Reflecting with gratitude on a decade of fandom

[freenarnian.livejournal.com]

I've been an official part of this fandom since 2009 (I lurked for a while before that), and more good things have come of it than I could ever have imagined. (Thank you, MWT.)

I hope an_english_girl doesn't mind me saying this, but her friendship is one of those good things. We've become transatlantic pen-pals with a tradition of exchanging fan fics on birthdays and gifts at Christmas. :) This year she gifted me (in addition to our usual trade of reading material) bee earrings, and I sent her goat socks! So fun.

Anyway, just wanted to give Sounis a shout-out, and thank you all for the conversation, kindness, humor, and general goodness you've generated via mutual love of books! The QT fandom is really special.

In keeping with the end-of-year theme, I've copied this questionnaire from Tumblr, in case anyone wants to share some of their bookish highlights for 2019! Feel free to pick and choose, or answer all of them!

1. How many books did you read this year?

2. Did you reread anything? What?

3. What were your top five books of the year?

4. Did you discover any new authors that you love this year?

5. What genre did you read the most of?

6. Was there anything you meant to read, but never got to?

7. What was your average Goodreads rating? Does it seem accurate?

8. Did you meet any of your reading goals? Which ones?

9. Did you get into any new genres?

10. What was your favorite new release of the year?

11. What was your favorite book that has been out for a while, but you just now read?

12. Any books that disappointed you?

13. What were your least favorite books of the year?

14. What books do you want to finish before the year is over?

15. Did you read any books that were nominated for or won awards this year (Booker, Women’s Prize, National Book Award, Pulitzer, Hugo, etc.)? What did you think of them?

16. What is the most over-hyped book you read this year?

17. Did any books surprise you with how good they were?

18. How many books did you buy?

19. Did you use your library?

20. What was your most anticipated release? Did it meet your expectations?

21. Did you participate in or watch any booklr, booktube, or book twitter drama?

22. What’s the longest book you read?

23. What’s the fastest time it took you to read a book?

24. Did you DNF anything? Why?

25. What reading goals do you have for next year?

And I'm adding one:

26. Did you watch any book-to-screen adaptions, and if so, what did you think of them?

* * *
Happy new year, Sounis! May your book collection increase (and with it your shelving space) in the new decade!

Comments

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

Oh, I feel the same! Sounis has spawned several real-life friendships for me, too. I do wish the site had kept plugging along better but social media changes so quickly and other sites are filling in, instead. I'll take your book questionnaire!

1. I read 58 books this year.
2. I like to reread my favorites, so I reread the entire Vorkosigian Saga, Six of Crows, The Ancillary Justice books, and The Goblin Emperor.
3. Top five books--Devotions (Oliver), This Adventure Ends (Mills), The Death of Mrs. Westaway (Ware), Bury Your Dead (Penny), and my top book No Time to Spare by LeGuin.
4. I discovered Ruth Ware and Louise Penny this year.
5. What genre did you read the most of? Fantasy! SciFi!
10. What was your favorite new release of the year? Where the Crawdads Sing, although it probably was released more than a year ago.
11. What was your favorite book that has been out for a while, but you just now read? The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. I watched the PBS adaptation, which was fabulous, so I read the book.
12. Any books that disappointed you? Someone recommended the Fallen Empire books and I forced myself to finish the first one. So. Poorly. Written.
15. Did you read any books that were nominated for or won awards this year (Booker, Women’s Prize, National Book Award, Pulitzer, Hugo, etc.)? What did you think of them? I read Spinning Silver and The Calculating Stars (Hugo winners) and liked them.
16. What is the most over-hyped book you read this year? The Silent Patient. I guessed all the twists before they were revealed and thought it was just ok.
17. Did any books surprise you with how good they were? The Happiness Project and Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine.
18. How many books did you buy? Um, probably zero print books and a handful of ebooks.
19. Did you use your library? Since I don't buy books, yes!
23. What’s the fastest time it took you to read a book? Ha! A trick question for me, since I'm a super-slow reader.
25. What reading goals do you have for next year? I want to put a little more effort into getting recommendations and need to start using Goodreads regularly.

