In which Keith tracks KITs, CATs, and a DOG (2024 edition)

Hello! This will be my second full year at LT, and I'm going to dive heavily into the KITs and CATs. And I do mean heavily; I'm attempting to complete two CATs, three KITS, and the BingoDog. That's a total of 99 specific challenges to complete, and I expect my total books read for this year to be somewhere between 50 and 60. So if I'm going to pull this off, nearly every book will have to do double duty, or even more. (I've found one book that will be doing quintuple duty!) I've been having great fun the last couple of weeks wading through my various TBR lists: "Let's see, I need a book about a historical disaster, with either a D-word or a T-word in the title..."

It remains to be seen whether I'll find this an entertaining way to structure my reading, or whether I'll be frustrated by May over all of the other books I'd like to read and haven't gotten to because they don't fit any category. But it will be an interesting experiment.

I expect to keep my primary topic and full reviews over in Club Read, since that's where I'm used to "living," but I'll use this topic to keep track of my progress on the various Category Challenges, as well as one ongoing project of my own.

HistoryCat topics/hosts:

JAN: North & South American wars & conflicts; SillverWolf28 -- The Civil War of Amos Abernathy, Michael Leali
FEB: Georgian/Regency Britain; pamelad -- Mrs. Jeffries and the Midwinter Murders, Emily Brightwell
MAR: science & medicine; librarycin -- Ice, Amy Brady

(abandoned in April)

CalendarCat hosts:

JAN: majkia -- How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, Charles Yu (author born in Jan)
FEB: Tess_W -- Tinseltown, William J. Mann (about an unsolved murder that took place in Feb)
MAR: pamelad -- Win Some, Lose Some, Mike Resnick (author born in Mar)

(abandoned in April)

SFFKit topics/hosts:

JAN: swords & sorcery/epic fantasy; christina_reads -- The Incomplete Enchanter, L. Sprague de Camp & Fletcher Pratt
FEB: critters/creatures; JayneCM -- Shambling Towards Hiroshima, James Morrow
MAR: space opera; DeltaQueen50 -- A Memory Called Empire, Arkady Martine
APR: time travel; KeithChaffee -- The Mammoth Book of Time Travel SF, edited by Mike Ashley
MAY: archaeology; majkia -- The Engines of God, Jack McDevitt
JUN: monsters; whitewavedarling
JUL: first contact; h-mb
AUG: paranormal/space detectives; amberwitch
SEP: gods/mythology; antqueen
OCT: women authors; susanna.fraser
NOV: recommended by a friend/acquaintance; fuzzi
DEC: bookish fantasy; MissBrangwen

MysteryKit topics/hosts:

JAN: short stories; Tess_W -- Guilty Creatures, edited by Martin Edwards
FEB: true unsolved mysteries; mstrust -- Tinseltown, William J. Mann
MAR: historical; Robertgreaves -- The Midnight Hour, Elly Griffiths
APR: series; DeltaQueen50 -- A Man Lay Dead, Ngaio Marsh
MAY: golden age; JayneCM -- Death from a Top Hat, Clayton Rawson
JUN: authors new to you; NinieB
JUL: cross genre mysteries; antqueen
AUG: amateurs; Christina_reads
SEP: upstairs/downstairs; MissBrangwen
OCT: not too scary mysteries; LadyoftheLodge
NOV: noir; Ish63
DEC: culinary mysteries; KeithChaffee

AlphaKit letters:

JAN: A -- The Civil War of Amos Abernathy, Michael Leali; Y -- How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, Charles Yu
FEB: F and E -- Hid from Our Eyes, Julia Spencer-Fleming
MAR: H -- The Midnight Hour, Elly Griffiths; R -- Win Some, Lose Some, Mike Resnick
APR: U and O -- The Regional Office Is Under Attack!, Manuel Gonzales
MAY: N and P -- Burn, Patrick Ness
JUN: J B
JUL: I S
AUG: M G
SEP: V C
OCT: D T
NOV: L W
DEC: K Q
Yearlong: X Z

BingoDog:



3: warriors or mercenares: The Regional Office Is Under Attack!, Manuel Gonzales
4: re-read a favorite book: How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, Charles Yu
5: fewer than 100 copies on LT: Guilty Creatures, edited by Martin Edwards (currently at 38 copies)
6: short story collection: Win Some, Lose Some, Mike Resnick
8: three-word title: Shambling Towards Hiroshima, James Morrow
9: area of specific knowledge: Crochet Stitch Dictionary, Sarah Hazell
10: set in a city: Sleep With Slander, Dolores Hitchens (set in Los Angeles)
11: only author/title on cover: Hollywood and the Movies of the Fifties, Foster Hirsch
12: author is 65+: Mrs. Jeffries and the Midwinter Murders, Emily Brightwell
13: read a CAT: Tinseltown, William J. Mann (Feb HistoryCAT)
14: person's name in title: Cocktails with George and Martha, Philip Gefter
15: epistolary or diary: The Civil War of Amos Abernathy, Michael Leali
16: features water: Ice, Amy Brady
17: ugly cover: The Incomplete Enchant, L. Sprague de Camp & Fletcher Pratt
21: book from similar LT library: The Past Through Tomorrow, Robert A. Heinlein (shared w/parasolofdoom)
23: POC author: The Vanished Birds, Simon Jimenez
24: publication date ends in 24: Mislaid in Parts Half-Known, Seanan McGuire

And my own personal category: I have been making my way through the history of award-nominated short science fiction (short stories, novellas, novelettes -- anything shorter than novel length). So far, I've been working mostly from old to new, and I still plan to progress through the "year's best" volumes during the year. But I'm also going to start hopping around in time more, picking up various anthologies and authors' "best of" retrospectives in a more chronologically random way. A lot of those will be chosen becase they either fit that month's AlphaKit or CalendarCat (author's birthdates).

I'm setting a (probably too) ambitious goal of 40 stories from this category this year. That's a mere drop in the ocean -- my spreadsheet of unread stories has more than 3000 titles -- but I've always known that this was an absurdly large project which I would never actually finish.

Stories read:

JANUARY
1. "The Roaring Trumpet," L. Sprague de Camp & Fletcher Pratt -- 1941 Retro Hugo novella nominee
2. "The Mathematics of Magic," L. Sprague de Camp & Fletcher Pratt -- 1941 Retro Hugo novella nominee
3. "The Roads Must Roll," Robert A. Heinlein -- 1941 Retro Hugo novelette winner
4. "Blowups Happen," Robert A. Heinlein -- 1941 Retro Hugo novelette nominee
5. "The Man Who Sold the Moon," Robert A. Heinlein -- 1951 Retro Hugo novella winner
6. "Requiem," Robert A. Heinlein -- 1941 Retro Hugo short story nominee
7. "If This Goes On--," Robert A. Heinlein -- 1941 Retro Hugo novella winner
8. "Coventry," Robert A. Heinlein -- 1941 Retro Hugo novella nominee
FEBRUARY
9. Shambling Towards Hiroshima, James Morrow -- 2010 Hugo/Nebula/Locus novella nominee; Sturgeon winner
10. "Mom and Dad at the Home Front," Sherwood Smith -- 2002 Nebula short story nominee
11. "Five British Dinosaurs," Michael Swanwick -- 2003 BSFA short fiction nominee
12. "The Best Christmas Ever," James Patrick Kelly -- 2005 Hugo short story nominee
13. "The Voluntary State," Christopher Rowe -- 2005 Hugo/Nebula novelette nominee; Sturgeon nominee
14. "The Lost Pilgrim," Gene Wolfe -- 2005 Sturgeon nominee
MARCH
15. "Kirinyaga," Mike Resnick -- 1989 Hugo short story winner/Nebula novelette nominee
16. "For I Have Touched the Sky," Mike Resnick -- 1990 Hugo/Nebula novelette nominee
17. "Bully!," Mike Resnick -- 1991 Hugo novella nominee; 1992 Nebula novella nominee
18. "The Manamouki," Mike Resnick -- 1991 Hugo novelette winner/Nebula novelette nominee
19. "One Perfect Morning, with Jackals," -- Mike Resnick -- 1992 Hugo short story nominee
20. "Winter Solstice," Mike Resnick -- 1992 Hugo short story nominee
21. "The Lotus and the Spear," Mike Resnick -- 1993 Hugo short story nominee
22. "Mwalimu in the Squared Circle," Mike Resnick -- 1994 Hugo short story nominee
23. "Barnaby in Exile," Mike Resnick -- 1995 Hugo short story nominee
24. "A Little Knowledge," Mike Resnick -- 1995 Hugo novelette nominee
25. "Seven Views of Olduvai Gorge," Mike Resnick -- 1995 Hugo/Nebula novella winner; Sturgeon nominee
26. "When the Old Gods Die," Mike Resnick -- 1996 Hugo/Nebula novelette nominee
27. "Bibi," Mike Resnick & Susan Shwartz --1996 Hugo/Nebula novella nominee
28. "The Land of Nod," Mike Resnick -- 1997 Hugo novelette nominee
29. "The 43 Antarean Dynasties," Mike Resnick -- 1998 Hugo short story winner; Sturgeon nominee
30. "Hothouse Flowers," Mike Resnick -- 2000 Hugo short story nominee
31. "Hunting the Snark," Mike Resnick -- 2000 Hugo novella nominee; 2001 Nebula novella nominee
32. "The Elephants on Neptune," Mike Resnick -- 2001 Hugo short story nominee; 2002 Nebula short story nominee
33. "Redchapel," Mike Resnick -- 2001 Hugo novelette nominee
34. "Old MacDonald Had a Farm," Mike Resnick -- 2002 Hugo short story nominee
35. "Robots Don't Cry," Mike Resnick -- 2004 Hugo short story nominee
36. "A Princess of Earth," Mike Resnick -- 2005 Hugo short story nominee
37. "Travels with My Cats," Mike Resnick -- 2005 Hugo short story winner, Nebula short story nominee
38. "Down Memory Lane," Mike Resnick -- 2006 Hugo short story nominee
39. "All the Things You Are," Mike Resnick -- 2007 Hugo novelette nominee
40. "Distant Replay," Mike Resnick -- 2008 Hugo short story nominee
41. "Article of Faith," Mike Resnick -- 2009 Hugo short story nominee
42. "Alastair Baffle's Emporium of Wonders," Mike Resnick -- 2009 Hugo novelette nominee
43. "The Bride of Frankenstein," Mike Resnick -- 2010 Hugo short story nominee
44. "The Homecoming," Mike Resnick -- 2012 Hugo short story nominee
45. River of Teeth, Sarah Gailey -- 2018 Hugo/Nebula novella nominee
46. "The Unholy Grail," Fritz Leiber -- 1963 Hugo short story nominee
47. "Ill Met in Lankhmar," Fritz Leiber -- 1971 Hugo/Nebula novella winner
48. "Red as Blood," Tanith Lee -- 1980 Nebula short story nominee
49. "Slow Communication," Dominique Dickey -- 2023 Sturgeon nominee
APRIL
50. "The Piper's Son," Lewis Padgett -- 1946 Hugo novelette nominee
51. "Goldfish Bowl," Anson MacDonald (pseudonym of Robert A. Heinlein) -- 1943 Hugo novelette nominee
52. "First Contact," Murray Leinster -- 1946 Hugo novelette winner
53. "Killdozer!," Theodore Sturgeon -- 1945 Hugo novella winner
54. "Walk to the Full Moon," Sean McMullen -- 2002 Aurealis winner
55. "The Truth About Weena," David J. Lake -- 1998 Aurealis winner
56. "Time Gypsy," Ellen Klages -- 1999 Hugo/Nebula novelette nominee
57. "The Chronology Protection Case," Paul Levinson -- 1997 Nebula novelette nominee; 1996 Sturgeon nominee
58. "The Very Slow Time Machine," Ian Watson -- 1979 Hugo short story nominee
59. "Legions in Time," Michael Swanwick -- 2004 Hugo novelette winner
60. "The Pusher," John Varley -- 1982 Hugo short story winner; Nebula short story nominee
61. "After-Images," Malcolm Edwards -- 1984 BSFA winner
62. "Palely Loitering," Christopher Priest -- 1980 Hugo novelette nominee; 1979 BSFA winner
MAY
63. "Terminal," Chaz Brenchley -- 2008 BSFA nominee

Welcome to LT and the category challenges. Good luck with your reading in 2024.

I'll be dodging BBs on that sci fi awards list I expect! And probably others. sigh... Good luck and happy reading.

