Category: The Book Fort

“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:

• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith – for the Classic Club Spin.
• Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke
• The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice – for the Never-Ending Anne Rice Reading Challenge.
• The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente
• Mother Ocean, Daughter Sea by Diana Marcellas

  

 

Finished:

• The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Challenges:

• Show Your Shelves Some Love: 15 out of 51

Total pages read: 461

Total # of books for the year: 20.  It looks like I’m mostly out of my blogging slump.  I’ve even got a surprise planned for the Summer that you’ll get to find out more about later this month.  Now I just need to get back into writing reviews and coming up with other posts for the weekends again.

What are you reading this week?

“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:

• 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.
• Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke
• The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice – for the Never-Ending Anne Rice Reading Challenge.
• The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente

  

 

Finished:

• The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
• Ms. Marvel, Vol. 1: No Normal by G. Willow Wilson
• Parnassus On Wheels by Christopher Morley

  

DNF:

• The Dragon Stone Trilogy by Kristian Alva

Challenges:

• Show Your Shelves Some Love: 15 out of 51

Total pages read: 505

Total # of books for the year: 19.  As much as I loved participating in Dewey’s 24 Hour Readathon, it wasn’t quite as fun for me as previous ones, and that has nothing to do with the wonderful and amazing people who organize and run the event.  It was entirely my fault.  I was concentrating so much on trying to get back into a reading groove, thinking that’s why I’ve been feeling so meh lately, that I didn’t even consider that it was the social aspect of blogging and readathoning that I’ve been missing.  I miss sharing my experiences with and my undying love of books with all of you.  However, every time I manage to find a little bit of time to sit down and write a review, I suddenly find myself uninterested and coming up with all the million other things I need to do.  Is this a blogging slump?!  If it is, then wow, does it suck.

Last year, I took time off because I was finishing my last semester of college and freaking out.  Earlier this year, I took time off because I had finally found a full-time job and I was freaking out.  Last month and most of this month, I took time off because I was in the middle of moving and was… freaking out.  Are you sensing a pattern?  Even though I’m freaking out about this, I’m not going to take more time off.  At least, not as long as I have recently.  Also, though it will look the same to all of you wonderful readers of my blog, it will be different.  Instead of taking a break and not writing anything, I’m going to take the next week or so to get organized again, plan, and write drafts.  Instead of being inactive, I’m going to be proactive.  You just won’t see the results until I start posting all those reviews and other things that I loved writing before this slump took my blogging mojo.

My Top Commenter: Vicky @ Books and Strips

What are you reading this week?

“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:

• 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.
• Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke
• The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice – for the Never-Ending Anne Rice Reading Challenge.

  

Challenges:

• Show Your Shelves Some Love: 12 out of 51

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?

“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:

• 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.
• Inkdeath by Cornelia Funke

  

Finished:

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

 

Challenges:

• Show Your Shelves Some Love: 12 out of 51

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?

“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?

“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?

“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:

• An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon
• Bad Magic by Pseudonymous Bosch

  

Finished:

• The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

Challenges:

• Show Your Shelves Some Love: 8 out of 51
• March TBR Challenge: 0

Total pages read: 240

Total # of books for the year: 11.  For the first time in my life, I’ve come across people who have negatively judged me for my accomplishments.  Several of my new coworkers have decided they don’t like me because I have a college education.  On top of that, it seems like the only topics of conversation at work are babies and child care.  I’ve never seen anyone with a book or overheard them talking about a book.  I’ve also never heard anyone talk about anything geeky.  In other words, I don’t fit in with my new coworkers, and I have to wait until I get home to relieve my starvation for an intelligent conversation that doesn’t involve mentioning anything to do with children.  At least work isn’t stressful.  *Sigh*  Everyone has to start somewhere, and hopefully it won’t be long until I move on to someplace much better.

My Top Commenter: Is Shaina from Shaina Reads.

What are you reading this week?

