I'll Get Back To Them

I have to admit that I have a few books that I started, but I never got around to finishing. Being completely honest, there are only two of them... That's not so bad I guess.

No matter how many of current reads I have, they need to be finished. Looking at GoodReads frustrates me at this point because it always says I am reading 3 or 4 books when I am really reading 1 or 2. There seems to be no reason to take Game of Thrones and The Damned Busters off of my currently reading list though... I am in the middle of them and I will finish them at some point. The more I look at them the more I want to finish them just to clear my current reads. That's why I am going to read either one of those novels if I complete my TBR list for this month.

I will complete these before the end of 2013.

Number Ten

Title: Lolita
Author: Vladimir Nabokov
Publication Year: 1955
Publishing Company: Random House Inc.
Number of Pages: 317
Part of a Series: No
Read for Pleasure or School: School
Would Recommend: Yes
Rating: 4 out of 5

Number Nine

Title: Fledgling
Author: Octavia E. Butler
Publication Year: 2005
Publishing Company: Grand Central Publishing
Number of Pages: 310
Part of a Series: No
Read for Pleasure or School: School
Would Recommend: Yes
Rating: 5 out of 5

Where Do Audiobooks Fit?

Currently I am spending about 3 hours in a car every Monday through Thursday and another hour in the car every other day of the week. With that much driving time I don't know why I didn't think of listening to audiobooks before. Yes I do, audiobooks are expensive. There was no reason to buy an audiobook just to listen to it for a week or so and then never use it again. At least that was the case until I got my library card. Free audio books that I can listen to once and not feel guilty about never listening to again. It was the best find of the month.

Now my confusion is, where to audiobooks fit into my reading. Do they count as part of the fifty book challenge? I listened to the entire book, didn't I? Though I did not sit down the the book in hand, I did make it through the entire thing. Honestly, I probably spent more hours listening to it than it would have taken me just to read the novel. This is nothing more than making use of unused time. On some level, though I still feel like its cheating. The books I listen to should not count as part of my challenge. I just need some other opinions.

Do audiobooks count or not?

Number Eight

Title: Monster
Author: A. Lee Martinez
Publication Year: 2009
Publishing Company: Orbit
Number of Pages: 295
Part of a Series: No
Read for Pleasure or School: Pleasure
Would Recommend: Maybe
Rating: 3 out of 5

Putting a Book Down

Personally one of my biggest weaknesses in life is motivation. Finding it, keeping it, etc. Sadly, I have to admit that reading is no different than any other aspect of my life... Motivation isn't always there. In fact, until I get into a book I have a really hard time making myself pick it up at all.

Usually when I finish a novel, I feel so accomplished, but that does not translate into wanting to repeat the action. Unless it is a novel I have been looking forward to reading, I don't desire to grab the next novel. It just seems so weird to be because I really do love to read. Plus I know what I like and what I don't like... It's not like I am buying books I should have any issues with reading, in fact I only buy books if I really know I am going to enjoy them. Even still I have to force myself to start reading that next book and get myself into the story.

Let's be honest though, no matter how great the book sounds or how many amazing reviews it's gotten, sometime there is just a novel I don't like. When it comes to those the motivation is no where to be found. I don't want to finish it, usually I don't even want to get to the next chapter. The problem with that is that some books just have a slow start. There have been numerous books that I have forced myself to read which started out slow, but I ended up really enjoying.

So here's the question, when reading four or five chapters takes an excruciating about of time and energy do you put the book down or force yourself to keep going. I used to be that I would force myself to continue on, but when I am trying to read 50 books in a year that's just not realistic. I can't spend 3 weeks putting a book down and trying to force myself to get into something I just don't enjoy. So for this year, I am going to just put books like that on hold. If I have time later in the year to pick them back up maybe I will try, or maybe next year I will give them another go. For now though, I just don't have the extra time to spare.

Number Seven

Title: Mothership
Author: Martin Leicht & Isla Neal
Publication Year: 2012
Publishing Company: Simon & Schuster
Number of Pages: 308
Part of a Series: Yes, book one
Read for Pleasure or School: Pleasure
Would Recommend: Yes
Rating: 4 out of 5

Number Six

Title: Finale
Author: Becca Fitzpatrick
Publication Year: 2012
Publishing Company: Simon & Schuster
Number of Pages: 454
Part of a Series: Yes, book 4
Read for Pleasure or School: Pleasure
Would Recommend: Yes
Rating: 4 out of 5

Epic Fail/Get Excited for Comics

Basically this week has been the week from hell... So that's why this post didn't go up on Monday like it was supposed to. Yep, I suck. Sorry about that, but I guess it's better late than never. Right?

What sucks even worse than my lack of a post on Monday? Well, this delayed post isn't even going to have very much content. Good thing I am on the other side of the computer screen, otherwise you might try to throw things at me.

Now that you know I am a terribly awfully sucky person, let's get on with the point of this post. Ever since I brought my Youtube channel back to life and started this blog, I've been saying that I want to do something with comics. Now is that time. Every Monday for the next handful of weeks (at least 3, but probably more) I am going to look at a comic involving a female lead. Most of them will be female super heroes, but they don't necessarily have to be. In the hopes of equality, there will be some weeks that focus on Marvel and some on DC. Personally, my collection of comics is lacking in the independent publishers, but I will see if I can find some to include.

