March Update & Readathon Wrap Up

Where did this month go? I feel like 2014 just started, but it is now Spring and taxes are due in less than two weeks. My real life has been requiring more attention that I would like, but hopefully come April it will have paid off, and I can spend most of my time reading and blogging and commenting.

I read a stack of ARCs (and wrote reviews), so I brought up my NetGalley ratio quite a bit. This really made me happy, because I like getting those books read and done, so I can have their reviews posted on publication day. There are also a ton of neat books coming out soon, so clearing out my need-to-read TBR pile gives me breathing space to pick up other books. :)

In regards to the read-a-thons I did this month, I did okay. You can see what books I read for COYER and the TBR Readathons. I got a good amount of reading done, but I didn't really participate. This made me sad, because my favorite part of the read-a-thons is interacting with the book blogging community. I definitely took on more than I could chew this month.

Fun Bookish Links (Previously Shared on Twitter & Google+)

I got Mr. Henry Tilney! Which Jane Austen Hero Is Your Soulmate?
I got A Horse! What's Your Patronus?
I got Effie Trinket!! Which "Hunger Games" Character Are You?
22 Books You Pretend You’ve Read But Actually Haven’t. I've read 11 of these books (for real)!
Oh dear, I got Gilderoy Lockhart! What Secondary "Harry Potter" Character Are You?
12 Charts Only Game Of Thrones Fans Will Understand
33 Reasons Why You’re Addicted To Books
I got Well-Loved Book! What Type Of Book Are You?
The 14 Stages Of Book Addiction
23 Signs Your Jane Austen Addiction Is Getting Out Of Hand
All 339 Books Referenced In “Gilmore Girls”

 
Read This Month (15 Books: 8 for COYER & 7 for TBR Readathon)

Carswell's Guide to Being Lucky by Marissa Meyer
The Ophelia Prophecy by Sharon Lynn Fisher (COYER)
Murder Mysteries by Neil Gaiman (COYER)
The Amazing Thing about the Way Things Are by Stephanie Pearl-McPhee
How to Make Your Cat an Internet Celebrity by Patricia Carlin
The Sentinel by Troy Denning (COYER)
The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson (COYER & TBR Readathon)
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison (COYER)
Cress by Marissa Meyer (TBR Readathon)
Lovecraft's Monsters by Ellen Datlow (COYER)
Packing for Mars by Mary Roach (TBR Readathon)
Altered Carbon by Richard K Morgan (TBR Readathon)
Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen (COYER & TBR Readathon) 
Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh (TBR Readathon)
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom by Cory Doctorow (COYER & TBR Readathon)
 
Annual Challenges

Double Trouble Challenge - Twin Reading Challenge: 17 for Review vs. 29 from Personal TBR

I can't believe I've read more personal TBR books than review books!

Jane Austen Challenge: - 2/6

I am a smidge ahead for this challenge! Hurray. :)

2014 Series Challenge!: - 4/3

2014 Audiobook Challenge: 10/12

I've been focusing on print books right now, so I haven't listened to very many audio books this month.

Review Pile Reading Challenge: 17/24

2014 TBR Pile Reading Challenge: 26/50

2014 GoodReads Challenge: 46/100

Ides of March Read-a-Thon Wrap Up

The Caffeinated Book Reviewer's Ides of March Read-a-Thon is done, and I did not do too well (I think I took too much on this month!). This is for two main reasons. One, life took priority over reading. I know! This is awful, but it is true. Second, I got pulled into Words of Radiance, but I didn't finish it. I am loving WoR, but I don't want to read it too fast. I want to let in all soak in. :)

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Ides of March Read-a-Thon Kick Off

Are you ready for book reading sprints? I'm participating in the Caffeinated Book Reviewer's Ides of March Read-a-Thon. It should be tons of fun. Below are the rules and my goals for the weekend of fun!

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Sense & Sensibility by Jane Austen: Review & Link Up

 Check out the 2014 Jane Austen Challenge!
Upcoming Reminders!

On March 31st, I will post information about Pride & Prejudice.
On April 30th, I will post my review and the linky for Pride & Prejudice.

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Take Control of Your TBR Pile & COYER Kick Off

During the month of March, I am going to concentrate on reading down my TBR pile with the Take Control Of Your TBR Pile Read-a-thon and the Clean Out Your E-Reader Challenge! I love the folks who run both of these challenges, so I couldn't pick just one.

