this entry wasn't posted yet.
A Bushel and a Peck of eSpec Stories - Also not posted yet, there were 6 short stories, although they are getting longer because I'm ready by size. The last was another Christmas sotry.
A Bushel of eSpec stories - 12 stories from eSpec authors. These were bonus stories from Kickstarter campaigns.
A Peck of eSpec Stories - 12 stories from eSpec authors. These were bonus stories from Kickstarter campaigns. I sorted my directory by size, and these were the shortest ones.

That's a total of 31 stories in this section.

Graphic Novels and Manga

It was a good year from Graphic Novels. For one thing, I found actual graphic novels to read instead of collections of reprints that didn't tell a complete story. (Or worse, told three incomplete stories.)

In one calendar year, I read 21 volumes of My Hero Academia, 4 volumes of Ultraman (sadly volume 5 is not available in electronic form), 2 volumes of My Monster Secret, Shadow of the Batgirl and Supergirl: Being Super.

There was also Superman Vol. 7: Bizarroverse, which was incomplete reprints.

That's a total of 30 books in this section.

Assorted Blog Postings

Rounding out the blog were the following postings:

An old year-end Review for 2007, An old Year-end Review for 2006 An old Year-end Review for 2005 An old Year-end Review for 2004 An old Year-end Review for 2003 and Books I've Read Twice.

The 2020 Year in Review was actually published on Dec 31, 2020.

And that was my year. I think I've accounted for all 66 posts (and a couple which haven't been posted yet). Looking forward to 2022. I've already started the runner-up novel from last month's book club vote. Two of the choices looked equally interesting to me, and the winner was a quick read. I would've read the other by now, but I decided to get into the Christmas spirit.

Some Christmas Reading (various)

Some Christmas reading by numerous authors (see below).

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

LAST ENTRY OF THE YEAR!

As the year winds down, I remember reading a holiday story or two last year, and I thought doing so this year might put me in the mood. Plus, I discover that a former student of mine has a second book of poetry published, and it is a holiday collection. So I scoped out some free kindle books before trolling Project Gutenberg for stories or novellas to finish out the year. It was an interesting experience.

A note to myself for next year: when searching for "free kindle Christmas ebooks" make sure to include "-romance", because the first few pages of results will be Hallmark Channel wannabes, even if they include elves or vampires or Lord knows what else. Okay, without further ado:

Book One

First up was A Country Christmas (2021) by Azmat Hussein. The date is not on the cover, but it appears to be a part of the title. This book was so terrible that it was terribly entertaining. I would NOT have read past the first few pages except for the fact that it was only 38 pages long with an estimated reading time of less than an hour. It took longer because I stopped to laugh often. It is unintentionally amusing.

When I saw the book on Amazon, I assumed it would take place in rural Pennsylvania or somewhere down south. Actually, the story takes place in Vermont, although I may have missed this being mentioned in the first paragraph. It wasn't mentioned again. Likewise, I'm not sure of the year because of the quaint references, plus references to a war. Again, this isn't exactly a choice candidate for close reading of the text.

What's wrong with this book? For one thing, I would suspect that English is not Azmat Hussain's first language. For another, it seems like the book was translated, for the most part, by software such as Google Translate, with some crazy thesaurus usage during the editing phase. It was definitely edited because of what was supposed to be regioanl dialect in spots. Odd contractions of words, and things like "pears" for "appears". It was hysterical to read, even if because some passages had a poetic beauty to them that fell flat on their faces before they ended because of some poor word choice. Two outstanding memories: a woman sitting on a coprolite (I could find no other defintion besides fossilized dung) and the Aunt jerking in the closet. In the latter case, the closet seems to be her kitchen, and she was dancing. (Dis)honorable mention goes to "the dainty shoe tapped the bare bottom impatiently", which is refering to the bare floors of the house.

What is this story about? I haven't a clue. A writer visiting his Aunt Plumy in Vermont, and there are a bunch of other people around. I couldn't keep track because the writing itself was a distraction.

I checked Good Reads and Azmat Hussein has over two dozen books listed, many of them Christmas books. This one wasn't there. I didn't add it because the copy I downloaded had no publication information, other than the 2021 in the title.

If you can download this for free, this could be the next The Eye of Argon, the Christmas variant.

Book Two

Two disclosures: First, this volume of poetry was written by a former student of mine (I'm a math teacher, who sometimes writes). Second, this is not the book that I planned on downloading. I saw this when I was looking for Christmas books.

Hectic Holidays by Heaven Santiago is the author's second collection this year. Written after Thanksgiving, it's about the mixed, conflicting feelings and emotions we may feel this time of year between Thanksgiving and New Years. There is some wonderful wordplay in some stanzas while others are brutally honest dealing with the realities of her world. (I can't say that I can relate to all of it, but maybe some of it.)

