Athena

Nice modest goals for 2014 ! You have quite a few nice books on your TBR! These ones I loved or really liked: Peter V. Brett – The Desert Spear Adrian Tchaikovsky – Empire in Black and Gold Karen Miller – Blight of Mages Karen Miller – The Innocent Mage Karen Miller – The Awakened Mage Maria V. Snyder – Poison Study Maria V. Snyder – Magic Study Maria V. Snyder – Fire Study They are all great reads, in my opinion! These are on my TBR too: James Barclay – Cry of the Newborn James Barclay – Dawnthief Peter V. Brett – The Daylight War Terry Brooks – First King of Shannara Stephen Donaldson – Lord Foul’s Bane (omnibus edition) David Eddings – Pawn of Prophecy Guy Gavriel Kay (other books) David Gemmell (other books) Ian Irvine – A Shadow on the Glass (I think I read this when I was a teenager but I don't remember much of it) Elizabeth Moon – The Deed of Paksenarrion (omnibus edition) Terry Pratchett – Guards! Guards! Terry Pratchett; Neil Gaiman – Good Omens Brandon Sanderson – The Final Empire Jane Austen – Emma (omnibus edition) Jane Austen – Pride and Prejudice (omnibus edition) James Barclay – Noonshade James Barclay – Nightchild James Barclay – Elfsorrow James Barclay – Shadowheart James Barclay – Demonstorm Terry Brooks – The Sword of Shannara (omnibus edition) Terry Brooks – The Elfstones of Shannara (omnibus edition) Terry Brooks – The Wishsong of Shannara (omnibus edition) Terry Brooks – Armageddon’s Children Terry Brooks – A Princess of Landover Trudi Canavan – The Magician’s Guild Trudi Canavan – The Magician’s Apprentice Trudi Canavan – Rogue Cassandra Clare – City of Fallen Angels Arthur Conan Doyle – The Hound of the Baskervilles Charles Dickens – A Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens – Great Expectations Charles Dickens – Oliver Twist Stephen Donaldson – The Illearth War (omnibus edition) Stephen Donaldson – The Power that Preserves (omnibus edition) Stephen Donaldson – The Wounded Land (omnibus edition) Stephen Donaldson – The One Tree (omnibus edition) Stephen Donaldson – White Gold Wielder (omnibus edition) Alexander Dumas – The Count of Monte Cristo David Eddings – The Diamond Throne David & Leigh Eddings – The Elder Gods George Eliot – The Mill on the Floss Raymond E. Feist – The King’s Buccaneer Raymond E. Feist – Talon of the Silver Hawk Raymond E. Feist – King of Foxes Raymond E. Feist – Flight of the Night Hawks Raymond E. Feist – Into A Dark Realm Raymond E. Feist – Wrath of a Mad God Raymond E. Feist – A Kingdom Beseiged Raymond E. Feist – Magician’s End Thomas Hardy – Tess of the d’Urbervilles Deborah Harkness – A Discovery of Witches Deborah Harkness – Shadow of Night Victor Hugo – The Hunchback of Notre Dame Gail Z Martin – (other books) Fiona McIntosh – Betrayal Fiona McIntosh – Revenge Fiona McIntosh – Destiny Fiona McIntosh – Royal Exile Herman Melville – Moby Dick Christopher Paolini – Brisingr Terry Pratchett – Lords and Ladies Terry Pratchett – Witches Abroad R. A. Salvatore – Exile (omnibus edition) R. A. Salvatore - Sojourn (omnibus edition) Laini Taylor – (one other book) Adrian Tchaikovsky – Dragonfly Falling William Thackeray – Vanity Fair J R R Tolkien – The Silmarillion Jules Verne – 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Virgil – The Aeneid Kurt Vonnegut – Slaughterhouse 5 Brent Weeks – (other books) Janny Wurts – The Curse of the Mistwraith Janny Wurts – The Ships of Merior I wish you happy reading in 2014 Laura, I hope you'll have a lot of great (fantasy) reads !

