This year I gave myself way too many book projects, and now it’s December and I have a “guilt list” of books I need to finish before the end of this year. Not fun.

My list has eight books on it. Six of these are books I need to read to finish the Book Riot “Read Harder” challenge. The other two are books I need to read so that I can meet my “diverse books” goal of reading at least twelve books by non-American and/or non-white authors this year.

The thing is, I actually want to read (almost) all of those books. So, it’s not like I’m making myself read things that I don’t want to read. It’s just that there are so many books that I want to read MORE than those books.

When I was voting for the Goodreads Choice Award nominees, I realized that I’d only read a handful of the books nominated. Many of them were on my TBR, some of them I even owned, but I didn’t get to read them this year because I was so busy trying to check all the boxes on my various reading projects. This made me sad.

I was all set to do another reading challenge next year. I had this great idea planned and I’d already made a list. I wanted to read all the Hugo and Nebula best novel award winners from this century. But now I’m reconsidering. This “required reading” thing is making me grumpy. I don’t want to be grumpy. I don’t want reading to feel like work when I read (mostly) for fun.

So that’s it. I’m calling it. No reading projects in 2016. I’m not going to push it. I’m just going to read what I want, when I want to, and not worry about it.

I’ll start with the weekly inbox/outbox post and end with a recap of my October reading… Spoiler: I didn’t read much in October…

Inbox (books acquired)

• The Last of the Firedrakes (The Avalonia Chronicles Book 1) by Farah Oomerbhoy (Kindle) — I think I found this book while looking for fantasy romance novels a while ago. I saw the price drop to free and figured I might as well add it to my collection… (P.S. it’s still free as of this posting if you want to grab a copy…)
• The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet: A Novel by Becky Chambers  (Kindle) — Don’t ask me what happened here. I saw a tweet from a bookish person whose opinion I trust linking to this post about how this novel was the “most delightful” space opera this year and that the book was on sale for $1.99 and what can I say? I think they had me at “delightful” and “space opera.” Fingers crossed it is as good as promised.

Outbox (books finished)

• All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (Kindle, library) — So, this is not the sort of book I normally pick up because I don’t usually enjoy contemporary novels set during wars. But, I did enjoy this story. There’s a plot and both of the main characters are well imagined and interesting. So the story moves right along. But the ending dragged. It just kept going and going right up into present day, and I’m not sure why. I’m not sure how that served the story. There were several places earlier on where I would have been happy to have it end. But, it won the Pulitzer, so what do I know. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Queue (what I’m reading next)

• I will probably not get much reading done during NaNoWriMo, but I might squeeze in a book of short stories and/or collection of poems so that I can check those boxes on my Read Harder challenge…

Here’s how October wrapped up for me, overall:

October reading stats

• Total books finished: 2 (all novels)
• Favorite book read: Carry On
• Book(s) read by diverse authors (per my 2015 reading project): started, but didn’t finish my diverse book selection…

I’m not planning on doing weekly updates in November. I’ll probably just do a recap post at the end of the month and blog in-between if anything interesting happens.

Best of luck anyone participating in NaNo!

Again, not a big reading week for me. I spent most of my free time this week doing NaNo Prep. So, I didn’t get much reading done. But, I think I’m recovering from my reading slump.

Inbox (books acquired)

• Illuminae by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff (Hardcover) — I pre-ordered this months ago, and received it on Tuesday. I decided to buy the hardcover version of this book because the story is told through a collection of emails and other documents and I thought it would be easier to read/enjoy in print. It’s sci-fi (space opera) by an author I like, and I’m intrigued by the format. So, I wanted to dive into it right away. But I didn’t want to take it with me on our team offsite and then camping this weekend. So, I think I’ll pick it up next.
• Dark Harmony: A Vivienne Taylor Horse Lover’s Mystery (Fairmont Riding Academy Book 2) by Michele Scott (Kindle) — Picked up this book because it was on sale for $1.99. I read the first book in this series last year and enjoyed it. It’s basically YA mystery with horses. Recommended for horse lovers who also like a good mystery, especially anyone who, like me, loved The Saddle Club (middle grade) series when they were younger.
• Perfect Harmony: A Vivienne Taylor Horse Lover’s Mystery (Fairmont Riding Academy Book 3) by Michele Scott (Kindle) — Book three in the series. Figured I might as well get it since it was also $1.99.
• Sabriel (The Old Kingdom Book 1) by Garth Nix (Kindle) — I bought this when it was on sale for $1.99 because I keep hearing people refer to this as one of their favorite fantasy novels. The description compares it to Game of Thrones, but also says it’s about necromancers (?). I’m a fan of Game of Thrones, but I’m not usually into “witchy” fantasy. Still, I’ve heard enough people rave about this book that I’m game to give it a try and see if I like it.

