Books of 2017

[brigdh]

I will eventually get around to posting a recap of all my 2016 reading, but first I wanted to post about my new project for 2017: Mount TBR. The idea is simply to get as many books off your TBR (to-be-read) list as possible, whether that means clearing out your Kindle's harddrive or getting physical books off your shelves.

While I do have plenty of ebooks stored that I've been meaning to get around to someday, my main problem is the physical books I've picked up on sudden impulses at second-hand bookstores or been given as gifts:



Yes, those are all unread books. Even the ones in the piles to side. Yes, the shelves are double-stacked. Clearly I've needed to start reducing their numbers for a while now.

I first heard of the Mount TBR challenge from just_ann_now; you can officially sign up on GoodReads or on the challenge starter's blog, and there are levels you can commit to – 12 books is Pike's Peak, 100 books is Mount Everest, etc. However, I think personally I'm going to be lazy and not join any particular group, but simply clear off as much of this bookcase as I can manage in twelve months.

We'll see if that doesn't just tempt me to acquire more.

Comments

[sovay]

This copy is the new 'author's cut' edition that came out a few years ago on the 10th anniversary of publication, and I will be interested to see what the differences are.

I'm also curious: I bounced off the novel when it came out, but I hadn't realized it had a revised edition.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I seem to have an odd relationship with Gaiman compared to most people: his books that I see most often named as his best – Stardust, Neverwhere, Coraline – I have lukewarm feelings about, whereas American Gods is by far my favorite of his novels.

(Though of course Sandman is forever going to be the best thing he's done.)

[sovay]

(Though of course Sandman is forever going to be the best thing he's done.)

Agreed.

I bounce off most of Gaiman's prose. Every now and then I like a short story of his, but the closest any of his novels has come is Anansi Boys and even that I don't think is genius, I just like it. I also like Stardust, but I have the edition with the Charles Vess illustrations.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

I do think his prose tends to be better in his short stories than his novels. Maybe that's one reason I like American Gods; I don't know if you got far enough into it to see this, but it's full of short little vignettes set at various moments in American history or with different modern-day gods, most of which could function as independent short stories.

[sovay]

I don't know if you got far enough into it to see this, but it's full of short little vignettes set at various moments in American history or with different modern-day gods, most of which could function as independent short stories.

You are totally allowed to love American Gods! I read the entire novel: it just really didn't work for me (and at the time it came out I was surrounded by friends for whom it was their first encounter with the concept of gods in the modern world, which made them think it was brilliant and left me yelling DEATHBIRD STORIES AND THE ENTIRE MYTHIC FICTION MOVEMENT DAMMIT and generally did not help anything). The vignettes were the part that worked best.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Ah, yeah, I can see how that could be annoying. There's always something a bit irritating when a single example gets proclaimed as startlingly original, despite being part of a well-established genre.