New Year's Reading Resolutions for 2018

Looking back upon my year of reading in 2017, I can’t help but feel as if I could have done better. Granted, there’s a point where reading A LOT can take over one’s motivations and it suddenly all becomes about page numbers and book totals and whether a novella is more of a short story (and therefore doesn’t count) or a true novel (which would totally count!). It’s not right to make reading all about the numbers. That would make reading more like math, and we certainly can’t have that.

Yet sometimes goals are good, because they force us to push our limits, shake us out of apathy, plunge us into deeper subjects than we’re used to swimming in, and generally make us leave our comfort zone. This is especially true in today’s society where reading is secondary to other forms of entertainment. In fact, that’s why I feel I could have done better; I feel my reliance on other media (TV, mostly) caused me to waste valuable free time that would have been more profitably spent reading.

I refuse to feel despondent about my self-supposed failure, though. Instead I choose to look toward 2018 with new resolve. Setting lofty goals may be setting myself up for failure…but what if I reached those goals? Often it’s more about proving yourself to yourself than to others.

As usual, my baseline goal next year was to read 100 books. Then I thought, “Why stop there? Why not up it to 125? To 150?”

Looking Back at "Back to the Classics"

2015 was the year where I consistently forgot that I had signed up for a reading challenge, only to remember in December and quickly fill in the qualifying books from the previous months. It also was the year I exceeded my 100 Book annual goal (by a mere seven, of course, but I'll take what I can get), so it was not a total loss. In any case, I completed the Back to the Classics challenge hosted by karensbooksandchocolate.blogspot.com, and here are the results:

1.  A 19th Century Classic -- any book published between 1800 and 1899.

A Tramp Abroad

by Mark Twain

2.  A 20th Century Classic -- any book published between 1900 and 1965.

The Mystery of the Blue Train 

by Agatha Christie

It’s only taken reading the majority of her work, but I’m finally getting the hang of solving Agatha Christie’s mysteries.  I successfully deduced whodunit for The Mystery of the Blue Train and have felt immensely proud of myself ever since.  I wouldn’t say this was either Christie’s best-plotted puzzle or her easiest. Instead it strikes a pleasant chord between the two, and seemed to me an amalgam of Christie’s usual fare of Murder Mystery Set In The Heart Of England and her less famous espionage novels. I would recommend this to be “read” as an audio book, as there may (or may not) be a clue that’s more obvious when read in text.  It all depends on how hard the reader wants to make the detecting.

Reviewing George Eliot's "The Mill on the Floss"

I just finished listening to the audio version of George Eliot's novel, and will warn you now that I have basically recounted everything in the book below. Therefore if you're the kind of person who hates knowing the end of the book until they've read it, don't read past the page break because I've not blacked out most of the spoilers. 

The Mill on the Floss is essentially about two siblings: the practical, unimaginative but hard-working Tom Tulliver, and his emotional, dreaming, and misfit younger sister Maggie. As I read the story, I began to suspect each sibling might be symbolized by the two things in the title: Tom is the hardworking, stolid Mill, Maggie is the turbulent, changeable river Floss.  The story opens when they're children and follows them into young adulthood, through all their family tragedies and personal conflicts with one another.

Classical Cravings

In the winter, some animals go into deep hibernation. For them, the entire world slows down, even down to their heartbeat. And, with sub-zero temperatures, icy roads, flu season, and the general post-holiday blues, I earnestly envy the animals. At this time of year, when the days are supposedly getting shorter but the darkness still wraps around me like a cocoon, there's nothing I'd like more than to curl up by a fire with a plateful of chocolate chip cookies and a good long book.  

Though I can't actually stay home--alas! alack!--I do indulge in the 'good long book' portion of this fantasy. And, if I can't slow down my metabolism like a bear, I can at least read about times that were set in a slower era.  

Reading Challenge 2014 Summary

In 2013 I completed four reading challenges. In 2014, rather than try to one-up myself and end up reading for quantity rather than quality, I put a ban on my signing up for any reading challenges online. Instead, I self-imposed challenges which will hopefully diminished that behemoth To Be Read pile that swallowed up my nightstand, bed, and pretty much half my room.  

The Finish Line At Last: Reading Challenge Recap 2014

This past week I finally finished my yearly quota of one hundred books. I’m a little early, I know, but I planned to read ten books a month for ten months, in order to have the last two months freed up for the holiday season. After this, anything else is just gravy.*

Below is my list. As I self-restricted myself, not included in the list are any picture books, graphic novels, How-To books (comprised mostly, though not entirely, of quilting or cookbooks), or any books I re-read.

