challenge update

This won't be pretty. I will inevitably shake my head and think, "Why can't you stop yourself from signing up for these things?!!" But it is a good way to avoid all the things I should be doing right now, like packing, and making massive amounts of muffins, and cutting up 30 pounds of fruit, and...we leave for my family reunion tomorrow morning.

Four challenges ended during the last quarter: I thoroughly bombed Exploration: Reading Latin America, I didn't finish either Book Awards 2 or Spring Reading Thing '09 but did far better on both than I did last year, and I did actually successfully complete Once Upon a Time III.

And still on tap, we have...

Ending September 9th:
999 Challenge 23/81
Countdown Challenge 33/45

Ending September 30th:
Non-Fiction Five 2/5 (I've actually read more non-fiction than that since this challenge started in May, but I decided not to count YA non-fiction)

Ending October 9th:
End of the World 2/4

Ending October 31st:
Classics '09 1/5

Ending December 3rd:
42 Challenge 18/42

Ending December 31st:
9 for '09 Challenge 0/9
Suspense and Thriller Challenge 2/12
Dewey's Books 6/5
Manga Challenge 3/6
Graphic Novels Challenge 18/12
Herding Cats II 0/5
Read Your Own Books Challenge 16/29
Elizabeth Scott Mini-Challenge 0/2
What's in a Name 2 4/6
Support Your Local Library 12/12
Science Challenge 1/3
Essay Challenge 4/30 or 45/30 (depending on how I list them)
World Citizen Challenge 3/7
World War II Challenge 1/5
Dewey Decimal Challenge 6/10
Dream King Challenge 1/7
Young Readers Challenge 10/12
21 Cultures Challenge 8/21
Young Adult Challenge 6/12
Colorful Reading Challenge 0/9
The Challenge That Dare Not Speak Its Name/GLBT Challenge 0/6 (but it just started yesterday)

Ending March 31st (2010):
(Another) 1% Well-Read 2/13
Arthurian Challenge 0/2

No deadline:
100 Shots of Shorts 30/100
Lambda Reading Challenge 0/5
The Printz Project 2/50

Yeah, I've got a lot of reading to do. But hey, it could be worse...

as has long been established, I cannot say "no"

Lazily copied and pasted from my reading challenge blog, my latest weaknesses:


Date: May 15th through August 15th of 2009

Host: Maggie

For details: Click here.

The challenge (put simply): Read three books set in the south by southern authors.

My list:

*A Painted House by John Grisham

*A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole

*The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen

...or whatever strikes my fancy at the time

Notes:
Maybe the third year is the charm when it comes to actually finishing this challenge. ;) I considered not joining this year...I mean one can only fail at something so many times before one starts feeling like a real loser, right? But then I got to thinking about a couple of books that I likely wouldn't have read if not for this challenge, like The Secret Life of Bees and Sonny's House of Spies, and it made me sad to think that I might be passing up finding another treasure if I didn't join. Sound reasoning, if you ask me.

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Date: May 1st through September 1st of 2009

Host: Chris.

For details: Click here.

The challenge (put simply): Read 1-5 books related to the environment or green-living, plus commit one green reading act (see Chris's post for explanation).

My list (I'm shooting for three):

*Walden by Henry David Thoreau

*Last Chance to See by Douglas Adams and Mark Carwardine

*Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change by Elizabeth Kolbert

*The Diversity of Life by E.O. Wilson

...or whatever strikes my fancy

Notes:
I love this challenge! I have no idea yet what my green reading act may be...we already do all the things she had listed, right down to already planting a new tree in our yard this year. But hopefully I'll be able to come up with something new.

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Dates: Perpetual--WooHoo!

Hosts: Suey and Jessica

For details: Click here.

The challenge (put simply): Read the Printz winners. And honors, if you're so inclined.

The list:

2009
Jellicoe Road, by Melina Marchetta
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation; Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves, by M.T. Anderson
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, by E. Lockhart
Nation, by Terry Pratchett
Tender Morsels, by Margo Lanagan

2008
The White Darkness, by Geraldine McCaughrean
Dreamquake: Book Two of the Dreamhunter Duet, by Elizabeth Knox
One Whole and Perfect Day, by Judith Clarke
Repossessed, by A.M. Jenkins
Your Own, Sylvia: A Verse Portrait of Sylvia Plath, by Stephanie Hemphill

2007
American Born Chinese, by Gene Luen Yang
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation; Volume I: The Pox Party, by M.T. Anderson
An Abundance of Katherines, by John Green
Surrender, by Sonya Hartnett
The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak

2006
Looking for Alaska, by John Green
Black Juice, by Margo Lanagan
I Am the Messenger, by Markus Zusak
John Lennon: All I Want Is the Truth, a Photographic Biography, by Elizabeth Partridge
A Wreath for Emmett Till, by Marilyn Nelson

2005
how i live now, by Meg Rosoff
Airborn, by Kenneth Oppel
Chanda’s Secrets, by Allan Stratton
Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy, by Gary D. Schmidt

2004
The First Part Last, by Angela Johnson
A Northern Light, by Jennifer Donnelly
Keesha’s House, by Helen Frost
Fat Kid Rules the World, by K.L. Going
The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things, by Carolyn Mackler

2003
Postcards from No Man’s Land, by Aidan Chambers
The House of the Scorpion, by Nancy Farmer
My Heartbeat, by Garret Freymann-Weyr
Hole in My Life, by Jack Gantos

2002
A Step From Heaven, by An Na
The Ropemaker, by Peter Dickinson
Heart to Heart: New Poems Inspired by Twentieth-Century American Art, by Jan Greenberg
Abrams Freewill, by Chris Lynch
True Believer, by Virginia Euwer Wolff

