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My 2014 Reading Challenge


How my 2013 Reading Challenge went

This past year I think I’ve read more books than I have any other year of my life.  According to my Goodreads list I’ve finished 55 separate books and read over 16’000 pages!  I guess that’s what happens when you spend 2 hours on a train every day.  As I’ve just moved house I’ve got a much shorter journey with no train, so I don’t think I’m getting anywhere near to that number again.   I managed to finish all 6 books that I chose to make a point of reading this year and, with the exception of Frankenstein, they are all really good.   I can see  myself checking out more works from the same authors at  a later time, but for now here’s the 6 I’ve chosen for this year.

My 2014 Reading Challenge books

Last year’s idea of choosing 6 different categories worked so well that I’m going to stick with the same method (and categories) this year.

Deceased author:

Consider Phlebas/The Culture Series by Iain M Banks.

As will the case with Ray Bradbury last year, I’m ashamed to say I’ve never read anything by Iain M Banks.  While I’ve heard his name come up many times in conversations I can’t say I’ve heard much about any specific book he’s written.  His Culture series seems to be the most popular of his works and from what I can gather there’s no defined order to read them in.  If anyone’s got any recommendations for certain books, let me know.

Book I’ve had lying around for ages and haven’t read yet:

The Ultimate History of Video Games – Stephen L. Kent

I originally picked this one up about 10 years ago along with several similar books when I wanted to write an essay on how video games are perceived through the years.  I only read about a quarter of it for the assignment and I’d like to go back to check out the rest of it.  I’m not sure if it’s still considered the “ultimate” history on video games anymore, but it certainly was at the time.

Non-Fiction:

Kingpin by Kevin Poulsen

I’ve mentioned before that I’m pretty damn interested in reading the stories about hacker culture and history.  Over the last few years I’ve gone through all the major books on the topic, except this one which only came out in 2011.  I intend to remedy this.

Alternative Genre:

Idiopathy by Sam Byers

When I moved house I joined a local book club.  I’ve only been to a couple of sessions so far, but it’s safe to say that the reading material is far outside my usual comfort zone.  There was this one book in Waterstones lists of best books of 2013 which we spent 10 minutes trying to find a description for online to no avail.  So I volunteered to read it and feed back to everyone else what it was about.   I have no idea what it’s about, but I’m guessing it’s not from one of my usual genres.

Classic:

Moby Dick – Herman Melville

It’s said that Moby Dick is the original story of a man obsessed with revenge. I’m not sure about it being the original one, but it’s definitely the most referenced one.  Captain Picard things highly of it too, so for that alone it’s in my list.

Author/Book I’ve been meaning to check out forever, but never get around to:

World War Z – Max Brooks

Considering the movie very loosely based on this novel came out a few months ago it seems like a good time to give it a go.  From what I know about it already, I can expect to hear a number of stories from survivors in midst of a zombie apocalypse. Max Brooks also wrote the Zombie survivors guide, so it’s safe to say he knows his stuff when it comes to writing about zombies.

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Posted by on January 2, 2014 in 2014 reading challenge, Reading

 

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