Penguin Posted December 31, 2019 Share Posted December 31, 2019 (edited) Where did your armchair travels take you? Which books stood out, made an impression and/or stayed with you the longest? What did you learn from them? Similar to Matryoskha, I am also doing a perpetual round-the world challenge. I think my rules for counting a country/province/territory are also similar. I require (1) a strong sense of place and (2) the book cannot be written by an "outsider." Who is an outsider? I think about it on a case-by-case basis. I know it when I see it 🙂 I only managed to add four to my list: Ukraine, Quebec, Hungary, and Ireland. I revisited Denmark, England, Norway, Finland, Italy, and the Netherlands. I am doing the same thing with the 50 states + territories. I added six this year: Washington DC, Oklahoma, Georgia, North Carolina, Louisiana, and Illinois. Which book had the most original, most unique story? Not sure about original or unique, but some of my favorites were Milkman, The Goblin Emperor, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, the Faulkners, Lincoln in the Bardo, and The Alberta Trilogy (Cora Sandel). I did not realize it until I wrapped up my data, but I read a lot of Miss Read and Tove Jansson! Which book made you laugh? Which one made you cry? Hmm. No laughing or crying. Plenty of smiling and cringing. Which book did you like the least and why? The Moviegoer by Walker Percy. So boring. Ståsteder by Svend Brinkman. Overrated. American Gods by Neil Gaiman. He is hit or miss for me, and this one was a miss. Farewell Summer by Ray Bradbury. This is #3 in the Greentown trilogy. I loved #1 (Dandelion Wine) and #2 (Something Wicked This Way Comes), but #3 was a big disappointment.Which new to you authors did you discover and would you read another book by this author? Cora Sandel (1880-1974) deserves to be better known outside of Norway. There were many new-to-me authors, and I fortunately enjoyed most of them. Edited December 31, 2019 by Penguin 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mumto2 Posted December 31, 2019 Share Posted December 31, 2019 1 hour ago, Penguin said: Where did your armchair travels take you? Which books stood out, made an impression and/or stayed with you the longest? What did you learn from them? Similar to Matryoskha, I am also doing a perpetual round-the world challenge. I think my rules for counting a country/province/territory are also similar. I require (1) a strong sense of place and (2) the book cannot be written by an "outsider." Who is an outsider? I think about it on a case-by-case basis. I know it when I see it 🙂 I only managed to add four to my list: Ukraine, Quebec, Hungary, and Ireland. I revisited Denmark, England, Norway, Finland, Italy, and the Netherlands. I am doing the same thing with the 50 states + territories. I added six this year: Washington DC, Oklahoma, Georgia, North Carolina, Louisiana, and Illinois. Which book had the most original, most unique story? Not sure about original or unique, but some of my favorites were Milkman, The Goblin Emperor, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, the Faulkners, Lincoln in the Bardo, and The Alberta Trilogy (Cora Sandel). I did not realize it until I wrapped up my data, but I read a lot of Miss Read and Tove Jansson! Which book made you laugh? Which one made you cry? Hmm. No laughing or crying. Plenty of smiling and cringing. Which book did you like the least and why? The Moviegoer by Walker Percy. So boring. Ståsteder by Svend Brinkman. Overrated. American Gods by Neil Gaiman. He is hit or miss for me, and this one was a miss. Farewell Summer by Ray Bradbury. This is #3 in the Greentown trilogy. I loved #1 (Dandelion Wine) and #2 (Something Wicked This Way Comes), but #3 was a big disappointment.Which new to you authors did you discover and would you read another book by this author? Cora Sandel (1880-1974) deserves to be better known outside of Norway. There were many new-to-me authors, and I fortunately enjoyed most of them. The knowing an outsider when you see it is just so true! What a great way to describe it when I visit other countries via books I want my visit to be believable.....originally I tried to do my Asian Detectives with all translated books because I thought that would make them authentic and quickly realized that many of my authors might be native to whatever country but had been living in the US so long they were translating their own books. Then I just moved to believable because this was not a perpetual challenge for me! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lady Florida. Posted December 31, 2019 Share Posted December 31, 2019 5 hours ago, aggieamy said: A friend gave me this book for Christmas and I just started it but I think it would be of interest to a few of the other gals here that love to read about people being murdered in early 20th Century England ... It's got short entries on 100 famous English mysteries and why they are classics. My reading list is growing exponentially ... Ooh, this looks fun! I downloaded a sample but also look forward to your thoughts after you finish it. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lady Florida. Posted December 31, 2019 Share Posted December 31, 2019 I finished two books today bringing my final total for 2019 to 96 books. Death in the City of Light: The Serial Killer of Nazi Occupied Paris. This was a library audio book and I finished it with one day to spare before it was due back. Unlike my Kindle, where I can turn off wifi if I haven't finished a library book, audio books are on my phone. When the loan ends they just go POOF! King John, by Shakespeare. I have several unfinished books that I'll gladly carry over to 2020 but for some reason I don't like carrying over any kind of play. I wanted to finish and only had one more act to read, so I took some time this afternoon to finish it. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mothersweets Posted December 31, 2019 Share Posted December 31, 2019 This year went by so quickly - I can't believe it's almost 2020! I had a not-very-good reading year this year. I had a very hard time getting into most of my books and only had 2?3? five star reads this year - Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell was such a wonderful surprise for me! and Station Eleven really resonated with me, too. Such great writing with both of them. Where did your armchair travels take you? I mainly stayed in the US, the UK, a little of Western Europe, and once each in Australia, Russia, Korea, Japan, and the Arctic.Which book had the most original, most unique story? Probably Dread Nation - Civil War era zombies are original. 