Reading Resolutions: March Successes

I feel like I've been consuming books like they're vital to my life recently! I've been reading all the time, and enjoying a wide variety of books.

1. Read 200 books (at least 52,000 pages):

I read 20 books in March for a total of 65 for the year so far (what) and added another 5,000 pages bringing my page count so far to just under 19,000.

2. Read 12 non-fiction books (preferably 1/month):

I made it through 2 in March. I read Michael Rosen's Alphabetical: How Every Letter Tells a Story, which was a fascinating look at the English alphabet and at language in general. I also read Stuck in the Middle: Seventeen Comics from an Unpleasant Age edited by Ariel Schrag. This was a graphic novel compilation of autobiographical stories from middle school. It was...okay. I wasn't a huge fan, but it was an interesting read.

3. Read at least 2 print books I own each month (with an eye to weeding):

I did manage to pull this one off. I read The Agency: The Body at the Tower by Y. S. Lee, which I really enjoyed - the whole series was good and I'll be writing a review of it over on the Booksellers Without Borders blog. I also read The Ark by Boyd Morrison, which was interesting, but went into the weed pile, because it's not something I'll read again.

4. Read at least 2 eBooks I own each month:

Completed this one as well making it through L.R.W. Lee's Andy Smithson: Blast of the Dragon's Fury, The Grey Fairy Book edited by Andrew Lang, The Berenstain Bears and the G-Rex Bones by Stan and Jan Berenstain (I didn't know there were Berenstain Bear chapter books!), and Kelly Oram's Being Jamie Baker which was super fun.

5. Read at least 1 book off my GoodReads To-Read list:

I did double duty on this one with Alphabetical being both a non-fiction and a To-Read book. I also read Marion Jensen's Almost Super, which I enjoyed.

6. Read at least 2 academic articles each month:

I almost didn't get to this one, but dug up 2 on the last day of the month, determined to complete the challenge I'd set for myself. I read "'Scope for the Imagination': Imaginative Spaces and Female Agency in Anne of Green Gables" by Lauren Makrancy and "Teaching International Students How to Avoid Plagiarism: Librarians and Faculty in Collaboration" by Jenny Gunnarsson, Wlodek J. Kulesza, and Anette Pettersson

Bookish Resolutions: January Successes

I can't believe January has passed us by already! I did a ton of reading this month - just couldn't seem to stop! Excited to see what this new year will continue to bring.

So here's how I did on my bookish resolutions:

1. Read 200 books (at least 52,000 pages):
I read a whopping 26 books this month. I did read 12 graphic novels, but a couple were pretty lengthy. Counting the articles I read, I managed about 7,600 pages and since I only need about 4300 a month to make my page goal I'm off to a really good start!

2. Read 12 non-fiction books (preferably 1/month):
I read 2 this month. One was the graphic novel Annie Sullivan and the Trials of Helen Keller by Joseph Lambert, which was a fascinating look at their initial struggles to communicate and also, and to me more interestingly, a look at the plagiarism charges Helen faced which ended up effectively discouraging her from writing fiction. I also finished David S. Serchay's The Librarian's Guide to Graphic Novels for Adults, which was an interesting look at the history of comics and graphic novels and a good, if a bit outdated at this point, list of suggestions for collection development.

3. Read at least 2 print books I own each month (with an eye to weeding):
I squeaked by on this one, reading Library of Souls, the conclusion to Ransom Riggs' Peculiar Children trilogy for book club and Adam by Ted Dekker in my continuing efforts to read through alphabetically. It's kind of depressing me that I'm still in the As, so I want to make a stronger effort to read more books I own and avoid the library for the most part.

4. Read at least 2 eBooks I own each month:
Did better on this one, because I read them on my lunch breaks and can keep myself from being distracted. This month I read Andrew Lang's The Yellow Fairy Book (only 8 more fairy books to go...), Agatha Christie's The A. B. C. Murders, Above by Isla Morley (which was crazy and good), Avalon by Mindee Arnett (a YA sci-fi reminiscent of Firefly), Before Midnight by Jennifer Blackstream, Mercedes Lackey's A Tangled Web (a novella of the 500 kingdoms that I wish was much longer!), and Arena Mode by Blake Northcott. So a total of 7 eBooks for this month.

5. Read at least 1 book off my GoodReads To Read list:
These are strictly books I do not own, so these are the only books I'm going to allow myself to get from the library. Starting alphabetically I read The ACB with Honora Lee by Kate De Goldi which was sweet and wonderful and makes me happy just thinking about it again.

6. Read at least 2 academic articles each month:
I am glad I added this challenge, because it forced me to go looking for and find articles on topics I'm interested in but might not take the time to read right now. I read "Overcoming the Barriers to Information Literacy Programs: CALM Lab for English Majors at Dickinson College" by Christine Bombaro and "'The Status is Not Quo!': Pursuing Resolution in Web-Disseminated Serial Narrative" by Anouk Lang, which was a fascinating analysis of the reception of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.

All in all I am very proud of my progress this month and looking forward to the books I have on queue for February!

Popsugar 2015 Reading Challenge - Completed!

I stumbled across the Popsugar Reading Challenge last year and thought that it looked like a fun way to read some things I might not otherwise seek out. I didn't really plan ahead too much, filling in categories with books I was reading anyway, but also keeping these categories in mind. Toward the end of the year, though, I took a good look at the categories that were left and found books on my shelves I hadn't read before and did some serious googling to find titles for a couple of the categories that weren't easily identifiable (like a book set in my home town or a book published the year I was born). I completed it and was pretty happy with the variety of books I read because of it.

