75 Books Challenge for 2017

Welcome to the wonderful world of 2017 books!

I'm Megan, an Australian/Canadian lurking in the Canadian Rockies, but dreaming of moving back to the Southern Hemisphere. I mostly read audiobooks, as that way I can "read" and clean/cook/run/ride/etc. I had a pretty slow end to my reading year last year, with a slump of a few months as life got overwhelming. I wouldn't be surprised if the same thing happens again, but I'll be trying for 75 books again anyway!

This is my ludicrous To Read list. Slowly working through it, but adding more books quicker than I'm reading them. It's a mix of fiction and non.

I'll try to choose from this list, or from one of the challenges, as my first choice when deciding what to read next, but life doesn't always work out that way. And there's a few things I want to read that I haven't actually put on the list. Because I'm organised like that.

MY ENORMOUS TO READ LIST
• Honore de Balzac - Pere Goriot (Somerset Maugham's 10 best novels)
• Honore de Balzac - The Black Sheep (recommended by Greg Proops)
• Wolfgang Bauer - The Feverhead (Greg Proops)
• Simone de Beauvoir - The Second Sex
• Samuel Beckett - Malone Dies
• Saul Bellow - Herzog
• William Boyd - Armadillo
• Andre Brink - Praying Mantis (recommended by charl08)
• Andre Brink - Rumours of Rain (LT recommendation)
• Mikhail Bulgakov - The Fatal Eggs
✓ John Bunyan - Pilgrim's Progress
✓ AS Byatt - Possession (BBC top 100)
• Erskine Childers - The Riddle of the Sands
• Kate Chopin - The Awakening
• J.M. Coetzee - Boyhood (charl08 recommend)
• Joseph Conrad - Nostromo
✓ Ryan Correy - A Purpose Ridden
• James Crumley (via Greg Proops)
• Charles Dickens - David Copperfield (BBC top 100)
• Charles Dickens - Bleak House (BBC top 100)
• Benjamin Disraeli - Sybil
• Fyodor Dostoevsky - Demons
• George Eliot - Middlemarch (BBC Top 100)
• Henry Fielding - Tom Jones (Somerset Maugham's 10 best novels)
• Ian Fleming - On her majesty's secret service (narrated by David Tennant) (recommended by Mamie)
• Ford Maddox Ford - Parade's End
✓ E.M. Forster - Where Angels fear to tread
• Alexandra Fuller - Don't let's go to the dogs tonight (recommended by Oberon - coming of age in Rhodesia)
• William Gadis - J R
• Nancy Garden - Annie on my mind
• Pumla Gobodo-Madkizela - A human being died that night (charl08 recommend, apartheid violence)
• Lewis Grassic Gibbon - A Scots Quair
• Robert Graves - I, Claudius (Greg Proops)
• Alisdair Gray - Lanark
• Dashiel Hammett - The Thin Man (MickyFine favorite Noir)
✓ Thomas Hardy - Far From The Madding Crowd (BBC top 100)
• Henrich Harrer - The White Spider
• Samantha Hayes - Until You're Mine
• John Irving - A Prayer for Owen Meaney (BBC top 100)
• Clive James - Unreliable Memoirs
• Henry James - The Portrait of a Lady
✓ Marlon James - A Brief History of Seven Killings (2015 Booker)
• Franz Kafka - The Metamorphosis
✓ Jack Kerouac - The Dharma Bums
✓ Stephen King - Gunslinger (Connor)
• Arthur Koestler - The Ghost in the Machine
• Antjie Krog - Country of my skull (charl08 recommend, apartheid violence)
• Milan Kundera - Immortality
• D.H. Lawrence - The Rainbow
• T.E. Lawrence - Seven Pillars of Wisdom (Lawrence of Arabia)
• Daniel J. Levitin - The Organized Mind
• Kathy Lette & Gabrielle Carey - Puberty Blues
• Primo Levi - If Not Now, When? (LT recommendation)
• Penelope Lively - The Photograph (after reading 75ers LT reviews BAC)
• Eric Lomax - The Railway Man
• HP Lovecraft - The call of Cthulhu & other weird stories
• Scott Lynch - The Republic of thieves (Gentlemen Bastards #3)
• Thomas Mann - Magic Mountain
• Gabriel Garcia Marquez - Clandestine in Chile
• W. Somerset Maugham - The Trembling of a Leaf
• Cormac McCarthy - No Country for Old Men
• Cormac McCarthy - Blood Meridian (reread)
• David Mitchell - Ghostwritten
• Timothy Mo - The Redundancy of Courage (LT recommendation)
• Montefiore - Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar
• Lorrie Moore - Anagrams (Ben M)
✓ Haruki Murakami - Sputnik Sweetheart
• Vladimir Nabakov - Despair
• V.S. Naipaul - A House for Mr. Biswas (LT recommendation)
• Joyce Carol Oates - The Gravediggers Daughter
• John O'Hara - Appointment in Samarra
• Eugene O'Neill - Long Days Journey Into Night (magicians nephew recommend)
• Eugene O'Neill - Iceman Cometh (magicaians nephew recommend)
• Iris Owens - After Claude (Greg Proops)
• Matthew Parker - Goldeneye: Where Bond was Born: Ian Fleming's Jamaica (praised by Mamie)
• Gary Paulsen - Winterdance (EBT1002 recommend sled dog Iditarod tale)
• Sharon Kay Penman - The Sunne in Splendour
• Arturo Perez-Reverte - The Dumas Club
• Thomas Pynchon - V
• Samuel Richardson - Clarissa
✓ Gregory David Roberts - Shantaram (Miles recommended)
• Andrew Robinson - Cracking the Egyption Code
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau - Emile (refed by Wells)
• Salman Rushdie - Shame (LT recommendation)
• Jean-Paul Sartre - Being and Nothingness (existentialists)
• Jean-Paul Sartre - Nausea (existentialists)
• Vikram Seth - A Suitable Boy (BBC top 100)
• Wallace Stegner - Angle of Repose
• Neal Stephenson - Quicksilver
• Neal Stephenson - Anathem
• Neal Stephenson - Zodiac
• Suetonius - The Tweve Caesars
• Graham Swift - Waterland (LT recommendation)
• Sheri Tepper - Gibbon's Decline and Fall (Roni recommended for feminist rage reasons)
• Lionel Terray - Conquistadors of the Useless
• William Makepeace Thackeray - Vanity Fair (BBC top 100)
• Leo Tolstoy - Resurrection
• William Trevor - The Children of Dynmouth (LT recommendation)
• Ivan Turgenev - Fathers and Sons
• John Updike - Rabbit Run
• Alec Wilkinson - The Ice Balloon
• Tennesse Williams - A Streetcar Named Desire

