Music Monday's originated at The Tattooed Book Geek's fantastic blog and has shown up hither, thither, and yon since then.
Tag: Miscellany Page 27 of 172
Odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
January 1, 2025 is Public Domain Day: Works from 1929 are open to all, as are sound recordings from 1924!—While the list of some of the more prominent titles is interesting, it’s a good piece on copyright, public domain, and even some of people behind the works
Support an indie author by leaving reviews—An Evergreen Reminder
New You? Or Old Books? Here’s a resolution: Craft a personal canon
20 Years of Old Man’s War—Scalzi looks back at the publication of OMW, the book that changed his life
Robert Crais: A Crime Reader’s Guide to the Classics—You read this, and you never have to read another word about Robert Crais again. It’s just that good. (the last section is a must read)
Reading Ladies’ Carol has a few 2024 Blog Reflections to kick off 2025
She also posted: Best of the Best: 2015 to 2024—a nigh-Herculean task
Lashaan’s A Year in Review — 2024 at Roars and Echoes. I’m so tempted by just about everything mentioned in this wrap up (except for the very tiny amount of things I’ve already read/watched)
State of [Pete Long’s] Delirium 2025
Fictionophile’s SEVEN Bookish Resolutions 2025—some good, SMART, goals.
Politics in SFF: Yes or No? Book Berne-ing 18!—Berne delivers what will be come to known as the definitive take on the subject for years to come. (okay, probably not, but it should be a contender if such a thing were possible)
It’s the Time of Year for Best of Lists like these to embiggen your 2025 TBRs (or to give you fodder to think about). I’ve made purchases/planned purchases/placed library books on hold from these. One title in particular keeps showing up on these lists (including what I’ve posted the last few weeks). It’s going to be on my list, too. Which just makes me feel better about including it–I knew what I was doing. 🙂
Biblionerd Reflections’ My Favorite Backlist Reads of 2024 and My Favorite Books of 2024
The Fantasy Hive 2024 Year-End Awards—Nunc hoc in marmore non est incisum
2024 Book RoundUp —The Voracious Reader has some great taste.
2024, A Year in Reading: Best Books of the Year—from Asking the Wrong Questions. The third sentence is one of the most relatable things I’ve read in the last few months.
Spells and Spaceships’ My Books of the Year 2024.
The Shaggy Shepherd’s Most Memorable Reads of 2024
Top 10 Books Read in 2024—from Pete Long. My TBR can’t handle this kind of pressure.
Stephen Writes continues to put out good lists (and make me feel better about all the year-end lists I have planned)
The Best Settings I Read In 2024
Top 10 Books I Read In 2024
MIke Finn’s My 12 Favourite Reads of 2024
746 Books has three lists to tempt you:
My Favourite Books of the Year: Part One – The 746!
My Favourite Books of the Year: Part Two – The Irish! My Favourite Books of 2024: Part Three – New to Me!
reader@work’s Books of the year: 2024 edition—made me reconsider a book I’d previously decided against
My Top Ten Books for 2024!—from The Orangutan Librarian
Dillon Michael White’s Top Books of 2024 is a quick watch well worth your time
To help talk about backlist titles (and just for fun), What Was I Talking About 10 Years Ago Week?
Endsinger by Jay Kristoff—the disturbing, yet satisfying, (as I recall) conclusion to the Lotus War trilogy
Broadchurch: A Novel by Erin Kelly—I cannot get enough of Broadchurch‘s first series in any format (I will not comment on the rest).
Broken Soul by Faith Hunter
As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes with Joe Layden—I should revisit this one
And I mentioned the release of Low Midnight by Carrie Vaughn.
I’d hoped to keep charging ahead with Grandpappy’s Corner and Literary Locals, and while those haven’t completely died off, I haven’t done that much with them as I expected.
How’s the perennial, “Cut down on my Goodreads Want-to-Read list and the unread books that I own” goal going? Well, I bought very few books in February, so that helped, but overall…?
| Audio | E-book | Physical | Goodreads Want-to-Read |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| End of 2023 |
6 | 46 | 68 | 153 |
| End of 1st Quarter | 4 | 50 | 64 | 154 |
| End of 2nd Quarter | 3 | 54 | 79 | 162 |
| End of 3rd Quarter | 5 | 58 | 75 | 166 |
| End of 4th Quarter | 3 | 68 | 78 | 167 |
Goodreads Challenge
I topped it by 1, but Goodreads won’t give me the silly graphic for 2024 for some reason. So you’re going to have to take my word for it.