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Wicked Valentine's Read-a-Thon Wrap Up

The lovely Tabitha and April from My Shelf Confessions hosted the Wicked Valentine's Read-a-Thon from February 7th to February 17th. Let's see how I did!

My Book Goals

* Sense & Sensibility by Jane Austen -- READ

* Tropic of Serpents by Marie Brennan -- READ
* Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor -- READ

* Honor Among Thieves by James SA Corey -- READ

* In Time by Alexandra Bracken -- READ
* Cinder by Marissa Meyer -- READ

 

* S. by JJ Abrams & Doug Dorst -- READ

I read all of the books on my list AND S. :)

My Non-Book Goals

* Attend the Twitter party -- I attended the first Twitter party.

* Participate in the challenges -- I have participated in two of the challenges, I should complete the others today.

* Visit 10 new-to-me blogs-- This is my goal for today!

All in all, I really enjoyed this read-a-thon. I got so much reading done. I am quite pleased with myself, if I do say so myself. :)

Wicked Valentine's Read-a-Thon Kick Off Post

The lovely Tabitha and April from My Shelf Confessions are hosting the Wicked Valentine's Read-a-Thon from February 7th to February 17th. Below is some basic information on the read-a-thon:

The  Wicked Valentine’s Read-A-Thon is a time when we all get together to dedicate the days of February 7-17 to as much reading as possible. You read as much as you can in order to get yourself a little further through that huge to-read pile! We know real life gets in the way and even if you can’t participate more than one day, you’re welcome to join in on the fun! In the meanwhile, we will be hosting book-related challenges where you can win some awesome prizes and have a Twitter party at the hashtag #WWReadathon! You can posts updates on your blog, Twitter, Goodreads or Facebook — as long as the profile is public and we all can enjoy your reading progress!

My Book Goals

* Sense & Sensibility by Jane Austen

* Tropic of Serpents by Marie Brennan
* Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor

* Honor Among Thieves by James SA Corey

* In Time by Alexandra Bracken
* Cinder by Marissa Meyer

My Non-Book Goals

* Attend the Twitter party

* Participate in the challenges

* Visit 10 new-to-me blogs

January Wrap Up

I decided that this year I wanted to track how I did in the world of reading each month. I am still working with the template, but this is what this monthly wrap-up post will look like each month. I want to share with you fun links, what I read in the last month, and how I am doing in terms of my read-a-thon goals.

Some of My Favorite Bookish Links that I Shared on Twitter in January

12 Incredibly Strange Underground Realms from Science Fiction 

Here's What Your Favorite Children's Book Series Says About You 

The first Outlander trailer is all epic battles (with a hint of sex) 

A Pride and Prejudice Engagement 

If you wrote Lemony Snicket fanmail, you'd receive a reply in code 

Disney appoints a group to determine a new, official Star Wars canon 

11 Incredible Bookcases For People Who Really, Really Love Their Books 

19 Quirky Conundrums Only Book Lovers Understand 

21 Cats Who Are Secretly Excellent Readers 

17 Book-Inspired Accessories You’ll Want Immediately 

16 Quotes That Will Make You Want To Cuddle Up With A Book 

All library audiobooks going to DRM-free MP3s 

12 Fascinating Facts About Famous Literature 

Jo Walton explains why series aren't numbered on the covers! 

23 Epic Literary Love Tattoos 

Break In a Hardcover Book (Without Ruining the Spine) 

Book changes temperature or vibrates, depending on the plot 

16 Major Advantages Of Being A Book Lover 

Read This Month 
The Creature Department by Robert Paul Weston

Dark Talisman by Steven M Booth

Silver Linings Playbook by Matthew Quick

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty by James Thurber

The Einstein Intersection by Samuel R Delany

A Study in Ashes by Emma Jane Holloway

Dead as a Doornail by Charlaine Harris

Hang Wire by Adam Christopher
Hollow City by Ransom Riggs

Annual Challenges

Double Trouble Challenge - Twin Reading Challenge: 5 for Review vs. 4 from Personal TBR
I am quite impressed with how close I am on this challenge! I thought I would have thought that I would have read way more review books than personal books already.

Jane Austen Challenge: - 0/6

I am not worried about this, because I don't need to have my first book read for this challenge until the end of February.

2014 Series Challenge!: - 1/3

I am caught up with the Miss Peregrine's Peculiar Children series. I would like to catch up on some series that I am farther behind on though.

