Yearly Targets 2018

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MSJ

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« on: January 09, 2018, 06:55:28 pm »
Another version for '18. A place to post what you want to read and what you actually read.

Right now I'm reading Furies of Calderon, by Jim Butcher. First book in the Codex Alera. I have heard A lot of good things about it and I'm flying through this book.

I think I can read 25-30 books this year. No plans on what I want to read. Just when I see something that strikes my fancy, I read it. Though, I definitely plan on a reread of at least TAE, if not TSA as a whole. I love TDTCB, and its hard not to start there.
« Last Edit: January 09, 2018, 06:57:16 pm by MSJ »
“No. I am your end. Before your eyes I will put your seed to the knife. I will quarter your carcass and feed it to the dogs. Your bones I will grind to dust and cast to the winds. I will strike down those who speak your name or the name of your fathers, until ‘Yursalka’ becomes as meaningless as infant babble. I will blot you out, hunt down your every trace! The track of your life has come to me,

Wilshire

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« Reply #1 on: January 09, 2018, 06:59:50 pm »
Would you like to curate this thread this year? That would be awesome if you did :).

I'm going to see if I can read about 2 books a month. Will reevaluate in August.

So put me down for 20.
Edit: Ok did 20. Lets see if I can do 52 total, for an average of 1 book every week. That'll be a stretch but I'm going to go for it.

---
Edited for Curating purposes

1) Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch (Read: January)
2) The Many-Colored Land by Julian May (Read: January)
3) Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (Read: January)
4) Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie (Read: January)
5) Artemis by Andy Weir (Read: January)

6) The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin (Read: February)

7) The Magician King by Lev Grossman (Read: March)
8 ) The Alchemist by Paolo Bacigalupi (Read: March)
9) Blackout by Connie Willis (Read: March)
10) Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence (Read: March)

11) The Reality Dysfunction (Night’s Dawn) by Peter F Hamilton (Read: April)
12) The Red Knight (The Traitor Son Cycle #1)  by Miles Cameron (Read: April)
13) La Belle Sauvage (Book of Dust 1) by Phillip Pullman (Read: April)

14) The Final Empire (Mistborn 1) by Brandon Sanderson (Read:May)
15) Storm Front (Dresden Files 1) by Jim Butcher (Read: May)
16) The Colour of Magic (Diskworld 1)by Terry Pratchett (Read: May)
17) Leviathan Wakes (Expanse 1) James SA Corey (Read: May)

18) Legend by David Gemmel (June)
19) Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Brandbury (June)
20) Sufficiently Advanced Magic by Andrew Rowe (June)
21) Three-Body Problem (Remembrance of Earth's Past 1) by Cixin Liu (June)

22) Poppy War by R. F Kuang (July)
23) Ilium by Dan Simmons (July)
24) The Time Machine by H G Wells (July)
25) Red Rising (Red Rising 1) by Pierce Brown (July)
26) Black Company by Glen Cook (July)

27) Lord Foul's Bane (Thomas Covenant 1) by Stephen Donaldson (August)
28) The Republic of Thieves (Gentleman Bastards 3) by Scott Lynch (August)
29) American Gods by Neil Gaiman (August)
30) The Emperor's Blades (Unhewn Throne 1) by Brian Staveley (August)

31) Court of Broken Knives (Empires of Dust) by Anna Smith-Spark (September)
32) Godblind (Godblind 1) by Anna Stephens (September)
33) The Fifth Season (Broken Earth 1) N. K. Jemisin (September)
34) Elric of Melniboné by Michael Moorcock (September)
35) Senlin Ascends (Books of Babel #1) by Josiah Bancroft (September)

36) The Pastel City by M. John Harrison (October)
37) A Storm of Wings by M. John Harrison (October)
38) In Viriconium + short stories by M. John Harrison (October)
39) Assassin’s Apprentice (Farseer Trilogy) by Robin Hobb (October)

40) Hidden Empire (Saga of Seven Suns) by Kevin J Anderson (November)
41) Furies of Calderon(Codex Alera 1) by Jim Butcher (November)
42) Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway (November)
43) Dreamsnake by Vonda McItyre (November)
44) Darkmage by M. l. Spencer (November)
45) Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C Clarke (November)

46) The Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski (December)
47) Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold (December)
48) Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins (December)
49) Circe by Madeline Miller (December)

