100 books challenge 2013

I have been using GoodReads to track my 100 books challenge for 2013 and thought it was time to do an update 1 month in! This is also part of Book Chick City's 100 book challenge and Read52 on Google:

So far it's looking good as I am apparently 7 books ahead of schedule although some of these are picture books I have been reading with my son. As you can see by these images its been quite a range of types of books that I have read so far:

I seem to be mostly reading my favourite genres of historical fiction and fantasy but there have been some other crime or other books too. There was a chunk in the middle when I spent an hour in a cafe reading from their children's section to my son:

Along the way I have discovered some new authors to me including James Aitcheson, Edward Marston and Kate Atkinson. There are also returns to old favourites with starting over reading my dad's Discworld collection! If you want to know more about what I think about these books then I have reviewed all of them over on my Book Blog. 

I am looking forward to reading even more books as the year goes on both in paper form and on my Kindle. Luckily I have been sent some more to review too so watch this space! Hopefully I will keep on track to hit 100 with more time to spare than last year when I finished the last book on December 31st..

Recipe for a fun family Saturday

1) Lie in

Let your children wake up when they are ready - earliest mine made a noise was 8:45 today! This meant that we all got enough sleep after struggling with early starts for school. My children know mummy needs a relaxing start to the weekend so they take themselves downstairs and quietly watch TV. My daughter offered to do me breakfast in bed but she wasn't able to put together any of the Hairy Dieters ones so I had to miss out today...

2) Let off steam

My son had bought a new maxi micro scooter with Christmas money as we had difficulty sharing the one we got to review at Easter! He was dead chuffed to have a special jubilee year one with a special bottle holder:

He and his sister then let off steam for half an hour in the street whilst I got on with the laundry:

3) A trip by the river

We love going into Kendal along the banks of the river Kent. There is always wildlife to look out for and today we saw ducks and goosanders:

Along the way my on acted like a personal fitness instructor telling me to go faster and jump up the hill. He is a hard taskmaster:

4) Naughty lunch

After all that exercise the children were allowed a Happy Meal in McDonalds. I was good and had the salad!

5) A literary break

We nipped into the temporary library (newly refurbished library opens on Monday!) to return old books and borrow some new ones. My son loves choosing books and spent ages making a decision. The temporary selection didn't tempt my daughter but I have got a stack to help me with my 100 book challenge.

6) Sale shopping

It's always good to have some Christmas money to spend in the sales and we all managed to grab some bargains. Always annoying when the size you want isn't available...

7) A restorative drink

It was such a cold day we had a drink at costa before heading home. We attempted to sit outside but had to retreat indoors! It was nice that we ended up chatting to another mum who gave us a hot tip for a football club for my son to join when he leaves Little Kickers.

8) A brisk walk home

Not a day to dilly dally in the cold so we whizzed back home via the river bank again:

9) Car clean

As I'm giving my mum a lift tomorrow it was time to clear out the rubbish and accumulated stuff and give it a vacuum! Wonder how long that will last...

10) Easy dinner

It was a chance to empty freezer a bit tonight for an easy cook dinner. Kids very happy with fish fingers, waffles and peas! I had my leftovers from last night re-heated. Have to keep it simple sometimes.

11) Movie

We are now all watching Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and I have my son snuggled on my knee. After our energetic day it's nice to unwind...

100 Books Challenge 2013

Having signed up again with both Book Chick City and Good Reads this is my kick off post! I managed it in 2012 thanks to bedtime stories so I will be making sure I categorise all of those separately this year to compare...

2013 Reading Challenge

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The Colour of Magic

by Terry Pratchett

tagged: fantasy

Ferno The Fire Dragon

by Adam Blade

Bought for my 6 year old he is loving reading it out loud and I had to borrow it to read myself. A great adventure story for younger readers (7+ is aim) but also enjoyable for grow ups.

tagged: childrens and fantasy

Equal Rites

by Terry Pratchett

tagged: fantasy and favorites

The Tales of Beedle the Bard

by J.K. Rowling

Great magical fables for Harry potter fans

Johnny and the Dead

by Terry Pratchett

tagged: childrens and fantasy

100 Books in 2012 - Update I

Regular readers will know that I signed up for a second year for the challenge of reading 100 books in a year from Book Chick City (having failed last year!). I am once again using Good Reads to track my progress and rate my reads. This year I am trying to remember to record the books I have read to my children as well as this must run into the dozens over the year!


This year so far my track record is looking good:

That's apparently 6558 pages already in 42 days! So what have I been reading?

 

As you can see its a mixed bag but a few from the same authors. So I'll pick out a few highlights.

Garth Nix - Keys to the Kingdom Series

I have read other fantasy works by Nix but hadn't read this 7 book series. They are in the teen fiction section of the library which I love to dabble in! They follow the story of accidental hero 12 year old Arthur Penhaligon who is chosen as the Rightful Heir to the Keys of the Kingdom whilst having an asthma attack during his school cross country lesson. Of course the current holders of these keys aren't going to give them up without a fight! Each book tells the tale of a different key. None of them are hard to read but very enjoyable.