Here are the categories and the books I read to fulfill them:

• A book with more than 500 pages: The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth Century Literary Imagination by Sandra M. Gilbert & Susan Gubar - I was wokring on this for a paper I'm writing and this gave me additional impetus to finish it.
• A classic romance: Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte - I wasn't entirely sure what "classic romance" was, but I found some GoodReads chats where people were discussing what they read for this category. I'd had this book sitting on my eReader and kept meaning to get to it, and I'm so glad this challenge made me read it now because I fell in love with Anne Bronte's books.
• A book that became a movie: Coraline by Neil Gaiman - I haven't seen the movie yet, I'd been putting it off until after I read the book, and now I can watch it. I'm curious as to how they adapted this dark fairy tale.
• A book published this year: The Curiosity House: The Shrunken Head by Lauren Oliver & H.C. Chester - I had quite a few I could have picked for this category, but I really enjoyed this book, so it made the list.
• A book with a number in the title: 3:16 The Numbers of Hope by Max Lucado - Another book that had been sitting on my shelf waiting for me to read it. I'm a fan of Lucado's style.
• A book written by someone under 30: A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab - This category was hard to track down because most authors don't advertise their age. I basically looked at books I read and started googling authors that I knew were younger until I found one with an age listed.
• A book with nonhuman characters: Squish: Brave New World by Jennifer L. Holm & Matthew Holm - Only the Holms could write such an engaging book about an amoeba. I love their writing style!
• A funny book: Not That It Matters by A.A. Milne - I love Milne's work, especially his humorous essays, so when I discovered a stack of them at the library where I work I felt like I'd hit the mother lode. These are all just so fantastic.
• A book by a female author: Thursdays with the Crown by Jessica Day George - I was a little annoyed at this category, like reading a book by a woman was a big deal or something. Pretty much just picked one of the many, many books written by a female author that I read but didn't use in any of the other categories. Also wanted to highlight this series because adorableness abounds and you should read it.
• A mystery or thriller: The Third Twin by CJ Omololu - Didn't read too many mysteries or thrillers this year, but when Omololu held a Twitter chat to promote this book and the chat was really fun and engaging and the book sounded intriguing I decided to check it out. Interesting twist on the twins switching places trope.
• A book with a one-word title: Landline by Rainbow Rowell - Enjoyed it, but this is probably my least favorite of Rowell's books.
• A book of short stories: A Medicine for Melancholy by Ray Bradbury - Bradbury's short fiction has its ups and downs for me. I really enjoy some of it and others, well, not so much. But I'm not a fan of short stories, so I was glad to find one that I found pretty entertaining.
• A book set in a different country: The Accidental Mother by Rowan Coleman - This was a cute book set in England.
• A nonfiction book: The Word of God and the Word of Man by Karl Barth - I stumbled across this while fielding a research question and became intrigued. Really liked this series of essays.
• A popular author’s first book: The Carpet People by Terry Pratchett - This was both his first book and not his first book as it was an edited and expanded version of his first book, but I counted it because it was so cute.
• A book from an author you love that you haven’t read yet: The Actor and the Housewife by Shannon Hale - So very glad I got to this one. I loved this book a lot.
• A book a friend recommended: The Nest by Kenneth Oppel - My sister really liked this book, so I was excited to read it. Also, Jon Klassen's illustrations are spot on as always.
• A Pulitzer prize winning book: March by Geraldine Brooks - This has been on my TBR list for ages, so I was glad to have a reason to finally get to it. It wasn't a favorite, but it was interesting.
• A book based on a true story: The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston & Mario Spezi - Picked this one up on audio from my local library. I found it a lot more intriguing and interesting than I anticipated.
• A book at the bottom of your to-read list: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne - I read this as part of my through the alphabet quest even though I didn't really have any burning desire to read it. Now I kind of wish it had been in print so I could give the book away. Not a fan.
• A book your mom loves: Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman - After our book club read a Terry Pratchett book my mom has been picking up his books left and right. She recommended this as another book club read and I finally got to it. Hilarious.
• A book that scares you: The Key to Midnight by Dean Koontz - I don't really get scared by books often - the only one I can think of that really gave me the creepy, heart thumpy book scare was Koontz's What the Night Knows. I had this book waiting on my shelf so I read it and, though it wasn't a horror book it is all about brainwashing and identity and not knowing who you really are, all concepts that creep me out, so I kept it for this, even though it didn't really "scare" me.
• A book more than 100 years old: The Art of War by Sun Tzu - I'd read excerpts before and I'm glad I read the whole thing, but it was just kind of an, oh yeah I read that, type of book for me.
• A book based entirely on its cover: Labyrinth by Kate Mosse - I really liked the cover on this. The content of the cover didn't thrill me as much, though.
• A book you were supposed to read in school but didn’t: Hope Leslie by Catharine Maria Sedgwick - This was sitting on my Currently Reading shelf, so reading it completed this challenge and part of my personal challenge as well.
• A memoir: Bossypants by Tina Fey - This was highly entertaining.
• A book you can finish in a day: Anne & Henry by Dawn Ius - This popped up as one of the publisher's free reads on their website. It's a modern high school retelling of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn that I'd had on my TBR list. It was a Saturday and I had no plans, so I sat down and read the whole thing in a couple of hours. Entertaining.
• A book with antonyms in the title: Always Never Sometimes by Adi Alsaid - I actually picked up this ARC at BEA specifically because it had antonyms in the title. It was all right, but not a favorite.
• A book set somewhere you’ve always wanted to visit: Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery - I reread this for the paper I'm working on that I will be presenting in PEI, so not only did I read it, but this year I finally get to visit this place!
• A book that came out the year you were born: The Ordinary Princess by M.M. Kaye - Not only did this come out the year I was born, but it's one of my favorite books of all time that I've really been wanting to reread. It's as wonderful as I remember it.
• A book with bad reviews: We Are Pirates by Daniel Handler - This one had the lowest star rating out of the 400 odd books in my TBR GoodReads list. It's ... odd. Very Handler. Very ... weird.
• A trilogy: The Arena Wars by Samantha Hoffman - I think I picked up the first book in this series as a free eBook and enjoyed it so much that I did what I rarely do and bought the second one. When I was looking at this list toward the end of the year I decided to buy the third book and finish off the trilogy.
• A book from your childhood: The Giver by Lois Lowry - It's so interesting revisiting books you haven't read in years and years. I still liked it, but not as much as I remember liking it when I was younger.
• A book with a love triangle: Famous in Love by Rebecca Serle - I really like these books, even if the love triangle drove me a little batty.
• A book set in the future: Armada by Ernest Cline - Love.
• A book set in high school: Also Known As by Robin Benway - This book was so cute. Very happy I read it in my alphabetical challenge.
• A book with a color in the title: The Blue Fairy Book edited by Andrew Lang - Collected fairy tales; what more could you want?
• A book that made you cry: Penderwicks in Spring by Jeanne Birdsall - Man, this book made me sob my eyeballs out. And laugh. And *sigh* these books are just perfection.
• A book with magic: Kill Me Softly by Sarah Cross - A really inventive fairy tale retelling. I'll be looking up the rest of the series.
• A graphic novel: The Sculptor by Scott McCloud - I found this interesting, though I wasn't as big a fan as I wanted to be.
• A book by an author you’ve never read before: Strawberry Acres by Grace S. Richmond - I had a collection of Richmond's books sitting on my eReader. They were sweet and light. A perfect old-fashioned delight.
• A book you own but have never read: The Girl in the Steel Corset by Kady Cross - This was another book good for both this list and my personal clearing out of my Currently Reading list
• A book that takes place in your hometown: Susquehanna by Harriet Segal - I had such a hard time with this one. I had 3 hometowns to choose from and finally ended up with the area where I currently live in order to find a book I could actually get ahold of. I wouldn't have sought this book out otherwise, but I did enjoy it.
• A book that was originally written in a different language: Poetics of Reverie by Gaston Bachelard - Oh Bachelard. I'm such a fan.
• A book set during Christmas: My True Love Gave to Me edited by Stephanie Perkins - Collection of lovely holiday stories.
• A book written by an author with your same initials: Space Cat by Ruthven Todd - Other than book set in my hometown, this was probably the category that caused me the most grief. In all of the books I own but haven't read (+2,000) and all the books on my GoodReads TBR list (+400) not a single one was written by someone with the initials RT. Not. A. Single. One. So I browsed the fiction and Juvenile section at the library where I work. Nada. YA section at the local library. 1 that really didn't look that interesting, though I kept it in mind in case I needed it. Finally found this one in the Young Readers section and I'm so glad I did because it's about a cat that goes to the moon and saves the astronaut. It was written before the moon missions and it's a really entertaining look at the speculation of what would be found on the moon as well as just an adorable story about a cat.
• A play: Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare - Hate this play with a burning passion.
• A banned book: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian by Sherman Alexie - Hit this in my alphabetical challenge and really enjoyed it.
• A book based on or turned into a TV show: Naked Heat by Richard Castle - I've owned this for a while and just never got around to reading it. It's like reading a fanfic of the show, so it cracks me up.
• A book you started but never finished: The McCloud Home for Wayward Girls by Wendy Delsol - Another one on my GoodReads Currently Reading list that I cleared out. It was interesting, but not my cup of tea.