[freenarnian.livejournal.com]

I did a lot of re-reading this year, too! :)

[mylittlecthulhu.livejournal.com]

I've only read the first 3 or 4 Vorkosigan books, but the rest of your rereads are among my favourite books <3 I felt the same way about The Happiness Project and Eleanor Oliphant when I read them.

[mylittlecthulhu.livejournal.com]

1. About 136, according to GoodReads, although there are books I forgot to add on GR, and at least 50-60 of the books are graphic novels.

2. I didn't reread as much as I wanted to. Reread Call Down the Hawk (Maggie Stiefvater) as soon as I finished it, Everard's Ride (Diana Wynne Jones), Prince of Annwn (Evangeline Walton), Kitchen (Banana Yoshimoto), Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children books, and a few books for work.

3. Like A Love Story (Abdi Nazemian), The Bird King (G. Willow Wilson), In An Absent Dream (Seanan McGuire), the Murderbot books (Martha Wells), The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite.

4. Yes. Martha Wells.

5. Usually I read more SFF but I think it's more balanced with realistic fiction this year.

6. Ann Leckie's The Raven Tower, and Alix E. Harrow's Ten Thousand Doors of January immediately come to mind.

19. No. We barely have one where I live, in the sense that there's a library but you won't find books from the last 5 years or so there, and they don't have any graphic novels at all.

20. In An Absent Dream, which exceeded expectations.

21. I mostly hear about YA book twitter drama from one of my friends when he comes over for tea.

25. I want to reread more, and read more books outside of the things I need to read for work (which are mainly YA and comics).

26. I watched Umbrella Academy and Good Omens. I enjoyed both a LOT, and think that the former is better than the comics (as far as I could remember them.)

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

Sounds like we like many of the same books!

[ibmiller.livejournal.com]

1. How many books did you read this year? 36, approximately
2. Did you reread anything? Many rereads, largely of Star Wars novels or novels by Aaron Allston, Christopher Priest, etc.
3. What were your top five books of the year? I adored the Deathstroke comic series by Christopher Priest and the Batman comic series by Tom King, as well as the latest Wearing the Cape book, Repercussions by Marion G. Harmon, and the latest October Daye book by Seanan McGuire, The Unkindest Tide, Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn
4. Did you discover any new authors that you love this year? Sort of - I loved Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn.
5. What genre did you read the most of? Speculative fiction (superhero, scifi, fantasy)
6. Was there anything you meant to read, but never got to? A few, but they slip my mind.
8. Did you meet any of your reading goals? No - I was hoping to read more than 52 books again, but I think my move and joblessness mid-year affected my momentum and motivation.
9. Did you get into any new genres? A little - linguistic fable - Ella Minnow Pea.
11. What was your favorite book that has been out for a while, but you just now read? See #9
12. Any books that disappointed you? Star Wars: Alphabet Squadron - a limp, unfunny (but trying to be funny), lazily angsty attempt to capture the magic of Mike Stackpole and Aaron Allston's X-Wing series, and failing really, really hard.
16. What is the most over-hyped book you read this year? Into the Woods by Tana French - it's not bad, but it's nowhere close to the Golden Age stuff. Better than Rowling's crime novel, though.
18. How many books did you buy? Not many, unless counting comics. If you count comics, a LOT
19. Did you use your library? Of course! Both in Virginia and Minnesota!
20. What was your most anticipated release? Did it meet your expectations? Probably the Wearing the Cape: Repercussions, because it's a long running series that I love. And I got to meet the author for the first time at a con!
21. Did you participate in or watch any booklr, booktube, or book twitter drama? I commented on the fringes of some of the YA drama on twitter and reddit. YA authors and fans are in a really poisonous situation, and I really hope they snap out of it. But it's so entrenched.
25. What reading goals do you have for next year? Hopefully reading 52 books like I did in 2018.
26. Did you watch any book-to-screen adaptions, and if so, what did you think of them? Several! Little Women I posted about on my tumblr here: https://ibmiller.tumblr.com/post/189876861349/little-women-2019-thoughts, and Ophelia, which I posted on youtube about here: https://youtu.be/9YOsW11ir7k

[freenarnian.livejournal.com]

I suppose it's time I got around to answering my own questions!

