If you follow me on Twitter, you may already know that I had to take my laptop to the shop to hopefully get fixed. It’s still in the shop. The Boyfriend gave me his old desktop computer, but it doesn’t have a wireless card and my “office” isn’t near enough to connect directly. That leaves me with my phone, but it’s beyond a pain in the rear to write blog posts on my phone, and I can just forget about adding graphics. Because of all that, I wasn’t able to do my #FitReaders check-in today, and I don’t know when I’ll be able to blog again. My laptop may not be fixable. So, until further notice, I’m on a blogging break, but please rest assured that I will be back! I’ve been going through withdrawals and I miss all of you since not having my laptop also means not being able to do much socializing, commenting, or blog reading the way I want to be able to do. Again, I will be back as soon as possible! TTFN!
Month: March 2016
Monday’s Minutes
“Monday’s Minutes” is a weekly post in which I track my bookish life. All book covers are linked to Goodreads unless otherwise noted.
Current Reads:
- The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
- Crows and Cards by Joseph Helgerson
- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith – for the Classic Club Spin.
- The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien – for the #FanspeakTheRing Read-Along.
Finished:
- The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
- Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
Challenges:
- Show Your Shelves Some Love: 11 out of 51
- March TBR Challenge: 2
Total pages read: 880
Total # of books for the year: 14.
My Top Commenter: Shaina from Shaina Reads.
What are you reading this week?
#FanspeakTheRing 2016 Read-Along
Fanspeak Files is hosting a year long read-along of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy, starting tomorrow! I don’t even know how many times I’ve read The Hobbit, but I’ve only read The Lord of the Rings once in my life, and that was when I was twelve or thirteen.
The timing couldn’t be better, either. Why? I own all the audiobooks but have yet to listen to any of them. Also, since I started working full-time, I get more time to listen to audiobooks on my drive to and from work every day than I get to read most nights after work and on the weekends. That is especially true now that the Boyfriend and I are packing up the apartment to move the first week of April. I can listen to my all-time favorite book while I pack!
Here’s the schedule:
- March 20th to June 19th – The Hobbit
- June 20th to September 21st – The Fellowship of the Ring
- September 22nd to December 20th – The Two Towers
- December 21st to March 19th, 2017 – The Return of the King
Will you be joining #FanspeakTheRing?
#FitReaders Check-In
- This check-in is for March 11th – 17th.
- I completed a 1 Mile Fun “Run” on Tuesday with the Boyfriend. We walked just short of 2 miles after I got home from work. I wanted to do a 5k, but my body isn’t quite ready for that yet. I’m hoping I’ll be able to get that distance by next month.
- If you’d like to add me as a friend on FitBit, you can find me HERE.
- Yoga Workouts: 0/5
- Steps: 33,278/42,000
- Miles: 13.67/17.5
- Flights of stairs: 48/42
- Active Minutes: 108/210
Monthly 5K Races Completed: 1/10- Monthly 1 Mile Fun “Runs” Completed: 2/10
- Total Money Donated: $9.51/$100.00
Monday’s Minutes
“Monday’s Minutes” is a weekly post in which I track my bookish life. All book covers are linked to Goodreads unless otherwise noted.
Current Reads:
- The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
- Bad Magic by Pseudonymous Bosch
- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith – for the Classic Club Spin.
Finished:
- An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon
Challenges:
- Show Your Shelves Some Love: 9 out of 51
- March TBR Challenge: 0
Total pages read: 554
Total # of books for the year: 12. This past week was rough. I’m behind on everything, or I feel like I’m struggling to keep up, and I’ve got so much more that has to get done during the limited hours when I’m not at work. So many things are vying for my time and energy, and I just want to shut myself away in a quiet well-lit room when I don’t have a headache and do nothing but read my books and ignore the world outside of them. With that being said, I will probably be taking an extended blogging break until mid-April. I’ll still do my weekly Monday’s Minutes and #FitReaders Check-In posts, but if you don’t see anything else from me, it’s because there’s too much going on right now in my life. The Boyfriend and I are moving the first week of April, and until our actual moving day, we’ll be busy sorting, organizing, and packing up our stuff and cleaning when we’re not working or sleeping.
My Top Commenter: Shaina from Shaina Reads.
What are you reading this week?
#TakeControlThon – What Happened?
Well, I read a little more than half of The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. I also had to go with the Boyfriend to sign the lease on our new apartment. I dealt with frequent, though enjoyable, interruptions from both him and our cat, Dresden. I ate my veggie platter and some trail mix for snacks lunch. We watched an episode of House of Cards while we ate take-out so I wouldn’t have to cook during the readathon (not that it saved me much time, but the Boyfriend didn’t have to twist my arm to convince me it was a good idea).
So, when it came time to write an update, I didn’t want to take even more time away from my reading. I wanted to finish the book. I wished it was today, Sunday when the Boyfriend is at work and the only interruptions I have for most of the day are the cat and laundry. I usually don’t have to get dressed or go anywhere or do much of anything until it’s time to make dinner. But no, it was Saturday, the day when I usually try to do everything I can’t get done during the week so I can relax on Sunday. I didn’t do most of it so I could attempt, but ultimately flail* to do this readathon, and now I have to do it all today when I would rather be reading without interruption.
