Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts

Saturday, March 02, 2024

The Books I Read - February 2024

I've made a few more slight adjustments to my infographic for February and cleaned up a few things that seemed to sneak over from last year. It's still a bit manual, but I have a spreadsheet doing my math now and so I only had to copy stuff and make the updated entries bold. One other change I'm making from last year is that I'm handling multiple authors as a single unit, so you'll see Brown, Roediger, McDaniel as a single unit and if I were to read a hypothetical Brown and Roediger book, they'd be listed as another entry.


Stats for February - (Year to date)

Reading Stats

Books Read - 12 (24)Pages Read - 3793 (8535)

Authors

Unique Authors: 9 (13)

Author - books read - pages read

Andrea Penrose - 1 - 369 (2 - 739)Daniel O'Malley - (1 - 688)
Deanna Raybourn - 1 - 346 (1 - 346)Elly Griffiths - 2 - 703 (8 - 2910)
Hanna Hagen Bjørgaas - 1 - 258 (1 - 258)Ilona Andrews - 1 - 335 (2 - 668)
Jacqueline Winspear - (1 - 352)Katie Mack - (1 - 237)
Martha Wells - 1 - 424 (1 - 424)Mary Robinette Kowal - 3 - 841 (3 - 841)
Brown, Roediger, McDaniel - 1 - 293 (1 - 293)Suzette Mayr - 1 - 224 (1 - 224)
Vernor Vinge - (1 - 555)

A word cloud of all the authors above. Mary Robinette Kowal is large in the centre, Elly Griffiths is large below her and the others are clustered around in a spiral, roughly in the order I read them.February 2024 Author Cloud


Publication Range

Earliest Book - 2013 (1999)Most Recent Book - 2023 (2023)

Publications by Decades

2020s - 5 (7)2010s - 7 (16)
1990s - (1)

Source

Borrowed From Public Library - 5 (15)Shared with Friends - 1
My libro.fm Library - 1My Physical Library - 1 (1)
Audible - 3 (3)Author's Website - 1 (1)
Borrowed From Friend - 1 (1)My Kobo Library - 1 (1)

Formats

Audio Book - 4 (9)eBook - 5 (12)
Blog Post - 1 (1)Hardcover - 1 (1)

Friday, February 02, 2024

The Books I Read - January 2024

I enjoyed making the infographic style reading updates in 2023 and I'm continuing on in 2024. I've automated a couple of things in my tracking process, so I'm going to update a little bit about how I track and organize these this year.

One thing I'm adding is a count of "pages". I'm trying to keep them kind of even between books so I'm taking the "Kindle Edition" page count for each book. (Although my brain does not like the fact that Daniel O'Malley's Blitz is *longer* than Vinge's "A Deepness in the Sky"). I'm using the page count for the weights for the Author infographic, but I'm not sure that does a great job of balancing all the authors. Katie Mack seems at a huge disadvantage.


Stats for January

Reading Stats

Books Read - 12Pages Read - 4742

Authors - 12 (50)

Author - books read - pages read

Andrea Penrose - 1 - 370Daniel O'Malley - 1 - 688
Elly Griffiths - 6 - 2207Ilona Andrews - 1 - 333
Jacqueline Winspear - 1 - 352Katie Mack - 1 - 237
Vernor Vinge - 1 - 555

A word cloud of all the authors above. Elly Griffiths is very large in the centre and the others are clustered around in roughly the order I read them.January 2024 Author Cloud


Publication Range

Earliest Book - 1999Most Recent Book - 2023

Publications by Decades

2020s - 22010s - 9
1990s - 1

Source

Borrowed From Public Library - 10Shared with Friends - 1
My libro.fm Library - 1

Formats

Audio Book - 5eBook - 7

Sunday, January 07, 2024

Books of December 2023

Reading

Here is my updated infographic for the books I've read in 2023 - December Edition.

Stats in December - (Year to Date)

Reading Stats

Books Read - 15 (128)Pages Read - 4919 (42550)

Books Read

The Anatomist's Wife by Anna Lee Huber Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs Knife Children by Lois McMaster Bujold
A Perilous Undertaking by Deanna Raybourn A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark
A Treacherous Curse by Deanna Raybourn Proof of Guilt by Patricia Briggs
A Dangerous Collaboration by Deanna Raybourn The Stone in the Skull by Elizabeth Bear
A Dying Fall by Elly Griffiths Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree
The Heroic Legend of Arslan, Vol. 18 by Hiromu Arakawa and Yoshiki Tanaka The Outcast Dead by Elly Griffiths
Translation State by Ann Leckie

Collage of the covers of the 15 books listed above.December 2023 Covers

Authors - 12 (50)