... AND ALSO
✓ Amy Poehler - Yes Please (reread)
✓ Nora Ephron - Heartburn
✓ Patti Smith - Just Kids
✓ Tina Fey - Bossypants
✓ Douglas Adams - Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
• Spike Milligan - Hitler: My Part in his downfall
• Malcolm Lowry - Under the Volcano
• T.S. Eliot
• Carrie Fisher - The Princess Diarist
• Rudyard Kipling - Kim

2017 books read - First quarter

January (2)
1. Gregory David Roberts - Shantaram (audiobook) ★★★½
2. Nora Ephron - Heartburn (audiobook) ★★★½

February (8)
3. Robert Sawyer - Calculating God (audiobook) ★★★★
4. Douglas Adams - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (reread) (audiobook) ★★★★★
5. Douglas Adams - The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (reread) (audiobook) ★★★★½
6. Ryan Correy - A Purpose Ridden ★★★½
7. Douglas Adams - Life, the Universe and Everything (reread) (audiobook) ★★★★½
8. Douglas Adams - So Long, and Thanks For All The Fish (reread) (audiobook) ★★★★★
9. Douglas Adams - Mostly Harmless (reread) (audiobook) ★★★½
10. Rebecca West - Return of the Soldier (audiobook) ★★★★½

March (6)
11. AS Byatt - Possession (audiobook) ★★★½
12. Robert Cormier - The Chocolate War (reread)(audiobook) ★★★★
13. John Bunyan - Pilgrim's Progress (audiobook) ★★
14. William Shakespeare - Hamlet (reread) (audiobook) ★★★★½
15. Thomas Hardy - Far From The Madding Crowd (reread) (audiobook)
16. Alexander McCall Smith - The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency

Happy reading in 2017, Megan!