12 Books
I didn’t touch any of these, and I’m really annoyed with myself.
Reading with Wrigs
Like I mentioned the other day, I didn’t finish this one, either.
- A Book with a Dragon: Aftermarket Afterlife by Seanan McGuire
- A Book with the word “leap” in the title: Couldn’t think of one.
- A Book with the Olympics: Running and Jumping by Steven Kedie
- A Book with an Election or Politician: The Olympian Affair by Jim Butcher
- A Work of Fiction with an Eclipse: Missed it
- A Book by an Author Who Has Written Over 24 Books: Dream Town by Lee Goldberg
- A Book Set in a Different Culture Than Your Own: I have an idea or two.
- A Book of Poetry: Enough Rope by Dorothy Parker
- A Book with Time Travel: A Quantum Love Story by Mike Chen
- A Book with Antonyms in the Title: I really thought I’d get this one, but, alas
- A Book Told from the Villian’s Point of View: Assassins Anonymous by Rob Hart kind of applies.
- A Book With a Purple Cover: Abnormal Ends by Bryan McBee
The 2024 Booktempter’s TBR Challenge
All 12, plus two stretch goals. Fourteen off the TBR. Sure, it’s just a drop in the bucket. But a step is a step.
January – Lucky Dip: Randomly choose a book by someone you’ve never read before: Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson
Stretch Goal – In the same spirit I give you permission to read the last book to enter your TBR pile. Actually read something you’ve got yourself to recently read: Hacked by Duncan MacMaster
February – Lovers Meeting: No not romantasy focused – this challenge is somewhere in TBR is a delayed treat. Read an author you’ve loved and held back from reading because the time was not right. Its time for you two to get re-acquainted. Enjoy yourself! Return of the Griffin by JCM Berne
March – Spring :You know that first book of a series you bought and have now realised is now finished? You have my permission to read this at last. And you know what? Bannerless by Carrie Vaughn
April – Diamond Anniversary: Diamond is the birthstone of April so your challenge is to read something over 60 years old: The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
May – The Fourth…May the force be with you and I permit you to read a SF themed tale: Grave Cold by Shannon Knight
June – The Longest Days: You may choose the longest book in your TBR pile the days are long so go for it: The Running Grave by Robert Galbraith
July – The Ides have it In an ongoing tribute to Julius pick a tale of intrigue and scheming: The Last King of California by Jordan Harper
August – Travel Broadens the Mind: Choose a Book that is from an author from a different country to yourself: The Nameless Restaurant by Tao Wong. I’ve read all from other places that aren’t from this year, so…Canada (which doesn’t seem to count, but does)
September – Back To School: Choose a Book about a character learning something – be it in school, a new power or something about themselves: Project Hail Mary by Andy Wier
October – Yep Its Halloween Time: Find a spooky themed read!: My Darkest Prayer by S.A. Cosby (a murder mystery focusing on a mortuary worker, as creepy as I could come up with)
November – Short but Sweet: Four Novellas – and you cna do this in a month: 1-800-CallLoki by Dawn Blair
Stretch Goal – I test you – I want eleven short stories read – magazine, collection or anthology!: Instinct: An Animal Rescuers Anthology by L. J. Hachmeister
December – Parting Gifts: Read a Book gifted to you – before Christmas comes and you realise you’ve still not read it!: Shadow of Hyperion by JCM Berne
Backlist Bingo 2024
I did get a bingo, but not the blackout that I hoped for.
In sum…while I read a lot of great stuff this year (and even more good stuff), I didn’t do so good with my goals. Oh well.
(Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay)
Rising from the ashes of the While I Was Reading Challenge, came Reading with Wrigs. I’ve done pretty well with While I Was Reading most of the I participated, and I thought this would be the same—but it wasn’t meant to be this year. I just assumed I’d come across some of these without going out of my way to look for anything. Ah well, I’ll do better next year.
Probably.
Anyway, here are my incomplete results:
- A Book with a Dragon: Aftermarket Afterlife by Seanan McGuire
- A Book with the word “leap” in the title: Couldn’t think of one.
- A Book with the Olympics: Running and Jumping by Steven Kedie
- A Book with an Election or Politician: The Olympian Affair by Jim Butcher
- A Work of Fiction with an Eclipse: Missed it
- A Book by an Author Who Has Written Over 24 Books: Dream Town by Lee Goldberg
- A Book Set in a Different Culture Than Your Own: I have an idea or two.
