Event 2024 Reading Challenge!

professor plum said:
i've decided to commit to 10 books! i'm in a bit of a reading slump rn
i've only read 2 books so far:
- finished City of Endless Night by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child. It's like the 17th book in a series that I read when I just...need something not too intense to think on. 2/5 Stars. It was fine. Sentimental moment of it being the last book read by the longtime series audiobook narrator René Auberjonois before he passed.
- Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, 3/5 Stars. It was good, and I'm glad it was short. The audiobook's performance itself was good, but it did kind of drag a little bit at first. Was very interesting learning everything the way you did.

I'm in the middle of Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo. It's a good book, but just....a heavy subject.
Click to expand...

Welcome again Tyler!!!

I have added you to this year's list 😊
 
Rolling in with an update!

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH - Robert C. O'Brien

This book has haunted my life ever since I was a child. It was in my elementary school library, but with a cover that depicted an image from the movie. It took until finally last year for me to see the movie, and it quickly became a favorite. Found the book in a second-hand store a couple of years ago, started it months ago, then got distracted by other books. But I finally read it, and I'm glad I did, and it's as charming as the book. Not as magical as the movie, and more grounded in reality, but still great. Mrs. Frisby is an absolute gem of a character.

Total: 9/14
 
Astinus said:
Rolling in with an update!

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH - Robert C. O'Brien

This book has haunted my life ever since I was a child. It was in my elementary school library, but with a cover that depicted an image from the movie. It took until finally last year for me to see the movie, and it quickly became a favorite. Found the book in a second-hand store a couple of years ago, started it months ago, then got distracted by other books. But I finally read it, and I'm glad I did, and it's as charming as the book. Not as magical as the movie, and more grounded in reality, but still great. Mrs. Frisby is an absolute gem of a character.

Total: 9/14
Click to expand...
Thank you for the update!

And note to self: all updated!
 
I finished The Amber Spyglass and therefor my re-read of the trilogy. I am pleased to say that those books are still just as good as I remember them being from reading as a kid. It's always nice to go back to something after such a long time and find that it's still good.

I've already picked up my next book and have more on my read list to do soon too.
 
Catch-22 - Joseph Heller

Picked this up because "catch 22" perfectly describes a situation happening in my life, so I decided to see what the origin of the phrase was about. Had a slow start to the book, and it wasn't until after the first 100 pages that I found it enjoyable. Never did find it "laugh out loud" funny, but I tend not to find books described like that to be true to me. I enjoyed the writing style towards the end more.

Total: 10/14
 
Meant to say, I finished my previous book the other day. I'm just now moving onto Manhattan Is My Beat, a mystery/crime thriller.

Edit: As of the 16th I've now finished Manhattan Is My Beat as well as Goodbye, Eri. The former was a solid crime thriller but it wasn't as good as Jeffrey Deaver's other work I've read. I found it hard to connect with the characters who largely felt like caricatures more than actual people which doesn't really work in a story that's meant to feel like it takes place in our world. Goodbye, Eri is a short manga one-shot by the same person who writes Chainsaw Man. The two stories are nothing alike but I liked it a lot. It's essentially about the subjectivity of how people are remembered after their deaths which is really interesting subject matter.

Edit 2: Finished a Re:Zero book. Going to go through a few of these over the next week or so. I'll mark it down in the OP like with the others.

Edit 3: Did two more.

Edit 4: Did four more.
 
Last edited:
American Panda - Gloria Chao

I found this by chance at the library, and picked it up because it is the exact plot I like to read. Books about children of Asian immigrants to America, and the children accept American culture better than the parents. There's conflict there, and then one side growing to an understanding of some kind. What I really liked about this story was that the parents also grew as characters. Even someone that I thought was just going to be a faceless character became really enjoyable by the end of this. It was also helped by being a cute fun fast read.

The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien

Do I have to say much about this? I read it years ago once, and liked it enough. But fortunately I don't remember much about that time of my life. So reading this now was like reading for the first time. I'm glad that I did make that decision, because I enjoyed this a lot more.

888 Love and the Divine Burden of Numbers - Abraham Chang

In the same vein as American Panda, this was another book about Asian-Americans. The writing style of this book was really enjoyable. It wasn't just a basic narrative. Most of it was in the second POV, and some of it was told in letters. The ending was really great, and I won't mention why for spoiler reasons.

