Category: Personal Project

30x30, Books

Book 320: Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal – J.K. Rowling

Geoff W

[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.

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30x30, Personal Project

30 x 30: #17 – Finish Pride and Prejudice fan-fiction novel

Geoff W

2014 12-10 Darcy's Dream PreviewSo the beauty about this being my 30×30 list is that I get to determine when an item is done. As I said at the beginning of the month, when I posted about NaNoWriMo I planned on calling this one complete even if I didn’t finish it completely. And I am going to call Finish my Pride and Prejudice fan-fiction novel my 28th completed list item leaving my tattoo and finishing Harry Potter y la piedra filosofal as my final two items!

The novel originally started out as a joint project between my friend Caroline and I, but due to creative differences, AKA she wanted to write an erotica novel and I wanted to write a romance novel, it became my project. The book is tentatively titled Darcy’s Dream and I’ve reached my unofficial goal of 25,000 words. I originally thought it would be enough for the story, a novella if you will, but I’m a little over what I think is halfway through the story I want to tell. If you zoom in on the picture you can get a brief preview of it but keep in mind it hasn’t been edited and only two people have read it since I wrote that portion a few months ago! (I haven’t even gone back to read it yet.)

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30x30, Personal Project

30 x 30: #13 – Re-read The Lord of the Rings

Geoff W

2014 12-09 LotR Cover ShootIt took me a lot longer to write this recap than any of the others because I’ve been so busy living life. One of the things I really wanted my 30×30 list to do was to restart my excitement for life and the little things and it’s done exactly that! At the same time I’m also glad I waited as I got to add the cool picture below to this post!

I added this to my list because let’s face it I needed to re-read it. The last time I read it was in high school just before Peter Jackson’s trilogy was released. I read them quickly and didn’t really take them in (I was still in my “I only read Star Wars novels.” phase. I remember the second book being such a struggle because it felt like it took SO long to read. It did take me a month to read, but looking back there’s no telling what that reason was. This time, however, I flew through all four of them in less than a month and I read books between the them! You can read my reviews of the books:
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30x30, Books, Quotes

Book 319: The Return of the King (LOTR #3) – J.R.R. Tolkien

Geoff W

With this book, and my previous reading of The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers, I’m one step closer to finishing my 30×30 list. What better way to start off my response than with Treebeard/Fangorn’s words to Galadriel: “It is sad that we should meet only thus at the ending. For the world is changing: i feel it in the water, I feel it in the earth, and I smell it in the air. I do not think we shall meet again.” (290)

It’s so true though! What a sad, beautiful and perfect ending to this epic novel (apparently it’s counted as one in a lot of lists). I mean I knew it was great and I remembered a lot of it, but nowhere near as much as was included in the book. I even read Appendix A which gave the brief history of the race of men and Gimli’s heritage which was excellent to learn more about them. I didn’t go into the other appendices as they were a bit too technical for my liking, but I did seriously consider buying a few more Tolkien Middle-earth books when I saw them at the used bookstores last weekend and I may yet!

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30x30, Personal Project

30 x 30: #18 – Participate in NaNoWriMo

Geoff W

2014 12-01 NaNoWriMo TotalI knew when I made this list that there was no way I would be able to do 50,000 words in a month and boy was I right. However, that’s why I said PARTICIPATE in NaNoWriMo instead of complete! (I’m wicked smaht, right?)

It wasn’t for lack of time after I made it through the 15th, so much as lack of desire to sit in front of a computer and write and even though I came in just under 20,000 words I’m still really proud I got that much done. I was shocked at how easy it was to write the story I chose and am excited to finish it. Looking at the graph, you can see I wrote the what I did in three quick spurts with the final one being where I wrote nearly 12,000 words in one go.

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