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It's already 10 and a half hours into the new year in Sydney (and after midday in New Zealand), so I'll get this started.

I'm listening to The Cthulhu Casebooks: Sherlock Holmes and the Shadwell Shadows which, because of the involvement of Lovecraftian themes, will count as SFF.

And I'm reading Batman '66 Meets the Man From U.N.C.L.E. which is a bit of fun, tying in two "classic" 60s TV shows. I actually have 5 of the 6 issues that make up this graphic novel - purchased on Comixology back before Amazon absorbed it - but I had only read the first. Now, of course, issue 6 is no longer available as an individual issue, so I had to buy the graphic novel to complete the series.

I started Mistborn the Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson on Wednesday and am just past halfway. Really enjoying it 😊
It’ll be my first finish of the new year!

If you enjoy Holmes vs Lovecraft you should look for Gaiman's A Study in Emerald

I've picked out a good 100+ books for next year so now the challenge it deciding where to start. I have several that I want to jump into right away but I promised myself one think, I will finally, after years of bumping it to the next year, read Pride and Prejudice

On my eReader I'd already read a handful of pages from the second Star Trek Discovery book so will continue with that one - Star Trek: Discovery: Drastic Measures by Dayton Ward

Portrait of a Priestess: Women and Ritual in Ancient Greece by Joan Breton Connelly -- I'm still plugging along

My first finished book this year was The Year's Midnight by Rachel Neumeier. I'm continuing my Frontlines series by Marko Kloos reread with Fields of Fire. I had forgotten how good this scene was with the fight on the glacier in Greenland!

Finished reading Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel This was my local library’s book club selection.

Andrea wrote: "If you enjoy Holmes vs Lovecraft you should look for Gaiman's A Study in Emerald"

I have listened to 13 of the 33 chapters so far, and it's only in the last couple that Cthulhu Mythos has entered the story. James Lovegrove has done a pretty good job of making it feel like a Sherlock Holmes story, and Dennis Kleinmann's narration has been good.

Evershore and The First Binding. I did not know how big this book was until I picked it up at the library.

Audrey wrote: "Evershore and The First Binding. I did not know how big this book was until I picked it up at the library."

I've had a few surprised like that and then have to lug the thing for the half hour walk back to my house :o) Not quite enough for that 1k BINGO slot though ;)

Decided that since I still have a couple days before I go back to work, I'll tackle something on OpenLibrary in case it ends up going Preview-only. I started on Sidhe Devil by Aaron Allston. I read the first book in this duology over 10 years ago (it was from the Baen Free library). I would have read it last year since its faerie themed but it only got added to the library recently.

For what its worth, even if OpenLibrary sticks to just out of print books, its still doing a huge service to the reading community. I've got a GR shelf for "hard to find" books that every now and then I do an OpenLibrary search for and sometimes I get lucky :)

I might re-read a Stormlight Archive book for the 1000K slot.

Hopefully you'll have better luck with The First Binding than I did, Audrey. I think I read it wrong :)

I finished my first book of the year - Batman '66 Meets the Man From U.N.C.L.E. a fun nostalgia trip for two classic 60s TV shows.

I used to love that campy Batman series.

I'm reading Boys in the Valley, really enjoying this so far.

Michelle wrote: "Hopefully you'll have better luck with The First Binding than I did, Audrey. I think I read it wrong :)"

We'll see. I'll give it a hundred pages to impress me.

Just listened to Vicious by VE Schwab and absolutely loved it, starting Vengeful next. Meanwhile working my way through Iron Flame but it is draaaaging

A Superhero for Christmas by H.L. Burke

Today, I finished Home from the Sea and the audio book of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. Actually had started this before the new year, but didn't get it finished until today. It was a super busy holiday season for us!

Georgann wrote: "Today, I finished Home from the Sea and the audio book of [book:Miss Peregrine..."

I just watched the Peculiar Children movie, I'll have to put the books on my to read list now. My father even came in part way through and then sat through the rest 'cause, when a movie is well "peculiar" you end up watching it just to figure out what on earth is going on. I have to admit the time loops left me really confused, and I've a lot of practice with those from Star Trek! Maybe easier to understand in the books.

Andrea wrote: "Georgann wrote: "Today, I finished Home from the Sea and the audio book of [bo..."
I enjoyed the movie some time ago, but the book was (surprise!) better!

Clockwork Boys; finished Evershore and about to start Recursion.

This is related to SFF, to be explained in a bit...I finished Pride and Prejudice. Since I really like the various movies I've seen of Austen's works reading this book was a lot like watching the movie, so I didn't find it boring or a hard to read like many people say. There are many many classics I've never read so made sure to put one as the very first book of the year so I couldn't keep bumping it till later.

The SFF connection is that it was preventing me from reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies :D I'll save that for October and Halloween this year.

I struggled to pick the next book, there's so many to choose from! Decided to go with Deserter by Mike Shepherd

Could never get through price and prejudice, not even as a movie... Too much waffle about nothing much to my male perspective (sorry). I did though, thoroughly enjoy the movie version of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.� It made me think that what a lot of these blathery old tomes need is a good injection of Zombies. � Or maybe just some action and Gore.... Quentin Tarantino's sense and sensibility anyone? Yes, sorry I know I'm an overgrown child trashing much loved classic literature... I'm going now...

I have still never read Austen, but P&P & Zombies was a pretty decent movie.

