BLOG ENTRY: 2016 Reading Challenge Review/2017 Reading Challenge Look Ahead

Well, this posting is a little late; yet, I always say better late than never! Figure I’d do an analysis posting for my reading challenges this year and a look ahead to next. Since I flubbed so bad this year on this topic, this coming one will be mighty interesting. :D

I started out 2016 with very good intentions. Three reading challenges started and by February or so, I had made good headway. Yet about March-May, I actually left reading books to concentrate on fanfiction. So let's just say that departure put a hole in my reading challenge boat. By the time I dove into books again, we were almost halfway through the year, and I just didn't feel like trying to cram in three reading challenges and feel the pressure. After all, reading is my hobby, not my job.

So about midway through the year, I decided to just concentrate on one reading challenge, and that was my favorite historical fiction challenge. My special challenge to myself for that one was to concentrate on historical fiction works about people, locations, or historical events that were new to me, as that's where my heart really lay that year. And I succeeded with that challenge, diving into some good titles and overshooting my number for that particular challenge.

So safe to say, 2017 I'll be taking a lot lighter. I'll only be concentrating on the historical fiction challenge again; I think I set myself about the prehistoric level at 25 books. I vaguely set myself a personal challenge to concentrate on books set in American history (as I don't tend to read that as much) and historical fantasy, a personal subgenre favorite of mine. But you know what? I'm just going to count every historical fiction book I read this year towards the overall goal and just use those personal challenges aspect for myself as vague guidelines and not an absolute challenge.

I plan on starting a second job this year so my time will be even more limited than in previous years. So the overall total I set for myself on GR of 50 will be hard enough. The prehistoric level of 25 for the historical fiction calendar will also be more of a challenge. Will have to see as the year plays out what happens and how successful I am with the historical fiction challenge and the overall book total on Goodreads this year.

So there you go, a little analysis on how not well I did on reading challenges for 2016 and maybe a glimmer of hope for 2017, depending on how much time Sarah actually has to read. We’ll see where my sanity lies in December. XD

BLOG ENTRY: 100 Book Tag Post Meme

The 100 Book Tag

I saw this post on a blog I follow, Helen's She Reads Novels, and I thought now that's a fun way to analyze what I've been reading, what I'm reading now, and future plans. She was tagged from FictionFan and her 100 post. As Helen mentioned, I'm not nearly as organized as FictionFan is, with spreadsheets and everything. All my organizing is loosely done on GoodReads. My TBR pile/list is an ever changing scene, depending on what my current frame of mind and interests are. But I figured what they hey?! This would be a fun way to maybe inspire a bit more organization for me. So consider me inspired, folks! :)

What is the 100th book on your TBR list? (In the unlikely event that you don’t have 100 books on your TBR, what book’s been on there longest?)

Like Helen, I don't do spreadsheets (see ever changing TBR in 1st paragraph *snicker*). So I did the same thing, took my 100th to-read book off of GoodReads, which was:

I first added this book in November 2012, and I've got it already in Kindle format. So I've really got no excuse other than the sheer number of books on my to-read GoodReads list. So will I ever get to it? Who knows? I won't be reading all the books on my list in my lifetime so we'll have to see. LOL Yet it sure sounds intriguing!

Open your current book to page 100 (or randomly, if you don’t have page numbers on your e-reader) and quote a few sentences that you like.

"She regard herself dispassionately - as strangely detached as she'd been the day he'd laid bruises on her arm. She looked quite different: her hair now about her ears and forehead, and her face smeared with her own blood. Behind her face Nello's floated, sated and gloating. She understood that she wasy lucky. With a wisdom well beyond her own innocence, she knew that if he had not cut her hair he would have raped her, even if she bled."

I liked this paragraph as it illustrates how precarious women's positions were in the past. A husband could get away with such behavior, no censor from society or the law coming his way. As I read historical fiction, I find the examination of women's positions and how they overcome them as one of the most intriguing aspects of the genre.

When you are 100, what author(s) do you know you will still be re-reading regularly? (This should be an easy one for those of you who are already over 100…)

I'll tell ya, there are days I FEEL over 100. LOL! With that figure being so far in the future, I don't know how solidly I can guess on this one. But as of right now, I feel safe to say that I see myself reading Elizabeth Chadwick, Simone St. James, and Stephanie Thornton again and again, in future. I've already re-read works by these guys and look forward to doing so again (maybe after that ever growing TBR mountain range is scaled a bit. :D).

