In 2013 I
- Ran 24 different races (5K, 5M, 10K, and half marathons) and achieved new best times in all categories
- Started running trails
- Logged 359 miles walking, running or hiking
- Made it to the gym regularly
- Drank an average of 2 beers a day, including 487 different ones
- Lost 20lbs
- Was able to stop taking medicine for high cholesterol
- Went on my first Caribbean cruise
- Played at least 73 different board games hundreds of times
- Started and ended the year playing Cosmic Encounter
- Sold my Magic the Gathering cards
- Read over 40 books
- Back 44 Kickstarter projects
- Made 7 Kiva loans
- Made 0 posts to LJ
- Lost 2 cats to illness
- Lost 1 friend to cancer

Well, if you could guess, I've given up on my 12 in 12 Book Challenge. Reading ground to a halt over the summer and has never quite recovered. I spend several months listening to podcasts on my commute and only recently started back on audio books. I've got a small stack of new books that I want to read soon, but I seem to alway be out of time or too tired to get to them.

29. Rite of Passage by Alexei Panshin
30. A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge *
31. The Magicians - Lev Grossman *
32. Black Company by Glen Cook *
33. On Stranger Tides by Tim Powers *
 

Hey look! I started a post after Origins and then never finished it. Well, here it is about a month later...

( Read more... )

Just catching up on my lists again.

22. Blackout by Connie Willis *
23. Emperor Norton's Ghost by Dianne Day
24. All Clear by Connie Willis *
25. Emperor of the United States of America by Catherine Caulfield

12 in 12 Challenge
6/12 Hugo Winners
7/12 Nebula Winners
2/12 Emperor Norton
 

The reading continues while the logging falls behind...

14. Black Unicorn - Tanith Lee (finished in March)
Short YA novel set in a fantasy world. The story follows Tanaquil the daughter of a sorceress with a knack for mending things (Tanaquil has the knack, not her mom). After discovering and reassembling the skeleton of a unicorn, the unicorn comes to life and leads/chases Tanaquil on an adventure. Very much a Tanith Lee story, which for me means beautiful and enjoyable.

15. Gold Unicorn - Tanith Lee
Tanaquil explores the world and gets caught up in a war. Book two in Lee's Unicorn series. Very good :)

16. Anathem - Neal Stephenson *
Excellent (large) work from Stephenson. The audio book was well done and made the Arbre vocabulary much easier to deal with. Lots of cool philosophical and mathematical ideas get batted around all while telling an engaging story.

12 in 12 Challenge - Q1 Summary :)

16/55 Books read
2/12 Hugo Winners
3/12 Nebula Winners
8/12 Written Pre-1970
2/12 Tanith Lee
2/12 Harlen Ellison
0/12 Graphic Novels
1/12 Short story collections
0/12 Emperor Norton
7/12 Recommended by friends
6/12 Buy no more the 12 new books
0/12 Remove 12 books from the "to read" collection
 

12. Darwin's Radio - Greg Bear

Look! An actual paper book got finished! My reading time is very limited right now, but I'm still making a little progress.

This book puts forward the idea the evolution can sometimes make sudden jumps forward (via a retrovirus create/released from our own DNA). Heavy on the science (in a good way - though complete with a glossary), and set in basically modern times. Greg Bear does a good job exploring the various reactions from individuals, corporations, and governments as the virus appears and changes.

12 in 12 Challenge
3/12 Nebula Winners
 

9. Beowulf *
While the language (a modern translation which kept or recreated the alliteration) made the story very enjoyable to hear, it did require a good deal of attention to follow at times. Thing I learned that before I didn't know about the story: Grendel is a descendant of the biblical Cain.

10. Journey to the Center of the Earth - Jules Verne *
Another classic, though from a different period of time. My copy was read by Tim Curry, which is a great way to hear Jules Verne's adventure story.

12 in 12 Challenge
8/12 Written Pre-1970
5/12 Recommended by friends
 

5. Gilgamesh *

An ancient classic that I really didn't know anything about. I was pleasantly surprised in that this is not a typical heroic quest story (Book 1 - Gilgamesh is an asshole; Gods create someone just like him to distract him). Loved the way the story was told though.

12 in 12 Challenge
3/12 Written Pre-1970
1/12 Recommended by friends
 

For those of you who are curious, here is the full list of books I'm going to try and read this year. They are broken down into the categories I picked for my 12 in '12 challenges. I've got 10 reading challenges and 2 non-reading challenges. Since I know I can't read 120 books in a year, I'm letting some books hit more then one category. A few of the books (marked with a * in front) I still need to find and buy.

( Da Lists )

I collected the book recommendations from here, G+ and FB. Most books which were recommended more then once made the list, as did those of which I have audio versions. I'm saving the full list and hope to get to the rest of them next year :) Books that were recommended but which I don't own have been wishlisted.


12 Books Recommended by Friends
Anathem by Neal Stephenson
On Basilisk Station by David Weber
Ship Who Sang by Anne McCaffrey
The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams
The Integral Trees by Larry Niven
The Madness Season by C.S. Friedman
Woundhealer's Story by Fred Saberhagen
Beowulf *
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctrow *
Gilgamesh *
Iliad and Odyssey by Homer *
Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne *

* audio books

A few of the recommendation were already on a different list of 12, so they will also get read (I hope):
M is for Magic by Neil Gaiman
Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
Blackout by Connie Willis
All Clear by Connie Willis
Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein

And one book I started last year and expect to finish soon :)
Reamde by Neal Stephenson

GoodReads tells me I am already 3 books behind where I need to be to meet my goal... (Big thank you to anyone who recommended short books ;) )