I seriously followed this reading challenge for most of 2013 whilst I was stitching together Jorie Loves A Story! I loved the idea at the jump-start because I think any reader goes through a transitional period where the art of the gathering of books far outweighs the measuring of time towards reading the books we’ve gathered! Life can derail our plans quite spontaneously as much as we can fall out of love with a genre OR theme. Sometimes, we find books which will truly captivate our hearts, our minds, and our spirits — but perhaps the timing of their placement in our lives was wrong!? What if we needed extra! bits of time to sort through whatever we were going through in order to emerge into the very right moment! to grab said book off our shelf, dig into it, and settle into this brilliantly written story which has left us ruminatively pensive after we close the sleeves!? This is precisely why I was attracted to this particular challenge, because its such a self-revolutionary idea! To challenge ourselves to dust off the cover of a book we were always keenly mad to read, yet time distracted us. Time intervened. Now its our time to reset the boundaries of the reading spectrum and conquer reading the books we find winking at us as we walk past them!
My 2014 Shelf Selections:
Larkrise to Candleford by Flora Thompson*
Bluebird or the Invention of Happiness by Sheila Kohler*
The Secret Papers of Madame Olivetti by Annie Vanderbilt*
The Forest Lover by Susan Vreeland*
The Crimson Petal and the White by Michael Faber*
Lara by Bertice Small
The Beach Street Knitting Society & Yarn Club by Gil McNeil
Needles and Pearls by Gil McNeil
Casting Off by Nicole Dickson
Deep in the Heart of Trouble by Deeanne Gist
Standing in the Rainbow by Fannie Flagg
Einstein by Walter Isaacson
Alternates:
Eragon by Christopher Paolini
Brisingr by Christopher Paolini
{*} attempted originally in Bout of Books, 8.0
You’ll notice that I am including books I originally attempted during my first Bout of Books readathon, but I didn’t actually finish the books, nor did I blog about them! Therefore, I felt they were free to be included in my 2014 selections! I most dearly want to read the stories, as my heart was intrigued during the Bout, but oh! The hours slipped through my fingers quicker than the sand in an hourglass, and *poof!* I haven’t even broached the spines once more! Imagine!? I now have a lovely year to dig into these lovely books, sort out my thoughts and impressions of them as I transition through my list, giving myself a second chance to re-affirm that you can never be too late to meet the book which has calmly sat on your shelf awaiting your proper attention!
IF your joining this challenge for the first time like I am, did you have similar motivations? Which books did you settle on? Ones that you’ve had for absolute ages and eons? Or, ones that were within the time frame of the challenge and decided to jump in on them before ‘years’ stacked distance from giving you the chance to read them?
In summary:
To read the books you’ve been bypassing on your bookshelf
& give them the attention they deserve!
Join other readers as they endeavour to do the same!
Hosted by the same blogger who brings us Austen in August!
{SOURCE: 2014 TBR Challenge badge created by Jorie in Canva.}
I loved the premise of this meme {WWW Wednesdays} due to the dexterity that it gives the reader! :) Clearly subject to change on a weekly rotation, which may or may not lead to your ‘next’ read which would provide a bit of a paradoxical mystery to your readers!! :) Love the concept! Therefore, this weekly meme is hosted by Should Be Reading. Each week you participate, your keen to answer the following questions:
What are you currently reading!?
What did you recently finish reading!?
What do you think you’ll read next!?
Afterwhich, your meant to click over to Should Be Reading to share your post’s link so that the rest of the bloggers who are participating can check out your lovely answers! :) Perhaps even, find other bloggers who dig the same books as you do! I thought it would serve as a great self-check to know where I am and the progress I am hoping to have over the next week!
What are you currently reading!? A better question would be to ask “What is Jorie not reading!?” (smiles a bit mischievously!) You see, I fell behind on my Septemb-Eyre + Classics Re-Told Reading schedules, but I stubbornly refuse to abandon ship on either project! Afterall, I am stitching together posts this week for 4 adaptations in motion picture for “Pride and Prejudice”, as well as making headway towards having book reviews ready as well! Therefore, I am knee deep inside Chapters XII-XXI of Jane Eyre, expecting to post my ruminations by Sunday, which coincides with my review of The Boxcar Baby, which I am starting on the morrow! The Pride books I am reading are as follows: Mr. Darcy’s Little Sister by C. Allyn Pierson, The Private Diary of Mr. Darcy by Maya Slater, and The Independance of Miss Mary Bennett by Colleen McCullough.
