Mount TBR 2013 Reading Challenge discussion

I started out far more sensibly last year, but soon found my way to Everest, and beyond, whereupon I came a bit of a cropper due to a major eye issue. Frankly, I went to pieces then, and the subsequent list is quote a confusion -- and I never even got to many of the audiobooks actually selected for the project.

Those audiobooks, acquisitions during 2012, and some ebooks will be the bulk of this year's effort. Some dead trees will get in there too, but my main focus will be those giant rows of ex-libris audiobooks, both on tape and on CD.

First done:

The Final Warning by James Patterson. Patterson's ghost team does a YA SF/superhero riff here, the fourth Maximum Ride novel about a group of genetically engineered bird/human hybrids. Didn't really capture my attention, Max herself is a grumpy teen, and the reader gets hit over the head repeatedly with the global warming polemic. Needed a lot more subtlety. The book's narrator was okay, barely.

In progress:
Donald E. Westlake - What's So Funny
Richard S. Prather - Over Her Dear Body
Nicholas Pegg - The Complete David Bowie

Upcoming books 4-20 (here's where things get splendidly random):

Bloom County Digital Library Vol. 1
Bloom County Digital Library Vol. 2
L. Ron Hubbard - Red Death Over China
Tamora Pierce - The Will Of The Empress
David Brin - Heaven's Reach
Nora Roberts - Morrigan's Cross
Jonathan Lowe - Awakening Storm
Philip Pullman - The Amber Spyglass
Alexander McCall Smith - The World According To Bertie
Michael Chabon - Gentlemen Of The Road
Alexander McCall Smith - Tears Of The Giraffe
Robert Louis Stevenson - The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde And Other Tales Of Terror
Nevada Barr - Blind Descent
Douglas Preston - Impact
J. A. Jamce - Damage Control
Tony Hillerman - Listening Woman
DIal H For Hero

Is Blessed really trying Everest?

Chris wrote: "Is Blessed really trying Everest?"

He's done it repeatedly, though I don't think he's ever summit ed. He has a hilarious story of having to rescue one of his Sherpa guides during one attempt -- the guide got a case of altitude sickness, and Blessed had to carry him back to the base camp.

Blessed is the man!

Chris wrote: "Blessed is the man!"



BB never knowingly underacts lol

:O)

#2 down -- What's So Funny by Donald E. Westlake, one of the later books in his series about hangdog crook John Dortmunder, for who nothing ever goes easily, and anything that goes right does so by going wrong in all kinds of ways. In this case, Dortmunder is blackmailed into a particularly lunatic caper -- stealing a chess set from the heirs of the man who stole it from his platoon in World War I. Made of gold and diamonds, the set weighs seven hundred pounds, and is locked in a secure underground bank vault in the middle of Manhattan....

The Dortmunder books are generally hilarious and prone to taking apparent side trips on the way to the finish, and this one is no exception. There were several moments that had me laughing out loud, and the lightness of tone and lack of violence is quite refreshing.

The narrator for this audio book is William Dufris, and as far as I know this is the first reading of his that I've heard. He's very, very good, and provides a great range of character voices.

#3 down. Red Death Over China by L. Ron Hubbard. Part of the Galaxy Press series of collections of Hubbard's pulp stories, this features three adventure stories. The title story is the best of the lot. The third is remarkably forgettable, and the second just a conceit about a test pilot. I went through these in the audio format, with generic music and sound effects, and it was an okay way to pass the time.

#4 - Poets Of The Great War read by Michael Maloney, Jasper Britton, and Michael Sheen. 29 poets, sixty five poems, music by Elgar, and two hours well spent. Some of these poems are mournful, some are bitterly funny, and some are so visceral as to be hard to bear.

Steven wrote: "Bloom County Digital Library Vol. 1
Bloom County Digital Library Vol. 2"

I Love Bloom County! A digital edition... very tempting.

Good luck with your expedition.

Hayes wrote: I Love Bloom County! A digital edition... very tempting.

Good luck with your expedition."

And very very cheap, too -- on Kindle for $7.99 a volume, complete through volume 9, as well as Opus, and Outland. I wish Fantagraphics would go that direction with their Popeye volumes.