Sometimes I read a book and think, What this story really needs is a dragon to come in and eat some of these guys.

A hungry Dragon would improve most books�

I’m glad others feel the same way about some of the classics. They’re just not exciting for me.

No magic system? No dragons or elves or dwarfs? Just a boy and girl who can’t admit their love to one another�

I like some classics a lot, but plenty are a slog.

Jacklyn wrote: "I’m glad others feel the same way about some of the classics. They’re just not exciting for me.

No magic system? No dragons or elves or dwarfs? Just a boy and girl who can’t admit their love to o..."

Tastes differ. Tastes even change over time.

I have finished listening to The Cthulhu Casebooks: Sherlock Holmes and the Shadwell Shadows. I enjoyed it - Lovegrove does a good job of making it feel like a Sherlock Holmes novel, and the introduction of Lovecraftian horrors is handled in such a way that doesn't require an excessive amount of suspension of disbelief. The narration from Dennis Kleinman is good. This will fill the alternate form slot in my Bingo.

Haha, I was just thinking of all those Collector's Library books I managed to collect (nice small unabridged hardcovers), I don't have a full set but I've got quite a lot. I mentally reviewed the ones I'd actually read:

There's the Iliad/Odyssey/Aeneid - though the style is hard to read there's plenty of action and battles and even fantasy (the gods, monsters, etc...the Aeneid was a bit of a slog since it didn't have the fantasy aspect)

All the "fairy tale" ones like Grimm and Anderson and Perrault.

Peter Pan, Wizard of Oz, The Little Prince, Just So Stories...

Pride and Prejudice might be the first one that didn't have some kind of fantasy theme to it :o)

Robin wrote: Could never get through price and prejudice, not even as a movie... Too much waffle about nothing much to my male perspective (sorry).

Well, I've been male for all of my 71 years, and I love Pride and Prejudice.

I suppose my tastes are eclectic. I can happily read Jane Austen one evening, and the next evening enjoy watching the movie 'Battleship'. Just lucky, I guess.

Robin wrote: It made me think that what a lot of these blathery old tomes need is a good injection of Zombies.

Nah. Zombies are dead boring. Pretty much by definition.

Audrey wrote :Sometimes I read a book and think, What this story really needs is a dragon to come in and eat some of these guys.

I don't think that about many books. I do think it quite a lot when I'm watching the news.

That's understandable.

Elysium Fire by Alastair Reynolds

In this sci-fi detective novel, people are dying from a mysterious cause in outer space habitats, and the prefects (police) have to stop the carnage (amongst other things).

Very good story. 4 stars

My review: /review/show...

Well now I did apologise...�

Since of course it is so beloved it must be doing something right. I to have very broad taste and wide ranging interests... I just have a blind spot in certain areas...

Some books just strike me as being an entire book dedicated to something that could have been a subplot or a back story to a plot where something actually happens... I am certainly not saying that's a fact, it's just how they strike me personally. I know I'm a big kid... But it's too late know...�

You like what you like and you don't like what you don't like... And that's just how it should be.�

Zombies are boring though and have been horribly over used in recent years. I don't actually like them that much it was just a better gag that way...�

Yes to a dragon eating certain persons in the news definitely. It would have to be a dragon... Zombies eat brains and they wouldn't find any...

Robin wrote: "Well now I did apologise...�

You didn't need to. I wasn't offended, and I'm pretty sure Jane Austen wasn't either. (Though she might be saying something witty and devastating about you to her friends in the afterlife right now.)

And quite right to... I'm sure I deserve it...

The majority of my posts are not entirely serious, or indeed serious at all. The occasional serious one can be quite hard to spot, since it probably won't sound serious in the least. I also have a tendency to see the gag and go for it, even if it's not the best idea...

Zombies did seem way overdone about five or ten years ago, but sometimes someone does something new with them.

Yes, never say zombies are dead... Errr, errr... Hmmm

Same with the boring vampires and werewolves, and then I read the excellent Robert McCammon.

Robin, don't you have a package to go pry out from under your wheelie bin/sheepskin?

I am still reading the book I started at the end of December, Lamentation by C.J. Sansom. I have less than 200 pages left now, though, so will likely finish in the next couple days.

Scott wrote: "I'm reading Boys in the Valley, really enjoying this so far."

I really wanna read Boys in the Valley at some point this year. Maybe in October. It sounds like a great horror book and I've heard nothing but good things.

I have started reading The Andromeda Strain because late last year I picked up a copy of The Andromeda Evolution and thought I should reread the original first. Although now that I have started, I'm wondering if I actually have read it before, or just seen the movie.

Strangely, Amazon didn't have an ebook version of Andromeda Strain, so I borrowed it from the library. It turns out that if one doesn't use their library card for 3 years, it gets cancelled - so I had to sign up again.

A sheepskin wheelie bin... Now that's a luxury item...

Robin wrote: "A sheepskin wheelie bin... Now that's a luxury item..."

It stays nice and toasty in the winter.

I've been jumping back and forth between The Drawing of the Three (The Dark Tower series) and the Night Circus. I'm enjoying them both.

I have so far currently read A Healer's Gift,The Woman in Me, and Rogue Protocol. I'm currently listening to The Hobbit, I will admit I have not read any of Tolkien's books. This year a goal is to read older and classic books. I also want to finish or catch up to series I have started.