Adrian Tchaikovsky - (4)Agatha Cristie - (1)
Alexander McCall Smith - (2)Alexandra Rowland - (1)
Angeline Boulley - (1)Ann Leckie - 1 (2)
Anna Lee Huber - 1 (1)Anthony Horowitz - (1)
Becky Chambers - (1)Brandon Sanderson - (1)
Carlene O'Connor - (2)Charles Todd - 1 (11)
CLAMP - (1)Connie Willis - (2)
Dan Moren - (2)Daniel O'Malley - (2)
Deanna Raybourn - 3 (4)Ed Yong - (1)
Elizabeth Bear - 1 (2)Elle Cosimano - (1)
Elly Griffiths - 2 (7)Emma Newman - (1)
Fatima Ali - (1)Hiromu Arakawa - 1 (3)
Ilona Andrews - (7)Isaac Asimov - (2)
Jim Butcher - (1)Lois McMaster Bujold - 1 (5)
Louise Penny - (1)Martha Wells - (1)
Mary Robinette Kowal - (1)Matt Parker - (1)
Mur Lafferty - (1)N. K. Jemisin - (1)
P. Djèlí Clark - 1 (1)Patrica Briggs - 1 (10)
Rick Riorden - (1)Robin McKinley - (1)
S. A. Chakraborty - (1)Scott Hawkins - (1)
Sherry Thomas - (6)Stephen King - (1)
Tasha Suri - (2)Timothy Zhan - (1)
Tomohito Oda - (17)Travis Baldree - 2 (2)
Ursula K. Le Guin - (1)Waubgeshig Rice - (1)
Xiran Jay Zhao - (1)Yoshiki Tanaka - 1 (7)

A word cloud of all the authors above with Tomohito Oda in the largest size. Patricia Briggs, Charles Todd are also very large and Illona Andrews and Yoshiki Tanaka, Elly Griffiths and Sherry Thomas are notably larger than the rest.2023 Author Cloud - December Update

Publishing


Publication Range

Earliest Book - 2007 (1951)Most Recent Book - 2023 (2023)

Publications by Decades

2020s - 5 (45)2010s - 9 (48)
2000s - 1 (24)1990s - (4)
1980s - (4)1960s - (1)
1950s - (2)

Books

Source

Borrowed From Public Library - 9 (73)Borrowed From Friends - (2)
My Bookshelves - 2 (2)My Audible Library - (3)
My libro.fm Library - 3 (19)My Kobo Library - 1 (25)
My "Kindle" Library - (5)

Formats

Audio Book - 6 (62)eBook - 6 (41)
eBook (Comic) - 1 (22)Hardcover - (1)
Paperback - 2 (2)

Friday, December 15, 2023

What I Did About The Books I’m Reading and What I Should Do About the Games I’m Playing

Back at the beginning of the year, I posted about wanting to change up the way I was keeping track of the books I read. Previously I posted a book post every few days with the new books in a big list. I was inspired by Sharon Lee who does that and it seemed like fun.

I wanted to make the changes for a few reasons. First off as technical task it was surprisingly frustrating to maintain a list over a series of posts and it was a bit redundant as my GoodReads profile is public and you can see the list there. The other reason was that the book posts were inflating the number of posts I was making in a month and taking time away from working on other things. I though, as a next step, making a monthly “infographic” update might be fun and interesting and maybe teach me a few things at the same time.

As someone who has worked in post secondary education for a while now, I can assure you that nobody (including myself) has any idea what an infographic is. So I settled on an answer that was high on info and maybe a bit low on graphics.

All of the posts are under the Books in 2023 tag and they look more or less like this:

A screen shot of the top of the Books of November 2023 post.
A screen shot of the lower middle of the Books of November 2023 post.

I’m pretty happy. As I said, it might not be as pretty as it might be, but at least for now I’m enjoying making it. I learned, for example that for some reason I haven’t read a single book published in 2023, which seems weird, but now I know.

More technically, I learned a bit about getting formatting to work properly. I also learned that books are almost never in a 2:3 ration. I mean, I shelved books for years, I knew this, but until I tried making a grid of book covers I hadn’t realised just how wacky the world of book cover sizes is. I also messed around with hand crafting a word cloud, mine is certainly not as pretty as some, but I kinda like it.

A word cloud of authors from June 2023 (listed fullin in that post). Tomohito Oda is very large in the centre and Elizabeth Bear is barely visible below her. Other authors include Charles Todd and Patrica Briggs a little bit smaller that Tomohito Oda.

I’m doing a very simple translation where the author’s percentage of the books translates directly to the font size the author. So in the June example above, Tomohito Oda represented 26.4% of the books I’d read to that point in the year and her name is in 264 point font. Elizabeth Bear only accounted for 1.6% at the time and so she’s in 16 point font.

From a production point of view, it takes me about 3 hours to put together the post and certainly requires more hand done portions than it might. When I set out that was fine but as the year went on, I hand wrote more HTML than I really enjoyed, especially when it came to keeping the two column tables balanced. There’s also still some book keeping that’s duplicating Good Reads.

So eventually, I want to either automate the process or make it more manual. I still like the idea of hand building my infographic, but also creating fewer points where I can get in my way seems helpful too. For the time being I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing because it’s fun enough and kind of meditative, without taking up all of my time.