Thank you for the good wishes. I'm in a slower patch at the moment, as I just started Paul Theroux's Ghost Train To The Eastern Star and Andrea Wulf's Chasing Venus.

Rats... Kindle... I don't do kindle.

Loved The Old Patagonian Express: By Train Through the Americas, btw.

There's several formats as I remember. What format are you on?

That's a Theroux book I need to get to -- probably after Riding The Iron Rooster.

Hayes wrote: "Rats... Kindle... I don't do kindle.

Indeed, cursory checking reveals the same price for the Bloom County books on iTunes, Nook, and comiXology.

Will check iTunes, thanks. I live in Europe so often books are not available here. Fingers crossed.

ETA: available, but start with vol. 4. Will think about it.

Hayes wrote: "Rats... Kindle... I don't do kindle..."

Neither do I, because its owned by Amazon. I also don't do Audible.com for the same reason. And yet I still manage to have tons of books on hand! ;)

Stephanie wrote: "And yet I still manage to have tons of books on hand!"

Funny how that works. :) My book purchases generally come from everywhere but Amazon (actually, everywhere but the big chains.) I use Amazon for other things, mostly, with the very occasional Kindle book -- which gets read on PC, as I will likely never buy a Kindle.

Mostly I have dead trees and actual physical audiobooks.

#5 - Chasing Venus: The Race to Measure the Heavens by Andrea Wulf

I was expecting a rather dry treatise on this particular bit of scientific history, but it's far from dry -- it's a story that not only takes in the growing enlightenment of scientists at the time, determined to use the transit of Venus across the sun to make some significant measurements, bur presents as an outright adventure story as astronomers, eight years apart, set out to specific locations where they can observe the transit. As this often requires them to brave countries constantly embroiled in war (even as they cooperate scientifically) and battle their way through awful conditions with inadequate tools, the story gets both hair-raising and quite rousing.

#6 - Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne, Vol. 0

Going back and compiling John Byrne's earliest work on the Fantastic Four, with issues of two team-up books, some art fill-ins written by others, and the first story that he wrote for the series, which was original meant to be a promotional comic. It's decent fun, from back in the days when Byrne was more about art than ego. Sometimes I just really miss the bombast!

#7 - Superman: A Biography by Larry Tye.

I've just gone into more detail about this one in an actual on-page review, so let me be brief here and just say that there's considerable winnowing going on as the narrative closes on the present, and much left out that will bother some people. On the other hand, the greater value of the book lies with its deeper history, and its look at Superman creators Siegel and Shuster, and the milieu in which they grew up, created their characters, and worked. Fascinating stuff, even for one who knows as much of this as I do, and it left me wishing that author Tye had had more space in which to work.

The audiobook is read by Scott Brick, who does his usual relaxed work here, floating the listener along without being unduly stately.

#8 - Underground London: Travels Beneath the City Streets by Stephen Smith

Read by Karen Cass, which occasionally causes a bit of a cognitive disconnect given some of the situations Smith occasionally winds up in. The book itself is more of a collection of newspaper and magazine features conformed for book publication, so there's not much of a throughline here. It is, however, extremely interesting and sometimes grand fun listening to Smith recount his explorations and adventures (which include one trip into Lincolnshire.) Especially of interest to me were the sections discussing the London Underground, the long-gone tram system, and the various railroad oddities that have lived beneath and around London over the past couple of centuries -- including the failed pneumatic railway, the Post Office railway, and the Necropolis Railway.

This one's down for another listen in the near future.

#9 - Enoch Arden by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Experienced in an audio edition performed by one Jeremy Buxton with piano music adapted from Richard Strauss -- and "experienced" is absolutely the right word, as Buxton takes the notion of "melodrama" quite seriously, and periodically rattles the rafters. The ending of the poem -- an epic antithesis to The Odyssey -- struck me as quite odd, and I think I shall be re-reading this in a print edition before long to see if I interpret it differently than I did today, where I was influenced by Buxton's bellowing rendition of Enoch Arden's depressed death.