Hi, Megan!

Here she is - off the bike for a second or two to post!

Missed you loads for much of last year.

I hope there will be less revolutions this year and that you'll be pedalling threads more instead. xx

I am part of the group.
I love being part of the group.
I love the friendships bestowed upon my by dint of my membership of this wonderful fellowship.
I love that race and creed and gender and age and sexuality and nationality make absolutely no difference to our being a valued member of the group.

Thank you for also being part of the group.

Welcome back!

Happy New Year, Megan!

Found you!! Happy 2017. : )

>10 Berly: Thanks for the link because I wouldn't have found the thread and I looked.

Nice try hiding Megan.

Happy reading 2017, Megan. Wishing you a gorgeous adventures year ahead. Dropped a star.

>10 Berly: Thanks so much Kim for the link.

Happy New Year, Megan. Good to see you have a 2017 thread. >10 Berly: Thanks for the link, Kim.

Oh dear. It looks like I accidentally didn't title my thread properly, and now I can't change it, and it's going to be forever wrong! Maybe I should just start a new one. This is most annoying.

>14 evilmoose: If you do start a new one post a link to it on this thread, Megan.

I don't think you need to start all over, Megan. We'll find you and just renew and rename your thread at the first opportunity. xx

Yeah, only 134 posts and you can rename the continuation thread!

Excellent plan chaps. Lets all just post here like mad until I'm obliged to create a new one!

>18 evilmoose: Always willing to help ;-)

Hi Megan. Always willing to help evil mooses.

I'm in! 😀

Glad to help!

Just trying to help move things along...

>22 kidzdoc: Wow, that's an evil looking moose! :)

Happy New Year to you
Happy reading as well.

>25 jnwelch: Whelp, that'll be stuck in my head for the rest of the day. So thanks, Joe. Yeesh.

Morning, Megan!

>22 kidzdoc: Yeah that is one evil looking moose!

Hi Megan Helping you move this thread along.

Nice and interesting list of books to read.

I love the mooses (mice?) in >22 kidzdoc: and >23 Berly:

How many posts do you need. to get a new thread started?

Ok, to try and get this moving along, here's a round up with stats from last year (oh, and I think once I hit 200 I can start a new thread? so a ways to go)

STATS OF 2016

Total books - 72
Author gender - 58 men, 14 women
Format - 60 audiobook, 12 paper

Challenges
British Author Challenge: 8/24 boo :(
Canadian Author Challenge: 7/24 (exactly the same as last year!)

Pulitzer Prize winners: 3
From my To Read list: 30
Non-fiction: 10 books (I think, although I did lose count perhaps)
Abandoned books - Jane Gardam - Faith Fox

Book most people seemed to like but I didn't: Barry Unsworth - Sacred Hunger

TOP 5 READS
Mikhail Bulgakov - Flight
Jack Kerouac - On the Road
Ford Madox Ford - The Good Soldier
Graham Greene - The End of the Affair
Chuck Palahniuk - Fight Club
Ali Smith - How to be both

(hah, sorry, that's six) (although there were quite a few pretty good books, there really weren't as many spectacular ones as last year - maybe that was just my reading slump)

TOP TWO NON-FICTION READS
Helen MacDonald - H is for Hawk
Susan Cain - Quiet

Oh, and for anyone disappointed about the lack of bike news, know that I completed the Festive500 challenge between Christmas Eve and New Years Eve, riding 500km over eight days. My stats for that...

Ridden at night: 293/500km
Ridden alone: 449/500km
Ridden on my fat bike: 445/500km
Ridden on studded tyres in the snow at below-freezing temperatures: 501/500km

And some photos...










(Mostly it was much colder than this - full ski helmet, goggles, frosted hair)

Oh, that's a great bike! I have a lower end Trek hybrid that I use for riding some of our rail trails and canal tow paths in the DC area. You're a way more hard core rider than I am! :)

>31 evilmoose: You are hard core. Thanks for making the rest of us feel like the couch potatoes we are.

