Another year of reading! Achieved some interesting milestones this year like reading my first Stephen King book (2 actually!) and reading my first 1000+ page book. I actually went into this year saying that I would tackle one of the 1000+ page beasts on my to-read list and am happy to see that I achieved that goal. This was also the year I started writing posts for this blog. Several of the books I read ended up as blog posts but some did not. This was for several different reasons including not really having much to write about, but I still wanted to talk about them a little. I could have done a post on Bluesky like I used to but the whole reason I switched to the blog was so I would have more space to write everything I wanted. 300 characters is a a bit cramped.
If you have been following me since last year, you might have noticed that 15 books is a lot less than 50. The reason for this was because of a change in my habits this year. In February I started going on walks during my lunch breaks at work. Previously, I was using this time to read. This was my main reading time which is a big reason for the drop in the total number of books. I don’t regret this choice (why would I? I knew this would happen) but it is a little disappointing to see the number drop this much. On the bright side, this is still more than I had read each year for the previous couple years. This year I also had a higher average page count for the books so that also contributed to the lower count. That’s enough talking, let’s get into the books.
Starter Villain
The first book of the year. At this point, I was still writing my reviews as Bluesky posts which can be seen here:
I don’t really have anything else to say about the book. It was really funny but had a bit of a disappointing conclusion.
Dungeon Crawler Carl
The first post on this blog! Insanely fast paced and hilarious. I’m a bit proud of the write-up for this one. I feel like I was able to glean some significant insight into what many people might have seen as “just a goofy book”. It is a bit deeper than you might expect 😉.
Bookshops & Bonedust
The second post on this blog! Originally I was thinking I would do a review of almost all the books I read but each review ended up being a lot more work than I expected. This was mostly due to me trying to do a more in-depth analysis and trying to glean some new insight into the book. I kept this up for the next review but I ended up realizing that it was just slowing down my reading. As for the book itself, I thought it was better written than the first but I did not enjoy it as much. I do look forward to the third book although it looks like it involves a different cast of characters. One of them is from a short story I think, so I will need to go a read that first.
The Tainted Cup
The third…that’s enough, John. A fantasy mystery, what’s not to like? A story with interesting world building which will tickle the minds of fantasy nerds while also crafting a unique mystery to satisfy the mystery lovers. The book does a great job of creating a mystery which could only happen in this world. It even has its own magic/power system!
The Way of Kings
The best book I have ever read, and the sequel is supposed to be even better??? When I read this book I wasn’t intending to do any write-up or review about it, but I REALLY wanted to write something about it. I think my analysis of the themes of leadership was adequate but I think it could have been more fleshed out. At the end of the write-up, I did mention that I wanted to include some examples from the Mistborn books, but had some trouble selecting exact point to use.
A Psalm for the Wild-Built
I wanted to do a review of this but the write-up for The Way of Kings took so long that I had forgotten what I had wanted to write. For this book, I actually tried taking physical notes to try and test how that would work, but it didn’t work out. I think that stopping to take the notes takes me out of the story too much and keeps me from enjoying the book. I want to share my experiences and do more with the books but my number one goal is to have fun and enjoy the story. I do think that there is a balance to the note-taking though and I will keep experimenting with it.
The Lottery
A very good short story which does a very good job of crafting and holding tension. The feeling of dread wondering what “prize” the “winner” of the lottery was going to get was great.
I forget why I decided to read this. I think I wanted to read some horror or something and this was on a list? I recall it was on some list but I can’t remember what the list was for.
The Illustrated Man
I initially read this intending to do a write-up on Bradbury and his writing. I wanted to talk about how, despite his stories often containing anachronisms and, in some cases, flat out incorrect things about science and technology, readers just kind of don’t care. This idea fell through though since the points that I was going to use as evidence I either misremembered or flat out were not actually in the story. I may dig this idea up again eventually but for now it will remain a note in Obsidian.
As for the book itself, I enjoyed it, despite not being the biggest horror fan. This was another short short collection, like The Martian Chronicles which I read last year. The Martian Chronicles had some elements of horror, especially Usher II with its Poe references, but it wasn’t the main focus. I think the main reason I still enjoyed the stories was that it wasn’t too grotesque and, honestly, many of them were really science-fiction stories with a horror twist.
The War of the Worlds
As part of the Bradbury article, I wanted to include some H.G. Wells in order to try and present an author who also had inaccurate science which did get in the way of the story. The main issue I had with this idea was, I didn’t think that was really that much of a problem for this story. Honestly, the main things which got on my nerves with this story was the “glorious British Empire” mindset. Overall the book wasn’t bad but I don’t think it was a book for me. If you are the kind of person who likes disaster or monster movies, I can see it being a fairly enjoyable tale. It is a little dated though, not just because of the “glorious British Empire” mindset but it has an old style of writing and the way people react to the situation seems slightly dated? There is a better way to put this but I recall feeling like some of the book was dated. It was specifically not because of the things I was looking for with the inaccurate science.
