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I finished up Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! and I thought it was hilarious. Feynman got up to a hell of a lot at most of it was pretty damn funny. I started keeping track of my favorite quote from a book and this books is: "The next day I rolled up my picture, put it in the back of my station wagon, and my wife Gweneth wished me good luck as I set out to visit the brothels of Pasadena to sell my drawing."

Currently I'm nearly finished with The Martian by Andy Weir. It's been very entertaining so far and I hope to finish it up today or tomorrow Favorite quote so far: "My asshole is doing as much to keep me alive as my brain."

I read The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg this week. I thought it was really good. Basically the author talks about how habits are formed and how they can be changes. Then he talks about how companies use habits as a way of getting people to buy from them. I found it to be really interesting and I definitely enjoyed it.

I'm currently reading Lud-in-the-mist by Hope Mirrlees and it's really good so far.

No disrespect, and I'm glad it's helped you, but I'm possibly oversensitive to woo. The thought of L Ron Hubbard and Deepak Chopra gives me hives.

Also, I obviously can't know for sure, but given the style of this post; the style of that blog; and your account age, I'd bet good money that 1) you're the author of the blog and 2) you're somehow getting compensated for plugging that amazon link.

I noticed the link is actually to a really old edition of vol1 and the only copies available are overpriced and used. I wouldn't be surprised if you put some copies up looking to overcharge people.

Juuuuust in case, let me link to the fairly priced version: https://www.amazon.com/Reality-transurfing-Steps-Vadim-Zeland-ebook/dp/B00PY8ICSA/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1495141363&sr=1-1&keywords=reality+transurfing#customerReviews

edit: lol look at kasottyblogcom and pokerbab25 post histories. They cross post to similar subs and comment on each other's posts. kasottyblogcom blogged about the differences between websites and blogs before pokerbabe25 asked the difference between websites and blogs on reddit; kasottyblogcom replied with a link to her blog. This is probably the most pathetic, small time shilling I have seen that wasn't on the sidewalk.

Only one book this week. Stephen King's On Writing I'm not a writer but several people recommended this book to me. I enjoyed it as an interesting look into how he writes, but I feel like every author probably does it differently. Still, I had a good time reading it.

I fell behind on my Goodreads challenge, but the last 2 weeks got me right back on schedule. Back at landscaping work and banging out audiobooks left and right.

The Devil Crept In, by Ania Ahlborn. Really good new horror right here. This is a 2017 release and the first good horror to come out this year (that I've read yet). At first I thought it was one of those lame books where the horror is all in some crazy persons head (like some of the authors another, vaguer works) but luckily they broke out of feeling cliche after the first flashbacks.

Pressure, by Jeff Strand. I heard Jeff Strand wrote horror comedy and expected this to be light. This book was not fucking funny or light at all, god damn.

Red Moon, by Ben Percy. This book totally crossed the line from clever metaphor to SJW preachiness. I'm liberal and agree with the points it makes, but it was way too heavy handed. It made me almost embarrassed to be a fellow liberal with losers like Ben Percy. It got on the soapbox from the get-go and never relented.

Star Wars: Aftermath #3: Empires End. Terrible trilogy, terrible ending, Wendig shouldn't even have the right to name drop Thrawn.

The Mummy, by Anne Rice. Pretty dull book. Does Rice have any good books outside the beginning of the Lestat series?

Wheel Of Time #13: The Towers Of Midnight, by Brandon Sanderson and Robert Jordan. Haven't finished this one yet. It is very very long. Extra braid tugging.

Danse Macabre, by Stephen King. Good, but not really worth reading unless you are obsessed with horror or a writer looking for peaks into a bestselling writers mind. I'm working on turning a horror first draft into something publishable, and I had already read On Writing, so this is giving me some last minute insights.

The Neighbors, by Ania Ahlborn. Great book. Incest horror hasn't been so fun since Norman Bates.

Hey everyone!

I had a really good week this week (finally!)

Right now I'm reading

Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow. I'm taking this one slowly because there are a lot of dates and people to remember so I can't read at my usual fast pace without getting lost. Hamilton is a completely fascinating character though

Northern Lights by Philip Pullman. Its taken me ages to get around to this book but I finally have. I should finish it today I'm really enjoying it

Girl who kicked the hornets nest by Stieg Larsson. This is in my quest to finish some of the open series I have going. I currently have over 50 series I want to finish which is crazy so I'm working on finishing some of them where I can

This week I read:

Stiff by Mary Roach. You need a strong stomach to read this book. A really strong stomach. I can no longer look at chicken soup or chocolate syrup the same way ever again lets put it that way. I've never really thought about what happens after death, especially if you donate your body. This was both disgusting and fascinating. At times it was hard to read not because of the writing but the subject matter.

WOW - congratulations on achieving you goal.

Finished:

Words of Radiance - great book, looking forward to the third.

The Impossible Fortress: A Novel - fast, fluffy read which was enjoyable.

In Progress:

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - I am suppose to be reading this for my upcoming book club meeting but keep putting it down and picking up others. Not even 100 pages in but not connecting with the story (yet anyway).

The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck - about half way through this self help book. Author has a number of helpful tips. I can see recommending this as communicates helpful ways people can help themselves to feel better.

Pawn of Prophecy - about half way through and enjoying. Another fluffy read.

Started Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl on Monday and finished it Tuesday. It's really well told and kept me turning pages reading about what he went through and the mentality through it all. Highly recommend this one. 5/5

Currently reading Chernobyl 01:23:40 by Andrew Leatherbarrow (/u/R_Spc) and so far it's one of the best books on the subject available. Casual, interesting, and very well researched. You can read it for free on his site but I picked up a physical copy ^because ^dead ^tree ^edition ^is ^best ^edition. Highly recommend this if you're at all interested in the subject.

Hey y'all!

This week I finished Man's Search for Meaning which was just okay. I know it is really well-known and renowned but i found myself having a hard time focusing on it.

I also finished Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel. What a fun read! The passion, the drama, the recipes. It was a nice light one for me.

Also read Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann. A solid 4 stars for me very good.

Hope you all are doing well!

Finished:

The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett, by Chelsea Sedoti. The narrator is a high school senior with the emotional maturity of a 13-year-old, which made this a really refreshing take on the teen drama genre.

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, by Marie Kondo. This was a re-read for me, as we're hoping to buy our first house and move in the spring/summer.

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, by Becky Chambers. This was such an enjoyable comfort read! Anyone who's still salty about Firefly being cancelled should give this a go. I immediately put in a library request for the sequel.

The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, by Alexander McCall Smith. My dad has been after me for YEARS to read these books, and I was waiting for some library holds to come in, so I picked it up! It was fun, and I might eventually read some others, but I'm not in a hurry.

Started

The Joy Luck Club, by Any Tan. This is such a classic, I'm ashamed for not having read it earlier. I love it so far.

Last week I finished up Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig. Interesting read and very different to what I was expecting. This was a page turner -- which is hard for me to find. Great book, I'm also planning to get my M license this year so it's more encouragement.

Started 1984 this week, a book I've been wanting to read for a long time. I picked up this copy last year and absolutely love it.

Edit: Forgot I also snuck in a manga, Samurai Executioner, Vol. 1 by Kazuo Koike & Goseki Kojima this week as well!

Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates. 5/5. I absolutely loved it, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a good novel to read. I was sucked in from the very first page and couldn't put it down. It's gorgeously written and brutally honest in a way that I've never seen before. Yates absolutely wrecks his own characters, and he's a master at describing the mundane, the dull, and the cringey, as well as shining a light on the general idiocy, hypocrisy, and dishonesty in people, and their many pathetic self-rationalizations, with such clarity that it makes you feel embarrassed because you can see it in yourself.

Anyways, I'll shut up. This novel is so much more than a Kate & Leo melodrama, so disregard the film and read this book!