Link to your 100th post (if you’re a new blogger then link to your tenth post, or any one you like). Do you still agree with what you said back then?

I've been reviewing books far longer than I've been doing a blog; I'm a late comer to the blog scene with a start date of May 2015. So I went with my 100th review on GoodReads which was for:

I posted this review on June 29, 2014 which is mind tripping as it doesn't seem that I've been posting reviews that long. As to agreeing with what I said back then, 100%! This author knew how to bring an obscure female historical figure to life, balancing her out against some very heavy-hitter family members (Eleanor of Aquitaine, anyone!!). 'Twas all the more impressive as the book was considered YA which threw me. Completely still agree with the snippet below:

"Yet, being caught up in the upheaval between father, mother, and brothers has also given Joan an aloof approach to life (to protect her heart I'm guessing) and a very strong problem with trust, especially when it comes to men. She has a warped sense of what counts as a strength and a weakness in men. She sees any kindness as a weakness. Yet I can see her, time and time again, yearning for that kindness with all the strength that she spends on seeing it as weakness. The author has taken the time to present her as a very three-dimensional character with all the strength and fallacies that being a Plantagenet entails. "

Name a book you love that has less than 100 pages. Why do you love it?

Egads, this is a hard one. Like Helen, I tend to read longer works. I think I can count the number of novellas or the like on my fingers, and even the majority of those were over 100. After looking through my reading history, I've gotta fudge a bit. I went with a work that's 128 pages, so only 28 over the limit!

A collection of short stories on the history of New Zealand, this work took me on a journey through this isolated landscape and its inhabitants, bringing to life a colonial world unlike any others in history. The harsh landscape and how it impacted New Zealand's early colonists made for jaw-dropping reading. I'd still recommend it.

If someone gave you £100, what would be the five books you would rush to buy?

Holy carp, that's a hard one!!! So many choices! I can't say there's any one title that is burning me inside out to get right now. I'll go with five titles I'm eyeballing right now and may acquire sometime in the near future (or when they publish).

When this one publishes in August of next year, I'll definitely be in line waiting to get it. I've read Europeans/Americans in Japan but samurai in 1600's Europe?? What follows sounds like an amazing examination of culture shock at its highest. Some of the samurai even stayed behind and their descendants live to this day. That blows my mind... I can't wait to explore that more!

If I had the extra money, this one would be a fascinating one to grab. It details events that happened just roughly 40 miles north of where I live. So little is known about this massacre that I believe this is the first detailed work on it ever written. In all the wonderful history around the world, I find I often neglect my own local history. Reading this work would be a good start to remedying that.

Now this, to me, tingles all my interest cells to the extreme. If I had the extra cash and the in to a copy of this rare book, I'd swipe it up in a heartbeat. An examination of a young woman captured by Amazonian rain forest natives in the '30s, she spends 20-25 years with them, living their life, marrying, having kids, and basically becoming one of them. After a time back in the modern world, she shuns it all and returns to the tribe to finish out her life. Even respected by anthropologists as a legit source, I think I'd find this book mind-boggling.

My interest in this subject got quenched a bit with another title I read this year, Our Man in Charleston by Christopher Dickey. Yet, that only covered one man and really one country, Great Britain, in regards to the Civil War. This one sounds like it covers all over Europe and Latin America. Exploring more on this topic intrigues me, seeing the war as involving so much more than just the North and South, but issues that impacted the whole world.

The Broken Girls by Simone St. James

For my last one, there's not even a cover out yet, despite a publish date rapidly approaching. Either way, I'd wait to the ends of the earth for a book by this author. No one can combine creepy ghostly imagery, gripping mystery, historical details, and lovely romance in one volume as well as she can. She's always a treat to read and this one sounds like no exception. It's a departure from her usual '20s in that she's now exploring the '50s. Can't wait!!

What book do you expect to be reading 100 days from now?

I honestly can't answer that. There's no way for me to predict where my interest will be swinging at that point in time. Safe to say,it'll incorporate history in some fashion. Yet, whether that'll be a nonfiction, historical romance, and straight historical fiction, I can't tell you.

Looking at The Guardian’s list of “The 100 greatest novels of all time”, how many have you read? Of the ones you haven’t, which ones would you most like to read? And which will you never read?

