Tag Archives: challenges

Creating Some Shelf Space

I am creating a new reading challenge for myself, a two-part one. I have several long-term ones running at the moment. So, what I obviously need is one more. But I’ve been meaning to do this for a while, and it’s time.

My physical book shelves are out of control; completely overflowing their bounds, and this is entirely my own fault. I am really bad about putting a book on the self and then—out of sight, out of mind—totally forgetting about it. I end up reading almost entirely from newer books that are fresher in mind and older books sit around getting older.

So, what I did this morning was pick out five of the oldest books I’ve won over the years (be it from Goodreads, author websites, twitter, whatever). Some of them I’ve owned long enough to have packed and shipped them to England AND BACK with our international moves. It’s time to get them read and reviewed.

This turned out to be:

Nikolai 2, by Roxie Rivera (I reviewed book 1 here)
A Weak American in Russia & Ukraine, by Walter Parchomenko (which seems especially timely given the state of Russia and the Ukraine right now)
Broken Point, by Donna K. Childree & Mike L. Hopper
Noughts & Crosses, by Malorie Blackman
The Angel of History, by Rabih Alameddine

Then, since physical shelf space is what is lacking, I grabbed the longest, most epic of epic books on the shelf. I accomplished this with the super scientific method of looking at the shelves and pulling out the fattest ones.

For the epic stack I pulled out six books. (I suppose, technically, Nikolai could cross over and fit either stack.) But the six I’m counting here are:

The Black Prism, by Brent Weeks
Dragon Mage, by M.L. Spencer
The Icewind Dale Trilogy, by R.A. Salvator
Macbeth, by Jo Nesbø
The Empire of Gold, by S.A. Chakraborty
The Newcomer, by Mary Kay Andrews

And of course, The Empire of Gold is actually 3rd in its series. So, I’ll need to read the previous books first.

This is obviously a challenge that will take a while. I can’t even dive into it right away. I’ve committed myself to several reviews with deadlines that I have to get done first. But I’ve pulled the books from the anonymity of the general book shelf, which means I’ll hopefully remember to grab them when looking for my next read.

Plus, I’ve been reading a lot of short stories lately. Which Goodreads just counts as a book. So, I feel like my Goodreads Challenge numbers are inflated. Reading some epics will balance the scales a little. Right?

I figure this aught to keep me busy for a while and free up a collective 2-foot, or so, of space. Success!

Edit: I’ve decided to simply add links to the reviews as I finish these books, rather than do a separate wrap-up post.

The 13 Best Fantasy Romance Books of All Time Challenge

Dear Imaginary Book Recommenders,

Earlier today I stumbled across the 13 Best Fantasy Romance Books of All Time post (even updated for 2021, apparently). Now, this wasn’t a random blogger’s opinion of what qualifies as the best fantasy romance books. Instead, Most Recommended Books took a survey of other best-of lists and condensed them into one. (I think this is they’re shtick, what they do, essentially. And I’m not taking issue with it.)

Here’s their method in their words:

Our goal was to create the best list of Fantasy Romance books on the internet.

To remain objective and unbiased, we looked at the 5 most popular “best Fantasy Romance books” articles online (we chose 5 because anything more than that diluted our quality).

Our rationale was simple: If a book only appears in one article, it’s probably just the journalist’s opinion, but if it appears in two or more, it’s probably worth checking out!

And all of that would have been fine, except that of the 13 (what an odd number of choices, btw), I’d read 4 (and own one more that I’ve not read yet). 4! I’m a 200-300 books a year reader, mostly in the Fantasy/fantasy romance genres and I’d read 4 of what they deemed he best of fantasy romance. What’s more, of those 4, 1 I basically hated and the other 3 were passable, in my opinion. Not rave-about-them bad, but not best-of material either. So, I was a bit shook by this list.

