Cheap Thrills

Well, the long-awaited (by me, anyway) day is finally here. This morning, my new book blog went live!

Okay, this is a bookstore, not my blog,
but it looks so inviting, doesn't it?

Why did I start this? Well, it just seemed like it was time. I've been on Goodreads for years, sharing my thoughts on the books I read. And I've blogged about them here from time to time as well. I just wanted a place where I could focus on that part of my life, without it taking over here.

January Reading

Wow, feels like it's been SO LONG since the last one of these. I mean, I know I did my December update early, but still. Anyway, here's a quick overview of what I've been reading since last time:

City of Dark Magic, by Magnus Flyte (2 stars)
Cold Vengeance, by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (3 stars)
Two Graves, by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (3 stars)
The Blood Gospel, by James Rollins and Rebecca Cantrell (4 stars)
The Boleyn Inheritance, by Philippa Gregory (4 stars)
Safe Haven, by Nicholas Sparks (3 stars)
The Roswell Conspiracy, by Boyd Morrison (4 stars)
All About Lulu, by Jonathan Evison (3 stars)
Spiral, by Paul McEuen (3 stars)
The Time Keeper, by Mitch Albom (2 stars)
Innocent Traitor, by Alison Weir (4 stars)

I also did a re-read of Preston and Child's Fever Dream (4 stars) before reading their next two. In addition, there were several books this month that I started but gave up on: Fortuna, by Michael R. Stevens; The Inner Circle, by Brad Meltzer; and Diary, by Chuck Palahniuk.

December Reading

Doing this one a bit early. I would hate for the world to end without telling you all what I read in my final days.

Actually, it's because we're heading out of town this weekend and won't be back until the new year. Not that I won't have internet access, but we have lots of plans that don't involve the computer, and I don't feel like squeezing a post in there somewhere. Also, I'm pretty much done reading for the year; it's hard to find snatches of time and a quiet space when I'm away from home.

Anyway, here's what I've been reading since last time:

My Year of Reading

I'm not quite done reading for the year, but I wanted to get this done before the holidays. This end-of-the-year survey is hosted over at The Perpetual Page-Turner. On the off chance that I read something in the next couple weeks that deserves to be on this list, I'll edit accordingly. Now let's get to it!

Best in Books 2012

1. Best book you read this year?
The Bells, by Richard Harvell. It's about love and music and it's just wonderful. I had a few 5-star books this year, but this one in particular had me completely enchanted. (The others I'll be sure to mention when they come up in other questions.)

Anticipation: The Order of the Sanguines

"What's your most anticipated book of 2013?"

This is a question I've come across a few times recently, and it's one that I'm pretty quick to answer. For me, it has to be The Blood Gospel, the latest from personal favorite James Rollins and new-to-me author Rebecca Cantrell. It's the first in a new series, The Order of the Sanguines, and fortunately for me it comes out a mere eight days into the new year!

Since we're only a month away, I thought I'd share some of my enthusiasm.

The Results Are In

The results of the Goodreads Choice Awards were just released today. I still think it's ridiculous to have to wait a week for the results when the whole thing's automated anyway, but maybe I should give them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe they didn't actually have all the results tallied immediately (even though the longest we had to wait for results between rounds was a day). Maybe it wasn't just a ploy to keep the anticipation building for a week (during which I almost forgot all about the awards). Who knows?

November Reading

This was not a typical reading month for me, because of NaNoWriMo. Time issues aside, I just don't like to read anything that requires a ton of investment while I'm working in my own made-up universe. So, I decided to make this month about two things: YA/children's lit, and re-reads.

His Dark Materials, by Phillip Pullman
   #1, The Golden Compass (2 stars)
   #2, The Subtle Knife (2 stars)
   #3, The Amber Spyglass (2 stars)
Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis
   #1, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (4 stars)
   #2, Prince Caspian (3 stars)
   #3, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (3 stars)
   #4, The Silver Chair (3 stars)
   #5, The Horse and His Boy (4 stars)
   #6, The Magician's Nephew (4 stars)
   #7, The Last Battle (3 stars)
Percy Jackson and the Olympians, by Rick Riordan
   #1, The Lightning Thief (3 stars)
   #2, The Sea of Monsters (3 stars)
   #3, The Titan's Curse (4 stars)
   #4, The Battle of the Labyrinth (3 stars)
   #5, The Last Olympian (4 stars)

October Reading

Here's a quick overview of what I've been reading since last time:

A Time Odyssey, by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter
   #1, Time's Eye (4 stars)
   #2, Sunstorm (4 stars)
   #3, Firstborn (3 stars)
The Dark Half, by Stephen King (4 stars)
The Casual Vacancy, by J.K. Rowling (3 stars)
House of Shadows, by Rachel Neumeier (3 stars)
Ring of Flowers, by Brian Andrews (2 stars)
The Calypso Directive, by Brian Andrews (3 stars)
Love Anthony, by Lisa Genova (4 stars)
The Constant Princess, by Philippa Gregory (4 stars)
The Twelve, by Justin Cronin (3 stars)

I also did a re-read of Cronin's The Passage (3 stars) before reading The Twelve.

Struggling with Recommendations

I was browsing through some book-related online discussions recently and came across the topic of recommendations. Who recommends books to you? Who do you recommend books to? Does most of this happen online or face-to-face? Which book do you find yourself recommending again and again?

