archerygirl's Mount TBR assault of 2012 (part one)

This is the 2012 list. I won't be putting Touchstones in this post - those will be found in the thread with my thoughts on the books

My aim this year is to end 2012 with Mount TBR smaller than it started. As Mount TBR on 31st December 2011 is 133 137, that can be done. Can't it?

My threads from 2011 are here:
http://www.librarything.com/topic/104810
http://www.librarything.com/topic/122699

January:
1. Astonishing X-Men Vol. 3 Issues 7 to 12 - Joss Whedon and John Cassady
2. Asimov's Science Fiction magazine (December 2011)
3. The Secret Mistress - Mary Balogh
4. The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern
5. The Alloy of Law - Brandon Sanderson
6. Heat Wave - Richard Castle
7. Unwritten Vol. 1: Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity - Mike Carey
8. The Unwritten Vol. 2: Inside Man - Mike Carey
9. Medieval Law in Context - Anthony Mussen
10. The Unwritten Vol. 3: Dead Man's Knock - Mike Carey

February
11. The Lightning Thief - Rick Riordan
12. A Game of Thrones - George R.R. Martin
13. Asimov's Science Fiction magazine (January 2012)
14. Fantastic Four: Season One - Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
15. Cryoburn - Lois McMaster Bujold
16. Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine (February 2012)

My top reads of 2011 were (I think):

Daughter of Time - Joshephine Tey
Mistborn: The Hero of Ages - Brandon Sanderson
Soulless - Gail Carriger
Doomsday Book - Connie Willis (and her other books, except that would be half the list)
The Name of the Wind - Patrick Rothfuss
Unnatural Issue - Mercedes Lackey
Dissolution - C J Sansom
Mastiff - Tamora Pierce
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
Persuasion - Jane Austen
The Uncommon Reader - Alan Bennett
Astonishing X-Men Vol 3. Issues 1-6 - Joss Whedon and John Cassady

Of course, there were so many that it was hard to really narrow it down and I'm sure there are a few that I missed because the list was getting unwieldy.

And the final bit - the books that I hope to tackle in the early months of 2012 (strike-throughs indicate books that I've successfully knocked off the list):

The Secret Mistress - Mary Balogh
The Alloy of Law - Brandon Sanderson
Asimov's Science Fiction magazine (December 2011)
So Many Books, So Little Time - Sara Nelson
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief - Rick Riordan
Medieval Law in Context - Anthony Mussen
Chime - Franny Billingsley
Asimov's Science Fiction magazine (January 2012)
Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine (February 2012)
The Dark Is Rising - Susan Cooper
The Doomsday Book - Connie Willis
The Cloud Roads - Martha Wells
On Stranger Tides - Tim Powers
The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
The Hobbit - JRR Tolkein

Added 6th January:
Hunger Games - Susan Thingy
A Game of Thrones - George R.R. Martin

Added 10th January:
A Posse of Princes - Sherwood Smith Gave up after three pages, utter drivel
Heat Wave - Richard Castle

Welcome back! The Alloy of Law was awesome! Brandon Sanderson at his best.

It's up next on my Kindle and I'm looking forward to it. Sanderson was one of my highlights of 2011 :-)

Stars.

Ooh, I have Alloy of Law sitting here waiting to be read as well!

#6> Helloooo!

#7> Maybe we all need to read it as our first 2012 read and report back? It looks like a good read!

Ohohoh - I just recently read The Dark Is Rising for the first time and really loved it; hope you do too! I'm also planning on a re-read of The Hobbit this year, in preparation for the (yay!) movie.

The Dark is Rising and The Hobbit are both re-reads for me and I'm looking forward to finding new things to love in them :-)

I'm looking forward to The Hobbit movie so much! If it lives up to the trailer, it will be awesome.

Tomorrow I need to read A Scandal in Bohemia in preparation for new Sherlock. Should be good and an inspirational way to start the year.

Happy New Year, Kathy!

Hooray! Stasia is visiting the 2012 threads :-)

I read A Scandal in Bohemia today but it was so short that it didn't feel right to list it as my first read. Although there is an entry in LT for it. Hmm.

Anyway, I have now 'acquired' Sherlock so I think it's time to retire to the recliner and enjoy it. Possibly while knitting a sock.

Happy New Year, Kathy!

I'm trying to decide whether to acquire Sherlock or wait for it to actually air on this side of the pond. Decisions, decisions.

#12: Glad I could cheer you up :)

I just watched the Hobbit trailer on the very large, HD, surround sound speakered tv at my brother-in-law's house last week. Oh my. It looks glorious!

I'm SO EXCITED for the second series of the new Sherlock. SO EXCITED I MIGHT KEEL OVER. I will definitely be 'acquiring' it ASAP.

#13> And Happy New Year to you!

#14> Go and acquire it. Got to say, I loved it. I'll be grabbing the DVDs when they're out but I couldn't wait to see it.

#15> :-D

#16> Ooh, now that sounds like something I'll need to try. May need to invest in the iPad to HDMI cable thing sooner than planned....

Hey Kathy! Just starring my favourite people for the New Year :D
Gotta say I'm loving Brandon Sanderson myself, I bought Warbreaker and the first part of Way of Kings the other day although I still need to finish reading the rest of the Mistborn books (hoping to get to them soon)

I also recently watched the Modern Sherlock episodes, I badly need to watch the newest episode after the ending of the Great Game! I can't decide whether I like the Benedict/Martin Holmes/Watson more than the RDJ/Jude versions they're both just so fab!

Hope you have a fab Jan of reading!

*slinks back off to lurking* :P

#19> Hello! I'm flattered to be a favourite people :-D I've read Sanderson's Mistborn books and Elantris, which all impressed me a lot. I need to read the rest of his back catalogue and I fully intend to read his Wheel of Time books when the final one gets published. Love how creative he is.

You definitely need to watch the newest episode! It's brilliant! I haven't seen the RDJ/Jude versions (yet), but I think the Benedict/Martin combo are probably the best since Jeremy Brett's run.

Happy lurking :p

Question to the masses: I'm not usually one for dystopian stuff (too depressing), but should I try to check out The Hunger Games? Will it irrevocably scar me or might I enjoy them anyway?

#21

It will certainly make you think: may well scar you a teeny bit but you will get entirely hooked, thoroughly enjoy it and want to immediately read it again. Despite it's dystopia-ness, it is so immensely readable - and never goes overboard with the gore. There is a lot about love, family, honour and loyalty as well.

The second and third are a bit different but I adore the first since I read it last year and have probably read it at least eight times since.

Got you starred :)

Welcome back! Looking forward to your thoughts on Alloy of Law although I think I am going to wait for the paperback.

And after hearing all the praise for Sherlock we watched the first episode of series 2 last night and loved it - I went straight on to amazon to order series 1.

#20 You need to see the RDJ/JL versions too! I think if you like Sherlock you'll like those.

#21 I enjoyed the Hunger Games trilogy and I think I get scared easily. Like Jenny said, they're so readable and there wasn't much gore. Suspenseful rather than scary and I didn't find them depressing.

#22> It sounds like they'll be something a little out of my normal habits, but that description doesn't make them sound completely too far out. Or like they'll give me nightmares, which is my biggest concern. I could give the first a go and see what I think.

#23> Hello!

#24> I preordered Alloy of Law for my Kindle :-) If it's anything like his other work, I'm sure that I'm going to love it.

Glad you're loving Sherlock! It is really very good. It impresses me how well they are able to adapt stories set over a hundred years ago to be interesting and relevant now and how well they can add to those stories when needed. I read A Scandal in Bohemia and couldn't see how they would turn that into a 90 minute episode - the material they added was brilliant, had me completely enthralled and never felt like padding. It was a natural extension of what had gone before.

I don't often root for the villain of the piece to escape :-)

Hmm, I'm leaning towards trying the RDJ/JL versions. Some people are telling me that I won't like them if I'm not already a Guy Richie fan, others are telling me that I'll love them if I like Sherlock. I think that I'll put my name on the hold list at the library for them.

And you and lunacat are persuading me that The Hunger Games is something that I might find readable without horrible nightmares.

I have finished something! Review tomorrow, but I'm so pleased because I finished something even if it's a comic rather than a long book.

Also, I'm two thirds of the way through season 1 of Deep Space 9 and I'm so glad that I know it gets better because it's hard work in places. The only way to watch Ferengi episodes is with something alcoholic at hand and did they need that many Bajoran terrorist plots?

Hey now, did I miss something? You're rewatching DS9, or watching it for the first time? I'm re-watching Star Trek: TNG this year, and plan to follow that in 2013 with DS9... mostly because I hated DS9 when I was younger, but I think that's because many of the plots were political and it went right over my head. I don't think I even bothered with the later seasons, as I was focused on Voyager instead (during the years they aired together).

I'm rewatching TNG too (Faith, did you get it as the Amazon one-day deal?). I have to admit, I never was into DS9 and watched Voyager instead. Although that crossover episode with the Trouble with Tribbles episode is brilliant.

It must be the year for re-watching TNG. My hubby and I are doing that too.