2001
Kit’s Wilderness, by David Almond
Many Stones, by Carolyn Coman
The Body of Christopher Creed, by Carol Plum-Ucci
Angus, Thongs, and Full Frontal Snogging: Confessions of Georgia Nicolson, by Louise Rennison
Stuck in Neutral, by Terry Trueman

2000
Monster, by Walter Dean Myers
Skellig, by David Almond
Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson
Hard Love, by Ellen Wittlinger

Notes:
Proof that my brain is in a state of decline...I could have sworn I'd signed up for this a few weeks ago. Oh well. Better late than never.

challenge update

The fact that we're now a quarter of the way through 2009 is mind-boggling. Truly. Anyway, it seemed like a good time to check out my challenge progress. While some of the ridiculously high number of reading challenges I so enthusiastically joined don't actually last the whole year, a good many of them do. And yes, I do already know that this is going to leave me depressed. (But it's a really good diversion from algebra, MLA, and DNA replication plans...I am getting far too adept at creating diversions.)

Ending April 30th:
Latin American Reading Challenge 0/4

Ending June 1st:
Book Awards II 4/10

Ending June 20th:
Once Upon a Time III 1/4
Spring Reading Thing 2009 1/11

Ending June 30th:
What an Animal 3/6

Ending September 9th:
999 Challenge 10/81
Countdown Challenge 21/45

Ending September 30th (and it actually doesn't start until May 1st):
Non-Fiction Five 0/5

Ending October 9th:
End of the World 0/4

Ending October 31st:
Classics '09 0/5

Ending December 3rd:
42 Challenge 16/42

Ending December 31st:
9 for '09 Challenge 0/9
Suspense and Thriller Challenge 2/12
Dewey's Books 3/5
Manga Challenge 2/6
Graphic Novels Challenge 7/12
Herding Cats II 0/5
Read Your Own Books Challenge 3/29
Elizabeth Scott Mini-Challenge 0/2
What's in a Name 2 2/6
Support Your Local Library 4/12
Science Challenge 0/3
Essay Challenge 3/30 or 30/30 (depending on how I list them)
World Citizen Challenge 2/7
World War II Challenge 0/5
Dewey Decimal Challenge 4/10
Dream King Challenge 1/7
Young Readers Challenge 8/12
21 Cultures Challenge 4/21
Young Adult Challenge 3/12
Colorful Reading Challenge 0/9

Ending March 31st (2010):
(Another) 1% Well-Read 0/13
Arthurian Challenge 0/2

No deadline:
100 Shots of Shorts 30/100
Lambda Reading Challenge 0/5

----No, it does not escape my notice that I probably could have finished off a whole challenge in the time it took me to make this post. ;)

mishmash Monday 2

No Library Loot for me this week. As much as I love using the library, I am actually very happy with myself. Am seriously trying to cut back on the number of library books I bring home, for the simple reason that they are keeping me from working through my own TBR pile. And face it, whose TBR pile doesn't need some serious attention?!! (Yeah, and if you answered, "Mine's not that bad," just keep it to yourself, would you?)

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Of course, just because there's no Library Loot, that does not mean there is no blame to be placed. A few books did somehow manage to worm their way into our home. Not sure how that happened. Oh, okay, I visited a new bookstore...some bargain outlet place. AND it was Educator's Week at Borders. And frankly, considering all that, I'd say I did well to keep my purchases to three little books.

The Sisters Grimm: Tales from the Hood by Michael Buckley. Yeah, I know I haven't read Books 2-5 yet...but I will. I loved the first one so much.









The Twits by Roald Dahl. After writing about how much the boys and I love The Witches, Carl recommended this one. I just know we're going to love it! Point for Carl!









Farewell Summer by Ray Bradbury. Ummm, yeah, it's Ray Bradbury. 'Nuff said.











*****

Be sure to head over to J.Kaye's to join in the fun.

I actually didn't do too bad last week...managed to finish all the books I was "determined" to finish, plus one.

Read last week:

*House of Stone by Christina Lamb
*Down to a Sunless Sea by Mathias B. Freese
*The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
*Poverty: What If We Do Nothing? by Cath Senker
*Lives of the Artists by Kathleen Krull

Books I'm currently reading and am determined to finish this week:
*Looking for Bobowicz by Daniel Pinkwater
*The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett
*Fax from Sarajevo by Joe Kubert

Books I'm currently reading but probably won't finish this week:
*Africa: A Biography of the Continent by John Reader
*The Scientists by John Gribbin
*The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer
*Summer of the Gods by Edward J. Larson

Books I hope to start this week:

*Cat, What Is That? by Tony Johnston
*The Hoboken Chicken Emergency by Daniel Pinkwater

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Challenges joined this week:

*Once Upon a Time III













*Spring Reading Thing 2009

mishmash Monday

Hmmm...where to begin...

Many thanks to our lovely hostesses, Eva and Alessandra.










Quirkology: How We Discover the Big Truths in Small Things by Richard Wiseman.

I read about this one at the site where reviews for the Science Challenge are posted, but I can't really award a point, because I don't actually know who wrote it. Just sounds like a very fun read.





The Sandman: Season of Mists by Neil Gaiman.

Couldn't believe it was actually there. :)










...I never saw another butterfly...: Children's Drawings and Poems from Terezin Concentration Camp, 1942-1944 edited by Hana Volavkova.

I'm sure many tears will be shed reading this one.







Cat, What Is That? by Tony Johnston.

Bet you can guess why I picked this one up, huh? Yep, a read for Maxidoodle and me. Wish I could have found a bigger image of this one...the paintings are so beautiful!