1. How many books did you read this year?
28 - my goal was 50, but I ended up reading a few twice, and real life kept intruding rudely into my reading time.

2. Did you reread anything? What?
It seems 2019 was a year of re-reads for a lot of people! I re-read The Secret Garden, That Hideous Strength (with a reading group), The Great Gatsby, a couple of Harry Potter books, House of Many Ways, The Scorpio Races, The Fellowship of the Ring, and The Two Towers. (Still working on The Return of the King, with the goal of re-reading The Silmarillion this year.)

3. What were your top five books of the year?
I'm not sure if I can narrow it down, but I can say Persuasion by Jane Austen would be #1

4. Did you discover any new authors that you love this year?
I enjoyed Book Girl by Sarah Clarkson and may look into some of her other works.

5. What genre did you read the most of?
Fiction and fantasy. I have a pile of half-finished non-fiction that I'm a little ashamed of... but I WILL finish them, eventually!

6. Was there anything you meant to read, but never got to?
I have a long list, but The Brothers Karamazov is the one I'm most aware of... I'm lost in deliberation over which translation to read.

7. What was your average Goodreads rating? Does it seem accurate?
I haven't kept up with Goodreads very well.

8. Did you meet any of your reading goals? Which ones?
I had several books I wanted to read or re-read this year, and I did so.

9. Did you get into any new genres?
I want to explore Sci-Fi more. I find that whole section of the bookstore fascinating but overwhelming at the same time. I tried to read more memoirs and mostly failed.

10. What was your favorite new release of the year?
I enjoyed King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo.

11. What was your favorite book that has been out for a while, but you just now read?
*blushes* Persuasion. I don't know why it took me so long, but I'm fully there now!

12. Any books that disappointed you?
So many. But I don't like to dwell.

13. What were your least favorite books of the year?
As I said, I prefer next! over dwelling on the negatives. But I will say that I loathed The Essex Serpent and wish I'd never read it.

14. What books do you want to finish before the year is over?
...Oops.

15. Did you read any books that were nominated for or won awards this year (Booker, Women’s Prize, National Book Award, Pulitzer, Hugo, etc.)? What did you think of them?
Did I? I'm not sure.

16. What is the most over-hyped book you read this year?
Probably Call Down the Hawk. Sorry, sorry... I didn't love it. Doesn't mean others can't, or that I thought it was terrible. Hype is just unhelpful sometimes.

17. Did any books surprise you with how good they were?
The Secret Garden felt like a new book to me, even though I remember reading it as a kid. I wept over it as an adult. Hits different, I guess...

18. How many books did you buy?
7 that I can think of off the top of my head, but it was probably more.

19. Did you use your library?
Books are expensive, bruh. Of course I did. Mostly Overdrive, though, because my library's physical collection is tiny. Makes me sad, because I still prefer dead trees, if I'm being honest.

20. What was your most anticipated release? Did it meet your expectations?
Probably King of Scars, though I wasn't really anticipating it, so much as, "Huh, yeah, guess I'll read that when it's released..." I didn't have expectations, really, but it was fun.

21. Did you participate in or watch any booklr, booktube, or book twitter drama?
No thank you. So toxic.

22. What’s the longest book you read?
I'm not sure. Ebooks make it harder to remember.

23. What’s the fastest time it took you to read a book?
2 days.

24. Did you DNF anything? Why?
Sometimes books are just unstimulating or something other than what you were hoping for, y'kno?