#27> I'm doing a rewatch. I watched it up until the final couple of episodes of season six and then, due to time issues and channel availability, never got to finish it. So I'm doing a total rewatch so that I can finally see how it all ended. I have to say, season 1 is hard work. Much harder than I remembered. So much of it is so slow! If I was watching for the first time, I'm not sure that I'd have got past the pilot.

I loved TNG (probably should do a rewatch at some stage) but lost interest in Voyager by mid-way through season two. I've been told that I should give it another chance because it improved.

#28> I much preferred DS9 to Voyager and never got past season 1 of Enterprise. The first couple of seasons of DS9 were variable (with too many Bajoran terrorist plots, IMO) but as soon as the Dominion were added the series got much stronger overall and more complex, in a good way.

Argh, my immune system is not my friend. It's causing inflammation in one eye and compromising my vision. Good thing my Kindle and iPad can both resize the text to something I can comfortably see. My dead tree book will have to go on hold for a couple of days :-(

Sorry to hear about the eye inflammation, Kathy! I love the text resizing on my Nook, so I am glad to hear that you have access to e-readers to help you out in the meantime!

Thanks :-) The eye thing is annoying, but the fun steroid drops are already helping a bit: my vision is clear enough to see fairly well up to five feet away. Got a few more days of them and the hopefully I'll be done. It was scary this morning because I know this is a complication of an existing issue and that it can do permanent damage if left untreated. My doctor is lovely and squeezed me in ten minutes after I called him, which was a relief!

I guess my hope to be steroid free in 2012 is not gonna happen...

But I did manage to get a lot of the December Asimov's read thanks to large text on my Kindle :-)

Kudos to the doc!

Well, today I can see clearly to several feet away. Not good enough to be safe to drive (let us not mention to anyone including the DMV what I did yesterday to get to the doc's), but sufficient to work at a computer so I can work from home rather than using up more sick time.

And I can write reviews :-) First two completed books of the year!

1) Astonishing X-Men Vol. 3 Issues 7 to 12 - Joss Whedon and John Cassady
The second arc in this volume is as exciting as the first, with a genuine sense that things may not work out as we want them to. There is less set-up work to do in this arc so the meat of the story can get moving much faster. It’s exciting and there are hints at games within games and double-crossing that are going to make later arcs even more thrilling and complex. The artwork on some panels is stunning but it is the writing that really stands out.

2) Asimov's Science Fiction magazine (December 2011)
The stand-out story here was Connie Willis’ novella, All About Emily. It’s a Christmas-set story that isn’t schmaltzy and has some interesting thoughts on robots and AI. It takes in musical theatre and pop culture, with some fun predictions thrown in, and I really enjoyed it. For me, this was the story that made the month’s subscription completely worth-while. The novelettes and short stories were all thought provoking, with the other memorable pieces being Strawberry Birdies by Pamela Sargent and “Run,” Bakri Says by Ferrett Steinmetz. Both of these, although completely different, left me thinking long after I had finished them.

Season 1 of DS9 is the worst, I think. It hadn't found its own voice yet, it was trying to be too much like TNG. It gets good once it gets more arc-based.

Also, another vote for The Hunger Games. I think it's a good series that happens to be dystopian, not a dystopian series that happens to be good.

Yup, S1 is definitely the worst. I'm slogging through it because I know that it picks up. If I were coming to it as a newbie, I'm not sure how well I'd be getting on with it. Shows how much my tastes have changed - I loved the first season when I first saw it!

Hunger Games is definitely in my plans now. You guys are making it sound much more interesting (and less icky) than I thought it would be.

Hunger Games was very good! The first one was definitely the best, but the whole series is worth reading.

I'm figuring that if I get on OK with Hunger Games then I'll read the rest of the series :-)

Glad to hear that the eyes are a bit better today, Kathy. I hope the trend continues.

I now have completely normal vision again :-) Woo! Still need to apply drops for a couple more days, but everything is looking good.

And I finished another book! I probably won't maintain this pace, but it's nice to start the year well with some good, fast reads.

3. The Secret Mistress - Mary Balogh
This one was listed on Publisher’s Weekly’s top 100 of 2011 in the romance category. I’m only an occasional romance reader because so many of them can be formulaic, but this one sounded like it would be that little bit more interesting. And it was! The jacket tries to make it sound much more salacious than it really is, so don’t take that too seriously. The heroine is bright, vivid and fun, the hero is kind and conflicted, and there are other threads running through the book in addition to the main romance. What I appreciated most is that the misunderstandings that keep our couple apart are not ones that could have been resolved if they’d just communicated better. They both needed to grow and mature before they were able to be together and that added a nice dimension to it. This is still definitely a light, fun romance but there is enough character growth and fun dialogue to make it stand out from the rest. Lots of fun.

For anyone following along, I'm still wading through season 1 of DS9 but I'm getting there. Last night I managed two episodes.

Storyteller's main storyline was quite predictable, but it was nice to see the very beginnings of of Bashir and O'Brian's friendship.

Progress rather hammered home the core message, but did have a few nice character bits for Kira and the end isn't what you'd expect from Star Trek. I admit, I sort of glazed over at times during the main storyline: the Nog and Jake being entrepreneurs was the more interesting plot.

And that means there are only five episodes left in the season and, as I recall, a couple of them are pretty interesting. Phew!

#41: I have not gotten that one of Balogh's yet. I must make a note to pick it up some time.

Glad to hear that your vision is back to normal, Kathy!

I love Star Trek talk. It always puts a smile on my face. And not for the reasons you might think.

You see, my dad and I used to sit and watch NG every week together when I was a child. He felt, as a bald man, it was important for his daughter to see another bald man in a position of authority ;) I have never watched the original and have no desire to. Voyager is my logical favourite (as in, withholding emotional responses, it's the one I enjoy most) and yet a glimpse of NG makes me a seven year old child sitting on her dad's lap having father/daughter time again. So much so, that often it is still too difficult for me to watch an episode.

But the conversation here has me with the biggest smile on my face this morning :)

#43> That was my first of Balogh's books and I'll definitely be looking out for more when I need a romance fix :-)

#44> Doctor Who was always my "me and dad" thing and it's still my favourite show ever :-) It feels very strange now to be watching without him, even though we can chatter about it by email afterwards. But I also grew up on repeats of the original Star Trek and watched the movies with my dad. TNG competes with DS9 for favourite Trek and I think that I may need to do a TNG re-watch at some stage. When I've got DS9 done :-)

Added a couple of extras to my planned reads for early 2012 in message 3. At least I got two ticked off that list before adding to it?

The Lightning Thief is the weakest of the books in the Riordan series. I wouldn't have continued with the series if my nephew hadn't told me the next books were better. Now I'm hooked!

I find the first book is often the weakest in a long series - so much setting up to do gets in the way of plot and character development. I need to put The Lightning Thief back onto my hold list at the library so that I can get the series started :-)

45: Did you hear the news about Noel Clarke (Mickey Smith from Doctor Who) being cast in the new Star Trek movie?

48: I did! And Benedict Cumerbatch as well! Looks like it's going to be brilliant, if the cast is anything to go by :-)

Guess I'll have to see it on opening night again, then...

Maybe I'll have to continue with the Riordan series after all. I read the first one a couple of years ago and wasn't overly impressed.

50: Yes, I was thrilled about Cumberbatch's casting! The only two upcoming movies that I want to see on opening day are that one and The Avengers.

>49/50 oh really? OK I didn't think it was likely that the second new Star Trek film would beat the first one but I've got a good feeling about this... *bounces excitedly*
Oh and Warbreaker is excellent by the way, I only slightly regret staying up til nearly 4 this morning reading it :P

Got you starred. Get ready to be book stalked. We do share a lot of overlapping books! I like to snoop but I made a vow to post much more this year :)
Just trying to catch up: I didn't like Sanderson's Mistborn book all that much but I loved his Warbreaker. I read the latter first. I don't know if that had anything to do with it. I've still got the second and third book to read for mistborn this year. We'll see if it happens. I might attempt his The Way of Kings this year as well if I can fit it in. I've read the prologue, and that alone was fascinating.

>28: No, I didn't even see that sale! We did get BSG on Blu-Ray in the one-day Amazon sale, but... I've had the whole TNG collection for a few years now. My husband gave them to me for our first Christmas when we started dating.

>29: Oh, wow! That's maybe 5 or 6 people I've run across now who are doing a re-watch... interesting!

#35 I am so behind with Asimov's - I think the last edition I read was the September one...

55: We got BSG on Blu-Ray in the one day Amazon sale, too! It's such a great show.

>54 Melis, I wasn't a huge fan of Mistborn either! I loved Elantris and liked most of his Alcatraz books, so I don't know why Mistborn didn't appeal more. I read it several years ago and still haven't gotten around to the sequels, though they're on the list.

> Zoe - Yea, I have a feeling I'm not gonna get to them this year. I just don't really wanna. Maybe I'll try Elantris though.

This morning I popped into the library to return a book and renew one (for the second time, I must start reading it) and glanced at the rapid reads shelf, where I spotted The Night Circus just sitting there out in the open. It's so popular right now that I hadn't even bothered to try putting it on hold reasoning that it would take at least six months and I'd be better off buying it, because I'm likely to want to re-read it.

