Monday, April 30, 2012

Monday Maunder: April 30, 2012


Can you believe that it is the last day in April?!?  Summer is going to be here before we know it!!  I am so excited about this!!

ON READING

Reading has remained slow this past week.  I am still reading The Kingdom Keepers by Ridley Pearson, with the ending of Book 2 coming very soon!  I'm just going to keep on reading through to the end of Book 5, but I may throw in the first book in The Walking Dead series since I finally got it from the library!

I forgot to mention last week that I have started my book group again!!  Last year, I discontinued the group for a variety of reasons that I will not get into here.  Thanks to multiple requests and some amazing reading friends, we met last weekend and got the ball rolling again.  We are in the midst of choosing books and plan to discuss our first book, A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness in a month.  I could not have asked for a better pick for our first discussion!!

Last, but not least on the reading front, I thought I would share a few thoughts on my current reading challenges.  Let's first take a peak at where I stand on the five that I have signed up for this year:
  1. 2012 Audio Book Challenge (0 of 12)
  2. 2012 Fairy Tale Challenge (4 of 12)
  3. 2012 Off the Shelf Challenge (6 of 30)
  4. 2012 Outdo Yourself Reading Challenge (17 of 70)
  5. What's In A Name Challenge (2 of 6)
I am doing horribly with the audio book challenge, but am hoping to turn that around soon.  I check audios out from the library and never seem to finish them before they are due back without the possibility of renewal (because of a request or max amount of renewals).  Other than that and the overall amount of reading I have done this year, I am completely happy with where I am at.  Goodreads says that I am five books behind my goal for the year, but I think it is still within reach!


ON WRITING

As mentioned previously, I have signed up for participation in the 10-Week Writer's Challenge and today marks the first week down.  How has it gone?  Not bad for the first week and I only hope that it gets better.  Here's a quick peak at what writing was actually accomplished, all of which was for the site this week:

  • Monday, April 23rd:  Wrote Monday Maunder
  • Tuesday, April 24th:  None
  • Wednesday, April 25th:  Wrote two reviews AND scheduled two reviews!  (Please note that many of my reviews I write out long-hand first, then type them up and schedule them.)
  • Thursday, April 26th:  None
  • Friday, April 27th:  None
  • Saturday, April 28th:  None
  • Sunday, April 29th:  Started writing Monday Maunder
My goal is to write a minimum of five days a week and go beyond words for the blog and freelancing.  I did not quite make it this week, but I consider this my baseline and look forward to improving from here!


ON LIFE

For life, I am simply going to remind you about two big things going on here right now:


And, I will leave you with pictures of my loot from a library book sale and a city-wide used book fair.  Can you believe these treasures that will be added to my shelves and used as giveaways for my book club as well as right here on this site?!?  (For my birthday this year, I asked that I have a certain amount of money and two nights at these sales!  What more could a book girl want?!?)







Do you want to guess how much money I spent on all these treasures?!?  Which ones caught your eye and why?  What were the treasures of your week?

14 comments:

  1. Wow! Amazing book haul!! The Other Boleyn Girl and the Wrinkle in Time books really caught my eye!

    I picked up an old-ish Winnie the Pooh book and a copy of A Children's Garden of Verses with some wonderful illustration plates in it!

    My goodreads says I'm 5 books behind too, but I'm doing a chunkster challenge so I sorta knew some of these would go slower. Although my goal and a book tally are nowhere near your levels! :)

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    1. Laura @ The Shabby Rabbit ... Oh my goodness. I think I may have A Children's Garden of Verses somewhere, but I haven't thought about that book for years. Now I need to go through my books to see if I do!

      So glad I am not alone in my goodreads challenge! I finally finished reading The Count of Monte Cristo this year, so that is where I got behind. Totally worth it though!

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  2. Neat! I love looking at book stacks. :) Now about this end of April thing. Last month, I became painfully aware of another year flying by. It's the reason I was thrilled about the writing challenge. The one thing, no matter how small, is working well for me. I'm working on building that daily writing habit even though it's a slow process.

    Speaking of which, you are getting lots accomplished! Way to go!!

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    2. 365andMe ... Congratulations to you! That is something I am shocked at ... it seems every year that goes by passes faster. How is that even possible?!?

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  3. It's look like you got an awesome haul! Under the Banner of Heaven is a complicated book. I read it last year but am still not sure if I want to review it.

    I went to the same used book fair, but I didn't go until the last half price day. Did you go earlier? Was it worth it?

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    1. Bitsy ... Under the Banner of Heaven is a very complicated book. I reviewed it years ago, but I was trying to get more of a discussion going around it more than actually reviewing it. I didn't feel comfortable with a traditional review at all!

      I did go earlier to the book sale! I went to the library one on Thursday afternoon and the big book fair on Friday night. I probably could have went to both a second time and still left with stacks of books! What kind of goodies did you get?

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  4. Awesome books! And what a perfect birthday present! I think I'm 8 books behind with my Goodreads challenge, as I hit a little reading slump in April, but am hoping to get back on track this month.

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    1. Alexia561 ... I couldn't have asked for a better gift!! I am glad to know that I am definitely not the only one behind on the Goodreads challenge. I returned to The Count of Monte Cristo this year, so that put me behind a bit. I'm hoping to catch up this month, too! Good luck to both of us!! :)

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  5. Well, you know that I love seeing so many Diana Wynne Jones and Jasper Fforde books in those stacks! And have you not read The Shadow of the Wind yet? LOVE! (But you probably know that already.) This is an awesome haul, Tif!

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    2. Kristen M. ... I have read The Shadow of the Wind and it is one of my all-time faves! I think I'm going to use that one as an upcoming giveaway!!

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  6. what a beautiful collection!!

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