How many books read in 2021:
Around 130 ish? :O Goodreads has some duplicates on my books of the year, so I'm not sure, exactly :/
How many fiction and non fiction?:
Mostly fiction, though some non fiction was read
Male/Female author ratio?:
I think it's roughly 50/50?
Favorite book of 2021?:
I read a LOT of good books this year, so this will be hard :O
I love The Expanse books (by James S.A. Corey) I read :D My favorites of that were probably Nemesis Games, Tiamat's Wrath, and Cibola Burn. If you haven't already, please read this series, I need people to gush with!
Lancelot by Giles Kristian - this book gut punched me on multiple occasions with meaningful quotes and the tragedy apparent between Lancelot, Arthur, and Guinevere. Just AHHH, best Arthurian book HANDS DOWN.
Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn - I have FINALLY started the Thrawn trilogy and I am so EXCITED for that! :D This book lives up to the hype for SURE.
The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson - I have loved the Mistborn trilogy and this conclusion was an excellent one. The world building went to awesome heights, the plot was so exciting, and the character growth was so great to watch! Plus, it went in unexpected directions and I like how everyone got to be a hero. And Vin continues to be AWESOME, I love her! If you love a good fantasy, definitely give this a go!
Death's End and The Dark Forest by Liu Cixin
The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
The Courtship of Princess Leia by Dave Wolverton
Tatooine Ghost by Troy Denning
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse
The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys
Rite of Passage by John Ostrander
Twilight by John Ostrander
Honor and Duty by John Ostrander
The Hunt for Aurra Sing by Tim Truman
Star Wars: Vector parts 2-4 by various
Earth Awakens by Orson Scott Card
The Swarm by Orson Scott Card
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong
The Steel Beneath the Silk by Patricia Bracewell
Dracula by Bram Stoker
The Ninth Rain by Jen Williams
In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park
Killers of the Flower Moon by David Gran
We Are Not From Here by Jenny Torres Sanchez
The Ascent to Godhood by Jy Yang
Wedge's Gamble by Michael Stackpole
They Called Us Enemy by George Takei
Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley
Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson
The Heart of Betrayal by Mary E Pearson
Least favorite?:
Riot Baby, HANDS DOWN. It was such a trash book, celebrated genocide (they killed and displaced a LOT of people, most of them innocent) and making the USA into a radioactive wasteland, had horrible characters (that decided to ruin everyone's lives instead of saving their family or making things better for those less fortunate), was incredibly classist (the contempt this rich author from the east coast has for the poor reeks from the pages), makes fun of mowing the lawn (for some bizarre reason???), has a character judge people for betting on a horse race then she DOES it and THEN when she doesn't win she is all "those disgusting POOR WHITE PEOPLE over there are trash for winning, I hate them" like a fucking PUNK LOSER. This book is just pure hate and a revenge fantasy and I refuse to support someone with such awful things in their head (I'm a violent person and I would never do such horrible thing to innocent people- cause innocent people DIE in this book and that's not ok). This book basically incapsulates "it's an explanation, not an excuse" when it comes to someone lashing out because of their bad lives. Just because you've been abused or treated badly doesn't mean you can turn around and hurt innocent people. And this book says just that.
I also DNF'd The Winter King. There was too much abuse towards women being used as window dressing for me to stomach it (plus, Arthur lets a woman get raped and my King Arthur needs to be noble for me to read retellings, so HELL NO).
Newest?:
Probably The Gilded Ones or Firekeeper's Daughter
Longest and shortest book titles?:
Longest - The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes
Shortest - Hood
Longest and shortest books?:
The longest was Dune at 688
The shortest was A Romajulliete Christmas Special at 17 pages
How many books from the library?:
about 60 percent at the library
Any translated books?:
Attack on Titan mangas from Japanese
I Am Here mangas from Japanese
The Storyteller from German
Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, The Eumenides from Greek
Most read author?:
Probably James S.A. Corey. I read a LOT of The Expanse (books and novellas). I also would say Hajime Isayama, since I finished Attack on Titan this year.
Any re-reads?:
I re-read Dune! I had read it back when I was around 12 and since the movie was coming out (and book club picked it out but they never showed up), I decided to give it a re-read. I quite liked it on this time around, even though I didn't remember most of it XD (I remembered random sentences). I also re-read some picture books for the holidays.
