MobileRead Book Challenges discussion

Goals:

* Read at least 12 books
* Work on neglected series
* Read at least 6 books of neglected series list
* Read before going to sleep

Statistics:

Books: 29
Pages: 11023
Neglected series books: 17

January

1. by Justin Cronin
2. by J.R. Erickson
3. by Thomas Harris
4. by Emilia Hart

February
5. by Faith Martin
6. by Patrick Reuman
7. by Donna Leon

March
8. by J.L. Bryan
9. by Hugh Howey
10. by Stephen King

April
11. by Anna Lee Huber
12. by Owl Goingback

May
13. by Richard Osman
14. by Lisa Stone

June
15. by Justin Cronin
16. by Stephen King & Richard Chizmar

July
17. by Carly Reagon
18. by Andy Weir
19. by J.L. Bryan
20. by C.S. Harris

August
21. by Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child
22. by A.G. Riddle

September
23. by Faith Martin
24. by Dawn Kurtagich
25. by Sarah Alderson

October
26. by Laura Purcell
27. by Justin Cronin
28. by Richard Osman

November
29. by Stephen King

Neglected series list:

Pieter Vos (David Hewson) 2/4
Ghost Hunters (Neil Spring) 1/2
Rivers of London (Ben Aaronovitch) 9/10
Sillhouse Lake (Rachel Caine) 1/6
Inspector Rebus (Ian Rankin) 1/25
Southern Reach (Jeff Vandermeer) 1/4
Wyman Ford (Douglas Preston) 3/4
Hillary Greene (Faith Martin) 14/21
Passage (Justin Cronin) 2/3 -> full reread
Bruno, Chief of Police (Martin Walker) 1/18
Northern Michigan Asylum (JR Erickson) 2/8
Troubled Spirits (JR Erickson) 3/10
Chief Inspector Gamache (Louise Penny) 15/19
Haunted (Lee Mountford) 5/9
Sand Chronicles (Hugh Howey) 1/2
Rook Files (Daniel O'Malley) 2/3
Rizzoli & Isles (Tess Gerritsen) 12/13
Harbiner Kaur (Elly Griffiths) 2/4
Thursday Murder Club (Richard Osman) 2/5
Nora Kelly (Lincoln Child & Douglas Preston) 3/5
Sigma Force (James Rollins) 16/18
Moonfall (James Rollins) 1/3
Crescent City (Sarah J. Maas) 2/3
Agent Pendergast (Lincoln Child & Douglas Preston) 21/22
Lady Darby (Anna Lee Huber) 11/13
Commissario Brunetti (Donna Leon) 32/33
Will Trent (Karin Slaughter) 11/12
Sebastian St. Cyr (CS Harris) 18/20
Outlaws Scarlett & Browne (Jonathan Stroud) 1/3
Hannibal Lecter 3/4

This list is way too long. I probably won't be able to read books of each series. On the other hand, there are a lot of series I only need to read one or two books for to finish/get up to date with the series. My current goal is to try and read one or two books of these series each month.

reserved

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First! :D

Being the neurospicy person I am I just made a spreadsheet for the series to track my progress. I haven't added all my series to it, since there are some I only read when I'm really in the mood for them. I'll add more series to the spreadsheet as I go along.

For those interested:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/...

I would love to be able to make prettier spreadsheets, but this is the best I got for now.

Bianca wrote: "Being the neurospicy person I am I just made a spreadsheet for the series to track my progress. I haven't added all my series to it, since there are some I only read when I'm really in the mood for..."

Nice!!

Second!!

And thanks for the reminder that I really, really need to get back to Pendergast. And now I want to make a spreadsheet too. You'd think as much as I deal with them at work for tracking, they'd lose their charm but no, I need spreadsheets for everything. My spreadsheets have baby spreadsheets.