I don't fancy myself a judge of good poetry (as most people who know me know that I soured on most of it before I was a teen). But I'm happy to see a young writer finding her voice. And Heaven, if you somehow see this, yes, I chose those words with care. I wish you candy cane hugs and Hershey kisses for the holidays and the new year.

Book Three

A Christmas Novel by Stephen Leacock is a short story of fewer than 50 pages. It was also produced by whoever created the Country Christmas book above. This was obvious not only from the bad formatting, particularly with the quotation marks along with lack of spacing after punctuation, but also from overuse of the word "veritably", overuse and misuse of the "commodity" (not sure what they were going for), and the frequent use of "Noway" possibly meaning "never". Unlike the previous book, this one mostly reads as a normal book except for these jarring verbal slaps. (Like I what assume to be a mistranslation with a reference to "The House That Jack Erected" (emphasis mine).) So it isn't unintentionally amusing, but it's not intentionally good either.

There's a little tale of a man named Joe, talking to Father Time, who recounts Christmases from long ago, even back to Babylon and Ancient Egypt because there's always been a Christmas. While they are talking, they spot Father Christmas outside and invite him in. He dries out his books that the little ones don't seem to want any more. Children today have lost their awe and sense of wonder. And it's something that needs to be addressed in today's world.

Book Four

Sneaky's Christmas Mystery by Debbie De Louise is listed as Cobble Cove Stories Book 2. There's a cat with a Santa hat on the cover. You shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but this is not a great cover. And it's not a great book, either. There's a cat and a library and a bunch of talking. The book was only 32 pages and I lasted my usual 10% and then bailed on it. It wasn't good writing, wasn't good reading and I wasn't wasting time.

Book Five

The Christmas Eve Crash Landing by John O'Boyle turned out to be a picture book. LOL. I read it anyway. It started like "Twas the Night Before Christmas" but went its own way, even though it had the same meter (which seemed a little forced at times). Santa's sleigh broke down -- it has an engine and the reindeer are just for show -- and the protagonist has to help him fix it while everyone else is frozen in time. You'd think Santa might've asked the responsible adult who might have some experience with engines, instead a kid who says maybe whack it with a hammer.

Book Six

Frosty Blend by Kennedy Layne is another abandoned book. I stayed with it for about 10 pages but it just didn't grab me. It didn't repel me either but I had the feeling I wasn't going to finish it, so I bailed early so I could move onto the next novella. Too much of an info dump in the opening and the cat/familiar interrupted the narrative a few times. There's a witch and her mother is marrying a vampire, and the cat is friends with the vampire. And ... there's probably more but I didn't care about it. This book was listed as "a Paramour Bay Cozy Paranormal Mystery Number 15", so I could be reasonably sure that the author's style wasn't going to change any as the story progressed. After 15 books, one usually has that their writing style pretty much set. **** Okay, I just took a quick check. There are 23 books in the series, so far, and the first one has a publication date of 2018! Twenty-three books in three years? Is she writing a cable sit-com? No judgment because she's obviously making bank. Just not from me, I downloaded one book for free and I'm fine with that.

Book Seven

Old Christmas by Washington Irving. It wasn't really short stories, more like five essays which were strung together into one narrative, traveling to get home for Christmas with a big collection of family and friends. I liked the "old world" charm of it all but is was hard to keep up with. And, again, nothing really happens because it's an eassy. This could've been a standalone entry on the blog (and added into my book count for the year). But it's short, and I didn't want to comment on it much because there isn't much to it.

Book Eight

Christmas Elf, Christmas Stories, Funny Jokes, and Amazing Christmas Activities by Arnie Lightning. That's a great pen name. This was a cute book, and had I read it before Christmas, I might've looked for a paperback copy to give me my nephew. (He might be just past the age for this.) There are a handful of stories about Tinsel the Christmas Elf, who Santa made the Chief Christmas Spirit Elf, cheering up a different child each year. The stories are cute and touching. The jokes are riddles of the "Sandy Claws" variety and totally unapologetic. The activities are 3 holiday-themed "Find 10 Differences Puzzles", which were a little of challenge. Nice job, Mr. Lightning. A great way to end my Christmas reading for the year!

My 2021: Year in Review will publish on New Years Day!

An old year-end Review for 2007

While cleaning up my hard drive, I found files where I kept track of the books I read for a given year. Someone had given me the idea (back in the 90s, I believe) to open a text file, and add the name of the book I'd read. What follows below looks like an "end of the year" post made to a bulletin board somewhere. It's past my time on Usenet. Many of these may have appeared elsewhere in this blog, if not the entire post itself. I'll post these files one per month.

It looks like 2007 was the last year that I have a file for. But that point, I was using a small notebook. Plus, I started this blog in December 2008.