Favorite character of the year?
James Holden
Luke Skywalker
Mara Jade Skywalker
Leia Organa Solo
Han Solo
Vin
Elend
Sazed
Breeze
Corran Horn
Naomi Nagata
Bobbie Draper
Chrisjen Avasarala
Teresa Duarte
Lancelot
Guinevere
Mahit Dzmare
Quinlan Vos
Aayla Secura
Amos Burton
Alex Kamal
Elvi Okoye
Dmitri Havelock
Vintage
Tormalin
Noon
Naranpa
Sunja
Armin Arlert
Annie Leonhardt
Murderbot
Gideon
Cheng Xin
Celeste Morne
Which countries did you go to through the page in your year of reading?:
Japan, South Korea, Germany, England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France, China, Australia, Nigeria, Austria, Spain, Guatemala, Mexico, Romania, Vietnam, Canada, Greece, and various fantasy/sci-fi worlds.
Which book wouldn't you have read without someone’s specific recommendation?
Lancelot (I wouldn't have known about it if I hadn't heard it on booktube), The Strange Case of the Alchemist's Daughter, The Blue Castle, The Prince and the Dressmaker, The Storyteller, There There, Pachinko, The Space Between Worlds, Amari and the Nightbrothers, etc
Which author was new to you in 2021 that you now want to read the entire works of?
Arkady Martine, I love that she wrote a non-earth based sci-fi.
Which books are you annoyed you didn't read?:
Words of Radiance
The Sword of Kaigen
Dark Force Rising and The Last Command
Leviathan Falls
Cytonic
The Galaxy and the Ground Within
She Who Became the Sun
Elatsoe
Did you read any books you have always been meaning to read?
YES! :D
Heir to the Empire (WOOOO)
The Hero of Ages
Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor
Star Wars: Twilight
Star Wars: Infinity's End
Star Wars: The Devaronian Version
Star Wars: The Stark Hyperspace War
Star Wars: Rite of Passage
The Courtship of Princess Leia
Tatooine Ghost, Corpelion Interlude, A Forest Apart
Rogue Squadron
Wedge's Gamble
Star Wars: Dark Empire 1-3
Star Wars: Honor and Duty
Star Wars: The Hunt for Aurra Sing
Star Wars: Vector (Dark Times, Rebellion, and Legacy)
Darth Maul: Saboteur
Avatar: The Last Airbender: Imbalance
Dracula
Rebecca
The Demon King
These Violent Delights
The Dark Forest
Death's End
The Obelisk Gate
The Stone Sky
The Mandalorian Armor, Slave Ship, and Hard Merchandise
To Be Taught, If Fortunate
Nemesis (Asimov)
Cibola Burn, Nemesis Games, Babylon's Ashes, Persepolis Rising, and Tiamat's Wrath
The Descent of Monsters and The Ascent to Godhood
Rogue Protocol, Exit Strategy, and Network Effect
The Nightingale
Earth Awakens
The Swarm
the rest of Attack on Titan
Sorcery of Thorns
There There
The Heart of Betrayal
The Hollow Hills and The Last Enchantment
If I Stay
Shadow and Bone
Mr. Impossible
Goddess in the Machine
The Gilded Ones
We Are Not From Here
Dune Messiah
Black Sun
Killers of the Flower Moon
In Order to Live
A Memory Called Empire
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The Price of Blood and The Steel Beneath the Silk
The Oresteia
A Midsummer Night's Dream
Legend of Korra: Ruins of Empire
They Called Us Enemy
Planetfall
What books are you planning to read in 2022?
