So in my post from September 23, 2018, I talked about the longevity of certain types of shows. Then, in my post from February 2, 2019 I mentioned that quite a few shows that I watch have been renewed. I also mentioned that Criminal Minds will be ending with this upcoming 10 episode 15th season. Criminal Minds has been airing for the same amount of time as the CW hit Supernatural. It was just announced by the cast that this 15th season of Supernatural will be the last. It was also announced that it will contain 20 episodes, meanwhile Arrow, which has been airing since 2012 has been announced that the upcoming 8th season will be its final season with 10 episodes.
This is kinda awful to say, but now I am waiting for the CW (or the cast, because Stephen Amell, star of Arrow was the one to announce the 8th season is the finale season; and Jensen Ackles, Jared Padalecki and Misha Collins who are the main cast for Supernatural were the ones to announce it) to announce that The Flash's upcoming 6th season will be the final season.
In other news, NBC newcomer Manifest is a show that I greatly enjoyed and it had a short pilot season of 16 episodes. Has not been confirmed renewed or cancelled. The other 12 shows I watch are as follows:
Supergirl, CW
The Resident, Fox
Legends of Tomorrow, CW
Shadowhunters, Freeform
The Magicians, Syfy
Blindspot, NBC
Agents of SHIELD, ABC
Van Helsing, SyFy
Cloak & Dagger, Freeform
Wynonna Earp, SyFy
Killjoys, SyFy
Game of Thrones, HBO
As I mentioned in the Feb. 2nd post, Supergirl, Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow, Supernatural and The Flash (all are CW shows) had been renewed for another season. Now, Arrow and Supernatural have been confirmed that this next season will be the last.
Freeform's Shadowhunters was announced that the final 12 episodes of the 3rd season will serve as the last. Which makes me incredibly sad because the show means a lot to a whole lot of people. However, their show Cloak & Dagge
r is set to air it's second season on April 4th. No word yet on if it has been renewed, but I don't expect word for at least another month/month and a half.
SyFy's Van Helsing and The Magicians have both been renewed for another season, the former to air probably around October 2019 (the show's fourth) and if they are following suit, The Magicans (the fourth season is currently airing, and was renewed for a fifth before the fourth even aired) around January or February 2020. Wynonna Earp and Killjoys will most likely air around June 2019, and Killjoys has already been confirmed that this fifth season will be the final.
HBO's Game of Thrones has had a two year hiatus and will return mid April for it's 6 episode 8th and final season.
ABC's Agents of SHIELD is set to air it's sixth season starting in May 2019 (no official date at time of posting) and was already renewed for a seventh season.
NBC's Blindspot has not been renewed or cancelled yet, but they already have cancelled Midnight, Texas which I was sad about.
Fox's The Resident is still airing it's second season and has no official decision either way.
So there you have an update on shows that I watch.
Friday, March 22, 2019
Friday, February 15, 2019
Tangently Off Topic....
So I am aware that sometimes people find books that most people aren't aware of.
For instance, if I were to mention the Harry Potter series, or Game of Thrones, or Hunger Games, people would at least recognize the name if not the series itself. There are a few others with such notoriety, but there are also a large number of series that never reached the fame that those did, even if they have a few books under the name.
One such series is the Symphony of Ages by Elizabeth Haydon. If you recognize it, yea! If not, well I'm gonna talk about it.
I'm not sure how this book series was originally intended to be done, but there are a total of nine books in the series. According to the wikipedia page (which everyone knows that wikipedia is not always full of correct information) it was split up like this:
Rhapsody: Child of Blood was released in 1999, Prophecy: Child of Earth (2000) and Destiny: Child of the Sky (2001) make up "The Rhapsody Trilogy"
Requiem for the Sun (2002) and Elegy for a Lost Star (2004) make up "The Middle Books"
The Assassin King (2007), The Merchant Emperor (2014), The Hollow Queen (2015) and The Weaver's Lament (2016) make up "The War of the Known World".
I found this series initially in 2009 (I believe) and my local library had the first five books. I remember asking my godmother for 6, The Assassin King, for my birthday in 2010. I got it, and I read it, but read The Merchant Emperor in 2015 (according to GoodReads, that is what I have it marked as) it had been about 5 years since reading the previous book and I didn't remember much about books 6 and 7, but since I had read the previous 5 a few times, that information was more in my head. So since I've been trying to remove books from my to read list by reading them (makes sense right?) I decided that I needed to re-read the whole series so I had all the information straight in my head. Let's just say that most of what happened in 6 was vaguely familiar, but I didn't recognize much from 7.
Either way, not really what I wanted to talk about.
Okay. Set up. I enjoyed the world that Haydon created in Rhapsody, but I adored both Prophecy and Destiny. I loved the love story between Rhapsody (the title character, one of the main characters) and Ashe (also known as Gwydion, and by a few other names), and I loved the idea of their time-crossed love. If you have read the story, you understand; if you haven't, it doesn't make much sense and trying to explain it will make this longer than I intend. Now, I'm a sucker for soulmate stories and the idea behind it, so these fantasy books really fulfilled that. Requiem for the Sun and Elegy for a Lost Star added in the element of they have a child together and it is magical (literally, the child gets referred to as the "Child of Time"). And again, Haydon did a wonderful job with the fantasy element, and fantastic story weaving for this.
I felt that The Assassin King and The Merchant Emperor had too many view points in the story telling, and therefore that the material just dragged on. However, it kept to the pattern and it really set things up for the next two. But The Hollow Queen also had as many view points and it's hard to correctly format books if there are too many viewpoints going on in my opinion.
Now I'm going to point something out. The three main characters, Rhapsody, Achmed and Grunther are very long lived characters because of events in the book. Ashe is also a long lived character but for slightly different reasons. But things to point out timeline wise. Rhapsody, Prophecy and Destiny happen relatively right after each other, maybe a couple of weeks in between each book. There is a four year gap, however, between Destiny and Requiem. The next four follow practically right after each other, like the first three. The big difference is at the very end of The Hollow Queen it mentions something about peace only lasting about one thousand years. Which when you read The Weaver's Lament you realize there is a thousand year gap between books 8 and 9 (I'm getting tired of typing the names out....). In the final book, they explain certain things that Haydon had hinted at previously, as well as expanding on certain things. But it also took a left turn out of no where. I freaking cried for a good chunk of the book. I tweeted that "The Weaver's Lament is tearing my heart apart like I thought Kingdom of Ash was going to. THIS. IS. NOT. OKAY." (Kingdom of Ash being the final book of Sarah J. Maas's Throne of Glass series)
Like, KOA ended and I was like yeah, okay, not the best situation but the main characters are still alive. They can move on from this, eventually.
Now I'm gonna tell you what I had put for the GoodReads review for the book:
"So this finale begins a thousand years after the previous book. And HOLY. FUCKING. SHIT.
Wow. Haydon decided to rip my heart out of my chest, tear it into tiny little pieces and do a samba on it.
Did not see that coming at all, and considering I have gotten pretty good at guessing what is going to happen, this was a completely 180 and sharp left at "far from alright".
In the end, it is a good ending to the story, but definitely not how I images this story would end"
I was expecting rainbows and sunshine and kittens and happily ever after. Instead I get sadness, angst and misery with salt in the wounds to top it off. Like, I appreciate the not being able to guess what happened (not being predictable), but at the same time wow. Just. Wow.
I'm trying to process my emotions on a book series that ended completely different that I expected and that has been with me for about 10 years at this point.
One thing to note however, is that throughout the series, Haydon continued to remind the reader of information in a way that was slightly annoying, like she was trying to make sure that if, for instance, the third book was the first one that you read, you may be a tad confused but could figure out information. But when you do what I did, which was re-read all the books before reading the ones you had left to read for the first time, it was unnecessary. Why yes, I do remember why Ashe is calling Rhapsody "Emily" and why Rhapsody calls Ashe "Sam" and why Grunther finds it funny to make comments about eating Rhapsody.
Ok. Stopping here before this gets any longer.
For instance, if I were to mention the Harry Potter series, or Game of Thrones, or Hunger Games, people would at least recognize the name if not the series itself. There are a few others with such notoriety, but there are also a large number of series that never reached the fame that those did, even if they have a few books under the name.
One such series is the Symphony of Ages by Elizabeth Haydon. If you recognize it, yea! If not, well I'm gonna talk about it.
I'm not sure how this book series was originally intended to be done, but there are a total of nine books in the series. According to the wikipedia page (which everyone knows that wikipedia is not always full of correct information) it was split up like this:
Rhapsody: Child of Blood was released in 1999, Prophecy: Child of Earth (2000) and Destiny: Child of the Sky (2001) make up "The Rhapsody Trilogy"
Requiem for the Sun (2002) and Elegy for a Lost Star (2004) make up "The Middle Books"
The Assassin King (2007), The Merchant Emperor (2014), The Hollow Queen (2015) and The Weaver's Lament (2016) make up "The War of the Known World".