I love spreadsheets to keep track of things. I also love databases. I used to have software to catalogue my cd's (late 90s early 2000s) and I spend hours scanning the cd's and manually entering all the data. Eventually I stopped using it. With my renewed interest in physical media I got a subscription for the app version of that same software. But now it took me maybe 15 minutes to scan over 100 cds and vinyls. That took the fun out of it a bit. Currently considering getting the apps for cataloguing my books and dvds/blu-rays as well.

Third.

Lol. Way ahead of schedule here. Only four days behind.

Yesterday I booked my January reading retreat for 2025. A full week away, my sister will be joining me for the last couple of days. But that still gives me four days of doing whatever I want.

Which books am I going to save for that week?

I just added the next in series books to my Kobo which weren't already in there. And now I don't know which book I want to read next. I had planned to read the latest in the Haunted Bayou series, and I had planned to wait with other series until the new year. But now I'm not so sure.

I don't expect to have much free time until the new year. With the holidays and my sister off work for 10 days (and her wanting to get a bunch of chores and DIY done).

I hope everyone's had a good New Year's celebration. I did get some reading in last night, when we were at my parents' place to celebrate New Year's.

Today I'm having a huge social and auditory hangover, I'm getting a cold but my sister wants to finish up some chores. So whilst the only thing I want to do is curl up under a blanket and read that won't be happening today. But tomorrow I'm going to take it easy; I only have one load of laundry to do, I'm ordering out lunch and I'm going to read and nap.

Wishing everyone a great 2025 with good books, music, movies, games and other hobbies.

I hope you recover quickly and get some quality reading time!

Wishing you a Wonderful 2025!

The cold isn't too bad, yet. It's at the stage where it's deciding whether is will go away or will go full blown cold. I'm a bit sniffly and have an irritated throat. If that's going to be it I'll be very happy.

I also added the goal to read before I go to sleep. I used to do that for years, I don't know why it stopped. I will have to see if I can find a nice habit tracker app.

My mental energy level determines my bedtime reading; if I'm too tired to read, I watch a show or play a game on my iPad instead.

I think I stopped because I always listen to podcasts before I fall asleep. It helps distract my mind and when I start dozing off I turn off the podcast and take out my earphones (sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night with the podcast ended and still wearing my earphones, LOL).

My goal is to read even just one page before bed. So far (two whole nights) I managed several chapters. But I haven't had a night where I was really tired, so we'll see how long I can get this streak going.

According to the GR challenge tracker I'm 12 book behind schedule for my 2025 challenge. My goal for the whole year is 12 books...

Still plenty of time. Haha.

If I keep reading Manga,I'll probably be done my challenge by next week.

I've finished the first book of 2025
The Passage by Justin Cronin. It's the third time I've read it. The books has two parts; the first third are the events leading up to, during and a short time after the crisis. The second part is set 100 years later. From what I remember I really enjoyed the first part (it somehow reminded me of The Stand) and thought the second part was just okay.

However, I really enjoyed both parts this time around (last reread was in 2012). I did read the second book in the series when it came out, but I can't remember anything about it.

Now for something a bit shorter. I'm also trying to figure out which books I want to read during my vacation.

Hooray. Yeah, I'm saving the long book that showed up in my little library out front for later this year.

Someone dropped a copy of The Luminaries out front. I nabbed it and am dreading the start. It's a big, heavy hardcover, but it has shown up on my potential book list a few times and not having to finish it in any period of time I figured this is the opportunity. I'll start it after I finish my new countries goal.

I've owned The Passage for ages and I may finally get around to reading it this year. I really want to read it, I just keep forgetting that I own it.

In the past anything under 800 pages wasn't considered a long book. 800 to 1000 pages was a slightly long book and over a 1000 pages was a properly long book. Nowadays anything over 500/600 pages I consider a long book. Mind you, there are 300 page books that are long books because they read slow and there are 800 page books that are shorter reads because they read so fast.