I realize that's not a huge pile of library loot. Yet still I'm going to try to cut back for a while. I keep finding myself not able to read the books I'm eagerly wanting to read from my TBR shelves because I'm always feeling the pressure of "due dates" for all my library acquisitions. We'll see how it goes though...as we go to the library every week for school. And I'm not exactly known for my wealth of willpower.

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Okay, and what purchases entered my home in the previous week? The answer should have been "none" as I'd put myself on a book buying fast. But see, I also started a battle with the scale. And fighting both these battles at once was just too much for this weary old lady. So I bought a couple books...

Peeps by Scott Westerfeld.

I HATE this cover, but it was the only one they had. Anyway, after Nymeth's review, I knew it was only a matter of time. I was able to "rationalize" a bit though, saying I was sort of buying it for Rich. Sounds like one he's going to love...in fact, he started reading it last night. Point for Nymeth!




River Secrets by Shannon Hale.

Man, I really HATE this cover, too. But what are you gonna do, huh? Anyway, it seems like I waited forever for this to come out in paperback, and by the time it did, it had sort of fallen off my radar. But I saw it the other night, and I tried to resist...





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Okay, so what else is new? I already admitted that I joined Becky's It's the End of the World Challenge. Guess I should now 'fess up...I joined her Elizabeth Scott Challenge, too. Excuses: a. I have one of her books that I've really been wanting to read anyway, b. I can use these books for other challenges, and c. come on, it's Becky hosting!

*****

And finally, the sweet and lovely J.Kaye is now hosting It's Monday. What Are You Reading?.

Books I read last week:

*American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang
*The Sandman: Dream Country by Neil Gaiman





Books I'm currently reading and am determined to finish this week:

*House of Stone by Christina Lamb
*Down to a Sunless Sea by Mathias B. Freese
*The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
*What If We Do Nothing? Poverty by Cath Senker

Books I'm currently reading but won't finish this week:

*Africa: A Biography of the Continent by John Reader
*The Scientists by John Gribbin
*Looking for Bobowicz by Daniel Pinkwater

Books I hope to start this week:

*Cat, What Is That? by Tony Johnston
*Lives of the Artists by Kathleen Krull
*The Dead & The Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer
*Summer for the Gods by Edward J. Larson

oh my

I had a horrifying revelation inside my little brain this morning. I've signed up for something like 40,000 reading challenges for the year. (Okay, yeah, it's really more like 30 or something, but it feels like 40,000.) Anyway, the revelation hit when I read this. Yes, the lovely Becky announced this year's It's the End of the World (As We Know It) Reading Challenge. I love, love, love apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic novels, and there is simply no chance I won't be signing up for this challenge. None. This is one of my favorite challenges. Which got me thinking about some of my other favorite challenges. Which made me realize that those 40,000 (or 30-ish, if you want to get technical about it) challenges I've already signed up for don't even include four of my very favorite challenges of all! No, I still have The End of the World, Once Upon a Time, The Non-Fiction Five, and RIP to add to this year's challenge list.

When am I ever going to learn the art of self-restraint?

Sunday Salon...round 4

Honestly, I have no idea why I'm even posting today. I had a lousy, no make that LOUSY week of reading last week. If it hadn't been for my "vacation," I wouldn't have had much of anything to report in my monthly wrap-up yesterday. Even so, it wasn't exactly a spectacular month. And it was definitely an odd month of reading for me. I didn't notice until I'd published it that the only fiction books I'd read all month were graphic novels. It's not that I'm saying there's anything wrong with that, but it definitely isn't my norm. Nor is it my norm for the non-fiction to outnumber the fiction.

I feel a little let-down that Carl's Sci-Fi Experience is already over. I didn't get a single book read for it. :( I did read a pile of awesome sci-fi shorts though, and am very happy about that. And I am halfway through The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge. I've decided that I should read a Stainless Steel Rat book each year for the Sci-Fi Experience...it just seems fitting, doesn't it? And they really are just plain fun.

The 1% Well-Read Challenge ended yesterday as well. And yes, I totally blew that one (only read 2/10 books). I know you're not surprised. Nor was I. But yes, I am a glutton for punishment. Yes, (another) 1% Well-Read Challenge begins today.

As for the coming week, at the rate I'm going I'll be happy to finish up the Stainless Steel Rat book and House of Stone (which I didn't have a chance to read a single page in last week). Just seems like there's so much else going on...

Sunday Salon

***Warning: I am feeling a tad "chatty" this morning. This portends a rambling, say-nothing-of-consequence post.

My first Sunday Salon post. Not sure what took me so long to sign up, because I absolutely LOVE reading everyone's posts. Don't get me wrong, I very much enjoy reading book reviews and couldn't imagine blogging without them, but there is just something I adore about reading posts where people just chat about books and reading. When Nymeth joined in last week, it was just the push I needed to finally go sign up. I know, I'm such a little copycat.

And speaking of being a copycat, I did a monthly wrap-up post for January. I always enjoyed reading Dewey's monthly wrap-ups so much. Despite the fact that it also made me feel like such a pathetic reader in comparison. :)

On the surface, my January reading list doesn't look all that horrible, but if you actually look closely, it's easy to see how little reading I actually got done. It's definitely one of those months when I look back and grumble a little in my head, "Man, if I didn't have to homeschool Annie, just think what I might have gotten read for fun." But I don't really mean that grumbling...1. I actually enjoy homeschooling, 2. I feel extremely lucky that I'm able to give Annie what she needs, and 3. I generally like all the stuff I read for homeschooling. But you know how it is...that whole "you MUST read this" feeling.

