Kyler's 2024 reading

This is my first time participating in this challenge, so please be kind 🙂

Last year, I read a bit over 60 books. This year, I’m challenging myself to increase that number to at least 75, but hopefully more. I also intend to focus on books that I already own. Book collecting and book reading can be two separate hobbies, but should be one.

Book challenges are great personal motivators. My local library organises a summer book bingo every year. Since I started participating in the book bingo, my reading has significantly increased. Hopefully this group’s challenges will help serve that purpose throughout the full year.

To start the year off, I am participating in both the Nonfiction monthly challenge and the American Author challenge. For January, I’m reading:
- American Author: The Prince and the Pauper, Mark Twain
- Nonfiction: Currently undecided!

I already finished three books in 2024 and it is only the third day of the year, so I’m off to a good start! But, only one of those books was from my personal collection...

My top five books last year in no particular order:
1. Goodbye, Again: Essays, Reflections, and Illustrations
2. Madame Restell: The Life, Death and Resurrection of Old New York’s Most Fabulous, Fearless, and Infamous Abortionist
3. All the Living and the Dead: From Embalmers to Executioners, an Exploration of the People Who Have Made Death Their Life’s Work
4. The City is More Than Human: An Animal History of Seattle
5. Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains

Welcome, Kyler! I'm glad you've decided to join in. Let me know if you have any questions about how things work in the Challenge - happy to help.

January (15 read)
1. Private Book - not mentioning here
2. Why Have Kids? ❀
3. The Responsible Company ❀ 🎧
4. Foster ❀ ❤
5. The Prince and the Pauper ❀ ✫
6. The Keeper: Soccer, Me, and the Law That Changed Women's Lives ❀ ✒
7. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue ❀ ❤
8. My Salinger Year ❀
9. Allergic: Our Irritated Bodies in a Changing World ❤ 🎧
10. The Death and Life of Great American Cities ❀ ❤ ✒
11. The Hidden Life of Trees ✒ 🎧
12. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ❀ ✫
13. I'm Glad My Mom Died ✒ 🎧
14. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time by Mark Haddon ❀
15. Barracoon ❀

February (9 read)
16. Strong Female Character ❀
17. The H Spot ❀ ✒ 🎧
18. On Women ❀ ✫
19. Who's a Good Dog?: And How To Be a Better Human
20. Small Things Like These ❀ ❤
21. Radium Girls ❤ ✒
22. Marie Curie ❀ ✒
23. The Romance of Mining ❀
24. Better Living Through Birding ❀ 🎧

March (3 read)
25. Dead Men Do Tell Tales ✒ 🎧
26. Breakfast at Tiffany's and Three Stories ❀ ✫
27. A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet 🎧

April (5 read)
28. David Copperfield ❀
29. A Closed and Common Orbit 🎧
30. The Plan of Chicago ❀ ✫
31. A Life on Our Planet ❀ ✒
32. An Immense World ❤ 🎧

May (10 read)
33. So Long, See You Tomorrow ✫
34. Demon Copperhead
35. Gallant ❤
36. A Man Called Ove ❤
37. They Came Like Swallows ✫
38. Strategic Corporate Conservation Planning ❀
39. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine
40. The Bitter Waters of Medicine Creek ❀ ✒ ❤
41. Black Built: History and Architecture in the Black Community
42. The Girl with Seven Names ❀ 🎧

June (12 read)
43. Tress of the Emerald Sea
44. On Being Different ❀
45. The Comfort Book ❀
46. Bryony and Roses 🎧
47. All the Birds in the Sky ❀ ✫
48. An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good ❀ ❤
49. The Backyard Bird Chronicles
50. A Stroke of the Pen, The Lost Stories ❀ ❤
51. How Far The Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures ❀
52. White Field, Black Sheep ❀ ✒
53. All the Things They Said We Couldn't Have ❤
54. What You Are Looking for is in the Library ❤

July (0 read)

August (9 read)
55. East of Eden ❀
56. Bird Brother ❀ ❤
57. The Proposal
58. Frankenstein ❀
59. Loving Our Own Bones ✒
60. Be a Revolution ❀ 🎧
61. The Affordable City ❀
62. The Butchering Art ❤
63. Redwall ❀

