Tag: Reading Challenges

Well we’ve just past the middle of June, so it’s time to check how I’m doing on my Reading Challenges.So far this month I have finished three books. I was only planning on reading one of them this month!

The books that I was reading at the end of May and planning to finish in June are listed on the table below. As you can see only Dark Intelligence is the only one that I was reading!!  I found Harlan Coben’s latest The Stranger  at the library when I was picking up a book for my daughter and couldn’t pass it up, I figured correctly that it would be a fast read!. The Martian is an ebook that I had requested from the library a long time ago, that became unexpectedly available!! So after finishing the above books, I have to get back into the other four books that I am still reading and see if I can finish them before the end of the month!! I will be posting my reviews of Dark Intelligence and The Stranger shortly! They were both great reads!

The table below shows where I stand on my reading challenges. Ideally, at the end of this month I would be above 50% on all my challenges and I’m pretty close to that. Right now I am above 50% on two of the challenges and the overall total of books I planned to read! Considering that I am at 29 books at the middle of June and only read 34 all of 2014, I guess I’m not doing too badly!! I am really enjoying the Science Fiction Challenge and will be reading more books in that genre as 2015 continues!! Neal Asher and James C Corey here I come!! Oh my, I just bought Prador Moon the first of the Neal Asher Polity Books!! That does not bode well for completion of maybe one of the books I am currently reading!! Oh well! Too many books, too little time!!

Six Books Finished for My Reading Challenges 

So as we come to the end of May it’s time to check in and see how I’m doing on my various Reading Challenges. May was another great reading month. I finished six books that go towards my Reading Challenges and one that doesn’t. The one that doesn’t fall into any of the Reading Challenges is a free Kindle ebook that I read Payback and a Bottle of Merlot – Bria Marche. Hey it was free and worth every penny of it! Cough! Cough! So here are the books and the Reading Challenges that the book falls into…..

So after five months I am at almost 50% of the total books that I plan to read for the year! Go Me!  It seems that I need to read more Nonfiction, Science Fiction books to try to catch up with my Cloak & Dagger reads! And maybe I need to read more from my TBR pile!

Actually it looks like I’m doing that with the books that I am currently reading! There’s one science fiction book, two nonfiction books and a Historical Fiction book,but only one is from my TBR pile!. So far I am enjoying all the books that I’m reading this month!

I am enjoying the Neal Asher book Dark Intelligence a lot more than Bowl of Heaven and I don’t know how long it’s been since I read a Robert Ludlum book. Like David Morrell, Ludlum was a staple of my reading in the 80s. The Matarese Countdown is a sequel to The Matarese Circle, which I read way back in the 80s and I certainly only have vague memories of it. So far it’s vintage Ludlum and really good!  Who Buries The Dead is book #10 in the Sebastian St. Cyr series and was released in 2015. And even though, the only other book in the series that I’ve read is book 2, I am still enjoying this one. But I certainly want to go back and see what happened prior to this book! I have many questions like how did Sebastian meet Hero his wife and what happened to the love of his life from When Gods Die??

As for the two nonfiction books I plan to read. I am still moving slowly along with How to Read the Solar System and have just begun the Chris Hedges book, I am not sure how much  am going to like it, because it’s not really what I expected!

Anyone have any comments on any of the books I’m reading or have finished?? I’d be glad to hear what you think!!

May Reading Challenge Update

April 2015 was a great reading month for me as I finished seven books!! Woo! Hoo! May has not gotten off to a bad start either I have already finished two books. What Then Must We Do? by Gar Alperovitz and Dance of Death from the dynamic duo of Preston & Child

What Then Must We Do? is treatise on what we need to do in the future to try to fix our broken economic system. It delves into what we can do to democratize the ownership of wealth in our nation to strengthen our communities and our nation!! It is book 4 on a goal of 11 in my nonfiction reading challenge and book number 20 for 2015! Review

Dance of Death from the writing team of Preston & Child is the sixth book in the Pendergrast series and the second to feature Pendergrast’s evil brother Diogenes. After finishing the book I shook my head and thought why has it been on m TBR pile for so long!! The book s number 12 on a goal of 23 in my 2015 Clock & Dagger Reading Challenge and number 8 of 25 in my TBR Pile Challenge!! Review

Proposed May Reading Challenge Books

So that’s where I am currently. The following are the books that I plan to read in May of 2015. The operative word is plan. Four out of the five books are in excess of 400 pages, so I can see the possibility of a couple slipping into my June reads!! Which is what happened already to Larry Niven and Gregory Benford‘s Bowl of Heaven. It’s not that I don’t like it, but the action moves along fairly slowly and other books like Endangered from C.J. Box and Dance of Death hooked me and I couldn’t put them down!! So along with Bowl of Heaven I plan to read….