And that's the lot. I'm looking forward to diving into their 2016 challenge this year!

Bookish Resolutions: 2015 Review, 2016 Plans

2015 is over! I can't believe we're into a new year already.

Here's a look back at how I did on my resolutions for last year and a quick look at what I want to do in 2016.

1. Read 200 books in 2015:

DONE WON

I read 230 books and hit about 52,000 words, which was a little less than last year (even though I read more books), but close enough to make me satisfied.

2. Read 12 non-fiction books in 2015 (preferably 1 a month):

DONE WON

Topped this off at 19 for the year. Finished December strong with It's Too Late Now: The Autobiography of a Writer by A. A. Milne. Really pleased with myself for how well I did on this goal, since I have a tendency to stick with non-fiction. I have a couple of books slated already for next year that I'm really excited about.

3. Clear out my Currently Reading GoodReads shelf:

DONE WON

4. Read at least 2 print books I already own each month (with an eye to weeding):

DONE WON

In December I read Never Always Sometimes by Adi Alsaid, The Key to Midnight by Dean Koontz, and The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex. I'll be weeding the Koontz book - enjoyed it, but don't need to keep it - so a successful month. Overall this year I read 38 books from my shelves and weeded 13 of them. I consider this goal a rousing success.

5. Read at least 2 eBooks I own each month:

In December I read A. W. Hartoin's A Fairy's Guide to Disaster, Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman, The Green Fairy Book edited by Andrew Lang, the first volume of Batman by Bill Finger, The Beautiful and Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald, A Soul for Trouble by Crista McHugh, and Anne Bronte's Agnes Grey. I've eased into the B's in eBooks. Can't believe it took me an entire year to get through one letter of the alphabet. At that rate, I've got a good 25 years worth of books waiting for me just on my eReader. But, I read a lot of books I wouldn't have by doing it this way, many of which I thoroughly enjoyed! That means that over the course of 2015 I read 73 (though this did include a few short stories, novellas, and comic issues). I'm very pleased with the success of this goal as well.

