Reading Challenges | 2015

I love a good reading challenge - sometimes a little too much.  I'll think to myself that challenge sounds fun, that one will be good and what about that one!  Then I stop, look AND I'm trying to attempt 17 challenges in one year.  And while that would be fantastic, I know I'm not going to finish all of them.  I'm trying to keep it fairly low key again, that seemed to work well for me in 2014.

I still have my Goodreads and Librarything challenges set at 75, I read 144 books in 2014, but I don't think I'll have as much time this year, so I'm not going to bump it up at all.  If I reach 75 books - awesome, but if not, I won't be crying into my Dickens.  I just want to read brilliant books.

So here's a round up of the challenges I'm going to be participating in this year:

Australian Women Writers Challenge - I don't read much by Australian authors, although when I do it tends to be women, so that is a bonus.  I'd like to read 12, roughly one each month.  At this stage I've got a couple picked out, but if you have any fabulous Aussie authors you can recommend - have at it!

1001 Books to read before you die - This is a challenge run on both Goodreads and Librarything.  Each month they have a book that they read and discuss.  I'd like to read 3 books from this list each month, (1 each from the group reads and an extra from my shelves), which will be a total of 36 books.

1001 Books to read before you grow up - This is a challenge on Goodreads, we usually read 2 books a month from the list, a picture book and a chapter book.  So I'm going to read 24 books in 2015.

Writers of Colour Book Club - Another one on Goodreads, there is also a page on Facebook and you can find them on YouTube as well.  This is a monthly group, so there will be 12 books read in 2015.

Reading Bingo Challenge 2015 - Presented by Random House, this year the bingo sheet is all things Canadian, which I'm going to have a go at, (there are 25 squares - I don't think I will finish all of them).  Hello Hemlock is a BookTube channel that reads Canadian authors, so I may be able to find some inspiration there!  Last year there was a more general slant to the bingo, with an Adult and a YA sheet, there were some good options that helped me read some of my Mt. TBR books, so I may print them out and see how I go again this year.

Just a lil' Book Group - This is my staff book group, we usually read 10 books throughout the year, I'd like to read all of our picks this year.  I would be very happy if I could manage that.

You may have noticed, if I manage to complete all the challenges, I'll be reading more than 75 books - no I'm not bad at Maths (ok I am), but this is my guide, I'd like to keep coming back to it throughout the year and see how I'm going with my reading, if I'm managing to read what I set out to, or if I've gone off on a tangent.  If I did finish all of the books YAY!

So what are your reading plans this year?  Do you keep a list of what you've read or do you just go with the flow and read whatever catches your eye?  Let me know.  Please let me know and don't forget to add any recommendations.

*** I just reread through this, I like how my 'low key' reading includes 6+ challenges, and it's not even the end of January.  Very low key, well done Cathy. ***

Until next time, happy reading.

C.

Christmas Book Haul 2013

I managed to make another video, this time all about my Christmas book haul...wait did the title of this post give that away??  My bad.  I digress, I managed to pick up some awesome books over Christmas, some were my finds and some were from the Santa Swaps I participated in, which let me tell you were a lot of fun!  For the ARRA one we had a group chat before Christmas and opened our presents together and talked about what we got, what we were doing for Christmas and every topic in between.  It was great fun, I don't often get to talk with my chums from ARRA so it was great to be able to do that for the evening.  The other was for Litbrarything and I was going to do a seperate vid for that, but I didn't get a chance to once I got to Adelaide, way too much other stuff on.  But here's the book haul vid, check check it out...what did you gusy get?  What are you most excited to read? And what's your plan of attack for reading in 2014?  Let me know :)



C.

Let's do the mash! The monster mash!

I've been busy busy lately, trying to finish all my categories for the 1010 and 100 in 2010 on LibraryThing, that I haven't posted any reviews. So I thought I'd have at it and whack a couple on the old blog. Here goes lovelies, gird things and whatnot it's a monster mashup!! Linkage isn't working, cause I'm lazy - also why there are no photo's of covers <--- It actually is, totally using LibraryThing from now on, I don't have to separately add links. Huzzah!

First up is:

65. Love in a Time of Zombies by Paul Gude

I got this for a couple of dollars through my kindle app. A bargain! And well worth it, it was a lot of fun.

Sex and zombies. That's all you really need to know. (That's the very helpful product description on Amazon).

I love this book, so far it's been my favourite zombie book to date. I know the above Sex and Zombies sounds kinda eww, and while there is some boomchica it's mostly between the non infected. (Y'all can rest easy now ;D).

I don't know if it was supposed to be as funny as it was. At the time I was reading this I was playing Zombie Farm on my iPhone a lot. When the zombies are running round the farm they yell out "brains? brains?" All in a tiny high pitched voice. So that's the voice that all the zombies in the book had while I was reading it - the zombies in the book all run around asking "Brains". They stop at crossings, drive cars, anwser the phone and in general - just want hugs! Not quite the usual zombie, but still just as creepy.