Meanwhile, I have seven! lovely books in progress at different stages of absorption:
To the keenly observant, this list was included on my #1 WWW! I still fully intend to read each of them!
What did you recently finish reading!? The Secret Keeper K.B. Laugheed! This story bewitched my mind, as it was such an engrossing multi-dimensional stroke of narrative!! I was quite gobsmacked when I read the other reviewers’ opinions, as I would never consider this to be a book for a pre-teen! Unless they were emotionally mature, but even then, its not a story of innocence nor of a life lived wrapped around the warmth of hearth and home! Its a gutting testament of the power of overcoming your past and carrying forward into your future! I seriously wonder at times, am I reading a different book altogether!? When I was between the ages of 9-12 I wouldn’t be caught dead reading a book with such heavy story-lines as these, because I was wrapped up in: Anne of Green Gables, Mandie, Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, Thoroughbred, The Black Stallion, Agatha Christie, and other childhood favourites I’ve outlined under “Children’s Lit: The Undiscovered Frontier“. By 13, I was exploring more mature texts, as I was in a Michael Crichton, John Grisham, and Tom Clancy phase by then, but evenso, the books I chose to read by them were not on this same theme. I was also entering my cowboy and frontier fiction days, yet those authors were more tempered than Laugheed in their descriptions of frontier Americana. As I would consider this book akin to “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” the tv series, which I watched in my twenties! The story is still haunting my thoughts, because I very much want this book to transform itself into ‘a first of a series’ OR at the very least ‘one of two’ stories stitched together. Its very much one half of a whole! I truly love this book, for adults! I’ll step off my soapbox now, my ire was irked that’s all!
What do you think you’ll read next!? I will be diving into the world of Ave, [The Fires of Eden series] by way of a short story collection that knits together previously spoken about characters or events, inside The Chronicles of Ave: Volume I by Stephen Zimmer! My review of this lovely collection will be live on my blog: 5th of October! Continuing forward with Eyre, Chapters XXII-XXIX will be consumed next, as well as Two Shall Become One: Mr. & Mrs. Fitzwilliam Darcy: Pride and Prejudice Continues by Sharon Lathan, Pemberley by the Sea {alternative title: The Man Who Loved Pride and Prejudice} and Mr. Darcy’s Obsession by Abigail Reynolds; Pride, Prejudice, and Jasmin Field by Melissa Nathan; Dancing with Mr. Darcy: stories inspired by Jane Austen and Chawton House {anthology} by Sarah Waters and Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal. I am still awaiting materials through ILL &/or books to boomerang back to me, to complete my Classics Re-Told Project, therefore, this is an abbreviated list!
BONUS: What did you forego reading at the moment to read again lateron? Sadly, I had to let go of Lucid Stars by Andrea Barrett, which was an ILL book, and therefore, will be a bit trickier to get back again! I simply ran out of hours to read all the lovely books I was attempting to read having been ill for a week [third week of September!]. There are times when you simply cannot do anymore than your able too. The Irresistible Blueberry Bakeshop & Cafe, and Jane and the Unpleasantness of Scargrave Manor slid into this category as well! I was able to reach the audio clip that I shared with you during my Top Ten List for Autumn Reads, yet that was about as far as I made it before it was called back! With Scargrave, I felt like it would be possible to conclude the story, but in the end, the hours rain out of the hourglass! I am back on hold for both of these lovelies, and eagerly await their return! I have also decided that for whichever reason, my ‘time’ to read Mistress of my Fate has not yet arrived!
Whew!
I wonder what everyone else is up, too!?
{SOURCE: The WWW Wednesday badge created by Jorie in Canva as a way to
promote the weekly meme for those who want to take part in it.}
I loved the premise of this meme {WWW Wednesdays} due to the dexterity that it gives the reader! :) Clearly subject to change on a weekly rotation, which may or may not lead to your ‘next’ read which would provide a bit of a paradoxical mystery to your readers!! :) Love the concept! Therefore, this weekly meme is hosted by Should Be Reading. Each week you participate, your keen to answer the following questions:
What are you currently reading!?