Well, as the librarians clearly couldn't see that it should probably be on a hold list somewhere I snaffled it up and checked it up before anyone spotted me. Now I have a week to read it (no renewals, massive fines for overdueness) so all other reading plans are on hold. Eeep!

#51> It does seem like one where the first isn't great and then it gets better. I'm planning to give it at least two books before I give up, if I do give up.

#52> For me, I want to see Star Trek and The Hobbit on opening day :-) Those are my really big, excited movies. I'm trying to decide whether watching The Avengers without having watched the Iroman and Thor movies will be an issue. Will I have a hope with it?

#53> It's been so long waiting for solid news on Star Trek that I'd largely put it to the back of my mind. Now that we're getting so much news and the cast list looks good, I'm very excited even though it won't be in the cinemas until next year. So long to wait!

#54> I'd give the other Mistborn books a go - it's one of those series that really builds as it goes. I've got Warbreaker on my wishlist and The Way of the Kings sounds like I'll also need to read it :-) I'm quite happy to have lurkers here, but it's great to hear your thoughts on things as well!

#55> I've just seen this article (http://insidetv.ew.com/2012/01/05/star-trek-tng-hd-exclusive-video/) on the remaster they're doing for an HD version of TNG. If you watch the video of the original film and the cleaned-up film side by side, it looks amazing. I think that I'll be waiting for that copy to come out and then do a TNG re-watch :-) I've got a couple of people on my Twitter feed also doing a DS9 re-watch. Wonder why we're all drawn to re-watches of various kinds this year?

#56> If I remember correctly, I found September's Asimov's to be the clunker of the year. The more recent ones have been much better and I loved December's. I've got January and February issues on my Kindle waiting for me :-)

#57> I loved BSG, so brilliant! Maybe I'll wait until I've got some kind of Blu-Ray player and then indulge in that version...

#58> I'm guessing that Mistborn doesn't appeal to everyone. One of the things that I like about Sanderson is that he doesn't repeat himself: each work is quite different from everything else. So you won't necessarily like everything he has written, although I haven't disliked anything that I've read yet. Elantris was a more difficult read, for me, than Mistborn, and I'm looking forward to reading his other stuff to see more of his ideas.

Congrats on snagging the copy of Night Circus--obviously it was just meant to be. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Don't rush it, just let the words pull you in.

Oooh, more SHERLOCK talkies over here! I'm watching the first in the new series, A Scandal in Belgravia, with the naughty Miss Adler, RIGHT NOW. And looking forward to The Hounds of Baskerville tomorrow night, woohoo! If you're umming and aahing about the DVDs, don't. Buy 'em. Benedict Cumberbatch's Sherlock is the sexiest man on telly right now! :)

Now, books - I like your '2012 Starter List'... Some of my recent reads AND a couple from Mount TBR on there, evidently great minds think alike!

P.S. Congrats on The Night Circus - the waiting list at our library is something stupid like 738 days! I gave up and bought one, so it's under my bed waiting for me, wheeeee!

The weird thing is that I didn't actually dislike Mistborn. I rated it 4 stars at the time: lower than Elantris, but certainly solid. I just didn't feel like I had to pick up the next books right away, and now I barely remember a thing about the book even though it's only been two years. I'm glad to hear that it gets better; hopefully I'll manage to read the next ones this year. I'd like to read The Way of Kings and Warbreaker, but I feel like I shouldn't start something else by Sanderson when I'm already in the middle of one series.

I'm a fan of Sherlock, too. I am nooot really sure what I think about A Scandal in Belgravia, though.

60: Yes, I want to see The Hobbit on opening day too! I'm not sure how the Avengers movie will be without watching Iron Man and Thor first, but that's easily remedied! I loved the Iron Man movies, and Thor and Captain America were pretty good. The Incredible Hulk was awful, but they replaced the lead actor in The Avengers.

I loved the Mistborn series... love, love, LOVED it. The way he wraps things up is brilliant. And I've heard that Alloy of Law is Sanderson at his best, so I can't wait to get to it. My husband insists that Way of Kings is Sanderson's best work to date though, so I'm hoping to get to that this year.

Taking a quick cat-feeding-and-munchie-acquiring break :-)

#61> It's going to be hard not eating it all in one go. I'm over a quarter of the way through already and it's utterly beautiful.

#62> I loved Scandal in Belgravia and I'm very excited for Baskervilles tomorrow. It's one of the best things on the BBC right now, which is high praise indeed! I like to think that great minds think alike on the starter list, although some of it may be me picking up suggestions from your reads :-D I'm feeling incredibly lucky at snagging Night Circus, though. The only thing that I can think of is that they don't allow holds on rapid read books, so it's luck whether you spot it in time or not. Or the people using my library are clueless and don't know they should be rushing to get it ;-)

#63> I've had series like that - where I've enjoyed it but not felt that need to pick up the next one right away. I think maybe it's because he left the first Mistborn book in a state where a lot of things had been tied up rather than a massive cliffhanger. The next one is different, though, and I was glad that I had the final one on hand when I finished the middle book.

#64> I think Scandal is one where people either love it or don't like it. I thought it was brilliant and I loved the extra story that was added, it felt right somehow. But I can see that people might not appreciate that or might be uncertain how to react to it. I'm a little stunned that apparently there were complaints about the nudity - yikes, people can be odd.

#65> Maybe I need to put Ironman, Thor and Captain America on hold at the library then. That sounds like a good solution. I heard bad stuff about Hulk, so it sounds like replacing him was wise. There was an intense dissection of the trailer in SFX magazine that seemed to indicate that people were pleased with how The Avengers was shaping up, which is why I'm interested.

I'm going to need to be waiting online with my finger poised to get tickets to The Hobbit, I fear. It's going to be insane :-D

#66> I was about a quarter of the way into Allow of Law when I found Night Circus and I can confirm that it's brilliant - different again from his other work, but rooted in the Mistborn world, and completely compelling by page 2.

67 archerygirl - I think Scandal is one where people either love it or don't like it.

Since I neither love it nor dislike it - at this point I'm ambivalent and I'll have to rewatch it to see what I think - I'd have to disagree with that statement. There are certainly parts that I loved and parts that I didn't care for, but I don't have an opinion of it as a whole yet.

#68> I stand corrected :-D A rewatch is definitely in order so that you can better formulate your response to it. It's a good excuse, anyway ;-)

I've been watching The Hour on Netflix. It's taken me two episodes to work out where I recognise one of the characters from - it's Sherlock's Moriarty!

OK, just over halfway through The Night Circus and I'm taking a break. My neck aches and I feel like I'm not going to savour the end if properly if I'm too tired. It's already on my list of best reads of 2012 :-D

I am so glad to hear that you are enjoying The Night Circus, Kathy. I finished it this past week and loved it.

I'm lovinh Night Circus :-D Such a beautiful book.

Tonight I committed illegal and delicious acts on Brussels sprouts that involved bacon. So incredibly good.

I now have Sherlock to watch and the Once Upon a Time returns later tonight. Shall pretend to knit so that I don't feel too lazy and slob-like.

Sounds like a nice evening planned to me!

Hope you love The Night Circus! It was one of my top reads for 2011

Books I'm hoping to cross off my 2012 reading list
1. Van Gogh - The Life - Naifeh & Smith
2. Catherine the Great - Massie
3. Henry VIII - Weir
4. The Life of Elizabeth I - Weir
5. The Lady in the Tower - Weir
6. Marie Antoinette - Fraser
7. Alexander Hamilton - Chernow
8. Anna Karenina - Tolstoy
9. Ayn Rand & the World She Made - Heller
10. Tony Blair - A Journey (My Political Life)

There are plenty more but these are my top 10

#72> It was! I had my mitten in my lap, so I could pretend to be productive, but didn't actually knit a stitch. Sherlock was brilliant and I thought they did a great job of updating the Baskerville story. It was quite chilling in places. I was also very pleased to see Once Upon a Time back - it's probably one of my favourite currently airing US shows.

#73> Halfway through and I adore it. I'm saving the rest for a good long read tomorrow night when I'm assured of no interruptions. It's one where I don't want to be reading it in little chunks because the atmosphere is so important to it. You don't really get pulled into the feel of a book if you're reading it in five minute bursts.

#75> Hello! That's quite a list - lots of interesting stuff on it.

I loved The Hour when it was on - I'm looking forward to series 2 this year. Such a great cast, and Ben Whishaw was fan-bloody-tastic in it. I didn't realise Moriarty was in it though! Such a strange little man to be such a devious villain...

I couldn't believe the nudity complaints either - even watching the rerun I didn't think there was much to be freaked out about. Thank you Daily Mail, for your moral outrage... again... :(

I totally freaked out at last night's Sherlock though. Brilliantly updated, I was hiding behind my fingers a lot of the time, and I actually had one moment where I jumped out of my skin like an eejit. Seriously creepy stuff, it was brilliant. And that manic diatribe in the pub, in front of the fire?! I wanted to give Sherlock a round of applause, then a really big hug. :)

#76> I'm loving The Hour and hoping that Netflix gets the next series fairly quickly after it airs :-) Moriarty actor plays Adam the Actor. It took me a couple of episodes to place him and it was the voice that finally did it.