Michael Morpurgo - War Horse

Having seen the movie I had to read the original book. Its a lot less sentimental than the Hollywood makeover and its all from the view point of Joey the horse. Again this is official a children's book but I would recommend to adults too.

New authors

I like to try out some new authors to vary my reading. So far this year I have discovered Terry Brooks and Elizabeth Moon in the Fantasy section of my library. I read the whole of one trilogy by Moon and I'm waiting for some more Brooks books to come back in! Her books are in the vein of Tolkein with elves, dwarves and magic as well as human battles. The Brooks ones are darker and so far lay out a post apocalyptic United States laid waste by man, bio weapons and demons.

New books by old favourites

I love being given book tokens at Christmas enabling me to make the most of the January sales to complete collections by well loved authors. This year I got Christopher Paolini - Inheritance, Bernard Cornwell - Death of Kings and Patrick Rothfuss - The Wise Man's Fear. A mix of fantasy and historical fiction continuing previously well loved stories.

Books I read with my children

My children have inherited my love of books and have a good selection on their shelves. It does help that I sell Usborne books to boost their home libraries. You can see a few of these on the current list. They also love modern favourites such as Stick Man. Now my daughter is into chapter books so there will be a variety of new ones appearing soon but they take a while to read at a chapter a night!

So it's looking good so far but I think I'm a bit weighted towards fantasy so far and need to branch out more! Watch this space for future updates...

Hopes for 2012

Looking back on 2011


Before I set these out for this year I guess I ought to see if I managed the ones I wanted for 2011:

I will get into better shape!


Yes I am slimmer, lighter and healthier than a year ago so that's one tick!




I will finish moving into my new home!

Well this is still a work in progress but we have swapped all 3 bedrooms round instead..

I will encourage my kids to be tidier - by leading by example!

Think we have had some progress but we all have lots of years od bad habits to lose...

I will start working out how to get myself off benefits and self-sufficient!

Well I've got a few little businesses ticking over but still not quite enough to be self sufficient. With government rule changes I'll have to see what happens next.

100 Books in 2011

This was the gauntlet I threw down to myself back in December 2010 thanks to Book Chick City. If my records are correct I read 90 books but I didn't log all the ones I read with my children so I may have managed it!

Looking forward in 2012

So what shall I challenge myself to do this year? I did post some resolutions on Twitter on New Year's Eve after a few glasses Prosecco so guess I have to stick to them:

Lose 2 stone

Learn to finish one job before starting another

Learn to knit

Read 100 books in 2012

So let's see how those ones go!

My blog year in review: Part 1

It's been an amazing year for my blog which I started back in 2008. This was definitely the year that the blog switched from being purely personal to including reviews and actually started earning me some much needed income.  So much has happened over the last 364 days that I'm breaking this review over 2 days to make it more manageable. 


Part one is the first half of the year from January to June and how I saw it from my blog:


January


This was the month for resolutions and new challenges. These included:

1. 100 Books in a Year - hoping that if I add all the books I read to the children at bedtime I'll have completed this!
2. Fitness Friday - this was a great supportive blog hop that unfortunately dwindled as the year went on but it did help me do really well getting in shape at the start of the year. Lots more work to do! As part of this I became an ambassador for Change4Life
3. I also pledged to work on becoming self sufficient. I haven't 100% succeeded in this but things have improved
4. This was the month I joined Reasons to be Cheerful for the first time. A great blog hop that helps to focus on the positive not dwell on the negative.

The high point of the month was appearing on BBC Radio Cumbria. Amazing where blogging can lead you! The low point of the month and indeed the whole year was the loss of my Granny at the age of 98. A much missed lady she will never be forgotten:

February

I have really tried to use this year to showcase my photographs. Not only through The Gallery and Silent Sunday posts but through stand alone posts such as this one from Bowness. I carried on my great relationship with Treasure Trails Cumbria with their fabulous murder mystery walks.

Karin started a Flashback Friday hop which I really enjoyed taking part in. This was the month I started reviewing iPhone apps with a debut from Peppa Pig. I did also manage a rant about the National Health Service. After signing up to the Become a Mumpreneur course I was quite happy to promote it.

100 Books 2011 - Quarter 1 Update

Way back on the 30th December I signed to Book Chick City's 100 Books in 2011 Challenge. As we've just got to the end of the first three months of the year I thought it was time I took a look at how I'm getting on...


I have been using Good Reads to keep track of my books and its also a great place to share reviews or rate the books you have completed. If you go to my 100 Books Page you can see what I'm reading, what I have read and what I have waiting to read! This is what my current record looks like:

Becky's bookshelf: read

Becky's favorite books »

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As you can see I'm pretty much on target with 24 books on the Read shelf. just need to keep up the rate of reading to complete the challenge. I may need to branch out a bit as my shelf is heavily weighted towards historical fiction!