Sci-fi and Heroic Fantasy discussion

Well, this is it. We're into the home stretch for this year. Only 31 days left to finish Bingos and reading targets 😁

I still have...too many...on my BINGO to go. How did I let myself slip so much, I was ahead at the start of the year LOL

With the start of a new month I'll start a new book, Out of Oz by Gregory Maguire

That will fill my Free BINGO slot since it was a Christmas gift from last year (and bonus, I'll actually read a book within a year of receiving it as a gift, that doesn't happen often!)

The Apothecary Diaries, Vol. 14 by Nekokurage

Andrea wrote: "I still have...too many...on my BINGO to go. How did I let myself slip so much, I was ahead at the start of the year LOL
"

I find it is easy to lose track of progress on the Bingo, especially when life intervenes. That was the main reason behind this year's focus on getting to my Bingo books early. But it did lead to starting a few series and not immediately continuing because only the first book counted towards the Bingo. I have a few series to go back and read more of.

Now I just have to hit my reading target for the year - but I think I've only got 2 or 3 books to go, so I should be ok.

As the BINGO card creator it was skewed towards me being to able to use more than one book from the various series I had picked to cover BINGO slots. But plans change, like I wanted to use one for the dark fantasy but it wasn't particularly dark so had to jiggle things around.

I've actually done a year where I just tried to catch up on series I had started. Can always plan to do a half BINGO instead, to give some inspiration but at same time allowing you to finish some things you started that don't fit the slots. The challenge lets you pick how many you plan to actually read and you succeed when you hit that count rather than actually filling the whole card :)

Though its satisfying to fill the card too. Having a "make progress in a series" slot helps a little, I'll consider adding that. This year had the "finish a trilogy"

Those are good ideas, Andrea

Started off December by finishing Shadows Linger by Glen Cook, which is the 2nd Black Company book. I liked book 1 but book 2 was great. Really liked the addition of the 2nd pov, Shed, and his story line. Moving on to book 3, The White Rose, which I think is the final one in the Books of North.

I had to read The Glass Scientists: Volume One before I had to return it to the library. I read a few other graphic novels in this kind of...style...I guess you could call it (target age group, art style), and they were all really heavy on dealing with mental health, depression and such. This one touches on it, but it doesn't turn into a therapy book, its still a fun read and I thought a very enjoyable take on Jekyll & Hyde

'Amber Sea' by Lance W Marker. I was wacthing a documentary about Life on Venus (BBC Sky at Night). Couldn't resist it since I read Derek Kunsken 3 years ago (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Amber-Sea-La... )

Finished The Glass Scientists: Volume 2, just as fun as volume 1.

I'm a third of the way through Starbound. It's considerably less YA than the first book in the series, which makes sense as the first book covered a period of several years, and this one will cover a period of 13 years / 50 years (the difference being due to relativistic time frames). I expect to make better progress from now, as work finally appears to be calming down - no more 14 / 15 hour days.