Help me select books

[Miss Chicken]

I cashed in my money tin and I have around $350 to spend on books. I am pretty well covered for books to read this year so I thought I would choose my books for the Reading Challenge I will be doing at LibraryThing next year. This challenge is called The 13 in 13 Challenge and I must read books from 13 different categories of my choice.

I have come up with 8 categories so far

1) 42 Degrees South i.e. books set in Tasmania, the South Island of New Zealand or in Patagonia

2) Sherlockiana - Sherlock pastiches etc (maybe people can recommend some good books in this category)

3) Other mysteries

4) Books from 1001 Books to Read Before You Die

5) Bombs and Boomerangs - these are Books Off My Bookshelf (books I haven't got around to reading) and Boomerangs (books I want to return to)

6) Books about books (including novels set in libraries etc)

7) Land of Ice and Fire (books about Iceland, or written by Icelandic authors)

8) Biographies/memoirs (would like recommendations - I am not interested in biographies of celebrities, sports people or politicians).

I need suggestions for 5 more categories. I could include a broad scifi/fantasy category but I wouldn't mind narrowing that down to a more specific genre. Also I am thinking of a science category.

I do want to broaden my reading so suggestions of new, unusually categories would be appreciate. I plan to read at least 13 books in the first 5 categories and at least 6 or 7 in the other 8 categories.

 

[Drago-Kazov]

8) Biographies/memoirs (would like recommendations - I am not interested in biographies of celebrities, sports people or politicians).

Jim Rogers Investment Biker or Adventure Capitalist.

History: Anthony Beevor Berlin or Stalingrad.

 

[Miss Chicken]

Thanks for the suggestions.

Does the Stalingrad book focus more on the military history or the human interest side? I have always found the history of the common man more interesting than the history of rulers or generals.

The Jim Rogers book sounds interesting. I read the first few pages at Amazon and I have put it down on my list.

Thinking about my list in bed last night I have decided to include two science fiction categories if I can find enough books to fill them. The first is science fiction books by non-Anglo authors. I can't think of many books I have already read in this category besides those written by Jules Verne.

The second sci-fi category will have a theme. Maybe Immortality or Alternative History or First Contact. Any suggestions that fit under these endings would be appreciated.

 

[Drago-Kazov]

Does the Stalingrad book focus more on the military history or the human interest side? I have always found the history of the common man more interesting than the history of rulers or generals.

It's both but i am warning you, those books are huge.

 

[Miss Chicken]

Does the Stalingrad book focus more on the military history or the human interest side? I have always found the history of the common man more interesting than the history of rulers or generals.

It's both but i am warning you, those books are huge.

Thanks for the warning. However I managed to get through the five Song of Ice and Fire books and they range in length between 830 and 1200 pages each.

 

[Mistral]

Alternative History:

The Turtledove series
The Eric Flint 1632 series(which is up to 1636 already)
Axis of Time trilogy by John Birmingham
The Gate Of Worlds by Silverberg
Paratime! by H Beam Piper
Bring the Jubilee by Ward Moore
The Man In the High Castle
The Domination by SM Stirling
The Coming of the Quantum Cats

The novels of Robert Conroy (like 1901)

 

[Miss Chicken]

Thanks for the suggestions. I will put down Alternative History as a category, as well as the Non-Anglo sci-fi though I still need to find books for that category. I can always choose another theme in 2014 when I will need 14 categories.

So now I have 10 out of 13 categories.

I need three more. One of them will be a Potpourri Category which will cover everything that doesn't fall into the other 12 categories.

Now maybe I need a science theme - Disease? Zoology? Other suggestions welcomed.

I am not sure if to include a separate history category as some history will be covered by the 42 Degrees South and Biographical Categories.

Edited to add - Just bought The Man in the High Castle for my Kindle. It is one of Philip K Dick's books that I haven't read yet. $340 left to spend.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

I cashed in my money tin and I have around $350 to spend on books. I am pretty well covered for books to read this year so I thought I would choose my books for the Reading Challenge I will be doing at LibraryThing next year. This challenge is called The 13 in 13 Challenge and I must read books from 13 different categories of my choice.

I have come up with 8 categories so far

1) 42 Degrees South i.e. books set in Tasmania, the South Island of New Zealand or in Patagonia

You could read The Quiet Earth but that will use up 2/3 of your book fund money.

 

[Miss Chicken]

I cashed in my money tin and I have around $350 to spend on books. I am pretty well covered for books to read this year so I thought I would choose my books for the Reading Challenge I will be doing at LibraryThing next year. This challenge is called The 13 in 13 Challenge and I must read books from 13 different categories of my choice.

I have come up with 8 categories so far

1) 42 Degrees South i.e. books set in Tasmania, the South Island of New Zealand or in Patagonia

You could read The Quiet Earth but that will use up 2/3 of your book fund money.

Yes, it would. Fortunately it is out of the running as it isn't set on the South Island but in the area around Auckland.

