Category: Books

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Books Lists

Books I read in 2015

Another post! So soon after the last one! And it’s another list.

I keep track of my books read over at LibraryThing.com, but I figured this might be a good place to put them as well. I started way more, but I find I get bored faster these days, and give up on a lot of meh books before investing too much time into them.

So, these are the books I finished in 2015.

19. You’re Never Weird on the Internet / Felicia Day (November)
18. Furiously Happy / Jenny Lawson (November)
17. Kitty Saves the World / Carrie Vaughn (October)
16. Low Midnight / Carrie Vaughn (October)
15. Spellcasting in Silk / Juliet Blackwell (October)
14. Heart of Evil / Heather Graham
13. Phantom Evil / Heather Graham
12. Evil Games / Angela Marsons (really creepy)
11. Playing for Keeps / Mur Lafferty
10. Wayward / Blake Crouch
9. Pines / Blake Crouch
8. Die Again / Tess Gerritsen (June)
7. Silent Scream / Angela Marsons (June) (really good)
6. A Vision in Velvet / Juliet Blackwell (May)
5. Dead Heat / Patricia Briggs (May)
4. The Book of Life / Deborah Harkness (April)
3. Shadow of Night (reread) / Deborah Harkness (April)
2. A Discovery of Witches (reread) / Deborah Harkness (March?)
1. No Ghouls Allowed / Victoria Laurie (January)

My goal for 2016 is to finish more books than 2015. So far I’m at 3.

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Books

Books of 2012

These are the books I finished in 2012:

1. Ghoul Interrupted / Victoria Laurie
2. Vision Impossible / Victoria Laurie (took almost TWO MONTHS, I’m not a big fan of amateur spy stories)
3. Succubus Revealed / Richelle Mead
4. Fair Game / Patricia Briggs (April–looks like it’s gonna be another bad year for books)
5. Buried Prey / John Sandford (5/5/12)
6. Let’s Pretend This Never Happened / Jenny Lawson (5/6/12)
7. The Silent Girl / Tess Gerritsen (7/7/12)
8. A Discovery of Witches / Deborah Harkness (7/12)
9. Shadow of Night / Deborah Harkness (7/12)
10. Lethal Outlook / Victoria Laurie (8/1/12)
11. Kitty Steals the Show / Carrie Vaughn (8/9/12)
12. Unholy Ghosts / Stacia Kane (8/27/12)
13. Monument 14 / Emmy Laybourne (9/5/12)
14. Marked / P.C. and Kristin Cast (11/10/12)
15. What a Ghoul Wants / Victoria Laurie (12/30/12)

Once upon a time, my list of books read in a year was three times longer than this, but it’s been getting harder and harder for me to stay interested in a story long enough to finish it. For instance, right now I’m about six (or ten?) chapters into Two Graves by Lincoln and Child. I usually LOVE Pendergast novels, but this one is leaving me bored and I’m having trouble pushing myself to pick it up again.

My favorite books this year were A Discovery Witches and its sequel Shadow of Night. They were long and rich and comforting and compelling and I can’t wait for the third book. I also enjoyed What a Ghoul Wants and Marked, and of course, Let’s Pretend This Never Happened (Jenny Lawson is a hilarious goddess!). In general, though, it was an uninspiring year, filled with many more books that I lost interest in before the final page.

Fingers are crossed for a more prolific 2013. On deck are the new Dresden book, the latest Prey book, the last Women of the Otherworld book, and a few new things I picked up while trolling Amazon.

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Books

Another book finished

A Discovery of Witches

Just finished A Discovery of Witches last night–loved it! Even skipped pool league to finish it. The plot moved verrrrrry slowly, but I was ok with that, possibly because I really enjoyed the peek into a scholarly life. I work at an arts institute that includes a research library, and I’ve never really understood what goes on there, but I feel like this book let me explore a world I’ll never be a part of (and that’s not even counting the witches and vampires).

And speaking of worlds I’ll never be a part of–Oxford. I totally need to get myself to wikipedia now to get a better understanding of colleges vs. universities, ’cause it sounds a lot different there than it works here in the U.S.

I loved the blending of science and history, the different locations that the characters visit, and the ever-expanding cast of characters (although not necessarily the timing of adding said characters–certain additions seemed rushed). It reminded me vaguely of The Historian, only far more readable. I can’t wait to start the next book (Shadow of Night–already downloaded from Amazon, of course).

A warning, though–it does seem to be a ‘love it or hate it’ kind of book. I know a lot of people who were bored with the slow pace and never finished it.

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Books

The Silent Girl by Tess Gerritsen

The Silent Girl

I read The Silent Girl this weekend–first book I’ve finished in awhile, for whatever reason. I really enjoyed it (more than the previous book, Ice Cold), but it made me think of all the tropes that it seems like every series–be it book or tv–feels the need to cover at some point or other. In this case, it was Chinatown, but on the bright side, it didn’t have anything to do with Asian mafia groups. I loved the character of Iris Fang and totally want to be her when I grow up (which will be never). Rizzoli’s male family members continue to drive me bug-nuts crazy and I really wish pianos would fall on the lot of them. And sadly, Isles was just a peripheral character in this one (although at least we weren’t subjected to (too much) moping about her affair with the priest).

My goal this month is to finish four novels, so that’s one down, three to go. To that end, however, I probably shouldn’t have started A Discovery of Witches, which appears to be as long as a hefty Harry Potter adventure. We’ll see how that goes.

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Books

Am I ready for a Kindle?

I have been obsessed with Kindles lately, and it doesn’t help that every time I go to Amazon.com, Kindle promos are front and center right above the fold on the homepage. I have thirty gazillion physical books in my to-be-read bookcase, I do not need to be purchasing digital books too! And yet, I drool over the Kindle Fire every day. Is it the tech of it? The instant gratification of being able to buy a book from anywhere at any time? Knowing I can get to my book from any computer?

I’ve been borrowing my department’s Kindle to try to get the temptation out of my system, and so far I’ve finished one book on it (Scepter of the Ancients (Skulduggery Pleasant)) and am about a quarter into my second (Unholy Ghosts (Downside Ghosts, Book 1)). I’ve also purchased several ebooks from Amazon, when they’ve been cheap enough that I couldn’t resist.

So far, it’s cool. I’m reading just fine on it. Any more than with physical books? Maybe not so much, but it does help curtail spending in physical bookstores (not necessarily a good thing, though, since I don’t want physical bookstores to go *poof* like Borders *sniff*). But in 2011, my reading volume went down significantly from previous years, and I believe part if it can be attributed to me trying not to buy new books, yet not being particularly interested in the books I’d already bought.

This post is all over the place, isn’t it? What is it even about? Not sure. Let’s try to break it down to bullet points:
1. I’m not buying a Kindle yet because I can’t afford it.
2. I’m borrowing a Kindle, so I can buy books by new to me authors without spending too much or taking up space on my already crowded bookshelves.
3. I’m newly inspired to find new authors.

i.e., I’m trying harder to spend more time reading, whether it’s an ebook or a physical book. (Finished three physical books this year already.) So, there’s that.

Whatever, I think I’ll just go read something now.