2025 & 2026 Reading Challenge discussion

I am lowering my goal from its original 70 to 52, for an average of one book per week. Cyclical illness and Life in General have made reading difficult much of the time the past few months, so I'm trying to cut myself some slack so I don't get too down about it. :)

1. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - F. Scott Fitzgerald ** (very meh)

Felt the same way about that book, Candiss. It was short but still... I can't believe they made a movie out of such a tiny non-interesting book! haha

2. The Alchemy of Stone - Ekaterina Sedia **** (4.5) (I am not generally a reader of urban fantasy, but this was one of the rare sort that I really did like. It was not a paranormal romance in disguise, and it was both so beautiful and so strange that I was pulled right in. It was both triumphant and tragic, and the protagonist, although inhuman, was one of the most truly human - and humanist and heroic - characters I've read of in a long time.)

3. Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore - Robin Sloan ***** (I was wavering between a 4 and 5 star rating, but in the end, this was just so all-around enjoyable for me that I had to give the highest rating available here.)

4. Ragtime - E.L. Doctorow **** (This could have been a 5-star read for me, as I loved the wide-ranging multi-threaded plots, the evocative and descriptive language and the wonderful and varied characters. But as the book moved into its final third, it began to meander and detour a bit much. In a book with such a quirky voice and such fast-paced turns of the overall plot - and such overlapping and interweaving of same - I feel it is really necessary for an author and his/her editors to keep tight reins lest things start getting messy and out of control. The first 1/2-2/3 of the book was tight and impressive, yet while I still really enjoyed the last part of the book, it did become somewhat muddled and more difficult to follow all the plots. I could also argue that this was intentional and is indicative of the rapid spiral of American development and the sheer mess of such explosion of both immigration and industrialization, etc., but I'm not going to go so far as to conjecture regarding the author's metaphorical musings.)

So...great story, unique style, impressive braiding together of plots and people, highly recommended to readers who enjoy untraditional narratives and believably gray characters.

5. The Gate to Women's Country - Sheri S. Tepper ****

6. A Study in Scarlet - Arthur Conan Doyle ****

7. Dispatch from the Future: Poems - Leigh Stein **** (finished 1/31/13)

8. The Quantum Thief - Hannu Rajaniemi *** (3.5?)

9. Before I Go To Sleep - S.J. Watson ****

10. Wool Omnibus - Hugh Howey ****

11. Read This!: Handpicked Favorites from America's Indie Bookstores - Hans Weyandt ****

12. The Missing Persons League - Frank Bonham ***

13. The Sixth Gun, Vol. 1: Cold Dead Fingers - Cullen Bunn ***

14. Gun Machine - Warren Ellis **** (4.5)

15. The Drowning Girl - Caitlín R. Kiernan ****

16. Start Here: Read Your Way Into 25 Amazing Authors - Jeff O'Neal ****

17. Beloved - Toni Morrison **** (review soon, once I digest)

18. We - Yevgeny Zamyatin **** (read 4/24/13)

19. The Return of the Soldier - Rebecca West **** (finished 4/28/13)

20. Faraway Places - Tom Spanbauer *****

21. Excession by Iain M. Banks **** (FINALLY finished this.)

22. The Comfort of Strangers by Ian McEwan ***

You are doing great! It looks like you have been able to read more now so I'm guessing getting to read has been less difficult?

Adriana wrote: "You are doing great! It looks like you have been able to read more now so I'm guessing getting to read has been less difficult?"

Yes, I've been finding ways of altering my habits to make sure reading is a daily part of my life, even if it's only for a few minutes on a particular day. And when I'm not feeling well, I've been combining reading with resting. I normally try to avoid that, because I end up falling asleep and dropping/potentially damaging my book, but this is a situation in which having at least one book going on my Kindle (in addition to any paper book I'm working on) is handy. The Kindle is light-weight, so arthritis doesn't complain so loudly when I try to hold it long-term, and if it slips from my fingers onto the couch or bed when I doze off, there are no pages or covers to get damaged. :)

Although I love physical books, I definitely extol the virtues of an E-reader for any book-lover with illness, chronic pain, or aging issues. Between its lightness and ability to make the font quite large if needed, it seems a perfect helper, especially for readers who love big, weighty doorstop classics.

I'm sorry you have to deal with that. I'm happy that you have found a system so that you can still enjoy reading (:

You kind of sound like my mom. She always dozes off when she reads because she works all the time which means she's tired all the time. She's always asking me to massage her hands because I know they get cramped up. She has her own kindle too (:

23. Quartet In Autumn by Barbara Pym ****

24. Steal Across the Sky by Nancy Kress **.5 (Meh. This had a lot of potential, but it was disjointed, did not do much to keep me suspending my disbelief - much eye-rolling was done - and I didn't care much about any of the characters...although I actively disliked a few.)

25. Only Forward by Michael Marshall Smith ****

26. The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham *** (3.5?)

27. Death in Venice by Thomas Mann (***)

28. Small-Batch Baking by Debby Maugans Nakos (***)

29. Night Film by Marisha Pessl (ARC) ***

30. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (****)

31. Hungarians in Michigan by Eva V. Huseby-Darvas ****

32. Cinnamon and Gunpowder by Eli Brown *****

33. Seafaring Women: Adventures of Pirate Queens, Female Stowaways & Sailors' Wives by David Cordingly ***

34. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry ***

Candiss wrote: "34. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry ***"

That's a childhood favorite of my mom's. What did you think?

Adriana wrote: "Candiss wrote: "34. The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry ***"

That's a childhood favorite of my mom's. What did you think?"

I thought it was charming and had interesting layered allegory, but I must say I also found it disjointed and a bit tedious. I wish I'd read it when I was a child, because there are other books this reminds me of which I love, so I imagine I would have had a more strongly positive emotional reaction to the book if I'd read it at a much younger age.

35. Redshirts by John Scalzi ***

36. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway ***

37. The Journals of Susanna Moodie by Margaret Atwood ****

38. Cannery Row by John Steinbeck *****

39. Red Moon by Benjamin Percy **** (I finished this before #38 but forgot to list it here.)

40. The Tunnel by Ernesto Sabato *****

41. How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe by Charles Yu **** (4.5)

42. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie (***/3.5? - not my favorite Christie)

Candiss wrote: "42. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie (***/3.5? - not my favorite Christie)"

What is your favourite Agatha Christie? I have wanted to read one of her books for ages now.