Looking Ahead: 2018 Beat the Backlist Challenge

Welcome, welcome! I'm indulging myself in a well earned reward of dark chocolate and a hot cuppa joe this afternoon since I just completed my second rough draft of the final essay for my ENG101 course and submitted it for review to the online tutoring site. The tutors have been such a godsend. I love my teacher--she's super nice but absolutely zero help in regards to any type of feedback or actual instructional guidance. Perhaps kids today come out of high school well versed in creating MLA style essays, but it's been forever and a day since I graced any high school halls and even then we never covered MLA in any way, shape, or form, so I am utterly lost when it comes to proper citation. Thankfully, I have the online tutors giving me a hand to figuring it all out and getting everything properly cited and organized. Still, it's a bit overwhelming and stressful, so I'm glad to have this second draft done and off for review. Gimme da chocolat!!

And, meanwhile, December has descended, like it or not, and I've begun to wrap up my reading goals for 2017 and have begun looking ahead to upcoming challenges for 2018. Since my biggest need/want/concern is to lessen the number of books I have on hand to read, I've chosen the NovelKnight's Beat the Backlist Challenge to take front seat for the new year. With 183 books TBR, I honestly cannot justify buying any new books without putting some serious dents into what's already overcrowding my shelves.

I've started a 2018 Beat the Backlist shelf on my Goodreads page. It's only got the first four titles of what I'm planning to scratch off my current on hand list but I will update it as I shelve more books as I go along next year. I'm also intending to do another A to Z challenge, both titles and authors again, since that was a fun extra twist to this year. Not great pics, but these are the bookmarks I made for tracking my reading this year--I'll have to make more for 2018 (in all that extra free time I have!!)

L to R: back of A to Z, back of Books I've Read 2017, and More for 2017

My current TBR (actual on hand...and why I can't buy any new books) List:



1.        Abolition of Man-Lewis

2.        Adventures of Sherlock Holmes-Doyle

3.        Amber Spyglass-Pullman

4.        Animal Farm-Orwell

5.        Anthem-Rand

6.        Awakening-Chopin

7.        Barkskins-Proulx

8.        Beloved-Toni Morrison

9.        Barnaby Ridge-Dickens

10.      Beautiful and the Damned-Fitzgerald

11.      Bell Jar-Platt

12.      Big Little Lies-Moriarty

13.      Black Earth-Snyder

14.      Blade Itself-Abercrombie

15.      Bleak House-Dickens

16.      Blinding Knife-Weeks

17.      Blood of Flowers-Amirrezani

18.      Blood Mirror-Weeks

19.      Book of Laughter and Forgetting-Kundera

20.      Booth’s Sister-Singer

21.      Born on a Blue Day-Tammet

22.      Bridget Jones’ Diary-Fielding

23.      Broken Eye-Weeks

24.      Broken Sword-Anderson

25.      Brothers Karamazov-Dostoyevsky

26.      Caliban’s War-Corey

27.      Call of the Wild-London

28.      Canterbury Tales-Chaucer

29.      Catch 22-Heller

30.      Civil Disobedience-Thoreau

31.      Columbine-Cullen

32.      Corelli’s Mandolin-de Bernieres

33.      Count of Monte Christo-Dumas

34.      Crime and Punishment-Dostoyevsky

35.      Daniel Deronda-Eliot

36.      Dark Elf Trilogy-Salvatore

37.      David Copperfield-Dickens

38.      Dawn of the Dragons-Owen

39.      Deathnote 2-Ohba

40.      Divine Comedy-Aligheri

41.      Don Quioxte-Cervantes

42.      Dornby & Son-Dickens

43.      Dracula-Stoker

44.      Dragon’s Path-Abraham

45.      Dreams of Distant Shores-McKillip

46.      Dreamsongs-Martin

47.      Dr Jeckyll and Mr Hyde-Stevenson

48.      Eat Pray Love-Gilbert

49.      Edgar and Lucy-Lodato

50.      Empire Falls-Russo

51.      English Patient-Ondaatje

52.      Etched In Sand-Calcaterra

53.      A Fine Balance-Mistry

54.      First They Killed My Father-Ung

55.      Five Days at Memorial-Fink

56.      Four Loves-Lewis

57.      Game of Thrones-Martin

58.      Germinal-Zola

59.      Gilded Cage-James

60.      Girl with a Pearl Earring-Chevalier

61.      Giselle’s Bucket List-Watt

62.      Golden Compass-Pullman

63.      Go Tell it on the Mountain-Baldwin

64.      Gunslinger-King

65.      Great Divorce-Lewis

66.      Great Expectations-Dickens

67.      Grief Observed-Lewis

68.      Hamilton-Chernow

69.      Hamlet-Shakespeare

70.      Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World-Murakami

71.      Hard Times-Dickens

72.      Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

73.      Head Full of Ghosts-Tremblay

74.      Heart of Darkness-Conrad

75.      Hero of the Empire-Millard

76.      Homegoing-Gyasi

77.      Horns-Hill

78.      Hotel on the Corner of Bitter & Sweet

79.      Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl-Jacobs

80.      Invisible Man-Ellison

81.      In Search of Lost Time-Proust

82.      Joy Luck Club-Tan

83.      Jude the Obscure-Hardy

84.      Kiterunner-Hosseini

85.      Kushiel’s Dart-Carey

86.      Leonardo da Vinci-Isaacson

87.      Little Dorit-Dickens

88.      Lincoln in the Bardo-Saunders

89.      Little Prince-St Exupery

90.      Little Women-Alcott

91.      Lord of the Flies-Golding

92.      Love-Morrison

93.      Love in the Time of Cholera-Marquez

94.      Madame Bovary-Flaubert

95.      A Man Called Ove-Backman

96.      Man in the High Castle-Dick

97.      March-Doctorow

98.      Martin Chuzzlewit-Dickens

99.      Memoirs of a Geisha-Golden

100.   Mere Christianity-Lewis

101.   Metamorphosis-Kafka

102.   Middlemarch-Eliot

103.   Midsummer Night’s Dream-Shakespeare

104.   Miracles-Lewis

105.   Mistborn-Sanderson

106.   Moon and Sixpence-Maugham

107.   Mystery of Edwin Drood-Dickens

108.   Name of the Rose-Eco

109.   Narrative in the Life of Frederick Douglass-Douglass

110.   Native Son-Wright

111.   Nicholas Nickleby-Dickens

112.   Night Angel-Weeks

113.   Old Curiosity Shop-Dickens

114.   One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest-Kesey

115.   One Hundred Years of Solitude-Marquez

116.   Orphan Train-Kline

117.   Oryx and Crake-Atwood

118.   Our Mutual Friend-Dickens

119.   Paper Menagerie-Liu

120.   Pickwick Papers-Dickens

121.   Picture of Dorian Gray-Wilde

122.   Pillars of the Earth-Follett

123.   Possession-Byatt

124.   Prayer for Owen Meany-Irving

125.   The Prince-Machiavelli

126.   Princes of Ireland-Rutherford

127.   Problem of Pain-Lewis

128.   Rainbow-Lawrence

129.   Ravensbruck-Helm

130.   Reader-Schlink

131.   Regeneration-Barker

132.   Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve-Greenblatt

133.   Romeo and Juliet-Shakespeare

134.   Road to Jonestown-Guinn

135.   Robinson Crusoe-DeFoe

136.   Sarum-Rutherford

137.   Scarlet Letter-Hawthorne

138.   Schindler’s List-Keneally

139.   Screwtape Letters-Lewis

140.   Secret Garden-Burnett

141.   A Separate Peace-Knowles

142.   Septimus Heap-Sage

143.   Setting Free the Kites-George

144.   Shadow of the Wind-Zafon

145.   Shipping News-Proulx

146.   Siddhartha-Hesse

147.   Silent Corner-Koontz

148.   Sing, Unburied Sing-Ward

149.   Sisi-Pataki