I’m having enough fun with it that I’m thinking about how I can modernise my system of video game tracking. I think those posts are alright, but they have a few problems.

The top of my November 2023 in Video Games post (I do appologize for the low quality alt text for this post, I wasn't sure how to illustrate it and I'm just short of time to put all of the text from those posts back in).

I’ve had a lot of trouble this year keeping track of what I’ve played and when and so the data going into the posts is a lot worse than it was. This has happened before and I might get better about it again, but I’m also a spot right now where games are less important to me than they were. I’m not sure I need to be quite as granular about it as I have been.

There’s also a problem that a lot of games show up every month. If you read those posts regularly you’ll know that my nuanced view of Mario Kart 8 (Deluxe) is “Vroom Vroom Beep Beep” because I really haven’t had that much to say about it in the … almost decade since it game out (the first time). I don’t mind doing a new review for something new or a point about something interesting, but I think those posts are some of my worst writing and I want to put that energy somewhere else.

One of the things I’ve always meant to do with game tracking is build one of those theme river diagrams. At the moment for me capturing the very large things about what I’m playing is important. For example: “The summer of 2023 was the the summer of Tears of the Kingdom” is the kind of insight I’d like to hang on to (and I’m not sure is even that apparent in what I’m doing).

I’d also like to make sure that I have a picture in my head of what I played in a year, new and old. Like right now I know I played Hollow Knight at some point in the last year, and apparently a lot of that was in the winter, and then I played a little bit of Breath of the Wild just before Tears of the Kingdom came out.

Overall, it’s time for a change, I’m just not totally sure what the change is going to be. Writing it out this way makes me think something similar to the book infographic might be the right way to go. Here’s what my 2024 in games looks like at a glance updated each month, with a few insights to spice up everything else.

I think I can also dial back the tracking. I’m not sure at this point that it’s doing me any good and while I don’t think it’s doing much harm if I can streamline to “Here are games I played a little and Here are games I played a lot” that might be what I need. That’s going to be weird and I might end up continuing just because it’s an ancient habit by this point (and imagine all the data I won’t have if I want it later!).

Anyway, those are my Updates updates. Making infographics is fun, if a little bit tedious and even I, after doing something for seven years, can make a change. I don’t know exactly what you can expect in terms of my media consumption nonsense in 2024, but I, at least, intend to have fun with it.

Monday, December 04, 2023

Books of November 2023

Reading

Here is my updated infographic for the books I've read in 2023 - November Edition.

Stats in November - (Year to Date)

Reading Stats

Books Read - 14 (113)Pages Read - 4399 (37631)

Books Read

Murder at an Irish Wedding by Carlene O'Connor Beguilement (The Sharing Knife #1) by Lois McMaster Bujold
Legacy (The Sharing Knife #2) by Lois McMaster Bujold Passage (The Sharing Knife #3) by Lois McMaster Bujold
Horizon (The Sharing Knife #4) by Lois McMaster Bujold Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Alpha & Omega by Patricia Briggs Cry Wolf by Patricia Briggs
Miss Moriarty, I Presume? by Sherry Thomas Hunting Ground by Patricia Briggs
A Room Full of Bones by Elly Griffiths Ruth's First Christmas Tree by Elly Griffiths
Tsubasa Omnibus 1 by CLAMP Magic Shifts by Ilona Andrews

Collage of the covers of the 14 books listed above.November 2023 Covers

Authors - 10 (46)

Adrian Tchaikovsky - 1 (4)Agatha Cristie - (1)
Alexander McCall Smith - (2)Alexandra Rowland - (1)
Angeline Boulley - (1)Ann Leckie - (2)
Anthony Horowitz - (1)Becky Chambers - (1)
Brandon Sanderson - (1)Carlene O'Connor - 1 (2)
Charles Todd - 1 (10)CLAMP - 1 (1)
Connie Willis - (2)Dan Moren - (2)
Daniel O'Malley - (2)Deanna Raybourn - (1)
Ed Yong - (1)Elizabeth Bear - (1)
Elle Cosimano - (1)Elly Griffiths - 2 (5)
Emma Newman - (1)Fatima Ali - (1)
Hiromu Arakawa - (2)Ilona Andrews - 1 (7)
Isaac Asimov - (2)Jim Butcher - (1)
Lois McMaster Bujold - 4 (4)Louise Penny - (1)
Martha Wells - (1)Mary Robinette Kowal - (1)
Matt Parker - (1)Mur Lafferty - (1)
N. K. Jemisin - (1)Patrica Briggs - 3 (9)
Rick Riorden - (1)Robin McKinley - (1)
S. A. Chakraborty - (1)Scott Hawkins - (1)
Sherry Thomas - 1 (6)Stephen King - (1)
Tasha Suri - (2)Timothy Zhan - (1)
Tomohito Oda - (17)Ursula K. Le Guin - (1)
Waubgeshig Rice - (1)Xiran Jay Zhao - (1)
Yoshiki Tanaka - (6)

