As the title of this post says I have reached 20% completion for my book reading goals for the year!
15 down, 60 more to go! Which at this point is only 10 more than last year's total. Not bad! I've still got 10 books on my bookshelf from the library waiting to be read.
I'm going to briefly (maybe?) talk about the last 4 books I read.
Spoilers ahead for:
Ash by Malinda Lo
Huntress by Malinda Lo
Eon and Eona by Alison Goodman
Starting with Huntress by Malinda Lo. I think I mentioned it in my first blog post. It was an awesome amazing book. Just the kind of story I love to read. A good strong main character that isn't without flaws. Though really, Huntress has two main characters. Both girls. Both of whom are inclined to like... wait for it, other girls! In a romantic sense! Which is one of the things I liked about this story the most. It was a part of the story but it wasn't the focus of the story. It didn't need to be. It wasn't shoved in your face. It was presented in a good way. A believable one too. I've felt like Taisa many a time when crushing on someone. So it gets points for being relate-able.
Moving on to Ash, which is in a very roundabout way a sequel to Huntress. It's a Cinderella story. If Cinderella was a tomboy. Who hung out with a suspicious fey fellow. Who fell in love with the King's Huntress. It was awesome. My favorite version of Cinderella that's been redone.
Which leaves the best for last. Eon: The Dragoneye Reborn and it's just as amazing sequel Eona: The Last Dragoneye. I won't spoil a damn thing about either of these. They are both my #1 favorite book/series of the year at this point. I will say however that they remind me of both the Lioness Rampant series by Tamora Pierce (my favorite author EVER) and the Black Magician trilogy by Trudi Canavan (who I don't really like because of her very awful stance on fanfiction, but I enjoyed her trilogy immensely.)
All are fantastic books which you should check out if you are so inclined towards fantasy style books! =) Now I'm off! Probably to start Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr.
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Monday, August 20, 2012
Let's try this again shall we?
Yet another attempt at a blog. I tried to keep one daily last month. It was about things I wanted to work on to better myself. It got a bit too tedious for me I'm sad to say. Or the blog post would end up being a rant about things in life. So, I decided that from now on I'm just going to make it a "whenever it gets updated that's when it happens!" kind of thing. That and so I can talk about books. I love books.
I've decided that it's going to be a requirement of my future life mate to own a bookcase full of novels. They get extra points if the books are fantasy/sci-fi. They also need to be able to hold a decent conversation. Over a variety of communications options.
Anywho, books. Thanks to the wife of one of my best friends, I got started on Goodreads.com a year or so ago. It's an awesome place. Check it out.
No seriously. Go there now! If you love books you should be on goodreads.com!
I love it because it's a digital way to aid in the tracking of books I read every year. It also helps motivate me into reading more. One of the coolest features on the site is being able to set a goal for the year of how many books you want to read. Last year my goal was 50. 38 of which were read solely in the last two months of the year. That was fun. (Seriously! No sarcasm!) The last book of the year was finished within an hour of the midnight deadline on the last day of the year.
This year, I decided to ramp up the challenge to 75. I'd honestly love to say 100!!!! every year. But when it comes down to it... That's a lot of books! (May I just say THANK GOD for the public library?) Not only can reading that many books become quite costly if you're buying them, they'll take up a lot of space to boot! ...Which is becoming less of a problem with the age of e-readers. I myself, own a Kindle Fire from Amazon. Before that I owned a nice little Sony Pocket Reader.
I love, love, love my kindle. Reading on it is easy and relaxing and I don't get strained hand muscles if I read 3 books in one day. But, it isn't the same as reading a real book.
I'll never get that same experience reading "Where The Red Fern Grows" on my kindle as I will my ancient hardcover novel. I've spent many a fond evening with that little bit of paper. Those pages hold memories. Plus, it has that delightful old book smell that only a true bibliophile can appreciate!
I enjoy reading both actual novels and digital. Unless it's a reaally, reaaallly special novel, and I wanted to own a copy, I would buy it on my kindle fire. Saves space. Instant delivery and quite possibly cheaper!
Certain books, you just NEED to own a physical copy of.
Harry Potter anyone?
Mostly right now however, in the name of saving money... I am trying to get as many books as I can from the library. If the library doesn't have them they go on to my special list of books to "someday buy".
