Books 2021 Reading Challenge

[Ivysaur]

Read La hora de los hipócritas, a detective novel by Greek author Petros Márkaris (love him), plus Spirou 11, 12 and 13. That makes 30 entries!

And now I'm at a point in which I'm reading a book and a comic but I want to start two new ones instead someone stop me

 

[Duck]

After a chance referral via booktube, I decided to read the Raybearer and I high key loved it.

[8 / 25] The Raybearer (Spoilerless review)

Spoiler:

Raybearer is a feminist mostly African inspired fantasy and I love it. While some things never change this book gave me a very fresh feeling: it's a whole different fantasy than your usual novels or even the relatively more esoteric xianxia.

Before I continue, I'd be remiss to not mention that the book mentions and depicts psychological and emotional abuse, as well mentions and implies physical and domestic abuse. They're important plot points, so reader discretion is advised.

The basic synopsis is this: "Tarisai is raised by an emotionally (and physically) distant, psychologically abusive mother who, due to the power of magic, compels her to try and make friends with the emperor's heir and kill him. The book is all about how she deals with that order, her struggles with it and the concept of justice in general, and how she carves her own found family in the imperial court."

I love the characters, I love the culture it painted and I love the representation: there are so many POC characters, some of which are LGBT and it's just like glossed over - it's just a normal thing (with one exception which is ... understandable really, and even then it's just not really treated as an issue in the broader scope of the work, which I'm like, yes! Please let LGBT people exist in stories without having to fight for validation just because they're LGBT.)

I most certainly recommend this book to anyone who wants to read it, although I will admit the first part of the book felt full of questions with so little answers. I'm glad I'm soldiered on the first few chapters, but I do feel they are the weakest.

I think Mz. Ifueko has a very promising future in writing and has certainly gained one more fan in me: I know that when the sequel comes out in August, I'll certainly be reading it.

For the next book, while I still want / need to deal with some good old fashioned western behemoths, I found out some books in the same vein of Raybearer which seems rather promising (The Gilded Ones and Wings of Ebony), so, I guess I'll be reading them next.

 

[Mercurybro]

I finished the copy of Love & Respect that I found when I moved into a new place in 2015.

Spoiler:

Many books that focus on self-help or advice give countless steps to follow and dozens of trendy tag words and phrases, which ruins the experience of reading for me. Instead of that, this book put its energy elsewhere, and took me through many different difficulties in communication and highlighted how other people struggled in their marriages. It helped me step back and take a clear look at how my own relationship troubles have spiraled out of control due to one side, or both sides, being completely lost and stuck in a crazy cycle of feeling lack of respect or love, and then responding with love but no respect, respect but no love, or even no respect or love at all! I trust what I learned from the book.

I'd advise anyone to read it that isn't married, if they can keep an open mind about what they need out of it and can deal with interpreting the Christian overtones in the book. There is no harm in finding a secular self-help marriage book, but some of the important points were reinforced in a pure, honest, un-hypocritical display of a belief system (more inclusiveness would have helped in the book). There are way too many relationships that get de-railed over growing pains in the relationship and end up turning into nasty messes because other people, that aren't in a good state of mind, give their friends or family bad advice, and I'm glad I could finally read this book based on actual experiences that turned out for the best.

 

[Ivysaur]

Three more!

Book: Humble Pi, a Comedy of Maths Errors, by Matt Parker, commenting on the myriad ways in which us humans screw up anything that requires any calculations.

Comics: Shenzen, the experiences of French-Canadian artist Guy Delisle living in an extremely boring Chinese city.
The prisoner of Buddha, by Franquin, another Spirou adventure.

(I hope this shows I'm a big fan of French-Belgian comics)

33/100. Not bad for... 70 days, less than 1/5th of the year.

 

[Janp]

Finished second book few days ago. The Boy in the Headlights by Samuel Bjørk. It was my first book from this author and I loved it. It had a little faster pace than I like, but the story and its mystery was great. I'm fan of Norwegian detective stories, so this one was a no-brainer.

2/30

 

[Ivysaur]

Comics:
- Mambrú se va a la guerra and Hipotecarión, by Jan
- Spirou et les hommes-bulles, Tembo Tabou, by Franquin
- Virus, Aventure en Australie, by Tome & Janry

That's 6 more! I'm currently reading three actual-books as we speak so look forward to those soon-ish I suppose.