25. What reading goals do you have for next year?
I want to be more intentional about the books I buy and borrow, and tackle the rest of my TBR list. Definitely need more non-fiction in my life.

[freenarnian.livejournal.com]

26. Did you watch any book-to-screen adaptions, and if so, what did you think of them?
-I haven't seen Little Women yet but I'm reaaaally curious about it. The 1994 version will always be special to me, though... a near-perfect movie, in my estimation. Just re-watched it.
-I saw a pretty lackluster TV adaption of Les Mis.
-I'm not sure if the movie Tolkien counts since it's a biopic rather than an adaption, but it surpassed my (admittedly low) expectations... for what it was, rather than what it wasn't (if that makes sense). The dialogue and acting made it worthwhile, if far from perfect.
- How to Train Your Dragon 3 deserves a mention, since it's technically (loosely) based on a book... again, not perfect, but I love Toothless and Hiccup, so.
- I was going to see The Goldfinch but never got around to it. (The book was one of my DNFs.)
- I will always and forever be re-watching Sense and Sensibility (1995)
-I'm sure there were others but I can't recall them at the moment.

And, oops, I didn't mean to type this up in a reply to your post, Checkers. Sorry. Must've hit the wrong button.

[freenarnian.livejournal.com]

I knew I'd forgotten one: I watched Netflix's The King and it was a snore. On the plus side, time to re-watch Branagh's Henry V!

[freenarnian.livejournal.com]

I forgot about Ophelia (starring Daisy Ridley), but I want to see it. Thanks for the reminder!

[ibmiller.livejournal.com]

Of course! I had a really good time watching it!

[freenarnian.livejournal.com]

The trailer for it looked stunning. Like a John William Waterhouse painting brought to life.

I was afraid that might be ALL it amounted to, though - there's so much teenage angst in fancy dress on screen these days. :1

And I simply don't trust trailers anymore. Which is why I'm glad you mentioned the trailer in your thoughts on the new Little Women - the trailer really didn't sell me on it. But my curiosity's growing. I'm not a huge fan of Emma Watson (or her eyebrows - lol!) or Laura Dern for that matter, and I don't want to see Professor Bhaer reduced in any way, and it simply isn't possible to improve upon Thomas Newman's score. :) But, I think you've given me confidence to go and see it, and accept whatever notes it hits gracefully and in harmony with other adaptions.

I'm definitely one who's had enough of "deliberately scolding the audience for wanting" a satisfying/happy ending, though. I certainly won't love a film if I leave the theater feeling like the film hated me, which has been my experience more than once in recent history. :O Why??

[ibmiller.livejournal.com]

The movie itself is really gorgeous, but it's also a fun story for Shakespeare nerds, with some solid acting by Ridley and the rest of the cast. It diverges from the book in some major ways, but in ways I think make it a bit more enjoyable, actually.

The trailer for the new Little Women was indeed very lackluster. I don't think Bhaer is reduced - just the resolution of the book. I think it's still very worth watching, for Ronan and Pugh's performances alone.

What films have you seen recently that you felt scorned you? Those are so frustrating.

[freenarnian.livejournal.com]

I realize two of these examples are children's cartoons (scorn them not :p) and maybe it's my own fault for wanting more from them, but...

(DISCLAIMER: I didn't hate any of these movies. In fact, I enjoyed some of them. I just have Thoughts and Stuff.)

-I thought Elsa's "development" in Frozen 2 was unsatisfactory, particularly where it clashed with or repeated her developments in the first movie. Where does she end up, exactly? In the woods somewhere...?

-Likewise, How To Train Your Dragon 3 aimed for an ending that was bittersweet over one that made sense.

-I haven't seen Endgame yet so maybe I shouldn't judge, but anything that markets itself to me with "find out which of your favorite characters will die!" is a no-go.