Anyway, while I didn't do so hot elsewhere, my short story reading was definitely up. And that makes me happy, because I really do love short stories despite the fact that I don't always seem to make enough time for them. I have Carl's mini-challenge for Dewey's Books Challenge to thank for the incentive for getting many of those read. Of all the ones I read, I think "The Fluted Girl" by Paolo Bacigulupi was probably my favorite. "Ass-Hat Magic Spider" by Scott Westerfeld was really great, too, in a very different way.

But you know what may have been my very favorite reading of the month? The essay "Bugs in the Brain" by Robert Sapolsky. This is proof that reading challenges are a good thing for me. Despite the fact that I fail to finish so many of them, they do get me reading things I probably never would read otherwise. In this case, if not for the Essay Reading Challenge, I never would have had the guts to pull Sapolsky's book, Monkeyluv and Other Essays on Our Lives as Animals, off the shelf and actually read something from it. I admit it, I get totally intimidated by so many books. Both fiction and non-fiction. I didn't use to be this way. I actually have my own suspicions of why that changed, but believe me, that's a whole new realm of rambling you don't want me to enter. Anyway, back to the essay...not only did I understand it, I absolutely loved it! I'm now so very excited to read his book, A Primate's Memoir. It's one of Rich's favorite books, and though he has repeatedly assured me it is not "above my head," I still doubted.

So, what's on today's reading slate? Well, first of all, I do hope to do some blog reading...I've been so inundated with other things the past week that my blog reading has suffered immensely. Secondly, I hope to read a few more chapters in Africa: A Biography of the Continent by John Reader. (I am really loving this book!) Would also be great if I could make a little more progress in The Scientists by John Gribbin. (I'm enjoying this one as well, but it's slow going. Partially because when I read something for homeschooling, I take notes and write down questions for discussion and whatnot.) If possible, I'd also love to read another story from Down to a Sunless Sea by Mathias B. Freese. (Can't quite get a handle on what I think of this book yet.) And if I'm really lucky, maybe a few chapters in In the Land of Invisible Women by Qanta A. Ahmed, MD. Yeah right, who am I kidding...I'll never get all that reading done today, but it's nice to have goals, right?

One thing, on a reading related front, that we will be doing today is buying blinds for our little library. I'm sooooo excited! After we get those up, I'll have to share photos. We (or I should say "I") still haven't painted the walls (that's just going to have to wait until summer), and we (or I should say "Rich") will probably build some more shelves. But once the blinds are up, it's as done as it's going to be for the time being. And let me tell you, we are absolutely loving it!

***Okay, no complaining...I did warn you right off the top.

a little help here

I'm really, really tempted to join the 21 Cultures Reading Challenge. Could someone please stop me!!!

Either that, or just tell me to go for it. (Then I can blame it on you.)

talented ladies...

If you don't already know that Nymeth is one of the sweetest people on the planet, then you apparently live in a cave. Either that, or you're not a book blogger and have never made her acquaintance. And if you do read her blog, you also already know she's one very talented person. (Seriously, is there anyone who can write a more insightful, intelligent, downright eloquent book review than she can? I think not.) But her talents don't stop there. Just look at these beautiful bookmarks she sent to Annie and I for Christmas. And these photos don't even do them justice...they are just so gorgeous!




I think it was Chris who said before that we need to convince her to open an Etsy shop, and he was so right! Thank you again, Nymeth! So very, very, very much! Annie and I couldn't treasure them more!

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And speaking of talented people, I never had a chance to mention how Annie did with NaNoWriMo this year. Well, my silly little girl was disappointed in herself, because she only made it to a little over 45,000 words (her goal was 50,000). But considering that she wrote 15,000+ words during the first week of November before our computer crashed, and then started all over on a brand new novel on November 14th and got to 45,000+ words on that one, I'd say she did way better than okay!

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And one final thing for the evening, I know I'm supposed to be cutting way down on challenges, but there's a few I just HAD to join. (Okay, I'm sort of doing several more "unofficially" too, but we really don't need to go there, now do we.) First, of course, there's Annie's What's In A Name 2 Challenge. And there's J.Kaye's Support Your Local Library Reading Challenge. And now Eva has gone and started a challenge that is IMPOSSIBLE for me to resist...The World Citizen Challenge.

first things first

Okay, I've been mighty sporadic in both my blog reading and blog posting lately. We really haven't been home much during the past few weeks, and during the days we have been home, there's been so many other things to get done. So I have lots of things to post about (none of which are terribly exciting)...but first I must get on with the really important stuff. Yep, Carl has made the announcement that has Annie and I feeling giddy again. A creepy sort of giddy, of course, as we're talking about the R.I.P. III Challenge.

Yes, I know that just in my previous post I talked about knocking off this whole challenge obsession. But I did also clearly state that I would NOT be giving up Carl's Challenges. No way on earth that will ever happen!

Carl has made it exceptionally easy to participate, with levels of "challenge" to suit everyone. You can even choose to read just one book, and still be part of the fun. And believe me, participating in Carl's challenges is nothing if not fun! Seriously, it's way more than a challenge...it's non-stop contests, interesting posts on related subjects, and a big sense of community.

Anyway, another thing Carl has done with this challenge is to continue with the idea of a "book pool" as opposed to a strict list. I really, really, really love this concept! You still get the delight of gathering up piles of books and reading everyone else's possible reads, but you don't feel hemmed in when it comes to the actual reading. Truly the "book pool" is a stroke of genius, if you ask me.