I realize that my tastes don’t always align with other readers’. And many of the books on the list have been quite popular. I also acknowledge that several of them are Young Adult and I’ve become increasingly picky in which YA books I read because, at 44, I’ve outgrown enjoying a lot of the angst many of them center on. But still, I was intrigued in a horrified sort of way; wondering what the rest of the books might be like if my opinion of the 4 I’ve read so was vastly different from others’.

If you’re curious, here are my reviews of the 4 I’ve read.

Book Review of A Promise of Fire (Kingmaker Chronicles #1), by Amanda Bouchet

Book Review: The Awakening, by Nora Roberts

Book Review of Graceling, by Kristin Cashore

Book Review: A Curse So Dark and Lonely, by Brigid Kemmerer

What makes this a challenge, instead just a generalized post, is that I’m going to make a concerted effort to read the other 9 books on the list. It’s too late in the year to think I’ll finish this challenge before the new year. So, I’m not putting any sort of time frame on this. It’s pretty open. But I’m going to prioritize reading these whenever I’m not focusing on something else. We’ll see if I agree any more once I’ve read the rest of the list.

Sincerely,

Mystified in Missouri

A Christmas Reading Challenge

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I’m putting together a new reading challenge for myself, a Christmas themed one…well, more a holiday themed one since it includes a few Hanukkah themed books and a Solstice story. But it’s mostly Christmas themed.

It’s only September, so it feels way too early to be thinking about the holidays. But if I want to finish a holiday challenge by Christmas, I have to give myself time to actually read the books. Which means starting about now. I’ve done this sort of thing before, though on a smaller scale.

I picked out the books with the super scientific method of scrolling through my TBR on Goodreads and picking out all that had obvious holiday themed covers or titles. I’m sure I missed some, but it still added up to a not insignificant number.

What tends to happen over time is that I pick a few Christmasy titles up every year, thinking I’ll bask in the season. But, if I don’t read them immediately, they get dropped onto my TBR and forgotten about until the next Christmas. When I might or might not remember them. Then I pick up a few more, repeating the cycle. Thus, the pile of unread Christmas books snowballs, getting bigger every year.

The oldest on this list has been on my TBR since 2013! It will be especially satisfying to mark some of those titles that have been hanging around for while as ‘read.’

This year, I found 62 Christmas stories languishing on my shelves. Well, 58 Christmas, 3 Hanukkah ones, and 1 set during the Solstice. I don’t have enough to make a Hanukkah or Solstice challenge of their own. So, I’m including them here. Luckily, most of these 62 ‘books’ are pretty short (stories more than books, honestly). When I first thought to do this challenge the plan was to read all my holiday themed books. But then I saw how many there actually are. So, my revised goal is to read and review as many of them as I can by Dec. 25th.

I’ve broken them into batches, by length (Under 100 pages, 100-200, 200+). Let’s see what we have. (I know some have newer covers, but these are the editions I have.)

Under 100 pages:

Haunted by the Holidays, by Kathryn Blanche
A Private Miscellany, by K.J. Charles
Careened: Winter Solstice in Madierus, by Bey Deckard
Illicit Activity, by J.R. Gray
Christmas at the Wellands, by Liz Jacobs
Chasing Christmas Past, by Melanie Karsak
A Wizard for Christmas, by Dorothy McFalls
The Christmas Prince , by Liv Rancourt
God Rest Ye Merry Vampires, by Liv Rancourt
The Santa Drag, by Liv Rancourt
The Ugliest Sweater, by Gillian St. Kevern
Fred and Ginger, by Isobel Starling
The Greatest Gift, by Felice Stevens
Family, by Brigham Vaughn
Winter Spirit, by Indra Vaughn
Twist of the Magi, by Caren J. Werlinger
63 Days Later, by Adrienne Wilder

