2018 Book Challenges- Week 5

Popsugar Challenge

(6/50) over 10%!

A book with song lyrics in the title- She’s Come Undone, by Wally Lamb This was the first Wally Lamb book I’ve ever read, and it was pretty good. I did enjoy it, but the relentless awfulness of Delores’s life started to get to me after awhile. Luckily, it had a happy ending there, but for awhile, I was getting ready to swear off literary novels. This book is the one that ultimately inspired my post 10 Reasons I Love Happy Endings.

While I Was Reading Challenge

(0/12) No progress

The Unread Shelf

Total: 1

5 Classic Books

(0/5) No progress

Miscellaneous Reading

Still Me, by Jojo Moyes This is the third book in the Me Before You series. I didn’t even know there would be/ should be/ could be a third book. I’m always leery of series, never sure if I should continue them or leave the world as is. I found out about it through Goodreads and lasted about 24 hours before I bought it on Kindle. I loved rejoining the adventures of Louisa. This was a perfect sequel, and hopefully the end of the series.

2018 Running Total: 11

Have you made any progress on your TBR or book challenges?

5 Bookish New Year’s Resolutions

It’s still January, so I can talk about New Year’s resolutions. New Year’s Resolutions, in general, aren’t my thing. (Except becoming more organized… I make that one every year.) But there are five bookish New Year’s Resolutions I made.

1. Read more books that I already  own. Culling my shelves for the 2018 challenge reminded me that I have tons of books I’m interested in reading. I just need to focus and not get distracted by new books. In addition to those, I pulled a bunch off my shelves that I always forget I have but know I want to read.
2. Do better about writing about books I read. I started to keep a book journal in 2017, jotting notes about every book I read, but it quickly became overwhelming. I’m so busy, and adding one more thing to the list doesn’t seem like a great idea. I read for entertainment, but I also read to broaden my mind. Taking a few minutes to reflect on what I read in my journal seems like it would help. I’m reminding myself that I’m doing this for me, and if I have no thoughts about a particular book or just forget to write about one, the book police aren’t going to come get me.
3. Start being more intentional about books I buy. I sometimes buy things at library sales or Goodwill “because it looks good,” and then often don’t get around to reading them. I end up with the situation I’m in now where I have to cull my shelves. Meanwhile, I don’t buy the books I really wanted because I’d have to get them from Amazon, instead of a chance encounter. That means that my TBR continues to grow and I never seem to get around to those books I really wanted to.
4. Borrow more ebooks. In general, I prefer paper books for a lot of reasons. But one benefit of ebooks is that I can highlight passages I like. As I’m always trying to become a better writer, it’s helpful for me to be able to look back and see what it is I liked about those passages, if it’s something I just admire or something I’d like to do more of in my own writing.
5. Be willing to part with more books. I have my list of criteria for keeping books that I try to adhere to, but I almost always struggle with getting rid of books, especially ones I like, even if I know I’ll never read them again. I’m trying to part with more things, in all areas of my life, but books may be the hardest. I just have to remember that if I ever have a burning desire to read that book again, there’s this awesome thing called the library where they have most books, and if they don’t have it, there’s this other thing called Amazon.

Most bookish New Year’s resolutions I saw included “read a certain number of books.” I’m not doing that. I’m sure I could read more books than last year, but number of books doesn’t mean anything. First off, I have many large books on my list, so if I set a number goal, I might be tempted to put off reading them. And I’ve put off Dune and The Stand long enough.

Second, I like the reading challenges because it’s like a scavenger hunt. But an arbitrary number… where’s the fun in that? At the end of the day, I read because it’s fun, not because I’m trying to impress anyone or so I can “win” anything. I just love reading.

Do you have any bookish New Year’s resolutions?

2018 Book Challenges- Week 1

Can you believe we’re a week into the year already? It’s crazy.

Here’s my progress on my various book challenges so far this year.

Popsugar Challenge

(2/50) Strong start!

1. The next book in a series you started- Voyager, by Diana Gabaldon (historical fiction and so much more!) This book is over 1000 pages, and I read it in two days. I couldn’t put it down. Every time I tried, I just wanted to know what was going on next with Claire and Jamie. I loved the first book, liked the second, but this one! This one was true love.
2. A book about feminism- Moxie, by Jennifer Mathieu (YA) I didn’t know what I was going to read for the feminism category, but I had this book because a YA book club I belong to picked it back in November. (I got a little behind in my reading.) Even though the discussion is over, I still wanted to read it because I really liked The Truth About Alice. Wow, this book was great. I think it’s a wonderful intro to feminism and non-violent protest to a problematic situation.

While I Was Reading Challenge

(0/12) No progress

Clearing Off My Shelf Reading

No progress

5 Classic Books

(0/5) No progress

Miscellaneous Reading

1. The Scar Boys, by Len Vlahos (YA) Chosen by my YA book club for January, this was an okay read. The premise is that the main character, Harry, is writing a college application that goes way over. He’s trying to tell about himself and 250 words won’t do it. As a child, he had a near miss being struck by lightning and is scarred. Then he ends up in a band. It’s a series of events with very little emotional connection between them. I think it’s supposed to be a story of friendship, but it never quite worked for me. And the whole college application premise really didn’t work for me. I would rate this as 2.5 stars, somewhere between “it was okay” and “I liked it.” It’s not a bad read, but if you have other books on your TBR, go for those first.

Have you made any progress on your TBR or book challenges?

Book Challenges 2018

I acquired a lot of books in the last year and read still more from the library. Part of the reason for this was that I did the Popsugar challenge for 2017, and probably due to poor planning on my part, I had to get a lot of the books in order to complete the challenge.

I read and planned as I went along, which is why, of the 52 books on the list, I have 6 left to read with less than a month left in 2017. (Yikes! But I’m pretty sure I can do it… wish me luck.)

I like some things about book challenges, and dislike other things. But I’m going to participate in two challenges for 2018: the Popsugar challenge and the While I Was Reading challenge.

This time around, I’m going to give myself an extra layer of challenge (that I think will actually make it easier). I’m going to plan all the books to read ahead of time, and I’m going to try to read books I already own. There are some categories for which that won’t be possible. (Nordic noir, anyone?)

Here’s my list of books and categories. If you see any blank categories, feel free to suggest books.

Wish me luck; I think it’s going to be a great way to cull my shelves. Hopefully I’ll find some books to donate and some I love and want to keep.

Are you doing any book challenges for 2018?