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 :)

Top Ten Tuesday: Bookish Goals for 2013

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Every week, they will post a topic on their blog that the participants draw up their on top ten list for.


This week is all about bookish goals for 2013, and personally I'm also taking bloggish goals into account.

1. Refrain from requesting too many review books. I still have so many Netgalley books on my kindle that I need to read&review, and I will now do that before requesting any new ones. After that, I want to catch up on non-review books, especially ebooks.


2. Read a bit more widely again. This year was extremely focused on YA, even though I also got into contemporary after reading nearly only fantasy/paranormal for many many years. In the coming year, I want to read some more adult books again, as well as some more Classic authors I've been meaning to get to for a while.


3. Finally read all those New Adult titles on my kindle!!


4. Catch up on serieses. The TBR reading challenge I'm participating in should take care of that, I've also been contemplating joining the sequels challenge hosted by Auntie Spinelli Reads.


5. Re-read! I love re-reading, and there are so many books on my shelves, especially ones I read in my teens, that I've been itching to re-read. But with all the new books I buy all the time, I just never get around to it. I want to change that.


6. Write more reviews, and write them right after finishing the book when it's still fresh on my mind. I'm a quick reader (108 books last year) but I don't review even half of what I read. Like, I'm all pumped for writing that review, but then I'm somehow scared to start or something or the moment is inconvenient and then it just never happens...


7. Read more steampunk and dystopian.


8. Write more. I don't know if that is necessarily a bookish goal, but there you have it.


9. Try to, depite everything, not stress too much about things (haha...). But seriously. This should be fun! I love reading. Once it seems more like a chore, something's wrong. Maybe that's why I'm bad at actually writing those reviews sometimes.


10. Interacting more with my fellow bloggers, and reaching out to authors and publishers. I've been at this for half a year now, but I feel like I could be more part of the community. I want to get more original posts on this blog rather than just memes and reviews. I'm just always unsure about whether people actually want to read about the stuff I have ideas for! Or I have an awesome idea and then find out that somebody else is already doing it so my post would be redundant...

What do you think of my goals? Do we have some in common? Do you have any tips/suggestions for me? Oh, and please leave links to your posts, I'm curious about other people's goals! Maybe I can add to my list :)