-I hate to speak the name of Star Wars in polite company, but, *deep breath* I left Rise of Skywalker with the distinct impression that its makers think I'm stupid and an easy target for candy-stealing.

-And while I've never watched (or wanted to watch) GoT, I have many friends who did and were pretty let down by its violent and ultimately nihilistic ending. Personally, I would expect no less from GRRM, but I did feel some secondhand sorrow on behalf of my friends and their emotional investment.

What can I say? I'm a eucatastrophe kinda gal. Feels like my emotional and intellectual investment is considered cheap and easy dollar signs by our current media trends. Alas.

[ibmiller.livejournal.com]

I'm on other social media sites that are more active, but I still wish livejournal were as active as they. Nothing's really beaten the combination of aesthetic, comment function, notifications, and blog post functions.

[ibmiller.livejournal.com]

I score them not indeed! I think all of them are fairly massive cultural phenomenons with huge budgets, and they're not spending all that money without something they want you to think and feel afterwards! I haven't seen Frozen 2 (because I strongly dislike Frozen 1), but I did think HTTYD3 was pretty annoying in its ending...and also made no sense in terms of trying to say anything coherent. Endgame actually worked for me as an ending...but mostly because I checked out of the MCU 7 years ago, and think it's pretty much all mediocrity with characters that punch above their weight emotionally (except for the newer ones). And, of course, Star Wars was movie by committee trying to please everyone, and thus only succeeded in not making as many people made as the last one.

I do feel you on the wanting satifying endings thing. As I said in my initial response, I just finished two very long (50 and 85 issues) comic book series (which both started in 2016, but due to the shipping vagaries, had different numbers of issues), and I thought both were excellent, but getting to the ending with increasingly bitter fan conversations became absolutely wearying.

[freenarnian.livejournal.com]

I've checked out of the MCU as well. The last Marvel film I genuinely loved was Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

[ibmiller.livejournal.com]

I loved that film, too!

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

I agree. Traffic here has dwindled so much and I have no idea how to coax it back. I've cross-posted to Tumblr, etc., but it hasn't seemed to help. I do think a new QT book would help!

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

I just put Martha Wells' All Systems Red on my TBR list. Is that one you liked?

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

YA authors and fans are in a really poisonous situation

They really are, aren't they? I feel badly for YA authors; they can't write what comes from their hearts without being criticized for including/excluding any group/issue/action under the sun, and being accused of evil intentions. It's a bunch of very unkind readers and critics who have the power to end careers.

[ibmiller.livejournal.com]

I feel bad for the majority of them, but some of them are really nasty bullies.

[freenarnian.livejournal.com]

It was so good! A visual spectacle and a great story with a well-developed cast of characters and lots of heart.

[freenarnian.livejournal.com]

There's a double-mindedness about much of it: All authors must somehow represent all POVS and yet to attempt to do so is to be accused of presumption (at best) and appropriation and exploitation (and even worse things at worst). And yes, there are the ones trying to pander to it all as well - often at the expense of the good storytelling that should unite us. Sigh.

[mylittlecthulhu.livejournal.com]

Yes! It's the first of 4 novellas, and there's a novel coming out this year. I absolutely love it.

[mairelon.livejournal.com]

2. Did you reread anything? What?
I reread The Lives of Christopher Chant and Charmed Life by Diana Wynne Jones. And also A Company of Swans by Eva Ibbotson.

4. Did you discover any new authors that you love this year?
I discovered two new favorite authors: Susan Dennard and Helen Cresswell.

11. What was your favorite book that has been out for a while, but you just now read?
Ordinary Jack by Helen Cresswell
Brothers in Arms by Lois McMaster Bujold

19. Did you use your library?
Of course.

[freenarnian.livejournal.com]

Just borrowed the ebook from my library!

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

Me, too!

[freenarnian.livejournal.com]

WOW I just finished it. Second book here I come.

[checkers65477.livejournal.com]

IT'S SO GOOD.