Advise me here -- should I count this as #9.1, or as #10? "This" being Holding on by Dan Ismay, in its audio edition from Rounder Group, which compiles many of the original StoryCorps pieces in their original form (which effectively, I think, increases their impact, whereas the book form would seem to dilute it.) All the same, it does count as an abridged version of the project (while the print version may seem like a condensed version of a broader range of stories.)

It's certainly a quirky, fascinating document that briefly profiles not only a collection of quirky, unusual people but the sound of their environments as well.

Steven wrote: "#8 - Underground London: Travels Beneath the City Streets by Stephen Smith

Read by Karen Cass, which occasionally causes a bit of a cognitive disconnect given some of the situations Smith occasion..."

I liked this one too. I have his other book. It's on my list for this year.

#10 - Death Flight by Ed McBain

A fairly basic McBain novella about a private eye investigating the bombing of a DC4 carrying a single passenger. It's remarkably ordinary for McBain, and ends i a bit of a gallop.

In progress:
Blue Lonesome
Over Her Dear Body (current walking-around book)
32 Fangs: A Final Vampire Tale (current walking-around dead tree)
Ghost Train to the Eastern Star
The Complete David Bowie

#11 - Blue Lonesome by Bill Pronzini.

A fairly straightforward take on Bad Day At Black Rock as Jim Messenger, a lonely San Francisco CPA becomes obsessed with a woman who eats breakfast at the same diner as him, only to discover that she's committed suicide and that the authorities have been unable to trace her...which sends him on a mission to find out where she came from, and whether she has any family. Once Messenger reaches the tiny town of Beulah, NV, he finds a seething msss of anger and violence, and his own crucible.

A with most Pronzini mysteries, the tale is as much about characters as the plot. In this case, unfortunately, Pronzini's protagonist is a colorless CPA who never really does develop much of a personality even as the surrounding characters fail to rise much above cardboard. Fortunately the pace is swift and the end result fairly brief.

Now in progress:
Subwayland: Adventures in the World Beneath New York - dead tree format, additional waiting room book.

#12 - Killer's Choice by Ed McBain

An early entry in McBain's long-running series, and very much in keeping with its time (1957.) There's none of the later offbeat humor, and the characters are relatively undeveloped -- even Carella, who took a bit of a step backwards with this book, compared to his introduction in Cop Hater. Meanwhile, here we have the introduction of Cotton Hawes, who's seen as a rather green rookie detective -- he'd develop far differently over the years. The story involves two unrelated killings and much plodding through the city. It's passable, but there are far better entries in the series.

#13 - I Had a Date with Lady Janet by Peter O'Donnell

A Modesty Blaise tale with a distinct absence of Modesty Blaise. John Thaw reads this first-person Willie Garvin story, and does a grand job not only of portraying Willie, but also the various supporting characters (although his American accent is a bit dodgy.)

#14 - 44 Scotland Street by Alexander McCall Smith

Light literary fiction, and a literary conceit inspired by Maupin and Tan, apparently. Each short chapter was written specifically for daily newspaper publication, with the work essentially being a nothing plot hung upon a collection of sometimes quirky characters living at or connected to the titular location. It's sometimes quite entertaining, but be warned that this is a book better taken in pieces than all at once -- by halfway through I was growing quite restive, and soon thereafter had to stop reading for a brief period. Catching my breath at 75% through helped. I have copies of the subsequent books in the series, but might take my time getting to them.

#15 - The Case of Madeleine Smith - Rick Geary

The last in the Victorian Treasury Of Murder strand of Geary's graphic novels about famous assassinations and murders. It's considered a bit of an oddity in the series, apparently, as the book covers a case in which there's some doubt remaining as to whether Miss Smith did murder the unfortunate Emile L'Anglier -- she was never convicted, and her life subsequent to the trial seems to have been barely impaired (though her parents and siblings were badly affected, though more by the revelation of her affair with L'Anglier than the accusations of murder.)

For my part, I found it to be engaging as a real-life Victorian melodrama that eventually transforms into a look at the social fabric of the times (as Smith becomes absorbed into the upper strata alternative social structure towards the end of the 19th Century.)

#16 - Led Zeppelin IV by Barney Hoskyns

This is what happens when I mean to tidy up a little. I pick up a book, start reading, and that's me gone for a while; fortunately this was one of last year's last acquisitions, from a book sale.