I can't recommend The Passage enough. Especially if you liked Stephen King's The Stand, to me it's got a similar vibe to it. I can't remember anything about the second book.

In other news. Yesterday I went shopping in Utrecht, where I used to live, and I saw that a new independent English bookstore is opening and they are looking for employees. So this weekend I'll be writing a motivation/cover letter and send out my application on Monday. Finger's crossed!

Books definitely vary. I still haven't finished Miyabe's The Book of Heroes. It says it's only 352 pages, but the pages are three times the length of a regular printed book. Maybe I'll pick it up again, but with the kids the pages just make it impossible to feel like I'm making any progress.

Bianca wrote: "In other news. Yesterday I went shopping in Utrecht, where I used to live, and I saw that a new independent English bookstore is opening and they are looking for employees. So this weekend I'll be writing a motivation/cover letter and send out my application on Monday. Finger's crossed!"

Oh that would be an awesome job! I've got my fingers crossed for you!!

Ashes Beneath Her by J.R. Erickson
Meh, it just didn't work for me. Too slow and not enough to keep the story interesting. Looking at my ratings for this series I'm thinking of not continuing, because two of the three books I read so far I gave three stars and the other one I gave two stars.

I am enjoying Erickson's Troubled Spirits series.

Hannibal Rising by Thomas Harris.
Somehow I missed the release of the fourth book in the Hannibal Lecter series. It tells the story about Lecter's youth and how he becomes what he is. A good story, though a slow read for me. Though that doesn't surprise me because this series were always slower reads.

I'm not really sure what I'm in the mood for. So I randomly picked a book I have on my Kobo for a while now. Weyward by Emilia Hart.

I'm currently on vacation. My sister is going to join me after work tomorrow. On Saturday we're going to Gouda, which is a really nice town. For shopping it's nice and compact, but with a good selection of shops. And there are loads of cafés and restaurants. It's a bit lacking in culture (no cheese market this time of year).

Weyward by Emilia Hart.
That one hit the spot. I just love books where there are story lines set in different time periods (in this one three). It's about three woman, all related to eachother; one in the 1600s, one in the 1940s and one in present times. It's about how they all have to make their own way in life, discover who they are and how to cope with their witchy powers.

Currently looking into upgrading my record player set-up. I currently have an all in one Victrola (turntable, cd player, radio, cassette player and speakers). It isn't as bad as a suitcase player but it could be improved. I've ordered a custom made turntable table, I think I know which turntable I want. The biggest problem is speakers. I don't have enough space for two speakers. All the ones I find are too big. So now I'm considering a Marshall bluetooth speaker, they have one which you can also used wired.

Edifier also has nice speakers in smaller and single-unit sizes, and I think all of them have multiple input options. I have a D320 and it puts out a shocking amount of sound for its size.

Every time I come back to your thread I remember that I want to read The Passage. How is it that I want to read the book so badly yet keep forgetting to do so? :D

Where I want to put my turntable, next to my bed, I don't really have space for speakers. Even bookcase speakers are too big, really. However, I do have space for them on my bookcase opposite my bed. I can hide the cables easily in the under the roof storage (sliding doors). So now I'm looking at speakers, and it'll probably be the Edifiers, not sure if it's going to be the 1280 or the 1700. I like the look of the 1280 better, but the 1700 apparently sounds better.

Today I'm going to get one of those weights to put on vinyl when playing (keep them more leveled if they're slightly warped) and I'm going to visit the record store. I deserve that after the last couple of days.

January was a good reading month. Four books, 1873 pages, which means the average length was 468 pages.

My two favourites were The Passage and Weyward. Ashes Beneath Her was my least favourite and I'm abandoning the series and Hannibal Rising was good, but no where near as good as Silence of the Lambs.