2014 Audiobook Challenge: 4/12

Review Pile Reading Challenge: 5/24

2014 TBR Pile Reading Challenge: 4/50

2014 GoodReads Challenge: 9/100

Sense & Sensibility Links & Reminder

In one month, it will be time for everyone to post their comments and reviews of Sense & Sensibility for the 2014 Jane Austen Challenge! I will post my review of Sense & Sensibility on February 28th, and there will be a linky for your posts. 

In order to inspire folks and to get you excited about the book, if you haven't read it yet (like me!), I have found some great book-related links.  I was surprised how little I found when I did a scan of the Internet about Sense & Sensibility. I am guessing I am going to find tons of information about Pride & Prejudice, because it is the most popular of Austen's books.

Enjoy the links and then get reading! :)

Need to Read Sense & Sensibility?

Scanned copy of the original Sense & Sensibility

Free e-book copy of Sense & Sensibility

Free audio book of Sense & Sensibility

Need an adaptation or more stories in the world of Sense & Sensibility?

A musical version of Sense & Sensibility

Movie adaptations of Sense & Sensibility 
I didn't realize that From Prada to Nada was an adaptation of Sense & Sensibility!

Sense & Sensibility fan fiction

Need more information about Sense & Sensibility?

Map of all of the places in Sense & Sensibility

Penguin reading guide  

Wikipedia Sense & Sensibility page

 Can't see the commenting system? Check out my troubleshooting page.

Bloggiesta Wrap Up

Bloggiesta was a lot of fun. I wish I had more time, but I ended up having to do errands on Saturday. It was really nice to have an excuse to just work on the blog. I will have lots of commenting to do over the next few days, but it was worth it. 

I was only able to do the one basic challenge, but I have saved the other challenges and I plan to work on them later. The image map challenge is so amazing. I can't wait to try it out for the next Sunday Update.

My To Do List

•  Research web hosts --> Any suggestions??? 

I have researched a few web hosts, and I have narrowed down the list. Now, I need to do some research on the next step of the self-hosting process.

• Write four Thoughtful Thursday posts

This didn't happen. I wish I had more time on Saturday to work on this.

• Write eight Top Ten Tuesday posts

I am so happy that I got eight of these posts done! I really enjoy this meme, but it takes so much time with getting links and pictures. Writing a stack of these at the same time saves so much time.

• Organize sidebar better 
• Maybe move annual challenges to its own page?
• Maybe get rid of the archive and just keep the keywords?
• Have all of my social media buttons uniform (Bloglovin' I am looking at you!) 

I moved some things around on my sidebar. I didn't get rid of anything, but I like the layout a bit better. Also, I updated my social media icons a bit. Bloglovin' matches and I have pop up text for the icons when you hoover over them.

• Update pages
• Explain my rating system
• Update my About Me page
• Begin making a page linking to all reviews
• Create a page with favorite posts

I didn't get to any of this either. I have ideas of what I want to do, and I will slowly be working on this over the next month.

Can't see the commenting system? Check out my troubleshooting page.

Bloggiesta Kick Off!

I am very excited about this challenge! Bloggiesta is all about working on your blog and learning new book blog-related things like SEO, HTML, time management, writing reviews, and social media. A few months ago, I looked through all of the previous Bloggiesta events and worked through several of the challenges. I learned a lot. This is a mini-Bloggiesta event, so it will only be January 25-26th. Even if you cannot join the event, I really recommend checking out the Bloggiesta site and looking through some of the challenges, especially if you are new to blogging or you just want to review some skills that you haven't used in a while.

My To Do List

•  Research web hosts --> Any suggestions???
• Write four Thoughtful Thursday posts
• Write eight Top Ten Tuesday posts
• Organize sidebar better 
• Maybe move annual challenges to its own page?
• Maybe get rid of the archive and just keep the keywords?
• Have all of my social media buttons uniform (bloglovin' I am looking at you!)
• Update pages
• Explain my rating system
• Update my About Me page
• Begin making a page linking to all reviews
• Create a page with favorite posts

Important Commenting Information!!! (I will keep this info at the bottom of the next week's posts.)

I just switched my commenting system over to Disqus, because I recently realized that the Blogger commenting system doesn't automatically email people when I (or others) respond to their comments. Well, it can, but it doesn't work in a seamless way. So in a moment of spontaneity, I decided to put Disqus on my blog. It is a fairly popular commenting system, so hopefully this won't be too upsetting for anyone. I find it really easy to use as a commenter, so I thought folks would be okay with it. We will see how this goes. If you all hate it, we will try something new.

