SkuldOMG's 2014

Hi everyone! I am by no means as avid a reader as many of you, mainly because I don't have as many opportunities for long reads as I used to (next to no commute, and in the evenings I tend to spend my time doing other stuff), but I'm aiming to change this. Last year's self-imposed challenge has helped me, and I'm hoping this year will be the same!

My challenge is basically very easy: Read one more book than last year! 2013 it was 12 books. So now, my goal this year is:

Read 13 or more books!

After I've worked my way through my current to read list, I am aiming to finally start Stephen King's Dark Tower saga. So anyways, cheers to 2014 in reading!




Read:
1. The Horror in the Museum (H.P. Lovecraft)
2. I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream (eBook) (Harlan Ellison)
3. Line To Night Island (eBook) (Robin Wyatt Dunn)
4. Sumo Through the Wrestlers' Eyes (eBook) (Chris Gould)
5. Yokohama Yankee (Leslie Helm)
6. 2061: Odyssey Three (Arthur C. Clarke)
7. 3001: The Final Odyssey (Arthur C. Clarke)
8. Kendo World 7.1 (Alexander Bennett)
9. The Gunslinger (Stephen King)
10. Böser kleiner Junge (Stephen King)
11. In The Tall Grass (Stephen King)
12. A Face in the Crowd (Stephen King)
13. Ur (Stephen King)
14. Mile 81 (Stephen King)
15. A Game of Thrones (George R. R. Martin)
16. A Clash of Kings (George R. R. Martin)
17. A Storm of Swords (George R. R. Martin)
18. A Feast for Crows (George R. R. Martin)
19. A Dance with Dragons (George R. R. Martin)
20. Mr. Mercedes (Stephen King)

Currently reading:
The Haunter of the Dark (H.P. Lovecraft)
Veteran (Gavin Smith)

To read pile:
Sprengstoff (Richard Bachmann)
Hannibal Rising (Thomas Harris)
Ilias Odyssee (Homer)
Blut (Stephen King)
Kafka am Strand (Haruki Murakami)
Mister Aufziehvogel (Haruki Murakami)
Wolfsruf (S.P. Somtow)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde)
Die sieben Dämonen (Barbara Woods)
From the Indie Side
The Complete Sherlock Holmes (eBook) (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The Drawing of the Three (Stephen King)
11.22.63 (Stephen King)
Scotland is not for the Squeamish (Bill Watkins)
The Family Corleone (Ed Falco)
Behind the Fire (Susan May)
Scenic Route (Susan May)
The Waste Lands (Stephen King)
Wizard and Glass (Stephen King)
The Lurking Fear: Collected Short Stories Vol. 4 (H. P. Lovecraft)
The Iron Wolves (Andy Remic)
The Blade Itself (Joe Abercrombie)

Welcome, and may 2014 bring a big jump in your TBR pile...it tends to happen without effort the more you hang around the group.

Welcome! The Dark Tower series is a great choice. I'd like to reread 'em again back to back someday. So many books, so little time... :)

I've read the first couple of Dark Tower books, and the whole stack is waiting on my "read me soon!" shelf. Hopefully I'll get round to them this next year...

Simon - Nice to see the beautiful city of Heidelburg represented in the group. Don't worry about the number of books you read as it is entirely incidental.

If you manage to get through the Dark Tower series, at least you'll feel like you've done a lot of reading, no matter the book count. :)

Hi Simon! Found you and starred. I love Heidelberg. It's such a cosy town.
Happy reading to you too. 😃

Hi over here too! :) Thanks! Heidelberg would be a lot cozier with a bit of snow covering it, but let's enjoy 2014 anyway!

Now that I finished my last book for 2013, I've updated my goal to 12 books this year. I'm going to start tomorrow, will be working on finishing The Horror in the Museum by H.P. Lovecraft.

Oooo, Lovecraft! Are you in the Weird Fiction group?

I was not but I just joined :) Unfortunately I just noticed it's not the most active of groups but that didn't hinder me from posting, heh.

May all your wishes come true.

