Tag Archives: reading
QotD: The only obligation of a novel (PWQ00006)
Addendums to the 2023 reading challenge
I like the list of books I came up with for my reading challenge. However, that list was my tentative planning list before I worked on the other genre challenges that I belong to on FaceBook. For those, I’m doing a bit of planning below.
Cozy Mystery Reading Challenge for 2023
- Set in a different time period –> The Daughter of Sherlock Holmes by Leonard Goldberg
- Cozy companion that isn’t a dog or cat –> Secondhand Spirits by Juliet Blackwell
- Has a beverage recipe –> Death of a Kitchen Diva by Lee Hollis
- Paranormal or Magical Cozy –> Death Overdue by Allison Brook
- Set somewhere you’d like to vacation –> The Cracked Spine by Paige Shelton
- Sun, Moon, or Stars on the cover –> Deadly Summer Nights by Vicky Delaney
- A Cozy that matches the season –> WINTER: Chocolate Hearts and Murder by Patt Larsen; SPRING: Eggsecutive Orders by Julie Hyzy; SUMMER: Jealousy Filled Donuts by Ginger Bolton; FALL: The Cider Shop Rules by Julie Ann Winters;
- A Cozy opposite the season –> WINTER: Murder in the PaperBack Parlour by Ellery Adams;
- Male Author –> Death by Coffee by Alex Erickson
- Main character is different than you –> Death by Dumpling by Vivien Chien
- An author who uses initials –> Whose Body by Dorothy L Sayers
- A past Book Chat selection you haven’t read –> Elementary, She Read by Vicky Delany
- A library book –> Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters
- A reread –> Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie
- Serves food you’d like to eat –> Catering to Nobody by Dianne Mott Davidson
- Includes a celebration –> Murder’s No Votive Confidence by Christin Brecher
- Includes a home project –> Dead Cat Bounce by Sarah Graves
- Judge a book by its cover –> Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanna Fluke
- Has a setting different from yours –> Real Murders by Charlaine Harris
- Read (part of) the rainbow: predominant purple –> Murder in G Major by Alexia Gordon
- Bonus Prompt #1 — Three cozies, same author –> I Scream, You Scream // Scoop to Kill // A Parfait Murder by Wendy Lyn Watson
- Bonus Prompt #2 — Cozy without murder –> The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman
- Bonus Prompt #3 — Read the rainbow –> RED: Under Lock & Skeleton Key by Gigi Pandian // ORANGE: The Librarian Always Rings Twice by Marty Wingate // YELLOW: Decaffeinated Corpse by Cleo Coyle // GREEN: A Baffling Murder at the Midsummer Ball by T.E. Kinsey // BLUE: Caught Dead Handed by Carol J. Perry // INDIGO: Fame and Fortune and Murder by Patti Larsen // VIOLET: Her Royal Spyness by Rhys Bowen
The Tea and Ink Society Challenge
This site has the requirement that the books have to all be published before 1970. Hey, I was born before then, I guess I’m classic now too!
- January: A classic detective novel
- February: A book with a character’s name in the title
- March: A classic fairy tale collection
- April: A classic Japanese novel
- May: A book with a movie/TV adaptation you’ve already seen
- June: A classic set at sea
- July: A narrative poem or collection of poetry
- August: A classic by a Latin American author
- September: A Dickens novel
- October: A nonfiction classic
- November: A classic fantasy novel
- December: A classic set in a place you want to visit
The Cloak and Dagger Reading Challenge (#CloakDaggerChal).
The premise for this one is sheer volume:
- 5-15 books – Amateur sleuth
- 16-25 books – Detective
- 26-35 books – Inspector
- 36 – 55 – Special agent
- 56+ books – Sherlock Holmes
The catch — of course, there’s a catch! — is that you can only count mystery, suspense, thriller and crime books. You can find the link at: https://carolsnotebook.com/2022/11/15/cloak-and-dagger-reading-challenge-2023/.
Let the reading begin!
The PolyWogg Reading Challenge 2023
A number of years ago, I started a reading challenge for myself. A little creative, a little classic, a little gamification to up my reading quotient and broaden my reading selections. Then it morphed into a group and about 20+ people joined. Because of some personal issues, I left that group last year and let others run with it. I have no idea if it’s still active, but I went in search of “other sites” that I could haunt to get my reading-discussion/virtual-book-club fix. It didn’t really work for me. It turns out that when I’m not part of a group of friends and family, I don’t care much what OTHER people are reading except in a generic sense. If someone raves about a book, I’ll consider it. But it doesn’t make me want to read it at the same time or in close temporal proximity if I don’t know the person.
Which means…dun dun dun…my 2023 Reading Challenge is ONLY ABOUT ME. 🙂
For inputs, I have a lot of possible books to choose from. I have dozens of lists from my early Reading Challenges, including classic lists from Time, BBC, Guardian, etc. Plus of course all the award winners. And then there are new books, genre books, friends’ suggestions, etc. Plus I like the gamification options, sort of like a bingo card where you track what you’re reading against some arbitrary tracking category.
Soooooo, my reading challenge comes down to three parts for 2023.
A. How many books?
Well, that’s a funny thing. I set myself a goal of how many BOOK REVIEWS I would write in 2023 at 52. But some of those are books I have in my “to be reviewed” pile. They will not all be reviews of “newly read” books. So if BRs are at 52, should my list be less than 52? Or do I accept that not all of my newly-read books will get reviewed at the same time as I finish them? I’ve been trying to stay on top of things, but there are other things that intervene. I think that I will aim for 52, aka the one-a-week option, even though it might not directly overlap with my list of BRs. Weird, I know. I’ll be the only one who likely notices.