September (11 read)
64. Mort ❀
65. Born a Crime ❤ ✫
66. The September House 🎧
67. Slouching Towards Bethlehem ❀ ✒
68. A Taste for Poison ❤ 🎧
69. Freedom is a Constant Struggle ❀ ✒
70. Curbing Traffic ❀
71. Crying in the Bathroom ❀ ✒
72. Warblers and Woodpeckers ❀
73. Quitter ❀
74. Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid ❀ ❤

October (10 read)
75. Rosemary 🎧
76. Mexican Gothic ❀
77. Catch a Fire ❀ ✒
78. The Old Curiosity Shop ❀
79. The Optimism Bias 🎧
80. The Near Witch ❀ ❤
81. The Woman in Me ❀ ✒ 🎧
82. Legends and Lattes ❀
83. Bones: Inside and Out 🎧
84. Gone Girl 🎧

November (2 read)
85. Killed by a Traffic Engineer ❤
86. Walk the Blue Fields ❀

December
87. Dreamers of the Day ❀
88. James 🎧
89. How to be an Antiracist 🎧
90. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz ❀
91. The Memory Palace ❀ ❤
92. The Feather Thief 🎧
93. Sharp Objects 🎧 ✫
94. Pride and Prejudice ❀
95. An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed ❀
96. Murder at the Vicarage ❀
97. The Nickel Boys ❀
98. The Artistic Crafts Series of Technical Handbooks: No. I. Bookbinding - Bookbinding, and The Care of Books ❀
99. The Wood Beyond the World
100. A Body in the Library

❀ = from my personal library
❤ = favorite
✫ = American author challenge
✒ = nonfiction challenge

Welcome, and happy reading in 2024!

For anyone looking for a short book to increase their read count, Foster by Claire Keegan was a beautifully-written, fantastic short read. It's impressive how the author created such intricate characters in so few pages. It may already be one of my top books of the year.

Welcome Kyler! I definitely have Claire Keegan on my list to read this year, I've heard such good things about her work.

Great always to have new additions to our friendly clan, Kyler.
I'm sure that everyone will be kind.

You have made a great reading start to the year and I can second the recommendations for the writing of Claire Keegan.

I'd like to read the books off the shelves for challenges. Here is my attempt to select books off the shelf:

Nonfiction Challenge:
January: Small or Unknown Award Winner
✔ The Keeper: Soccer, Me, and the Law That Changed Women's Lives ❀ (won the "About Ohio or an Ohioan" of the Ohioana Award)
✔ The Death and Life of Great American Cities ❀ (won the Hillman Prize)
✔ The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben (won the Adult Non-fiction Indies Choice Book Award)
✔ I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy (won the Goodreads Choice Award and the Alex Award)
February: Women's Work
✔ The H Spot ❀ - Only one chapter of this really fit the assignment but it'll do!
✔ Radium Girls
✔ Marie Curie by Robert Reid ❀
March: Forensic Sciences
✔ Dead Men Do Tell Tales by William Maples
April: Globalization
✔ A Life on Our Planet ❀
May: Wild Wild West
✔ The Bitter Waters of Medicine Creek ❀
June: Middle Europe
✔ White Field, Black Sheep ❀
- The Reconstruction of Nations (physical library book)
July: Insect World
- Pests in the City ❀
August: Being Jewish
✔ Loving Our Own Bones
- The World's Religions (I hope this works) ❀
September: Essays
✔ Slouching Towards Bethlehem ❀
✔ Freedom is a Constant Struggle ❀
✔ Crying in the Bathroom ❀
- Four Hundred Souls ❀
- An Anthropologist on Mars ❀
October: Music
✔ Catch a Fire by Melanie B ❀
✔ The Woman in Me ❀
November: Too Small to See
- The Emperor of all Maladies ❀
- America's Forgotten Pandemic ❀
- Purified ❀
December: Political Biography
- The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass ❀
- The Roger C. Sullivan Books ❀
- David Dinkins Bio ❀

