MobileRead Book Challenges discussion

My 2024 Stuff

I plan to read some books. I don't know how many.

Ok, I'm setting my goal at 40 books.

I know there will be series reads, and I am long overdue for getting those sorted out again. I think the ones I listed for 2023 are mostly updated but there are more to add. Of course. Aren't there always?

The Series Corral

Sandman Slim: Read 1-9, To read 10-12 (library)

Albert Samson: Read 1-4, To read 5-9 (owned)

The Immortal Doc Holliday: Read 1-12, To read 13-17 (KU)

Eric Carter: Read 1-3, To read 4-8 (library)

Freaky Florida Mystery Adventures: DONE (KU)

Montague & Strong Case Files: Read 1-13, To read 14-20 (KU)

Gibson:
Jackpot: Read 1-2 To Read 3 (owned / library, 3 probably won't be out for a while)
Sprawl: Read 1-2, To read 3 (library)

Pendergast: Read 1-2, To read 3 - 21 (library)

Some of the series that were on the 2023 list have been... well, not dropped, exactly, but de-prioritized. Doesn't mean that I won't get back to them, just means I don't feel moved to keep them in mind at the moment.

This list is being made with the assumption that I will be reading two series books before the new year starts, so I'm going to be really confused if I don't because the numbers will be wrong. (Edit: I did read the two books in question so the series progress info is correct. Yay!)

Covers By Month

January (11)


February


March


April


May


June


July


August


September


October


November


December

Secondary goals:

Yeah, this section is above the primary goals because I left two empty spaces for some reason.

Keep up with my reading journal

Try to keep total book spending including KU sub under $250 for the year. The one exception to this will be if I lose my access to my old library and have to buy a non-resident card for Orlando or Miami-Dade. (The actual county I live in here in FL has a very sad Overdrive collection.) If I end up doing that, I won't be counting it against my total budget.

Reserved

Authors of interest

The rough "targets" shelf: https://www.goodreads.com/user_shelve...

Note - I don't intend to get to all of them in 2024, books will be shuttled or shuffled as time goes by. I can't possibly read all of those plus the various series and such I want to read through the year. It's more of a reminder list.

Truman Capote - Whether or not hearing his voice in my head as I read will help or hinder the effort remains to be seen. I'll be sure to comment on that experience when the time comes. I actually love hearing him speak about different things in various video clips and such, but "reading" his works to me inside my mind may be an altogether different experience.

Shakespeare - I own the giant First Folio 2nd Ed. from RSC in hardcover but I didn't shelve it on the targets shelf because I'll be shelving the individual works as I (or if I) get to them for tracking purposes. Might be auditing some courses on EdX or the like to go along with that.

Zora Neale Hurston -

James Michener - SPACE (Done!)

Primo Levi -

Gabriel García Márquez -

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EDIT: At some point I stopped keeping up with this and now I can't be bothered. LOL It's fine. I know I'm getting my money's worth out of KU and that was my main reason for tracking these.

Sources

KU:


Library:


Already Owned:


Bought in 2024:


Free in 2024:

Status

DNF:

On Hold:

Acquisitions (moved to above if read)

Free (FR=First Reads):
(FR) (FR)

Bought:
(7.99) (1.69) (1.99) (0.99) (0.99) (1.99) (0.99)

First! :D

Wishing you a wonderful 2024!!

:D Thanks! Same to you!

Hope 2024 brings you the best of books! :D

Unsure if I'll even make my own thread as i havent really been doing much reading recently

DoodlePanda wrote: "Hope 2024 brings you the best of books! :D

Unsure if I'll even make my own thread as i havent really been doing much reading recently"

Thanks! :D z3

I just hope 2024 is less eventful than this year was. LOL

I think you should make your own thread even if it ends up being mostly not about books. No one will judge you if it ends up sitting there unused. It's okay.

Christa wrote: "I think you should make your own thread even if it ends up being mostly not about books. No one will judge you if it ends up sitting there unused. It's okay.."

I agree 100%!!

