2013 Challenges and General Wrap-up

Hey guys, I'm sorry I've been MIA the past week! First I had to hand in an essay and another paper by the end of 2013, and then I just felt more like lazing around, reading, and re-watching the entire first season of Vampire Diaries with my sister (whom I got hooked). And I also started playing Alice: Madness Returns again after almost two years... I'm so out of shape, but at least it runs properly on this computer. Currently, the Eyepot is either stabbing me to death or scalding me with hot tea. I wish I could beat it like this person.

Anyway, I'm back now and after this wrap-up I'll tell you about the challenges I plan to enter in 2014, some bloggish resolutions, and I'll also do a swag giveaway soon! So stay posted ;)


Apart from the Goodreads Reading Challenge, which I upgraded from 100 to 120 to 150 books and finally completed with 160 (whoohoo!), I entered three other challenges. I completed them all. BUT, and it's a big but... I may have read those book, but my read to reviewed ratio is abysmal. It's so terrible that I'm not even going to bother check it.


2013 TBR Pile Challenge
This one was all about reading books that had been published in 2012 or earlier. I just had a look at my goodreads shelves again to see if I've got everything properly labeled, and I can now say that I've read 75 books that fit this category.
I kind of stopped upgrading the challenge page of the blog in mid-July and I'm sorry for that :( But at first, I'd planned to read 21-30 books, and in July I upgraded that goal to 50. So either way, I've succeeded my expectations, though I still haven't read some books that were on my original list, like Exiled by M.R. Merrick, Velveteen by Daniel Marks or Hourglass by Myra McEntire. Even though I actually own Exiled and Hourglass. Anyway, I'm updating the challenge list now so you can find an overview of all the books there (see top of the page) if you're interested.
There really were a couple amazing books and series I discovered over the course of this challenge! My top three were actually series I thought I'd never read, but then my bloggish friends kept bugging me until I did anyway:
The Divergent trilogy, the Mara Dyer books, and the Shatter Me trilogy. All of them were fantastic and deserve the hype! I'm now pining for Ignite Me and The Retribution of Mara Dyer.
You can find the official wrap-up of this challenge on Bookish here.

2013 Sequel Challenge
I'd challenged myself to read 20 sequels in this challenge hosted by Auntie Spinelli/Novel Heartbeat and eventually read 43! That's amost every 4th book I read. Some of those were novellas though, but I only counted the sequel ones and not the prequel ones. Anyway, a lot of amazing sequels came out this year so this wasn't very difficult. Again, it would just take way too long to link up all the books here or post the covers, but I'll update the challenge page and you can find the list there.

2013 New Adult Reading Challenge
Sometimes I was a little unclear on the category here. Some books are obviously NA, but I've read others, like the Fever series by Karen Marie Moning, where the heroine is 22 or 23, so NA-range, but the writing is more like a regular adult book. Anyhow, I wanted to read 10 NA books and ended up reading 20. So I should be fine even if some of them don't count. Again, you can find the complete list on the challenge page.
Some of my faves: Easy by Tammara Webber, For Real by Chelsea Cameron, Rule by Jay Crownover, The Sea of Tranquility, by Katja Millay, The Devil's Metal by Karina Halle (cool if you like something set in the 1970s with some horror thrown in), Losing It by Cora Carmack and Just One Day by Gayle Forman.


On the whole, I had a good bookish 2013. I read more books than in 2012 and I discovered many amazing ones. However, personally, it wasn't my year. That's also one reason for the lack of reviews. I lacked motivation, fell back into bad habits, lost interest in many things, lost contact with people, basically stopped being on twitter sometime in April or so, and was generally withdrawn and often unhappy. The first half of 2014 will be tough because I have to write my MA thesis, but the rest has the potential to be amazing and I'm determined to make the best of it!

Reading Challenges Wrap-up for April

So, another month passed! Time really does fly. This is my last month at my own place, after that it's back to my parents from the way it looks because I just can't find a new one. Or well, I find them all right but so do 50+ others and someone else always gets the apartment. Sigh.

Anyhow! Let's go on to the books of April. I read quite a lot to take my mind off things so I made a dent in my reading piles :)

Here's what I read for the challenge until the end of April:

• Girl of Nightmares, by Kendare Blake
• Impossible, by Komal Kant
• One Grave At A Time, by Jeaniene Frost
• Wither, by Lauren DeStefano

That means I'm now at 25 books! My original goal was 21-30, so I've upraded it to the next level which is 31-40 :)

• Girl of Nightmares, by Kendare Blake
• With All My Soul, by Rachel Vincent
• One Grave At A Time, by Jeaniene Frost
• The Eternity Cure, by Julie Kagawa

Yeah, quite a lot of doubles. But hey, at least I actually reviewed 2 of them! I read a lot of newly released/netgalley books this month so the stack isn't that high on both of these challenges.

