December 28, 2014

New Challenge Addition!

As I threatened, I've decided to turn my 2015 Reading Challenge into a composite one. The new addition: read one book the month it was published every month. Honestly, the hardest thing about this challenge will be finding it at my library. (I may have to get the nerve up to actually ask them to order it. Verbal face-to-face communication - fun.)

The rules are simple:

  • It can be from authors I've read before.
  • Sequels are acceptable but not preferable.
And that's it. Check my PRL for the new additions - hopefully I get them up tonight!

Joyous Reading and Happy New Year!

December 21, 2014

Projected Reading List

The PRL is complete! Yay! Well, almost. It's not technically complete in that all of the spaces are filled in with specific books. I'm leaving some of them as "to be decided."
  • A Book By a Female Author. Besides being a bit sexist, this one is wildly easy. I can fulfill it by grabbing almost any given novel off of my library stack. No need to fence myself in.
  • A Mystery or Thriller. Again, there are a lot of mysteries and a lot of thrillers. 
  • A Nonfiction Book. There are a lot of nonfics, too. Who knows what I'll be in the mood to learn when the time comes to fulfill this item?
  • A Book At The Bottom Of Your To-Read List. I have no idea what my to-read list will look like when I get to this one. It's a mystery.
  • A Book Your Mom Loves. I have yet to ask my mom. Oops. 
  • A Book That Scares You. No book has ever really scared me so I have to play this one by ear.
  • A Book Based Entirely On Its Cover. I do sort of need to see the cover for this one. It's more of a "decide at the library" kind of thing.
  • A Book You Were Supposed To Read In School But Didn't. I'm really not sure if I ever skipped a book I was supposed to read in school. Like I said at the bottom of my PRL page, if I can't find one, I'm rereading Cyrano de Bergerac.
  • A Book I Can Finish In A Day. I'll have to snoop around in the kids' room of the library when I find my "judge a book by its cover" book.
  • A Book With Antonyms In The Title. I'm hoping I get lucky at the library for this one, too.
  • A Book With A Color In The Title. Ditto. There are actually Listopia entries for this one, unlike the antonym one, but this is more of a "leave it to fate" kind of entry.
  • A Graphic Novel. "Leave it to fate," definitely. You have to get a feel for graphic novels in person.
  • A Book By An Author I've Never Read Before. Same thing.
  • A Book I Own But Have Never Read. *looks at stack of 30+ owned-but-unread books on desk* It'll probably be a random choice.
  • A Book Written By An Author With My Initials. I've already decided which author to read - Clark Ashton Smith, apparently a contemporary of Lovecraft - but having never heard of him before, I'm just going to grab the most interesting book off the shelf.
Everything else is on the PRL, but it's also all subject to change. The whims of fate are precocious and everchanging. And my skills at using Listopia continue to improve.

Joyous Reading!

December 20, 2014

2014 - December 20

It's twelve days until 2015 begins. Might as well kick this off a little bit early, in order to lay some groundwork.

This coming year will be my third calendar year of college, starting off with my second semester of the Sophomore Slump. Since I started college - and even before then - my reading has drastically suffered. Over 200 books read a year, easy, has turned into a tooth-and-nail struggle to see if I can hit 150. (Hint: I'm not sure I can. I'm at 143 today.)

What's the obvious solution? A reading challenge!

I found this nifty little thing on Tumblr back when I was indulging in that musty blue hellhole:




It's fifty items, and fifty-two books when you take the "trilogy" item into account. Which works out pretty nicely as a book a week. Obviously I want to read more than 52 books in 2015 - 2015 is going to be a good year like 2014 was supposed to be and wasn't! - but I think this little reading challenge will keep me on track.

Not to mention it's fun! Who doesn't like checking off boxes and feeling that sense of satisfaction that you've achieved a set goal, no matter how insignificant?

I'm going to try to give a quick review of each book, as well. And who knows - maybe since it's a pretty easy challenge to beat, especially when I get to summer break, I'll find another challenge to incorporate!

Let me lay some ground rules:
  1. No multitasking. That is, I can't use Les Mis for both "a book over 500 pages" and "a book over 100 years old." I have to read 52 books to win the challenge.
  2. Where possible, I'm going to be reading new books, not rereading old ones. Some of them require rereading ("a book from your childhood," "a book that made you cry") but this is a challenge! It's for breaking into new territory!
  3. Going in the order shown on the list is not mandatory.
  4. Have fun! If I beat the challenge at the end of the year, I will eat an entire carton of Cool Whip and I will not feel guilty about it.
It's a reading challenge, not an Olympic event. Who needs rules, anyway?

Over the next week or so (and probably throughout January), I will be assembling my list of projected books to read. You can check them out at the handy-dandy little page to the right of this post. -----> 

And that's about it for groundwork. If you want to do the challenge, too, comment and tell me! Better yet, start your own blog. It'll be fun! 

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Joyous Reading!