continue by Star Wars EU read through (finish the Thrawn trilogy, continue the X-Wing books, Crimson Empire, The Journal of Gnost Dural, Jedi Academy trilogy, I Jedi, Callista trilogy, The Crystal Star, The Black Fleet Crisis, The New Rebellion, Corellian trilogy, The Hand of Thrawn duology, Scourge, Survivor's Quest, and maybe start a re-read of Junior Jedi Knights and Young Jedi Knights :D I might also see if I can read some of the Old Republic comics. OH, and the Dark Times comics and the Rebellion/At War with the Empire comics, maybe see if I can get some omnibuses and g et caught up in my comics. AND The Journal of Gnost Dural)
Leviathan Falls by James S.A. Corey (and the novella "The Sins of Our Fathers")
Cytonic by Brandon Sanderson
The Galaxy and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers
Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson (and Words of Radiance, if I don't finish it in Dec)
Our Violent Ends by Chloe Gong
Camelot by Giles Kristian
The Blue, Beautiful World by Karen Lord
The Galaxy Game by Karen Lord
She Who Became the Sun by Shelley-Parker Chan (REMOVE IF FINISHED)
The Fire of Vengeance by Evan Winter
The Beauty of Darkness by Mary E. Pearson
Stealing Light by Gary Gibson
The Shadow of the Gods by John Gwynne
Malice by John Gwynne
The Light Brigade by Kameron Hurley
Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Ancestral Night by Elizabeth Bear
Lady Hotspur by Tessa Gratton
The Queens of Innis Lear by Tessa Gratton
Fireborne by Rosaria Munda
Human kind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman
Hild by Nicola Griffith
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki
Lore by Alexandra Bracken
Sweet and Bitter Magic by Adrienne Tooley
Witches Steeped in Gold by Ciannon Smart
The Ones We're Meant to Find by Joan He
Sisters of the Snake by Sasha and Sarena Nanua
This Poison Heart by Kaylyn Bayron
A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee
Lakesedge by Lyndall Clipstone
Jade Fire Gold by June C.L. Tan
Dreams Lie Beneath by Rebecca Ross
Escaping First Contact by T.S. Beier
The Blade Itself by Joe Abercrombie
The Outside by Ada Hoffman
Ancillary Justice by Ann Lecki
Revalation Space by Alistair Reynolds
Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson
Under Fortunate Stars by Ren Hutchings
Destroyer of Light by Jennifer Marie Brissett
Dreamships by Melissa Scott
The Skystone by Jack Whyte
A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine
The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson
We Are Satellites by Sarah Pinsker
The Odyssey by Homer
The Bitter Twins by Jen Williams
Crown of Feathers by Nicki Preto
Probably The Expanse and Star Wars books I read and Lancelot and The Hero of Ages an the 2 and 3 book of Remembrance of Earth's Past. SO MUCH GOOD STUFF THIS YEAR :D Especially sci-fi fantasy! For non SFF, Pachinko, We Are Not From Here, and The Fountains of Silence were also really good. Also, In Order to Live for non-fiction.
No glory now. Just two men hacking at each other with sharp steel. Each craving the other's death. Both desperate to live.” - Lancelot
“Each moment you fight is a gift to those in this cavern. Each second we fight is a second longer that thousands of people can draw breath. Each stroke of the sword, each koloss felled, each breath earned is a victory! It is a person protected for a moment longer, a life extended, an enemy frustrated!”
There was a brief pause.
“In the end, they will kill us,” Elend said, voice loud, ringing in the cavern. “But first, they shall fear us!” - The Hero of Ages
Of all of us who touched it, I feel she was the most worthy.“For now, I only wish to make a simple acknowledgement of the woman who held the power just before me.
The investigator looks into the eye of death, and can’t see it. It knows, and that is enough. It feels pleasure and regret because they are part of the template. It says a name – Julie. It remembers taking a woman’s hand in its own.
[…]
The scars reach out, the other minds. Some are frightened, some are lost in dreams that have been going on for years, some are grateful. They sing to the investigator, or they accuse it, or they plead with it, or they scream. They are aware, and powerless as they have ever been. The investigator touches them as it touches everything. It tells them not to worry. That it’s driving this bus. Don’t worry, it says. We’re gonna be fine.- Cibola Burn
There is a struggle at the end. There’s always a struggle at the end. He’s not scared, and so all through the world, the others aren’t either. You’re like Peter Pan, she says. When a child died, Peter Pan would fall halfway with them. So they wouldn’t be scared. Weird. And that’s a kid’s story? Anyway, it’s not me, the investigator says, smiles at her. Holds her hand. I don’t go for half. — it reaches out and it reaches out and it reaches out and then it stops.
- Cibola Burn
“There was a button," Holden said. "I pushed it."