I found this series initially in 2009 (I believe) and my local library had the first five books. I remember asking my godmother for 6, The Assassin King, for my birthday in 2010. I got it, and I read it, but read The Merchant Emperor in 2015 (according to GoodReads, that is what I have it marked as) it had been about 5 years since reading the previous book and I didn't remember much about books 6 and 7, but since I had read the previous 5 a few times, that information was more in my head. So since I've been trying to remove books from my to read list by reading them (makes sense right?) I decided that I needed to re-read the whole series so I had all the information straight in my head. Let's just say that most of what happened in 6 was vaguely familiar, but I didn't recognize much from 7.
Either way, not really what I wanted to talk about.
Okay. Set up. I enjoyed the world that Haydon created in Rhapsody, but I adored both Prophecy and Destiny. I loved the love story between Rhapsody (the title character, one of the main characters) and Ashe (also known as Gwydion, and by a few other names), and I loved the idea of their time-crossed love. If you have read the story, you understand; if you haven't, it doesn't make much sense and trying to explain it will make this longer than I intend. Now, I'm a sucker for soulmate stories and the idea behind it, so these fantasy books really fulfilled that. Requiem for the Sun and Elegy for a Lost Star added in the element of they have a child together and it is magical (literally, the child gets referred to as the "Child of Time"). And again, Haydon did a wonderful job with the fantasy element, and fantastic story weaving for this.
I felt that The Assassin King and The Merchant Emperor had too many view points in the story telling, and therefore that the material just dragged on. However, it kept to the pattern and it really set things up for the next two. But The Hollow Queen also had as many view points and it's hard to correctly format books if there are too many viewpoints going on in my opinion.
Now I'm going to point something out. The three main characters, Rhapsody, Achmed and Grunther are very long lived characters because of events in the book. Ashe is also a long lived character but for slightly different reasons. But things to point out timeline wise. Rhapsody, Prophecy and Destiny happen relatively right after each other, maybe a couple of weeks in between each book. There is a four year gap, however, between Destiny and Requiem. The next four follow practically right after each other, like the first three. The big difference is at the very end of The Hollow Queen it mentions something about peace only lasting about one thousand years. Which when you read The Weaver's Lament you realize there is a thousand year gap between books 8 and 9 (I'm getting tired of typing the names out....). In the final book, they explain certain things that Haydon had hinted at previously, as well as expanding on certain things. But it also took a left turn out of no where. I freaking cried for a good chunk of the book. I tweeted that "The Weaver's Lament is tearing my heart apart like I thought Kingdom of Ash was going to. THIS. IS. NOT. OKAY." (Kingdom of Ash being the final book of Sarah J. Maas's Throne of Glass series)
Like, KOA ended and I was like yeah, okay, not the best situation but the main characters are still alive. They can move on from this, eventually.
Now I'm gonna tell you what I had put for the GoodReads review for the book:
"So this finale begins a thousand years after the previous book. And HOLY. FUCKING. SHIT.
Wow. Haydon decided to rip my heart out of my chest, tear it into tiny little pieces and do a samba on it.
Did not see that coming at all, and considering I have gotten pretty good at guessing what is going to happen, this was a completely 180 and sharp left at "far from alright".
In the end, it is a good ending to the story, but definitely not how I images this story would end"
I was expecting rainbows and sunshine and kittens and happily ever after. Instead I get sadness, angst and misery with salt in the wounds to top it off. Like, I appreciate the not being able to guess what happened (not being predictable), but at the same time wow. Just. Wow.
I'm trying to process my emotions on a book series that ended completely different that I expected and that has been with me for about 10 years at this point.
One thing to note however, is that throughout the series, Haydon continued to remind the reader of information in a way that was slightly annoying, like she was trying to make sure that if, for instance, the third book was the first one that you read, you may be a tad confused but could figure out information. But when you do what I did, which was re-read all the books before reading the ones you had left to read for the first time, it was unnecessary. Why yes, I do remember why Ashe is calling Rhapsody "Emily" and why Rhapsody calls Ashe "Sam" and why Grunther finds it funny to make comments about eating Rhapsody.
Ok. Stopping here before this gets any longer.
Saturday, February 2, 2019
Proof I Am Still Alive
So despite the fact that it has been colder where I live than in the fucking South Pole, I am still alive.
Work is causing depression to flair up and anxiety to form, but I am still alive.
Anywhooooo....
In my post Word Vomit, A Redux from September of last year, I talked about the longevity of certain shows of certain natures. I also talked (previously) about how the shows that air on the CW Network are geared towards 18-25 year olds. I want to talk about that for a hot minute.
For the 2018-2019 schedule (September 2018 to usually April or May 2019), Criminal Minds (CBS) had been renewed, but for a shorter 15 episode season. Normally, at least the previous seasons, it had around 23 (sometimes more, sometimes less, but around that number). About mid-way through January it was announced that it was renewed for a 15th season. However, it was only going to have 10 episode, which is a dramatic drop, and that it was going to be the last season. (Sorry for spoilers if you hadn't heard yet). Although I am a couple of seasons behind on this show, season 11 episode 15 "A Badge and a Gun" is my next episode to watch, this was kinda sad news.
Yesterday (again perspective because I have not gone to sleep yet; January 31st) the CW network renewed 10 shows of its current lineup. Including (because I watch them) Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl, The Flash and Supernatural. Remember how I mentioned that Supernatural and Criminal Minds began airing the same year, 2005? No word yet on how many episodes Supernatural will get at this point, a full season order being around 22. Legends of Tomorrow is almost guaranteed to have a shorter season than the rest, but that is par for course at this point.
The point is that Supernatural, which has slowly been losing viewership, is going to outlast Criminal Minds. Now, CM has also slowly been losing viewership, but the Neilsen rating has never dropped below 3 million viewers. For the 14 episodes that have aired, it has an average of 4.67 million. The final episode for this season is set to air on February 6th.
Supernatural has an average of 1.459 million for the 12 episodes that have aired this season. This season is set to have a total of 20 episodes.
Now I know that the Neilsen rating isn't the only thing that networks use to set parameters on what gets renewed and what gets cancelled. Because the SyFy network renewed The Magicians for a season 5 before season 4 even aired, despite rarely having a 1 million viewership rating (usually around 0.7 million; they had one in season 1 and one in season 2). Budget is another. If it is extremely costly to produce (between salaries for actors and workers, any CGI, advertising, etc) then snip snip. Sometimes its the main actor(s) leaving for new projects, disagreements between cast members/crew members, or other unsavory problems (Roseanne Barr being a prime example).
So the point of this post actually got lost as I was writing it, so short and sweet. I was really hoping that the CW network would do the smart thing and not renewed those shows, with the exception of Legends of Tomorrow (as previously mentioned, short seasons mean more material to work with) and Supergirl (although they have some problematic areas too).
In tangentially related news, Agents of SHIELD had been renewed for a 7 season, despite not airing until July 2019 (theorized reason being they can shoot back-to-back and reduce cost of production this way). This still makes me happy so I'm mentioning it again.
Work is causing depression to flair up and anxiety to form, but I am still alive.
Anywhooooo....
In my post Word Vomit, A Redux from September of last year, I talked about the longevity of certain shows of certain natures. I also talked (previously) about how the shows that air on the CW Network are geared towards 18-25 year olds. I want to talk about that for a hot minute.
For the 2018-2019 schedule (September 2018 to usually April or May 2019), Criminal Minds (CBS) had been renewed, but for a shorter 15 episode season. Normally, at least the previous seasons, it had around 23 (sometimes more, sometimes less, but around that number). About mid-way through January it was announced that it was renewed for a 15th season. However, it was only going to have 10 episode, which is a dramatic drop, and that it was going to be the last season. (Sorry for spoilers if you hadn't heard yet). Although I am a couple of seasons behind on this show, season 11 episode 15 "A Badge and a Gun" is my next episode to watch, this was kinda sad news.
Yesterday (again perspective because I have not gone to sleep yet; January 31st) the CW network renewed 10 shows of its current lineup. Including (because I watch them) Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow, Supergirl, The Flash and Supernatural. Remember how I mentioned that Supernatural and Criminal Minds began airing the same year, 2005? No word yet on how many episodes Supernatural will get at this point, a full season order being around 22. Legends of Tomorrow is almost guaranteed to have a shorter season than the rest, but that is par for course at this point.
The point is that Supernatural, which has slowly been losing viewership, is going to outlast Criminal Minds. Now, CM has also slowly been losing viewership, but the Neilsen rating has never dropped below 3 million viewers. For the 14 episodes that have aired, it has an average of 4.67 million. The final episode for this season is set to air on February 6th.
Supernatural has an average of 1.459 million for the 12 episodes that have aired this season. This season is set to have a total of 20 episodes.
Now I know that the Neilsen rating isn't the only thing that networks use to set parameters on what gets renewed and what gets cancelled. Because the SyFy network renewed The Magicians for a season 5 before season 4 even aired, despite rarely having a 1 million viewership rating (usually around 0.7 million; they had one in season 1 and one in season 2). Budget is another. If it is extremely costly to produce (between salaries for actors and workers, any CGI, advertising, etc) then snip snip. Sometimes its the main actor(s) leaving for new projects, disagreements between cast members/crew members, or other unsavory problems (Roseanne Barr being a prime example).
So the point of this post actually got lost as I was writing it, so short and sweet. I was really hoping that the CW network would do the smart thing and not renewed those shows, with the exception of Legends of Tomorrow (as previously mentioned, short seasons mean more material to work with) and Supergirl (although they have some problematic areas too).