I hope you enjoy your new books ! Confessions of a Police Constable sounds pretty interesting, I look forward to hear what you think of it, when you read it.

Great review of Pandora's Star, Tim ! My version is a huge hardcover so that's why I've not read it yet. I really should read it sometime, though, it does sound good (even if it might not be as good as the Night's Dawn trilogy).

Sorry to hear the book wasn't good. Good luck with the research, I'm sure you're able to do better . Seeing what you feel is wrong, or right, in another book makes a good learning experience for writing your own, I think.

x Ack ! That's pretty bad too! It's a shame so many people don't understand that books are precious. Personally, I'm always very careful whenever I have borrowed something from someone, never to make it in a worse condition than it was. I don't often lend out my books these days (except to people I trust), there are some that I've never got back and the stories here don't exactly make you have faith in humanity not to damage them.

Nice list! It's great to have you here, Laura, I always enjoy reading your thread and discussing books with you . I hope 2014 will be a good reading year for you!

90 books, that's a lot! You've read a lot of books this month, too. Congrats ! I haven't yet started a new book and am still reading magazines instead. I think I might start Peter V. Brett - Demon Cycle 3: The Daylight War soon, but I'm not sure yet. I have to say, by not reading a book for a few days, it makes me want to read all the more so! I'm enjoying reading the magazines though.

I hope 2014 will be a good reading year for you . Of your TBR, I've read two books, that I both really love. They are Audrey Niffenger - The Time Traveller's Wife and Markus Zusak - The Book Thief. Good luck with getting your TBR down, I hope they're all great reads .

x I can imagine that! But it does mean you haven't bought many books, so maybe that's not too bad? I love the freckle quote! It's hilarious . I've also never understood why people consider freckles bad, I think on some people they look cute. I don't know many people with freckles in the Netherlands, I think they're not so common, but on TV and such some actors look cute with them.

It sounds interesting, I'm glad you enjoyed the book. Nice review .

Sorry to hear the book wasn't as memorable as you'd have hoped. I believe I have it on my wishlist (Ex Libris too). I hope you enjoy your new books !

x Thanks , I hope so too.

So.. I ordered two more books: Alan Bennett - The Uncommon Reader Holly Smale - Geek Girl 1: Geek Girl

Congrats on the new books! It's great to see all the covers . You got some nice presents!

x This is terrible ! Poor you (and poor books). Steve, that's one great haul! I have some of the James Barclay and Alastair Reynolds books on my TBR. I hope you enjoy all your new books .

x Which one do you plan to start with? I feel I should try to read one too at one point.. not sure how I'll get on but I have an omnibus edition and there's my Kindle books.

Nice haul, James ! I hope you enjoy your books.

I must ask.. are they named after the dwarfs from The Hobbit? Apologies if you've mentioned this elsewhere .

x I often do that too, not putting them away until a few days later .

I think good writers certainly deserve to make money. From what I've read, it can be very difficult for writers to make lots of money, unless they're really good and very popular. With self-publishing this might be different though, hopefully. I agree with what Talisman has said, everyone deserves to make at least enough money for a decent living. Every writer works in a different way and so their offices and work styles are different. I've read of some writers how they work, I find it very interesting. I had once the aims to write and release a book myself but I don't know if it'll happen.

x Thanks, that sounds pretty good . My mum was given the book as a gift, in English, but she doesn't like reading in English for relaxation, so she gave it to me.

That's a lot of books! They look great, I hope you enjoy them . P.S. All these photos of books make me kind of wish we still celebrated Sinterklaas here. But then again, I did buy myself some books not too long ago, so.. .

Congrats on the books! They look very nice . I do love seeing the photos of all your Christmas hauls!

Thanks so much for your comments , all of you!! I had tremendous fun compiling my statistics. Yes, I'll be setting my goals higher for next year. I don't want to put too much pressure on myself though, at the moment at least, so we'll see how things go .

x Thank you ! I'm so glad you had a great Christmas . The photos all look wonderful!