2007: The Year in Review

The History of the Pelopennean War, Thucydides -- Intro, Books 1 and 2. Gave up. I'll be back

Knights of Dark Renown, Dave Gemmell -- loved it.

Asimov's Sherlockian Limericks, Isaac Asimov (1978) -- more of a chapter book, really. One limerick per adventure of Sherlock Holmes. Quick read

The Life and Times of R. Crumb: Comments from Contemporaries, edited by Monte Beauchamp, intro by Matt Groening (1998) -- Fanboy praise from writers and artists about a guy I'd barely heard of who created comics that I never read.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, J. K. Rowling (2004) -- re-read prior to the movie and the new book.

The Enjoyment of Mathematics, Hans Rademacher and Otto Toeplitz (1957) -- sucked all the "joy" out of the subject. Tedious.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, J. K. Rowling (2006) --

Mathematical Recreations, Maurice Kraitchik, (1953)

C is for Corpse, Sue Grafton (1986)

D is for Deadbeat, Sue Grafton (1987)

At this point, I was still catching up with the Harry Potter series --- it looks like I found another "reread" for my list. And decided to read the Alphabet mysteries at a rate of 2 per year, just because I didn't want to get bogged down with an entire series. (Plus, it gives you something to look forward to.) The math books may have come from the library, or they may have been tossed out from my high school's library (or by the Math Dept). The R. Crumb book, I wasn't familiar with although I had vague recollections of my older brothers reading some of his stuff when I was younger. I won that in a raffle and might've traded it away if someone had something worth trading for.

Note that in the past 14 years, I have NOT gotten back to Thucydides and it's highly unlikely that I ever will. I gave it that second chance, so many years after college, and now I've put it behind me. That said, if it turns out that the paperback is still in my closet and I one day find it, then who knows. But I wouldn't count on it when there are so many other things to read which aren't challeges and when there's little chance of me using the "History" as research for some writing project.

An old Year-end Review for 2006

While cleaning up my hard drive, I found files where I kept track of the books I read for a given year. Someone had given me the idea (back in the 90s, I believe) to open a text file, and add the name of the book I'd read. What follows below looks like an "end of the year" post made to a bulletin board somewhere. It's past my time on Usenet. Many of these may have appeared elsewhere in this blog, if not the entire post itself. I'll post these files one per month.

It looks like 2006 wasn't a big year, but I did get a lot of graphic novels out of the library.

2006: The Year in Review

Asimov's Galaxy, Isaac Asimov

The Earth Lords, Gordon Dickson

i sing the body electric!, Ray Bradbury

The Transparent Life: 30 Proven Ways to Live Your Best, Naomi Judd

The Funhouse, Dean Koontz

The Joy of Pi, David Blatner

A is for Alibi, Sue Grafton

B is for Burglar, Sue Grafton

The Outsiders, S. E. Hinton

The End, Lemony Snicket

I started at least two other anthologies that I put down and will eventually get back to.

I had to return C is for Corpse before I'd finished it.

And there was another Math book, but I forgot to enter it, and I can't find the title.

I ended the year reading the introduction The History of the Peloponnesian War, by Thucydides.

Summer reading included a host of graphic novels the library got in:

"Gotham Central: In the Line of Duty"

"Batman: As the Crow Flies"

"JSA: The Liberty Files"

"Trinity" (Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman)

"Outsiders: Looking for Trouble"

"Batman: War Games"

"The New Teen Titans: Judas Contract"

B is for Burglar was a reread. The End was the lackluster end of that series. The Outsiders was assigned for grad school, and I don't remember much about it -- maybe I should watch the movie (which I haven't seen). I'm curious what the anthologies were because I have many that I've started and never picked up again but I keep meaning to. Summer's coming, and they would make great pool books.

An old Year-end Review for 2005

While cleaning up my hard drive, I found files where I kept track of the books I read for a given year. Someone had given me the idea (back in the 90s, I believe) to open a text file, and add the name of the book I'd read. What follows below looks like an "end of the year" post made to a bulletin board somewhere. It's past my time on Usenet. Many of these may have appeared elsewhere in this blog, if not the entire post itself. I'll post these files one per month.

It looks like 2005 was an old year. I don't remember even having some of these let alone reading them. Quite a few were library books, particularly the political ones, which were right next to the science fiction section at my local branch.

