Coffeespoons

From my Goodreads' Challenge page . The last five books I've read, to date, 16 Mar 2015. I powered through a three-book erotic romance series last Saturday. It was the Cityscape series by Jessica Hawkins , which I found by Googling for edgy romance novels (don't ask). But, boy when you ask for edgy, they give you edgy. So I chose this series which seemed the right kind of edgy for me at the time (true love via an extramarital affair; not really an unfamiliar theme in more serious literature). I liked the series. Sure, there was a lot of back-and-forth from the female lead; an alpha male who is perfect, as they usually are; and loads of sex which was hot but, if translated to reality, would be exhausting. Nevertheless, I got sucked up by it. (NOTE: One does not power through three books in less than 18 hours if you're not sucked up by them.) I'd like to point out, though, that I feel these covers are a bit misleading. I mean, you'd think that this was B...

I read 88 books this year. That's 38 more than my personal target for Goodreads' 2014 Reading Challenge. I wanted to under-promise so I could over-deliver. Thankfully, I did. I usually sneak in one more book around Dec. 30 or 31st, but I'm not going for it this year. It's been a year full of pressure, so I'm not inclined to add a contrived pressure on the last day of 2014. Above is the screencap of all the books I read this year, care of my Goodreads Reading Challenge . A pretty nifty feature, if you ask me, especially for the data conscious types. If you'd like to see what I've read this year, head on over to the page . Speaking of data-conscious types, I am, just a little bit. When I discovered the Ultimate Reading Spreadsheet , I promptly downloaded it. It was a bit of a chore, though, to type in all the data for every book I read, which leads me to the other nifty thing about Goodreads: you can export all your bookshelf data as a csv file, which...

Quantity-wise, 2013 wasn't an awesome reading year for me. Read the least number of books in the five years that I've been counting the books I read per year. It was a measly 34 . Still, at the beginning of the year , I did think of reading less. Or more accurately, not to pressure myself to read a lot for the sake of reading a lot, what with the increasing demands of work and family and, oh, life. And though I did sign up for a challenge at the beginning of the year, somewhere towards the middle, I figured I'd just read what I wanted to read. I think not having a lot of time does that to you. So though quantity-wise, it wasn't a great year, I'm kind of happy with what I've read this year. Mainly because each minute spent reading was a hard-fought minute. Hard-fought. I carried books around for days without reading them, on the off-chance that I could get a free and relaxed minute to actually read. I spent more time in our bathroom than I had right to, jus...

I think part of the growth of a reader is to start trying out books or genres which one doesn't usually read. The trial might result in a long-term love affair with the genre, temporary preference, mild tolerance, or outright rejection. Even if it's the last case, one can at least say, "I don't like ." and know whereof one speaks. Enter the Flips Flipping Pages (FFP) 2013 Diversity Reading Challenge . As I mentioned, we resurrected the challenge this year with new categories. Three years, after all, is enough time for new book trends to gain prominence. And given the changes in technology, I believe it's high time for us to explore the new ways that content is packaged. This Diversity Challenge is open to members of our book club, Flips Flipping Pages , an online/offline book club for Filipinos all over the world. If you're interested, you can head on over to Shelfari to join the club, with the click of a button. If you don't want to o...

The Princess and the Goblin , McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales , My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me , Kikomachine #1 , Hark! A Vagrant , Building Stories See these books (not my messy desk behind them)? I dipped into these lovelies last year, but I never got to finish them. For a few of them, such as My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me , McSweeney's Mammoth Book of Thrilling Tales , and Hark! A Vagrant , I did more than dip; I was halfway in. Was reading each of those a little at a time, until I was either distracted by work or by other books. A big part of this year's reading plan, then, is to ensure that I finish these books. Based on what I've read, these are all books worth my time. Besides, I'd like to get them off my messy desk. What else constitutes my reading plan this year? Well, because I purposely did not join any reading challenges last year, explicitly stated or otherwise, I'm going to swing the opposite ...

Some of the books I read this year And in the photo finish of photo finishes, here's my year in reading, 2012 edition. At the beginning of the year, I jokingly said in one of our book club threads that I'm targeting to read 10 books this year. I didn't want to pressure myself to reach a certain number of books read at the expense of relishing reading or choosing books that I actually want to read. That happened when I used to set my reading target to 100 books for the year. Now, according to my Shelfari bookshelf , I read a total of 55 books this year, give or take. I say "give or take" because I really wasn't sure how to count the comic book issues and graphic novels. Also, there are a few indie comics and books that I haven't been able to add to my bookshelf. In any case, I'm happy to say I exceeded the 10 book goal.:-P So, the books I read in 2012: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern The Sisters Brothers by Patrick DeWitt Miss Pereg...

I plan to chill, just like her. ( img src ) This year in reading, I'll... relinquish my little semblance of control and be entirely honest with myself. Ergo, I opt not to formally join any reading challenge this year. let my reading develop organically, while trying to read more of the following: African women writers Filipino literature (for fun, not just for work. Though work is fun.) Graphic novels try to limit my book buying to P1000 (around $23) per month. try blog more regularly? (I don't think I can commit to anything beyond that question mark, especially with my current schedule. I know people say it's all a matter of scheduling, but I seem to have a medical condition that prevents me from keeping to any concrete schedule. In an ideal world, I woud like to blog at least 3x a week. But I can only promise to try.) participate in or organize more read-alongs, either with fellow book club members or fellow bloggers.  definitely have a Ulysses read-al...

