75 Books...More or Less! discussion

I want to clear at least 12 physical books off of my shelves this year, plus work on the backlog of digital content I own.

I finished 52 this year Stacie and each one was like a small victory!!

1. La Belle Sauvage I preordered this, so it's been waiting patiently in my queue since 2017.

Audiobook

2. The Persian Empire I've had this since 2016.

Audiobook

Good luck!!!! I wish I could attempt to clear that many but I'd set myself up for failure, lol. Too many new books to be bought ;)

3. In the Footsteps of Eve: The Mystery of Human Origins And this is why I can't just get rid of books I've had for a long time but haven't gotten around to reading- what if it turns out to be really good?! This one has been sitting in the "I'll get around to it someday" pile for ages and ages, patiently waiting. Books are the most nonjudgemental of friends ;)

Physical

Stacie wrote: "3. In the Footsteps of Eve: The Mystery of Human Origins And this is why I can't just get rid of books I've h..."

Exactly!! There's too much potential in an unread book to get rid of it!

4. John Tyler, the Accidental President And then, as if to mock my last entry there's this 'gem' that I've been hauling from house to house for at least 7 years. Ugh. But it's gone now, so there's that.

Physical

Stacie wrote: "4. John Tyler, the Accidental President And then, as if to mock my last entry there's this 'gem' that I've been hauling from h..."

hahaha well at least now you know and you can get rid of it!

5. American Pharoah: The Untold Story of the Triple Crown Winner's Legendary Rise This was a freebie from Audible back in 2016 and has been sitting in my queue since then. I'm glad it was free and I'm glad its off of my TBR list.

Audiobook

6. Greek and Roman Warfare: Battles Tactics and Trickery Another one I've had for ages, it seems. Not bad, just not engaging, and I'm not entirely sold on several of the conclusions he draws from the (very tenuous) evidence. Now, he was an expert in his field so he may very well have been right, but I didn't think he did a very good job of "showing his work".

Physical

7. The Shape of Water I bought this last year, so that's not too bad- I've only been sitting on this for about 8 months, lol!

eBook

I got it last year as well, on Audible.

You're making great progress with your goal!

8. The History of Ancient Egypt Another Audible selection that I've had for about 8 months. I slogged through it because I like the subject, but the delivery was terrible- the Professor meandered all over the place, interrupted himself, went off on tangents, circled back, repeated himself... for nearly 25 hours.

Audiobook

9. The Picture of Dorian Gray I've had the audio of this for about 6 years.

Audiobook

10. Odyssey Of The West VI: A Classic Education Through The Great Books: The Twentieth Century I've had this one for about 6 years (!). I completed the rest of the series when I got them, but kind of ran out of steam before getting to this one and it's just been languishing ;)

Audiobook

11. Bound for Canaan: The Epic Story of the Underground Railroad, America's First Civil Rights Movement I don't even remember how long I've had this- several years at least! I'm glad I finally got around to it, it was very good.

Physical

12. The Stand I've had this on audio since 2012 and finally got around to listening to it. It's not a bad version, though I do prefer reading this behemoth to listening to it- Grover Gardener has a wonderful voice, but I hate his attempts at accents :)

Audiobook

Stacie wrote: "12. The Stand I've had this on audio since 2012 and finally got around to listening to it. It's not a bad version, though I do prefer reading this behemoth..."

I read this with another group. I was very worried because the book was giant and the pages were like tissue paper with little bitty print. Once it got going though I was hooked!

13. Analysis and Critique: How to Engage and Write about Anything I've had this for almost a year. It was surprisingly good and I wish I'd had it way back when I was taking Freshman English- it would have made my life so much easier!

Audiobook

14. Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch I've had this audiobook since 2013. I can't believe it took me so long to get around to listening to it- it's great!

Audiobook

15. Classics of American Literature I've had this for almost five years. The best thing I can say about it is that I'm done with it :/

Audiobook

16. Alexander of Macedonia: The World Conquered This has been sitting in my Audible library since 2012.

Audiobook

17. Plato and Aristotle: The Genesis of Western Thought Well, at least I'm done and can move it off of the 'To Do' list. It's been sitting in my TBR sine 2012. Yikes!

Audiobook

18. Finders Keepers I've had this one for about 2 years and enjoyed finally getting around to it. Now maybe I can finish The Outsider (which I got last year, so counts towards my RYS too!)

Digital

19. The Cornerstone I've had this one for a couple of years.

Audiobook

20. Fahrenheit 451 I've had this audio version for a couple of years, and I preferred this version to the print one.

Audiobook

21. A Medicine for Melancholy and Other Stories I'd read most of the short stories in this, but not the actual collection. I love Bradury's short stories and want to read them all... but if I do I'll have run out of new Bradbury short stories to read and will be sad! (I tease my sister for not watching the last episodes of series she likes 'because then they will be over', but I do the same thing with authors, LOL!)