Brimstone

Book 5 of the Pendergrast Series and Book 1 of Diogenes

2015 Cloak & Dagger and TBR Pile Challenges

I should have read this one before Dance of Death – My bad!!

How to Read the Solar System

Chris North and Paul Abel

Hosts of the Sky at Night

“This fascinating read supported by the latest research will engage and enchant. Recommended for anyone with an interest in astronomy and fans of the show Cosmos with Neil deGrasse Tyson.” (Library Journal)

2015 Nonfiction Reading Challenge

The Smoke at Dawn

Jeff Shaara

2015 Historical Fiction Challenge

“Civil War history fiends will be riveted.”—Parade

Let’s Hope!

The Devil’s Punchbowl

Greg Isles

2015 Cloak & Dagger and TBR :Pile Challenges

“A knockout thriller that’s just the right degree of chilly to combat the dog days of summer… Iles’ knack for perfectly integrating character and plot could serve as a master’s class for other authors.” — The Dallas Morning News

I read and loved the first two Penn Cage Novels and with two more beyond this one, I think it’s time to catch up on the series.

Now those are the five planned reads, but that can always change when my ADD brain starts to wander. In fact it may already change because the new David Morrell book Inspector of the Dead, which I requested from my library,just came in! Oh My!!

Update: April 2015 Reads and Reading Challenges 

It’s time to update my reading for the month of April and to look forward to next months reads. To say that as far as reading goes April was a good month is a vast understatement. It was an exceptional reading month, as I finished SEVEN books! That brings my total of 2015 up to  19! Way, way above the average over the last several years!! Now all I have to do is keep it going!!

Here are the books that I read in April 2015 – The big three are The Chessmen, Dreamless and Endangered. While the other were good these three were great!! I haven’t posted my review yet of C J Box’s Endangered but it will be coming soon!!

Here’s where I stand on my various Reading Challenges. Obviously, I am doing pretty damn well with three out of 5 of the challenges above 33% after the first third of the year and the other two not that far behind! Later today I will post my projected reads for May 2015!! I think I have them picked out, but maybe I may tweak the list a little.

2015 Reading Challenges Update and Projected April Reads

So we are almost a third of the way through April and I guess it’s time to update my Reading Challenges status and update the list of books I hope to finish this month!!! First yesterday I finished book 15 for 2015 Woo Hoo! To put this minor accomplishment in perspective I finished book 15 in 2014 on August 17th! I actually believe that having a plan and the reading challenges have helped me keep up this great pace!! (and not working full-time help just a wee little bit!)

Book 15 for the year was On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft  by Stephen King. The book was a Christmas gift from my wife along with two other books on writing.  On Writing Well by William Zinsser and The Elements of Style by Strunk and White. Do you think she’s trying to tell me something??? Anyway, the book was good and although it was written or those writing fiction, I did pick up some tips. I will be writing a more detailed review tomorrow. The book counts towards my 2015 Nonfiction Reading Challenge bringing the total in that challenge to 2 on a goal of 11.

Earlier in the week I finished The Chessmen by Peter May, that book goes in the 2015 Cloak and Dagger reading challenge bringing the total in that challenge to 9 on a goal of 23!  .

I am still reading The President’s War and I WILL finish that book this month! Or maybe not. because I have some other really interesting books piled up for April ….. here are my proposed reads…..

2015 Nonfiction Reading Challenge

I saw this book the other day when I discovered The Next System.com. Both out political and economic systems are not working well so maybe it;s time to start looking for a new system that can create a sustainable future for all.

.2015 Cloak & Dagger Reading Challenge

Book 2 in the Odd Singsaker series. Set in Norway Odd is again chasing a murderer. The killer’s first victim had her larynx cut out and replaced by a music box, that plays a lullaby that no one has ever heard before!!

2015 TBR Pile Reading Challenge

A while back I wrote I want to increase my happiness level by reading something funny. Well, it was between this on or the Tim Dorsey book on my TBR pile. This one wins!! Maybe Dorsey will win next month!!!

2015 Science Fiction and Fantasy Reading Challenge

Okay I like hard science fiction and these are two of the best at the sub-genre. When I read the following I knew I had to read this book……

“What would you expect when two of the all-time greatest hard science fiction writers collaborate on a novel? Nothing less than this masterful, mind-expanding book. I am in awe.” – Robert J, Sawyer, author of Triggers

Switching back and forth between this book and the Christopher Moore book – going from the sublime to the ridiculous and  back don’t you think?? Should be fun!! Anyone care to join me??

Here’s my updated chart……