In tangentially related news, Agents of SHIELD had been renewed for a 7 season, despite not airing until July 2019 (theorized reason being they can shoot back-to-back and reduce cost of production this way). This still makes me happy so I'm mentioning it again.
Tuesday, December 25, 2018
I am the Book Queen.
So I have a couple of different posts that talk about the 2018 Reading Challenge that I set for myself, but because they are on different posts I thought I would talk about the entirety on one post.
Ok. So the gist of it was I had a lot of books on my GoodReads To Read List, and I wanted to lower that number. I set a reasonable goal of 25 books, with the intention to just read as many as possible. But I'm not good at these kinds of things without a set goal, so there you go. I chose not to count any re-reads in the official count because I kinda consider that counterproductive. But I do have an unofficial count as well. So I'm going to list, in order the books that I have read (including the re-reads, which will be noted with a r) this year. I also noticed that I forgot about a few of them so this is the complete list (as of 12/25) that I have read this year.
1. Ice by Skye Jones
2. Kiss of a Dragon by Alisa Woods
3. Written in Red by Anne Bishop
4. Amaury's Hellion by Tina Folsom (r)
5. Murder of Crows by Anne Bishop
6. The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J. Maas
7. Vision in Silver by Anne Bishop
8. Marked in Flesh by Anne Bishop
9. Etched in Bone by Anne Bishop
10. Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
11. Bound by Blood by Cynthia Eden
12. Blades of Magic by Terah Edun
13. A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas
14. Enchanter by Sara Douglass (r)
15. Deeper Than Midnight by Lara Adrian (r)
16. Darker Than Midnight by Lara Adrian (r)
17. A Touch of Midnight by Lara Adrian
18. Blood Song by Anthony Ryan
19. A Taste of Midnight by Lara Adrian
20. Darker After Midnight by Lara Adrian
21. Edge of Dawn by Lara Adrian
22. Lover Mine by J.R. Ward (r)
23. Lover Unleased by J.R. Ward (r)
24. Lover Reborn by J.R. Ward (r)
25. Legacies by L.E. Modesitt Jr. (r)
26. Darknesses by L.E. Modesitt Jr. (r)
27. Scepters by L.E. Modesitt Jr. *
28. Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris
29. The Last Hunt by Bruce Corville
30. Dime Store Magic by Kelley Armstrong
31. Industrial Magic by Kelley Armstrong
32. Day Shift by Charlaine Harris
33. Haunted by Kelley Armstrong
34. Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas
35. Broken by Kelley Armstrong
36. No Humans Involved by Kelley Armstrong
37. Personal Demons by Kelley Armstrong
38. Living with the Dead by Kelley Armstrong
39. Frostbitten by Kelley Armstrong
40. Waking the Witch by Kelley Armstrong
41. Spell Bound by Kelley Armstrong
42. Crave the Night by Lara Adrian
43. Thirteen by Kelley Armstrong
44. Bloodlines by Richelle Mead (technically a reread but I'm counting it as a initial read)
45. The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead (same as #44)
46. Bitten by Kelley Armstrong (r)
47. The Indigo Spell by Richelle Mead
48. Lover At Last by J.R. Ward
49. The King by J.R. Ward
50. The Fiery Heart by Richelle Mead
51. Silver Shadows by Richelle Mead
52. The Shadows by J.R. Ward
53. The Beast by J.R. Ward
54. The Chosen by J.R. Ward
55. Night Shift by Charlaine Harris
56. The Ruby Circle by Richelle Mead
*I technically started a book after Scepters and before Dead Ever After but I only made it like 70 pages into it in like a month and a half. I gave up reading it and moved on. Otherwise this challenge would have been completed with re-reads but not first time reads which was what I wanted to do.
So now GoodReads only has 46 books counted towards the goal of 25, so it tells me that I have completed (and exceeded the challenge) by 184%. But that's not counting 10 books, which makes the challenge 224% complete. I like that number!
Now my To Read list is still a lot (currently sitting at 73 books) but that was also because of re-reading 10 books, plus for some reason I have the yet to be released 5th and 6th books of Sarah J. Maas's A Court of Thorns and Roses series on there but not the 4th; I moved one from Currently Reading back to the To Read; all of the books by Anne Bishop where not on the list originally; and for some reason I didn't have The Fiery Heart, Silver Shadows or The Ruby Circle like I had The Indigo Spell. I also added the more recently released books from both Lara Adrian and J.R. Ward. I did however delete like 5 books because they were the continuation of L.E. Modesitt Jr.'s Corean Chronicles (Legacies, Darknesses and Scepters are 1-3 of 8) because he did a drastic perspective shift by going back in time and I had grown attached to the main character/narrator for the first three. I may return to the series in the future but not any time soon.
Ok. So the gist of it was I had a lot of books on my GoodReads To Read List, and I wanted to lower that number. I set a reasonable goal of 25 books, with the intention to just read as many as possible. But I'm not good at these kinds of things without a set goal, so there you go. I chose not to count any re-reads in the official count because I kinda consider that counterproductive. But I do have an unofficial count as well. So I'm going to list, in order the books that I have read (including the re-reads, which will be noted with a r) this year. I also noticed that I forgot about a few of them so this is the complete list (as of 12/25) that I have read this year.
1. Ice by Skye Jones
2. Kiss of a Dragon by Alisa Woods
3. Written in Red by Anne Bishop
4. Amaury's Hellion by Tina Folsom (r)
5. Murder of Crows by Anne Bishop
6. The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J. Maas
7. Vision in Silver by Anne Bishop
8. Marked in Flesh by Anne Bishop
9. Etched in Bone by Anne Bishop
10. Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
11. Bound by Blood by Cynthia Eden
12. Blades of Magic by Terah Edun
13. A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas
14. Enchanter by Sara Douglass (r)
15. Deeper Than Midnight by Lara Adrian (r)
16. Darker Than Midnight by Lara Adrian (r)
17. A Touch of Midnight by Lara Adrian
18. Blood Song by Anthony Ryan
19. A Taste of Midnight by Lara Adrian
20. Darker After Midnight by Lara Adrian
21. Edge of Dawn by Lara Adrian
22. Lover Mine by J.R. Ward (r)
23. Lover Unleased by J.R. Ward (r)
24. Lover Reborn by J.R. Ward (r)
25. Legacies by L.E. Modesitt Jr. (r)
26. Darknesses by L.E. Modesitt Jr. (r)
27. Scepters by L.E. Modesitt Jr. *
28. Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris
29. The Last Hunt by Bruce Corville
30. Dime Store Magic by Kelley Armstrong
31. Industrial Magic by Kelley Armstrong
32. Day Shift by Charlaine Harris
33. Haunted by Kelley Armstrong
34. Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas
35. Broken by Kelley Armstrong
36. No Humans Involved by Kelley Armstrong
37. Personal Demons by Kelley Armstrong
38. Living with the Dead by Kelley Armstrong
39. Frostbitten by Kelley Armstrong
40. Waking the Witch by Kelley Armstrong
41. Spell Bound by Kelley Armstrong
42. Crave the Night by Lara Adrian
43. Thirteen by Kelley Armstrong
44. Bloodlines by Richelle Mead (technically a reread but I'm counting it as a initial read)
45. The Golden Lily by Richelle Mead (same as #44)
46. Bitten by Kelley Armstrong (r)
47. The Indigo Spell by Richelle Mead
48. Lover At Last by J.R. Ward
49. The King by J.R. Ward
50. The Fiery Heart by Richelle Mead
51. Silver Shadows by Richelle Mead
52. The Shadows by J.R. Ward
53. The Beast by J.R. Ward
54. The Chosen by J.R. Ward
55. Night Shift by Charlaine Harris
56. The Ruby Circle by Richelle Mead
*I technically started a book after Scepters and before Dead Ever After but I only made it like 70 pages into it in like a month and a half. I gave up reading it and moved on. Otherwise this challenge would have been completed with re-reads but not first time reads which was what I wanted to do.
So now GoodReads only has 46 books counted towards the goal of 25, so it tells me that I have completed (and exceeded the challenge) by 184%. But that's not counting 10 books, which makes the challenge 224% complete. I like that number!
Now my To Read list is still a lot (currently sitting at 73 books) but that was also because of re-reading 10 books, plus for some reason I have the yet to be released 5th and 6th books of Sarah J. Maas's A Court of Thorns and Roses series on there but not the 4th; I moved one from Currently Reading back to the To Read; all of the books by Anne Bishop where not on the list originally; and for some reason I didn't have The Fiery Heart, Silver Shadows or The Ruby Circle like I had The Indigo Spell. I also added the more recently released books from both Lara Adrian and J.R. Ward. I did however delete like 5 books because they were the continuation of L.E. Modesitt Jr.'s Corean Chronicles (Legacies, Darknesses and Scepters are 1-3 of 8) because he did a drastic perspective shift by going back in time and I had grown attached to the main character/narrator for the first three. I may return to the series in the future but not any time soon.
Friday, November 23, 2018
Priorities. Kinda.
Well I'm glad that I stopped the tv show reviews because I've been reading so much that I've gotten behind on almost all of them. The official GoodReads count is I'm currently reading 37 of 25, but because I've reread some books the actual count is 44 of 25.