Plus, The Eighth Night, by Jenna Kendrick, as a bonus

100-200 page

Gingerbread Mistletoe, by Amy Aislin
In Case of Emergency, by Keira Andrews
A Wedding in Twinkle Falls, by Freda Ann
Will & Patrick Do the Holidays, by Leta Blake & Alice Griffiths
Charley’s Christmas Wolf, by C.D. Gorri
Mischief & Mistletoe, by Tanya Anne Crosby
Holiday Haunts, Wendy Dalrymple & Imogen Markwell-Tweed
Christmas Lites anthology, by Amy Eye and others
His Christmas Bride, by Merry Farmer
To Linzer & to Cherish, by Jen FitzGerald
A Christmas Gone Perfectly Wrong, by Cecilia Grant
Second Chances, by Kiska Gray
Cabin Love, by Hayden Hunt
Winter Blom, by D.J. Jamison
Bittersweets Christmas, by Suzanne Jenkins
Christmasly Obedient, by Julia Kent
Cold Feet, by Jay Northcote
Mine to Five, by Tara September
From out in the Cold, by L.A. Witt

Plus Solstice Surrender by Tracy Cooper-Posey and Highland Stranger by Kerrigan Byrne as Solstice bonuses.

200+ pages

A Hopeful Christmas, by Anneka R. Walker, Sian Ann Bessey, Carla Kelly & Krista Lynne Jensen
The Problem With Mistletoe, Bring Me Edeweiss & Mistletoe in the Marigny, by Kyle Baxter
Mr. Frosty Pants & Mr. Naughty List, by Leta Blake
Merry Elf-ing Christmas, by Beth Bolden
The Christmas Lights Battle, by Skylar M. Cates
Christmas at Rosie Hopkins’ Sweetshop, by Jenny Colgan
Fighting for Us, by Bella Emy
Sleigh Spells, Bella Falls
A Wolf is not Just for Christmas, J.F. Holland
A Christmas Date, by Camilla Isley
Frosting Her Christmas Cookies, by Alina Jacobs
Naughty & Nice, by D.J. Jamison
Where We Begin, by Janey King
Last Blue Christmas, by Rose Prendeville
Smokin’ Hot Cowboy Christmas, by Kim Redford
Dreaming of a White Wolf Christmas, by Terry Spears
The Plight Before Christmas, by KateStewart
Shrewd Angel, by Anyta Sunday
A Christmas Promise, by K.C. Wells

Plus, Eight Kinky Nights by Xan West and The Remaking of Corbin Wale by Roan Parrish as Hanukkah bonuses.

While ‘read all your holiday themed books and short stories’ sounds deceptively easy, the challenge isn’t without it’s…well, challenges. First, very few of these happen to conveniently be the beginnings of series. The short stories especially tend to be bonuses for existing series. Mostly series I’ve read at least some of, otherwise I wouldn’t have picked up the short. But few in series I’m caught up with or have read recently. Most are contemporary romances and, frankly, I’ve not been reading much contemporary anything lately. So, many are outside my current reading preferences. At least one of these I picked up on an Amazon free day because I thought the blurb sounded so problematic I wondered how the author would rescue it (if she could rescue it). One or two I’m not 100% are actually holiday themed, as opposed to just being set during late Winter. And there are just so many more than I expected when I thought up this challenge. Plus, I fully expect I’ll add a few more books to the list before I call the challenge finished on Christmas day. Either because I find them in my TBR between now and then or because I pick them up new this holiday season. Regardless, I’m going to do the best I can. **ganbatte**

Other than knowing that I’ll review all of the short stories in a single post and that I’m going to prioritize physical books over ebooks, I’ve not entirely decided how I’ll be running the rest of this particular challenge—if I want to post reviews individually, in batches, one a day over a set time, all at once on Christmas day, etc. But I have time to figure that out. Regardless, I’ve got enough holiday cheer to keep me busy for a while. How about you? Anyone else have an unreasonable number of holiday themed books sitting around and want to join me getting them read this year?

Note: I’ve edited this post since first publishing it to add a few books and keep the tally up to date. I found some that I owned but had missed in Calibre and (because I have no self control), I picked up a few freebies this year.

santa-claus-Image by Igor Link from Pixabay

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