A word cloud of all the authors above with Tomohito Oda in the largest size. Patricia Briggs, Charles Todd, Illona Andrews and Yoshiki Tanaka are also notably larger than the rest.2023 Author Cloud - November Update

Publishing


Publication Range

Earliest Book - 2006 (1951)Most Recent Book - 2021 (2022)

Publications by Decades

2020s - 1 (40)2010s - 5 (39)
2000s - 8 (23)1990s - (4)
1980s - (4)1960s - (1)
1950s - (2)

Books

Source

Borrowed From Public Library - 4 (64)Borrowed From Friends - (2)
My Audible Library - (3)My libro.fm Library - 5 (16)
My "Kindle" Library - (5)My Kobo Library - 5 (24)

Formats

Audio Book - 7 (56)eBook - 6 (35)
eBook (Comic) - 1 (21)Hardcover - (1)

Friday, November 03, 2023

Books of October 2023

Reading

Here is my updated infographic for the books I've read in 2023 - October Edition.

Stats in October - (Year to Date)

Reading Stats

Books Read - 17 (99)Pages Read - 4873 (33232)

Books Read

A Conspiracy in Belgravia by Sherry Thomas The Hollow of Fear by Sherry Thomas
The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz Eyes of the Void by Adrian Tchaikovsky
The Art of Theft by Sherry Thomas Komi Can't Communicate (Volume 25) by Tomohito Oda
Komi Can't Communicate (Volume 26) by Tomohito Oda The House at Sea's End by Elly Griffiths
The Confession by Charles Todd Murder on Cold Street by Sherry Thomas
A Curious Beginning by Deanna Raybourn Endurance by Yoshiki Tanaka
Komi Can't Communicate (Volume 27) by Tomohito Oda A Taste of Gold and Iron by Alexandra Rowland
Mercy Thompson: Homecoming by Patricia Briggs Moon Called by Patricia Briggs
Stratagem by Yoshiki Tanaka

Collage of the covers of the 17 books listed above.October 2023 Covers

Authors - 10 (46)

Adrian Tchaikovsky - 1 (3)Agatha Cristie - (1)
Alexander McCall Smith - (2)Alexandra Rowland - 1 (1)
Angeline Boulley - (1)Ann Leckie - (2)
Anthony Horowitz - 1 (1)Becky Chambers - (1)
Brandon Sanderson - (1)Carlene O'Connor - (1)
Charles Todd - 1 (10)Connie Willis - (2)
Dan Moren - (2)Daniel O'Malley - (2)
Deanna Raybourn - 1 (1)Ed Yong - (1)
Elizabeth Bear - (1)Elle Cosimano - (1)
Elly Griffiths - 1 (3)Emma Newman - (1)
Fatima Ali - (1)Hiromu Arakawa - (2)
Ilona Andrews - (6)Isaac Asimov - (2)
Jim Butcher - (1)Louise Penny - (1)
Martha Wells - (1)Mary Robinette Kowal - (1)
Matt Parker - (1)Mur Lafferty - (1)
N. K. Jemisin - (1)Patrica Briggs - 2 (6)
Rick Riorden - (1)Robin McKinley - (1)
S. A. Chakraborty - (1)Scott Hawkins - (1)
Sherry Thomas - 4 (5)Stephen King - (1)
Tasha Suri - (2)Timothy Zhan - (1)
Tomohito Oda - 3 (17)Ursula K. Le Guin - (1)
Waubgeshig Rice - (1)Xiran Jay Zhao - (1)
Yoshiki Tanaka - 2 (6)

A word cloud of all the authors above with Tomohito Oda in the largest size.2023 Author Cloud - October Update

Publishing


Publication Range

Earliest Book - 1984 (1951)Most Recent Book - 2022 (2022)

Publications by Decades

2020s - 6 (39)2010s - 7 (34)
2000s - 2 (15)1990s - (4)
1980s - 2 (4)1960s - (1)
1950s - (2)

Books

Source

Borrowed From Public Library - 7 (60)Borrowed From Friends - (2)
My Audible Library - (3)My libro.fm Library - 5 (11)
My "Kindle" Library - (5)My Kobo Library - 5 (19)

Formats

Audio Book - 9 (49)eBook - 4 (29)
eBook (Comic) - 4 (20)Hardcover - (1)

Sunday, October 01, 2023

Books of September 2023

Reading

Here is my updated infographic for the books I've read in 2023 - September Edition.

