YA Book Lust aka My Imaginary Book Haul

Hi

Recently I have been considering getting back into reading Young Adult literature.  When I hit eighteen I decided that I was an adult and that as such I should only read ‘adult’ books.  However since I got into reading blogs I’ve realised that a lot of maturer adults then I love YA and that it is okay to read it at any age.

This led me to a really entertaining search on Goodreads and down below is a list of books that I really want to read soon.

 

I’m especially looking forward to reading Unspoken and The Demon’s Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan because I follow her blog and she is awesome.  I also can’t wait to sink my teeth into Timeless by Alexandra Monir because the synopsis is particularly interesting to me.  If you want to check out any of these books then the pictures are linked to their respective Goodreads pages (hopefully – I’ve never done this before!)

Relaxing my Reading

Hi

Lately I’ve been thinking about books a lot.  At the start of the year I blogged about how I wanted to do the 50 Book Challenge.  I kept to my resolution, and was ahead of myself until this week.  Then I started reading ‘War and Peace’ by Leo Tolstoy.  ‘War and Peace’ is a huge book, with tiny writing in it.  I contemplated how I was going to keep up with the challenge, and went so far as to ear-mark pages in the book that I had to reach while reading other books to keep up.

Then I just felt really bad about it.  I realised that it is a bit wrong to do that.  When I properly started reading a few years ago it was about fun.  I read a lot of different genres back then, and just picked books up because they interested me, not because, you know, I had to find something to blog about or notch up another book towards the challenge.

I realise that book challenges have many positive points too.  They help to prioritize reading, and can be useful to beat slumps.  The more time I spend reading the calmer I am.  But I just want to stop feeling like a machine about it all.  Everyone is different and obviously a lot of people like doing challenges, and reading a lot of books.

I just want to go back to the slower, happier reader that I used to be.

In terms of blogging, I fully intend to continue.  I hope to post as regularly as possible.  I’m just not going to be counting anymore and trying to be more relaxed in general.

Reading Progress: January

As I mentioned at the start of the month this year I have decided to do the 50 Book Challenge again.  As a result of this I’ve decided that I will do a monthly update on my progress because well… 

So what was my grand total completed books for January 2012?  Three.   I read three books, and started five.  I liked all of them but to be honest I wasn’t very ‘into’ them.  I had been hoping that by now I would be really wrapped up in the reading, but I’m not.  I read a disappointing Neil Gaiman book that in retrospect was a bit of a door stopper, but I decided to run with it because every other one of his books that I have read I read very fast.  I will be doing a review on that in the near future. 

I read ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ and thought it was interesting, but not much else, hence I didn’t even bother with a review.  In my opinion, because of it’s classic status it would be a tough one to review anyways, and at the end of the day I think everyone should try as many classics in their lifetime as possible, irrespective of reviews.  The classic book lover in me also screams that reviews (unless from the actual time period) of the classic genre are at best a bit pointless, and at worst a bit… I suppose the word would be wrong.  To me it feels wrong.   I did review ‘Heart of Darkness’ by Conrad before, and that was probably the hardest review I’ve written so far.  It just felt wrong.  I know I’m rambling (lack of sleep) but my point is that I just don’t see myself doing many (if any) reviews on such books in the future.  I know I am probably coming across as a book snob, and I am probably insulting some bloggers out there.  I don’t mean to offend in any way.  I’ve just never once actually read a review of a classic prior to reading it, and I like it that way.  I like figuring out for myself why the book is so special (or in some cases overrated).  However, I do like reading reactions to those kind of books, and obviously I am doing the classics challenge, and enjoy how that is being done.  It is nice to discuss classic books. 

The third book that I read in January was ‘Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets’.   It was a re-read after several years (four and a half to be exact) and I loved it like I always do.  Like most readers my age, Harry Potter was one of my childhood favourites, and so it was a nice re-read.   I also started reading ‘Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban’ which is going well. 

Finally I also started ‘Crime and Punishment’ which so far I am enjoying.  It’s very engaging to read about a mind that is so apparently ill and fractured.  In the past I tried to read the book, and got quite far in, so I know what is to come for a good part of the book.  My reading mood right now is probably on the dark, gloomy and gritty side of the scale. 

 

Bookish New Years Resolutions

I have made some reading resolutions for 2012, which I have to say I am very excited about and I feel should put down in writing on my blog.    Mainly I am doing this to shame myself into attempting to do what I say I want to. 

This year I am doing the 50 Books Challenge again.  I did it for the first time in 2010 and loved it.  I thought it was a lot of work, but it was well worth it as I discovered about three new book series that year and tried a pile of books that I had bought but never read before.  I didn’t do it in 2011 because I did feel that reading shouldn’t be about numbers, but had thought about trying the 50 book challenge again in the future.  As you can see I am very excited, and if you are a slower reader like myself you might be able to understand why. 

I’ve already posted on here about doing the Terry Pratchett challenge and the ‘A Classics Challenge’.  I also hope to read something for the ‘Once Upon and Time’ and R.I.P Challenges too.  

Happy New Year!