Mystery/Crime Reading Challenges Recap 2013

To continue my end-of-the-year reckoning of reading challenges, I will talk a little about the OTHER mystery challenge, the Mystery/Crime Reading Challenge 2013 hosted by A Bookish Girl. In addition to reading Vintage Mysteries (I'm linking to my own post rather than repeating those reviews here), I went back on my vow not to start any more series until I’d finished my other ones. 

I began this trespass with Charles Finch’s A Beautiful Blue Death. It was good enough for me to want to read the other Charles Lenox sequels, but honestly aside from introducing the characters (who promise to develop nicely over the next few books) I didn’t think it all that memorable.

Vintage Mystery Recap 2013

As the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand Thirteen comes to a close, it’s a good time to look back and reflect on all that we have accomplished. I refer to what we have accomplished reading-wise, of course. As usual I read more than I thought…but less than I wanted.

This year I tried something different, signing up for reading challenges. The problem with this was that instead of reading off my To Be Read Pile (an eclectic and growing monstrosity that resides both in my head as I peruse my online library catalog as well as surrounds my nightstand), I was forced under duress to choose other books according to a theme.  Although I selected challenges I thought would help me whittle down that TBRP…well, let’s just say it didn’t quite work out.

But now it’s the end of the year, and those challenges have come due! Like library books!  A sense of panic overwhelms me! Fine, I’ll just start with my Vintage Mystery reviews, which were for the Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge 2013 hosted by My Reader’s Block:

Addicted to Reading Challenges

As I continue my participation of the THIRTY-SEVEN-STEP Vintage Mystery Reading Challenge, I've decided to "double up" on the challenge part by joining The Crafty Book Nerd's 2013 Mystery/Crime Reading Challenge. 

This is a different kind of reading challenge than I have tried thus far, in that the Mystery/Crime Reading Challenge isn't about filling in categories, but rather reaching levels:

5 books= Detective (cha-ching)
10 books = Sergeant (cha-ching)
15 books = Lieutenant (cha-ching!)
20 books = Captain
25 books = Chief
30+ books = Sherlock Holmes

Since my Vintage Mysteries count toward this challenge, I'm automatically at Sergeant. Add to that the first three Amelia Peabody Mysteries (I'm slowly savoring those via Barbara Rosenblat's audiobook narration this year), "The Solitary House" (which I really disliked and would never recommend), and also  and Death on the Aegean Queen by Maria Hudgins (which I actually would recommend, if only because it reminded me of a modern Christie in tone)...and looky-here, I'm halfway through this challenge! 

("Sergeant Laura" has a nice ring to it, don't you think? But Lieutenant Laura is way better and more alliterative, if somewhat harder to spell. But it's cool if you say it in a British accent: "Left-tenant." But I digress.)


*Though let's be honest, I'd much rather be Dr. Watson. Ha! You thought I wasn't going to vent my Watsonian fangirl on this page? You were sadly mistaken!

Back to the Classics Reading Challenge 2013

After weeks of procrastination, I have finished the Back to the Classics Reading Challenge hosted by Sarah Reads Too Much! This is my second completed reading challenge after the European Reading Challenge that I did back in May. According to the instructions for the wrap-up post, I'm supposed to note that I finished one "Entry" for completing all the required category reads as well as two "Entries" for completing all the optional categories. 

Total Entries (unless I counted wrong, which would not be unheard of because math is evil and I hate it): 3

Reviews for European Reading Challenge 2013

• Hamlet by William Shakespeare (DENMARK)

Wow.  Once again Shakespeare creates a masterpiece out of completely avoidable insanity and death.  How come when Hamlet killed Polonius and his mom and stepdad/uncle decided to send him to England, he's totally okay with this even though it thwarts his plans for vengeance?  How come Horatio didn't stage an intervention for his clearly-crazy friend Hamlet after he sees him talking about a random skull?  How come there is no scene at the end with the Ghost sitting on the battlements, surrounded by all the ghost of people that died because he just HAD to have vengeance? 

If this play taught me anything, it's that if Hamlet ever went to Oz he would stab the man behind the curtain.  Also it taught me not to listen to suspicious ghosts. 

