Weekend Update

Happy New Years Eve! I went over my On Hand Reading List the other day as I had discovered a title on my bookshelf that didn't appear on my written list. So, just to be sure, I checked my list again, went over each book and actually found several that somehow had been overlooked and not added to my reading list. So--all updated and revised as we begin fresh heading into the new year:

My Actual On Hand Reading List

1.      2666-Bolano

2.      Alice in Wonderland-Lewis

3.      Anne of Green Gables-Montgomery

4.      Austerlitz-Sebold

5.      Barkskins-Proulx

6.      The Bell Jar-Sylvia Plath

7.      Beloved-Toni Morrison

8.      Bernaby Ridge-Dickens

9.      Black Prism-Weeks

10.  Blade Itself-Abercrombie

11.  Bleak House-Dickens

12.  Blood of Flowers-Amirrezani

13.  Book of Laughter and Forgetting-Kundera

14.  Bridget Jones’ Diary-Fielding

15.  Catch 22-Heller

16.  Clash of Kings-Martin

17.  Cloud Atlas-Mitchell

18.  Columbine-Cullen

19.  Corelli’s Mandolin-de Bernieres

20.  Count of Monte Christo-Dumas

21.  Crime and Punishment-Dostoyevsky

22.  Dance With Dragons-Martin

23.  Daylight War-Brett

24.  The Dark Elf Trilogy by R.A. Salvatore

25.  David Copperfield-Dickens

26.  Desert Spear-Brett

27.  Divine Comedy-Aligheri

28.  Don Quioxte-Cervantes

29.  Dornby & Son-Dickens

30.  Dragon’s Path-Abraham

31.  Dr Jeckyll and Mr Hyde-Stevenson

32.  Eat Pray Love-Gilbert

33.  Empire Falls-Russo

34.  End of Watch-King

35.  English Patient-Ondaatje

36.  Everything’s Eventual-King

37.  A Fine Balance-Mistry

38.  Feast for Crows-Martin

39.  Game of Thrones-Martin #1

40.  Gentleman in Moscow-Towles

41.  Germinal-Zola

42.  Giselle’s Bucket List-Watt

43.  Goldfinch-Tartt

44.  Go Tell it on the Mountain-Baldwin

45.  Great Expectations-Dickens

46.  Hamlet-Shakespeare

47.  Hard Times-Dickens

48.  Harry Potter Deathly Hallows-Rowling

49.  Harry Potter Half Blood Prince-Rowling

50.  Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix-Rowling

51.  Heart of Darkness-Conrad

52.  Hero of Ages-Sanderson

53.  Hero of the Empire-Millard

54.  Homegoing-Gyasi

55.  Hunchback of Notre Dame-Hugo

56.  Invisible Man-Ellison

57.  Jude the Obscure-Hardy

58.  Knight of the Seven Kingdoms-Martin

59.  Lanark-Gray

60.  Lilac Girls-Kelly

61.  Lily and the Octopus-Rowley

62.  Little Dorit-Dickens

63.  Little Life-Yanagahari

64.  Little Prince-St Exupery

65.  Lord of the Flies-Golding

66.  Love in the Time of Cholera-Marquez

67.  A Man Called Ove-Backman

68.  March-Doctorow

69.  Martian-Weir

70.  Martin Chuzzlewit-Dickens

71.  Memoirs of a Geisha-Golden

72.  Mercy-Morrison

73.  Middlemarch-Eliot

74.  Mistborn-Sanderson

75.  Moon and Sixpence-Maugham

76.  My Antonia-Cather

77.  Mystery of Edwin Drood-Dickens

78.  Name of the Rose-Eco

79.  Native Son-Wright

80.  News of the World-Jiles

81.  Nicholas Nickleby-Dickens

82.  Nine of Us-Kennedy Smith

83.  Nix-Hill

84.  NOS4A2-Hill

85.  Old Man and the Sea-Hemingway

86.  Old Curiosity Shop-Dickens

87.  Oliver Twist-Dickens

88.  One Hundred Years of Solitude-Marquez

89.  Orphan Train-Kline

90.  Oryx and Crake-Atwood

91.  Our Mutual Friend-Dickens

92.  Pickwick Papers-Dickens

93.  Plot Against America-Roth

94.  Possession-Byatt

95.  Prayer for Owen Meany-Irving

96.  Ravensbruck-Helm

97.  Regeneration-Barker

98.  Remains of the Day-Ishiguiro

99.  Robinson Crusoe-DeFoe

100.                      Schindler’s List-Keneally

101.                      A Separate Peace-Knowles

102.                      Shadow of the Wind-Zafon

103.                      Skull Throne-Brett

104.                      Storm of Swords-Martin

105.                      A Stranger in a Strange Land-Heinlein

106.                      The Stranger-Camus

107.                      A Suitable Boy-Vikram

108.                      Tale of Two Cities-Dickens

109.                      Tenant of Wildfell Hall-Bronte

110.                      Three Muskateers-Dumas

111.                      Tom Jones-Fielding

112.                      A Tree Grows in Brooklyn-Smith

113.                      Unbearable Lightness of Being-Kundera

114.                      The Vagrants-Li

115.                      Versions of Us-Barnett

