LauraBrook Does Her Best in 2016 - Part 1

Hello, dear ones! Thank you all so much for hanging in there with me over the years. 2016 will be a year of change, and it had better be one filled with more positives than negatives! I struggled with coming up with 16 categories this year, so here's hoping that I can actually meet my goals! I'm shooting a little lower this year for a total, only 125, with the thought that I won't stress about hitting a certain number, but rather feel like I have a little breathing room. With a focus on reading my own TBR books, I'm hoping that I'll be able to make a dent in the stacks this year.




Categories
1. Homework
2. Audiobooks
3. BookRiot and Panels! challenges
4. PaperbackSwaps
5. Austen & Austen-esque
6. Gifts/SantaThing
7. Unfinished
8. British
9. Completed Series
10. Series still in progress
11. Work
12. LT Challenges
13. Movie & TV Adaptations
14. Books kept in my bedroom
15. Big books
16. Kitchen Sink

1. Homework - books for book clubs, ARCs, ER wins, etc

1. Is SHE Available? by Igor Goldkind (ER) Jan - 3 stars

2. Audiobooks

1. Doctor Who: Wooden Heart by Martin Day and Adjoa Andoh (Jan) 3 stars

3. BookRiot and Panels! reading challenges
Book Riot Read Harder Challenge hosted on bookriot.com. Will bold once I've completed each one.

Horror:
Nonfiction book about science:
Collection of essays:
Read a book out loud to someone else:
Middle grade novel:
Biography (not memoir or autobiography:
Dystopian or post-apocalyptic novel:
Originally published in the decade you were born (1970's for me):
Listen to an audiobook that won an Audie Award:
Over 500 pages:
Under 100 pages:
By or about a person that identifies as transgender:
Set in the Middle East:
By an author from Southeast Asia:
Historical fiction set before 1900:
First book in a series by a person of color:
Non-superhero comic that debuted in the last three years:
Adapted into a movie, then watch the movie & debate which is better:
Nonfiction about feminism or dealing with feminist themes:
Religion (fiction or nonfiction):
Politics (fiction or nonfiction):
Food memoir:
Play:
Book with a main character that has a mental illness:

(This seemed easier at first, and now I'm starting to get nervous about it!)

Panels! Read Harder Challenge hosted on panels.net, a comics/graphic novel sister site to BookRiot

Self-published comic:
Feminist comic:
One or more teenage protagonists:
Superhero comic whose race or gender has been swapped from the original/traditional hero:
Complete run of a comic:
Comic based on a book AND the book it's based on:
Graphic biography:
Not originally published in English:
Set in space: Saga, Volume 5 by Brian K. Vaughan (Jan)
Collected webcomic:
At least one creator of color:
Set in Asia by an Asian creator:
Superhero comic NOT by one of the Big Two:
Slice-of-life comic not set in the U.S.:
Adapted from a TV show or movie (not vice versa):
About a real-life historical event:
Black-and-white comic:
Watercolor comic:

4. PaperbackSwaps - books I've gotten off of PBS over the years. Mostly they could probably move on out to someone else's home.

5. Austen and Austen-esque - Dozens of Jane Austen-related books are around my house, not to mention the few of her original works that I haven't read yet.

6. Gifts/SantaThing - I've gotten so many great gifts over the years, so here's a perfect excuse to get to them!

7. Unfinished - An attempt to actually finish some of the books I've started over the years and let sit around partially read.

8. British - Granted, much of my library is British in some way, but this is for biographies, memoirs, non-fiction, history, etc.

9. Completed Series - series that are no longer published or are finished and I still need to catch up.

1. Peril At End House by Agatha Christie (Poirot #8) (Jan)
2. Black Coffee by Agatha Christie (Poirot #7) (Jan)
3. The Coming of Mr. Quin by Agatha Christie (Jan)

10. Current Series - series that are still being published/being written.

1. Saga, Volume 4 by Brian K. Vaughan (Jan)
2. Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy by Helen Fielding (Jan) (I live in hope that there will be more of Bridget!)
3. Be Witched by H.P. Mallory (Jan)

11. Work Books about massage therapy, energy work, etc...

12. LT Challenges - The BAC and AAC, mostly.

1. A Slipping-Down Life by Anne Tyler (Jan AAC)

13. Movie & TV Adaptations

14. Books kept in my bedroom - This was the first place I'd try to squirrel away "extra" books a few years ago, and now... most titles, while alphabetical within their individual shelves/drawers, don't really get out into the rotation like the rest of the house does.