B. How will I track them?
I’m going to go with the classic “double alphabet” list i.e., I will aim for the 52 books to have at least 26 that have the first substantive word in the title starting with A, B, C, etc. I’ll make some allowance for books like Erle Stanley Gardner titles where the titles all start with “The Case of the…” and go with whatever comes after that intro for the title. The second list of 26 is to do the same but with the name of the author. I’ll primarily go by last name, but I might have to be creative for certain low-usage letters in names (like last names starting with X!). So that’s easy enough to do. And in a perfect world, with double-counting, you COULD do it in just 26 books, but it’ll go past that, I’m sure.
But I’m going to be a little bit more creative than that…I’ll add in indications if the books meet other criteria too (like classic or award-winning, or mystery or sci-fi!).
C. What books am I considering?
I don’t want to ignore serendipity, so I’m only going to pre-plan the first 26 books and let the last 26 come from other sources for now.
The Sleeping Car Porter by Suzette Mayr…I’m already working on this one (with tags for mystery, historical, award winner, and diversity);
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky…I have been reading this for some time and am about 2/3 of the way through-out. I want to finish, but it is quite slow going (classic genre);
Book 1 by Jacob Horton et al…it’s terrible, but I never finished the first book that he wrote as part of a group. And I’ve even forgotten the name of it now. Sheesh, I’m a terrible father (local author);
All’s Fair in Love and the Nuclear Apocalypse by Jacob Horton et al…I’ll read this one too, likely in March (local author)
Make: Getting Started with 3D Printing (2nd Edition) by Liza Wallach Kloski and Nick Kloski…I have the 3D printer, but I don’t understand enough of the theory to help me understand the practical instructions of my printer (non-fiction);
Something by Agatha Christie, time to dust off the classics and start the ride (good for mystery);
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child…we’re going to the play in March, I’m trying to decide if I should read it before or after (fantasy, plays);
A book by Lawrence Sanders…for classic mystery or thriller);
The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters…from a classic list;
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green…from a classic list;
Something Wicked by Carolyn G. Hart…from Agatha awards;
Lost Little Girl by Gregory Stout…from Shamus awards;
Beat Not The Bones by Charlotte Jay…from Edgar awards;
The Last Good Kiss by James Crumley…from Edgar awards of sorts, this is book #1 of a two-book series;
A Case of Loyalties by Marilyn Wallace…this might be hard to find though, from the Macavity list of winners;
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton…from a classic list;
Rabbit, Run by John Updike…from a classic list, but frequently referred to by Lawrence Block;
The Postman Always Rings Twice by James W. Cain…from a classic list;
Neuromancer by William Gibson…from a classic list, a rare sci-fi style story;
Still Life by Louise Penny…the first of the series;
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid…from the popular seller’s list;
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir…latest top seller for sci-fi;
Winterhouse #2 by Ben Guterson…part of a YA series I’ve been reading slowly;
The first book in the P.C. Cast series about young vampires;
Next book in the Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch that I started over a year ago; and,
A Stephanie Plum book by Janet Evanovich…it’s been a while since I caught up.
And I guess I need a tracker!
So that’s my starting point. Feel free to follow along.
Today I choose to simply read (TIC00013b)
I love to read, but I find it hard to work into my schedule. Which is not to say my schedule is “full”, I just mean there aren’t natural times when I’m likely to read.
When I was in elementary school, I would read in school when I was supposed to be doing school work, read while I walked home sometimes, read until supper, read until bed, and read on the way back to school the next morning where I would get three more books (I was in Grade 3 or 4 as I recall).
Later, I would read on buses while commuting, but that was always a crapshoot as to whether I would feel nauseated or not.
But lunchtimes? That was ME time. Grab some food, ignore the world, and read. A friend of mine that I met at french training was really struggling because he had to drive to the school. Normally, he would read on the bus in the morning for almost 40 minutes on his way to work, plus over lunch, and then 40 minutes on his way home. He had LOTS of time. Once he started French? He was basically down to lunch hour. It was driving him bonkers.
When I’m at the office, I drive to work so reading-by-commute is out. I do read at lunches sometimes, but I also often use that time to read news articles more than books.
These days, my book reading often goes in binges. I rarely have a book “on the go” so to speak…I’m either reading intensely or I’m not reading at all. We bought books for Jacob on the weekend, and I need to read three of them for mature themes and content before he does. Today, I plowed through the last 3/4 of I Am Number Four by Pittacus Lore. I’ve seen the movie and practically fell asleep; the book was much better, and while it is about war, there is some normalcy in there too. I don’t know that Jacob will enjoy the book, but I’m fine with him giving it a try. He read Maximum Ride by James Patterson, and there are some similar but less fantastical elements. More sci-fi than fantasy for this one.
But I took most of the evening off from my to do list to just sit and read. Yeah, sure, I was burning some files from one media to another, did a couple of chores, wrote this post, caught up on some discussions I’m part of online. But mostly I just sat here and read while the other stuff hummed along. And I finished the book. I feel like it took me longer than normal though…440 pages in total, and I was already about 100 pages in when I started reading tonight, but it still took me over 3 hours. But I definitely zoned out in there. Want to know the weird part? I did it while sitting at my desk. I didn’t even move to a comfy chair. I guess that means the story was engaging enough that I didn’t even notice! 🙂
Today I choose to read for pleasure.
What choices are you making?