Sunday, July 12, 2009

catching up with my anticipated reading list

Way back in January I posted about the 16 books I was most interested in reading this year. The list was focused on 2009 titles. I haven't been this reflective in the past, but let's take a look to see how I'm doing.

1. A Memory of Light, by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson
2. A Dance with Dragons, by George R. R. Martin
3. Best Served Cold, by Joe Abercrombie
4. Seven for a Secret, by Elizabeth Bear
5. The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year: Volume Three, by Jonathan Strahan, editor
6. Chasing the Dragon, by Justina Robson
7. The Revolution Business, by Charles Stross
8. The Walls of the Universe, by Paul Melko
9. The City & The City, by China Mieville
10. City Without End, by Kay Kenyon
11. The God Engine, by John Scalzi
12. Steal Across the Sky, by Nancy Kress
13. Warbreaker, by Brandon Sanderson
14. Federations, by John Joseph Adams, editor
15. The Son of Retro Pulp Tales, by Joe R. Lansdale
16. Republic of Thieves, by Scott Lynch

Starting with the strikethroughs, that's what I've read - with two exceptions. I haven't read Seven for a Secret, but I own it and I plan to read it in the next month. Maybe it shouldn't have a strikethrough. I also own Federations and I'm a couple of stories in. That counts.

Not everything on the list has been published
A Memory of Light: The Gathering Storm (November)
A Dance of Dragons (Q4, maybe?)
Chasing the Dragon (August)
The God Engines (December) - preordered
The Son of Retro Pulp Tales (August)
Republic of Thieves (.............)

The Strahan is due next week, I think, and that's also preordered (got a shipping confirmation last week)

All told, I'm not doing too badly in terms of reading what has been published. Best Served Cold is on hold with the library (listed as "on order"). I expect to read the Nancy Kress this year, but I'm not sure about the Mieville. It deserves its place on the list, but Mieville requires this emotional investment to pick up the book that I'm just not prepared to work up to. His stuff is heavy.

Here's the good news: Everything (except one novel) that I have read from this list has been quite good. I don't expect many more disappointments (The Revolution Business being the one).

Still a good list and I look forward to reading the rest of them.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

The City and the City reads very differently than other Mieville. It's also much shorter too.