• Impossible, by Komal Kant
• Darkness of Light, by Stacey Marie Brown

Both sort of straddle mature YA with NA, but they have NA themes and more mature sexual parts going on, so I guess they count? The girls are 18, the guys slighly older. To be honest I was partly annoyed with Impossible and wrote some mini-thoughts on goodreads but eventually ended up not reviewing it for time reasons. My review for Darkness of Light will be up as part of the tour on May 10. I REALLY need to buckle down on this challenge! I have SO many unread NA books!

So that's it for this April... could have gone better, could have gone worse I guess. Are you guys participating in any challenges? How are you holding up?

Belated March challenge wrap-up with a picture of my favorite shelf

Hey guys! I'm a little late because I missed the wrap-up post for my main challenge when it went up... oops. Anyhow, I did fairly well with the reading but not the reviews. Again. I'm in a total review slump and since I'm reading like a madwoman the books I should review keep piling up, which is demotivating. Anyway, here's what I've read for each of my challenges:

• The Iron Knight, by Julie Kagawa Finished March 2.
• If I Stay, by Gayle Forman  Read March 5-6.
• Where She Went, by Gayle Forman Read March 7
• Stray, by Rachel Vincent Finished on March 10.
• Rogue, by Rachel Vincent Read March 10-13. 
• Rapture, by Phillip W. Simpson Finished March 20.

6 books is not too bad I guess. My overall is now at 21, and I pledged to read 21-30. I'll have to upgrade...

This month's wrap-up link & giveaway is at Justin's Book Blog and his  mini-challenge for this month is to take a picture of our favorite book shelf. Not the whole big thing but just one single shelf. It was a tough call but I went with the shelf that holds most of my hardcovers :)

 

Yup you can sort of see the shelf below, but that's not a lot of cheating and I don't want to fuss with the picture right now. I love my Edgar Allan Poe collection and my Laini Taylor books :)

• The Iron Knight, by Julie Kagawa (February 24 - March 2)
• Where She Went, by Gayle Forman (March 7)
• Rogue, by Rachel Vincent (March 10-13)
• The Stone Demon, by Karen Mahoney (March 21-22)
• Clockwork Princess, by Cassandra Clare (March 29-31)

Again, quite a bunch but no review. I only reviewed what I had to, AKA ARCs. I hope I can get up my Stone Demon review on Thursday though. Heads-up: go buy it now, it's fantastic!

• Where She Went, by Gayle Forman (Read March 7)
• Just One Day, by Gayle Forman (Read March 2-4)

Not a lot, but better than last month. And I'm reading another right now. I REALLY wanted to review both books, but life happened. I remember them well though and might post a review later on. Just One Day is by far the best book I've read so far that would fall in the NA category.


Overall I'd say this is as much a post of accomplishment as it is one of shame. I made progress on all my challenges, but posted only one review that qualifies for one. Boo me. How did you guys do in your challenges, if you're participating in any?

February Warp-Up: Reading Challenges (TBR-Pile, Sequels, NA)

Yup, this post is all about the challenges... and while I am overall happy with my reading, I am not as happy with my reviewing. I read tons, but I never get around to writing those darn reviews!!! To my defense, it was a very busy month at university (major deadline on Feb 15) and privately with my writing (TWO deadlines today). I even had to go on hiatus for a week.

Total books read: 9 novels, 1 novella, 2 comic books (Scott Pilgrim, yay!). It would be more but I got nothing done this week >.< Probably gonna finish one tonight and one over the weekend. In the Goodreads challenge, I've read 22 of 100, which means I'm 6 books ahead.

Reviews posted:
Masquerade, by Melissa de la Cruz
The Breakaway & Pieces, by Michelle Davidson Argyle (blog tour)
Dance of Shadows, by Yelena Black




Now on to the challenges...  

This challenge is co-hosted by several bloggers, this month's wrap-up takes place at Rachel from Fiktshun :) Just click the link to head to the post.

What I read this month:
Embrace, by Jessica Shirvington Read January 30-February 1. 
The Pledge, by Kimberly Derting Read February 7-10.
Awake At Dawn, by C.C. Hunter Read February 12-13.
Masquerade, by Melissa de la Cruz Read February 18-20. 
Pretty in Black, by Rae Hachton Finished February 23.
Opal, by Jennifer L. Armentrout Read February 20-23.

That means I have already read 15 of the 20-30 books I aimed for!! I guess I'll have to upgrade ;)
 What I regret is that Masquerade is the only one I managed to review so far :( Click to read it.

