48 thoughts on “For the Love of February”

1. Hey Carl,

   Many, many thanks for hosting the SF experience. I have to confess that, personally speaking, I may have overindulged a bit for my own sanity, but that’s an important lesson for next time: I must remember to pace myself.

   I’ll definitely be back next year though, if you’ll have me. It was great finding out about books I’d never heard of previously and, perhaps more importantly, a whole load of new and interesting blogs and bloggers.

   Keep up the good work 🙂

   1. Of course, you need never ask, just dive in! If you like fantasy I hope you’ll join us for Once Upon a Time starting March 21st.

      These events are a fantastic way to meet new bloggers. Every year, for all three that I host, I meet great new people like you and I am incredibly grateful for that.

      Pacing oneself is a good thing. I have been a reading fiend of late and am surprised that I haven’t hit a slow down yet.

2. wow you really outdid yourself this year (February)..! but you can stop rubbing in the fact that you have all that snow! we had a record high January and February here.. one last cold front coming thru and we cool off for about 4 days..the “cold fronts” are nearing an end and we didn’t even have a “decent winter” :o(

   As for reading I went into a bad few weeks after a good January.. only finished 2 books. Of course at least they were chunksters! at about 1,300 pages or so between them. I hope I get my whatever back again but the thought of the humidity again is depressing for 10 months. oh well.

   I am glad you had such a good sci fi time! you always do and that alone is worth a smile! :o)

   1. It was a good month, helped a great deal by several days in which I wasn’t at work and was home reading. Snow storms and colds can be annoying but there is the plus side of having an excuse to bundle up in a comfy chair and read.

      I was convinced that we were on the path for another year with no “real” winter until last week and the “Boom!”, Old Man Winter arrived in high style. Even driving to work today I was in awe of just how much snow we got in less than a week’s time.

      Hope you have your book piles at hand and are ready for Once Upon a Time!

      1. After a bad February (reading and depression) I am looking forward to OUaT as usual.. I think I am burned out on “politics” right now lol…just read a short mystery book which I enjoyed..not sure what books I want to rid myself of for OUaT yet lol..

         1. I’m always burnt out on politics, so I can understand that.

3. Hi Carl – this was my first year doing The SF Experience and I really enjoyed it. Your reading events are fun and I look forward to joining in are more in the future.

   Stardust is one of my all-time favorite Gaiman books. I say that about every one, don’t I? But really, if I could only take one Gaiman book with me on a doomed starship, it would be Stardust.

   Were you thinking about carrying on with McCaffrey?

   1. It was so great to have you take part! Thank you so much.

      Stardust is a great one, isn’t it? If I hadn’t read Neverwhere first and fallen so hard for that I suspect Stardust might be my go-to Neil Gaiman desert island book.

      I need to contact all of you. The month really got away from me with other commitments and thus we didn’t get any February read of McCaffrey in. Not sure at this point that I’ll do this until perhaps this summer as I have a lot of currently released books that I want to keep up with, but we’ll see. I’ll let everyone know soon.

4. That snowy photo looked like it was taken in my neighborhood! We’ve only had 50 inches of snow this winter (average snowfall by the end of February is 75 inches), but we’re glad to share it with you and the rest of the folks in the mid-west. Glad you found yourself off from work so you could catch-up on your reading. Despite being surrounded by sick students, I’ve been able to stay healthy with Vitamin-C, plenty of liquids, and frequent hand-washing! And plenty of sleep.

   1. I would have preferred getting this around the holiday season but I’ve been enjoying it all the same. It looks beautiful and it was fun to be snowed in with the family. Even during the hours that we didn’t have power on Tuesday it was fun to bundle up and read in our sun room with all the blinds up watching the snow fall.

      Thanks for your generosity. 😉

5. I forgot you live in MO. You did get dumped on didn’t you? We got 5 inches in Minneapolis from last week’s storm and this week it missed us entirely deciding to stay south and pester Chicago instead. I hope you have a nice slow warm up so all that snow doesn’t cause flooding!

   1. Yes, we did indeed! I hope it warms up slowly too and that this moisture goes deep and helps with all the drought conditions we’ve been dealing with. Even if I didn’t enjoy the snow, which I do, I wouldn’t complain simply because we need the moisture so much.