2005: The Year in Review

Horseclans #1: The Coming of the Horseclans,

Star Trek #29: Dreadnought, Diane Carey

Big Trouble, Dave Barry

At Any Cost: How Al Gore Tried to Steal the Election,

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, K. J. Anderson

Defcon One, Joe Weber

Sword and Shadow, Anne Marston

Star Trek: the Return, William Shatner

Men in Black: How the Supreme Court is Destroying America, Mark Levin

Peanuts: A Golden Celebration, Charles M. Schulz

3001: The Final Odyssey, Arthur C. Clarke

The Light Fantastic, Terry Pratchett

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, J. K. Rowling

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, C. S. Lewis

100 People Who Are Screwing Up America, Goldberg

1776,

The Wizard of Oz, L. Frank Baum

Magazines Anthologies: (some old issues that I had but never read)

The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, July 2000

What strikes me is that I not only have no recollection of Horseclans #1, but I didn't even remember reading it. It was a GURPS worldbook back in the 80s or 90s, which is had I would have even been aware of it. Likewise, I don't remember reading Dreadnought, or even owning a copy, or than the pair of books I bought as a Christmas present from a friend many years before this. The 1776 entry is also a head-scratcher, especially since there's no author attached to it -- ah, a quick net search shows it was written by David McCullough. I remember that now. I remember reading the bits about the Gowanus swamp and the Battle of Brooklyn because it happened in my backyard -- LITERALLY.

Interestingly, I don't seem to have tags for Pratchett or C. S. Lewis.

An old Year-end Review for 2004

While cleaning up my hard drive, I found files where I kept track of the books I read for a given year. Someone had given me the idea (back in the 90s, I believe) to open a text file, and add the name of the book I'd read. What follows below looks like an "end of the year" post made to a bulletin board somewhere. It's past my time on Usenet. Many of these may have appeared elsewhere in this blog, if not the entire post itself. I'll post these files one per month.

It looks like 2004 was a banner year for me, but given that many were Lemony Snicket books, it's a little less impressive.

2004: The Year in Review

2004 -- It was a year of catching up on a number of series books. And it was probably the most books I've read in a long time (even if 12 of them were Lemony Snicket)

The Return of the King, J. R. R. Tolkien
The Broken Blade, Ann Marston
The Bad Beginning, Lemony Snicket
The Reptile Room, Lemony Snicket
The Wide Window, Lemony Snicket
The Miserable Mill, Lemony Snicket
The Austere Academy, Lemony Snicket
Cloudbearer's Shadow, Ann Marston
Rogue Pirate, John Gregory Betancourt
The King of Shadows, Ann Marston
The Ersatz Elevator, Lemony Snicket
The Vile Village, Lemony Snicket
The Hostile Hospital, Lemony Snicket
The Carniverous Carnerval, Lemony Snicket
Let Freedom Ring, Sean Hannity
Maybe (Maybe Not), Robert Fulgrum
The Slippery Slope, Lemony Snicket
The Unauthorized Autobiography of Lemony Snicket
Eats, Shoots, & Leaves, Lynne Truss
Tom Clancy's Net Force: Night Moves
Tom Clancy's Net Force: Breaking Point
The Kingdom of Infinite Numbers: A Field Guide, Bryan Bunch
X-Files: Whirlwind, (does it matter who it's by?)
Tom Clancy's Net Force: Point of Impact
The Grim Grotto, Lemony Snicket
Tom Clancy's Net Force: Cybernation (in this one, the title actually had something to do with the story)
Vulcan!, Kathleen Sky
Stars & Stripes Forever, Harry Harrison
Stars & Stripes In Peril, Harry Harrison
Stars & Stripes Triumphant, Harry Harrison


Also
Graphic Novels: (I don't normally get to read these, but I found a stack at the local library and went through them!)
Batman: Terror (good)
Tales of the Slayers (very good, it was worth picking rather than the Buffy books)
Batman: Child of Dreams (pretty good, but pretty long)
Spiderman: The Death of Gwen Stacey (excellent -- even for reprints)
Spyboy/Young Justice (ick)
Batman: The Arrow, the Ring & the Bat (good story, but the splash pages were annoying) The family had our own little book club, with the Snicket series (so far) divided up amongst family members to be passed around. The Net Force books were a series that I received as a gift, except that the first book in the series wasn't there. Oh well. I picked up one of Harrison books at a book sale, and a friend told me he had the other two.

An old Year-end Review for 2003

While cleaning up my hard drive, I found files where I kept track of the books I read for a given year. Someone had given me the idea (back in the 90s, I believe) to open a text file, and add the name of the book I'd read. What follows below looks like an "end of the year" post made to a bulletin board somewhere. If it's 2003, it's past my time on Usenet. Many of these may have appeared elsewhere in this blog, if not the entire post itself. I'll post these files one per month.

2003: The Year in Review

I know this is a couple of weeks late, but what the hey, I'll post it anyway.

Books read in 2003. Not many as I drove to work for most of the year, losing my prime reading time on the subway. (At bedtime, I'm usually too exhausted to get more than a handful of pages. Teaching will do that.) And getting 12 teaching credits took up a lot of time. (Textbooks are excluded from my list.)

Anyway:

The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, J.R.R. Tolkien. I was reading it when the year started, having never read it before.

Congo, Michael Crichton: Library sale book. Enjoyed it.

Mostly Harmless, Douglas Adams: Mostly crap.

