Monday, September 22, 2014

A Reading Life (35) and #Bloggiesta Ending Stats

Bloggiesta stats at end of post


Currently reading:
March, Geraldine Brooks (still)
People of the Book, Geraldine Brooks (yeah, a finish is not looking promising)
The Ancestor's Tale, Richard Dawkins (This one will have to be for another time..too deep for me at the moment)
The House of Seven Gables, Nathaniel Hawthorne
All the Pretty Horses, Cormac McCarthy (another Classics Club spin that I will not get to *frown*)

Audio:
The Essential Edgar Allan Poe (Stories, Poems, Biography)

Family Reading Project (20 minutes daily, alternating titles):
The Crystal CaveMary Stewart (on page 196)
Salem's Lot, Stephen King (we have chosen this for our scary read for Fall. I started reading SK when I was about 12 or 13 and they've already listened to The Stand with me on audio so they're ready)
Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton (on page 131) (The boys have decided that we should not continue with this one. It's way technical and so kind of over their heads for their age...and they're getting bored)

One movie/One TV show I like right now:
I can't believe I haven't been to a movie since my last Reading Life post which was on September 1st! I usually go to a movie every weekend, but with Gabe's  football games on Saturdays, it hasn't been possible. So, the last movie I watched (with the boys) was The Amazing Spiderman 2 and I was NOT happy with the ending. I'll leave it at that.
New show on SyFy...Z-Nation. Zombies...I love zombies. This one is more campy than The Walking Dead, but it's still pretty good. And I SO enjoyed the back to back Miss Marple episodes on Masterpiece Mystery (PBS) last night. One can never go wrong with Agatha Christie.

Life:
Busy, busy, busy! Work has...should I say exploded or imploded...yeah, one of those. lol I have another new client so I'm working more (which means more money...and I got my raise...the positives) and this week I'm the back up for one VA who is on vacation and I'm also the back up for another who is on maternity leave for two weeks. So trying to fit in blogging and reading has been even more of a challenge. And I'm getting ready to start a writing class this week. Eek!

The reason I missed going to the movies this past weekend...I was shopping for supplies for the Christmas planner I'm making. I first went to Walmart and they didn't have everything I needed so I had to go to Michael's (no Hobby Lobby for me). I got a huge book of Christmas scrapbook paper for half off and I also got a cute jar that was on clearance for my TBR jar project. Hoping I will be able to work on both the planner and TBR jar this week. I'd like to have the planner ready to share on Rudolph Day at The Christmas Spirit (my Christmas blog) on Thursday. Good luck, right!?

Read-a-Longs: 
The read-a-long for The House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne is still going on (of course, I'm behind on the reading), in conjunction with Gothic September at Castle Macabre. I was hoping to do more with Gothic Septemeber (some themed posts, etc.), but haven't had time to put anything together. Maybe I can for the last week. We'll see...

I'm thinking about hosting a read-a-long of The Vampire Armand by Anne Rice in October at Castle Macabre, in conjunction with The Never-Ending Anne Rice Challenge. Still haven't decided...guess I better get my butt in gear!

TuesBookTalk - We are currently reading two non-fiction books, Unbroken by Laura Hilenbrand and The Ancestor's Tale by Richard Dawkins. Unfortunately, Heather and I have decided that we just cannot finish Ancestor's Tale right now. I might try it again later, but it's just too much for me at the moment. Our scary read for October is 77 Shadow Street by Dean Koontz.

Lit Collective - we are reading and discussing the works of Geraldine Brooks in August ...I extended this through September. Everyone is behind on the reading. (And I'm STILL behind!)
March
Caleb's Crossing
People of the Book

Theme nominations will soon be open for our theme read in March.

Reading Challenges:

 photo Travel-the-World-in-Books-Reading-Challenge_zps805c7134.jpg 


I'm still trying to get my sign up ready for Rebecca and Tanya's Travel the World in Books challenge. I'll get to it, ladies...I promise!