6. Hi Carl – all that snow you got, we also got a few days later! We are digging out today from the storm we got yesterday (your Tuesday snow). Almost a foot here too in Ottawa.

   I am about to do my post for the sci-fi experience. It’s been my best one so far, I think. I’m interested to see what you think of Caliban’s War, since I just finished Leviathan Wakes for the experience, and will be including a review in in my post today 🙂 I really enjoyed it!

   Thanks again for hosting it, it was a wonderful experience. I’m only sorry I couldn’t host the read-along for The Postman, though as you say, next year 🙂 I had lots of reading time because of my recovery, too.

   Yaaay for Once Upon A Time, I have so many books ready for that too! lol take care til then, and fingers crossed we will both have signs of spring by the time OUaT begins.

   1. I’m happy we could all share! 🙂

      Look forward to your wrap up post. I need to get my review for Leviathan Wakes done. I thought it was great. Caliban’s War opens in a very sinister fashion and that is about all I know thus far. Will be getting back to it soon.

      No worries about The Postman, there will be another time.

7. It sounds like you definitely had a great month. My entire family loves Hotel Transylvania. we recite lines from it all the time.

   I just read Stardust for the first time, otherwise I would totally join you for the readalong. I definitely want to see the movie version, so perhaps I can watch it while you all are reading it.

   Have a great March!

   1. Wasn’t it a fun movie? I was more impressed than I expected to be.

      I do hope you’ll join in our Stardust conversations and do check out the film. It isn’t my favorite and the more time has passed the more problems I have with it but if you can take it less as an adaptation and more as its own product it has some fun moments.

8. I’m afraid I was a flop when it came to participating in SF Ex this year.I’m working my way through two short story collections (Harrison’s 50 IN 50 and Niven’s PLAYGROUNDS OF THE MIND) but finished neither. I’m reading so many ss anthologies and collections (ten of them) that I’m getting nowhere fast in any but one of these days I’ll reach the end in several. Three of them are pulp collections, the rest are mystery, humor, general fiction and SF-F collections. I’ll do a post on it all soon.

   No luck yet on bookcases, but hopefully soon.

   We got some snow this year though not a ton, and the winter has been relatively mild but we are getting a lot of snow in the Cascades and a lot of rain here in Portland.

   1. As long as you are reading what you enjoy, Richard, that is all that matters. I appreciate your presence over here.

      Sorry about the bookshelf delays but I’m sure you’ll find the right person to continue the project and it will be great to see those pictures when the time comes.

      Rain is good, we need much more of that as well.

9. That snow is beautiful but I would not want to be there. I am looking forward to the Once Upon a Time VII Challenge. My son is looking forward to it because I will finally read some of the books he has been nagging me about. Thanks for all the effort you put into the Sci-Fi Experience.

   1. It has been very beautiful to look at, I was thinking that when I drove into work today.

      What books are your son bugging you to read?

      1. The main one he has been bugging me about is The Courts of Chaos (Zelazny) to finish up The Chronicles of Corwin. Otherwise, he just wants me to try more fantasy and I have had several of his books on my shelves for a year now. Including, The Princess Bride (William Goldman), the Golden Compass (Philip Pullman), The Black Company (Glen Cook), Tailchaser’s Song (Tad Williams). He is a big fan of Tad Williams and I have read The War of the Flowers.

         1. I read The Princess Bride waaaay back just before the film came out and remember enjoying it very much. Haven’t read any Glen Cook which is something I would like to remedy. I have his book, The Dragon Ship, that looks very interesting. Ever since seeing the interview with Tad Williams on Sword and Laser on Youtube I’ve been interested in reading him. He seemed like such a nice and passionate guy.

10. Group read of Stardust?! Yippee! I’ll definitely join you for that. I’m going to have to squeeze a Neverwhere reread in really soon too since the radio play begins in, what, two weeks? Yikes. I need to head down and grab that right now, I think.

    1. It really is a lovely book. It has been probably four years since my last listen to it and I’m looking forward to visiting Wall and the land beyond again.

       Also looking forward to that Neverwhere radio play.

11. I take it you didn’t sleep in February? 😉 Seriously–what an amazing pile of reading/viewing/doing you fit in!!! *said with on a tinge of envy* *oh okay, more than a tinge*

    1. Not much! 🙂

       I’m frankly impressed with myself only because I’ve managed to keep up with so many things. It is really more surprising than anything else. We’ll see if that keeps up.