For next year I've been thinking about what I would like to do and I've got the following goals in place:

• Read 200 books in 2016 (at least 52,000 pages) - I'm keeping this the same, but adding a page count goal as well.
• Read 12 non-fiction books (1 a month) - I think aiming for 12 works for me. I'd like to go above that, but I'm setting the goal at 1 a month.
• Read at least 2 print books I already own each month (with an eye to weeding) - There were a couple of months where I barely squeaked by with this, so I'm keeping it at 2/month.
• Read at least 2 eBooks I own each month - as I head into the B's maybe I can scoot through more than just one letter this year.
• Read at least 1 book off my GoodReads TBR list - since I cleared out my Currently Reading list, I thought it would be good to attack the TBR list. The thing about my GoodReads TBR list, is that it doesn't include any books I own. I keep it strictly for books I read or hear about that I don't own. But the list keeps getting longer and longer, so I'd like to take a stab at trying to whittle it down just a little bit.
• Read at least 2 academic articles each month (1 library related/1 literature related) - I read articles pretty regularly as part of my job, so I'm thinking of articles above and beyond those - things I've been curious about or that I just want to read more on. I figure if I add it as a goal, I'll have to force myself to go looking for things to read and will branch out a bit more.

So those are my goals. Any bookish plans you have for the next year? I'd love to hear about them!

Bookish Resolutions: November Progress

AAAHHHHH!!! The year is almost over! How did it fly by so quickly?
I've already started thinking about what bookish resolutions I might want to make for next year. Keeping myself accountable here has really helped me to stay on track and I'm really pleased with the progress I've made.

November was a light reading month because I was doing NaNoWriMo (which I won handily this year. I'm still working on the rough draft and then I'll start the "real" rough draft of this story, but I'm really very super excited about how the character development and world building are coming together. But that's a blog post for another day).
So most of the time I might normally spend reading, I spent trying to get my word count in.

However, I think I still did pretty well.

1. Read 200 books in 2015:
I passed my goal! That's CRAZY PANTS. I'm at 205. And I still have a whole month left! I am, however, still about 5,000 pages lower than last year because of the picture books and young reader graphic novels. I'm not saying those books are somehow lesser, but it takes less time to read a 50 page young reader graphic novel than a 300 page adult novel. I've got several more books on deck for this month (and NaNo is over) so I should be able to make up a little of the page count.

2. Read 12 non-fiction books in 2015 (preferably 1 a month):
I did not read any non-fiction books this month (see NaNo madness), but I've done really well in this over the year, so I'm not even the slightest bit ashamed of this lack. I would like to hit one more in December, though, to end the year on an up note.

3. Clear out my Currently Reading GoodReads shelf:
DONE WON

4. Read at least 2 print books I already own each month (with an eye to weeding):
I read 3 this month, so pretty good. The Girl Who Could Not Dream by Sarah Beth Durst, which was beautiful and wonderful and definitely staying on my shelf. I also read Coraline by Neil Gaiman and Naked Heat by Richard Castle, both of which I've been meaning to eventually get around to and the PopSugar Reading Challenge pushed me to do so. Nothing weeded, but still a success.

5. Read at least 2 eBooks I own each month:
I got through 3 in this category as well. I finished The Red Fairy Book edited by Andrew Lang and Consumed by War by Samantha Hoffman, which not only took care of a Reading Challenge category, but also helped me finish off the trilogy while I still pretty much remembered the first two books. I also read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte and discovered how very much I love Anne Bronte.

All in all a successful month. Here's to a strong December!

Bookish Resolutions: October Progress

Can't believe there are only 2 months left in the year! My goals are coming along nicely. Here's how I did in October.

1. Read 200 books in 2015:
I'm up to 196! I can't believe it! And I've caught up really nicely on page count. I just have to do about 3500 pages each in November and December, which is definitely doable. Of course, I'm taking part in NaNoWriMo once again this month, which will cut into my reading time, so we'll see how things go.

2. Read 12 non-fiction books in 2015 (1 a month preferably):
Finished 2 non-fiction books this month, both rather lengthy - The Female Imagination by Patricia Meyer Spacks and The Madwoman in the Attic by Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar - both related to a paper that I'm preparing. And feeling a little burnt out, so I would rather do a lighter non-fiction this month, if I get to one at all. Which I'm totally okay with since I've done really well in this category so far.

3. Clear out my Currently Reading GoodReads shelf:

I finished this one, as I'm mentioned before, but I have a couple that are new hanging out there. I'd like to clear them out, so I don't feel like I have to put this on my resolution list next year.

4. Read at least 2 print books I already own each month (with an eye to weeding):

I did pretty well, though I didn't pull any for weeding this month. I finished The Nest by Kenneth Oppel and illustrated by Jon Klassen and Shannon and Dean Hale's The Princess in Black and the Perfect Princess Party. Also read Rebecca Serle's Truly Madly Famously and Inherit the Stars by Tessa Elwood. Having a vacation in the middle of this month helped with my reading level in October!

5. Read at least 2 eBooks I already own each month:

Completed this one as well reading Amalia Dillin's Blood of the Queen and Ray Bradbury's Medicine for Melancholy and Other Stories.

Bookish Resolutions: September Progress

1. Read 200 books in 2015:
I'm up to 177! I'm still a little low on pages compared to last year, but I've got a couple of really long books I'm working on right now, so that should help. I'm also going on vacation this month, so I'll have time to just sit on the beach and read. Whee!

