Monday’s Minutes #52

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

  • Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling – for the HP re-read.
  • Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams
  • A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon
  • Greenglass House by Kate Milford

Half Blood Dirk Breath

Greenglass

Finished:

  • A Christmas Carol by Rod Espinosa
  • Bitch Planet by Kelly Sue DeConnick, Valentine De Landro, Taki Soma, and Robert Wilson

Christmas Carol Graphic Novel Bitch Planet

Challenges:

  • Show Your Shelves Some Love: 52 out of 51.
  • Outdo Yourself: 89 out of 66.
  • Netgalley/Edelweiss: 15 out of 50. – I’ve given up on this challenge, but I’ll keep it listed here in case I get around to reading any more of my Netgalley ARCs.
  • Twelve Books of Christmas: 5 out of 12
  • COYER: 0 out of 10
  • SF/F Bingo: I think it’s safe to count Bitch Planet as a Dystopia, which means I’ve only got one more book to read for this challenge!  If I can finish Greenglass House before the end of the year, then I will have completed the entire board.

S&S Bingo2update16

Total pages read: 585

Total # of books for the year: 90.  I had a bit of an Outlander Christmas!  The Boyfriend got me the special collector’s edition of Outlander Season One, and his Mom got me the two-volume soundtrack!  I got his Mom the 1st book in the series and the coloring book 🙂  The Boyfriend also got me a personal embosser for my book collection, one of his Sister’s got me an Amazon gift card, and I got several other small gifts not related to books.  I’m so close to finishing A Breath of Snow and Ashes, but now that I’m back home and working on an editing project to bring in some extra cash, I have no idea when I’ll get it finished.  Hopefully before the end of the week.  It’s so good that I’m probably going to jump straight into the next book, An Echo in the Bone.

What are you reading this week?

Monday’s Minutes #51

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

  • Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling – for the HP re-read.
  • Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams
  • A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon
  • Greenglass House by Kate Milford

Half Blood Dirk Breath

Greenglass

Finished:

  • A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

Christmas Carol

Challenges:

S&S Bingo2update15

Total pages read: 608

Total # of books for the year: 88.  You know how I said I’d get back to a more normal volume of blogging once I graduated?  Well, about that…It’s now my full-time job to find a job (I’m starting a freelance editing project today, which will give me some extra cash to tide me over until I’ve got something more steady; hopefully, one of the many jobs I’ve applied for over the past week).  On top of that, I’ve been getting into the Christmas spirit and my favorite season by reading when I can and snuggling up with my cat and the Boyfriend under blankets and drinking hot chocolate.  We (minus our fur baby, Dresden) also went to a Christmas party.  I’m also traveling this week.  So, it’s fairly safe to say I won’t be getting back to my usual amount of blogging until at least after Christmas, but probably not until I find a full-time job, and I’m no longer sitting at my computer looking through job postings and submitting resumes for eight hours a day.

What are you reading this week?

Monday’s Minutes #50

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

  • Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling – for the HP re-read.
  • Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams
  • A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon

Half Blood Dirk Breath

Finished:

  • The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen
  • The Call of the Wild by Jack London

Snow Wild

Challenges:

S&S Bingo2update15

Total pages read: 402

Total # of books for the year: 87.  OMG, I GRADUATED FROM COLLEGE!!!  Thank you to everyone who commented with congrats and mutual excitement!  I know I said I would post photos on Sunday, but due to some unfortunate snags, I don’t have any great pictures of only me or ones I could crop well enough to remove those who don’t want their faces all over the internet.  Once I see what the professional photos look like, I may post those.  For now, I only have a question: did any of you fellow college graduates have the blues afterward?  I spent all of yesterday cleaning because it was either that or I wasn’t going to get out of bed.  I didn’t even want to read or watch anything on Netflix.  Cleaning helps, though, and the apartment desperately needed a return to dust-free order.

What are you reading this week?

Monday’s Minutes #49

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

  • Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling – for the HP re-read.
  • Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams
  • A Breath of Snow and Ashes by Diana Gabaldon

Half Blood Dirk Breath

Challenges:

S&S Bingo2update15

Total pages read: 347

Total # of books for the year: 85.  Final exams.  Enough said.

What are you reading this week?

Monday’s Minutes #48

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

  • Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince by J.K. Rowling – for the HP re-read.
  • Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams

Half Blood Dirk

Finished:

  • Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling
  • Fool Moon by Jim Butcher

Order of the Phoenix Fool

Challenges:

S&S Bingo2update15

Total pages read: 1,169

Total # of books for the year: 85.

