I was doing really good. REALLY GOOD, until about half way through the year. I made the mistake that the library had some sort of online record of the books I had checked out, but I was wrong. There's no "Order History" like Amazon, so I was digesting books and forgetting what they were called. Oops.
I'm starting this over again this year, but with a physical copy in my newly-acquired bullet journal. My new goal is quantity over quality. I want to read as many books as possible and feel no commitment to finish crappy books.
And clearly the books I read last year demonstrate that. There were some trash ones, but I enjoyed it, none the less.
- The Raven King (Finished 1/11/17): Fourth and final book of the 'Raven Cycle' series. It's probably my favorite book of the series for character development, but the ending is incredibly abrupt. It's fairly easy to assume most of the conclusions for the characters based on who they are, but there was one major (MAJOR) scene that had no resolution what-so-ever and, if there had been, it probably would have been the perfect book to me.
- Silver Shadows (1/15/17): Book five of the six book 'Bloodlines' series (the spin-off from the 'Vampire Academy' series). This is the first strong book of the 'Bloodlines' series. Books 1-3 set up the world and the problems the characters would eventually have to deal with, but Book 4 felt like a complete placeholder to the story line of Book 5. The twists in this series can be seen a mile away, but it's still very enjoyable.
- The Ruby Circle (1/29/17): Sixth and final book of the 'Bloodlines' series (the spin-off from the 'Vampire Academy' series). This book had to act as the conclusion for the first five books of the series and it would have had a lot of storylines to close. However, on top of that, it tried to wrap up storylines that didn't really need conclusions from the 'Vampire Academy' series and it was just too much. It's still a good read, but some conclusions are made too cleanly and simply to give time and space to other threads that could have just been left alone.
- Fan Girl (2/5/17): Recommended and lent to me by my sister, it's a story of a college freshman who writes knock-off Harry Potter fanfiction. It was an interesting read and the structure had a twist that most young adult novels don't: about half-way through, almost all the plots that I thought would take the entire book to hash out, resolved. The second half of the story grew and focused on some of the smaller arcs from the first half. I found the fanfiction portion of it to be the least compelling part, but I did enjoy it.
- The Gunslinger (3/2/17): Book 1 in the 'Dark Tower' series. I've heard a lot of good things about these books from my nerds friends so I thought I'd give it a shot. Here's where I'll get controversial: I did not enjoy this book. Maybe it's because I've been on a Young Adult kick, but I don't like stories where elements of the plot are left out to be 'mysterious'. I like stories with linear timelines (maybe the occasional flashback or forward) and where I'm given enough information to care about what's happening. I may try reading the next book in the series before riding it off completely, but it was not an enjoyable book for me.
- The Color of Magic (3/19/17): This was my first Terry Pratchett novel and, for the most part, I enjoyed it. It was like reading a D & D session. I may try another one down the line, but I had two critiques. One, I never really bonded with the main character. He was always a bit 'eh' to me. Two, there were almost no female characters and the ones there were were not even two-dimensional. They were one-dimensional, if that.
- Binti: Home (3/21/17): Book Two of the Binti trilogy. It was a great read and I love how short these books are. It's hard to describe, but the series is about an African girl going to space university. The biggest problem with it is that I had no idea it was a trilogy and the book ends with the largest cliffhanger I think I've ever come across. There was no attempt to soften the blow before just stopping. And I have no idea when the third book comes out.
- Storm Front (3/26/17): Book One of the 'Dresden Files'. It's about a wizard who helps solve crimes in modern times. I've had several people rave about this series so I wanted to give it a try. It was pretty good and I'll give a series another shot, but man were the women poorly-written. It's from 2000, a time when women became 'empowered' by being hyper-sexualized, which in reality comes across as incredibly skeevy. I'm hoping the series evolves passed that feeling.
- Carry On (4/2/17): The official fan-fiction referenced in 'Fan Girl' (see above). This is a weird sort of book because of what it pretends to be. It's pretending to be fan-fiction of the conclusion of a non-existent 'Harry Potter'-ish series. It has to pretend that you have the information of the previous six books when in fact the previous six books never existed. For the most part, it's well done, but it lacks the emotional weight the conclusion of a series should have. It's definitely a good read, but it missed the very tiny target it was aiming at.
- Fool Moon (4/28/17): Book Two of the 'Dresden Files'. I'm enjoying the 'Dresden Files', but I can't say I'm happy with it yet. Book Two is much better than Book One. Dresden depends more on the team around him, but yet there's very little justification for the 'heroic' decisions he makes. They are called 'chivalrous', but most of the time it's just moronic. Dresden declares in this book to be more honest and forthcoming with his colleagues so maybe he'll stop being so 'heroic' in future books, which would make the series easier to stomach. I'll give it at least one more shot since I do enjoy the fast-paced speed of the plots.
- Prey (DNF 5/22/17) While I traditionally enjoy Michael Crichton novels, this one took forever to get going. This one was the story, I think, of nanobots that escaped a lab and evolved and were terrible. I don't know. I gave up about one third of the way through and read a synopsis later. Maybe I'll try again in the future, but I've got too many good books on my plate to force my way through something that's only OK.
- American Gods (5/29/17) This book about the conflict between new Gods and old Gods in America had been on my Reserve list through the library since the beginning of the year. It took almost six months before it was in my hands. It was a great read and I'm excited for both the show and to read more Neil Gaiman in the future.
- You're Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) (6/4/17) This is the memoir of Felicia Day. I'm definitely a big fan of hers. Because I have been following her for a while, it was incredibly interesting to find out all the behind-the-scenes stuff that happened along the way. I would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of hers or to anyone interested in turning something niche into a full-blown career.
- Grave Peril (6/6/17) Third book in the Dresden Files series. Since my library only carries the E-Book versions of this series, I download them and read them on my afternoon walks away from my desk. I think I'm officially hooked on the series. The plot connections still aren't as strong as I'd like them to be, but the supporting cast is getting stronger and more complex, which is good since I'm not really a fan of Harry Dresden himself.
After this point, I got into graphic novels and that's where things got very confusing. There were anthologies and single volumes and it was so confusing, especially since I forgot to write down the titles.
There was some Avengers and Wonder Woman and Valerian and James Bond books and John Green books and all sorts of other things.
I'll try to do better next year.
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