I managed to shorten the number of episodes I currently have to watch by 2, watching episodes 3 and 4 of Legends of Tomorrow, but I'm still 3 episodes behind on Supergirl, Arrow and The Flash. I have 2 episodes for Supernatural, and then Monday's episodes for The Resident and Manifest. I then have the episodes airing tonight (Friday) for Midnight, Texas and Van Helsing. I am caught up on Blindspot
but that's just because there is not an episode airing this week.
More show talk. Shadowhunters has an official air date for the second half of season 3: February 25th, which means it moves to Monday night. No idea what time it is expected to air, although I expect it to be at 8pm. And well ahead of the season 6 premiere since that is set for July 2019, Marvel's Agents of SHIELD has been renewed for a 7th season, which makes me so freaking happy. It was announced about a week ago, but I'm just now making this post so :p
Now I do have Saturday off, as well as Monday and Tuesday (the 26th and 27th) so I can at least catch up a little on the shows as well as read the books because I've got books 38, 39 and 40 already on loan because I'm taking about 2-3 days on average to read a book.
So I mentioned two posts ago about the 25 books that achieve my set goal of books read, and I'll list the ones I've read since.
Book #26 was Kelley Armstrong's Broken, which is book 6 of "The Women of the Otherworld".
#27 was No Humans Involved, book 7 of "The Women of the Otherworld".
#28 was Personal Demon, book 8 of "The Women of the Otherworld".
#29 was Living With the Dead, book 9 of "The Women of the Otherworld".
#30 was Frostbitten, book 10 of "The Women of the Otherworld".
#31 was Waking the Witch, book 11 of "The Women of the Otherworld".
#32 was Spell Bound, book 12 of "The Women of the Otherworld".
#33 was Crave the Night by Lara Adrian, book 12 of "Midnight Breed".
#34 was Thirteen, book 13 (funny, right?) of "The Women of the Otherworld". Now, this completes the series, however there are books that are tangent to this series that I will read at some point.
#35 was Bloodlines by Richelle Mead which is the first in the series of the same name that follows almost immediately after the events of Last Sacrifice which is book 6 of "The Vampire Academy". Now, I had this one already checked as having been read, but I didn't remember much so I am counting this as a fresh read and therefore on the GoodReads list.
#36 was The Golden Lily, which follows Bloodlines.
#37 is The Indigo Spell, which is book 3 in the "Bloodlines" series.
#38 will be Lover At Last by J.R. Ward and is book 11 of the "Black Dagger Brotherhood" series.
#39 will be The King, which is book 12 of the "Black Dagger Brotherhood".
#40 will be The Fiery Heart, book 4 of the "Bloodlines".
Now, my library has kindle loans thing available, which all of these but Thirteen were digital loans (for whatever reason it has 1-12 of "Women of the Otherworld" but not 13 so I bought it, I know own 1, 2, and 13 for that series *insert eye roll*) and they have the next book (5) in the "Bloodlines" series as well as 13, 14, 15 and 16 of "Black Dagger Brotherhood". As well as a couple of other books that I am interested in reading.
So yeah, update.
I managed to shorten the number of episodes I currently have to watch by 2, watching episodes 3 and 4 of Legends of Tomorrow, but I'm still 3 episodes behind on Supergirl, Arrow and The Flash. I have 2 episodes for Supernatural, and then Monday's episodes for The Resident and Manifest. I then have the episodes airing tonight (Friday) for Midnight, Texas and Van Helsing. I am caught up on Blindspot
but that's just because there is not an episode airing this week.
More show talk. Shadowhunters has an official air date for the second half of season 3: February 25th, which means it moves to Monday night. No idea what time it is expected to air, although I expect it to be at 8pm. And well ahead of the season 6 premiere since that is set for July 2019, Marvel's Agents of SHIELD has been renewed for a 7th season, which makes me so freaking happy. It was announced about a week ago, but I'm just now making this post so :p
Now I do have Saturday off, as well as Monday and Tuesday (the 26th and 27th) so I can at least catch up a little on the shows as well as read the books because I've got books 38, 39 and 40 already on loan because I'm taking about 2-3 days on average to read a book.
So I mentioned two posts ago about the 25 books that achieve my set goal of books read, and I'll list the ones I've read since.
Book #26 was Kelley Armstrong's Broken, which is book 6 of "The Women of the Otherworld".
#27 was No Humans Involved, book 7 of "The Women of the Otherworld".
#28 was Personal Demon, book 8 of "The Women of the Otherworld".
#29 was Living With the Dead, book 9 of "The Women of the Otherworld".
#30 was Frostbitten, book 10 of "The Women of the Otherworld".
#31 was Waking the Witch, book 11 of "The Women of the Otherworld".
#32 was Spell Bound, book 12 of "The Women of the Otherworld".
#33 was Crave the Night by Lara Adrian, book 12 of "Midnight Breed".
#34 was Thirteen, book 13 (funny, right?) of "The Women of the Otherworld". Now, this completes the series, however there are books that are tangent to this series that I will read at some point.
#35 was Bloodlines by Richelle Mead which is the first in the series of the same name that follows almost immediately after the events of Last Sacrifice which is book 6 of "The Vampire Academy". Now, I had this one already checked as having been read, but I didn't remember much so I am counting this as a fresh read and therefore on the GoodReads list.
#36 was The Golden Lily, which follows Bloodlines.
#37 is The Indigo Spell, which is book 3 in the "Bloodlines" series.
#38 will be Lover At Last by J.R. Ward and is book 11 of the "Black Dagger Brotherhood" series.
#39 will be The King, which is book 12 of the "Black Dagger Brotherhood".
#40 will be The Fiery Heart, book 4 of the "Bloodlines".
Now, my library has kindle loans thing available, which all of these but Thirteen were digital loans (for whatever reason it has 1-12 of "Women of the Otherworld" but not 13 so I bought it, I know own 1, 2, and 13 for that series *insert eye roll*) and they have the next book (5) in the "Bloodlines" series as well as 13, 14, 15 and 16 of "Black Dagger Brotherhood". As well as a couple of other books that I am interested in reading.
So yeah, update.
Monday, November 5, 2018
What's Old Is New
So I've been talking a lot about books recently, and I mentioned that I was blogging about my 2015 reading challenge that I didn't complete, but I still have the list from it so I'm gonna talk about it now.
So the goal was 52 books in 52 weeks. I did not accomplish that because I stopped reading my list about half way through the year. But, I'm going to list what the prompt was and the book I had picked for said prompt as well as if I read it or not.
1. Book with more than 500 pages. I had picked Terry Goodkind's Wizard's First Rule. The first book in the Sword of Truth series, and also the book that the short TV series Legend of the Seeker was based on which is what interested me in that book. It was also a book that my brother had so I was able to read it.
2. Classic romance. Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. I don't remember much about this book. But I read it!
3. That became a movie. I had picked Kami Garcia's Beautiful Creatures, but is still on my to-read list. I will get to it...eventually.
4. Published this year. Yeah, I never picked one.......................
5. With a number in the title. Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five was the choice and I did read it. I read it in one day, but only gave it 1 star on GoodReads.
6. Written by someone under 30. Pierce Brown's Red Rising. Which I thought was horrible. Yeah.
7. With nonhuman characters. Silvana De Mari's The Last Dragon, which I didn't get to.
8. A funny book. Apparently Rick Riordan's The Lightning Thief was a funny book, but I don't remember much other than I did read it. So....
9. By a female author. Diana Wynne Jones's Howl's Moving Castle was picked but not read.
10. Mystery/thriller. Stieg Larsson's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was picked but not read.
11. With a one-word title. Hermann Hesse's Steppenwolf was picked but not read.
12. Book of short stories. James Finn Garner's Politically Correct Bedtime Stories was picked but not read.
13. Set in a different country. Nicole Hadaway's Release was picked but not read.
14. Nonfiction book. Erik Lawson's The Devil in the White City. When I picked this one, I thought it sounded so interesting but it was dreadful. Just awful and dull and boring and yeah.
15. Popular author's first book. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's A Study in Scarlet was picked but not read.
16. From author you love but haven't read yet. Jodi Picoult's The Storyteller was picked but not read. And I still have not read it.
17. A friend recommended. Rachel Hartman's Seraphina was picked but not read. I don't even remember who recommended it.
18. Pulitzer prize-winning. Jeffrey Eugindes's Middlesex was picked but not read.
19. Based on a true story. Beatrice Sparks's Go Ask Alice was picked but not read.
20. At the bottom of your to-read list. Tina Folsom's Cain's Identity which is book 9 of the Scanguards Vampire Series. Which I'm pretty sure I rearranged my to-read list shortly after but who really cares. It was also one of the first ones I read that year.
21. Your mom loves. I never picked one, mainly because my mom is no longer with us, but I remember some book series that she enjoyed but I never got that far.
22. That scares you. Dan Simmons's The Terror. And I don't know if it scared me or not because it was picked but not read.
23. More than 100 years old. Jack London's White Fang was picked but not read.
24. Based entirely on cover. Nothing was ever picked.
25. Supposed to read in school but didn't. Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita which I did a paper on in college and did pretty well on for not reading it all the way through. Didn't get around to reading it this time either.
