Category: Reading Challenge 2016

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The unabridged list of what I read in February

Jasper Fforde quote

February delivered what feels suspiciously like a reading slump, but not exactly. I say “not exactly” because I’m still reading (what else is there to do? I have few other interests, really). But I’m distracted and a little bit restless.

#ReadMyOwnDamnBooks felt like my anchor and inspiration this month. When I struggled to focus on what the heck I wanted to be reading, I turned to the books that, at some point, felt like must-reads. That’s why they’re on my shelves, right? Some of them I read completely. Almost as many, I read only in parts. Continue reading “The unabridged list of what I read in February”

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10 times Because of Winn-Dixie moved me

Book heart

Book review - Because of Winn-DixieIt’s a curious exercise, thinking about why something moved you. Reading Kate DiCamillo’s Because of Winn-Dixie* last weekend, I wondered, Why can’t I stop the water from leaking out of my eyes?! (Something that also tends to happen when I read Brian Selznick’s books!) It wasn’t just during the sad bits, either. It was non-stop waterworks and sniffling and nose blowing. Sounds attractive, eh? Continue reading “10 times Because of Winn-Dixie moved me”

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Updated #ReadMyOwnDamnBooks: January Reading Wrap-Up

Honestly? I had no intention of doing a reading challenge in 2016 until I discovered #ReadMyOwnDamnBooks at Estella’s Revenge. For the uninitiated, it’s where you read the books you already own. Sum total. How you choose to interpret it is all you, as suggested in the challenge’s subtitle: “The ‘You Do You’ Reading Effort.”

Can I tell you how much I love this challenge? Continue reading “Updated #ReadMyOwnDamnBooks: January Reading Wrap-Up”

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#ReadMyOwnDamnBooks: “A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens

I’ve been meaning to read A Tale of Two Cities for ages … or, at least since October. Thanks to #ReadMyOwnDamnBooks, this title has finally been moved onto the “read” list.

Cue the confetti!

If you’ve never read it, A Tale of Two Cities – London and Paris – is set before and during the French Revolution and follows the fates of three intertwined French families. Continue reading “#ReadMyOwnDamnBooks: “A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens”

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Three ways #ReadMyOwnDamnBooks is making me a better reader

When it comes to stuff, my general policy is, less beats more. Less stuff means fewer things to look after (meaning dust and organize) and more time to spend reading. Except … all this wonderful logic falls apart at the bookstore.

I have very little willpower when it comes to buying books.

Picture me taking a deep, cleansing breath as I type this: I have 489 books on my Nook. I won’t even hazard a guess as to how many are in my house. Suffice it to say, they number well into the upper hundreds.

You can see, then, why #ReadMyOwnDamnBooks captured my imagination. I’m always saying that I have enough books to last a lifetime, then carrying on buying more and more and still more. It’s alarming, if I’m honest. Besides the irritating amount of dusting required, I embarrassed to admit how many books I have double, and sometimes triple, editions of because I no longer know what I have. Continue reading “Three ways #ReadMyOwnDamnBooks is making me a better reader”

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#ReadMyOwnDamnBooks: “The Marvels” by Brian Selznick

As previously mentioned, the hashtag #ReadMyOwnDamnBooks captured my attention in a big way. It inspired me to take a good look at how many books I own that I have not yet read, and the results were sobering. Which is to say: I own too many books that I have not yet read, and it’s time I gave those books my attention.

I’m ambivalent about annual reading challenges, as I’ve seen they can sometimes have unintended consequences, of the undesirable sort. For the foreseeable future, I won’t be doing any challenges that involve reading a particular number of books per year. But a challenge that invites me to rediscover the books I bought that have somehow managed to disappear into my tottering stacks (before being read, I might add) sounds excellent. The temptation to purchase wonderful, intriguing new books will be fierce, I expect. But I will do my best to keep tackling those existent stacks.

To kick things off, I began by compiling a list of five recently purchased titles and plan to update with more as the year goes on. I’m quite excited to see what I’ll discover. I’m equally excited to be able to announce that I dove right in on New Year’s Day by reading Brian Selznick’s beautiful, moving The Marvels. Continue reading “#ReadMyOwnDamnBooks: “The Marvels” by Brian Selznick”

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5 books I bought in 2015 and will be reading in 2016

If you happened to visit the Internet last month, you may have noticed: December featured bags and bags and overflowing bags of “best of 2015” book pieces. And why not? It’s entirely reasonable, at the end of the year, to take stock, and if this stock-taking culminates in 3,592,743* “Best Books of 2015” articles, well, that just means the world is populated by truckloads – I’m talking huge convoys of eighteen-wheelers – of readers, doesn’t it?

As for me, I’ve been known to make a “best of” list now and again. This year, however, I’m trying something new, in part inspired by a hashtag I saw on Instagram, though it apparently originated on Twitter: #ReadMyOwnDamnBooks. The brilliant idea behind this hashtag is, you know, read your own books, meaning the books you already own and that, thus, already populate your bookshelves (virtual or otherwise, one presumes). As it happens, I have quite a few of these (ahem). Continue reading “5 books I bought in 2015 and will be reading in 2016”