You Are A Badass by Jen Sincero. This was surprisingly good. A short, simple "kick in the ass" motivational book. It gets a bit silly with "law of attraction" and "source energy" stuff, but for whatever reason I didn't really mind. It makes sense and you don't have to take it literally. I definitely see how adopting that kind of a mindset can help. Overall I found this to be a very funny, touching, inspiring read, with some eye-rolling moments.

I swear I'm not gonna read any more self-help books for a while, though. They're like a guilty pleasure. Hard for me to resist. But generally they don't add much to my life aside from making me feel motivated for two days before I forget everything I read and revert back to my old habits. Heh.

I'm currently reading On Writing by Stephen King, and just started As I Lay Dying by Faulker. And I'm still chugging along with A Distant Mirror by Barbara Tuchman, god damn this book is so long but I'm not giving up.

Last week I finished The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris, Don't Pigeonhole Me! by Mo Willems, and The Last Colony by John Scalzi.

The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt was surprisingly good. Usually histories tend to be dry, but this was really interesting and very readable.

Don't Pigeonhole Me! was something I ran across by chance at the library. My kids love Mo Willems books, but this isn't one of his books for kids. It's a collection of his sketchbooks and some history of his work over the past 20 years.

The Last Colony was pretty good. Much less action oriented than the previous two books in the Old Man's War series. That's not a bad thing, it just makes it different. More political intreage than anything else. The twist at the 2/3rd mark was a good one.

This week I'm reading Dune by Frank Herbert

This week was a bit subpar... I read Unravel Me and Ignite Me by Tahereh Mafi as I needed easy reads for airport waits. They were alright, did the job. I also read Gathering Blue which is the second book in The Giver "series", which was nice enough but very similar to The Giver and I slightly preferred the first book. I also finally finished off A Room with a View - did not enjoy it.... Maybe I didn't get it.

I am halfway through Clockwork Angel, which is okay so far, I've never read historical YA. Can't say I'm sucked in tho. I'm planning to read The Luminaries in the upcoming week, and Cat's Cradle if I have time left over. Need a better reading week than this one!

Edit: If anyone's interested, I'm looking for friends on GoodReads to stalk what people are reading and to get recommendations, this is my account, please add :)

Thanks for taking over mod duties, pac_stuck! I've really enjoyed being a part of this subreddit and I look forward to the year ahead!

I'm about three quarters of the way through The Secret History by Donna Tartt. I'm really enjoying it! Since I started it in 2013, I don't think I'll count it as my first 2014 book unfortunately.

Starting out with Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer and working through the last 3 stories in The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy!

The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. Reading it for my health. Need to lose half my weight for my heart surgery and learning how habits are formed might be crucial.

In the fiction genre I'm reading The Hobbit because I'm only 6 books down from my goal of 26 this year and I'm hustling these short books to achieve that number. And also it's family reunion time and we usually have a movie series playing in the background, going to suggest The Hobbit or LotR.

Finished East of Eden by John Steinbeck and was basically a teary mess by the end of it. (4/5)

Also quickly read through The Pragmatic Programmer by Andy Hunt & Dave Thomas during the past slow work week. (4/5)

Starting The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy

Re-reading HP #5 and The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Finished The Substitute by Nicole Lundrigan and I, Robot by Issac Asimov.

Continuing The Elements of Style by William Strunk and E. B. White.

Started a reread of John Dies at the End by David Wong to prepare myself for reading the newest book in the series.

I managed to finish just one book this week - The Palace of Illusions. I really liked it. It's a retelling of the great Indian epic Mahabharata from the point of view of Draupadi. In a span of 360 pages, I think the book did decent justice to the story. The most striking feature of this narration was the exploration of romantic angle between Draupadi and the tragic hero Karna.

Still making my way through Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman and Hiroshima by John Hersey.

Hi! I had a big reading day on Wednesday, and I finally finished Better Angels of Our Nature after making no progress on it for months. Feels good.

Finished this week:

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen: This won the Pulitzer in 2016, and wow is it good. In addition to having the depth winning that award would suggest, it is also a gripping, readable story about a Vietnamese communist who is a mole in South Vietnam and then the US. I recommend this very strongly.

The Art of War by Sun Tzu: I didn't realize how short this is. Basically the advice seesm to be don't fight unless you truly have to, know as much about the enemy as possible, and when you do fight make it as unfair in your favor as possible. Seems like solid advice. There was more in there but those were my key takeaways. Overall, it is clear and readable, but didn't blow me away.

The Practicing Mind by Thomas M. Sterner: This was ok. It is basically about how to apply mindfulness techniques to achieve better practice, and then apply that to areas of life we don't always consider practice. When he gives specific advice on how to practice well, the book is good. When he makes sweeping claims on life and spirituality, not so much.

The Better Angels of Our Nature by Stephen Pinker: I am convinced by the overall thesis of the book, that violence has declined in human society, and even by most of the arguments about why that has happened. I didn't enjoy reading the book though. Pinker comes off to me as the worst stereotype of an intellectual: overconfident, blind to his own ideological commitments, and somewhat sanctimonious.

Hombre by Elmore Leonard: I have heard good things about Elmore Leonard for a while but had never read his novels before this one. It is a gritty Western, and in some ways reminds me of the survival horror genre. It puts its characters in an extreme situation but the drama is from the interior, psychological extremity.

Finished:

The Lives of Tao - this was an interesting read but found I tired of it near the end. Not likely to continue with the series.

Currently Reading:

Words of Radiance - loving it :)

Just started for one of my book clubs Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

I finally finished It by Stephen King. It was on the back burner for so long, and I got tired of it being unfinished. I liked the book, but not as much as I expected. And damn it was way too long.

I also finished Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. I've seen this book praised a lot online, but it left me slightly underwhelmed. His logotherapy explanation is very interesting, but the section on his experiences in the camp felt very....detached. I think at one point he even mentions that he doesn't want to be too candid or intimate. Which is obviously his choice, but meant that portion felt quite disjointed and didn't hit me emotionally the way other survivor memoirs have.

I'm currently reading The Edge of Eternity by Ken Follett. I read the first two in this trilogy last year, but got distracted my all my new xmas books. So finally getting around to it now! I'm only 200 pages in and already love it. The first two books are easily some of my favorites, so that's no surprise!

Hey everyone!

I didn't finish anything new this week but I did clear a lot of what I was reading last week and start 3 new books.

I need to rave about Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow for a bit. I finished it last week and have had such a book hangover after. Normally I don't get hangovers and if I do they're certainly not for a biography but I've definitely found myself thinking about the Chernow book an awful lot and being frustrated with how the story ended. Even though it is of course historically accurate it was just such a waste of a brilliant mind

This week I'm reading:

Empress of the Fall by David Hair

And in an effort to continue my trend of finishing series I have open rather than just leaving them I'm reading

Deadhouse gates by Steven Erikson and

A local habitation by Seanan McGuire

I read When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalinithi. It was very good, although I skipped most of the epilogue. I also read the two books in the Six of Crows series by Leigh Bardugo. They were fun. Kind of fantasy heist ya with interesting characters.

Let's see, last week I read through The Constitution and Declaration of Independence, which I counted together as one book. I also finished On the Road by Jack Kerouac, read Panic in Level 4 by Richard Preston, and reread Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K.Rowling. I'm now working on The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank and Foundation by Isaac Asimov. As ever I'm still working on Spring in Action by Craig Walls, and I expect to wrap it up soon.

Hey everyone!

Before I talk about my books I need to nerdgasm for a bit. I met Billy Boyd this weekend (Pippin) and he knew who I was. I've met him twice before this and he remembered my face but not my name. I'm a huge Billy fan, hence the user name, so I've been floating on a tide of fan girl all weekend.

Right onto the book part!