Good luck to you! It sounds like it might be tricky for you, so I do wish you luck!

Welcome to the Category Challenge, Keith. You are really jumping in full throttle and I wish you luck - but, remember, it's perfectly acceptable to decide to change your categories around at any time! :)

That's quite an ambitious set up, and I'll be curious to see a book that does quintuple duty! Good luck with it and happy reading.

Hi Keith, good luck and lots of fun with your challenges!

Good luck for 2024!
I love going through lists and finding books to fit challenges. Sometimes I think I spend more time on the planning than the reading!
Looking forward to following along.

Welcome aboard! To piggyback on >15 JayneCM:, I have decided that planning my reading and actually reading are two separate hobbies (and buying books is a third, entirely different hobby), so have fun with both your planning and your reading.

Happy reading in 2024! I'm looking forward to MysteryKit this year.

So ambitious! I’ll be interested to see the books that do triple, quadruple, and especially quintuple duty. And also to hear about your SF reads, because that’s one of my favorite genres, but I don’t read a lot of short SF (other than MurderBot novellas).

>18 Charon07: Sadly, the quintuple book isn't going to happen; I decided that it didn't quite count as historical fiction, and replaced it on my tentative reading calendar with other things. I do still have a quadruple on my list, though.

My, my, aren't you organized!

Love it, have starred this thread.

I hadn't planned to complete the RandomKit this year, but if a book pops up that happens to fit, I'll make note of it. So for this month's "Early Birds" RandomKit, I read The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez.

>21 KeithChaffee: Someone whose opinion I trust told me to definitely read this one and The Spear Cuts Through Water by the same author. What did you think of The Vanished Birds?

>22 JayneCM: Mildly disappointed. Longer thoughts here:

https://www.librarything.com/topic/356188#8371114

I have also heard good things about The Spear Cuts Through Water, and it's still on my (ridiculously large) "I'll read that someday" list, but that "someday" doesn't feel as urgent as it did before I read The Vanished Birds.

My Club Read thread is where I post full reviews of what I read. I know some LT folks cross-post their reviews and comments in multiple threads, and that's cool if that's what works for you, but I've never been a cross-poster. I'm chronically insecure and introverted, so posting my opinions even once is already something that can set off "stop talking no one cares" alarm bells in the back of my brain; the thought that people might have to come across my ramblings twice horrifies me.😊 (Especially since I can go on at some length.)

I use this thread as a one-stop place to keep track of my progress on the various KITs and CATs. It had occured to me that because that means mostly editing and updating earlier posts, this thread won't pop up in people's lists if they did want to follow what I'm reading and don't venture much into other groups. I think I'll probably post a "what I read this month" summary post each month, just so this will pop up occasionally for the Category Challenge folks who are interested.

>23 KeithChaffee: Yes, definitely post occasional updates! I keep up with new posts on people's threads, but I don't usually scroll up to see if earlier posts have been updated, so I have been missing out!

>23 KeithChaffee: I have more than one thread, so I can post reviews for the challenges I join. People can comment, or not.

But, like you, I have a main thread I use as a place to track all my reads, editing the posts for each month. Adding an occasional post about what I'm doing or what I've read helps those who do like to stop by know when I've updated.

Now I'll hush... 😁

>23 KeithChaffee: I think your criticism of The Vanished Birds is spot on, but I loved this book anyway, so much that it was my favorite book in the year I read it. Or technically, listened to the audiobook. I think a book’s narrator definitely colors one’s impression of a book, and it may have helped that I listened to it in fits and starts while driving, which certainly alters my perception of pacing.

>26 Charon07: - I too mostly listen to audio books in the car and frequently back up a little every time I start to listen. I do agree that the narrator can make a big difference in one's appreciation of a book. I'm currently listening to Their Eyes Were Watching God which is narrated by Ruby Dee, and I would have had a difficult time with the dialect if I were reading it in print.

I didn't get the audiobook gene, it seems. Even as a little kid, once I could read on my own, I didn't like being read to. It's not that I object to getting info in audio form; I listen to a lot of podcasts. But almost all of them are conversations -- either panel shows or host/guest interviews -- as opposed to solo narrator shows.