American Authors Challenge:
January: Mark Twain
✔ The Prince and the Pauper ❀
✔ The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ❀
February: Susan Sontag
✔ On Women
March: Truman Capote
✔ Breakfast at Tiffany's and Three Stories
April: General Non-Fiction
✔ The Plan of Chicago ❀
May: William Maxwell
✔ So Long See You Tomorrow
✔ They Came Like Swallows
June: Queer Author
✔ All the Birds in the Sky ❀
✔ On Being Different ❀
✔ How Far the Light Reaches ❀
July: Mona Susan Power
- A Council of Dolls (library)
August: Jeffrey Lent
- A Slant of Light (library)
September: Living American authors who were born outside the US but adopted this country as their home
✔ Born a Crime
- The Sympathizer (library)
October: Katherine Anne Porter
- Pale Horse Pale Rider (library)
November: Jewish American Authors
- Something by Michael Chabon (library)
✔ Dreamers of the Day ❀
December: The Heartland (Regional Authors from the Middle of the Country)
✔ Sharp Objects

Good luck with your 2024 reading!

Yesterday I finished The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs.

The book had some dull points and was a bit outdated in it's terminology, but overall I was shocked that a 60-year-old analysis of land use still holds up so well. Some key points from the book that I will remember and refer back to:
- It's important for our sidewalks and streets to be more diverse in people and use.
- The overwhelming amount of bureaucracy in local governments severely hampers any efforts to reform or improve cities. This has only gotten worse as cities get bigger.
- Lower income housing should be built so they are places where people want to (and can) stay, regardless of their income.

Every architect, land use planner, and local government official with authority over city planning should read this book.

The first two months of this year have been defined by procrastination. The legal writing that I volunteered to complete by January 31 was a bigger struggle than I anticipated, so now I'm still working on it halfway into February. I am avoiding the guilty feelings of not finishing that work by reading other things. This entry is simply another instance of procrastination. It has been great for my reading though! I'm on track to possibly read more than 100 books this year!

Two books have been in my "currently reading" pile (among a couple others) since the beginning of this year: The Romance of Mining and The Egg and I. I've been making slow progress on the mining book throughout the year and hope to get it done shortly, but the other book has been gathering dust. A personal goal of mine is to finish both during the first quarter of the year. The other currently reading books are huge and I'll surely revisit them when time and focus allows.

The biggest surprise this year has been The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue. I owned it on Booksio for a while already, but finally started reading it when I learned that Booksio is going away. What a great book. Now I have a physical copy that occupies prime space on my favorite bookshelf, and I have a stack of additional V.E. Schwab books waiting to be read.

Several books read this year were from my library (or my partner's library) and I decided to bid them farewell after completing them. I put them in a little free library and hope that they will find a good home. These include The Keeper: Soccer, Me, and the Law That Changed Women's Lives, My Salinger Year, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, and The H-Spot. Hopefully I'll do the same with other books, so my shelves can get some more space!

Favorites so far (in no particular order):
1. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
2. Foster by Claire Keegan
3. Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
4. Allergic: Our Irritated Bodies in a Changing World by Theresa MacPhail
5. The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs
6. Radium Girls by Kate Moore

Welcome to the challenge! I see you're in Seattle -- me, too :) Looks like you're reading some good stuff this year! I thought I'm Glad My Mom Died and Radium Girls were excellent, and I have Small Things Like These and The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue on my shelf to get to soon.

>13 curioussquared: It sounds like we have a lot of books on common! Love it.
Highly recommend both of those books. Let me know what you think of them! Hopefully I'll get started on the other V.E. Schwab books soon.

Watching the movie Radioactive after finishing reading Radium Girls and Marie Curie is a bit of a disappointment! It doesn't match the Marie Curie biography and I don't know which is most accurate. I assume the biography is, but now I'm starting to wonder whether I need to find another book on Marie Curie and radioactivity. Maybe a documentary would be a better idea. Any recommendations would be appreciated!

It's amazing how books can create such vivid pictures and realities. Before reading those books, all I knew about Marie Curie is that her work with radium made her sick. But surprisingly, she actually survived working with radium for so much longer than I had imagined. Her work was quite incredible.

>3 Kyler_Marie: Great list so far! Keep at it!!

>17 ocgreg34: Thanks!