Last night's Sherlock was much scarier/creepier than I thought it would be. That freak out in the pub was what got me really buying into the fear and paranoia. If Sherlock can be scared and confused, it must be really bloody scary! There were so many very cool moments and Watson got some fabulous lines. I laughed out loud when he told Sherlock not to do the thing with the cheekbones and the turned up collar :-D

I think this series is so far just a tiny bit better than series 1. It's more consistent: the middle episode of series 1 fell flat for me, much as I loved the first and last ones, but both episodes of series 2 have been great and the last one looks fantastic.

I realised last night that, despite having watched multiple interpretations of Hound of the Baskervilles, I've never read it. Can you believe that?

So it's on my reading list for this week, after I've finished Night Circus and Alloy of Law.

Hi Kathy! :)

Hello!

My thread is going to the gutter now, isn't it? :-D

What makes you say that? *Smiles innocently* :P

#80> Um, I know you? :-p~~~~

So, last night I might have possibly been in need of retail therapy and bought two new books for my Kindle.

A Posse of Princesses by Sherwood Smith
A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin

I guess that qualifies as my first purchases of the year. At least my Kindle is well-stocked in case of emergencies?

I have a meeting with my specialist this afternoon, which could be seriously not-fun (maybe that's why I needed the retail therapy) particularly if my blood tests results are screwed up thanks to last week's eye issues. I do have things to cheer me up: the second half of Night Circus and a deeply unhealthy molten chocolate cake thingy.

Oh, and a hold to pick up from the library. Heat Wave. Hiding in books is a good way to deal with possible bad health news, right?

I loved the latest Sherlock episode and Sherlock Series 1 arrived from amazon so we watched The Study in Pink last night too. I think the way they're managing to reference the original stories and update them at the same time is brilliant and the series is so much fun to watch!

#81 Holding out until Jan 10th to make your first purchases is pretty good going in my books :-)

Hope your meeting with the specialist goes ok and the news isn't as bad as you think. Hiding in books is a perfectly valid way to deal with things (and if it's not we're all in trouble).

#82> The updating and referencing is working so well in Sherlock. I'm impressed each time with how well they're doing that. The sense of fun in the episodes keeps them rolling along even when they're a bit scary, like the most recent one, which is a testament to both the writing and the actors.

It was January 9th for the first books, if I'm honest. I'm trying to believe that it's good going :-)

Thanks for the good wishes. At least I have cheer up plans in place if things don't go well.

Hi! All the Sherlock love on this thread makes me think you'll enjoy this story - watching the "Baskerville" episode the other night, I realised I had seen part of it being filmed! I live near Dartmoor, and was up there messing about with a few friends one day in the summer. Suddenly a flatbed truck swept past with a big camera mounted on it filming two actors pretending to drive a Range Rover. At the time we racked our brains for TV shows it might be, eventually figuring it must be some dull rural drama featuring vets or something, so thought nothing of it. . We were therefore thrilled when we watched Sherlock and realised it must have been that! We also saw a huge lighting rig being set up for night filming as we left the moor, which they must have used for some of the spooky dusk shots In one shot you could definately see Haytor in the background, which is where we were. I think the place where the shots of Sherlock standing moodily on top of a tor is in fact the appropriately named Hound Tor, in case anyone fancies a fan pilgrimage. Needless to say, there is no spooky research facility right next to it. The hotel they stayed at is also near there, and I think is called the Cross Keys in real life.
We watched the background intently to see if we might have popped up, but I think they deliberately edited out any shots with other people in to make it look deserted.

Also enjoying all the sci-fi TV series reminiscing. It reminded me of Babylon 5, a show I used to enjoy a few years ago. I am hoping to return to and watch from the beginning one of these days, as I was rather late to the party, plus haven't watched it in years.

On the book front, I just finished Game of Thrones and LOVED it! I'm also hoping to read The Night Circus soon, so would be interested in your thoughts.

I spent a happy evening yesterday completely absorbed in the second half of The Night Circus.

4. The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern
This book is already on my list of top 2012 reads. It has been getting rave reviews all over LibraryThing so I was curious to see whether it could live up to the hype. I’m pleased to report that it does! The book has a dream-like quality that pulls the reader in. The writing creates images in the reader’s mind and I found myself feeling like a part of the story and the circus as I read. It’s beautifully written and I discovered that I was deliberately slowing my pace a bit so that I could absorb it all properly. The unusual competition between the main protagonists is the central plot but it is the circus that is really the central character and that is what I became invested in beyond anything else. As the book drew to a close there is a sense of sadness at having to leave the beautiful world that Morgenstern has created even though the story has a good, satisfying end. This is a book that I would recommend in paper form: the design of the book is a factor in the dream world that it creates and it would not feel the same in an ebook. Gorgeous and my first five star read of the year.

#84> Dartmoor is beautiful and I knew they had to have filmed there: nowhere else looks like it! Thank you for confirming that I was correct :-D It must have been fun playing 'spot the location' as you watched.

I loved Babylon 5. Its on my list of things that need to be re-watched because I never saw the final four episodes, thanks to whacky scheduling. It still stands out as oneo f the really great ones.

I managed Dramatis Personae and Duet last night in my DS9 re-watch. Will the first felt like another recycled TNG plot, Duet was pretty good and had some nice Kira character-building moments. Best of all, I'm only one episode away from finishing season 1. Phew! Good episodes are getting closer.

Good review of the Night Circus! Gotta love a nice 5 star read!

Thanks! It's nice to have a five star read this early in the year - I'm hoping it's an indicator of the quality of this year's books :-)

I'm back in Alloy of Law right now and thoroughly enjoying it. This weekend I really need to finish Medieval Law in Context, it's been on the go since the summer.

I'm also planning to do a fair bit of cooking and baking this weekend, so my reading plans may not be as successful as planned...

Finally found you! Sherlock and BSG and Star Trek fans unite!

You are so right that the ambiance of The Night Circus would just not be there in an e-book!

#89> Hello! Welcome! Yup, there may be Sherlock, BSG, Star Trek and Doctor Who chatter on this thread quite a bit :-) I've finally finishes season 1 of my DS9 rewatch (the final episode was one of the better ones, definitely) so I should be starting to find the better episodes soon.

#90> I'm glad that I didn't grab the e-book now that I've read it. In fact, I'm leaning towards picking it up while it's still in hardback because it's so beautifully laid out and illustrated. I think the paperback will still be lovely and atmospheric, but I'm not sure whether it would have quite the same impact.

Last night we had a comparatively light snow fall, except the wind pushed all the snow onto my side of the street and the city ploughs pushed a ton of slush and ice onto the end of my driveway. So the snow was too light for my plough guy to come out and help me, but now I'm stuck trying to clear a big pile of yuck if I want to ever leave the house again. My back hates me already and I've only got part of it cleared. Thank goodness they let me work from home on days like this.

I had another completed read last night and it was another cracker. This month is going very well and I'm a little stunned to realise that I've finished book 5 already:

5. The Alloy of Law - Brandon Sanderson
This is a follow-up to Sanderson’s Misborn trilogy and, from the way it was left, it looks like he is writing another series in that world. The action takes place a few centuries after the end of the last Mistborn book and the world has grown and evolved into something reminiscent of 19th century America. There are the Roughs (the Wild West) and Elendel (big city), with most of the action taking place in the city although the central characters have spent a lot of time in the Roughs. Sanderson has allowed the magic system he created to evolve and grow, reflecting both the changes at the end of the previous book and the new world that has grown up. The main character, Wax, is likable and flawed as are all the secondary characters. It’s hard not to root for them. The main villain is rather more interesting than I expected and the main mystery - of train robberies and kidnappings - works very well. More importantly, there are hints at a much larger story in the background and the events in the epilogue had my jaw dropping a bit. Great read and I will definitely be picking up the rest in the series.

Now I'm planning to finish Heat Wave so it can go back to the library tomorrow, where I will be picking up the first Percy Jackson novel.

And I'm trying to decide what to read next on my Kindle, although I'm seriously contemplating A Posse of Princesses as a fun fantasy read.

Had a nice weekend of baking, cooking and TV watching and somehow managed to read two books as well:

6. Heat Wave - Richard Castle
I borrowed this one from the library out of a curiosity to see whether a this kind of tie-in book could work. It’s not exactly high art, but it is a lot of fun. The idea is that this is the book that Richard Castle in the Castle TV show is writing from his research with an NYPD homicide team. The book is lightweight, but the mystery is intriguing and I enjoyed the links back to the show and the crafty references. It’s rather better than a lot of tie-in books and worth borrowing if you can. For fans of the show only, but fun.

7. Unwritten Vol. 1: Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity - Mike Carey
People have been telling me to read this for ages and I spotted the first three volumes at the library this week. The first volume lays a lot of groundwork and gives the reader a lot of hints at what might be happening in the overall story. The central question is whether Tommy Taylor is real or whether he is the character his ‘father’ wrote made flesh. I enjoyed it a lot and it’s fun picking out the literary references and inspirations. I will definitely be reading the other volumes that I picked up.

They were both quite quick reads, which is why I got through them so fast.