Stats in September - (Year to Date)

Reading Stats

Books Read - 10 (82)Pages Read - 3827 (28359)

Books Read

Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky A Lonely Death by Charles Todd
The Janus Stone by Elly Griffiths Marple: Twelve New Mysteries by Agatha Christie (and a dozen more)
Planetfall by Emma Newman The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins
The Stars, Like Dust by Isaac Asimov Ambition by Yoshiki Tanaka
The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty A Study in Scarlet Women by Sherry Thomas

Collage of the covers of the 10 books listed above.September 2023 Covers

Authors - 10 (42)

Adrian Tchaikovsky - 1 (2)Agatha Cristie - 1 (1)
Alexander McCall Smith - (2)Angeline Boulley - (1)
Ann Leckie - (2)Becky Chambers - 1 (1)
Brandon Sanderson - (1)Carlene O'Connor - (1)
Charles Todd - 1 (9)Connie Willis - (2)
Dan Moren - (2)Daniel O'Malley - (2)
Ed Yong - (1)Elizabeth Bear - (1)
Elle Cosimano - (1)Elly Griffiths - 1 (2)
Emma Newman - 1 (1)Fatima Ali - (1)
Hiromu Arakawa - (2)Ilona Andrews - (6)
Isaac Asimov - 1 (2)Jim Butcher - (1)
Louise Penny - (1)Martha Wells - (1)
Mary Robinette Kowal - (1)Matt Parker - (1)
Mur Lafferty - (1)N. K. Jemisin - (1)
Patrica Briggs - (4)Rick Riorden - (1)
Robin McKinley - (1)S. A. Chakraborty - 1 (1)
Scott Hawkins - 1 (1)Sherry Thomas - 1 (1)
Stephen King - (1)Tasha Suri - (2)
Timothy Zhan - (1)Tomohito Oda - (14)
Ursula K. Le Guin - 1 (1)Waubgeshig Rice - (1)
Xiran Jay Zhao - 1 (1)Yoshiki Tanaka - 1 (4)

A word cloud of all the authors above with Tomohito Oda in the largest size.2023 Author Cloud - September Update

Publishing


Publication Range

Earliest Book - 1951 (1951)Most Recent Book - 2022 (2022)

Publications by Decades

2020s - 1 (33)2010s - 7 (27)
2000s - (13)1990s - (4)
1980s - 1 (2)1960s - (1)
1950s - 1 (2)

Books

Source

Borrowed From Public Library - 8 (53)Borrowed From Friends - (2)
My Audible Library - (3)My libro.fm Library - 1 (6)
My "Kindle" Library - (5)My Kobo Library - 1 (14)

Formats

Audio Book - 5 (40)eBook - 5 (25)
eBook (Comic) - (16)Hardcover - (1)

Friday, September 15, 2023

Good Reads Ratings

I still keep track of the books I read on Good Reads. One day I might switch over to the fediverse, BookWyrm, but for now the process of switching seems like more work that I’m excited to put in. Good Reads is also home to several people who I really appreciate and I’m always glad to see what they’ve read and what they’ve rated what they’ve read.

Good Reads is updating its interface and the tool tips that share Good Reads rating system are going away, so I thought I’d briefly share what I’m thinking about when I rate a book.

Ratings on Good Reads are complicated. There’s a five start system and everyone is free to give how ever many stars as they want to anything they read (or haven’t read). I find knowing my friends on Good Reads, I understand a bit about a book depending on how different people rate it.

When you look at reviews, it’s evident that a lot of people are putting a lot of different rules together to determine how they rate books. Slightly in secret however, Good Reads has its own tags for what the stars mean and I’ve adopted and adapted that scale for my own ratings.

I should start by saying that my book ratings are totally subjective, and also that they change over time. I re-read the first two books of The Checquy Files this year and didn’t love them as much as I did before. In writing this post, I looked back at Becky Chambers’ books and was surprized at how few stars I gave them at the time.

Beyond that, though here are the five named star rating levels from Good Reads tool tips and how I think about them.

  • 1 Star - did not like it

    A row of five stars the left most gold and the others greyed out and the tool tip `did not like it`.

    This is a great place to start the stars scale. If I find a book totally unreadable, then I usually don’t finish and don’t give it a rating. This is for the books that weren’t great but had some element that made me keep going. Some of them have writing problems, but for me the books I don’t like tend to have a poorly articulated plot or wild mischaracterization.

    I haven’t given a book 1 Star this year, but the recent ones include The Murder Room and Nemesis and in both cases I think the authors were starting to go into decline. I also have Mr. Churchill’s Secretary here, which mostly did not jive with my understanding of mathematics and codebreaking and civil service during World War II and The Forever Peace which I can’t actually remember reading (or can’t differentiate from The Forever War at minimum).

  • 2 Stars - it was ok

    A row of five stars the two left  gold and the others greyed out and the tool tip `it was ok`

    Even if I don’t like a book, there’s usually something interesting to see in it. Sometimes there’s something specific and large that pushes me out, but often they’re books I just don’t really jive with. If I were to use the Sword and Laser scale, they’re mostly books I have to force myself to read rather than make excuses to read.

    The vast majority of Issac Asimov’s books have fallen in here for me. The foundation world building is always interesting, but having two men whose only distinguishing characteristic is that one of them has a beard argue each argument really doesn’t do it for me. The Oleander Sword is an example of a book not jiving, it’s very well written, but so bleak I struggled to read it.

  • 3 Stars - liked it

    A row of five stars the three left gold and the others greyed out and the tool tip `liked it`

    These are the books I’m happy to read. They were good. I liked them. They may not have made me fall in love with them, but when it was time to read (on the Sword and Laser scale) I was happy to be reading them.