What did you recently finish reading!?
What do you think you’ll read next!?
Afterwhich, your meant to click over to Should Be Reading to share your post’s link so that the rest of the bloggers who are participating can check out your lovely answers! :) Perhaps even, find other bloggers who dig the same books as you do! I thought it would serve as a great self-check to know where I am and the progress I am hoping to have over the next week!
What are you currently reading!? Such a question, this week! :) I must confess, this is my first day past my migraine, and even I am a bit surprised at how well I am doing! I had to let go of Bout of Books, 8.0 whose postings are still a bit run amuck as I haven’t had the proper chance to go back and flesh out what needs to be completed! I’ll get to it, just not today! Which is why I am still in-progress with my first Austen in August selection: “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen, of which I am hoping to conclude either tonight or on the morrow! I want to post my review of this lovely novel before September whips into view!! I have plans for how I want to read through my other selections, but those plans will be revealed at a later time! :)
I am going to forego attempting to read my first Annie’s Attic mystery, until Bout of Books, 9.0 in January! However, I may or may not dig into “The Crimson Petal and the White” by Michael Faber at some point between now and then! The reason I’m holding off on Annie’s Attic’s series, is because that is what my focus for Bout 9.0 will be! Ha! I’m going COSY!! :)
Meanwhile, I have seven! lovely books in progress at different stages of absorption:
If you choose to click over on each title, you will be drawn back into the days of the Bout, and see what first motivated me to read each book and the progression of reading them as each day lulled forward!! I must say, it’s a remarkable chronicle of one week out of my life, of how unwellness and rollicking thunderstorms can swerve in and out of your reading hours, and cause quite a bit of havoc on your overall outcomes!! 1 out of 10 books consumed isn’t quite so bad, when you think on it!
What did you recently finish reading!? “Haunted” by Heather Graham was the 1 out of 10 books I consumed during the Bout, and “The Prayer Box” by Lisa Wingate is the book I read for review whilst taking part in my first book blog tour for JKS Communications Publicity Firm!! I had such a profound personal attachment to the book, that I wasn’t quite sure how I wanted to direct my review of it, but after putting the finishing touches on that post this afternoon and evening, I must say, I am happy with where it led me to go!! :) My review of Haunted will be clustered closer to when I can finish more of my Bout books!!
What do you think you’ll read next!? A far easier answer to provide! :) You see, after I read “The Golem and the Jinni” by Helene Wecker, I wrote a very cheeky note about what I wanted to read next!! Which is why, dear hearts, as soon as I get my tail caught up with all these lovely books I am reading, I will be digging into Mistress of my Fate. However, short of that, I will be picking up my copy of Jane Eyre, as I am participating in Books of Eyre 2013 + Septemb-Eyre 2013! Evenso, there are a few books that came into my hands via the library, which I’ll be outlining in my next post, “Library Loot #1“, which surely will curtail my reading of Mistress of my Fate, a wee bit more due to the fact the books will need to be returned forthwit! And, there is the issue of Lucid Stars finally making its way to me, as there was a bit of a glitch in my ILL’ing recently, to where, I received the two books AFTER this first one! Oy! Time shall reveal!
{SOURCE: The WWW Wednesday badge created by Jorie in Canva as a way to
promote the weekly meme for those who want to take part in it.}
Day One: Larkrise to Candleford by Flora Thompson, which unbeknownst to me is actually a collection of three of her novels re-formatted as a trilogy omnibus originally debuted in 1945! The original titles were as follows: Lark Rise (1939), Over to Candleford (1941), Candleford Green (1943). Nor did I realise that this particular new found trilogy was an early pitch into what I call most endearing “biographical fiction” whereupon most of the context and contents are fictional re-representations of a living soul’s life and the experiences they incurred therein.