This was my reading life in 2011... On reading goals and challenges: I'd like to think I started out well. I aimed to go through at least half of my 2010 TBR .  I joined the TBR Dare , which lasted for me until the end of February. I also aimed not to buy more than 12 books in the whole year, unless I had already finished my TBR goal. Sadly, by March, that 12-book buying goal was compromised by one thing--the Kindle. My sister had given me one as a gift , and there went my goal. To be fair, I held out until the middle of the year. To date, though, I do not know how many additional TBR books I've acquired. I can count how many print books I've added, but cannot and do not want to count how many ebooks I have on my TBR. As for my other goals, well, I barely remember them and I suppose I lost interest in them along the way. Figured that, as long as I'm reading and trying to vary it, I'm ok. In any case, here's my total reading progress for the year . On...

I don't intend to rehash a tired debate; I only mean to look at what formats I've been reading books this year and what this means. I got my Kindle last week of March and of the 20 books I've read since then, 7 have been Kindle ebooks. I think I'd be reading more of my Kindle books if not for that goal that I set for myself at the beginning of the year--that of cutting down my 2010 TBR to around half. However, what's more telling, I think, is how many books I've actually bought from brick-and-mortar bookstores since I got my Kindle. Ok, granted I also have that other challenge not to buy more than 12 print or e-books this year until I halve the TBR, I notice that I hardly show any interest when I pass by a bookstore anymore. Shocking, I know. Like other bibliophiles, I couldn't resist going inside a bookstore whenever I passed by one. And I couldn't resist buying at least one book whenever I entered one. Or if I didn't, I went through this...

I was aiming to keep it simple this year, but couldn't help signing up to the Whodunit Reading Challenge , sponsored by the wonderful site, Gathering Books . To quote from the original post, ...to start 2011, we embrace books that are shrouded in secrecy, suspense, and mystery (and crime, too) The challenge runs from January until June 30th, and there are 4 levels of participation: Novice Profiler: 1-2 books Crime Detective: 3-5 books Mythic Crime Buster: 6-8 books Criminal Genius/Mastermind: 9 books and above I'm signing up for the Crime Detective level , so I shall now scour my TBR for at least 5 suspense, mystery, and crime stories. I have to make this challenge coincide with my 2011 reading plan , which is to read primarily from my TBR. Then again, I've just looked around at the books on my desk and below my dresser, and I think I can easily find five.  The beautiful thing about this challenge is that the books can be for any age group--children, ...

My latest order from Book Depository has finally arrived! At least, 5 out of the 6 books I ordered. And no, these don't count toward my 12-book limit for this year, because these were ordered mid-December last year. So, I actually included these in my TBR count. Did I mention I love Book Depository? They are kind enough to ship for free to my country, and they send the books in these nice individual packets. Also, so far, my books have always arrived before I expect them. My two prior orders took less than two weeks to arrive, and though this order took a little over a month from  the time I ordered them, I actually expected them much later because I factored in the holiday rush. I did order them close to Christmas, after all. I'm still waiting for the sixth book, Jasper Fforde's The Last Dragonslayer . I'm a big Fforde fan and couldn't wait for the book to appear in bookstores here. So, about these 5: Everything is Illuminate d by Jonathan Safran Foer...

2010 was a year of failed reading challenges, but satisfactory reading. You can check my status for the challenges I joined last 2010 , and you can see I read a paltry amount for each. Also, I didn't even read any of the 22 other titles from my TBR that I listed. Ah well. But, as I did mention in my Top 10 for 2011 post, I read many excellent books in the last year, and I took as much time with them as I wanted, so it's still been a good reading year. This didn't help me tackle my TBR problem, however. So, though I'd been shopping around for reading challenges and goals before last year ended, I was only able to firm one up after an afternoon of clearing and cleaning my desk. There's nothing like taking stock of exactly how much clutter I have and how many TBR books are languishing in my shelves and gathering dust on my desk to goad me into coming up with an insane reading plan. The best I can do with my desk for now. Books standing on the right and...

I like dares and I have an insane (for me) 177 books in my TBR. So the TBR Dare , hosted by C.B. at Ready When You Are, C.B. is right up my alley. C.B. clarifies that this is not a challenge, but a dare. The dare is this: read only your TBR books for as long as you can. The dare starts on Jan. 1 and ends on April 1 because, according to the original post, "...we're all fools for taking a dare like this one, we know it and we celebrate it. " I like it. I don't know why this is, but calling it a dare seems more comfortable. I think it's the acknowledgement that we'll all break at some point, so it's more freewheeling and guilt-free. And so, I commit to reading only my TBR books (those I've owned before 2011) until the end of February. I figure two months is a challenging enough length of time without unrealistically overextending myself either. However, I'm going to beg for a pass for the book club books that I'll need to read during...

It's finally Nov. 7, which means it's the start of our NYRB Reading Week ! This week is an event that's co-hosted by Mrs. B of The Literary Stew and yours truly. Basically, the event is just an entire week of reading, reviewing, and enjoying NYRB Classics , Collections , and Children's Collection . We made the announcement about the NYRB Reading Week a month ago, and we're very happy that many people have signed up to join. But, if you've just stumbled upon this now, you're welcome to join any time. All participants need to do is, within the reading week, read at least one NYRB book and write a review about it. We're opening the event primarily to bloggers, but those of you who don't have a blog can join, too, as long as you can post your reviews on any of the popular book social networking sites like Shelfari , Goodreads , or LibraryThing . The important thing is to leave us, either Mrs. B or I, a comment with a link to your review. You ca...