It was…a lot. But I'm glad I did it.

Now I've moved on to a Harlan Coben book (The Boy From The Woods), which is essentially color-by-numbers and I'm loving it! I started last night and I'm already 100 pages in.

After that, I'm on to Recursion by Blake Crouch - which I believe someone in this thread mentioned. We'll see about knocking it all out by the end of the year.

Letters from Father Christmas by J. R. R. Tolkien. A very short holiday classic. It's a collection of all the letters Tolkien wrote to his children under the guise of being from Father Christmas over about a 20 year period. He also drew lots of pictures to accompany the letters too.

nai06 said:

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I started this year with a goal of 1 book a month and I've just started my 48th yesterday. I'm gonna try and hit 50 in the next 10 days

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Excellent! Out of curiosity what was your favorite read(s) this year?

I've gone down a rabbit hole of Scottish detective novels so that has been the bulk of my reading. I've been a big fan of Val McDermid and J.D. Kirk.

Outside of that, I really enjoyed Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law by Mary Roach. We as humans impose laws and rules to maintain a relatively stable society. But how do we enforce those laws on animals who have no concept of them? What happens when animals "break the law"? How do we as a society handle the inevitable conflicts between humans and animals?

It's a somewhat humorous approach and talks about stuff like how we know what animal has killed a human, what to do if an elephant breaks down your door, or how to protect flower arrangements in the Vatican from pesky seagulls. Overall I found it really fascinating and very much in line with Mary Roach's previous style of books.

nai06 said:

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I've gone down a rabbit hole of Scottish detective novels so that has been the bulk of my reading. I've been a big fan of Val McDermid and J.D. Kirk.

Outside of that, I really enjoyed Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law by Mary Roach. We as humans impose laws and rules to maintain a relatively stable society. But how do we enforce those laws on animals who have no concept of them? What happens when animals "break the law"? How do we as a society handle the inevitable conflicts between humans and animals?

It's a somewhat humorous approach and talks about stuff like how we know what animal has killed a human, what to do if an elephant breaks down your door, or how to protect flower arrangements in the Vatican from pesky seagulls. Overall I found it really fascinating and very much in line with Mary Roach's previous style of books.

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Awesome, thanks! Will check some of these out.

Let's start to bring the 2024 thread to a close by listing our top 3 books of 2024.

1. The Blade Itself - Joe Abercrombie
2. Eye of the Needle - Ken Follet
3. On Writing - Stephen King.

Red Rising Series (again)
ASOIF (again)
A Court of Thorns and Roses Series (I guess, not that impressed)

It was a year of rereads for me… maybe I'll do all the Sharpe books or Saxon Chronicles again

1. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald(my favorite novel of all-time)
2. A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens(my favorite author of all-time)
3. Fairy Tale by Stephen King

The Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas (an amazing book worth the time investment)
Murder on the Orient Express Agatha Christie (I've been reading a lot of her work lately and this is probably her best)
Little Women Louisa Mae Alcott (weird, I know, but after watching the movie with my wife, I wanted to read it; a great book)

I guess there's a reason why they are all classics.

For more modern books, the Terminal LIst series and Dungeon Crawler Carl series have been great. Thanks to everyone that suggested DCC.

The Boy From the Woods - Harlan Coben

Man...going from an epic series like ASOIAF to a book that is Paint-by-Numbers writing was interesting. It was enjoyable to be able to fly through a book after plodding (at times) through some heavy stuff. On the other hand, there were so many laughable lines and situations. How conveniently the protagonist was able to have all the right answers at just the right times, or just the right connections to get himself the info he needed.

But nonetheless, it was entertaining and it's been sitting on my self for a couple of years, so it was nice to knock that one off the list.

Read in 2024:

The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
Fairy Tale - Stephen King
The Shining - SK
A Little Life - Hanya Yanagihara
Game of Thrones - GRRM
A Clash of Kings - GRRM
A Storm of Swords - GRRM
A Feast For Crows - GRRM
A Dance with Dragons - GRRM
The Boy From the Woods - Harlan Coben

Up next:
Recursion - Blake Crouch

Great idea!

Top 3:
The Shining - SK - This one quickly jumped to my SK top 5! Such a good read!
Game of Thrones - GRRM - I loved the show so much, so this being the first of the series gives it the top spot
Any of the other ASOIAF books - I read them back to back, so they all run together a bit

Least Favorite:
A Little Life - Hanya Yanagihara - this was hard. It was actually a really good book, but the subject matter keeps you up at night and weighs you down the entire time. Hard read.

As I likely won't finish my next book until 2025, I went ahead and asked ChatGPT for a recap of my year - I would be interested to see everyone else's:

Key Metrics

• Total Books Read: 10
• Total Pages Read: 6,808 pages
• Pages per Day: ~18.65 pages/day
• Total Words Read: ~2,614,000 words

By Author

• George R.R. Martin: 5 books (50%)
  
  • Total Pages: ~4,244
  • Focused on A Song of Ice and Fire series.
• Stephen King: 2 books (20%)
  
  • Fairy Tale and The Shining.
• Others:
  
  • Margaret Atwood: 1 book (10%)
    
    • The Handmaid's Tale.
  • Hanya Yanagihara: 1 book (10%)
    
    • A Little Life.
  • Harlan Coben: 1 book (10%)
    
    • The Boy From The Woods.

Genre Distribution

• Fantasy: 5 books (~68% of pages)
• Horror: 2 books (~16% of pages)
• Dystopian Fiction: 1 book (~5% of pages)
• Literary Fiction: 1 book (~6% of pages)
• Mystery/Thriller: 1 book (~5% of pages).

Longest Books
[ol]

A Dance with Dragons (~1,056 pages).

A Storm of Swords (~973 pages).

A Little Life (~814 pages).

[/ol]
Patterns & Insights
[ol]

Dominance of Series: You invested heavily in George R.R. Martin's work, reflecting a strong interest in epic fantasy.

Page Counts: Most books were lengthy, averaging ~680 pages per book.

Diverse Genres: While fantasy was dominant, you balanced it with horror, dystopia, and mystery.

[/ol]

Dungeon Crawler Carl.

Super easy read and fun... sorta like Ready Player One and Hitchhikers Guide had a baby!

2024 Recap; books finished as of today:

(* - indicates a re-read)
*Iron Gold (Red Rising Series, book 4) Pierce Brown
*Dark Age (Red Rising Series, book 5) Pierce Brown
Light Bringer (Red Rising Series, book 6) Pierce Brown
The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Neil Gaiman
Agatha Christie The Collection Agatha Christie
The Count of Monte Cristo Alexandre Dumas
Nightfall and Other Stories Isaac Asimov
Death On the Nile Agatha Christie (Crime & Mystery Collection; All Time)
Murder on the Orient Express Agatha Christie (Crime & Mystery Collection; All Time)
True Believer: A Novel (Terminal List, Book 2) Jack Carr
Savage Son: A Thriller (Terminal List, Book 3) Jack Carr
The Most Dangerous Game and Other Stories of Adventure Various authors
The Naked Sun (Robot Series, Book 2) Isaac Asimov
Savage Son: A Thriller (Terminal List, Book 3) Jack Carr
The Devil's Hand (Terminal List, Book 4) Jack Carr
In The Blood: Raw and Gritty Tale (Terminal List, Book 5) Jack Carr
Little Women Louisa Mae Alcott; 100 Eternal Masterpieces of Literature, Vol. 1
Only The Dead: A Thriller (Terminal List, Book 6) Jack Carr
Red Sky Mourning: A Thriller (Terminal List, Book 7) Jack Carr
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare Damien Lewis
The Nazi Hunters Damien Lewis
The Mystery of the Blue Train: Hercule Poiret Investigates Agatha Christie (Crime & Mystery Collection; All Time)
A Clean Kill (Garrett Mann Book 1) Steven Konkoly
The Robots of Dawn (Robot Series, Book 3) Isaac Asimov
Black Coffee Agatha Christie (Crime & Mystery Collection; All Time)
The Stars, Like Dust (Galactic Empires, Book 1) Isaac Asimov
The Currents of Space (Galactic Empires, Book 2) Isaac Asimov
Pebble In the Sky (Galactic Empires, Book 3) Isaac Asimov
The Trail to Redemption (Plainsman Western Series, Book 1 B. N. Rundell
Task Force Hammer (Expeditionary Force Book 17) Craig Alanson
The Harold Lamb Megapack Harold Lamb
The Forever War Joe Haldeman
The Majestic Hotel Agatha Christie (Crime & Mystery Collection; All Time)
Lord Edgeware Dies: A Hercule Poiret Mystery Agatha Christie (Crime & Mystery Collection; All Time)
The Perfect Assassin A Doc Savage Thriller James Patterson and Brian Sitts
Dungeon Crawler Carl: Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 1 Matt Dinniman
Carl's Doomsday Scenario: Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 2 Matt Dinniman
The Dungeon Anarchist's Cookbook: Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 3 Matt Dinniman
The Gate of the Feral Gods: Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 4 Matt Dinniman
The Butcher's Masquerade: Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 5 Matt Dinniman
The Eye of the Bedlam Bride: Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 6 Matt Dinniman

Always good to see another one fall to enjoy Dungeon Crawler Carl.

How was the Terminal List?

Finished wind and truth

tl;dr
I enjoyed the series quite a bit.

Long reply
I got hooked on it after watching the Amazon series, which was based on the original book. You have to understand, though, that the main character is the best of the best of the best, everything in life is of the best quality, all his friends and acquaintances are self-made millionaires and can obtain anything he needs to support his missions, and at least 90% of the world's bad guys want him dead.

All kidding aside, if you ever read the Jack Ryan books by Clancy, and felt that the further into the series you got, the more indestructible he became, Terminal List is that on steroids. I read and watch content for entertainment and I have a pretty low threshold most of the time, so it's easy for me to get into something and go along for the ride. Give the first one a try and see how you like it.

Nice. Thanks for the write up. Honestly, kinda sounds like what I am looking for right now. A turn off my brain and let's just go on a ride kinda book, no matter how improbable or silly it is. I'll definitely give it a try.

Happy to hear that friend. What was your favorite read?

It's a bit of a slow build series but Codex Alera by Jim Butcher (Author of The Dresden Files) is a really good series, I'm really enjoying it.

13B said:

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It's a bit of a slow build series but Codex Alera by Jim Butcher (Author of The Dresden Files) is a really good series, I'm really enjoying it.

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I've read through it twice, really good series

Quote:

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Total Read in 2024 - 109

January: 14

Limitless - Jim Kwik - B
Endure - Cameron Hanes - B-
6:20 Man - David Baldacci - B+
Career of Evil - Robert Galbraith - B
The Silent Patient - Alex Michaelides - B+ - Good twists throughout
Never Lie - Freida McFadden - B - Decent page turner
Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer - A - Mt. Everest disaster - True Story
The Chemist - Stephanie Meyer - B - Good 1st half but weak 2nd
The Inheritance Games - Jennifer Barnes - B
The Antisocial Network - Ben Mezrich - B - about the GME short squeeze
Long Shadows - David Baldacci - B+ - memory man series
Outliers - Malcom Gladwell - A - Solid book that provided a unique picture on what makes a person an "Outlier"
Bomber Mafia - Malcom Gladwell - A - Great story about the "Bomber Mafia" during WW2 that i did not know about
The Dark Hours - Michael Connelly - B-

February: 10

Camino Island - John Grisham - B- - nothing special…
Pelican Brief - John Grisham - B+
The Alienist - Caleb Carr - A
Chaos book - Tom O'Neil - A
Hawthorne Legacy - Jennifer Barnes - B-
Final Gambit - Jennifer Barnes - C
The Edge - David Baldacci - B
Code Breaker - Walter Isaacson - A
Elon Musk - Walter Isaacson - A
Think Again - Adam Grant - B

March: 8

Leonardo Da Vinci- Walter Isaacson - A-
The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas - A
Thank You For My Service - Mat Best - B
The Psychology of Money (Re-Read) - Always Great - A+
The Spy and the Traitor - Ben Macintyre - B+
Agent Zigzag - Ben Macintyre - B-
The Snowball - Warren Buffett and the Business of Life - Alice Schroeder - B+ - 42
Endurance / Shackleton - Alfred Lansing - A-

April: 12
Band of Brothers - Stephen Ambrose - B+
Killing the Rising Sun - Billy O'Reilly - B+
Tyranny of the Minority - Seven Levitsky - B
American Predator - Maureen Callahan - A-
The Lost City of Z - David Grann - B
The Wager - David Grann - B
The Bat (Harry Hole #1) - Jo Nesbo - B
Cockroaches (Harry Hole #2) - Jo Nesbo - B-
Murder, interrupted - James Patterson - B
Empire of Pain (Purdue Pharma) - Patrick Keefe - B+
A Brief History of Time - Stephen Hawking - B
Same as Ever - Morgan Housel - A

May: 9
Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes - A
If You Tell - Gregg Olsen - B-
Girl, Alone - Blake Pierce - C
The Lock Artist - Steve Hamilton - A-
American Psycho - Bret Easton - B
Upgrade - Blake Crouch - C
Dark Matter - Blake Crouch - A
The Andromeda Strain - Michael Crichton - B
The Lost World - Michael Crichton - B

June: 10
The Great Train Robbery - Michael Crichton- B
The Murder Rule - Dervla McTiernan - C-
Presumed Innocent - Scott Turow - B+
The Housemaid - Freida McFadden - B
The Housemaid's Secret - B-
Room - Emma Donoghue - A
Man's search for meaning - Viktor Frankl - A
When Bad Things Happen to Good People - Harold Kushner - A
Rock Paper Scissors - Alice Feeney - B-
In Cold Blood - Truman Capote - B+

July: 4
The Choice - Edith Eger - B+
The Dead Zone - Stephen King - B+
Billy Summers - Stephen King - B
Pet Sematary - Stephen King - B

August: 7
Savage Son - Jack Carr - C
Leaders Eat Last - Simon Sinek - B-
Relentless Optimism - Darrin Donnelly - B
Red War (Mitch Rapp) - C-
Contagious - why things matter - Jonah Berger - B+
Open - Andre Agassi - A
Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing - Matthew Perry - A

September: 11
Bad Monkey - Carl Hiaasen - B+
Home is where the bodies are - Jeneva Rose - C
Harry Potter & The Sorcerers Stone - A
Outlive - Peter Attia - A
Double Whammy - Carl Hiaasen - C
A is for Alibi - Sue Grafton - B
Horns - Joe Hill - B
The Killers Shadow - John Douglas - C
Murder Beyond the Grave - James Patterson - B-
Holmes, Marple and Poe - James Patterson - C-
Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil - John Berendt - B

October: 7
Heart Shaped Box - Joe Hill - B
The Innocent Man - John Grisham - B
The Snowman - Jo Nesbo - B
Dungeon Crawler Carl (1) - Matt Dinniman - B+
Freakonomics - B
Nation of Victims - Vivek Ramaswamy - C
What got you here won't get you there - A - Marshall Goldsmith

November: 10

The Thursday Murder Club - Richard Osman - B
Good Energy - Casey Means - A
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team - Patrick Lencioni - B
1776 - David McCullough - B+
Ghosts of Honolulu - Mark Harmon -B-
Ego is the Enemy - Ryan Howard - A
When Breath Becomes Air - Paul K - B+
American Playbook - Clay Travis - C+
The Boys In The Boat - Daniel Brown - A
All Quiet on the Western Front - A

December: 7
Worth More Dead - True Crime - B
I am Pilgrim - B
The Fourth Monkey - B+
The Murder of Rodger Ackoyd - Agatha Christie - B
Belichik - Ian O'Connor - B+
I Will Find You - Harlan Coben - B
Pappyland - Wright Thompson - B-

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How many hours per day do you read to finish 109 books in a year?

My vow for 2025 is to just track what I actually read. Jealous of yall that do it.

Lets take a look at good ole Goodreads

By Will Wight

• Unsouled
• Soulsmith

• Blackflame
• Skysworn
• Ghos****er
• Underlord
• Uncrowned
• Bloodline
• Wintersteel
• Reaper
• Dreadgod
• Waybound

Pierce Brown

• Golden Son

James Islington

• Shadow of what was lost

A.M. Shine

• The Watchers

Andrew Van Wey

• Head Like a Hole

A.A. Vora

• Spin of Fate

Michael J Sullivan

• The Crown Conspiracy
• Avempartha
• Nyphron Risin
• The Emerald Storm
• Wintertide
• Percepliquis

Douglas Preston/Lincoln Child

• Angel of Vengeance

Naomi Novik

• A Deadly Education
• The Last Graduate
• The Golden Enclaves

Ted Dekker

• Thr3e
• Black
• Red
• White
• Showdown

Brando Sando

• Wind and Truth

G.I.Bro said:

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13B said:

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It's a bit of a slow build series but Codex Alera by Jim Butcher (Author of The Dresden Files) is a really good series, I'm really enjoying it.

---

I've read through it twice, really good series

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Glad to see this. I bought the first book but haven't read it yet. I've seen mixed reviews on it so been hesitant to start.

Year in Review:

I finished up the year getting sucked into Dungeon Crawler Carl like so many others. Such a great series so far.

I read 29 books this year. I'm counting Eisenhorn as 3 books since the Omnibus version combines 3 novels and 3 short stories. Most I've read in probably 15 years and that was coupled with probably the busiest year of work I've ever had. So, I'm impressed with myself.

Top 3 for 2024 - I'm cheating here because all of the Dresden books run together at this point.

1. The Dresden Files - best series ever.
2. The Wisdom of Crowds - great finish to Abercrombie's latest trilogy in the First Law universe; this is such a great universe and smart.
3. Dungeon Crawler Carl Book 1 - simply because this started it all. Already rivaling Dresden Files.

Honorable Mention
Supernova in the East - if you know nothing about the Pacific Theater in WWII this is a great primer. You will quickly realize how little you were taught in grade school about this part of the war.

Full List
Fugitive Telemetry (The Murderbot Diaries #6)
Supernova in the East IV
Blood Rites (The Dresden Files #6)
Dead Beat (The Dresden Files #7)
Proven Guilty (The Dresden Files #8)
White Night (The Dresden Files #9)
Small Favor (The Dresden Files #10)
Turn Coat (The Dresden Files #11)
Changes (The Dresden Files #12)
Side Jobs (Stories from the Dresden Files #12.5)
Ghost Story (The Dresden Files #13)
Cold Days (The Dresden Files #14)
Skin Game (The Dresden Files #15)
Brief Cases (Stories from the Dresden Files #15.5)
Peace Talks (The Dresden Files #16)
Battleground (The Dresden Files #17)
Supernova in the East V - Dan Carlin
Lives of the Stoics (The Art of Living from Zeno to Marcus Aurelius) - Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman
System Collapse (The Murderbot Diaries #7)
The Wisdom of Crowds (The Age of Madness #3) - Joe Abercrombie
Supernova in the East VI - Dan Carlin
Eisenhorn: The Omnibus (Warhammer: 40k)
Kings of the Wyld (The Band #1)
We Are Legion (We are Bob) (Bobiverse #1)
Dungeon Crawler Carl (Books 1-3)

The Marksman said:

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Happy to hear that friend. What was your favorite read?

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1. Waypoints: My Scottish Journey-Sam Heughan
This is a sort of memoir by actor Sam Heughan. He sets out to walk the West Highland Way and his journey is interspersed with stories from how he got his start in acting up through his casting on Outlander. Part of my love for this book has to do with the West Highland Way. It's a walking trail that runs almost 100 miles from just outside Glasgow to Fort William through the Scottish Highlands. The great thing about it is that you can essentially walk it without having to camp. There are enough inns and pubs along the way that you can stop each night in town. It's a goal of mine to complete on day. The other reason is that Heughan spent a lot of his life in Glasgow where my mom is from. I used to spend my summers there so a lot of the places he mentions (along with place on the trail) are one that I grew up around and know quite well.

2. Unruly: The Ridiculous History of England's Kings and Queens-David Mitchell
A history of the British Monarchy from King Arthur to Elizabeth the first told in a very sarcastic manner. Mitchell does a great job of breaking down the history of each ruler, mercilessly roasting them, and explaining how bad they were as rulers/terrible their reign was. Mitchell is British and delights in poking fun at the monarchy and the ridiculous of it all. If you've ever seen Monty Python and the Holy Grail there's a quote from a peasant character

Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.

Now imagine that character (Dennis the Peasant) wrote a book about the English Monarchy.

A Whisper of Sorrows-JD Kirk
This was book 6 in the DCI Logan series and last book I finished for the year. It brought together several storylines including the culmination of the Mr. Whisper villain introduced in the first book in the series. I've been on a real Scottish detective novel kick this year and this was one of my favorites.

Congratulations on the increase in productivity. DCC certainly does draw you in. Good luck with your '25 reading.

2025 I will probably do a rereading of mistborn era 2 as a warmup. Wind and truth has me wanting to check a few things out there