A more starting revelation: She was bourne 5 December 1876 passing from this life on 21 May 1947. This is pertinent to me because my parents were wedded in May and my Mum was bourne in ’47! I always get a hitching of excitement when I notice numerological coincidences OR dare I say, connective threads that interlace through all of our lives if we keep our eyes open to notice them. Further still, the sequel to Lark Rise to Candleford appeared in 1979, the year of my birth!
Motivation to Read: In part due to the BBC mini-series of the same name: Lark Rise to Candleford which afforded appreciators of period dramas four series to settle into this lovely community that has spun itself into our conscienceness.
Acquired Book By: Purchased in a used book shoppe in a small towne tucked away in a yester year atmosphere that resonated with my sense of nostalgia. I used to wander around soaking in the quiet solitude of a towne un-caught up with the pacing of the modern world, having alighted its rhythm to an unseen sense of un-clocked suspension. Circa 2010.
Oh, Monday, sweet Monday! The Read-A-Thon has begun!
Number of Pages Devoured | Out of : 48 |537
Tally of Pages Read Thus Far: 48; slight difficulty in reading as this is more of a sociological accounting of real life, rather than a purely fictional piece of literature. it reads more like an observationist’s journal, crafted specifically not to let one detail go unnoticed or unwrit! in the beginning, i nearly felt i could not finish this one, as it was harkening back my nightmares of boredom with Robinson Crusoe!! thankfully, it fluttered away from those grievations!
Book in Progress |continuing onward |happily consumed: 0 | 1 | 0
A six word summary of today’s reading: a throbbing sense of real life
Best Chapter? *loved!* the Introduction by H.J. Massingham! specifically, page 1, paragraph 1, opening sentences & the bottom of the paragraph! on page 2 i appreciated his sentiments on Lark Rise and the way in which the author reveals the setting and story.
Favourite Character? have yet to determine; leaning towards Laura; as she’s a little bookworm who overcame her learning difficulties by never giving up on learning as she went with each word she came across! she did the same thing i did when i was younger: read the context to understand the words!
Challenge Participation? |unofficial: Pairathon| *to be added soon!*
|official: Bookish Bucket List| Q: What is one bookish thing you want to do before you die? OR what is one thing you want to do that was inspired by a book you read!?
I saw this go ‘live’ last night/early morn today, but it’s taken me this long to return in order to compose my thoughts properly! I have a rather extensive ‘bookish bucket list’, not that I ever attached myself to that terminology before, but it’s true enough! I think it would have to be a spilt between following in Jane Austen’s footsteps by taking a full-on Regency touring of her life + world! From being able to ‘step in’ to the literal footprints of where her stories came alive for her and what real-life counterparts are still visiable and able to be experienced! As much as to get into the core of who she was a woman, as a living person! Aside from Ms. Austen, I’d love to follow a Downton Abbey inspired tour — complete with a guided tour of Highclare! I am not sure if this last bit counts, but Julian Fellowes did release the ‘scripts’ which are in bound-book form, so perhaps by a hair?! Laughs. Most of my bookish dreams are forevermore hinged to England! {or the Highlands of Scotland!} I already accomplished the inspired by a book tick off the list: as a young woman first coming into her own, I discovered the parfum “Chanel No. 5” via Rosamunde Pilcher’s “The Shell Seekers”!! That’s a prime example of fiction bleeding into the real world! [entry for Book Depository book!]
Bout of Books blogs I visited: quite frankly, I lost count! laughs! :) i was on such a sweet roll, that i didn’t really keep a tally! i will attempt to sort out a rounded # to post! i will take better notes on the morrow! :) :)
Tick Tock, there goes the clock:
07:15a: woken up by a siren! what is up with alarm clocks! sighs!! sat straight up like i was flinching from a bolt of lightning! the dreamscapes dissolved faster than you can say, “poof!” i was hoping the morn would be delayed [somehow] a wee bit, as i didn’t get to clock off until 2am!
07:16-08:07: scouting more Bout’er blogs! [too much talk, not enough music! c’mon KISS Boston! ack! the Sox were creamed!] i think i NEED a chai!! can you order those in!? from an indie coffeehouse!? apparently you can!! bairbre rocks!! erm, should i have made that an espresso latte, instead!? hrmm,… [newsflash: my bookish blog is writ on EVERY order book in a mad dash to get the ‘name’ right! now that’s positive ‘word of word’ signage!]
