Goodreads Reading Challenge

I completed my Goodreads reading challenge today!  Luckily the year is not over yet and I plan to read more during my holidays.  Because of my reader's block earlier this year, my Goodreads reading challenge was set at a measly 50 books, compared to the 130 I read last year.  I haven't decided yet whether or not I will participate in the challenge again next year.  There are two articles from BookRiot: one for participating and one against participating in the challenge.  Both have very valid points.  I, too, feel pressure when I'm behind or when I fail to reach my goal (only 130 of 150 last year).  My original goal for this year was again 150 but the longer my reader's block lingered the less achievable that goal seemed to be.  So I lowered it to a more manageable 50 and even then I've only just managed to complete it.  Also, I made a point of reading less Amazon ebooks.  Since most of the ones I read last year were more like short stories than actual novels, it didn't seem right to count them towards my reading challenge even if I was actually reading.  I guess it's all about our own self-imposed rules or lack thereof.  As Jessica Pryde wrote in her article about NOT participating: "The challenge was exacerbated by the guilt that I had so many books in the house, both paper and electronic, and felt that I needed to push through them".  I have this problem, too.  I recently culled my library of titles I knew I would never read.  And yet I still have hundreds of books I do want to read.  I have even more ebooks stored away to work my way through.  I have plenty of reading material and not enough time.  Between my reader's block and becoming a pet owner for the first time, I feel like my reading time is even rarer than it was before.  I lament how little reading I have done this year.  Even though I have read some great books.

Read on,
Paula

2014 goal...accomplished!

I have already finished my 2014 reading goal.  Instead of spending my holidays reading, I used my time off to weed out my TBR, my home library, AND my ebooks.  I whittled my TBR down from 800+ to 420.  And added my ebook titles to my TBR.  I'm pretty proud of that.  I have a little bit more space on my bookshelves and my hard drive now.  And I plan to only buy books I have already read and plan to reread in the future.  So now my 2014 reading goal is to read from my TBR and my home library.  I can be flexible enough to include titles that I don't have yet but I need to focus on reading what I already have.

And now that I've done all that, I can sit pack and read.

Read on,
Paula

Keeping track of my books

After much consideration, I decided to give up my Shelfari account.  Since Goodreads and Shelfari are both owned by Amazon now, it seemed even more redundant.  And I'm still using Library Thing to keep track of just the books I own.  I have only one friend who uses Shelfari (hence the reason I joined) and she doesn't use it or read very often.  I have more friends and more activity on Goodreads.

It's taking me a while to get used to adding titles to my TBR and recording books I've read in only one place.  And since I have the Goodreads app, this is so much more convenient and easy.

And as the holidays approach, I am looking forward to some uninterrupted reading time.

I have come to the realization that I am an in-the-moment reader.  I want to read what takes my fancy right now.  I believe this is why my 2013 goal of reading books from my home library didn't pan out so well.  Because my books have been there for quite some time and the longer that a title has been on my TBR, the less likely I am to get around to reading it.  So my 2014 goal is to weed both my home library and my TBR of items I doubt I will ever read.  The ones that don't have enough of a draw to entice me to actually pick them up.  Once I have done that, I will endeavour to truly read a minimum of one book from either my home library or my TBR.  And then I will continue to read by whim the rest of the time.

Read on,

Paula

"Ready Player One" by Ernest Cline

Synopsis:

It's the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.

Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets. 

And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune--and remarkable power--to whoever can unlock them. 

For years, millions have struggled fruitlessly to attain this prize, knowing only that Halliday's riddles are based in the pop culture he loved--that of the late twentieth century. And for years, millions have found in this quest another means of escape, retreating into happy, obsessive study of Halliday's icons. Like many of his contemporaries, Wade is as comfortable debating the finer points of John Hughes's oeuvre, playing Pac-Man, or reciting Devo lyrics as he is scrounging power to run his OASIS rig. 

And then Wade stumbles upon the first puzzle. 

Suddenly the whole world is watching, and thousands of competitors join the hunt--among them certain powerful players who are willing to commit very real murder to beat Wade to this prize. Now the only way for Wade to survive and preserve everything he knows is to win. But to do so, he may have to leave behind his oh-so-perfect virtual existence and face up to life--and love--in the real world he's always been so desperate to escape. 

A world at stake. 

A quest for the ultimate prize. 

Are you ready?

My review:

I first heard about this book on The Readers podcast.  I listened to it again after having read the book and I firmly agree with all of the points Simon and Gav make.