What are you reading this week?

Monday’s Minutes #47

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

  • Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling – for the HP re-read.
  • Fool Moon by Jim Butcher
  • Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams

Order of the Phoenix Fool Dirk

Finished:

  • The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George
  • A Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz
  • The Soak by Patrick E. McLean

Paris Grimm Soak

Challenges:

S&S Bingo2update15

Total pages read: 848

Total # of books for the year: 83.  I didn’t get much of a chance to read until Thursday afternoon, but I made up for that by reading most of the weekend.  Part of the problem is that none of the audiobooks I have or are listed in my library’s catalog are calling to me, so the two hours I have every day of the week to get some reading in are being spent listening to other things, like podcasts or music.  Is it possible to have an audiobook slump?

What are you reading this week?

Monday’s Minutes #46

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

  • The Soak by Patrick E. McLean
  • Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling – for the HP re-read.
  • Fool Moon by Jim Butcher
  • Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency by Douglas Adams

Soak Order of the Phoenix Fool

Dirk

Finished:

  • The Witching Hour by Anne Rice

Witching

Challenges:

S&S Bingo2update14

Total pages read: 306

Total # of books for the year: 80.  I didn’t read much again this week. I’m still listening to music instead of audiobooks, and I’ve been spending most of my free time job hunting.  I’m very much looking forward to next week when I only have two days of class and can relax and read for the rest of the week.

What are you reading this week?

Monday’s Minutes #45

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

  • Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling – for the HP re-read.
  • The Witching Hour by Anne Rice
  • The Soak by Patrick E. McLean

Order of the Phoenix Witching Soak

Finished:

  • Thirteen Days in September by Lawrence Wright

Thirteen

Challenges:

S&S Bingo2update13

Total pages read: 304

Total # of books for the year: 79.  I didn’t get nearly as much reading done this week for two reasons. One, I’ve been listening to music instead of audiobooks, and two, I’ve been sleeping, watching movies, and coloring more than I’ve been cracking spines.  I think I hit a bit of a reading slump, but that’s quickly being remedied by The Soak, written by the same author who wrote The Merchant Adventurer.  Patrick E. McLean is one of the few who I will buy their books immediately.  I was lucky enough to have enough credits saved up to get the ebook as soon as it was released 🙂

What are you reading this week?

Monday’s Minutes #44

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

  • Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling – for the HP re-read.
  • The Witching Hour by Anne Rice
  • Thirteen Days in September by Lawrence Wright – for my History of US Foreign Policy class.

Order of the Phoenix Witching Thirteen

Finished:

  • The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury
  • Coraline by Neil Gaiman
  • Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling

I’ll try to get a review posted at some point for Coraline.

Halloween Coraline Goblet

Challenges:

S&S Bingo2update13

Total pages read: 958

Total # of books for the year: 78.  I wrote a guest post for Michelle @ Because Reading about vampires and Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice.  Why does Halloween have to be over?! I got swamped in research and writing a paper, so I didn’t get around to reviewing some of the books I wanted to before the end of October.  Sometimes I wish the spookiness could continue for another month.  Now that it’s November, I’ll be reading books that are still dark though less designed to frighten.  In addition to finishing The Witching Hour, I’ll hopefully have time to get to A Tale Dark and Grimm by Adam Gidwitz, Hyde by Daniel Levine, and Gretel and the Case of the Missing Frog Prints by P.J. Brackston.  All of them are library books, and I’d like to finish them before they’re due.

What are you reading this week?

Monday’s Minutes #43

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

  • Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling – for the HP re-read.
  • The Witching Hour by Anne Rice
  • The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury
  • Coraline by Neil Gaiman

Goblet Witching Halloween Coraline

Finished: The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, which I reviewed on Saturday.  I also finished Bird Box by Josh Malerman.  I’ll try to get the review for it posted before the end of the month.

Joy Bird Box

Challenges:

S&S Bingo2update13

Total pages read: 778

Total # of books for the year: 75.  Halloween approaches!  The Boyfriend and I have been watching “Penny Dreadful” and we have plans to finish the 2nd season before Halloween so we can spend the night watching “Hocus Pocus” and other favorites while drinking red wine and eating garlic cheese bombs, popcorn, candy corn, and chocolate frosted pumpkin muffins.  I’ve already got my books picked out for November, but I will be reading them purely for enjoyment whenever I have time outside of schoolwork and job hunting.  Even though I’ve been posting something nearly every day, I already feel like a weight has been lifted.  We’ll see how long that lasts as I move into next month and face down three exams.

What are you reading this week?