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calissa
Happy New Year! I hope those of you celebrating had wonderful holidays. I could have used a little more reading, but had a wonderful time with family.
This is usually the part where I look back over my reading stats for the past year, but I have decided to forego the navel-gazing this time. There were a couple of trends I’ll note, all of which were related to COVID-19. The major lockdown period for my hometown ran from March until the end of May (we have been very lucky). During those months, I read more than average and the books I read were largely sourced from my existing TBR pile. Library loans for 2020 were significantly down on previous years, due to the closure of the library.
Mt TBR Status
Mt TBR @ 1 January 2020: 427
Mt TBR @ 30 November 2020: 420
Mt TBR @ 31 December 2020: 424
Items Read
161. The Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex by Tamsyn Muir. Science fiction short story in the Locked Tomb series. The academics of the Sixth house unseal the study of one of their most notorious members and find themselves with a mystery on their hands. A fun, though somewhat bittersweet look back at the childhood of some of the side characters from Gideon the Ninth.
162. Good Neighbours by Stephanie Burgis. Fantasy short story. Hoping for some peace and quiet, a grumpy inventor moves next door to a spooky castle. A charming meetcute. I’m looking forward to reading more.
163. One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London. Contemporary romance. A plus-sized fashion blogger is offered the chance to star in her favourite reality TV show. I found this one a little difficult going for the way that it digs into fatphobia, but I also appreciated it all the more for that. I wasn’t wholly sold on the end, since it felt like it remembered at the last minute that it was supposed to be a romance novel. And, indeed, it doesn’t feel much like a traditional romance novel but something more akin to women’s fiction.
165. Critical Role: Vox Machina – Origins, Vol. 1 by Matthew Mercer, Matthew Colville and Olivia Samson. Six would-be heroes find themselves drawn together as they investigate dark happenings in a swamp-side town. I’m not familiar with the oeuvre of Critical Role, but I am a D&D player, and I found the story accessible enough. It shows the influence of its original medium in the kinds of characters and the wordiness of many of the panels. Not exactly deep, and a little dark in places, but an enjoyable read.
166. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen. Classic fiction. A young, naive woman travels to Bath for the first time, where she makes a number of friends of varying quality. I can see why this is not one of Austen’s more popular novels; the hero in particular felt a little flat to me. However, the parts satirising Gothic novels were very entertaining.
167. Crossroads by Moira Rogers. Paranormal romance. Second in the Southern Arcana series. After yearning for each other for years, a recently-turned werewolf hooks up with the princess of the US werewolves. Unfortunately, their union is cut short when the princess’s twin sister arrives, in fear for her life. As I have said before, Moira Rogers is another pseudonym Kit Rocha used for some of their earlier work and it shows. It has much of the same feelings of community and found family, but this has a lot less of the polish.
168. Death at the Blue Elephant by Janeen Webb. A collection of short sci-fi and fantasy stories. It leans a little too horror for my taste, but all well written.
Acquisitions
Silk and Steel edited by Janine A. Southard
The Pearl by Tiffany Reisz
The Councillor by E.J. Beaton
Rebuilding Tomorrow by Tsana Dolichva
Curse of Bronze by Tansy Rayner Roberts
Mythos by Stephen Fry
Heroes by Stephen Fry
How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories by Holly Black
Tales from the Folly by Ben Aaronovitch
Two Rogues Make a Right by Cat Sebastian
Reading Goals
My reading goals for 2020 were fairly modest. I set my Goodreads goal for 150 books and made 159. I also aimed to read or get rid of the ten oldest books on my TBR pile and got through seven of those.
Since these goals served me reasonably well, I have decided to repeat them for 2021. For the ten oldest books, I shall carry over the three from last year that I didn’t get to and add seven more to fill out the number. I’ve also cheated a little with the titles to avoid tackling too many tomes in one year. The titles are:
The Birthday of the World by Ursula K. Le Guin
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
Choosing Happiness by Stephanie Dowrick
The Twilight Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
A Contemplation Upon Flowers by Bobby K. Ward
The Woman’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets by Barbara G. Walker
The Illiad by Homer
Carpentaria by Alexis Wright
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Wish me luck! In the meantime, if you have reading goals for the year, I’d love to hear them.
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Date: 2021-01-03 11:31 pm (UTC)I mean, in fairness, by now you'd be catching up on a minimum of 100 episodes regardless of the campaign you start with, so... This is probably a much nicer way to check out their narraties 's very wholesome to watch, though. I'm looking forward to diving into the non-show content eventually, so I'm glad this worked for you!
Congrats on reaching your reading goals in 2020 and good luck on them this year! <3
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Date: 2021-01-04 12:53 am (UTC)Thank you! And good luck to you, too. <3
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Date: 2021-01-04 07:51 pm (UTC)Thank you! :D
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Date: 2021-01-05 05:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-01-05 07:29 pm (UTC)If you'd like just a base introduction to their player dynamics and world without the massive-massive commitment, I'd recommend "The Adventures of the Darrington Brigade". That one has some (mildish) spoilers for the Vox Machina campaign and, being a live episode, is a little more dramatic and hammed up than they normally play, but it's really solid for their general dynamics and antics and stands on its own even if you know next-to-nothing about the setting. Failing that, I'd recommend something like Marisha's Honey Heist just for the silly and getting to see Matt play instead of DM. This one is infinitely funnier if you know C1, but it can work great as an introduction. (I know because it's how I wound up a critter. XD)
If you want to start with C2, you could start with episode 109, which is the beginning of this arc if you want to dive straight in and don't worry about spoilers for the episodes before that. You'd still have some level of catch-up, but right now it's, like, a tenth of the episodes available. (I wouldn't recommend jumping straight in at the latest episode. 120 is a massive cliffhanger and likely doesn't make a lot of sense if you don't at least backtrack to the start of the dungeon delve.)
Beyond that... It really depends on what things work for you and what doesn't. Narrative Telephone season 1 is a delight if you just want to see what the group dynamic is like. They're generally around 1 to 1.5 hours long and they rarely rely on visual props, so you can just listen. (Travis's episode is an exception.) Undeadwood is fabulous if you'd like something longer than a single episode but shorter than a massive campaign, something weird west, and to see Matt play something more serious than Honey Heist. (Plus it has Anjali Bhimani and Khary Payton as guests and they are a delight.)
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Date: 2021-01-06 05:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-01-06 06:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-01-04 08:51 am (UTC)I'm particularly interested to hear about the Tansy Rayner Roberts and the Holly Black book when you get to them. ^_^
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Date: 2021-01-05 05:55 am (UTC)I'll be sure to let you know! <3
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Date: 2021-02-14 05:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2021-03-01 09:40 am (UTC)