1. Wytches, Volume 1 by Scott Snyder (Jan) 4 stars

15. Big books Over 500 pages

16. Kitchen Sink Anything else

1. The Bassoon King by Rainn Wilson (Jan) 2.75 stars
2. The Silent Cities: Civilizations Lost & Found by Mildred Boyd (Jan) 4.5 stars
3. Lumberjanes, Volume 1 by Noelle Stevenson (Jan) 3.5 stars

Totals Don't know if I'll do monthly totals, or genre, or what yet, but I'll have the space saved at least.

Okay, have at it!

Welcome back, Laura! This looks like a great plan! Looking forward to seeing what gems you find in the TBR piles!

Good luck on your goals for this year.

Good luck!

only 125 - you darn underachiever! Just kidding, have a great reading year!!

Welcome back! You've got a nice lineup of categories. I had a Jane Austen category last year, and I'm always looking for more Austen-esque books to add to my TBRs.

Nice to see you back in this year's challenge, Laura. Good luck. I'll be eager to see what you're reading.

Books kept in the kitchen sink? You do have them all over the place! ;) Glad you're back for another year.

Welcome back!

*starred*

I hope I'll be able to keep up on more threads this year. Last year (wow, it feels weird saying that) I fell behind and was too overwhelmed and intimidated to try to catch up - "235 unread messages" *sigh*

>19 rabbitprincess: Hi, rp! You get a prize for being first!

Hello, and thank you everyone! The weekend was a total lost cause for me (too much Uncle drama), and so I haven't gotten further in any group than my own threads. Forgive me, and I hope to remedy that this week, and sooner than later!

I managed to read three graphic novels so far, and they were all great!

Books 1 & 2: Saga, Volume 4 and 5 by Brian K. Vaughan
More great adventures with this ragtag bunch of warriors! I'm surprised at some of the (apparent) deaths in these two, and I can't wait to find out what happens next!

Book 3: Wytches, Volume 1 by Scott Snyder
Whoa. This was a lot creepier and scarier than I anticipated! This story of witches that live in trees, living off of "pledged" people was terrifying and disturbing. In a sad way, it helped take me out of myself, and also made me slightly afraid of forests. It's like Scott crept into my childhood nightmares, pulled out a few choice things and tumbled them together into a graphic novel. *shudder* I'm looking forward to reading the second volume, if there ever is such a thing (I've poked around online and it seems like he's only working on superhero stuff now).

Happy New Year!

Saga is a GN that I need to get around to reading. It looks amazing.

Good to see you here for another year, Laura!

Kitchen sink is a great name for "anything else". Enjoy your reading!

>28 LauraBrook: Glad to see you're continuing to enjoy Saga. Such a fun series! Just have to keep waiting for the next volume to arrive now though.

>28 LauraBrook:
Oh, I was just looking at Wytches. I should take another look. :)

Happy New Year, Laura, great to see you here. You've reminded me that I need to get back on the Saga bandwagon as I loved the first three volumes.

Hola! Happy Sunday to all of you lovelies. I hope you're all staying warm (or cool) in your respective homes. It's about 10 degrees F here today, but it's actually sunny, so it's not too bad. (Of course, I've spent the day in flannel jammies with a blanket, plus or minus 2 cats.) Today is the last day of the Bout of Books readathon, and it's my first time participating. I like it! It's a week long, and the only goal is to read as much as you'd like to! There's one challenge a day, and a grand prize, but for me it's been fun to check out some new to me blogs, and sort of "force" myself to keep on reading instead of watching Bob's Burgers on a loop.

Saga is so great, it's got something for nearly everybody (assuming some violence and sexual stuff and swearing doesn't put you off). (Actually, that does make it sound "bad" but those things aren't anything I think about when I think about Saga.) I'm tempted to start getting the issues to prevent the lag in the trade being published, but I so enjoy just immersing myself for a half hour in the world, as opposed to the 5-10 minutes it'd be per issue. Andrea, go and check it out!