Currently reading:
- David Copperfield
- Dead Men Do Tell Tales
- Breakfast at Tiffany's

My library hold of Demon Copperhead came up and I realized that I should probably read David Copperfield first, but it's long! So, David Copperfield has been at my side for the past week and a half, and I'm only halfway through. It's much better (and longer) than I anticipated! Now I want to read every Charles Dickens book that I can get my hands on. But, they are so long and I want to check more books off my list. Sometimes it is important to remember that the goal is not to get as many books finished as possible - it is to enjoy the books I read.

This month, I decided to buy my first e-reader - a Kobo Clara 2E. It isn't my favorite thing yet, but it's already growing on me. It's much easier reading the 800+ page David Copperfield from a small screen and not holding the large book. I just wish that there was an easy way to move my Kindle books over to the e-reader.

It has been almost a month and I am still trying to finish David Copperfield. It is much better than I initially anticipated, but it definitely has some sections that drag on. And, it is a bit frustrating that I haven't made progress on other books as I read this one. I have about 100 pages left. Hopefully I'll power through them this week, because I have some other books that I'd love to start.

I'm also listening to A Closed and Common Orbit, and plan to finish the series once I finish this one.

I'm traveling to Chicago later this month and I really want to read about the area before I go. Here are some of the books that I hope to read this month after Copperfield:
- The Plan of Chicago
- Forever Open, Clear, and Free
- The Chicago River
- Roger C. Sullivan and the Making of the Chicago Democratic Machine and Roger C. Sullivan and the Triumph of the Chicago Democratic Machine
- The Black Death for the Nonfiction Challenge
- Be a Revolution

I know I won't be able to get through all of those books, but it's helpful to have a to-do list and some goals!

After finishing The Plan of Chicago, I traveled to Chicago earlier this month. It was a good trip! But, not a great book - it didn't really have much substance.

The Black Death wasn't the book I anticipated. So, I switched to A Life On Our Planet for the nonfiction challenge instead. It was a good book and I'm glad I read it, although most of the content was a bit hard to swallow.

My reading has dropped off a bit this month and last month after the big push at the beginning of the year. Hopefully my reading motivation will return with the Seattle Summer Book Bingo. I'm anxiously awaiting the first book square announcement, which they usually make in late April.

Earlier this week, I put together an itinerary to visit all 28 bookstores participating in Seattle Indie Bookstore Day. But, upon further reflection, this just isn't the right year to take that on. Instead, I'll be going to at least five local stores and checking out some shops that I have never visited before. It'll be a fun weekend!

For my birthday, my partner got the hardware to build a bookshelf ladder! I'm so excited. Best gift ever.

Currently reading: Roger C. Sullivan and the Making of the Chicago Democratic Machine, Demon Copperhead, and Record of a Spaceborn Few.

I just finished Demon Copperhead and I feel a bit alone in my dislike of that book. It motivated me to read Charles Dickens, which is great! But I'm glad it's finally over and I can't wait to read something else.

I'm also an avid participant in SPL book bingo! Did you see they dropped the first square? "Environmental" -- I don't have a ton on my shelf that fits, so I'm eager to see what they suggest.

Where did you end up going for Indie bookstore day?

>23 curioussquared: Yes! So excited for book bingo. Have you gotten a blackout before? How much do you typically participate in it? Book bingo is the best motivation to read over the summer, IMHO. :)

The environmental topic is an easy one for me, because I work in environmental/land use policy. I'm currently halfway through Strategic Corporate Conservation Planning for that one already. It's very dry and I can't recommend it for anyone that doesn't work in this realm, but I'm excited to share it with the company I work for. I might also read Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid, which I bought based on a recommendation card at Queen Anne Books. Apparently the author's approach is more focused on curiosity, hope, and interest in how creatures can adapt to climate change, rather than catastrophizing the issues.

If you want suggestions for that square, I have plenty. A couple great environmental audiobooks on Libby are An Immense World, The Hidden Life of Trees, and Allergic.... I also would recommend A Life on Our Planet by David Attenborough and Last Chance To See by Douglas Adams (yes, the Hitchhiker's Guide author) - I read both as paper copies and they are both interesting, easy to digest, and fairly short for nonfiction.

