And by BS I don’t mean bulls*** but instead Bernice Summerfield.

So the past week or so I’ve been updating my Goodreads book database with the dates of books I’d read since June of 2001. Why? Um, because I can, I guess. I’ve been keeping a paper record (which I then transpose to a spreadsheet) of the date I finished reading books since June of 2001. The original idea was to NOT buy any new books till I’d read 10 books I already owned. I’m pretty sure I was in a deficit before June was over. Heh.

Anyhoo, last January I decided to try the Goodreads reading challenge and publicly pledged to read 75 books during the year. (I succeeded by the skin of my teeth!) Which meant I had to keep track of the dates I finished books in Goodreads. It got to the point where I was doing a better job of keeping track with the online database than my paper booklet. And I kept thinking that some day I’d enter in the earlier dates. Well, I just finished updating 2014’s books and that has me caught up. And it looks like I now have about 500 read books with dates (out of nearly 1300 read books). Not too shabby.

While updating the database I discovered a number of things that I hadn’t really noticed before. Such as getting into Lois McMaster Bujold so damned late. 2008? Really? I knew I was a latecomer, but I hadn’t realized it was that late. I noticed that some years I read a LOT of library books (most electronic, but a few paper). And it wasn’t till 2010 that I got back into library books (when I was working on my Masters degree). Last year wasn’t as heavy with library books, but I did have a couple. This prompted me to create two exclusive groupings for Goodreads – owned and borrowed. (I also have reference, which is for books that I own but don’t expect to read from cover to cover.)

I noticed that once I discover an author that I enjoy, I tend to binge-read. 2014 is when I discovered David Weber’s Honor Harrington novels and I zipped through them so fast that I couldn’t tell you which plot goes with which book title. But I remember pretty well what all happened overall. I shall enjoy rereading the series. (I don’t keep track of rereads – I know I’ve reread the Bujold Vorkosigan novels, but cannot tell you which year it was.)

My main focus this year, as hinted at by my title and its explanation, was to finally get some Bernice Summerfield novels read. I read all of the Virgin books when they all first came out (long before I kept records on when I finished books). But I had quite a few Big Finish Benny books which I’d not yet read. This was prompted by a sale that Big Finish had in May. I ordered Bernice Summerfield – The Inside Story and the last of the books which I didn’t yet own (and that were still in print). I started reading the big coffee table book after our Britain trip, and decided to relisten to the audios and then read about them in the book. And then I dusted off my BS books and started reading them for the first time. (I also managed to, ahem, “borrow” a couple that are currently out of print. I’m still looking for them IRL though and hope to get them someday. Even the juvenile (as in written for horny 13-year old boys) Squire’s Crystal. It’s more than made up for by The Glass Prison, IMO.

Though I’ve long since relistened to all the Benny audios, I’ve still got quite a few books to get through. I’m “currently reading” Collected Works. (The quotes because I haven’t actually started it, but I will soon!) I’ve got 5 currently in my “Currently Reading” list at Goodreads. There’s also a Murder, She Wrote (last one read in 2010!), an eBook (The Goblin Emperor), and a couple of books on my tablet I’m slowly working through. (My tablet is great for comic books. It’s the main reason I bought it.)

Let’s see, what are some other 2015 noteworthy reads. Well, I will say that HumbleBundle is both a joy and evil. So is StoryBundle. I wind up buying whole collections of books from them, then forget to add them to my databases (yes, I also have a LibraryThing account – it’s my official one with Goodreads being my social one) till I finally finish one of the books from the set. HumbleBundle had the Berkley Breathed collection for sale this year which I snapped up and then read through. And then he started doing his Facebook-only 2015 (and now 2016) cartoon which has been a hoot.

Thanks to these bundling agencies, I’ve discovered some great authors and book series. Heck, I bought dad a set of Make: books for Christmas, then went ahead and bought the set for myself too! I’m pretty sure I haven’t yet added them to my databases. The Order of the Air series by Melissa Scott & Jo Graham is probably the best example. I read Lost Things which came with one of the bundles and fell in love with the characters. And in looking up a link for the series, I discovered that book 5 of the series was just released in December. Damn… Another book to buy!

And that, my dear friends, has been the story of my life with books. I read a recommendation in Twitter or elsewhere, check out a book, discover another, etc. And wind up buying a shitload of books. Rosemary Kirstein – wish I could remember who first recommended her to me (might have been one of the webcomic authors I follow) – was a major discovery this year. I read The Steerswoman and loved it. I’ve since inhaled the series and am awaiting the next two books. My twitter feed was all abuzz about Elizabeth Bear’s Karen Memory just before it came out, so I decided I’d buy it the day of. And inhaled that book too.

Just last night I was working on my database and wondered if Jasper Fforde had published a sequel to Shades of Grey (nothing to do with 50 Shades) and discovered another series of his. With, supposedly, a kickass female protagonist (why not – he’s good at ’em). And wound up buying the series (The Chronicles of Kazam), plus several other books. After all, Kobo was having double and triple bonus points for their frequent buyer program. I wound up getting 11 books for $90. And the books all have protagonists who aren’t straight white males! (I did debate buying The Martian last night, too, but decided to stick to my guns. Might borrow it from the library). And this just days after I bought The Goblin Emperor and a few other books. And then Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen, Bujold’s latest. *sigh* So many books! And I’m writing this up instead of reading!