My pool begins with the following:

*The Rest Falls Away by Colleen Gleason (yes, maybe this will be the time that I actually give this well-loved book a go)
*The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells
*Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill
*Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo
*The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
*We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
*Dark Harvest by Norman Partridge
*Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk
*The Thirteen Tale by Diane Setterfield
*Witch-Hunt by Marc Aronson
*Dracula by Bram Stoker
*Lost Boy, Lost Girl by Peter Straub
*The Society of S by Susan Hubbard
*The Great and Secret Show by Clive Barker
*Daphne du Maurier's Classics of the Macabre

Edited to add:
(After reading a few other lists, I just had to go to the shelves and pull out a few more choices.)
*Tamsin by Peter S. Beagle
*From the Dust Returned by Ray Bradbury
*Samuel Blink and the Forbidden Forest by Matt Haig
*The Homecoming by Ray Bradbury
*Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman
*Black House by Stephen King and Peter Straub
*The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova
*The Witches by Roald Dahl




(P.S. I'm choosing Peril the First--four books.)

I'm with you, Chris!

We arrived home from a mini-vacation to Ithaca on Monday evening. We're off again tomorrow morning. Been hectic, all these mini-vacations. Packing, unpacking, laundry, repacking, trying to fit in school and lesson planning on the days we're home. So, I decided to just sit down for a few minutes and try to catch up with a couple of friends. Though I know it's hopeless to even dream of catching up with all the blogs I really want to. :(
(In fact, I'll probably have to do another "click all as read" maneuver by the time we get back from our next trip...though I really hate that idea.)

Anyway, having just read Chris's "...Not Adhering..." post, I thought I'd just jump on the bandwagon. I've been contemplating this idea for the past few weeks, too. I just have such a love/hate relationship with reading challenges! It's just so fun putting together possible lists and filling in lists with the books you get read. Seriously, I LOVE that part...not much excites me like making a good old list, after all. But the pressure. Ugh. I've gotten to the point where I've not let myself read something I really want to read just because it doesn't fit into a challenge. Talk about ridiculous!

So I quit. Sort of. And mostly.

For the sort of part, I just mean that I "officially" quit. But I'm still going to fill in books on my lists at my reading challenge blog when they fit. Maybe I'll even finish a challenge or two, but without the stress. And I'm still going to "unofficially" join new challenges that sound fun, too. I won't actually sign up...I'll just keep track for fun.

And as for the mostly part, there are a few I'm going to stick with. Annie's, of course. And Carl's...no way am I missing out on RIP or Once Upon a Time! And I'm also going to stick with Bellezza's Japanese Lit Challenge and Becky's 42 Challenge since I joined those blogs. And I'm going to stick with Becky's Celebrate the Author Challenge, because those books are all read-alouds with the boys, and they've loved being part of a challenge.

So thank you, Chris, for the courage to come clean! I've got to say, it feels mighty liberating, doesn't it?

consumed with guilt

Okay, that may be overstating it a bit, but I did just do something that has left me feeling kinda bad...I went and marked everything in my google reader as read. I was stressing so much about catching up, that I just decided, "To hell with it. I'll just start over."

And now that I've got all this free time on my hands (ha!), I think I'll go sign up for a couple more reading challenges. Someone really needs to just shoot me and put me out of my misery. Rich won't do it...he likes my homemade spaghetti sauce too much to live without me.

geeking...week 9

And this week’s theme is Challenges.

1. If you participate in any challenges, get organized! Update your lists, post about any you haven’t mentioned, add links of reviews to your lists if you do that, go to the challenge blog if there is one and post there, etc.

2. If you don’t participate in any challenges, then join one! There’s a good selection of possibilities over on my right hand sidebar (scroll down) where I list those I participate in. There’s also A Novel Challenge, a blog that keeps track of all sorts of reading challenges.

3. Towards the end of the week, write a wrap-up post about getting your challenges organized OR if you’re joining your first challenge, post about that any time during the week. Once you have your post up, come back and sign Mr Linky with the link to the specific post, not just to your blog.

Ah yes, this week's challenge is much needed around these here parts! Which frankly, seems ridiculous, as I have a whole separate blog just for my challenge lists. The problem, however, is that this addiction/obsession/exercise in sheer lunacy is so overwhelming that even that blog isn't entirely solving the problem of keeping me organized. So, here, all in one post, I'm going to try to get down a list of all the books I still need to read, which challenge they're for, and the date the challenge ends. Sounds daunting. And while this will make for quite the boring post, it will hopefully serve as a great reference for me in the months to come.

---by June 30, 2008:
*Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut (Banned Books Challenge)
*The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury (Banned Books Challenge)

This is also when The Book Awards Challenge ends, but I am writing that one off, as I still have seven books to go. No hope there, huh? I'm hoping to redeem myself with Book Award II.

---by July 14, 2008:
*Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. by Judy Blume (Heart of a Child Reading Challenge)
*The Stand: Complete and Uncut by Stephen King (Heart of a Child Reading Challenge, End of the World Challenge, Chunkster Challenge, Decades '08 Challenge)

---by July 31, 2008:
*Stuart Little by E.B. White (Celebrate the Author Challenge, Initials Challenge)
*A Painted House by John Grisham (Well-Rounded Challenge, Southern Challenge)

---for the month of July 2008:
*as many books as I can get read (July Book Blowout)

---by August 1, 2008:
*The 6th Target by James Patterson (Numbers Challenge)
*Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult (Numbers Challenge)

---by August 15, 2008:
*A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (Southern Reading Challenge, 1% Well-Read)
*The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen (Southern Reading Challenge)

---by August 31, 2008:
*My Father's Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett (Celebrate the Author Challenge)
*Green River, Running Red by Ann Rule (Well-Rounded Challenge, Non-Fiction Five, Suspense & Thriller Challenge, What's in a Name Challenge)