I've started Game of Thrones on my Kindle. I started A Posse of Princesses and made it through two pages before deciding that I really couldn't read it. I even deleted it off the Kindle, it was that bad. I'm much happier with the first few pages of GoT.

It's just possible that I watched Sherlock last night :-D How brilliant was that?

I enjoy the Richard Castle books, too. As you say, not high art, but it's like getting sort of licensed fanfic for the show.

I've been wanting to read the Richard Castle books for a while. Glad to hear they're good fun. (I got a nice bargain on Heat Rises the other day, but haven't read Heat Wave or Naked Heat.)

That's the best comparison I'd make! I rarely read tie-in books because they can be pretty dire and there are many times when there is better fanfic out there. The writers of fanfic at least make the effort to get character names and descriptions right. Heat Wave was fun and had the 'feel' of the show, which is something that I often find missing in tie-ins.

Just watched 'Call the Midwife'. Think I'll have to add the original books to the wish list. It's rather good.

>93: Love the Castle books... just because of how silly and tv-show-like they are. I picture the characters from the show when I read them... I like the "inside-joke" digs at certain characters. :)

:-) It was the inside digs that made me grin a lot and I reorganized all the characters so well. One of the fun things was spotting how well (or not) 'Castle' seemed to know his friends, particularly Beckett. Such fun!

Huh, time has passed rather more quickly than I thought. I've got a couple of books finished (one that I've been working on since the summer) and I'm thoroughly buried in Game of Thrones, which I'm enjoying far more than I thought that I would.

8. The Unwritten Vol. 2: Inside Man - Mike Carey
This picks up where volume 1 left off, introducing a new character and fleshing out the other characters more completely. It delves more into the nature of fiction and reality and I’m finding that side fascinating. In some ways, I liked it better than volume 1 because there was more ‘story’ to it. This is definitely a series that builds as it goes and I’m looking forward to volume 3.

9. Medieval Law in Context - Anthony Mussen
It has taken me nine months to read this, but it’s an excellent books. Considering the subject matter, it’s readable and flows well. Not what you would expect on a book about law in medieval England. The aim of the book is to demonstrate how legal consciousness grew and evolved in the time between Magna Carta and the Peasant’s Revolt. There is some discussion of how the law itself worked and how it grew, both in complexity and formality. There is also discussion of the way that the profession of law evolved so that by the end of that period, those working with the law were required to have a certain level of education and the distinctions between the different types of legal professionals were becoming more apparent. The main thrust of the book, though, is a discussion and explanation of how different areas of society interacted with the law, what their understanding was and how this changed over the period. This is where the surprises were for me. I had always vaguely assumed that the peasantry far more ignorant than they appear to have been: the legalities that affected them - such as marriage, tenancy and aspects of criminal law - appear to have been understood far more than I expected. In many ways, I suppose that I had not appreciated the fact that some knowledge would be needed. This is a well-written book on an area of medieval history that I knew very little about before I began. Reading it straight through has definitely improved by knowledge, but I can also see that it will be a useful reference work to go back to when I need clarification on things in my other reading.

My next non-fiction read (I'm already part way through the introduction) is The Rise of Western Christendom. Filling in the gaps in my knowledge here. When I'm finished that, I will be looking around for something covering the church in the medieval period. The Church and its history are so closely tied to events in that period that although my main area of study is England in the medieval period, it has become obvious that I need an understanding of the Church and its politics and history in order to understand some of the events in England more thoroughly.

I'm a history geek, I admit it.

No worries about the history geekdom. I minored in it so I totally understand. :)

I wanted to take medieval history for A-level, but my school couldn't make the time table work with my other A-levels. That meant it wasn't an option when I changed what I wanted to do with my life :-(

In hindsight, though, I'm happy about that. I get to study at the pace I set and I can branch off into tangents (like Church history) whenever I want to or whenever I think it might be useful. I can focus on things that particularly interest me and follow links and leads to other areas. I have a feeling that a degree might have sucked the enjoyment out of it for me but learning this way is proving quite fun :-)

Well, the Oscar nominations are out today: http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2012-01-24/oscars-2012-nominations-in-full

Is it just me, or is this list not looking too thrilling? Did we have a quiet year for cinema?

I may have to finally bite the bullet and try to catch The Iron Lady at the weekend and I'm planning to get the DVD of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy before the ceremony (got to love multi-region DVD players), so that I'll at least feel a bit more informed.

And no, my disappointment in the list is not solely because Harry Potter got nothing outside the technical categories. I didn't expect it to pick up any of the acting or big awards. Fantasy films rarely do, so it's nice to see Hugo in there even though it didn't appeal to me enough to get me into a cinema.

I'll still be watching the ceremony, though, because some of the bad (and amazing) dresses make the experience worthwhile even when the list isn't thrilling :-D

I'm a history geek as well, I enjoy Medieval Europe but haven't taken too many classes on the period. I may look into that law book at some point.

In regards to Church history one short intro to the topic is A History of Medieval Christianity by Jeffrey Burton Russell. I read it in an undergrad medieval history course. I also read The Age of Reason: From the Wars of Religion to the French Revolution in a church history class. It's part of the multi-volume Baker History of the church series, the preceding volume covers roughly AD 1300-1650. Meic Pearse was a professor of mine for a number of history/religion classes. He's written several books.

Those both look like good volumes for what I want and I've also added the AD 1300-1650 Baker History book to the wishlist as well.

When I started this years ago, my main focus was English Medieval history. I'm starting to expand into European as well now, to compliment and add to what I'm learning. I could probably carry on reading and expanding for the rest of my life and never feel like I know enough! My teachers used to tell me that medieval history was the least interesting period to learn about. I don't know what they're talking about - so much happened and the roots for so many things were begun then! Least interesting, pfft!

"The Artist" is the only movie up for best picture that I've actually seen, and it was absolutely wonderful. I don't really know anything about any of the rest of them.

Glad those recommendations may help you out. Academically I have a split focus, because I can't pick just one area of study. In undergrad I split between American and European history. For my masters I've narrowed it to American colonial history; but I do really enjoy Medieval England too. At my uni we have an American and gender/political focus, not good for a semi-medievalist. I did manage to take a Crusades course last year which was really interesting, it gave me a better European perspective.

Those teachers are just wrong. Granted, every historian has their favourite era and specialty, but nothing is as cool as medieval Europe. Non-medievalists are just inferior, they are in the dark and don't know what they are missing. Personally I'm not so big into African or Asian history, other people can study them all they want. Give me medieval or even U. S. topics any day.

Thanks for the good review of Alloy of Law, archerygirl. I liked the Mistborn series, and it looks like I'll enjoy his new take on that world. Your reaction to Unwritten also encourages me. I read the first one and wasn't sure whether I wanted to continue, but I may do that now.

#106> "The Artist" is the only one that I've heard significant buzz about and it's one that I may need to hunt down on DVD. I figured that Iron Lady would get something (if only for Meryl Streep) and I had a feeling that Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy might get a nod or two. Hugo is the big surprise to me and I think I'll definitely need to check out the DVD to find out why it's got 11 nominations. I still thought the list wasn't quite as good as some previous years, though, and I think maybe it reflects the fact that there have been a lot of big movies over the last year, but fewer award-deserving ones.

#107> My knowledge of colonial American history is pretty near zero. I grew up in England and only moved to Canada a few years ago so it's not something that I had much exposure to. Although neither was medieval history, in a classroom setting, although I did get a far bit of medieval through osmosis. My teachers at school all loved early modern English (Tudors and Stewarts, over and over) and modern world history. They really didn't see why I'd be interested in the events before those times and I realise now that it's because they weren't interested rather than because there was nothing interesting to know.

#108> I think you'll like Alloy of Law, Sanderson has done some really interesting things with that world. I've been told by many people that Unwritten is one that gets better as the series goes on so I'd definitely give it another go. I've got volume three from the library to read this week so that should get reviewed soon.

It's my fortnightly injection evening (otherwise known as the "bugger off, immune system, and leave me alone" injection) and I have post-injection treats to mull over.

I'm definitely spending some time reading pre-injection, wrestling with the church history for a while and then starting Unwritten Vol 3.

Then I've got a tasty dessert as my post-stabbing reward to be eaten with in front of the TV. I'm just undecided between a movie on Netflix (Wimbledon or Hellboy, my tastes are definitely eclectic) or hitting the DVD Mount TBV for some Castle. Oh, such difficult decisions!

I loved The Artist so I'm glad to see it got so many nominations. As for Hugo, I did see it in theatres, and visually it's gorgeous. Scorcese also deals with the story very sweetly so it's a nice, feel good film, and with its roots in old cinema, it doesn't surprise me that it got some nods.

#111> I didn't hear a thing about The Artist when it was (presumably) out here, but I've heard a lot since it came out in the UK and it sounds like a good one. Hugo looked a wee bit overly sweet for me from the trailers so I wasn't interested in it, although I think that I might like to try it out on DVD now. It is the kind of thing the Academy likes, as is The Artist.

Just starred your thread after skimming through it. Enjoying the Sherlock love! I hope you like The Game of Thrones, I am up to the 4th book and the series just seems to keep getting better.