       You guys are in for OUaT 7, right?!?!

       1. Of course!!! They say there’s no such thing as a stupid question…well, that comes pretty damn close. 😉

          1. Ha!

12. Again you seem to have a wonderful reading month, with a real good mixture of books and short stories. I also had another productive month in February. Sorry to hear about illness and bad weather. Here in the UK we had snow at the beginning of the month and it continues to be very cold but we have a few glorious days of sunshine. In March I’m mostly looking forward to seeing more of the sun!

    1. Thank you, I’m feeling normal again so that is a good thing. And I made the most of my forced time off.

       I am looking forward to seeing Spring return in March and am hoping that it actually does so, at least by the end.

13. Thanks again for running this – as ever a great start to the year. I’ve read sixteen sci-fi books as part of this and tried to use the experience to reach out and to try new authors. I’ve had a great time although could do with a change of genre so I’ll see you shortly for Once Upon a Time!

    1. That is so awesome Peta! Congratulations. I’ve done more new author reading too and discovered that it is a lot of fun to take on those adventures. I hope to do the same thing with Once Upon a Time.

14. My, you have been busy! Hope you’re feeling better.

    1. I am Deb, thank you! And you’ve been busy reading and blogging as well!

15. Whew, so much sci fi goodness! Way to take advantage of the snowed-in days. 🙂

    As always, thanks for hosting a great reading experience! I especially had so much fun with Dragonflight–and I do believe I’ll be jumping in on Stardust too…

    1. Will this be your first time with Stardust?

       Thanks for joining in, I’m glad you had a good time as that is what it is all about.

       1. I’ve read Stardust before (maybe twice…) but it’s been years and years and I’ve forgotten most of it…as witnessed by the fact that I can’t remember how many times I’ve read it!

          1. I’ve lost count too, but it has been many times, lol!

16. Hi Carl
    Thanks for hosting the Sci Fi experience which I really enjoyed. I will definitely be signing up for Once Upon a Time and I’ve already saved a few books with that in mind. I read Stardust only a few months ago – part of me just thinks I’ll read it again! We’ll see.
    Thanks again for being such a great host.
    Lynn 😀

    1. You are very welcome, it is always my pleasure to do these things. If you can track down an audio version of Stardust from somewhere I would highly recommend it as a way to ‘read it again’ without reading it again. Oh my it is beautiful listening to Neil read this.

17. That’s a lot of snow Carl. How beautiful as long as you don’t have to shovel 🙂 Sounds like you’ve been super busy, despite being ill. I’ve been enjoying all of the reviews. And now spring is almost here–I can just feel it!

    1. Yes it is, and a lot of it remains a week later. It is supposed to get very warm this week so that should remove all evidence soon. I too can feel the onset of Spring and I’m excited about its arrival.

18. Well, Carl, I failed miserably! I had planned on reading two books, but I just ran out of time. I did start The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and will try to finish it this month. Let’s hope I do better for Once Upon a Time. 🙂

    Thanks for hosting! I’ll try again next year.

    1. It is all about having fun, so as long as you’ve enjoyed the last two months then there is no failure at all.

       Once Upon A Time should be fun, I’m looking forward to hosting again.

19. I wish they closed our office when it snowed that much but in Saskatchewan they never seem too! I love seeing Americans watching Corner Gas, btw!!! They filmed CG just down the road from where I live 🙂

    1. That is really cool! Yes, we love Corner G. We seriously watch all 6 seasons over and over again, catching an episode here or there while we are sitting down to have a snack or lunch. Such a great show. I wish they were still making it.

20. Thanks for hosting again! I love the Sci-Fi Challenge even though I never get in as much reading as I want. I’m still looking forward to your review of Leviathan Wakes. I’m so excited to sign up to re-read Stardust. I’ve got a beautiful blue hardback William Morrow edition that has been waiting for me to read.

    1. You are welcome, Amanda. Despite all that I read I didn’t get to near what I wanted to, or even thought I could.

       Yes, I’ve got to get the Leviathan Wakes review finished. I liked the book very much and have just been swamped with other reading assignments (and work!).

       I’m going to read my blue hardback as well. I bought the limited edition signed and numbered version because I’m that big of a geek about the story.

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