Some "Buffy" book about Faeries by the author of Ghost Roads (another Buffy book I read a couple of years back). Actually, it was a good thing that I had read Ghost Roads because the author makes a lot of Buffy references, most of which I think I caught, from the show. When she tossed in a G.R. character reference, I was thrown at first. (Hey, that's non-canon stuff!)

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, J. K. Rowling: Probably my favorite one to date (though subject to change). I was totally taken in by this one, waiting for something so fricking obviously to happen and then have an alternate that I didn't suspect happen.

Destiny's Road, Larry Niven: Enjoyed it, very much. A world-building travelogue with a story wrapped around it so that you dont' realize that you have a world-building travelogue. (That's the way to do it.)

Kingmakers Sword, Ann Marston: First part of a trilogy I stumbled across a few years back. I found part I in the library. Great book, and it didn't matter that I know how some of it would turn out because I had read part II.

The Western King, Ann Marston: I had to reread it after part I. Still as good on the second read-through. Better, because I had part I as an intro this time.

(part three is on reserve at the library)

Holes, Louis Sachar: Saw the movie, so I read the book. I'll rank it as the best movie adaptation of a kids book that I've seen. Enjoyed the book, and appreciated that there was a little more to some of the characters in the book.

Star Trek: The Next Generation: Dyson Sphere: Thought it would be good, but I didn't particularly care for it. Like the use of Hortas, hated the story and the ending. Added Note: I didn't write down the author's name?

Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire, J. K. Rowling: Didn't thrill me as much as the others. The "one year per book" rule was a little strained as was the Tri-Wizard Tournament. Could've been shorter.

Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix, J. K. Rowling: OK, I'm caught up with the Potter books now. Liked it better than four, but I thought that some of it was either forced or unnecessary.

The Harry Potter books weren't a re-read. They were a first read. I was late to the party with those. I was initially turned off by online friends who complained how Scholastic Books had overly "Americanized" the first book.

2020 Year in Review

My 2020 End-of-the-Year Review

It's not unusual that very little of what I read this year was published this year. What is unusual is that one of those things was actually written by me. Yay, me!

The year should have a total of 30 posts, including this 2019 Review, this entry, and, I'm hoping, one more book before the year is over.

Of the books read, most were fiction, but there was more nonfiction than usual. Some of the nonfiction came from free downloads with interesting titles or topics, like Celts or the Soviet Nuclear Weapons Program (which I remember little of now). The rest were math books, biographies and self-help/inspirational. Plus a pub quiz book.

Fiction is a mixed bag. There are at least two books I didn't finish, but there were other books I gave up on that I didn't bother to list. In the latter case, it was either because I was asked for a review and didn't wish to be mean publicly, or I gave up before I even hit 10% of it. There's also the Best of Tor.com 2016 which I made a dent in, but the book is huge, and I wanted to read other things.

Speaking of Tor, their free ebook of the month club has given me lots to read, not that I've read a lot of it. But the timing of The Haunting of Tram Car 015 coinciding with my just finishing A Dead Djinn in Cairo was too good to pass up. That rated its own entry.

There were two Oz books (one was manga), and two Kinsey Milhone mysteries (one better than the other). And aside from the Tor book, there were a couple of anthologies (including my own): If We Had Known, and Unidentified Funny Objects. I have books 1, 2, 3 and 8 in that latter series. Book 9 will probably kickstarter in the spring, and I'll fill in some gaps. (And maybe submit something.)

Ebooks accounted for 18 of the 28 book entries. Of those, only two were library books, and most of the rest were free downloads. I think only UFO 1 and If cost money. Both of those would be among the best things I read this year. I finally read Redshirts, but I was a little disappointed, but that could be all the buildup I've gotten since it's release. I don't know what I expected of it.

On the nonfiction side, putting the math and games aside, A Sick Life and Out of the Silence were interesting reads, while The Highly Sensitive Person might give me something to think about.

2019: The Year in Review

For a year without a Challenge checklist, I had a pretty eclectic year. Granted, I didn't read as much as I would have liked, and I lost a lot of my reading time this past summer due to ... reasons. Also, at least two crossword puzzle books factored in, as I needed a diversion every now and then.

There were over three dozen posts last year, almost all of them about completed books. Only two about books that I gave the old college try before abandoning them for not being good, enjoyable, or even well-written.

There were fiction books and nonfiction, sci-fi and foreign translations, graphic novels and self-help, math book and game books, long and short.

In the graphic novel category: I discovered the series Amulet at my last school, before discovering that each issue was published about a year or more apart -- and that the final issue had not been published yet. Indeed, at the time, it probably hadn't been written yet, as #8 was not that old. There were summer comic books, most of which were disjointed collections of monthly titles, which shared a theme, but not a coherent story line because too many parts were left out. (And different included titles had different side plots.)