150.   Sister Carrie-Dreiser

151.   Sons and Lovers-Lawrence

152.   Sons and Soldiers-Henderson

153.   Strangeness in my Mind-Pamuk

154.   The Stranger-Camus

155.   A Stranger in a Strange Land-Heinlein

156.   Strange Weather-Hill

157.   Subtle Knife-Pullman

158.   A Suitable Boy-Vikram

159.   Summer Before the War-Simonson

160.   Sun Also Rises-Hemingway

161.   Sybil-Disraeli

162.   Tale of Two Cities-Dickens

163.   Tenant of Wildfell Hall-Bronte

164.   Tess of the d’Ubervilles-Hardy

165.   Things They Carried-OBrien

166.   Thirty-Nine Steps-Buchanan

167.   Three Men in a Boat-Jerome

168.   Three Muskateers-Dumas

169.   Tiger’s Daugher-Rivera

170.   Tom Jones-Fielding

171.   A Tree Grows in Brooklyn-Smith

172.   Turn of the Screw-James

173.   Turning Angels-Isles

174.   Uncle Tom’s Cabin-Stowe

175.   Up From Slavery-Washington

176.   Vanity Fair-Thakeray

177.   Vinegar Hill-Ansay

178.   Warded Man-Brett #1

179.   Warmth of Other Suns-Wilkerson

180.   Way We Live Now-Trollope

181.   Weird-Martin

182.   World Without End-Follett

183.   Zola-McColum

 

(Color code: Blue-paperback, Green-Nook, Black-Kindle, and highlighted-ARC)

 

Whew! Crazy, no? Lots of great stuff on there to read and I know it's gonna be a great year ahead, so--I'm gearing up! Let's do this!! What's on your list to read for 2018?

 



 

Happy Holidays

Well, this year has flown by incredibly fast. Thanksgiving is just a few short days away which means Christmas will follow promptly on its heels--we dare not blink an eye! So, I know I have sadly neglected my little blog here. I've had a super busy year with work and school and life--there's just always something or someone vying for my time or attention. But I promised to catch you all up to date on my 2017 Reading Challenge...I just looked back at the last post of where I'd left off...yikes! Twenty-five books later...I've been reading my little heart out this year!! Oh my...I can't possibly recap twenty-five books, but maybe the highlights?

I finished my A to Z Challenge and am already lining books up to do another A to Z for next year, both authors and titles again. I guess the best thing about this type of challenge, it helped me to open up to new authors and genres. Of course, that also led to discovering authors I didn't like. Such is the reading life. Some of my favorite surprises were Geraldine March's Year of Wonders, Just Mercy by Bryan Stephenson, and Zeitoun by Dave Eggers.

It's not likely that I'll make it to my goal of seventy-five books for the year. I'm at sixty and that's pretty darn good, especially with a month and a half (almost) left to 2017. I could maybe hit seventy? Maybe...I'm currently reading Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann--it's got me head over heels. It's gorgeously written, the characters are wrapped tight around my heart, I've already sat sobbing this morning, not even a hundred pages in...Just loving this book and ordered another of McCann's, Zoli, for my A to Z for next year (a girl's gotta look ahead, right?)

However...I had promised myself, after realizing I'd hit 200 books on my On Hand list, that I would NOT buy any new books until I'd read twenty first...I am only human and I am completely addicted to books. Okay, I also bought Paul Tremblay's Head Full of Ghosts (it was only $1.99 for my brand new Kindle Voyage this morning...too good of a deal to let slip) What's a girl to do, right? So, I'm forging ahead toward the end of the year with full intention to beat my backlist or at least put a decent dent in it before we start off the new year...I will try to be more accountable for not ADDING to the backlist--my goal is to read 10% of my on hand titles before buying any new books. Then another ten percent, and so on...It's something to aim for anyways!

Books I'm hoping to finish before the end of the year:

• White Tiger by Adiga
• Dante's Divine Comedy
• The Old Man and the Sea-Hemingway
• A Christmas Carol--which I always read for Christmas
• Anne of Green Gables, which I also hear is a Christmas story?
• Germinal by Zola, though I'm likely to just get this one started, but then it will be my Z author for next year's A to Z!

What's on your reading list for the end of the year? Are you looking forward to any new reading challenges for 2018? Keep those reading lights on! Have a wonderful holiday season!!

Paper Versus E-Books

Hello Reader Friends! I know it's been quite a while since I've had time to post. Life has been more than a little crazy this year and then I started back to school this fall, while still working full time, and so free time is even more scarce than ever. I'm taking an evening college writing course one night a week and have just finished my second required essay. And since it has a reading theme, I thought it might be fun to share here as well! I will try to catch everyone up on the year's reading challenge (A to Z and 52+ Books have both been completed with plenty of time to spare...) But for now, I hope you enjoy my Paper Versus E-reader essay. And, stay tuned for more to come...