And a book update - I'm current reading Ryan Correy's A Purpose Ridden and listening to Gregory David Roberts Shantaram. The latter is terribly long! The former is in paperback form, and I'm having trouble finding a spare moment to sit down with it. Enjoying both though.

Wow, that looks like hard core cycling in the snow...

Fingers crossed you get to 200 quickly!

I brought some coffee that seemed appropriate...

Wow, you ride in any condition!
Good to see you here in 2017!

>31 evilmoose: Bike riding in the snow. Looking pretty rugged there Megan.

One more to move this along.

I'm torn between wanting one of those fat tire bikes to ride in the snow and wanting to not live somewhere one is necessary. (I'm in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan right now.)

And I think you can continue a thread at 150.

Wow, you live in a beautiful place. I love that snow! (Is what we all say who don't get so much of it)

Great photos of your bike riding. The snow trck biking has szarted here too. We've got lots of snow for this event.

I read a book! It was quite long.


1. Gregory David Roberts - Shantaram
Great story-telling, interesting, I would take the non-fictionness of this with a pinch of salt, and a bit overly long at nearly 1000 pages. The tale of the author's escape from an Australian high-security prison, and life in Bombay afterwards. Add in some crime, murder, and heart-warming happiness.
★★★½

Love

the

mud-

splattered

biking

photo!!!

>44 evilmoose: That one's been on my list. I'm glad it's good.

>44 evilmoose: Quite long?! That's like saying your life style is not so sedentary!

Love the stats and the photos of your bike snow bound and you looking, frankly pretty cold.

Another 107 posts until you can rename your thread.

Another 106 posts until you can rename your thread.

Have a great weekend.

Wishing you a great weekend, Megan.

>55 Ameise1: *snerk*

>55 Ameise1: *snort*

You know, you could just start a new thread and leave a link here...or we can just keep posting things for you.

Thanks visitors! I've gotten bogged down in Middlemarch - golly that book is long. And it's apparently less interesting to me than some of the podcasts and music I have to listen to at the moment, plus listening to the recording of the play I'm going to be in. I'm certainly not making much progress on it. This is exactly what happened last year!!

2. Nora Ephron - Heartburn
I finished a book! Hallelujah! I was re-reading the forward to Amy Poehler's Yes Please and saw her reference this, and a few other books, and thought, why not? I think I need some easy reading at the moment, I've been doing a lot of books that are hard work, at a time when I really need a little easy escapism from my reading. Fluffy and easy.
★★★½

Sometimes, you just have to have fluff!!

3. Robert Sawyer - Calculating God
After having three different people recommend this to me, I had to finally give it a listen. Really interesting thoughtful sci-fi, contemplation of religion, morality, death, evolution vs intelligent design, life as we know it, the future of mankind, the existence of God.
★★★★

Off to such a slow start for the year! Although technically I'm halfway through Middlemarch, I'm having trouble bringing myself to continue. Also halfway through A Purpose Ridden.

Hurrah for a finished book! Whoop whoop :)

4. Douglas Adams - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
It's been far too long since I've re-read this, one of my classic favourite top 10 books of all time. I'd forgotten just how much Douglas Adams influenced me and my writing, and sense of humour, especially as a teenager. But always and forever. I think this might be a year of re-reading for me, it's been a long time since I've re-read some of my favourite books. This is going to be a year of fun!
★★★★★

Hi and Happy Weekend. : )

5. Douglas Adams - The Restaurant at the End of the Universe
I read another book! Re-reading these is so fun.
★★★★½

6. Ryan Correy - A Purpose Ridden
Finally finished this one - an adventure book, where Ryan tells of some of his fairly ludicrous endurance exploits on a bike (and that's coming from me!) He reveals a lot of fairly personal details, I can understand why a lot of family and friends may have been unhappy with him about the book! Definitely interesting reading for me - he lives in town, I know him, odd to get such personal background details!
★★★½

7. Douglas Adams - Life, the Universe and Everything
Hilarious and wonderful of course, but the Krikkit storyline always had me less interested than some of the others.
★★★★½

8. Douglas Adams - So Long, and Thanks For All The Fish
The rather sweet love story installation of the 'trilogy'.
★★★★½

9. Douglas Adams - Mostly Harmless
I've never liked this one as much of the others. None of the stories going on really hold up for me, compared to the main trilogy of four.

