Reading Queue December

Format: select

Reading Queue is a monthly meme where you share what books you plan to read for the month.  You can hop to other blogs and see what others are reading and maybe find someone reading the same thing as you! Or you can ask for people to vote on what you should read next if you can’t decide.  Reading Queue is hosted by Book Tasty and Books:  A true story.

To Read

I have 5 more books to read if I want to hit my goal of reading 50 books a year.  Since I joined Goodreads in 2011 I have always won my yearly reading challenge and it’s always been 50 books.  So here’s my reading list to make it to the finish line! I’m dying to finish something after failing NaNoWriMo.  In case you’re curious, I clocked in at writing 28,000 words before I burned out.

Zombies vs. Unicorns

This is a collection of short stories about zombies and unicorns. Short stories are not for me. I thought they would be a fast, easy read. But getting into a story is the most difficult part for me and having to get into so many stories made it feel like it was dragging even though the stories weren’t long.  I just struggle with meeting new characters and figuring out a new setting.  It felt like once I’d gotten into a story it was over.  Still, it was something interesting to learn about myself.  You’ll never know if you’ll like something until you try it. And shhhh don’t tell anyone but I might be skimming the zombie stories. #TeamUnicorn.

Spousonomics by Paula Szuchman, Jenny Anderson

It’s had one chapter unread since 2013.  This will be an easy way to make sure I hit my goal this year of fifty books since it’s been 90% read for a year :)

Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo

After reading so many short stories, I want to jump back into a world that I already know and love.  Coming back to a familiar world and story is like curling up with a cup of hot apple cider and a blanket while you watch snow fall.  Plus I’m in the mood for something epic and this one is going to be epic.

The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible by A.J. Jacobs 

I don’t believe in reading Christmas books because if I’m being quite honest I’m a bit of a Scrooge and I’ve never seen a Christmas book that wasn’t cheesy.   Reading a book about a guy trying to live the laws of the bible is as close to Christmas-y as I will probably get.  I’ve heard this is funny and I already own it on my kindle so that’s a bonus.  I’m excited to read it.

Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

I loved Cinder and when the sequel, Scarlet, went on sale for the kindle I had to get it.  I’ve heard nothing but good things about this one!  I think this will be a fast and fun read to help me relax during the holidays.  I mean, normally the holidays don’t stress me out but I decided this year that my kids had too many toys and it would be a good idea to paint and decorate their rooms.  That might have been a little ambitious lol.

 

 

 

How I Did in October

(I read Zombies vs. Unicorns the whole month of November and never finished it! So I only have a list of books I finished for October).

 

FINISHED Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

It was cute and I liked the Paris setting, but it was a little too dramatic for my taste.  I did however love Anna’s dream to be a movie reviewer. It was something I can relate to as a book reviewer :).

FINISHED Stray by Elissa Sussman

This was a good fairy tale retelling.  It took a while to get into and I’m not sure that I’m a huge fan of the world, but the characters were good.

FINISHED Coraline by Neil Gaiman

This is probably the maximum amount of horror I can handle – horror written for kids lol. It was creepy and disturbing, but unlike most horror it had a nice ending.

FINISHED A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

This book was amazing.  It’s not like anything I’ve read before.  It’s about a monster who helps a boy face his inner demons and face the truth no matter how hard.  I thought it was a beautiful but haunting story.

 

 

 

How I Did for November

I didn’t read anything in November. November was NaNoWriMo for me and I burned out at about 28,000 words.  I didn’t win and that makes me very sad.   I learned a lot about myself from the event.  I learned that I need to do a “telling” version of my story so I can work out the plot and then expand it with scenes.  I learned that I’m not a huge fan of making things up.  I’m very analytical and I struggled with making decisions since there wasn’t a way for me to analyze what the “right” decision was.  For this reason writing will probably be good for me because sometimes there just isn’t a right answer and I need to get used to that.  I quit NaNoWriMo mostly because I wasn’t having much fun. The biggest thing I learned about myself while doing this was I love rewriting and revising more than the actual writing and since I couldn’t do that with the NaNoWriMo format, I didn’t enjoy the writing very much.  I will have to come up with a writing process that fits me more that includes rewriting as I go.

Leave your link in the comments!

P.S. I apologize for not being more regular with these meme posts.  I appreciate everyone who participates in this meme and I’m sorry if I’ve let anyone down.  I wasn’t able to make a linky so I hope that it’s okay to leave links to your posts in the comments.  I read every post that you link here!