09:00-11:35: ? projected time to start reading ? hey, its the first day! i can be be a bit behind the eight ball! actually, i was noshing on a fried egg, homemade hummus, & paul newman salsa sammie! :) i’m getting a bit of a late start, but i have the bout’er blogs set up {will have to check back when the sign-ups close for latecomers!}, and as I embark on my rounds, i will continue to clean up the ‘quick reference’ wordage per blog!! :) :) i feel good, and that’s the best way to go into a read-a-thon!
now then, check out this wicked sweet blog badge for bookish girls + blokes like us:
i am forgetting which Bout’er had it on their blog, but i will sort that out lateron!! :) its more to reflect that i am taking a hiatus from: the netherspheres, email stalking, radio rockin’, cats who act like toddlers [smiles fondly], the telly, and everything in-between, including the plumber pounding away! for all visitors + Bout’ers alike: kindly drop me notes! during my breaks i’ll approve them + drop a note back!! peace to readers everywhere!!
official start time: 11:40am!!
1:53p: [short break!] i am running into things that are more confuselment than enjoyable! need to do a bit of digging online to sort through it! lovely depictions of country life, though! my mind is darting about making cross-comparisons in both literature & film! :) received confirmation that my First Impressions [ARC] choice will be sent to me! [overjoyed!!] KISS Boston is back on whilst i haul into research! :)
3:30-4:30p: [short break] began to compose my review for Lark Rise to Candleford
7p-8:32: [dinner break]
8:33p-10p: [longer break, a bit under the weather!] touring the Bout’er blogs, slowly catching up the comment threads + enjoying ‘meeting’ other bookish bloggers! added more wicked awesome {FREE!} bookish love badges from squeesome! check it out!
10:01p-03:00am: reading Lark Rise to Candleford. instead, i felt like getting full of INK! i monked around with my distress inks, washi tape, and vintage ephemera, created envelope art, and followed it up with finishing my letter to CaffienatedLife! will have to key in my daily totals after I put the book down for the evening! i wake up! :) overall, it was not a bad first day! i wish i had felt better [overall], but i feel good in what i am accomplishing which is the only part that matters! :) despite not getting too far into the book, my mind was lit alive with things to write about, which is why my [review!] impressions of the book are off to a hearty start!
Reflections shortly after the ending is revealed:
will come back and enter in my thoughts once I finish the book!
Review: Betwixt Lark Rise and Candleford will update when my post goes live!
All the posts interlinked to *Bout of Books, 8.0* are a work-in-progress post! Therefore, what you read on one visit, might alter/change or be added to by the time you swing back!!
In closing, if you have read “Lark Rise to Candleford” or the books in their individual volumes, what did you find the most difficult to get used to as you read them!? OR, did you find that they were easy to swallow and wished there were more volumes!? Is this a book that appeals to you to read, if you haven’t yet read it!? Did you watch the mini-series instead!? Will you watch the mini-series if you read the book(s)!?
{SOURCES: The Bout of Books badge was created by Jorie in Canva! Seriously wicked bookish badges {entirely FREE!} provided by Squeesome Designs!}
I seriously followed this reading challenge for most of 2013 whilst I was stitching together Jorie Loves A Story! I loved the idea at the jump-start because I think any reader goes through a transitional period where the art of the gathering of books far outweighs the measuring of time towards reading the books we’ve gathered! Life can derail our plans quite spontaneously as much as we can fall out of love with a genre OR theme. Sometimes, we find books which will truly captivate our hearts, our minds, and our spirits — but perhaps the timing of their placement in our lives was wrong!? What if we needed extra! bits of time to sort through whatever we were going through in order to emerge into the very right moment! to grab said book off our shelf, dig into it, and settle into this brilliantly written story which has left us ruminatively pensive after we close the sleeves!? This is precisely why I was attracted to this particular challenge, because its such a self-revolutionary idea! To challenge ourselves to dust off the cover of a book we were always keenly mad to read, yet time distracted us. Time intervened. Now its our time to reset the boundaries of the reading spectrum and conquer reading the books we find winking at us as we walk past them!