That is fair! Will make thread :D

DoodlePanda wrote: "That is fair! Will make thread :D"

Ha! Peer pressure wins again! :D

Christa wrote: "DoodlePanda wrote: "That is fair! Will make thread :D"

Ha! Peer pressure wins again! :D"

LOL!

Hahaha xD

First book of 2024 is going to be . Started it last night. Decided I needed to read it after seeing a review from Lyn comparing the MC to Murderbot. LOL With what little I read last night, I have to agree with that assessment and I really didn't want to put my Kindle down to go to bed.

I set up a sort of challenge thing in one of the posts above. Things are kind of a mess in my posts but hey, I have a whole year to make it pretty.

Murderbot, you say? Hmm.. TBR just got longer!

Happy New Year!! Have a beautiful 2024!!

Nyssa wrote: "Murderbot, you say? Hmm.. TBR just got longer!

Happy New Year!! Have a beautiful 2024!!"

Happy New Year to you too!! I don't want to jinx anything but I'm allowing myself a bit of optimism for the upcoming year. LOL

Yes, Murderbot-like as in sarcastic, emotionally reluctant, and incredibly lacking in relating to other people. Also, believed by others to be good for nothing but utter destruction and having incredible abilities that make simple things harder than they should be. (There's an example in the first few pages where she's trying to access a simple cleaning spell.)

Interesting! Hopefully, this is another series my daughter and I can read together. While she is an adult, spicey reads give her the ick.

There's a horror selection in this month's First Reads! Yay! As if I hadn't already accumulated enough free books this month...

I haven't received the email yet.

Nyssa wrote: "I haven't received the email yet."

We get two this month. https://www.amazon.com/firstreads?ref...

Christa wrote: "Nyssa wrote: "I haven't received the email yet."

We get two this month. https://www.amazon.com/firstreads?ref..."

Nice! :) Thanks for the link!

Nyssa wrote: "Nice! :) Thanks for the link!"

You're welcome! This is the first time in a long time that I've agonized over my selections. There's usually only one that I'm even slightly interested in, if that. :D

I've agonized between two selections a few times, but the worst is when I'm not interested in any because it feels like a wasted opportunity.

I did it! I wrote a review! https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Finished A Deadly Education last night and started Heart of Darkness. I think I have whiplash from going from a YA fantasy to that. A lot of people were assigned HoD in high school, but I wasn't and I've been meaning to get around to it for decades. So I'm finally getting around to it.

Christa wrote: "I did it! I wrote a review! https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Finished A Deadly Education last night and started Heart of Darkness. I think I have whipla..."

Excellent review; I'm now more eager to read it!
I'm glad your first book of the year was so enjoyable!!

Nyssa wrote: "Excellent review; I'm now more eager to read it!
I'm glad your first book of the year was so enjoyable!!"

Thank you! And I'm glad too! I'm planning to read more and different stuff this year and landing on an unexpected 5-star surprise is encouraging. Never know where the next great read will come from!

I started Heart of Darkness many years ago, but didn't give it much of a chance before I put it aside. Christa, let us know if you like it!

GA wrote: "I started Heart of Darkness many years ago, but didn't give it much of a chance before I put it aside. Christa, let us know if you like it!"

Oh, I will definitely let you all know! I'm going to try to write at least short reviews for everything I read this year. But hey, you did mention wanting more of a challenge this year, maybe you should give Heart of Darkness another shot? At least it's short. :D

I finished Heart of Darkness last night, and I just finished writing my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Started reading Divine Rivals but only to get the Kindle Challenge thingie for reading a Goodreads Choice winner. It was one of the few qualifying books that was in KU. I hope it's decent.

Christa wrote: "Started reading Divine Rivals but only to get the Kindle Challenge thingie for reading a Goodreads Choice winner. It was one of the few qualifying books that was in KU. I hope it's ..."

Yellowface was my Goodreads Choice selection for the Kindle Challenge.

I look forward to your thoughts on Divine Rivals. I'm in a group that reads the previous Awards Winners yearly, and we don't have this one scheduled until November.