I've added a third goal to my first 2 and that's to read 25 nonfiction books because there is a shocking lack in my reading

I've somehow ended up with 4 in my rotation right now (oops)

I'm still reading

Mad ship by Robin Hobb and 4 3 2 1 by Paul Auster although I have made progress with both. I've also added

Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow cause I've been having a Lin Manuel Miranda crush this week and listening to the musical so I wanted to read the book that had inspired it. Kind of picking at this one cause it isn't always easy going

Confessions of young Nero by Margaret George Been looking forward to this one for weeks so when I saw it at the bookstore it came home with me

I did manage to finish a book this week:

9 hours to hell by W.B Bartlett. As I said last week I've always been fascinated by Titanic and how it all went so wrong. This one was more recent and talked about rivet failure being a reason she sank which is I think the leading idea about what went wrong. This account was told from the point of view of crew and passengers and updated every half hour with what they where doing plus ideas about what they where thinking and feeling. There was a major complacency with getting of the boat because everyone had bought that she was unsinkable. And since none of the lifeboats where lowered with all places filled hundreds of people died who didn't need to. The book did repeat itself sometimes especially in the later sections dealing with the tribunal it was hammered home if people behaved suspiciously, sometimes several times. Very informative though

I read about Cloudstreet this week while researching Australian books because I'm going to Australia and New Zealand at the end of the month. I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts about it /u/veronique_m ! (Also looking for recommendations from the Aussies and Kiwis on these boards for good books to read, especially for Brisbane, Sydney and North Island backdrops.)

This week I finished:

Oryx and Crake. I love Margaret Atwood's writing, but I didn't love this book. The post-apocalyptic backdrop wasn't particularly interesting to me, but more importantly I just didn't care about any of the characters. (my goodreads rating = 3 stars)

The Master and Margarita. I feel like this one's been beaten to death here. In the end, I found it a mixed bag, but the parts I enjoyed were really fun. I wish I cared more about the Master and Margarita, but I found their story to be the weakest part of the book. (my goodreads rating = 3 stars)

I'm currently reading:

All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation. No progress on this one this week.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (audiobook). Still enjoying this listen. I'm about 1/3 through it. Great narration and I'm glad I opted to listen to this instead of read it. It's a fun adventure book and fast-moving.

A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman. I haven't started this one yet, but it's my next book club read, so I'll probably start reading it this week.

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. I started this months ago, but stalled. About to tackle my out-of-control closet, so I'm back to it. :)

Had a productive week thanks to shitty weather!

Books I finished:

• Dead Man's Walk by Larry McMurtry. I have been meaning to read the rest of the Lonesome Dove books for a few years now, this was an enjoyable read but didn't have the depth of Lonesome Dove. I'll read the next one in the series eventually but it's not a huge priority.

• All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. Easily the best book I have read in years. The way it is written is absolutely beautiful, I found myself rereading certain passages over and over. I'm sad this one is over, I wanted to start reading it again as soon as I finished.

• Your Money or Your Life by Robin Vicki. My New Years resolution was to get my finances organized so I decided to read this book. I was expecting more of a straightforward money management book along the lines of Dave Ramsey but this was much more focused on the bigger picture of redefining your relationship with money. It had some interesting ideas and definitely made me think about things differently but also came off a little cheesy in parts.

• What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty. This was a quick, enjoyable read but I have a feeling I won't remember anything about it 2 weeks from now.

Reading now:

The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert. Not too far into it yet but liking it so far.

NOS4A2 by Joe Hill. Bizarre but compelling.

Just Finished Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller and moving on to the next in the "Obelisk Trilogy", Tropic of Capricorn.

Cancer is really intersecting snapshot of a place and time--Depression-era, pre-WWII Paris--from the point of view of an American ex-pat trying to get by as a writer in the bohemian underground world of artists and writers occupying Paris' seedy underbelly. It has a lot of graphic sexuality and very blunt descriptions of sex, STDs, masturbation, etc, but it never comes off as gratuitous as much as simply honest. He really is capable of expressive sexual desire, and isn't afraid to show his own darker side and how he struggles with self-control. My only complaint was that he tends to get on philosophical rants and digressions that become a bit surreal and step away from the narrative for lengthy stretches before abruptly snapping back into the story. Highly recommended.

Also just finished this week an interesting collection called <strong>The Graphic Cannon, Volume 1</strong>. It is an anthology of the greatest classics in historical literature (prose, poetry, letters, classical epics) with unique modern interpretation done in a variety of different styles and presentations. Many are done in the graphic novel/comic tradition, but it is really all over the map and some are purely visual representations. Some takes are intentionally provocative and go against traditionally accepted interpretations, some are more traditional, but all are interesting. My only complaint would be that many of the individual pieces are only short excerpts that you leave thirsty for more, but I suppose that whetting your appetite is really a big part of their intent.

This week I've continued to read:

Five Smooth Stones by Anna Fairbairn (hard copy)

Fools Gold #8: Summer Nights by Susan Mallery (mp3)

The Vampire Count of Monte Cristo by Mathew Baugh & Alexandre Dumas (ebook) - this is a mash-up. I haven't read the classic novel so, I'm also reading The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

This week I finished several books. Mostly because I'm commuting and have a lot of time in the car!

The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency: The Minor Adjustment Beauty Salon by Alexander McCall Smith (mp3)

Chicago Stars #1: It Had to be You by Susan Elizabeth Phillips (mp3)

Dead Men Kill by L. Ron Hubbard (CD)

Highland Pleasures #3: The Many Sins of Lord Cameron by Jennifer Ashley (mp3)

Till Human Voices Wake Us by Annie Bellet (mp3)

Emma by Jane Austen (ebook)

Edit

Are any of you on Goodreads? I can be found here

Hey Loves!

I hope you're all well. I just had the scary realisation that there's only like 8 weeks left in the year. God it's gone fast. I hope everyone's reading challenges are going well

This week I'm reading

Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow. This is technically a reread but last time I read it on my Kindle and feel like I missed a lot of detail. I'm reading this in dead tree form and I'm already picking up a lot that I missed the first time around

Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb. I'm not really far enough into this to have an opinion but it's Hobb so my end opinion is bound to be a positive one

I finished Hiroshima by John Hersey this week. The author goes into fair amount of detail regarding the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki - immediate and long term effects of explosions, reasons behind casualties and adds a human angle as well by telling the points of view of several people who survived the disaster. The book treats the nuclear explosions in isolation without any context of the war. Overall, an insightful read on the nuclear bombings in Japan.

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. I loved this book. This was an extremely short and easy read. I loved the funny plain and often vulgar dialogue between characters. The ending as I had come to expect was pretty tragic. This classic story of George and Lennie's friendship and their shared dream will surely remain with me for years to come.

Presently, making my way through Thinking, Fast and Slow by the Nobel prize winner psychologist Daniel Kahneman. Learning about truly remarkable and peculiar functioning of our brains is definitely enjoyable. However, reading progress is slow.

Hi all :)

Finished:

Smarter Faster Better by Charles Duhigg: This was a disappointment. It felt like rescrambled pieces of a series of better psychology books mixed with somewhat cliched anecdotes.

Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl by Carrie Brownstein: I picked this up despite knowing very little about Carrie Brownstein. I knew she help create Portlandia and that she is a musician, though I didn't really know anything about Sleater Kinney. Despite that, I really loved this book. Brownstein is incredibly insightful. Her reflection on the experience of being a fan in the beginning is most thoughtful piece I've ever read on the subject. And her story is really interesting and reflects a really specific place and time that I wasn't a part of but was glad to learn more about.

Not TOO far behind where I wanted to be. I think I'll still be able to hit 52 by the end of the year. Since the last time I've posted here the books I read were:

1. A Separate Peace; Jonathan Knowles
2. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass; Frederick Douglass
3. Two Boys Kissing; David Leviathan

I finally finished Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and have moved on to The Half-Blood Prince.

I also picked up and read The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. It actually wasn't at all what I expected, but I found it very thought-provoking. I think I will actually reread it, write some notes, and then take some of the less woo-y advice.