26. A memoir. Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love was picked but not read.
27. You can finish in one day. Because I read Old Man and the Sea in one day, I theorized that I could also read Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises in a day. Which I did.
28. With antonyms in the title. Jaime Ford's Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet was picked but not read. I had to google this prompt and that was the only one that sounded interesting.
29. Set somewhere you've always wanted to visit. Again with the Hemingway: A Farewell to Arms however this one was picked but not read.
30. Published the year you were born. Andrzej Sapkowski's The Last Wish, which is the first in the "Witcher" series that the video game is set after. I don't remember much about it.
31. With bad reviews. Believe it or not, but Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray had bad reviews. I enjoyed it but you know, there is always one person who complains about anything.
32. a Trilogy. JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings series was picked but not read. This is why even though there is only 50 prompts, there were 52 books to read.
33. From your childhood. Bruce Coville's Dark Whispers from the Unicorn Chronicles filled this prompt. Since I didn't want to count re-reads, and a lot of the books series from my childhood I had actually finished or couldn't remember where I left off, I went with this one.
34. With a love triangle. Richelle Mead's Storm Born was picked but not read. Since I enjoyed her Vampire Academy series, which also had a love triangle, I figured I would enjoy this one too, but still haven't gotten around to reading it.
35. Set in the future. Veronica Roth's Allegiant filled this prompt. Considering I had read Divergent and Insurgent in 2013, I figured I should finish the series.
36. Set in high school. Jay Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why was picked but not read.
37. With a color in the title. Richelle Mead's The Indigo Spell was picked but not read. I had read the previous two books in the Bloodlines series, but for some reason didn't read this one. I still haven't but I plan on it.
38. That made you cry. Markus Zusak's The Book Thief was picked, but I'm not sure if it made me cry.
39. With magic. L.E. Modesitt, Jr.'s Ordermaster was picked, however I still haven't gotten to it. Oops.
40. Graphic novel. Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis was picked but not read.
41. By an author you've never read before. Rachel Vincent's My Soul to Take was picked but not read.
42. You own but have never read. Nothing was picked for this one. I now have an ample supply of ones I own but have never read.
43. That takes place in your hometown. Coreen Callahan's Fury of Fire (go Seattle!). I did accomplish this one... but haven't read any of the rest of the series. I plan on it. Just haven't yet.
44. Originally written in different language. I took this one a step further and read Antoine de Saint-Exuréy's Le Petit Prince IN FRENCH. I had started reading it Senior year of high school but hadn't finished it and it was one of the first kindle purchases I made but never got around to it until 2015.
45. Set during Christmas. David Baldacci's The Christmas Train was picked but not read.
46. Written by author with your initials. A.D. Miller's Snowdrops was what I picked and if I remember correctly I actually enjoyed this one. However, now that it is three years later I realized that Ann M. Martin, the author of the Baby-Sitters Club series, would have been exact. I counted first and last because not a lot of authors include either their middle name or initial.
47. A play. Shakespeare's A Midsummer's Night Dream was picked but not read.
48. Banned book. Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 was picked but not read.
49. Based on or turned into a tv show*. Melissa de la Cruz's Witches of East End, which aired on Lifetime under the same name, was picked but not read. Oops.
50. You started but never finished. Dram Stoker's Dracula was picked but is still not finished.
*I did however, read Bitten and Stolen by Kelley Armstrong which are the first two books in the Women of the Otherworld series, which was turned into the SyFy show Bitten that aired for 3 years. So technically this prompt was filled, but not by what I had picked and was done after I basically called it quits on the reading challenge.
Some of these I am still interested in reading, but as I mentioned previously (at least I think I did), I want to get the books that are physically on my to-read list on GoodReads done before I get to ones that aren't on that list/ before I add more. Some, like the two by Mead and the ones by Modesitt and Goodkind are on my list so I'll get to them at some point.
So the goal was 52 books in 52 weeks. I did not accomplish that because I stopped reading my list about half way through the year. But, I'm going to list what the prompt was and the book I had picked for said prompt as well as if I read it or not.
1. Book with more than 500 pages. I had picked Terry Goodkind's Wizard's First Rule. The first book in the Sword of Truth series, and also the book that the short TV series Legend of the Seeker was based on which is what interested me in that book. It was also a book that my brother had so I was able to read it.
2. Classic romance. Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter. I don't remember much about this book. But I read it!
3. That became a movie. I had picked Kami Garcia's Beautiful Creatures, but is still on my to-read list. I will get to it...eventually.
4. Published this year. Yeah, I never picked one.......................
5. With a number in the title. Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five was the choice and I did read it. I read it in one day, but only gave it 1 star on GoodReads.
6. Written by someone under 30. Pierce Brown's Red Rising. Which I thought was horrible. Yeah.
7. With nonhuman characters. Silvana De Mari's The Last Dragon, which I didn't get to.
8. A funny book. Apparently Rick Riordan's The Lightning Thief was a funny book, but I don't remember much other than I did read it. So....
9. By a female author. Diana Wynne Jones's Howl's Moving Castle was picked but not read.
10. Mystery/thriller. Stieg Larsson's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was picked but not read.
11. With a one-word title. Hermann Hesse's Steppenwolf was picked but not read.
12. Book of short stories. James Finn Garner's Politically Correct Bedtime Stories was picked but not read.
13. Set in a different country. Nicole Hadaway's Release was picked but not read.
14. Nonfiction book. Erik Lawson's The Devil in the White City. When I picked this one, I thought it sounded so interesting but it was dreadful. Just awful and dull and boring and yeah.
15. Popular author's first book. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's A Study in Scarlet was picked but not read.
16. From author you love but haven't read yet. Jodi Picoult's The Storyteller was picked but not read. And I still have not read it.
17. A friend recommended. Rachel Hartman's Seraphina was picked but not read. I don't even remember who recommended it.
18. Pulitzer prize-winning. Jeffrey Eugindes's Middlesex was picked but not read.
19. Based on a true story. Beatrice Sparks's Go Ask Alice was picked but not read.
20. At the bottom of your to-read list. Tina Folsom's Cain's Identity which is book 9 of the Scanguards Vampire Series. Which I'm pretty sure I rearranged my to-read list shortly after but who really cares. It was also one of the first ones I read that year.
21. Your mom loves. I never picked one, mainly because my mom is no longer with us, but I remember some book series that she enjoyed but I never got that far.
22. That scares you. Dan Simmons's The Terror. And I don't know if it scared me or not because it was picked but not read.
23. More than 100 years old. Jack London's White Fang was picked but not read.
24. Based entirely on cover. Nothing was ever picked.
25. Supposed to read in school but didn't. Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita which I did a paper on in college and did pretty well on for not reading it all the way through. Didn't get around to reading it this time either.
26. A memoir. Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love was picked but not read.
27. You can finish in one day. Because I read Old Man and the Sea in one day, I theorized that I could also read Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises in a day. Which I did.
28. With antonyms in the title. Jaime Ford's Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet was picked but not read. I had to google this prompt and that was the only one that sounded interesting.
29. Set somewhere you've always wanted to visit. Again with the Hemingway: A Farewell to Arms however this one was picked but not read.
30. Published the year you were born. Andrzej Sapkowski's The Last Wish, which is the first in the "Witcher" series that the video game is set after. I don't remember much about it.
31. With bad reviews. Believe it or not, but Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray had bad reviews. I enjoyed it but you know, there is always one person who complains about anything.
32. a Trilogy. JRR Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings series was picked but not read. This is why even though there is only 50 prompts, there were 52 books to read.
33. From your childhood. Bruce Coville's Dark Whispers from the Unicorn Chronicles filled this prompt. Since I didn't want to count re-reads, and a lot of the books series from my childhood I had actually finished or couldn't remember where I left off, I went with this one.
34. With a love triangle. Richelle Mead's Storm Born was picked but not read. Since I enjoyed her Vampire Academy series, which also had a love triangle, I figured I would enjoy this one too, but still haven't gotten around to reading it.
35. Set in the future. Veronica Roth's Allegiant filled this prompt. Considering I had read Divergent and Insurgent in 2013, I figured I should finish the series.
36. Set in high school. Jay Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why was picked but not read.
37. With a color in the title. Richelle Mead's The Indigo Spell was picked but not read. I had read the previous two books in the Bloodlines series, but for some reason didn't read this one. I still haven't but I plan on it.
38. That made you cry. Markus Zusak's The Book Thief was picked, but I'm not sure if it made me cry.
39. With magic. L.E. Modesitt, Jr.'s Ordermaster was picked, however I still haven't gotten to it. Oops.
40. Graphic novel. Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis was picked but not read.
41. By an author you've never read before. Rachel Vincent's My Soul to Take was picked but not read.
42. You own but have never read. Nothing was picked for this one. I now have an ample supply of ones I own but have never read.
43. That takes place in your hometown. Coreen Callahan's Fury of Fire (go Seattle!). I did accomplish this one... but haven't read any of the rest of the series. I plan on it. Just haven't yet.
44. Originally written in different language. I took this one a step further and read Antoine de Saint-Exuréy's Le Petit Prince IN FRENCH. I had started reading it Senior year of high school but hadn't finished it and it was one of the first kindle purchases I made but never got around to it until 2015.