My upcoming events (challenges, read-a-thons, other reading events):

Banned Books Week commentary on this blog going on right now. Posts went up today and yesterday and if you check out yesterday's (Sunday) post, I'm offering a giveaway. 
Gothic September at Castle Macabre - going on now


FrightFall Read-a-Thon at Seasons of Reading - Sign Up Here


Season of the Witch at Castle Macabre (Oct) - Want to share with us something scary you loved...book, movie, or TV show? Post will go up over there this week. You can email me at truebookaddict (AT) gmail (DOT) com if you're interested in contributing.

Recent Book Acquisitions (including library check-outs):

For review:
Die I Will Not, S.K. Rizzolo
Prisoner of the Queen, E. Knight
Consolamentum, Rebecca Hazell
The Oblate's Confession, William Peek

Library Sale:
The Weekend, Bernhard Schlink
Moby Dick, Herman Melville
Leviathan, Scott Westerfeld
Lydia Bennet's Story, Jane Odiwe
The Long Song, Andrea Levy
Memoir from Antproof Case, Mark Helprin
Against All Things Endings: The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Stephen R. Donaldson
Allison Hewett is Trapped, Madeleine Roux
The Woman in the Fifth, Douglas Kennedy
The Old Curiosity Shop, Charles Dickens

Goodwill:
Beautiful Disaster, Jamie McGuire
Dexter in the Dark, Jeff Lindsay
Shadow of Night, Deborah Harkness


Bloggiesta ending stats
My original list with tasks struck through:
1. Add a Family Reading Project tab to pages tab and create a page to keep track of our progress.
2. Write a review for The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
3. Work on my Slideshare projects for my Banned Books Week posts Created one
4. Come up with my list for the Travel the World in Books reading challenge (long overdue)
5. (Possibly) start working on my TBR Jar Project  purchased jar and paper - lol
6. I forgot to add...clean out email, respond to any review requests YES!
7. Cleaned up sidebar - non-appearing images and non-working links, updated other linked badges
8. ???
9. ???

Okay, so I didn't do too hot. Some is better than none, right? My main thing was the email. I have to STOP letting it get like that!


What's going on in your Reading Life?


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8 comments:

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

I apologize for word verification, but as soon as I changed the settings from only users with Google accounts, I started receiving a ton of spam comments...within one hour of changing the settings. The bots are on high alert apparently.

  1. Looking at your list makes me nervous. I would like to read along for The House of Seven Gables, but I feel overwhelmed as usual.

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  2. You got quite a bit done during Bloggiesta! Hooray! I got most of mine done. Still behind on my reviews, did not get 5 done. I mean, how hard IS it, Rebecca? Apparently very. SO glad you are joining us for Travel the World in Books. We have some more cool stuff coming up soon. I'm signed up for #FrightFall!

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  3. Any accomplishment is a good thing! Congrats! And what is the TBR Jar? I've been hearing about this one! LOL

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  4. I know how you feel. I'm always overwhelmed. ;)

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  5. I have one to write...one...and still haven't. So don't feel bad.


    Glad you're signed up for FrightFall. :)

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  6. Here you go, Laurel-Rain. All the details:

    http://www.thebookvixen.com/2014/06/the-tbr-jar-project.html

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  7. I want to make a TBR Jar too :) I love lists and I love jars, and lists in jars are like heaven. I have one for kids rewards where I collect all the freebie coupons for donuts, kids meals, bowling, and that kind of thing. When they earn one or are on vacation, we tap into the jar.


    So glad you are joining our Travel the World in Books Challenge. I enjoyed FINALLY participating in a TuesBookTalk about Unbroken. I didn't read quite fast enough but am done now to be able to do the final chat next week.


    I gotta work on my Frightfall list. Gotta whittle it down from the Ten Books for Fall i posted today.


    My bloggiesta did not go as planned. I really love the Family Reading project you started. It's one of book bucket list goals to read 1000 books with my kids. We are on a mission and have read 215 so far. The kids have wanted to stick with it because they get to scan the book into Goodreads when we're done. Boys and gadgets, you know how that is i'm sure.

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