Ostensibly a production history and critical assessment of Led Zeppelin's landmark fourth album (and arguably their high water mark before a slow downhill slide)this little hardcover is in reality a light history of the band from beginning to end, only delving into the album itself around the halfway mark. Fortunately unsentimental, it's inspiration enough (despite some minor but annoying errors that may be auto-correct artifacts) to revisit the band's catalogue, even with a long-standing intolerance of "Stairway To Heaven."

In progress:

#17 - Thor Visionaries: Walter Simonson, Vol. 1

Collecting the first twelve issues of Walt Simonson's 1980s run on Thor, which rang quite a few changes on what had always been a rather stiff and clunky book. The dialogue catastrophes were toned way down, the scale was opened up to post-Kirby Cosmic, and the venerable old alter ego of Donald Blake, M.D. was unceremoniously disposed of.

It might be worth reading this volume if you're a fan of the Marvel cinematic universe, too, as the second Thor film draws from this arc.

#18 - Killer's Payoff by Ed McBain

The sixth of the 87th Precinct mysteries. A blackmailer is murdered in what appears to be a gangland assassination, but the case proceeds to unravel in a way that leaves the detectives lost for any answers. Basic, but the characters are far less flat than in the preceding book, and the story more interesting.

In progress:

#19 - Killer's Wedge by Ed McBain

I seem to have gone off on an Ed McBain kick here, but oh well. By this book McBain (Evan Hunter) is starting to hit his stride with the series, with deepening characterizations, more humour, and side trips that serve to establish the character of the City.

The story, meanwhile, seems almost to have been developed with an eye to TV -- and the A story (detectives held hostage by a demented widow) was eventually adapted for the short-lived 1961 87th Precinct series.

Steven wrote: "#17 - Thor Visionaries: Walter Simonson, Vol. 1

Collecting the first twelve issues of Walt Simonson's 1980s run on Thor, which rang quite a few changes on what had always been a rather stiff and c..."

I just looked this book up - it sounds like it would be perfect for my reading pleasure! Thanks for bringing it to my attention!

Stephanie wrote: "Thanks for bringing it to my attention! "

You're most welcome. :) I've been meaning to delve into Simonson's run on the series, and this was the perfect opportunity to finally pull the first volume out of the pile and read it. I'll be reading the others as well.

#20 - Eighty Million Eyes by Ed McBain

A fairly straightforward dual story, with the usual McBain side trips that build atmosphere and inject some welcome snark -- the television industry comes in for an entertaining kicking along the way.

#21 - Lady Killer by Ed McBain

An 87th Precinct riff on DOA/High Noon -- the countdown clock is set off at the start, with twelve hours in which the detectives must figure out who the target of a murder threat is. Fast, tight, and entertaining, although the final realization as to the proposed victim's identity is rather goofy.

#22 - 'Til Death by Ed McBain

An 87th Precinct novel that, for the first time, takes place mainly away from the 87th Precinct. Steve Carella's sister Angela is getting married, and someone seems to have decided the best wedding present is to kill the groom. Steve calls in several of his fellow detectives, including the unfortunate O'Brien, and they set to work trying to find out what's going on...without alerting the couple. It's essentially McBain stretching his formula in fun directions. Another quick read.

In progress: Quarry by Bill Pronzini (time for a change of detectives!)

#23 - Over Her Dear Body by Richard S. Prather

One of the Books In Motion audiobooks from Prather's series of Shell Scott novels -- a very good match of reader and material, I think. The book itself is a typical mix of Prather's goofy humour and a fairly straightforward plot with assorted tangles. There's a bit too much running in place at times, and occasionally too much silliness, but it's entertaining.

#23 - Quarry by Bill Pronzini

Still recovering from a job gone horribly wrong, and trying to deal with his agency partner's Eberhardt's increasing pre-martial craziness, Nameless takes what seems to be a boring job out in rural Northern California...only to to be embroiled in an increasingly erratic case that he may not be able to solve. Read by Nick Sullivan, who's the perfect match for the character.

In progress:
Doctor Who: The Mutant Phase by Nicholas Briggs
Doctor Who - The Wheel of Ice by Stephen Baxter (current walking around audiobook)

#24 - by Nicholas Briggs and #24.5 by Nicholas Briggs (remake of Briggs' Vilgreth.)

