Author: Rachelle

Monday’s Minutes

Published on by Rachelle

“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:

Brooklyn Hobbit Inkdeath

Lestat

Challenges:

Total pages read: 270

Total # of books for the year: 16.  I thought I was in a reading slump until I started reading The Vampire Lestat on Friday night.  It turns out that the problem was A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.  It’s an excellent book, but it’s depressing and makes me think far too much about how my great grandparents and grandparents struggled to make a life for themselves.  Also, how there are people today who are still barely making ends meet, or even failing to do so.  Since my job makes me aware of that on a daily basis, I don’t want to be faced with it when I’m reading.  I might pick it back up during the readathon this weekend, but until then, I’m going to stick with what keeps me reading.

My Top Commenters: Thank you to everyone who stopped by to welcome me back and leave well wishes 🙂

What are you reading this week?

#FitReaders Check-In

Published on by Rachelle2 Comments
FitReaders2016
  • This check-in is for April 8th – 14th.
  • My last check-in was for March 11 – 17th.  Not much changed after that, except I started a new weight loss program offered through the VA.  Also, last week, I finally met my step goal of averaging 6K steps per day.
  • I’m a little frustrated with the weight loss program since I seem to be losing and regaining the same 5 lbs. for the past couple weeks.  I’m hoping that will change soon.
  • My new step goal is to average 7K steps per day, which I didn’t meet this week.  However, I was sick with a stomach bug for about half of it, so I’m letting it go.
  • My new stairs goal is 49 flights of stairs, which I have no trouble meeting now that I live in a three story townhome style apartment.
  • Speaking of my new apartment; the complex’s fitness center is about 200 ft. from my front door, and it’s got all the equipment I need to get a good workout.  Buh-bye excuses! 🙂
  • If you’d like to add me as a friend on FitBit, you can find me HERE.
  • Yoga Workouts: 0/5
  • Steps: 36,658/49,000
  • Miles: 15.06/17.5
  • Flights of stairs: 87/49
  • Active Minutes: 102/210
  • Monthly 5K Races Completed: 1/10
  • Monthly 1 Mile Fun “Runs” Completed: 2/10
  • Total Money Donated: $13.49/$100.00

Monday’s Minutes

Published on by Rachelle2 Comments

“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:

Brooklyn Hobbit Inkdeath

Finished:

  • The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
  • Crows and Cards by Joseph Helgerson

Ripley Crows

Challenges:

Total pages read: 643 – This is for the past couple of weeks and is just a guesstimate since I wasn’t keeping track of my pages read after my laptop went down.

Total # of books for the year: 16.  With everything going on, I haven’t done much reading.  There were several days in a row in which I didn’t read at all.  Every time I thought about picking up a book, all I could see were the boxes still needing to be unpacked and all the stuff that needed to be organized and put away.  No matter how smooth a move goes, it seems inevitable that some things get misplaced and end up being found in the most random of places.  I am not someone that handles that type of chaos very well, and so I couldn’t justify the reading time I desperately needed until most, if not all, of my new apartment was put in order.  I also had to get my laptop back up and running with a fresh install and then take the time to reinstall all the drivers and download what felt like endless updates.  I’m still not done since I need to transfer my files from my external hard drive and install all the programs I use.  On top of that, I’ve got a stomach bug that has kept me from doing much of anything, including running my weekly errands.  So, this week will probably be light on the reading as well, as I catch up with the grocery shopping, laundry, and other adult things that I wish I had the money to pay someone else to do so I could read.

My Top Commenter: Litha from Victorian Soul Book Critiques.

What are you reading this week?

I’m Back!…Sort of…

Published on by Rachelle3 Comments

I just wanted to post this quick message that my laptop is mostly back in working order.  The Boyfriend and I also moved into our new apartment, and most of the boxes have been unpacked.  My new home isn’t perfect yet, and neither is my laptop.  So while I’ll begin posting my Monday Minutes and #FitReaders posts again soon, I’m not ready to get back into the full swing of things quite yet.  Besides finding new homes for the random objects I’ve been taking out of the few remaining boxes, and downloading and installing the kajillion updates for my laptop, I’m also dealing with a bit of a stomach bug.  Either that or there was something wrong with last night’s dinner.  Regardless, I’m taking it easy.

Technical Difficulties

Published on by Rachelle3 Comments

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!

Monday’s Minutes

Published on by Rachelle

“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.

Ripley Crows Brooklyn

Hobbit

Finished:

  • The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
  • Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

Thirteenth Tale Neverwhere

Challenges:

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

Published on by Rachelle2 Comments

Hobbit Adventure

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.

Hobbit Lord of the Rings

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

Published on by Rachelle1 Comment
FitReaders2016
  • 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.

Fun Run Mile March

  • 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

Published on by Rachelle1 Comment

“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.

Thirteenth Tale Bad Magic Brooklyn

Finished:

  • An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon

Echo

Challenges:

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?

Published on by Rachelle4 Comments
Take Control TBR Pile Read-a-thon

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.