Rhyla's 75 in 2011

Hi all! I thought that I would join the challenge.

Here is the start of my list for the year. I'm off to a bit of a slow start but I'm sure I'll catch up.

44. The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King
43. The Gunslinger by Stephen King
42. Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz
41. Go the F**k to Sleep by Adam Mansbach
40. Conservation and Outdoor Recreation Education by BCWF
39. Chasing the Night by Iris Johansen
38. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
37. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
36. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
35. Breaking Lorca by Giles Blunt
34. Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill
33. Scavenger by David Morell
32. The Question by Henri Alleg
31. Santa Fe Dead by Stuart Woods
30. Extreme Measures by Vince Flynn
29. Shadow Games by Glen Cook
28. Five Years of My Life: An Innocent Man in Guantanamo by Murat Kurnaz
27. The Silver Spike by Glen Cook
26. The White Rose by Glen Cook
25. Shadows Linger by Glen Cook
24. The Black Company by Glen Cook
23. Still Waters by Tami Hoag
22. Beyond the Shadows by Brent Weeks
21. Shadow's Edge by Brent Weeks
20. The Way of Shadows by Brent Weeks
19. Ashes to Ashes by Tami Hoag
18. What's True, Darling by M.A.C. Farrant
17. Decision at Doona by Anne McCaffrey
16. Love My Rifle More Than You by Kayla Williams
15. 24 Declassified: Veto Power by John Whitman
14. Prisoner of Tehran by Marina Nemat
13. 24 Declassified: Operation Hell Gate by Marc Cerasini
12. Our Grandmothers, Ourselves by Gina Vale
11. A Thin Dark Line by Tami Hoag
10. Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk
9. The Long Walk by Stephen King
8. Twisted by R. L. Stine
7. Alias: A Secret Life by Laura Peyton Roberts
6. Hanibal Rising by Thomas Harris
5. Sybil by Flora Rheta Schreiber
4. A Beautiful Mind by Sylvia Nasar
3. The Bourne Legacy by Eric Van Lustbader
2. Survivor by Chuck Palahnuik
1. A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson

Hey Rhyla,

Welcome to the group! A Beautiful Mind, is that the story of John Nash? I never knew there was a book, but I loved the movie.

It is! I loved the movie too. If I'd known about the book first I would have read it before watching the movie. Unfortunately I didn't. The book is good. It gets a little overly detailed in a couple of places with regards to some of the mathematical stuff that isn't going to make sense to anyone other than mathematicians anyways. Aside from that I really enjoyed it.

Sybil was the hot book when I was a teen like A Child Called It is now. Welcome!

Hi Rhyla! Hope you have a great year of reading. :)

I keep meaning to read A Walk in the Woods but somehow haven't gotten around to it yet ...

Enjoy the challenge! It's a lot of fun.

Welcome to the group! Looks like you've had some varied and interesting reads so far.

Welcome to the group!

#3 Overly detailed on the mathematical side actually makes me want to read the book more so it's gone on the wishlist :-)

I really loved A Beautiful Mind when I read it (and the movie too). Welcome to the group!!

Welcome!

#6 A Walk in the Woods was quite enjoyable. I like Bryson's sense of humor. I'd recommend it. Hopefully you're able to get around to it one of these days.

R L Stine? I'm sure I used to read Point horror stories by him when I was in my teens :)

#12

As did I. There is a table in our mall where you can buy used books by donation and the proceeds go to the SPCA. I saw it there and thought back to when I was a kid reading the goosebumps books. I decided "why not" and picked it up.

Funny you should mention R.L. Stine. I am doing a major weeding on my fiction section and sighed when I looked at the one and a half shelves his titles take up. I so want to ditch them but the kids still read them. Maybe if I got rid of them the students would read something a tad more challenging?

I just finished A Thin Dark Line. I never thought I would be much of a fan for murder mysteries, but I quite enjoyed it. I might have to raid my mom's book shelf as she's a huge murder mystery fanatic and see if I enjoy anything else. I've got several books en route from chapters, as well as a couple of series (The Dark Tower series and The Night Angel trilogy) waiting for me, but I just can't decide what to start on next. I'm hesitant to commit myself to a series when I know my other books will be arriving in a week. I'll clear some outstanding books from my "to read" list while I figure it out I suppose.

It's always fun to discover a new genre to enjoy. Glad you enjoyed your latest read. And here's hoping your Chapters order shows up early. :)

I decided to join the books off our shelves challenge also. There I discovered I had 39 books sitting around waiting to be read. Tackling that should help me along over here as well.

A belated welcome to the 75ers!

The latest books I've added to my list have been

Love My Rifle More Than You by Kayla Williams. Although there were really no huge insights or anything, I really did enjoy it.

I also reread Decision at Doona by Anne McCaffrey. It's a book I remember reading when I was a kid. I didn't really expect it to be as good as I recalled, but you know what, I still like it. It's funny how some parts I remembered word for word after so long.