This week is turning out to be a bit of a mess reading wise. Yesterday the neighbours started redoing their bathroom and spend almost four hours removing tiles and then another two hours sanding, by the sound of it. It was very difficult to concentrate on anything with all that noise. Hopefully the worst is now over. Tomorrow we're finally getting the old safe we used in the store (took a while for my sister to get the move arranged with specialized movers) and on Friday the plumber is coming to see what needs to be done before we change our hot water system later in the month. So it's been chaotic and a bit overstimulating for me.

Murder at Midnight by Faith Martin
Not one of best books in the series. The murder wasn't really the main focus of the book, but it was good enough. The suspects were good. But the motive wasn't. This book was more about introducing two new characters, setting up their backgrounds and hinting at the motives of one of them.

In other news I had an appointment with my tattoo artist yesterday to get the other side of my lower right arm tattooed. I'm going for a dark nature theme and showed her my pinterest board. She already has some ideas and on Wednesday she'll be emailing me her design. Hopefully I can get an appointment for the week after. I'm also hoping tattooing the outside of my arm will be less spicy than the inside. Especially the wrist and an area higher up weren't fun.

The Adirondack Witch by Patrick Reuman
This wasn't good. On page 27 of 275 I already guessed the first big twist. It didn't take me long to guess the second one. The story itself was boring and slow and most definitely not scary. 45 pages before the end the story was over, the rest was the beginning of another book by the same author. This wasn't listed in the index.

Now on to the latest Guido Brunetti book. Which I consider preparation for our trip to Venice in just over three weeks (we're taking the new European Sleeper).

It's only February and I feel like I'm already experiencing a bit of a reading block. Yes, I'm enjoying my current read (the latest Brunetti), but I have no clue what to read next. I would like to to read the next Elly Jordan book, but I want to save that for during our Venice trip. And it's too close together to read the next book and another during the trip.

I've got nothing else on my Kobo that jumps out to me, and I'm not allowed to buy any new books at the moment. I'll have to go through my Calibre library to see if I can find anything.

A Refiner’s Fire by Donna Leon
Okay. Not much in terms of mystery, more social commentary on both current and historical happenings.

I figured out why I'm in a bit of reading slump, and it's pretty obvious. Our neighbours have been doing work on their bathroom for three and a half weeks. And almost every day has been noisy. Not all day, but enough it's annoying. On weekdays sometimes starting shortly after 7am. It's just been hard to concentrate. Even when it's quiet I'm just waiting for it to start up.

Today seems to be a quiet day. I haven't heard their dogs since this morning, so I suspect they're all out. Which is a nice.

Decided to go for the Ellie Jordan as my next book anyway. I'm going to read The Institute by Stephen King during our trip. On the way to Venice it's a 20 hour train trip, on the way back nearly 24 hours. And although we spend the night on the train I suspect sleeping will be difficult, so a long book will be nice.

I'm struggling because since they killed the provincial bus service the library is very slow on getting requests from the system to me.

Still doing good, but I've only got three books right now in hand and like you wondering what is coming up after. Probably the rest of The Promised Neverland series. I've got book 3 coming up, but they are such quick reads.

Yesterday was quiet, so I had a good reading day. So far (it's only 8.30am) it's still quiet, so I have hope for today.

I'm already planning my next reads now. It really depend how quickly I read my current book if I can squeeze another one in before we're going to Venice. But if that's the case I'll continue with Hugh Howey's Sand Chronicles before The Institute.

The Crawling Darkness by J.L. Bryan
Another good one. I'm hoping Bryan can keep up the quality (he's averaging 2 books a year for this series).

February wasn't a good month, but then it's usually one of my worst months of the year for reading. I've read 3 books, which totals 859 pages. It's just been a bit of a chaotic month for me.

I'm hoping March will be better. I'm hoping to get some reading time in during our train trip to and from Venice. I'm not sure how much reading time I'll get when we're there; my sister has it fully planned, so we'll see.