I had a pretty good reading week this week. I've sort of been moving around between a few books lately as I'm too excited by all the books I have to read to be able to pick one and stick to it. That being said, I managed to finish two books this week.

Yoga Essentials by Gena Kenny. This was just a nice little introduction to Yoga type of book.

Slim Calm Sexy Yoga by Tara Stiles. I really liked this book it had an awesome layout and it presented the information really well. I'm quite curious to read more about Tara Stiles' own brand of Yoga.

This week I'm hoping to focus on and finish The Sapphire Rose by David Eddings which I'm really enjoying. Also on my currently reading list are The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg, 1001 ways to relax by Susanna Marriott and Yinsights by Bernie Clark.

This week I finished When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi. I loved it, even though it made me cry. What a unique perspective on terminal illness. I felt I got to know this person and am heartbroken by the loss. Beautifully written. 5/5.

This week I'm reading The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro. The prologue had me very entertained so I'm looking forward to the rest of the read.

At the start of this week I finished On Writing, by Stephen King. Loved this book, loved King's conversational writing style and the mix between biography and writing toolbox. Would recommend to anyone who is blocked with their own writing and in need of that push in finishing their manuscript.

After that I reread The Ocean at the End of the Lane, by Neil Gaiman. I first read this when it was released a few years back, so I felt like enough time had passed to give it a reread. Still as great as I remember, probably Gaiman's best novel.

Now I'm about 100 pages into Fatherland, by Robert Harris. This book has been on my shelf for the longest time and I figured it was finally time to get to it. Really enjoying it so far. Will hopefully finish this in the week.

No big news since last week.

Started The Kitchen God's Wife by Amy Tan. I'm enjoying it, but not sure where it's headed yet.

Listening to The Six Wives of Henry VIII by Alison Weir. It seems like Weir is going to spend most of the book on Catherine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn. That makes sense because that's where most of the divorce and beheading drama happen, but those two already get most of the attention. I'd like to know more about wives 3-6.

Bible: Through the book of James. I like him; it's easy to say you're humble and faithful and you don't care about worldly things, but how many of us back that up with action? It reminds me of Johnny Rico from Starship Troopers: "A citizen has the courage to make the safety of the human race their personal responsibility."

So if I finish those three plus Zero to One, that'll be forty for the year. I haven't started Zero, but it looks pretty short. If I stay at the office and read for 30 minutes at the end of each work day, I should be able to knock it out by the end of the year.

This week I finished When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi. I'm gonna be honest here, I did not particularly care for this book or the writing style. The epilogue from his wife was (imo) written much better than the book, as it left out all these unnecessary flourishes and poetic sections. The book also felt really padded out and repetitive, which I realize could be a result of the circumstances that it was written and published under.

I'm currently about halfway done with The Trespasser by Tana French, and enjoying it so far.

I should finish The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo today. It was a fun read, but I feel like the second quarter could have been pared down considerably. There were about 100 pages that could be summarized as "Mikael reads the binders." I'm not that familiar with detective novels or whatever you'd call this, but even with all that padding, I don't feel like we were given enough information to come up with a suspect on our own. That's one of the things I really like about reading, where I try to anticipate what's going to happen and sometimes I'm wrong.

Almost halfway through Focus by Daniel Goleman. It's another book on cognition and automatic thought processes, in the same vein as The Power of Habit, Predictably Irrational, or Thinking, Fast and Slow. I like the fact that he doesn't try to blame it all on The Kids Today; even when comparing to his younger self he acknowledges that he doesn't focus as well as he used to. Right now we're still in the "why this is important" stage of the book, but I'm hoping for more practical advice as we work our way toward the end.

Bible: Numbers 20, wherein the Israelites yet again respond to a minor difficulty by losing faith, moaning that they've been brought into the desert to die, and wishing they'd stayed in Egypt. Moses, having long since grown tired of their crap, calls forth water from a rock by striking it, rather than by speaking to it as the Lord had told him to do. This mistake would wind up costing Moses his own place in the Promised Land.

I'm slowly working my way through On Writing by Stephen King (which I've read before, but not in a long while) and Darwin's The Origin of Species which feels like a must-read for me. It's very dense. I can only read it in small chunks, about 10 pages at a time.

I read Shanghai Girls and Dreams of Joy by Lisa See and I just gotta say I love this author. Her books are somewhat educational and talk about Chinese American culture during interesting time periods, foot binding and Chinese astrology and discrimination and all that stuff. But behind the settings they're really girly books with friendships and sisterhood and family and they're easy to relate to. Dreams of Joy made me thankful for the internet though because the main Chinese American character goes to communist China and thinks it'll be just great. Obviously it isn't great and I have to cringe for her in some ways, but man, it just makes you appreciate your life more.

I also read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? and it was pretty good. It was weirder than I expected, I loved all the little descriptions of the Sidney's guide and pricing on animals and robotic animals. Sometimes I hate reading books that have been turned into movies because I feel like I'm just absorbing the same information twice and feel like a kid reading a movie novelization, but this was pretty unique.

Finally I finished Hollow City in the Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children series. Really liking this series and I understand the hype! It's young adult for some odd reason, but it feels more like a cartoon than anything else. Just good adventures, fun characters with cool abilities, now I just have to wait for my library copy of the third one to become available on overdrive haha.

This week I'm reading Thinking, Fast and Slow and The Power of Habit and they're both pretty good so far. It's interesting to learn about how people think and it fulfills that small part of me that wanted to major in psychology. I'm not going to be that freshman psychology major who psychoanalyzes everyone they see, but pop psychology/social sciences are so much fun.

I've been MIA for the month of April and beginning of May due to not having internet. And the latter part of May has been devoted to another road trip with family and hugging my router all night long. In April, I read like a fucking bastard. I burned through five books in five consecutive nights one week. And then this past May, I did not read like a fucking bastard. I don't think I even finished a book this month. But that's like me, I'll binge and then go through weeks of not reading. But this is the most new material I've ever read so I'm very excited.

I'm not going to review anything but if anyone wants to know my ratings you can check out my Goodreads that has some reviews and mostly ratings. But for now I'll just list them.

Stardust by Neil Gaiman Push by Sapphire This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes When the Bough Breaks by Jonathan Kellerman Animal Farm by George Orwell Blood Test* by Jonathan Kellerman **Over the Edge by Jonathan Kellerman Silent Partner by Jonathan Kellerman Time Bomb by Jonathan Kellerman A Game of Thrones by George RR Martin

As of this past week I've started working on The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien and about 60% through A Clash of Kings. I've also downloaded the Christopher Moore books and I enjoyed Lamb so much so I"m hoping for good things.

I read two books last week: The Alloway Files and Forrest Gump (which is not like the movie at all).

This week I'm reading The Midwife since I started watching Call the Midwife on Netflix.

I'm trying to get through Emma but I'm struggling. I just don't like the main character at all!

<strong>Till Human Voices Wake Us</strong> a Sci-Fi anthology!

Snookie Stackhouse #1 Dead Until Dark

I'm reading a lot because I'm still on school break!

Edit - Other readers - Regarding Emma Any tips on handling a character that you hate? I know this is a classic and on the BBC Top 100 list. Just wondering what I can do except keep reading and gnashing my back teeth to dust!!

As your reddit friend, I recommend my favorite book of all time “Mi planta de Naranja Lima by Jose Mauro de Vasconcelos which means My sweet orange tree”. I first read it as a kid and it sparked my love for reading.

My little note: it’s about a kid from a poor family who has a plant for a best friend. We all need a best friend and this poor kid found one in a plant. Great adventures in this one. I love this book :)

Link to the book on amazon (English version)

Others have already gave great advice, so I will just add this.

Try using an app or something else, that you can use to track your reading time, and use that to reward yourself for reading.

I use the Mastery app to keep track of time spent reading. It has a feature, where you can set up rewards, that you can buy, by cashing in your coins, that you receive for reading.