Finding books set on the South Island was reasonably easy. I already have 6 on my list including one about the Christchurch earthquake, a crime novel about a vicious serial killer, and a fantasy tale about a group of New Zealand flightless birds on an epic journey to warn the bird nation about the arrival of stoats in the land (sort of like a feathered Lord of the Rings). Books about Patagonia was even easier - I have 9 on my list though 3 of them are about the Welsh Settlement of Patagonia.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

I'm quite a slow reader, I tend to read at talking pace.

Only 600 pages to go to finish the Ice and Fire saga!!

 

[Miss Chicken]

I think I got through all 5 books in about about 7 weeks.

And you have two more books to read before you finish the Ice and Fire Saga, presuming GRR Martin ends up writing them.

 

[stj]

Robert Jordan didn't sucker me and G.R.R. Martin isn't going to either!

Possible categories: Historical Mysteries, and in the science category, there's a lot available on evolutionary theory, cosmology and particle physics. Well there's also a lot available on interpreting quantum mechanics but it's a pretty dry subject.

 

[Miss Chicken]

This year I have read four of the Sister Frevisse mysteries which a set in a nunnery in the 15th century. As there are another 9 books in the series I think some of them will end up in my 'other mysteries' category next year.

I also have The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco on my 1001 Books To Read Before You Die list but, if I end up reading it I will also place it in the Other Mysteries catagory.

I also like Scandinavian mysteries and I have a couple of books in the Dr Siri (Laotian coroner) series to get through.

I really should read On the Origin of Species either this year or next. I am almost embarrassed to admit I have never read it.

 

[lurok]

Alternative History:
The Man In the High Castle

That's the first one I would have recommended (Philip K. Dick). Robert Harris's Fatherland is another obvious choice, and not bad.

If you don't consider Steve Jobs a celeb, the recent biog is a pretty good read and not afraid to portray him as both a bit of a class A jerk and a great inspirer.

 

[Miss Chicken]

I have added The Search for Phiip K Dick by Anne Dick to my biography category. Has anyone here read it?

I am undecided about whether to read the Steve Jobs biography or not. Amazon has recommended it to me.

 

[OmahaStar]

Suggestion for category 8 biography - Have you read the Diary of Anne Frank? Certainly not a celebrity, and it's one of those "everyone should read" type books.

You've got science fiction. I don't think I saw Fantasy as a category listed. I would highly suggest The Libriomancer by Jim C. Hines.

It's based on a short story he did, and is now the first in a series. A libriomancer is a sort of magician who works with books. He can summon anything or anyone that can fit through the size of the book. For example, if he is reading Harry Potter, he can summon a wand out of the book, and the wand is real. But he can't summon the Weasley's car, because it's too big for the portal - which is the size of the book, opened flat. The bigger the dimensions of the book, the bigger the portal is.

Below is the official description ...

Isaac Vainio is a Libriomancer, a member of the secret organization founded five centuries ago by Johannes Gutenberg. Libriomancers are gifted with the ability to magically reach into books and draw forth objects. When Isaac is attacked by vampires that leaked from the pages of books into our world, he barely manages to escape. To his horror he discovers that vampires have been attacking other magic-users as well, and Gutenberg has been kidnapped.

With the help of a motorcycle-riding dryad who packs a pair of oak cudgels, Isaac finds himself hunting the unknown dark power that has been manipulating humans and vampires alike. And his search will uncover dangerous secrets about Libriomancy, Gutenberg, and the history of magic. . . .

My copy is on its way.

 

[Miss Chicken]

I have read "THe Diary of Anne Frank" but only the original version. I believe the newer version contains passges that her father left out.

I don't need a fantasy category for "Libriomancer" as it would fit perfectly into the Books about Books category and I have added it to that list and I think i will be definitely buying it.

 

[Spot's Meow]

You mentioned you were looking for a science category, you could do "the science of death" and include a book like Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach.

Time travel is a subject that would be interesting, either in terms of science fiction or perhaps more scientific/serious books on the topic.

And of course I love historical mysteries, such as the Maids of Misfortune series.

That reminds me, a good category might be Strong Female Leads, that might be fun.

 

[Miss Chicken]

Strong Female Leads seems like a good category. Suggestions of any good books?

I have decided on a category called (perhaps) "Disease, Death and ???" (mainly non-fiction but with one or two fiction works thrown in)


This would include the following books

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach (which as been on my Amazon wish list for a while)

Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife by Mary Roach

The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic-and How it Changed Science, Cities and the Modern World by Steven Johnson (have it on my bookshelf)

Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives by David Eagleman (fiction but written by a neuroscientist)

Other suggestions appreciated.

I think I will join the two science fiction categories into broad science fiction category (but I will try to concentrate on non-Anglo authors and alternative histories

 

[stj]

^^^Since you have so much Mary Roach on your list, you really have to add Bonk and Packing for Mars.