39/100

 

[Arcaneum]

Just posting this here in case any of you are stuck on content to read!

https://www.goodreads.com/blog/show/2064?ref=mysteryweek2021_eb

 

[professor plum]

I've read the following so far this year:
Sailor Moon Eternal Edition Vol 1.
Sailor Moon Eternal Edition Vol. 2
Sailor Moon Eternal Edition Vol. 3
Relic by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
Reliquary by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
Cabinet of Curiosities by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child

i think that's it so far

 

[Duck]

So I've just read Street Cultivation, which is urban xianxia.

I'd recommend it, pretty cool, puts a spin on the usual xianxia tropes and avoids the less savory ones.

That makes it 9/25, so I guess I'm still ahead of the curve I set, which is nice.

Edit: I also finished Street Cultivation 2, which is also pretty nice. Still recommend it, if you like xianxia.

There is a Street Cultivation 3 but I think I'll try reading some other xianxia before diving into it, to avoid a saturation on that particular series.

So ... 10/25

Edit Edit: Read "A thousand Li - First step" which is apparently the first book in a long long series. It's ... OK? Like, better written than most xianxia but it felt aimless.

Things happen to the main character and he just goes along with them, while spouting vaguely zen sayings. And he tries to get stronger because ... that's what you I do guess?

While there were some of that in Street Cultivation as well, the author managed to turn extrinsic motivations (say, "I'm broke") into internal decisions ("I don't like it, but I guess I'll have to do X to get more cash") so we see our main character grow and see how his priorities change.

In 1k Li, things happen but instead of being a general example, they're usually forced paths. ("You'll pay off your debt in my mines" vs "You owe money"). I don't know if the lack of agency is supposed to be the point, but if it was it wasn't communicated very well, imo.

It's not bad per se, it's just a bit less focused than I'd like. A bit like say, fanfiction or an original project that didn't have the benefit of an editor but without the benefit of me already caring about the characters.

Oh well, 11/25

 

[Ivysaur]

Soooooo... April came and went without an update from me! Whoops. Time to fix it.

Books

How to be a Liberal - Ian Dunt brings a full history of liberalism, from Descartes to Keynes
The Guide of the DDR Museum - It's not *exactly* a book but it has nonetheless about 200 pages describing the life in the former German Democratic Republic. And it's pretty interesting!
The Shortest History of England - Or rather, the many varied kingdoms that gave birth to the modern UK, under the shadow of Southern England, the core of it all.

Comics

Lots of Spirou!
20. Le faiseur d'or (The gold maker, 1970).
21. Du glucose pour Noémie (Glucose for Noémie, 1971)
22. L'abbaye truquée (The Disguised Abbey, 1972)
23. Tora Torapa (1973)
35. Qui arrêtera Cyanure? (Who Shall Stop Cyanide?, 1985)
36. L'horloger de la comète (The Comet's Watchmaker, 1986).
37. Le réveil du Z (Awakening of the Z, 1986).
38. La jeunesse de Spirou (Spirou's Youth, 1987)
39. Spirou à New-York (Spirou in New York, 1987).

Issues 20 to 32 are particularly bad so I'm mixing them with some of the better ones coming afterwards.

51/100

 

[Bay]

[2/10] Watership Down - Richard Adams

So my second book for the Reading Challenge is Richard Adam's Watership Down! For those that don't know, it's about a group of rabbits finding a new home/warren and then run into some mishaps along the way. You think a novel with rabbits will be rainbows and sunshine, right? NOPE.

I've already heard how dark the story can be at times, though it isn't as dark as I thought it would be. There have been some instances of violence and death, but it isn't too gruesome in my opinion. There's the second half of the story where you have the main antagonist General Woundwort who tries to run his warren like a miltary base, which I guess can be a bit heavy-handed for some.

I like the characters, Bigwig being my favorite. He was such a good buck rabbit! I kinda wished there was a bit more spotlight on the doe characters as except for Hyzenthlay it felt their only purpose was for the bucks to have children with. Yes, I get the bucks needing does is one of the conflicts in the second half of the story.

The plot and conflict is also fine, though I'm mixed on the stories of El-ahrairah, basically the folk hero of the rabbits. I get the stories were there for worldbuilding purposes, but I didn't care too much for them except for the one where El-ahrairah was on trial and then became Phoenix Wright from Ace Attorney haha. The writing style is easy to read enough, though there are some instances where I feel the narrative goes a bit off tangent. For instance I think there's a paragraph where the narrative compare the rabbits' journey to other well-known discovers like Marco Polo I think, and I don't know it threw me off for a bit.

