Thursday 1 March 2012

Carl's Sci fi experience and February books

Carl's Sci Fi Experience is over.  It was quite an experience for me this year.  As you know, I have reacquainted myself with my long lost nerdy love, and he has swooped in and taken over a corner of my reading life.  It will never be quite the same again!

For the challenge experience, I read a total of 8 books in total, one short story, and watched Fringe, Babylon 5, and X-Files for tv shows. I've been watching X-Files Season 1 as I ride my exercise bike in the mornings. I am almost done the first season.  I am surprised by how much I remember in the episodes, and how very good they still are, too.  Classic sci-fi creepy horror stuff, and most wonderful way to start the day!  I am getting Season 2 of Babylon 5 shortly, and have Firefly, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer as well as Chuck and Fringe, to take me through into the spring.

I read 5 books only in February, which is very low for me. I think the virus we all had affected me more than I realized. I slept alot for one week, and am still going to bed early.  I am disappointed however, I usually try to read 8, and am aiming  for 10 books per month this year, to try to reach my 100 books goal.  Right, so I am going to have to read, read, read, in March!

February Book totals
1. Dragonsinger - Anne McCaffrey
2. Dragondrums - ''          ''
3. Moving Mars - Greg Bear
4. The Harper's Quine - Pat McIntosh
5. Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang - Kate Wilhelm

I enjoyed them all very much, though I think Moving Mars will be my favourite of the month.  The Harper Hall Trilogy are really close behind, though.

That said, I am finding I am longing for some Jane Austen and other classics, to read The Morville Hours, to read my library books - especially Connie Willis.  Then yesterday I went to Chapters and discovered they have a buy 3, get one free deal going on all their books.  So, naturally, I found some!

Books bought  last night:
Directive 51 - John Barnes
The Man on the Balcony - Maj Sjowall/Per Wahloo (#3 in the series)
Sworn to Silence - Linda Castillo (Amish murder mystery, looks fascinating)
Raising Stony Mayhall - Daryl Gregory (zombies!!!  looks very good)

This looks like my reading history for the last year, with mystery, science fiction, and horror making the major total of what I read. I really want to read Raising Stony Mayhall, it sounds so interesting too. For someone who has nightmares about zombies, I seem to be reading my fair share of their fiction recently (and really enjoying it. They still give me the creeps, absolutely, though).

Things I'm thinking of doing:
 This is a book blog, and yet I have been failing spectacularly at reviewing the books I'm reading. This is never because I don't like the books, it's because I just don't get around to reviewing them.  I've decided that I am going to start a random post called Books I Should Have Reviewed.  This will give me the freedom to look at the books that I've read recently and not reviewed, as well as go through my blog history and pick books from previous years that I haven't reviewed yet.  I also hope it will get me posting more regularly again.

So how was your February reading?  Are you pleased with it, or did life sneak in, as it often does?

11 comments:

Eva said...

Your new feature sounds like fun! :D

Cath said...

Eight books for the experience is very good. I didn't manage as many but plan to read a lot more over the coming year!

Fringe. OMG. We're nearing the end of season two... Peter's real father just walked into the motel room where Peter was staying. OMG. I need to order season three sharpish...

Oh yes, The X-Files was just fantastic, I have such nostalgia for that series. Buffy too. :-)

I tend to aim for 6 books a month but am trying to be less anal about it. Not succeeding much. LOL. I would say that Moving Mars is easily worth 2 or 3 smaller books though. Yes, I was pleased with my 7 books, mainly because of the variety and the fact that they were all good.

I love the idea of Books I Should Have Reviewed. I do quick 3 book posts to catch up but even then I'm still not getting to everything. Look forward to reading your new posts, although I love *all* your posts, Susan. Such enthusiasm is rare and makes me feel like I'm not such a freak after all. LOL!!!

Fringe: OMG!

Debi said...

Oooh, I think your new idea is great! And 8 books is great! I think I only ended up with two, and well, I didn't really even review them, just mini-reviewed them.

I'm so glad you found me!!! I hate that we lost touch there for a bit!

Susan said...

Eva: thank you! I know you can't comment often now, so this is a real treat. It's sad when I have so many books I didn't review yet, though!

Cath: Oh, you're at the end of Season 2 only of Fringe! You have all of Season 3 to get through! Because we're almost finished Season 4, and it is strange and wonderful and the last episode was one of the best. we're on a mini-break now until end of March.

You and I ARE freaks, book freaks, Cath! lol so is everyone else who is able to write a whole blog just about books! lol I'm so happy to meet others who are as passionate as I am about reading, because it is rare enough.

Let me know when you get to the end of this Fringe season, you can email me (I think you might want to!) lol

Debi: I am glad I found you again too! I still think it's amazing you were able to read anything with packing to move :-)

Cath said...

We've now finished season 2 and about to order 3. The last few eps of season 2 were absolutely amazing and the end of the last ep was so chilling it made my blood run cold. The quality of this series is amazing quite frankly. I love it.

Susan said...

Cath: do you want to email me about it? We had to go a whole summer with that last image of Walternate and Olivia in the cell....it made for a very long summer. And Peter on our side with the wrong Olivia! Oh, Season 3 is going to be a treat for you! I should watch it through, I haven't done it yet even though I own it - I got sidetracked with life events this fall. I'm so glad you are loving it too!

Kathleen said...

I'm so glad you enjoyed your Science Fiction reading so much and rediscovered your love for it. That is the cool thing about challenges and readalongs!

Susan said...

Kathleen: It is, isn't it? To come back to something and rekindle affection for it. I know you've been meaning to try some more sci-fi, so I hope you find smething from Carl's challenge this year that intrigues you.

Carl V. Anderson said...

I've been exercising daily but hadn't thought of pairing that with watching cool television shows! Great idea!!!

I like the idea of your new blog feature to keep more caught up on thoughts about books you didn't have a chance to review. My commitment to doing so ebbs and flows over the year depending on how busy I am and I do feel disappointed when I don't get around to reading good books.

I'm so appreciative of your participation this year. Thank you so much! I hope you are on the mend now. Jan. and Feb. were both rough months for me for sickness which is unusual. And not at all pleasant!

I read my first Greg Bear, Hull Zero Three, back at the end of 2010 and loved it. I need to read more. He recently did a review of John Carter on his blog that has me singing his praises from the rooftops. He gets it!

Susan said...

Carl: Thank you for hosting it - I know I say this frequently, and I mean it. Because of you, I'm reading more science fiction than I would normally, and loving it. I love that you highlight how fun it is, and enriching to read.

I have to do this 'books I should have reviewed', still! I think about it often....everyone seems to like it though, and I know I've missed reviewing some great books.

I'm exercising with Buffy now, I finished S1 of X-Files. Then it will be Firefly, and then we'll see. That should take me to the summer! It's a great way to start the day, Buffy and Vampires and such dark humour :-) I must say!

I'll go check out Greg Bear's review, thanks for the tip! Have you read Moving Mars?

From Omi with Love said...

Thanks for a greaat read