I did it. I’m done. I completed all 30 items to the best I could (two are sort-of freebies/to-be-continued), but I’m counting them. If there was one I thought I might back out on it was getting a tattoo, but I knew three options I wanted: one was a quote, the second is what I got and the third was a back up in case they couldn’t do the one I got small enough. My sister and I are driving home for the holidays and we took a minor detour to stop over and visit my oldest friend and I decided that was when I was getting my tattoo and I did. That’s a photo of it and it’s on my chest – kind of where your fingers are when you pledge allegiance in the US.
Author: Geoff W
Reading my way through life.
30 x 30: #6 – Freebie
What I learned with this item, and really what I’ve learned in 30 years, is that not everything is perfect and sometimes you just have a bad year or a bad time. So rather than stressing over the fact that this changed three different times and I didn’t technically complete it, I’m focusing on the fact that I finished 29 items and had one freebie that just didn’t work out. I mean I know I had more than one year in the past 30 that wasn’t great so I’m just going to accept it and be happy I did everything else to the best I could.
Book 321: Twilight (Twilight Saga #1) – Stephenie Meyer
I think the text I sent to Alie when I was nearing the finish sums up my thoughts perfectly about this novel: “I hate you. The 14 year-old idiot girl in me loves this book.” Seriously, I hope you’re happy Alie!
I did enjoy the novel more than I thought I would, but there were times where I was so frustrated at Meyer’s writing and the idiocy of the characters/story that I was tempted to abandon it. I didn’t and have even downloaded the remainder of the series to finish while on vacation.
Aside from Alie’s numerous submissions on here for me to read the book the primary reason I read it is that Alie’s agreed to be Episode 4 of my podcast Come Read With Me if it was this book. So get ready for that release in early 2015.
30 x 30: #15 Finish reading Harry Potter y la Piedra Filosofal
I did it! And now there are only two items left on my list, both of which will end/happen on my birthday! I bought this book when I was still taking Spanish classes regularly and was like oh what a great way to test myself. (I think I have a copy of Roald Dahl’s Matilda floating around in Spanish too somewhere.) And I’ve finally read it.
I’ve tried multiple times in the past to read it and gave up within the first few chapters and I almost did this time too. I started it back in August read two chapters and promptly stopped again. I was trying to look up every single word I didn’t know or recognize and took me a couple of hours for the first chapter (less than 15 pages) and I got super discouraged. So I let the book sit on my bedside table for almost four months and when I got to the final five items on my list I knew I needed to seriously get to it, especially as I’d completed my re-read of the Lord of the Rings.
Book 320: Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal – J.K. Rowling
[Check out my more recent re-read of the first Harry Potter book from July 2018.]
I’ve had a copy of this book on my bookshelf since undergrad. I bought it when I was still taking Spanish classes and could probably have read it a hell-of-a-lot easier back then that now, but I never made it past the first few chapters no matter how many times I tried. This time, with my 30th birthday looming and it being one of the final three items on my 30×30 list I pushed through and finished it!
I’ll talk more about reading it in Spanish in my 30×30 item post, this is just a recap of the story. This is the second time I’ve read the first Harry Potter book while blogging, the first was back in July 2012. And as with every time I re-read the first novel in the series I’m amazed at how much world-building (adapting) Rowling does in such a short novel. Sure she spreads it out over the first few, but introducing so may ideas and people within such a short span AND telling a story wow.