2. Read 12 non-fiction books in 2015 (1 a month preferably):
Made this (and have made significant dents in two more non-fiction books that I should finish soon. This month I read Becoming Maria: Love and Chaos in the South Bronx by Sonia Manzano which was really interesting.

3. Clear out my Currently Reading GoodReads shelf:
DONE! COMPLETE! YAY!

4. Read at least 2 print books I already own each month (with an eye to weeding):
Made this goal, even though so much of my reading time has gone to the aforementioned giant non-fiction books. But I did manage to finish Armada by Ernest Cline, Becoming Maria mentioned above, Curiosity House: The Shrunken Head by Lauren Oliver & H.C. Chester, and The Blackthorn Key by Kevin Sands.

5. Read at least 2 eBooks I already own each month:
Made this one by a lot! Read Awaking by Madeline Freeman, Batgirl #1 by Gail Simone & Ardian Syaf, A Girl Named Digit by Annabel Monaghan, Bear is Broken by Lachlan Smith, and The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang.

I'm excited to see how this will all look at the end of the year.

Bookish Resolutions: August Progress

1. Read 200 books in 2015:
I'm up to 169 and the page counts on this month's books were a little higher. I'm still about 20,000 pages lower than my 2014 total, so I'll just have to make sure I read some longer books :)

2. Read 12 non-fiction books in 2015 (1 a month preferably):
I read Karl Barth's The Word of God and the Word of Man, which I found quite interesting. This was my first encounter with Barth, but I have a feeling it won't be my last.

3. Clear out my Currently Reading GoodReads shelf:
I DID IT! I finally got through the last pending book that was sitting here, reading The Girl in the Steel Corset by Kady Cross. Which I loved. I can't wait to read the next one in the series. I still have 2 non-fiction books on this shelf (in addition to the active currently reading ones), but they are both ones I'm just going to pick at as I feel like it, so they are actually currently reading as opposed to all of the books I had started and then stopped that were just sitting there forever. I feel really good about this.

4. Read at least 2 print books I already own each month (with an eye to weeding):
I did well on this goal this month. I read James Dashner's The Kill Order, the prequel to the Maze Runner trilogy, and while I enjoyed it, I won't reread it, so I am weeding that one. I also read The Girl in the Steel Corset as I noted above as well as a couple of ARCs that I picked up at BEA including Will Walton's Anything Could Happen and Anna and the Swallow Man by Gavriel Savit both of which were good, but are on my potential weeding pile.

5. Read at least 2 eBooks I already own each month:
Knocked this one out of the park again. I finished the Grace S. Richmond collection, which gave me Red Pepper's Patients, The Second Violin, Strawberry Acres, and Under the Country Sky. I also read Jules Verne's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (I swear if I had had to read 1 more description of fish I would have found a real copy to throw out the window) and Lorena Angell's A Diamond in My Pocket. I also made it through Asylum by Madeleine Roux, Goddess Girls: Athena the Brain by Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams, and Awaken by Rachel M. Humphrey-D'aigle. Some of them I enjoyed, some of them I wanted to enjoy but just didn't do it for me. But I'm working my way through the A's and I think I'm pretty close to hitting the B's!

Forcing myself into a structure has certainly kept me on task with my reading and made me read things I might not have gotten to. I'm enjoying this journey!

Bookish Resolutions: June Progress

1. Read 200 books in 2015:
I'm up to 129, so doing well on this front. Slowed down this month a little bit as I hit some slightly longer/more involved books.

2. Read 12 non-fiction books in 2015 (1 a month preferably):
Made my one this month, finishing A.A. Milne's Not That It Matters. However, I've made significant progress on the thick and densely printed Milne biography, so I'm more than content with that.

3. Clear out my Currently Reading GoodReads shelf:
Cleared out one more, finishing Willa Cather's My Antonia finally. I've got one more to go before I consider this goal complete and considering that I have 6 months left, I'm confident I'll make it!

4. Read at last 2 print books I already own each month (with an eye to weeding):
Did well on this one, reading three books, all of which I am passing on, giving away, or donating. I read Rowan Coleman's The Accidental Mother, which I really enjoyed, but know I won't read again. I also read 2 of by new BEA books. I finished The Adventures of Miss Petitfour by Anne Michaels, which isn't out until November. I already gave that one to my sister. And I just finished Gregory Maguire's upcoming book After Alice, which I think I may run an Instagram giveaway for on our Booksellers Without Borders NY account.

5. Read at least 2 eBooks I already own each month:
Just barely squeaked this one out. I read Darker Days by Jus Accardo and My Antonia was an ebook, so it counts. I've been watching X-Files on my breaks at work, which is usually when I read ebooks, so that accounts for less reading done this month. I'm back to reading on my breaks though, so it might tick upward next month.

I know no one probably cares about this but me, but posting here at the beginning of each month inspires me to actually read with more purpose and I've read quite a few books I probably wouldn't have read if I wasn't doing this, so yay for me :)

Bookish Resolutions: May Progress

This is really helping me focus my reading! So here's how I've done this month.

1. Read 200 books in 2015:
Well, number-wise I'm up to 120, which is crazy, but page-wise I'm less than half way to what I read last year. I've read quite a few picture books and early reader graphic novels, which I count as books, but which don't bump the page number that much. So, while the book count is good, I'm hoping to bump the page count a bit in the next month.

2. Read 12 non-fiction books in 2015 (1 a month preferably):
WOW! I read 5 non-fiction books this month (and 1 of those I enjoyed, but am weeding from my collection to make room, so double win!). I read Sun Tzu's The Art of War, G. Neri's graphic novel biography Yummy: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty, Max Lucado's 3:16 The Numbers of Hope, If I May a collection of essays by A.A. Milne, and The 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived by Allan Lazar, Jeremy Salter, and Dan Karlan.

