The Reading Challenge Group discussion

You've got a plan. You voted in the polls, picked the Group Reads you want to join, found a mini-challenge or two (or six) that you like, maybe even agreed to a Buddy Read.... Then....

"Oh, Look there's a squirrel! I must go chase it!"

And you're off! You're hurting through the book forest at breakneck speed. Far. Far. Away from your carefully crafted plan.

What was your squirrel this month? Where did you ramble? And was it worth the chase?

My squirrel syndrome has been especially bad this year. I'm starting to realize that this is probably why my TBR pile is so out of control! There has only been one month so far this year where I have been able to stick to a plan so I decided to create a summer plan instead. I figured this would give me some leeway to attend to the squirrel while still keeping me reasonably in line. It hasn't gone over terribly well so far :)

Here is the plan that I originally made, along with the nuts that took me off course:

1. The Rumor My favourite kind of beach read.
2. The Martian
3. The Girl on the Train
4. Glory O'Brien's History of the Future
5. Gumption: Relighting the Torch of Freedom with America's Gutsiest Troublemakers Funny and informative.
6. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
7. Rebecca
8. The Ladies' Lending Library
9. The Rule of Three
10. Raging Star
11. The Burning Room
12. Everything Changes Loved it!
13. After the Red Rain Not too bad!
14. Thy Neighbor: A Novel Terrible read, I wish I had given in to the squirrel.

Nuts:
Double Dexter Always worth it
Dexter's Final Cut Definitely worth it
The DUFF: Designated Ugly Fat Friend Terrible book, cute movie...should have stayed on plan instead for this one.
The Great Gatsby Re-read for me, still love it.
Me Before You OMG, what an incredible emotional rollercoaster. Definitely worth the distraction!
The Girl You Left Behind Great read
One Plus One Full on JoJo Moyes spin here, still loving her work.

It's clear that I have gone wayyyyyy off track...but I've discovered JoJo Moyes and it's very hard to feel guilty about not staying on plan when you've discovered such a great writer. I've gotten distracted by some other titles this week that have just been delivered so I don't think there is hope for this summer plan any longer :)

These are my new nuts this week:
Secondhand Souls (one of my fave authors)
Sheltering Rain
The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl
Normal

This is diagnosed as "Reading Squirrel Syndrome" and comes on when we are tempted by a shiny new author or title that has been passed before our eyes by another reader or when we are overwhelmed with our too many challenges and we need a mental break and look *SQUIRREL* and we follow that darn squirrel down the rabbit hole and have just a lovely reading party amongst a pile of nuts.

The chase I'll be following is this new stack of books that I received in the mail yesterday, one in particular, and Kassandra would like to do a buddy read with this one, Normal which was highly recommended by my Mother (she usually does not lead me wrong in reading). It's a myster/psychological thriller. Anyone else wants to go on this chase, you are more than welcome. :D

LOL! I wondered what the squirrel thing could be about. :D

My main squirrel is my own imagination. I spend most of the day daydreaming about shiny new story ideas, when my plan was to work for a few hours a day on the Trilogy of Doom I'm writing and spend the rest of my free time doing creative things and reading. By the time I've done my writing on top of the useless daydreaming, I have very little time left to read, and when I do read, it's not at all the kinds of books I was expecting to read this year.

Whatever happened to my Year of Living Dickensously?? I've read 2 and a half Dickens novels so far this year. I was planning to read that many each month! But all I can seem to handle this year are nonfiction and lighter fast-reading fiction.

One squirrel that I enjoyed chasing around with grabby hands, ignoring everything else in life while we frolicked happily for a few days, was The Martian. Fun times, man. Fun times.

My squirrel was the Bingo Challenge. I wasn't going to do all of it, but then the few sparse Bingos seemed so lonely.

Oh Faye, it is so much fun to frolic! LOL!!!

A fun summer frolic for me was Jonathan Tropper, one book had me up a tree and the other rolling in nut shells.

Good stuff!

Faye, I've heard great things about The Martian. I'm hoping to get to it soon. Now I just have to clear out all these nut piles all around me :)

Looks like The Martian is winning the Genre Group Read poll by a landslide nutslide, so you'll have a good excuse soon! ;)

I may join in on the Martian nutslide, too!

Yay! Squirrel tea party!

Fantastic, September would make a great time to read it. Of course, it will probably lead to quite a few new nuts as well...

My squirrel was Amazon recommendations and some new ghost stories. The worst one I chased was cleaning out my Kindle cloud. I found several books that I downloaded and completely forgot about. I found Sharing Her Crime by May Agnes Fleming and there went my goal of slimming down my TBR list.

The Martian movie with Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Jeff Daniels comes to theaters on 2 Oct. If we read it as a group, we have no reason to blame those poor squirrels.

Squirrels are a frolicsome critter, so I think they like to lead us astray, it's in their personality. :D

For me the Martian was the farthest from my plan for September, so this is going to be a squirrel move. And I'll bring the cashews to the tea party, Faye.

I used to be badly affected too, but this year I've been very good at sticking to my plans.
Each month I plan a number of reads but I also keep half the time available to chase any squirrels that cross my way.

This month good distractions have been a number of books on Ancient Greece history, Antigone, Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes and the best month read so far: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

Kiwi wrote: "I used to be badly affected too, but this year I've been very good at sticking to my plans.
Each month I plan a number of reads but I also keep half the time available to chase any squirrels that ..."

Great strategy, Kiwi. I love your interest in history.

My squirrel has been library ebooks. Poor The Constant Princess has been sitting on my physical bookshelf since December this year waiting to be read. At least it has friends with the other stockpile of 20 books that I've accumulated these past months. In fact, it gained 2 more friends just yesterday...

I keep telling myself "I'm going to spend a month reading physical books" and then "oh, another book available that I want to read at the library!"

(This was written while alternating between goodreads and browsing the library booklist)

My squirrel is goodreads! I keep getting involved in new challenges and adding things to my TBR shelf. Someone suggested Abdur Rahman I. Doi's "Women in Shari'ah" so I, of course, had to follow that recommendation. The issue is, I need to finish Sourcebook in Indian Philosophy and The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory before school starts because I promised my copies to other people in exchange for things on their shelves. I hate to be the person not holding up my end of the bargain! Honestly I shouldn't add any more books because I've already got 20 or so planned for the rest of the year, but I know I'll keep moving things around, haha. Cindy, Amazon is a troublesome squirrel for me, too!

I think the squirrels got into my head. I was working on my September reading wish list and I did not want to read anything on it. Maybe I should stay away from Amazon for a couple of days. They always have a squirrel and send it to my E-mail. Would you like to read this? Sure, there goes another squirrel. My TBR on Goodreads is aging.

Cindy wrote: "I think the squirrels got into my head. I was working on my September reading wish list and I did not want to read anything on it. Maybe I should stay away from Amazon for a couple of days. They al..."

Ditto, Cindy. I think my TBR is now longer than what I have read. My problem is that anything is a destraction from Netflix to any kind of book store, friend and family recommendations, and commenting on Goodreads. I love spending time on Goodreads! This might be the Mother of all squirrels for me! :D

Hahaha.. I always keep chasing squirrels, so much so that I feel it should become a challenge by itself; maybe then I wouldn't do it! LOL!

Anyway, my squirrel this month was the THIRDS series. I have recently become addicted to MM Romance, which was not my reading until a few months back and now with this series, it's just that I couldn't stop reading it until I finished the last book that the author had written and now waiting for the next one is proving to me excruciating! What I loved most about the series is the sense of humour that you are hit with right from book 1, Hell & High Water and which lasts throughout the series, at least whatever has been written of it! :)

Another series that fascinated me this month is the Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews. Was late to jump into this bandwagon but boy was I glad that I did! It is really good!

Both these series are the reasons why I still haven't finished my last two BINGO books to claim that blackout!! Hmm but it was worth it! :D

My squirl has been series i had stsrted byt not finished and this group actualy lol

Ugh I have so many squirrels this month. First I picked up a manga I loved a few years ago (and still do) which finally got translated so I'm really fixed on reading the last 80 (now 50) chapters as fast as I can. I also picked up Shouldn't You Be in School? as Lemony Snicket books just always hook me up for no real reason. I just enjoy them a lot. And last but not least I squirrel after a Light Novel series which finally got an official English release which means I don't have to piece together japanese-english translations of free workers anymore, but can enjoy my most beloved light novel (Durarara!!, Vol. 1) to the fullest :) My summer bucket list has to step back a bit unfortunately, but I guess you can't have everything.

Alessandra wrote: "Ugh I have so many squirrels this month. First I picked up a manga I loved a few years ago (and still do) which finally got translated so I'm really fixed on reading the last 80 (now 50) chapters a..."

You read Durarara!!? I used to love the anime as a kid and recently settled upon rewatching it and finally reading it. But I'm trying to resist the pull of that squirrel at the moment. ;)

I absolutely love Durarara!! This gem, Fullmetal Alchemist and Natsume's Book of Friend will always be my top favorites when it comes to Anime :) I started on the Durarara!! Squirrel after watching the second season that is airing this year. It's so nice to finally be able to get the whole story :D haha at least one of us is resisting that oh so tempting squirrel.

But but the shiny new artwirk and the japenese jokes and FUZZY SQUIRREL MUST GO CHASE!!!

Ugh I have two things - Dance Moms and a trip.

My mom and I have become absolutely addicted to Dance Moms, so she comes over and we binge watch it when I get off work. Second I went on a trip with friends to St Augustine this week (such a great time), so yeah, little reading done.

2 weeks ago I took a week off of work for a "staycation". I just relaxed and did whatever, whenever. Didn't go very far away from home. Unfortunately the reading squirrel visited me that week. I didn't read anything other than my regular computer stuff; blogs, forums like this one, news headlines and some of the reports that interest me, my Facebook feed. So my book reading was squirreled for a spell since I was in the middle of one of the "Charmed" books. :)

Oh goodness, September's going to be a hard month. I want to read every single one of the monthly reads. I have a copy of The Martian because I went into Barnes and Noble for a journal and it caught my eye, but I don't have any of the others (actually, Great Expectations might be on my shelf somewhere). I need to get through my alphabet soup!

When I first saw this thread, I was really confused. Like why is there a thread on Squirrels? But a lovely analogy! :p

I find this general summer has been one massive squirrel. Between tv, holidays, get togethers, family meet ups and trips with the parents, I havent been in the mood to read a lot at all!

As books go, I've continued the Rizzoli and Isles series (I adore the TV show), which has pulled away from my planned reading!

Yes, just summer activities, Holly, is a giant squirrel. All of what you said was true for me plus adding a move in September is the 'Mother of all Squirrels'! September might be my worst month, unless I dig myself and my nuts into a very large hole and hide. Ugh!!!

I haven't watched Rizzoli and Isles for a very long time, thanks for reminding me, I'll get back to that one.

*adds Rizzoli and Isles to library list*
Thanks, ladies. I was looking for a series to get me through the winter this year.

It is rather gruesome in places, just to warn you. There were times I considered skipping pages. But overall, it's a good series. Although I do much prefer the TV show.

Haha! I actually meant the TV series (although maybe the books at some point). Since I don't have TV or cable, I borrow video from the library. Usually my binge watching is a winter event. (For some reason I feel less guilty sitting in front of the box when it's dark and cold outside. Also it's cozy inside!) I find out about a good series and watch an episode a night until I'm caught up to the present. Then sometimes I'll spiral back and watch old favorites like Castle or Big Bang Theory or Buffy. Probably one of the many reasons that I am miserable at small talk. X-p

If you like Westerns, Longmire wasn't bad! Renee, did you watch Sherlock, that one my husband I love!

Yes! Addictingly good! Just love Benedict and Martin.

I really liked Longmire, the TV show. So upset that it is not on TV anymore. I can't seem to find Sherlock.

Sherlock is on Netflix at the moment, so is Longmire. Also, Longmire's next season is coming out in September.

I am happy Longmire is coming out with a new season. I don't watch much TV, but I would watch Longmire. I will have to look up Sherlock on Netflix. We might be cancelling our Netflix. Their movies are not very good.

I had a whole list of books planned for my vacation in September and now, I know I'm going to be pulled off plan by all of the fantastic group reads! The plus side is that 3 of the books have been on my TBR forever so this may end up being a really good squirrel month :)

Kassandra wrote: "I had a whole list of books planned for my vacation in September and now, I know I'm going to be pulled off plan by all of the fantastic group reads! The plus side is that 3 of the books have been ..."

That sounds like a trained squirrel.

Definitely Capt Kirk!

Lol! So funny!

My BFF's wedding pretty much pulled me off my reading 'schedule' especially the last couple of months. But now that she is all married hopefully I can get back to reading more. :)

Those days where you want to read a good book but keep running into good friends on your commute to/from work... Admittedly some of the best kinds of squirrels available.

I can tell you my ongoing squirrel. It is this website! I often scroll through here reading people's comments, reading different reviews and before you know it I have clicked on a link to youtube to watch someone's book review.

The next thing you know I have read no pages at all, added about ten books to my tbr, and have watched an elephant balancing a ball on his trunk. Is it worth it? OH YEAH!!!

Lol I know the feeling Basesloaded! I figure it's all a wash as I get a lot of my book ideas from here, which I wouldn't have had without the distraction. I love checking out what everyone else is stuck into!

Wendy congrats for your daughter

Wendy congrats for your daughter

The Group reads are a big squirrel. I usually make a list of TBR books at the beginning of the month. Then the group reads start and I think, I want to read that book instead.