Before I began reading the book, I was worried that I wouldn't get the pop culture references.  Although I belong to the demographic of children of the 80s, my family was poor and we lived in so small a town that it couldn't even be called a town.  I lived a rather sheltered and backwater childhood.  I think most of the references to 80s pop culture that I understand are mostly ones I know about from later in life.  Although we had a Commodore 64, that wasn't until the 90s.  I think our family and myself have been the opposite of early-adopters.  Even though we wanted those things when we were kids, we couldn't afford them and so I think we've just gotten used to having to wait until most of the hype has died down before we get it, if we do at all.  The time in one's life when most people tend to become gamers, I was too poor and never had the opportunity for that obsession to grow.  Although it is set in a gamer environment, it's not so over my head as to be inaccessible.  Most of the video game-related references were lost on me simply because I'm not a gamer.  And sadly, "Ghosts 'N Goblins" and "Frogger" were never mentioned.  So I just assumed that, aside from OASIS, all of the games, TV shows, and movies were real.  And, frankly, I just can't be bothered to actually check if that's true.  Whether they are or are not real is just irrelevant.  And aside from the video game-specific references, my fears about the book were allayed when I read the definitive reference to the movie "The Last Starfighter".

Getting sidetracked by rereading BBW romances for a few days, I feared that I would lose interest in "Ready Player One".  But luckily once I picked it up again, I was sucked back into it.

I was able to connect with Wade's character, mostly because of growing up poor, being good at school, and experiencing unrequited love.  And it was easy to root for him and keep reading just to see what would happen next.  There's a lot about the futuristic world and OASIS to be described but there is enough of the plot and character development interwoven with it that there's never too much of one aspect.  The quick pacing of the story was great even with the exposition.  The three main questions I had were "Will he or won't he win the contest?", "No matter who wins the contest, what will happen after?", and "Will Wade and Art3mis end up together or not?"  And I am happy with the way those questions were answered.

It was a great book that I thoroughly enjoyed and would recommend to anyone.  Because it is a quest novel, it is difficult for me to be interested in rereading it once I know how it ends.  I really liked the book a lot but I won't be keeping the copy that has been hovering on my bookshelves since I bought it.  But if you are a gamer and/or a geek, you should definitely add it to your own bookshelves.

Read on,

Paula

Reading revival

I'm not sure what stole most of my love of reading earlier this year...but thankfully it was only temporary.  I would like to thank the prettybooks website and the literary podcasts The Readers, Adventures With Words, and Book Riot for reviving my biblioholism.

I'm doing very poorly on my GoodReads challenge of reading 150 books.  It is November and I've only read 84 books so far.  Although I know I won't make it to my goal, I am okay with that.  Despite my book slump, I've still managed to read a fair number of books.  I currently have a few on the go at the same time.  And I am re-excited about a few I meant to read earlier in the year but didn't get around to.

My other goal for 2013 was to read more books from my own collection.  So far that goal has practically fizzled and died.  However, I finished Judging A Book By Its Lover by Lauren Leto earlier this month and it is from my collection.  So I plan to revive this goal.  I've decided that if I read more of my own collection and don't like the book, I will give it a new life by donating it somewhere and therefore making more room on my bookshelves for books I truly want to have there.  Although I love looking at pictures of large book collections and wish for my own collection to grow, I am aiming to have more of the ones I've read and loved and fewer of the ones from my TBR.  Since I started out 2013 with similarly lofty goals, we'll see how this goal works out.

Read on,
Paula

My reading is evolving

I have not been reading nearly as much this year as I had intended.  I'm also planning to purge my personal library because my reading tastes are changing and some of the books I own no longer interest me.

This is the first year that I've had any reading goals (1. Read from my home library and 2. Read 150 books) and neither one is going well.  I have not been reading as much as I usually do and so what seemed like an attainable goal is floundering.  And because of my shifting tastes, I have not been reading much from my personal library either.

Reading has always been a major part of my life and will continue to be.  However, considering the changes I'm making in my personal life (new hobbies!), I have made the decision to stop focusing on the number of books I read in a year.  I will continue to keep track of the books I do read, I just won't let myself get caught up in the competitive nature of reading goals.  Although Good Reads will allow me to change my goal (even though we're eight months along), I would rather not do that.  I know I will fail to reach the full 150 but I have managed to make it halfway so far.  And the year isn't over yet.

As for purging my home library, I haven't set a date to do it yet and I have other home projects (refinishing an end table) that will take priority.  And purging my home library will also have the benefit of making room on my literally overflowing bookshelves.  I will be giving the purged books to book-loving friends or donating them to either of the two libraries I work at...so at least I'll know they are going to find a good home.  And a recent episode of Books on the Nightstand talked about readers being or not being collectors.  I am just choosing to be a far pickier collector.  I will continue to buy the books I absolutely love.  I just won't buy many books without reading them first.  My post-purge home library will contain mostly just the books I adore and a few that I'm really eager to read.  Personal libraries reflect the person to whom they belong; as I am evolving, so must my personal library.

