January To Be Read List

    The title of this post really should read "Books I hope to finish before the end of the month but probably won't" List. To be read just sounds more like I'll actually finish them all. The possibility of this is slim to none, given one of them is the I Ching, which I have only a minimal understanding of at present, so I have a feeling probably about half of these will carry over into next month. 

Across the Nightingale Floor by Lian Hearn

    This is a reread, this series is one of my favorite all-time series and a go-to when I want to read something but can't make a decision.

The Monk by Matthew Lewis

    I have mountains of "classics" that I either have never read or read when I was much younger and believe a reread is in order. So my one and only "resolution" this year was to get through not just these but my non-fiction books as well. In terms of this book specifically, this is one I have never read. So far I've only read the first chapter but I was surprised to find it to be A. Less difficult to read than I expected given the publication date and B. Engrossing. I suppose they aren't called "classics" for nothing. 

Call of the Bone Ships by RJ Barker

    I purchased this almost immediately after finishing the first one and have simply not taken the time to sit down and read it. I was kind of waiting until I picked up the third book but I loved the first one so much I decided I'd start it this month. 

The Empress by Karen Miller

I started reading this one morning months ago. Totally got into it and breezed through the first chapters easily, set it down that same day, and haven't had an inclination to pick it back up. Don't get me wrong what I read of it was exceptionally well done, the world-building is wonderful, the main character so far is great, it's just really really long. As I rounded out December and into January by finishing up several five to six hundred page long books starting another incredibly long book simply seemed daunting at the time but it's been a few weeks now so I'm hoping to dedicate some time to finish this before the end of the month. 

A Bond Undone by Jin Yong

    This has been on hold simply because it's the second book in the series and I decided I wanted to read the first one first but then after reading a bit of it decided that I could probably get through this one without reading the first one, so to the list of books to finish this month it goes. 

Professor Moriarty: The Hound of the D'Urbervilles by Kim Newman

    I'm about halfway through this one and it is phenomenal as expected. I'm not going to go into much about it right now because I want to finish it before forming any opinions but this might actually be better than Anno Dracula which would be quite a feat. Newman has definitely become one of my favorite authors. 

Mary Queen of Scots and the Murder of Lord Darnley

    I'm just gonna say it, Alison Weir uses too many words. And look I get it, this is a complicated matter of political bs, when political bs included things like being forced to marry douchebags, but oh man is this long-winded. That being said I am oddly enjoying it I just find I can only read about thirty pages at a time before I have to put it down. I really just want to get to the point where Weir lets us know what her theory is. I'm currently about halfway through it and I can say the best part of this is that Weir makes it perfectly clear that there were a shit ton of people who would have liked to see Lord Darnley dead and I've yet to form a strong opinion on who actually did do it. Personally, I'm hoping Weir's theory is just that everyone put their differences aside and got together to end the pompous asshole. 

The Taoist I Ching by Liu Yiming and translated by Thomas Cleary

    Remember how I mentioned earlier that I had a lot of classic literature to read? Well, I have an equal amount of non-fiction, philosophy, and religious texts that need to be read as well. In terms of philosophy, I decided to start East and head West and after rereading the Analects of Confucious I decided this was the next logical stop. 

The Lazarus Gate by Mark A. Latham

    So I kinda set this down somewhere in my kid's room about two months ago and they lost it, so I haven't finished it simply because I haven't been able to locate it. To be fair given I have eight other books going right now this will probably be pushed out to Feb.