A good enough solo narrator can get past my aversion if they can make me feel that I'm being casually talked to, that they're just telling me a story, rather than being read to.

But there aren't many of those narrators (Roman Mars and Nate DiMeo come to mind), and there are podcasts that I ought to love based on their subject matter -- You Must Remember This, about classic Hollywood history, Cocaine and Rhinestones, on the history of country music -- that I just can't listen to because I can hear the scriptedness of it. The hosts haven't mastered the art of making reading sound like conversation.

I suppose it's possible -- probable, even -- that good audiobook narrators have mastered that art, and that I would be able to get wrapped up in their storytelling. But the amount of listening time I have in the day is barely enough to keep up with the podcasts I enjoy; I can read a book faster than I can listen to one; and I enjoy the physical act of reading enough that I don't feel motivated to experiment with audiobooks.

I'm glad they exist, though, for all of the people who enjoy them, and especially for the people who need them because reading print is difficult or impossible.

>28 KeithChaffee: - I've only gotten into audio books a couple of years ago, mostly to keep my mind occupied as I was driving. (I also listen while I'm walking.) Before that I had only tried one once and the narrator was so bad, that I didn't think it was worth bothering with. I much prefer physically reading a book.

As discussed upthread, I'll be posting a monthly summary of each month's reading, if only to pop this topic onto the list of updated topics, which editing the older posts doesn't do. My thoughts on the books can be found in my Club Read topic.

January's reading:
1. How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, Charles Yu (BingoDog: re-read a favorite; AlphaKit: Y; CalendarCat: Yu was born in January)
2: The Civil War of Amos Abernathy, Michael Leali (BingoDog: epistolary; AlphaKit: A; HistoryCat: American wars and conflicts)
3: Guilty Creatures, edited by Martin Edwards (BingoDog: fewer than 100 copies in LT libraries; MysteryKit: short stories)
4: The Incomplete Enchanter, L. Sprague de Camp & Fletcher Pratt (BingoDog: book with an ugly cover; SFFKit: epic fantasy)
5: The Vanished Birds, Simon Jimenez (BingoDog: POC author; RandomKit: early birds)
6: Mislaid in Parts Half-Known, Seanan McGuire (BingoDog: published in year ending in 24)
7: The Past Through Tomorrow, Robert A. Heinlein (BingoDog: book from a similar LT library)
8: They Died in Vain, edited by Jim Huang

Total pages: 2,733. Unusually high for me.

Cats, Kits, and Dogs completed: CalendarCat (1/12); HistoryCat (1/12); AlphaKit (2/26); MysteryKit (1/12); RandomKit (1/12); SFFKit (1/12); BingoDog (7/25)

Award-winning short SF progress: 8 stories read, by de Camp/Pratt and Heinlein. Looking at my planned reading calendar for the year, that goal of 40 stories for the year is starting to look low; I will probably come close to doubling that.

>30 KeithChaffee: I've read some of the stories in that Heinlein collection. How did you like it?

I enjoyed it. Holds up very well compared to most 1940s SF, and it's early enough Heinlein that his weird sexual/gender stuff isn't yet getting in the way. Longer thoughts at:

https://www.librarything.com/topic/356188#8386124

>32 KeithChaffee: I responded on your thread.

For the February RandomKit, rescue or escape: Sleep With Slander, Dolores Hitchens.

February reading update:

9: Tinseltown, William J. Mann (MysteryCat: true unsolved mysteries; CalendarCat: the book's murder happened in February; BingoDog: read a CAT)
10. Mystery Muses, edited by Jim Huang and Austin Lugar
11. Shambling Towards Hiroshima, James Morrow (SFFKit: critters and creatures; BingoDog: three-word title: SF awards: 2010 Hugo/Nebula/Locus novella nominee, Sturgeon winner)
12. Mrs. Jeffries and the Midwinter Murders, Emily Brightwell (HistoryKit: Georgian/Regency/Victorian Britain; BingoDog: author is 65+; Brightwell was 73 when the book was published)
13. Hid From Our Eyes, Julia Spencer-Fleming (AlphaKit: E and F)
14. Sleep With Slander, Dolores Hitchens (RandomKit: rescue/escape; BingoDog: set in a city)
15. You Only Call When You're in Trouble, Stephen McCauley
16. Cocktails With George and Martha, Philip Gefter (BingoDog: person's name in title)

Pages read: 2,561; YTD: 5,294.

