Happy New Year’s Eve! I actually read a lot of books this month!
Books
The Gray House by Mariam Petrosyan
I read this as part of r/Fantasy’s October readalong. Well, obviously fell behind in October, struggled with it in November, and finally DNF’d in December. I was maybe 20% through, so no rating from me. It just wasn’t clicking with me, unfortunately.
DNF
Bird Box by Josh Malerman
This book, I adored. I read this with Katy @Bookbinderway, and we both ended up really enjoying it. I watched the Netflix adaption of it recently and while they definitely took some creative liberties as far as plot events, I thought it was a rather solid movie. I liked it, too.
4.5/5 stars
Trigun Maximum vol 4 by Yashuhiro Nightow
This is such a nostalgic series for me – I watched Trigun back when I was 17 or so on adult swim, and reading the series for the first time is triggering so many memories. I rather enjoyed this volume.
3.5/5 stars
Monster vol 4 by Naoki Urasawa
The more I read this series, the more I like it. Unfortunately, the single volumes appear to be out of print, so I’ll be picking them up second hand as I come across them. But! I really enjoyed this volume.
4/5 stars
The Christmas Box by Richard Paul Evans
Every year, I try to read a Christmas book in preparation for Christmas. This was the last one that I owned that remained unread, and aside from the weird in-your-face gender roles, I rather liked it. It made me cry, which was totally unexpected. I don’t really see me rereading it, so whether or not I keep it remains to be seen. But! It was enjoyable in the moment.
3/5 stars
Chew vol 2 by John Layman
My gosh, where has this series been all my life. I was luke warm to volume one, but this one made me adore this series. I’ve picked up volumes 3 and 4 since finishing this one, and plan on reading them soon. Augh it’s so great.
4/5 stars
Descender vol 2 by Jeff Lemire
I was so happy to get back into this series. I read volume 1 last year and reread it earlier this year. Just now though, I got to volume 2. I want the rest now. MOAR.
4/5 stars
Monstress vols 1-2 by Marjorie M. Liu
Volume 1 was a reread and volume 2 was new stuff. I don’t know what it was about volume 2, but it seemed to really drag for me. It took me three days to finish. Three days. For a graphic novel. I just really wasn’t feeling it. I may or may not continue this one, which is a bummer, since I really liked volume 1.
4/5 and 3/5 stars, respectively
Halo: First Strike by Eric S Nyland
This book, I borrowed from a coworker. This is the third in the Halo series, and I rather enjoyed the first two as well as this one. This series is easy enough to pick up, and considering I’ve never played the Halo games, the worldbuilding in the book was definitely enough to keep me informed and entertained. At no point did I feel like I was missing information, so credit to the authors for that one. And apparently I like military sci-fi, who knew.
3/5 stars
Mushishi vol 2 by Yuki Urushibara
This one I picked up and unfortunately wasn’t really feeling. I think it was more of a ‘it’s me, not you’ case though – just wasn’t in the right mindset. I picked it up hoping to buzz through it to get my TBR down before the end of the year, but Mushishi isn’t just a book you can buzz through. It takes more introspection, haha. So as of right now, I didn’t really enjoy it, so I removed the rest from my TBR. But, I may pick it up again one day. Maybe. I’d definitely have to reread volume 2 though, as I can’t tell you anything more about it other than ‘didn’t groove with me’.
2/5 stars
Other Things
- I completed by book buying ban! I went on it as of August 8th, and completed it on December 25th!
- Meredith @Allboutthembooksandstuff is currently at my house, visiting me for the week! 😀 I’ve known her since I was 17, and this is the first time we’ve met face to face!
Reading Goals
- Complete my Goodreads Challenge of 40 books: 88/40
- Complete my 10 in 2018 list of books: 3/10
- Keep book buying low (6-8 books/season)
- January-March purchases: 9
- April-June purchases: 12
- July-September purchases: I don’t wanna talk about it
- October-December purchases: 13
- Get my physical TBR down to 270 books: 270
- Finish the r/Fantasy Book Bingo Challenge by Mar 31, 2019
One new one on the grid this month: Bird Box. All the others read were either manga/graphic novels or authors that are already up there.
And that’s it! Tomorrow’s post will be a year in review kinda thing. After that, all the fun end of year posts. So. Pumped. Happy reading!
Embuhleeliest 