- A Book of Poetry: Enough Rope by Dorothy Parker
- A Book with Time Travel: A Quantum Love Story by Mike Chen
- A Book with Antonyms in the Title: I really thought I’d get this one, but, alas
- A Book Told from the Villian’s Point of View: Assassins Anonymous by Rob Hart kind of applies.
- A Book With a Purple Cover: Abnormal Ends by Bryan McBee
Music Monday's originated at The Tattooed Book Geek's fantastic blog and has shown up hither, thither, and yon since then.
It’s that magic time of year when I find myself being very strategic in what books I choose to pick up–not in a stats-padding way–but in a “can I reasonably expect to finish this by Tuesday night” sort of way (which turns out to look and act like stats-padding), so I can enter 2025 with a clean slate.
Oh, it’s also magic because of all the time I get to spend with family, the general bonhomie in the air, the wonder in my grandchild’s eyes, and all that other stuff, too.
One more thing before I forget–anyone have any recommendations for a decent reading tracker spreadsheet going into the year? Trying to shake things up and trying something new (and I’m not so sure my usual source is going to put one out). I’m thinking of just making my own (again), but I’m also kind of lazy.
Odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
The Charles Dickens Illustrated Gallery—A treasure trove of “over 2000 illustrations taken from the most important (and interesting) illustrated editions of Charles Dickens’s works from 1836 to 1912 (the centenary of Dickens’s birth).”
A Critic on Swearing in Fantasy—been too long since I had a good Peat Long rant here. (FWIW, I agree with it. Except the bit about “kids” I hadn’t noticed that before, but I probabaly will now)
The 2025 Fantasy/SF Badge Collection—Spells & Spaceships makes the coolest looking virtual badges.
A Huge Round Up of 2025 Year Long Reading Challenges—a near-overwhelming collection of 2025 Challenges to help plan your year.
Oh Come All Ye Fantasy—Santa Womble brings has a bag-full of fantasy recs.
Ten Recommended Superhero Novels—I keep meaning to do a list along these lines, until I do, I’ll point people at this one.
Quotables: Words that Stuck with Me in 2024—A post I look forward to every year on Witty and Sarcastic Book Blog
It’s the Time of Year for Best of Lists like these to embiggen your 2025 TBRs (or to give you fodder to think about). I’ve made purchases/placed library books on hold from these.
I’ve only read one book from CrimeReads lists (and some of the runner-ups for Best of the Year), but am very inpired to pick up a lot of these:
The Best Debut Crime Novels of 2024
The Best Speculative Crime Fiction of 2024
https://crimereads.com/the-best-crime-novels-of-2024/
Reads of the year for the HIP (Harried Intellectual Parent): 2024—(just in case there are any reading this)
A Fictional Escapists Top 5 Reads of 2024!
Worlds Unlike Our Own’s Best of 2024
Novel Deelights’ Favourite Series of 2024
A few more lists from FanFiAddict:
Tom Bookbeard’s Top Indie Sci Fi and Fantasy Reads of 2024
Matt’s Top Reads of 2024
Harry’s Top 10 Reads of 2024
@LordTBR_FFA ‘s Top 15 Reads of 2024
My Top Ten Reads of 2024—from Hooked from Page One
Books of the year: 2024 edition—from reader @ work
Coe’s Oddly Specific Book Awards
Top Five Memorable Endings I Read In 2024
Music Monday's originated at The Tattooed Book Geek's fantastic blog and has shown up hither, thither, and yon since then.
No trip down memory lane this week—I posted nothing 10 years ago. A move I can appreciate (and almost replicated).
The first link I have to share has nothing to do with books or reading, but was so interesting that I’m sharing it anway:
A List of 1,065 Medieval Dog Names: Nosewise, Garlik, Havegoodday & More—I strongly encourage clicking the links within the short post and the Related Content.
And now, back to our regularly scheduled focus.
Odds ‘n ends about books and reading that caught my eye this week. You’ve probably seen some/most/all of them, but just in case:
Hartford high school graduate who claims she can’t read sues board of education
Every AI Copyright Lawsuit in the US, Visualized—For those who have lost track of them all (like me)
Snap! Criticism: De Marcken and Kramnick—literary criticism and the idea of “quality”
Interview with M. W. Craven about the Ben Koenig series
Speaking of Craven, he showed up on CrimeReads this week with An Englishman in New York—as one who frequently complains about British authors flubbing Americanisms, I appreciate this.
