Tag: Blog

Updates

December (and 2012) Recap

Geoff W

What a year. Good things happened. Bad things happened. And I read a lot of books. That pretty much sums it up for me. Not going to delve into personal life and 2013 resolutions because, well, I don’t want to.

I don’t say it enough, but thank you to everyone who reads my little spot on the internet. I truly appreciate the amazing people I’ve met over the past 2.5 years and am looking forward to meeting more and interacting with new people in 2013!

2012 = Too Many BooksI finished all three of my challenges with 30 books and read a grand total of 81 books in 2012. According to Goodreads I read 32,866 pages. I’m not sure how accurate that is, but who cares, I read a lot! My original goal was 60 books, five books a month, and that will stand for 2013. I’m sure I will surpass it again this year, but I will not increase that goal because reading should be about fun and not about numbers. There are definitely other cool facts I could share, but go and explore and find out!

And the photo above, is why I am doing my best to go on a book buying ban for the first six months of 2013.My bookshelf is so far beyond overflowing I HAVE to start clearing it off. This will be difficult as I have over $100 in gift cards to various bookstores, but I can do it! There are only two exceptions to this rule: I can purchase a book (with a gift card) for book group and if the fifth book of The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel is released in Paperback I can purchase it.  My to-be-read list (physical and Kindle) has surpassed 175 and I need to trim it down. If I read only 50 books a year I’m already looking at 4 years almost on my shelf alone! Not to mention the 275 other books on my dream list to read at some point.

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Meme, The Classics Club

The Classics Club – December 2012 Meme

Geoff W

This might be my shortest post ever!

For the month of December the hosts of The Classics Club have asked us to share your favorite memory of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. have you ever read it? If not, will you? Why should others read it rather than relying on the film adaptations?

Well, as I said short and simple. I haven’t read it and I don’t know if I ever will. Dickens’ and I have a rocky relationship after A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations. I’m not necessarily opposed to reading it, but I don’t know if I’ll go out of my way to read it.

I will say that I LOVED The Muppet Christmas Carol from the early 1990s. I was the right age for it and I thought it was amazingly wonderful. Maybe I’ll watch that this year and it’ll inspire me to go and read the original.

2013 Challenges

2013 Challenge Announcement!

Geoff W

2013 Back to the Classics ChallengeI have finally got my act together and sorted out my 2013 Challenges! I managed to keep the same three challenges (Mount TBR Reading Challenge, Tea & Books Reading Challenge and Back to the Classics Challenge) while only officially signing up for 14 books! And as an added bonus 12 of the 14 books will qualify for The Classics Club!

2013 Tea & Books Reading ChallengeFirst, I hope the challenge hosts don’t think I’m coping out! I really wanted to participate in all of the challenges again for the lovely people I’ve met, but didn’t want to over extend myself this year and thus this magnificent feat. I will definitely be upgrading for the Mount TBR challenge as I’m planning on spending the majority of this year reading books I already own, but I’m only committing to the lowest level for now. I plan

2013 Mount TBR Reading ChallengeSecond, I hope all you readers appreciate just how much this took! I seriously negotiated with myself, most often out loud, for over a week about what books I should and shouldn’t include! It’s quite funny when you think about it. I would add a book to the list and then immediately remove it because I knew I could find a book to meet another challenge requirement!

A few unique things about the lists:

  • I am participating at the following levels:
    • Back to the Classics: 11 books Full – All 6 required and 5 optional.
    • Mount TBR: 12 books – Pike’s Peak (will probably end up near Mt. Ararat)*
    • Tea & Books: 4 books – Berry Tea Devotee
  • Every book qualifies for more than one challenge.
  • Two books are re-reads: To Kill A Mockingbird and Wuthering Heights
  • One book qualifies for all three challenges: Les Misérables
  • There are seven each of physical and Kindle books (Check out that symmetry!)

And without further ado, click here to visit my 2013 Challenge Lists!

*I most certainly will be upgrading on the Mount TBR challenge. MY MAJOR GOAL FOR THE YEAR IS TO READ PRIMARILY BOOKS I ALREADY HAVE. On December 31st I plan on taking a snap shot of my ‘bookshelf’ list on here and using that as my official 2013 Library.

Updates

November 2012 Recap

Geoff W

I hope all you American’s had a Happy Thanksgiving and everyone else had a warm(ish) November. It’s starting to get really cold here and although I’m loving it, I was not ready for this weather. I can’t believe December 1st is tomorrow and December brings my birthday, Christmas and New Years are all flying up fast. Here’s my last monthly update of the year!

Once again this month I have another awesome Tweet to share. Katherine Winter, author of Annabel responded to my response to her novel on Twitter. Awesome, right? Once again just to reiterate, sometimes you just have to love social media.

Recent Acquisitions (Yes, still a library :-D)
I didn’t go on a book buying ban like I should have, but I of course have brilliant reasons/excuses. However, I am rapidly running out of excuses/reasons – my to-be-read bookshelf is officially overflowing, I only have one Groupon left and only a bit left on my gift card!

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Meme, The Classics Club

The Classics Club – November 2012 Meme

Geoff W

YAY! For the first time I’m not completely baffled/perturbed at The Classics Club moderators for their choice of a monthly discussion question.So I thought I would go ahead and answer it since I haven’t finished a book yet this month and wanted to get at least one post in this week. I should have another one in by Friday, but no promises.

This month’s answer to “What Classic piece of literature most intimidates you and why? (Or are you intimidated by the Classics, and why? And has your view changed at all since you joined The Classics Club?”, is actually an easy answer, so I won’t beat around the bush!

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