2011 Challenges

I had so much fun participating in the Thankfully Reading challenge that I decided to attempt some year long challenges in 2011. I found a lot I wanted to participate in but had to narrow it down to three since I will be very busy with school and photography this year. These are the challenges I decided on. Special thanks to Jenn of Jenn's Bookshelves for her post that inspired me!



I am really excited for this challenge hosted by Beth Fish Reads. It sounds like so much fun. I have to read books in the following categories:

1. A book with a number in the title
2. A book with jewelry or a gem in the title
3. A book with a size in the title
4. A book with travel or movement in the title
5. A book with evil in the title
6. A book with a life stage in the title

I already have a few books in mind such as Evil Under The Sun by Agatha Christie and Journey To the Center of the Earth(which *gasp* I have never read).

I am going to do this one because I have been listening to a lot of audio books with my long commute to school and once the summer come around again to my work commute. I have signed up for the Fascinated level which means I have to listen to 6 books. Should be easy enough!




Of course I have to do this challenge since I received my beautiful Nook for Christmas. I am going for the Addicted level which means I will have to read 12 e books. I would go for 20 but I am afraid that would negatively affect my pocketbook and studying time!
So I have decided to do these three challenges. I may add another if I find something else that strikes my fancy. Looking forward to a great 2011!

Thankfully Reading Saturday & Sunday Plus Wrap Up

First I want say thanks to Jenn's Bookshelves, Beth Fish Reads and Devourer of Books for hosting this weekend. It was a wonderful idea and definitely inspired me to read more! Let me share my readings for the rest of the weekend and then do a quick wrap up.

Saturday, November 28th

I finished Sisterchicks Go Brit right after breakfast. I ended up really enjoying the book. They visited a lot of sites in London that I remember visiting on my trip 10 years ago(Oh my God was that TEN years ago!!??). It brought back a lot of wonderful memories. After I finished that book I decided I had to start re reading the Betsy-Tacy high school books again. I went on a hunt for Betsy Was a Junior so I would have that before I started reading Heaven to Betsy. Shockingly I found it in the second stack of books I looked through. Miracle! So my fourth book was Heaven to Betsy by Maud Hart Lovelace.
As I have said many times in this blog I love the Betsy-Tacy books. I love how these books are based in the early 1900's but they feel so fresh and I can relate to them easily. Betsy is a freshmen in high school in this book and I love reading about the changes she goes through with moving to a new house, making new friends while still retaining her old friends, falling in & out of love and making decisions about pulling away from her parents religion. Sound familiar? Probably so because I am sure most people go through these feelings. I love this book and even though I have read it over ten times I still thrill at every word(yes I am a dork!). I read almost the whole book but left two chapter to finish on Sunday.

Sunday, November 28th
I knew Sunday would be my lowest read day because I had to work that morning. After freezing to death for 6 hours I finally got home around one, fixed myself a Thanksgiving left over plate and settled down to finish Heaven to Betsy. It ended like it always does and I moved on to the next book. I decided to wait to pick up on the next Betsy-Tacy books until Christmas break. I went to my TBR pile and chose Heaven's Wager by Ted Dekker.

Heaven's Wager is in the Martyr's Song series. I read the first book Martyr's Song and it was really good. This book is good but a little sad. It is about a man who has invented a new banking system and is about to become a multi-millionaire. He is on the top of the world and his life is going to change forever. Of course I knew this was too good to be true. You know in books when everyone is too happy that something bad is going to happen. It is interesting because his wife, son and mother-in-law keep getting glimpses into heaven. It will be interesting to see what happens in the book. I made it through about one hundred pages before I decided I needed to actually spend some time with my husband:-)

Wrap Up
So I only read four books and a little part of a fifth. That is not as many as I thought I would read. I deliberately didn't set a goal for myself. I felt like I wanted to relax and just read for enjoyment not to make some goal. All the books I read, except one, were books in my TBR pile. I have a bad habit of re-reading books instead of going to my TBR pile so that was good. I spent quite a few hours on my books. Probably too many in my husband's opinion! This was a great weekend and participating the Thankfully Reading Weekend was so fun!

Thankfully Reading Mini-Challenge #3

The Thankfully Reading mini challenge today is hosted by Devourer of Books and it is
"what reading community are you thankful for, and why? Are you thankful for book bloggers? The book community on Twitter? Your spouse or family that lets you ramble on and on about what you’re reading and doesn’t complain (at least not too much) about the myriad of books flowing into the house?"
I am very thankful for the new book blogs I have discovered and the people tweeting about books I love. For a long time I thought I was one of the few people who still enjoyed reading certain books.
However, what I am most thankful for is my sister. Me and my sisters grew up reading vicariously. My sister who is four years younger than me is my book buddy. We still love the same books and we can sit and talk for hours about books. These are the best and happiest memories to me.

Thankfully Reading Mini-Challenge #2

Beth Fish Reads set the 2nd mini challenge for Thankfully Reading Weekend. It is to "share a photograph of your TBR pile or at least one bookshelf." Now this is very difficult for me. I do have a TBR pile but my husband grew frustrated with how large it had become and so he scattered some of the books in my bookcases. So I decided to share all the bookcases I have. When I was growing up I was completely obsessed with trying to fit all my books into the two bookcases I had in my closet. I would constantly arrange and rearrange them. I knew when I had a home of my own I would have a place for all my books. However, that hasn't really worked out as planned as I still have books that don't have a home except on the floor(much to the dismay of my husband). Each bookcase has a different "purpose." Anyway here are all my books.


This is my "official" TBR pile. It does include books I have already read but want to read again. Like my Agatha Christie books on the right. I love those books so much and I haven't read one since I was 17. I can't wait to read them again!

This is my Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys bookcase. Growing up I adored these books. I actually liked The Hardy Boys much better than Nancy Drew. Joe and Frank were much more interesting to me. The Nancy Drew books were some of the first books I remember reading. My mom had those old, blue copies. It still makes me sick every time I think about how she threw them in the trash.



This is my young adult bookcase. This bookcase holds some of my favorite books: Trixie Belden, Ginger Pye, Strawberry Girl, Betsy-Tacy books, Hans Brinker and the Silver Skates and the Little House on the Prairie books. Love all these books! They make me happy taking me back to my wonderful childhood! I like this bookcase because I can doublestack my paperbacks in the back without the shelves bowing.



This is my baseball bookcase. All of these books are baseball related: biographies, autobiographies, season reviews, novels etc. I adore baseball and have always loved learning about the history of the game. My favorite baseball book is Shoeless Joe by W.P. Kinsella. It is an amazing book! I even named my cat Shoeless Joe.



This is my Mystery/Adventure bookcase. It includes my guilty pleasure favorites such as Clive Cussler(which horrifies my archeologist major sister!), James Patterson and J.D. Robb.




This is my romance bookcase: Victoria Holt, Lori Wick and Georgette Heyer.



This bookcase is my newest one and has no theme because my husband randomly put books in there. But some of my favorite books stick out to me and that is The Circle Trilogy by Ted Dekker. So good! I love those books.


This is my classics bookcase with some of my favorite classic books: Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court, Seventeen, and David Copperfield. It was recently desecrated by my husband's Star Wars books which shall quietly be removed in the next few weeks.


This is my Classic #2, Harry Potter and Biography bookcase. My husband has all the English versions of Harry Potter and a nice Lord of the Rings set.


And here are my poor books that don't have a home. I am asking for bookcases for Christmas:-)

Thanks for allowing me to share my bookcases. Now back to Thankfully Reading!

Thankfully Reading Mini-Challenge #1

Jenn's Bookshelves has set a Thankfully Reading Mini-Challenge to tell what book you are most thankful for. This is a hard question because there are so many books I am thankful for.
I really can't narrow down a single book so I have gone with an entire series. The Betsy-Tacy Series are the books I am most thankful for. They have been my favorite books for years but they have become very special to me. I was laid off two years ago and it was a very difficult time for me as I had to transition from working 60 plus hours per week in my dream job to being unemployed. I began to experience anxiety and one of the few things that could help me curb this was reading the Betsy-Tacy books. They are so warm, familiar and comforting. I will always be thankful for these books for helping me get through that difficult time!

Thankfully Reading Weekend

I decided to participate in the Thankfully Reading Weekend. It is a chance for me to get some good book reading in while I am off of school until the 29th.

Thursday, November 26th
I read nothing Thursday. I was so busy cooking and celebrating with my family so I decided my reading would have to begin on Wednesday. However my sister and I did have an hour conversation about L.M. Montgomery books(we both have read The Blue Castle to0 many times to count).

Friday, November 27th
Friday started out well as I began reading The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Prisoner's Dilemma by Trenton Lee Stewart.



I love The Mysterious Benedict Society books. There are three books so far. I love these books because they remind me of the books I grew up reading: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Moffett Books and Mary Poppins. I finished it around lunch. I was planning on re-reading the Betsy-Tacy high school books during the holidays but I was unable to locate Betsy Was a Junior so I decided to wait. I decided to start on Early Candlelight by Maud Hart Lovelace.

This was a book she wrote before the Betsy-Tacy books. It is set in the mid to late 1800's in Minnesota at Fort Snelling and the future St. Paul. It is the last unread Maud book I have to read and I have been saving it. This book was wonderful. It was a great slice of pioneer life and talked a lot about customs, harsh conditions, clothing etc. It also had a sweet little love story but that wasn't the primary focus of the book. I highly recommend it! I will admit I was a little sad when I finished it. The end of all the new Maud books. I then started reading Sisterchicks Go Brit by Robin Jones Gunn.

Robin Jones Gunn has been one of my favorite authors since I was a teen. She wrote the Christy Miller, Sierra Jensen and Glennbrooke series'. I absolutely love all three series'. I have read them many times over. The Sisterchicks are a little different than most of her books as they are geared more towards my mom's generation(she loves them) but I was interested to read it as they would be traveling around London. I made it through about 30 pages before I was so tired I had to go to bed. More tomorrow!

My Favorite Books

Clearly my adventure didn't begin in June because I have neglected my blog since then. It was a busy summer with my Global Studies class for five hours per day. Now that the holidays are upon us and school is winding down(finals in 2 weeks:-) I am going to attempt to really begin my reading adventure.
I have been motivated by Thankfully Reading Weekend over at Jenn's Bookshelves. I have all day Friday and Saturday to read until I work on Sunday. So I plan on reading at least 4 books this weekend as my TBR pile is really big!
First, before I start reading I want to talk about a few of my favorite authors and books. Of course at the top of my list is Maud Hart Lovelace and L.M. Montgomery. However, the Anne of Green Gables books(Rilla is my favorite book in that series) are at the bottom of my list for L.M. Montgomery.
The Emily books are my favorite. I love the story of the orphan girl who goes to a farm and changes the lives of all the people around her. I love the way L.M. Montgomery writes. She paints these beautiful word pictures and brings them to life. I also love the Pat of Silver Bush series. I never fail to sob my heart out when Bets dies even at 28 years old!
My favorite "stand alone" L.M. Montgomery book is The Blue Castle. That book I have read too many times to count. I love when Valancy finally tells her family what she has been thinking all these years. What an empowering moment!


My favorite books of all time are the Betsy-Tacy books by Maud Hart Lovelace. I discovered these books "later" in life as I was about fifteen the first time I read them. It is funny how I can so vividly remember a moment like reading a book for the first time. I clearly remember the moment I first picked up a Betsy-Tacy book. It was Betsy's Wedding and I loved it. It had a pink cover and Vera Neville's wonderful drawing of Betsy with a veil swirling about her face(probably why I picked it up in the first place as I was obsessed with weddings at the time). Although I always felt it was a shame that I read the last one first! It was years before I would read Betsy and Joe or Betsy and the Great World as our library didn't carry them. My favorite book is Betsy and Joe. I love how Betsy struggles with remaining loyal to Tony even though Joe is the guy she wants. I love how the Betsy-Tacy books were written years ago and set in the early 1900's but still resonated with a teen in the 90's and even now as an adult in 2010. In fact as part of Thankfully Reading Weekend I plan to start re reading all the high school books. By the way I love that Harper Perennial Modern Classics reissued all the high school books. I absolutely hated the versions I have without Vera Neville drawings on the cover so I purchased all the new reissues. I am so happy that people still see the value of these books.
I have many other favorite books and authors but I will stop now with these two. Time to start reading!

The Adventure Begins

I have always had a great love for reading ever since I was young. My sisters and I used to astonish the library staff by checking out piles of books and bringing them back just a week later. We used to be allowed to read at the table which was shocking to other people. But our Mom loved to read too. I still love to read today although I don't read as much as I used to. There are so many distractions today: TV, Netflix, iPod, Blackberry etc. But there is still nothing like picking up a book. A physical book! Don't get me started on eReaders because I am still on the fence. This blog is my way of challenging myself to read at least 5 books a month. It makes me sad to write that because that used to be no problem. I am back in school however which does curtail my reading a little. But I am determined to start reading again. Because reading is what helped me develop my imagination and creativity. So join me on this adventure!