• The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens (THE UNITED KINGDOM)

Okay, I literally just finished reading this book as I type this, so my opinion could very well change once my mind processes the ending.  Dickens is one of my favorite authors because he creates characters and atmosphere that "draw in" the reader.  I don't mind his longer novels because the plots are complex enough to be worth it.  However, I  have to admit that The Old Curiosity Shop did not live up to my expectations.  The villains are horrible, yes, but not to the glorious over-the-top extent of Squeers (Nicholas Nickleby), or the razor-sharp chessmaster level of Mr. Tulkinghorn (Bleak House).  Also the heroes and heroines were too saccharine to earn my admirationn: Little Nell takes initiative about ONCE in the entire story, and that initiative is to lie (for good reason, but still).  Would I recommend this book?  Yes.  Would I recommend it over Great Expectations or Our Mutual Friend?  No.

• The Histories, Volumes 1-2 by Tacitus (ITALY AND SURROUNDING ROMAN TERRITORIES)

The saying goes, “History is written by the victors,” and never is this more apparent than when reading the earlier histories written by Romans.  The Roman Empire was the greatest civilization to ever exist, and it was expected that historians would present it as such in their writings.  That said, Tacitus makes a valiant attempt (at first) to present historical events without moral or political commentary.  Unfortunately this attempt results in a spewing of dates and names, without being very interesting. 

Yet there are a few times that I found The Histories to be entertaining or otherwise worth the read.  First, whenever Tacitus does allow himself to make a moral commentary, it is usually profound: “Death is the natural end for all alike, and the only difference is between fame and oblivion afterwards”, or, “Human nature is always ready to follow where it hates to lead.”

Second, there are a few humorous accounts that break up the otherwise monotonous recounting of facts and dates.  Lines like, “A reputation for mercy!  There’s no money in that.”  And then there are the times Tacitus relates when Roman soldiers were, to use an internet expression, “trolled” by their barbarian enemies or subjects: “[Some] indulged in a cockney practical joke, and stole some of the soldiers’ swords, quietly cutting their belts while their attention was diverted.  Then they kept asking ‘Have you got your sword on?’  The troops were not used to being laughed at, and refused to tolerate it.  They charged the defenceless [sic] crowd.”  Good thing there were no phones or fridges in Roman Imperial times, or people would’ve gotten beheaded for asking ‘Is your refrigerator running?’

• Scandinavian Folk and Fairy Tales edited by Claire Booss (NORWAY, SWEDEN, DENMARK, FINLAND, AND ICELAND)

I perhaps could have counted each "book" as a country and finished this challenge with this single anthology, but I would rather read "too much" (ha! as if that were even possible!) than feel I was cheating in any way.
 
Of all five of my ERC books, this would be the one I would single out as the best to read aloud, especially to children.  As the title suggests, this is a HUGE collection of fairy and folk tales.  Some of them are familiar (like the "Little Red Hen" or "Three Billy Goats Gruff"), some were unfamiliar to me (East of the Sun, West of the Moon), and some I think are undeservedly forgotten ("The Werwolf," "Jurma and the Sea-God").
 
This book was over 600 pages of short (sometimes only paragraph-long) stories, which was hard to get through without mixing up the characters.  However it did give me an opportunity to compare the different storytelling styles of five countries that, on the surface, might seem very similar culturally.  
 
The Norwegian, Icelandic, and some of the Finnish tales were funny, short, and undetailed.  The Norwegian ones in particular seem to stop mid-story, with a sort of excuse: "And then the fox snapped at the pig's tail, and if the pig's tail had been longer, this tale would be too."  I got the feeling that these were stories being made up for bedtime by a tired and impatient parent.  The Danish tales are very, very long, and included a lot of Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales (which are NOT like the Disney adaptations!).  And finally the Swedish tales always ended with the main character and most of the other characters dying.  Seriously, the death toll was so high it was like watching an episode of Doctor Who. 

• Grecian Calendar by Christopher Rand (FRANCE...JUST KIDDING.  GREECE.)

This was a surprise entry.  I'd originally gotten this book digging through a free "book drop" a few years ago, thinking that it literally was about the Ancient Greek calendar.  In actuality it's more like a travel-memoir written in the 1960's by an American writer for Time.  Christopher Rand spent a year in Greece, touring the different islands, tasting the food, seeing the ancient ruins, and learning the language.  That is what this book is about.  For me, it's the perfect kind of book to read in the summer: the prose is fun to read and describes so palpably the exotic locations that I feel I've gone on vacation while reading in my own backyard. 

Of all the books I read for the ERC, I would have to say that Grecian Calendar was my favorite.  Not necessarily because it was the best-written of the five, but because it was one of those rare occasions where a book surprised me with how interesting and enjoyable it was.