    There are a whole bunch of books that come in here, recently most of the Charles Todd’s Rutladge books and the Illona Andrews Kate Daniels series. Just pretty good books that I like, but that don’t really sink their hooks into me.

  • 4 Stars - really liked it

    A row of five stars the four left gold and the others greyed out and the tool tip `really liked it`

    These are the books I make time to read. “You know, I should really go give the sink a wash so I can put the audiobook on and listen”.

    These are the books with something really compelling in them, usually the characters that make it easy to read. Sometimes the story, sometimes the writing and very occasionally the world building will be the thing that keeps me in.

    Patricia Brigg’s Mercy Thompson books go here for me, even though there are elements that I might not like I’m attached enough to Mercy and co. that I’m really happy to get to spend time in their world. Komi Can’t Communicate, seeing the characters live life, sometimes struggling and sometimes succeeding makes me happy. The Firekeeper’s Daughter also fit in here for me, written in a way that kept me wanting to read more, similarly with Moon of the Crusted Snow, where both the writing and the world building kept me interested through out.

  • 5 Stars - it was amazing

    A row of five stars all gold and the others greyed out and the tool tip `it was amazing`

    If a four star book helps get the chores done a five star book is so good that I get nothing done. These are the books I love, the characters or the worlds I’m compelled by and usually the books I don’t ever stop thinking about.

    This year, they are Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie and An Immense World by Ed Yong. Ancillary Justice is a fascinating read, with interesting characters, unusual perspectives, intricate world building and an exciting plot. It’s the book I’ve read the most as an adult, it inspires me to write and if you talk about enough things with me I will start telling you why you aught to read it.

    An Immense World is also fantastic. It breaks down your understanding of perception and beautifully illustrates how different animals in the same space experience the space based on their own umwelt which means a lot of that experience not only isn’t shared but is profoundly incomprehensible to each other.

    I also have a volume of Komi Can’t Communicate in there, and while I can’t remember specifically which one Volume 17 is, if it’s where I think it is, it’s a situation where the characters we’ve gotten to know for years now, reach a point in their growth where they fundamentally change and become better people for the growing.

So that’s what I’m thinking about when I rate a book on good reads. Obviously a five star rating system is silly, but it’s a convenient short hand and certainly when I see other people’s ratings, it gives me a feeling for what to expect from a book.

Now you might ask yourself whether this was just an excuse to talk about Ancillary Justice, An Immense World and Komi Can’t Communicate, and of course it was.

Sunday, September 03, 2023

Books of August 2023

Reading

Here is my updated infographic for the books I've read in 2023 - August Edition.

Stats in August - (Year to Date)

Reading Stats

Books Read - 10 (72)Pages Read - 3234 (24532)

Books Read

A Matter of Justice by Charles Todd The Red Door by Charles Todd
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao Magic Rises by Ilona Andrews
Magic Breaks by Ilona Andrews Humble Pi: A Comedy of Maths Errors by Matt Parker
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin The Crossing Places by Elly Griffiths
To Be Taught, If Fortunate by Becky Chambers The Spare Man by Mary Robinette Kowal

Collage of the covers of the 10 books listed above. August 2023 Covers

Authors - 8 (37)

Adrian Tchaikovsky - (1)Alexander McCall Smith - (2)
Angeline Boulley - (1)Hiromu Arakawa - (2)
Ann Leckie - (2)Becky Chambers - 1 (1)
Brandon Sanderson - (1)Carlene O'Connor - (1)
Charles Todd - 2 (8)Connie Willis - (2)
Dan Moren - (2)Daniel O'Malley - (2)
Ed Yong - (1)Elizabeth Bear - (1)
Elle Cosimano - (1)Elly Griffiths
Fatima Ali - (1)Ilona Andrews - 2 (6)
Isaac Asimov - (1)Jim Butcher - (1)
Louise Penny - (1)Martha Wells - (1)
Mary Robinette Kowal - 1 (1)Matt Parker - 1 (1)
Mur Lafferty - (1)N. K. Jemisin - (1)
Patrica Briggs - (4)Rick Riorden - (1)
Robin McKinley - (1)Stephen King - (1)
Tasha Suri - (2)Timothy Zhan - (1)
Tomohito Oda - (14)Ursula K. Le Guin - 1 (1)
Waubgeshig Rice - (1)Xiran Jay Zhao - 1 (1)
Yoshiki Tanaka - (3)

A word cloud of all the authors above with Tomohito Oda in the largest size.2023 Author Cloud - August Update

Publishing


Publication Range

Earliest Book - 1969 (1953)Most Recent Book - 2022 (2022)

Publications by Decades

2020s - 2 (32)2010s - 4 (20)
2000s - 3 (13)1990s - (4)
1980s - (1)1960s - 1 (1)
1950s - (1)

Books

Source

Borrowed From Public Library - 7 (45)Borrowed From Friends - (2)
My Audible Library - (3)My libro.fm Library - 3 (5)
My "Kindle" Library - (5)My Kobo Library - (13)

Formats

Audio Book - 5 (35)eBook - 5 (20)
eBook (Comic) - (16)Hardcover - (1)

Saturday, August 12, 2023

Books of July 2023

Reading

Here is my updated infographic for the books I've read in 2023 - July Edition.