I have an energy drink addiction, so I decided to use drinks as a reward.

This is how I set it up:

1 minute reading = 1 coin.

Two drinks = 120 coins.

That way, I have to read for two hours, before I can even think of buying more energy drinks.

Hello everyone, this is my first challenge on this subreddit. In 2017, I read 116 books (by New Years, it’ll be 119) when I had a 100 reading goal. In 2018, I’m bumping it up to the insane and ludicrous goal of 200 books. This will be the year I fully embrace my bookworm persona on campus.

I’m thinking of making my first books be nonfiction. The first one will most likely be Modern China: The Fall and Rise of a Great Power, 1850 to the Present by Jonathan Fenby which will go on to start one of my goals to read more books on Chinese History. Alongside that somewhere in early January, I’ll tackle the American historical biographies with Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow and Thomas Jefferson: The Art of Power by Jon Meacham.

I try not to have much distract me from my reading, although I do get tempted by the occasional video game. Socializing doesn’t really interfere with my reading goals, but school and extracurricular organizations definitely will be what makes me juggle it for sure in 2018.

My goal this year was 52 books, but I completed 55 books and I am going to complete another one tonight. Thank you all for your support this year!

Top 5:

The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

The Green Mile by Stephen King

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

This Present Darkness by Frank Peretti

I Am the Messenger by Markus Zusak

This week finished:

Consider Phelebas - HATED the ending which wrecked the book for me. Up until the last part of the book was thoroughly enjoying. The world and character development was decent and was looking forward to future books. No longer the case. Help me if I am missing something because was very disappointed

Currently reading:

The Refugees - loving the short stories, will finish in the next couple of days

The City and The City - just started

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - didn't read this at all last week but want to finish for my 52.

Finished Sparrow Falling by Gaie Sebold. I really like this series of books, it has that right mix for me. Low key and fun but full of intrigue without being too serious.

Continuing The Joy of Hate: How to Triumph over Whiners in the Age of Phony Outrage by Greg Gutfeld. Trying to balance my political reading.

Started The Substitute by Nicole Lundrigan and The Elements of Style by William Strunk and E. B. White. A little Halloween reading and a book I should have read a long time ago.

I completely fell off track after starting a couple non-fiction books and not having enough motivation to finish them. Rediscovered this subreddit and gained some motivation back.

Finished these books over the weekend:

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

Animal Farm by George Orwell

Currently reading:

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey

Finished:

• The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck; 5/5 stars. This book confirms that Steinbeck is definitely my all-time favourite author. Think I still prefer 'East of Eden' by my goodness I love Steinbeck's writing.

• Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer; 2/5 stars. It was okay, but too gimmicky and I didn't enjoy the writing style.

• When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi; 5/5 stars. I'm not using a nonfiction/memoir kind of person but my god this was incredible. I work in healthcare so I have an interest in learning about the medical field and this is a memoir about Paul, a neurosurgeon who develops lung cancer in his 30's and realises he's dying. Such a powerful and moving read, I read it in a day!

Now I've just started (funnily enough):

• The Blinding Knife by Brent Weeks! It's book 2 in the Lightbringer Series and it's a fun and enjoyable fantasy world - not my favourite but still so entertaining.

Edit: Formatting difficulties! Doh.

Just finished Brain on Fire.

I'm on Homo Deus now, which I'm pretty excited for after reading his previous book.

After that it's Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning about what he learned in a Nazi concentration camp.

Finished:

Night Sky With Exit Wounds by Ocean Vuong. A great collection of beautiful, modern poetry. Vuong touches on immigrant/refugee themes, family, and love. It's a short read, I highly recommend it.

Reading:

Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space by Janna Levin (audiobook). This is well written. Levin has a unique way of building up stories. I'm excited to get through more of this book.

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi (audiobook). I wanted a memoir-esque book to toss into my audiobook rotation. So far so good.

It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis. Still chugging along.

I may need to toss in a hard History book into my rotation soon.

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. 5/5

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter #1) by J.K. Rowling. 3.5/5

Arm of the Sphinx (Books of Babel #2) by Josiah Bancroft. 4.5/5

Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor. E. Frankl. 4/5

The Firves of Heaven (Wheel of Time #5) by Robert Jordan. 4.5/5

The Princess Bride by William Goldman. 3.5/5

Hyeprion (Hyperion Cantos #1) by Dan Simmons. 4.5/5

Easily the best book of February for me was Anna Karenina. I was absolutely astounded by this book. So much so that it became my favorite book or all time, which is something I'd never had before. I'm also really loving the Wheel of Time series more and more as the series goes on; I loved Fires of Heaven.

Additionally, I began a Harry Potter re-read this month, which I'm hoping to continue over the course of 2017.

Peace is Every Step is in the top five books that I've read this year :). I'm so happy to hear you found it inspiring, as well! I've read several more books by Thich Nhat Hanh this year and thoroughly enjoyed them. I even decided to give a copy of this one as a Christmas gift this year. Great stuff!

This week I finished:

• Peace is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh. Series of short passages on achieving mindfulness in every day life. Thought provoking and inspiring.

• The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson. My first book by this author and I really enjoyed it. It took me awhile to get fully invested, the first half or so is heavy on world building and character development, but it was worth it. I do think I'll read the rest of this series at some point, but not immediately.

• The Last One by Alexandra Oliva. It's Survivor meets post-apocalyptic fiction, and it's super enjoyable if you're into that kind of thing. A woman signs up for a reality show that involves surviving for long stretches of time in the woods alone. While she's out on her own, a plague hits and decimates the world around her. When she emerges into the changed landscape, she still thinks it's part of the show. It's a fast paced, fun read, though I thought some aspects of the ending felt a little rushed and unsatisfying. If you're looking for a quick book to round out your challenge this would be a good one.

Five books to go and I think I'm going to make it! I'm starting my goal for 2017 at 52 and I'm going to try to resist the urge to keep increasing it the way I did this year. I tried to focus on new releases this year and that was fun but next year I think I'll do some kind of reading challenge to hopefully read a wider variety of books.

This week I finished When Breath Becomes Air. I liked it, would recommend it, but wasn't enthralled with it. The voice of his wife seemed very strong in the third part and I felt like that portion was an insight into families dealing with significant illness.

I'm reading The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney. Although I do not typically enjoy books where I dislike every character, I'm drawn in here despite not liking a single person in the book. They are all so fascinatingly selfish and over the top. It's an easy read.

My non-fiction is Vitamin Nby Richard Louv. I've read his other works (The Last Child in the Woods being the one he's known best for) and seen him speak. I find his tone to be a bit pompous but have found a few ideas for doing with my sons this summer.

Well, it finally happened: I didn't finish a book this week.

Currently Reading:

The Truth About Money by Ric Edelman: which is giving me serious anxiety about my finances.

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo: so YA it hurts.

Between The World and Me by Ta'Nehisi Coates: powerful and upsetting.

Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow: slowly but surely.

7 Habits of Highly effective people - I haven't read much so far but Covey has some interesting perspectives. I especially like his character vs personality ethic explanation. I don't want to read too many self help books as a lot of them are much the same, but I'll probably read something like How to Win Friends and Influence People next.

At the same time I'm reading Meditations by Marcus Aurelius in the mornings on my way to work. A thought crossed my mind that I may read the KJV of the Holy Bible later on down the road.

Some books I'm interested in:

Prometheus Rising by Robert Anton Wilson

Notes From the Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason

Finished Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman and The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg. The Power of Habit was kind of interesting and really made me think about good habits and bad habits and addictions and such. The whole premise of the book is that the basal ganglia kind of works on its own and eventually we do things automatically with a pleasure/reward associated with it. It was super gimmicky though and once the pop psychology was over it's like "oh just replace your habits one at a time, replace bad habits with good ones!" But it was still pretty interesting even if I can't magically change my life with it.