After posting saying that I didn't plan to do the Indie Bookstore Day Challenge, I changed my mind and decided to go for it. On Indie Bookstore Day, I went to ELEVEN bookstores, and ultimately I finished the challenge and visited all 28 over the ten-day period. It was a fun excuse to visit so many bookstores, but I spent so much money and it was a bit exhausting, so it'll likely be a one time thing for me.

Here are some of the bookstores I discovered from the challenge and now love. Have you been to any of these? :
- Liberty Bay Books (Poulsbo) More unique book collection at this one than some of the others.
- Ada's Technical Books (Capitol Hill) Coffee shop is lovely. Most of my books would fit the "technical book" category, so this bookstore is basically perfect.
- Nook & Cranny Books (Capitol Hill) Tiny store. Good books. Organized a bit differently than normal bookstores, based more on the mood/feel of the book and the size rather than the typical genres.
- Charlie's Queer Books (Fremont) This store is absolutely adorable. And it has all different book types and genres, but all of them have some connection to queerness. For example, there is a Sci Fi section that included books with either queer authors or queer characters - so you can stick to your typical favorite genres but choose more inclusive books! I'm a big fan.
- The Wise Owl Books (Tangletown) Another tiny store, but this one has records too. Good recommendations and cute.
- Queen Anne Book Co. I loved the recommendations in the "nature" section of the store. I was told that their book buyer is to blame for the wonderful recommendations and book tips. After visiting so many stores, it feels like all stores recommended the same things. But, not Queen Anne Books!
- Arundel Books (Pioneer Square) The rare book collection is gorgeous.

As a bonus - Ridgecrest books in Shoreline has the cutest shop dog.

>24 Kyler_Marie: I have gotten a blackout I think three out of five times I've participated? But I enjoy myself no matter what and always end up reading something fantastic that I would never have picked up otherwise. I think my favorite find last year was Queen of Urban Prophecy for the hip hop square. I just saw that they released another square (Friendship!) and the full board will come out next Wednesday the 22nd!

Ooh, I actually have An Immense World on hold on Libby already, so I'll probably save it until bingo officially starts :) Thanks for reminding me of that one! And Last Chance to See has been on my list to read for ages... And Allergic sounds fascinating, too. I am a lucky person who has few to no noticeable allergies, but my husband is allergic to a ton of stuff, so they're always on my radar.

Wow, I am super impressed that you did the whole challenge! Out of the stores you posted, I've only visited Queen Anne Book Co. a long time ago. I did recently visit Ridgecrest Books for the first time and met their sweet dog, and bought a copy of The Bullet that Missed. I go to Silent Book Club at Drumlin just down the street so it's easy to pop in and spend some money after :) I have been meaning to pay a visit to Charlie's Queer Books -- I saw some pics and it looks so cute! I should widen my bookstore visiting -- I am so loyal to Third Place Books and love their LFP location so much that I usually just end up doing all my book shopping there.

>25 curioussquared: I hadn't seen the announcement for the additional square! My confidence peaked at the Environment topic, but I have no idea what to choose for Friendship. Eek! Any ideas? I'm so excited for the full board. My favorite part is filling it out and finding the different books to fit the squares.

You're lucky to have no allergies - I'm allergic to everything.

I never heard of Queen of Urban Prophecy! I'm curious how you even found that one. It has so few reviews on here.

>26 Kyler_Marie: Hmm, I'll think about Friendship! The first one that comes to mind is Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, which is about two friends and their relationship over time through the lens of video games. Highly recommend if you haven't read it!

I think I found Queen of Urban Prophecy through SPL's list of staff recommendations for that square. I also love plotting out my board and figuring out what I'll read for each prompt! I usually start by trying to find books that fit from unread books on my shelf, then I start looking elsewhere for inspiration for the tougher ones. I like SPL's staff lists, and Third Place Books usually posts some store recommendations online, too.

I have a mystery illness and spent a lot of time relaxing and reading this week. Three books finished since Tuesday!

Demon Copperhead, which I mentioned earlier.

Gallant by V.E. Schwab was a great, fairly quick read. I didn't enjoy it as much as Addie LaRue, but it was an interesting story and captivated me until the end.

A Man Called Ove, which I truly enjoyed. I thought it'd be a quick book to fill the Friendship square for book bingo. But now I think it may be up there on my list of favorites. I'm watching the Tom Hanks movie today and hopefully I'll convince my partner to watch the Swedish movie sometime this weekend.