Doctor Who: The Mutant Phase runs the risk of lacking any interest, given that it's a Dalek story, but the story is actually interesting, crossing the secondary Dalek Empire series with a time paradox tale. As with most Dalek stories, much of it is sound and fury and yelling through ring modulators, but Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton manage to be engaging anyway.

"Last Of The Titans" is a shorter two-hander, given away initially as a free CD with Doctor Who Magazine. It adapts Briggs' earlier Audiovisuals play, "Vilgreth," and is pretty much a frippery in which Seven, traveling solo, accidentally winds up in the company of a space yokel whose ship is about to be blown up by an officious lizard.

#25 - Hulk: Season One by Fred Van Lente

A fairly pedestrian overhaul of the Hulk's origin, dropping the Cold War elements and revising the background of Rick Jones, who gets a bit of a Jason Todd makeover here (turned into a teen punk.) The artwork doesn't do much for me, either. The last third of the book is reprint material.

#26 - Doctor Strange: Season One by Greg Pak, art by Emma Rios

Retelling of the origin of Dr. Strange, Master Of The Mystic Arts/Sorcerer Supreme, written practically as a storyboard for a big buddy action movie, which gets away from the dark, freaky roots of the character and into something that's been rather bog-standard since Ghostbusters and Raisers Of The Lost Ark. The book is filled out with a reprint of the first issue of the recent Defenders run, for some reason, rather than any of the recent Dr. Strange comics.

#27 - The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

Puns, satire, outright goofiness, alternate worlds and alternate alternate worlds. Highly silly fun that doesn't always manage to make sense in connecting the pieces, but whips up such a world that it really doesn't matter.

#28 - The Adventures of Tintin, Vol. 1: Tintin in America / Cigars of the Pharaoh / The Blue Lotus by Hergé

This is actually a triple, essentially, but as I acquired this as a single volume, it's here as a single entry. These are three of the earliest Tintin adventures (two earlier stories are rarely reprinted) and there's a sense that the author is still finding his balancew in the first story, "Tintin In America," as it goes around and around, and has a tedency to be more than a little obnoxious. The next two stories, "Cigars Of The Pharoah" and "The Blue Lotus" take a huge leap forward, with an eye to epic storytelling (the two are halves of one story), more humour, more cultural awareness, and the welcome appearance of hapless detectives Thompson and Thomsen.

#29 - The Adventures of Tintin, Vol. 1: Tintin in the Land of the Soviets / Tintin in the Congo by Hergé

The infamous first two Tintin stories, in black and white. Much more rudimentary than "Cigars Of The Pharoah" and the following stories, prone to repetetive storytelling and broad-strokes stereotyping, and, in the second story, horribly insensitive from racial and cultural perspectives. Of interest historically, and to see how Hergé developed in his craft, but you'll easily see why these stories spent so much time in the vault.

Being sidelined by the after-effects of yet more eye surgery has a benefit in that I can get to more books, at least in audio form. :)

#30 - The Comedy is Finished by Donald E. Westlake is his final published, though not last-written novel. It was shelved due to Westlake seeing the similarity between it and The King Of Comedy. The logline: a left-over radical group kidnaps aging comedy star Koo Davis (Bob Hope with the serial numbers filed off) and issues difficult demands...and the story follows how the lives of everyone involved come apart or come together as a result. Could have used a draft or two more, I think, but it's actually a solid period piece, with some humour amongst the grimness, though it's far from Westlake's better known comic opuses.

#31 - Captives Of The Flame by Samuel R. Delany. This was later revised as the first part of The Fall Of The Towers, and while the original version tells more or less the same story about a war and mysterious events on a future Earth, it's fairly rough around the edges. Delany's wordsmithing abilities are less evident here, although there are strong images.

#32 - King's Ransom by Ed McBain

Tautly paced, with the usual story structure for an 87th Precinct tale flipped over, with the detectives more as ancillary character and a main story about the life and actions of businessman Doug King, whose chauffeur's son is mistakenly kidnapped instead of his own...leading to a moral dilemma for King. It's been adapted several times for television and film.