Lastly I read What's True, Darling by M.A.C. Farrant (Touchstones not working for this one.) I have no idea what the point of this book was. More than once I considered just closing it and putting it back on the shelf but I can't stand not finishing something. I felt it was a complete waste of time. I would not recommend this book.

I've now started on the Night Angel Trilogy. I'm about 1/3 of the way through the first book. Really, really engaging. Time just flies by when I'm reading it.

Sounds like you've got some excellent antidotes lined up after your dud read. :)

So I finished the Night Angel Trilogy (The Way of Shadows, Shadow's Edge, Beyond the Shadows). The best books I've read in a long time by far! My only complaint was reaching the end because then I had no more to read and by that time I was so involved with all the characters it was hard to let them go. Weeks is a fantastic writer and I'll be sure to look up anything else he's got out next time I'm buying books. I passed the books on to my mom to read so I'll have someone to talk to them about. It's going to be hard keeping my mouth shut until she's done, but at least she reads fast. I highly, highly recommend the series.

I read a couple more Tami Hoag murder mysteries, Ashes to Ashes and Still Waters. I enjoyed them. I'll have to check out some different authors in that type of genre now that I've decided I like it.

I'm currently working my way through The Black Company series. I've finished the first three books, The Black Company, Shadows Linger and The White Rose, and am now onto The Silver Spike. I have to admit Glen Cook's writing style did turn me off a bit at first. It took me a good half way through the first book to get into it (because of the style getting in the way, not the story being bad.) A lot of action going on in these books. I'm enjoying the story now and looking forward to the rest of the series to follow.

I tried reading The Black Company books and just could not get into Cook's writing style at all. I may have to give the books another try at some point.

I just finished The Silver Spike. So far the least favorite of the books. I've just started Shadow Games which I'm getting into a little more. This is the 5th book and I still struggle with Cook's style at times. I could put these books down and not pick them up again easily enough. That said I am actually enjoying them and have a few characters I'm particularly fond of. It's a tough one to follow reading the Night Angel trilogy that I could NOT put down and was so sad to see end. I think I'll finish the Books of the South and then leave the Black Company for a while to take a break and read something else.

Added a bunch to my list that I hadn't had time to update. The only one I didn't enjoy was Santa Fe Dead. It just seemed like the characters lacked any depth and everything was so over the top. The Hunger Games trillogy was absolutely amazing. I read each book in two days. I highly recommend them. Heart-Shaped Box was enjoyable. It definitely had some creepy imagry going on in parts, although there were some spots in the book where it felt like the writing was getting repetative. It was still a good book.

What you think of the Long Walk? I enjoyed it but thought the ending was bit crap... :)

@ Bridgey

That pretty much sums up my thoughts too. I was really enjoying it. I was skeptical when I first picked it up. I wondered how a book could possibly be as long as it was (not that it was overly long, in fact quite short for King) and cover only what it did and not be boring as hell. But once I started I just wanted to keep reading and enjoyed every bit of it up to the end which was rather disappointing. That said I've yet to figure out how he could have ended it differently such that it would have worked but not been crap. But whatever, I still like the book ;)

Chasing the Night was an enjoyable read. Iris Johansen is one of my mom's favorite authors and I borrowed the book from her. I might borrow a few more. The CORE book was admittedly studying for getting my hunting liscense, but it's still a book! Go the F**k to Sleep was brilliant. It was made even better by the fact that I got to sit back and let my hubby read it to me. We were both cracking up.

I've always enjoyed Iris Johansen. In fact she's one of the few authors in that genre whose books I've actually bought. I usually just borrow them from the library. I highly recommend The Wind Dancer trilogy, which starts out as historical fiction for the first two books and then becomes contemporary in the third. However, if you're not into historicals, the third book (and in fact all of them) stand well on their own.

@ MickyFine

I have a lot of books on my shelves to read still at the moment, however I think I'll check those ones out once I've caught up a bit. Thanks for the suggestion.

Two months to go and still a long way off. 31 books left to read. I can't see actually completing this challenge. Would it be cheating to pull out a few of my Dr. Seuss books to reread? Hmm.

I thouroughly enjoyed Odd Thomas. Excellent book and a fun read. I love the narrating in it. I finally got to starting the Dark Tower series. The Gunslinger was kind of slow and not all that interesting to me. I was a little worried that I wasn't going to enjoy the series after having read it. However The Drawing of the Three made up for it and I am now looking forward to the rest of them. I forgot the third one at my parents, so decided to pull another King book off the shelf until I get it back and am currently in the middle of Dreamcatcher. I think I might watch the movie again after I finish. I think I'd like to dig out some of my Clive Barker books and reread them too but I should probably focus on the large stack of books I`ve accumulated and not read first.

Fortunately, we really don't care about the numbers. :)

Odd Thomas is one of my faves!