>112 I saw The Artist in a preview showing at the beginning of December. However, it might crop up in theatres now given all of the buzz. As for Hugo, I'd say read the book and see if that works for you before picking up the film.

#113> I'm half way through Game of Thrones now and loving it. I can see why people get so addicted! I'll probably need to pick up the next one soon after I finish GoT.

#114> Reading the book first sounds like a plan. I heard a lot of people saying they liked the book better. Onto the wish list it goes! I'll keep an eye on out on the cinema listings to see whether The Artist gets another release.

I have been totally distracted by two related websites:

http://markwatches.net/reviews/
Mark watches full runs of various shows, currently he's working his way through Buffy for the very first time. I'm also doing a Buffy rewatch (thank you Netflix) and I'm a few episodes ahead of him. His thoughts on each episode are interesting and it's fascinating to watch someone discover each twist and turn for the first time.

http://markreads.net/reviews/
Mark reads books a chapter at a time. He's currently working on Lord of the Rings (first time again) and his thoughts, again, are very interesting to read. It's making me want to do a re-read right now!

I resumed my Deep Space Nine re-watch last night and I'm about half way though season 2 now (I'd watched the first bit before I got the S1 discs). It's a relief to be getting some better episodes, finally, and there are starting to be hints at a mysterious group called "The Dominion" :-D

Book news is, er, that I'm still reading Game of Thrones and The Unwritten Vol. 3. There's a good chance that I'll get a lot of reading done over the next couple of days - we're getting Weather tomorrow. Hopefully the roads will be clear by Saturday (I have books due at the library!) but after the city's performance during/after last week's storm, I'm not holding my breath.

I really should have brought my library books to work so that I could return them tonight, shouldn't I?

I am hideously overexcited about this so I have to share...

I've just signed up to be a supporting (i.e. voting) member of Chicon 7 (this year's Worldcon) and a Friend of 2014 Worldcon.

That means I get to vote in this year's Hugos (eeeee!) and I'll be voting on the site bid for 2014. As London 2014 is the only bid at the moment and it's unlikely that any other bid will appear, my vote will get my membership to 2014 converted to a full attending membership.

In other words, I'm going to Worldcon in 2014!

Also, I'll be voting in the Hugos this year and in 2014!

I'm going to have some serious reading and watching to do when the shortlists come out...

And a review! I can't believe that I'm already at 10 books - can I squeeze in something else by the end of the month?

10. The Unwritten Vol. 3: Dead Man's Knock - Mike Carey
This is definitely a series that gets better as it goes on. More information is given about the nature of fiction and reality in this world and there’s some lovely delving into Lizzie Hexham’s background. It has become increasingly obvious that Harry Potter is the inspiration for Tom and the Tommy Taylor books, but one of the things that I absolutely and completely loved was the subtle almost-acknowledgement of that followed a few panels later by name dropping of Rowling and Pullman. The series rewards the reader each time you start to pick up on these things and I get a sort of thrill each time I realise that I’m working something out. I hope my library has the rest of these!

Congrats! That sounds like fun!

Mark Reads is HILARIOUS!!! I just recently learned about it from a friend who's a bit obsessed, and she keeps sharing bits and pieces from his posts. I could lose a whole month catching up on Mark Reads/Mark Watches. Undoubtedly one of these days I will... LOL.

Omigosh -- I missed a Star Trek conversation, lovely Benedict Cumberbatch, Oscars chat, and now you are involved with the Hugos? How have I not been hanging out on your thread this entire time?! Scandalous. And, now, fixed.

That is awesome that you get to vote on the Hugos. So AWESOME. And now I want to go to ChiCon. It's only a train ride (and a lot of money) away. I bet I could do it.

Curses. Now you've got me all wrapped up thinking about SF cons and other lovely dreams. :)

#119> I think it will be!

#120> I lost a couple of evenings :-D It's been particularly funny reading along with his discovery of each episode of Buffy. It's Becoming right now. He's so not prepared! I also loved his discovery of the various things in the Fangorn chapters of LoTR. The enthusiasm! The joy! The lack of any spoilers to spoil it for him! The next time I have to talk on a panel about spoilers and the value of not seeing them, I'll refer people to Mark Reads/Watches :-D

#121> My thread is where all the cool conversations happen :-D

You should totally go to ChiCon! In my experience it's the travel and hotel that get expensive with cons. The ticket is usually the smallest expense. If you can find a cheap way to get there and somewhere super budget to stay, it's worth it :-D

I didn't realize how excited I'd be about the Hugo voting until I pressed the button to sign up. I usually try to read some of the things on the big short lists (Hugos, BSFA, Arthur C Clarke) and as they usually overlap a bit, it's not too hard to cover a fair bit of each list. I'll have to actually read everything on the Hugo list this year, though. The short list won't come out until April but there are one or two things that I think are shoe-ins for being on the list so I could get an early start. Is there any doubt that Embassytown will be on there? I think there's a rule or something about Mieville getting nominated whenever he qualifiies :-)

Yup -- you should re-name it "the cool kids hang-out". :D

I was just perusing the ChiCon website -- hmmm... maybe. I'm curious to see what other authors, etc. end up on the program, though. I like Mike Resnick, but.... more, please. Impatient.

And, yes, totally true about Mieville. I think the Hugo machine just automatically adds his name to the shortlist as soon as a new book of his hits the shelves. Which is totally okay by me!

Well, John Scalzi is also going to be there...

When the program is announced, there should be a better idea of who will be there and whether you want to spend the money :-D I know Worldcons usually get some excellent authors speaking on panels and it's one of the things that makes me very jealous when everyone is Tweeting about what they're doing!

The good thing about Mieville getting nominated for everything is that he's a great writer and deserves the nomination each time. Lois McMaster Bujold and Connie Willis are the same - pretty much always nominated, but their books deserve it every time.

Last night I watched an episode of DS9 and spent ages trying to work out why I recognised the actor playing the bad guy. It was Prince Humperdink! With shorter hair!

Oh, Chris Sarandon! He never did live down that role. Which is fine, because 'The Princess Bride' is possibly the best movie ever. :)

I do like John Scalzi. Still thinking about it... ;)

PS: I also love Bujold and Willis, though I have not yet read Blackout/All Clear, sadly. Will get them in hand sooner or later, though I hope sooner.

Kathy congratulations on your involvement with the Hugos. Have a great weekend.

#125 & 126> Agree on "The Princess Bride" :-)

Scalzi is great. I need to get Fuzzy Nation soon. You should definitely put the Willis at the top of your to be read pile, it's brilliant. Cryoburn is on the top of my pile, if the library ever stops giving me good books.

Can you believe that they had a copy of Embassytown right at the entrance when I went in yesterday? I was very surprised, but I grabbed it anyway :-) After our chatter, it felt like fate.

First I need to finish Game of Thrones and The Lightning Theif, which are both excellent.

#128> Thank you! It's going to be a lot of fun, I think.

Buffy, Mieville, Bujold, Willis - good conversations on your thread :-) I saw tor.com posting that they were going to do a Buffy rewatch and decided to do one myself. I think season one is my least favourite so I was surprised by how much I enjoyed rewatching the first episode. No idea how long it will take me... I can't get on to the markwatches.net site at the moment for some reason.

#129> I always think of season 1 as the weakest so I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the episodes. There was only one where I could find absolutely no redeeming factors (Teacher's Pet) and even The Witch. which I'd always thought of as terrible, was fun, enjoyable and thoroughly creepy the moment you thought about it in any depth. I'm currently about halfway through season 3 (just watched Amends) and as this is my favourite season (closely followed by 2) it's proving hard to only watch one episode a night! markwatches.net is great when you can get it - he's thinking through some of the episodes and the ideas behind them in ways that I hadn't really thought of before.

Buffy is definitely one of those shows that has layers, is good even in the weaker episodes and does some incredible things in the best episodes. It's amazing what Whedon was able to discuss and get broadcast in the guise of a fantasy/horror teen show!

This year, rather than trying to do quarterly summaries, I'm going to be doing monthly summaries. As it is January 31st, looks like it's time!

Books:
1. Astonishing X-Men Vol. 3 Issues 7 to 12 - Joss Whedon and John Cassady
2. Asimov's Science Fiction magazine (December 2011)
3. The Secret Mistress - Mary Balogh
4. The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern
5. The Alloy of Law - Brandon Sanderson
6. Heat Wave - Richard Castle
7. Unwritten Vol. 1: Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity - Mike Carey
8. The Unwritten Vol. 2: Inside Man - Mike Carey
9. Medieval Law in Context - Anthony Mussen
10. The Unwritten Vol. 3: Dead Man's Knock - Mike Carey

10 books! That has to be a monthly record!

The source breakdown:
Kindle/iPad: 3
My shelves: 1
Library: 6

Original Mount TBR tally: 137
Current Mount TBR tally: 136

Er, OK, Mount TBR hasn't actually dropped at all in reality because I'd included a book that I read last year and didn't update. For ease of mind, any non-fiction doesn't go onto Mount TBR so the single book that I read from my own shelves didn't help with the Mount TBR thing at all. Must do better!

The library got used extensively and I need to maybe trim that a bit so that I can tackle Mount TBR.

