A-Z Reading Challenge 2012

 

Technical Stuff

Hosted Here: Babies books, & signs

This challenge will run from January 1st, 2012 until December 31st, 2012.

You can join anytime.

If you are blogger, leave the link to your actual post about this challenge.

If you are not a blogger, leave a link to where you will be keeping track of this challenge.

So there are two different ways you can set up your own A-Z challenge.
A – Make a list now of 26 books, picking one for each letter of the alphabet. For example: A – Atonement B- Black Beauty C – The Count of Monte Cristo D – Dances with Dragons etc.
OR
B – The lazy way (how I do it) : Make a list on your blog from A-Z. Throughout the year, as you go along, add the books you are reading to the list. Hope that by the end of the year you have read one book for each letter. Towards the end of the year, you can check and see which letters you are missing and find books to fit.
Each month, I will add another challenge to this main challenge. It might to read a book with both A and Z in the title or to read a book with 3 words that all start with the same letter. I might host a few random giveaways too for good measure. If you’ve got some idea for the mini-challenges, send them my way!

 

My List

A –
B –
C –
D – Dies the Fire By S.M. Stirling
E –
F –
G –
H –
I –
J –
K –
L –
M –
N –
O –
P –
Q –
R –
S –
T –
U –
V –
W –
X –
Y –
Z –

6/30–Day–Book–Meme: A book with a story for you, that reminds you of something specific in your life (a person, a place, a time).

I don’t think there’s a story that – in it’s entirety – reminds of something in my life. There are characters I identify with, Jane Eyre, for example. Her struggle to assert her independence and be known for her intelligence and strength of her conviction is something I struggle with everyday. Her plainness and yes her belief that her looks are a detriment are something I also feel, which is why I took to her to well I think.

Another story that speaks to me, but in more matters of faith than in situation is The Last Question by Isaac Asimov. It’s such a simple story, so very simple and yet, I can’t help but be affected by it, every time I read it. Everyone needs to read it. I believe there is a copy of it online, Here. Read it, please.

Review: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

 

Finally, the magic ends. I admit I was late to the party. I past the series off as just another children’s story. I didn’t read the first book, and laughed when they decided to make it into a movie. And then the movie was released and I decided, on a whim, to rent it. And I was enchanted.

I watched the second movie in theatres. At this point I had not read any of the novels, but shortly after I saw the second movie, I sat down and started reading. I devoured book three, then book four, skipped back to book two.

Book five I was less impressed but Harry’s Cap’s lock of Rage was a little overpowering. Still by that time I was a little Pottered out. I took a break, kept up with the movies and avoided book six like the plague. Mostly because I was spoiled.

Just prior to the sixth movie’s release, I read the book, loved it, and loved the movie. Book seven though, I once again avoided. I didn’t want it to be over.

I didn’t want to lose the magic. The movie would come out and that would be soon enough to read it. Even after the Part one came out I hesitated. It wasn’t until the afternoon before Part II premiered I bought the book. I set down to read it, and read most of it in two weeks. But still, I didn’t want it to end.

So I’ve been avoiding the book. Until this week, when finally I decided to pick it up again. And my god, I loved every word, I cried with every death, I cheered with every victory. I was once again enchanted and taken away to a world not my own.

I desperately loved this book. I can’t help but give it five stars and not just because it’s the final chapter on Harry. It’s part of my life. It’s Hogwarts and it’s magic and it’s fairy-tale and it’s home. And in a way it will never end. It’s become so much apart of everything that it can’t ever end. Just change form.

That’s what happens with all the good ones. I mean the really good ones. The ones we’ve been telling since we lived in caves. They’re the ones that speak to us beyond the pages, beyond the lines in a book. They have a life of their own and they change the world around for everyone who’s read them.

View all my reviews

5/30–Day–Book–Meme: A book you acquired in some interesting way

Honestly, I’ve been racking my brain for weird or wonderful acquisitions and I’m stumped. Usually I buy them, or get them from a friend. I have a few books I got from my grandfather’s attic, but I can’t for the life of me remember what they are. Crappy post is crappy. I’ll be sure to have something better for Day 6. . . I Hope.

I’ve been in a rather desperate mood for Lists today

Either it’s been lists of books read, or lists of movies watched, or lists of To Be Read, or To Be Watched. It’s not that I need someone else to make the decision of what to read for me; I can make that decision quite easily by myself. Rather I like lists. Quite a lot. I like how neat the appear, and how organised, and how simple and yet so very accomplished they are. To be able to cross off even a tenth of 1001 books to read before you die, sounds and looks like a major achievement.