Both cats are now with me (Lucy’s been here the whole time I’ve been typing this, but Linus has now decided he should be sleeping on my arms while I type this). So I suppose I should finish up and get a bit of reading done. I suspect my goal of 75 books read in 2016 will be another success – I certainly have enough new books to get me started!

I had wanted to write two posts this January covering the books I’d read this year and the music I’d bought. Well, the month is quickly moving, so I’d best get a move on if I want to do this!

(I also note that today is a holiday. Happy Martin Luther King, Jr Day to all of you! May there come a time when everyone will start out at the same level playing field as each other. The cynic in me thinks “yeah right” but the optimist in me has hope.)

2013 saw a record number of books read (70, beating 2008’s 65) since I started keeping records in 2001. Here’s hoping I’ll have as successful a summer as I had last year.

New (and notable) Authors that I discovered in 2013 include Jo Nesbo, Gillian Flynn, Tamora Pierce, Hugh Howey, Alex Grecian, and Scott Lynch.

My sister got the entire family into Stieg Larsson in 2010 and has now followed it up by getting us into Jo Nesbo. His detective, Harry Hole (pronounced closer to “holy” than “hole”) is an interesting character. His female characters are often proactive and kick ass, which is nice to see. But try not to get too attached to the secondary characters – Nesbo has no qualms about offing the people we love. (The George RR Martin school of character writing, perhaps?) I am caught up with all of the Nesbo books which have been published in the US. (So still need The Cockroaches, I guess.)

Although I might someday reread the Harry Hole books, I decided that once was enough for the Gillian Flynn books that I checked out this summer. I think it was Greg McElhaton who introduced me to Gillian’s books. I started with Gone Girl and then followed up with Sharp Objects and Dark Places (all three are stand-alone books – it’s not a trilogy). Those aren’t my usual style of books (psychological drama? Not sure how to describe them) but I wanted to continue reading to find out what happened next. I think I liked Dark Places best of the three, but I’d be hard pressed to say why that was.

I love The Devil’s Panties and Jennie Breeden, the cartoonist for the series, loves Tamora Pierce books. So I decided to see if my library had any of her books electronically. I wound up checking out her Beka Cooper trilogy: Terrier (read in 2011), Bloodhound, and Mastiff. Not sure why I didn’t follow up back in 2011 after reading Terrier, but I’m glad I tried her out again. I’ve now got Alanna on order from the library to expand upon my Tamora Pierce reading. I think lately I’m just in the mood for books which either star female protagonists or at least have strong females in lead roles in books.

In addition to Jo Nesbo, my sister introduced me to Hugh Howey and his Wool Omnibus. Her library had all 5 of the novellas/novellettes separately, but mine had the omnibus. So although she discovered the series first, I finished it first. (She can wait a LONG time for books since she’s sharing them with all of Minneapolis. My books come from a larger pool of libraries and with fewer patrons. Go figure!) The first Wool story is very much of the sort of science fiction story that I think of when I think of “anthology science fiction.” And that’s actually a compliment. That he was able to take his original premise and continue it to a much bigger world was impressive.

I really got into Jago and Litefoot from Big Finish Productions this year and so Victoriana was appealing to me. No surprise, then, that I picked up The Yard by Alex Grecian. It tells of the early days of Scotland Yard and the development of the Murder Squad. I liked the characters right away and think he does a nice job with the female characters as well (though there just aren’t enough of them IMO). The Black Country was a good follow up novel and I’m looking forward to more stories with these characters.

I first heard of Scott Lynch when someone on Twitter or Tumblr had pointed to his LJ post on why he had a black female single mother who was a pirate. Hell, anyone who writes a character like that has to be in my collection! This particular character doesn’t show up until his second novel, Red Seas Under Red Skies, so I started with The Lies of Locke Lamora. Unlike the other books I mentioned above, I decided this series is more than just a “read from the library series.” I’ve only purchased the first book, but I’ll get the other two books (including the recently released Republic of Thieves) when they come out on sale. (Yeah, I’m a cheap-wad.) In addition to fascinating characters and strong females, the stories often involve some really clever sting (or several stings) which I always love to see developed (and sometimes love to see them crash and burn).

So yeah, lots of books read this year, some new authors discovered and added to my “must read more by” list. Read both of JK Rowling’s non HP books and liked them (though I preferred the mystery). Read Lord of the Flies and Ethan Frome, The World of Poo (not Pooh), Dance for the Ivory Madonna (which not only had a male black lead but also a main character who was a fat female – the titular Ivory Madonna), and A Slight Trick of the Mind (soon to be a motion picture with Ian McKellan as an elderly Sherlock Holmes). Read two of the Doctor Who 50th Anniversary Novellas, Ripple Effect and Nothing O’Clock. And also got two new (for me) Lois McMaster Bujold books under my belt (Spirit Ring and Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance). All-in-all, a great year for book reading!

2014 has started out very strong. Five books done thus far (though two were started before 2014 began). Have a new author for this year in my collection: Laura Lam, who’s written Pantomime and Shadowplay. Loved Pantomime so much I bought it and the sequel. Currently reading the sequel. I shall continue trolling for new authors and books via my Twitter feed and other sources, so I expect to find even more female protagonists who kick ass in 2014.

May you all enjoy reading some wonderful books this year!