Monday, January 13, 2014

Bout of Books Wrap-Up

So....how did I do with the Bout of Books Read-a-Thon? Not too well with the daily participation--I took part in only two of the mini-challenges and didn't get a single update entered.  Boo!  I did (almost) manage to complete all five books as planned--if I hadn't had to go to sleep last night so I could go to work today then I would have finished the Rendell book.  So--Books Read? Participation D+  I'll have to work on that next time around.  But--I'm still glad to have joined in...it kept me motivated and on-track as I start out a new year of reading.

1. Shakespeare's Planet by Clifford D. Simak (done! Hope they're all that easy! 1/6/14)
2. The Skeleton in the Clock by Carter Dickson (1/8/14)
3. Shake Hands Forever by Ruth Rendell (90% finished 1/12/14--completed today)
4. Angels & Spaceships by Fredric Brown (1/12/14)
5. Dangerous Visions 3 by Harlan Ellison, ed (1/11/14)

2 comments:

Yvette said...

Bev, while you've been reading up a storm already in the new year I am embarrassed to report that I've read nothing, NOTHING new - I've just been searching through my bookshelves, reading comfort-food type books to tide me over until I began the 'real' reading of the year. I've just ordered a few books from the library so we'll see what happens when they're ready to be picked up. I'm just in the funniest mood - not that there's much I can do about it. Feeling out of sorts - reading wise. Just seeming to need the comfort of my very faves.

I haven't even bothered to list them on my blog and won't. I'll begin listing once I shake free of this new year inertia.

Just ordered a hard-cover copy of Agatha Christie's THE SECRET OF CHIMNEYS which is a book I could read over and over again very happily. My paperback copy fell apart (it was very old) so I was lucky to happen upon a hard cover re-issue. Can't wait to get it. Didn't cost much at all. But now I can read and re-read it to my heart's content.

But that's what I mean, I'm just drifting along.

P.S. As usual, I am amazed by your industry. I wish you'd blog about how you go about reading so many books over the course of a year. How you organize them all and such.

You have much to teach us, Bev.

Bev Hankins said...

The secret? Just go crazy with challenges. Be anal-retentive enough that you cannot stand to leave something unfinished and then read every spare minute you've got until your eyeballs fall out (or it feels like they might anyway).

I try to be organized--and to a certain extent I manage it (particularly with the mysteries). But I always wind up changing horses in midstream. There are a couple of books (Death Walks in Eastrepps comes to mind) that I keep putting on challenges and then looking at when it's time to read and saying..."Nah."