The BOOK BINGO card was announced! YES.

I'll update this post with ideas on potential books to fill each square. Going for blackout for the third year in a row. Also trying to make the LibraryThing book challenges choices line up with Book Bingo.

I finished Bingo! Here's what I read...

Read in the Sun
- Mort ❀

Young Adult
✔ Redwall ❀
- The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making ❀
- The Golden Compass ❀

Borrowed from a Library
✔ The Butchering Art

Housing / Poverty Justice
✔ The Affordable City ❀
- The Color of Law ❀
- Arbitrary Lines ❀

SAL Speaker (past or present)
✔ Be a Revolution ❀
- The Nickel Boys ❀

Body Liberation
✔ Loving Our Own Bones
- Shout Your Abortion ❀
- Angela Lansbury's Positive Moves ❀
- Twisted - The Tangled History of Black Hair Culture

Something that Scares You
✔ Frankenstein ❀

BIPOC Romance
✔ The Proposal

Sky Creatures
✔ All the Birds in the Sky ❀ (June American Author's Challenge Queer Author category)
✔ The Backyard Bird Chronicles
✔ Bird Brother ❀
- Slow Birding ❀
- Warblers and Woodpeckers ❀

One Big Book (400+ Pages) (counts as two)
✔ East of Eden ❀
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame ❀
- My Book on Ireland ❀

Suggested by an Independent Bookseller
✔ An Elderly Lady is Up to No Good (Suggested by University Bookstore) ❀
✔ A Stroke of the Pen, The Lost Stories (Suggested by Eagle Harbor Books) ❀
- Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid (Suggested by Queen Anne Book Co.) ❀

Queer Joy
✔ All the Things they Said We Couldn't Have
- Save Yourself

LGBTQIA+ Poetry / Essays
✔ On Being Different ❀
✔ How Far The Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures ❀
- Virology, Essays for the Living, The Dead, and the Small Things in Between

Short Story Collection
✔ An Elderly Lady is Up To No Good ❀
✔ A Stroke of the Pen, The Lost Stories ❀

Suggested by a Library Worker
✔ The Backyard Bird Chronicles (April 2024 Peak Picks)
✔ How Far The Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures ❀ (2023 Adult Non-fiction Recommendation)

Fantastical
✔ All the Birds in the Sky ❀ (June American Author's Challenge Queer Author category)
✔ Tress of the Emerald Sea ❀
✔ A Stroke of the Pen, The Lost Stories ❀

Cozy
✔ Tress of the Emerald Sea
✔ The Comfort Book ❀
✔ What You Are Looking For is in the Library ❀
- Agatha Christie ❀
- The Cemetery of Untold Stories

Refugee / Immigrant Memoir
✔ The Girl with Seven Names: Escape from North Korea ❀

Black Art / Artists
✔ Black Built: History and Architecture in the Black Community

In Translation
✔ A Man Called Ove
✔ An Elderly Lady is Up To No Good ❀
✔ What you are Looking for is in the Library

Friendship
✔ A Man Called Ove
✔ Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine

Environmental
✔ Strategic Corporate Conservation Planning ❀
- Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid ❀

Retelling
✔ Bryony and Roses

Free Square
✔ The Bitter Waters of Medicine Creek

Yay book bingo!! Going to spend some time hopefully plotting my board today 😊 I don't usually post all my picks on my thread but you've inspired me so check back later!

What do the flower symbols mean?

>30 curioussquared: I use flower symbols to indicate that I own the book, and I'm trying hard to read the books off my shelves!

I'm looking forward to seeing your picks! If you have any suggestions for my blank spots, I'd love to hear them. I actually got the idea of Byrony and Roses from your thread - I've been meaning to read a T. Kingfisher book and it seemed like a great choice for the Retelling square.

>31 Kyler_Marie: Awesome! I'm doing the same with reading off my shelves. I try to fill squares with books I own unless nothing fits or I happen to read something that fits from the library before I get to the book I planned.

Oh yay, I hope you love the Kingfisher! I'll see if I come up with any suggestions as I'm plotting 😊

I'm already feeling overwhelmed and excited by the giant list of books to read. It helps me to start a to-do list that focuses on the most urgent items so i can ignore the future stuff, so here goes.

