Book 'Em Danno! Reading Record 2021 - The Bear and Badger

Nina

This Is How You Lose the Time War
Damn the was beautifully written. It took me a while to get used to as I didn't really know what I was getting into with this one, but now I consider buying it as I'd love to read the letters again. It's beautiful, bittersweet, feels really tender at times, can be gritty and hard, it has big environments and can zoom in on the smallest of details. It gives a little taste of a lot of things, and I expect it to linger in my mind for quite a while.

Gremill

Nina wrote:

This Is How You Lose the Time War
Damn the was beautifully written. It took me a while to get used to as I didn't really know what I was getting into with this one, but now I consider buying it as I'd love to read the letters again. It's beautiful, bittersweet, feels really tender at times, can be gritty and hard, it has big environments and can zoom in on the smallest of details. It gives a little taste of a lot of things, and I expect it to linger in my mind for quite a while.

I have no idea what this book is actually about from your description, but that's a hell of a title. Will put on the list

Nina

Think it was at some point mentioned in the book club, can't remember if it got chosen or not but it took a long time to become available at the library.

Tbh I also don't know what it's actually about, as it touches on a lot and never stays long anywhere. It doesn't really go from a to b, so that has to be something you can get along with.

acemuzzy

So it turns out I bought that in 2019. Who knew? Certainly not me.

I also clicked through to the The Fifth Season which I apparently bought less than a month ago but don't remember even having heard of.

Yeah fuck you moot.

acemuzzy

Anyway I'm halfway through Project Hail Mary which kinda started intriguingly but I'm hoping it guess somewhere cos the mid section isn't really doing it for me.

It has reminded me that I'm actually far more likely to finish Kindle books Ryan paperback ones though. The fact I can read with the lights off, while the other half dozes off, being the main reason...

tigersgogrrr

Time War is brilliant.

Gremill

acemuzzy wrote:

So it turns out I bought that in 2019. Who knew? Certainly not me.

I also clicked through to the The Fifth Season which I apparently bought less than a month ago but don't remember even having heard of.

Yeah fuck you moot.

The Fifth Season is amazing.

Raiziel

84. Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie. Really enjoyed this, but didn’t love it like I loved One Hundred Years of Solitude. It’s a book of two halves for me. The first half I absolutely loved because it was all domestic tall tales filled with vivid, interesting characters, whatshisname (I loved Reverend Mother!) The second half, which has a larger focus on the wider going’s on in India and Pakistan, lost me a bit, I’m afraid, and so I ended up feeling like the book was running just a little too long. And it is a whopper of a tome! I also felt like the protagonist was the least interesting character in the whole story, made all the more acute because everyone around him is just so much more interesting. This was something One Hundred Years of Solitude escaped by not telling its story from anyones point of view. I’m really nitpicking, though, because overall it’s a formidable piece of work, and Rushdie’s prose was always on point. So in spite of it feeling uneven, and that is simply down to my own preferences for the stories I like to read, I liked it well enough to want to read more by the author.

Gremill

36. Salvation (Peter F Hamilton)
It's big sci-fi epic time - I've had this one on my list for a while and it did not disappoint. Mankind invents portal technology in the late 21st century and uses it, alongside advanced genetic therapies and super advanced quantum computer technology to start the colonisation of the galaxy. They are soon contacted by an alien civilisation, the Oliyx, who are traveling across the universe to meet their god at the end of time. Elsewhen, a squad of binary humans are being trained on a half deserted planet thousands of light years from an abandoned earth - training to take on the 'enemy' so that humanity can stop running.
Astonishingly great - rammed full of ideas, great characters and brilliantly written action. Immediately bought the sequel.

Raiziel

Hamilton is on my ‘must read next year’ list along with Alistair Reynolds. Have already bought several books so am ready to go.

