Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

We have the other thread about books read in 2023 which is more reflections based and includes lots of books people read that aren't from this group's BOTMs or the H/N list.

I'm also curious to get a sense of what your group reading looked like this past year -- how many monthly reads did you participate in? Did you read H/N novels that weren't selected? Did you read ones the group had already read?

(For myself, I made a commitment to read 2 H/N books per month whether or not they were the current BOTM; if I didn't have the current one, I'd read one on my TBR the group already finished. This meant I would never truly catch up to the group as a whole, but make steady progress on my own reading journey.)

I'm categorizing my reads as follows: (read it as) BOTM, challenge, catch-up, solo, and breaking it down by month. If you feel up for it, please share your list too.

January
John Scalzi - Old Man's War (challenge)
R.F. Kuang - Babel (solo, 2022)
China Miéville - The City & the City (BOTM)
February
Charles Stross - Saturn's Children (catch-up)
Sam J. Miller - Blackfish City (catch-up)
March
N.K. Jemisin - The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (BOTM)
C.J. Cherryh - Downbelow Station (BOTM)
April
Nicola Griffith - Spear (solo, new release)
Lois McMaster Bujold - The Curse of Chalion (catch-up)
Robert J. Sawyer - Factoring Humanity (catch-up)
May
John Scalzi - The Ghost Brigades (challenge)
John Scalzi - The Last Colony (challenge)
China Miéville - Embassytown (catch-up)
Silvia Moreno-Garcia - The Daughter of Doctor Moreau (solo, new release)
June
John Scalzi - Zoe's Tale (challenge)
Lois McMaster Bujold - Paladin of Souls (catch-up)
July
Charlie Jane Anders - All the Birds in the Sky (BOTM)
Neil Gaiman - The Ocean at the End of the Lane (catch-up)
August
Susanna Clarke - Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (catch-up)
John Scalzi - The Kaiju Preservation Society (solo, new release)
September
Kim Stanley Robinson - New York 2140 (BOTM)
Connie Willis - Doomsday Book (BOTM)
October
Neil Gaiman - The Graveyard Book (catch-up)
William Gibson - Virtual Light (BOTM)
November
Joe Haldeman - Forever Peace (BOTM)
Italo Calvino - Invisible Cities (catch-up)
December
Clifford D. Simak - Way Station (BOTM)
Poul Anderson - The High Crusade (solo)
Roger Zelazny - This Immortal (BOTM)

I pretty much dropped out of Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ this year. I only read three books with our group in 2023, and one of them was a catch-up!

March: Downbelow Station by C.J. Cherryh
April: Powers by Ursula K. LeGuin (catch-up)
November: Forever Peace by Joe Haldeman.

Powers was the only one i really enjoyed. Forever Peace was trash, while Downbelow Station was merely too long and forgettable. I've already pretty much forgotten I even read the book!

EDIT: I forgot that The Mountain in the Sea by Ray Nayler was nominated for Nebula: I read it solo in February. It was pretty good!

Downbelow Station works better upon a re-read

A down year for me in H/N books, 20 (+6 re-reads), as compared to 46-75-56-64-44 in the previous five years. 9 of the 20 were from 2019 or later, indicating that I didn't do as much exploring of past nominees. Ultimately, I read 10 BOTM's but all 22 if you count previous reads.

JAN
Record of a Spaceborn Few - Becky Chambers (solo, series)
Old Man's War - John Scalzi (re-read, challenge)
FEB
The Ghost Brigades - John Scalzi (re-read, challenge)
MAR
The Mountain in the Sea - Ray Nayler (solo, new release)
APR
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms - N.K. Jemisin (re-read, BOTM/trilogy)
Zoe's Tale - John Scalzi (re-read, challenge)
Downbelow Station - C.J. Cherryh (re-read, BOTM)
Legends & Lattes - Travis Baldree (solo, new release)
The Galaxy, and the Ground Within - Becky Chambers (solo, series)
Babel by R.F. Kuang (solo, new release)
MAY - none!
JUN
The Kingdom of Gods - N.K. Jemisin (BOTM/trilogy)
JUL
In the Ocean of Night - Gregory Benford (catch-up from May)
The Daughter of Doctor Moreau - Silvia Moreno-Garcia (solo, new release)
The Exile Waiting - Vonda N. McIntyre (catch-up from Jun)
AUG - none!
SEP
Bones of the Earth - Michael Swanwick (solo)
The Ringworld Engineers - Larry Niven (solo)
OCT
The Quiet Pools - Michael P. Kube-McDowell (solo)
Hyperion - Dan Simmons (re-read, BOTM)
The Spare Man - Mary Robinette Kowal (solo, new release)
Gideon the Ninth - Tamsyn Muir (solo)
NOV
Remnant Population - Elizabeth Moon (BOTM)
The Vampire Tapestry - Suzy McKee Charnas (solo)
DEC
Up the Line - Robert Silverberg (catch-up from Feb)
The Unbroken - C.L. Clark (solo)
Cryptonomicon - Neal Stephenson (catch-up from Aug)
Stand on Zanzibar - John Brunner (solo)

Oleksandr wrote: "Downbelow Station works better upon a re-read"

Totally agree with this. I read it just a couple years ago, and it was great then. But on re-reading, a lot more of the pieces fell into place.

Here is my list, com piled quickly but I hope accurately. I may still get This Immortal and/or Way Station read this month.

January
The Big Time (reread, botm)
Fire Time (solo)
February
Nettle & Bone (solo)
Up the Line (botm)
March
The Last Colony(challenge)
Downbelow Station (botm)
April
Past Master (solo)
May
A Wizard of Earthsea (solo, reread)
The Tombs of Atuan (solo, reread)
The Farthest Shore (solo, reread)
Tehanu (solo)
The Goblin Emperor (solo, reread)
In the Ocean of Night (botm)
June
The Mountain in the Sea (solo)
Dreamsnake (solo)
July
The Exile Waiting (botm)
Three to Conquer (solo)
August
The Spare Man (solo)
Zoe's Tale (challenge)
September
The Kaiju Preservation Society (solo)
Doomsday Book (botm)
October
The Difference Engine (solo)
A Night in the Lonesome October (solo)
Hyperion (botm)
November
The Human Division (challenge)
The End of All Things (challenge)
December
More Than Human(solo)
The Caves of Steel (botm)

You guys are a lot more organized than I am. I will have to see if I can put together a post worthy of this thread during the holidays sometime when I have a quiet moment.

Not sure I have the energy to do this. Will look at again.