I had to laugh out loud when I got a number of read titles of this: 7. And most of those were for school. I'm just not a big classical reader; I usually find the language too odd to enjoy. I even had to drop the Lord of the Rings trilogy just as they were leaving Rivendell as I couldn't take it anymore. If given enough ambition, I think I'd like to try that trilogy again since I love the story itself so well. I'd also like to give Count of Monte Cristo a try since I loved the Three Muskateers. Yet, the rest I'll probably never read. Call me a philistine or what you will. LOL

Free Question – Create a 100 themed question of your own choice and answer it.

I think I'll have to go off a riff of FictionFan's original question ('cause I'm as original as a rock) but with a bit of non-classical Sarah twist, given the last question.

What TV/movie/play adaption of a classical work could you watch 100 times yet never (or at least only when the zombie apocalypse might be happening) want to read the original work?

The BBC adaption of Elizabeth Gaskell's, I find myself re-watching this BBC mini-series at least once every six or seven months; I love it that much. It's got a great story and characters; those lead actors just make the show for me. Yet, the prospect of reading the original work just freezes me cold. From what I understand, it pushes its lessons of equality and the harshness of the worker's lot in life hard. For the time it was written, these issues were front and center, in your face. They still hold some truth today; but combined with the awkwardness of speech older works have for me, I think I'd find this book too bogging and harsh for me. Who knows, maybe something will change my mind in future, but I'm not counting on it.

So there ya go, Sarah's 100 tag post to add to the blogosphere. If you're feeling like joining in, tag you're it!

BLOG ENTRY: Reading Challenge 2015 Wrap-Up and 2016 Look-Forward

So my first year in participating in an actual reading challenge besides the usual GoodReads number one has passed. In 2015, I participated in the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge hosted @ Passages to the Past. I strived for the Prehistoric level, 50+ books and made it a personal challenge to myself to read all those books in the WWII-era. I knew that I usually only historical fiction stuff anyways, so just putting any historical fictions towards the count seemed like cheating to me. I wanted to challenge myself.

And challenge I did! I barely made it under the count, posting my last review on December 31st. So I learned that putting that much focus on the challenge was a mistake; I burned myself out on the WWII era. I found myself looking for alternatives all the time and really having to work to meet the 50+ goal.

So this year, I'm taking it MUCH easier. I'll be participating in challenges that will bring me pretty close to that 50+ count in total, but in a much varied scope. I'll be participating in 4 challenges, two of them personal to me alone.

Challenge 1

My first challenge will be the 2016 historical fiction challenge hosted @ Passages to the Past again.

Join up!!

This year, I'm only striving for about 12 books, a book a month, so between the Renaissance and Medieval levels. I'll be adding the extra kink in that the only books I'll be counting towards the challenge are those that are "new" to me: in an era I've not read before or very little, about a little known historical personage unknown to me, from an area of the world fairly new to me, or a little known aspect of a bigger historical event. I've already got some titles I'm eyeballing for this one so I'm looking forward to participating this year!

Challenge 2

My second challenge seems right up my alley! I've got so many books I've bought and just put on the bookshelf or let rot on my Kindle's backlog that I could read only what I've got for the rest of my life and never finish. So Challenge TRB Pile (though in my case it's TBR basement!) hosted @ Bookish Lifestyle by Evie is just the challenge for me.

Join us!!!

Like challenge 1, I'll be trying for the book a month format, so I'll be shooting for the "friendly hug" level, 11-20 books. I'm not comfortable posting a list of books 'cause I usually read wherever the mood strikes me as time goes by. So I got no idea right now which books will be counting towards this challenge but I look forward to putting at least a teensy-weensy dent in the books sitting in my basement for years.

Challenge 3 & 4

These challenges are my own personal ones. I want to read 12 books, a book a month, for both.

Challenge 3 will be all contemporary fiction, from any genre. I read so much historical stuff that it's sometimes easy to miss the good contemporary stories. I've already got a few I'm eyeballing for this one.

Challenge 4 will be 12 books of non-fiction. Sometimes, it's just nice to read up on something completely true and learn something. More than likely, these will mostly be historical in nature, since that's where my main interest lie, but we'll see what happens.

So there you have it, my reading goals for 2016. Very varied so I've got lots of room to explore a variety of things. Here's looking forward to a great reading year!!