Book 4: The Bassoon King by Rainn Wilson
Being a fan of The Office, I was curious to see how much Rainn is like Dwight. (I saw his Super Soul Sunday episode and knew he already kind of was, and that he was "crunchier" than I'd expected at first.) In short: more than he'd maybe be comfortable with. It was fine, but it seemed to be written fairly self-consciously. Some info about behind-the-scenes stuff from Office, some photos, and the rest I just skimmed. To be fair, I did start out reading everything, and was kind of bored, so went to skimming. Eh. Unless you're a super-fan, I'd say skip it or check it out at the library. Almost 3 stars.

Book 5: The Silent Cities: Civilizations Lost & Found by Mildred Boyd
Wow. I wish I'd found this book when I was a kid, because it's totally the kind of thing I would've obsessed over and dreamed about. As it is, the language (written in 1966) got my synapses firing and sparked my imagination! Touring several "lost" cities with a few B&W photos, and the suppositions that Boyd makes about how or why they were there or were ever lost, along with some historical context, was really fascinating. I doubt many others would love this book so much, but I just enjoyed the hell out of it. And the hunt is on for my very own copy! 4.5 stars

Book 6: Peril At End House by Agatha Christie
This is either the 7th or 8th book in the Poirot series (I count it as #8 because Black Coffee is set in the Poirot timeline as #7), and were I not overly familiar with the whole plot due to a computer game and the superb TV series, I may have enjoyed this more. With only a few changes from the show, things seemed to kind of drag along for me. And that's okay! I'll hopefully keep rolling with the series, and maybe Lord Edgeware Dies will be a better book for me. 3 stars

Book 7: Is SHE Available? by Igor Goldkind
An ER win from last fall, it was about time I got around to this. It's certainly unlike most modern books (though it does remind me of House of Leaves and The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy in various ways), and it boasts about being so stupendous and unique as to blow your socks off. Well, it didn't at all for me. Composed primarily of poems and original artwork of all genres by lots of different artists, it was certainly a pleasure to look at, but the text didn't do much for me and the art was better, but not by much. The accompanying website has artist bios, photos, new poems, and it's supposed to have original music too (though 5 months from publication, that part is still missing), and it's nice, but since the book didn't strum my heart strings, having online extras didn't do much for me either. Kudos to the author and artists for all of their hard work, but this was just okay for me. 2.75 stars

Book 8: Doctor Who: Wooden Heart by Martin Day, narrated by Adjoa Andoh
A nice Martha and #10 story, but nothing so spectacular as to make me jump up and down and rave about it. 3 stars, though the narrator did an excellent job with each voice, especially nailing Martha.

*Ouch* First Book Bullet of the year for Saga. I've heard about it so many times, but I guess this is the first time I actually listened! Must be the Star Wars influence.

I'm glad to see someone else has found the Bookriot challenge. I've managed two already. Have a wonderful year!

Welcome back for another year Laura! You know I'll be stopping by for the inevitable book bullets. You're off to a great start already.

Looks like a great category challenge!

I agree with >27 BookLizard:, I just couldn't keep up with threads last year and I plan to do better this year.

Wytches sounds great, so I'll add that to the list. Glad to hear Saga, Vol. 5 continues to impress - I've only read the first volume, and I'm definitely looking forward to more.

I did the Bout of Books challenge also! This one wasn't very productive for me, but I always enjoy the daily challenges and Twitter chats.

Wheee! Looks like a lot of reading is happening!

Wow, 2 weeks since I've been here?!? Unacceptable!

Have been busy working, and then this week was my week off! (Since I work straight through the holidays, I made the smart decision in November to take this week off to rest and recuperate and catch up around the house.) The only bad thing was that not only did I decide to work a full day on Tuesday, which really stressed me out, but I also somehow got a weird version of the flu, so I ended up cancelling all of my clients and laying on the couch trying not to vomit for 4 days instead. Yesterday was the first day I felt more normal and I took it easy by doing lots of work and unnecessary laundry catchup while watching over a dozen Gilmore Girls episodes. Today wasn't much better, but my Mom came over to help me assemble a new cabinet for my massage room and do some basic cleaning around the house. I'm so glad she did! Anyways, I'm just hoping I can get some paperwork and filing caught up tomorrow, and maybe a book or two too.

Book 9: Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy by Helen Fielding
The latest entry in the Bridget series, reading this was like reuniting with one of your old best friends. Bridget and her world are such a part of my being that I didn't realize how much I'd missed everything and everyone in it until I was a few chapters in. I'm SO HAPPY that I got to see these buddies once again. 4.5 stars!

Book 10: The Coming of Mr. Quin by Agatha Christie
An ebook short story, this was a curious little mystery featuring a new-to-me Christie character. 4 stars

Book 11: A Slipping-Down Life by Anne Tyler
In short, I didn't like this short novel, nor any of the characters in it, and while Ms. Tyler certainly can write well, I can confidently say that I don't enjoy her work. She's just not for me. If I cared more about these people I could call it a "two hankies and a pistol" book (thank you for that phrase, Richard!), but I just didn't give a crap after awhile. Only finished it because I was mildly curious to see if anyone did anything either positive (or even neutral, for God's sake!) or redeemed themselves at all. Eh, notsamuch. 2 stars, purely for the writing.

Book 12: Black Coffee by Agatha Christie
A little different in feel from the others (because this was originally a play Christie wrote and was worked into a novel by Charles Osborne decades later), still a nice mystery with Poirot and Hastings. 3 stars. Eh.

Book 13: Be Witched by H.P. Mallory
Another ebook short story, it just left me feeling flat. Part of it, I'm sure, is that I'm currently reading both the first and third books in this series (not sure where this shorty fits in) so I'm not really sure if I like the world or not. It was fine, I guess. 2.5 stars

Book 14: Lumberjanes, Volume 1 by Noelle Stevenson
I forgot about this one a few weeks ago! A cute little story about a group of tough lady types at summer camp in the woods, and their friendship and adventures. Fun! Will read the next volume at some point. 3.5 stars

I feel like I'm really behind on my reading for the year (but I always get this way mid-January), so hopefully I can either "catch up" or let it go very soon!

"trying not to vomit for 4 days instead"
That sounds fun. Not. I have a couple of coworkers who have been doing the same, so I'm just hoping that whatever nasty thing they have isn't coming my way. Yikes.

Ew, trying not to vomit sounds terrible! Hope you will be back to 100% soon.

And you're not alone on feeling behind -- I feel the same way about reading the books from my pool (never mind that I have the whole year to read those...)

Yuck on the flu! Glad to hear you're getting over it though.

>43 -Eva-: Yeah, it totally wasn't fun, but at least it finally passed! Hope you can dodge the bug yourself - good luck!

>44 rabbitprincess: Actually, throwing up doesn't bother me much. Mostly because as soon as I do I feel at least 75% better. It's the hanging-around feeling that's awful, any move of my head could trigger it all over again. Ugh. And I'm so glad to hear someone else feels behind too. I know, it doesn't matter that there are just over 11 months left, I still feel like it's not long enough. Here's hoping we can both shake that feeling soon!

>45 andreablythe: Me too, Andrea! Me too. It's going around over here, and I'm crossing fingers that it's not going around by you too!

So far I have avoided it!

Oh no.... sorry to learn that the flu got to you. Hope you are feeling better now!

>46 LauraBrook:
So far, so good. And it seems to have stopped going around at work - it had better not come back!

Don't worry, you're not the only one behind. I spent a better part of this frigid long weekend in bed reading with my little girl cat (who seems to be hanging in there). I hope everything is going well on your end.

42> Anne Tyler doesn't do it for me either. I read Back When We Were Grownups for a book club. Don't remember much about it except, like you said, not giving a crap.

>42 LauraBrook: I am getting interested in reading the Bridget Jones books after seeing so many positive reviews of them on LT. I agree that Anne Tyler does create some very irritating characters that you feel like you want to shake sometimes or somehow magically make them more decisive, but I also have really enjoyed a few of her books. I haven't read A Slipping-Down Life.

Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles, I think my book funk is finally starting to go away! Hurrah!!!! This time a romance novel (of which I've just started reading the genre, and I like it!) and a YA book (why yes, of course it's the start to a series) did it. Plus, this Saturday is Dewey's Readathon, so that helps too.

I don't think I've finished any owned books yet, but pages are being turned on a regular basis, so by this Sunday I should be back here with some numbers to update. :)

It took longer than I thought, but I finally found an endocrinologist! My client, K, (well, her adult daughter who has learning disabilities) sees her and loves her, and she was in my insurance plan! My first appointment is in a month, so I just have to hang in until then. In the meantime, I've been cutting through the nervous anxiety and just letting myself do what I feel like I have energy for (no surprise: not much). Lots of resting and sleeping (and binge-watching Archer and Parks & Rec) has been going on, and the more I rest the more tired I am. I'm okay with it, though, because it's going to get worse before it gets better. And I've been reading up on Addison's and autoimmune stuff in general, and SO MUCH of it rings true for me. I've had endocrine problems for over 20 years, I now realize, so I'm glad to have some help on the horizon. Other than that, things have been just fine here.

Oh, and I forgot - I got glasses! They're mostly for distance/reading, and it's not a strong prescription, but I do have them. In my head, I was hoping I could make it to 40 before needing glasses (my Mom has had them since she was 10, and my Dad got them when he was 40), but no such luck. Oh well! I'll try and hunt down a couple of pics to post here so you can see my giant glasses head in all its' glory. ;)

Hope you're all doing well! I'll be back after dinner to respond and catch up.

Glad to hear the latest from you! Very glad that you've found an endocrinologist and that you're getting out of that book funk. Long may it continue!

Thanks, rp! I know book funks happen to almost everyone, so it was no surprise, really, but how long it lasted? Rough stuff. Thanks to goodreads goal thingy, I realize I'm behind by almost a dozen books to make my yearly goal of 125 - a couple of years ago I read double that! Need to get my butt in gear. Hope you're doing well! Looks like you've been bookishly busy yourself!

>53 LauraBrook:
Yey for bookfunk going away! Yey for finding a doctor! Yey for new glasses! I got new glasses too, so I'll keep some of that yey back for myself. :) I got my first pair when I was 16, so these were just updated ones.

53> Which books did you read? I read historical romance - I might be the only person in this group, or the only one who admits it. I peeked in your library - have you read Sarah MacLean yet? She's good. I also like Lisa Kleypas and Julia Quinn - light on the history, but humorous.

Which YA series? I read those too - when I'm not in a reading funk myself.

Hello? Is this thing on? ;)

How in the world have I been absent from this group for so many months?!? It astounds me. I feel like I've spent large portions of the last three years in some kind of fugue state - I "snap to" once in a while and look around, shocked that it's now a different season and weeks have passed. Like now, it's almost December and it's been about 7 months since I last checked in. Mea culpa.

I've read almost 200 books by this point, and I'm hoping I can make it to 225 before 2017 strikes. (It's do-able for me, but will I actually read as much as I can, time-wise, or will I get sucked into a TV show binge again?!?) For next year's Cat Challenge, I'm planning on only having a few categories, and they'll be open ones, at that. For this year, though, I"m calling it a wash. Did I read more than I thought? Yes. Am I able to figure out where to put my already-read books in each category? Eeeeeeh, probably, but I'm not going to. I've tried to do it a few times before now, and the lists just sit there, untouched. Why torture myself?!?

My fun task for tonight is to try and figure out what categories will work best for me next year. I'll still be doing the ROOT challenge in that group, and will probably join the 75ers again too. But I'm hoping that I can get my brain back on straight and keep checking in here. This is the group I feel most comfortable in, and where I can really see my reading progress throughout the year.

And here's a question for you all - since I'm effectively giving up on this year's challenge, should I go ahead and start my 2017 challenge?

If I were starting the 2017 challenge in 2016, I probably wouldn't start until at least December 1, because that feels more like a time to wind things down for the year, but it's up to you! At the very least, you can set up a thread and we can all stop by to say hello! :)

Hi Laura, it's great to hear from you! I voted undecided cause I think you start your 2017 Challenge whenever you feel you are ready. But I agree with >59 rabbitprincess: that you should set up your thread so we can all drop by and wish you luck!

I voted undecided for the same reason Judy did. I'll read your thread wherever you decide to post.

Welcome back!

I'm one of those persons who wants my challenge to run on the actual year cycle, but I won't dictate what others want to do. I marked undecided for that reason.

I voted yes because it sounds like you need a fresh start and there's no time like the present for one of those!

At the minimum, come over and create a thread so we can harass you on it! :)