The Time Machine
Another H.G. Wells book which I wanted to use as evidence for my Bradbury write-up. I enjoyed this one more than The War of the Worlds but it did come off a bit preachy at times with what seemed like pro-communist ideas seeping through. Actually, it was interesting reading a bit about Wells because it gave me some insight as to why these books did not end up working for my idea. For one thing, many of the ideas he explores in his books actually happened, including: the airplane, the tank, space travel, the atomic bomb, satellite television and the worldwide web. Maybe this was due to his interest in science? That would explain why his works, despite being written several years before Bradbury’s, seem to have more accurate science. I do think I might revisit the Bradbury article idea but with a different approach. Maybe change it to talk about science fiction writing in general?
Warbreaker
Yet another book I tried to do a write-up for. I wanted to compare the journeys of the two sisters, Siri and Vivenna, and how they seemed to almost swap roles by the end of the book. The reason I actually decided to read this book was, first, because I wanted to read more Cosmere stuff after reading The Way of Kings, but also because I had read that there is a character in this book which shows up in The Words of Radiance. I did, unfortunately, accidentally read which character it was, but I don’t think it was too much of a spoiler. My main thing after reading who it was was “Huh? How?”
The main issue I had with this book was the ending. It felt sudden, like we were just about to get to a big battle and then the magical solution takes care of it off screen. It felt a bit cheap even if the solution was in our faces the entire time. The reason for this was likely due to the fact that the story was never really about the country and the battle but rather about stopping the battle. The two sisters tried, in their own way, to stop the war (hence the title of the book). On top of this, both of the characters had completed their character arcs and become the more true versions of themselves. There really wasn’t anything else to write for the story. I guess having the solution be something that the sisters didn’t help with directly was the issue? I can’t really talk about it without spoiling the solution.
The last thing which kind of annoyed me but really wasn’t a problem was how the epilogue very clearly leads into a sequel…but there isn’t one (yet). Sanderson has confirmed that there will be a sequel which will explain how the character mentioned before gets to Roshar, but it won’t happen for awhile. That will be interesting but I am a bit more interested in what happens with the characters in this book.
A Drop of Corruption
The sequel to The Tainted Cup. After reading the first book earlier this year, I was delighted to see that the sequel was coming out that April. I ended up asking for a copy for my birthday since it has almost become tradition for my mom to ask me what books I want. Didn’t get around to reading it till the fall but I’m glad I did. It was even better than the first one. Like the first book, I wanted to do a write-up for it but I felt like I could not remember enough from it to create a list of points which would be sufficient for a write-up. The main points I wanted to make involved how the mystery is bigger and more in-depth than the first and how it does a much better job of setting things up and paying them off. The first book had some of this but the second book did it a lot more and it shows. The third book is supposed to come out this year and I will for sure get that one as well (as long as the reviews are not awful).
The Gunslinger
My first Stephen King book. Man, this guy can write. After finishing the book I immediately went and cracked out 800 words with my thoughts on, not only the story, but King’s writing. After adding some more and fleshing out some of my ideas, those 800 words turned into a full blog post.
The Candymakers
After the dark story of The Gunslinger, I wanted to read a more fun and childish story. Looking at the list for this year, I had yet to do a fun read. The book was really fun and had a unique way of presenting the story. Each section retold the events at the candy factory from each of the kid’s perspectives. This could have gotten very repetitive but the author did a good job of not retelling the points which had already been made. It focused on presenting the new perspective by including things like what that person saw or what they did when they were away from the rest of the group. The story was a bit childish for my tastes (obviously, I am not the target audience) and some parts had me struggling to maintain my suspension of disbelief especially with some of the candy making process. The book reminded me of The Mysterious Benedict Society, which I read last year. Not only because of its tone and its child cast, but also because of its length. The Mysterious Benedict Society was a whopping 497 pages, a lot for a young reader. The Candymakers was a bit shorter at 453 pages but that is still a lot of pages.
On Writing
After finishing The Gunslinger I was intrigued to learn more about Stephen King and his writing process. I had already put On Writing on my to-read shelf but now it had shot to the top of the books I wanted to read. There is a lot in this book, not just for writers, but just good life lessons which can be applied to any discipline. I honestly could write a full blog post on this book but I wanted to get this post out first. I might still write that post so maybe I will just stop here 🙂… no, I will write a little more. The biggest thing I got out of the book was that I don’t want to be a writer. I don’t want to sit down at my desk everyday and write for multiple hours, nor write out multiple drafts for several hundred page manuscripts, it’s just not what I want to do. It is very much what Stephen King likes to do though and I am glad to see how happy it makes him. I am happy with the writing I do for my blog posts and I feel like it accomplishes the goal I set out to achieve with all of my content creation, that being, to share the things I like with others and perhaps glean some new insight into these things as well.
Conclusion
15 is quite a lot less than 50 but I’m still happy with what I read. I had actually planned to read another book before the end of the year, but On Writing took longer than expected. That book was Rouge Protocol, the third book in the Murderbot series. I think that will be the first book I read this year, especially since I already have it and don’t need to get it from the library. Also I got these for Christmas
I’m planning on reading The Words of Radiance this year. It’s going to be hard to top The Way of Kings but, judging by the reviews, it will not disappoint. I also plan on reading the second Dark Tower book, The Drawing of the Three. Now that I am through the “slow” part I’m hoping that the rest will be really good. Judging from the Goodreads ratings and what I have heard, the rest of the series is really good.
Hopefully this year will be another book-filled year. I’m setting my reading goal to 20 books this year which I think is achievable as long as I am a little more diligent with my reading.
JohnB_Live 
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