45. Set during Christmas. David Baldacci's The Christmas Train was picked but not read.
46. Written by author with your initials. A.D. Miller's Snowdrops was what I picked and if I remember correctly I actually enjoyed this one. However, now that it is three years later I realized that Ann M. Martin, the author of the Baby-Sitters Club series, would have been exact. I counted first and last because not a lot of authors include either their middle name or initial.
47. A play. Shakespeare's A Midsummer's Night Dream was picked but not read.
48. Banned book. Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 was picked but not read.
49. Based on or turned into a tv show*. Melissa de la Cruz's Witches of East End, which aired on Lifetime under the same name, was picked but not read. Oops.
50. You started but never finished. Dram Stoker's Dracula was picked but is still not finished.
*I did however, read Bitten and Stolen by Kelley Armstrong which are the first two books in the Women of the Otherworld series, which was turned into the SyFy show Bitten that aired for 3 years. So technically this prompt was filled, but not by what I had picked and was done after I basically called it quits on the reading challenge.
Some of these I am still interested in reading, but as I mentioned previously (at least I think I did), I want to get the books that are physically on my to-read list on GoodReads done before I get to ones that aren't on that list/ before I add more. Some, like the two by Mead and the ones by Modesitt and Goodkind are on my list so I'll get to them at some point.
Wednesday, October 31, 2018
Reading Challenge Has Been Completed
So.
Technically, I have read more than the 25 books I set out to read as my Reading Challenge this year, but I do not count rereads towards my number.
I want to break something down for you (if you care; if not: ignore). I'm writing these in the order that they were read, just so you know. The number count is important. Just an FYI.
The first book that I read this year (that counts to my 25 books) is Ice by Skye Jones and is the first in the Dragon Clan book series. It contained 142 pages, and was a kindle freebie. I read this basically in a day, starting it on January 17th and finishing it the 18th. Unless the succeeding books become freebies, may not read.
Kiss of a Dragon by Alisa Woods and is the first in the Fallen Immortals series was another kindle freebie that I actually managed to finish in less than 24 hours on February 17th. 280 pages. Unless the succeeding books become freebies, may not read.
Written in Blood by Anne Bishop and the first in The Others series. This was a borrow from my local library, and was 433 pages. I honestly don't remember what attracted me to this book, but I read it decently fast, starting on February 21st and finishing on the 22nd. This is the series I mentioned previous that I read but was not on my to read list on GoodReads.
Murder of Crows by Anne Bishop and book 2. Same as predecessor, library borrow of 413 pages. Read from February 24th to the 25th. This series has a very naive main character, which can be a bit of a turn off to the more mature audience, but I stuck with it.
The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J. Maas, and is the precursor for the Throne of Glass series. It is broken into 5 separate "baby stories" that are set before the Throne of Glass (title of both first book and series) that give stories behind events that are mentioned throughout the series itself. This was a kindle purchase (because Maas is a literary genius), and a 465 page delight. Started on February 25th and finished February 26th.
Vision in Silver by Anne Bishop and book 3. Same as series predecessors, page count of 493. At this point I started having trouble focusing long enough to read books, so it took a little longer. February 27th to March 1st.
Marked in Flesh by Anne Bishop and book 4. Same as series predecessors, page count of 399. Despite a lower page count, took 6 days to read. March 2nd to the 8th.
Etched in Bone by Anne Bishop and book 5. Same as series predecessors, page count of 397. I had made a note in my review when I was done that "that first 40%.....damn. It seemed to crawl slower than a sloth". From March 9th to March 27th I read this book. Obviously I read small chunks at a time, but not even 400 pages and it took me that long? Yeesh. However, there is a 6th book that was released a few months back and while I do plan on reading it, I want to get through some of the books that have been on my to read list longer than a couple of months (considering the 6th isn't even on my list yet).
Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard and is book 1 in the series of the same name. I'm pretty sure this was a library borrow, sporting 383 pages. Read from March 28th to April 7th, I noted in my review that to me it seemed to be a cross of Suzanne Collin's Hunger Games series and Pierce Brown's Red Rising series. The former I enjoyed and the latter I did not. This book I placed between the two and (when I finished) removed the second book from my to read list. This book just was not for me, and I actually almost stopped reading it because it seemed to just take too long.
Bound by Blood by Cynthia Eden was a 95 page kindle freebie. It is the first in the series crowned Bound, but unless the succeeding books are freebies as well, I will most likely not read them. Read in less than a day on May 5th, but it was not even 100 pages so I would have been worried with myself if I hadn't. I did however, read this because I got home from work to a power outage and so I read this by candlelight...
Blades of Magic by Terah Edun and is the first book in the Crown Service series. Also a kindle freebie, a 304 page count. Now I had obtained this book around January 21st, but didn't get very far into actually reading it, like less than 10% done. So I restarted it, but didn't mark that date so it says I was reading this one longer than I actually did. Finished on May 5th. Unless the succeeding books become freebies, may not read.
A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas and is considered book 3.1 of the A Court of Thorns and Roses or ACoTaR (because that is a lot of words and also the title of the first book, which I read last year!) series. This is considered a novella, and that's why it's not book 4 of the series. The hardcover version had 229, the kindle had 272 but either way it took less than a day to read, May 8th being the day this time. The actual fourth book in the series is set to be released in 2020 and does not have a title as of yet.
Blood Song by Anthony Ryan and is book one of the Raven's Shadow. I saw the third book in a store, thought it looked/sounded interesting and thought I'd give it a try. I then forgot about it and was pretty excited when I found out my library had all three books. From May 9th to June 24th I was reading this 575 page book. Which had a strong beginning and a strong end but a terribly slow middle. I noted that I will read the following books, but want to read others first if it took me over a month to finish this one.
A Touch of Midnight by Lara Adrian and is considered book 0.5 of the Midnight Breed series. I read a good chunk of the series between 2012 and 2016 (I'm not sure of exact dates). This book is set before the first in the series, but was published after Edge of Dawn which is book 11, and contains 182 pages. A kindle borrow read in one day, June 24th to be exact. I figured since it took place before the events in the book that was technically next in order, I read this one first. I would also like to note that I re-read some of the previous books so that I could remember basic events of the series (because it's similar to another series that I have been reading too).
A Taste of Midnight by Lara Adrian and is considered book 9.5 of the Midnight Breed series, taking place between Deeper Than Midnight which is where I had left off and Darker After Midnight which was next to read. Also a kindle borrow, this one only 70 pages (geez, what's with the short novellas!) Read in one day, June 26th.
Darker After Midnight by Lara Adrian and is book 10 of the Midnight Breed series. A kindle borrow of 384 pages. This one was read from June 27th to June 29th. This one centered on a character I didn't really like, so I'm claiming that as the reason why I didn't read it lickity-split.
Edge of Dawn by Lara Adrian and is book 11 of the Midnight Breed series. Another kindle borrow of 313 pages, I got this late (if I remember correctly) on June 29th, which is when I started it, and finished on June 30th. I didn't immediately read the next in the series because it was loaned to someone else, but I will eventually get to it. In fact I recently re-ordered my to read list and it is higher up on the chain of order than previously.
Scepters by L.E. Modesitt, Jr. and is book 3 of the Corean Chronicles which I have mentioned in previous posts. I would like to mention that I re-read Legacies and Darknesses which are books 1 and 2 of the series so that I remembered what the series was about because I technically started this book in March of 2013. So because I re-read the previous 2 books, I restarted this one too, and was something like 100 pages into it. So I don't have the actual start date but I finished this on August 27th. Because this is a book I'm borrowing from my brother, it wasn't really pressing to read it in a certain amount of time. It did have 738 pages, but you'll see why that is no excuse in a bit. As I mentioned in a previous post, at this time I have no intention of reading the following books but I may change my mind again later.
Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris and is book 13 (and the final) of the Sookie Stackhouse series. A library borrow of 338 pages, I was trying to read Alector's Choice (book 4 of Corean Chronicles) but hardly made a dent so I stopped and picked this one because it was the final book of its series. Now I had watched the show that was a product of this book series first, but I did read the books. The only problem is that I watched/ read the books years ago. Surprisingly, I didn't have trouble following along with everything despite the years long gap and was read in a single day. September 25th.
The Last Hunt by Bruce Coville and is the 4th and final book of the Unicorn Chronicles series. This series is geared more towards middle school ages, which is when I found this series and I read books 1 and 2. I found out that my local library had both 3 and 4 (and 1 and 2, but I didn't really need those...) so when I did the 2015 reading challenge, I read book 3. I basically came to the same decision as with Dead Ever After, that it was the last in the series so it made sense to just get it over and done with. This was a 605 page endeavor, and I really have no excuse as to why it took as long as it did to read, from September 27th to October 9th, other than it kept switching perspective which I'm usually not a fan of it unless it's done well. Also, Cara was my favorite character (for obvious reasons when when you first read the series and you were about the same age as the protagonist) and there was a lot where she isn't in the scene.