It's been lovely listening to Douglas Adams read all the audioboks though. Really lovely.
★★★½

Someone come and visit me! *waves* *goes to mope dejectedly in the corner, emulating Marvin*

I'm here, I'm here, I'm here!! Pick meeeeeeeeee! (or something).

>72 lunacat: You! I choose you! Oh no, my brain has been ruined by my son's Pokemon watching habits, now all I can think of is "I chose you Pikachu". It's ok Jenny, I promise not to send you into battle with other Pokemon.

Sorry, Megan, I completely forgot I had to come regular to fill your thread...

>71 evilmoose: It does seem like this one took a dip in the ratings from the others. Oh well. So that wraps up the series, right? What's next? And Happy Friday BTW. ;0

So I am going to get in trouble if I admit I have never read any Douglas Adams?

>76 Oberon: Yes!! Megan will decide the punishment. Bwa-ha-ha!! (I am actually just using up yet another line in this thread to move things along and be friendly.)

>76 Oberon: *gasp* *drops tray of silverware* *collapses to the sofa in a faint, back of hand held against forehead*

Never read any Douglas Adams!!? This must be remedied at once!

Somehow I missed picking up your thread at the beginning of the year. But I am here now! *tosses glitter*

>75 Berly: And hello Kimbers! (Gosh, the Australian in me is coming out, I play havoc with names without even really meaning too). But yes, that does sort of wrap up the series. Now, I'm not sure. I'd love to re-read some things via audiobook. Hmm, which of my favourite books come in audiobook form? I have started on my paper version of Under the Volcano too, which will be slower going. Oh, and I may reread Amy Poehler's Yes Please (of which the chapter on separation and divorce may be sadly more relevant now than it was previously *distracts self with more reading*)

>79 MickyFine: Huzzah! Yes, it ended up with a highly inappropriate name that doesn't mention me at all, and then it was too late to change, and so I'm attempting to fill this one up so I can start a new one. I could of course always just start a new one and link it here, but that feels like cheating.

*rolls in the glitter* *realises there is glitter all through her hair and that it will never come out again* *resigns self to life as a unicorn*

>81 evilmoose: For Christmas my Dad got my oldest niece a shirt that says "Glitter is my favourite colour," which amused the whole family endlessly as my brother hates glitter with a passion. :D

>80 evilmoose: Take your pick of condolences or congratulations on separation and divorce stuff. I know it can go either way.

>78 evilmoose: Kind of wondering what you are doing roaming about with a tray of silverware.

>80 evilmoose: I really enjoyed Amy Poehler's Yes Please, but am sad to read your parenthetical "(of which the chapter on separation and divorce may be sadly more relevant now than it was previously)." Hugs. Let's just live in the moment and go with the glitter-covered unicorn image for today!

>83 Oberon: One has to always have something handy to drop if and when shocked by an outrageous declaration. Trays of silverware, pot-plants and blancmanges all work well for this.

>85 evilmoose: Spontaneous fainting can also be good. Planned fainting is a close second.

I'm afraid I'm another who hasn't read any Douglas Adams yet. Our paths just haven't crossed. * hides face in fear of splattering blancmange*

*licking up said blancmange without a trace of shame, mainly because I got spattered with it too* Haven't read any Adams either!

Have a lovely weekend, Megan.

11. AS Byatt - Possession
Well that was slow going. I like the idea of the story, and enjoyed it in parts, but I was never properly invested in the characters. I think the audiobook reading didn't add to the book experience for me, I kept confusing characters - she didn't have very distinct voices to differentiate between them, even between the men and women. So perhaps that's partially to blame. Oh, sometimes I wonder how much I lose of a book by 'reading' them this way so often. But anyway, I am reading a couple of paper books at the moment too. Just very very slowly! Much like this one actually.

On the plus side, one more of the BBC top 100 list, and another Booker prize winner read!
★★★½

>89 evilmoose: Pretty much what I thought of it too, Megan.

Heavy, heavy going!

Have a splendid weekend.

