This year was my first time participating in the goodreads.com reading challenge. My wife has participated for a few years now. She pledged to read 80 books in 2018. So I felt inspired to try and read at least half as many. Thanks to an Audible subscription, and a book club between my wife and me, I did in fact read at least 42 books this year.
I started the year with a completely new-to-me book series, The Stormlight Archive, from author Brandon Sanderson. The Way Of Kings , Words of Radiance , and Oathbringer . Each book is longer than the last, but I still devoured them. The world building and characters are just excellent. Stylistically reminiscent of Dune , but better. I felt like the author presented some thoughtful commentaries on race, stereotypes, and what it means to be honorable.
This past year was also my first foray into the Discworld series from Terry Pratchett. Being a long time Douglas Adams fan, I’d heard praise and recommendations for Mr. Pratchett’s dauntingly large and meandering series but never made the effort till now. I managed to read 6 books from the over 50 or so volumes concerning the Discworld. They were an absolute delight. Simultaneously funny and meaningful. Satirical and sincere. I don’t know that I’ll ever “finish” the Discworld series, and I’m not even sure I