3. Clear out my Currently Reading GoodReads shelf:
I finished Wendy Delsol's The McCloud Home for Wayward Girls bringing it down to 2 1/2 books left lingering (that I'm not actively reading). So nice to start seeing this actually represent what I'm actually currently reading. (And that 1/2 is a book I was reading for research for a novel that I've temporarily shelved, so I am going to read it sometime, but if it's not read this year, I'll be okay with that.)

4. Read at least 2 print books I already own each month (with an eye to weeding):
I started reading through alphabetically by title, so I've actually made progress on this one! I read Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, The 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived (mentioned above in #2), The McCloud Home for Wayward Girls (mentioned in #3), Mortal Heart by Robin LaFevers, 3:16 (one of my non-fiction reads), and The Actor and the Housewife by Shannon Hale. Out of those 6, I weeded 3. It's nice to finally see a win in this resolution! I may be taking a break from the alphabetically to work through the books I just picked up at BEA, though, so I can review close to release dates, rather than sitting on them for five years as has happened in the past. We'll see what happens.

5. Read at least 2 eBooks I already own each month (I upped this from 1 to 2, because I've been blowing it out of the water each month):
Another alphabetical win! I read a total of 9, though 2 of those were superhero weeklies and a couple were more novellas. But still! Books read that I own. I read After the End by Amy Plum, Apocalypse Weird: The Red King by Nick Cole, Aquaman 1: The Trench by Geoff Johns, The Arena Wars and War of Hearts by Samantha Hoffman, 11 Birthdays by Wendy Mass, Arrow #1 by Marc Guggenheim, A Breath of Eyre by Eve Marie Mont, and The Art of War (one of my non-fiction titles).

How about you? What have you read that you've loved? Have you made any bookish resolutions? How's it going?

Bookish Resolutions: April Progress

1. Read 200 books in 2015:
I hit the library for picture books again. So I'm up to 87 of the 200 ... really good considering it's only April! I have read other books, though, not just picture books and graphic novels. This month I've read 15 books over 200 pages and 7 of those were over 300 (1 over 400). So they balance out the 11 that were under 100 pages.

2. Read 12 non-fiction books in 2015 (1 a month preferably):
I have 7 read so far! And 2 read this month. I listened to The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi, which was fascinating. I also read Harry Potter's Bookshelf: The Great Books Behind the Hogwarts Adventures by John Granger, which was an interesting look at the literary influences in Harry Potter.

3. Clear out my Currently Reading GoodReads shelf:
I didn't get through any of these this month, but I only have 4 left and still have 8 months, so I'm not too concerned.

4. Read at least 2 print books I already own each month (with an eye to weeding):
I read 3 books (all of which had been sitting on my shelves for a while) so this one was finally a win. I read Janet Gurtler's #16 Things I Thought Were True (though to be fair, I knew that one wouldn't get weeded), 5 Cheesy Stories by Patsy Clairmont (I will be holding onto this one to read with my nieces and nephew), and 29 by Adena Halpern (which I enjoyed but will be weeding because I probably won't read it again). I did better this month because I adopted the strategy I've been applying to eBooks and just started alphabetically on my unread shelf in Library Thing. So rather than dithering about what to read or heading toward more recent acquisitions that I would most likely not be getting rid of, I'm forced to just read what's next on the list.

5. Read at least 1 eBook I already own each month:
Did well on this one again. I read 4 eBooks this month. These included A Dangerous Inheritanceby Alison Weir, Angelfire by Courtney Allison Moulton, Angels Watching Over Me by Michael Phillips, and Anni Moon & the Elemental Artifact. I'm almost done with the As! Maybe I can finish them off in May!

Yay for books!

Bookish Resolutions: March Progress

1. Read 200 books in 2015:
Still moving happily along. 56 books putting me at 28%. Still ahead for the year and with a few books right on the edge of being finished.

2. Read 12 non-fiction books in 2015:
I squeaked in on this one, listening to Tina Fey's Bossypants during a long car ride since I realized I hadn't even started reading one this month. That puts me at 5 so far, so still ahead of the game, but my goal is really to read at least 1 non-fiction book a month, so I'm still on target for that.

3. Clear out my Currently Reading GoodReads shelf:
I cleared one more out - Hope Leslie, an old school read I'd never finished. That leaves me with 3.5 (one of them is sort of actually currently reading, sort of just hanging out there). Still, nice progress with plenty of time left in the year.

4. Read at least 2 print books I already own each month, with an eye toward weeding:
This resolution continues to be my downfall. I did read Thursdays with the Crown by Jessica Day George, but I also knew I was not going to be getting rid of it. I squeaked in Dangerous by Shannon Hale (another keeper) with six minutes left in the month. But both of those titles were on my to read list and I do own them. I'm going to try some sort of alphabetical thing like with my e-books because that is helping me rock the goal.

5. Read at least 1 eBook I already own each month:
I honestly think by just working through alphabetically by title, I'm not worried about which book I should read next or figuring out what I'm in the mood for. I just click on the next title. I've enjoyed some of them a lot. Others have made me roll my eyes. But there are less books I own that I haven't read, so that's a good thing. This month I read Hope Leslie by Catharine Maria Sedgwick, 1/2986by Annelie Wendeberg, Also Known As by Robin Benway, Altdorf: A Novel of the Forest Knights by J. K. Swift,  Anathema by Megg Jensen, A Bride in the Bargain by Deeanne Gist, Andy McBean and the War of the Worlds by Dale Kutzera, and Angel in the Shadows by Lisa Grace so 8 books. Pretty impressive. And it also makes me feel better about the print goal, because this is where a lot of time went.