Stats in July - (Year to Date)

Reading Stats

Books Read - 10 (52)Pages Read - 3963 (21298)

Books Read

Dawn by Yoshiki Tanaka Station Eternity by Mur Lafferty
Under Fortunate Stars by Charles Todd Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice
A Pale Horse by Charles Todd The Rook by Daniel O'Malley
Stiletto by Daniel O'Malley The Oleander Sword by Tasha Suri
The Cloud Roads by Martha Wells Magic Slays by Ilona Andrews

Collage of the covers of the 10 books listed above. July 2023 Covers

Authors - 3 (31)

Adrian Tchaikovsky - (1)Alexander McCall Smith - (2)
Angeline Boulley - (1)Hiromu Arakawa - (2)
Ann Leckie - (2)Brandon Sanderson - (1)
Carlene O'Connor - (1)Charles Todd - 2 (6)
Connie Willis - (2)Dan Moren - (2)
Daniel O'Malley - 2 (2)Ed Yong - (1)
Elizabeth Bear - (1)Elle Cosimano - (1)
Fatima Ali - (1)Ilona Andrews - 1 (4)
Isaac Asimov - (1)Jim Butcher - (1)
Louise Penny - (1)Martha Wells - 1 (1)
Mur Lafferty - 1 (1)N. K. Jemisin - (1)
Patrica Briggs - (4)Rick Riorden - (1)
Robin McKinley - (1)Stephen King - (1)
Tasha Suri - 1 (2)Timothy Zhan - (1)
Tomohito Oda - (14)Waubgeshig Rice - 1 (1)
Yoshiki Tanaka - 1 (3)

A word cloud of all the authors above with Tomohito Oda in the largest size.2023 Author Cloud - July Update

Publishing


Publication Range

Earliest Book - 1982 (1953)Most Recent Book - 2022 (2022)

Publications by Decades

2020s - 3 (30)2010s - 5 (16)
2000s - 1 (10)1990s - (4)
1980s - 1 (1)1950s - (1)

Books

Source

Borrowed From Public Library - 6 (38)Borrowed From Friends - (2)
My Audible Library - 2 (3)My libro.fm Library - 1 (2)
My "Kindle" Library - (5)My Kobo Library - 1 (13)

Formats

Audio Book - 5 (30)eBook - 5 (15)
eBook (Comic) - (16)Hardcover - (1)

Sunday, July 09, 2023

Books of June 2023

Reading

Here is my updated infographic for the books I've read in 2023 - June Edition.

Stats in June - (Year to Date)

Reading Stats

Books Read - 13 (42)Pages Read - 3495 (17335)

Books Read

Komi Can't Communicate (Volume 20) by Tomohito Oda Komi Can't Communicate (Volume 21) by Tomohito Oda
Komi Can't Communicate (Volume 22) by Tomohito Oda Komi Can't Communicate (Volume 23) by Tomohito Oda
The Heroic Legand of Arslan (Volume 16) by Hiromu Arakawa and Yoshiki Tanaka Komi Can't Communicate (Volume 24) by Tomohito Oda
The Heroic Legand of Arslan (Volume 17) by Hiromu Arakawa and Yoshiki Tanaka Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri
Komi Can't Communicate (Volume 25) by Tomohito Oda To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
Komi Can't Communicate (Volume 25) by Charles Todd Murder in an Irish Village by Carlene O'Connor
Magic Bleeds by Ilona Andrews

Collage of the covers of the 13 books listed above. June 2023 Covers

Authors

Adrian Tchaikovsky - (1)Alexander McCall Smith - (2)
Angeline Boulley - (1)Hiromu Arakawa - 2 (2)
Ann Leckie - (2)Brandon Sanderson - (1)
Carlene O'Connor - 1 (1)Charles Todd - 1 (4)
Connie Willis - 1 (2)Dan Moren - (2)
Ed Yong - (1)Elizabeth Bear - (1)
Elle Cosimano - (1)Fatima Ali - (1)
Ilona Andrews - 1 (3)Isaac Asimov - (1)
Jim Butcher - (1)Louise Penny - (1)
N. K. Jemisin - (1)Patrica Briggs - (4)
Robin McKinley - (1)Stephen King - (1)
Rick Riorden - (1)Tasha Suri - 1 (1)
Timothy Zhan - (1)Tomohito Oda - 6 (14)
Yoshiki Tanaka - 2 (2)

A word cloud of all the authors above with Tomohito Oda in the largest size.2023 Author Cloud - June Update

Publishing


Publication Range

Earliest Book - 1997 (1953)Most Recent Book - 2022 (2022)

Publications by Decades

2020s - 8 (27)2010s - 3 (11)
2000s - 1 (9)1990s - 1 (4)
1950s - (1)

Books

Source

Borrowed From Public Library - 5 (32)Borrowed From Friends - (2)
My Audible Library - (1)My libro.fm Library - (1)
My "Kindle" Library - (5)My Kobo Library - 8 (12)

Formats

Audio Book - 3 (25)eBook - 2 (10)
eBook (Comic) - 8 (16)Hardcover - (1)

Saturday, July 08, 2023

Books of May 2023

Reading

Here is my updated infographic for the books I've read in 2023 - May Edition.