The story centers around Roy and Kim, exes who are trying to get outta Seattle without getting dead. They do this with lots of sarcasm, witty banter, smexy flirting, violence and some shop lifting. I think it also helps that they're both a little crazy. In fact, most of the characters that you meet along the way are a little skewed.

The whole infection part of the story is kinda hazy, it's explained a little, but not in any depth. I think this part of the story could've been expanded and the correlation between the infestation and Roy's dreams.

But overall, this was fun, perfect for some breezy holiday reading. And really - who doesn't love some crazy zombie capers.

Next it's a back to Portland...

101. The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer

I actually really enjoyed this novella, I felt that it was slightly better written and I liked the Bree character, I enjoyed her more than some of the other characters introduced in Breaking Dawn, it's a pity that she gets dead as I think she would've added a nice dynamic to the last book. And although they barely take off, I enjoyed her relationships with both male vampires that befriend her.

This is written as one long chapter, which made for easy reading and gave a nice insight into the newborns and how they were manipulated, it further touched on the dynamics of their group, that you only saw glimpses of in Eclipse. For those that liked the Riley character, it also has a tiny bit more about his relationship with Victoria, (although the character is only referred to as 'She' throught the novella). Although I felt like he was manipulated by Victoria in Eclipse, in the novella it seemed like he knew more about what was happening, so it made me like the character less.

The alternate story unfolding around the events in Eclipse flesh out the original story and compliment it well. Although there is nothing to say this couldn't be read as a stand alone if you didn't want to read the rest of the series.

Obviously, if you like the original series, you'll end up reading this, if you don't continue to feel free to hate on it. I know that this series is wildly popular in both love and hate camps. But when all's said and done, I enjoyed this just like the others, not as anything literary or spectacularly written, just as another wee slice of fun and frivolity and for a change there's no mooning, brooding, creepy stalking and sadly no smexy abs *sigh* (Okay maybe a little brooding, but it wouldn't be Twilighty goodness without it!)

And lastly, but certainly not least - Whedonverse :)

102. Spike: After the Fall by Brian Lynch; art by Franco Urru

It was great to be able to see what had happened to the rest of the gang, post apocalyptic Angel & Co. Vs Wolfram & Hart fight to the death. This takes off after the fight, LA has been transported to Hell, Wesley is dead, Spike and Fred/Illyria have teamed up and are fighting the big bad in Hell, there are cameos from Gunn and Connor/Stephen (I always wondered if the name was picked intentionally with the ‘I know my first name is Stephen’ movie in mind - sorry, tangent!). Angel doesn’t appear (he’s got his own After the Fall series). But I’m assuming that there will be crossover. I don’t love the illustrations, but it was great to see Spike back to his tally ho bad guys days and I like the Fred/Illyria characters slipping between each other. It adds a nice dynamic to the character. And what’s this – could there be romance budding between our two heroes?? Which could be kinda cool, but I don’t know 100% about that yet, cause even though he's dead I'm still a fan of the Fredly combo. I read this over the weekend and was then 'forced' to watch the last episode of Angel, the one where Fred gets infected by Illyria and the puppet episode (just for giggles). Needless I was all a bit crying at the end, remembering the good old days, both Buffy and Angel are still favourites of mine and it’s nice to visit Whedonverse every now and again. I've been constantly impressed with the Buffy/Angel comics, they don't let fans down, IMO.

Enjoy. I know I did. And HELLO! I've made it to the grand old total of 111 read so far, 3 more than last year and am partway through books, 112, 113, & 114 :) I'm so awesome, I'm kicking my own arse!

C.

And just a little something more...number four!

This was originally part of my 'I've just added LibraryThing' post, (from Tuesday, July 22, 2008), but I chopped a bit off at the start and now theres just this bit!!

Just a little side bar - I love all the great technology that has been coming out, but as you might have noticed, from my post today, I have a little trouble keeping track of all my passwords and usernames. I've tried to keep it simple, so that I can remember all of them, but it doesn't always work. Although as newly minted user, (2 weeks so far)of Firefox, I'm soooooo in love with it. It remembers all my passwords and logins, which is a distinct advantage over Internet Explorer.

I'm enjoying rediscovering different 2.0 tools, I haven't played with some of them since I did my Learning 2.0 course. So it's great to be able to brush up. I'll admit that some of the features I was introduced to were fun to play with, but were not something I would use a lot. But I guess that's what Web 2.0 and Learning 2.0 is all about - the freedom to discover the things you like and being able to customise them so that they work best for you.

Okay, this post is HUGE, so I'm sending it on it's merry way now. :)

C.