Total: 13/14
 
A
gimmepie said:
Finished five more of the Re:Zero books (well four and a prequel). Almost out of these, but I've got plenty of proper novels waiting for me still too lmao.

Edit: Did three more
Click to expand...
Congratulations on reaching your goal! And thank you for sharing the journey with us!


Note to self: all updated (I think). If I missed anything or anyone's total is wrong please just holler 😊
 
Pharaoh - Wilbur Smith

Heard Smith dropped in a conversation on Reddit, and decided to check him out. I don't think that this was a great introduction to him, because I didn't see anything past a simple fast-paced book with too many plot beats and a main character that switched from "charming in a way" to "insufferable stuck-up" from one paragraph to the next.

I did take out two other Smith books from the library, so I'll give him another chance.

Total: 14/14

Note: Only read three books out of the fourteen I originally intended to read this year.
 
I finally finished some more stuff:

1. a collection of Discworld short stories (I'll count that as a single book because it was quite a couple)
2. The Science of Discworld
3. The Science of Discworld 2: The Globe
4. The Science of Discworld 3: Darwin's Watch
5. The Science of Discworld 4: Judgement Day

I like the general concept of "science novels". You have a split narrative: Half the chapters contain a story about characters doing something. And the other half is a general talk about science that takes that previous story chapter and explains stuff scientifically. In the case of those books it's about the wizards of Unseen University conducting an experiment that ultimately creates a universe inside a small round object they dub "Roundworld" . Throughout the books they interact with that world in different ways.
The first book explains how the world came to be and what the early days of Earth may have looked like. The second book talks about how culture developed and its importance for our development. The third book talks about evolution and how that theory managed to become relevant. Lastly, the last book goes over both science and religion and tries to explain the destinctions between them.

I think the books were written quite well. But due to the nature of the topic it was quite a lot to take in. As a result it took me the last couple months to go through them. I don't think I'll touch a science novel again anytime soon. ^^"
Starlight said:
Note to self: all updated (I think). If I missed anything or anyone's total is wrong please just holler 😊
Click to expand...
Mine still says 0/9 even though I was done a long time ago. :(

Including the above I'm currently at 14/9
 
Megan said:
I finally finished some more stuff:

1. a collection of Discworld short stories (I'll count that as a single book because it was quite a couple)
2. The Science of Discworld
3. The Science of Discworld 2: The Globe
4. The Science of Discworld 3: Darwin's Watch
5. The Science of Discworld 4: Judgement Day

I like the general concept of "science novels". You have a split narrative: Half the chapters contain a story about characters doing something. And the other half is a general talk about science that takes that previous story chapter and explains stuff scientifically. In the case of those books it's about the wizards of Unseen University conducting an experiment that ultimately creates a universe inside a small round object they dub "Roundworld" . Throughout the books they interact with that world in different ways.
The first book explains how the world came to be and what the early days of Earth may have looked like. The second book talks about how culture developed and its importance for our development. The third book talks about evolution and how that theory managed to become relevant. Lastly, the last book goes over both science and religion and tries to explain the destinctions between them.

I think the books were written quite well. But due to the nature of the topic it was quite a lot to take in. As a result it took me the last couple months to go through them. I don't think I'll touch a science novel again anytime soon. ^^"

Mine still says 0/9 even though I was done a long time ago. :(

Including the above I'm currently at 14/9
Click to expand...
Oops I'm an idiot! Should be all correct now ty 😊
 
Spoiler:


It's 2025 fam! Can you all check your yearly totals on page one and let me know if there's anything incorrect!

Thank you everyone for taking part this year! I was once again a failure but It was such a pleasure seeing you all working towards your goals and hopefully having fun along the way! I hope some of you will join us again for 2025 😊


This year's challenge can be found here:

2025 Reading Challenge
 
Alas only 27 of my books in 2024 were not manga so i failed my goal :')
 
I neglected this thread so hard. And looking at my journal, I also failed the challenge hard. By looking at my personal journal, I can clearly track the time I was working on my dissertation thesis or research, because that's when I stopped reading non-research literature altogether. Good thing is that I accumulated quite a number of books to read now.

So next year, I'm going to beat this challenge!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top