Books

Books I read in 2017

by

Covers of books I read in 2017

Books read 2017 ticker

So above is an image of the covers of all the books I read in 2017, minus American Gods by Neil Gaiman.

The Best:

  • Nimona by Noelle Stevenson – This graphic novel is as great as I’ve been hearing. I’m glad I finally had a chance to read it. Highly recommend.
  • Our Dark Duet by Victoria Schwab- Second book in a rare duology. It’s just as good as the first. Partially a dystopia, partially paranormal. If this sort of thing interests you, check it out.
  • Up From the Sea by Leza Lowitz – I loved the prose this book was written in. I want to find more books with plots written this way. The book is about the March 2011 tsunami that hit Japan.

The Okay or Meh:

  • The Tournament at Gorlan by John Flanagan – I love the world of Ranger’s Apprentice. I love Halt. I had high hopes for this prequel and it fell short for me. Halt already seemed pretty accomplished and I wanted to see him grow. Repetition of the clothing color used by Morgarath’s soldiers. Seriously I started wondering why the characters were repeating it over and over as if they forgot along the way. It’s a bit too much.
  • Windfall by Jennifer E. Smith – Predictable on how things were going to go plot-wise. Sighs.
  • Bloodline by Claudia Gray – I wanted a good book about Princess Leia. This was not it. Since it’s about her as a senator there are tons of political things going on with the plot. Eh.

The Bottom:

  • American Gods by Neil Gaiman – This was my second attempt at reading this book. Once again I just could not finish it. I did get farther than last time, but it just became too boring for me. Once as Shadow is away from the gods, the plot just dragged for me. This book just wasn’t for me. I may try one of his other books sometime, but this is now a permanent did not finish. I will not be picking up this book again.

Obviously, there’s a lot of interesting things about the other books I read, but those are the highlights.

Banned Books Week is coming

by

Banned Books Week 2017

Banned Books Week is almost here. This year it takes place from Sunday, September 24th until Saturday, September 30th. Banned Books Week is a time to celebrate your right to read whatever materials you choose.

Challenged or Banned

I highly encourage people to find a challenged or banned book to read for Banned Books Week. The American Library Association (ALA) has a list of challenged or banned books right here. If you click on ALA’s challenged books by year (2015-2016 back to 2004-2005), you’ll get a PDF which tells you why each book was challenged. You can even search online to find news articles about books that have been challenged recently and pick a book to read that way. Find something interesting, find something new, find something different, and read.

Decatur Book Festival 2017

by

So as is now seemingly becoming my annual tradition, I went to the Decatur Book Festival. It’s an outdoor festival that takes place in downtown Decatur right on top of the Decatur MARTA station. (MARTA is Georgia’s/Atlanta’s transit system – bus and train.) There are local authors as well as some famous authors that come to the festival. There are book readings, discussions, selling and signing. Since I sunburn very easily I get there early on Saturday just to do book shopping. This is my time to check out anything new and take a chance with a new author or a self-published author. I also check out the used book sellers. At this point, there is one used book seller tent I have come to love above the others because I have the best luck in finding something I want. So here’s this year’s stash.

Read more

Readathon

by

So in March I found out about All the Short Ones Readathon. The reading challenge involved reading books from your pile that are 300 pages or less. Also, you had the whole Month of March to read as much as you could. When it comes to books of that length, my best bet is to look at my manga collection. So I decided to read all of the issues of Library Wars. I had read the first few and kind of stopped along the way. So I decided to go back to the start and finish all of the volumes.

Library Wars manga

And I was successful. Granted with how busy my life was, I ended up having to finish reading 3 volumes on the last day, but I managed it. I was glad to participate in my first reading challenge, even in an official way. (And I loved the manga series. I’m glad I was finally able to finish it.)

I also tried the Tome Topple Readathon which took place from April 7th – April 20th. This challenge involved reading books over 500 pages long. I picked out the book American Gods from Neil Gaiman.

This one I wasn’t successful with. The major problem being the collapse of a portion of I-85 in Georgia. It affected my commute indirectly. Basically, traffic has been forced to take alternate routes, and my workplace is near some major alternative roads and highways. So now I have to get up at 4:30 am and get out the door by 5:20 am to avoid even worse traffic later. It makes me really tired when I get home, so I’ve been too tired to read. I’m still reading the book, but obviously, I wasn’t able to finish in time for the challenge. I will probably have to avoid future reading challenges until this whole mess resolves and I have enough time and energy to dedicate serious time to reading again.

Save

Save

Save

Save

Click to access the login or register cheese