While it took me a bit longer to finish Watership Down compare to Cemetery Boys, I still enjoyed it overall! I don't know what I'll do for my third book yet, but hopefully I'll get to it sooner than 5 months after I finished my last book lol

 

[Aslan]

Hellooo I read 10 books at the start of the year and then uni happened so I haven't read a whole book since. :'D But am on break now so getting back onto it! Posting here to keep myself accountable but I'm going to try read the last 400 or so pages of The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt out of ~800. I also am going to try read Stephen King's The Shining and Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale which I got on sale a while ago but never got around to so we will see how that goes. May just end up reading a different book altogether but that is the plan for now \o/

 

[professor plum]

7. Sailor Moon Eternal Edition Vol 4
8. Sailor Moon Eternal Edition Vol. 5
9. Sailor Moon Eternal Edition Vol. 6
10. Verity - Colleen Hoover
11. Meddling Kids - Edgar Cantero
12. Pines - Blake Crouch
13. Still Life With Crows - Douglas & Child
14. The Witch of Willow Hall - Hester Fox

 

[Ivysaur]

Sunburn, by James Felton. The history of the British rag The Sun through its 99 grossest, most outrageous headlines.
La historia de Nintendo, by Florent Gorges. Book 1 focuses on the card games the company used to make for a century after foundation. Book 4 focuses on the Game Boy. (The two in between I read last year)

Comics

More Spirou!

25. Le gri-gri du Niokolo-Koba (The gris-gris of Niokolo-Koba, 1974)
26. Du cidre pour les étoiles (Cider for the Stars, 1977)
27. L'Ankou (The Ankou, 1978)
28. Kodo le tyran (Kodo the Tyrant, 1979).
29. Des haricots partout (Beans Everywhere, 1980). Probably the best title in the series, and beyond.

Also: Mortadelo y Filemón 215. Misterio en el hipermercado. The longest-running Spanish comic series keeps on keeping on.

60/100

 

[bobandbill]

Trying to read more, as I'm moving in a few months and won't be taking a bunch of these books I acquired while here with me. But many are not read yet, so started tackling them since a few weeks back!

SO! I'll aim to ready everything I have that I haven't already read, which is... roughly 10 books I think? Not counted them exactly.

I read a 2-in-1 book (really both were collections of short stories) by Ursula le Guinn. I really enjoyed those; some were quite intriguing and though-provoking.

Last week I finished The Stranger by Harlan Coben; decent story, some good twists here and there. Some things developed a bit late I feel, and the lack of... any real conclusion for one key character seemed off to me, but otherwise I enjoyed it.

Currently reading... this is a mouthful, ''The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher or The Murder at Road Hill House". It's a murder mystery set in 1860 in England - that actually happened with a heck of a lot of research done into life in those days, the events of the investigations and how the country viewed the case, etc., complete with photographs and drawings from the time. Kinda neat, I think. Only 1/4-1/3rd the way through so far.

 

[Roni]

I actually finished my first book! This was a couple weeks ago, but I only remembered about this challenge now, so I may as well write something about it heh.

[1/5]

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch & Jefferey Zaslow - a nice, short and sweet nonfiction title that gives good advice for young adults who're trying to make it through life. It's got a some good timeless advice in there. What stuck with me is how I should make an effort to make my short time on this Earth matter. Be it however I see fit, I should see to it that it's time well spent. I also admired how well he handled himself while struggling with cancer, ensuring his family gets to enjoy as much time with him as possible, while still being able to balance his job of educating. I oughta read more non-fiction books.

The next one I have my eyes on is Atomic Habits by James Clear, but I've yet to find a physical copy of that book in stores. I know I can just acquire a PDF version of it, but there's just something about the beauty of holding a physical book that make me wanna read more than swiping on a screen.