"Jesus Christ. That really is how you go through life, isn't it?” - Nemesis Games
“No, it wasn’t. It was the scariest fucking answer to Fermi’s paradox I can think of. Do you know why there aren’t any Indians in your Old West analogy? Because they’re already dead. The whatever-they-were that built all that got a head start and used their protomolecule gate builder to kill all the rest. And that’s not even the scary part. The really frightening part is that something else came along, shot the first guys in the back of the head, and left their corpses scattered across the galaxy. The thing we should be asking is, who fired the magic bullet? - Nemesis Games
“You can’t take the Razorback,” he said to the tiny red triangles. “We are gone and gone and gone.” - Nemesis Games
“There are two sides in this, but they aren’t inner planets and outer ones. Belters and everyone else. It’s not like that. It’s the people who want more violence and the ones who want less. And no matter what other variable you sample out of, you’ll find some of both.” - Nemesis Games
“I have known Jedi. Many, many years ago. That knowing was not a gladness for me. I believed I would never know another, and I rejoiced in that belief.
But it is a gladness for me to be proven wrong.
I am happy to have known you, Jedi Luke Skywalker. You are more than they were.
"That's--" Luke shook his head blankly, blinking against the darkness. "I mean, thanks, but I barely know anything."
So you believe. But I say to you: you are greater than the Jedi of former days.
Luke could only frown, and shake his head again. "What makes you say that?"
Because unlike the Knights of old, Jedi Luke Skywalker...
You are not afraid of the dark.”
- Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor
“In the distant reaches of his memory, he found a lesson of Yoda’s, from one long solstice night, deep in the jungle near Dagobah’s equator. When to the Force you truly give yourself, all you do expresses the truth of who you are, Yoda had said, leaning forward so that the knattik-root campfire painted blue shadows within the deep creases of his ancient face. Then through you the Force will flow, and guide your hand it will, until the greatest good might come of your smallest gesture.” - Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor
“Suddenly he felt like everything was all wrong. He’d made wrong choices every day of his life. In his mind’s eye floated everyone who’d died because of him. Everyone who’d been hurt. From Mindor to Endor, back to Yavin—back to the corpses that had lain, still smoking, in the ruined doorway of the Lars moisture farm. I guess I sort of thought everything was over. I got my happy ending. I thought I did. I mean, didn’t I do everything you asked me to? Master Yoda, you wanted to break the rule of the Sith. And they’re gone. Ben, you asked me to destroy Darth Vader. I did that, too. Father—even you, Father. You told me that together we would throw down the Emperor. And we did. Now it’s over. But it’s not the end. It’s never the end. The cave boomed and shivered as the rock storm arrived like an artillery barrage. Luke just sat, head down, letting dust and grit trickle inside the back of his collar as meteorites pounded the hills. I guess I was still kind of hoping there might be a Happily Ever After in there somewhere. Not even for me. I was ready to die. I still am. It’s everybody else. It’s like everything we went through, it was for nothing. We’re still fighting. We’ll always be fighting. It’s like I didn’t actually save anybody. Gone is the past, he remembered Master Yoda saying once. Imaginary is the future. Always now, even eternity will be. Which Luke had always interpreted as Don’t worry about what’s already done, and don’t worry about what you’ll do later. Do something now. Which would be fine advice, if he had the faintest clue what that something should be. Maybe if he’d had more experience as a general, he’d know if he should search for his missing men, or return to the crash site and wait for pickup, or try to find some way to signal the task force spaceside. I never should have taken this job. I just don’t know what a general would be doing right now. All I know is what a Jedi … Then his head came up. I do know what a Jedi would be doing—and it isn’t sitting around feeling sorry for himself, for starters.” - Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor
“Because that's what Jedi do, isn't it? Luke thought. That's what we're for.
We're the ones who bring the light.” - Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor
“He had thought he was bringing light with him into the darkness, by holding on to the Force. Now he saw that the Force's light didn't shine on him. It shone through him.
He was the light in the darkness.” - Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor
“The messages coming back flooded the comm buffers with rage and sorrow, threats of vengeance and offers of aid. Those last were the hardest. New colonies still trying to force their way into local ecosystems so exotic that their bodies could hardly recognize them as life at all, isolated, exhausted, sometimes at the edge of their resources. And what they wanted was to send back help. He listened to their voices, saw the distress in their eyes. He couldn't help, but love them a little bit.