The odd thing was that I made no entry for One Piece and haven't since 2017 when I listed the first 27 books. I know I'm somewhere in the 30s, possibly low 40s, so I need to find out which was the last book I read, so I can catch up and make another entry. Honestly, I don't remember if I read any last year. I would have had to have put them on hold at the library. (Note: that's actually not a bad way to check on it.)

I will plug Amazon only because I tend to use their images, but because of their annual "World Book Day" where I get to download a bunch of free translations, and then proceed to read one or two of them. This year, I read another Japanese book, Go (even though I should have gone to another part of the world), and a Dutch book, An American Princess: The Many Lives of Allene Tew. The amazing thing about the Dutch book was that it took place, for the most part, in the United States, in New York and Pennsylvania. Allene Tew was born in New York at the fringes of high society, rose up and eventually married actually royalty in Europe. She died in Holland, and the author worked backward from there -- no spoilers, as the story starts with her final days, far from the place where she was born. Had I had more time to go walking this year, I thought about a tour of places she'd lived (or were mentioned in the book) -- the Manhattan ones, at least. Fascinating book, and there were some copies of original society pages included.

In the fantasy category: last year's eSpec Books sale gave me a collection of Precinct books, by Keith R. A. DeCandido (I recently found out it's "de Candid o"), except for Mermaid Precinct, which I selected after winning a flash fiction contest. (Those are gone now.) I liken it to a fantasy Barney Miller with its cast of characters that originated in roleplaying games, but are three-dimensional.

Nonfiction, other than the translation, included essay books ("Writing Science Fiction", and "Breakfast on Mars" which is NOT science fiction) and self-help. Humble and Kind was a gift book with the lyrics to the Tim McGraw song (which he didn't write) along with a short essay introduction (which he did). Speak Thai was just a quickie free ebook, which I read as a curiosity -- it didn't achieve its goal. I don't need to break up with my phone -- in fact, I need to get a better phone -- but reducing screen time wouldn't be a bad idea. And, of course, there were two math books.

Finding a challenge for 2020 may be difficult. Many are boring, or just have dumb things added. I think I did okay last year. Plus, I have a whole lot TBR.

2018: Year in Review

Last year, I seemed to avoid keeping track of what I was reading, giving the sparse use of the blog until the very end of December.

Also, I seemed to avoid reading altogether, considering how long it took me to get through some of these entries.

According to the sidebar, there were 26 entries for the entire year. Of those, three were not about specific books. On the other hand, there were a lot of graphic novels, particularly in the summer, and manga, particularly near the school library. So my book total was closer to 35. This comes with a little bit of a caveat: I counted the ROM comics as 4 graphic novels because I believe that's how they were available, even as I read 14 issues. Likewise, Clean Room, which had its review deleted by accident, and will get restored at some point, counted as 1 book, even though it was the first six comics in the series. Most of the graphic novels were similar to this.

Additionally, there was at least one One Piece book in there, but I was going to wait until I'd read a bunch more of those ... which I then didn't do. At the very least, I'll wait until the end of the present story line. But I have other things to get to.

It was an odd year for me. I see that there were only two science fiction books: 1634, which is alternative history, without a lot of sci-fi once you've accepted the premise, and Space Team, which I don't need to rehash.

There was a bit of nonfiction, including biography and essays, as well as some poetry and one old self-help book.

And again, two more Sue Grafton mysteries. I should just read through and close out the series.

One book does appear to be missing. I read a book about The Beatles, a behind-the-scenes book that I picked up in the school library, either in late 2017 or early 2018. I thought it was around the time I read the Maya Angelou book. (Interesting pairing, right? They were in the same pile on the same desk.) For whatever reason, I didn't log it.

Lots of books, real and electronic, on deck to be read. Once again, I'm commuting by car (and I could actually walk), so most of my reading is at bedtime, and sometimes at meals. When I'm not all over social media, that is.

Goals for 2019?

More than 2018, for sure.
Read or discard a lot of books in the basement.
Alternate more between paper and ebook.
Read older stuff before downloading new (sometimes "old") stuff.
Expand a bit -- find other topics and genres to visit.
Do a mini-run on a series or two: I've started Sue Grafton, Jim Butcher, Laurel K. Hamilton, and some things I didn't care for. And there's an entire world of Eric Flint's 1632. (See the sidebar -- I'm not hotlinking everything.)

2017 -- The Year in Review

One of the problems I always have with lists of the "best" books of any given year is that I rarely get to read books in the year that they are published. I guess I rely so much on word of mouth for new things, and if they are popular, I won't see a copy of it.

Secondary problem, I'm at a point where I have way too many books, so I don't purchase too many. I might get a new book as a gift, or if I'm getting it signed by the author, which hasn't happened for a new release since I worked in midtown Manhattan.