 

[Aslan]

The Last Lecture was a great read! I read it early last year and remember liking it a lot. It was my introduction into reading autobiographies/memoirs, I appreciate the genre because it's so interesting seeing how different real people's lived experiences are and the lessons and experiences that each person has to share. That book truly does remind you to be appreciative of each moment of life and to enjoy each day. It's a lesson I could certainly practice more. Have not watched the lecture itself yet but this post reminded me that I still need to check it out, if anyone is curious it is here. :D

As an update, I put this in my original post but I finished You Will Get Through This Night by Daniel Howell at the start of this month. I'll admit that I only checked it out of curiosity as I used to watch him a lot on Youtube when I was growing up, but it was good! I'm appreciative of how careful it was in being made in consultation with a recognised psychologist and how it is a great general starting point on recognising and checking in on one's mental health with helpful steps on what action to take next. I don't think it was groundbreaking but I do think it's great to see someone with such a large platform raise awareness about mental health. It's certainly an important topic and could help introduce it well to a younger audience.

Right now, I am currently reading and liking Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson. This was a book recommended to me by a friend and it examines the negative impact of America's justice system from the perspective of a lawyer, who witnesses the effect the system has first-hand on people. It's well-written and such a powerful read so far. I'm hoping to pick up the pace with my reading list and get back into reading more once uni is less hectic, almost halfway through the amount of books for the challenge this year so that's neat \o/

 

[Ivysaur]

Five more Spirous:

15. Z comme Zorglub (Z is for Zorglub, 1960)
16. L'ombre du Z (The Shadow of Z, 1960)
30. La ceinture du grand froid (The great cold ring, 1983)
31. La boîte noire (The Black Box, 1983)
32. Les faiseurs de silence (The silence makers, 1984)

I haven't added any actual books in a while because I'm going through a 1000-page mammoth. Currently on page 600.

Still, 65/100

 

[Ivysaur]

Books!

For my videogame nerd side:
- Play Historia: Los 50 videojuegos que cambiaron el mundo, by Marc Rollán. The backstory and analysis of the 50 most important videogames ever made, from the first one ever created (SpaceWar!) to Pokémon GO, all the way through Super Mario Bros, Ultima Online, Final Fantasy VII or Resident Evil. A whole 1000 pages of it.

For my mystery novel side:
- Peril at End House. A delightful Agatha Christie novel.
- The Killings at Kingfisher Hill. An equally delightful Sophie Hannah novel.

For my economics side:
- How to Make the World Add Up: Ten Rules for Thinking Differently About Numbers, by Tim Hartford.
- The Next Fifty Things that Made the Modern Economy, also by Hartford.

And comics! More Spirou for you:

47. Paris-sous-Seine (Paris under the Seine)
48. L'homme qui ne voulait pas mourir (The Man Who Didn't Want To Die)
49. Spirou et Fantasio à Tokyo (Spirou and Fantasio in Tokyo)
50. Aux sources du Z (The Origins of the Z)
51. Alerte aux Zorkons (Alert of Zorkons)
52. La Face cachée du Z (The Dark Side of the Z)
53. Dans les griffes de la vipère (In the Claws of the Viper)

Special mention to Tokyo and Aux sources, which I somehow managed to read in their original French due to the lack of any workable translations.

77/100

 

[Duck]

So, this is going to be a bit of a doozy (especially since I accidentally closed the window and lost a bunch of work. Yay).

So, I didn't really read any "proper" books (I know, shame on me, although Redemptor is coming up on August so that should be fun) but I did read a lot of fanfiction and webserials.

Since they're ... harder to track, I'll be going with the NaNoWriMo rule for fanfiction / ongoing works: if it's over 50 000 words it's probably a signal that it has enough effort in it to count as a book.

Without further ado, here are the fanfictions:

Didn't Know Which Way Was Home ('Til I Found You) by watchingthestars13 (AO3)
Word Count: 312,039

Basically a retread of the canon (I think, I've never read the original comics) where Superman x Batman was a thing since before Batman adopted Dick. Cute and mostly fluffy (except when canon makes it sad). There are some infuriating moments - the Jason incident really shouldn't have happened with Clark in the mix - but it's mostly an OK read.

I guess I'll recommend it if you like Superbat and have some free time. (12/25)

Bury Your Sons + We Don't Raise Heroes by Romiress (AO3)
Word Counts: 119,214 + 70,773

Basically, in a continuity where the Jason Incident has him becoming the Arkham Knight, he hires Slade Wilson to help him get revenge. Slade helps him become stable and patch things up with his family. The sequel introduces Damien.

Cute and surprisingly wholesome considering Deathstroke the Terminator is one of the main characters but not really my thing I guess. Maybe I'd recommend it to a major Jason fan but I feel like I could have skipped them (14/25)

Minimum Height Requirement by Drag0nst0rm (AO3)
Word Count: 66,463

This one joke blurb the author gave really sums up the whole work: "When you're eighteen, you can do what you want. Until then, no capes."

And as it turns out, not having your children go out in the middle of the night to perform vigilante justice makes for a more stable family. Who would have guessed? Really like the fic, would recommend. (15/25)

I'm not a villan, I swear! by CoyoteFang1987 (AO3)
Word Count: 64,258

Basically Tim wakes up in a world in which Batman doesn't exist due to magical convenience. So he and the other 3 Robins need to get together (despite the fact that all of them are some sort of villain) and save the world.

Cute premise. Wasn't my favorite of the bunch, or even the most memorable but I guess I can recommend it. (16/25)

Robins and Other Flightless Birds by Ionaperidot (AO3)
Word count: 84,920

Batman goes around the multiverse adopting his kids. It's mostly a character study / fluff, so fun but might not be your thing. (17 / 25)

Miraculous Escalation by Fabius Maximus (SB)
Word Count: ~ 230,000

Skitter ends up in the Miraculous universe. And after that, both she and the Miraculous holders end up on Brockton Bay.
Hijinks ensue. It was a fun story, and even though I only had cursory Miraculous Ladybug knowledge, I managed to understand most of the beats fine. (18 / 25)

There's also at least one more Batman fanfic (can you guess what's my favorite superhero?) that I can't find the name right now, so I'm not logging it. But it was pretty cute. The Robins were on the foster system and the story really revolved around Batman finding out about them, bonding with them, and the consequences of that.

Now, for the webserials - might include mature themes. Reader discretion is advised:

Virtuous Sons by Ya Boy (RR)
Word Count: 97,850 (Ongoing)

Xianxia but reimagined to have a Greco-roman flair. Funny story, would recommend if you're into xianxia.
Book 2 (or 1 rather, since it has a prologue book) is better in my opinion, but that's more because it allows Griffon to become a fun a-hole instead of just a petty a-hole. (19 / 25)

Beware of Chicken - Books 1 and 2 by Casualfarmer (RR)
Word Count: 245,992 (Ongoing)

Transmigration xianxia in which the main character decides that "Screw this. Way too dangerous, I'll just go be a farmer."
Ends up with talking, sapient farm animals and the usual xianxia shenanigans. Oops.

Book 1 is finished while Book 2 is still ongoing (although probably nearing completion). Fun read, I recommend it to anybody who's into xianxia (and of age, since it has mature themes). (21 / 25)

When Immortal Ascension Fails Time Travel to Try Again by DragonOfRochester (RR)
Word Count: ~ 82,500 (Ongoing)

Basically the main character was a transmigrator ... who wasn't the main character, so she was always being upstaged by the edgelord main character. When her ascension fails, she goes back in time and decides to prevent the main character's descent into becoming a cliché isekai / xianxia character. Hijinks ensue.

Fun read, there are about 3 arcs complete so far and I really enjoy this story. Would recommend to people into xianxia, if only to see what I feel is a great way to poke fun at the genre. (22 / 25)

Cinnamon Bun - Book 1 + 2 by RavensDagger (RR)
Word Count: ~ 484,275 (Ongoing)

Broccoli Bunch gets transmigrated into a LitRPG world and becomes the Cinnamon Bun. It's kinda aimless and fluffy, but it's a fun read, I guess. The author managed to publish parts of it on Amazon (the aforementioned Books 1 and 2), but the chapters are still up on Royal Road so, there's that - I've read up to chapter 190 and it's up to chapter 229 at time of writing although I'm not sure I'll continue reading the story.

Fun, but not quite my cup of tea. Still, give it a try if you like LitRPGs. (24 / 25)

Ascendance of a Bookworm: Volumes 1 to 4 by Miya Kazuki

So this bookworm transmigrates into this little girl after dying, except it's a medieval setting in which there are no books! Watch as the protagonist has a terrible culture clash, accidentally brings some of her modern ideas along and shakes things up in her quest of introducing books and literacy so she can fulfill her dream of becoming a librarian!

Started out fun, but then started to get bogged down into the details of magic and world building and I just don't really care anymore to continue. I guess I'd recommend the first books, and see for yourself if you want to continue on. (28 / 25)

So with this I guess I've finished my quota, but let's see how things go ... there's quite a while until December after all.