If you can't see Disqus, I have found a couple of reasons why this may be happening! Please don't write this off as a Disqus issue, if you can't see Disqus, there are probably other things on the Internet that you can't see.

1. Are you using Avast for antivirus protection on your browser? If so, click the Avast icon in your browser and allow "social networks allowed." If this doesn't work, try also allowing "web analytics allowed." You can just do this for my blog or just this one page on my blog. Avast can be very stringent, and it hides Disqus, Google+ commenting, and social media buttons on sites for me. I was so annoyed that I could never find a Twitter button to share things until I changed this setting in Avast.

2. Do you use other plugins or extensions? They might be causing the issue. I haven't noticed a problem with using plugins like ad-aware/ad-blocker.  You may need to turn some of these off and refresh the page or restart the browser.

3. You may need to clear your brower's cache or cookies. On the other hand, you may need to enable cookies.

If you STILL can't see Disqus, please let me know! Feel free to email or tweet me! I switched to Disqus to improve our discussions, if you can't comment, Disqus isn't worth it.

Bout of Books Wrap Up

Bout of Books did not go exactly as planned. On day 2, I found out that my grandmother had passed away, and I spent the rest of the week helping with the funeral and driving. The two days that I was able to fully participate in the read-a-thon was quite fun. I enjoyed doing the challenges and attending the first Twitter party of the event. I am looking forward to doing the next one.

I was able to read Dark Talisman by Steven M Booth during the event. :)

Bout of Books Update - 1/8

Today has been a bit hectic. My grandmother passed away yesterday, so I drove to my Mom's house today to pick her up. Tomorrow we are driving 7 hours to Indiana for the funeral. My grandmother was 92, so she lived a very long and prosperous life. The last few years had been difficult for her; she was ill quite a lot and had severe dementia. Her passing is really a blessing I think; she is at peace now.

I will be busy with family things for the next few days, so I do not know how much I will be online. I did schedule a few posts earlier in the week, so you will still get your Thoughtful Thursday and Friday Review post.

I did do a bit of reading today. I listened to 3 hours of Silver Linings Playbook (almost halfway). I have seen the movie twice and had enjoyed it, but I am loving the book. As to be expected, the movie is a bit condensed. I am really appreciating all the extra details that I am learning about Pat (Bradley Cooper's character) and his struggles with mental illness.

Number of books I've read today: 1
Total number of books I've read: 0

The Double Trouble -- Twin Reading Challenge

I know, I know! You are probably thinking that I have gone a little challenge crazy. Well, this is the last annual read-a-thon that I am doing, and it is an amazing one! Chené @ Mean Who You Are, Nicole @ Chicken Soup From a Book Worm's Soul, and I are doing The Double Trouble -- Twin Reading Challenge! 

What is the Double Trouble Challenge? I am glad you asked! The three of us went a bit over the top requesting ARCs, as book bloggers are apt to do, and our personal TBR piles took a back seat. Even though our TBR piles were not getting read, the piles have continued to grow.

 
As a rule this year we decided for every ARC or review book we read, we need to read a book off of our TBR piles too. Every month we will do a post updating our progress. If you want to join in the fun, link up below and use the graphic in your progress post, so that others can join in too!

 

<div align="center">
<a href="http://www.readingisfunagain.com/2014/01/the-double-trouble-twin-reading.html" title="Double Trouble -- Twin Reading Challenge" target="_blank"><img src="http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h67/silverarrowknits/doubletroublebookstacknames.jpg" alt="Double Trouble -- Twin Reading Challenge" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

<div align="center">
<a href="http://www.readingisfunagain.com/2014/01/the-double-trouble-twin-reading.html" title="Double Trouble -- Twin Reading Challenge" target="_blank"><img src="http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h67/silverarrowknits/doubletroubletwinnames.jpg" alt="Double Trouble -- Twin Reading Challenge" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Bout of Books Update - 1/7

Today was definitely a better reading day. I read a chunk of The Einstein Intersection and I started Dark Talisman. I did the two challenges today too! I hope that you are all rocking your challenges!

Number of books I've read today: 2
Total number of books completed: 0

Bout of Books Update (1/6)

So today has been a roller coaster. On the plus side, I had a lot of fun with the Bout of Books Twitter Party this afternoon. It was by far the largest Twitter Party I have attended. It was hard to keep track of what was happening. On the minus side, my Monday post did not get posted, because I saved it as a "draft" and not as a published post. Argh. This is an embarrassing mistake, especially since this was a requested review. Please come by on Wednesday to read all about The Creature Department! There is a fun book trailer and everything.