I did treat myself to a second ereader. The Boox Palma 2. Which is smart phone sized, so easier for on the go. It runs on Android, which is a first for me for an ereader. I've been taking what I call f***ing mental health walks (I do like them, just motivating myself to go is hard). We've got a nice big park nearby and I've already spotted some nice reading spot for when it's warmer and the Palma 2 will fit easily in my small bag with a water bottle and a small snack.

book:Across the Sand|60012508] by Hugh Howey
Great book. It made me wonder not only what's to come in the story but also what has happened that led up to the, presumably, apocalyptic event. The third book is supposed to be released later this year, though no official announcement has been made.

Up next is The Institute by Stephen King. A long book, so great for our two twenty hour train trips. We're also bringing some games and I've downloaded some things from Netflix, but I wouldn't be surprised if I spend most of my waking time reading and looking out of the window.

The Institute by Stephen King
A very good book. I had my doubts when reading the synopsis but I loved it. I did intentionally savour this read, so it took me a bit longer than it could. I'm very behind on my Stephen King books, so I think I'll try to read a couple more this year.

On to the next and latest book in the Lady Darby series.

March was an okay reading month. 3 books and just over 1200 pages. Which seems to be average for me looking at the last couple of years. I had hoped to finish one more books, but since Thursday I haven't done much reading, mostly because I've been busy with life, but also picking up my cross stitch more often.

I'm fed up with my current project, mostly because the only thing left to stitch is background, which is kinda boring. So I'm planning to power through that. After it's finished I'm going to do two smaller projects, inspired by The Silence of the Lambs, which I want to get framed and put on my creepy (cross stitch) wall. Then I've decided to start work on the The Brunette by Mucha. A couple of weeks ago my sister picked up the companion piece The Blonde from the framer and it's looking nice. I had planned on not stitching The Brunette for a while, since it's 50 shades of brown. But I might just as well get it over with. Hopefully it won't take me over a year to finish like the first Mucha.

A Deceptive Composition by Anna Lee Huber
A good story, dealing with Kiera's father in law's past in Cornwall. It's nice to see that her relationship with him has changed and he isn't the eternal bad FIL.

Up next is Breed by Owl Goingback.

I'm not sure how fast that will go; this afternoon and on Monday morning I've got job interviews. This afternoon for a job at a craft store. On Monday one for a job at a store that is probably most comparable to a Dollar Store. I'm hoping for a job offer for the latter. But I know it'll be hard to concentrate on much until both are over.

Breed by Owl Goingback
Not as good as the other three books I read by Goingback. A word that comes to mind is crude, though that doesn't really describe it properly. I think it's mostly to due about when it's written (2002). And that it seems written from the white American gaze instead of the Native American gaze his other books had. Just reading it you wouldn't think it was written by someone with Native American heritage. After this book Goingback takes a 16 year break from publishing

I'm on a bit of a quest at the moment. In just over three weeks I'm going to see Ghost in Amsterdam. Since I last went to a concert rules have changed over what you can bring with you (probably changed after the Manchester Arena bombing). In the past I always had a backpack with me the bring my things in. But nowadays you can't bring bags bigger than an A4 sized piece of paper (and up to 10cm thick). I have a bag that fits my essentials, however the concert is phone free and we'll have to put our phones in Yonder pouches during the concert.

Despite having a VIP ticket with assigned seating I'll probably be there hours early. I'm socially awkward and whilst I would love to get to know some other Ghost fans I know there will be a time I need to retreat into a book for a while to recharge my social battery. Now my Kobo will fit into my bag but I'm not sure if security will allow ereaders, to them it might just look like a tablet and anything that can record is a no-no.

So now I'm looking for a book that will fit in my bag to bring with me. Regular paperback fit, so it won't be a huge problem, but I'm looking for something possibly smaller and something I'm interested in (re)reading. I found a pocket edition of Dracula, but I'm more in the mood for something new. I'll probably go to the big bookstore in the city next week, so I can actually see the size of the books. Hopefully I can find a newer read that'll fit into my small bag.