But for the most parts, the lists fall short. 1001 Books before you die, while a great list, has so many novels I don’t plan on even looking at. Yes I realise there are a lot of very good novels on that list, a lot of classics that are perhaps missing from my education. I have never read Tess of the D’Urbervilles. I don’t feel the need to read Lolita. Not because I’ve heard anything bad about them. But rather the opposite, I think.

These novels have so much built up around them, that I get the impression if I don’t care for them, I’m missing the point of them. Similar to English class when everyone is throwing out possible reasons behind the phrasing in a particular passage; I end up with my own conclusions and sometimes – not often – I really don’t see what everyone else sees. It’s not even that I’m not looking deep enough, I just honestly don’t think that the author was that was conscious of including this particular meaning at that particular time, in that particular passage.

Anyone who’s written anything, either a blog, or short story, or a full novel, have an idea in mind, something they are passionate about, or speaks to them. But I don’t think they set out to write a book about feminism. I think themes are more organic than that. For example in one of my favourite novels, Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay, has a prevailing theme of the importance of identity. This is one of the most obvious themes, but I don’t think Kay honestly set down to write a novel about identity, he set out to write a story. The themes picked themselves, so to speak.

Yes, I have been surprised in the past by certain novels. Jane Eyre is one of my all time favourite novels. I loved Count of Monte Cristo but was left disappointed in the ending, though it fit the story perfectly; it was just rather depressing for the Count. But this surprise is turning out to be the exception rather than the rule. I’ve tried to read Pride and Prejudice several times and just can’t seem to get through it.

I guess, what I’m babbling about is, while I like lists, I don’t want to be judged by them. I want to use them as a guide to what might be interesting, but I don’t want those same lists to be used against me when I don’t finish them. The 1001 books to read before you die. Yes, they are probably all very good, but I don’t think they are for everyone. Lord of the Rings is not to everyone’s taste. Neither is Middlemarch.

A lot of the novels I read are sci-fi/fantasy based, and I still get weird looks from people who don’t read those genres. Also because I found fantasy through a different source (Kay, not MacCaffrey, or Bradbury) I haven’t read a lot of the classics. Yes, I’ve heard it before, if you read the classics first you’ll see what influenced what in successive generations. But really, is that compulsory? Is it necessary to read all of Asimov’s works in order to understand those he influenced?

Besides, since I haven’t read them I get the opportunity to discover them for myself. I get to uncover their secrets for myself. I get to figure out, although in a backward sort of way, what novels were influenced by whom. And if I don’t care for it, I don’t feel the need to explain why. There are too many books in the world to be bogged down with stuff I don’t like.

All that being said, I do plan on using some of those lists out there to create a bit of a TBR pile. Still, I don’t feel beholden to said lists. Rather, I feel empowered by them.

What you guys think? Should lists be the ‘be all, end all’ so to speak? How do you use them? Or do you even bother? I’d love to here about it.

 

Currently-Reading: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows J.K Rowling (pg 420) Should finish it today
Currently Knitting: The never ending sweater of DOOM!
Currently Listening: Alexandre Desplat – Harry Potter – The Deathly Hallows Part II – The resurrection stone

4/30–Day–Book–Meme: The book that’s been on your shelves the longest.

Sailing to Sarantium (The Sarantium Mosaic)

There are probably ones that are older, much older; namely though I acquired from my grandfather’s attic after he passed. But for longevity, I think this book actually tops most of them. I got it for Christmas the year it came out, from my aunt, Daphne. It’s perhaps one of my many favourites by Kay, although Tigana is number one.

It took me a while to sit down and curl up with this book, as usual with Kay’s works, I have to work through the prologue/first chapter to get to the meat of the novel. I think this is due to Kay’s habit of starting most of his novels off in a third person omniscient perspective. It’s the narrator voice, and while it does have it’s place, I need to push myself through it just so I can get into the character’s mind.

Crispin’s POV is wonderful and refreshing and funny. And I think he had a lot to do with why I loved this book so much. Once I finished it I went out and bought the follow-up Lord of Emperors immediately. I’ve read them three times, and I think next year they will end up on my TBR pile once more.

 

Previous Posts: 1/2/3

3/30 Day Book Meme – Your favourite book aged 9 ½, or 13 ¾, whichever you remember best.

