Month 39 / Year 3

Month 39 of 260 (15.00 percent)

Size of list: 88,552 pages (13.85 percent above start)

Pages read: 20,365 (23.0 percent)

H-list: 5,943/23,530 (25.26 percent)

N-list: 8,001/36,694 (21.80 percent)

O-list: 6,421/28,328 (22.67 percent)

Finished: The Best of H.P. Lovecraft (volume 3), Lord of Chaos
Next: Swords and Deviltry (Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser)

In terms of progress, I closed out Year 3 not as high as I'd like, but above the diagonal red line. I'd like to work more on the N list of fantasy novels, get it above the O list of other stuff, but really I feel okay about where I am.

I had expected that the volume of Lovecraft labeled The Best of H.P. Lovecraft wouldn't actually be his best work, just his last work, but no, it was truly his best. The Call of Cthulhu, The Colour Out of Space and other late stories were far better than the early stuff. It was still racist, but less overtly. It was also enjoyable to read the stories that I had played through back when I played Mythos, the Lovecraft CCG. 

Lord of Chaos, volume 6 of The Wheel of Time, was, again, a good story that was just half again as long as it should have been. Entire chapters of travel could be excised with no diminishment of the story! But then you get to the chapters where things happen, where people make things happen, and it's enjoyable -- at least, enjoyable enough. Honestly, though, I'm reading it more to accomplish reading it than because I want to, at this point.