My reading time could be summed up as follows: before bed, on the subway (not buses), and lying around in the pool. (Yes, in the pool, so my choices are limited -- no ebooks, obviously.)

Looking at this blog, there were 20 entries from 2017. One of those had two books, and another mentioned 30 volumes of manga read over a 12-month period. Assuming half of those were read in 2017, that's 35 books, which isn't bad.

Add to that a few more books that weren't written up yet, and that brings the total to 40. Not horrible, actually.

I think that my summer challenge turned into an interesting experiment, but too many of the books at my local library were reference books, not suitable for summer reading, and I found myself picking up quite a number of "young adult" selections. Nothing wrong with that, in general, but at least one was aimed at a middle school audience.

I'm not looking into any "goals" or "challenges" this year. If one comes along that interests me, fine. Otherwise, that's fine, too.

The books that I've been reading are generally large, and my time devoted to them (especially if I'm driving) is short. Not a good combo if the plan is to read N number of books. I mused the thought of tracking pages, but even this is silly given some content. For example, last year I read a book of poetry, a photo essay, and a book with large print. For that matter, I couldn't say how many pages ebooks have because it depends upon the font size.

So, no goals. Plans? Well, I have to read some more Eric Flint before Heliosphere, NY this year, where Mr. Flint will be one of the guests of honor, and a mini-1632 convention will take place within the larger sci-fi convention.

I will continue to read more of the recently departed Sue Grafton, eventually, though not likely in 2018, getting to Y is for Yesterday, which will, sadly, be the final letter of the alphabet.

I will finish at least two books of fairy tales that I've started but put aside because I can only read so many before my mind wants something else.

I will get more of the paper books off my shelf and out of the house even as I bring in my electronic ones.

There will be more manga and more math books, and possibly a manga math book!

There will be words, pictures, poetry, and whatever may come along that strikes my interest.

And there will be write-ups, summaries and reviews, even as I re-evaluate just who I'm writing this blog for.

Looking forward to 2018, which has already started, and I'm already reading.

Reading Goals and Challenges for 2016?

I generally don't like setting reading goals. I always have some in mind, but they always seem to get away from me -- especially when social media and the rest of the Internet are around. (And their great ancestor: the TV set.)

One of the problems is that Goals are generally boring and somewhat non-specific. Read 10, 20, 30 books. Okay, what kind of books? How big? In 5th Grade, I got tired of not having a star next to my mind, so once I finished the 100-page biography I took out of the library, I started reading the chapter books in the back of the classroom, and other things that were probably below my reading level (unlike the biography). I even read a couple of the books more than once because I knew I could reread them in one day. I got a lot of stars, enough to rival the leaders of the class. But I didn't push myself, read anything challenging. (On the other hand, I won't deny that I read stuff that was fun, which is important, too.)

Getting to the point, if I decided I'm reading, say, 24 books this year, there will be a good chance that many of them will be under 200 pages. There's a good quantity of books from only 20-30 years ago that have a decent quality to them that fit into that range. I could through in some free ebooks with low word counts, both of the classic and the only-read-it-because-it-was-free variety.

That's not what I want. And I probably wouldn't try it. Instead, I'd just skip the goal altogether.

But I found a few challenges on line, varying in length. Obviously, the longer one has the same problems as the 24-book goals: there are too many, unless shoot for two checks with one book. A possibility, of course.

So Challenge 1 goes something like this:

• a book published this year
• a book you can finish in a day
• a book you've been meaning to read
• a book recommended by your local librarian or bookseller
• a book you should have read in school
• a book chosen for you by your spouse, partner, sibling, child, or BFF
• a book published before you were born
• a book that was banned at some point
• a book you previously abandoned
• a book you own but have never read
• a book that intimidates you
• a book that you've already read at least once

(I tracked it back to here.)

This one is definitely in the realm of possibility. Twelve books, if I don't double up. For instance, I have many books that I own and have never read AND have been meaning to read. The odd one is rereading a book -- I might be this if another Song of Ice and Fire book (a.k.a. Game of Thrones) comes out, but with so many books to read, re-reading seems silly, unless it's something that I read in high school or college and I want to read again when I might enjoy it more.

Also, anything that I can read in a day, I don't really considering reading a book, but I've posted them in my blog, so I guess I should include them.

The second challenge:

• a book set in your home state/region
• a book with your favorite color cover
• a book recommended by a librarian
• a book of poetry
• a book with a main character who has an occupation similar to your own
• a book that will become a movie this year (watch the movie after and compare)
• a book published the year you were born
• a book featuring a protagonist with a lifestyle different from yours (religion, sexuality, education, occupation, politics)
• a National Book Award winner from years past
• a book over 500 pages
• a book under 200 pages
• a graphic novel
• books set on each continent
• a book recommended by someone 30 years older or younger than you
• a banned book
• a book you were supposed to read in school but didn't
• a book by a female author with a female protagonist
• a book translated from a different language
• a nonfiction book about science
• a collection of essays
• a book by a person of color
• a famous author's lesser known work
• a collection of short stories
• a science fiction book
• a self-improvement book

(This is the BetterWorldBooks 2016 Challenge).