116.                      War and Peace-Tolstoy

117.                      Warded Man-Brett #1

118.                      Warmth of Other Suns-Wilkerson

119.                      Watership Down-Adams

120.                      Well of Ascension-Sanderson

121.                      White Tiger-Adiga

!122.                      Winter People-McMahon

 My goal is to reduce my on hand count to eighty books over the course of the year (seeing that I intend to read fifty-two, that allows me to buy twelve?! That works!!)

 

I don't usually make resolutions but I do have a few other goals for the 2017: I hope to run 1000 miles this year and see if I can make it to a size 0! I don't know how many races I'll actually get to run since I work every weekend but if I can talk myself into running my first half this year, I'm sure I'll be able to schedule that weekend off--along with my two favorite 10k's: Fairhaven's Father's Day and the Spooky Spooner (hitting PR's for both, of course!)

 

Financially: save more, spend less is always a good goal but I'd like to come up with a more concrete plan than just a vague intention--so I'll work on that coming up...

 

And finally, to be creative more. I've really dropped the ball since going back to work this year and I miss that outlet. So I know I'll need to be more intentional about making and taking time to do more creative projects through the year.

 

What are your goals or resolutions for 2017? Hope it's healthy and happy for all!!

 

Whatcha Readin' Wednesday

I realized I forgot to include two more reading challenges I'm taking on for the new year. First is the Ultimate PopSugar Reading Challenge for 2017 (they also have a Goodreads group you can join here) And the Grand World Of Books Bingo Challenge for 2017 (Who isn't a sucker for a bingo board, right?) I've printed out both of these challenges just for help determining what I need to read next and in no way to justify buying new books (hahahahahahaha) I'm so super excited to get started!

Today's plan is to power through and finish Leviathan Wakes by James A Corey. At just about 130 pages left, I have my work cut out for me--but I'm anxious to get started on Tolstoy's War and Peace. I've created a daily tracker for my bujo, allowing nine weeks to finish, though I hope to complete it in a month. Here's a quick pic of my tracker:

 

I color in each day's page goal as I finish it--a great visual to seeing how far I've read and how much more I have ahead of me yet.

I also whipped up a few bookmarks to track the titles I'll be reading for the new year:

 

First will be simply titles in order as I read each book, including my ratings up to five stars. A to Z will track titles alphabetically and the authors on the back--intending to read a title and author for each letter of the alphabet through the year. On the right is just a quickie bookmark to track titles that I made for a friend at work. I'm as much of a bookmark junkie as a book junkie! I think those addictions simply go hand in hand and it's a fun creative outlet making my own bookmarks for the year!

And finally, I think I've decided to also track my total pages read this time. I've never done that before and it'll be great to see what that grand total will turn out to be. Book Dragon's Lair is hosting a Pages Read Challenge, so signing myself up for that one as well! Why not, right?

Time to get reading!! What challenges are you taking on this year?

Reading Challenges 2017

It's been forever since I blogged so I'm starting fresh with a whole new blog dedicated to my favorite pastime: reading! Since I started at Barnes and Noble last February, I've tried to really step up my reading habit--the better read I am, the better I can help my customers. I managed to read forty-nine books in 2016 and believe I can totally beat that for 2017. To help me along the way, I'm joining up with a few online reading challenges (you can find an incredible master list of challenges here at GirlXOXO.com )

I'm including a couple twists to my own personal challenge of 50+ books:
1.) Read a book that begins with each letter of the alphabet
2.) Read a book by an author's name for each letter of the alphabet and
3.) Beat my Backlist. I have a ridiculous TBR stash and for the point of accountability, here it is:

1.      2666-Bolano

2.      Alice in Wonderland-Lewis

3.      Anne of Green Gables-Montgomery

4.      Austerlitz-Sebold

5.      Barkskins-Proulx

6.      The Bell Jar-Sylvia Plath

7.      Beloved-Toni Morrison

8.      Bernaby Ridge-Dickens

9.      Black Prism-Weeks

10.  Bleak House-Dickens

11.  Blood of Flowers-Amirrezani

12.  Book of Laughter and Forgetting-Kundera

13.  Bridget Jones’ Diary-Fielding

14.  Catch 22-Heller

15.  Clash of Kings-Martin

16.  Cloud Atlas

17.  Corelli’s Mandolin-de Bernieres

18.  Count of Monte Christo-Dumas

19.  Crime and Punishment-Dostoyevsky

20.  Dance With Dragons-Martin

21.  Daylight War-Brett

22.  The Dark Elf Trilogy by R.A. Salvatore

23.  David Copperfield-Dickens

24.  Desert Spear-Brett

25.  Divine Comedy-Aligheri

26.  Don Quioxte-Cervantes

27.  Dornby & Son-Dickens

28.  Dr Jeckyll and Mr Hyde-Stevenson

29.  Eat Pray Love-Gilbert

30.  Empire Falls-Russo

31.  End of Watch-King

32.  English Patient-Ondaatje

33.  Everything’s Eventual-King

34.  A Fine Balance-Mistry

35.  Feast for Crows-Martin

36.  Game of Thrones-Martin #1

37.  Gentleman in Moscow-Towles

38.  Germinal-Zola

39.  Giselle’s Bucket List-Watt

40.  Goldfinch

41.  Go Tell it on the Mountain-Baldwin

42.  Great Expectations-Dickens

43.  Hamlet-Shakespeare

44.  Hard Times-Dickens

45.  Harry Potter Deathly Hallows-Rowling

46.  Harry Potter Half Blood Prince-Rowling

47.  Harry Potter Order of the Phoenix-Rowling

48.  Heart of Darkness-Conrad

49.  Hero of Ages-Sanderson

50.  Hero of the Empire-Millard

51.  Homegoing-Gyasi

52.  Hunchback of Notre Dame-Hugo

53.  Invisible Man-Ellison

54.  Jude the Obscure-Hardy

55.  Knight of the Seven Kingdoms-Martin

56.  Lanark-Gray

57.  Lilac Girls

58.  Lily and the Octopus

59.  Little Dorit-Dickens

60.  Little Life-Yanagahari

61.  Little Prince-St Exupery

62.  Lord of the Flies-Golding

63.  Love in the Time of Cholera-Marquez

64.  A Man Called Ove-Backman

65.  March-Doctorow

66.  Martian-Weir

67.  Martin Chuzzlewit-Dickens

68.  Memoirs of a Geisha-Golden

69.  Mercy-Morrison

70.  Middlemarch-Eliot

71.  Mistborn-Sanderson

72.  Moon and Sixpence-Maugham

73.  My Antonia-Cather

74.  Mystery of Edwin Drood-Dickens

75.  Name of the Rose-Eco

76.  Native Son-Wright

77.  News of the World

78.  Nicholas Nickleby-Dickens

79.  Nine of Us

80.  Nix

81.  NOS4A2-Hill

82.  Old Man and the Sea-Hemingway

83.  Old Curiosity Shop-Dickens

84.  Oliver Twist-Dickens

85.  One Hundred Years of Solitude-Marquez

86.  Orphan Train-Kline

87.  Oryx and Crake-Atwood

88.  Our Mutual Friend-Dickens

89.  Pickwick Papers-Dickens

90.  Plot Against America-Roth

91.  Possession-Byatt

92.  Prayer for Owen Meany-Irving

93.  Ravensbruck-Helm

94.  Regeneration-Barker

95.  Remains of the Day-Ishiguiro

96.  Robinson Crusoe-DeFoe

97.  A Separate Peace-Knowles

98.  Shadow of the Wind-Zafon

99.  Skull Throne-Brett

100.                      Storm of Swords-Martin

101.                      A Stranger in a Strange Land-Heinlein

102.                      The Stranger-Camus

103.                      A Suitable Boy-Vikram

104.                      Tale of Two Cities-Dickens

105.                      Tenant of Wildfell Hall-Bronte

106.                      Three Muskateers-Dumas

107.                      Tom Jones-Fielding

108.                      A Tree Grows in Brooklyn-Smith

109.                      Unbearable Lightness of Being-Kundera

110.                      The Vagrants-Li

111.                      Versions of Us

112.                      War and Peace-Tolstoy

113.                      Warded Man-Brett #1

114.                      Watership Down-Adams

115.                      Well of Ascension-Sanderson

116.                      White Tiger-Adiga

117.                      Winter People

 Reading Key (Blue-paper, Green-Nook, Yellow highlight-ARC)

Okay, there are some in there that are re-reads--Harry Potter and the Game of Thrones series and a few old classics. But this is where I'm starting the new year, hence my intention to beat a good chunk of this list. There is zero doubt I'll be adding new books to this list as the year goes on, but I'm hoping to read more than I buy and I'd be thrilled to reduce this list count by a third at the end of the year (78 books?) That feels doable to me at least. So--off we go! I've chosen War and Peace to begin the year--start a challenge with a challenge, right?? Why not. Who's with me--comment below with your reading commitments for 2017!