MobileRead Book Challenges discussion

I have a confession to make. There are a number of classic movies and television shows that I have wanted to see for decades, and I have decided that 2013 is the year I am going to start seeing them. That means less time for reading.

I'm sure that I have never read as many evenings as I did in 2012, and I'm not going to match that performance in 2013.

Because the publishing industry considers anyone who reads twelve books a year to be an "avid reader," my goal will be to finish twelve books in 2013.

Today is Christmas, and I received 18 books, so I will surpass my goal by fifty percent if I merely read everything I was given today.

:-)

Good luck and enjoy!! :) 18 books sounds like a marvelous Christmas!

Thanks Mrs. J and Nyssa! Nyssa, you should see the stack of DVD's I got!

Now I have a question. I would like to set up a banner showing my progress like I did last year. But I have completely forgotten how to do it. Can one of you show me through the ropes again, please?

By the way, you may recall that I counted evenings reading rather than books or pages in 2012. I'm glad I did it that way.

However, there is one downside. You can't make up for a lost evening. With books, if you skip a week, you can read double the number of books the following week. But with evenings, if you skip one, you'll never get it back. You can't do two in one day.

Do you mean one of these? :

TickerFactory.com

Choose "Objects/Actions Counter" under "Crafts/Hobbies" towards to bottom, and fill out as wanted, following the prompts.

Thanks Nyssa!

You're very welcome!! That's a pretty Ticker. :)

1...1/06...The Wrecking Crew - Kent Hartman

2...1/16...The Rebel League - Ed Willis

3...2/02...Class - Paul Fussell

LOL!! Notwithstanding my comments in my OP, starting Christmas Day I read four books in five weeks, and have yet to watch a movie!

4...3/01...How to Brew - John J. Palmer

I skipped the section on All-Grain Brewing. My kitchen isn't big enough for that!

I was a homebrewer twenty year ago, and in fact won a couple of ribbons. I have decided to get back into the hobby, and read this book to learn of the developments of the past two decades as well as to refresh my recollection.

My Great-great aunt used to make this delicious fermented fruit. I used to sneak it without permission. ;-)

MrsJoseph wrote: "My Great-great aunt used to make this delicious fermented fruit. I used to sneak it without permission. ;-)"

Did she use the yeast / sugar method, or did she make Rumtopf?

It was canned fruit and sugar, IIRC.

You two ladies should buy this book!

I find it takes about $200 worth of equipment to make beer worth the effort, assuming that you start with nothing.

Twenty years ago, the bible of homebrewing was Charlie Papazian's Joy of Homebrewing. I may pick up a copy of the latest edition of that one as well.

Sadly, beer doesn't agree with me. My alcoholic beverage production is limited to soaking peaches in brandy. Maybe I should build a still instead. :D

Christa, as I recall, you live in the right neighborhood for that, don't you?

Haha yeah, I even know a couple people who make 'shine. It's still not legal to distill anything with that high of an alcohol content without a license, but just about everyone knows at least one person who can get it for them.

5...The Complete Joy of Home Brewing, Third Edition - Charlie Papazian

This was much better than the Palmer book. Five stars. Again, I skipped the chapters for the advanced all grain homebrewers.

Am very late to the brewing conversation. That's me - I gatecrash when the party's already over.

Anyway, I did have the tiniest dabble in brewing when I made my own alcoholic ginger beer. It was the simple store-bought version where everything comes pre-prepared, but I've always been meaning to get back into things and try something a little less pre-packaged.

I was interested in particular in brewing alcoholic lemonade. I'm a fan of lemon drinks so it seemed like the most obvious choice. It's usually called hard lemonade around here, and if you can do it in lemon, you could probably work out how to do it with other fruits as well.

I'm not sure what the difference is between hard lemonade and ciders, but it is all interesting nevertheless.

Stupid thing is that I don't really drink much anymore. I don't drink beer unless it's the very 'un-beer-like' Corona (with a wedge of lemon of course), so there's not really any point in exploring that side. I've also found that I'm not that fond of Mead - so honey brewing is probably not going to happen.

However ciders, lemonades and ginger beers are all in the realms of possibility.

I sometimes like making cordial (as in non-alcoholic fruit concentrate) and I've put together some nice flavours like orange and ginger, plum and vanilla, pear and honey, and peach, nectarine and mint. So I do seem to have an affinity for drink making.

Unfortunately, the problem is that I'm bone-bastard lazy! :D

Caleb, I did a little searching for beer recipe books at Amazon over the weekend, and I noticed that at least one offers advice for ciders. I don't know anything about ciders, and I didn't make a note about it. Perhaps there is a book regarding ciders specifically that would be right up your alley.

Did you find any motivation while you were at it? I could do with some of that. :)

6...4/03...Uncle Scrooge: Only a Poor Old Man - Carl Barks

I read the comics when I was young, but I had no appreciation then for the many very clever visual gags.

7...4/20...Brewed in Canada - Sneath Allen Winn

8...4/26...Crimes & Punishment, Life as a CFL Official - Neil Payne

9...4/30...The Jewish Revolutionary Spirit - E. Michael Jones

10...4/30...My Walk with Jesus and Friends - Sterling W. Marriner

GA wrote: "Caleb, I did a little searching for beer recipe books at Amazon over the weekend, and I noticed that at least one offers advice for ciders. I don't know anything about ciders, and I didn't make a ..."

I haven't done ciders but I tried canning this past weekend. I enjoyed it and I think I'd like to do some more.

11...5/04...The Glory of Their Times - Lawrence S. Ritter

12...5/06...The Highly Effective Detective Plays the Fool - Richard Yancey

I reached my goal!

Congrats!!! :-)

13...5/07...The Highly Effective Detective Crosses the Line - Richard Yancey

Thanks Mrs. J!

14...5/09...Hop Variety Handbook - Dan Woodske

15...5/19...Noises Off - Michael Frayn

I saw this on Broadway in 1984 with Linda Thorson. It is a three act play. I laughed so hard during the first two acts that I couldn't laugh anymore for the third act!

16...5/25...On the Trail of the Assassins - Jim Garrison

17...6/06...Auntie Mame - Patrick Dennis

GA wrote: "17...6/06...Auntie Mame - Patrick Dennis"

Always wanted to read this. Was it good?

Caleb, I enjoyed it and can recommend it. Good for a few laughs.

I loved the musical. Watched the movie version with Lucille Ball and Bea Arthur and it had me in stitches, so I was wondering what the novel would be like.

"I was never in the chorus!" :)

18...6/29...The Black Lizard Big Book of Black Mask Stories - Otto Penzler, ed.

Both The Jewish Revolutionary Spirit and Black Mask Stories are 1100 pages long. In both cases, I read 80% of the books in 2012, put them down for many months, and then read the remaining 20% in swift fashion.

19...7/17...Rediscover Catholicism - Matthew Kelly

Protestants would enjoy this as well. It is a discussion of what Christians need to do in a non-Christian culture.

20...7/22...Otley - Martin Waddell

21...7/30...Before the Machine - Mark J. Schmetzer

22...8/14...The Hidden Hand - Carroll John Daly

And the books just keep ticking by. :)

Thanks Home! I still haven't started on those classic movies that were my New Year's resolution!

23...9/05...The Adventures of Cardigan - Frederick Nebel

24...11/20...When Baseball Was Still King - Gene Fehler