Thinking, Fast and Slow was really dense but I enjoyed it. It's all about heuristics and how people make quick judgment errors or occasionally make quick expert decisions. I'm glad I did it on audiobook though because it was a lot to take in, but each chapter was different enough that it kept me interesting throughout.

Next up I'm reading Eleanor and Park on audiobook, which I'm really enjoying so far. It's young adult romance, but the characters are sweet and more nuanced compared to what I'm used to in that genre. I'm also doing Drums of Autumn in the Outlander series, but we'll see how fast I get through it. I enjoy the adventures, but damn are those books lengthy. It always takes me a bit to ease into them and get going.

Last week I read The Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon.

I saw someone post last week that they had just read The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank for the first time and I realized that I had never actually read it either. I started that a few days ago and should be finishing it up soon.

My next book will probably be The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro.

I do not write fiction, but for some reason I enjoy reading books about how to write fiction. I'll check this one out.

A few of my favorites have been This Year You Write Your Novel by Walter Mosley, Telling Lies for Fun and Profit by Lawrence Block, and On Writing by Stephen King (the first part is really an autobiography, but I have huge respect for King's attitude that writing is labor).

I finished Blood Lite which was an anthology with the subject being "nerve-jangling stories with a humorous bite". I enjoyed most of the stories, so I'll probably read the next couple of anthologies that came out (Blood Lite 2 and 3).

I have reached about the middle of Rainy Brain, Sunny Brain by Elaine Fox. I read the first quarter of the book with interest, but I find that the 2nd quarter of the book was slower to get through. She is taking the time to explain how the brain works, and what would cause someone to think negatively or positively. Considering part of the title is "How to re-train your brain to overcome pessimism and achieve a more positive outlook" and she hasn't touched on that at all in half of the book, I'm hoping the rest of the book will address that, and that it won't be the kind of book that describes why something is the way it is, and then gives you one little suggestion (without much detail) at the very end of the book. Only one way to find out!

I'm also still reading Full Catastrophe Living, which is all about mindfulness. I only read one chapter this week... but I also did 10 minutes of meditation every day, and this week will do 20 minutes every day. I'm not as interested in the rest of the book as it deals with how to use mindfulness in ways I don't necessarily need to use it; but for the sake of finishing the book I will read through it all. Besides... I borrowed it from my mom and I will have to return it to her someday!

This week my aim is to finish reading Rainy Brain, Sunny Brain... I'd actually like to finish that one before I start anything else. And then be selecting fiction, since both of the books I'm currently in the middle of are non-fiction, and while I do like having 2 books on the go, I usually prefer alternating between fiction and non-fiction when I do that.

Currently reading:

Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

Just started this as my 'audiobook to listen to while driving to and from work'. Literally only about 40 mins, so far it's been mostly quite sad. I feel sorry for the girl at the moment, but can't help but feel like she's going to do something crazy soon.

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

I don't read a lot of self-help stuff but this is probably up there as one of the best. It's informative, and already has me evaluating the way I act and think.

^house of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

Still reading this, not that i'm not enjoying it, but it's just taking me a while to make my way through it. Navidson report is interesting, at the moment most of the scary stuff comes from Johnny Truant.

Last 5 Books Read: Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill - Around The World In 80 Days, Jules Verne - The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain - Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad - Divergent, Veronica Roth.

For me it's an accountability tool. "I should read more" is a vague resolution that's easy to put off. "I will read 36 books this year" is something that I can compare against. The important thing though is that the number is not an end in itself. My goals are education, entertainment, and personal growth, and reading almost every day is a way to do that.

Why count books? Why not track my reading time? That requires a lot more work to measure, and I'd rather keep it simple. The best low-overhead ways I can think of to make sure I'm reading consistently are counting the number of books read or a "don't break the chain" calendar.

Finished Mockingjay and In the Heart of the Sea this week. Both great. I highly recommend the latter. Ron Howard is directing an adaptation for next year.

This week I will tie up a few half-read books: Born to Run, Rendezvous With Rama, and Detroit: An American Autopsy.

This week I finished both Poor Man's Fight and Rich Man's War, the first 2 books in Elliott Kay's Poor Man's Fight series. They're fairly typical, enjoyable military sci-fi which strike a good balance between inter-planetary politics, space pirates and action.

It does hit on one of my pet peeves though - people keep quoting or referencing Sun Tzu. Admirals don't go around quoting The Art of War, people don't say things like "the enemy commander is an adherent of Sun Tzu therefore they will do ____ ". I'll let one "warfare is based on deception" slide, but after that the author is just trying to emphasis that they've read it.

I'm really enjoying Kindle Unlimited at the minute - it's been the source of 8 of the last 10 books I've read. My biggest complaint is that it's surprisingly difficult to search for new books (you'd think Amazon would have sorted that out by now, but the search filters are quite limited and the "new releases" is generally swamped with short romance novels). Also annoying, the last 2 series I've started there have had free audible narration (which is great btw) but then a few books into the series you have to pay for the audio. It's not a huge problem but I'd rather not pay £4 per book to essentially rent the audiobook for an ebook I'm borrowing from a subscription service.

Finished Catherine The Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert Massie. It was one of the most entertaining, and well written books I have ever read. Overall, the content was phenomenal. It's a biography of Catherine The Great (for those who don't know, she was a Russian empress in the 18th century and one of the best rulers of the empire). I would've maybe preferred a little less about her love life, but most of it was fairly relevant so I was okay with it. Would recommend to anyone even remotely interested in history, or even a good novel.

Also finished The Innovator's Dilemma by Clayton Christensen. It's a book that classifies innovations into two categories: sustaining, and disruptive, and how different companies deal with each. Primarily it was about how doing everything "right" (like listening to your customers, moving forward with technology) can sometimes lead to a company's downfall. Pretty interesting, but to anyone reading this, I would recommend Googling a bit and seeing the application of his theory in modern industries, since he mostly talks about companies from the 80s and earlier. Not too bad a book.

My next book will be Kevin Mitnick's The Art of Invisibility. And I'm also almost done with The Prince by Machiavelli.

Finished Trading In Danger by Elizabeth Moon. I liked it because it wasn't epic. A story about a girl shipping cargo in space for the first time.

Continuing The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland. Really liking this so far. The addition of Galland really humanized Stephenson's writing.

Started On Writing Well by William Zinsser. I should probably read this finally.

I've spent the week focusing on trying to finish It by Stephen King. I read it as a secondary/backup book for a few weeks, but was getting antsy about not finishing it. I've smashed out about 550 pages this week, and only have around 200 to go!

It was also my birthday this week, and I got some books I've been wanting for awhile! Tess of the Durbervilles by Thomas Hardy, Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl and The Beauty and the Sorrow: An Intimate History of the First World War by Peter Englund. Excited to read these!

Edit 12 hrs later: Finished It finally! I think he wrapped this one up pretty well :)

Welcome to Dead House by R. L. Stine

Stay Out of the Basement by R. L. Stine

A Guide to the Good Life by William B. Irvine

The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod

Escaping Peril by Tui T. Sutherland

I looooved Escaping Peril. The Wings of Fire series just gets better as it goes on.

This week I finished A Memory of Light by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson. I made it to the end of the series and I'm honestly not sure how I feel about the series. I kind of feel like it had a lot of things that I really didn't like and that underneath all that there were some moments of really good and interesting content.

I'm currently reading New Spring by Robert Jordan and The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg.

Finished How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life by Scott Adams. Far better than expected.

I've been working on The Club of Queer Trades by Chesterton. I love his stuff. But this is definitely not his best work.

I'm almost at the general community goal! 2017 has been a good reading year so far. This week I have finished:

• Fit To Be Tied by Mary Calmes
• Matter of Time #1 by Mary Calmes
• Matter of Time #2 by Mary Calmes
• Beautiful Darkness by Fabien Vehlmann
• Sightseeing by Rattawut Lapcharoensap

With the completion of Sightseeing I can gleefully cross Thailand off my read around the world challenge. It was an eclectic group of short stories, with the last being my favorite - I wanted to know more about Ladda, Ramon and wherever the hell he picked up her father's ear.