“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:

• An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon
• Bad Magic by Pseudonymous Bosch
• The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

   

Finished:

• Succubus Dreams by Richelle Mead

Challenges:

• Show Your Shelves Some Love: 7 out of 51
• COYER: 7 out of 10

Total pages read: 470

Total # of books for the year: 10.  This week has been interesting.  Just as I was beginning to figure out a new routine, I sprained my ankle and, due to a couple of other injuries and physical limitations, exercising went out the window.  Then, I went to a doctor’s appointment to meet my new PC, and I discovered that the quality of care at the VA clinic I go to has completely changed.  Before, many of the people working there were rude and not very helpful, wait times for anything were worse than the DMV, and my former PC spent more time lecturing me than working with me to improve my health or informing me about any of my lab results.  Now, every person I came across was friendly and more than willing to help, I never waited more than ten minutes for anything, and my new PC is the best doctor I’ve ever had in my life.  I was with her for an hour and left feeling as if, finally, I received the health care I needed.  On Saturday, the Boyfriend and I finally went to see Dead Pool.  Afterwards, we binge-watched the second half of the final season of Mad Men.  Both were amazing, but this is a book blog so I’ll spare you my ravings.

My Top Commenter: Is Shaina from Shaina Reads.

What are you reading this week?

“Monday’s Minutes” is a weekly post in which I track my bookish life.  All book covers are linked to Goodreads unless otherwise noted.

• An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon
• Bad Magic by Pseudonymous Bosch – This is on hold until March since it’s an ebook and I’m participating in Feel the Paper Love February.
• Succubus Dreams by Richelle Mead

   

Challenges:

• Show Your Shelves Some Love: 6 out of 51
• COYER: 7 out of 10

Total pages read: 206

Total # of books for the year: 9.  My first week of working full-time flew past.  I had a freak out moment Tuesday evening because I felt like I was never going to find enough time to read and blog or exercise again.  I managed to get through the week, and then on Friday night, I turned to the wonderful bloggers participating in #FitReaders as well as the Book Bloggers Do It Better group on Facebook.  I got lots of great advice, and I no longer feel overwhelmed.  Instead, I’ve got a plan.  We’ll see if it works.  However, because I haven’t gotten much reading accomplished this past week, I don’t have much to blog about for this week.  There will be some days that I don’t post anything, but I will try to space them out.  If my plan works, the sparse posting will only be temporary.

My Top Commenter: Is Shaina from Shaina Reads.

What are you reading this week?

“Monday’s Minutes” is a weekly post in which I track my bookish life.  All book covers are linked to Goodreads unless otherwise noted.

• An Echo in the Bone by Diana Gabaldon
• Bad Magic by Pseudonymous Bosch – This is on hold until March since it’s an ebook and I’m participating in Feel the Paper Love February.
• Succubus Dreams by Richelle Mead – Since I DNF’d the piece of brain candy that my book club chose for this month, I decided to return to a Paranormal Romance series I actually like.  To give you an idea of how rare it is for me to read something like this, the Boyfriend saw it sitting on the table and exclaimed, “What the Hell is this?!”

   

DNF:

• Cupcakes, Trinkets, and Other Deadly Magic by Meghan Ciana Doidge

Challenges:

• Show Your Shelves Some Love: 6 out of 51
• COYER: 7 out of 10

Total pages read: 352

Total # of books for the year: 9.  The Boyfriend and I celebrated Valentine’s Day on Saturday since he had to work on Sunday.  I made us a nice breakfast and then we went to look at an apartment that we’re planning on moving into next month.  After that, we got smoothies and headed to one of the many parks in Austin that has walking trails.  By the time we were done, we were ready for an early dinner at a little Cuban restaurant he found for me.  While I’m glad we went, I don’t plan on ever going back.  The food was only ok, and the highlight of our dinner was getting an ice cold can of Iron Beer, the Cuban take on root beer, and my favorite soda.  It was still barely evening, so we headed to the used bookstore to see if I could find a hardcover of Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery.  I found a hardcover of the first three books instead, which is even better IMO.  It was supposed to be my one book purchase this year, and we had already exchanged gifts (he got me a hardcover edition of Written in My Own Heart’s Blood by Diana Gabaldon, and I got him A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms by George R.R. Martin).  However, the Boyfriend bought it for me and told me to save my book money for something new <3  After that we headed home to eat lots of chocolate and watch Shrek.

My Top Commenter: Is Shaina from Shaina Reads.

What are you reading this week?