Some New Shinies

So, prac is over, huzzah. I enjoyed it immensely, but I'm glad it's over. It was exhausting. Intense.

And now I head into what is going to be the busiest week of the year for me, in which I have six uni assignments due that I've bared started due to being on prac, and am returning to working 1.5 days per week and attending classes. Oh fun.

In compensation O:) I was very Bad and bought myself some books on Friday: The Awake, by Glenda Larke, Proven Guilty by Jim Butcher, and Don't Judge A Girl By Her Cover, by Ally Carter. Much excitementness :)

And then I was extra naughty and spent far too long today reading the Glenda Larke one - which, I must say, was actually really good. It's a random one I picked up after seeing it in the stores a few weeks ago. Larke is an Australian author, which often means nothing but sometimes means the work will be somewhat parochial, and I hadn't read her before - but I was pleasantly surprised. I picked up the book more to test out the voice of the novel (written in first person) than anything; I wanted a quick happy read, and what I was really craving was the new Lisa Shearin book, but that's not available in Aus. So Larke was my fall-back, to see if it would be any good - and I'm pleased to say it was. It's not as immediately action-packed, and it didn't hook me right away - I mean, it was good, but not unputdownable - but the further I went the better it got, which is always great :o) And it ended with a bang, and in a most satisfying manner, leaving me rather desperate for the other two books in the series :D So I must say Larke's done well :)

The Jim Butcher I expect will be fabulous, and I'm trying desperately to resist the temptation to pick it up and devour it; in fact, ditto the Ally Carter, which is the new one out in her Gallagher Girls series which both I and the mini sis love :)

So yes. Some exciting reading happening - or not happening, in fact, as I poke listlessly at homework instead *wrinkles nose*

Anyway. Better get back to it, I suppose. :)

Reading Challenge Redux

Oh. Dear. One hundred and fifty-seven. Count 'em. They're all in the sidebar. That's how many books I currently own that I haven't read yet. I think I'm in trouble...

And I haven't even gotten to my 'on loan' shelf yet...

Now, before you fall off your chair (as I did when I counted them), some of these I have started to read and stopped for various reasons. Many of these are non-fiction. Quite a few are recent acquisitions (by which I mean 'some time this year, because I have had no time to read this year'). And a few I am well aware of the storyline, but haven't actually read (such as Peter Pan, Treasure Island, etc).

I refuse to include textbooks, and as I start some of the non-fic I may delete it off the list if it turns out to be textbooky. But as it stands, I have 157 books to read by the end of next year. Unless my uni load is much lighter next year, I don't see me doing it - but at least now I have a list, and accountability, and shall do something about reducing the list at the very least.

Those of you who are also doing the challenge, good luck! :)

Reading Goals

Yes, this is another slack post this week :D

Merc, over at Merc Rants, has made it her goal to read 100 books in the next 12 months. Agreeing that I also don't read enough, I've decided to join her challenge. However, it will be my own, manageable version of it! I'm not quite as insane as she is :D

I've looked at the list I keep, and in the past 12 months I've read 34 books, including full novels online (but in draft stages) and nonfiction.

In the next twelve months, I'd like to improve on that and read 60 books :) The rules:

* No minimum length, but we are talking books, not pamphlets. So some of the 30-or-so page e-books I counted last time won't count this time.
* No genre specifications, and nonfic is okay.
* I'd like to post reviews, but I'll see how I go :)

Heh, after writing all of the above, I realised a great sub-challenge: to read all the books that I actually own. At the moment I own a lot of books that I haven't had time to read; it would be great to have read them all by this time next year :D I'll try to compile a list of them over the next few days and put it in the sidebar in case anyone's interested, and I'll make my way through them slowly :)

First on the list, apart from research for my celtic britain short, is Malinche by Laura Esquivel, author of Like Water For Chocolate. It's quite literary in style, and is set in Aztec America. I'm a few chapters in, and it's going well so far :)

Evil, Word Counts and Housekeeping

I don't know if I've mentioned, but May is the Month of All That Is Evil.

If you can correctly translate that to: 'there is way too much assessment due in the month of May and exams are fast approaching', then congratulations, you are one of the few people in the world who speak Inkish :D

Despite this fact, my writing has not been lagging /too/ much. In fact, my pretty spreadsheet informs me that I have written 868 words on Logan, 3890 on The Project, and 3591 on short stories for the practice queue.

That's 8349 total. An average of 440 words per day. And given I've only actually written 7 days out of the last 18, I think that's not too bad.

I'm also doing some housekeeping. Very shortly you should notice both an increase in the number of links in my sidebar, and with luck a better organisation system for them.

Finally, I've just come back from the best weekend I've had in months, which involved some Really Cool Books. Expect to hear more about those soon :)

The Expresso Book Machine

Found this a couple of weeks ago:

http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6346866.html

Sounds rather intriguing, and gets around the main problem I have with all the other 'book replacement methods' I've seen, being lack of physical item to hold and read.

I don't know though - will it catch on?

What do you think?