Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Pick Your A Thon: Mini-Challenges # 2, 3, 5, and 6




I didn't have much time the last few days to post about these mini-challenges.  I've been catching up on end of year posts and trying to decide on mini-challenges.  On part of Sunday and all day Monday, I read a book for review so that was my read-a-thon part of the Pick Your A Thon! Okay, so onward....

12 Most Anticipated Books of 2012 (in no particular order)
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The Crown by Nancy Bilyeau--I actually already have this one.  I'm on a book tour for it.
The Winter Palace: A Novel of Catherine the Great by Eva StachniakDeath of Kings by Bernard Cornwell
The Maid: A Novel of Joan of Arc by Kimberly Cutter
Ragnarok: The End of the Gods by A. S. Byatt
The Wolf Gift by Anne Rice
Mrs. God: A Novel by Peter Straub
The Wind Through the Keyhole: A Dark Tower Novel by Stephen King
The Book of Lost Fragrances by M.J. Rose--another I'm on the tour for!
At the Mercy of the Queen: A Novel of Anne Boleyn by Anne Clinard Barnhill--another tour!
The Turning of Anne Merrick by Christine Blevins--yet another tour...
The King's Agent by Donna Russo Morin--and another tour!

Pretty cool that I already get to read 5 of my most anticipated books!

Organizing Upcoming Reviews
I have a huge stack of review books and I'm quite behind on the ones that aren't for a set tour date.  One thing I already have in place is a monthly planner in which I keep track of tour dates (guest post, reviews, interviews) for review books.  I also have a Google calendar on my blog, but have not been very good about adding dates to it.  That is something I plan to keep up with from now on.

Two things I will implement:

--Create a page on The True Book Addict and Castle Macabre with my list of review books, those with set dates and without, so I can cross them off as I go.
--I will also have a list in my planner as a back-up.

Join Some Challenges
I'm actually still in the process of working on which challenges to sign up for, but as I was going through my challenges from last year, I learned that I didn't fail at as many as I thought! In fact, I completed 9 out of 19 signed up for.  That's not including completing the Spring Reading Thing last year, Once Upon a Time V, R.I.P. VI, and my Christmas reading challenge doesn't end until Friday, so I'm still reading for it.  Not too bad, especially compared to 2010's attempt.

A couple I know for sure I'm signing up for (click images for challenge details):


There will be more...many, many more so stay tuned!

Organizing your Bookshelves
I actually worked on this in the weeks leading up to Christmas.  I unpacked, organized, and shelved over 2000 of my books...all the fiction.  I ran out of bookshelves for my non-fiction in the bedroom and, as you can see from this picture, I still need more for my main library.  I have a couple more places to squeeze in a few more bookshelves in this tiny apartment.  Here is my temporary solution to the problem:  the books are stacked in front of the bookshelves...lovely! The corner bookshelf in the picture is where I have my favorite authors of whose books I have a ton and series books by other favorites, including Stephen King, Anne Rice, Jane Austen, Jean Auel, Diana Gabaldon, Bernard Cornwell, etc., etc.


In my bedroom, on my desk, I have three, narrow 3-shelf bookshelves on which I have my review books and my writing books.  I can't share a picture because it's a total mess right now, but I will be getting it straight in the next week or so.

So, there you have it...mini-challenges complete! Now I'm off to continue choosing reading challenges for the remainder of the A Thon!

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3 comments:

Thank you for visiting and taking the time to comment. It means so much.

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  1. That corner is really stuffed full of books!

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  2. I have to say that I think that you have more books than I do...I have my share though. Good luck on your goals for 2012. I have all the same books for tours that you do and look forward to reading them...!!

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  3. Lots of good books there! Welcome back for the Historical fiction challenge again this year.

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