JOHN ADAMS READ-A-LONG--STARTING POST

After my recent declaration of no longer accepting review books (except in rare cases) and my statement of the desire to read more from my own library, I have decided, current reading obligations aside, that a logical step is to join this read-a-long...because David McCullough's John Adams is one of the books in my personal library...YEAH!

This lovely read-a-long is being hosted by Wallace at Unputdownables and here is the schedule:


Schedule:


Beginning Friday, April 1st and ending Friday, June 24th.


READING SCHEDULE:


Week #/ dates :: Chapters to Read


Week One/ April 1-7 :: ch. 1

Week Two/ April 8-14 :: ch. 2
Week Three/ April 15-21:: ch. 3
Week Four/ April 22-28 :: ch. 4
Week Five/ April 29- May 5 :: ch. 5
Week Six/ May 6-12 :: ch. 6
Week Seven/ May 13-19 :: ch. 7
Week Eight/ May 20-26 :: ch. 8
Week Nine/ May 27-June 2 :: ch. 9
Week Ten/ June 3-June 9 :: ch. 10
Week Eleven/ June 10-16 :: ch. 11
Week Twelve/ June 17-23 :: ch. 12


POSTING SCHEDULE:


Post #/ date post should be up on blog:


Start up Post/ April 1
Week One Review/ April 8
Week Two Review/ April 15
Week Three Review/ April 22
Week Four Review/ April 29
Week Five Review/ May 6
Week Six Review/ May 13
Week Seven Review/ May 20
Week Eight Review/ May 27
Week Nine Review/ June
Week Ten Review/ June 10
Week Eleven Review/ June 17
Week Twelve Review (Final Review)/ June 24


How it Works:

1. Each week, on Friday, post your thoughts about the previous week’s reading. If you are stuck on what to post about, you can use these discussion questions to get you started. (You do not need to post a starting post, but if you would like to — just post something to let your readers know that every Friday you will be posting about your JA reading for the week.)
2. Each week, come here, to Unputdownables, and put the link to your post in the comments section (and take a minute to visit others’ blogs to see what they’ve thought of the reading). If you do not have a blog, post your thoughts on the reading directly in the comments section. *please refrain from posting ahead, even if you have read ahead, as to not spoil the book for others*
3. Feel free to use the read-a-long button from above in your posts or sidebars.

Wish me luck! How about you...want to join us?

IT'S MONDAY...WHAT ARE YOU READING? (and makeshift read-a-thon wrap-up)

It's Monday! What are you reading? is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey and this week is the one year anniversary of her taking over hosting.  Congrats, Sheila!

So, I participated in two read-a-thons this weekend and my main goal was to finish Cleopatra by Stacy Schiff...and I did not finish it.  Still reading it! It has been awhile since I've read non-fiction and it's a little slow going.  Not that it's a bad book...it's not.  It's just that non-fiction isn't quite as exciting as fiction is (most of the time) and if a person hasn't read the genre in awhile, it takes some adjustment.

Anyway....

Currently reading:

I have to finish Cleopatra AND The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks (for TuesBookTalk) by tomorrow night...eek! Can I do it?  Well, I'm going to give it the old college try!

After I finish the above, I need to work on finishing The Monk by Matthew Lewis and Quicksilver by Joy Spraycar.

Next in line are...

Captivity by Deborah Noyes
Dante's Journey by JC Marino
Blood and Silk by Carol McKay
Once Bitten, Twice Dead by T. Marie Benchley
The Lucifer Code by Charles Brokaw
The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman

these are all review books left over from 2010 that I MUST finish!

In the future:

I have review books spaced out a little more after I finish the above and I hope to get to my personal reading project of Reading Deliberately...My Way soon.

And what are you reading this week?

THE "NOT MY YEAR" IS OVER...BRING ON 2011!