Yellowface looked compelling but the 2-month wait at the library... I'll likely still read it eventually, though.

Divine Rivals is better than I expected so far. Or rather, I'm enjoying it more than I expected to. YA Romantic Alternate Historical Fiction is one of those genres I'm not totally compatible with. LOL But it's working for me here. I'm at about 30% into it so far.

Christa wrote: "Yellowface looked compelling but the 2-month wait at the library... I'll likely still read it eventually, though.

Divine Rivals is better than I expected so far. Or rather, I'm enjoying it more th..."

Two months - oof! I'm glad Divine Rivals is going well for you. :)

LOL Yeah. I don't normally mind long holds, but because it's for a Challenge achievement, I was worried I'd forget about it and end up being backlogged when the hold actually came in.

Sometime today I'll be setting up a new reading journal. I kept one last year but it's a small notebook from when I was using my pocket-sized TN and I have realized the limitations of that. I was going to try to update my old A5 one that I started in 2021 but since there's a year and a half missing I decided to just start fresh because I can't bear the thought of copying all of those over to it. LOL

I have a nice A5 notebook that I bought in 2022 and never used for anything: https://www.amazon.com/Tropical-Parad...

So today I'll be setting up my series lists. The only question with the actual book entries is whether I want to copy my book reviews in by hand or print them and glue them to the pages. I might try copying the first one by hand and then seeing how that goes. If it's a mess, I can always glue the printed one over top. :D

Eh, now that I think about it (since the idea of gluing things is on the table) I could just print last year's books from my GR shelf and glue those into the old one...

Crap. Now I have to reconsider all my plans.

Christa wrote: "I have a nice A5 notebook that I bought in 2022 and never used for anything: https://www.amazon.com/Tropical-Parad..."

The journal is beautiful! Best wishes with whatever you decide to do.

I tried keeping a digital book journal using OneNote, but the habit didn't stick; it felt more like work than fun.

Thanks! <3 Yeah, I don't do good with electronic journaling / planning of any kind.

Ok, decided to start fresh in the new notebook, currently in the process of writing out all my in-progress series. It's... a lot. LOL

So I had noticed that the last several weeks, my Kindle wasn't obeying my instructions to add books to Currently Reading when I started them. This evening I restarted my Kindle to force the new update and shortly after, I had like 15 books on my Currently Reading shelf with today's start date. LOL It didn't mess up any of my existing dates or anything, I just had to delete the extra reading date section. I guess my Kindle was just constipated.

Christa wrote: "My 2024 Stuff

I plan to read some books. I don't know how many.

Ok, I'm setting my goal at 40 books.

I know there will be series reads, and I am long overdue for getting those sorted out again..."

Haha! I would have left it with I don't know how many.

HomeInMyShoes wrote: "Haha! I would have left it with I don't know how many."

To be fair, I still don't know how many. It's just good to have goals. Kinda. 🤣

Christa wrote: "HomeInMyShoes wrote: "Haha! I would have left it with I don't know how many."

To be fair, I still don't know how many. It's just good to have goals. Kinda. 🤣"

Agreed. Goals are good. Like "getting out of bed."

Courtney Barnett. My favourite artist right now. Turning Green (the KEXP radio station video). Or maybe Fountains of Wayne who I rediscovered.

Finished Divine Rivals. Didn't know it was a cliffhanger. Rather annoyed by that. Review here.

Started How It Unfolds, first book in the Amazon Originals Far Reaches collection.

I hate it when books end on a cliffhanger, for me it's a reason not to continue with the series.

Equally as bad is when (nearly) each chapter in a book ends on a cliffhanger. That's just exhausting.

Bianca wrote: "Equally as bad is when (nearly) each chapter in a book ends on a cliffhanger. That's just exhausting."

Yeah, it's not as bad when the overall pacing of the book makes the chapters make sense, but sometimes if feels like the author was just taught to end chapters that way and it throws off the mood of the book. Every book needs "breathing" space where things slow down have a bit of a break before the next Thing happens.