Dear Jenny,Well, I've stuck to the schedule for most of this year, but got thrown off this month. I stalled out on my Sea-Wolf review because I just had so much swirling around in my head that I couldn't get it all down (I probably should have done some "in progress" posts on that one... Note to Self: When you start to feel overwhelmed by a book, it's time for Progress Posts!)
And then, since I hadn't made the post, I didn't pick the next book! And now there are only five days left in the month for me to read The Book of Vice. As a side note, I've read about 8 other books in the past month (mostly trash, so no report) -- they just weren't TBR books. Whoops. Oh, yeah -- and I also listened all of the Hunger Games audiobooks. Loooved them!
At any rate... do you remember when I bought this book? It was when we went to see Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. Unbelievably, that was in June 2009! Did you ever listen to that particular show later? At the very end, when the audience is cheering, you can actually hear me whooping. I wasn't sure if it was me, so I had Bill give it a listen. He looked at me and said, "That is totally YOU." If you want to hear for yourself go to this page, click on the last segment, "Prediction," and at right about the 1:57 mark, get ready. You'll hear the signature Kelly Whoop right there. Heh.
I'm hoping this book goes quickly as it appears to be short stories. Unfortunately, it is in direct competition right now with two other books I am engrossed in... one is a dumb supernatural YA series that I downloaded for cheap (do you ever read any .99 or 2.99 Kindle books? If so, how has your experience been with that?) and the other is the audiobook version of The Night Circus, which has me completely under its spell, although it's the first audiobook I've listened to that I would maybe have preferred to actually read myself -- there are a lot of characters and a lot of different plot lines and it's difficult to refer back to previous chapters to look people up in an audiobook. But I'm still hooked. Have you read it?
So I may do some "in progress" posts as I read the short stories because I doubt I'll be able to remember them all at the end of the book. (Also ... it may be handy to cover up the fact that I'll actually be bleeding over into November...)
Side note... November! WOW! I cannot believe it's been almost a year since we embarked upon this journey! Ready to do it again in 2012?
love,
kelly
K,
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I want you to know I am typing this in my freezing cold office wearing...ta da!...my new fingerless gloves. Yay! I think I am in love with them. The are so awesome, so thank you.
I am listening to WWDTM right now. I totally heard your "whoop"! That was a fun day...
As for the kindle book question, I do occasionally buy the Kindly Daily Deal. HOwever, I have learned that I have a harder time keeping track of what's a TBR book on the Kindle. I guess I could make folders or whatever, but I don't. So I try to not stack up stuff on the Kindle. Unlike a real book, where you at least see the evidence, it's a lot easier to let the kindle get out of control.
I did download "The Night Circus" for free! I was in Starbucks, and you know how they have those little cards that have a free download every week? One day it was for a free book download from iBooks. Have I started it yet? The answer is No. Of course, not.
J
PS I'm almost done with Seeing and should be posting on it soon...
K,
ReplyDeleteI am definitely ready to do this again---you still want to do TBRs? OR some other challenge? Definitely something to discuss.
J
Dude. You got the Night Circus for free? Day-um! Probably my least favorite part of audiobooks is the price. They're spendy. But you do get a lot for your money, at least in length of time.
ReplyDeleteAs for time to listen to them (which I think was your comment on the last post), I've been doing a lot of walking lately (that's apparently the only exercise I can handle), so that's been good "listening time." Also, there's crafting time... you could get the sewing machine back out and plug in!
I don't ever buy the "Daily Kindle Deal" (that would be really dangerous for me) -- the kinds of books I was talking about are the "self-published" (or whatever the heck they're doing -- I don't even know) ones... unknown/new authors selling books for dirt cheap. The Supernatural YA genre is just full of these and I must admit that I have indulged in a few. The biggest issue I have (besides immaturity in the writing) (which I can actually get past if the *story* is any good) is the lack of *editing*. I buckle down and remind myself I only paid .99 for it, but it still gets to me.
I do agree with you that it's hard to keep track of what's TBR and what's "read" on the Kindle. I actually did not know that you could even create folders (or "Collections" as I have just now learned from research), as my phone is my primary Kindle reading device and it does not support that. Hrm. Guess I need to use my actual Kindle more (it just... doesn't fit in my pocket!)
I liked the TBR plan this year and I still have a ton of them, even after my dent. I know you're always pushing yourself to explore genres that you have not read before, but I am perfectly happy in my comfort zone (I feel zero need to be well-rounded! ;) We could each tailor our challenge to what we want to do -- if you want to, say, explore a new genre every month or something, I can just trundle along reading off of my TBR pile.
Was the original challenge that it had to be on your pile for "over a year?" Because I *might* not have 12 that would qualify for that (go, me!) So it would just be "Read books that you already own" (including books bought this year, of which I only have a few [go, me!]).
We could *also* consider a "book group" if you wanted to pick books that we both read and talk about them here. Not sure how we would agree on the books, although I'm sure we could figure it out.
We could do that every other month or... if we want to turn up the heat, we could commit to *two* books per month -- one from our independent TBR piles, and one "joint" book for discussion. Or is that too much commitment? I *have* read more than 2 books every month this year. I just haven't been reporting on them, as, well... the rest has mostly been junk. ;) So that would work for me. And you're the fastest reader in the world, so I'm sure you could do it. But it might be too much commitment. If so, perhaps the every other month idea? I'm open to suggestions.
Wow. I write the longest comments in the world.
ReplyDeleteK,
ReplyDeleteHave you downloaded the Overdrive app? It should allow you to check audiobooks out of your local library.
I'm good for "read books you own." I definitely have 12 of those!
Still working to finish Seeing...I still have the weekend, though, right?
J
I like the idea of some common books--not sure if it has to be every month. Let's talk about it WHEN I SEE YOU IN DECEMBER!!! Yee-haw!
ReplyDeleteK,
ReplyDeleteI had to go back and reread your comment from above. For some reason, I thought you said you didn't have that many TBR books left to read. And I just couldn't believe that could be true. I have more now then I did last year---the problem is that now that I'm reading more, I'm also interested in reading more, and hence buying more books. I do try to use the school library as much as possible---but I still have plenty o' TBR books on the shelf.
J
My comment was probably too long! What I meant was... I don't have a lot of *older* TBR books left (like, the 2011 pile had to be on the pile for longer than a year, right?) but I *do* have plenty of TBR books. Of course. I mean, there are *always* more TBR books in our future, right?
ReplyDeleteBut... having said that, I also have not bought a *ton* of new books this year. Some of the stuff on the 2011 TBR pile was from *several* years ago and I'd like not to do that again.
I think we also kept ourselves to actual paper books this past year, didn't we? (vs. eBooks) I rarely buy non-eBooks anymore, unless there are illustrations or there's something cool about the book itself. Having said all of that, I just looked on my Kindle and there are 3 books waiting for me to read right now. Soo... there you have it.