TOP TEN BOOKS READ IN 2010, READING RELATED RESOLUTIONS, AND A WORD ABOUT READING CHALLENGES
2010 TOP TEN
(Except for #1 on the list, the remaining nine titles are in no particular order.  Also, I decided not to include rereads on this list)

1. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
2. Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane
3. Hush by Kate White
4. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
5. Eclipse by Stephenie Meyer
6. The Sixth Surrender by Hana Samek Norton
7. Virgin and the Crab by Robert Parry
8. Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin (not yet reviewed)
9. The Marsh King's Daughter by Elizabeth Chadwick (not yet reviewed)
10. Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead (not yet reviewed)

This was kind of a tough list to come up with.  I read 50 books this year and there were several others that deserve honorable mention.  The Dark Divine by Bree Despain, Venetia Kelly's Traveling Show by Frank Delaney (not yet reviewed), The Queen's Pawn by Christy English (not yet reviewed), The Wives of Henry Oades by Johanna Moran (not reviewed), Arcadia Falls by Carol Goodman, and Dracula in Love by Karen Essex (not yet reviewed).

Good Riddance 2010!

READING RELATED RESOLUTIONS

• The main thing will be to do more reading and less time wasting.  I'm an epic time waster and easily distracted from one task to something entirely different. 
• My plan for Reading Deliberately...My Way.  As many of you know, I have over 1700 fiction books in my home library (I will not even mention my non-fiction)...a massive TBR pile.  And there are books that I really want to read in my library.  So, as I have every fiction title catalogued alphabetically, my plan is to plug the number of books for a particular letter into random.org and let it pick my read.  I will do this once a week, with the intention of reading one of these books a week, but will allow myself more time if it's a longer book or if I am swamped with review books.  Pretty soon, my entire catalog will be online.  I created a blog specifically for my library catalog, A Huge Library in a Small Apartment.  It is under construction, but I'm hoping to have it finished by the end of January.  *fingers crossed*
• Cutting back on review books--I am SO behind on review books! I still have books from early fall that I haven't read or reviewed (so sorry authors/publishers).  Most of you know that I was very ill over the summer and this was the first of my setbacks.  Then I found out I had to move...during Christmas (now you know the reasons behind "Not My Year"!) and we're still not completely moved! That being said, I'm doing my best to limit review books in 2011 to one per month...hopefully.  There are so many good ones coming out.  It's hard to resist! The main thing in January will be to catch up on review books I already have.
• Review EVERY book--either full review or at least a mini-review--and review it as soon as I finish it.  I'm such a terrible procrastinator!

A SPECIAL WORD ON READING CHALLENGES



Reading Challenge Overload?

I am a challenge junky.  I see all the new reading challenges and I'm like a kid in a candy store! I started my blog in August of 2009 and I had no idea about reading challenges.  I was beyond thrilled when I discovered them...too much so.  I signed up for 29 challenges and failed miserably.  When I found out in early December that I was going to have to move during Christmas time, I decided to take a fail on all the 2010 challenges I was part of....wipe the slate clean, so to speak! My challenge blog, Challenges of the True Book Addict, will have all 2010 challenges removed from the sidebar.  I'm going to attempt to limit myself to 10 maximum reading challenges (give or take 1 or 2...heehee) for 2011 plus the two perpetual challenges I host, The Michener Challenge and the 101 Fantasy Reading Challenge and the Goodreads group challenge, 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die.  We will see how it goes.  Wish me luck...I'm going to need it! I will be back this weekend with which challenges I'm signing up for.  There are some really great ones (I already have a few in mind)! Can't wait to go shopping! LOL!

Okay...enough of my rambling! Happy New Year to you all! Be safe and have fun!



BANNED BOOKS WEEK--LOOKING AHEAD TO READING DELIBERATELY

Banned Books Week always makes me contemplative about my reading.  In my thinking lately, I have decided to make some changes in my reading in 2011...to read more deliberately.  This will involve cutting back on books I accept for review, focusing on reading from the 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list and reading more "classics".  Some of the books I plan to read occur simultaneously on both Banned Books lists and the "1001" list.

Here are several I have picked out for next year:

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
The Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

Click HERE to read the reasons for challenges to these classics on the ALA site.

See you next year for the next Banned Books Week! Until then, keep this in mind...

If all mankind minus one, were of one opinion, and only one person were of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in silencing that one person, than he, if he had the power, would be justified in silencing mankind. Were an opinion a personal possession of no value except to the owner; if to be obstructed in the enjoyment of it were simply a private injury, it would make some difference whether the injury was inflicted only on a few persons or on many. But the peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.

— On Liberty, John Stuart Mill