Raiziel

85. Letters from Father Christmas by J. R. R. Tolkien. Not a story, but rather a collection of letters Tolkien wrote to his four children as Father Christmas over a period of twenty years. And they are adorable. They start off quite short and sweet, but as the years roll by and there are more children in the house to write to they become quite epic, detailing Santa’s efforts to get presents ready for all the good children each year and introducing new characters such as his helper the North Polar Bear and secretary Elbereth. It’s heartwarming stuff, and as I read them I couldn’t help but be thoroughly jealous of those children, who for a short while in their lives not only believed in Father Christmas, but believed he was writing to them. And then it gets sad, because as the years wear on Father Christmas notes to the younger children of the family how their older brothers no longer write to him anymore, until finally he is only corresponding with the youngest, Priscilla. When she finally stops writing him he still writes one last letter to her, and it just feels really sad that that part of childhood is over and won’t ever return.

The book itself—or at least the edition I have—is beautifully presented. All of the letters are reproduced in full colour (along with shaky handwriting because it’s so cold at the North Pole—a lovely detail) and so too are all the pencil drawings and paintings Tolkien included with the letters. I thought this was a lovely read, and poignant reminder of how precious the magic of childhood is.

davyK

I ilke the sound of that one @Raiziel.

Raiziel

I have this edition: https://www.waterstones.com/book/letters-from-father-christmas/j-r-r-tolkien/9780008406844
I can recommend it.

Gremill

37. Salvation Lost (Peter F Hamilton)
Just as great as the first, jumping between story lines 10,000 years apart as mankind is horrifically subjugated in the 'present' and tries to fight back in the future.

Raiziel

86. The Chrysalids by John Wyndham. This is a post apocalypse story where society has been regressed to little more than primitive farming communities and genetic mutations in both flora and fauna are commonplace. The village in which the protagonist lives is ruled over by a Christian fundamentalist who will not tolerate even the slightest genetic aberration, whether it’s in a piece of fruit or a human being. So a lot of it is about being persecuted just for being different, something that’s always topical. A good read, I thought, and my first by Wyndham. Have already bought The Midwich Cuckoo’s and The Day of the Triffids by him.

tigersgogrrr

I'd recommend The Kraken Wakes, Raz. I've read everything he's done multiple times and that's remained my favourite. The Chrysalids may well be his weakest novel in my book so if you liked it you have a great few books ahead of you!

The Trouble with Lichen is also a cracker.

Hmm.

He was a very good author.

Raiziel

I’ve heard of The Kraken Wakes. Like I say, I’ve got a couple to be getting on with. If I like those well enough I’ll definitely check that one out. Cheers, tiger.

tigersgogrrr

He's weird in that a lot of his books have incredibly passive protagonists; they're often observers of a tale rather than being hugely influential themselves.

Yet it works.

davyK

tigersgogrrr wrote:

I'd recommend The Kraken Wakes, Raz. I've read everything he's done multiple times and that's remained my favourit8e. The Chrysalids may well be his weakest novel in my book so if you liked it you have a great few books ahead of you!

The Trouble with Lichen is also a cracker.

Hmm.

He was a very good author.

I read all those Wyndhams in my late teens. Cant remember them in detail but I remember enjoying them.

Raiziel

87. Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enriquez, translated by Megan McDowell. This is a sort-of short story collection. I say sort-of because quite often I felt like what I was reading here were more like vignettes. Quite often there simply isn’t a resolution to the narrative, at least in the conventional sense, and to begin with it threw me for a loop. In the hands of a lesser writer these stories may have been unsatisfying, even frustrating, for the reader, but Enriquez is a very fine writer with a fluid, plain-speaking style that allows you to easily inhabit her characters heads. And it’s not long before you come to realise these are allegorical tales. Enriquez is Argentinian, and most of her stories take place in Buenos Aires, and I just don’t think I really had enough foreknowledge of that environment, both politically and culturally, to fully appreciate what she was doing with these stories. To some extent I got there in the end, but any failure to fully understand the nuances of her stories really lies with me. These are brilliant, often terrifying stories of poverty, depression, repression, class division and much more, all of it laced up in a subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) gothic horror bow. A really great read, and a bit of an education.