>89 evilmoose: It's so annoying when the narrator doesn't do a good job of differentiating between the characters! Better luck on the next audio read. And happy weekend!

Hope you are having a great weekend, Megan.

Wishing you a great weekend, Megan

Megan--Come out and play! I miss you. : )

Out in the forest making a clear track
Along the pine-scented trail.
Turning over pedals and spinning wheels;
It is funny how time steals
Moments and words written go stale.
Trust she is pedalling hard on her way back

Hello lovely visitors - life has been overwhelming, so I've not been internetting much. I've still been reading, and updating my top post with books, just not getting around to posting about them. Lots of re-reading old favourites. In the mood for comfort books. Thank you for stopping by and saying hello, it is lovely of you.

>96 evilmoose: Very sorry to hear that things have been overwhelming. Hope you find some tranquility soon.

I hope things get less overwhelming for you soon, Megan. Keep up the reading, I know it helps.

Well, I've just finished my 32nd book (although I'm rubbish at posting reviews or anything, I'm at least keeping track in the post at the top), and I've just found out the reason for my earth-shattering fatigue and such is that I had mono! (aka glandular fever). So that's been dogging me since February or so, with a spell of a few weeks near the beginning of it all where I couldn't do much but lie down all day.

It's rather a relief to have a diagnosis, I've had all manner of blood tests and whatnot, and they were supposed to have tested for mono earlier, but the lab missed it. I'm slowly getting better, but I still get tired easily, and can't go hiking, or running, or really ride a bike (at least, not the sort of bike riding I want to do). It's been a few months now, so I guess it'll be at least a few months more before I'm able to start doing much again. Frustrating times.

Oh man, I'm sorry you've been fighting mono all this time. Hopefully it'll clear out soon and you'll start feeling more like yourself soon.

2017 books read - Second quarter
April (10)
17. Isobelle Carmody - Obernewtyn (reread)
18. William Shakespeare - Macbeth (reread) (audiobook)
19. Isobelle Carmody - The Farseekers (reread)
20. Isobelle Carmody - Ashling (reread)
21. Isobelle Carmody - The Keeping Place
22. Isobelle Carmody - Wavesong
23. Isobelle Carmody - The Stone Key
24. Isobelle Carmody - The Sending
25. Isobelle Carmody - The Waking Dragon
26. Isobelle Carmody - The Red Queen

May (5)
27. Amy Poehler - Yes Please (reread, but in book form)
28. Agatha Christie - The Mysterious Affair at Styles (reread)
29. C.S. Lewis - The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (reread)
30. Neil Gaiman - American Gods (reread)
31. Marlon James - A Brief History of Seven Killings (audiobook)

June (5)
32. Ernest Hemingway - The Sun Also Rises (reread)
33. Agatha Christie - The Secret Adversary
34. Agatha Christie - The Thirteen Problems
35. Agatha Christie - The Murder at the Vicarage
36. Agatha Christie - Ordeal by Innocence (reread)

2017 books read - Third quarter
July-August
37. Evelyn Waugh - A Handful of Dust (reread)

September
38. E.M. Forster - A Room with a View
39. Tina Fey - Bossypants (audiobook)
40. Patti Smith - Just Kids (audiobook)
41. E.M. Forster - Where Angels Fear to Tread (audiobook)

October
42. Neil Gaiman - Anansi Boys (reread) (audiobook)
43. Jack Kerouac - The Dharma Bums (audiobook)
44. John Taylor - Sherlock Holmes: The Rediscovered Railway Mysteries and other stories (audiobook read by Benedict Cumberbatch)

November
45. P.G. Wodehouse - Love among the chickens (audiobook)
46. Madeleine L'Engle - A Wrinkle in Time (audiobook)

December
47. P.G. Wodehouse - Mike and Psmith (audiobook)
48. Margaret Atwood - The Handmaid's Tale (reread) (audiobook)
49. P.G. Wodehouse - Mike and Psmith in the City (audiobook)
50. Alison McCreesh - Ramshackle - A Yellowknife Story
51. Neil Gaiman - Worlds' End (Sandman Vol 8)
52. Neil Gaiman - The Kindly Ones (Sandman Vol 9)
53. Neil Gaiman - The Wake (Sandman Vol 10)
54. Haruki Murakami - Sputnik Sweetheart
55. Robin Klein - Junk Castle (ok, so I don't usually record books I read with my son, but this is just such a wonderful childhood favourite that I haven't read since I was a teenager, and it was great and oh so Australian)

How frustrating that it could have been caught sooner, but I hope you recover quickly.