Digital

22. Rogue One: A Star Wars Story I've had this one for two years just hanging out in my Audible library. It was enjoyable, makes me want to watch the movie again and I'll probably reread it at some point in the future.

Audiobook

23. Into the Drowning Deep Not one of my oldest titles, but I've had it since last year, so I'm counting it :)

Audiobook

Stacie wrote: "23. Into the Drowning Deep Not one of my oldest titles, but I've had it since last year, so I'm counting it :)

Audiobook"

Even just last year counts! :) Woot! Almost to 25!

24. Heir to the Empire Disappointing. I read and enjoyed several books in the SW Expanded Universe but I'd never read this one. Now that I finally got around to it, I wish I'd either read it as a teenager- when I read the others and loved them- or passed on it. Somethings don't hold up. I will say that the text version is better than the audiobook (I had to switch to the written word after about an hour because I hated the audio so much).

Audiobook (owned), digital (completed)

25. The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two A: The Greatest Science Fiction Novellas of All Time Chosen by the Members of The Science Fiction Writers of America I've had this one sitting on my shelves for about two years- it feels good to mark a physical book off the list!

Physical

26. The History of the Renaissance World: From the Rediscovery of Aristotle to the Conquest of Constantinople I've had this one for four and a half years. It was very good and I will definitely get around to the third book in the series (which I've also owned for about four years!). Sometime, lol!

Audiobook

27. Romeo and Juliet I got this one about a year and a half ago. I don't seem to be making too much headway in my physical stacks, but if I keep up at this rate I'll be caught up on all of my old Audiobooks by the end of this year (since I paid money for them, I'm pretty excited about that- not the accomplishment I'd planned on when I started this year, but still definitely an accomplishment!)

Audiobook

Wow, you are doing really good this year. You are past your goal.

Andrea wrote: "Wow, you are doing really good this year. You are past your goal."

Weeelllllll... the main goal (originally) was to clear out physical books (of which I've knocked out only five), so not precisely, LOL! However, I'm still stoked about the number of audio/digital titles I've caught up on this year. I've also gone through my physical shelves and removed (and rehomed- they are no longer even in my house!!) several books that I owned but am no longer interested in reading (ok... only four books, but that's more than three so it still counts as several, hahaha!).

28. Sherlock Holmes: The Definitive Audio Collection I bought this at the end of last year and then got intimidated by the length. I'm glad I finally listened to it- it's excellent.

Audiobook

29. Classical Mythology II : The Romans Another one I've had in my Audible account for years. This one was a mixed bag: the content was interesting but the editing was bad (sentence loops and volume inconsistencies from word to word- sounded like bad splicing) and the Professor kept randomly mispronouncing key names.

Audiobook

30. The Modern Scholar: Epochs of European Civilization: Reformation to the Twenty-First Century This has been sitting in my Audible account for about seven years (yikes!). Fortunately it still interested me by the time I got around to it :)

Audiobook

Stacie wrote: "30. [book:The Modern Scholar: Epochs of European Civilization: Reformation to the Twe..."

Wow! 7 years!! Glad it was worth the wait! lol.

31. Odyssey Of The West III: The Medieval World Another one that has been waiting for me to get around to it for ages. It's a solid survey but I've already covered most of the information in depth elsewhere. The segments by Timothy Shutt and Thomas Madden are the standouts and I'd recommend picking up their full length lectures instead, unless you are specifically looking for a survey.

Audiobook

32. The Foundations of Eastern Civilization I've had this for 4 years. It was a long one, and therefore a bit intimidating since I had almost no background in the subject, but it was well thought out, clearly presented, and interesting.

Audiobook

(I just realized that I've cleared out almost half of my Audible backlog!)

33. A Fire Upon the Deep I've had this for about 8 years and several moves. Disappointing and I'm irritated that I've hauled it around for so long. It's possible that I might like his short fiction or his essays better, but I'm not likely to pick up more of his novels.

Physical

Stacie wrote: "32. The Foundations of Eastern Civilization I've had this for 4 years. It was a long one, and therefore a bit intimidatin..."

Woohoo! Good feeling!

34. 1776. Excellent! I'm very glad I finally got around to reading this.

Physical

35. The Grand Contraption: The World as Myth, Number, and Chance I've had this for many years. I kept picking it up, getting a few pages in and then wandering away from it. It should have been right up my alley but I just never connected to it. I'm glad I got it finished and off of my shelves, finally.

Physical

36. Thermopylae: The Battle That Changed the World. Not his best work, but not terrible. Passing it on and getting it off of my shelves. Woot! Room for new books :D

Physical

37. Cro-Magnon: How the Ice Age Gave Birth to the First Modern Humans. The author has a lecture series from The Great Courses which contains all of this material, plus more. Since I own that course, and had listened to it previous to reading this book, this wound up being disappointing.

Physical

38. The Iron Wyrm Affair. I've had this one for a couple of years. It was ok, but I probably won't be continuing the series.

Physical