Dime Store Magic by Kelley Armstrong and is book 3 of the Women of the Otherworld series. Books 1 and 2 (Bitten and Stolen) were read in 2015 after getting into the tv show that held the same name as the first book. Bitten, if I remember correctly was a freebie purchase (oxymoron right there) and I had some cash to spare so I bought Stolen shortly after. Then life happened and I didn't get any of the following books. This was a kindle borrow, as is the following books in the series. 448 pages and despite not following Elena's perspective, but Paige's (who I didn't like in the show) this one took about a week, October 9th to the 15th. Usually when a series deviates from the original perspective I have trouble especially if the original perspective (read: narrator) was one I adored. However, Armstrong did a much better job with Paige's character than the show so it wasn't too bad.
Industrial Magic by Kelley Armstrong and is book 4 of the Women of the Otherworld series. 560 pages make up this book, still in the perspective of Paige. This took from October 15th to the 20th to read, some of that was because I had spent almost all day on the 20th out with my brother because he was in town because my birthday was the 17th. Again, I enjoyed this book pretty well, Armstrong doing an amazing job with characterization and execution of the story.
Day Shift by Charlaine Harris and is book 2 of the Midnight, Texas series. Again, I found the show first, which airs on the NBC network. I read the preceding book sometime last year and figured that since the library bought the 3rd book (Night Shift) for kindle loan which I had set up to automatically put me on a waiting list for the book that I should read this one before I received notice that the third book was available for borrowing. Now despite the fact that the show airs on NBC and not HBO like True Blood did, the show was racier than the books (that is to say, I'm enjoying the show more). This 308 page book took from October 20th to October 24th.
Haunted by Kelley Armstrong and is book 6 of the Women of the Otherworld series. This one changes perspective again, shifting to Eve. I'm not going to bore you with how every one is related to everyone, but this 528 page book was done in 4 days. October 24th to the 28th (I had borrowed Day Shift and this one at the same time, it gives you 21 days to read, and since I had both in my borrowed possession before Kingdom of Ash was released, that was my incentive to read them quickly). Which lead me to the big kahuna.
Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas and is book 7 of the Throne of Glass series. This is also the final book. I'm not going to give all the details in case anyone reading my posts are reading this series but haven't gotten to this book yet. Technically, I read this 992 page book in 2 days, October 28th to October 30th. But I worked on the 27th, 28th and 29th, so I wasn't pushing myself to read it because I knew that if I really wanted to, I could have read it in one sitting, but that wouldn't be fair on my coworker because I wouldn't have gotten any sleep from the 27th/28th and I was by myself on the 29th so that would have been a bad idea all around. However, once I got home on the 29th, I sat down and read for about 4.5 to 5 hours to finish the book. I finished this book at around 4:40am, and holy shit. If I hadn't previously though Maas was a literary genius, I would have coined her a literary God. I may still do that, because she wrapped up the story so beautifully. It didn't end how I expected based on foreshadowing she had set up in the previous books, and while there was still sad parts, it had an overall happy ending, for everyone you grew to love. (Maas also did promise that Fleetfoot, Aelin's dog, would survive the series, "the only guaranteed survivor" so she also gets points for that). I did however, cry like 10 times (or more).... but there were also moments that made you laugh so there was at least a semblance of balance between the two emotions.
Ok. So if you took the actual amount of time it took me to read this almost 1000 page book, I read it in about 12/13 hours. Of course I'm estimating, and could be off in either direction, but I can guarantee that if I had the day off of work when I first started reading this book, it would have been done in a day. That is why I mentioned above to notice page numbers. I found the Throne of Glass series in 2016, and pretty much read them as quickly as I could. I'm pretty sure I found them because Throne of Glass had been a freebie because Empire of Storms (book 5) had been recently released. Tower of Dawn (book 6) had been released in November of 2016. I was a little hesitant to read book 6 because it changed perspective and you were tortured with the knowledge of how 5 ended, knowing that 6 ran pretty much concurrently to the events of 5 (the beginning of both 5 and 6 start where 4 leaves off, merging at the end of 5 and 6 respectively, and lead into 7). But I read it, and I am hailing this series as the Best Young Adult Sci-Fi/Fantasy series ever. I don't care what others say.
So now, there are 62 days of the year left, and I'm not going to stop. My actual goal was to read as many books off my to read list as possible, but I set a reasonable goal of 25 books as something to shoot for, because often times if I don't have a set goal in mind I fail to follow through on things.
I started reading Broken which is book 7 in the Women of the Otherworld series this morning (perspective because I haven't gone to bed yet, so October 30th) after I went to bed at like 5am and slept till noon. I am about 54% done and have already borrowed the following book for when I finish this one. At the rate I'm going, I can easily finish this series at least, with six more books in the series (there is a total of 13 books).
I also have, as I mentioned above, Night Shift which is book three of Midnight, Texas series on a wait list (which I'm now #15 of 33 on 4 copies) but I also placed Crave the Night from the Midnight Breed series on hold and I'm #1 of 1 on 2 copies.
I'm not counting my current reading material here, but I have a page count of 9820 for this year, and I'm not even done reading for my "unofficial" official reading challenge. Kingdom of Ash is the biggest book that I've read by far, at least that I remember, beating out Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by 122 pages. I do have some books on my to read list that are longer (books 3, 4, and 5 of A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin, the series Game of Thrones is based on) but I haven't read them yet (duh) so they don't count (yet). I do have one that is bigger than HP and the OotP: Stone of Tears which is book two of Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series at 979 pages but that is only a couple pages shorter than KoA.
LET THE READING GAMES, CONTINUE!!!!!!!!!!
Technically, I have read more than the 25 books I set out to read as my Reading Challenge this year, but I do not count rereads towards my number.
I want to break something down for you (if you care; if not: ignore). I'm writing these in the order that they were read, just so you know. The number count is important. Just an FYI.
The first book that I read this year (that counts to my 25 books) is Ice by Skye Jones and is the first in the Dragon Clan book series. It contained 142 pages, and was a kindle freebie. I read this basically in a day, starting it on January 17th and finishing it the 18th. Unless the succeeding books become freebies, may not read.
Kiss of a Dragon by Alisa Woods and is the first in the Fallen Immortals series was another kindle freebie that I actually managed to finish in less than 24 hours on February 17th. 280 pages. Unless the succeeding books become freebies, may not read.
Written in Blood by Anne Bishop and the first in The Others series. This was a borrow from my local library, and was 433 pages. I honestly don't remember what attracted me to this book, but I read it decently fast, starting on February 21st and finishing on the 22nd. This is the series I mentioned previous that I read but was not on my to read list on GoodReads.
Murder of Crows by Anne Bishop and book 2. Same as predecessor, library borrow of 413 pages. Read from February 24th to the 25th. This series has a very naive main character, which can be a bit of a turn off to the more mature audience, but I stuck with it.
The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J. Maas, and is the precursor for the Throne of Glass series. It is broken into 5 separate "baby stories" that are set before the Throne of Glass (title of both first book and series) that give stories behind events that are mentioned throughout the series itself. This was a kindle purchase (because Maas is a literary genius), and a 465 page delight. Started on February 25th and finished February 26th.
Vision in Silver by Anne Bishop and book 3. Same as series predecessors, page count of 493. At this point I started having trouble focusing long enough to read books, so it took a little longer. February 27th to March 1st.
Marked in Flesh by Anne Bishop and book 4. Same as series predecessors, page count of 399. Despite a lower page count, took 6 days to read. March 2nd to the 8th.
Etched in Bone by Anne Bishop and book 5. Same as series predecessors, page count of 397. I had made a note in my review when I was done that "that first 40%.....damn. It seemed to crawl slower than a sloth". From March 9th to March 27th I read this book. Obviously I read small chunks at a time, but not even 400 pages and it took me that long? Yeesh. However, there is a 6th book that was released a few months back and while I do plan on reading it, I want to get through some of the books that have been on my to read list longer than a couple of months (considering the 6th isn't even on my list yet).
Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard and is book 1 in the series of the same name. I'm pretty sure this was a library borrow, sporting 383 pages. Read from March 28th to April 7th, I noted in my review that to me it seemed to be a cross of Suzanne Collin's Hunger Games series and Pierce Brown's Red Rising series. The former I enjoyed and the latter I did not. This book I placed between the two and (when I finished) removed the second book from my to read list. This book just was not for me, and I actually almost stopped reading it because it seemed to just take too long.
Bound by Blood by Cynthia Eden was a 95 page kindle freebie. It is the first in the series crowned Bound, but unless the succeeding books are freebies as well, I will most likely not read them. Read in less than a day on May 5th, but it was not even 100 pages so I would have been worried with myself if I hadn't. I did however, read this because I got home from work to a power outage and so I read this by candlelight...
Blades of Magic by Terah Edun and is the first book in the Crown Service series. Also a kindle freebie, a 304 page count. Now I had obtained this book around January 21st, but didn't get very far into actually reading it, like less than 10% done. So I restarted it, but didn't mark that date so it says I was reading this one longer than I actually did. Finished on May 5th. Unless the succeeding books become freebies, may not read.
A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas and is considered book 3.1 of the A Court of Thorns and Roses or ACoTaR (because that is a lot of words and also the title of the first book, which I read last year!) series. This is considered a novella, and that's why it's not book 4 of the series. The hardcover version had 229, the kindle had 272 but either way it took less than a day to read, May 8th being the day this time. The actual fourth book in the series is set to be released in 2020 and does not have a title as of yet.