I also lost about 10 hours of the readathon right out of the gate because it started at midnight. There was no way I was going to try to stay up for 24 hours after I had already been up since 6:30 am that morning. I knew that going in, but I’m still a bit frustrated by the idea of starting a readathon at midnight. One of the things I love about Dewey’s is that at least for my time zone, it begins in the morning after a good night of sleep.
So, that’s what happened. Sorry for the rant. I’m just irritated about the whole thing, especially the fact that I didn’t finish The Thirteenth Tale, which, by the way, is an amazing book so far. I’ll be lucky if I find the time to finish it by the end of next week.
*This is not a typo. Accomplishing any amount of reading is never a failure.
#TakeControlThon – Let the Reading Begin!
Kimberly over at Caffeinated Book Reviewer is hosting the #TakeControlThon as part of the March Take Control of Your TBR Pile Challenge. Anyone can participate, though, so you should join in! The only real rule is to read books from your TBR that were published before March 1st of this year.
Do I have a TBR list for this readathon? No. However, I do know that I’ll be reading The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. I started it while I was on my lunch break at work and I couldn’t wait to get home to continue reading. If that feeling continues, and I think it will, I have no idea if I’ll be reading anything else.
I will try to stay up as long as possible during the readathon since I would like to read more than one book, but I know I won’t be doing the entire 24 hours. However, I will be posting an update or two. Right now, the only thing I truly have planned is what snacks I’m eating. I got a veggie tray and some pretzels and hummus. Everything else, including breakfast, lunch, and dinner, will be spur of the moment, flying by the seat of my pants, winging it. Why? Because I have a pile of scribbled on post-it notes detailing all the things I have or want to do in the near future, and I spent most of the week suffering from severe headaches or out doing other important things that kept me from organizing it all into easily manageable chunks and updating my day planner. So I don’t have a clue what I’m doing right now. Also, I spent Friday night watching New Girl. Don’t judge.
Are you participating in the #TakeControlThon?
#FitReaders Check-In
- This check-in is for March 4th – 10th.
- I only met my stairs goal this week, and even though I’m no longer wearing an ankle brace, I had severe headaches for two days that stopped me from doing much of anything.
- If you’d like to add me as a friend on FitBit, you can find me HERE.
- Yoga Workouts: 0/5
- Steps: 28,938/42,000
- Miles: 11.89/17.5
- Flights of stairs: 45/42
- Active Minutes: 71/210
Monthly 5K Races Completed: 1/10- Monthly 1 Mile Fun “Runs” Completed: 1/10
- Total Money Donated: $8.69/$100.00
Thursday’s Things: A Saint, a Leprechaun, and an Irishman Walk into a Bar…
…and they all did some much-needed spring cleaning 😉 Before that, though, they checked out this Irish and Spring-related list of links:
- 10 Modern Irish Novels You Shouldn’t Miss This St. Patrick’s Day – I have no idea if any of these books are any good, but they seem worth a try.
- Bookish Boozing: 12 Beers With Literary Names – While these beers aren’t Irish, why settle for the beers that everyone else is drinking on St. Patty’s Day? If you’re going to drink while reading, you might as well pop the top off a bookish beer.
- The Do’s and Don’ts of Mixing Books with Booze – Before you tip back one of those bookish beers, read this, and save yourself the headache you’ll get when you see your bank statement.
- 14 Books That Will Kickstart Your Spring – The Spring Equinox is just three days after St. Patrick’s Day. Perhaps after all that drinking, you could detox with one of these books.
- How to Throw the Perfect Mad Hatter’s Tea Party – Spring time, when it’s not raining, is the perfect time of year to throw a tea party.
- Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell’s Guide to Malicious Fairies – Leprechauns aren’t the only
mythicalcreature you have to worry about coming across. - How to Host an Anne of Green Gables Party – Do you prefer Anne over Alice? Throw an Anne of Green Gables themed party instead of a Mad Hatter’s.
- TBR Calculator – Do you want to know how much longer you’ll need to regularly dust all those unread books on your shelves? Tally up the number of books you own, enter in how many you read last year, and this handy calculator will make you consider culling those shelves once again.
- How To Weed Your Bookshelves – If the amount of time for you to get through your TBR mountain is too long to handle without hyperventilating, use this to get rid of the books you know you’ll never read.
- I Kondo’d The Heck Out Of My Bookshelves – It seems the new rule of life is to get rid of whatever doesn’t “spark joy.”
Classics Club Spin: The Winner Is…
The Classics Club announced the Spin number today:
8
Which means I’ll be reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith. I’ll take a look at the book later today and figure out if I want to do a readalong.
- Albee, Edward: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
- Lawrence, D.H.: Lady Chatterley’s Lover
- Atwood, Margaret: A Handmaid’s Tale
- Du Maurier, Daphne: Rebecca
- Barrie, J.M.: Peter Pan
- Dumas, Alexandre: The Count of Monte Cristo
- Remarque: All Quiet on the Western Front
- Smith, Betty: A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
- Bronte, Anne: Agnes Grey
- Fitzgerald, F. Scott: Tender is the Night
- Flaubert, Gustav: Madame Bovary
- Milton, John: Paradise Lost
- Burnett, Frances Hodgson: The Secret Garden
- Proust, Marcel: Swann’s Way
- Goethe, Johann: Faust
- Carroll, Lewis: Alice in Wonderland
- Yeats, William Butler: Irish Faerie Tales
- Hemingway, Ernest: A Farewell to Arms
- de Saint-Exupery, Antoine: The Little Prince
- Swift, Jonathon: Gulliver’s Travels