And there you have it. Any resolutions you've kept up with or are struggling with?

Bookish Resolutions: February Progress

1. Read 200 books in 2015:

Still doing quite well on this front. I've read a total of 41 putting me at 21% of my goal. Pretty good, considering we're only 2 months into the year.

2. Read 12 non-fiction books in 2015:

I knocked this out of the park this month. I finished A Life and Its Mirrors: A Feminist Reading of L.M. Montgomery's Fiction by Gabriella Ahmansson as well as The Alpine Path: The Story of My Career by L. M. Montgomery, AND I finished Poetics of Reverie: Childhood, Language, and Cosmos by Gaston Bachelard. So, feeling pretty good about this.

3. Clear out my Currently Reading GoodReads shelf:

I finished another book for this one, bringing my total down to 6, with only 2 of those being actual currently reading books. That means I only have 5 more to finish this year. Totally doable.

4. Read at least 2 print books I already own each month, with an eye toward weeding:

Didn't do as well with this one, though. Technically I "completed" this, finishing off Splendors and Glooms by Laura Amy Schlitz from my currently reading list and then reading My True Love Gave to Me: Twelve Holiday Stories edited by Stephanie Perkins. I am getting rid of Splendors and Glooms but I don't feel that the other one really counts as it's a fairly new purchase and I knew I wouldn't be getting rid of it. But I was deep in the two ILL non-fiction books I had to get back, so I give myself a little bit of a pass this month.

5. Read at least 1 eBook I already own each month:

Did quite well on this goal as well. I finished off The Adventures of Gerard by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Aerisia: Land Beyond the Sunset by Sarah Ashwood, The Adventures of Zelda: A Pug Tale by Kristen Otte, Alessandra by Lizzy Ford (though this was a short story), Alice in Zombielandby Nickolas Cook and Lewis Carroll, A Bride Most Begrudging by Deeanne Gist, and The Alpine Path: The Story of My Career by L. M. Montgomery (one of my non-fiction reads). Rousing success on the e-book front. I think working my way through (roughly) alphabetically is keeping me from dithering over what I should or want to read on my Nook and I just move to the next one.

I am, however, in a bit of a reading dry spell at the moment, so I'm hoping I can get back into the swing of things and stay on top of my goals for March.

Any reading successes you'd like to share?

Bookish Resolutions: January Progress

I think that updating on my blog every month how I'm doing on my resolutions will help me stay on track! So here goes:

1. Read 200 books in 2015:
I've been marking picture books To Read as I go through Publisher's Weekly for my job - kind of a side perk - so a couple weeks ago I took the list to my local library and checked out a stack of picture books and middle grade graphic novels and devoured them, which helped my total quite a bit.
So as of right now, I've read 26 books - which is 9 ahead of schedule and putting me at 13% of my goal. * of those were picture books and 8 of them were MG graphic novels. Being ahead now will help me as I get slowed down on some of the longer books I know I want to read this year.

2. Read 12 non-fiction books in 2015:
I squeaked this one out by finishing Why Buffy Matters: The Art of Buffy the Vampire Slayer last night. This was a really good read, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I'm also about half way through another non-fiction book, so February is looking quite promising already.

3. Clear out my Currently Reading GoodReads shelf:
I am doing all right here. I deleted 2 that I knew I wasn't going to be getting to any time soon, so there was no need to have them sitting there. I also finished The Boyfriend App by Katie Sise, so I am now down to 10 on this list, 4 of which are ones I'm actually currently reading. That's only 6 more I need to attack and clear off.

4. Read at least 2 print books I already own each month, with an eye toward weeding:
I didn't really do as well with this resolution. The Boyfriend App did double duty here, being both on my Currently Reading shelf and a print book I own that I hadn't read yet. The other book I read was a purchase at the end of last year, and is one I knew I wouldn't be getting rid of - Stephanie Perkins' Isla and the Happily Ever After. It had been sitting in my TBR pile, but I really want to try to read books I own that have been sitting there for a long time for this resolution - in addition to the books I "want" to read right now. I did a lot of library-ing this month too, so I had books I had to read so I could return them. I think I need to cool it on the library until I get through some of the books I own (but libraries are awesome-sauce!)

5. Read at least 1 eBook I already own each month:
I'm pretty happy with my progress here. I did a mini purge of my eBook collection, deleting a handful of books. Then I just started with the A's (well, actually with the numbered books, since the Nook forefronts numerals in front of A) and began working my way forward. This month I finished 44 by Jools Sinclair - well, I finished the books I own. It's a YA serial and I had a set with the first 5 books, so I finished the 4th and 5th. Then I also read Kim Foster's A Beautiful Heist and Adam Bede by George Eliot, and I'm almost done with The Adventures of Gerard by Arthur Conan Doyle. So I call this one a roaring success (especially since Adam Bede was over 400 pages long :)

So that's where I stand with my bookish resolutions. Did you make any book-related resolutions for the year? I'd love to hear about it!

2015 Book Resolutions

I'm not one to really make resolutions, but this is the 2nd year in a row I decided to make some book-ish ones.

Last year I challenged myself to read 200 books in the GoodReads challenge and made it with flying colors.

I also wanted to read one non-fiction book a month, which I pulled off, scraping by the skin of my teeth with finishing the 12th one yesterday.

And finally I wanted to read at least one book off my shelves a month. That one I didn't do so well on.