Stats in May - (Year to Date)

Reading Stats

Books Read - 11 (39)Pages Read - 2979 (13840)

Books Read

Fairy Tale by Stephen King Savor: A Chef's Hunger for More
Komi Can't Communicate (Volume 13) by Tomohito Oda Magic Strikes by Ilona Andrews
Komi Can't Communicate (Volume 14) by Tomohito Oda Komi Can't Communicate (Volume 15) by Tomohito Oda
Komi Can't Communicate (Volume 16) by Tomohito Oda Komi Can't Communicate (Volume 17) by Tomohito Oda
Komi Can't Communicate (Volume 18) by Tomohito Oda Komi Can't Communicate (Volume 19) by Tomohito Oda
A Duty to the Dead by Charles Todd

Collage of the covers of the 11 books listed above. May 2023 Covers

Authors

Adrian Tchaikovsky - (1)Alexander McCall Smith - (2)
Angeline Boulley - (1)Fatima Ali - 1 (1)
Ann Leckie - (2)Brandon Sanderson - (1)
Charles Todd - 1 (3)Connie Willis - (1)
Dan Moren - (2)Ed Yong - (1)
Elizabeth Bear - (1)Elle Cosimano - (1)
Ilona Andrews - 1 (2)Isaac Asimov - (1)
Jim Butcher - (1)Louise Penny - (1)
N. K. Jemisin - (1)Patrica Briggs - (4)
Robin McKinley - (1)Stephen King - 1 (1)
Rick Riorden - (1)Timothy Zhan - (1)
Tomohito Oda - 7 (8)

A word cloud of all the authors above with Tomohito Oda in the largest size.2023 Author Cloud - May Update

Publishing


Publication Range

Earliest Book - 1953Most Recent Book - 2022

Publications by Decades

2020s - 7 (19)2010s - 3 (8)
2000s - 1 (8)1990s - (3)
1950s - (1)

Books

Source

Borrowed From Public Library - 3 (27)Borrowed From Friends - 1 (2)
My Audible Library - (1)My libro.fm Library - (1)
My "Kindle" Library - 4 (5)My Kobo Library - 4 (4)

Formats

Audio Book - 4 (22)eBook - (8)
eBook (Comic) - 7 (8)Hardcover - (1)

Wednesday, May 10, 2023

Books of April 2023

Reading

Stats in April (Year to Date)

Reading Stats

Books Read - 8 (28)Pages Read - 2957 (10861)

Books Read

Ancillary Justice by Ann LeckieThe Nova Incident by Dan Moren
A Long Shadow by Charles ToddDoomsday Book by Connie Willis
Still Life by Louise PennyMagic Burns by Ilona Andrews
Shards of Earth by Adrian TchaikovskyKomi Can't Communicate (Volume 12) by Tomohito Oda

Collage of the covers of the 8 books listed above. April 2023 Covers

Authors

Adrian Tchaikovsky - 1 (1)Alexander McCall Smith - (2)
Angeline Boulley - (1)Ann Leckie - 1 (2)
Brandon Sanderson - (1)Charles Todd - 1 (2)
Connie Willis - 1 (1)Dan Moren - 1 (2)
Ed Yong - (1)Elizabeth Bear - (1)
Elle Cosimano - (1)Ilona Andrews - 1 (1)
Isaac Asimov - (1)Jim Butcher - (1)
Louise Penny - 1 (1)N. K. Jemisin - (1)
Patrica Briggs - (4)Robin McKinley - (1)
Rick Riorden - (1)Timothy Zhan - (1)
Tomohito Oda - 1 (1)

A word cloud of all the authors above with Patrica Briggs in the centre as the first author read this year and largest as I've read 4 of her books.2023 Author Cloud - April Update

Publishing


Publication Range

Earliest Book - 1953Most Recent Book - 2022

Publications by Decades

2020s - 2 (12)2010s - 2 (5)
2000s - 3 (7)1990s - 1 (3)
1950s - (1)

Books

Source

Borrowed From Library - 5 (24)Borrowed From Friends - (1)
My Audible Library - 1 (1)My libro.fm Library - 1 (1)
My "Kindle" Library - 1 (1)

Formats

Audio Book - 4 (18)eBook - 3 (8)
eBook (Comic) - 1 (1)Hardcover - (1)

The Video Games I Played - February 2024

This is the second new monthly games post . I'm not feeling very settled in what anything means. The book posts have some basic stats...