Gremill

38. The Humans (Matt Haig)
It's taken a whole year, but I think I might have just read the best book of my reading year. Not since The Road have I read something that has affected me so deeply and significantly, to the point where it had me in tears at several points. The author suffers from severe anxiety and depression (I've actually got two of his 'self-help' books which I'd really recommend for anyone who suffers from these like I do on occasion) and the idea for this story was born during the depths of a seemingly never ending panic attack. Haig began to question reality itself and the very foundation of what it means to be a functional human being. This story, of an alien taking the place of a human, has so much to say about our nature, culture and society and offers an amazing outsider perspective, questioning why we act the way we do. It reminded me a lot of The Curious Incident... providing real insight from outside of how we would 'normally' see the world. Can't recommend it enough.

Raiziel

Ooh, my first read of the new year will be one of Matt Haig’s. I have The Humans on my Kindle, but I’ll be reading The Hidden Library. If I like that well enough I may bump The Humans up my tbr.

Raiziel

88. Hekla’s Children by James Brogden. Merely okay. I should have loved it, as it mixes both a contemporary setting and with ancient Britain with its dark pagan folklore. But ultimately it fails to capitalise on its potential and what we’re essentially left with body-swapping creature feature that was just a bit too tropey for my liking.

89. Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll. Something light and fizzy to finish off the year. It’s good fun, though I think I prefer Alice in Wonderland.

Raiziel

Well that’s me all done.

Favourite book of the year: a dead heat between Inverted World by Christopher Priest and Blindsight by Peter Watts. Honourable mention: The Ruins by Scott Smith.

Worst book of the year: Kraken by China Miéville. Honourable mention: The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu

Raiziel wrote:

January:

1. Rise of Endymion by Dan Simmons
2. The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie
3. Leave the World Behind by Rumaan Alam
The Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnoles (short story) by Margaret St. Clair
The Summer People (short story) by Shirley Jackson
4. The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes
5. Star Maker by Olaf Stapledon

February:
6. The Fold by Peter Clines
7. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
8. The Passage by Justin Cronin
9. Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy
10. Kraken by China Miéville
The Hungry House (short story) by Robert Bloch
11. Smith of Wootton Major by J. R. R. Tolkien
The Complete Gentleman (short story) by Amos Tutuola
12. Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
13. Walking to Aldebaran by Adrian Tchaikovsky
‘It’s a Good Life’ (short story) by Jerome Bixby
A Pail of Air (short story) by Fritz Leiber

March:
14. The Cipher Kathe Koja
15. The Last Conversation by Paul Tremblay
16. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick
Mister Taylor (short story) by Augusto Monterroso
Axolotl (short story) by Julio Cortázar
17. The Silmarillion by J. R. R. Tolkien
18. Swan Song by Robert McCammon
19. The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
20. Summer Frost by Blake Crouch
A Woman Seldom Found (short story) by William Sansom
21. Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock
22. The Children of Hurin by J. R. R. Tolkien
23. Lavondyss by Robert Holdstock

April:
24. Lancelot by Giles Kristian
25. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl and Sir Orfeo translated by J. R. R. Tolkien
26. Avilion by Robert Holdstock
27. Piranesi by Suzanna Clarke
28. Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky
29. The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again by M. John Harrison
The Howling Man (short story) by Charles Beaumont
Same Time, Same Place (short story) by Mervyn Peake
The Colomber (short story) by Dino Buzzati
30. The Other Side of the Mountain by Michel Bernanos
The Salamander (short story) by Mercè Rodoreda

May:
31. The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams
32. Harvest Home by Thomas Tryon
The Ghoulbird (short story) by Claude Seignolle
The Sea Was Wet as Wet Could Be (short story) by Gahan Wilson
33. Unfinished Tales by J. R. R. Tolkien
34. Don’t Look Now by Daphne du Maurier
35. The Drowned World by J. G. Ballard
36. The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
37. Emergency Skin by N. K. Jemisin

June:
38. Stone of Farewell by Tad Williams
39. Tehanu by Ursula Le Guin
Randomize (short story) by Andy Weir
40. The Rain Dancers by Greg F. Gifune
41. The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
42. To Green Angel Tower Part One by Tad Williams
43. The Inverted World by Christopher Priest
The Hospice (short story) by Robert Aickman
It Only Comes Out at Night (short story) by Dennis Etchison