SO glad you finally figured out what's going on. Sorry it is Mono, but hopefully now you can get OVER it soon!!

Glandular fever is a bummer. I had it about 20 years ago and the recovery takes a good while.

Keep on keeping on, Megan. xx

Okay, is the Mono gone-o? Hope we see you back here soon. : )

Happy September, Megan!

Maybe an October sighting?

Hello there librarythingers, my mono/glandular has turned into chronic fatigue, and life continues to be sub-optimal. There's a lot more anxiety, panic, lack of sleep, and depression than I'm used to, and far less outdoor adventures and racing. I had quite a few months of struggling to read anything, but am attempting to get back into the swing of things, mostly by re-reading old favourites. Although I did just listen to Patti Smith's Just Kids audiobook and really enjoyed it.

>109 Oberon: Very sorry to hear that things have been tough but it is very nice to see you stopping by LT again.

>109 Oberon: Also sorry to learn that you are so tired and down, Megan.

Perhaps a new, relaxing thread would help?!

HUGS

Good to see you here, Megan. I'm sorry you've been so ill, but I hope you're on your way to recovery.

Yup, really sorry this is happening to you.

Sending well wishes for your ongoing recovery. *hugs*

>112 drneutron: Lovely flowers, Jennifer.

Chin up Megan. xx

Megan!! So glad to hear from you. Sorry your absence has been caused by chronic fatigue. I do hope your energy comes back sooner than later. We will be here for you when it happens and rooting for you in the meantime. Take care.

Sorry to hear that you are not doing well, Megan. I hope you are on the mend.

Just poking my head in to see how you are doing, Megan.

This is a time of year when I as a non-American ponder over what I am thankful for.

I am thankful for this group and its ability to keep me sane during topsy-turvy times.

I am thankful that you are part of this group.

I am thankful for this opportunity to say thank you.

On this day of American Thanksgiving, I am grateful for many things, one of them being my



Thank you for being so wonderful! I miss you. Hope you are feeling better and better. : )

Merry Christmas and Happy Solstice and such to all who drop by to say hello. I'm hoping to get around to properly updating all the books I've read in here - it's not many, but I may hit 50 or so. And then make a plan to read more next year! In general my energy levels are improving, and I'm able to do more and more. Life would be boring if it was easy, right?

Hey! You're here!! Glad to hear that the energy is improving. As slow road, but headed in the right direction. Hope you have fun during the holidays and find time for books. : ) I look forward to seeing more of you in 2018.

>121 Berly: Nice to see you making an appearance and very glad to hear you are on the mend.

Happy Holidays to you and your loved ones.

Hi Megan, stopping by to wish you and your loved ones peace, joy and happiness this holiday season and for 2018!

Wishing you all good things this holiday season and beyond.

Happy Boxing Day!!

Ok, I thought I should at least do a quick annual round-up

STATS OF 2017
Total books - 55
Author gender - 32 men, 23 women

TOP 4 READS (which includes two graphic novels, a non-fiction and a novel)
Alison McCreesh - Ramshackle - A Yellowknife Story (wonderful graphic novel of life in Yellowknife - it's a wee Canadian city far up in the north, the capital of the North-West Territories. I found this absolutely fascinating, an intriguing portrayal of life on the far side of the arctic circle)
Neil Gaiman - The Kindly Ones (Sandman Vol 9) (Neil Gaiman's Sandman series is amazing - it just builds and builds. He's such a ridiculously amazing story teller, that even though I still struggle a little with the art in the graphic novels, I still adore this series)
E.M. Forster - A Room with a view (I really enjoyed this Forster, but sadly the other two of his I read this year didn't compare)
Patti Smith - Just Kids (I don't read a lot of autobiography, but who could resist this fascinating tale of a couple of kids who become part of such an interesting scene)

And I made a 2018 thread! It's here.