Blood Song by Anthony Ryan and is book one of the Raven's Shadow. I saw the third book in a store, thought it looked/sounded interesting and thought I'd give it a try. I then forgot about it and was pretty excited when I found out my library had all three books. From May 9th to June 24th I was reading this 575 page book. Which had a strong beginning and a strong end but a terribly slow middle. I noted that I will read the following books, but want to read others first if it took me over a month to finish this one.
A Touch of Midnight by Lara Adrian and is considered book 0.5 of the Midnight Breed series. I read a good chunk of the series between 2012 and 2016 (I'm not sure of exact dates). This book is set before the first in the series, but was published after Edge of Dawn which is book 11, and contains 182 pages. A kindle borrow read in one day, June 24th to be exact. I figured since it took place before the events in the book that was technically next in order, I read this one first. I would also like to note that I re-read some of the previous books so that I could remember basic events of the series (because it's similar to another series that I have been reading too).
A Taste of Midnight by Lara Adrian and is considered book 9.5 of the Midnight Breed series, taking place between Deeper Than Midnight which is where I had left off and Darker After Midnight which was next to read. Also a kindle borrow, this one only 70 pages (geez, what's with the short novellas!) Read in one day, June 26th.
Darker After Midnight by Lara Adrian and is book 10 of the Midnight Breed series. A kindle borrow of 384 pages. This one was read from June 27th to June 29th. This one centered on a character I didn't really like, so I'm claiming that as the reason why I didn't read it lickity-split.
Edge of Dawn by Lara Adrian and is book 11 of the Midnight Breed series. Another kindle borrow of 313 pages, I got this late (if I remember correctly) on June 29th, which is when I started it, and finished on June 30th. I didn't immediately read the next in the series because it was loaned to someone else, but I will eventually get to it. In fact I recently re-ordered my to read list and it is higher up on the chain of order than previously.
Scepters by L.E. Modesitt, Jr. and is book 3 of the Corean Chronicles which I have mentioned in previous posts. I would like to mention that I re-read Legacies and Darknesses which are books 1 and 2 of the series so that I remembered what the series was about because I technically started this book in March of 2013. So because I re-read the previous 2 books, I restarted this one too, and was something like 100 pages into it. So I don't have the actual start date but I finished this on August 27th. Because this is a book I'm borrowing from my brother, it wasn't really pressing to read it in a certain amount of time. It did have 738 pages, but you'll see why that is no excuse in a bit. As I mentioned in a previous post, at this time I have no intention of reading the following books but I may change my mind again later.
Dead Ever After by Charlaine Harris and is book 13 (and the final) of the Sookie Stackhouse series. A library borrow of 338 pages, I was trying to read Alector's Choice (book 4 of Corean Chronicles) but hardly made a dent so I stopped and picked this one because it was the final book of its series. Now I had watched the show that was a product of this book series first, but I did read the books. The only problem is that I watched/ read the books years ago. Surprisingly, I didn't have trouble following along with everything despite the years long gap and was read in a single day. September 25th.
The Last Hunt by Bruce Coville and is the 4th and final book of the Unicorn Chronicles series. This series is geared more towards middle school ages, which is when I found this series and I read books 1 and 2. I found out that my local library had both 3 and 4 (and 1 and 2, but I didn't really need those...) so when I did the 2015 reading challenge, I read book 3. I basically came to the same decision as with Dead Ever After, that it was the last in the series so it made sense to just get it over and done with. This was a 605 page endeavor, and I really have no excuse as to why it took as long as it did to read, from September 27th to October 9th, other than it kept switching perspective which I'm usually not a fan of it unless it's done well. Also, Cara was my favorite character (for obvious reasons when when you first read the series and you were about the same age as the protagonist) and there was a lot where she isn't in the scene.
Dime Store Magic by Kelley Armstrong and is book 3 of the Women of the Otherworld series. Books 1 and 2 (Bitten and Stolen) were read in 2015 after getting into the tv show that held the same name as the first book. Bitten, if I remember correctly was a freebie purchase (oxymoron right there) and I had some cash to spare so I bought Stolen shortly after. Then life happened and I didn't get any of the following books. This was a kindle borrow, as is the following books in the series. 448 pages and despite not following Elena's perspective, but Paige's (who I didn't like in the show) this one took about a week, October 9th to the 15th. Usually when a series deviates from the original perspective I have trouble especially if the original perspective (read: narrator) was one I adored. However, Armstrong did a much better job with Paige's character than the show so it wasn't too bad.
Industrial Magic by Kelley Armstrong and is book 4 of the Women of the Otherworld series. 560 pages make up this book, still in the perspective of Paige. This took from October 15th to the 20th to read, some of that was because I had spent almost all day on the 20th out with my brother because he was in town because my birthday was the 17th. Again, I enjoyed this book pretty well, Armstrong doing an amazing job with characterization and execution of the story.
Day Shift by Charlaine Harris and is book 2 of the Midnight, Texas series. Again, I found the show first, which airs on the NBC network. I read the preceding book sometime last year and figured that since the library bought the 3rd book (Night Shift) for kindle loan which I had set up to automatically put me on a waiting list for the book that I should read this one before I received notice that the third book was available for borrowing. Now despite the fact that the show airs on NBC and not HBO like True Blood did, the show was racier than the books (that is to say, I'm enjoying the show more). This 308 page book took from October 20th to October 24th.
Haunted by Kelley Armstrong and is book 6 of the Women of the Otherworld series. This one changes perspective again, shifting to Eve. I'm not going to bore you with how every one is related to everyone, but this 528 page book was done in 4 days. October 24th to the 28th (I had borrowed Day Shift and this one at the same time, it gives you 21 days to read, and since I had both in my borrowed possession before Kingdom of Ash was released, that was my incentive to read them quickly). Which lead me to the big kahuna.
Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas and is book 7 of the Throne of Glass series. This is also the final book. I'm not going to give all the details in case anyone reading my posts are reading this series but haven't gotten to this book yet. Technically, I read this 992 page book in 2 days, October 28th to October 30th. But I worked on the 27th, 28th and 29th, so I wasn't pushing myself to read it because I knew that if I really wanted to, I could have read it in one sitting, but that wouldn't be fair on my coworker because I wouldn't have gotten any sleep from the 27th/28th and I was by myself on the 29th so that would have been a bad idea all around. However, once I got home on the 29th, I sat down and read for about 4.5 to 5 hours to finish the book. I finished this book at around 4:40am, and holy shit. If I hadn't previously though Maas was a literary genius, I would have coined her a literary God. I may still do that, because she wrapped up the story so beautifully. It didn't end how I expected based on foreshadowing she had set up in the previous books, and while there was still sad parts, it had an overall happy ending, for everyone you grew to love. (Maas also did promise that Fleetfoot, Aelin's dog, would survive the series, "the only guaranteed survivor" so she also gets points for that). I did however, cry like 10 times (or more).... but there were also moments that made you laugh so there was at least a semblance of balance between the two emotions.
Ok. So if you took the actual amount of time it took me to read this almost 1000 page book, I read it in about 12/13 hours. Of course I'm estimating, and could be off in either direction, but I can guarantee that if I had the day off of work when I first started reading this book, it would have been done in a day. That is why I mentioned above to notice page numbers. I found the Throne of Glass series in 2016, and pretty much read them as quickly as I could. I'm pretty sure I found them because Throne of Glass had been a freebie because Empire of Storms (book 5) had been recently released. Tower of Dawn (book 6) had been released in November of 2016. I was a little hesitant to read book 6 because it changed perspective and you were tortured with the knowledge of how 5 ended, knowing that 6 ran pretty much concurrently to the events of 5 (the beginning of both 5 and 6 start where 4 leaves off, merging at the end of 5 and 6 respectively, and lead into 7). But I read it, and I am hailing this series as the Best Young Adult Sci-Fi/Fantasy series ever. I don't care what others say.
So now, there are 62 days of the year left, and I'm not going to stop. My actual goal was to read as many books off my to read list as possible, but I set a reasonable goal of 25 books as something to shoot for, because often times if I don't have a set goal in mind I fail to follow through on things.
I started reading Broken which is book 7 in the Women of the Otherworld series this morning (perspective because I haven't gone to bed yet, so October 30th) after I went to bed at like 5am and slept till noon. I am about 54% done and have already borrowed the following book for when I finish this one. At the rate I'm going, I can easily finish this series at least, with six more books in the series (there is a total of 13 books).
I also have, as I mentioned above, Night Shift which is book three of Midnight, Texas series on a wait list (which I'm now #15 of 33 on 4 copies) but I also placed Crave the Night from the Midnight Breed series on hold and I'm #1 of 1 on 2 copies.
I'm not counting my current reading material here, but I have a page count of 9820 for this year, and I'm not even done reading for my "unofficial" official reading challenge. Kingdom of Ash is the biggest book that I've read by far, at least that I remember, beating out Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by 122 pages. I do have some books on my to read list that are longer (books 3, 4, and 5 of A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin, the series Game of Thrones is based on) but I haven't read them yet (duh) so they don't count (yet). I do have one that is bigger than HP and the OotP: Stone of Tears which is book two of Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series at 979 pages but that is only a couple pages shorter than KoA.
LET THE READING GAMES, CONTINUE!!!!!!!!!!
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