Monday’s Minutes

Published on by Rachelle

“Monday’s Minutes” is a weekly post in which I track my bookish life.

Currently Reading:

  • Shelved Under Murder by Victoria Gilbert
  • Codex Born by Jim C. Hines

DNF:

  • Start Late, Finish Rich by David Bach

Finished:

  • The Stolen Letter by Paige Shelton

Challenges:

#ShelfLove – 9 of 51 books from my TBR.

Total pages read this week: 591

Total books for the year: 13 of 90.

Despite how much I’m reading, I’m not finishing books fast enough to catch up to my annual goal. I’m now 10 books behind schedule. I have no idea if I’m going to be able to catch up anytime soon, either, since I’m starting a new job on Wednesday.

Down the TBR Hole #81

Published on by Rachelle
Image: hjl

How it works:

  • Go to your Goodreads to-read shelf.
  • Order on ascending date added.
  • Take the first 5 (or 10 if you’re feeling adventurous) books
  • Read the synopses of the books
  • Decide: keep it or should it go?
My TBR pile shot up again to 1060 books thanks to finding even more books that never got added to Goodreads; this time thanks to a whole slew of ebooks I forgot I had.  With that, I think I’m done with having a goal to work towards.  Even if I were to not buy a single book for the next decade (about how long it would take me to read all of the books I currently own), that still leaves my ever-growing wish list, which now stands at 265 books.  I’m never not going to find more books I want to read.  So, no more goals (other than my annual reading goal).  Instead, I will just continue these posts until I don’t want to write them anymore.

This week’s books:

Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk – GO.  As long as this has been on my wish list and as many opportunities as I’ve had to either check it out or buy it, but didn’t, I think I need to accept that I’m never going to read it. Monsterland by Michael Okon – GO.  This sounds a little too much like Jurassic Park, but with monsters, and after looking at some of the reviews, I’m not the only person to think that. Dreams Underfoot by Charles de Lint – KEEP.  This book was recommended to me years ago, and I own it, but still haven’t gotten around to reading it.  Considering de Lint is a “must-read” author for Fantasy fans, I’m moving this one up closer to the top of my TBR for this year. The Victorian Book of the Dead by Chris Woodyard – KEEP. It’s frustrating that I still haven’t found a physical copy of this book in any bookstore, whether new or used.  I might have no choice but to buy it on Amazon. Understanding Cemetery Symbols by Tui Snider – KEEP.  Another one I’ll have to eventually buy a physical copy of on Amazon. Grave Suspicion, Consumed, Indian Summer, and The Hand of Andulain by Aaron Mahnke – KEEP.  I grouped these 4 books together since they’re all by the same author, who is also the creator of the “Lore” podcast, and a whole bunch of other awesome stuff I enjoy.  They’re all still on my wish list because I haven’t been able to find them in paperback (except for on Amazon, of course).  I love reading Horror novels in paperback.  Perhaps because that’s how I always read Stephen King novels when I was a teenager. Journeys of Frodo by Barbara Strachey – KEEP.  This will always be a part of my permanent collection, whether I ever finish reading it or not.  For a while, I had been trying to complete the “Walk to Mordor” challenge, and I followed along in the book as I made progress.
My TBR pile is down to 1058 books. Next week, all of the books are a mix of Fiction and Non-Fiction, and the kinds of books start to vary instead of being whole series or by the same author.

#FitReaders Check-In

Published on by Rachelle
  • This check-in is for March 26th – April 1st.
  • Only a couple more Doctor’s appointments to go, and then hopefully I’ll be done until next year.
  • If you have a FitBit, you can find me HERE.
  • Active Days: 2/5
  • Steps: 29,618
  • Miles: 12.08
  • Total Miles: 157.01/1,000
  • Active Minutes: 84/150

#ShelfLove 2021 – Still the Oldest Books

Published on by Rachelle

For March, the #ShelfLove Challenge participants are discussing the oldest books on our shelves.  I decided to look back to the books I had written about in 2017, and discovered that I had only read one of the books I had mentioned, and the rest are still on my TBR. The book I’ve owned the longest and still haven’t read has moved from place to place, country to country with me since 2005!

  1. The Holy Barbarians by Lawrence Lipton – This book was mentioned in an episode of Gilmore Girls.  It wasn’t an easy book to find at the time, especially since I was living in Korea, but I tracked a copy down through a used bookseller that didn’t have a problem shipping to an APO.  I was a bit obsessed with the Beat Generation and majorly obsessed with all things Gilmore Girls; otherwise, I wouldn’t have gone through all the trouble of finding it.
  2. Memory Mambo by Achy Obejas – After my Abuelo passed away, I began finding and buying any book that might bring me a little closer to the Cuban part of my family.
  3. The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne – This book, and the next three, were bought free on my brand spanking new first-generation Nook right before I deployed to Iraq in 2009.
  4. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
  5. The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo
  6. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins – Though I started reading this one last year, I never finished it, so it deserves to stay on the list.
  7. Book Lust by Nancy Pearl – Always a fan of books about books, as soon as I saw this offered on Nook, I snatched it up.
  8. Hiking Alone by Mary Beath – I purchased this while on a road trip in 2011.  I had stopped for the night in Albuquerque, NM and when I got up the next morning, I realized my hotel was just across the street from the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center.
  9. The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens – I bought this from a little independent bookstore and coffee shop in Utah during that same road trip.  Their largest cup was “The Hagrid” and I’ve wished that coffee and tea shops everywhere offered “Hagrid”-sized drinks ever since.
  10. The First Pillar by Roy Huff – This one is the oldest on my Want to Read list on Goodreads. Though I know there are books I have owned for far longer, this one, along with 22 others, is from when I started tracking my TBR in 2014.


