My Two Blessings

My personal goal in 2017 is to read my own books while working on the Birthstone Bookology challenge which may take more than the year to complete. We'll see how it goes.  In particular, my dusty print books that have been lingering on my shelves. They are all quite sad and have been loudly calling my name with each passing day. I also have a few ebooks that are aging away. However my goal is to read more print books this year.   Maybe this year I'll do a better job of keeping track of what I read and complete my own 52 Bingo challenge.  *grin*    On the shelf  Alexandria Link (#1) - Steve Berry  Angelmaker - Nick Harkaway Blinding - Mircea Cartarescu Daughter of Time  - Josephine Tey Devlin Diary -  Christie Phillips From the Corner of His Eye - Dean Koontz Girl with the Dragon Tattoo  - Stieg Larson Great Weaver of Kashmir - Halldor Laxness Her Fearful Symmetry - Audrey Neffennegger  In the Shadow of Young Gir...

Birthstone Bookology Reading Adventure   Inspiration struck me a few days ago while working on themes and authors flavors for the 52 Books in 52 Weeks challenge.   Something that would spice up the old A to Z alphabet or spelling out the months.  The Birthstone Bookology Reading Adventure will take me around the world and through different time periods from the ancients to the present. Plus there are a variety of directions this challenge can go with exploring the myths and lore, different time periods and countries where the stones are found, as well as reading books spelling out the stones.  The possibilities are limitless and ripe with rabbit trails.  I'm going to keep an open mind, use my imagination and see where it takes me.  Join me on Read 52 Books in 52 Weeks and have fun exploring the world.   Possibilities One book per letter in the birthstone of the month. The birthstone name in the title. The color o...

2016 Reading Wrap Up! How many books did you read and did you meet or beat your own personal goal?  Or did you get caught up in reading and forget to keep?     2016 turned out to be a stressful year for a variety of reasons which means my goals went out the window and I escaped into comfort reads, sticking with favorite authors.    So I ended up rereading quite a few and didn't keep track of how many.  However  after perusing my shelves, both physical and virtual, recreated my reading year and discovered I have read 101 books.  What fun! What memories!    I discovered a few books lost in the shelves to read for next year.  They keep having babies.  Derailed by rabbit trails!  Back to the subject at hand. Statistics wise: 101 Books 49 authors 11 are new to me 34 female 36 whole series or part of series 49 paranormal and urban fantasy with a couple dystopian thrown in for good measure. The remainder a...

J.D. Robb's Brotherhood in Death  I am hooked on J.D. Robb   (aka Nora Roberts)and her  In Death series.  She is the one author I pre-order all her books and read them over and over again.  Yes, I've read the whole In Death series three times, plus listened to the audiobooks once. I'm currently on a 2nd go round of listening to them in the car while going to and fro. I learn something new with each read or listen.    I still consider myself a newbie writer since I discovered the joy about 10 years ago.  Around the same time, a friend suggested I read one of Nora's books from her McGregor series and I've been hooked ever since.  I studied how she handled all the elements from the dialogue to point of view to description.   And that's how I feel in love with Eve and Roark and the whole cast of characters from In Death.   No she doesn't hit it out of the ballpark with every story, but that doesn't stop me from reading every...