Outbox (books finished)

• none

Queue (what I’m reading next)

• I’m almost done with All the Light We Cannot See
• I’d like to finish reading My Brilliant Friend this week…
• But, I also really want to try squeeze in a read of Illuminae before NaNoWriMo starts…

That’s it for this week. Next week is the last week in October. I’ll do a summary post on Sunday. But I’ll probably skip the weekly updates in November since I’ll be frantically noveling in all my spare time…

Hope you are enjoying your fall!

I bought nothing. I finished nothing. I don’t think I even read anything this week…

I think I needed a break from reading this week. I ended up re-watching a lot of Gilmore Girls instead of reading. It was a nice break. Maybe that cleared my head enough to get back to reading this week.

We shall see…

Sorry for the late post… I had this almost done and then forgot to post it yesterday. I had a big swim meet this weekend and was competing all day Saturday and Sunday. But now I’m back. So, here’s my recap of last week’s reading…

Inbox (books acquired)

• The Invasion of the Tearling by Erika Johansen (Kindle) — This was a Book Riot deal of the day. I haven’t read the first book in the series yet, but I own it and I’m definitely going to read it before the movie (with Emma Watson!) comes out and it definitely sounds like it has all the elements of fantasy stories I love. So, I figured I might as well also own the sequel…
• Ash by Malinda Lo (Kindle) — This was another Book Riot deal of the day, and I got it for $1.99. I don’t know anything about this book except the description and reviews on Amazon. It sounds like it’s a riff on Cinderella with a girl/girl romance that appears to have reviewers either loving or hating this book. I have no idea what to expect, but I’ve heard she’s a great author, so I’m going with that.
• Slow Bullets by Alastair Reynolds (Kindle) — I have been wanting to read this since the release date, but the price was WAY too high for a novella. When I saw that it went on sale for $3.99 and I pounced (and squeeed). I now must find a way to squeeze this in to my carefully laid end of year reading plans… (why do I plan again? next year, no planning.)
• Did You Ever Have a Family by Bill Clegg (signed, special edition hardcover) — My Powell’s Indiespensible shipment arrived and this was the feature book this month. It’s not something I’d heard of and it didn’t sound like something I would normally pick up to read. But, after I read the interview with the author, included in the box, I was much more interested in reading this book. Still… my TBR is pretty full for the rest of this year, so I probably won’t get to it until 2016…
• Tuesday Nights in 1980 by by Molly Prentiss (advance review copy, paperback) — This also arrived in the Indiespensible shipment. Another lit-fic book that I wouldn’t probably otherwise have read, but the jacket copy makes it sound like I might enjoy it. This won’t be published until April of next year. So, I have plenty of time to read this before its release date…

Outbox (books finished)

• Carry On by Rainbow Rowell (Kindle) — Oh man, I loved this book. Rainbow Rowell just writes some damn fine romance. This is her first fantasy book and I just love her take on fantasy and magic. It’s written with all the respect of someone who obviously reads/loves the genre, but is still able to poke fun at some of the tropes and trends. After I finished it, I just wanted to go back and read it again. Definitely buying a hardcover copy to shelve on my “favorites” shelf next to Fangirl. ❤

Queue (what I’m reading next)

• Well, I didn’t make it very far into Count of Monte Cristo (and neither did my friend), so we’re pushing the schedule back a week.
• I did start All the Light We Cannot See and the writing is just so good. It’s a “war book.” So I didn’t think I would like it. But, the first few chapters are sucking me in. So we’ll see how that goes… I think I’m going to trade off between this and the Count…
• And at some point I need to get back to My Brilliant Friend…

Hope you are enjoying your week! Happy reading!