Read on,
Paula

2013 reading goal (revamped)

Three weeks into the new year and my 2013 reading goal has already been called into question.  It sounded like a great idea.  Since I'm so picky about the books I own, I know that the ones I haven't read yet will be interesting and are of interest to me.  The problem is all the new books that I want to read that I don't own.  The temptation is just too much.

I went on to the Chapters website to order a book I desperately want to read and the first thing I see on their header is the advertisement for the new Dan Brown book.  "Inferno" (aka Robert Langdon #4) is coming out in May.  I know my library will be getting it and I will want to be the first one to read it since I am a fan of the series.  The final book in the Jane True series by Nicole Peeler is also coming out in May.  The final book in the All Souls trilogy by Deborah Harkness is supposed to be coming out this year.  And now that I've started listening to the Books on the Nightstand podcast, I'm finding even more titles to add to my TBR.  All of this does not bode well for the 2013 reading goal.

So I've decided to modify the goal.  Instead of reading ONLY the books I own, I will do my best to read as many of them as possible while weaving library books in as well.  After the letdown that was "The Museum's Secret", I'm taking a break to read a library book called "On Chesil Beach" by Ian McEwan (which I heard about on BOTNS).  I've discussed my goal with my library coworkers and got some suggestions.  I could read one library book a month.  I could read one library book for each owned book I read.  Considering how many books I read each year, one library book per month doesn't sound like enough to me.  And one-for-one sounds like too much.  So I'm currently modifying the goal to be one library book for every two owned books I read.  I know I shouldn't feel guilty about all this since it is my own goal that I decided to do myself and no harm will come to anyone should I decide to give it up.  So I'm hoping that one-for-two will be enough to keep my silly guilt at bay while still accomplishing the goal I set for myself.  We'll see how it goes.

Owned books: 2
Borrowed books: 1

Read on,
Paula

Avoiding temptation...FAIL!

Not even a full two weeks into my new reading goal for 2013 and I've already broken my own rule.  Well, if I want to get real technical about it, I could say that I never said I couldn't borrow books from friends.  I said I was going to read the ones I own and not read library books until I was finished them all.

The funny thing is that not a frisson of guilt went through my body when my friend handed me her copy of "Soulless: The Manga, Volume 2".  I immediately started reading it...even though I was at work.  It made me realize that I need to put the novels on my wishlist.  I loved them and would like to reread them at some point in the future.

My friend apologized to me a few times for handing me the book even though she knew about my reading goal.  I accepted her apologies but wouldn't let her feel bad about it.  Even though I should have avoided temptation, I don't feel guilty about this because I will have the book finished before the night is over and I can go back to my own books.  In this particular case, I already know what happens in the storyline and am enjoying seeing how the graphic novel expresses that.  If it were a book I'd never read before, I'd be less tempted.

Will this be the last time I break my own rules this year?  I'm not sure.  I doubt it but it all depends on the specific situation.  But I'll keep track of the totals just to see how well I do.

Owned books read: 1, 1 in progress
Contraband read: 1

Read on,
Paula

Reading goal for 2013

Considering how many books I own (239) and how many of them I have yet to read (102), I've decided to read my own books in 2013.  My original goal was to read only books I own in 2013.  But then I actually counted how many I had and realized that it's not enough to sustain a full year's worth of reading.  As of the beginning of December of this year, I've read 203 books and the year isn't over yet.  So I will dedicate as much of 2013 as it takes to read all of the unread books I own and then I will continue on with books from my to-read list.  Looking through my bookshelves, I've already identified a few I want to read first...I just have to figure out the actual order by January 1, 2013.  In case you are interested to know, the titles I'm most eager to read are:

*People of the Book - Geraldine Brooks

*Iterations - Robert J. Sawyer

*100 Cupboards - N.D. Wilson

*Musicophilia - Oliver Sacks

*Inseparable - Emma Donoghue

*Ruined By Reading - Lynne Sharon Schwartz

I've also decided that I will also read any unread ebooks that I've already downloaded.  Any ebooks I download in 2013 will be filed away into a 2013 file until I've finished reading what I already own.  Some of the ebook titles I'm eager to read are:

*Rebellion (Matthew Hawkwood #4) - James McGee

*Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - Rebeccca Skloot

*Bachelor Girl - Betsy Israel

*most of the Rogue Angel series - Alex Archer

*Nature Principle - Richard Louv

I don't usually set myself any reading challenges but I got this idea from an episode of The Readers podcast.  I'll let you know how it works out.

Read on,

Paula