---by September 15, 2008:
*The Road by Cormac McCarthy (End of the World Challenge, Book Awards II)
*Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse edited by John Joseph Adams (End of the World Challenge)

---by September 30, 2008:
*The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells (Novella Challenge, 1% Well-Read Challenge, Reading Full Circle Challenge, Decades '08 Challenge, Initials Challenge)
*Wolves of the Crescent Moon by Yousef Al-Mohaimeed (Novella Challenge)
*The Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier (Novella Challenge)
*Gossamer by Lois Lowry (Novella Challenge, YA Reading Challenge)
*The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (Novella Challenge)
*New Guinea Tapeworms and Jewish Grandmothers: Tales of Parasites and People by Robert S. Desowitz (Non-Fiction Five)
*Rats: Observations on the History & Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants by Robert Sullivan (Non-Fiction Five)
*The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 by Lawrence Wright (Non-Fiction Five, Grapevine Challenge)
*The BFG by Roald Dahl (Celebrate the Author, Well-Rounded Challenge)

---by October 31, 2008:
*Lexi's Tale by Johanna Hurwitz (Celebrate the Author)
*lost boy, lost girl by Peter Straub (Well-Rounded Challenge, Book Awards II)

---by November 1, 2008:
*Vanish by Tess Gerritsen (MMM '08, Suspense & Thriller Challenge)
*The Sisterhood by Michael Palmer (MMM '08)
*Shock by Robin Cook (MMM '08)

---by November 30, 2008:
*The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien (Initials Challenge, Inklings Challenge)
*Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See (Grapevine Challenge)
*Larklight by Philip Reeve (Grapevine Challenge)
*Looking for Bobowicz by Daniel Manus Pinkwater (Celebrate the Author)
*The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks (Well-Rounded Challenge, 1% Well-Read)

---by December 20, 2008:
*Helter Skelter by Vincent Bugliosi (Chunkster Challenge, Decades '08 Challenge)
*Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke (Chunkster Challenge, Mythopoeic Challenge, Book Awards II)


---by December 31, 2008 (this is where things get really ugly):
*The Legend of Holly Claus by Brittney Ryan (Well-Rounded Challenge, YA Challenge)
*Ragweed by Avi (Celebrate the Author)
*"Lost Hearts" by M.R. James (Short Story Challenge)
*"The Sussex Vampire" by Arthur Conan Doyle (Short Story Challenge)
*"How 7 Went Mad" by Bram Stoker (Short Story Challenge)
*"The Signalman" by Charles Dickens (Short Story Challenge)
*"The Body-Snatcher" by Robert Louis Stevenson (Short Story Challenge)
*"The Boys of Goose Hill" by Charles de Lint (Short Story Challenge)
*"The Oakthing" by Gregory Maguire (Short Story Challenge)
*Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman (Mythopoeic Challenge)
*Sea of Trolls by Nancy Farmer (Mythopoeic Challenge, YA Reading Challenge)
*Stardust by Neil Gaiman (Mythopoeic Challenge, YA Reading Challenge, Decades '08 Challenge)
*Rose Daughter by Robin McKinley (Mythopoeic Challenge)
*Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman (Mythopoeic Challenge)
*The Ladies of Grace Adieu by Susanna Clarke (Mythopoeic Challenge)
*Light on Snow by Anita Shreve (What's in a Name Challenge)
*Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes (What's in a Name Challenge, Decades '08 Challenge)
*Hearts in Atlantis by Stephen King (What's in a Name Challenge)
*The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick (What's in a Name Challenge)
*Death: The High Cost of Living by Neil Gaiman (Graphic Novel Challenge)
*We Are On Our Own: A Memoir by Miriam Katin (Graphic Novel Challenge)
*elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin (YA Challenge)
*The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (YA Challenge)
*The Secret Hours by Scott Westerfield (YA Challenge, 1st in a Series Challenge)
*The Blue Girl by Charles de Lint (YA Challenge)
*The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor (YA Challenge)
*Fever 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson (YA Challenge)
*The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman (1st in a Series Challenge)
*Shadow Man by Cody McFadyen (1st in a Series Challenge)
*Fablehaven by Brandon Mull (1st in a Series Challenge)
*The Black Echo by Michael Connelly (1st in a Series Challenge)
*MayBird and the The Ever After by Jodi Lynn Anderson (1st in a Series Challenge)
*The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan (1st in a Series Challenge)
*The City of Ember by Jeanne DuPrau (1st in a Series Challenge)
*Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien (Inklings Challenge)
*The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis (Inklings Challenge)
*The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis (Inklings Challenge)
*Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (Decades '08 Challenge, Classics '08, 1% Well-Read Challenge)
*The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne (Decades '08 Challenge, Reading Full Circle Challenge)
*The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (Decades '08 Challenge, 1% Well-Read Challenge)
*The Lost World by Arthur Conan Doyle OR Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter (Decades '08 Challenge)
*All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque (Decades '08 Challenge)
*And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie (Decades '08 Challenge)
*A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith OR All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren (Decades '08 Challenge)
*The House With a Clock in Its Walls by John Bellairs (Reading Full Circle Challenge)
*Pandora's Clock by John J. Nance (Reading Full Circle Challenge, Suspense & Thriller Challenge)
*Pandora: New Tales of the Vampires by Anne Rice (Reading Full Circle Challenge)
*The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield (Reading Full Circle Challenge)
*The Society of S by Susan Hubbard (Reading Full Circle Challenge)
*The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart (Reading Full Circle Challenge)
*The House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer (Reading Full Circle Challenge)
*Blaze by Richard Bachman/Stephen King (Suspense & Thriller Challenge)
*Deep as the Marrow by F. Paul Wilson (Suspense & Thriller Challenge)
*Double Cross by James Patterson (Suspense & Thriller Challenge)
*Dracula by Bram Stoker (Classics '08, 1% Well-Read Challenge)
*Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (Classics '08, 1% Well-Read Challenge)
*Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (Classics '08)
*Walden by Henry David Thoreau (Classics '08, 1% Well-Read Challenge)
*The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini (Classics '08)

