January was a great month for me review-wise. I can't promise a repeat next month since I don't have any long breaks from school coming up. I will say, however, that my Kindle has been a very positive influence on the reading stats.
As I've alluded to before, I will be revising my goals for this year. I still want to have some solid numbers, but nothing too much in stone. I obviously can't deal with that.
1. Read 50 Books
This is down from last year but only because I'll be taking the bar this summer. I'm giving myself a couple months break. I'll probably still be reading/posting through May/June/July (although I will probably cut down quite a bit) and maybe I'll change this number if it's too easy. I just don't want any pressure in any way whatsoever. This baby does not lend itself well to multiple takings.
2. Finish more than 2 series
I finished only two series last year and I really want to do better. Finish and then move on so I don't have to waste time figuring out what was going on before. Blogging has really taken a toll on my ability to stick with a series. It has nothing to do with how good the series is, only that there's always something new and shiny coming through the door that MUST be read before the series is completed. Luckily this is the year of series completions as you can see here.
Series I'm debating finishing given the mood: Malazan Book of the Fallen by Erikson (1 more), Shadow Saga by Sprunk (1 more), Macht by Kearney (1 more), John Cleaver by wells (2 more), Riyria Revelations by Sullivan (2 more omnibi), Dark Tower by King (4 more), Wheel of Time by Jordan/Sanderson (9 more - this will be a toughy).
(This shelf is now 2 rows thick and piled to the top, one of many and all unread)
I have hundreds of books just sitting there on my shelves and plenty of completed-yet-unread trilogies (before I started my "Read one book before buying more to see if you actually like it" rule). Last year, only 10 of the 58 came from my shelves.
As I mentioned before, the new and shiny is so easy to jump into, but then I look at my shelves that are overflowing and see that none have been touched. Where did all my plans of reading go?
----------- And that's it. Nothing too complicated, yet I think I'll have to stretch a bit to get to some of these. I want this year to be the year of finishing. Finishing series' I've been working on for years and moving on.
UPDATE: The Epic Wheel of Time Giveaway I said would start this week is having a couple of technical difficulties. We're still on for the giveaway, but it may not begin until next week seeing as how today is Friday.
Last night, Sony released a 2 minute clip on, well, pretty much every channel in existence. The preview of 2012 shown below is the exclusive five minute scene unveiled at Comic-Com. Hold your breath fans of apocalyptic science fiction, this will no doubt be the most epic movie of the year.
Hello and welcome to a new issue of my weekly roundup.I sweated a lot this week. It was definitely too warm and muggy for me. OK, no more complaining. Enjoy reading....
Books
When I started to create my summer reading list, I had a look at the dust covered back rows of my bookshelf. There I found a German edition of Acacia, by David Anthony Durham, and added it to my list. In September The Other Land, book two of the Acacia trilogy, will be released. Today I finished Fallen by Tim Lebbon. Two persons on long and interesting journey--an unexpected ending. As usual, instead of following the reading order of my list, I decided to read Acacia next. In case you have not yet read it, maybe the following reviews will convince you: Fantasy Book Critic: Acacia review, OF Blog of the Fallen: Acacia review, Dave Brendon's Fantasy & Sci -Fi Weblog: Acacia review, Grasping for the Wind: Acacia review, This month The Price of Spring , the fourth and final volume of Daniel Abraham's Long Price Quartet will be released.Book one, A Shadow in Summer, is on my summer reading list.Daniel Abraham continues to write epic fantasy -- recently he spoke about his new five volume series - The Dagger & The Coin.Adam from The Wertzoneand Aidan from A Dribble of Ink gathered detailed information. Blogosphere
Maybe you read that Blood Elves by Andrzej Sapkowski won the The David Gemmell Legend Award for 2009 -- but until now we still didn't know the voting order for the rest of the books. On Thursday, 2nd of July, The Top 20 were posted. Have a look. Maybe you'll find some books that interest you..
It is July. That means half of 2009 is already gone. Several blogger started to post their top five reads so far. This is the link to the top five reads from James at Speculative Horizons, with plenty of links in case you are interested. I have one top read and several books that I greatly enjoyed, not in any particular order.
- Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson Followed by - Terror by Dan Simmons - Nights of Villjamur by Mark Charan Newton - The Painted Man by Peter V. Brett - Empire in Black and Gold by Adrian Tchaikovsky - The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman - Gardens of the Moon by Steven Erikson - The Affinity Bridge by George Mann What is your top read so far? I Look forward to your comments.
Movies
Did you like Independence Day and The Day after Tomorrow but just aren't interested by Transformers? But would you like to be entertained by another disaster movie? Then you should have a look at the trailer of the upcoming movie by Roland Emmerich:2012
I know what I will be doing in November 2009...
Since I watched Underworld: Rise of the Lycans I'm not opposed to watching another vampire movie -- as long as it contains some action. A combination of science fiction and vampires would be nice. Unfortunately we have to wait until January 2010 for the release of Daybreakers. In 2019 a plague has transformed almost every human into vampires... In the meantime, have a look at the HD trailer of Daybreakers:
Quote of the Week
This week you get two quotes which express my preference for one vegetable - CABBAGE ! I must admit that my family does not understand my obsession with this particular vegetable .
"Cabbage: A familiar kitchen-garden vegetable about as large and wise as a man's head." Ambrose Bierce (1842 - 1914)
"Training is everything. The peach was once a bitter almond; cauliflower is nothing but cabbage with a college education." Mark Twain (1835 -1910)
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