Weirdly, there were only three e-books there. Again, library is to blame there :-)

There were 3 book purchases, all Kindles so they didn't add to Mount TBR:

A Game of Thrones - George R. R. Martin
A Posse of Princesses - Sherwood Smith
American Gods - Neil Gaiman

I didn't get past page 3 of the Sherwood Smith, so I'm glad that was incredibly cheap.

I'm currently working on A Game of Thrones and the first Percy Jackson novel. It's Fantasy February so I'll probably use that as an excuse to eat read the next Song of Fire and Ice book.

I'm also perusing Mount TBR and may try to tick these off as part of FF:

The Will of the Empress - Tamora Pierce
The Blade Itself - Joe Abercrombie
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms - N. K. Jemisin

In non-fantasy reads, I'm planning to tackle Cryoburn Lois McMaster Bujold and maybe look at my stack of boarding school books.

Mount TBR should be much shorter by February 29th! She says, optimistically, preparing to hear much laughter when the plan fails.

And in non-book news:

I have booked plane tickets and will be in England for the second half of May. Woo! There is a trip to Hay-on-Wye in my plans...

#130 Yes, yes, yes to everything you said :-)

#131 I enjoyed Hundred Thousand Kingdoms - hope you like it.

#132 Woo! I was thinking about Hay on Wye this year too - I really need to get organised.

#133> Heh, Buffy is rather fabulous and discussion inducing! I'm looking forward to the Hundred Thousand Kingdoms because it's been so recommended so many times on 75 books.

I'm probably going to be avoiding going to Hay for the festival, but I really want to get a good look at some of the shops. I know there are a couple of good children's books dealers and I'd love to see whether I can add to my collection of hardback Chalet School books.

Great stats Kathy

It does look rather nice all neatly written out :-)

Delurking briefly to say that i've enjoyed seeing what you've read this month. Looking forward to your thoughts on Martin and Jackson.

The good news is that you won't have to wait long for my thoughts on Jackson because I finished it over breakfast this morning :-D

Tip: never start the final two chapters of a novel over breakfast if you are on a schedule. Oops.

11. The Lightning Thief - Rick Riordan
I’m told that this is a series that gets better as it goes on, which is exciting because I really enjoyed this! The characters are engaging, the idea behind it all is interesting, and use of Greek mythology is nicely done. If I had any complaint it is that the pacing verges on frenetic at times, but it kept me engaged and the fast pace and exciting adventure staved off the effect of the info-dumps that first books in a series often have. I will definitely be hunting down the rest of the books in this series.

Excellent!

Yay! Glad you enjoyed the first Percy Jackson book. And, yes, the pacing in that series is superfast, but it does get a bit better. And the second series settles out more evenly. But they are all such fun! I love the second book, the one you may be about to read if you have it, because it is laugh out loud at places. I look forward to seeing more of your thoughts as you make your way through the series.

I agree on the pacing for the Percy books. It's the only thing that bothers me about them. It seems to be a common problem with books aimed at that age range.

#139> :-D

#140> I've got a couple of books that I want to knock off Mount TBR, then I plan to put the next Percy Jackson book on hold at the library :-) I'm looking forward to it! I'd heard about the pacing and seen reviews that the second series is more even, so I was prepared for it and didn't find it too frantic to read. Riordan still managed to set up some terrific stuff and build characters that I cared about, which is the really important thing to me.

#141> There does tend to be an assumption that kids need frantic adventures with something amazing happening on every page. Authors seem to get a better handle on the pacing as they go on, when they realize that their intended audience is going to stick with it even when things are a bit more leisurely, and it's a nice contrast to some of the adult fantasy that is almost too slow and leisurely in the first book in a series. I tried reading the Septimus Heap books last year and while they had the same kind of pacing as Percy Jackson, I didn't get any attachment to the characters and there was nothing particularly original about the set-up to get me interested. It's something that I'm appreciating a lot with Riordan: despite the pace, he's already created a setting and group of characters that I like and want to know more about.

Perhaps I should try the Percy Jackson books again. I read the first and didn't enjoy it very much - it was okay but nothing more than that, and I felt no connection with it. And yet I keep seeing other people thoroughly enjoying them. *sigh* Decisions, decisions.

I felt the same way about the first one, lunacat. Then my nephew said to try the second one, that it was better. I did and it was.

Huzzah for another Percy Jackson fan! Yes, they get better and the pacing gets better. And Riordan proves he's one of the rare few authors who can end a series in a very satisfying way. :D

#143> I'd say give them another go - I wasn't expecting much from them so I've been pleasantly surprised and everyone assures me that they get better with each book.

#144> Judging a series on the first book often isn't good: first books are tricky to get right because they need to be compelling and drop a lot of information on you. I'm looking forward to the second book now because I know that it's better and the author can focus on story and character without trying to establish an entire world in three chapters.

#145> Ooh! That's good, finishing well is so difficult at times. I'd say that I'm definitely a convert and looking forward to reading more :-D

You bad, bad girl, ArcheryGirl! I really didn't plan on joining the 75 book challenge this year but I sneaked onto your thread all 'covert and sneaky like' a week ago and now I have a 'hold list' the length of my arm at the library. I don't really like to point fingers but.... (point, point, point!)

Heee! I'm glad that my reading has tempted you back to us! I'm always happy to take the blame for some good reading. So far, I've had some fantastic books.

You were also the one who made me feel good about counting graphic novels and comics towards this, so you really you are partially to blame for some of this :-D

This weekend there is a lot of rugby for me to watch and it's also the Superbowl, which I won't be watching but I will be taking advantage of all the yummies in the store to accompany my rugby watching.

Hopefully I'll also have time to finish A Game of Thrones and catch up on some comics. Several of the DC lines that I'm following have had new issues out over the last couple of weeks and I bought the first volume of Y: The Last man in the Comixology sale a couple of weeks ago. So, busy weekend ahead!

This weekend I'm planning to make some fruit buns because I have a craving for hot, buttered fruit buns fresh from the oven.

Then I spotted this recipe: http://www.citrusandcandy.com/2012/01/caramelised-apple-honey-and-frangipane-tar...

Maybe I'll pick up a few extra things at the store tonight so that I can have a little play with that next week. You know, for science. I'm sure that it would be delicious with some Greek yoghurt and an evening with my Kindle...

Well, the weekend produced a lot of rugby and a fair bit of baking: fruit buns on Saturday and yesterday I tried my hand at homemade potato chips. Both were highly successful :-) And the rugby was excellent so it was a good weekend.

I didn't read as much as I'd expected, but I did at least finish this:

12. A Game of Thrones - George R.R. Martin
Over the years I have seen a lot of reviews for this series of books, with most of them highlighting the misogynistic society that Martin creates and the presence of rape in the books. Various people recommended the books to me - many of them people that I know don’t read books with bad depictions of women - but it has taken me years to finally decide to see for myself. I expected to be appalled and possibly disgusted. I didn’t expect to find some amazing female characters who are, in many ways, stronger and more vibrant than the male characters. I definitely didn’t expect that the text would condemn the society’s behaviour to women in Martin’s world. In fact, I found the depiction of the female characters much more interesting than what I usually find in epic fantasy and there is a strong message of “this is not right” from them and from some of the male characters. The male characters who are the worst with the misogynist behaviour and casual rape are generally portrayed as not nice characters who are on the wrong side in most of the action. It was a surprisingly refreshing book and I have to admit, I’ve fallen slightly in love with this series. There’s lots of action and the pacing is very good: fast enough to keep everything exciting, but with enough breaks in the action to give the reader time to know the characters. There are some outright nasty characters, but there are far more shades of grey so that I have a lot of sympathy and liking for characters who aren’t particularly good. The world that Martin has created is interesting and the idea of seasons that last years with winter coming adds an undertone of threat to much of it. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I now understand why so many people were urging me to read them. I already have the second book queued up to read and I suspect that I’ll be joining the impatient queues when I’ve read the last one and am waiting for the next installment.

Hey, Connie Willis's The Doomsday Book is phenomenal! Ive just joined the 75 Book thing, clicked on you serendipitously, and saw Willis's book among your to-reads. I've read and retread that one 4-5 times.

#151> I read Doomsday Book a year ago and loved it so much that I had to put it in for a re-read this year. All of her books are amazing, but that might be my favourite.

Welcome to the 75 books group!

Grr, argh, this article is ridiculous: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/feb/05/ebook-sales-downmarket-genre?CMP=EMC...

It's the snobbishness directed at genre fiction that really gets me, particularly lumping all of it in together. Just because it's genre doesn't mean that it has no merit. Sure, sparkly emo vampires are at the pretty dire end of fiction.

But some of the work being done in crime, sci-fi and fantasy is amazing and the equal of the serious literature the article holds up as being the only pure reading. Argh.

To counter-act the foul taste from that article, John Scalzi has opened up a "suggest stuff that's eligible for Hugos and Nebulas" thread on Whatever. Some quality reading suggestions there.

http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/02/06/science-fiction-and-fantasy-fans-suggest-y...

#153 Yep, that article really annoyed me too.

Glad you enjoyed A Game of Thrones. I'm hoping to start the series next month.

