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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1031
Location: UK | Hope you all got some choice reading matter or at least book tokens 
Do join in and share your reads with the community. I know that we get quite a few viewers on this thread,so welcome all you lurkers. We dont bite,you know........
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1031
Location: UK | Dusty's TBR for January 2024
SF/F reads
Robert A Heinlein - Podkayne of Mars
Gordon Dickson - Soldier,Ask Not
Jack Vance - Book of Dreams
C J Cherryh - Brothers of Earth
K M Shea - Games of Enemies and Allies
Clifford D Simak - They Walked Like Men
Philip Latham - Five Against Venus
Lucius Shepard - The Man Who Painted the Dragon Griaule
........
I have no less than 29 books left unread from my 2023 TBR,I intend to make an effort to read at least a good few of them
Another goal is to reread the Heinlein juveniles,as well as finishing the Winsto Science Fiction list here on WWEnd. I think I have read 26/37.
I will be happy if I achieve at least six SF/F reads per month,but will leave ample type for trash and fluff ,my means of coping with the trials and tribulations of life!
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 556
Location: Great Lakes, USA | daxxh's January TBR
Lords of Uncreation - Adrian Tchaikovsky
The Blighted Stars - Megan E. O'Keefe
White Fire - Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
A Memory of Light - Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson (if I get it from the library hold)
I am currently reading my Mom's copy of Exodus by Leon Uris. It is excellent and it is cool that I am reading a copy that is older than me. It has to be close to 70 years old and is in excellent shape and, unlike my Ace Doubles, does not reek of mold!
I probably won't read as much this year as I am moving and will no longer spend 2.5 hours a day commuting. I like listening to audiobooks in the car, but hate that I spend so much time doing it daily. I am looking forward to new bookstores in a new town!
Happy New Year, everyone!
Edited by daxxh 2023-12-31 7:15 PM
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Veteran
Posts: 254
Location: California | Dusty, which version of Podkayne are you reading? The one Heinlein was forced to rewrite or the one he wanted to have? I understand that many editions mid 90s and later have Heinlein's preferred ending.
I have all the books I intended to read this year plus all the new ones I got this month. I have Jane Yolen's Midnight Circus, Gene Wolf's collection of short stories, The Wolfe at the Door and Volume 6 of the Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon (Baby Is Three). So much good stuff to read! |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1031
Location: UK | Jane Yolen is such an interesting writer,even her juvenile books are enjoyable. I do a book challenge each year on LibraryThing,where we have to read one book by an author from all 26 letters of the alphabet,and Jane Yolen gets chosen nearly every year! lol
We also have to read 26 titles from all the alphabet. There are some pesky letters there,like X and Z,but its a fun challenge.
I am supposed to be cutting down on reading but yet again I have joined that challenge. 52 books to read even before anything else.
Why do I do this to myself each year.
2023 was such a bad year I had to use short stories to complete that challenge,which I scraped through on two weeks before Xmas! |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1031
Location: UK | Oh,at least one challenge I will succeed on is reaching 1000 posts on this site. It took a mere 11 years to do so ,but I should do it soon,in 2 or 3 months.
I wonder why SF fans,on so many websites are so reclusive? lol |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1031
Location: UK | Oops,my mistake. Its 1200 posts to reach the Expert level.3 or 4 years to go then. I'm 76 end of January,so maybe by time I'm 79 I'll reach the target. |
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Regular
Posts: 92
| That's a target to aim for dustydigger! This year the 'roll your own challenge' I will be doing is the Speculative Fiction by People of Colour and I have a couple of rules. One, read through the 'A Crash Course in the History of Black Science Fiction' list in order and skip books by an author I have read which I am sure is only Samuel Delany in the first ten or so anyway.
So I have started with 'Blake, or The Huts of America' by Martin Delany and I am about a quarter through. It's not a particularly well written book but at the same time it's quite shocking reading how slave owners talk so matter of fact about dehumanising people, and it made me reflect that in 2024 it's still quite easy to dehumanise and other people, so it is quite a reflective read.
If I get a move on I'll probably read 'The Goophered Grapevine' by Charles W. Chesnutt and 'Of One Blood' by Pauline Hopkins, both available online thankfully.