Pretty much all of my book discussions happen online. I do have some real life friends who are into reading as much as I am, but we're so far away that I always see their activity on GR and make comments and all of this back and forth happens before the next time we actually see each other in person. Mostly, though, I follow book blogs, I'm in a GR reading group, and pretty much all of the recommendations that I get are a) not necessarily personal, tailored-to-me recommendations, and b) exclusively online. Am I missing something? By not having a close-knit group, or a couple people who know my tastes and are recommending things to me personally? I don't know, maybe. But I think the "missing" part might be the social aspect more than the reading opportunities, and as we all know, social activities don't necessarily have a huge draw for me. So, maybe I'm not missing anything.

September Reading

After my whole big "Hitting 300" extravaganza, I decided it would be nice for me to keep up more on my reading here on the blog. So, without further ado, here is a quick overview of the books I've read since last time:

Disclosure, by Michael Crichton (3 stars)
The Strain Trilogy, by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan
   #1, The Strain (3 stars)
   #2, The Fall (3 stars)
   #3, The Night Eternal (4 stars)
Gone with the Wind, by Margaret Mitchell (4 stars)
The Shining, by Stephen King (4 stars)
The Brotherhood of the Rose, by David Morrell (4 stars)
Mozart's Last Aria, by Matt Rees (2 stars)

Also, there was one book I started but gave up on: The Iron Duke, by Meljean Brook. The idea sounded interesting, but I got 100 pages in and it just hadn't grabbed me at all. The murders, the hints of romance, the alternate history . . . I didn't care about any of it. So I gave it up.

Courtesy of the Insatiable Booksluts

Okay, so I know that Pat's Bears post is coming later today (probably) but I just can't NOT share this.

So, there's this pretty sweet book blog, The Insatiable Booksluts. How do you know it's pretty sweet? They review primarily literary fiction. I read primarily . . . well, as I mentioned last time, I read a lot of various things, but literary fiction is definitely toward the bottom of the list. And yet, I still love this blog. Their tagline is, "Voracious readers tell you if that book is going to suck." I mean, come on, how do you not want to read a blog like that?

Anyway, in honor of Stephen King's 65th birthday, all last week was Stephen King week over there. I never read Stephen King until a couple years ago, while I was working at Borders when Under the Dome came out, and got curious. For the record, Under the Dome is NOT the book to start with. (What should you start with? That's coming up . . .) But, while it didn't blow me away, it wasn't terrible, which is good. Otherwise my Stephen King experience might have been over before it started.

Books I Grew Up With

So, I don't usually pay a ton of attention to trending topics on Twitter, but every once in a while one will catch my eye. Today, it was #BooksIGrewUpWith.

#BooksIGrewUpWith: Little House, Chronicles of Narnia, Nancy Drew, Babysitters Club, Fear Street... and on and on...

— Charleen Lynette (@charleenlynette) September 20, 2012

I read a TON as a kid, but these are the series that really jump out at me, that I know I spent a lot of time with. And I realized . . . even when I was younger, I was cultivating my eclectic tastes.

Little House - historical fiction
Chronicles of Narnia - fantasy
Nancy Drew - mystery
Fear Street - horror

The Babysitters Club is the one that is most defying definition for me, but I guess you could consider it a precursor to chick lit.

I just never realized it before. I know that now I read a little of everything . . . but I guess that's always been the case.

Hitting 300: Saving the Best for Last

As I've mentioned, I read for entertainment. Literary merit, cultural significance -- the qualities that turn a book into a classic -- don't really concern me. The books that I rate 5 stars, I'm not saying these are the greatest books ever written, just like all of my 1-star books aren't trash. My ratings answer one simple question: how much did I enjoy reading this? And no one should infer any conclusions about these books other than that.

Last time, I said that the occasional 1-star book is the price I pay for taking chances in my reading. Today, we look at the other side, the happy accidents. A lot of the 5-star books listed below aren't exactly surprises. But there are several that I wasn't expecting. This is what keeps me willing to explore, despite the occasional dud. It's knowing that I may never have read some of my favorite books if I hadn't taken a chance.

Hitting 300: They Can't All Be Winners

I was going to do this "good, bad, and ugly"-style, but decided to get the "ugly" out of the way first.

Book #300 was, luckily, a pretty good one. Most of the previous 299 were pretty good too. I'm not saying that they're all amazing works of art, but I'm not really interested in that. I'm interested in being entertained. I'm looking for an escape.

Unfortunately, there've been some not so great books along the way. It's bound to happen, especially the more I try to branch out of my literary comfort zone (which, for the record, is not all that "literary"). So, here are some of my more bitter disappointments:

Hitting 300: Let the Devil Sleep

When I write my reviews on Goodreads, I like to keep them short and sweet, because those are the reviews I like to read. I don't like a ton of details. I tend to skip right over any that are more than a paragraph long. When I'm browsing GR, I'm just looking for general impressions. Other people have their own opinions on what makes a good or a bad review, and there are probably many who think mine aren't very helpful at all. But, I write the types of reviews that I like to read, figuring that there are bound to be others out there who appreciate the simple and direct approach

Today, though, I thought I'd try my hand at a more "typical" book review. I picked a pretty good one for my 300th book, and I thought both the book and the occasion deserved a little fanfare.


Let the Devil Sleep, by John Verdon
#3 in the Dave Gurney series
Crown Publishers, July 2012
Mystery/Thriller
449 pages
ISBN: 9780307717924

Hitting 300: A Look Back

A couple years ago, a little while after I'd started using Goodreads to track the books that I read, I decided I had a goal: 300 by 30, to read 300 books before turning 30. It seemed a reasonable challenge, but with that much time and that many books to go, I really had no idea. It could end up being laughably easy. Or I could get blindsided by life and fall terribly short.

Well, I just finished my 300th book yesterday, with months to spare.