Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

Read All the Books: Around the Shelf in Eight(y) Years


Welcome, adventurers! This year will be our wildest yet, with storms, foreign lands, and strange customs! And I'm not just talking about a visit to Roshar! Who will take the challenge and sail through our bookshelf this year?

Pledge as many as you like (12 is recommended, and you need 25 a year if you want to make a "dent" in the shelf!) and tell us about your travels!

For an additional challenge, see how many books off the shelf you can read in the first 80 days of 2021! (That's March 22.) It'll be here before we know it, so, fill up on hot air (or borrow some from the mods ;-) ) and take flight!

Sign up here! Keep track in this thread and/or your Personal challenge thread.

To see how many group books you have and haven't read, go here.

I was SHOCKED to find out that was not a thing in the US! Surely I'm not the only European kid who watched reruns of this practically every year? I was also shocked that they changed the names in some languages. Phileas Fogg is Willy Fog, and Passepartout is Rigodon?! They were correct in the Finnish version!

In any case, this fox is going to punch that nasty group book TBR in the snout! :P



I'm going for 25 :)

I listened to the opening song in English to see if it sparked anything for me, and all I got was the sincere conviction I was not partaking of the correct chemicals to understand what I was seeing.

I aim for 25, but my REAL secret goal is 30

I went for 20 last year and ended up reading 29. So 20.again this/next year

I always set my goal to 15 because that's what I pledged the first year of the challenge and I like things to match. But my secret goal is 36.

I may actually get to 16 group books this year (I just started Gideon!), but I'll take it easy on myself next year and say 12.

I think I’m going to go for 25 too.

I want to hit 150 read from the shelf next year, so right now my goal is to read 21. I have three currently in progress, so this could change.

I need 10 to hit triple digits so 10 it will be.

I planning for 20 so far, might go for more later I know I raised this last years goal by a couple

I pledged 12 in 2020 and actually exceeded it! Oh (Seventh) Wonder of Wonders! I will probably do the same this year. I have 38 books from the SFFBC book club that I already own or know I can get from the library or some other service (there's probably way more than that available for "free", but I want to focus on the ones I have actually.

2021 Shelf books read:
Fate of the Fallen
The Best of All Possible Worlds

Planned for in a challenge:
A Memory Called Empire*
The Ten Thousand Doors of January*
Rendezvous with Rama*
The Outside*
Slaughterhouse-Five *
Lock In*
The Traitor Baru Cormorant*
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet*
Ancillary Sword*
Ancillary Mercy*
To Say Nothing of the Dog*
Catfishing on CatNet*

Owned:
Ninefox Gambit
The Anubis Gates
The City and the City
The collapsing Empire
The Once and Future King
The Calculating Stars
Elantris
Parable of the Sower
Rosewater
Day of the Triffids
Grimm’s Fairy Tales
Neverwhere
The Two Pearls of Wisdom (Eon: Dragoneye Reborn)
A Scanner Darkly
Preludes and Nocturns
The Anubis Gates
The Final Empire
The Island of Doctor Moreau
The Name of the Wind
The Ocean at the End of the Lane
Station Eleven

Recursion (library)
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August (Library)
The Alphabet of Thorn (Internet Archive)
The Last Wish (Library)
The Prey of Gods (scribd)

*In other challenges as well (9)

33 owned
5 Library, Scribd or Storytel

good job!!

I just managed to hit my 24 for this year (technically I'm still reading the last one but don't see any reason I wouldn't finish), so I'll aim for that again.

First timer here, I'll match my age so my pledge for this year is 21 :)

I'm only going to commit to 12, since I had such a train wreck of a reading year in 2020.

These caught my eye, so I'll probably pull my 12 from them.

Artemis
The Book of Phoenix
The Caves of Steel
A Darker Shade of Magic
Dragonflight
The Ghost Bride
The Golem and the Jinni
His Majesty's Dragon
Jade City
The Native Star
The Neverending Story
A Night in the Lonesome October
The Once and Future King
Parable of the Sower
Pawn of Prophecy
Redshirts
Spinning Silver
Station Eleven
The Tombs of Atuan
Uprooted
The Way of Kings
Wild Seed

1/12
� Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, 01/05/2021 ★★★★

I'm gonna go for 10 as I have 19 TBR books and I'm doing three other challenges, some of which will overlap this one

Feist, Raymond E. - Magician (Riftwar Saga)
Leckie, Ann - Ancillary Justice
Wells, Martha - City of Bones
Chambers, Becky - Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
Arden, Katherine - Bear and the Nightingale
Butler, Octavia E. - Parable of the Sower
Kowal, Mary Robinette - Calculating Stars
Dickinson, Seth - Traitor Baru Cormorant
Friedman, C.S. - This Alien Shore
Muir, Tamsyn - Gideon the Ninth

and yes, I know the last is this month's selection but I'm "full" until the end of the year

Welcome, Ty! Ambitious, I like it! and it fits well with our games theme. you've pledged black jack!

Angie, yes, by all means cut yourself some slack! hope next year is better ^^

Chessie, makes sense to me! Good luck!

I'm planning on 12! I'm hoping it will be more, but I worry if I commit to more I'll feel overwhelmed. Also I love everyone including their secret goal hahaha.

Also, I have a memory of watching some around the world in 80 days cartoon, and it had a song, but I don't think it was the one shared above? Hmm

Contenders (and will also add some group reads):
The Obelisk Gate
Grass
Children of Time
Foundation
The Ocean at the End of the Lane
The Dispossessed
To Say Nothing of the Dog
Zoo City
Red Mars
The Sword of Kaigen
The Raven and the Reindeer
Moon of the Crusted Snow
Kindred
Wild Seed
Spinning Silver
A Night in the Lonesome October

I guess it's possible there are lots of kids' shows inspired by Jules Verne?

