Skip to main content

Challenge progress report

I am doing quite well so far in the reading challenges for this year.

I have finished 3 Top Mystery Challenge books, which puts me right on schedule.
I have finished 4 out of the 6 books in the What’s in a Name challenge and have the remaining two lined up and am already reading one of them.
In the Read-a-myth challenge and Gothic Reading challenge I have not yet read any books, but I am reading my first Gothic book and have the two mythology books lined up.

It is the TBR challenge I am proudest of. Two weekends ago I met the goal of my TBR reading challenge for 2011: to get the number of TBR books in my stack below 850. This was cause for celebration, because I don't think I have ever finished a reading challenge so quickly.

I only did this partially by reading. I have finished 11 TBR books this year, which alone would not have been enough to reach the desired goal. However, the rules were that the reduction of the TBR list could be done by reading or by culling. What I did was to review the list, removing from it any books I had forgotten to remove in the past couple of years after I had read them, culling a few books, and removing some reference books that I know I will never read from cover to cover. This brought the number down from 865 to 848.

However, last week I received a package of 4 books I ordered from The Book Depository in January. I also paid a visit to the charity shop where I get most of my books from, to discover that someone had donated a number of books by Michael Innes and Patricia Wentworth, two authors whose books I enjoy reading, plus there were a couple of my wishlisted book available as well. This was too good an opportunity to miss, so out came the wallet.

Consequently, the TBR count rose again to 860 when I added these books to the list, so I again have something to work towards. However, 10 books is not a lot, and to put a check on my book buying I have decided to reset the goal to 840 books, which will give me something to work towards but still give me some leeway for book buying should I find books from my wishlist for sale cheaply.
Labels:

Comments

Post a comment

Popular posts from this blog

List love: A growing list of recommended books with elderly protagonists or significant elderly characters

I think it's about time I posted this, as I have been working on it for a couple of months.
I feel there isn’t enough fiction written about the elderly, or at least about the elderly as protagonists. The elderly in fiction tend to be supporting characters, often wise elders (such as  Dumbledore in the Harry Potter books) or cranky old neighbour types (e.g. the faculty of Unseen University in the Discworld series) or helpless oldsters (any number of books, especially children’s books) for the protagonist to either help or abuse (depending on whether they’re a hero or not).
Terry Pratchett has written several of my favourite elderly protagonists and they always kick ass in one way or another, so you will see several of his books on this list, either as listed items or ‘also’ mentions.
Without further ado: Here is a list of books with elderly protagonists or significant, important elderly characters. I leave it up to you to decide if you’re interested or not, but I certainly enjoyed…
7 comments
Read more

How to make a simple origami bookmark

Here are some instructions on how to make a simple origami (paper folding) bookmark:

Take a square of paper. It can be patterned origami paper, gift paper or even office paper, just as long as it’s easy to fold. The square should not be much bigger than 10 cm/4 inches across, unless you intend to use the mark for a big book. The images show what the paper should look like after you follow each step of the instructions. The two sides of the paper are shown in different colours to make things easier, and the edges and fold lines are shown as black lines.


Fold the paper in half diagonally (corner to corner), and then unfold. Repeat with the other two corners. This is to find the middle and to make the rest of the folding easier. If the paper is thick or stiff it can help to reverse the folds.



Fold three of the corners in so that they meet in the middle. You now have a piece of paper resembling an open envelope. For the next two steps, ignore the flap.



Fold the square diagonally in two. You…
25 comments
Read more

List love: 10 recommended stories with cross-dressing characters

This trope is almost as old as literature, what with Achilles, Hercules and Athena all cross-dressing in the Greek myths, Thor and Odin disguising themselves as women in the Norse myths, and Arjuna doing the same in the Mahabaratha.

In modern times it is most common in romance novels, especially historicals in which a heroine often spends part of the book disguised as a boy, the hero sometimes falling for her while thinking she is a boy. Occasionally a hero will cross-dress, using a female disguise to avoid recognition or to gain access to someplace where he would never be able to go as a man.

However, the trope isn’t just found in romances, as may be seen in the list below, in which I recommend stories with a variety of cross-dressing characters. Unfortunately I was only able to dredge up from the depths of my memory two book-length stories I had read in which men cross-dress, so this is mostly a list of women dressed as men.

Ghost Riders by Sharyn McCrumb. One of the interwoven stori…
Post a comment
Read more