Top Ten Tuesday - Bookish Resolutions

 Top Ten Bookish Resolutions

1. Pay More Attention to this Blog - I put in my personal resolutions that I would ideally post here at least once a week. I really love this community and it's a shame I come in and out so frequently.
2. Review EVERYTHING I Read -This was a problem for me last year, only about a third of the books I read got thoughtful reviews. I'd originally started reviewing so I could remember what I read, and after a year of barely doing it I discovered that I need that critical thinking to ingrain some texts into my memory.
3. Always Have a Book On Me - The latter half of 2013 was a whole lot of fun, but there were a lot of idle moment I could have enjoyed if I'd just kept a paperback or my kindle in my purse.
4. Go to More Author Events - They're fun, they're cheap, and usually you meet awesome people.
5. Work on My Twitter and Tumblr Presences - It's been a while since I've tweeted from my Bookish account, but I have recently been working on a sister Tumblr for this blog. It's mostly pictures and quotes right now but I'm excited to see how I can evolve it.
6. Enforce the Fifty Page Rule - For those of you not in the know, my fifty page rule states that I'll give a book, any book, fifty pages to grab my attention. After that if I'm not enjoying it or not sure I'm interested in the story I am free to toss it aside guilt free. When I don't enforce this rule I end up spending three months reading a 200 page novel.
7. Finish my Harry Potter Reread - Self explanatory, yeah?
8. Read Books Set in Far Away Places by Far Away People - Last year I focused on new releases, and learned that I'm pretty good at reading male and female authors evenly. This year I want' to broaden my horizons. The bookish world is so much more than white people in American and Europe writing about, well, America and Europe. I'm really excited for this resolutions. 
9. Read a Bit Every Day - It's been years since this has been a problem, but like I said, winter 2013 wasn't the best time of my bookish life. This year I've already thrown myself into more books than I did for all of November and December. That just started by telling myself 'Hey, you actually like doing this so do it.' The internet and DVR will always be there for me and at least a half an hour of reading can calm me down and brighten my mood.
10. Have Fun - This is one of my resolutions every year. This blog should never feel like a chore and the books I'm reading shouldn't feel like homework. Life is too short to make my favorite hobby into an obligation.

Happy 2014 Everyone. I've got a feeling it's going to be a great year!

Reading Challange

I'm not usually one for reading challenges. I like to be free to read whatever I want whenever I want. I'm kind of selfish like that. However I did come across the European Reading Challenge and decided, hey it's a new year, I should try some new things. I should be able to make it through at least 3 qualifying books.  So here I go. 2014. The year I do my first reading challenge. Go team!

2013 in Review

I spent New Year's Day watching sports with a head cold, my car broke down, work was crazy. These are my lame excuse for not getting up my 2013 in Review post in a timely manner. They're not great excuses.  I'll try to do better in 2014.
Anyway, 2013 was a big year for me. I changed jobs, moved,  went to new places, and read some great books. Since this blog is dedicated to the latter here's my list of books read in 2013.

1. David Mitchell: Back Story - Mitchell
2. Beautiful Creatures - Garcia/Stohl
3. Office Girl - Meno
4. Where'd You Go, Bernadette - Semple
5. Sweet Tooth - McEwan
6. Fanfarlo - Baudelaire*
7. Beautiful Darkness - Garcia/Stohl
8. The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg - Twain*
9. Beautiful Chaos - Garcia/Stohl
10. Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald - Fowler
11. Beautiful Redemption - Garcia/Stohl
12. Tenth of December - Saunders
13. The Casual Vacancy - Rowling
14. The Devil - Tolstoy*
15 The Aviators Wife - Benjamin
16. Pride & Prejudice - Austen
17. 1984 - Orwell
18. The Little Prince - Saint-Exupery
19. A Map of Tulsa - Lytal
20. Looking for Alaska - Green
21. The Horla - Da Maupassant*
22. The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards - Jansma
23. The Alienist - De Assis*
24. Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls - Sedaris
25. The Fun Parts - Sipste
26. How the Two Ivan's Quarreled - Gogol*
27. Inferno - Brown
28. Vile Bodies - Waugh
29. American Gods - Gaiman
30. The Ocean at the End of the Lane - Gaiman
31. An Abundance of Katherines - Green
32. The White Princess - Gregory
33. The Love Affairs of Nathanial P- Waldman
34. The Distracted Preacher - Hardy*
35. The Last Runaway - Cheavlier
36. Dispatch from the Future - Stein
37. The Kite Runner - Hosseini
38. The Cookoo's Calling - Galbraith/Rowling
39. The Enchantress Returns (Land of Stories #2) - Colfer
40.  Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - Rowling
41. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - Rowling
42. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - Rowling
43. Fortunately, The Milk - Gaiman
44. If on a winter's night a traveler - Calvino
45. The Snow Queen - Anderson*

My original goal was to read 30 books, and to focus on newer releases. I accomplished both and am quite proud of the results, especially since I let my reading habits fall by the wayside this winter.