---also by December 31, 2008 (even if I finish all of the above--yeah, right!--I will still also need to read for The A-Z Challenge:
*"J" title
*"O" title
*"U" title
*"X" title
*"Y" title
*"Z" title
*"I" author
*"Q" author
*"U" author
*"X" author
*"Y" author

---by February 28, 2009:
*Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (1% Well-Read Challenge)
*The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (1% Well-Read Challenge, Book Awards II)

---by June 1, 2009:
*The Calcutta Chromosome by Amitav Ghosh (Book Awards II)
*The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett (Book Awards II)
*Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card (Book Awards II)
*The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare (Book Awards II)
*How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff (Book Awards II)
*A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson (Book Awards II)

---by December 3, 2009:
*40 more items, many of which will hopefully be filled in through other challenges (42 Challenge)

---by December 31, 2009:
*Sea Change by James Powlik (Suspense & Thriller Challenge)
*World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks (Suspense & Thriller Challenge)
*Joyride by Jack Ketchum (Suspense & Thriller Challenge)
*Three Days to Never by Tim Powers (Suspense & Thriller Challenge)
*Trace by Patricia Cornwell (Suspense & Thriller Challenge)
*Testament by David Morrell (Suspense & Thriller Challenge)

Whew. Now that was one tedious, time-consuming, and most especially, depressing post! Yet I'm grateful to have done it, as I hope it will help keep me on a track a bit more.

And now, if you want to visit some people who not only sign up for truckloads of challenges, but also actually finish them, you might want to visit these fellow "Geeks"...

Wendy
Eva
Becky

Thanks for being such a wonderful hostess, Dewey!

a much better showing than last year

Hooray...I did it...I finished Quest the Third for Carl's Once Upon a Time II Challenge!

Last night Rich, Annie, and I finished up our reading of A Midsummer Night's Dream. What fun! This is one of the many of Shakespeare's plays that I had never read. I knew it was a "lighter" one, but geez, why didn't anyone ever tell me how funny is?!! Truly, laugh out loud funny. This is the second Shakespeare play that Rich, Annie, and I read aloud, and I have to say that it is a great way to experience these plays. Now if we could just go see it performed live!

Anyway, back to the challenge itself...

I enjoyed every book I read:
*Horns & Wrinkles by Joseph Helgerson
*100 Cupboards by N.D. Wilson
*The Rose and the Beast by Francesca Lia Block
*The Sisters Grimm: The Fairy-Tale Detectives by Michael Buckley
*A Wolf at the Door and Other Retold Fairy Tales edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling
*A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare

And while I enjoyed some more than others, I'm not really sure I could pick a favorite. I would most definitely read more by any of these authors! In fact, I'm having a really hard time not starting the next Sisters Grimm book right now, but I promised myself I would finish up some of the books I've got started before starting any more.

Thank you Carl for everything...being the most wonderful challenge host imaginable, hosting the coolest challenges, and most of all, for being such an incredible person!

summer goals meme

Becky just tagged me with Summer Goals meme, which was started by A Year of Reading. Seems like the perfect opportunity to try to organize my thoughts a bit. I know many people already feel like summer's here, but it doesn't quite feel that way here as the kiddos are still in school. So I'm going to take the literal route and make these my goals for June 21st through Sept. 22nd (I think that's correct anyway).

These goals do not have to specifically involve reading, by the way, but I think that's the direction I'll head. Please don't compare my list to Becky's list, as I'll come out looking like quite the slacker!

1. Finish up the challenges which will end during that period or shortly thereafter.
*Banned Books Challenge ends June 30th (still have 2 books to read)
*Heart of a Child Challenge ends July 14th (still have 2 books to read)
*Southern Reading Challenge ends August 15th (still have 3 books to read)
*It's the End of the World Challenge ends Sept. 15th (still have 3 books to read)
*Novella Challenge end Sept. 30th (still have 5 books to read)
*Non-Fiction Five Challenge ends Sept. 30th (still have 4 books to read)
*Celebrate the Author books for June, July, August, and September (4 books)

2. Have a ball during Dewey's Read-a-thon! This will be an easy goal to accomplish!

3. As we are trying out a year-round schedule for Annie's home schooling this year, it means I'll have lots of reading to do for that. Specifically, I'll add as a goal: read lots and lots and lots of poetry. (Poetry is going to be our focus for the first quarter of literature.)

4. Find solutions for housing all the hundreds of books lying in piles around the house. (One would think that having bookcases in literally every room in the house, except for the upstairs bathroom and the laundry area, would be enough, but apparently it's not.) Solutions are likely to include a combination of both more bookcases and giving away lots of books.

And now for the tagging:
*Nymeth--a. I wouldn't blame her for ignoring me since I still haven't done the 6 random things meme, though I still plan to, and b. she's going off to Brazil so maybe she doesn't want to set any goals except for having fun, fun, fun, but c. I hope she'll do it anyway :)
*Chris
*Eva
*Jean

busy, and uninspired

It's been a while since I've posted anything. Partly because I just haven't had anything of interest to say. But mostly because I've been crazy busy...with trying to finish up the third quarter of school, with starting the dreaded quarterly report, with getting ready for company, with having company for the weekend, with getting ready for Annie's birthday, with celebrating Annie's birthday. Not much time for reading, and that includes blogs...I'm woefully behind.