I'm now in the midst of The Sense of Style by Steven Pinker, Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys (again) and Land Without Justice by Milovan Djilas.

Finished:

Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space by Janna Levin (audiobook). This was well written but I was expecting more of a science story rather than an institution drama story. This focuses a lot on the people behind the efforts to establish LIGO programs and the battle between CalTech/MIT. It was fun to learn about the journey to capture gravitational waves from black holes colliding.

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi (audiobook). Beautiful at times, heavy on the introspection. However, I felt a little let down. I don't think it resonated completely with me.

Still reading: Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin and It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis.

Started: Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg. The writing is raw and honest. I didn't expect to get hooked so quickly.

Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari (audiobook). Very interesting and fun.

I admittedly didn't read much this week. I finished On Writing by Stephen King. I'm not a huge fan of his novels, but this book is very entertaining and contains a lot of useful, straight-forward, no-bullshit advice. I really like the way he approaches writing his books. It's intuitive and simple. No-fuss.

I'm still (very slowly) reading A Distant Mirror by Barbara Tuchman. I've really been enjoying the subject matter, which led me to do a lot of history research online, which led me somehow to buying Crusader Kings 2. Now I fear my reading time has been endangered.

I've finished my first 3 books of the year:

• We Have Always Lived in the Castle - Shirley Jackson
• The Vegetarian - Han Kang
• In Watermelon Sugar - Richard Brautigan

All three of those books were pretty bizarre. Certainly out of my usual range. I struggled through the first one. The other two were both pretty interesting! I didn't enjoy reading them as such, but I did spend time thinking about them afterwards and I like that they got me thinking.

As a palate cleanser for those books, I've started:

• On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft - Stephen King [completed 13/1/17]

• Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury [started 13/1/17]

Easy to read and informative. I love reading about King's early life. I enjoy writing (as a hobby) so it's relevant.

My Aim to to read a decent variety, but also to get through a bunch of classics (I made a little dent last year). Future books may include: A Handmaid's Tale, The Fireman, The Gift of Therapy (Irvin Yalom), The Great Gatsby, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, The Hobbit, Lord of the Flies, Mistborn, Night (Elie Wiesel), Pride and Prejudice, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, The View from the Cheap Seats: Selected Non-fiction, The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Yes Please (Amy Poehler), 1984, Kafka (complete works).

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead - 10 hours and 43 minutes / 306 "pages" ✭✭✭✭✩

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi - 5 hours and 35 minutes / 208 "pages" ✭✭✭✩✩

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood - 10 hours and 26 minutes / 324 "pages" ✭✭✭✭✭

Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner - 10 hours and 54 minutes / 329 "pages" ✭✭✭✭✭

Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee - 10 hours and 52 minutes / 384 "pages" ✭✭✭✭✩

Authors - Male: 3 | Female: 2 | PoC: 3 | LGBTIQ: 2

Genres - Literary/General: 1 | Sci-Fi: 2 | Fantasy: 1 | Non-Fiction: 1

Hi everyone! Nineteen-year old male here. After a childhood where reading everyday was a given, I deluded myself during my final year of high school and first year of University into thinking I "no longer had time" to read. I realised how silly this was during the final few months of 2016, and found out I easily have enough down time to read a book or two a month.

My goal for 2017 is 40 books. While I would love to try for 52 books, I feel 40 is already a challenging enough goal, especially for someone just getting back into reading. I may very well exceed this goal - we'll see!

I've gotten into this habit of buying books, because I like filling up my shelf, but then not reading them. My first books for 2017 will be the books I've bought over recent months, planned to read, but never got around to. Today, I started with The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger.

One of my most related hobbies is writing. I had short works published when I was younger, but this stopped when I stopped reading. I also "didn't have time" to write. One of my goals for 2016, and now subsequently for 2017, was to start writing again, but, as Stephen King taught me in his book On Writing, "If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write."

• How many books do you plan to read?

52

• Have you completed a yearly reading goal/challenge before?

In 2016 I started with a goal of 5 to get myself back into it, finished with 37 (some were very short though, so probably more like 30 novels worth), and I started in March.

• What will be your first book of 2017?

Undecided - I'm not good at making decisions.

edit: Stephen King's On Writing, The Vegetarian by Han Kang, and We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. I have started all three of them.

edit 2: Completed - We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

• What hobbies do you have other than reading?

Crafting. I knit, crochet, draw. Started cross stitching and playing with polymer clay last year. I'm a bit of a hobby whore, I tend to jump around a lot of creative hobbies. I'm hoping to get into writing again this year - goal 12 short stories in 12 months.

• Anything else?

I like using Goodreads to log my books, but I also have a spreadsheet to track my spending and reading. I made a few graphs for 2016. One included my assignment due dates and when I finished a book... it was telling.

I'm late!

This week I finished The Wonder by Emma Donoghue. I ultimately enjoyed it, but the first 100 pages or so took some slogging though. The narrator's cynical inner voice, while I ultimately agreed with her, was a bit of a put-off, but once it got going I was on board. 3/5.

I also finished Whistling Past the Graveyard by Susan Crandall. It had a To Kill a Mockingbird vibe, almost to a fault (TKAM is my favorite book of all time, so imitations don't usually do it for me). Young, tomboy narrator in a civil rights setting, but I realized quickly that the similarities end there. It's pretty gripping, though, and there are some lovely turns of phrase. I was anxious to see what happened next and where it was all headed. 3/5.

This week I'm reading When Breath Becomes Air by Dr. Paul Kalanithi.

This week I finished:

• The Intuitionist by Colson Whitehead - Pretty good; I was impressed with how interesting he made a story about elevator inspectors
• The Accidental Death of an Anarchist by Dario Fo - Excellent; would love to see it performed someday
• The Wallcreeper by Nell Zink - I can't make up my mind about this book; it was either really good or really bad, depending on how you interpret it :-P

I'm currently reading:

• Fiction: Mao II by Don DeLillo - Just started it, but excited to see what it holds in store!
• Audiobook: Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. by Ron Chernow, narrated by Grover Gardner - I'm actually getting close to finishing it! I'm about 75% done, with about 8 hours left to go.
• Non-Fiction: Enemy in the Mirror: Islamic Fundamentalism and the Limits of Modern Rationalism by Roxanne Euben

1. Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
   
2. Pride and Prejudice
   
3. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
   
4. The Variable Man
   
5. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
   
6. Lolita
   
7. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
   
8. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
   
9. The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger
   
10. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
11. The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of Three
    
12. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
13. What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions
14. The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands
15. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
16. The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass
    
17. The Dark Tower V: Wolves of the Calla
18. The Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah
19. The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower
    
20. The Invisible Man
    
21. Frankenstein
    
22. Our Island Story
23. The Colour of Magic
    
24. The Light Fantastic
    
25. Equal Rites
    
26. Mort
    
27. Sourcery
    
28. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
29. The Hobbit
30. Brave New World
31. The Marvelous Land Of Oz.
32. So Good They Can't Ignore You.
    
33. The Final Empire.
    
34. The Well of Ascension
35. The Hero of Ages

Well technically I haven't finished the last one but this Mistborn trilogy is the best thing I've read in quite a while.

reading When Breath Becomes Air I like it so far but haven't gotten into the nitty gritty. May harmonize with Being Mortal, which I loved.

I purchased the God Delusion by Dawkins, so that is probably my next one. May be a bit philosophically rich but I can manage. Any thoughts/opinions?

Does anyone have any suggestions on some modern literature? I read Don Delillo's White Noise and had mixed feelings (most of which positive) about it.

This week, I finished Return of the King. My husband is more excited than me because now we'll watch the movie. I'm just relieved to have finally finished the series. I also read The Color Purple by Alice Walker, which I realized halfway through I had read before. Still a good, quick read though.