Updated my goal to 13 books since I decided to add Kendo World 6.4 issue to my books read 2013 list.

First one done! The Horror in the Museum, a collection of short stories by H.P. Lovecraft. Especially the later once were pretty awesome, because they diverged a little from Lovecraft's typical pattern of "innocent and unknowing man stumbles upon a remnant of the Ancient Ones". Till A' the Seas, Within the Walls of Eryx and The Night Ocean were definitely my favorites in this one.

Glad to know it's a good collection, Simon, thanks. I enjoy Lovecraft as a palate-cleansing read.

Done with I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream. Bought this one because I was interested in the title story. Didn't disappoint! There were only two stories that didn't click with me, the others were really good. Had some Stephen Kingish moments, especially in Pretty Maggie Money-Eyes, which is always a plus. I went in expecting some nice sci-fi stuff after the title story, but all stories were really distinct in style and genre.

Also got my first book from Early Reviewers today, excited! It's Line to Night Island and I'm going to get to reading it right now :)

Done with Line to Night Island already! I breezed through it. This was a strange one. Pretty surrealistic, on the surface it tells of a knight, hailing from Night Island who is on a quest. For his wife, for God, to buy some milk, to go to Los Angeles, to New York and to produce a movie. I am either not experienced enough in surrealistic material or not smart enough (probably both), but I did not really get what it wants to represent. It reads like either a drug trip or, without meaning any offensiveness, the experience of a mentally challenged person (the latter was actually suggested to me by tags here on LT). Nevertheless, it was a good read!

Done with Sumo through the Wrestlers' Eyes. A great read, not only does it provide insight into the sumo world through points of view of all different divisions and personalities, it also offers a great timeline on general happenings in the sport during the last decade. With an updated epilogue, it covers everything up to the September 2013 tournament.

Hi Simon, I wish you a fantastic weekend

Thanks! :) We have a sunny day today in Heidelberg, yesterday I had a sports event but today is all cleaning and relaxing. Hope you're having fun too! I'm a bit more than halfway through with Yokohama Yankee, it's a really great book.

Done with Yokohama Yankee! Breezed through the second half, as the author's search into his past took really interesting turns. Awesome read, half adventure into Japan's feudal past, half memoir of the author's recent family history.

Read 2061: Odyssey Three. Even though the Monolith only played a minor role in this one, the end has left me wanting for more and I'm immediately going to jump on 3001. The journey was still a good one, Clarke's writing was and is just visionary.

In other news... wow! It's only the end of February and I'm nearly half-way to my goal. Yay me :)

Passed the half-way point! 3001 is a great conclusion to an awesome series of books. I love the picture Clarke paints of the future, although some ideas are obviously "vintage" (like the Braincap). Must read for anyone interested in science (fiction).

Next physical book will finally be a longer one again, 11.22.63 by Stephen King. Before I dive into that, I'm going to finish up some eBook loving though.

Went on a shopping spree! I received an early Easter present in the form of The Lurking Fear: Collected Short Stories Vol. 4 and an Amazon gift card. I used the gift card to get up to speed with Stephen King's e-book only stories. Went ahead and bought Ur, In The Tall Grass, Böser kleiner Junge (an exclusive short storie released in German and French only because of Mr. King's visit to Germany and France recently), Mile 81 and A Face in the Crowd. Woohoo!

Done with The Gunslinger. If the foreword hadn't said "give this series a chance until you're into the second or third book" I would've been really conflicted now. It's really interesting with its setting and the Gunslinger's story but it didn't really click with me yet. Let's see what the next ones bring. I'll first tackle the Kindle short stories though - I know Stephen King never disappoints when it comes to short stories!

Read through Böser kleiner Junge today. Typical Stephen King short story, so it does not disappoint!

Hooray for short stories. Reading through them propelled me to my magic 13 already, and we're not even half-way through the year yet :)

I joined the bandwagon and got myself the Song of Ice and Fire books. A friend has recommended them to me like 10 years ago, and what with all the rage around the TV series, I decided to watch a few episodes and now I've dug into the books.