Fred's Reading Report (August 2008)

So we come to the "traditional end" of summer...how did I do?

Short works? 459! The goal for the year was 365, so I've blown past that again (take that, SF Signal!). I feel like I've gotten on track again, picking up some books, such as the Hugo collections, that have been gathering dust on Mount Toberead. I've also started tallying shorter non-fiction works, to encourage me to read them.

Books read for the year stands at 57, with the following being read in August:

Hazardous Duty, by Col. David H. Hackworth (USA, Ret.).

Master & Commander, Post Captain, by Patrick O'Brian.

Unto the Breach and A Deeper Blue, John Ringo.

The World of Null-A; A.E. van Vogt.

The Patrick O'Brian volumes were originally part of a group read at a list I am on; I fell way behind, so now I'm just reading for pleasure. I'm hoping to make a run through the entire series. It is interesting to read these on a fairly continuous basis and see how the seeds for later tales are planted early on.

The two Ringo volumes complete his "Paladin of Shadows" or "Ghost" series (to date). When the Muse bites, I'm sure we'll see more.

The A.E. van Vogt was a re-read, the first time in a couple of decades. I was surprised how good the story was. I have a feeling my opinion of the book was colored by the rather poor third book in the series (which I no longer own). John Wright has continued the saga, so this was a re-read to refresh my memory before tackling that one.

Alas, reviews are running behind readings, so reviews will come...eventually. And (looking guiltily at Mount Toberead), I owed the folks at SF Signal several reviews, hopefully September will get me a little caught up there!

60 books a year has been my average for many years (the actual totals tend higher, which means I should calculate my average again! But, with 57 books completed, I'm probably doing better than 99% of the "average" folks out there!