So here are my resolutions for 2015:

1. Once again I've set my GoodReads goal for 200 - it's a good number for the mix of books I read including a smattering of picture books and graphic novels.
2. Once again I would like to read 12 non-fiction books. I kind of want to up this number, but knowing myself, it's just not going to happen. I want to challenge myself but not make it undoable.
3. I want to clear out my "Currently Reading" shelf on GoodReads. Either I need to take the books off or I need to actually finish the book. By next December I want it to be down to only the books I'm actually actively reading.
4. I want to read at least 2 print books I own a month - with the goal of getting rid of any that I've just been holding onto.
5. And finally, I want to read at least 1 eBook I already own a month.

And that should do it! Any resolutions for you this year? Bookish or otherwise?

Looking Back, Looking Forward

Looking Back:

This has been an interesting year for me, and I thought it would be good to do a little reflecting on the highs and lows:

• Survived a full year of grad school, which I loved/hated/loved depending on the day.
• Survived a full year of teaching freshman English, which I pretty much loved/loved/loved - except for that whole grading papers part :)
• I started a tumblr. Best time sucker EVER.
• I won NaNo for the second time and ended up with an actual workable, revisable manuscript that I love.
• I managed to keep up with all my favorite TV shows and still do all the work I was supposed to.
• I read 140 books - only 10 shy of my goal.
• Experienced the heart-rending closure of Borders. Saying good-bye to my co-workers, customers, and the store itself was one of the saddest things I've gone through and brings tears to my eyes even now.

• Started a book club and then a book blog with a bunch of my coworkers who just couldn't bear saying good-bye to each other forever.
• Became an aunt to the CUTEST little ladybug girl in the entire world.

Proof that she is in fact the cutest ladybug girl. ever.

• Cut my hair. (hey, that's a big deal for me!)
• Managed to post on my blog pretty regularly over the summer.
• Lost track of my bloggy buddies. Didn't carve out the time to visit around and keep up with everybody. I really, really miss it.
• Experienced the premier of the final Harry Potter movie with an amazing group of movie-goers in Toronto.

• Went to Italy! With good friends and professors from school.
• Was a panelist in three panels at Polaris (including moderating 2 of them) - WAY outside my comfort zome, but SO loved every minute of it!
• Started going to the gym again!
• Decided not to go straight on for my doctorate, which is a decision I'm happy with.
• Laughed a lot, made good friends, cried some.

Looking forward:

This year is going to bring a lot of changes and, while I don't really make "resolutions" I think it would be good to make some goals or articulate some hopes.

• Finish grad school on a high note! I graduate in May and I want this semester to be more positive than this past semester was.
• Get at least one adjuncting job. I love teaching freshman English and I would love to be able to do this while I figure out what my next step is.
• Figure out what I want to do with this blog. The every day thing is most definitely not working. Also, I feel like it gets stale when I put myself in too much of a schedule. But I need some sort of regularity to keep myself motivated. So I need to figure that out.
• Get back to visiting all y'all's blogs. I miss it. I miss it so much and that made me realise that I don't want to do without it. So I need to carve out some time to do it.
• Rewrite Solo, my NaNo novel. I love this book, but it needs some serious work. I will buckle down and do this. I don't want another crummy rough draft sitting around moping at me.

• Win NaNo for the third time. Yes.
• Read 150 books. I want to make this goal this year.
• Step out of my comfort zone more. I'm not sure what form this should take, but I'm getting claustrophobic and if I'm not moving away from home yet I need to do more things to get me out and meeting people with like interests.
• Help build our group book blog into a great place for readers to gather and share book love.
• Waste less time on the interwebs. Twitter is fantastically fun and Tumblr is a great place to share fandom love, but honestly? I need to set a timer or something and get out more.
• Go to the gym regularly. Even when I'm busy. I know I feel better when I do this, so why is it so hard?!
• Laugh hard, cry sometimes, make more friends.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

What are your highlights from last year? Things you're looking forward to this year?

New and Improved! Resolve!

sounds like a cleaner or something ... oh wait, it is.

Um, moving on...

Soooo the most amazing and spifferiffic Lindsey over at Dangerous with a Pen posted that she had made a resolution to write 100 words a day.

And I realized that this was possibly the most brilliant idea I had ever heard.*

because even when you're dead tired and you've taught 32 ungrateful little freshmen** and have literary theory oozing out of your ear and your pretty sure your contacts are now fused to your corneas from staring at the computer screen for so long, you can still write 100 words. Like totes easy. It's what, a paragraph? pshht. Anyone can write a paragraph.

I wanted to do some major work on my NaNo novel over break, but I hadn't written a single word. I started doing this, each night it's easy to say, oh, yeah. Just 100 words before I go to sleep. And I've managed to work out the back stories and background information I was needing to do before I could officially start the re-write. I've written more in the last 3 days than I had in the last 2 weeks! (which isn't really saying much. Because I really didn't write ANYTHING in the last 2 weeks. Which is my point.)

Sometimes the 100 words turns into like 200 or 500 or 1,000 words. But even if it doesn't, at least I've written SOMETHING. Which is kind of the point of this whole writer thing, right?

So we have an official badge and everything and we're going to encourage each other, because 100 words is totally DOABLE.

Feel free to snag our button if you want a little motivation and you're like us with crazy busy lives that too often zombinize your brains and you think it just might be doable too.

Here's to a year of writing 100 words a day, which, if you think about it, would be 36,500 words over the year, even if you never wrote more and that's like half a novel! Just from 100 tiny little words a day! Crazy talk.

*except for all of those other brilliant ideas I've heard that I say that about.
**well, not all 32 of them are ungrateful