Danie's 2017 TBR List - Trying again

Okay. Gonna give this another try this year. Last year I wound up with 2 out of 24 done. So, we'll see if I can get actual 12 done this year. (Also going to do what Art has done and put the year that I first put them on a list, which, for me, this year, was last year, so... :))

Still have a couple to figure out though. One for the print, and one for the eBooks. Hmm....

1. Iron Patriot Unbreakable (2017)
2. Tropical Convergence (2016)
3. Fingersmith (2016)
4. Madam President (2016)
5. Postmortem (2016)
6. Harmony (2016)
7. Of Drag Kings And the Wheel of Fate (2016)
8. Fairest of All (2016)
9. Womanthology: Space (2016)
10. Etched in Shadows (2016)
11. Justice League 3000, Vol. 1 (2016)
12. Do Not Disturb (2016)

Ebooks (And possible Substitutions (I have 100 ebooks on my nook just sitting there))

13. Love Waits (2016)
14. A Vision of Fire (2016)
15. A Clash of Kings - This one is more a finish sort of thing, but I have more than a book plus of it to finish (2016)
16. Fated Love (2016)
17. Amazonia (2016)
18. Melt (2016)
19. Stranded (2016)
20. Cocaine Blues (2016)
21. Brady vs. Manning (2016)
22. Meet Me in Atlantis (2016)
23. Starting From Scratch (2016)
24. Virgin Territory (2017)

I think that this year may go better. I'm overlapping some of them with the Book Riot #ReadHarder2017 challenge. Not to mention, they have their own collection and each challenge has its own tags. I may look for some more challenges too (haven't found a good LGBT, heavy on the L and T challenge. There was one, but it was like, read a lgbt book, um... I read multiple ones :))

So, I'm hoping this year goes better than the 2 books of last year (and I've more than replaced those two books.... oops... :))

Good luck with your 2017 challenge! I have also had some years with not very many at all read. The Brady vs. Manning book sure looks interesting.

>3 billiejean: Thank you. The thing is that I did read a lot this year, 220 books or so I think, but, I just wind up reading the Library books first (and Netgalley too) because they both have due dates. :)

I love the Patriots, (*cough* and can't stand Manning, either of them *cough*) and so that did look interesting. I just got done with Michael Holley's new book Brady and Belichick which was totally awesome!

Cocaine Blues has an unabridged audio edition read by the late Stephanie Daniel, who was a very good narrator for the series (if that's of interest to you, given that the work is on your ebook list...)

What amazes me about the TBR group is how many of the books people have on their lists I have never hear of!

Wishing you great 2017 reading and a great year all round.

>6 majkia: Heh. I read everything from Sinestro and the Ring of Fear to stuff about Hatshepsut and pre-humans Masters of the Planet. So, yep, there are usually some totally random stuff on my list. :)

Happy reading in 2017 and good luck with the challenge!

>4 DanieXJ: I grew up on the Dallas Cowboys, but fell out of love with them after Landry was retired. Now I have a daughter in Pittsburgh, so I promised to root for the Steelers this year. Which is heresy where I come from. I even have a terrible towel. Brady is quite a quarterback, isn't he?

>1 DanieXJ:

I've got one of the Song of Ice and Fire books on my challenge lists (A Game of Thrones) again. Maybe I'll actually get to it this year! :D

Keith Giffen is usually a fun writer, so Justice League 3000 should be an entertaining read.

Good luck and happy reading! :)

>2 DanieXJ:

There was a LGBTQ Speculative Fiction Reading Challenge over at Worlds Without End for 2016. Don't know if they're doing another one in 2017, though.

https://worldswithoutend.com/rollyourown.asp?ryo_id=125

>9 billiejean: When I was a little kid I liked the Cowboys, some of my extended family is near there, and I totally loved how Emmitt Smith ran. (Plus the Pats totally stunk). But, when Robert Kraft bought the Patriots I started paying more attention to them because Kraft seems to actually care about the team where the previous owners towards the end really really hadn't. And so I was watching as Bledsoe learned to steal defeat from the jaws of victory over and over. And then, I was in college and Mo Lewis totally ruined Bledsoe on the sideline, and this Baby faced kid I'd never heard of before came into the game, and I was a die hard fan after that first throw. I was on the Brady train from that very first game, and he'll always be my favorite QB.

Anyway. Good luck rooting for Pittsburg, I will definitely be rooting against them. :)

>10 artturnerjr: I've been trying to finish Clash of Kings forever now, and every year there is just something shorter and more interesting. Maybe by the time George R.R. Martin finishes the next book I'll get through Kings. :)

Looks like there's nothing up on the site for this year yet. I mean, it's not like I need a challenge to read a ton of LGBTQ books. I do anyway, but, I'm doing the BookRiot challenge and it's made me realize that these challenges can make me spread out what I read and read some different stuff too.

Happy challenging!

I stopped at Game of Thrones because I became concerned that the series would never be finished. I hope Martin has not lost interest.