🙂 Oh and Station Eleven was super unique in its post-apocalyptic storyline. Which book made you laugh? Which one made you cry? I don't think any made me cry. That's a shame because if a book can make me cry then you know it's a good one. Notes From My Captivity had me giggling in the beginning. Which book did you like the least and why? There were several that I didn't finish. In fact, I probably tried to read an extra 20 or so books but had to put them down after the first chapter or even after really giving it a go and reading 100 pages. BUT - my least favorite was The Perfect Nanny. I read that whole darn thing and it was weird and annoying and just why?Which new to you authors did you discover and would you read another book by this author? Susanna Clark (Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell), Deborah Crombie ( A Bitter Feast), and Ted Chiang (Exhalation - short stories and they must have been good because I normally do not like short stories!) are all authors I would love to read more of!Please share your book lists, stats for the year, favorite quotes, and/or favorite book covers. I read 53 books this year with an average of 374 pages for each one. My shortest book was 120 pages and the longest was 1008. I listened to 10 audiobooks although I'm surprised at that number, I thought it was more. Here's to next year being a better one for me in terms of reading! 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin M Posted January 1, 2020 Author Share Posted January 1, 2020 6 hours ago, Penguin said: Similar to Matryoskha, I am also doing a perpetual round-the world challenge. I think my rules for counting a country/province/territory are also similar. I require (1) a strong sense of place and (2) the book cannot be written by an "outsider." Who is an outsider? I think about it on a case-by-case basis. I know it when I see it 🙂 I think I need to do this as well, someone who from the country they are writing about. Makes it more authentic I would think. 2 hours ago, Mothersweets said: This year went by so quickly - I can't believe it's almost 2020! I had a not-very-good reading year this year. I had a very hard time getting into most of my books and only had 2?3? five star reads this year - Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell was such a wonderful surprise for me! and Station Eleven really resonated with me, too. Such great writing with both of them. Yes, the year flew by. Loved Station Eleven. Both it and Jonathan Norrel probably deserve a reread on my part. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin M Posted January 1, 2020 Author Share Posted January 1, 2020 23 hours ago, mumto2 said: I managed to visit 33 countries during my reading adventures and for the first time ever I managed all 7 continents! Woot Woot! 23 hours ago, mumto2 said: Asian Mystery Tour 1. The Perplexing Theft of the Jewel in the Crown by Vaseem Khan (India) 2. Aunty Lee’s Deady Specials by OvidiaYu (Singapore) 3. A Case of Two Cities by Qiu Xiaolong (China) 4. Disco for the Departed by Colin Cotterill (Laos) 5. Salvation of a Saint by Keigo Higashimo (Japan) 6. The Corose at Koryo by James Church (N. Korea) 7. The Eye of Jade by Diane Wei Liang (Beijing) 8. Murder at the House of Rooster Happiness by David Casarett (Thailand) 9. The Shadow Walker by Michael Walters (Mongolia) 10. Killed at the Whim of a Hat by Colin Cotterill (Thailand) Well done! I like the idea of the Asian author category, but I'm also drawn to Africa. Maybe I just need to do both. Hmmm! 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mumto2 Posted January 1, 2020 Share Posted January 1, 2020 @Mothersweets The sequel to Dread Nation is being released in February😀 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ali in OR Posted January 1, 2020 Share Posted January 1, 2020 I have finished my 2019 reading year. Here are the stats and a high level overview and I'll try to post the list of 52 books separately. I don't really have reading goals these days, other than to always have a book going. I dropped the book-a-week and bingo goals a few years ago as they felt too constraining, but when I realized that I could hit 52 books with a late effort, I decided in November to go for that. But it did change what I wold have normally read. The stats: 52 books read 34 fiction/18 non-fiction 30 female-authored/22 male-authored 44 written in 21st century, 7 in 20th century, 1 in 19th century 28 books I owned, 20 library books, 2 audio, 2 borrowed from friends Some titles that stand out to me now as books I particularly enjoyed: The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle All of the Leigh Bardugo books: Siege and Storm, Ruin and Rising, Six of Crows, Crooked Kingdom Absalom, Absalom! (which I hated in high school) Non-fiction standouts: iGen (Jean Twenge) and Range (David Epstein) Loose, non-constraining goals for 2020: 1) Always have a book going 2) Read more older books. 2019 was heavily weighted with 21st century works. 3) More classics? (only had 2 this year) Definitely want to do a major work over the summer. 5 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ali in OR Posted January 1, 2020 Share Posted January 1, 2020 The List: 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Junie Posted January 1, 2020 Share Posted January 1, 2020 Oh, I had a list of all of the places I went with my reading this year, and then I deleted it. Sigh. I don't remember every place that I "visited", but here are the highlights: all over England (Wuthering Heights, Emma, Mansfield Park, Great Expectations), through France (The Man in the Iron Mask, The Hunchback of Notre Dame), around the U.S. (The Red Badge of Courage, Kennedy's Last Days, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Scarlet Letter), to South Africa (Cry, The Beloved Country, Born a Crime), across the ocean (Moby Dick, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym), and even to Hell (Dante's Inferno). 5 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mothersweets Posted January 1, 2020 Share Posted January 1, 2020 15 hours ago, mumto2 said: @Mothersweets The sequel to Dread Nation is being released in February😀 Ooooh! I'll keep an eye out for it - thank you! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin M Posted January 1, 2020 Author Share Posted January 1, 2020 Happy New Year - Our new thread is live. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.