July:
44. To Green Angel Tower Part Two by Tad Williams
45. Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke
46. Assassin’s Quest by Robin Hobb
47. The City and the Stars by Arthur C. Clarke
48. Blindsight by Peter Watts
49. Uzumaki by Junji Ito

August:
50. The Ruins by Scott Smith
51. Occultation and Other Stories by Laird Barron
52. Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy
53. What Dreams May Come by Richard Matheson
54. 2001: A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
55. Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake
56. I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
57. Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle
58. 2010: Odyssey Two by Arthur C. Clarke

September:
59. 2061: Odyssey Three by Arthur C. Clarke
60. Voyagers by Ben Bova
61. 3001: The Final Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke
62. Voyagers II by Ben Bova
63. The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin
64. Voyagers III by Ben Bova
65. The Dark Forest by Liu Cixin
66. The Return by Ben Bova

October:
67. One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
68. Dark Matter by Michelle Paver
From Beyond (short story) by H. P. Lovecraft
He (short story) by H. P. Lovecraft
69. Beneath an Oil-Dark Sea by Caitlin R. Kiernan
70. The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
71. Before You Sleep by Adam Nevill
72. Horrorstör by Grady Hendrix
73. The Dark Country by Dennis Etchison
74. Dead Leaves by Kealan Patrick Burke
75. Fantasticland by Mike Bockoven
76. The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher
77. Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu
78. The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
79. The Fiends in the Furrows: An Anthology of Folk Horror
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (short story) by Washington Irving

November:
80. The Asylum by John Harwood
81. The Prestige by Christopher Priest
82. The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
83. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

December:
84. Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
85. Letters from Father Christmas by J. R. R. Tolkien
86. The Chrysalids by John Wyndham
87. Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enriquez
88. Hekla’s Children by James Brogden
89. Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll

acemuzzy

Inverted World 99p today so I guess I'm in for that

hylian_elf

So I read A Game of Thrones and am almost done with A Clash of Kings. Almost 2 books.

If we get back to commuting to work, numbers should be higher in 2022.

davyK

davyK wrote:

January
The Second World War Vol.4 by Winston Churchill
Feb
The Dark Forest (Three Body Problem) by Liu Cixin
Mar
Dragonflight (Dragonriders of Pern) by Anne McCaffery
A History of the Crusades Vol.1 by Steven Runciman
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
Apr
The Second World War Vol.5 by Winston Churchill
May
The Second World War Vol.6 by Winston Churchill
A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
Where Have All The Bullets Gone by Spike Milligan
The Master and Margerita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugadsky
June
Fall : The Mystery of Robert Maxwell by John Preston
A Very English Scandal by John Preston
Blood and Iron by Katja Hoyer
Gengis Khan:Life,Death and Resurrection by John Man
July
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevski
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkein
August
Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman
September
The Drowned and the Saved by Primo Levi
October
Greenlights by Matthew McConaughey
The Wandering Earth by Liu Cixin (s)
November
Missile Commander by Tony Temple
Mythos by Stephen Fry
December
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

(s) - short story collection

Most enjoyable read has to be Master and Margerita by Mikhail Bulgakov.

Finishing Churchill's 6 volume account WW2 is another highlight.

Crime and Punishment was a bucket list book that lived up to the hype and Life and Fate was probably my best discovery.

Dark Forest was an astounding book. Loved it.

davyK

Goals for 2022:

Suez Brick sized highly acclaimed account by Keith Kyle has been lolling about on the shelf for far too long.
War and Peace, Dr. Zhivago, Anna Karenina (If I get 2 of these long novels read I'll be pleased).
Troy by Stephen Fry - completes that trilogy
Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury.

and will read the 3rd Three Body Problem book.

tigersgogrrr

Favourite: A Deadly Education (Novik)

Least favourite: Kraken (Mieville)

Gremill

Favourite: The Humans

Least Favourite: Before the Coffee Gets Cold

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories