November Group Read: Let's Go!

[kalloway]

As I'm in one of the later time zones and have a plumber coming early on the first, I'm putting this up a tad early. You know when to start reading~

Check-ins will probably be on Sundays or Mondays, aside from the final one. Promote this however or wherever you'd like. There's no penalties for missing check-ins or not meeting your goal or anything. This is all for fun and is hopefully the lowest of pressure.

If you'd like to leave your reading plans in the comments, whether a vague statement or a detailed list, go ahead!

Thanks for reading along and enjoy~!

Comments

[peaceful_sands]

I’ve put together a list of 14 books of which I would like to have tackled 10 by month end. 4 are nonfiction the other 10 are fiction. I’ve already started 4 of them - sort of in two cases more definitively in the other two.

Already started :
The Word Exchange by Alena Graedon
Sway by Pragya Agarwal
Worlds of Exile and Illusion by Ursula le Guin
Eve Green by Susan Fletcher

I’m struggling reading for long periods with the print in the Le Guin and the Graedon, and not really getting on with the content of the Graedon or the Fletcher. I may abandon them but will persist a bit longer before making a decision.

The other 10 on the list are:
1. Arcanum unbounded by Brandon Sanderson
2. I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes
3. Do It Like a Woman by Caroline Criado-Perez
4. Invisible Women by Caroline Criado-Perez
5. The Diet Myth: The Real Science Behind What We Eat by Tim Spector
6. Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
7. The Swan Thieves by Elizabeth Kostova
8. The Cranford Chronicles by Elizabeth Gaskell
9. Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
10. Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton

My main goal is to reduce the number of books in my TBR collection so I’m not going to stick rigidly to this list if something else catches my interest and if I decide a book is not for me I’m okay with giving up on it either permanently or for now and moving on. The list includes a mix of audiobooks and paper and some I have access to in both.

I wish everyone great reading for November.

[kalloway]

Have fun and good luck! (And definitely DNF if you need to DNF!)

[rmc28]

For once, I have no preorders due this month (November). I do have

• one overdue library book (with 8 people waiting for it, oh the guilt!)
• two more library books which I will collect Monday 1 Nov
• eight ebooks waiting to be loaded onto my reader (2 novels, 2 anthologies, 4 magazine issues)

I would really like to finish / mark as DNF all of these during November. As a stretch goal, I also have 3 part-read books bought earlier this year, which it would be good to either finish or DNF.

The priority this coming week has to be the overdue library book (which for Reasons I can only read at home and not on trains): She Who Became The Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

[peaceful_sands]

Good luck with your goals. It's a relief to see someone else who's currently tackling books to finish or DNF and not adding stress to the reading by trying to finish things that aren't working. Helps me balance my guilt when I know I'm not the only one.

[rmc28]

I can't remember how long ago I decided it was better to decide not to finish books if they weren't working for me, but it's definitely improved things. Life is too short, and there are so many more books I could read than time to read them, there's no point spending time if I'm getting nothing out of them.

Bonus discovery this morning: She Who Became The Sun is 99p on Kindle today. So I only need to read the first chapter of the library book - which I can do at lunchtime today - and then if I want to keep reading I can buy the ebook, and either way I can return the library book this evening, and the next person waiting for it can have it. (The library book is a hardback, which my hands have difficulty holding and so I can only read it in certain places in my home. I'm trying in general to spend less with Amazon and get more books from the library, but I do need to take more care to check the format before placing a reservation.)

[kalloway]

I hope you've been able to get some reading done~ (I get motion sick if I read in a moving anything, alas, so my reading is always done while stationary and often flat.)

[rmc28]

I can read on trains but not cars or buses, and I have a regular long return train journey on Fridays (and this week I also have Saturday and Sunday!).

I have been able to read some evenings this week but more out of being too tired to do anything else ...

[taichara]

Having barely sat down to think it over, I definitely don't have a concrete list, lol. I'm thinking of working my way through food history/cookbooks (mostly animal and insect-based) and revisiting some specific Egyptological texts.

If I get the energy tomorrow I may also sort out all the rpg zines I haven't dug deep into and add them to the list --

And I have a certain novel on standby }3

[peaceful_sands]

I hope you enjoy your reading.

[taichara]

Thanks kindly ~

[kalloway]

I'll let you know when I get to a certain novel, lol~

[taichara]

*lalalala ~*

[kalloway]

I made a list over here which is a shelf of media and not all books but definitely all things I'd like to get through sooner than later. Quite a few are books I started and then either just... didn't get back to or bounced off and I'd like to give them another shot.

[peaceful_sands]

I'm not familiar with the titles on your list, but I hope you find plenty to enjoy.

[kalloway]

Thank you! I'm getting a slow start but hopefully I'll get a little more free time once I get to the weekend.

[lebateleur]

Here's a list of 20 books that I'm going to try to tackle for this year's read. That's a lot (and I certainly won't finish them all), but anything with an asterisk by it is something I've already started. I'm going to use the challenge to try to finish as many of these as I can. Books with a '+' by them are rereads. The remaining four titles I've neither started nor read before, and will be rewards for making progress on the others.

*Angel Mage – Garth Nix
*The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom – John Pomfret
Edward, Edward – Lolah Burford
*Eve: A Biography – Pamela Norris
*Everyone Knows Your Mother Is a Witch – Rivka Galchen
The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries – W. Y. Evans-Wentz
+The House on Vesper Sands – Paraic O’Donnell
*+In a Dark Wood – Michael Cadnum
*Isolde – Rosalind Miles
*Lady of the Beasts – Buffie Johnson
*League of Dragons – Naomi Novik
*+The Light and Shadow Tarot – Brian Williams
*+The Magician King – Lev Grossman
Matrix – Lauren Groff
*+The Mirador – Sarah Monette
+Mort – Terry Pratchett
*Star Mother – Charlie Holmberg
*The Wicked Cometh – Laura Carlin
The Winter Isles – Antonia Senior
*蟲師 (7) – 漆原 友紀

Hopefully I can knock a few of these out by the 30th!

[kalloway]

Good luck and enjoy!

[tamsin]

November's going to be a busy month for me, but I'd like to get at least one book read that's not for study purposes.

[kalloway]

That's a great goal~ Enjoy your reading!

[pebblerocker]

I haven't read a real book for a long time - moving house with them all packed in boxes, etc. But I've just started a re-read of The Belgariad, so it'll be fun to see how far I get through it and how much worse the books are than they seemed when I was a young teen.

[peaceful_sands]

It's funny that's a series I'm regularly tempted to re-read again - but I am always worried that they may not be as good as I fondly remember! I shall look forward to hearing how you got on and what your thoughts were.

[glinda]

I'm suffering from a spoon shortage this Autumn, so instead of my usual four books for this challenge, I'm planning to read one fiction and one non-fiction from my unread shelf, one unlistend to audio drama cd, and to watch one DVD from my unwatched shelf. *crosses fingers*

[kalloway]

That sounds like a good plan. (I suspect I'll do better with the 'watching' portion of my plans this month, my concentration re: reading has been terrible lately.)

[fred_mouse]

Until the 19th, I'm reading as many of the nominees for the Hugo and the Ditmar (Australian equivalent, fan voted award) as I can get to, in order to vote in as many categories as possible. After that, I'd like to read at least two of the books I've bought this year that have been put aside for other commitments.