Sunday, July 19, 2009

New Reading Goal

In addition to the other books I get from the library, in particular nonfiction, I'm going to make a concerted effort to read, cover to cover, the following books that have been sitting on my shelves that I have not read or have not completed.

Here's the list, 106 at this point (I have to look at a few more of the Science Fiction Annual Collections to see if they should be added), broken out by category:


Science Fiction [32]
  • The Year's Best Science Fiction 24th Annual Collection
  • The Year's Best Science Fiction 22nd Annual Collection
  • The Year's Best Science Fiction 6th Annual Collection
  • Supermen: Tales of the Posthuman Future
  • The Space Opera Renaissance
  • Worlds that Weren't (Alternate History Anthology)
  • One Lamp (Alternate History Anthology)
  • The Earth Book of Stormgate, Poul Anderson
  • Steampunk
  • The Collected Stories of Greg Bear
  • The Forge of God, Greg Bear
  • Eon, Greg Bear
  • Eternity, Greg Bear
  • Dinosaur Summer, Greg Bear
  • Earth, David Brin
  • Shadow of the Hegemon, Orson Scott Card [sci-fi]
  • Shadow Puppets, Orson Scott Card [sci-fi]
  • Shadow of the Giant, Orson Scott Card [sci-fi]
  • Foreigner, C.J. Cherryh
  • Babel-17, Samuel R. Delany
  • Altered Carbon, Richard K. Morgan [sci-fi]
  • Signal to Noise, Eric Nylund
  • An Exhaltation of Larks, Robert Reed [sci-fi]
  • Marrow, Robert Reed [sci-fi]
  • Calculating God, Robert J. Sawyer
  • Sun of Suns, Karl Schroeder [sci-fi/fantasy]
  • A Door into Ocean, Joan Slonczewski [sci-fi]
  • The Rediscovery of Man [Complete Short Stories of Cordwainer Smith]
  • The Castaways of Tanagar, Brian Stableford
  • Singularity Sky, Charles Stross
  • The Awakeners, Sheri S. Tepper [sci-fi/fantasy]
  • The Collected Stories of Vernor Vinge
Fantasy [27]
  • The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 8th Annual Collection
  • The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 9th Annual Collection
  • The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 12th Annual Collection
  • The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 15th Annual Collection
  • The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 16th Annual Collection
  • Year's Best Fantasy 1
  • Year's Best Fantasy 2
  • Year's Best Fantasy 3
  • Year's Best Fantasy 4
  • Modern Classics of Fantasy
  • Masterpieces of Fantasy and Enchantment
  • Legends II: Dragon, Sword, and King
  • Legends II: Shadows, Gods, and Demons
  • Grave Peril, Jim Butcher
  • Anansi Boys, Neil Gaiman
  • Assassin's Apprentice, Robin Hobb [fantasy]
  • Royal Assassin, Robin Hobb [fantasy]
  • Assassin's Quest, Robin Hobb [fantasy]
  • Oathbreakers, Mercedes Lackey
  • A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Leguin
  • The Tombs of Atuan, Ursula K. Leguin
  • Tales from Earthsea, Ursula K. Leguin
  • At the Mountains of Madness, H.P. Lovecraft
  • The Golden Compass, Phillip Pullman
  • The Amber Spyglass, Phillip Pullman
  • The Subtle Knife, Phillip Pullman
  • The Black Throne, Fred Saberhagen & Roger Zelazny
Mystery [6]
  • Tough Guys & Dangerous Dames (Hardboiled Mystery Anthology)
  • Mammoth Book of Great Detective Stories
  • Historical Detectives
  • Darwin's Blade, Dan Simmons [mystery/thriller]
  • Black Lotus, Laura John Rowland [historical mystery]
  • Straight, Dick Francis
"Literary" Fiction [5]
  • Best American Essays 1994
  • Best American Essays 1996
  • Best American Short Stories 1989
  • O'Henry Awards 1990
  • Fluke, Christopher Moore
Adventure/Espionage [2]
  • The Crook Factory, Dan Simmons [history/espionage]
  • Combat [anthology of near future combat stories]
Nonfiction Science [17]
  • What Are You Optimistic About?
  • What We Believe But Cannot Prove
  • What Is Your Dangerous Idea?
  • True Names and the Opening of the Cyberspace Frontier, by Vernor Vinge
  • Best American Science and Nature Writing 2005
  • Empires of the Word (nonfiction linguistics)
  • Einstein for Beginners
  • The Physics of Star Trek
  • The Origin of Species
  • Science Matters
  • Technology in World Civilization
  • Engines of Creation
  • Paradigms Regained
  • How the Mind Works
  • The Society of Mind
  • The Age of Intelligent Machines
  • The Complete Guide to Asperger's Syndrome
Nonfiction Other [8]
  • A History of Warfare (nonfiction history)
  • The Shield of Achilles (nonfiction history/government/law)
  • The Day the Universe Changed
  • The Clustered World
  • New Rules for the New Economy
  • Collapse
  • Worlds of Sense
  • What If? [alternate military history]
Writing and Creativity [9]
  • Flow
  • Plot & Structure
  • Story, Robert McKee
  • How To Write a Damn Good Novel
  • How To Write a Damn Good Novel II
  • Coaching the Artist Within
  • Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel
  • Manuscript Makeover
  • Self-Editing for Fiction Writers
You'd think that I wouldn't find the need to buy any more books or check out any from the library with a to-read list like this one, eh? But no.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow! Okay, I don't feel so bad about my own TBR pile. :D

I'll be interested in your opinion of Hobb's Assassin trilogy; I'm fond of it, although it is frustrating in some ways.

Doug S said...

Heh, yeah, people send me books and I pick them up used at library book sales or online and often forget about a couple of them.

And then there are the nonfiction books that I've only read a chapter or two of, but never read cover to cover.

Over the past few years that has added up.

And I just ordered another used book of science essays today. :-)

I figure it will take me probably two years to get through this list, since I'm reading library books and getting new books now and then as well.

Aaron DaMommio said...

Wow, yeah, I have a pile, but it ain't like that pile. You may have more books in your TBR pile than I have period. :)

Hobb is good, I like the Assassin books, but oddly I'm reading the Liveship books and I'm in the middle of book 2 and I kinda just stopped and went on to other things.

Doug S said...

Well, most the nonfiction stuff I've read chunks of, just not the whole thing.

I'd say about half a dozen or more of the fiction works are things you've given me over the years that I haven't gotten around to reading.

And with the anthologies, often I got them for $8 or less largely because I wanted to read a handful of stories in them. I read those stories and then didn't read the rest in a lot of cases, so now I want to do that to see what I might have missed.

In general with fantasy I realized that I've accumulated reading material but just not done a lot of reading in the genre, which I should probably do more of if I want to try to write in it. :-)