My Book Year 2025 - Gifted Reads and More!

It's year FIFTEEN of my reading challenge blog, and this year I'm focusing on reading all those books that people have gifted to me that have always gone to the bottom of the pile of unread tomes. No longer will they languish in the gathering dust, but instead, they'll be given the priority they deserve! Oh, and I'm going to try and read more in general after a couple of years of struggling to muster up more than 5-10 minutes at the end of a day. Let's go!

Tuesday, 18 January 2011

Day 19 - it's all slowed down!

Oh dear, I think I have been a prophet of my own doom! Got so excited that I was ahead of target last week ... as they say ... pride comes before a fall. I seem to have veered straight out of he fast lane onto the hard shoulder. I've had a busy few days - having committments in the evening on top of work that my reading windows have been very small - mostly confined to last hing at night where I can barely get more than a couple of pages under my belt before I snooze away. This was particularly the case two nights ago when my eyes were too tired to read, so I popped on my audio book - but kept drifting off, emitting little snores. Despite the repeated elbows from my dear hubby, I had to give up - as I kept having to rewind back to pre-snooze! Not that the audio book I'm reading is dull - far from it - it's called Restless, and it's by William Boyd. I'm really enjoying it so far. It's about a mother finally letting her daughter into her confidence that she was a spy prio to and during the second world war. So, part memoir, part family saga, its flitting between the mother in her spying days, and the daughter as she reacts to each new revelation. I've also just started The Path of Daggers, by Robert Jordan in print - this is Book 8 of The Wheel of Time series. This fantasy series follows the epic adventures of a lowly country boy who, it tunrs out, will either be the saviour, or the destroyer of the world. Magic, strange beasts, disparate strangers thrown together to form unlikely alliances, plots, love and many a fight ... all the classic ingredients of a fantasy adventure story. I have been reading this series over the last couple of years and am persisting with it as I hate to start anything without finishing it. And so, onwards, work is calling so I must flee.

2 comments:

CCC20 January 2011 at 00:06
Don't be down-hearted Munchkin! I guess progress will ebb and flow throughout the year. Also, you have a life outside fiction, so it will always be a balance. Might be a good idea to book some time off in December for the last push though.....
C xx
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The Book Munchkin20 January 2011 at 13:36
Thanks for the big up C! I'll bear your idea in mind come 1st December! Normally have a good chance for a monster read in over my summer hols - where it's such a treat to just laze around and read. Now then - that's got me in the mood to book something ... onto Google I go!
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2 STARS: C (p)
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Star Ratings 2021

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5 STARS: To Kill A Mockingbird (p); The Mirror and the Light (a); Sweet Sorrow (a)
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3 STARS: The Tidal Zone (a); Vinegar Girl (p); Mister Johnson (p); The House At Riverton (p)
2 STARS:
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The STARS list 2018

5 STARS: Norse Mythology (a); Just One Damned Thing After Another (a); The Song of Achilles (a); Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine (e); Look Who's Back (a); Life After Life (e); The Go-Between (a)
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The STARS list 2017

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3 stars: The Lies of Locke Lamora (a); A Christmas Carol (a); Small Wars (p); The Soulkeepers (e); My Brilliant Friend (e); The Girl With The Cat Tattoo (e); Tales of Nibiru Volume One Z.I.R.M. (e); Found Wanting (p)
2 stars: Allegiant (e)
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The STARS list 2016

5 STARS: The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy (e); The Girl Who Saved The King of Sweden (p); The Wise Man's Fear (a); Sharpe's Revenge (p); Case Histories (e); Company of Liars (a); Warriors of the Storm (a); Monsters Of Men (p); Dark Fire (p)
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3 STARS: Life: Keith Richards (a); The Mystery of Edwin Drood (a); Sweet Caress (a); Once Bitten (e); Mansfield Park (a); A Possible Life (p)
2 STARS: Gone Girl (e); Child of the Mist (e); The Dark Side of the Sun (p)
1 STAR:

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3 STARS: The Last Hundred Days (a); The Half-Life of Hannah (e); Echo Burning (e); Me Before You (a); The Girl Who Fell From the Sky (a); Thursdays in the Park (e); The Act of Roger Murgatroyd (p); The Forgotten Garden (e); The Buried Giant (e); Treasure Island (a); Insurgent (e)
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1 star:

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1. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, by Rachel Joyce (audio)
2. The Life of Pi, by Yann Martel (print).
3. Unseen Academicals, by Terry Pratchett (print)
4. Death of Kings, by Bernard Cornwell (print)
5. Sharpe's Company, by Bernard Cornwell (print).
6. Life on Air, by David Attenborough (audio)
7. How to save an hour every day, by Michael Heppell (audio)
8. The key to Rebecca, by Ken Follett (ebook)
9. Stonemouth, by Iain Banks (audio)
10. My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece, by Annabel Pitcher (audio)

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5 STAR: The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry (a); Sharpe's Company (p); The Life of Pi (p); How to save an hour every day (a); Death of Kings (p); The key to Rebecca (e); Life on Air (a); Unseen Academicals (p)
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1 STAR: None to date.

The STARS list 2011

***** The Elephant to Hollywood (Audio); Dancing Backwards (Print); Restless (Audio); Sharpe's Fury (Print); Water for Elephants (Audio); The Graveyard Book (Audio); Chocolate Wars (Audio); Getting Sassy (Audio); The Help (Audio); Life and Laughing (Audio); Rivers of London (Audio)
**** One Day (Audio); The Zookeeper's War (Print); The Solitary Man (Ebook); Fup (Ebook); The Girl Who Played With Fire (Print); Tooth and Nail (Print); Mousetrapped (Ebook); Confessions of a GP (Ebook); Mr Toppit (Print); The Last Hero (Print); The Mayor of Casterbridge (Ebook); Sharpe's Battle (Print); Thirteen Little Blue Envelopes (Ebook); Mort (Audio); The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (Print); I am Number Four (Audio); Wading Home (Ebook); The Information Officer (Print); A Fraction of the Whole (Audio); Good as Dead (Print); Mercy (Print); Hard Landing (Ebook); William Walker's First Year of Marriage (Ebook)
*** (and a half!) Airman (Audio); Devil May Care (Print); Labyrinth (Print); Switched (Ebook)
*** Painless (Ebook); Cranford (Ebook); Revelations of Divine Love (Ebook); The Secret Holocaust Diaries (Ebook); Moon Dance (Ebook); Chickens, Mules and Two Old Fools (Ebook); Greenmantle (Audio); Ex Machina (Ebook); Little Women (Ebook); The Things We Cherished (Print); Agent Zigzag (Print); Life ... With No Breaks (Ebook)
** The Lady in the Tower (Print); Path of Daggers (Print); Beauty and the Beast (Ebook)
* She's never coming back (Print)