Finish this week:
✔ The Bitter Waters of Medicine Creek
- The Egg and I
✔ Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine

May/June:
✔ Black Built: History and Architecture in the Black Community
✔ The Girl with Seven Names
✔ Tress of the Emerald Sea
✔ On Being Different
✔ The Comfort Book
✔ Bryony and Roses
✔ All the Birds in the Sky
✔ An Elderly Lady is Up To No Good
✔ Backyard Bird Chronicles
✔ A Stroke of the Pen, The Lost Stories
✔ How Far The Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures
✔ White Field, Black Sheep
✔ All the Things They Said We Couldn't Have
✖ The Tiger, A True Story of Vengeance and Survival I'm forfeiting this one. I got a bit over a third of the way through and I just don't love it.
✔ What You Are Looking for is in the Library

I'm powering through my book bingo list already, and in some cases I'm finishing (or trying to finish) more than one book per square.

Here's some future plans:

June:
✔ All the Things They Said We Couldn't Have
✔ What you are Looking for is in the Library
- Forever Open, Clear and Free
- East of Eden ❀

July:

- A Council of Dolls
- The Three Seasons of Bees ❀
- Frankenstein ❀
- Be a Revolution ❀
- a BIPOC Romance book (still trying to pick one out!)
- Arbitrary Lines ❀
- The Affordable City ❀
- Shout Your Abortion ❀
- Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid ❀
- Slow Birding ❀
- Warblers and Woodpeckers ❀

August:

- A Slant of Light (Jeffrey Lent)
- Loving Our Own Bones
- Redwall ❀
- The Color of Law ❀
- The Hunchback of Notre Dame ❀
- Save Yourself

Hahahaha those plans were ambitious! So far, I am still only reading East of Eden. It's a good book, but long and it takes a while to really get into it. I'm halfway through now, but the second half will likely go much quicker. Then I hope to move to The Three Seasons of Bees or Slow Birding.

August will need to be a big reading month if I'm going to catch up for book bingo.

An updated list of books for the month of August :

- The Three Seasons of Bees ❀ (Sky Creatures and Nonfiction Challenge)
✔ Bird Brother (Sky creatures) ❀
✔ The Proposal (BIPOC Romance)
✔ Frankenstein ❀ (Something that scares you)
✔ Loving Our Own Bones (Body Liberation)
✔ Be a Revolution ❀ (SAL Speaker)
✔ The Affordable City ❀ (Housing/Poverty Justice)
✔ The Butchering Art (Borrowed from the library)
✔ Redwall ❀ (Young Adult)

East of Eden is a big one! Looks like you have some good plans for August :)

I have seven more prompts to go to get a book bingo blackout -- lots to read but I think I can do it!

>37 curioussquared: You totally can. You've been powering through books! I can't believe how much you've read this year.
I have eight left and I'm confident that I'll get through them.

Currently reading The Proposal and Frankenstein. I'm such a vampire that the Read in the Sun category might be tough, so I'll probably save that until the end. :)

Three books remaining for book bingo. I'm over halfway through The Butchering Art and it is so good. I don't want it to end. I picked it up during a browse of the library, and it's one of the few physical library books that I have read in recent history. I'm walking distance from a public library and really should take advantage of their resources more often. It's just hard when the TBR at home is as tall as I am.

Next on the list is Redwall, which I remember loving as a kid. The category is Young Adult books and this one was staring at me from a shelf. Hopefully I enjoy it as much as I did as a teen. If I do, the next book in the series will fulfill my "read in the sun" category and I'll have my bingo board blacked out!

The storm in Seattle last weekend was awesome. I turned out the lights and lit some candles so the lightning was more prominent. It was a great backdrop to a book about bloody, gross surgeries in the Victorian era, which I read with a dimmed booklight. Unfortunately my dog didn't enjoy the storm as much as I did.

In other news, can fall get here already? I'm ready for pumpkins and tea and baked goods.

My Seattle Public Library Book Bingo board was submitted today! Despite taking one full month to read one book (East of Eden), I managed to blackout the board for the third year in a row.