Interspersed with that I'll be reading early issues of a wonderful folk horror and occult zine called Hellebore. I bought a load of them and added them to the TBR pile, I've read the first four and I love them. The articles are scholarly, yet short and accessible and the zine looks beautiful. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1031
Location: UK | So far have read Heinlein's Podkayne of Mars,with the ending the publisher pressed on RAH,plus 3 or 4 fluff Kindle Unlimited titles when the problems of real life get too heavy,mostly in the midle of the night. Vampires and witches,werewolves and gryphons,gargoyles and a myriad of supernatural creatures. Pure fun brainless fare,but enjoyable
Next I need to finish C J Cherryh's early novel Brothers of Earth and Vance's The Book of Dreams.
Edited by dustydigger 2024-01-09 7:47 AM
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Uber User
Posts: 46
Location: western Kentucky | My goal is 40 books this year. I am going to really concentrate on the ones in my RYO challenges. So far I have read the 2nd (last) book in Ray Garton's Davey Owens series "Night Life", Witten's Progeny of the Adder. I am finishing up 101 Horror Books to Read Before You're Murdered and Buehlman's Suicide Motor club. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 556
Location: Great Lakes, USA | Finished White Fire, which I liked though it wasn't my favorite Pendergast novel. I am not a fan of the Corrie character. I am listening to the last Wheel of Time book and will finish that one soon as I have time to listen while I do other things. I am reading Lords of Uncreation, which I am having a hard time getting into. I liked the first two, so I am not sure why. Perhaps life is getting in the way as I am very busy at the moment. I just got Menewood from the library and will start that soon. I have been waiting for that one. Can't wait to read it. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1031
Location: UK | I've read masses of light fluff this month,at least 8 Kindle Unlimited reads,none of which are in the data base,so they dont count.
Five Against Venus by Philip Latham was a fun read,. I will continuestraight on with the next Winston SF juvenile tale,a Lester Del Rey undersea adventure. I am determined to get through most of the 10 Winston SF series still left to read during 2024,though a few of them are very rare,expensive,so I may not mamge to read all 37 titles.I've read 27 so far. |
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Veteran
Posts: 254
Location: California | Hi Daxxh,
After seeing you mention Pendergast a number of times, I finally picked up Relic, Pendergast #1. I'm only a third of the way through but it's a heck of a page turner. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1031
Location: UK | Ouch.I stood on the charging cord of my laptop and the computer fell down 3ft,landing full force on edge ruining it.I hate trying to use a phone as a computer,I make a myriad of mistakes snd spend ages correcting them.lol.
Hope to have a new one for start of Feb.Just as well I have only completed one book eligible for WWEnd challenges,while reading no less than at least 6 fluffy kindle stuff which are unlisted!
Hope to finish a short story but not sure ifI'll complete any of my TBR list,life is fraught and stressfull.cant manage long quiet reading sessions now because of caring for Mr Dusty
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Uber User
Posts: 46
Location: western Kentucky | dustydigger - 2024-01-27 1:48 PM
Ouch.I stood on the charging cord of my laptop and the computer fell down 3ft,landing full force on edge ruining it.I hate trying to use a phone as a computer,I make a myriad of mistakes snd spend ages correcting them.lol.
Ah...The hazards of Laptops, tablets, phones! Sorry for your loss. It is not as convenient but I use mostly a desktop for entering stuff. I doubt I will drop it! I do read on my phone though. While I love an old fashioned paper book, the phone is just so easy to read in bed.
What are you looking at replacing it with?
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 1031
Location: UK | Well,Acknud,with my disastrous history with dropping laptops,or spilling water on them and just being a heavy user so Iwear out the battery after a couple of years,for the time being I am just getting a cheap Toshiba. It was half the cost of what I usually buy,,so if I manage to make it last 18 months I would think that worth it! lol.
Actually I had an Asus,first time for me with that brand,and it was quite nice,until it dive bombed 4 foot to the floor with such disastrous consequences.I would be quite happy with anoyther one. The charger cord was just too short,if I got another Asus I'd use an extension cord,and tuck away the charger behind the armchair out of harm's way,so I couldnt trip over it.
I can read kindle books on my phone OK,but the ancient scanned brown with age books from Open Library are just not suitable for a phone.
I need to increase the font size to read with these ancient eyes,and thats easy on a computer.
And I like a expansive keyboard,easier for my arthritic hands. hate trying to fiddle with a phone,I am a rotten texter lol. |
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What are we reading in January 2024?