Others on the list to be read:
Starburst by Fredrik Pohl
A Canticle of Lebowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.
The Broken God (A requiem for Homo Sapiens) by David Zindell
The Gunslinger (The Dark Tower) by Stephen King
The Eye of the World (Wheel of Time) by Robert Jordan

Note - Anyone who can recommend a particularly great book by Bujold, Gemmel or Zelazny, please do. I forgot how these particular ones ended up on my list, but I have no attachment to them other than that I want to read these authors. Suggestions welcome :)

« Last Edit: January 02, 2019, 05:39:14 pm by Wilshire »
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MSJ

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« Reply #2 on: January 09, 2018, 07:04:11 pm »
Quote from:  Wilshire
Would you like to curate this thread this year? That would be awesome if you did :).

I think I could manage that, :)
“No. I am your end. Before your eyes I will put your seed to the knife. I will quarter your carcass and feed it to the dogs. Your bones I will grind to dust and cast to the winds. I will strike down those who speak your name or the name of your fathers, until ‘Yursalka’ becomes as meaningless as infant babble. I will blot you out, hunt down your every trace! The track of your life has come to me,

Madness

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« Reply #3 on: January 10, 2018, 10:22:34 pm »
Update your opening post with people's picks/goals/totals/whichevery, MSJ? That way you can "curate" :).

Thanks for volunteering in SR's absence.

For my part I have no goals. I hope to continue my Malazan reading but it's likely going to wait until I go to the book store with Christmas cards.

But you can mark me down for having read Neuropath this year so far. Onto Light, Time, and Gravity right now.
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MSJ

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« Reply #4 on: January 10, 2018, 10:28:04 pm »
Will do once I get their totals and picks. So far, only Wilshire I believe.
“No. I am your end. Before your eyes I will put your seed to the knife. I will quarter your carcass and feed it to the dogs. Your bones I will grind to dust and cast to the winds. I will strike down those who speak your name or the name of your fathers, until ‘Yursalka’ becomes as meaningless as infant babble. I will blot you out, hunt down your every trace! The track of your life has come to me,

Madness

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« Reply #5 on: January 10, 2018, 10:41:58 pm »
And you ;).

Take a look at SR's second post in the original thread (or first post in last year's thread) for formatting suggestions :).
« Last Edit: January 10, 2018, 10:43:59 pm by Madness »
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MSJ

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« Reply #6 on: January 10, 2018, 10:44:36 pm »
Yea, I get way he did. Very good job. I gave an amount. But, hell, I never know what I'm gonna read. But, we definitely need more participation....
“No. I am your end. Before your eyes I will put your seed to the knife. I will quarter your carcass and feed it to the dogs. Your bones I will grind to dust and cast to the winds. I will strike down those who speak your name or the name of your fathers, until ‘Yursalka’ becomes as meaningless as infant babble. I will blot you out, hunt down your every trace! The track of your life has come to me,

Madness

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« Reply #7 on: January 10, 2018, 10:45:38 pm »
Updated my above post with links, sorry.

And it should be easy if there are only three of us to keep track of ;).
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MSJ

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« Reply #8 on: January 10, 2018, 11:12:03 pm »
Quote from:  Madness
And it should be easy if there are only three of us to keep track of ;).

No doubt about that, lol. Its just the amount of posters and the amount of reading done on this forum, I would like to see some more people join the thread. I'll give it a couple weeks to percolate...
“No. I am your end. Before your eyes I will put your seed to the knife. I will quarter your carcass and feed it to the dogs. Your bones I will grind to dust and cast to the winds. I will strike down those who speak your name or the name of your fathers, until ‘Yursalka’ becomes as meaningless as infant babble. I will blot you out, hunt down your every trace! The track of your life has come to me,

BeardFisher-King

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« Reply #9 on: January 10, 2018, 11:43:20 pm »
I'm in. I'll set a target of 25 new books. Here's 10 that I hope to include:

Fiction/Literature:

1. "Notes From Underground" - Roger Scruton

2. "The Brothers Karamazov" - F. Dostoyevsky

3. "Gardens Of The Moon" - Steven Erikson

4. anything new from Christopher Buehlman (good fantasy)

4a. The first book of the Traitor Son cycle (h/t to MSJ)

5. "Senlis Ascends" by Josiah Bancroft

6. "The Worm Ouroboros" by E. R. Eddison

Non-fiction:

7. "How To Be A Stoic" - Massimo Pigliucci

8. "Breaking The Spell" - Daniel Dennett

9. "Darwinian Fairytales" - David Stove

10. "Art And Imagination" - Roger Scruton
« Last Edit: January 12, 2018, 12:35:17 am by BeardFisher-King »
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Wilshire

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« Reply #10 on: January 11, 2018, 03:05:00 pm »

1) Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch (Read: January)
2) The Many-Colored Land by Julian May (Read: January)
3) Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (Read: January)
4) Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie (Read: January)
5) Artemis by Andy Weir (Read: January)
6) The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin (Read: February)
7) The Magician King by Lev Grossman (Read: March)
8 ) The Alchemist by Paolo Bacigalupi (Read: March)
9) Blackout by Connie Willis (Read: March)

The Red Knight by Miles Cameron
Many-Colored Land because its an old book from my dad, also on some 'top 100 scifi lists'. So far, not very good.
Ready Player one because the movie is coming out.
Ancillary Justice and Left Hand of Darkness are hugo+nebula winners.
Artemis because christmas gift.
The Red Knight because MSJ :P .

We'll see how it goes.
« Last Edit: March 23, 2018, 01:22:29 pm by Wilshire »
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MSJ

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« Reply #11 on: January 15, 2018, 07:16:25 pm »
Finished Furies of Calderon(1), by Jim Butcher. Good book. Decent world building, but with 6 books I feel a whole lot more is to come. Love the magic system, unique to anything I've seen really. Good plot and characters that you come to root for and love. And, my favorite, lots of mystery and intrigue.

On to 2nd book in Codex Alera, Academ Furies.
« Last Edit: January 15, 2018, 07:27:55 pm by MSJ »
“No. I am your end. Before your eyes I will put your seed to the knife. I will quarter your carcass and feed it to the dogs. Your bones I will grind to dust and cast to the winds. I will strike down those who speak your name or the name of your fathers, until ‘Yursalka’ becomes as meaningless as infant babble. I will blot you out, hunt down your every trace! The track of your life has come to me,

Wilshire

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« Reply #12 on: January 15, 2018, 07:34:29 pm »
Finished Many-Colored Land (2). Um, not good. Writing was OK, plot was predictable, I didn't appreciate the use of hard Magic in my scifi (er, sorry 'psionics'), and the author spent an awful lot of time talking around various people and other beings having sex for no particular reason.
Rating 1.5/5 - would not recommend lol. Disappointed its on some lists of 'top 100 scifi of all time'. Sigh.

Edit: On that note, I think I might have to stop taking scifi book recommendations from my father. "I really liked this when I was younger" does not a good recommendation make.
« Last Edit: January 17, 2018, 03:42:46 pm by Wilshire »
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« Reply #13 on: January 15, 2018, 07:45:46 pm »
Here is a list of what I know I want to read. But, this by far will not be all that I read.

1. Codex Alera, by Jim Butcher 6 books, already done with the first.

2. 3rd book in the beginnings of the Malazan Empire. I believe it comes out this year.

3. Red Seas under Red Skies and the last book of that series. (Forget the name at the moment.)

4. Dagger and Coin series, by Daniel Abraham.

5.Finish the series by Cixin Liu I started.

6. Finish Donaldson's Gap Cycle.

7. And, from there, whatever I feel like I wanna read at the moment. Ill be honest, I'd like to get in son non-fiction this year. Maybe on wars, and after watching Mindhunter on Netflix, some books into the minds of serial killers.
“No. I am your end. Before your eyes I will put your seed to the knife. I will quarter your carcass and feed it to the dogs. Your bones I will grind to dust and cast to the winds. I will strike down those who speak your name or the name of your fathers, until ‘Yursalka’ becomes as meaningless as infant babble. I will blot you out, hunt down your every trace! The track of your life has come to me,

Wilshire

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« Reply #14 on: January 16, 2018, 03:55:33 pm »
Ready Player One - Ernest Cline
Audiobook ready by Will Wheaton - which is amusing. So far, the book and the reading itself are very good, I'm impressed. Definitely a book for anyone who was, or wanted to be, a nerd in the 80's. Probably a book for anyone else too, but that group specifically might get a kick out of it.

Its also written near where I lived much of my life, which is terribly amusing as well.
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