Since half of these books are in storage right now and the others are ebooks, I’m probably not going to get them off my TBR this year. The only exception to that might be The First Pillar since one of the prompts for a reading challenge I’m participating in is “Oldest on TBR.”  

What are some of the oldest books on your shelf?

Monday’s Minutes

Published on by Rachelle

“Monday’s Minutes” is a weekly post in which I track my bookish life.

Currently Reading:

  • The Stolen Letter by Paige Shelton
  • Start Late, Finish Rich by David Bach

Finished:

  • The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell
  • Small Spaces by Katherine Arden
  • The Library Book ed. by Rebecca Gray

Challenges:

#ShelfLove – 9 of 51 books from my TBR.

Total pages read this week: 900

Total books for the year: 12 of 90.

Since all of the books I’ve been reading lately have come from the library, they don’t count for the #ShelfLove challenge. That’s ok, though, since any book I finish counts towards my annual reading goal, and I’m still 9 books behind schedule.

#FitReaders Check-In

Published on by Rachelle
  • This check-in is for March 19th – 25th.
  • I have yet another Doctor’s appointment today, and I’m honestly starting to get tired of it.
  • If you have a FitBit, you can find me HERE.
  • Active Days: 1/5
  • Steps: 18,707
  • Miles: 7.65
  • Total Miles: 144.93/1,000
  • Active Minutes: 11/150

Monday’s Minutes

Published on by Rachelle

“Monday’s Minutes” is a weekly post in which I track my bookish life.

Currently Reading:

  • The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell

Finished:

  • How Should One Read a Book? by Virginia Woolf

Challenges:

#ShelfLove – 9 of 51 books from my TBR.

Total pages read this week: 175

Total books for the year: 9 of 90.

“The Last Kingdom” show starts out almost exactly as the book does and I thought watching the show had ruined the book for me. However, the book then goes on into much further detail on what Uhtred’s life was like with the Danes, and it’s really good reading so far. I’m still glad I took a very brief break to read How Should One Read a Book?, though.

#FitReaders Check-In

Published on by Rachelle
  • This check-in is for March 12th – 18th.
  • Doctor’s appointments, phone interviews for jobs I applied for, and house hunting meant that I completely forgot about posting this yesterday.
  • My labs came back, and my cholesterol is a little too high, so I’m focusing on cleaning up my diet and getting more exercise in general.
  • If you have a FitBit, you can find me HERE.
  • Active Days: 2/5
  • Steps: 21,256
  • Miles: 8.70
  • Total Miles: 137.28/1,000
  • Active Minutes: 79/150

Monday’s Minutes

Published on by Rachelle

“Monday’s Minutes” is a weekly post in which I track my bookish life.

Currently Reading:

  • The Last Kingdom by Bernard Cornwell

Finished:

  • Sixpence House by Paul Collins

DNF:

  • Lament by Maggie Stiefvater

Challenges:

#ShelfLove – 8 of 51 books from my TBR.

Total pages read this week: 219

Total books for the year: 8 of 90.

After I got my new library card, I placed a bunch of books on hold that were on my wish list but that had very few copies available and fairly long hold lists. My thinking was that would give me plenty of time to read books I already have and then be able to read the library books as they came available. I did finish all the books I’d been reading since before the move and started Lament, a library book, but now my holds are starting to come in already; The Last Kingdom becoming available over the weekend. I went ahead and DNF’d Lament then because as much as I wanted to like it, I didn’t, and it was painful to read.

#FitReaders Check-In

Published on by Rachelle
  • This check-in is for March 5th – 11th.
  • I’ve had quite a few Doctor’s appointments since meeting my new Primary Care.  She’s wonderful and is trying to get everything taken care of that hasn’t been done since before the pandemic started.  I’ve got more appointments coming up over the next couple of months.
  • Now that I’m more settled into my new home and getting back into my morning and evening routines, I’m back to eating healthier and I’m sleeping better.  Now I just have to work on the exercise part of the equation.
  • If you have a FitBit, you can find me HERE.
  • Active Days: 1
  • Steps: 20,492
  • Miles: 8.34
  • Total Miles: 128.58/1,000
  • Active Minutes: 35/150