It is Bout of Books Update Time!

Number of books I've read today: 1 (A Dance with Dragons. I know, but I was in the mood for an audio book)
Total number of books I've read: 0
Books: --

Bout of Books Read-a-Thon Kick Off Post

The Bout of Books read-a-thon is organized by Amanda @ On a Book Bender and Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal. It is a week long read-a-thon that begins 12:01am Monday, January 6th and runs through Sunday, January 12th in whatever time zone you are in. Bout of Books is low-pressure, and the only reading competition is between you and your usual number of books read in a week. There are challenges, giveaways, and a grand prize, but all of these are completely optional. For all Bout of Books 9.0 information and updates, be sure to visit the Bout of Books blog. - From the Bout of Books team

So you know I have a read-a-thon problem, right? I wasn't going to do this one, but EVERYONE is doing it, even some of the people I watch on youtube. It was a sign. I have to do this challenge.

Goals

* Read for a little bit everyday
* Finish reading A Study in Ashes by Emma Jane Holloway
* Finish reading The Einstein Intersection by Samuel R Delany
* Read Dark Talisman by Steven M Booth

2014 Jane Austen Challenge

I recently watched the movie The Jane Austen Book Club. This movie got me thinking about reading Austen's six completed novels. My plan is to read one Jane Austen book every two months.

Timeline
Jan-Feb - Sense & Sensibility
March-April - Pride & Prejudice
May-June - Mansfield Park
July-Aug - Emma
Sept-Oct - Northanger Abbey
Nov-Dec - Persuasion

If you want to get in on the fun (and keep me motivated to complete this challenge), feel free to  read-along! You can read/participate in as much of the challenge as you want. I will post my review of each book on the last weekday of the month (see below), and I will have a linky in the review post, so you can link up your review too! I just ask that you link back to my blog and use the graphic in your review post, so others can join in.

Review Dates
Sense & Sensibility - Feb 28th
Pride & Prejudice - April 30th
Mansfield Park - June 30th
Emma - Aug 29th
Northanger Abbey - Oct 31st
Persuasion - Dec 31st

GoodReads 2014 Reading Challenge

Last year, I read about 145 books/novellas/short stories. I did a few rereads, but I didn't count them on my GoodReads account.

As you can kind of see, I rated most books in the good to very good categories. I only read two books that I really disliked. I read a handful of books that were just okay, and I discovered a little more than a handful of books that I thought were excellent.

Because I am anticipating being a bit busier this year, I am focusing on reading 100 books this year. Feel free to check out my progress on my GoodReads profile. I will also be posting my progress monthly.

Review Pile Reading Challenge

Rachel @ Fiktshun and Reanna @ Phantasmic Reads are hosting the 2014 Review Pile Reading Challenge. To learn more about the challenge and to sign up, check out their challenge sign-up page.

Here are all the deets:

• The 2014 Review Pile Reading Challenge runs from January 1st until December 31st, 2014
• Sign-ups will remain open until December 31st, 2014 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific
• Grab one of the buttons to show off your participation! Parajunkee did a great job with them!
• You DO NOT have to have a blog to join this challenge. You just need to have some books received for review and a place online to review them
• Create a sign-up post announcing your intention to participate and link up below. If you do not have a blog, you can link up to your Goodreads profile that shows your 2014 Review Pile Reading Challenge shelf
• Please link back to the hosts in your sign-up posts
• This challenge is to help clear up books you’ve received for review. Any format, or any length, as long as you received the book specifically for review, is allowed.
• There will be a kick-off post on January 1, 2014 at both Fiktshun andPhantasmic Reads where you’ll be able to leave your links for any January reviews. (No 2013 reviews) At the beginning of every month, starting in February, these posts will alternate between both blogs.
• If you forgot to leave your review link in the challenge month in which you reviewed the book or the linky list closed before you had a chance to leave it, you can leave it in a future month. (No duplicates.)
• There will also be monthly giveaways – make sure you check in each month!
• Use the hashtag #RPRC2014 to share your progress and connect with other participants on Twitter

We’ve broken the challenge down into levels. You can move up, but cannot move down. Let everyone know in your signup post what you’re aiming for 

• 1-10: Apprentice
• 11-20: Journeyman
• 21-30: Master
• 31-40: Grand Master
• 40+:  Adept

 

For this challenge, I am going for the Master level and read 24 review books. I will post monthly updates.