Moby-Dick (Enriched Classics Series)

Two weeks before the beginning of grade five, we went school shopping. On break from looking through miles of pen aisles and Hilroy scribblers, we stopped in at Coles. I was looking through the displays at the front of the store and found a new section of pocket classics. They were these tiny versions of classic novels, all neat and perfect and thick enough to look intimidating. I don’t know why I picked up Moby Dick. I can’t even tell you, I think I just grabbed because mom said we were leaving and if I wanted something I had to pick fast. I brought it home, and forgot about it, it ended up in my bookshelf hiding under a few picture books I still had hanging around.

Grade five was the year of book reports, and I had no idea what to pick so when I got home I went through my bookshelf and Moby Dick fell out. It seemed cool. And hey, it was small, so it had to be short. Double bonus.

I know now it wasn’t a short book, nor was it a book I completely grasped at the time, but I did get swept away in the adventure of it. Ishmael intrigued me, but I was more interested in Queequeg,  I kept reading to find out more about him. And then Ahab started taking over the story, and I remember being so angry that was that stubborn to destroy himself and everyone in his path just to kill the way.

I can’t remember the book report I wrote for it, but I do seem to remember it fondly. Aside from a few scenes I largely forget the book. But I know I’ve never seen the movie, so what I do remember is completely from what little I remember when I read it, over 20 years ago.

Day One

Day Two

2/30 Day Book Meme: Your earliest memory of reading or being read to

 

Memories of my childhood almost always include books. Bedtime meant curling up with my mom, or dad, or my aunt Nancy if she was visiting, and listening to one of the many books we owned. My favourites were the fairy tales. My brother always chose one of his joke books.

I loved curling up with a book although as I grew up and book reports became the norm as school projects I was less enamoured. Bedtime meant hot chocolate and pjs and cuddling up against my aunt and listen as whole worlds became real around me. I wish I could remember some of the stories I was read growing up. I know we had this fairy-tale book, it was old, with yellowed pages and smelled like a library and I loved it. It was my mother’s when she was a child. I believe the book is still somewhere in the closet right now.

Day One
—————-
Now playing: Isaac Asimov – The Last Question
via FoxyTunes

1/30 Day Book Meme: A fictional character you identify with and why

And so kicks off the 30 Day Book meme!

This is a harder question than I thought. If an author is particularly good I can identify pretty easily with a lot of different characters. From Jane Eyre for her plainness and fierce intelligence, to Claire from the Outlander Series, not only for her profession but for her loyalty and her intelligence and resolve.

So it comes down to intelligence I think that’s key. And while Esme Weatherwax has her own way of doing things, she’s certainly intelligent. She’s sarcastic and droll and so very fun to read. She knows what she knows and no one is going to tell her otherwise. I first met her in The Sea and Little Fishes short story from Legends Anthology. I liked her immediately.

Overall I found her obstinate, contrary, funny, and wonderful.

Currently Reading: Equal Rites

P.S. This is so much shorter than I intended, but I plead, headache, and early shift in the morning, and hey, Supernatural is on!. Bye for now!

12 in 12

12 categories
12 books
12 knits
12 Months

Whoo boy.

Rather than starting this in January in the flush of New Year’s Resolution and forget it for months on end I think I’ll start this now. This not only gives me until next October to help, but two months of grace should I need it.

The rules

– 12 books, and 12 knits per category
– no less than 6 books per category
– no less than 4 knits per category, the caveat here is a minimum yardage of 300 yards a project
– I must give a book in question 2 chapters before it is tossed.
– Re-reads do count, but there can be no more than 2 per category

Onto the Categories

Long Haul Knitting – Audiobooks/big projects
Two Bite Brownies – small projects (200 yards or less), short stories
C’est La Vie – Translated books/books from other countries/ Ethnic Knitting
It’s all a mystery– Mystery novels/mystery knits (can also be test knits)
Ruby Tuesday – Chick flicks, chick knits
To Give is better than to Receive – Gift knits/uplifting novels
Once Upon A Time – Fairy tales / knits based on myth/fairy stories
I’ve got Chills – Horror and comfy knits
The Way Back Machine – Historical novels and tradtional knits
And 1 and 2 and 3 and 4 – Series! Combo knitting (must be at least mitts/hat combo, bonus points for scarves)
Let’s All Go to the movies – Books that have been made into movies, movie inspired knitting
Grab Bag– The overflow category

Today is going to be behind the scenes, stuff. I set up a group on Goodreads, for those who wish to take part feel free to join. If you just want to use your blog, I’ll create a Linky to figure out those who are interested. Fill out the info below if you’re interested in joining me for a wild ride.