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I Just HAVE to Read More of that Author 2015
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spoltz
Posted 2015-01-05 5:10 PM (#9168)
Subject: I Just HAVE to Read More of that Author 2015		Quote Reply



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Location: Beaverton, Oregon, USA		I've decided to host this challenge again this year after several request from 2014 challenge participants. As I mentioned in challenge description, I also decided to rerun this because I bought a bunch of used paperbacks by some of my favorite authors at Orycon in November.

Like last year, you can pick 12 books by 12 different authors, 12 books by one author, or any combination in between. The goal of the challenge is to read some more books by authors you've discovered along the way, such as during other challenges, where you had to read authors new to you, like the WOGF challenge.

Welcome to the new participants, and welcome back those who participated last year. Feel free to post as much or as little as you want in the forum. I enjoy reading everyone's progress, fast or slow. To me, it's about sharing the excitement we feel whenever we find a good book.

Have fun everyone!
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pauljames
Posted 2015-01-10 4:40 AM (#9242 - in reply to #9168)
Subject: Re: I Just HAVE to Read More of that Author 2015		Quote Reply



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Location: scotland		I really enjoyed this challenge last year and recently added another review that I had not got round to for one of last years books. So far this year I have two books to read for this with much more to follow. My books are at opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of how many books I have read by that author. I am currently reading Doctor Sleep by Stephen King and have previously read over fifty of his books. Next up I will be reading my second Raymond E Feist book.
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pauljames
Posted 2015-01-18 5:08 AM (#9319 - in reply to #9168)
Subject: Re: I Just HAVE to Read More of that Author 2015		Quote Reply



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Location: scotland		Started my first book for this challenge. Silverthorn by Raymond E Feist. It is the second novel in the Riftwar series.
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spoltz
Posted 2015-02-01 10:07 AM (#9440 - in reply to #9168)
Subject: Re: I Just HAVE to Read More of that Author 2015		Quote Reply



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Location: Beaverton, Oregon, USA		Hi everyone! I added the levels feature to this challenge. Now you can choose to read 3, 6, 9, or 12 books for the challenge. I really like this feature because now I can join a few more challenges this year and read just a few more books instead of a daunting 12 more per challenge. And we can lower the number of books to read for this challenge if we get towards the end of the year and we've not gotten close to 12.

Also, we're up to 24 participant for this challenge. I'm excited we've had so many people joining us recently. I hope having the levels feature brings more folks in to join us on our journey of exploring the body of work of some of our favorite authors.

Have fun everyone!
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spoltz
Posted 2015-02-01 10:19 AM (#9442 - in reply to #9168)
Subject: Re: I Just HAVE to Read More of that Author 2015		Quote Reply



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Location: Beaverton, Oregon, USA		I toodled around the other forums and was inspired by their renaming of the levels. So in ours, you can go from Curious to Interested to Fanatic to Completely Obsessed!
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DrNefario
Posted 2015-02-04 7:55 AM (#9510 - in reply to #9168)
Subject: Re: I Just HAVE to Read More of that Author 2015		Quote Reply



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Location: UK		I've joined in on this one again now it has the reading levels. Once again I'm slightly abusing the premise. Back at the start of the year I made a list of 15 authors I intended to read this year. Generally people I already owned several books by but had struggled to make the time to read or had kept postponing because of challenge reading. (If challenges are getting in the way of reading something, make it a challenge to read that ) Many of them are the same writers I used for this challenge last year.

Not all of the 15 are SF/F/H writers, and one of them is new to me, so I couldn't make a full twelve from that list, but I can make nine.

My list is:

Iain Banks - I have four of his books left to read. Two are covered by this site. He was a big favourite of mine, but I hadn't read anything for several years until I read Surface Detail last year.
Agatha Christie - I have a complete set of her detective fiction, almost all collected from charity and second-hand shops, and still have over 60 to read. I need to make some ground.
Bernard Cornwell - I have two books by him I've been meaning to read for years, but keep postponing.
Graham Joyce - I have two of his books, and wanted to read one last year but never got to it. He's new to me, so I can't use him for this challenge.
John Le Carre - I had two books for him. I've already read his first novel Call for the Dead in January.
Ursula Le Guin - I had two books for Le Guin, and have already read Tehanu in January.
L E Modesitt Jr. - I have about ten of his books to read, in three series, thanks to a bit of a spree when there was a special offer last year. He doesn't seem to trouble any awards or crop up on any other lists, but I often enjoy his stuff.
Christopher Priest - I think I have three of his outstanding. Another one I hadn't read for years until last year.
Alastair Reynolds - I have four of his to read, I think. Three novels and a collection. I meant to read one of them for this challenge last year, but managed to put it off again. Reynolds is quite long and dense, so I never quite feel I can afford the time.
Adam Roberts - I actually only have one of his books in my in-tray at the moment, but he's a writer I am keen to read a lot more of.
Brandon Sanderson - When I created this list, I had six books in three series by Sanderson to read. Now I have eight books in five series.
Nevil Shute - I inherited a complete collection from my father, and want to make some headway with it. He has one book on WWE which I read last year, but there is apparently another which is SF: In the Wet. I'm not sure which book I'm going to pick, though. It might just be a lucky dip.
Jack Vance - I have a good few Vance ebooks to read as a result of more uncontrolled sale-splurging.
Jo Walton - I have two trilogies and one standalone book by Walton to read. And I quite fancy her new one.
Gene Wolfe - An old favourite I neglected for far too long until I read Soldier of Sidon for this challenge last year. I have three or four of his in my in-tray, and more on my wishlist. I often feel that Wolfe is a genuine literary titan who deserves better recognition. Like a Nobel Prize for Literature or something.

So, I'm hoping to make my nine from those, where they are actually covered by the site. Maybe I'll decide to go up to twelve if I make good progress.
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spoltz
Posted 2015-02-04 1:21 PM (#9513 - in reply to #9168)
Subject: Re: I Just HAVE to Read More of that Author 2015		Quote Reply



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Location: Beaverton, Oregon, USA		I own 5 non-genre books myself that I want to read this year, amid all my genre books. I'm reading one now, by Colm Tolbin. I also want to read Jodi Picoult and a few non-fictions that have been gathering dust on my shelf. They are all new authors to me. I got most of the books I'm reading for this challenge at a used book vendor at the Oregon SF Convention last November: Delaney, Simak, Silverberg, del Rey, to name a few. They were books that I was pretty sure I'd have to get via interlibrary loan, i.e. older, less popular books, if I could find them at libraries at all. This has become my year to read what I own before going to the library.

I definitely agree with you about Wolfe. I read Book of the New Sun last year and was blown away. I also think Simak deserves to be read more and better remembered.
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daxxh
Posted 2015-02-04 9:57 PM (#9519 - in reply to #9168)
Subject: Re: I Just HAVE to Read More of that Author 2015		Quote Reply



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Location: Great Lakes, USA		I also have a bunch of non-genre books in my TBR pile that include 3 Edward Rutherfurds, 4 Bernard Cornwalls, 4 James Michners and a huge stack of American Southwest history books. I'm hoping with the Space Opera Challenge to read the remaining Ian Banks and Alastair Reynolds books that I have (not including the short story collections). I've only read the first two books of Hamilton's Reality Dysfunction series and the first of Neal Asher's Polity series. I'd like to read more of those, if not finish them.

I agree about Simak. I just read the Best Science Fiction Stories of Clifford D. Simak and loved them. That prompted me to check out City from the library, so I'll be reading that this month.
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DrNefario
Posted 2015-02-05 7:55 AM (#9525 - in reply to #9168)
Subject: Re: I Just HAVE to Read More of that Author 2015		Quote Reply



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Location: UK		I've got City to read next for the 50s challenge. I read and enjoyed Way Station when I was going through the Hugos a couple of years ago, and I am fairly certain I read something else by him several decades ago, but I have no idea what it was. I'm hoping it wasn't City.

I try to keep my reading varied. I try never to read two books in the same genre back-to-back. I have an ongoing crime challenge, too. My non-SF/F reading got a bit damaged by the number of challenges I took on last year, and I wanted to make up the lost ground a bit this year. And not make the same mistake.
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pauljames
Posted 2015-02-08 10:15 AM (#9560 - in reply to #9168)
Subject: Re: I Just HAVE to Read More of that Author 2015		Quote Reply



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Location: scotland		Have finished Silverthorn by Raymond E Feist. This is the second novel of his I have read. It is avery good book with many storylines, some of which are very dark. A lot of fun to read although not as challenging or as long as Magician. Looking forward to the next book in the series.
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spoltz
Posted 2015-03-05 11:53 AM (#9828 - in reply to #9168)
Subject: Re: I Just HAVE to Read More of that Author 2015		Quote Reply



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Location: Beaverton, Oregon, USA		February challenge update:

We now have 28 participants! That equals the number from last year. Welcome to all the recent comers.

