tag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-02:215923metonymymetonymymetonymy2014-07-05T14:38:10Ztag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-02:215923:594333"too many books" book club: july2014-07-05T14:38:10Z2014-07-05T14:38:10Zpublic0HI GUYS I DIDN'T POST EARLIER THIS WEEK BECAUSE IT WAS TOO DARN HOT.<br /><br />I didn't read much this month! I did read Girls at the Kingfisher Club, which I HIGHLY recommend, but mostly I did a lot of work and a lot of watching movies and TV. I did not take my books to sell because I am a procrastinator. Maybe next week! (I could go today but we threw a Happy Birthday Captain America party yesterday and I kind of just want to stay home and tidy up and not see people.)<br /><br />July plans: not die in the heat. Maybe read some books. WHO KNOWS.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=metonymy&ditemid=594333" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-02:215923:593934metonymy @ 2014-06-02T15:26:002014-06-02T19:31:01Z2014-06-02T19:31:01Zpublic0HELLO FRIENDS. Welcome to this month's installment of "a super low-key but moderate accountability challenge where we just decide on the number of books we want to read in a month and also hold each other accountable for not buying even MORE books until we make a dent in our respective piles."<br /><br />May, you guys. What a month. With work stress and family stuff (MY SISTER GRADUATED FROM COLLEGE, DID I MENTION THAT) there was a lot of lying around watching teevee and praying for the swift embrace of death. But I read some Sailor Moon and one of the YA books I got at Boston Book Fest ("Travel Light" by Naomi Mitchison, an original fairy tale that had an absolutely perfect ending) and the only books I bought were for other people.<br /><br />I also read five romance novels in five days when I was visiting my family. NO REGRETS.<br /><br />This month I want to read the other YA book I got from Boston Book Fest, finish the Sailor Moon manga, and write a lot. Low key, but I have a story that I'm treating June like Nanowrimo for. That's the plan, anyway. I know tomorrow I will be going to buy Genevieve Valentine's "The Girls at the Kingfisher Club" because I preordered it ages ago, and I will also attempt to read that so as not to enlarge the to-read stack.<br /><br />ALSO I want to take books I don't want anymore and attempt to sell them. Fingers crossed I make that happen this month. (It's not about making money, it's about reclaiming shelf space.)<br /><br />What about you, folks? Did you read at all in May? Are you eschewing reading to spend time outside in the glorious weather, or do you prefer to enjoy your June weather by reading on a porch or a blanket somewhere with a frosty drink at your side? Wow, I just made myself sad about being stuck in my windowless office.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=metonymy&ditemid=593934" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-02:215923:593382"too many books" book club: may2014-05-03T02:51:45Z2014-05-03T02:54:53Zpublic0It's time again for "a super low-key but moderate accountability challenge where we just decide on the number of books we want to read in a month and also hold each other accountable for not buying even MORE books until we make a dent in our respective piles."<br /><br />YOU GUYS<br /><br />I FUCKING DID IT<br /><br />I FINALLY FINISHED THE FUCKING GOLDFINCH<br /><br />*stadium speakers begin to blare "we are the champions"*<br /><br />I don't even know if I liked it but it's FUCKING DONE. I also read more romance novels, because my entire life descended into utter chaos (family, work, social life, mental health, and even the goddamned weather) and sometimes you just need fairy tales where everything works out okay and everybody has simultaneous orgasms. But those were library ebooks! Whatever.<br /><br />Goals for May: read all the Sailor Moon. Read the two YA books I got at Boston Book Fest last fall, those should be quick. Possibly start The Sorrows of Kalix the Werewolf. I know I will be buying a book for my sister (<i>My Boyfriend Barfed in My Handbag, and Other Questions You Can't Ask Martha</i> by Jolie Kerr) and might get another copy for myself, and I know I'll be getting stuff tomorrow at Free Comic Book Day, but hopefully that's it. <br /><br />you guys i finished that book it was almost eight hundred pages i'm so proud of myself IT WAS SUCH A SLOG!<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=metonymy&ditemid=593382" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-02:215923:593093the "too many books" book club: april2014-04-04T16:37:35Z2014-04-04T16:37:35Zpublic0WELCOME BACK. This is, again: "a super low-key but moderate accountability challenge where we just decide on the number of books we want to read in a month and also hold each other accountable for not buying even MORE books until we make a dent in our respective piles."<br /><br />oh my god I am so bad at this. Did I buy books? I don't think I bought any actual books! I did buy coffee and a card at Porter Square Books but NOT ACTUAL BOOKS. I preordered some books from favorite authors that are coming out later this year. <br /><br />Did I finish The Goldfinch? STILL NO. I'm about two-thirds through, I think, and it's such a slog. I think I dislike this protagonist even more than Richard from The Secret History. And I completely forgot I was going to read the Mitford book, too. I did read two Georgette Heyer books and start another romance novel. But given that I spent much of March sick with stress and actually crying about it being so fucking cold, I am not going to be too mad at myself.<br /><br />Goals for April: FINISH THE GOLDFINCH AND GET IT OUT OF THE WAY. Actually read and put away all of the Sailor Moon volumes I bought but haven't opened yet. (I don't usually put comics on my reading list, but they are taking up space on the to-be-read pile, so we're gonna do these.) Try to start another book off the pile. <br /><br />What about you, friends?<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=metonymy&ditemid=593093" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-02:215923:592485the "too many books" book club: march2014-03-01T16:10:52Z2014-03-01T16:11:09Zpublic0WELCOME TO A NEW MONTH, FRIENDS! And to a new installment of: "a super low-key but moderate accountability challenge where we just decide on the number of books we want to read in a month and also hold each other accountable for not buying even MORE books until we make a dent in our respective piles."
Y'all, I failed so hard on both counts this month. I wanted to finish The Goldfinch and not buy any books. I started The Goldfinch, but the entire first section is about a tragedy and grieving, and that was absolutely not the thing to be reading when punched in the brain by seasonal depression. So I skipped over it and read The Left Hand of Darkness, which I had wanted to start. And I bought so many books, yikes. Retail therapy, I guess? <a href="http://markreads.net/reviews/">Mark Does Stuff</a> has been reading the Enchanted Forest Chronicles as commission videos on Youtube, which made me seek out old copies with the covers I had as a kid (my copies disintegrated long ago). And Mark Millar has a new book about Kalix the Werewolf out, so I bought that. And Molly Wizenberg's memoir "A Homemade Life" was two bucks in the Kindle store. I'M A FAILURE.
TELL ME HOW YOU DID BETTER THAN ME, FRIENDS. I have a nonfiction book on journalism by a Mitford I'm gonna crack, and I will keep slogging away at The Goldfinch now that it is not February anymore. AND I WILL NOT BUY ANY DAMNED BOOKS.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=metonymy&ditemid=592485" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-02:215923:592148"too many books" book club: february2014-02-01T22:16:13Z2014-02-01T22:16:13Zpublic0HELLO FRIENDS. As a refresher, here is what we are doing: <i>a super low-key but moderate accountability challenge where we just decide on the number of books we want to read in a month and also hold each other accountable for not buying even MORE books until we make a dent in our respective piles.</i>
So let's talk! I decided I wanted to finish <i>Middlemarch</i> and <i>The Little Friend,</i> and also read <i>The Goldfinch.</i> I... did not 100% succeed. I did finish both of those books! But I have not started The Goldfinch, because the day I finished The Little Friend my hold on the library's ebook of <i>Americanah</i> came in and I did not want to pass it up. (IT'S SO GOOD THOUGH, GUYS, YOU SHOULD ALL READ IT.) BUT I did not buy any new books!
How about you? Did you read a book? Did you fail and buy more books? What are your goals for this month? Leave a comment below! If you didn't join us at the start of the month you can join now!<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=metonymy&ditemid=592148" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> commentstag:dreamwidth.org,2009-05-02:215923:591397the "too many books" book club2014-01-09T02:25:43Z2014-01-09T12:13:12Zpublic4TWO POSTS IN A WEEK WHAT IS THIS DECADENCE<br /><br />No but seriously. I was chatting with <span style='white-space: nowrap;'><a href='https://fourteenacross.dreamwidth.org/profile'><img src='https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png' alt='[personal profile] ' width='17' height='17' style='vertical-align: text-bottom; border: 0; padding-right: 1px;' /></a><a href='https://fourteenacross.dreamwidth.org/'><b>fourteenacross</b></a></span> today about how we were both super behind on our reading and, more specifically, have way too many books that we have bought but not read yet. And discussed doing a super low-key but moderate accountability challenge where we just decide on the number of books we want to read in a month and also hold each other accountable for not buying even MORE books until we make a dent in our respective piles. (My to-read stack is on top of my yarn bin. I can no longer lift the lid without causing an avalanche.) So I thought maybe I would open this up to people.<br /><br />(Perhaps you are in grad school and reading books is what you do for most of your day. Perhaps you have a special budget set aside for books. Perhaps you are a speed reader. Perhaps reading is your only hobby. I congratulate you! I would also gently suggest that that's not precisely the spirit of this undertaking.)<br /><br />So what I'm thinking is, post about the number of books you want to finish in a month - one is fine! if it's more than five, look back at that big parenthetical and reconsider whether you really need this! - with titles if you want, and then I'll post again at the end of the month and we can discuss how many books we got through and what we're looking at next. No pressure! Other than the shame of letting down your internet friends!<br /><br />Thoughts? If it's just me and Kait that is A-OKAY.<br /><br /><img src="https://www.dreamwidth.org/tools/commentcount?user=metonymy&ditemid=591397" width="30" height="12" alt="comment count unavailable" style="vertical-align: middle;"/> comments