Make it Work Or How I somehow almost caught up to my reading goal

I'm still not quite sure how it happened, but I'm only six books away from my challenge goal. I've been spending a lot of my time knitting and TV watching (Gilmore Girls, Gilmore Girls Revival, The Crown, Parks & Rec). It was wonderful and lovely, but that number of books I still had to read wasn't getting any smaller. Suddenly, my knitting projects were ... done? And I had some time on my hands. I guess I could clean? Bah. Hahaha. Of course not. 

And somehow I made it work. I'll tell you again, like I do every few months, that I'm super done with series. Really, I am. But I mean, I still have one more book from A Song of Ice & Fire, so I might as well finish. I hate that they take me 6 weeks to finish! I love the story and I'm curious to see what he does with his characters next, but man. Six weeks is such a long time. 

Catch up time. I read two graphic novels; Lumberjanes and Adulthood is a Myth. I wasn't thrilled with the new Lumberjanes, but admittedly, I am well beyond the age demographic. Adulthood is a Myth was hilarious...and I finished it in about 10 minutes. It was good, but not laugh out loud good. Also, there is a good chance I've seen 70% of the comics on the internet already. 

A work friend recommended The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend and I was ready to fall in love with it; alas, it wasn't meant to be. It was a real struggle to get into. The premise was darling and caught my attention, but too many characters introduced in too many general ways caused massive confusion on my part. By the end, it finally got good. But by then, it was fairly predictable and honestly, I couldn't tell if I genuinely liked it or was just glad that it was over. 


I listened to How the Marquis got his coat back, a short story by Neil Gaiman that follows up on the Marquis de Carabas from Neverwhere. I listened to the dramatization on BBC Radio 4, so I'm not sure it counts as the whole story, but I'm counting it anyway. 

And that brings November Reads to a close. 
Though we are only 5 days into December, I somehow managed to read four books already. It must be some of that Waverly Magic. In fact, I know it is. I realized I hadn't read the newest Wavery Sister's book by Sarah Addison Allen and it had been quite a few years since I got lost in the world. I read both Garden Spells and First Frost in about a day. She hasn't lost her touch, and I don't think I'm romanticizing the memory of a wonderful read. She weaves such magic into the every day that by the end you want to live in Bascom just so you can maybe run into Sydney (for that hair cut that gives you a perfect day) or attend a catered event by Claire (for a meal that reminds you of only the happiest memories). 

My favorite find over the last few weeks, though, was The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion by Fannie Flagg. Yes, that Fannie Flagg of Fried Green Tomatoes fame. She tells a beautiful story with incredible women. Actually, the more I think about it, stories that involve women primarily. I can count 3-7 men in the entire story, verses the 13+ women that the story is about. I love that. Anyway, the chapters sometimes ended on cliffhangers that kept me from getting any sleep and almost made me late for work because I needed to finish those last few pages!  I'm adding Fried Green Tomatoes to the list (for next year, of course) because I can't imagine it being anything less than glorious. 

I'll end it here. I hope to have another book/TV review for you soon. After that, I'm in the final crunch to maybe try to meet my goal this year. Did you have any last minute book surprises? You know I'm always looking for new recommendations!  With just about three weeks left to the year (!), are you close to meeting your goal? Let me know!

October: In which I'm struggling to meet my goals

Ya'll, I have been trying hard to meet my reading goals for the year. I promise! I accidentally started knitting earlier than usual this year, so that took away some of my prime summer reading time. I also tried a few audiobooks which were really unexpectedly wonderful, but took twice as long as actually reading, so I think that's the other reason I'm so behind. I looked at the stats and think it might be entirely possible that I won't reach my goal this year, and I'm kinda okay with it. Don't get me wrong, I love reading and I love reading more every year. I love having a goal to work toward and love that Goodreads sets up the challenge in the first place. But I end up putting so much pressure on myself to read MORE, and I noticed that this year it's less about good books and just about more books.

Anyway.

I finished a (one. single.) book this week and I thought I'd share. It's a cute little thing called "love in lowercase" and I think I fell in love with the title before I even had a chance to read the blurb on the back. However, upon further examination (and actually finishing the book) I think I fell out of love pretty quickly. It was a translation, so I was completely ready to give it all kinds of slack. I've had a mixed history with translations and now I try to approach them carefully, fully realizing that the translation could be the thing that sucks, rather than the story itself. Like most films of non-American origin, this book left me feeling empty and a little sad. But as Sally Sparrow says, sad is good because it's like happy for deep people. Love in Lowercase made me think about the little things that we do in life, the interactions we have with the people around us. Sometimes, we only hold the door or say hello to our fellow travelers. To the person receiving the gesture, though, it could have been the most human interaction they had in the day, therefore making it very meaningful. And sometimes people we meet by chance have more of an impact on us than the scores of family members and well wishing friends we have in our life daily.

A few years ago, I read  Game of Thrones. I liked the first book a lot, but when I tried to get into the second, I didn't do so well. And then I let my friend borrow it and well...It dropped off my radar. This summer, I needed something to listen to on a long drive. It could be music or...well, maybe I could try that audio book thing. I grabbed Game of Thrones again. I knew it would be long enough and I liked it the first time. Well, I ended up LOVING it. The audio book was done so well that when I finished book 1, I knew I needed to get my hands on book 2. And I was not disappointed. The only drawback is that, while great for vacations, my daily commute is thirty minutes MAX round trip. It took me ages. That, coupled with the fact that the CD player in my car started to get tired, is why when I finished book 2, I reached for a physical brick sized book. On a good day, I could manage about 100 pages. It is still a huge commitment.
And every day I wake up and look at the book on my bedside table I think, "And this is why you swore off (most) series long ago, man." Sigh. I'm fairly committed to finishing now, though. I'm almost 400 pages into book 4 and then I only have one more to get through. I can do that, right?

Sigh.

I have two other books waiting for me (if I ever finish). I finally got my hands on a copy of Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson. I'm maybe 10 pages in and I'm in love. The other is a recommendation from a friend, The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald. Fingers crossed I get to at least one of them before the new year.

Tomorrow starts the final two months of the Goodreads challenge. Are you finishing strong? Or did you get stuck like me, not getting a count but determined to finish SOMETHING just the same?
You can do it! (And I mean, remember: there's always next year!)