At this very moment in time as I sit here typing I have 15 library books stacked on my bookcase (in order of reading preference of course). Two which I have already finished. 13 more lovely little titles just waiting for my undivided attention!
I have a decent number awaiting attention on my kindle as well. However, I would like to save those for a planned vacation in about 2 months. But that is a story for another day.
I think that when I have 5 books left to go from the Lib. that I shall start adding more to my holds list. I love the hold system at the library. Sure it means I need a grocery bag to haul all my books out of the building, but that's part of the fun! Not to mention people's expressions when you walk by with a big stack of books. =D
I will wrap up tonight's post by saying a few quick-ish things about Huntress by Malinda Lo. Possible spoiler!
This is exactly the kind of book I want to read. Action, adventure and romance. But the beautiful thing about the romance in this story? 2 girls! Not to mention no love triangles. OR a guy who was butting in on the developing affection between the two! For me ending was bittersweet, but that's probably what makes it so good in the end. It wasn't happily ever after, but it was ... I hate saying "more realistic" but in a way it was.
Now to go and customize my blog more with goodreads widgets!
I've decided that it's going to be a requirement of my future life mate to own a bookcase full of novels. They get extra points if the books are fantasy/sci-fi. They also need to be able to hold a decent conversation. Over a variety of communications options.
Anywho, books. Thanks to the wife of one of my best friends, I got started on Goodreads.com a year or so ago. It's an awesome place. Check it out.
No seriously. Go there now! If you love books you should be on goodreads.com!
I love it because it's a digital way to aid in the tracking of books I read every year. It also helps motivate me into reading more. One of the coolest features on the site is being able to set a goal for the year of how many books you want to read. Last year my goal was 50. 38 of which were read solely in the last two months of the year. That was fun. (Seriously! No sarcasm!) The last book of the year was finished within an hour of the midnight deadline on the last day of the year.
This year, I decided to ramp up the challenge to 75. I'd honestly love to say 100!!!! every year. But when it comes down to it... That's a lot of books! (May I just say THANK GOD for the public library?) Not only can reading that many books become quite costly if you're buying them, they'll take up a lot of space to boot! ...Which is becoming less of a problem with the age of e-readers. I myself, own a Kindle Fire from Amazon. Before that I owned a nice little Sony Pocket Reader.
I love, love, love my kindle. Reading on it is easy and relaxing and I don't get strained hand muscles if I read 3 books in one day. But, it isn't the same as reading a real book.
I'll never get that same experience reading "Where The Red Fern Grows" on my kindle as I will my ancient hardcover novel. I've spent many a fond evening with that little bit of paper. Those pages hold memories. Plus, it has that delightful old book smell that only a true bibliophile can appreciate!
I enjoy reading both actual novels and digital. Unless it's a reaally, reaaallly special novel, and I wanted to own a copy, I would buy it on my kindle fire. Saves space. Instant delivery and quite possibly cheaper!
Certain books, you just NEED to own a physical copy of.
Harry Potter anyone?
Mostly right now however, in the name of saving money... I am trying to get as many books as I can from the library. If the library doesn't have them they go on to my special list of books to "someday buy".
At this very moment in time as I sit here typing I have 15 library books stacked on my bookcase (in order of reading preference of course). Two which I have already finished. 13 more lovely little titles just waiting for my undivided attention!
I have a decent number awaiting attention on my kindle as well. However, I would like to save those for a planned vacation in about 2 months. But that is a story for another day.
I think that when I have 5 books left to go from the Lib. that I shall start adding more to my holds list. I love the hold system at the library. Sure it means I need a grocery bag to haul all my books out of the building, but that's part of the fun! Not to mention people's expressions when you walk by with a big stack of books. =D
I will wrap up tonight's post by saying a few quick-ish things about Huntress by Malinda Lo. Possible spoiler!
This is exactly the kind of book I want to read. Action, adventure and romance. But the beautiful thing about the romance in this story? 2 girls! Not to mention no love triangles. OR a guy who was butting in on the developing affection between the two! For me ending was bittersweet, but that's probably what makes it so good in the end. It wasn't happily ever after, but it was ... I hate saying "more realistic" but in a way it was.
Now to go and customize my blog more with goodreads widgets!
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