Under the best conditions, disasters and plagues did that. It wasn't universally true. There would always be hoarders and price gouging, people who closed their doors to refugees and left them freezing and starving. But the impulse to help was there too. To carry a burden together, even if it meant having less for yourself. Humanity had come as far as it had in a haze of war, sickness, violence, and genocide. History was drenched in blood. But it also had cooperation and kindness, generosity, intermarriage. The one didn’t come without the other.” - Babylon's Ashes
“There are people I love. There are people who have loved me. I fought for what I believed, protected those I could, and stood my ground against the encroaching darkness. Good enough.” - Tiamat's Wrath
“But pacifism only works when your enemy has a conscience.” - Tiamat's Wrath
“That’s the thing about autocracy. It looks pretty decent while it still looks pretty decent. Survivable, anyway. And it keeps looking like that right up until it doesn’t. That’s how you find out it’s too late.” - Tiamat's Wrath
“There were so many last times that passed unrecognized. Knowing in the moment what was ending and wouldn’t come again was precious.” - Tiamat's Wrath
“I’ll die for that,” Emma said. “I’ll die so that people can be fuckups and still find mercy.” - Tiamat's Wrath
“Prepare us for what?” Holden asked. “To poke gods with a sharp stick?” “No, Captain Holden. No sticks,” Duarte said. “When you fight gods, you storm heaven." - Persepolis Rising
“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.” - Dune
“And now we know that this is the journey that must be made by every civilization: awakening inside a cramped cradle, toddling out of it, taking flight, flying faster and farther, and, finally, merging with the fate of the universe as one. The ultimate fate of all intelligent beings has always been to become as grand as their thoughts.” - Death's End
“Cheng Xin gazed up at the giant black columns reaching into space. They lifted up the domed sky and seemed to turn the universe into a Palace of Death. Is this the ultimate end for everything? In the sky, Cheng Xin could see the end of the columns. She pointed in that direction. “So the ships entered lightspeed at the end?” “That’s right. These are only about a hundred kilometers high. We’ve seen columns even shorter than these, presumably left by ships that entered lightspeed almost instantaneously.” “Are these the most advanced lightspeed ships?” “Maybe. But this is a rarely seen technique. Death lines are usually the products of Zero-Homers.” “Zero-Homers?” “They’re also called Resetters. Maybe they’re a group of intelligent individuals, or a civilization, or a group of civilizations. We don’t know exactly who they are, but we’ve confirmed their existence. The Zero-Homers want to reset the universe and return it to the Garden of Eden.” “How?” “By moving the hour hand of the clock past twelve. Take spatial dimensions as an example. It’s practically impossible to drag a universe in lower dimensions back into higher dimensions, so maybe it’s better to work forward in the other direction. If the universe can be lowered into zero dimensions and then beyond, the clock might be reset and everything returned to the beginning. The universe might possess ten macroscopic dimensions again.” - Death's End
“Why don’t you tell me what the most powerful weapon for a civilization possessing almost infinite technological prowess is? Don’t think of this as a technical question. Think philosophy.” Cheng Xin pondered for a while and then struggled to shake her head. “I don’t know.” “Your experiences should give you a hint.” What had she experienced? She had seen how a cruel attacker could lower the dimensions of space by one and destroy a solar system. What are dimensions? “The universal laws of physics,” Cheng Xin said. “That’s right. The universal laws of physics are the most terrifying weapons, and also the most effective defenses. Whether it’s by the Milky Way or the Andromeda Galaxy, at the scale of the local galactic group or the Virgo Supercluster, those warring civilizations possessing godlike technology will not hesitate to use the universal laws of physics as weapons. There are many laws that can be manipulated into weapons, but most commonly, the focus is on spatial dimensions and the speed of light. Typically, lowering spatial dimensions is a technique for attack, and lowering the speed of light is a technique for defense. Thus, the dimensional strike on the Solar System was an advanced attack method. A dimensional strike is a sign of respect. In this universe, respect is not easy to earn. I guess you could consider it an honor for Earth civilization.” - Death's End
