Off The TBR’s Best Reads of 2018

Well it’s time for another best of list. You didn’t think the year would end before having to read mine did you? You could skip it I guess…but that would make you a sucky person and you’re not a sucky person right? I mean if you’re really tired of these then go ahead and skip it, but I’m taking the time to compile it so yeah I’d love for you to at least skim for the results and pics.

This was another great year for speculative fiction. Unfortunately for me I didn’t get to read as many as I would have liked and I reviewed even less. You’ve read all my rants and moans about my schedule this year so I won’t rehash it, but I’m disappointed I didn’t get more reviews posted. That being said here’s my “Best Of” list for 2018. This isn’t strictly a best of books published in 2018, but rather the my best reads for the year regardless of publication date.

If I’ve kept an accurate count I read 40+ books so far this year. One was a Beta read that I can’t talk about yet. The first five books in this list are my five star reviews that I actually wrote up. The last six are books that either were a 4.5 – 5.0 most of which were read during a time I didn’t have the bandwidth to post a review. Finally I have a couple of short-stories I fell in love with that I have no choice but to add to my best of list.

And as you scroll down notice how many self-pub/indie books made the list. Yep…I’ve become a fan.

Waiting On Self-Pub Fantasy Month: A Look At Some Ratings…

In my post Announcing Self-Published Fantasy Month I mentioned that I’d come to realize there’s some really great self-published fantasy out there. This after always believing  (and being told) that if a book was any good it would be picked up by a publishing house. My realization over the course of this year that I was so very wrong about self-published fantasy inspired me to celebrate it by devoting a whole upcoming month to it on the blog.

Well, I was reviewing some things on the blog last weekend and something made me take a closer look at the books I’ve reviewed this year and their scores. I was a little surprised and delighted by what I found because it fits perfectly with what I’ve been saying lately. Here’s what I discovered…

Month In Review: July 2018

Well another month has come and gone!

Things are looking up here at Off The TBR. The really crazy hectic period at work came and went, and we hired another person in our department to help pick up some of the load which means I should be working less on the weekends which means MORE TIME FOR BLOGGING! This has already played out this month just in terms of reviews. I went from no reviews at all in June to posting two in July, and if it weren’t for a weekend long power outage across practically the whole city I might have posted a third.

So here’s what happened this month…

Month In Review: June 2018

Wow is it already July? Half the year has already gone by. That just feels crazy. Well, it’s time for another Month In Review And A Look Ahead, and this one is pretty interesting. To me at least.

June was a pretty spectacular month at Off The TBR and at the same time not much happened. I didn’t post a single book review and I had the best month ever in terms of traffic on the blog along with the single most viewed post I’ve ever had. Now, that isn’t saying much since this little ole blog has only been around since November 2017, but I’m kinda excited about it. Ok…here’s what happened…

January 2018 Update

I wanted to give everyone a quick update on what’s going on, and what to look forward to at least in the short-term.

Right now it’s Vintage Science Fiction Month! If you’d like to participate choose some vintage science fiction and read along. Blog about it if you blog, tweet about it if you tweet, facebook about it if you facebook, insta if you insta, whatever. There are no hard and fast rules about what qualifies for “vintage” science fiction but I (and others) are using our birth year…if it’s older than you it’s vintage.

If you’d like some more details about Vintage Science Fiction Month check out this post from Andrea at the Little Red Reviewer for background and on Twitter @VintageSciFi_ (with the underscore at the end).

A bunch of us have joined together for a Dune read along on twitter. Each week we read a portion of the text then participate in a group chat. At the end of the month we’re talking about watching the 80’s Dune movie and doing a live chat. Look for #ReadDune on Twitter.

So far I’m really enjoying my second reading of this SF classic. There’s soooooo much I glossed over in my first reading 15 or more years ago. That and age has given me a wider context for things unfortunately.

I’ll probably do some sort of review at the end of the month.