>13 billiejean:, he's a perfectionist is the problem, if that's a problem. I'm pretty sorry he let the show get ahead of him, it's almost impossible to avoid spoilers.

I have not watched the show, thank goodness.

Woo. Got one done because all my devices were charging and so I needed to read something that was print.

Justice League 3000 wasn't bad. Definitely a complex story w/ a ton of twists.

>16 DanieXJ:
The whole new 52 thing is too daunting for me. I've seen a few of the animated movies DC have put out set in that (those) universe(s), but I'm hesitant to move beyond that. It seems like even sampling a few of the series (e.g. a single run of Flash or Batman) requires so much backstory and awareness of what is going on in other series that not having such awareness feels... excluding, I think is a good word. Like I'm missing half of the import of the various plot twists and character motivations. (I'm basing this off having browsed issues in shops and friends' recommendations.)

Do you have any suggestions for casually curious n00bs?

>16 DanieXJ:

Congrats! Nice to see you have a back-up plan in case of just such an emergency. 8)

Have you tried reading comics on a device? I've been experimenting with it since I got an iPhone. I have to admit, it's actually not as bad as I thought it would be.

>17 Petroglyph: Don't touch the Batman titles or the Superman titles. Ugh, with Batman they just have too many of the New52 titles and they seemed to have more crossover mega events than ever before. As for the Superman titles, I think (and bear in mind I've read a lot

I would recommend two New52 serieses that actually go together too. There are five volumes of the New52 Harley Quinn which are awesome!! (no Joker) starting with Harley Quinn, Vol. 1, and the Suicide Squad series. Okay, there's actually two of them Suicide Squad, Vol. 1, and New Suicide Squad, Vol. 1, (needless to say the one with New comes second). The Harley is my favorite though, it starts out as very Deadpool-esque, but then she gets her own voice. It's done by Amanda Connor and Jimmy Palmotti for the most part, and they were awesome when I saw them at BCC too. :)

>18 artturnerjr: I do read a lot on my Galaxy Tab 3. I got it that big so that I could read the comics on it, and it's pretty okay. Sometimes the PDFs go insane, but on the whole it's pretty cool (I just got Auto Approved by DC Entertainment on Netgalley too. You should have heard me gasp and squee... and I rarely squee... :))

Uh oh, it's already March and I've only read one off my list. Unfortunately I have about 33 Netgalley waiting to be read before the end of April, not to mention the other library stuff that I get out and doing things that have nothing to do with reading. :)

I do have Madam President waiting for me under all the library books. :)

>20 DanieXJ: I'm very curious to see what you think of Madam President. I'm trying to decide if I'd like to read it myself and all the reviews seem to be either a love it or hate it kind of thing.

I've already read it in its Online form (and the sequel) First Lady, and in that form I liked both of them a lot, but, then again, I'm pretty sure that anything by Blayne Cooper or T. Novan I would give very good marks to. I mean Words Heard in Silence Woo!!

(If you perchance mean the other Madam President book by Nicolle Wallace instead I believe I have read it (although my read but unowned collection seems to disagree), and while I found it okay, it wasn't the best book I've read either.)

I have a short blurb review blog for work, and I'm still pissed that I didn't get to do my chosen week of books for Inauguration week (I mean, I'm pissed off about other stuff about the whole situation too, but)... I had 4 out of the 6 books, all with the title of Madam President. It was glorious.... *sigh*)

Hell to the Woo! I got Two!! :)

I'm thinking that I may give this a no go in 2018. I keep trying and it's just not working. I am trying to put my TBR in some kind of order using a Google Sheet, so, we'll see if that helps me in general.

Two is better than 0, but, oy... still... :)

Sorry if we lose you, but you're right to be doing whatever works to make your reading as fun as possible.

Sorry that this is not working for you. I use this challenge to diversify my reading, to incentivize myself to read things I should be reading alongside the fluffier, shinier, newer stuff I just dive into and read.

It sounds like what you're trying to do is finding time in which to read. From my experience, that time is not just going to appear if your schedule is busy. If you want time to read, then a spreadsheet for your TBR is only the first step: you're going to have to set aside time for reading in your daily and/or weekly schedule, a time slot that you cannot sacrifice to other claims on your time because you're busy reading.

A few years back I was down to a handful of books a year, and so I created time slots for reading in my weekly schedule. I also spent some of those time slots in a coffee shop: a neutral place, away from responsibilities at work and/or home. Once I got back into the habit of reading, I no longer needed those crutches.

It feels weird (well, it did to me) to view reading time as something you plan for, but the point of it is that you stake out a place for books and then defend that place against your other responsibilities and your to-do things. Reading time belongs with grocery shopping, food preparation, commuting time and meeting friends: if you don't make room for it, it just doesn't happen.

Like >26 Petroglyph: said, I use the challenge as a way to get me reading more different things, and to pick up some of those that've been sitting around unread for years, for no reason other than just being passed over time & again. I suppose in a way it does get me reading more, in that if I've been in a slump then I get all, oh no I'm gonna do bad, I gotta get back into it! lmao, but, yeah, just do whatever works best for you!