Nice Place to Visit, But…: Johnny D. Boggs’ Bloody Newton—I had to take a second look at this review. (the title of the book could also be what some British authors call me when I comlain about their flubbed Americanisms)
The Art of Buying Books for Other People—some very good advice (especially about keeping lists)
Bookstr put together this handy The Best Book Deals as We Say Goodbye to 2024
Let Children Read What They Want—please
Out with the Old, In With the New – End of Year Review—A Little Book Problem takes a look at 2024 and looks toward 2025
A Year Spent Rereading – Some Highlights and Lowlights—The Orangutan Librarian looks back
It’s the Time of Year for Best of Lists like these. Your TBR will grow, I should warn you.
The Ultimate Best Books of 2024 List—I really appreciate Emily Temple’s annual List of Lists
The Empty Bookshelf’s Top 10 Novels of 2024—I’ve only read one of these (his top pick), but the rest look pretty appetizing
Pages Unbound’s Krysta gave her
Favorite Books Read in 2024
Top Twelve Graphic Novels Read in 2024
FanFiAddict posted:
C. J. Daley’s Top Reads of 2024
Anna’s Favorite Reads of 2024—many of these will appeal to people who aren’t me, but I can see why horror readers would dig them.
Ryan’s Favorite Reads of 2024
I’ve Read 26 Bookish Books in 2024—not really a Best Of, but it’s a good list, so it fit here better than above.
A.J.’s Completely Random Book Awards: 2024—Were I more creative, this is the approach I’d to take. But I’m not, so I’ll just enjoy people like A.J. Calvin who are.
Along those lines, I really enjoy the way that Steven Writes breaks down his lists:
Top Five Powerful Books I Read In 2024
Top Five Most Dramatic Twists I Read In 2024
Top Five Character-Driven Books I Read In 2024
Top Five Beautiful Covers I Held In 2024
A Book-ish Related Podcast episode (or two) you might want to give a listen to:
SFF Addicts Ep. 135: Our Favorite Reads of 2024 LIVE (with Greta Kelly, The FTF Podcast & OWWR Pod)—this was fun and TBR embiggening.
Crime Time FM Alison Gaylin In Person With Paul—I really enjoyed this chat with Gaylin and hearing her take on Sunny Randall
This Week’s New Releases that I’m Excited About and/or You’ll Probably See Here Soon:
Suppression of Powers by JCM Berne—Turn Six of the Hybrid Helix looks like it’ll put Rohan through the wringer (shock) as the second arc of the kicks off.
Running late with this again. I’m still trying to shake the COVID symptoms and life’s been busier than I’m used to–I’ve fallen asleep with my leptop open and a post in the works for four nights in a row. I’m trying to focus on just getting something up for the next couple of days without much reference to time.
This meme was formerly hosted by MizB at A Daily Rhythm and revived on Taking on a World of Words—and shown to me by Aurore-Anne-Chehoke at Diary-of-a-black-city-girl.
The Three Ws are:
What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?
Seems easy enough, right? Let’s take a peek at this week’s answers:
What are you currently reading?
 |
 |
| The Big Empty by Robert Crais |
Whispers Under Ground by Ben Aaronovitch, read by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith |
On the one hand, I wish Crais wrote faster. On the other hand, whatever he’s doing to bring us stuff like The Big Empty is so good that I don’t want him to mess with his M.O.
I’m really enjoying getting back into the world of Whispers Under Ground and remembering all the things I forgot since my last trip through it.
What did you recently finish reading?
 |
 |
| Adrift in Currents Clean and Clear by Seanan McGuire |
Grave Peril by Jim Butcher, read by James Marsters |
Ohhh, McGuire did everything right with her newest Wayward Children novel.
The gut punch at the end of Grave Peril hit just as hard as I remembered, I figure it will no matter how many times I revist this one.
What do you think you’ll read next?
 |
 |
| A Serial Killer’s Guide to Marriage by Asia Mackay |
The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society by C. M. Waggoner, read by Cindy Piller |
Mackay’s US debut will make three NetGalley reads in a row for me, which is more than I like to tackle at once, but I want to clear the decks there.
I’d been curious about the Waggoner book, but it was Mike Finn’s post about it that pushed me to get on the wait list. Looking forward to diving in.
What’ve you been reading lately?
Music Monday's originated at The Tattooed Book Geek's fantastic blog and has shown up hither, thither, and yon since then.