#155> I should be used to articles like that by now, but somehow I never seem to be. You'll love Game of Thrones when you get to it :-)

>150: I felt the same way about the female characters! By the end, I was cheering Danys on like nothing else. I can't wait to see what happens to her. Her transformation was incredible.

#157> I felt the same way about Danys :-) I'm also ready to be convinced that Sansa isn't a spoiled little brat based on the final couple of chapters. She's the only one that fell into the stereotypical female role and I have a feeling that her transformation could be even more amazing.

Hi! I'm just catching up on threads. Loving the Buffy talk. I'm a big Mark Reads/Mark Watches fan too. ( I was not prepared!!)
You have so much good stuff to look forward to with The Song of Ice and Fire series. They just get better and more complex as they go along.

#159> Following along with things that I already know well, it's hilarious sometimes seeing how not prepared Mark is :-D I have to admit, last night's Buffy episode in my rewatch (Enemies) caught me out. I'd forgotten most of the plot since I last saw it so it was very cool to watch. I'm remembering again why I thought the second half of season 3 was some of the best Buffy ever :-D

I'm getting really excited for the rest of the Song of Fire and Ice series, just based on the hints people are giving and the general level of excitement.

Ooh, getting even more excited about the copy of A Clash of Kings sat on my coffee table. I have a few other books I was hoping to finish off first, to clear the decks a bit, but it's just becoming so hard to resist........must......resist.......

I've got a Clash of Kings on my Kindle :-D I've promised it to myself after I finish January's Asimov's.

It's pretty hard to resist and doesn't help that I'm not enamoured of the first novella in Asimov's! Thankfully Cryoburn, my dead tree book, is proving more compelling.

And I'm enjoying Fantastic Four: Season One (on my iPad) far more than I expected to. It's a line that I've never got into before, but I thought I'd try the reboot and although the first section was predictable (origin story!), it's suddenly got quite clever and there are some fun dialogue references.

Like I needed another new comic series to follow *sigh*

You've done a wonderful job describing the atmosphere in the Martin books - I'm looking forward to what you have to say about the rest of them (I've just finishing the latest installment myself)!

Thank you! I have to admit, I went into Game of Thrones fully prepared (and expecting) to dislike it so I'm thrilled to discover that I felt quite the opposite. I just have to finish the final three short stories in Feburary's Asimov's and then I get to read the next one :-)

I've been reading! Er, I've been reading quite a bit but I didn't want to put up reviews until I'd had time to articulate my thoughts on January's Asimov's and finish Cryoburn. As I finished Cryoburn last night, it's time to actually put my thoughts down.

13. Asimov's Science Fiction magazine (January 2012)
The two stand-out stories in this issue, the ones which have stayed with me, were “The War is Over and Everyone Wins” by Zachary Jernigan and “In the House of Aryaman, A Lonely Signal Burns” by Elizabeth Bear. The first is a deeply uncomfortable and compelling story about race relations taken to the extreme, genocide and the aftermath. The central character is sympathetic and the shock as I realized what had happened in this future imagining kept me thinking long after I had finished. It is the kind of story where good prose keeps you reading and invested even though the ideas are difficult and unsettling. The second story is an SF mystery set in India and it is a complete contrast: fun, inventive and engaging without any huge revelations, but not a piece of fluff either. As with most of Bear’s work, the central characters are likable and layered and I could easily read an entire novel with this one. In fact, I could happily read an entire novel set in this world because it has that feel of a world with more to explore than Bear could possibly fit into a novella. There were no duds in this issue and all the stories were enjoyable, although the two that I have highlighted are the ones that left me thinking long after I closed the book.

14. Fantastic Four: Season One - Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
Marvel has decided to issue some long, one-off books re-visiting the origin stories for some of their more popular lines and this is the first one. The Fantastic Four isn’t a series that I have had much interest in previously but I wanted to give them a go, just to see what I was missing. The first half is the origin story that I am familiar with from seeing the movie a few years ago with the rest being a few of their early adventures as they worked out their powers and what it would mean for them. I enjoyed it a lot more than I expected and the writing was fun, with some nice pop culture references and in-jokes that livened things up nicely. FF is probably still not going to be a line I visit often, but this was a fun book.

15. Cryoburn - Lois McMaster Bujold
This one is a bittersweet book: it’s a Miles book and I always love those but I knew going in that it would be the last Miles book. In a lot of ways, that is not something I mind much. His story is now finishing in a good place and finding further adventures for him feels like a stretch now, particularly in light of his growing family. So moving on seems right and I’m glad that Bujold told one final story to give us a satisfactory settlement for Miles. At the same time, I’m going to miss him terribly and the final few pages, although necessary, were hard to read. As always with a Miles story, though, there were lots of hijinks along the way, this time with an investigation on a planet that has gone rather crazy for cryo-preservation. The ideas on how a planet can function when few people technically “die” are well-developed and Bujold takes the repercussions to a level that feels both extreme and entirely appropriate. There are adventures, kidnappings, daring escapes, political shenanigans and fun new characters galore. Although I went into this book knowing that I would be sad by the end, the adventure was worth it and I’m quite content with how Bujold has left things. Now, when is the Ivan book that she has promised going to be out?

Now I'm working on the final bit of February Asimov's and I've just picked up The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms as my dead tree book :-)

And another finished read! Got this one finished last night on my Kindle so I'm now free to start A Clash of Kings :-)

I've also just reached season 4 in my Buffy re-watch and I'm going to be taking a tip from Mark Watches and alternating my Buffy episodes with Angel episodes. As I didn't see most of the final three series of Angel thanks to bad TV scheduling, this should be fun.

Tonight there are dozens and dozens of errands (it feels like) on my list after work, thanks to the prospect of a snow storm tomorrow so that I need to do tomorrow's errands tonight. Otherwise I could end up in a running out of vegetables place again. Thus I suspect that tonight will be collapsing in front of the TV with my re-heated dhal and watching something mindless. Intelligent watching/reading can resume tomorrow.

16. Asimov’s Science Fiction magazine (February 2012)
Another good issue for Asimov’s, with two stories that really stood out for me. “Murder Born” by Robert Reed is the novella and my reaction through the first three quarters was a wee bit ‘meh’, but then the some things happened that grabbed me and made the entire story pay off. It follows the trial and aftermath of the murder of a teenage girl through her father’s eyes. As the trial begins, a machine has been invented that is initially seen as a fast, humane way to administer death sentences. An unexpected side-effect is discovered: when a murderer is killed by the machine, his or her victims are returned. It is not really resurrection, more that time almost corrects itself once all traces of the murderer having lived are erased. It is the repercussions of this on one case that are explored and I found the ideas fascinating. The writing is great, the characters felt real and it raises a lot of questions. The other stand-out story is “The People of Pele” by Ken Liu. This is a first colonist type of story, but it has some nicely thought out details about the relationship between those colonists and Earth and the natives of the planet are some of the more unusual ones I’ve seen in sci-fi. Some nice prose pulls it all together so that I could see it in my mind and it is those images that will stay with me.

The Ivan book is due out in early November, according to Bujold's Facebook page.

Hmm, that would make it perfectly timed to be requested as a birthday present. Thank you, Ms. Bujold :-D

The Nebula nominees have been announced: http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/02/20/this-years-nebula-awards-nominations/

And my wishlist just grew :-) I have got to get some serious reading done, although hopefully a few of those will also be on the Hugo list. Good thing I've started The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, because it looks like the final part of that trilogy is going to be on all the lists. It's certainly appeared on every short-list that I've seen so far...

Cool! Nebulas! More books!

And a lot of really good books! I love seeing the nomination lists - it gives me so many ideas for books to read that were either not ones I'd come across or that weren't ones I'd prioritised. My poor wishlist grows so much this time of year.

I've got The Kingdom of Gods, although I haven't read it yet. I have read the first two. Haven't heard specifically of any of the others although, of course, Walton, Mieville, and McDevitt are familiar names.

I haven't read any of these. And In fact, I haven't read much SF for quite a while; some maybe this is a good time to get back into it!

#172> I've just started The hundred Thousand Kingdoms :-) Some of the others have come up in discussions so they've been on my radar and others are new to me and sound interesting. It's a really good list - nothing on it doesn't interest me.

#173> This would be a very good time to get back into it - this year's nomination lists for the various sci-fi awards sem like a great place to start.

Good gracious -- I stopped by your thread and saw the link to the Nebula noms, so I went to that page, which of course was Scalzi's page, which meant that I had to check what the most recent post was, and the most recent post involved Wil Wheaton, so I had to pop over to his blog, then I came back to Scalzi's and found a post about the 1% (http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/02/17/not-being-able-to-scrape-by-with-200k-is-u... , in case anyone is interested) which also reminded me about Gawker... and anyway, a million internet years later I'm back here where I started.

But now I can't remember what it was I originally wanted to comment about the Nebula noms post.

So instead you get a rambly comment that has no point.

Internet culture is like that sometimes.

I read Wil Wheaton's blog. It's a lot of fun. He seems like a really neat person.

#175> I think you just described the entire Internet culture in one post :-D

#176> He does seem like a cool person! Boy grew up well :-)