What will next Monday bring you? You can expect a look into The New 52 Batgirl Vol. One.

Please leave a comment with your thoughts. If you have a comic you want me to look at let me know. If you want me to focus on comics that also have male leads, I want to know that as well. Hell, if you hate comics and don't want me to focus on them every Monday, please tell me. The only way for me to develop this blog into something we all enjoy is if you tell me what you like and don't like. Thanks!


P.S. I finished Mothership a few days ago. I will probably the info about it tomorrow.

Library - Do or Do Not?

Here's my deal, I haven't been to a public library since I was a little kid. Probably about the time I was 11 or 12 I started buying most of my books. By the time I was spending my own money, I was buying all of my books. Now I go to my school library all the time, but even there I don't check out books. More often than not I am just using online databases or ebooks. But I think things are about to change.

Money is super tight right now and will be at least through graduation in May. After that maybe things will loosen up a bit, but we'll see. For now though, I just don't have the resources to spend all my money on books even if that's what I wish I could do. So I started to rethink my stance on the library.

What do I have against the library really? Well, mostly that I don't get to keep the books even if I love them. It's true that I could always go back and buy the books later if I really wanted to, but at that point I doubt I would read them again. Why buy the book if I know I won't read it? Basically it's to be vain and have it look pretty on my bookshelves... which I don't have right now. So I would want to the book to look pretty on my future bookshelves that I will have when I am finally settled in one place for more than a year. Even to me that sounds crazy. If I love the book and want to reread it then I can go buy it at that point, in which hopefully I will already have my bookshelves.

The benefit of the library? It's free, as long as you return the books on time. Getting to read more books for free, what an awesome idea.

For now things are looking up for the library. I just got a new library card and hopefully will get some use out it in the near future.

Maybe I will completely change my mind about the library, or maybe I will go back to buying books as soon as I have the funds to do so... I'll just have to wait and see how it plays out.

Number Five

Title: Silence
Author: Becca Fitzpatrick
Publication Year: 2011
Publishing Company: Simon & Schuster
Number of Pages: 438
Part of a Series: Yes, book 3
Read for Pleasure or School: Pleasure
Would Recommend: Yes
Rating: 3 out of 5

Finding a Balance

My biggest challenge right now is trying to find a balance in my life. Honestly, I am trying to balance all aspects of my life, but specifically reading.

If I could, I swear I would read every day for most of the day. Unfortunately I just don't have the time for that. Which is why I have always been curious about the people who read 100 books in a year. Where do they find the time? Maybe it's the fact that I am a slow reader as well. It just takes me longer to finish a book... Even if I was a faster reader, I doubt that I would be able to read much more than 50 books in a year just because of time restraints.

School and work eat up most of my day, plus there is still eating and sleeping. Then there are my 4 pets I have to take care of and give attention to. (If you want to know more about my animals check out chrissyandashleygotovegas.com tomorrow.) Add blogging (I have 3 blogs) and vlogging (just one channel) to my free time and I am left with very little. Oh yeah and my boyfriend wants me to pay attention to him every once and a while too. Needless to say I read when I can. Not to say that I can't get much reading done, I do stick to a schedule of about a book a week, which is more than some people can say.

I just feel like so many people get much more reading done than I am able to do. Jealousy is the root of the issue though. Being able to get through that many books in a month or a year is something I would love to be able to do. There are just so many great books out there (with more coming out all the time) that I just want a chance to get at more of them. At the end of the day though, my life is what it is and I can read only what I can.

Maybe after graduation I will have more time to read... or maybe I will have less. Let's hope for the first.

Vlogging It Up

That's right, I do have a vlog as well. Honestly, I started it last year, but it's been idle for months now. With moving a few times, changing jobs, and classes, last year just got too crazy to keep up with everything. This is a new year though!

I was so productive and actually filmed and posted a video on Youtube right at the 1st of the year. What I didn't realize though was that I made it private... Only I would make that kind of mistake. Continuing to see that my "welcome back" video had zero views was very disheartening, but I decided to film another. It was upon posting my second video of the year that I realized the first one was set to private. Moral of the story, watch all of your setting... So now there are two current videos posted. Go me.

I know the other day we talked about scheduling the blog, well my vlog is going to be the same way. I will post videos every Wednesday and Friday. Yes, that means there will be a new blog post and a new vlog on Fridays. If you get sick of me then ignore one of them, or both.

What is different about my vlogs? The big difference is going to be book hauls. I will not be posting any book hauls to this blog, so if you want to know what I am buying the vlog is the place to find out. I will also be filming certain reviews, usually the books I enjoyed the most. It's still up in the air if comics will be filmed or not. More than likely I will film videos about the trade paperbacks I purchase, and then blog about the individual issues. Don't hold me to that though. More than that, there will just be some fun videos I make like book shelf tours, tags, etc.

All of this amounts to... I have a vlog. Check it out if you want.

http://www.youtube.com/user/OnTheSamePage4937