Anyway, Annie had a fabulous birthday...which was actually yesterday, but she started celebrating over the weekend. She chose to have a "girls day out" instead of a party...which meant we gave her the money we would have spent on a party and she went out shopping instead. She had a ball! Probably won't choose to spend her day shopping with her mom and grammy for much longer, so I made sure to soak up every bit of enjoyment I could get from the experience! How did my little girl get to be 11-years-old already anyway?!!

Last night, as is her "right" on her birthday, she set the agenda...dinner at the China Buffet and a trip to Barnes & Noble. This, combined with the books she bought on Saturday and the ones she received as gifts, netted her quite a hefty haul overall. More than a few of which are borrow-worthy ;)

I somehow managed to come home with four new books of my own. Hmmm...wonder how that happened. But with the buy 2, get one free table plus a gift card, I only ended up spending $2! Can't beat that, huh? And if I want to throw a little bit of rationalization in there, I needed one of these books (The Looming Tower) for Joy's Non-Fiction Five Challenge anyway, and I bought another (Snow Flower and the Secret Fan) for Lynne's Heard It Through the Grapevine Challenge. (The other two (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and The Boys in the Trees)...total impulse buys.)

Anyway, hopefully things will slow down a bit around here (but probably not, as I'm scrambling like crazy trying to get things ready for next quarter) and I can get my review written for 100 Cupboards. Loved that book! And hopefully I can get caught up on my blog reading as well!

odds 'n' ends of this 'n' that

*A few people wanted to hear what I thought of Sunshine. Well, I can tell you I really loved it! But I must add that I am the worst person to ask for an opinion about a movie. Why? Because I am so easily amused when it comes to movies. I'm not sure why this is so...I'm definitely pickier when it comes to books. Maybe because so much more of my time is invested in a book, as opposed to a movie. Anyway, unless a movie hopelessly bores me, is full of stereotypical immature-middle-school-boy type humor, is excessively gory, or the acting is horrendously atrocious, I'm generally o.k. with it. So, if you're fairly undiscerning like me, maybe my opinion will hold some weight. But if you'd like a real review, I suggest you read Carl's exceptionally well-thought-out, well-written review. It was there that I first heard of the movie, and have wanted to see it ever since.

*After reading The Goose Girl, I knew I had to get my hands on the sequels. But after reading Nymeth's review of Enna Burning yesterday, I knew I had to get my hands on them even sooner. And I did manage to pick up Enna Burning yesterday, though they didn't have River Secrets in stock.

*This recent compulsion to compartmentalize my blogging has led me to start another blog. This one is for our homeschool activities, so probably won't be terribly interesting to anyone but ourselves. :)

*That darn Becky! (Said with a smile on my face, of course.) She went and started another fun challenge, the Initials Reading Challenge. Do you think I could resist? Of course not!

just 'fessin' up

Figured I might as well just confess...yes, I did join Katrina's Spring Reading Thing '08. No, I probably shouldn't have...I'm a little over-extended as is ;) But how could I not...this was the very first challenge I ever joined. Hard to believe that was only one year ago! But I kept my list short, so maybe, just maybe, I'll actually finish. And I put on books that I've really, really, really been wanting to read, but haven't got to because they aren't on any other challenge lists.

Will probably be out of the loop for a while. We're heading to Rich's Mom's early tomorrow afternoon for the weekend. Still need to pack, make a coffeecake, some Easter cupcakes, and get through a big day's worth of school today. But the good news is a total of almost 12 hours of reading time in the car. (Usually I work on "school stuff" during long car rides, but I decided I deserved a break this time. Okay, maybe I don't deserve a break, but I'm just so anxious to get started on my Once Upon a Time II reading!)

Hope everyone has a beautiful, joyous weekend!

can't think of a title

I am feeling like such a slug. The kids have the day off from school today, some kind of conference or something. Anyway, I made a conscious decision last night to allow myself to sleep in this morning. And sleep in, I did! I did not get up at 4:00am, or 5:00am, or even 6:00am! No, I didn't get out of bed until 6:30! I thought all this extra sleep would be a good thing, but now I'm not so sure. I think I'm more tired than ever, and definitely lacking in motivation. Probably has nothing to do with sleep though...more likely it's just bad attitude :)

I must admit it felt mighty good waking up and getting to tell myself that I could just go back to sleep though. But you know how when you're sleeping and waking up frequently, you often have very vivid bizarre dreams? Yep, definitely had that going on this morning. One of the most memorable: I decided to legally change my name to Vampirella because I thought it would give me a better chance of getting to meet Wayne Newton. Now that is just one creepy dream! In real life, I'd be much more likely to change my name to Vampirella if it would save me from having to meet Wayne Newton! The brain certainly is one fascinating organ.


I did make the kids French toast for breakfast, but that's about all I've accomplished. Some technique this kid has, huh? We really do try to teach manners around here, but, well, I guess we don't always get through.

And speaking of imperfection, I posted "10 reasons why our home will never grace the pages of House Beautiful" over on my domestic stuff blog. I also have a new post on my reading challenge blog...Joy just had to go host another Non-Fiction Five challenge. Actually, I was really hoping she would...I loved that challenge last year. Even finished it on time! I love reading non-fiction, but somehow it always gets pushed to the side (unless it's for homeschooling). This provides just the motivation I need.

Okay, enough babbling for now. Hopefully next time I post, I'll be a bit more coherent.