Book # 95 Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks

Part of my point of reading books off of a list is to discover books that I normally wouldn't read... but should. And Birdsong is one of those.  I had never heard of it before and really, even if I did I probably wouldn't have picked it up. But, wow, I quite enjoyed it. And since I doubt anyone actually reads these posts I can admit that, maybe, some passages brought a tear or two to my eyes. The bulk of the story is about a guy named Stephen and his experiences in WW1. Just so good. Highly recommended - A

Sci-Fi Book # 44 - Foundation's Edge by Isaac Asimov

 The problem with the Sci-Fi list I'm using is that it is ever changing. When I read the Foundation trilogy some years ago the fourth book wasn't on the list. But now it is. Sigh.... So Foundation's Edge continues the storyline from the original trilogy. I forgot that Asimov books can be kind of boring at times - especially when the thin story is spread out over 400 pages. Just a whole lot of talking about space politics and somehow the entirety of millions of planets is influenced by just a handful of people that are all being controlled by an even smaller group of people.  I know there is a tv series coming out soon and I can't imagine that this series is a good idea for a show. I'm not sure if it is even a good idea for a book series. C+

Book # 84 - The Stranger by Albert Camus

Just now as I was about to enter on Goodreads that I'd read The Stranger it showed that I already read it. I have no memory of that.... and never once while reading it did I think "this seems familiar".  Sure it is a very short book but still... I'm pretty sure I already owned the book way before we started this project, so it makes sense that I would have read it before. Anyway, I enjoyed it. A

Progress Report

 A little over six years ago I tracked my progress on these various readings as such:

My progress on each of the lists:
Best Novels 1-100: 50 read
Best Novels 101-200: 4 read
Best Mysteries 1-101: 18 read
Best Science Fiction 1-50: 16 read
Best Horror 1-50: 14 read

The updated numbers are:

Best Novels 1-100: 94 read
Best Novels 101-200: 8 read
Best Mysteries 1-101: 37 read
Best Science Fiction 1-50: 30 read
Best Horror 1-50: 27 read

Book # 74 - As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

 I think this book may have put me in a weird headspace for the few days it took to read. Anyway, I'm glad I read it. After reading three Faulkner titles for this project I feel like I definitely appreciate his work even though it is difficult to get through sometimes for a variety of reasons. For such a short book, As I Lay Dying sure has a lot to unpack and think about. A 

Star Wars: The Rising Storm by Cavan Scott

I guess Star Wars: The Rising Storm was okay. The first 250 pages or so were nothing special - just a ton of new characters with weird Star Wars names that needed to be memorized. The ending though set up the next book nicely. So B-.

Hummingbird Salamander by Jeff VanderMeer

Hummingbird Salamander started out well enough and got me hooked... but by the end I just didn't really care. C+