Print Versus E-books

I love books. I love books so much, I got a job working in a bookstore. And doing so has greatly increased the volume of books that I own. I love seeing them all lined up neatly and alphabetically on my bookshelves. Big books, skinny books, pretty books, scary books, art books, writing books, all kinds of beautiful, glorious books. They all make my soul happy. I also own a couple of e-readers, both a Nook and a Kindle (because no one should be limited in their reading venues) and I’ve got a slew of titles stashed on each of those as well. But I continually get customers in the store questioning me about whether our Barnes and Noble is going to close like so many other bookstores because e-books are so popular--yet here they’d stand in front of me buying a stack of paper books…Are print books endangered? I decided to take a poll.

I launched a quick survey on social media asking friends to vote for their favorite source of reading entertainment: Did they favor paper books or e-books, and why? It was a resounding win for paper books! Only one person out of more than twenty preferred e-books to paper. This gentleman enjoyed reading on his phone, in the bathroom-a little TMI. But every other respondent claimed paper books as the clear favorite for several different reasons.

Most of the folks who answered my survey seem to want the tactile experience of holding paper books. Feeling the heft of the weight in their hands, turning physical pages, and watching their actual progress through the book as they read. Many expressed a love for the smell of books, and the ability to highlight quotes and annotate in paper books. Reading a paper page is gentler on the eyes than the glare of a screen. Paper books don’t have a battery to charge so they’re always ready to be enjoyed. The best reason was being able to share your books with friends.

There is also lots of research showcasing the many benefits of reading paper books as opposed to e-readers. One website, Uproxx.com, presents an article supporting print over e-books. It quotes research findings that reading on a screen at night can have adverse effects on your ability to fall asleep, keeping you awake longer and inevitably leaving you feeling more tired and less rested the next day. It also suggests children learn better with print books, as devices can be a distracting deterrent to younger, shorter attention spans. And even more seasoned readers retain information better from printed pages since our eyes, often irritated by screen glare, tend to skim quickly over a digital page but read much slower and more thoroughly with paper books.

On the other hand, there are some great advantages to e-readers. As someone who has moved multiple times, it can be very costly—and exhausting—to move a lot of physical books. They’re heavy. They take up a great deal of space. They need the occasional dusting and protection from mold and damp. But e-readers have the amazing advantage of infinite cloud storage. People can own literally thousands of books, stored light as a feather in a single device. And you can have each one of those titles available at the simple touch of a finger, wherever you are, whenever you want. That’s genius.

E-readers are also a good deal sturdier than paper books. I read constantly and toting paper books in my bag often leads to bent pages or scratched and dented covers. I’ll admit I’m also a bit of a messy eater and always seem to splash a little of whatever I’m eating onto the pages that I’m reading. I have a gorgeous, leather bound illustrated copy of Game of Thrones that I won’t even allow myself to read because I know I’ll wreck it with a splotch of soup or splash of coffee. But if I spill a little on my e-reader screen, a simple quick wipe erases any sloppy dribble, no damage done. The day is saved! And contrary to one of my survey poller’s opinions, it’s quite easy to highlight and save notes in your e-reader. No, you can’t do a quick flip through the pages, looking for a pretty colored highlight or a bright bit of post-it, but it’s super simple to search saved quotes and comments. It just takes time getting used to doing it electronically.

There is one final development in e-reading that has swept me off my bookish feet. Amazon has created the Kindle in Motion. I’m talking about animated books! This is going to change the face of reading forever. Jim Kay, artist and illustrator for J.K. Rowling’s beloved Harry Potter series, has had his beautiful artwork literally come to life in Amazon’s animated version of the Sorcerer’s Stone. If you’re at all familiar with Jim’s gorgeous renderings in the first three of Rowling’s cherished series, you will fall head over heels seeing the incredible illustrations magically move right on the page! Amazon also offers several other animated books with their Kindle in Motion and I’m extremely excited to see the direction these e-books will undoubtedly grow!

So, are print books in any danger of disappearing? Certainly not. E-commerce may eventually make our beloved bookstores a thing of the past if we’re not careful, but e-books by no means will ever replace our desire to hold, feel, traverse, sniff, scribble in, and share our precious paper books. Read on, dear friends. Read on.