Cats, Kits, and Dogs completed: CalendarCat (2/12); HistoryCat (2/12); AlphaKit (4/26); MysteryKit (2/12); RandomKit (2/12); SFFKit (2/12); BingoDog (12/25)

Award-winning short SF: 6 more stories, for a total of 14. That will leap a lot next month, since I'm planning to read Mike Resnick's collection of his 30(!) Hugo-nominated stories.

My reviews can be found in my Club Read topic.

March RandomKit (World Wildlife Day): American Hippo, Sarah Gailey.

March reading update:

17. Ice, Amy Brady (BingoDog: features water; HistoryCat: science and medicine)
18. A Memory Called Empire, Arkady Martine (SFFKit: space opera)
19. The Midnight Hour, Elly Griffiths (AlphaDog: H; MysteryKit: historical mystery)
20. Win Some, Lose Some, Mike Resnick (AlphaKit: R; CalendarCat: Resnick's birthday; BingoDog; short stories; SF awards: 30 nominated stories)
21. American Hippo, Sarah Gailey (RandomKit: World Wildlife Day; SF awards: 1 nominated story)
22. Swords and Deviltry, Fritz Leiber (SF awards: 2 nominated stories)

Pages read: 2,312; YTD: 7,606.

Cats, Kits, and Dogs completed: CalendarCat (3/12); HistoryCat (3/12); AlphaKit (6/26); MysteryKit (3/12); RandomKit (3/12); SFFKit (3/12); BingoDog (14/25)

Award-winning short SF: 35 stories, for a total of 49.

My reviews can be found in my Club Read topic.

Looking good!

Way back in >1 KeithChaffee:, I said this:

It remains to be seen whether I'll find this an entertaining way to structure my reading, or whether I'll be frustrated by May over all of the other books I'd like to read and haven't gotten to because they don't fit any category. But it will be an interesting experiment.

And it turns out it only took until April for the frustration to kick in.

So, I'm backing off a bit from the mega-dive into the Cats and Kits. I'm leaving CalendarCat, HistoryCat, and RandomKit behind; I will continue to work on AlphaKit, MysteryKit, SFFKit, and BingoDog.

The mega-dive meant that more than half of my monthly reading was stuff that I was reading to fill a challenge slot, and some of that was being read ONLY to fill a challenge, not because I was terribly interested in it. Cutting back means that even the challenge books will be books that I want to read, and I'll have time each month to read two or three books that don't fit any challenge at all.

I'm on the calendar to host a month in both CalendarCat and HistoryCat, and of course, I plan to keep to those commitments. But I have found that I need a little bit more room for spontaneity and random pleasure in my reading.

It was, indeed, an interesting experiment, and I've learned something about myself in the process. And who could want more from any experiment than that?

>39 KeithChaffee: I hear you on the CAT/KIT/Bingo challenges -- they're fun but can be overwhelming! I hope you have lots of fun, guilt-free reading under your new plan!

April reading update:

23. The Regional Office Is Under Attack!, Manual Gonzales (AlphaKit: O/U; BingoDog: warriors or mercenaries)
24. Hollywood and the Movies of the Fifties, Foster Hirsch (BingoDog: only the title and author's name on cover)
25. A Man Lay Dead, Ngaio Marsh (MysteryKit: series)
26. The Mammoth Book of Time Travel SF, edited by Mike Ashley (SFFKit: time travel)

Pages read: 1,899; YTD: 9,505.

Cats, Kits, and Dogs completed: AlphaKit (8/26); MysteryKit (4/12); SFFKit (4/12); BingoDog (16/25). This month, I officially cut back on my Cat/Kit goals, abandoning CalendarCat, HistoryCat, and RandomKit.

Award-winning short SF: 13 stories, for a total of 62. That "well, maybe I'll get to 40" looks a little silly now. At this rate, 150 is well within reach.

My reviews can be found in my Club Read topic.

Tentatively planned for May:
The Engines of God, Jack McDevitt (SFFKit: archaeology)
Burn, Patrick Ness (AlphaKit: N/P)
Death from a Top Hat, Clayton Rawson (MysteryKit: Golden Age)