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!)

Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

Inkheart has been on my reading list since November 2011. Now that I am once again working in a library, I have the magic of InterLibrary Loan at my disposal to use and abuse to no end. (Since, ya know, I don't quite have enough books in my own library that I want to read...)

I will perfectly honest with you: I almost didn't finish this book. I even received permission from Rachel to not finish this book. I had only gotten about 60 pages into this 500 odd page book and I didn't care. I didn't care about 12 year old Meggie and her father, Mortimer. Actually, I was more interested in Mortimer's day job: repairing and binding books. I wish we could have seen him work a little more. 
The story is about Meggie and Mortimer (or Mo as he is affectionately known by, well, just about everyone. Except Capricorn and his men.) and their special relationship with books. We learn that they both love to read and read a lot. Mo had been known to spend more money on books than food or clothes and to buy more books than he really had room for. So far, I am feeling right at home with this guy.
One night, Mo receives a visitor. Dustfinger. It is all hush hush and hid from Meggie; however, as any good precocious 12 year old protagonist, she makes sure that the secret doesn't stay secret for long. And the real secret is this: Mo can read characters out of their books. Nine years before our story takes place, we learn that while Mo was reading to his wife and young daughter, he read Capricorn and his villainous men right into their living room. After a terrifying sword fight that left Mo with scars, he discovered a bigger problem. Not only had he read characters out of the book (this book is also called Inkheart), but in the process, he accidentally read his wife into the book. 
Well okay. Maybe he didn't exactly read her into the book. It turns out that when Mo reads out loud and things from the book start to come out, things in Mo's world sometimes go missing. 

It was a translation from the German, and as Rachel was also quick to point out, it could have been a bad translation. I'm glad she reminded me of this. I got lucky with the last two books I read that were translated (Love Virtually & Every Seventh Wave) and I think I just assumed everything would be perfect in this one. Well. You know what they say about assuming. 

Just because I didn't like this book, doesn't mean you won't like it. But if you would like a book that covers fantasy, magical folk and magical lands I strongly recommend Stardust by Neil Gaiman. I love Stardust and how effortlessly Gaiman weaves the fantasy of the magical world of Stormhold into the every day lives of the citizens of Wall. 
I love all of Gaiman's work and recommend it without reserve. Well, most of it. Except that one...but that must have been a fluke thing. I try not to think about it.