As you can see, there's some overlap between the two challenges. Some of these are trivial. Color of the cover? Depends on the printing. And if it's an ebook, I may never see the cover. There are a lot of old books under 200 pages, so that's good. I can't say that I've read a lot of movie books recently and I don't even know at the moment what is being made into movies. Female author & protagonists? Kinsey Milhone or that vampire series -- done. Science fiction? Duh.

A little sneaky with "books set on each continent" -- that's seven books! Yes, Antarctica counts. There are books set there. Unless I choose Westeros and Essos.

But it's possible.

I found two more. One is an image that's hard to read, so I'm not retyping it. Some overlap, but it includes read a biography, not a memoir or autobiography, read the first in a series by a person of color (I don't always know that the author of the series is black or Asian or whatever), books in the Middle East, Southeast Asia or historical. A non-superhero comic from the last three years? What's the point of that? It goes on ... I won't.

The last one is for the overachievers, or the Pick-a-Few-Skip-a-Few Crowd. Forty books in all. Not going to happen, unless half of them are pamphlets or matchbook covers.

• a book based on a fairy tale
• a National Book Award winner
• a YA bestseller
• a book you haven't read since high school
• a book set in your home state
• a book translated into English
• a romance set in the future
• a book set in Europe
• a book that's under 150 pages
• a New York Times bestseller
• a book that's becoming a movie this year
• a self-improvement book
• a book you can finish in a day
• a book written by a celebrity
• a political memoir
• a book at least 100 years older than you
• a book that's more than 600 pages
• a book from Oprah's Book Club
• a science-fiction novel
• a book recommended by a family member
• a graphic novel
• a book that is published in 2016
• a book with a protagonist who has your occupation
• a book that takes place during Summer
• a book and its prequel
• a murder mystery
• a book written by a comedian
• a dystopian novel
• a book with a blue cover
• a book of poetry
• the first book you see in a bookstore
• a classic from the 20th century
• an autobiography
• a book about a road trip
• a book about a culture you're unfamiliar with
• a satirical book
• a book that takes place on an island
• a book that's guaranteed to bring you joy

This was the ebookfriendly.com reading challenge.

And there you have it, lots of choices and checklists. Some worth the challenge, some silly and frivolous. And a few that seem impossible: "guaranteed to bring you joy"? For that matter, the "first book I see in a bookstore"? Odds are I'm not buying the first thing I see.

On the other hand, the book I'm currently reading was on the Remainder rack in the vestibule as I entered the store -- but I can't swear it was the first one I saw.

What Else Have I Been Reading Besides Books?

Rounding out the things I've read recently:

When I was in the pool, I generally had an old magazine, such as Analog or The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, which I was might be momentarily upset, but not devastated, by its loss should it slip into the water.

And one point I had, again, picked up the Stars anthology, which contained stories by science fiction authors based on the songs of Janis Ian (At Seventeen). The few I read were a mixed bag. The book was won, not bought, so I can't say that it's something I might've chosen to begin with, but with the line-up, I know why I held onto it. I'm not sure where I put the book, so I didn't get to finish it.

I've also been raiding the library for copies of Phil & Kaja Foglio's Girl Genius series, to find out what all the hubbub was about. So far I've found and read

• Volume 4: Agatha Heterodyne and the Circus Of Dreams (128 pp)
• Volume 5: Agatha Heterodyne and the Clockwork Princess (112 pp)
• Volume 6: Agatha Heterodyne and the Golden Trilobite (150 pp)

The library has a problem with people defacing these. In one book, the splash page was torn out and a character's face was cut out of another page.

Volume 4 was the earliest that I could find (other than looking and reading online), so I started there. Thrown into the middle of things, as it were, but I figured out the storyline as best as I could.

It's an interesting Steampunk tale of Sparks and is vividly illustrated. My only problem with the artwork is that the protagonist, Agatha Heterodyne, seems to go through extreme mood swings from one panel to the next. Indeed, several characters seem to encounter this. Now, a lot is going on very quickly, but sometimes it's abrupt. When I first started reading, I wasn't always sure it was the same character because someone went from, say, devious to innocent, or vice-versa, in the space of someone's word balloon.

I've enjoyed the series and haven't minded people watching me reading it on the subway. In fact, I was reading it at 2 am on a Sunday morning when two young twenty-somethings sat down next to me and started a conversation -- not even about the comic. They were new to Brooklyn, and forgot how to get home. Would've been helpful had they been on the correct train.

Speaking of trains, I'm currently reading a book about great train robberies in history. Hopefully, that will be up on the blog in short order.