(view spoiler)[

25/25

15/24 Group Reads 2021
         
    

03/24 Group Reads 2021 (previously read)
  

06/24 Group Reads 2021 (nope/later)
     

10/?? Group Reads Earlier
         

(hide spoiler)]

I’m also a first timer so I’m going to pledge 12 books just so I’ve got a fairly high chance of completing the goal with other challenges I’m also participating in :)

Yay! Love all the new "faces!" Can't wait to hear how it goes, Lacey!

Alright, I've decided to go for 15 but if I read some of the Amazin' Eights and botm titles those will count for a few more. Ultimately, I'd like to get to 20. I'd also like try not to overwhelm myself but that's going well at the moment. lol

I just did the math and if I hit my secret goal of 36 for the next 14.5 years I will complete the shelf. Gotta take the long view on this I guess.

My usual pledge of 42 is always ambitions.... but what the heck!

My world travels were always more inspired by Commander McBragg than anything else:

My goal for 2020 turned out to be too ambitious and I just ended up stressing myself out. So I'll probably set the 2021 goal for 15 or 20 books and just do my best to exceed it.

I'll try for 24, see how it goes...

Anna wrote: "I was SHOCKED to find out that Around the World with Willy Fog was not a thing in the US! Surely I'm not the only European kid who watched reruns of this practically every year? I was also shocked ..."

Nope, never heard of it :)

I just passed by goal of 25 this year by 1! But since I'll be lowering my general reading goal for 2021 due to things I will also be lowering this, probably to 15.

Dawn wrote: "Nope, never heard of it"

Is this a Finnish thing then?! :S I know it was popular in Spain.

I think I go with 10 books again for 2021, though this year I'm falling a bit short for this goal... Too many reading slumps in 2020, currently 7 books read, will get it to atleast 8 books. I'm behind of my yearly Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ challenge as well. But hopefully I'll catch and even surpass this smallish goal in 2021.

PS. Phileas Fogg rules :D And the opening tune started to ring in my head.

I'm torn between being happy that someone else knows the show and sad because it's another Finn, so doesn't prove anything about the show's world domination XD

Anna wrote: "I'm torn between being happy that someone else knows the show and sad because it's another Finn, so doesn't prove anything about the show's world domination XD"

Well, the show was airing also in Poland. I can remember it very, very vaguely. I must have been quite small when I watched it.

Yay!

I have a question: Do books from current group or buddy reads count? For example, if I read one of the january 2021 books with the group in january, does it count towards this challenge or is it for books I haven't originally read with the group only?

It's any books off the group shelf you read in 2021--new-to-shelf, solo read, buddy read etc! Whether or not you count books you re-read with the group but have already previously read is totally up to you and how you want to count!

I'll step back from my insane quest to read all the group-shelf books. It just leads to me reading too many books I don't really want to read. Next year is all about what I like to read, so I set my goal to a moderate 20.

I’m going to be modest and shoot for 12 (as a working mother of 3 Is pretty ambitious) but I really hope I can beat my goal. Can’t wait to see the 2021 shelf.

SFFBC wrote: "Read All the Books: Around the Shelf in Eight(y) Years...
Pledge as many as you like (12 is recommended, and you need 25 a year if you want to make a "dent" in the shelf!)"

At first 12 seems great (System 1 from Thinking, Fast and Slow! the elephant!), but then you realize, Yes, would need 25 or your percentage will have fallen, not risen (System 2, the rider, no exclamation point) a year from now. Oh, MATH.

Well, I will go for 18.
Will start with a few from the 2008 group reads that I haven't read.

Math is a ruiner of worlds! I love your compromise and the use of your system comprehension for getting there! Good synthesis!

wasn't there a spreadsheet where we could count the books we read easily?

Silvana wrote: "wasn't there a spreadsheet where we could count the books we read easily?"

Yes, or even easier with the mod account!

Anna wrote: "Silvana wrote: "wasn't there a spreadsheet where we could count the books we read easily?"

Yes, or even easier with the mod account!"

thanks!

Allison wrote: "Math is a ruiner of worlds! I love your compromise and the use of your system comprehension for getting there! Good synthesis!"

Oh, no no no. Math is the distillation of the beauty of reality.
It's ur-whiskey, or perhaps the true nectar of the gods.

On the third hand: "An engineer thinks that mathematics is a good model for reality. A physicist thinks that reality is a good model for mathematics. A mathematician doesn't understand the question."

Oh, Mike, I like that.
I also like discovering someone else who uses "on the third hand."
Thank you.

Cheryl wrote: "Oh, Mike, I like that.
I also like discovering someone else who uses "on the third hand."
Thank you."

I'm afraid we're moving stolen property here. I lifted "on the third hand" from the aliens in the Niven/Pournelle novels The Mote in God's Eye and The Gripping Hand.

I've met my goal of reading 15 in 2020 (yay!), and I'll commit to another 15 next year (hopefully I'll manage more, especially some backlog). :-)

I have picked out 16 so far.

Last time I checked I was at 47%; now I'm at 44%. My calculations lead me to believe I would need 19 more books to be at 50% now (50% being a worthy goal), or 30 at the end of 2021.

I spent half the day dinking around with the spreadsheet and looking up group bookshelf books at the library and bookmarking them. Time, I am sure many would admit, that might better have been spent reading actual books...

Spreadsheeting is never a waste of time!

Well {shy look down} I did enjoy it!
I have a couple questions about the spreadsheet, but I will put them in the proper thread.

Mike, The Mote in God's Eye is a group book I haven't read yet, and plan to next year. In other 80s/90s goals, Red Mars and Neuromancer, each of which I have twice started and abandoned.