The wrap-up for the Sequel Challenge takes place at Auntie Spinelli Reads here.

After only reading one sequel in January, I did much better this month! My goal for the year is 20 books, and I've now read a total of 4. Not bad.

Here they are:
Awake At Dawn, by C.C. Hunter (February 12-13)
The Indigo Spell, by Richelle Mead (February 15-17)
Masquerade, by Melissa de la Cruz (February 18-20)

Again, I only managed to review Masquerade *sigh* You can find the link above. I really have to get better at writing reviews immediately!

 Total fail this month. ZERO. And that even though I own sooooo many on my kindle!!! :( I just never get to them because I use the kindle for my Netgalley books, and I only read one ebook and one print book simultaneously. I plan to read at least 2 or 3 in March though!!


How did you guys fare with your reading / reviewing / challenges this month? And book that I've read you want me to review in particular? Also feel free to link me to your own wrap-up post if you have one :)

2013 Challenges I've taken up and general challenge thoughts

So... challenges. I confess I am not usually a fan of them, or at least I didn't use to be. Why? They tend to nag at the back of my mind. In my language I'd say 'Si liged mer ofem Mage.' (they lie on my stomach. Like something heavy in your stomach you cannot quite digest).
I feel pressured by them.
I cannot forget about them.
I don't deal too well with long-term projects because then I end up having soooo many things I should remember at the back of my mind and I don't like it because it makes me feel continually stressed.

Flipside: It can be motivating! Last year, I participated in the Soul Screamers Reading Challenge that Rachel from Fiktshun hosted. That challenge got me not only into the Soul Screamers books but also made me write my first reviews and is eventually responsible for my decision to start my own blog! I also participated in a month-long sequels challenge and that helped get rid of some books that had been unread on my shelf for too long. Oh, and I completed my Goodreads challenge to read 100 books. It was 107 or 108, I think.

So... what's for 2013?

As I said, I don't want to sign up for to much because it will only make me feel stressed. I like to have some freedom to pick whatever book appeals to me at a certain moment. One challenge I've already signed up for is the 2013 Reading Pile Challenge that is about reading books published in 2012 or earlier. You can see my sign up post here, and I've also transferred it to its own page (see below the header) and updated the info somewhat.

I've also set my goal at Goodreads for 100 again. I will try for 110, but I have to get started with my Master Thesis this year and that means lots of non-fiction research reading that is very time intensive...

I have after some thinking also decided to participate in the following:

The 2013 Sequel Challenge is hosted by Auntie Spinelli. Click the button to sign up. I like this one because it lets you determine the number of books you want to read by yourself. There will also be some giveaways during the year, as well as one at the end. You can sign up anytime.
I have a lot of sequels to catch up on, so I think this one will complete itself pretty much automatically. But I don't want to limit my reading choices too much, so I'm setting my goal at 20. I might upgrade the number throughout the year though.

I've also decided to participate in the new Adult Reading Challenge hosted by Danya from A Tapestry of Words, Victoria from Confessions of a Twenty Something Fiction Writer (she is also a member of the NA Alley blog), Tara from Tater's Tall Tails, and Barbara from Basia's Bookshelf. Click the button for all the rules and possibilities.
If you're not sure what New Adult is, they have quite a good description on the sign-up post that also explains that NA is not just contemporary fiction! I've decided to sign up because I have quite a lot of NA kindle books piling up I never seem to get to, and still more on my TBR list... I like how many of these books deal with university students! I'm almost 24. I like to read about those characters & experiences instead of the never-ending highschool tales of YA. (Though those are interesting to me too because I've never gone to highschool in that way because the system is different here).

There are for levels to the challenge and because as I said, I don't like committing to something that might limit my reading choices too much, I've decided to go for the Moving Out level, which means I pledge to read a minimum of 10 NA books.

Among them:

• The Secret of Ella & Micha, by Jessica Sorensen
• Clash, by Nicole Williams
• Derailed, by Alyssa Rose Ivy
• Easy, by Tammara Webber
• Tidal, by Emily Snow
• My Favorite Mistake, by Chelsea M. Cameron
• On Dublin Street, by Samantha Young
• The Jelly Bean Crisis, by Jolene Stockman
• Taking Chances, by Molly McAdams
• Flight, by Alyssa Rose Ivy

Oops, that actually is 10 already... but we'll see how many I get to. Taking Chances is one I got for review for instance, so I'm going to privilege it over others. And I don't want to read NA all the time.


So yeah... I guess this is it! What do you think of my challenge goals and my attitude to them? How do you feel about them, and what have you signed up for? Tell me in the comments :)