I read 52 last year as part of a Goodreads challenge, I will probably be a little but not a lot short of that this year. Probably average 35-40 most years. Will probably read more when I work less, I'm a surgery resident so I work 80 hours a week and its hard to find a ton of time.

I'm at 13 so far this year, so extrapolating will get me to 31 for 2015.

About 2 a month.

I haven't the slightest idea.

Last year I read 30. This year my goal is 36. I'm on pace for 30 again, but we'll see.

Finished Moon Palace by Paul Auster. It's about desperation, loneliness, generational repetitiveness and the difficulty humans have with relationships. Auster's writing is very good overall, but there are a few lapses. I also felt a certain mashed up, forced together quality, a sense that it was patched together, maybe written at different times, among the several segments of the novel that didn't not seem to come from serving a purpose related to the novel but from some unknown reason. It might include material composed over a long period of time and reflect changes in Auster's writing skill or style.

The first paragraph summarizes the entire novel and the last sentence of it is: That was a long time ago, of course, but I remember those days well, I remember them as the beginning of my life. We are informed that the experiences, we are about to read in detail, are the beginning of the writer's life and those that formed who he is. We never learn who he is, but that seems okay.

For the most part, it's well written and interesting. Some parts of the story are explored in painful detail and others give little attention. I have no problem recommending it, but it's not Auster's best in my judgment.

I run at about a book a week when I'm reading, but occasionally stop for a decent stretch, or choose something huge that takes a month, so that 30 a year is about what I've read the last couple of years.

I also read books in parallel, or drop a book for 6 months and then finish it later (not so much for narrative fiction) so I probably have nearing 10 books in my kindle I'm in the middle of by one definition or another.

The other thing I do, with non fiction, is go on streaks of reading everything I can get my hands on in one subject. Last summer it was Tibet/the Himalayas, just now it's been Northern Ireland.

Selfish Gene - originally I put this one down a few years ago and then picked it up last week. Very cool to see game theory applied to biology.

A little long but its great in spots.

The last chapter pretty much created the science of memetics

ditto.

Where to begin with Neal Stephenson books? The start is the obvious choice, but has anyone else started his novels?

I was looking into Seveneves and it sounded very interesting.

I also got back into reading January '14 and have read about 39 books since then, which I think is good, considering I had not picked up a book in years.

I'd always begin with Snow Crash and the Diamond Age. Incredible, thought-provoking science fiction.

Reamde is a dense action book. Great fun.

Cryptonomicon is probably his masterpiece.

I made it about halfway through The Name of the Wind. I'm not really sure why I gave up other than as I get older and more fully realize my mortality, it seems to make less sense to read "pretty good" books. It definitely feels like a first novel.

Moved on to Jacques the Fatalist instead. Amazing so far.

I read the updated version that added 2 chapters. The last one summarized Extended Phenotype.

I've tried Diamond Age a couple of times and haven't got past page 50. I should try again when I finish Sevenneves. I liked Reamde a lot and Cryptonomicon might be my favorite book. Other contenders for favorite book include Emperor of Dune, Foundation, Storm of Swords, The Egyptian, and Julian.

House of Leaves author recently released an 800-pager, apparently part 1 of 27. I've picked up the two books since HoL hoping they'd live up to the hype but was disappointed both times. Reading amazon reviews and a reddit thread for the new book is making me feel optimistic, so I'm probably going to dive in sometime soon.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Familiar-V.../dp/0375714944

http://www.reddit.com/r/books/commen...k_danielewski/

We did a book club of HoL a few years back. Just search for it.

Finished Butcher's Crossing. A pox on reviewers who compared this book to Blood Meridian. It's a fine, well-written western, but is mostly about buffalo hunting and fairly conventional in structure. It could have been written by Zane Grey.

Still working on The Count of Monte Cristo, now past the 1/3 mark. Let's just say one can tell Dumas was paid by the word.

Started The Crying of Lot 49.

Big Sleep - love these hardboiled detective type books

Finished The Crying of Lot 49. Funny book. Best character name, Genghis Cohen. Best phrase, ties go to: propitiate the leprechaun, dandruffy arroyo, the ganglia of her optimism, and solfeggio in the strangling rooms. The satire (and humor, and enjoyability) winds down as the book gets a little heavy on the literary detective work near the end. Overall a fun little sixties hangover paranoia trip.

Starting The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi.

Finished The Devil's Alliance...Morehouse? Last night. About the Nazi/Soviet pact. Comprehensive. Upshot for me...not a lick of sympathy for the death and destruction in the Soviet Union from WW2. No WW2 without Soviet connivance...in fact for 1/3 of the war's duration they were pals.
Re-reading Robert Stone's A Flag for Sunrise. Wonderful old Paris Review interview (1985) via Wikipedia that rekindled my desire. This is writing as great as America has to offer. His insights into the culture free American middle class as valid today as when written.

Amplify...Blood Merdian +ev

A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson. Love it. Satisfying my desire to walk the Appalachian Trail by reading his account---for the time being.

Went to a Q&A and book signing for Neal Stephenson's Seveneves.

The Q&A was surprisingly fun. There were a lot of people and the questions keeped coming and most of them were interesting questions. After each question, Stephenson would repeat it on the microphone so that every one could hear. One of the highlights was when he summarized a question as "Do you think the success of Snow Crash make you lose your sense of humor?" (I paraphrase). I haven't read Snow Crash, but apparently it has a lot of funny moments.

Most of the Q&A wasn't too surprising. Stephenson is a space geek. He worked at Blue origins (The Jeff Bezos space company) for 7 years. He wrote a few books with a fountain pen instead of a computer (the Baroque Cycle and Anathem). He writes because not writing makes him sad, but he is very interested in making something for other media. When talking about other media he talked about how the success of superhero movies means studios don't invest in other movies.

It was quite fun and I'm glad I went. I also won a poster in a raffle and got it signed.

I haven't finished Seveneves yet. I have been stuck on Act 3 for over a week now. I am liking it, but it's not gripping like the first two acts were.

I also started listening to Snow Crash on my drive to the event. So far, I am really enjoying Snow Crash. It feels very different than the other Stephenson I'd read, but it's quite cool.

Walk in the Woods both created in me a lifelong dream to do the Appalachian Trail, while simultaneously making me realise that I'd more than likely end up hating it and failing.