Now, I'm about halfway through Jonah's Gourd Vine by Zora Neale Hurston. It's also a re-read, but from so long ago, that I'd forgotten the plot. I love how she writes their speech phonetically, and I find it makes my own Southern accent a little stronger. I'm a couple of chapters into Devil in the White City and will pick it back up when I've finished the other book.

Lastly, I'm starting Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat-Zinn. I just got it in the mail and will be reading it more thoroughly and slowly than I typically read. I've been regularly practicing mindfulness meditation for the past couple of months, and I'm hoping this helps me keep a steady practice going.

Just found this sub! I am also on the 18th books out of 52. This week I just finished:

• Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman : I am sure every one have heard of this book. Incredible writing. Plenty of practical information on how to improve your thinking. It took me a few weeks to finish and sometimes the chapters can be dry, but in the end it was worth it.

• When We Were Orphans by Kazuo Ishiguro: I am a big fan of Ishiguro. I really like "The Remains of The Days" and "Never Let Me Go". This book doesn't disappoint. It's about a British detective who grew up in Shanghai during the Sino-Japanese War but moved back to London after his parents are kidnapped. 20 years after, he came back to Shanghai to find his parents. It has a lot of elements that made Ishiguro famous: the unreliable narrator, the flashbacks, the simplistic phrase that conveys much more, while also maintaining the engima and mystery of a detective novel.

This week, I will be reading The Buried Giant also by Kazuo Ishiguro.

Finished The Green Mile, glad I read it. The narrative added just enough detail to make it worth the read. Will probably read another Stephen King. Wouldn't call myself a fan quite yet...

Finished listening to Aziz Ansari's Modern Romance on the top of a ridge during a nice hike. This was such a well researched book on dating and relationships. It was also ridiculously funny. That being said a large chunk of the book did not appeal to me (sleeping around, cheating, open relationships) but it was not the point of the book.

My next audiobook is The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up. So far it's working. Have a giant box of clothes to get donated.

Started Station Eleven THANKS FOR ALL THE RECOMMENDATIONS. THIS IS SO GOOD.

Picked Alexander Hamilton back up... Yep.

Reading The Prophet of Yonwood with my charges.

tl;dr THIS WEEK:

Finished

18. The Green Mile Stephen King

19. Modern Romance Aziz Ansari

Reading this week:

Station Eleven Emily St. John Mandel 18%

The Prophet of Yonwood Ember series Jeanne Duprau 27%

The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up Marie Kondo

Alexander Hamilton Ron Chernow 7%

edited reformatted

I'm at one of those points that I am in the middle of a bunch of books, all of them good, with no overwhelming motivation to finish any of them.

Stiff by Mary Roach is fantastic so far in a kind of squeam-while-you-read sort of way. Highly recommended, but not bedtime reading for this guy.

Turn Coat by Jim Butcher. Butcher really seems to mature with each book and needlessly convoluted plots have turned into genuine political intrigue.

The Lean Startup by Eric Ries. Some interesting ideas, okay writing. I am still fairly new to the world of business books and a lot of them don't live up to my expectations. Any recommendations for business writing that is thought provoking and/or engaging?

This week I'm re-reading To Kill a Mockingbird. Haven't read this one since it was assigned in eighth grade, and needless to say I am getting way more out of it this go around. Hoping to pick up Go Set a Watchman at some point later this year so I can pick up on all the controversy that happened last year.

I finished When Breath Becomes Air which was truly a stunning memoir. Such high-concept ideas described in really accessible language while being incredibly moving. Really made me pause and reflect on the fragility of life and what it truly means to live. Highly recommend.

Not sure what I'll be picking up next - I'll probably pick something off my to-read shelf at random. I still have the final book of the Neapolitan Novels waiting for me that I've been putting off just because I don't want the experience of reading these books to end!

Well, I abandoned my first book this week; it was The Magicians by Lev Grossman. I slogged through the first fourth of the book, and I just found it too dull for my liking.

I also read through Marie Kondo's The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up and I've started into Landline by Rainbow Rowell for this week.

I finished Never Let Me Go. I just realized that's 3/3 for first person narratives. And it'll be 4/4 this week, actually. Funny how that turned out, I can't remember when's the last time I read one previous to this year. Anyway, about the book. I liked it. It wasn't what I expected, though. It's a very personal story, and the POV doesn't allow for going into detail on just how warped the world is, but that's really the element that intrigued me the most.

This week I'll be reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig. It's supposed to be a philosophical novel, so I'm properly intrigued, despite previous misgivings.

I read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance last week. It was alright but I didn't care for it.

Now I am on The Elegant Universe which I am having difficulty with as well as slowly working my way through A Game of Thrones

These are my 7th and 8th book of the year.

I read Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl and The Hedge Knight by George R.R. Martin last week, and now I'm less than one hundred pages away from finishing A Feast for Crows by Mr. Martin. I'm not sure whether or not I will read A Dance with Dragons next because the prospect of waiting for the next book isn't very appealing. Most people I've spoken to complained about AFFC quite a bit, but I've found it to be quite enjoyable.

Finished Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne last night, plan to start on On the Pleasure of Hating (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/552794.On_the_Pleasure_of_Hating) by William Hazlitt tonight.

This week is a national holiday here in Korea so I anticipate having 18 books read by the end of January.

William Hazlitt. What a great name. "haz lit".

I wonder if there is such a genre as 'hazlit' (hazardous lit). :-)

I've had an excellent reading week on accident thanks to no Internet for a few days. Finished Emma Goldman's Anarchism and other essays, Sharp Objects by Gillian Flyn, How to hold a grudge, To-do list formula and The Promise by R.L. Mathewson. A few of these have been on my kindle for ages.

This week I'm reading: Lobby (a Norwegian book on how to lobby), Nietzsche's The Dawn of Day (free on gutenberg), Tor and the dark art of anonymity, Japanese Death Poems, Berlin Stories by Robert Walser, and a short-short book on The Middle Ages (free on Amazon.)

I’ve planned all 52 books and then added another list afterwards in case I finish some books earlier in the week. Spreading out the genres. One week it’s a sci fi book or a comic and then next will be a book about philosophy, science or psychology.

Thought I’d be fun to mix up the genres so I’m not entirely focused on one type although I will admit that a large portion of them are fiction (as that’s the majority of books I have atm)

I want to be a writer and one piece of advice I was given was to not just read fiction but also non fiction as well as other genres you’re not used to reading as it helps with your writing

got my plan below. Finished Foundation already and almost halfway through Righteous Mind.

1. Foundation by Isaac Asimov
2. The Righteous Mind
3. The Knowledge
4. Solaris
5. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
6. Starship Troopers
7. Ready Player One
8. The Last Theorum
9. On the Road
10. Fight Club
11. Pygmy
12. So you’ve been publicly shamed.
13. The Dark Tower
14. The Man in the High Castle
15. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
16. The Road
17. Blood Meridian
18. The Power
19. The Star Diaries
20. I Claudius
21. A Universe from Nothing
22. The Crystal World
23. Brief History of Time
24. The Drowned World
25. The Magic of Reality
26. Dead Until Dark
27. Politics by Aristotle
28. Letters of a Young Contrarian
29. The Road to Wigan Pier
30. The Selfish Gene
31. Clash of Kings
32. A Storm of Swords Part One
33. A Storm of Swords Part Two
34. A Feast of Crows
35. A Dance of Dragons p1
36. A Dance of Dragons p2
37. Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
38. The Restaurant at the end of the universe
39. Hippo Eats Dwarf
40. Elephants On Acid
41. Cujo
42. Nomad
43. The Sellout
44. The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher
45. The Prose Edda
46. Seven Deadly Sins
47. What the Dog Saw
48. The Establishment
49. Republic by Plato
50. Look Whose Back
51. Beyond Good and Evil
52. Catch 22