Holly’s Comments (group member since Nov 05, 2013)

Holly’s comments from the The Reading Challenge Group group.

Shelf tidying was exhausting! Decided it would be easiest just to take everything off the shelves, organise into Authors name, then put back on in the right order. Ended up taking around 2 and a half hours... It does look lovely now it's done though!

And since I've forgotten to update this....

The January Update:

Reading:
- The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu and Their Race to Save the World’s Most Precious Manuscripts by Joshua Hammer (25/1)
- Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (26/1 - re-read)
- A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine (2/2, yes I know this is technically should be in the February update!)

It was a slow start for reading, but it's been very good now I've started. I'm honestly just reading what I fancy, rather than sticking to any plan right now. The Bad-ass Librarians was one on my to-read list for forever, and was similarly sat on my shelves gathering dust for a long time. I can feel myself getting excited by books again, which is an amazing feeling after so long of just general apathy.

The Mental Health Stuff:
I've managed to start a few courses at my local Recovery College, aimed at people with mental health issues, and that has definitely helped the isolation and general nothingness that has been the result of 8 months of depression...

I've also started running (which is something I'd never thought I'd say). Week 1 of Couch to 5k completed!

There's still a long way to go, but lets hope this month is an indication of the year to come!

Thank you all so much for your kind words! I kind of lost all interest in the things that used to make me happy, namely reading. I'm hoping that as I start to get better (so far it's been a long 8 month process...) my reading will come back more and more!

I'm actually going to organise my bookshelves today. Having moved my room around several times, they've all gotten out of order and it's been driving my mad (no pun intended...). Hoping going through them all will give me the nudge to finally read more of them!

So some of you (if you've been around for long enough...) remember I used to run this group. For a variety of reasons (getting my undergrad/masters and mental health problems), I ended up stepping down for the most part and giving up on reading for a bit. However, since 2020 is a new year and a new me, I thought I'd try get back into things again!

My main aim is to just read more, especially books I already own. I haven't properly read in so long (depression's a bitch...), and I really want to get back into it. I'll be posting the books I've read, and some more general progress on my reading in part to share with you guys, but also to track for myself the progress I'm making not just in reading, but in my mental health as well!

I'm looking forward to being back and getting into the swing of things again.

My Reading So Far:

- The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu and Their Race to Save the World’s Most Precious Manuscripts by Joshua Hammer (25/1)
- Little Brother by Cory Doctorow (26/1 - re-read)
- A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine (2/2)

17/30, 57% and 4 books ahead of schedule.

With now working full time, and recovering from essentially a year off from reading, I thought I'd relax into life with a far easier goal than I previously would have done. However, working in a library definitely has you picking up and reading way more books than I expected.

I've just seen this... Will definitely be getting involved

Sorry it's slightly late, but here's the Autumn Bingo Board!

There will, sorry!

I've had a hectic summer and Goodreads kinda fell through the cracks.

Definitely gonna start this today!

Gah I've gotten so behind on this! I really need to get on with Philosophers Stone!

To be honest, I find the first two books a bit of a drag, knowing that things really start getting great at Prisoner of Azkaban (my favourite HP book), so these ones are always slightly harder to get through.

I might just try and read Philosopher's Stone today, and get it out the way!

Yes Renee! What did you think?

Renee that's insane!

My June was packed full of some really amazing books!

My favourites were probably Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet and Station Eleven. All had great characters and a wonderful writing style. I definitely think I'm leaning towards more character-driven books...

Illuminae presents a science fiction world told through various different forms, not like your typical prose.

Regarded as something fresh and exciting, it's bound to be an interesting read!

The original inspiration for the 1996 film of the same name, Anne Rice's The Mummy was never actually credited as the basis of the film's story!

This month, our focus on North Africa brings us to one of Rice's classics!

For our non-fiction pick, we're reading Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void, by popular science author Mary Roach.

Her other books have been massively successful, and we're diving into her one about space!

I'm thinking of taking it slow, and starting tonight. I know I'll probably want to rush through them, but I'd really like to pace myself and get the most out of them.

It's honestly been years since I've read them!

The more I think about this book the more I realise it fits so perfectly with the month.

Of course there's the LGBT aspect, but there's also the minority of the Mexican-American culture, the minority of introverts, the minority of people who struggle with mental health.

The issues that are presented in the book are done so in a way that is fundamentally realistic, while not feeling like token gestures. And the culmination of all of them means the boom isn't merely an 'lgbt story' or a 'Mexican story'. It's just about two young boys trying to figure out the world.

So after a few of us chatting in the request thread, we've decided to do a Harry Potter buddy read!

This is planning to be really casual. Personally, I'll be rereading them in order, but if people want to read one or two or just join in the discussion randomly, everyone is welcome!

As always, please tag your spoilers! As we're likely to all be reading at different paces and on different books, tagging spoilers is really important!

And if you don't want to read the books, but want to join in the discussion, you're more than welcome. It's a super popular set of books that everyone has an opinion on!

I feel the exact same way Allison! There's definitely something to Ari's character that makes you really relate. I read it and basically nodded to all of his thought processes and feelings.