It's always so much fun to participate in this challenge, but it is also such a nice relief when it is done because now I am less limited in my book choices.

Currently reading: Born a Crime and The Old Curiosity Shop

I fractured and dislocated my toe! You'd think that I'd be reading more while I'm trapped on the couch, but the pain and frustration has made it a bit difficult to focus. I watched the first two seasons of Yellowjackets and now I'm watching Fleabag for the first time. This year is full of surprises.

Finished two books this weekend: Curbing Traffic and Crying in the Bathroom. They were both solidly four star books for me - I read them fast and enjoyed the content but they weren't earth shattering or life changing.

I'm way behnd on my ROOT challenge. It will take a lot of work to get back on track. One plan (hopefully) is to read some of the shorter books off my shelves that I don't expect to love. This way I can make quicker progress and maybe give them away to make space for more books!

While I'm reading ROOT books, I have also been making progress on The Old Curiosity Shop. It's interesting and enjoyable, but I expected more shopkeeper antics and less traveling! I probably should have read more about the book before picking it up.

Currently Reading: Warblers and Woodpeckers, Rosemary (audiobook) and The Old Curiosity Shop

Currently Watching (TV): SO MANY great shows have new episodes this month! Taskmaster, OMITB, The Dog House, Bakeoff, and Agatha All Along. It's a wonder I get any reading done. But with a fractured toe, I'm not going anywhere...

>40 Kyler_Marie: Beautiful bingo card! I feel the same way about finishing the challenge -- I love doing it, but I also love finishing so I can read what I want again :)

Oof, sorry about the toe! I hope it heals quickly. Hopefully you can enjoy your forced reading/TV time while you're couchbound.

Recently, I decided to aim for a 100-book year. At this point, I'm at 83 completed books. 17 remaining.

It's been a bit of a stressful year and I'm hoping things calm down. Lots of house issues that I'm trying to address. It feels almost like whack-a-mole. I fix a problem and a new one pops up. It's the curse of the 130 year old house.

I'll be giving whole candy bars to the trick-or-treaters tonight! We don't get many, but it's always fun to see the little kiddos in costumes.

November goals:
✔ Gone Girl (Audio)
✔ Killed by a Traffic Engineer (Libary Book)
✔ Walk the Blue Fields (Claire Keegan)
- Dreamers of the Day (Jewish American Author - American Author Challenge)
- Prophet Song
- The Emperor of All Maladies (Nonfiction Book Challenge)

Sorry about all the house problems! Good luck with your November goals and reaching 100 -- I believe in you :)

Looking forward to your thoughts on Prophet Song. I just picked up a copy a few weeks ago!

>45 curioussquared: Thanks! Yea I bought a copy last week. Hopefully I'll get to it this month. Happy Halloween!

I didn't post about it when it happened, but I surpassed 75 books last month! As this is the 75-book challenge, it's quite exciting to have met that goal and I probably should have posted when it happened. So far, I have read more books this year than any prior year of my life.

Posting updates on LibraryThing (and tracking my books) has encouraged me to keep reading and to pick up my own books. The more I read, the more I am willing to forfeit a book if I don't like it. I view my bookshelf differently too. Now that I'm flying through my books, I've become more willing to give away the books that I finished and don't plan to read again. My bookshelves are about 1/4 books I have read, and the rest are just a huge TBR. This is intentional - whenever I want to read a new book, I have plenty to choose from. I rarely re-read books, so why keep them?

On the day after election day I got a jury duty notice. My jury duty is currently scheduled to occur on a week that I planned to take a staycation with my partner. I'll probably delay jury duty because I need the time off from work for my mental health. Hopefully I can do that, and hopefully the next time it is scheduled for a more convenient time. It feels like such a gamble!

Hooray for the 75!

Congrats!

>48 banjo123: Thank you! :)

>49 drneutron: Many thanks!

Congrats on 75 and the record for the year!! I agree, the community here definitely helps me keep reading 😊 Hope you are successful in delaying the jury duty!

>47 Kyler_Marie: Congrats on reaching 75! I feel the exact same way about reading more: when I know I can get through books I enjoy I'm more likely to give up on books I'm not enjoying, and I'm also more likely to give away books after I read them, to make room for more books