We have quite a few people who have read 4, 5, or 6 books. And Weesam is already at 10. Congrats! I'm in the 0-3 range. I've just spent the last month beginning my Tolkien challenge and keeping up with my book club which I document through the Pick and Mix challenge. I'll probably be getting to more of my reading for this challenge in the second half of this year.

I'm also glad to see that a few folks are taking advantage of the reading levels.

Congrats to all on your accomplishments so far! Have fun everyone!
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pauljames
Posted 2015-03-29 5:12 AM (#9953 - in reply to #9168)
Subject: Re: I Just HAVE to Read More of that Author 2015		Quote Reply



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Location: scotland		Have just started Storm of Wings by M John Harrison. This is the second Viriconium novel. I have read the first book so this is my second novel of his. A t the moment finding it quite a dense literary book. It is not a quick read, needs to be savoured and read carefully to understand and appreciate.
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pauljames
Posted 2015-04-05 9:49 AM (#10059 - in reply to #9168)
Subject: Re: I Just HAVE to Read More of that Author 2015		Quote Reply



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Location: scotland		Recently finished A Storm of Wings by M John Harrison. I consider this the most challenging book I have ever read. Very dense and dreamlike, nowhere close to a pageturner and definitely not for most people. I struggled mightily throughout and did some research on the web to discover that others had the same opinions. Some people suggested that this was a book to be read slowly so everything could go in and be absorbed. To me this sounds natural as I am such a slow reader but this book just for me seemed to cut me no slack. In a way this is one of the joys of reading to push myself and see what the outcome is. At the moment I am just really pooped as prior to this I had read China Mieville's Kraken which is itself a difficult read. So for me it is some lighter fare now and back to a favourite of mine Dean Koontz.
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spoltz
Posted 2015-05-01 10:53 AM (#10389 - in reply to #9168)
Subject: Re: I Just HAVE to Read More of that Author 2015		Quote Reply



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Location: Beaverton, Oregon, USA		Hi Everyone! After the first third of the year, we have 2 finishers: Weesam at the Completely Obsessed level and Anne Walker at the Fanatic level. Congratulations! The next closest to finishing have 7, 8, and 9 out of 12 read. I've been a little slower this year because I'm putting the Tolkien Challenge on the forefront since the posthumous books are quite dense. Then I've been reading really light or short books in between. Next, I'll be rereading the Harry Potter series to finish off my personal Hugos challenge and the Read it Again Sam, challenges...and of course, I just can't read the one Hugo winner, I have to reread the whole series. So I probably won't see too much progress in this challenge until the second half of the year.

I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying their reads!
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spoltz
Posted 2015-06-02 4:26 PM (#10693 - in reply to #9168)
Subject: Re: I Just HAVE to Read More of that Author 2015		Quote Reply



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Location: Beaverton, Oregon, USA		Hi Folks! Another month has gone by and we have three more finishers: Daxxh and Arrenby at the Completely Obsessed level and Mamajulie at the Fanatic level. Congratulations! I'm in the midst of Harry Potter now, as well as squeezing in other small works. At least I got a Helen Oyeyemi and a Clifford Simak book in for this challenge.

How's everyone else doing? What have been your favorites so far?
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Dlw28
Posted 2015-06-02 6:10 PM (#10694 - in reply to #9168)
Subject: Re: I Just HAVE to Read More of that Author 2015		Quote Reply



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This challenge has been great fun for me! I had enjoyed Cherry's Cyteen but found her Faded Sun series totally different though just as enjoyable. And Gibson's the Peripheral was fast paced fun too.
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spoltz
Posted 2016-01-02 5:54 PM (#12260 - in reply to #9168)
Subject: Re: I Just HAVE to Read More of that Author 2015		Quote Reply



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Location: Beaverton, Oregon, USA		Hi everyone! Thanks for participating. We had 35 participants, 20 finishers, and quite a few near finishers. I hope everyone enjoyed the books they got to read and had fun in the process. I'm hosting the challenge again this year. So if you're up for it, join us for another round of authors you just have to read more of!
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