April 2024 Reading Progress

I caught up on some reading this month as I completed two books and I have started on a third.  

People of the Dark: The Weird Works of Robert E. Howard Volume II was the first book I completed reading in April.  I should have finished it much sooner but between work, my daughter's competitive cheer commitments, and every day demands that I wound up dragging my feet.  It certainly wasn't due to a lack of interest.  Simply put, I've never read a Howard tale that I didn't enjoy tremendously. I'm always pulled in by his storytelling and I have completed his books in a single setting back in my youth before I had other real-world commitments.  I may not be able to give a truly objective review of his work and I will no try.

Dave Arneson's True Genius by Robert J. Kuntz is the second book I read in April.  This book is a good read, but I ultimately felt like it lacked a little meat on the bone.  Don't get me wrong at all, I enjoyed it tremendously, but it was just too short and a little too light in some areas.  I'm guessing it's meant to serve as a teaser for his planned book, A New Ethos in Game Design, that I suspect will be much more detailed.  I'm waiting...

I have begun reading The Forgetting Moon by Brian Lee Durfee.  I'm a big fan of his YouTube book review channel.  His reviews are always entertaining, so I decided to see what he had to offer in the realm of fantasy fiction.  I've read almost 100 pages so far and I'm looking forward to reading the rest.  that has me at 3 books read out of a goal of 8 this year; 37% to be exact.  

Now that my reading is updated, what else is coming up?  I will do at least one post each about the Cha'alt trilogy. and I'm working on a post about the Cults, Sects, and Faiths of my campaign world.

2024 Reading Plans

After the disappointing low number of books read last year, I got motivated to do better this year. I typically read 12 or more books in a year, but I set a goal of 8 for 2024 because several of these novels are epic length fantasy over 1,000 pages.  I am keeping a reading journal to help with this goal.  If I can read more, I will. Without further delay, here are the novels I plan on reading this year.

Poul Anderson (Three Hearts and Three Lions): I've always wanted to read this for two reasons. I remember it being referred to as a fantasy classic by many readers and - I hope I'm recalling correctly here - it seems that many claim this has the best representation of a Paladin. This book was read in 2023 and will be replaced by Murtagh by Christopher Paolini to keep my reading plan at 8 books for the year. 

Ray Bradbury (The Martian Chronicles): I remember seeing this book on the shelves of my middle school library and I also caught some of the PBS television mini-series.  I've always intended to read it so 2024 will be the year I do so.

Brian Lee Durfee (The Forgetting Moon): I stumbled upon his YouTube Channel while browsing the various "booktubers" looking for reviews of fantasy novels.  This guy reads a ton of books, has an impressive home library, and has completed a trilogy of novels.  His videos are funny because he doesn't hold back about how passionate he is about books, and he doesn't take things so seriously that he does a hundred takes to "get it right".  

Frank Herbert (Heretics of Dunge and Chapterhouse Dune): I enjoyed the first four books so I'm going to complete the original six books.  Maybe I'll give the expanded Dune universe novels by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson at some time.

Robert E. Howard (People of the Dark): Howards' Conan tales are amazing!  I enjoyed Shadow Kingdoms so I'm sure this collection will be excellent as well.

Christopher Paolini (Murtagh): I got this as a Christmas gift from my daughter, so I added it to the list of books for 2024.  I've read the entire Inheritance Cycle so I might as well continue on.  They have always proven to be smooth reading that doesn't require a stack of notes to keep up so that's a bonus.

Brandon Sanderson (Oathbringer and Rhythm of War): I really enjoyed the first two novels in The Stormlight Archives, and I need to get caught up with the series.  The series is planned to be ten books at completion so it's a good time to not fall behind any further.