I hope to read more in 2014 and to make more time for all of you readers. Hope everyone has enjoyed the new year so far!

My New Problem with eBooks

2013 has been a year of ebooks. I'm speaking from personal experience. A third of the books I've read this year have been kindle reads. I'm not here to complain, lament the state of publishing, or whine about the decline of the physical book.  I love my kindle. It's there for me when I really want to read a tome that is too heavy to jam into my purse. It's perfect for when I'm looking for a new book and don't want to change out of my pajamas. Plus I've had mine signed by Neil Gaiman and I think that's pretty awesome. What I'm getting at is that I've had some truly magical reading moments with ebooks this year.

But I've noticed a problem.

The other night I was making goodreads shelves for all the years I've had this blog. I thought it would be a torturous process. I've always been a reader but it wasn't until I really started taking blogging seriously that I kept track of how many books I was going through and goodreads wasn't the first site* I used to cateloge my growing collection.

I found pretty quickly that while I only had a vague memory of some plots -2009 and 2010 were years ago - I had vivid memories of reading each book I archived. Some were simple, just me lying in my first apartment tearing through The Heights just so I could finish it and return it to the Library. Others were whole scenes, like reading The Boy in Striped Pajamas and pausing to rant to my roommate about how upset I was that I was crying over a children's book.  There were books I read on trains, and some on my patio in the summer sun. There were instant favorites and quite a few that I read only out of obligation. At the end of the day, well, at the end of 2013, I still have a perfect memory of each and every one of these books.

This probably isn't unique to me. However I've found that even looking at my list of books from this year I don't have those same warm memories. I'm finding this problem more with books I read on my kindle. Those books actually needed to resonate with me as stories to be memorable. I can gush about American Gods and The Unchangeable Spots of Leopards, but Vile Bodies and The Fun Parts? Not so much. Even some of my least favorite books of this year still send me down memory lane so long as I have a real copy of it. I can remember sitting in the break room finishing Office Girl but there's a handful of eBooks that are lost to me.

I saw a post a few years ago that talked about how the biggest threat ebooks posed to that readers life was a library that would never see a post Kindle age, one where every hardcover that they owned was published before 2011. That's a real concern for me, but I've discovered it's for another reason. I need a physical book for some of these memories to set. For me that's enough of a reason to spend an extra few dollars on bound paper.

What about you guys? Are you finding your relationship with ebooks is any different from the one you had with paper? Let me know!

 

*Does anyone still use Librarything?

Readathon Update Numero Dos

Full disclosure: I didn't wake up till eight thirty. I went out to breakfast. I got cider. It's been kind of a weird Saturday. Still, I've finished my first book of the readathon. I'm glad I started with something short and easy, like Fortunately, the Milk by Neil Gaiman. It's a children's book. Don't judge, it's flawless.

Now I'm on to slightly more mature things. I've had Fraud by David Rakoff mostly done for a month. Time to bite the bullet and read those last 80 pages!

Okay, I totally will go back to reading, but I just love book-spine poetry and  can't resist this challenge hosted over at Capricious Reader.

As I Lay Dying

Laughable Loves

Sleepwalk with Me

Where the Sidewalk Ends

Not gonna lie, I had way to much fun doing this.

Happy reading!

Readathon Introduction!

1) What fine part of the world are you reading from today?
The metro Detroit area. It's nice out, maybe time for cider and sweaters and midday reading outside?

2) Which book in your stack are you most looking forward to?
The Circle. Fall seems like the perfect time to read Dave Eggers.

3) Which snack are you most looking forward to?
All snacks are created equal in my mind, but I kind of want a cheesy bagel, so that might be important later.

4) Tell us a little something about yourself!
Ummmm, I've got an adorable puppy, Oskar, who is going to be my reading companion today.



5) If you participated in the last read-a-thon, what’s one thing you’ll do different today? If this is your first read-a-thon, what are you most looking forward to?
The last few readathons I've been very focused on milking the day for every second, reading until i'm not really comprehending what's going on in books and trying to force my page count up. Today is just going to be a relaxing read at my own pace and take whatever breaks i want kind of readathon. Even if that means I stop to watch the Tigers game or go out to breakfast (as I am actually about to do, but don't worry I'll have a book with me and my friends are usually late!)

A note

Life has been kind of strange around these parts. Sorry for the silence. I'll be back on Saturday for the Readathon!

Love you all!